-Birdseye

"After having played kufyit many times, and watched his development, it finally came time to play him in his home level for our first match after he made UT. I should have taken some time to practice this level, not just look it over, since it was his home, but that would have meant postponing the match, and he was offering to call me for it, so how could I turn that down? It took me several kills to become even remotely aware of my surroundings, of what led to where and so on, despite the small size of the level and having looked it over. So he roared out to a quick 5 2 lead before I got oriented. I was not too concerned, yet, but maybe I should have been. I have always been able to come back. Rare indeed is it for me not to dominate the last half of a match, even against most UTs, as I get stronger and smarter and catch on to my opponent's moves and figure out ways to counter them, as the game goes on. But not this time. It went tit for tat, neck and neck, scoring 15 15 the rest of the match, to end 20 17 for him. His mercs were sharp, his gauss was good, and though I won most of the close up fights, he did not lose his grip and his mercs tasted just too much of my blood. It was his first win on me, and proves once again that you just don't mess with a UT in his home level."

-Sirian

"This was actually our third game of Wyndham. We had an unspoken contest to see who could beat whom first in their D2 home. We've done tons of Vamped games, and this was our third Wyndham game. In D2, Tubby has had a history of trouble versus me. The first time he ever won a match was in Wyndham. I was playing it blind in an agreement that he would play me in Minerva Shake blind afterwards. I thought it was a fair trade and a good chance at a busdriver. heh. Oh, the arrogance. Tubby shines in his D2 home. I was struggling to figure out his tactics and desperately flinging smart missiles in hopes of getting a "freebie" so I'd have some breathing room. Wyndham is a small, tight level and Tubby played it fast and hard. He won 20 to 16. I was a bit disappointed, but the rematch in my home quickly assuaged any dark clouds. :) Tubby loves to come a'calling and always wants to take you on in your home. Turnabout is fair play. :) Next Wyndham match, I pushed him harder. I had his tactics figured out but I just couldn't pin him down. He's sneaky and fast. I had the lead at 19, but wound up losing 23 to 21. I didn't feel bad about it since I had pushed him into OT, but I *vowed* to win the next. I've gotten my D2 sea-legs back after having played 2 days straight of LAN this past weekend, so I was feeling pretty confident about taking him. The only thing that gave me cause for worry was lag. Too much LAN + Kali = disaster sometimes. Going into the game, we had a nice 300ms ping. It stayed steady for about half of the game. I managed to get an early lead of two points and kept it until the early teens. The lag started getting worse and I was quicker to adjust to the new pings. We were now getting in the 450ms range and some minor bursting when we both used gauss. I pushed the lead to 4 before he managed to get his sea-legs back. He guarded the weapons and boated the smarts to get within one point at 19. Score was 19 to 18 and I was down to 40 shields. Tubby started playing a bit more cagey, switched to gauss and managed to get me down to 20 shields. I was starting to sweat. If he pushed it into OT, I wasn't sure I could keep up the pace well enough to win. I switched to gauss and the next time he came into the main dogfight room, I went all aggressive. It was all or nothing and I really started to sweat when 10 seconds into the fight he still hadn't died. One gauss packet and I was done-for. I sprayed wildly, prayed to my Gods, and came away with a 20 to 18 win. If you want to see Tubby at his best play him here. Buy Pyro-Insurance first."

-ENDER

"This was the best busdriver I have ever earned, out of the ones I have gotten so far. I had heard horror stories from people who have played tubby in his d2 home of Wyndham, even though I had never seen the level. I was determined to take a shot at tubby there and try to earn a busdriver. So I asked for a tour and a practice game and he gave it to me. The level was simple enough, and I was comfortable with the traps in it...nothing I hadn't seen before. The weapon balance left something to be desired. It is mostly a gauss/merc whore level unless you are lucky enough to sneak up on your opponent...but that is difficult to do. Well in the practice game I kept it tied 8-8 with him when we quit, so feeling confident in myself I challenged him to a match there the next day. "Although I still had the voices lurking in my head about how tubby had just destroyed other UT players here, even ones who usually dominate me, I felt ok about the match. Tubby likes to call modem, and I hadn't had the modem at the time, but I wish I did. We played on kali and the 400 ms lag was just too much for our poor little gauss-guns to handle, and the entire game went something like this: kill, kill, suicide, kill, suicide, kill, suicide, kill, kill, suicide, suicide, suicide, kill......on and on and on :) "The score never separated by more than 1 point the entire match. Nobody could keep a lead and I bet the lead changed 8 or 9 times that game. But never by more than a point. In fact, he was up 20-19 on me and I was SURE I had lost it. But I got a tying kill and that made me feel a lot better. Then, the blessed thing happened. tubby got the last suicide of the game, putting me up by 1. I felt a rush of adrenaline as I tried to shut him out for the last kill. We manhandled each other with gauss for the rest of the match and charged each other repeatedly, but nobody could get two kills in a row until about 3 points later. I got a kill putting me up 23-22 I believe and I heard him spawn on the far side of the level by the two-sided ramp. I knew he would go right for the guns, which were almost ALL in the middle of the hallway that goes across the level so I quickly switched to plasma and just painted the hallway green. I didn't even aim because I just knew...one of those gut instincts, that he was there. And he was. I took him down really far and I knew he was on his last leg so I switched to gauss and one gauss hit later I had my 24-22 win. The first player to EVER beat tubby in his home level. And what a satisfying win it was. I had 42 total kills in that game, and tubby had 40....so at a final score of 24-22, I am not sure how many suicides it was, but it was a LOT :) As ridiculous as that is, I still had a great time."

