Written by chaos952
I was hoping to post this earlier today, but I was out all day…
Anyways, we have a winner, and you won't believe who won this one! This competition's winner is…
RBG! I would've posted the results sooner if the judges had sent in their grades sooner… Looks like I'll have to hire yoyo to get on the judges' cases… 
Also grading was a bit tougher due to a larger scale. Anyways, RBG will get to choose the next city for the next competition. Check out the list of cities that you can choose from here. . You all submitted great designs, and hopefully you will submit great designs again for the competitions to come! 
Comments from the Judges
chaos952's note: One thing I really don't like in cities is when mayors set up three important factories around their CC like this:
Why don't I like this? Because when your wall factory is destroyed, you will have to destroy one of those important factories to let your commandos defend when you rehire them, as well as replacing the walls. I've never had this problem because 1) I use the wall-plasma-wall setup, and 2) I never set up my factories like that. To avoid this problem, I'd suggest replacing at least one of the vital factories with a house/research building, and moving the replaced factory elsewhere.
zhantrim's note: I'm very glad there were so many participants with this design, as rosario does not often appear on the list of options for us. It shows that people are truly excited about the creative process inherent to mayoring. Now all we need is some more dedicated city-builders on the battlefield!
For aspiring mayors, I would read Chris' post. I would ask a well known attacker to go through your cities and show you their weaknesses with a zook. As you play more and more you will see why certain things may look great but simply fail in practice. The theme of this competition for me (and I'm sure I'm alone on this one), is entrances that rely too heavily on turrets shielded two spaces away. The key spot is four spaces of separation, as this is practically impossible to hit. Two spaces is a joke. Three spaces is merely difficult. If you ever have any questions or want some help with design principles, pm me and we'll set up a time for a private lesson or something. I'm not saying I'm anything great, but I have played quite a lot and am one of the more experienced mayors in the game.
Winner – Entry #9 – RBG
| Code: |
| Judge Buildings Defense Entrance Total chaos952 9 9 9 27 Dunebug 9 8 8 25 zhantrim 10 10 10 30 |
Average Total Score: 27
chaos952: Raped from the east. If an attacker destroys your wall factory, you'll have to hurt yourself big time when you rehire your commandos, as you'll have to destroy one of your vital factories to let them defend. That's just about all I can say.
zhantrim: Your entrances are all solid. I love the use of the southern lava strip to shield that green. The ss in the walky fact is very shootable by a competent attacker (2 spaces away), but I think this is a non issue as you really gain nothing by sitting/bombing there. You have excellent double layering. Excellent internal defense. I have some concern about the greens being hit from the northeastern entrance, but I'll bet this is harder than it looks. This is my favorite design.
Dunebug: No comment.
2nd Place – Entry #6 – Stubbs
| Code: |
| Judge Buildings Defense Entrance Total chaos952 8 8 8 24 Dunebug 9 9 9 27 zhantrim 9 8 9 26 |
Average Total Score: 26
chaos952: This is a good city. Defense here is quite solid, and it would require multiple tries from different directions to bring this city down. Your mine factory is quite easy to reach, and you'll have quite some trouble when enemies waltz into your city from the southeastern entrance. Also, your hospital is quite easy to abuse; just destroy the laser reasearch, the plasma there, and the mine on the hospital. I'm not a fan of placing mines in random places, but whatever floats your boat… Other than that, you have a very solid city.
zhantrim: A solid design. Good double-layering. Good double turret lines. I like the foresight you have for lining the attack equipment in one line allowing for rapid return to battle. I like the orb factory being adjacent to the cc, allowing for quick reentry if your walls are blown. The walky factory and dfg factory are strategically placed as pseudo housing. The southwest entrance initially looks targetable, but I bet it’s harder than it looks. That ss to the west and the plasma to the north probably make this difficult. I would find a way to put one more turret to the north. Those dfg might look tricky (lol), but are inadequate.
Dunebug: Impressive city I would say. It feels a little open on the west side, but it’d be hard to orb it from the west side if the defenders are around. I mean the green factory isn’t hard to get but after that you have to blow up the wall while the sleeper is shooting you and that’d take a chunk of time. The east side’s strong. I like how it’s structured so that turrets are protected by buildings. Of course if you lose your sleeper factory, which isn’t hard to get really… Then you have some trouble on the south side because you lose a lot of defense there. But that area is still covered by a lot of turrets so yeah… that’s why it gets a 9. Why not a 10? Well… The orb factory is in front of the CC. I guess if you ever lost your wall factory you might not care that to let people out you’ll have to screw over your orber.
