Star Empires Game 6 - engame summaries (very long) From: rhl@jambo.mitre.org (Roger Lincoln) Date: Fri, 04 Mar 1994 01:03:46 +0000 Star Empires Game 6 is over. Started at the same time as the recently concluded Game 5, this game went one turn longer, ending on turn 34. Also like the previous game, this one started with 36 players, and was won by a 3 player alliance. The winners, ranked by the percentage of the galaxy they conquered, are; Wrathe, Candyce Bartosch (chuck@baka.ithaca.ny.us), 25% of the galaxy, Orchid, Robert Feinstien (bprescot@sirius.UVic.CA), 17% if the galaxy, Soro, Mark Glad (mdglad@mmm.com), 15% of the galaxy What follows is a very long short synopsis of the game from my viewpoint and summaries written by some of the players. Unlike previous games, this alliance did not form until the very end of the game, and once it was announced all but one player immediately surrendered. Wrathe and Orchid had been allied since very early in the game, but had spent most of their time involved in a larger alliance. Soro on the other hand spent most of the game in many different "loose" alliances with individual players, and was actually ready to war with Orchid at one point. Since this alliance was not formed until the very end it was never given a name. Following accepted conventions we shall call it SOW. Players who survived to the end and finally surrendered to SOW are; Goofball (Frits Kuijlman, frits@cp.tn.tudelft.nl) Harry (Sjoerd Schreuder, sjoerd@cs.vu.nl) Quendi (Mika Valiviita, valiviit@cc.helsinki.fi) The Meek (Peter Grundy, PGRUNDY@commerce.otago.ac.nz) Stahl (Dave "Mr. PGP" Weil, dave@tso4a.can.cdc.com) Snow Dogs (Jeff Dilcher, mktjadx@gsusgi2.gsu.edu) Archmage (Heikki Poso, hposo@fltxa.helsinki.fi) The Mule (Bill Conant, billc@borneo.ucsd.edu) UttoK'arra (Damian Hammontree, damian@cthulu.med.jhu.edu) This game, Game 6, was utterly amazing, it was unlike any of the past 5 games of Star Empires. Readers may recall the Game 5 endgame summary posted a couple weeks ago. That game, like all past games, was characterized by many alliances and at least ten times as many backstabs. But this game was almost totally opposite. There were only a few alliances, they remained stable, and there were very few backstabs. Make no mistake, it was a still a bloody, gorey mess; but for a large part Diploamacy was favored over Battle. Concessions were made instead of shots being fired. Worlds were bought or rented instead of captured. This whole travesty of peace can be atributed to one factor - Wrathe. Wrathe began the game as a newcomer. Partly because of her inexperience, but mostly just out of sheer bad luck, Wrathe started out very poorly. Her homeworld was located in a resouce-scarce part of the galaxy and her first scouting ships searching for new worlds to colonize found nothing, while all around her the other fledgling empires were claiming rich worlds and growing rapidly. Wrathe's rank bottomed out at 28, but through incredible diplomacy and tactics she clawed her way to the #1 spot. That's not to say she never fought, she did fight, and fought very well. But only when _she_ was ready, and only when it paid higher than diplomacy. She encountered Orchid on turn 2 and the pair formed a lasting friendship. Orchid was the opposite of Wrathe - his goals were clearly focused through his fleet and his accomplishments were brought about by the projection of his military forces. He was a darned good strategist; I might say brilliant but he is, after all, from California (and a surfer at that). But Orchid's true calling was as a leader. He was the cement that held together and drove one of the game's more influential alliances, which lasted for most of the game. Soro, on the other hand, spent most of the game making temporary alliances with specific single-battle goals. He was allied many times, but never for very long. Being an independent is by far the hardest course to take, but Soro did it well, though not without help. Throughout the many battles Soro came to many peoples aid, and was in turn aided by many. At his darkest hour it was Wrathe who negotiated and fought for him, and she who smoothed relations between he and Orchid, and she who finally brought them together to form the winning alliance. I must mention one player of note who was, with perhaps only one exception, well liked by all the players - The Meek. Taking on the persona of his name he dove face first into the role of a grovelling, cowering leader of a race of submissive, self-abasing non-humanoids whose only purpose in life was to fight arrogance in all its forms and make the galaxy safe for cringing humility and modesty (a role for which they were most unworthy). All his communiques and broadcasts were given in his trademark "MeekSpeak", a language he invented which lightened many otherwise somber and serious negotiations. If you look closely at his address domain you'll realize why, he's a Kiwi, born to the role (please, no hate-mail from other NZ's :-) Acting mainly by himself he spent most of the game in the #1 position. His downfall came when Goofball made him his sole target. The Meek saw it coming and was prepared, but Goofball was, at that time, a major player in Orchid's big alliance, and his attack fleets drove deep into Meek territory. It was only because Goofball missed a crucial turn (by mere minutes), that his fleet was destroyed. The Meek were nonetheless fatally weakened and dropped out of the number 1 spot. Even though this game was a bit less bloody than previous games, it one started out very ominously with the rapid destruction of several players, and I felt sorry for each of them. TCCB (John Sloan, js138@cus.cam.ac.uk), the first casualty, was a newcomer to the game and a genuinely nice guy. He was very disgusted with me, the game, and the other players, and I can't blame him a bit. It may have seemed like a conspiracy to him, but it was actually just bad luck that he was a juicy target at the center of four trigger happy empires. He was attacked from all sides on turn 2 by Orchid, Wrathe, Goodball, and Betazoids. To her credit, Wrathe