Game 44 Utter Carnage

[manbear]

Welcome to The Thunderdome of Hegemony!

12 races go in, one comes out...

These 12 races will start at equadistant positions surrounding a circular galaxy. There are no defensive positions except the vary center of the map which is filled with very rich stars. The race will be on to get to these stars first and control them. It won't be easy though as there is a large barrier which requires significant range research to cross. Add to that the fact that as the empires approach the center, they will come in closer and closer contact with little breathing room. Those empires which choose to 'wait and react' will surely be left out in the stellar cold to face oblivion.

[KidFrey]

Well let's get this board hopping!

Why don't we start with that Ryo DP? Where the hell did *that* come from? Kazak? Was that you??

[CreepingDas]

That one caught me off-guard as well, who would sink that many resources that early? I mean, wow.

[Peraspera]

:rolleyes:

I guess that would leave me in range, wouldn't it, KidFrey?

Really, it wasn't that many resources. DPs are half-price this game...a veritable bargain! Although I'm frugal, and hated to spend the money, given the lack of communication and action from Ryo, I thought it was worth it.

<insert Kazak-mart announcement from last night>:

Attention, Skotos gamers: Blue-light special at Ryo...cleanup in...oh, never mind.

<and Kazak says>:

Don't think of it as aggression. Ryo was just a galactic parking lot full of junk ships orbiting a planetary trailer park. Think of it as a galactic renewal project.

:cool:

And you better believe I had my sunglasses on for the fireworks last night! Hope you all enjoyed the show!

At your service,

Kazak

[Ryo]

I don't think anyone was more surprised by that DP that Ryo herself! Particularly since my email was completely down last Fri and Saturday so I didn't even get the message that I was in 44....
Nothing from Skotos, no DMs from players (although several were sent)...

.... until I was informed by the guilty party I'd een DP'd. LOL. I would have lost, in any event, since I was starting 3 days behind. But all the same... ouch!

[KidFrey]

Lucky for Kazak DP's are half price this game. . .

[Peraspera]

Lucky? No, half-price DPs are the reason I signed up for the game. It's fun to blow things up.

<Kazak swings hammer>

Fun, fun, fun.

See KidFrey run.

Run, run, run.

You may want to keep that in mind if you're planning on continuing your incursion into my space. Or I may need to make another advertisement:

Attention, Skotos gamers...blue light special at...

And, for those of you who are old enough to remember the old RC cola advertising jingle, I once dedicated this perversion of it to an old-time SE player. I'd like to temporarily co-opt it as mine in this game:

"Me and my DP;
Me and my DP;
What's dead enough for other folks
Just ain't dead enough for me."

At your service,

Kazak

[KidFrey]

I am about to do to Kazak what is known as the "Python." No, it has nothing to do with John Cleese.

[Peraspera]

You are going to be an ex-player in game 44.

And that has EVERYTHING to do with John Cleese.

I shall slough off this mortal coil of yours...

[KidFrey]

Slough off this!

[Peraspera]

Okay.

Bern is mine. Your homeworld is next. Do I have $100 saved in my account for a DP? Do you feel lucky?

At your service,

Kazak

[KidFrey]

A. Is my home star my factory star? That's for me to know and you to find out.

B. What's a DS? A lousy $50? I might have a DS on each and every star. Did you ever think about that?

[CreepingDas]

for your convenience, the planet Makol has been reconstructed into smaller, more easily portable pieces.

[KidFrey]

Kazak,

Your cowardly attack on my home star has met with the expected results.

It's not like I didn't warn you.

Regards,

Kid

[Peraspera]

I disagree with the "cowardly" part.

Expected, I'll grant. But I made you keep those assets at home while I did other things...

[Peraspera]

Poor Makol. R.I.P.

But a nice show, whoever...:cool:

[CreepingDas]

400 ships and not a single death shield...what a shame.

[Takius]

--Intercepted Transmission from Takis--

Let all feel the power of Takisite hermit-style BLOSSOM OF DEATH! MUAHAHA!

Leave us be.

-End Transmission-

[KidFrey]

Leave us be.
Would it be sufficient if I were to allow you to rest in peace?

-- Kid

[Peraspera]

I was wondering when the DPing would begin in earnest.

Surprised that someone saved up for 8 of 'em in 7 hours, though.

At your service,

Kazak

[KidFrey]

It's a brilliant strategy on the part of Takis, who has thereby managed to catapult himself into a last-place finish.

Sarcasm aside, it is actually pretty cool-looking, even if I am the victim.

[Takius]

I wasn't aiming to survive this really, since I knew defeat was inevitable after I went inactive for a couple of weeks =p
Just to make a mess, thats all.

[Peraspera]

I was wondering what was going on over there.

Other, of course, than a massive fireworks display.

:cool:

Uh-oh. Should have put some sunscreen on, too...