Also it’s not really a big deal but there’s no housing spots that are really hard to get to so… if you start losing a lot of housing then some of your factories are going to get shot.
But obviously those aren’t big problems or you would get a worse grade.
Tied for 3rd Place – Entry #7 – Surge
| Code: |
| Judge Buildings Defense Entrance Total chaos952 9 8 7 24 Dunebug 7 9 8 24 zhantrim 9 8 7 24 |
Average Total Score: 24
chaos952: This is quite a good city also. You'll have alot of trouble when enemies waltz into your city from the southwestern entrance, which is your city's weak point. Also, watch out for attackers from the west, as once they destroy the sleeper research, turret research, and the house above the sleeper research, they can shoot down the sleeper guarding your important factories without having to worry about getting hit by the two turrets there. Finally, you should move those two northern turrets closer to your buildings.
zhantrim: I really don't like the southeastern entrance. Although it is tricky for attackers to maneuver in that space to the east, it does not allow easy access for your defenders to the southern wall. I do not like your wall factory sitting beneath your cc. It really grates on me. I like using attack equipment as a pseudo wall northward, as it allows easy access to these items and they are not critical in a defensive situation. I'm glad your zooks aren't up there. That plasma guarding the northwestern entrance looks like it might be extremely easy to shoot without being hit. However, I'm not sure if that green to the west would zap you as you sat there (I think it might). If so, this entrance is solid. If not, I would move the plasma. I would attack through the laser research I think.
Dunebug: The lazer and zook facts are adjacent to eachother and also a very good target to blow up. Other than that the city is pretty solid. The pockets are protected and in most spots you have to blow through 2 layers before you can do anything.
The defense is well-placed but I think it’ll be killing off a lot of defenders in tight situations. It’s also placed so that blowing up one of the 4 important factories is not difficult, but blowing more than that is exponentially harder.
Tied for 3rd Place – Entry #3 – yoyo
| Code: |
| Judge Buildings Defense Entrance Total chaos952 8 8 9 25 Dunebug 7 6 9 22 zhantrim 9 7 9 25 |
Average Total Score: 24
chaos952: Now this is what I call unique. Defense is really good here, even though you have almost all your defense placed inside. You have your entrances placed by the areas where turret fire can't reach, so defenders can easily defend. Very smart. Attackers will most definitely have a hard time finding the weakness in this city. I see the weakness in this city, but it definitely won't be noticed easily. See the houses west and northwest of your walke talkie factory? If I were an attacker, I'd bomb those two houses, and I'd easily reach your plasma factory, as the defense there is poor. After that's gone, your turret factory is ungaurded. After that's gone, walls are your only defense from getting orbed. Another thing is that your commandos will probably dislike the fact that they'll have to go all the way down to the south side of the city to pick up a laser. I'd suggest that you swap the missile and laser factories.
zhantrim: I really like this city and it reeks of yoyo. I don't know why, but it just does. It has a really innovative double layer to the south that I'm quite fond of and its overall design is quite solid. I would attack through the housing to the southwest, blowing the two houses adjacent to the walky factory, making sure to leave the walkies intact to shield me. If built poorly, this will open a nearby factory (see Chris' post about how to prevent this), if not, it is still a simple matter to shoot the plasma guarding the cc unhampered. This is quickly opened in this fashion without a competent staff. Maybe a little too easy. I might stagger this line somehow as is done in the other areas of the city. Oh, and by the way, northwest seems suspiciously weak. I'd have to see if that turret hiding beneath the northern wall actually hits you when shooting the turret below it. If not, or if it’s too far, someone can toast your plasmas and orb you. Overall, I really enjoy this.
Dunebug: Now this city is interesting. I like the way the housing is placed on the south side like a buffer between the two. This keeps the housing protected and adds to your defense a lot… just attacking the south side you’d have to shoot through oodles of turrets just to bomb 2 or 3 houses.