never attacked, she just extracted protection money from him not to fire. The Betazoids (Florence Gaja, florence@smectos.gang.umass.edu) is a favorite player of mine. She always manages to get herself into trouble early in all the games, and this one was no exception. Always looking for adventure, early in her attack against TCCB she reversed and allied herself with him. After he fell she then became the target of Orchid, Wrathe (in actual battle), and the relentless Goofball. The third player to fall early, and the funniest (whether intentional or not) was The Borg. Star Trek fans will recognize him, for he played his role to the hilt, broadcast many Borg-like ultimatums to his enemies (which was basically everybody) and earned the ire of _everyone_. He didn't last long. There's a saying, "history is written by the victors." Well not in my galaxy it aint. What follows are game summaries written from the different players points of view, both winners and losers. Keep in mind that the writers of course "sanitized" the seedier sides of their tactics, such as Wrathe completely forgetting to mention how in every instance she used others seemingly for their own benefit; or Orchid's account which puts General Schwarzkopf to shame. :-) =================================== The History of Wrathe Early turns are terrible. Not only are the Wrathe completely inexperienced at War, they have a resource poor local environment. Compounding the problem, her limited ship resources choose the wrong direction to scout in...a direction with no worlds at all. She slips in the rankings. Realizing the situation is desparate, she falls back upon that most time-honored tradition...diplomacy. She has fallen from 18th, to 23rd, to 28th in the rankings. She crosses paths with Orchid and agrees to talk about TCCB. Talks to TCCB and convinces TCCB to give her 15 RUs not to fire. Didn't matter since Orchid didn't need her beams in that attack anyway. To cement a budding relationship, she offers Orchid some of the RUs. She meets the Alsatians, and agrees to accept RUs in return for not attacking. She can obviously cause him problems since she is much larger than he is (cough)..oh! Did I say that? She moves to 18 again in the rankings, but is getting "tributes" from local civilizations that make her stronger than her RU count suggests. Wrathe discovers some previously undiscovered worlds that no one else has claimed..one of them a tech 3. She conquers, and moves on. Since she has forces in the area, she attacks Feeblemind, who promises a spirited defense but does little. She partakes in an attack on Betazoids to a limited extent, gaining 6 RUs <ed note: resource units, 6 is average for a planet> worth of worlds...but in the meantime makes contact with Wild Hunt and explores working together with him. Betazoids sends her RUs. <why?> On the way to following up the Feeblemind attack, she must pass thru Mendel's territory, landing on a world of his in error. <I'm sure :> When he neglects to answer her messages, she attacks, thinking the empire must be in decline. To her utter surprise, Mendel is awake and fires. She launches an all out attack, having committed herself to an attack on Mendel...but she is stretched very very thin. At the same time, Wild Hunt is attacked by the GOAM alliance <GOAM, Orchids alliance - Goofball, Orchid, Archmage, Mule. Also known as OGAM, AMOG, MOGA, depending on which player you talk to> ...and there is nothing she can do to help. She makes contact with Soro. Mendel cleverly does not go for an all-out defense, but launches a counter attack that captures two of Wrathe's planets left vacant right next to her homeoworld. Negotiations ensue, and Soro agrees to donate some RUs to help in my defense. He notes that he has no place to use them right now and is feeling threatened by Archmage. We start talking to Archmage and he suggests either Alsatians or Quendi as a target. I'm closer to Alsatians but point out that I won't be done with Mendel for several turns, and no action can be taken on my part before then. Archmage agrees, but is chomping at the bit. We bring Soro into the picture. Wild Hunt and Wrathe negotiate. Wild Hunt agrees to turn over a couple of worlds to Wrathe in exchange for RUs to help his defense. Wrathe and Archmage have some heated exchanges. She is still a very very small empire compared to the others, including those she is attacking. She arranges for other empires to buy worlds from Wild Hunt too after Archmage bullies her. A fierce battle continues with Mendel, but Mendel aggrees to send RUs to Wrathe ;-). <?> The battle is ended exactly when Wrathe predicted it would. However, Archmage, being eager to move south from the cold clime he hails from has already launched a direct assault on the Alsatians while I move my forces into position. Soro autofires, screwing up his own landing on the Alsatians. Alsatians go balistic having never faced a challenge before. Soro, seeing an opportunity to capitalize, attacks Archmage. Wrathe and Archamge exchange more bitter words and Wrathe refuses to attack the Alsatians unless Archmage apologizes. Orchid steps in and tells her she's supposed to be a part of a greater alliance. Wrathe's position is, she's got nothing against GOAM, but she is not a part of it directly, at least not yet. She pledges a good faith to Orchid, securing her northern border. She sends Archmage some Rus, but also returns the RUs to Soro that he had lent her. GOAM decides to go all out against Soro against Wrathe's advice. In her opinion it will only force him into the HCD alliance <the other big alliance, Harry, Chinthlisss, Dipstick> or to ally with the Meek. Soro has long been number two, after a stretch as the number one producer. Wrathe has moved up to about 8th in the standings, but continues to get tributes from various empires. First contact is made with Stahl. He agrees not to attack her, even though the world is within 5 sectors of his capital. Soro claims his debt from Wrathe. She is in a tight spot...she can't directly help Archmage, who has apologized for past transgressions. Archmage