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DM - Sam DeathWalker's Two-Cell Castle
Clump - by pG_Bravo
Most DMers, Expert or not, are familiar with Sam_DeathWalker's Castle Clump. The basic principle of Sam's invention is to protect villagers from a rush while they can build defences and units without fear of being flattened before they can do so. The Castle Clump is usually based around your original TC. 75% of the Town Center area units can move through, but 25% of it nothing can move through. You can use this area as a barricade for enemy units, yet villagers can still enter the middle of the Clump from the Town Center. Sam's original clump consisted of 1 house and 7 castles, usually performed by Saracens. This allowed the user to collect an army of mamelukes without fear of the deadly Frank Rush in AoK. The Clump was invented about March 2000, but others started using it only in the Summer of 2000. It was a revolutionary strategy. It meant that players could play slower civs without fear of being plowed down before they can pump out an army. The Castle Clump made Franks in AoK seem not so powerful in team games. But then came the X-Pack: AoK:TC. Although Sam's Castle Clump is *much* more popular in AoC than AoK there are also many more counter-clumping civs. Talented Goth and Mayan rushers can often tear open a clump and pillage the villagers before they can get up more than 1 castle. Some argue that a Huns Cav Archer rush can kill it also, though I have never fallen victim to this myself. Soon enough Top Expert Clumpers such as Sam and MaJoR Eloff realised that Castles weren't just enough to defend some rushes. They included buildings such as: An additional TC, Barracks, Stables, Market, and even Siege workshops and Bombard Towers. Since it's early days the Castle Clump has variated so much, and for the better. Sam's most recent and most successful variation has been the "Sam_DeathWalker's Two-Cell Clump™." Since Sam's clump has been penetrated and infiltrated by talented Huns Paladin rushers such as Elfanor (Fight4Light) he needed to change his most famous strategy. He decided that the best way was to make Two seperate Cell Clumps. Each "Cell" is separated by 2 houses. In the Cell on the right Sam has a Market, Town Center, and 2-3 Castles. On the other side he has 4-5 Castles and mabye a stable or barracks. The Two Cell Clump is quite more difficult to perform, and can take a little longer, but the results are much more positive than the original clump. Using the T-C-C allows you the comfort of knowing that if the opponent breaks one side of the Clump, you still have the other. Completing the other side will allow you to pump out units to save the infiltrated one. I find it sad that only Sam and I use this Clump. I posted a Strategy Article simular to this on MFO but nobody has picked up on it. I'd appreciate if you could reply if this Article helps, and if you'd like more. I've killed just about everyone good in Mayan wars, so if you'd like one on it. Strategy originally posted on aokpro.com by pG_Bravo. |
