[Katchoo]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
K.O.T.H. Katchoo vs Phoenix-D, 2406.4; Katchoo surrenders.

This was on one of the Tesco maps, with lots of Rock None medium moons. Fortunately neither of us took that type. The map also had warp points..lots and lots of warp points. The resulting geometry scared the crap out of me early game, because it made defense difficult.

So I went for speed and dropped a lot of weapons platforms along the way. In the end I think that's what made the difference- I captured more systems faster; Katchoo filled his systems up, I concentrated on getting as MANY systems with 1 or more colonies as I could. It helps when in the end-game your ships are speed 9 (JP + prop. experts) while your opponents are speed 6 (ion engines)..

Well, my bubble certainly burst once my Fleet of 14 Frigates & Escorts got slapped aside by Phoenix's Weapons Platforms. Watching those Ships fall as every single shot from the WPs struck (none missed that I could tell) was like a hot knife slowly digging into my heart.

I've tried Phoenix's strategy of placing 1 Colony in as many Systems as possible in a previous game with MasterBelisarius; and fell flat on my face in that game. So in this matchup with Phoenix I secured as many Colonies in a System that I could before moving outward. The strategy seemed to work as my Resource & Research Points grew steadily, and I didn't encounter the early resource shortages I did against MB.

He also listened to Fyron a little too much. Didn't deploy a single weapon platform. the result was my fleets running unchecked except by his fleets, while several of his fleets were bLasted apart by my platforms.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I deployed WPs soon enough against MB either. I made building ship hulls the priority over other defenses, so that when the time came to attack Phoenix, i'd have number superiority.

Unfortunately Phoenix didn't conduct his Research in the path I expected him too. Right from the outset I pumped all my research into Sheilds; reason being that I wanted to negate any advatage Phoenix could get if he researched PPBs. Once I reached level 5 Shields, I stopped to start researching Combat Support & Sensors, along with Hulls & APBs inbetween (having seen that Phoenix had Destroyers & level 5 DUCs). Although I had plenty of Frigate Hulls ready for retrofitting, I didn't have enough minerals to upgrade all of them. Thus by the time Phoenix started to pick off my Planets, I could only upgrade 4-6 Ships per turn. Add in the problem that my Ships couldn't intercept his Ships in any reasonable amount of time, and quite soon I was in trouble. Planets started rioting and my resource base went to hell (along with all of my research). My Frigates couldn't matchup 1on1 with his Destroyers, so I had to pool my Ships together, which meant that I couldn't intercept all of his Ships which were all over the place.

Needless to say, the bird pecked me but good.

Oh, and in the final couple of turns he started assaulting me with Intel Projects.

Phoenix, congratulations again on thumping me but good. Don't fall back down to the bottom of the ladder anytime soon please.

PS, Fyron's name shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as my mess. There's only enough tar a feathers for me, and me alone.