and Wrathe are also exchanging turnsheets now and the relationship is on solid footing. They agree to disagree on a number of worlds, including the Wild Hunt homeoworld. Wild Hunt cedes the world to Wrathe in gratitude for working several 'deals' for him. After her run in with Archmage, she had moved her ships AWAY from the Alsatain border. She moves them back and continues to get the GOAM alliance to make peace with Soro. Wrathe observes the Alsatians fighting a losing defense against Archmage and decides to attack for certain. Nonetheless, Wrathe gives the Alsatians repeated warnings that he must compromise in some ways if he wanted to survive. He refuses to listen. The invective he unleashed was quite disgusting and had no place in civilized behaviors. She attacks. Simultaneously she launches an attack against Quendi. This attack was delayed several turns to coordinate with Orchid, but got messed up due to communications problems and Orchid's autofires <i.e. missed turn>. She finally went in alone. He followed a few turns later. Wrathe has moved to 5th place or so, and informs the Space God <me> she will win. He informs her he has not yet recieved his cookies so he doesn't see how that is possible ;-) <I too demand tribute>. She postulates an end game that would see Orchid, Soro, and Wrathe as winners if they stick together. Both Soro and Orchid are more than reluctant to pursue this particular grouping. By turn 18 or so, Wrathe has moved into number one position in the galaxy, making big gains against both Alsatians and Quendi. Quendi sends her some RUs. She buys worlds from Quendi as well. She attacks Snow Dogs along with Orchid. Stahl and Wrathe have been friendly (he asked her to attack Quendi), and then Stahl is attacked by Dipstick and Chinthliss. Wrathe determines that she will not let what happened to one friend (Wild Hunt) happen ever again. She engineers a massive RU donation by herself, The Meek, and Soro. She considers allying with The Meek and Soro, but The Meek dithers (of course ;-). She will never betray Orchid, however, since their trust goes too deep. She tries to form an alliance of Soro, Wrathe, Orchid, and the Meek. In a truly amazing defense that should go down in the annals of history, Stahl faces over 900 RUs worth of ships and defeats the forces arrayed against him, loosing only about 500 RUs of production to the 900 wasted by his adversaries. Dipstick is backstabbed big time by UttoK'arra, who Dipstick was attacking at the same time as Stahl. Dipstick confides in Wrathe that he is so pissed he might just quit the game. Dipstick goes from turn 18 or so to about turn 28 without making a single RU gain. Chinthliss goes the same period and takes over a single 4 RU world from Stahl. Wrathe, in aiding Stahl, gets about 10 RUs of planets, but pays him 60 RUs for the 2 worlds. Later, Wrathe sees that Stahl will loose 2 worlds to Chinthliss and convinces Chinthliss to leave those two worlds to Wrathe. Little did Chinthliss know he had them in the bag. Chinthliss warns Wrathe that "Stahl likes to use wings for some reason", chuckle. Wrathe is helping Stahl coordinate his turns, though Stahl remains an independent empire. Orchid and Wrathe coordinate their attacks southwards, and Wrathe sends Orchid, the Mule, Archmage, and Soro several hundred RUs in this period. Wrathe attacks sHADOWHAWK and takes over most of the worlds. Though she has the homeworld essentially won, she agrees to let Soro take it. In exchange, he offers to attack the Alsatian homeworld, which is using the "Fighter Wing Defense". In the interests of harmony, Wrathe agrees to this. Dipstick throws in the towel just as Wrathe had decided to attack UttoK'arra big time. Changing direction, she makes an all-out effort to stop Harry from getting too much for "free" and is successful in a number of places. Stahl does the same, trying to tie up Harry's forces. Wrathe considers who to ally with, and makes a number of enquiries. She has had much greater production on paper for a while, but has been sending many RUs to others, so her ship stocks are lower than they really should be. She finally gets Soro and Orchid to truly work together after a lot of reluctance on each other's parts, and the game is essentially wrapped up. ================================ A HISTORY OF SE6, FROM ORCHID's POINT OF VIEW Turn 1: - Orchids find themselves in good fortune, for within 2 sectors of our capital lay a 3/10 and a 3/9 <fairly rich worlds>. We capture both on turn 1, and feel warm and fuzzy inside for being in first place <don't get used to it :->. - Orchids make contact with the empires of Archmage, Knight, TCCB, Betazoids, Goofball and The Mule. - A scout reveals a 3/10 adjacent to TCCB that is not yet owned. Although TCCB had moved that turn, Orchids suspect that the empire is either inexperienced or missed turn 0. In addition, TCCB responds to Orchid's diplomatic queries with offensive threats. Turn 2: - Orchid encroaches on TCCB territory, and a battle is brewing over the 3/10. - Orchid meets Wrathe and hits it off. Wrathe expresses some lack of familiarity with the mechanics of stellar domination, so Orchid (unaware of Wrathe's stellar diplomatic powers) takes her under his wing. Turn 3: - Orchid and TCCB have it out over the 3/10, and Orchid is the victor. - Orchid monitors TCCB's capital - Orchid, Wrathe and TCCB all show up at a 2/6 <average sized world>, and the cement of alliance between Wrathe and Orchid is set with the blood of TCCB as mortar. Yarr!! - Orchid and his southern neighbor, Cardinals, collide at a 3/10 still unowned after all these turns. Turn 4: - The TCCB hivemind stutters, as Wrathe and Orchid dismantle its offensive capabilities. Holding the small empire to an income of only 15 RUs per turn, the end is near for TCCB. - Orchid and Cardinals work out an agreement to allow Orchid to have the 3/10 between them. In return Orchid pays Cardinals off. Turn 5: - Orchid comments to Mule about how quickly their diplomatic queries are arriving to one another. Lo and behold; they are both in San Diego. Orchid suggests that the two empires