How good are you? Find out...

[Alneyan]

I didn't use many fighters because they were expensive to build in the early game (every mineral counts when your storage of minerals is only a three-figures number, usually 120 or so), and later on I was eventually replacing my old Carriers by Dreadnoughts. But still, I had fighters during the Battle, although I believe they weren't launched during the fight and I didn't launch them manually before.

Still, I should have built more fighters instead of weak Carriers here and there. Even if fighters are rather slow compared to the rest of my fleet. (Only a speed of 7 for a common design with 2 DUC, while even baseships were travelling at a speed of 9. And baseships aren't what you would call the fastest hull available) They weren't many PDC around, a dream for fighters, especially against these planets.

And yes, there was a shortage of mineral planets in this game. The only ones really suitable were asteroid fields, (read, remote mining and/or Stellar Manipulation. Yes, I even researched Stellar Manipulation to transform these 275% huge asteroid fields into planets, hopefully breathable planets) and the occasional uncolonizable, unbreathable tiny planet here and there. Sure, a planet with 0% mineral isn't going to help much when you lack mineral.

I was even lacking radioactives, but that happens when you are building a hundred heavy mount PPB at the same time.

Edit: oh, one of your ships managed to actually destroy one of my Carriers in the skirmishes. It was a capture ship which took over a Carrier with no supplies left. Erh, well, perhaps it isn't an exploit. However, your ships were rather strong, as the final battle resulted in heavy losses on both sides.

[ October 02, 2003, 15:49: Message edited by: Alneyan ]

[geoschmo]

Geo V Slynky, turn 48

Things have stabalized along the border Slynky mentioned in his map. The southern choke point that he briefly mentioned was actually a main point of contention and he was building up for an invasion while playing it all cool like in his post here. Of course I knew this because I had snuck in stealth ships and was watching him assemble his fleet.

I sent small raids in the south and at one of the north warp points to give him something to think about and do a little damage to his collecting fleets. Wiped out both and then withdrew to lick my wounds as despite being victorious I suffered significant damage in both assaults.

A bit later he discovered my spy ships and destroyed them. At that point I decided defending two warp points in the north was not worth the couple of rinky dink planets in that system and withdrew so I could concentrate my defenses on one. I plan to keep him fairly harrased though because I don't want him to build up too comfortably in that system.

In the south his large assault came with around 30 light cruisers and cruisers attacking in force. All were captured or destroyed. The defenders are holding fast and receive reinfocments all the time.

So the situation is static for the moment with us facing off accross the two warp points. If either player is able to break through in either spot I expect them to be able to do significant if not fatal damage to the other.

[ October 02, 2003, 18:08: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Slynky]

SE4 Ratings Game VII: Slynky -vs- Geoschmo

Turn 60-something.

Just a quick message to update the game ("We got trouble, right here in River City!"), looks like I've been invaded in stealth. Citizens are crying for help ("Awwww, to heck with them, let's go invade the enemy turf instead!").

GEO: I sent you an email explaining I would get a turn in later (due to chores I promised I'd do) and didn't want you to think I was one of those players who start losing a game and then losing interest in it. As usual, I sent you an email but it was rejected (like about half of them that I send to you):

Failed to deliver to 'dayton_dragons@yahoo.com'
SMTP module(domain yahoo.com) reports:
connection with mx1.mail.yahoo.com is broken

[geoschmo]

No problem Slynk. You've been doing 4 to 6 turns per day, I can't complain about that. If you need to contact me try a Shrapnel PM. That should get to me ok. Not sure why you are having so much trouble emailing though.

As far as the game goes, it's about over anyway. My stealth ships are a nuisance at best. Perhaps if I had had another 20 turns to assemble a proper sneak attack I could have done some real damage. But I saw your ship opening warp points and and knew my days were numbered so I threw everything at you I could.

The real difference in this game is the Talisman. I have always been of the opinion that the Talisman is not unbalancing, but I think I am convinced now. At least for two player games anyway. I still think you can gang up on a religious player in a multiplayer game, but in a two man game the talisman just makes up for too many dificencies otherwise. Case in point that warp point battle in the south. I had you outnumbered better then two to one and equal tech otherwise and most of my ships were trained. And I think I only managed to lightly damage one ship. I figured I would get hurt there but counted on damaging you in return. Losing my southern fleet and not even slowing down your ships is a blow I cannot recover from.

I will continue the game until I see how bad my stealth ships can hurt you, but the game will be over soon.

[Slynky]

SE4 Ratings Game VII: Slynky -vs- Geoschmo

Turn 60-something.

I wonder if you're baiting me with the "things look bad" comments. Or perhaps you mean it. I dunno. I know one thing...the Last turn took me an hour! The next will take a while. I figure I'll have to scramble hard to bring this one home, I don't know about you. Actually, you've outplayed me on this one. (don't worry, I'll complain about my starting position later... )

[geoschmo]

I don't know that I have outplayed you. I can say quite honestly I don't know how I could have played a better game myself. My starting spot was decent, but not great. My economy has been clicking well and I have been producing mass numbers of ships and research. Maybe if I had waited in the south for your ships to attack I could have done some damage and I might still have a chance in this one. Or if we had been close enough that I could have attacked you before you got the talisman. But as fast as you expand that would have been quite difficult.

The no mines has been interesting. Of course it has helped me in that it made my stealth attacks possible. But it's also helped you in that it's tied up most of my forces defending the warp points instead of allowign me to press you a little harder.

I wouldn't mind a rematch onces this one is over. But no talisman and no Stellar manipulation.

[Slynky]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
I don't know that I have outplayed you. I can say quite honestly I don't know how I could have played a better game myself. My starting spot was decent, but not great. My economy has been clicking well and I have been producing mass numbers of ships and research. Maybe if I had waited in the south for your ships to attack I could have done some damage and I might still have a chance in this one. Or if we had been close enough that I could have attacked you before you got the talisman. But as fast as you expand that would have been quite difficult.

The no mines has been interesting. Of course it has helped me in that it made my stealth attacks possible. But it's also helped you in that it's tied up most of my forces defending the warp points instead of allowign me to press you a little harder.

I wouldn't mind a rematch onces this one is over. But no talisman and no Stellar manipulation.

The way I figure it, in the south, we both had so many ships neither of us could have pulled off a good victory letting the other have first fire. And certainly worse for you with the sats I had there. I would have stayed and used the hole opener to go around you; I never would have attacked there like I did before.

Outplayed me? Sure you did. I failed to remember the mining absence and you took advantage of it...not once but twice. You also took advantage of ship capture (I won't tell everyone how). So, though I have the Talisman, I'm afraid to confront you at warpholes (and I'm "holed up" so to speak ).

And there's the matter of your 51 ships wandering around .

I got Ice tech to go with my Rock tech and failed to look around before doing so at how sorry the minerals were on them .

You control the bigger half of the map.

And I see you have some BCs running around now, too. With 150 ships, I'm still in second place. I was in second place even after killing 30+ ships of yours in the south. That's scary .