Unfortunately there’s a few cracks in the design where ALL the attacking energy should be focused. All the weak spots focus on the plasma factory however; It’s sort of out there in the open and is aldso a lot more helpful to orbing the city than the sleeper factory (which is also vulnerable)
Tied for 3rd Place – Entry #1 – ~Warlord~
| Code: |
| Judge Buildings Defense Entrance Total chaos952 7 8 7 22 Dunebug 7 9 7 23 zhantrim 9 8 9 26 |
Average Total Score: 24
chaos952: Very compact design, but building a compact design does have its downsides. You have a huge northern weakness, but that's pretty much the only weakness I see. Entrances are not ideal, as you'll have to travel some distance to guard those double lines of buildings you have north and south of your city. However, the numerous turrets guarding those long double lines of buildings kinda make up for it. Plus, defenders defending the south side of your city will have to travel a long way to get to the hospital when they're low on health, especially southwest defenders. Another issue that you'll have that isn't very common is "warping". It will be quite annoying when rehiring your commandos, as they'll warp around for a good 5 or so seconds before actually being able to move on their own. Oh, and your wall factory is blocked off…
zhantrim: This is one of my favorite designs. I would attack on the northwest side, shooting one green, bombing the zook and eastern-bordered house, then bombing the wall factory, house, and ss res with my second bomb. This would effectively open the cc and allow for a reasonably easy orb. The plasma on the cc would not come into play on this approach. You might get hit once. Another line of attack is southeast through the main entrance. This is a general statement that will become a recurring theme: Good attackers can easily shoot a turret that is two spaces removed from an opening without being shot. I would rearrange this. If entered in this fashion, the greens and zook would soon fall.
Things that I like: I like the number and location of entrances. Rosario usually has four and in the locations you've selected. I generally like cornered entrances, and four is a good number. You have double-thickness housing diffusely, making penetration difficult against good defenders. You have nice defense with the exception of the problems described above. I like hiding the wall factory, and it’s not too much of a bear to get to if you as mayor really need to.
Dunebug: This city has good protection on the south side, which is also where all the turret factories are. It’s also kinda tough to drill through the buildings on the north side and there’s a plasma on the CC which can make orbing tough sometimes.
But, most people are going to be attacking from the north. They’re not going to run around to the south and try attacking that because the south is much better defended before you can get to any good factories. The north is the best bet. If this city is built be sure to see the factories get blown through an attack on the north side.
6th Place – Entry #8 – Weebo
| Code: |
| Judge Buildings Defense Entrance Total chaos952 8 8 8 24 Dunebug 8 6 7 21 zhantrim 8 8 8 24 |
Average Total Score: 23
chaos952: You have a huge northern weakness. West is quite weak also. If an attacker destroys your wall factory, you'll have to hurt yourself big time when you rehire your commandos, as you'll have to destroy one of your vital factories to let them defend. Oh, and your hospital will probably get abused also.
zhantrim: I would likely try to bomb the northeastern-most house/plasma research, shoot the neighboring green and ss, and then hit your plasmas/walls. You have very nice internal turrets. Excellent use of progressively weaker factories to shield the more important ones. I like your extra northern housing/research shield. It offers additional strength while making it more difficult for your defenders to get out top. I think it’s a decent tradeoff. All of your entrances are decent and well thought out. The southern could use some work. That green is very shootable (2 spaces away). This is a solid design.
Dunebug: Well if you can get in from the west you can bomb the green factory pretty easy. Other options are trying to drill through the east side, which is probably the most promising in fact. If you could blow the plasma and wall factories the CC is way open. Coming from the southeast is possible too but not as affective. North is kinda cryptic.
I like the way the buildings are setup but the defense needs work I think. Some of the turrets would be a lot more affective if they were moved around to different spots. As it is there are a few nooks and crannies or areas that you can be far enough away from turrets that they won’t kill you very fast and the payoffs are definitely worth it. When defending be careful about parts of the outer wall that only have one layer.
The entrances are well-protected but imagine if there was an attacker camped outside each, how easy would it be for them to redirect the turret fire so that it hit a defender while he was trying to exit? Pretty much every entrance has that flaw. It’s not a big deal though most cities have that problem.
Tied for 7th Place – Entry #4 – lejeune
| Code: |
| Judge Buildings Defense Entrance Total chaos952 6 5 8 19 Dunebug 5 5 8 18 zhantrim 6 6 9 21 |
Average Total Score: 19
chaos952: This design doesn't look very well planned. Your turret and mine factories are very easy to reach, but the easiest attack path is from the west. Double housing is not good because when two houses are destroyed, four buildings (other than houses) lose their population and can destroyed with one laser or missile shot.
zhantrim: Firstly, I would really avoid the wall factory location in this design. It is a very bad idea. One bomb here and they open the cc and clear the walls all at the same time. And just so you know, that wall placed above the factory is simply pointless. You have somewhat thin southern turrets internally. I think many attackers would really only target that plasma south of the greens and aim for the factory. I would definitely bomb south and avoid the entrances.