meet for a dawn surf session under the Scripts Institute of Oceanography pier. A stronger alliance has never been formed! - The Orchid-Goofball-Archmage-Mule alliance is formed, and turnsheet exchanges are set up. Orchid coordinates a scouting plan such that each member covers a fourth of the universe. - Although still feeling warm and fuzzy, Orchid's expansion is slowing. He descends down the ranks. Time to be aggressive! Turn 6: - The empire of Betazoids, adjacent to Goofball and above TCCB, postures to attack Goofball. Orchid plants a scout at the capital to feed info to the alliance. Additionally, Betazoids joins with TCCB to fight Wrathe and Orchid. When asked why Betazoids would knowingly join a losing side, no response is heard. The front expands. - TCCB's grip on his territory slips away, and Orchid continues to capture ground. - Orchid's first anti-PDC <Planetary Defense Center guarding the homeworld> force is assembled, and is ready to move off to TCCB's capital. - Wrathe continues her expansion onto other worlds in the TCCB/Betazoid territory, as well as to the South. Mule, Archmage and Goofball all continue to grow, and all four of the OGAM alliance members are in the top 10 players. <OGAM, what'd I tell ya> - The OGAM scout net is essentially complete. Turn 7: - The combined forces of TCCB and Betazoids are humiliated by Wrathe and Orchid. <which of course outnumbered them 5-to-1> - The Mule fights Salvoria, with Soro attacking Salvoria from the other side. - Goofball, having been set down the path of war while on vacation, continues to hammer Betazoids into submission. Goofball captures a large amount of territory, and generously shares some with Orchid. Wrathe joins in on the edge of the Betazoid territory nearest her. - Orchid moves his capital to the 3/10 adjacent to the TCCB capital of Riva. The plan is to provide a close source of missiles and wings for the carriers to dump into the fray. Turn 8: - The first half of the anti-PDC force arrives at TCCB's capital. In addition, the 3/10 adjacent to the enemy capital is pumping out wings and missiles. Turn 9: - TCCB, dormant for another turn, allows Orchid to drop loads of missiles and escape with his carriers, while more missile loaded carriers and a dreadnaught move in. - All is mostly quiet on the Archmage, Mule and Goofball fronts. Lots of talk about grand plans is initiated. The greatest perceived threats are Soro to the alliance's west, and The Meek to the North. In addition, word of an alliance between three very distant players (Harry, Chinthliss and Dipstick) is heard. Worries build. Turn 10: - Goofball moves in the beginning of an anti-Betazoid-PDC force against the now dormant empire. <she was on her way back to France> - The capital world of TCCB falls to Orchid. Orchid celebrates. - Wrathe, having fought bitterly against the empire of Mendel, throws in ship after ship to her south. The OGAM-W alliance (Wrathe never actually joins the alliance, but all five empires agree to protect one another) continues to expand. Turn 11: - Despite the best of intentions concerning planning and coordination, all four members of the OGAM alliance suddenly lose control, and each attacks some other empire. The alliance as a whole goes from one opponent to five. Included is an attack by The Mule on Harry, a far stronger player whom the OGAM alliance has not yet prepared to fight in a concerted manner. This was a MAJOR mistake, both for The Mule and for the alliance. - Orchid, feeling not so peaceful, throws 3 SW <strike wings> loaded fleet carriers into Cardinals capital. Orchid feels very bad about attacking his neighbor, but must expand. Cardinals understands, but promises to give Orchid the best fight possible. After the walk in the park against TCCB, Orchid welcomes the challenge. All Cardinal worlds are attacked simultaneously. Turn 12: - Cardinals fights extremely valiantly, and unleashes the dreaded Fighter Wing Defense. Orchid gains ground, but the fight is young! - The OGAM alliance, along with Wrathe, puts together a plan to save Mule. A strategic plan is hatched, where Mule receives large RU gifts and stages a defense bolstered by his allies arriving from the rear. Turn 13: - As the battle between Cardinals and Orchid rages on, Archmage lends a hand to Orchid at the Cardinal capital of Ailell. - Much like a bug, The Mule is crushed by Harry, who is supplied with RUs from Dipstick and Chinthliss. In addition, the neutral Meek, who had been the number one player for some time, sides with Harry and joins in the attack against Mule. The Mule does not submit orders (might be off by a turn or two here) and the alliance's hopes of saving him are dashed with the delivery of nice, shiny but otherwise useless autobuilt dreadnaughts at the Mule capital. <that's what happens when you miss a turn. For some reason players weren't too fond of dreadnaughts, the biggest ships in the game> Turn 14: - Orchid continues to absorb Cardinal territory, and only the capital remains. Turn 15: - Ailell is captured, and made the Orchid capital. Losses were extremely heavy. - Orchid, within 1% of the RU income of the first place leader, decided to forgo setting up a defense, and instead throws his remaining force into further expansion. Turn 16: - Orchid pours ships into this North to protect against an expected attack from The Meek and Harry. Additionally, Orchid forces begin arriving in the Mule territory to stave off the territorial gains of Harry and The Meek. Turn 17: - Due to severe net problems, Orchid hibernates, and is rewarded with Dreadnaughts. <OK, so maybe they're a bit overgunned and slow> Turn 18: - A relatively huge Orchid force gathers (3 Dreadnaughts leading the way) for an attack on the Quendi territory. Turn 19: - As the huge but very slow anti-Quendi attack force forges on, the lead ships drop in on Quendi worlds, catching the empire by surprise. - Soro attacks Archmage, citing a lack of breathing room. The OGAM alliance, or what is left of it, begins to arm against Soro. Wrathe, however, uses her influence over Soro to keep diplomatic negotiations open for