Decades Challenge Frustration Venting Thread

[harryl]

Some of us previously discussed the Decades Challenge a little in the "Weekly Challenge" thread and I thought I'd open up a new thread just for this Challenge to see if anyone else is interested. I think a lot of people find this one the most, or at least one of the most, difficult Challenges in the game:

• 4 Game Series: must go 4-0.
• Hall of Fame Difficulty
• All-Star CPU Teams (best of a decade)
• 3 Amethyst Restriction (but CPU won't count Diamonds)

Others report that the first game isn't a big deal, and perhaps the 3rd. But the 2nd and 4th are really tough. My experience has been that the first is pretty easy, and I've found the 2nd nearly impossible. Lost the 2nd game at least 10 times.

I finally beat the 2nd game last night, fairly comfortably, but without a big margin of victory.

It's a 1980s all-star team for the CPU and I think the starting lineup is: Magic, Jordan, Bird, McHale, Moses Malone? Magic is a much bigger problem than the Oscar of the first game, in my experience. Magic drives much more aggressively and is basically unstoppable, and extremely difficult to contain.

But this is the HoF CPU cheese. Add in Jordan hitting open threes. Bird shooting 80-100% from outside if he's open. And everyone nailing an incredibly high rate of any open midrange. Meanwhile, one's own wide open shots cannot be relied upon, even if you nail the release. Expect to get some routine inside shots and even dunks blocked by OP CPU defense. And never risk passes unless passing lane is 100% open, because CPU picks off pretty much anything that could be construed as within arm's reach.

Obviously, I still have 3rd and 4th games to play and, frankly, I don't expect to complete them both on this try.

This is the lineup I'm using right now:

• PG: AS CP3 / Current Westbrook
• SG: TBT Diamond Crawford / Current Klay
• SF: DYN Kawhi / Current PG13
• PF: TBT LeBron / Current Blake Griffin
• C: Historic Diamond Bill Russell / Miami Shaq

As always, against the CPU, I try to take advantage of any easy fast-break opportunities I can get. And because it's HoF, will also shamelessly cheese any rim run opportunities I can get with a trailing big.

In halfcourt offense, with my starters, I'm mainly running Pace and cheesing P'n'R with LeBron seeming to be the most effective ballhandler, because my 1, 2, and 3 are all elite shooters and with PF LeBron and my Center running the P'n'R, both the CPU's bigs are pulled out of the paint.

Someone had suggested using Blake Griffin because he's too strong and fast for vintage PF's to deal with. I found this to definitely be the case in the 1st game. In that one, one could do a lot of baseline spin cheese with Griffin against, I think, Jerry Lucas. Not as effective in the 2nd game, but still a pretty good option.

[QNo]

The best way to cheese in this challenge is to use Diamonds, as you can use as many as you want to. Restrictions are broken, you've obviously noticed this. I play it sometimes to try out new players. Game 2 is definitely the hardest. I've had the most success with Diamond Oscar at PG; he had no trouble dealing with Magic. The Amethyst should be fine for offline as well. If you're okay putting people from other positions on him, guys like Kawhi, LeBron, Pippen, and Artest will do a great job on Magic, too.

I wouldn't use Crawford against the starters, he will get slaughtered defensively by Magic/MJ/Bird, no place to hide him. Maybe bring him in as your backup PG against Isiah. Try something like LeBron/Kawhi/Draymond as your 1-3, at least as the defensive assignments. I think I used LeBron/Kawhi/Artest/Klay, 3 of those 4 guys, as my 1-3, when I first beat the challenge a while ago.

You can basically put the whole 80s team on moderate/moderate, except for Bird (maybe there was one other guy who could shoot). You want a tall defender with long arms on him and put him on smother/deny. This team can otherwise not shoot the 3 so clog up the paint. I don't remember doing anything special on offense, just ran my usual Hawks Freelance/Wizards playbook, I guess. Defense is always the key to winning.

They will make some impossible shots since the HoF CPU gets artificial boosts, and their 4th quarter is very strong. I remember that I was up about 10 all game in one of my test games in game 2, and lost because they made 8 or 9 consecutive FGs to end the game. I messed up several times though, should've paid more attention.

[VegetableLasagna]

I've gotten to third game, but would always lose.

The bs missed dunks are lame

[firerises]

Quote: Originally Posted by harryl

Someone had suggested using Blake Griffin because he's too strong and fast for vintage PF's to deal with. I found this to definitely be the case in the 1st game. In that one, one could do a lot of baseline spin cheese with Griffin against, I think, Jerry Lucas. Not as effective in the 2nd game, but still a pretty good option.