You have standard rosario entrances and I like their location and number.
Dunebug: I’m not trying to be mean or anything, but I gotta feeling this city was built by a newer guy. So the city’s not bad for a new guy, but it’s not going to last against any experienced orber.
First off you’ve got a few pockets where there’s a good factory to bomb and no turrets cover that spot. That makes it a lot easier for the attacker to bomb it. Also if he does get your wall factory from the north pocket it’s right next to the CC, opens it and nothing to shoot at you. From the middle pocket it blows up walls, mines, and green turrets. You do have defense on the outside but it IS NOT good enough. Try putting a sleeper turret on the right edge of the wall factory.
Also you’ve put the lazers and the cougars next to eachother… Also a bad idea. The defense is graded low because it doesn’t cover the areas that need to be covered. You’ve put all your green turrets on the outside but they’re not going to help much when the guy’s bombing your wall factory are they?
Tied for 7th Place – Entry #5 – names
| Code: |
| Judge Buildings Defense Entrance Total chaos952 6 6 7 19 Dunebug 7 6 6 19 zhantrim 6 5 7 18 |
Average Total Score: 19
chaos952: Hmmm… That north entrance is in a really bad location. That was the first thing I noticed when I looked at this design. One thing I can guarantee is that you will lose your turrets, mines, and walls in no time. They are waaaaaaaaay too easy to reach. However, the easiest path to your CC starts northwest, with your hospital. Your hospital is way too easy to abuse.
zhantrim: Your northwestern entrance is very abuseable, as attackers can easily use your repair, shoot the ss on the dfg factory and orb you. That plasma above this line will really not come into play, though you will have to shoot the one next to the repair. This particular one is quite easy to shoot.
Greens are very easy to get from your northern entrance. I would either move the entrance or switch the factory with a worthless one. The plasma in the southeast entrance is easily shot (only 2 spaces away from the entrance) without being hit in return. From this entrance, your plasmas, ss factory and mines are pretty vulnerable, as is your cc consequently.
Dunebug: First thing that comes to mind is that I can bomb the green factory without killing any turrets, although killing one would be much safer. The next thing that comes to mind is that you put a turret on the left square of the mine factory thus prohibiting you from moving through it. To get to the right side of the city you have to walk all the way around the CC and past that sleeper turret which could easily kill or heavily damage a defender. So immediately the first thing I’d do is go to the right side of yoru city and bomb as much as I could. It might not open it completely since you have sleepers there but it’s too good an opportunity to pass up.
The lazer and zook facts are very close to eachother and could be blown up quite easily, although there are much better opportunities I don’t think I’d go for that.
Basically… solid outside shell but too cramped on the inside those pockets provide a lot of cover to attackers and they’ll exploit them as much as possible.
Last Place – Entry #2 – Sin38
| Code: |
| Judge Buildings Defense Entrance Total chaos952 7 6 6 19 Dunebug 6 6 7 19 zhantrim 3 2 9 14 |
Average Total Score: 17
chaos952: Wow… This design sure covers alot of area. Someone is trying to build like Weebo… I think you placed way too much defense inside… You have 15 buildings up north (split into two lines) and only 4 turrets guarding them. South is very weak; after bombing the house by the DFG factory and shooting down the sleeper there, the only thing separating an attacker from orbage is your turret factory, medkit factory, and a wall. One bomb blast will take care of that. Speaking of southern weakness, you'll probably lose your sleeper factory quite often. Entrances are placed very far from your housing and research buildings, and the lack of turrets guarding those buildings will cause problems.
zhantrim: This design is frankly quite awful. There is way to much open area for attackers to maneuver within and there is very little turret coverage over vital areas like your turret factories. The southern defense is poor and most people would soon realize that this is an ideal place to attack. That being said, rosario is often attacked from the north given its location on the map and I like your double-thick housing to the north. I just wish you would have shored up many of your entrances and the south side. I'm glad you're attempting the building gig, but stick with it. Read Chris' post about design. It’s very helpful for aspiring mayors.
Dunebug: This city’s not bad but it just seems uncreative to me. How many other cities are there where it’s popular to put All the turret factories and the wall factories around the CC and then just build around that? Well that’s what’s been done but the bummer part of it is that the building layout and defensive placement don’t complement eachother. The turret angles are often blocked by buildings and the unimportant buildings don’t give any cover to turrets (thus they’re easy to shoot)
There’s one part I see in the southeast where I can shoot two turrets and then move into the base, from there you can bomb the sentry factory and the only thing shooting you is a sleeper.