some turns to come. Turn 20: - Goofball captures the Betazoid capital!!! - Orchid and Wrathe clean up Quendi in no time, and Orchid throws the megaforce at Snow Dogs, whom Wrathe has also been fighting. A third empire, UttoK'arra, is n the picture. Utt has been in a bloody jihad against Snow Dogs from time immortal. Utt makes it clear that so long as Snow Dogs die, anything Wrathe and Orchid do is fine with them. Orchid applauds UttoK'arra's pure driven hatred of a fellow race. Bravo! Turn 21: - Goofball starts building an anti-Meek defense and/or offense fleet. - Soro and Archmage continue to battle. - Snow Dogs, although a generally nice guy, gets obliterated by Wrathe and Orchid. <but not totally wiped-out > Turn 22: - The Mule begins to transfer ownership of remaining worlds to Orchid and allies as the Harry battles heat up. - Quendi, Stahl and Orchid begin to collide over scattered worlds where Quendi and Snow Dogs' demise have left some territorial voids. Stahl, through his alligence to Wrathe, is somewhat reasonable about sharing the wealth. Quendi only hears beams. - A Snow Dog 3/11 two sectors away from Snow Dogs' capital falls to Orchid, and is made Orchid's capital. - The Snow Dog capital, under heavy attack by UttoK'arra, becomes the intended target for Orchid's next expansion - his fourth capital. - The battle between the big two alliances is coming, and both know it. The race is on to gobble up any smaller empires as soon as possible. Unknown to the Harry-Chin-Dip (HDC) alliance, the OGAM alliance is in strategic chaos. Unknown to the OGAM alliance, the HCD alliance is suffering from an unreliable Chinthliss, who after receiving large RU donations from Harry and Dip, skips a couple turns and has lots and lots of Dreadnaughts. Turn 22: - The Snow Dog capital, now under attack by Orchid, Quendi, UttoK'arra, Snow Dogs, and who knows who else, becomes a maelstrom of beams and debris. The battle continues. - The 3/10 near the Snow Dogs capital churns out dreadnaughts to add to the frey, then turns its production centers towards an attack against the HDC alliance; specifically, against Dipstick to the southeast. Turn 23: - Orchid's defensive forces in the north are growing ever larger, while the OGAM alliance's gifts of RUs and tactics to Mule helps to keep the few remaining Mule worlds (including two Tech 4's) <the largest planets> out of Harry or Meek hands. - The Snow Dog capital falls, and Orchid makes it his capital. The anti-Dipstick force is under construction, but the strategy underlaying the campaign is complicated by continuing communication problems between Orchid and Wrathe. Turn 24: - Goofball launches a huge attack force against the Meek, and it looks good! - Orchid moves his capital back to the North to bolster the defense of Goofball and Mule. - The UttoK'arra worlds come under attack by Dipstick, and Wrathe comes to Utt's aid with firepower while Orchid aids with a hidden wing defense. Turn 25: - The production centers of Orchid are shifted to an all out defense of the Mule territory, and an attack force to use in preparation for a Goofball assault on The Meek. In case that assault should fail, Orchid will be ready to stop any Meek counterattack. - Those silly dreadnaughts auto-built by Orchid so many turns ago are still flying around shooting up people. Not bad for overgunned barges! - Goofball misses orders, and his attack force is annihilated. Goofball realizes his end is near, and coordinates with Orchid to set up a defense ASAP. Orchid was prepared, and moves on it. <Stormin' Norman eat your heart out :-> Turn 26: - Orchid begins the task of throwing hidden wings into the Mule's two capitals to deny Meek and Harry from taking ownership. It is a strategy that works far better than Orchid realizes (according to Harry and Meek later). - The Mule is essentially eliminated. - Dipstick attacks Orchid's southern capital before Orchid had even deserved it. - A huge anti-Dipstick force is collected within striking range. Turn 28: - Orchid moves a large force far to the southwest to continue a drive on Dipstick territory. Unknown to Orchid or anyone else, this force will result in the defeat of the Harry-Dipstick-Chin-Meek alliance, which is at this time really only Harry-Meek. - The Meek and Harry are pouring into Goofball worlds, as is Orchid. The fighting is fierce, although Orchid tries to avoid antagonizing the Meek over Harry. The Meek makes talk of peace, but overtures of war. - The Dipstick attacking force is tossed aside like a dirty pair of underwear. <was this really neccessary?> Turn 29: - Orchid throws in the firepower against Meek throughout the Goofball territory, while convincing Meek that Orchid is attacking Goofball at the same time. Harry, having moved in to help the Meek, becomes a target as well. - Orchid takes out the Dipstick capital, Orhcid's fifth 4/12. Losses are very slight. With the excess ships, Orchid decides to drive to the south, where Dipstick territory meets Harry's. - Harry attacks Orchid throughout Orchid's western territory. Turn 30: - Orchid thrusts a fast attack force deep into Meek territory after observing that the Meek has left a 3/10 adjacent to his capital with only wings present. Orchid suspects that the Meek will build a Transport there instead of move in a loaded one, and hence the ship will be caught empty. - The Harry forces attacking Orchid fight valiantly, but are overwhelmed by Harry's inability to blockade the Tech 3's involved. Wings are churned out while Transports with SW's (over 100 of them) swarm about. - Although an effective guess at a wing number resulted in the loss of one of the Tech 4's formerly owned by Mule, the other is still tied up. Both Meek and Harry seem irritated. ;-) Turn 31: - The Meek 3/10 is caught by surprise, for the only ship with racks present had been built the previous turn. Orchid is assured the capture so long as no stupid mistakes are made. The loss of the tech 3 so close to the original Meek 4/12 looks very bad for Meek. - Orchid throws a sizable force into Harry's northern most capital to distract Harry from