-LordDeath

"kufyit is an agressive sonofabitch, and this level suits his playing style perfectly."

-Z

-LordDeath

"I've played a lotta games with kufyit, and most of them lately have been really tough battles, testing my skill and my will to the limits. I probably turn down about two thirds of his match requests, because of being busy with something, but he asks so much that he gets lots of games. Anyway, it was D2 time, and we tossed a couple level names back and forth that the other hadn't played yet, so we were about at that dreaded stage where someone says "Nysa?" or "Athena?" or "Io?" just because you can't think of anything else good at the moment. Hehe. So I said to myself, screw that. Fortune favors the bold! "Let's do Wyndham," I said. "So we tried to play on Kali at first, but it was bursty, so we canned that and went with direct modem. kufyit was just waking up, but I had been up for hours and I was mentally sharp. Result? He volunteered to save the walls from a dangerous smart missile two of my first three kills. Just opened wide and gulped it down! So I got the quick 3 1 lead, and was that ever a nice break for me in a big game. I also had decided that gauss would not rule the game, not this time. Ammo Control, baby, yeah! Been a long time since I used ammo control with direct intent in a level with two gauss, but that was my game plan this time. Without gauss, he'd have to commit to energy weapons to supplement his dead-eye merc skeelz, and that would give me a chance, because I felt confident I could outfight him with plasma or laser. "I won almost all the dogfights in the main room, and I stood my ground, often chasing kufyit on out of there. Which probably surprised him at first, since he is used to chasing me in D2. Built my lead up to 4, then 5 points, and I was feeling confident, in control, and he was the hunted. But he kept it from getting out of hand with his patented Wyndham respawn kills. Rearming in that level is tough! At least vs this kid. It's his home and he lets you know it. Half of his first 10 kills were dispatching my less than fully armed self right after the other half of his kills. :) And then he buckled down and I could feel his will to win from over a thousand miles away. He WANTED this game, and he put his all into taking it away from me. He adjusted to the lack of gauss -- no parlor trick ammo control was going to put him on the defensive for long! No sir! From 15 10 to 15 12 to 17 15, and I was really feeling the heat. I got a sweeeet kill to take it to 19 17, and I had full shield, so I decided to camp a bit. Bad move. He caught me, and smacked me from 100 shield down to 5! Then he was gone like a whisper of wind and I hadn't even touched him. *sigh* He killed me, then got me again and only took about 45 damage in the process. All of a sudden it's 19 19, overtime, and I need two to win. I got the Hell out of the tunnel area and put it on the line in the main room. If he was going to beat me after all of this, he was going to have to do it in a plasma dogfight. I limped away with the last two kills. This win took tactics, dogfight dominance, rat smarts, all my wits and a whole lotta luck to boot, and it still went to overtime! My god, somebody find an answer to this kid in this level! I can't expect to catch him half-awake for every rematch!" :)

-Sirian

T HIS Jersey brat has been making levels for quite some time. Grax's first creation to gain playtime on the IDL was Barathrum, which marks perhaps not only his first major hit, but also his graduation into the ranks of the most skilled level designers, and he has developed a style all his own with several unique trademarks, including designs high on Trap Factor, long straight hallways and tunnels, and a certain flair for placement of shoot-through grates.

Wyndham is one of the smallest and tightest levels out there. Weighing in at only 66 cubes, this level has two small rooms, a long hallway and a few tunnels. There is one secret area and (like most Grax levels) no reactor. Mercs rule these halls. Better pack your best aim if you are going to ride this ride.

The long tunnels and narrow spaces make this a fertile ground for gauss fighting. Plasma or quads rule the in-your-face encounters, but the gauss is clearly the most effective weapon for most of this level. The flashes can play a key role as well, if you can blind an opponent then swoop in on him before he recovers. It's nigh impossible to dodge the flash radius except in the main room. This level leaves you no breathing room, but other than that it's a straight up fight. The tunnels are all designed to be deathtraps.

It's interesting to note that Grax's former home level was Minerva2, and that he played literally hundreds upon hundreds of Cases ladder matches. You can see the influence of that in most of his designs, but it shows here in particular, if you look for it. Minerva2 has a single main room surrounded by lots of tunnels, and there are no quick cutoffs, allowing runners to escape a hot pursuit. Yet there are plenty of places where a player can get himself trapped, and the mercs and smart missiles rule the day in combo with the gauss. All of these things describe Wyndham to a T, only on a smaller, tighter, faster-paced scale. Overall Rating: 8

Wyndham D1 Because of the weapon balance and lack of burners, this level plays entirely differently in D1. No gauss and mercs to rule the halls. Here it's the fusion, spreadfire and smart missiles (four of them). The tempo is a bit slower, and the level doesn't feel quite as cramped. Overall Rating: 8

-Ratings-

Level Name	DF	TR	TM	TP	EB	GM	3D	WF	CR	LV	ST	Overall
D2 Wyndham	6	8	10	4	5	3	3	7	6	8	3	8
D1 Wyndham	6	8	8	4	5	3	3	8	6	7	3	8