Re: Are you tough enough to be the "King of the Hill"?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yea, you just need a high tolerance for getting spanked more times than not... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Are you tough enough to be the "King of the Hill"?
 

Almost every KOTH game I've played has been decided by weight of numbers, not racial attack/defense. In the games with a big racial difference it didn't matter because one side or the other had an absolutely obscene ship advantage.

Re: Are you tough enough to be the "King of the Hill"?
 

Phoenix-D: When you talk about "absolutely obscene ship advantage", do you say that one side had lot more ships than the other?

IMHO the technology and number of ships are very important, but are not the only.

For example, I was in a battle when my opponent had ships with PPB IV, a large number of ships (100 BC), best shields and engines but similar Sensor and ECM than me.
In the other side, I had 20 LC ships with DUC. Well, my fleet did a carnage without loses...
Why? My ships had Stealth Armor III, Scattered Armor III, 20% trained fleet, 20% trained ships (most of them), Berzerker as culture, Aggressivenes 20% and Defensiveness 20%.
In the other side, my opponent had Aggressivenes "Weak" and Defensiveness "Pathetic", his culture was "Scientists" and his ships had not training.

The trick was that his 100 ships where unable to hit my ships, simple like that.

Then, I think that if your ships can't hit your enemy ships, then, you're in problems and probably you did a bad *.emp file...
Sure, you could try with fighters, seekers, boarding ships, train fleets and ships and still keep a fight... but you will be forced to play with a big disadvantage during all the game.

Re: Are you tough enough to be the "King of the Hill"?
 

MB, by that I meant that the advantage in ships one side had was very high.

If things stack too much then yes, you're screwed. But look at the numbers- your .emp can provide a maxium of 35% (assuming you don't lower anything, whicb I agree is almost suicidal).

On the other hand, the defense on your ships can get as high as 160%, offense 105%. Training all by itself provides more benifit than your racial setup can do.

That 35% can hurt bad, but I'm not convinced points spent elsewhere couldn't compensate. More in research to get training faster, for example.

Re: Are you tough enough to be the "King of the Hill"?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">IMO, it depends on how much time pressure you are under. You can counter the KOTH Clone given time, but your opponent starts with the advantage immediately. The median game length in KOTH is 62 turns. You would have to be smoking on research to meet that deadline and get the tech into production ships in useful numbers.

Re: Are you tough enough to be the "King of the Hill"?
 

I've never used the "clone". Sometimes, I have been close to it but I'd have to say my average bonus in my KOTH games would be around 29-30%.

And, I do OK in KOTH (no steamroller mind you...but OK).

Re: Are you tough enough to be the "King of the Hill"?
 

I admit I don't usually go to the full +35 or even +30, as I am partial to the Merchant culture. It may be a very bad idea, but I do prefer 120 maintenance (that is, a mere 5% upkeep) to a +10 to both offence and defence. Perhaps I should change my mind... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif (Mind you, the almost nil upkeep is very nice, especially when under pressure or to take a small technological lead, but is it worth it? I wonder)

Not much is going on in our KOTH game, the Frontier is under control and there are still a few colonies here and there in enemy territory. (There are four systems in which both of us have colonies, and a few systems without any planets that are disputed.) There have been a few skirmishes involving some fighters and the EEEvil ships, but nothing on the grand scale.

However, an enemy fleet has been sighted in the southern systems and is threatening the League outer worlds. Likewise, one can assume the League has not been building civilian freighters in the mean time to do peaceful trading with the EEE, and so we can expect some battles in the next months. I believe we will have some surprises then, as we do not know what we have been doing with our research since there has been no true engagement between warships yet.

Even communications are almost silent, with a few taunts coming from the EEEvil EEEmpire from time to time, and a swift response from the Arcadia League. I reckon our war councils are too busy to prepare the upcoming battles to bother with communications and petty threats. Or they are bettering their insane ways, your choice.

So far, it has been a very enjoyable game and my best to date along with my match with Slynky. (The one where both players thought they were losing. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) And this time, as my warships do not have a basic strategy of "Don't get hurt", I do hope to stand a chance, however slight it is, or else I will have to resolve to my adventurous ways once more. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Are you tough enough to be the "King of the Hill"?
 

My game with Dav has been on hold for awhile now. I don't know why it has been like this but I'm still waiting on his turns to be submitted. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif
But from what I remember of it I was winning and holding the majority of the galaxy.

Re: Are you tough enough to be the "King of the Hill"?
 

I'm back now and it's time to start wading through Messages I had waiting in my inbox. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Are you tough enough to be the "King of the Hill"?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I prefer merchant to bezerker too. Though I don't raise my maint reduction all the way to 115. Seems like the minerals advantage should even out the -12 to ship combat...