throwing everything into Orchid territory. A two front war for Harry is pending. - Despite a long history of little trust, Soro and Orchid are able to pledge allegence to one another, thanks mostly to Wrathe's persistent negotiating. Suddenly, a new force, the Soro-Orchid- Wrathe (SOW) alliance, is born. The loyal forces of Archmage and Goofball, to their credit, maintain the battles against the H-M threat. A victory for the SOW alliance is a victory for OGAM as well, Orchid says. And he (and Wrathe and Soro) meant it. Turn 32: - Orchid makes stupid mistakes, and the Meek 3/10 is not taken. Orchid vows to never again forget that PWs <patrol wings> require 11 beams to be killed, not 10! Turn 33: - The Harry capital falls to Orchid. In addition, 6 Orchid Light Cruisers and a dozen or so Transports show up to insure that builds will not be hampered. So deep into the Harry territory, the prospect of over 20 Battleships being launched is the final straw that the game is nearly over. - Orchid, on behalf of SOW, asks for the surrender of Harry's and Meek's forces. The Meek, although still strong, is completely surrounded. Harry, although still rich in resources, is ship poor. Both players concede the game, and the remaining empires are asked to do likewise. - Orchid, Wrathe, Soro, Harry and Meek all agree that every player that had survived to this point was worthy of respect, and in a later game, we intend to ask God to allow alliances of 12 players to win the game. Maybe. <no chance, only 1 winner games from now on> ======================================= The History of The Meek The Meek from the start were pledged to fight arrogance in all its forms and to make the galaxy safe for abject grovelling and timorous cowering. The being chosen to implement this policy was, of course, Arch Sycophant Star Admiral Lo-Wly AG MPE KCMG who, as revealed in my final public broadcast, actually turned out to be none other than The Master (apologies for non-Dr Who cognoscenti who missed this reference). I started with probably the best position around - 3 tech 3 worlds next to my home world, a really weak first adversary (Spork) who had about 24 RUs max and my nearest neighbour (Warsong) inactive from the start. This gave me about 70 RUs virtually unchallenged after the first few turns. I made friendly contact with Goofball, Harry and SoTsuMe - imagine the platitudinous Meekspeak epistles for yourself - and laid plans to destroy Spork. Due to incompetence I let Spork survive 2 or 3 turns longer than he should have and lost about as many RUs of ships as he did. Just when SoTsuMe and I were cementing a great alliance which would have won the game he went inactive. So I reluctantly had to finish off Bluewizz and backstab Spectre all on my own. And even more reluctantly pick up a few of SoTsuMe's stray planets. Around this time I first heard from Stahl warning me of the HCD alliance. While I maintained friendly relations with Harry I was paranoid about this grouping which meant that in my later cooperation with Harry I was always hampered by an unspoken fear that I featured fairly high on his hit list. Also about this time (turns 15 to 20??) when I'd been number 1 for most of the game and was casting about for fresh victims a couple of things happened. Firstly I promised Mule to help him against Harry; then I promised Harry to help him against Mule; and then Soro contacted me claiming a "cameraderie" of independent unallied empires. Which was how I learned of what has been variously called the AGOM/GOAM/OGAM etc alliance. Oh dear, I was surrounded. In the end, when Mule attacked Soro I decided to help Soro and joined Harry's attack on Mule. In retrospect this was the turning point. I had been surreptitiously moving ships onto Stahl's planets as he'd talked about quitting the game and gifting everything to me. In the end when Dipstick and Chinthliss attacked he decided to fight on and I pulled back - I think if I'd gone for Chinthliss around here things *may* have turned out differently. Instead I was sucked into my Meek role and dithered interminably. I almost forgot the shock re-emergence of Warsong. Having been inactive for the entire game he suddenly moved all his ships out to attack nearby planets which meant that his homeworld was a sitting duck. This must have been his intention as this was the only turn he made - damn autofire meant I lost a planet to him temporarily but I chuckled to see Harry fell into the same trap. By chance I had been preparing a small fleet to try to take out Warsong anyway so I gobbled up what was to be my fourth (and last) Tech 4 world. From here on it was pretty much downhill. Goofball's attack seemed inevitable but when it came was poorly directed and I was confident of surviving. Only problem was surviving wasn't enough - I needed to keep growing and couldn't, the winning alliance was formed and it was all over. Also I knew I was going to miss a turn at Christmas. The Space God intervened to submit some orders for me but my counterattack against Goofball was delayed a couple of turns because I knew the order gap was coming. Due to dithering - and the long Christmas break - I'd missed joining Wrathe, Soro and Orchid and my fate was sealed. Archmage's View of the SE6 -------------------------- Good beginning, made non-aggression pacts with all my neighbors except Knight (Soro, Orchid, The Mule, Cardinals, Quendi, Snow Dogs) and had a quick shootout with Knight. Beat him with Soro's help. Learned quite a bit in this fight. Allied with Soro and soon-to-be Mule-Orchid-Goofball-Archmage alliance. About turn 10 (?) Orchid killed Cardinals, I helped on the sidelines. Orchid had had a very good beginning, he had taken out Betazoids previously and had safe borders everywhere else. GOAM had scouted almost the whole galaxy and exchanged turnsheets every turn. Around turn 13, I _had_ to expand somewhere. Target was chosen - Alsatians. With the combined forces of Soro, me and Wrathe, we would have a decisive production superiority. On the other hand, he had never fought a battle and had a good-sized empire. However, the attack