Star Empires Game 8 Ends

From: rhl@jambo.mitre.org (Roger Lincoln)

Date: Tue, 07 Feb 1995 13:49:25 +0000

[ Star Empires Press Release.  Cleared by U.S. Military ]

Star Empires Game 8 has ended!  After 42 turns, once per week,
Artemis, aka Blair Prescott, has emerged victorious
from a starting field of 13 empires.  The surrender of the last active
opponent was received on stardate 95.02.02, giving Artemis sole
control of the galaxy.

At the end the Artemis war machine was in control of 38% of the
galaxy's resources.  The ranking of the final 3 players was...

Artemis     38.21%  bprescot@Engr.UVic.CA
Bonehead    29.80%  craigh@macdaddy.sii.com
Peanut      18.69%  Damian.Penney@newcastle.ac.uk

All other races have been assimilated.

This game was different from past games in that it was a much smaller
galaxy, had less starting players, and most importantly, there was no
communication between the players.  It was every lifeform for itself.
I had to keep an occassional eye out for imaginative ship names such
as the "U.S.S. Please Don't Shoot", or a task force with ships named
"Let's", "Gang", "Up", "On", "Bonehead", but there were none of the
characteristic alliances as in past games.

There were 13 original races scattered among a galaxy of 150 habitable
planets.  Over the course of the campaign 4376 different ships were
built, of which 2467 were destroyed and many more left damaged,
disabled, or abandoned.  The ship performance parameters change
slightly from game to game, and one type of ship always ends up being
the favorite among players.  Looking at the number of ships built by
category (not including computer-built ships), it's quite apparent the
favorite in this game was a Strike Wing Squadron loaded onto a
Transport.  Looks like I'm going to have to offer dealer rebates on
Dreadnaughts in the future.

Ship Type          # Built
 1. Dreadnaught          1
 2. Battleship           33
 3. Battlecruiser        1
 4. Attack Cruiser       2
 5. Heavy Cruiser        0
 6. Light Cruiser        184
 7. Destroyer            3
 8. Corvette             0
 9. Raider               19
10. Frigate              6
11. Corsair              40
12. Escort               120
13. Fleet Carrier        14
14. Light Carrier        89
15. Transport            978
16. Strike Wing          1187
17. Fighter Wing         341
18. Patrol Wing          261
19. Scout                247
20. Orbital Fortress     0
21. Orbital MkII         0
22. PDC                  0
23. Missile              276
24. Probe                15
25. Fleet Base           4

There was one unfortunate incident, which was entirely my fault, and
led to the dropout of a major player, who should nonetheless get
credit.  Somewhere around the 30's one player, Excelsior
(beaston@kilo.uws.EDU.AU) had built up a huge lead over the remaining
3 players.  I thought it a foregone conclusion that his lead was
insurmountable and that the game would be over quickly.  So to inject
some fun into the endgame I made the mistake of identifying him as the
leader and inviting the other 3 to have at him.  To my surprise their
combined onslaught overwhelmed him and he understandably left in
disgust.  I apologize for my meddling (but I nevertheless enjoyed
watching it and the resulting power vacuum :-)

Due to a heavy workload I was not able to follow this game too
closely, so I offered to let each of the participants record history
from their perspective.  Only the winner took me up on the offer.  His
narration follows.

I'd like to thank all the players who participated, it was a hard
fought battle and you all played admirably.  A second game of Star
Empires, Game 7 - the larger and noisier one (i.e. anonymous
inter-player commmunications) continues to rage on.  Circumstances
won't permit me to start a new game now, perhaps someday soon.  Until
then, keep your spaceways clear!

-- From the Chronicles of Artemis --

Artemis got off to a good start, capturing 5 planets by turn 3, when
we met our first enemy ships. The first scuffle with Dauthi
[robert@chem.UCSD.EDU] over a valuable 3/10 planet [a rich planet] was
decided in our favor. Shortly thereafter, Dauthi ships started showing
up at other Artemis planets (and getting blown up!). By turn 10, we
were fighting on several fronts, locked in mortal combat.

After a while, I started to recognize familiar patterns in the behavior
of my adversary, and realized that it was my most trusted ally from an
earlier Star Empires game! I didn't let that get in the way of trying
to kill him, though. :-)

A long war ensued, in which we traded planets back and forth, with me
slowly gaining ground on him, and that only by guessing wing
numbers. I was concerned that all of our efforts were going into
fighting an essentially stalemated war, while other empires were
growing by killing off smaller opponents quickly. We were in about 5th
and 6th place at this point. My fears turned out to be justified when
on turn 15, Excelsior [beaston@kilo.uws.EDU.AU], the first place
player, carried out a beautiful surprise attack on Dauthi, completely
overwhelming his war-torn empire.

Realizing that I was no match for the huge Excelsior machine, I sulked
back behind my borders and allowed him to carry off the spoils of war
from Dauthi's planets. For a while, I feared that I would be the next
empire to fall under the Excelsior steam roller, but it didn't happen.
I saw myself rise up the standings as other empires got picked off.

I was doing my part in the picking too, I must admit. Without Dauthi
to keep me busy, I took on the peaceful Tandu empire
[sjoerd@cs.vu.nl], and with my greater production I quickly overcame
him, capturing my first homeworld [the richest planets].

After the Tandu empire fell under my control, I found myself third in a
four-way race. Excelsior was far in front of his nearest competitor,
and threatened to overwhelm us one by one. I decided to do my part to
stop his spread, and on turn 27, I launched a full-scale attack against
his southern border. I knew that I couldn't beat him alone, but I hoped
that the other players would join the fight against him.

Apparently they did, and under our combined might, the mighty
Excelsior empire was torn apart. In the race to collect his holdings,
I briefly held first place, having reclaimed the former Dauthi empire,
but then gave up top spot to Bonehead [craigh@macdaddy.sii.com].

Now I was in what I thought was the perfect position: second in a
three-way race. I hoped that the third place player, Peanut
[Damian.Penney@newcastle.ac.uk], would take my side in a war against
the more threatening Bonehead, which we would of course win. Then I
would use my superior numbers to overwhelm Peanut, leaving me with the
victory. [this guy must be a Republican]  There was just one catch:
After a brief three-way skirmish over a few planets, Peanut, perhaps
understanding my plan, went idle!  [I never found out what happened to
Peanut.  Are you out there?]

That made it a one-on-one battle, and I was the underdog. For a while,
I was in despair. How could I overcome the larger Bonehead, without
help? My forces were already stretched to the limit keeping the
pressure on his frontier. He had rendered useless my favourite tactic
of guessing wing numbers by using randomized loading. The only
advantage I had left was that I had three homeworlds (mine, Tandu's,
and Dauthi's) to his one.

All I could come up with was an all-out attack on his homeworld. I
thought I might be able to capture, blockade, or interdict it [prevent
building at his shipyard], or at the very least, stop his transports
from getting launched. If my plan worked, I would reverse the
standings and then I would be able to coast to the win.

My first wave was one turn away from Bonehead's homeworld when his
surrender was announced. I wonder if he saw it coming, or if he just
lost interest? I guess I'll never know if my plan would have worked.
[from the looks of it, it may have worked.  Alot of Bonehead's ships
were out of position and wouldn't be able to intercept the incoming
force in time.]

In conclusion, I'd like to say thanks to all my worthy opponents, and
especially to Roger, our benevolent Space God, who hath created this
Universe and all the things in it. May all your battles be on the other
guy's turf!
				Blair Prescott
				Artemis, SE8
				Shofixti, SE3
				bprescot@Engr.UVic.CA