Wallace Wishmaster's Koprulu is one of the most balanced and challenging maps on this site. It's also, in my opinion, under appreciated here. (Full disclosure, it's my favorite map). A major reason for that, I'm guessing, is its high learning curve. So, for the sake of getting people over the hump, here's a brief beginner's guide to Koprulu:

Beginner's Guide:

- Read the board description! Click the board tab, and then click the description button

- The Neutral 20s are there to defend your base.

- The bonuses you get from controlling the center mesas are great, but don't spend too many resources trying to defend them. There are just too many ways to break them. Instead, use that bonus to further expand, or attack another player's base 

- Breaking into a base via it's tower is desirable because, if you take it over, the neutral 20s are still there to protect your new base. However, keep the altered dice-odds in mind. If they have a decent amount of units in the tower, it may be cheaper to enter their base by breaking through the neutral 20s.

- 666 is a hidden territory in the bottom right side of the map, that is only accessible through one of the center warp crystals. It gives a +6 bonus, which is fantastic, but any units you place in 666 are trapped there. You can't attack out of 666. Over-investing in 666's defense can cost you resources that should have been used to acquire other resources, or break another player's base.

- I try to keep at least 7 units in my home bases' tower. There are situations were you can get away with less, but it's a good general rule.

- You don't need 20 units in your home base tower, nor do you need to place units inside your base. Use those units to secure bonuses outside your base.

- Keep turn order in mind. If your turn is late in the round, other players will have their 2nd and 3rd turns before you, which might mean they get new bonuses before you do, which would make it more likely for them to attack you. Keep a couple extra units in your tower if your turn is late in the round.

- That said, this map favors aggressive play. At the most, you adopt defensive postures for a turn or two at a time, in response to an imminent threat. Playing conservatively the whole match will not win you the game.

- Just like Starcraft, the best way to improve is to watch replays. Go here: Koprulu Rankings, pick someone in the top 5, go to their games list, and watch some games that they have won.

- Finally, a note about ranking: You may lose on this map more than you win, but your ranking only drops 20 points, on average, each time. When you win, you gain 100 points, on average. If you're win/loss record is 1/4, you're still ahead. Don't get discouraged!

sure you had to go and ruin the 666 secret for the rest of us. oh and it's only active on one scenario i believe.

Great comments Paquito.  I've played Koprulu Yamato more than Koprulu Sector so if you feel up to it I'd appreciate your advice on that map as well.

weathertop wrote:

sure you had to go and ruin the 666 secret for the rest of us. oh and it's only active on one scenario i believe.

I figure we're better off with more Koprulu players on the site, instead of turning away new players that have no idea why they're getting pwned by small crew of warfish vets :-P And ya, 666 is in the Old School scenario. which is rightfully set as the default scenario :)

AttilaTheHun wrote:

Great comments Paquito.  I've played Koprulu Yamato more than Koprulu Sector so if you feel up to it I'd appreciate your advice on that map as well.

I haven't played Koprulu Yamato nearly as much, so don't really know enough to make a guide for that map. I'd love to read someone else's advice!

Paquito wrote:

AttilaTheHun wrote:

Great comments Paquito.  I've played Koprulu Yamato more than Koprulu Sector so if you feel up to it I'd appreciate your advice on that map as well.

 

I haven't played Koprulu Yamato nearly as much, so don't really know enough to make a guide for that map. I'd love to read someone else's advice!

i NEED a guide for that map. while i do pretty well most of the time on Sector, i always get it handed to me on Yamato.

The "Koprulu Rankings" link is incorrect in the original post. Here's the correct one:

http://www.wargear.net/boards/view/Koprulu+Sector/Rankings

Wallace Wishmaster's Koprulu is one of the most balanced and challenging maps on this site.

I love Koprulu, and it is challenging, but I would not call it balanced.  The middle players definetely get the shaft.

BD

The team game is definitely pretty well balanced.

But, this was about strategy.  My opening strategy:

Turn 1: Capture my mesa, unless I am unlucky take the tower.

Turn 2: Take the tower if necessary.  Move out to the crystal nearest you, never leave men on the crystal, but fortify them back to the territory adjacent.  If I started in the corner and had a particularly good start, I may go for the portal on my side as well, but this is risky.

Turn 3: If I still hold my crystal, that is good news, if I am in the middle, then the corner player on the side I chose doesn't know how to play, if I am on the side, then the middle player chose to go to the opposite side.  Either way I now have a good chance of winning the game.  If I am in the corner, I move to take the portal on my side, if it is occupied I smash through, but I stop on the other side of the portal, leaving all my men there.  If I am in the middle, I don't want to disturb the player in my corner, so I place more men on the place that guards my crystal, and then move to take the center crystal.

Turn 4: If I started in the corner and still hold both the crystal and the portal, I am likely to win this one.  I deny the opposing corner player his crystal, if he overstretched himself I bust into his mesa.  If I started in the middle, and still hold both the crystal and the portal, I take a shot at the corner player close to my crystal.  If I lost one or the other, I fight for whichever I lost.  If I lost both, I retreat back to my mesa, and build up for 2 or 3 turns before venturing out again in force to fight whoever came out on top.

Future turns: I work to dominate my side, while keeping tabs on the opposing side.  Generally if the other side appears to be contested, I do not ever cross over until I am firmly in control of my side. 

BlackDog wrote:

I love Koprulu, and it is challenging, but I would not call it balanced.  The middle players definetely get the shaft.

BD

Middle players can also reach two territories that border crystals in a single tower jump, one of those being the center warp, which can give you early access to 666. Plus, it really isn't a given that players on both sides of you will attack you at once. Very often, at least one of them tries to capture a center mesa, or a side warp crystal +666, etc. 

I don't like the middle positions, and def think there's a slight disadvantage starting there, but to say you're screwed from there is exaggerating a bit. 

BlackDog wrote:

If I am in the middle, I don't want to disturb the player in my corner...  Generally if the other side appears to be contested, I do not ever cross over until I am firmly in control of my side. 

I didn't mention this in the first post, since I just wanted to cover the basics, but you're touching upon a really important concept for this map: managing player aggression (aggro).

In general, you only want to be facing off against one player at a time on this map. Any more than that, and it's likely your resources will be stretched too thin to win against either one of them. If you have the opportunity to break another players bonus, but he's not currently engaging you, you might wanna consider letting him keep it, rather than risk getting his attention focused on you!

This has elevated my game significantly. Thanks.