was delayed because Wrathe had to handle some southern neighbor of hers. <yeah, right :> Wild Hunt had left a planet of his ungarrisoned, so I attacked him. After a short fight, I and Soro beat him almost to the death. Then, Soro missed a turn. A dreadnought survived that should not have done that and I was pretty hosed. Wrathe had bought some ex-WH worlds from him, a move that I definitely did not like. Afterwards, she also took Krall - a world over which I had bled for ~300 RUs and did not even share it. This caused quite a bit of bad blood between us. Anyway, the Alsatian attack would finally start on turn 16 - or that is what I thought. On that turn, only I attacked. Wrathe claimed that she (or I, don't remember) had misunderstood the timing. <I'll bet> Could be, but she never willingly did stick her neck out anywhere where she could avoid it and _always_ drove a hard bargain. Soro, on the other hand, attacked me one turn later. Two things saved me. One, Alsatians couldn't build many reinforcements. I could count on him losing 150-200% what I lose and I got his planets pretty easily - no wing defenses anywhere. Two, GOAM helped me quite a bit with RUs, The Mule later even launched an attack of his own against Soro. This was his downfall, though - he had attacked Harry a couple of turns earlier and could not hold both drives. He missed a couple of turns and made some elementary mistakes because of lack of time (finals) which did not help any. After I had lost about 25 RUs of my turnly production, Wrathe did succeed in negotiating a peace between GOAM and Soro. This required some fast apologizing from my part: I had thought that her 'mistaken timing' and Soro's attack were parts of a plan against me, but they (most probably) were two separate things. <damn she's good> After that, I was too weak to do _anything_ for a while. Around me Wrathe grew like crazy, her fence-sitting tactics ("Aww. You're losing pretty badly. I'll take the defense of a couple of your worlds and give you the RUs as long as you are a viable force." All this while cheering the other side on.) did work very well. Have to try them in the next game... Orchid / Wrathe took out Quendi and Snow Dogs, Soro finished sHADOWhAWK. Mule died, bequathing some of his planets to Orchid, losing most to Harry / The Meek. Goofball started his assault on The Meek. It was going pretty well, until he missed a turn (after Christmas break). He was no longer an effective force. The serious players at this point were - Wrathe. Biggest and best-connected. In my impression average tactician, very good politician. With all the connotations. - Orchid. Very good tactician and an all-around decent guy. Trustworthy. <I'll refrain from comment :> - Soro. Very good tactician. Did manage to hit *damned* many of my wing through a lot of hard work. Did backstab me, but otherwise ok guy. We didn't speak much after turn 10... - Harry. Had swallowed most of Dipstick and Chinthliss to become a huge empire. - The Meek. The longtime leader who had been bled with the fight against Goofball. Didn't meet in fight or in negotiations. Then there were a bunch of weenies, I biggest of them (>100 RUs, I think). I believe that I was pretty good tactician, but lacked the ruthlessness in the politics. I dislike backstabs and scavenging on the other guy's kill, for example... I started to bother Harry a bit and did pretty well - he too lost about 150% of my losses. Carriers rule! :-) After that he quit. Game over, insert coin. =================================== The History of Quendi I kept quiet in the beginning. On turn 10 I took 1 Borg planet. On turn 14 I attacked Stahl since he and my ally Snow Dogs were at war. It just happened that they made a ceasefire for the turn I landed on couple of Stahl worlds, and claiming accidental arrival, I managed to get a surprise attack, and Snow Dogs joined the frey. Unfortunately due to Snow Dogs' other enemy, UttoK'arra, he had to revert to defensive against Stahl, and since my homeworld was faraway, reinforcements were kinda slow. Suddenly on turn 18 Wrathe landed on most of my worlds, and since I knew she was pretty powerful, I thought the end was near. However, after one turn of fighting I was convinced that attack by Orchid was underway. Therefor I made a deal with Wrathe that allowed me to move my ships away, and she even paid for those ships I couldn't move + some extra for her ships that I DIDn't destroy. She also convinced Stahl to make peace with me. This left me with a 3/11 world. Then Orchid attacked Snow Dogs and demolished him. He also examined my last world, but I guess he needed his ships elsewhere as no full attack ever came. After this I wandered aimlessly with couple of battleships and few other ships, looking for prey, but then the armageddon arrived... ======================= The History of Harry I began with a bad scan: only two level 1 planets, so I have built Escorts <smalled warp-capable combat ships> to expand as quickly as I could. In the first few turns, I encountered Chinthliss and Dipstick, so we started an alliance. I also encountered Spork (and settled some conflicts peacefully) and The Meek. While The Meek was fighting Spork, I took (with permission) one of the planets of Spork. In the meantime, I expanded rapidly, until I was in first place (Round 7 & 8). I was lucky to start near a dormant player. I attacked Archer (together with Dipstick), and was able to defeat him. I gave some planets to Dipstick, as promised, and received RUs for the lost ships in return. Then I attacked Spectre, but that dormant guy came to life for two turns, and I had to fight at two fronts. Luckily, The Meek helped me, so I was able to survive. When continuing to attack Spectre, I missed some turns (mail problems, and working close to the deadline). The Mule attacked me, and I needed all the help I needed. In the meantime, I had talked to Soro (whom I knew from Game 4, but we didn't know each others name before turn 10 or so) <game is played anonymously>, and he asked for help against The Mule, just in case it would be necessarily. The Mule was stupid