Yeah, don't limit yourself to baseline spin cheese with Griffin though, I found that treating him like a perimeter player and isolating opposing 4s on the perimeter worked wonders. Taking advantage of his elite ball-control (for a big) and overall athleticism, I used a combination of spins, crossovers and behind the back moves and had a ton of success against every 4 in the challenge. Also, using face-ups in the post worked pretty well for me too. The quickness advantage proved to be too much, even against Malone and KG (where a strength advantage probably factored in as well).

[lowsingles]

Quote: Originally Posted by firerises

Yeah, don't limit yourself to baseline spin cheese with Griffin though, I found that treating him like a perimeter player and isolating opposing 4s on the perimeter worked wonders. Taking advantage of his elite ball-control (for a big) and overall athleticism, I used a combination of spins, crossovers and behind the back moves and had a ton of success against every 4 in the challenge. Also, using face-ups in the post worked pretty well for me too. The quickness advantage proved to be too much, even against Malone and KG (where a strength advantage probably factored in as well).

Blake griffin is cheat codes in all of myteam. I got a badged out dynamic griffin for 15k, that's ridiculous he's so good

[firerises]

Quote: Originally Posted by lowsingles

Blake griffin is cheat codes in all of myteam. I got a badged out dynamic griffin for 15k, that's ridiculous he's so good

Yeah he's such a versatile offensive weapon, can take guys off the dribble, dunk on everyone, hit mid-range jumpers (and 3s!), pass well, lead fastbreaks and he has an underrated post game (fades, face-ups, spins, etc). He's underrated for sure, you can easily run your offense through him and have tons of success. It's why I like bringing him off the bench to anchor my 2nd team offense. Only reason I don't start him is cause I have TBT Lebron and Pierce. So, I give him his own time to take the reins and run my offense, rather than serve as a complimentary player.

[harryl]

Quote: Originally Posted by QNo

The best way to cheese in this challenge is to use Diamonds, as you can use as many as you want to.... If you're okay putting people from other positions on him, guys like Kawhi, LeBron, Pippen, and Artest will do a great job on Magic, too.

Against the CPU, I do whatever and LeBron has done a good job on Magic. In the past, in Domination, ROTY Grant Hill even did a pretty decent job.

Diamond-wise, I only have Russell and Crawford right now. Crawford definitely will have issues against MJ, though pretty much everyone has issues with MJ. Good suggestion on having him come off the bench.

Defense is not necessarily my problem. Even offense isn't really the problem. I play good enough on D and on O to win the games easily, except that I always have a much higher turnover total than the CPU. Like...12-14 a game, off of which CPU gets ~10 points. I'm usually losing by less than 10 points.

So it's a matter of tightening up my play and to quit trying to make those passes "across" a defender, especially in 2-on-1 fast breaks. Need to be much more careful about which way I'm leading guys with passes.

Just played the 3rd game and, of course, lost it. Very close game pretty much the whole way. I think I allowed them some strong defensive momentum, because they made some ridiculous plays that had me fuming: David Robinson blocking two two-handed Shaq dunks, and Shaq also failing to dunk on top of Magic one time...i.e. you get the dunk animation and there's the collision, and he just folds as if he's hit an invisible wall.

Usual assortment of missed wide-open shots. Free-throws close to perfect that clank out. But, still...easily could have won if I had simply had 6 or 7 turnovers instead of 13 or 14.

[harryl]

Quote: Originally Posted by firerises

Yeah, don't limit yourself to baseline spin cheese with Griffin though, I found that treating him like a perimeter player and isolating opposing 4s on the perimeter worked wonders. Taking advantage of his elite ball-control (for a big) and overall athleticism, I used a combination of spins, crossovers and behind the back moves and had a ton of success against every 4 in the challenge. Also, using face-ups in the post worked pretty well for me too. The quickness advantage proved to be too much, even against Malone and KG (where a strength advantage probably factored in as well).

Thanks, these are good points. I have been able to create enough distance to give myself the runway space necessary to dunk with Griffin. And against smaller guys, his baseline spin to layup animation is pretty nice. Bricked a couple last night in third game when he was up against Malone, I believe.

Will try to work face-up juking a bit more and be more crafty about finishing moves -- i.e. hop steps, spin layups, etc. Hop step is an aspect I definitely need to work on because I am definitely getting space I need from them but am too slow to react to take advantage of it.

I only just recently figured out that, duh, when pulling a dribble spin move, one needs to move the main stick to the direction one wants to go after the spin, during the spin.

So far, for bigs, I've been going with Diamond Russell, Heat Shaq, and Current D12, but I think I should probably try out a Gold with better midrange to give Griffin more room to work with. That said, working two bigs in the paint can be pretty effective when posting up with one big and hitting the other big with a pass once he's ambled his way to good position under the basket.