At your service,

Kazak

[KidFrey]

Totem: why do you continually label the winners of 044 "pathetic"? If that word has any relevance, it is to your poor attitude about losing. I recommend that you man up and play in a new game, and stop grousing about this one.

[manbear]

One of the primary reasons is that when the roleplay version started half the empires in this game dropped.

Cubes and I were pretty much the only ones fighting over the middle for the whole game. Since Cubes managed to gain an advantage there without interferance from Kazak or Kid, the only other two major powers. Cubes was able to steam roll through two active empires like a hot knife through butter. Because so many players dropped, we didn't have a chance.

The game was pretty much descided on turn 1. If I had managed to fight off Cubes, things might have been more interesting.

I have to thank Cubes for extending diplomatic proposals shortly before invading. Real honorable guy. Which wasn't good enough, then he went and took my homeworld.

If these had been real empires, no one would have been allowed to dominate the middle, which was like having 2-3 empires worth of income to themselves even if that meant breaking agreements.

I just felt the strategy by the other two large empires was incredibly poor. First they circle around each other, then they don't interfere with Cubes assimilation of the entire middle of universe.

[KidFrey]

The poor strategy of Kazak and myself got us some not-so-poor ratings in the game.

[KidFrey]

The people you should be criticizing are the players who did not play actively -- not the ones who did, and did well.

[dans]

Originally posted by manbear

I have to thank Cubes for extending diplomatic proposals shortly before invading. Real honorable guy. Which wasn't good enough, then he went and took my homeworld.


I extended diplomatic proposals to you and received no response. This was a lesson I learned pretty quickly, until the ink is dry on an agreement, proposals are just that: proposals.

As for the strategy of the other two large empires, I would think it would be apparent now that the three of us were allies. This was true very early in the game, and it's what allowed me to commit such a large force to the center without having to worry about my rear.

[manbear]

Exactly Cubes and with everyone else but Basil and I dropping it made for a pretty unchallenging game. Granted if I had committed my full forces I could have held you off a little longer in the beginning until one of your two allies wiped me out. What I'm trying to say without balance of power, the game becomes boring and isn't challenging.

I did send a diplomatic message back to you, it's in my diplomacy log.

[KidFrey]

Plus, I am not sure what you mean by everyone dropping. I had a heck of a fight with Shade, and had to call in my ally or I never would have won. Another player blew up 8 of my worlds. These people did not "drop" -- the only non-mover I know of was Ryo.

[Peraspera]

[i
What I'm trying to say without balance of power, the game becomes boring and isn't challenging.
[/B]

This, I can agree with. But what I need to point out is that it is up to all the players involved in the game to achieve this. It's not a hard-wired game function. Certainly it's possible to play with 6 sets of 1-on-1 encounters, but this game is set up in order to PROMOTE diplomacy & cooperation between players (hence, the name of the Diplomatic Message function).

I don't know what you (or many of the other players) tried. Try playing together, preferably with an ally.

Only three people outside of our alliance ever even talked to me.

I mean no insult in this to anyone, but after I took my world in the center (Dum) from its original owner, I received a declaration of war from him. I was surprised, since I was around twice his size, but followed it to its logical conclusion in less than 48 hours. His neighbor either waited until he was gone, or just wasn't paying attention...and attacked me without notice, unfortunately [for him] after I'd assimilated all the other's factories, with very similar results.

I didn't see much of any signs of close cooperation amongst anyone else in the game.

My allies played well.

What's your evaluation of your own performance? What stopped you from allying with, say, Basil & Lothar (your neighbors on either side, for example) to counter the threat that was presented to you?

At your service,

Kazak

[Peraspera]

I liked the map, it was interesting and seemed well-balanced to me.

A couple of things I'd like to throw out for discussion:

The title of the game was "Utter carnage," but I'm not sure if it achieved its desired effects.

Half-price DPs were offset by quarter-price Death Shields. (Albeit not in the case of the 8 DPs used in the death struggle against Kid.)

And the high price of SPs discouraged their use--too much, in my humble opinion.

Half-price battle power made it an irresistable (and quite effective) purchase. This was good for "regular" carnage (i.e., taking worlds) but given my fleet effectiveness (it finished with a BP of 500) it seemed almost wasteful to do anything but dozer everything else under my rule than use even quarter-price DPs.

[KidFrey]

Agree with Kazak. If I believed that that guy was really going to DP me (when he said it) (why *did* he announced that, anyway?) I could easily have shielded every star within range. The fact that I didn't, did not stop me from removing his behind from the game in about 24 hours (due to cheap BP).

As Kazak says, another real hindrance to the use of DP's was expensive SP's. You put that together with the cheap DS, and it's really sort of foolish to rely too much on DP's.

The cheap price of BP stood out above everything else. I too finished with 500 BP, and had some of the coolest battle results ever (like the one where I attacked a guy with 11 ships, and he had 3, and I beat him without losing a single ship).