Homecoming Game on PBW: Debrief

[1FSTCAT]

I'd like to make another suggestion:

I think if we do a Homecoming 2, we should make the galaxy larger, and the player requirement larger.

The element of exploration was intense, as was the search for the partner. I can imagine that will only increase as the size of the universe and the amount of potential partners increase.

We should definitely look for players that will be there from beginning to end. Maybe we can get references, or players should be recommended by players of this game?

--Ed

[Stone Mill]

Excellent comments!

The most awesome part of this game is trying to hook up with your partner (who is unknown to you until you find them), while trying to keep other partners from meeting each other! So much political posturing early on, deciding whether to allow passage, share comm channels, etc... Let's just say that we tried to inhibit the other partners from finding each other for as long as possible.

Per Sparhawk:
Early in the game everyone was just friendly to each other, untill I had contact with whatsit (stonemill). He was really starting to play hard game just from the beginning (I like that! )

FYI: Whatsit was Dinglehopper... I was Mercator. He did a lot of fighting in the west from the beginning, especially against Gandalph (the Corrians). When we discovered they were partners with the Angora Fish, Dinglehopper made it his mission to try and contain them.

Per 1FSTCAT:
I didn't find my partner (Iron chicken) until about this point. He was in a fairly bad position, fighting with the Whatsits AND the Mercator.

When I found out the Ironchickens were partnered with the Poo, I made it my mission to contain them. The Poo were giving me hell, and I could not afford them to get help. As soon as the Poo established a partnership with the IronChickens, I unfortunately had to roll through them. I really feel bad about that, because the Ironchickens were very likable and on good terms. But they were totally unprepared for war, and I snatched 3 systems from them before running out of gas. These systems proved valuable, as they were taken mostly in-tact via troop invasions.

As for the Poo- what can I say? He did some very crafty things. Excellent player. Of note: use of cloaking drove me nuts. Sniped colony ships and targets of opportunity behind the lines, eventually slipped through my tight defenses and found his partner. He matched me like a chess game, forcing me to fight an early war (which I hate!) so I had to come up with strats I had never attempted before. We mostly battled in a critical system which we both knew was a gateway at the center of the map. I had to pull out a combination of mines, Weapons platforms, and fighters to keep him from knocking out my planets (and he knew very well how to counter all of these). My early invasion fleets were obliterated when trying to pry into his systems. My partner Dinglehopper did not know how to protect his planets that well, and Poo absolutely ravaged several systems and caused paralyzing riots. I did arrive in time to secure his systems and secure our homeworld.

Dinglehopper played really well, although he lost email access early in the game (along with a few turns), which hurt planning and coordination. However, We were the first partnership in the game, which proved quite impactful. We shared tech immediately, and his acquisition of Fighters, Space Yards, and Warp tech helped save my position and got us opening hiddens systems before anyone else. He found our homeworld, held his position fairly well in the middle, and did a great job of waging a long war against the Corrians.

Angora Fish (Debate) were Organic. He expanded a massive empire and kept me out of the East. Very good player as well, although, he admitted this was his first time using Organics. His empire development was superb! However, his flaw was relying solely on Organic weaponry (which is quite limited) and experimenting on some ship designs that didn't really work. This resulted in several landslide battles. At the point when he attacked me, I was REALLY worried! His forces must have had a 4-1 advantage. I had to do some really hard work to limit damage until my better warships came on-line.

Wshew! that's all for now...

[sparhawk]

Yes, sorry Stone Mill: whatsit was offcourse Dinglehopper.

And for my placement: It was ok, but I took the wrong attitue: I was to friendly in the beginning.
And had to pay that price to 1fstcat (east), Dinglehopper (south-east) and Hiruu (south).
My placement was in the north west corner, so only three directions to go to..........
And because those guys (not 1fstcat in the beginning, but he got the idea some bit later)
were playing a what more aggresive attitue (to me): I lost a large amount of undefended colonies to them.

so that was my lesson: never trust you neighbour.
Offcourse this was cleared up, when hiruu and I became partners and 1fstcat was busy with whatsit.
But still, it was too late for me to mean something.

BUT THAT WON'T HAPPEN NEXT TIME!!!!

For homecoming2 we need some real Players: because we almost had trouble when two people left this game.
Luckly there where two people leaving, so it was easy to assign two new partner (me and hiruu)
But next time we really need players, who can stick to this game and won't leave because of a bad starting position (although there were no in this game---thanks geoschmo) or some other thinks.

So anyone who wants to play or knows someone who likes to play, just email me.
Because I think the best way to do this, is by invitation only.

Thanks

Sparhawk

[ November 27, 2002, 15:45: Message edited by: sparhawk ]

[Gandalph]

This was a fun game and I look forward to a new (>1.78) Homecoming.

No fault of Geo's, but the Corrian had 3 major problems. My corner position left me with only 2 exits, one through the north where the Bugs were (sorry for forgetting, but we didn't have much contact) and one to the northeast, straight through Whatsit territory. To the north was a hostile race and to the northeast was a hostile race. I chose to block access to the north, and head into Whatsit territory.

This leads to problem 2, I was unprepared for his fighters with rocket pods. This was only my second PBW game and I had never seen this strategy and it caught me totally off guard. He ripped through my initial fleets like a hot knife through butter. I quickly redesigned my ships and built up enough to push Whatsit back out of my system at great cost. During this time, he had developed PPB's and Intel and started fighting back with both. He was stealing 2 of my ships and resources every turn. It took no time to put my race in a state of turmoil I could not overcome.

Lastly was problem 3, I took on a religious race without making proper compensation to research, and then did not bother with early sensor research figuring I am going to end up with the Talisman so I don't need the sensor. Needless to say, I had a happy populace with a weak military, and on PBW this just won't work.
Despite all this, I still held out a possibility of winning anyway. The warp points that had opened exposed my Homeworld. As a Last effort, and 1 turn before losing my final planet to Whatsit intel, I built a new warship and a new colony ship and sent them towards the Homeworld, only to have them shot down by the Whatsit 2 systems away.

I learned alot in this game and will take these lessons back to PBW, and hopefully into a new game of HOMECOMING!!

[Ruatha]

Did this game end before 100 turns was reached?
It must have been a quick game then.

[Stone Mill]

Did this game end before 100 turns was reached?
It must have been a quick game then.

Just about 100 turns... 92 I think to be more accurate. It felt like a pretty solid amount of time for a game. What keeps it moving is a very definite end result... but a lot of variables affect how you get there.

I know in many ways I also had luck on my side, and made a few good guesses. That always helps...

This kind of game could take longer with some wild scenarios... like what happens when a foreign race has already found your homeworld and they are doing their best to keep you from recovering it.

I would love to try this again. I know the heat may be on me, and I may have to be really flexible and change my play style a little bit. Sounds like more good fun. I will try to recruit a few good players that I know.

[Stone Mill]

Oh and I agree- we should really run the next one with SEIV Gold. Hope that won't be too much of a problem.

Besides, I'm sure many good players who sat out on the first game would join if HOMECOMING 2 used Gold.

If we do expand the size of the game, I would like to propose that the victory condition be clarified with the following:
When your homeworld is colonized, you must make an announcement to every player in the game, and hold it for 2 years (20 turns). This will give players a clue that they need to mobilize against you (if they can) or lose the game.