enough to attack both me and Soro (while Soro was fighting Archmage), so The Meek (happy to find a place to expand), I and Soro coordinated our actions, and we were able to stop the attack on Soro just in time: One more turn and he would have lost many planets. While we tried to clean up The Mule's mess, Goofball attacked The Meek as a last deed, so I needed to take the last planets myself. Then Orchid jumped into it, and kept sending ships to The Mule's planets to prevent me from taking them. Due to some misunderstanding between The Meek and I (I had talked with Orchid about peace, The Meek fired, so I thought the peace was cancelled and fired too. :-( I should never have done so) I was forced to attack Orchid, hoping to stop the reinforcements. Then Dipstick lost internet access, and gave his RUs and planets to Chinthliss and me. Some turns later, Chinthliss told me he had lost interest, and I could take his planets also. This gave me a big boost to second place, but forced me to fight on two or three fronts against: Orchid, Stahl, Goofball, The Mule and sometimes against Wrathe. I was able to manage it, when Soro joined them, and I was forced to resign. The last turn, I managed to take planets, even while I was under heavy attack. ================================== HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE AS RECORDED IN THE ANNALS OF THE MULE (Reader's Digest version; ed. Mule M. Mule, t. 35) The Mule awakens in his imperial suite one day staring at a huge stone obilisk planted squarely at the foot of his royal bed. Feeling like a monkey out of a Stanley Kubrick film, he finds that it has no taste nor color. As he is about to have his servants cart the damned thing out (if possible), a voice speaks to him from the obilisk... "THIS IS THE VOICE OF GOD. YOU AND SEVERAL OTHER CIVILIZATIONS LIKE YOU HAVE BORED ME FOR SEVERAL MILLINIA. MY OMNIPATIENCE HAS RUN OUT. THEREFORE, I AM CHANGING THE LAWS OF PHYSICS SO THAT YOU CAN ENCOUNTER THESE OTHER CIVILIZATIONS, EXCHANGE YOUR DIPLOMATIC ENTREATIES, AND EVENTUALLY COEXIST IN A PEACEFUL UNIVERSE OF LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING." The Mule responds, "Last race alive wins, right?" "AS USUAL." At this time, the red phone rings next to the imperial bed, and the Secretary of Energy reports that several experiments at the particle acellerators on the planet indicate an unexplained change in the laws of physics. The secret to warp drive will soon be unlocked. Why, they may even be able to build PROBES! A smile grew on the Mule's face, and he thought to himself ... "What am I going to do during finals week?" ----------------------------------------- As the first few turns unfold, The Mule finds himself in an advantageous position. He takes two type 2 planets immediately, and establishes communications with Goofball to the East, and Salvoria to the West. Planet grabbing begins, which results in a sizeable population of type 1 and 2 planets by turn 3. Goofball becomes a fast ally (too far away to attack). Salvoria, with whom interests overlap, gains a type 3 planet near the Mule, while The Mule's escorts grab virtually all of the smaller planets between the two empires' capitals. As the planet grabbing comes to a close, The Mule establishes communications with Orchid, Archmage, and Soro. Soro, who has grievances with his Salvorian border settlements, proposes a joint attack. The Mule has deep space on all sides of empire, and is forced into attacking Salvoria with Soro taking the undefended rear. During this battle, which resulted in excellent ties with (the greedy) Soro, The Mule finds that he is astrally linked to the aforementioned Orchid. (Metaphysicists would say that they lived near eachother in Earth space, and sealed an alliance while surfing. The Mule hopes that Orchid is as good a strategist as he is a surfer. Orchid hopes that The Mule strategizes better than he surfs. They both know that the Borg can't strategize OR surf. :-) Soon after Salvoria returns to the void, the fledgling Goofball-Orchid-Archmage-Mule alliance is established. Soro is excluded due to overcrowding. Still drunk from the grapes of victory, The Mule looks elsewhere, and finds noone to attack. Fate has treated Soro well, and he would prove to be a difficult enemy. The Mule is reluctant to backstab an ally; and Archmage would be unavailable to assist in an attack. The Mule careens into midterms space, and allows the game to go stagnant. What is left of his conscious efforts, he directs against the dying Spectre, but finds that Harry has conquered Spectre the turn before. In a move that verifies Orchid's intuitions about surfing/strategizing correlations, The Mule attacks Harry because: "He was there." Simultaneously, Soro attacks Archmage, and the following turn, The Mule retreats from Harry and attacks Soro. Soro retreats from Archmage, and The Mule retreats from Soro, just in time to (not) defend against Harry's richly subsidized counter-attack. <Meanwhile, Erica rushes to the hospital to find Damon in the arms of her sister Blanche, who is secretly having an affair with her step-father and his...> The Mule carreens into finals space, and allows the game to go stagnant. He awakens, ruling a dying empire being attacked by both Harry and The Meek. His last feeble efforts only slow the inevitable. The Mule bequeathes his southern territories to Orchid. Only his capital remains, which is battled for by Orchid and Harry... --------------------------- The Mule awakens in the pilot's seat of his Imperial Scoutship, "ENEMY SHIP" Intending to find the news of his last attempt to break the seige about Tanstaffl, he notices that his radar was blipping - rather glowing - with the signals of hundreds of ships. So this is Armegeddon; God is finally having his fun. -- \_____ \__ \__ \__ | Roger H. Lincoln | The activity of | \__ \__ \__ \__ \__ | MITRE Corp. | "debugging" ends when | \_____ \______ \__ | Bedford, MA | people get tired of | \__ \__ \__ \__ \_____ | C3I Division | doing it, not when the | \__ \__ \__ \__ \_____ | Mission Planning Sys | bugs are removed. | Up