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[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 .

[geoschmo]

Actually you killed 60 ships in the south, and you're still in second place. But not for long.

As far as the map, actually it's alomst exactly down the middle. My side looks bigger, but the systems are more spread out. In actuality I only have two more system then you do. Of course until we both see both sides it's difficult to say who has more planets available. I expect that will be close though.

It really does come down to the Talisman. You say you are afraid to try the warp points. And likely your fleets would have been banged up pretty bad if you tried them. But even if all your ships were destroyed my fleet woull have been too damaged to take advantage of the victory. On teh other hand your southern fleet obliterated 60 of my top ships and only got a few paint scratches to show for it. Actually my small sattelite group did more damage to your fleet when they came through then my 60 ships did 2 turns before. And even then I only damaged one ship. Now yoru fleet of 30 is free in my southern space.

My 51 ships in Dertran are hardly wandering. There is only one planet there I can get to. I can see that both warp points out of that system are well defended by your ships and sattelites. Or had you forgot about my stealth ships for a third time.

The only way I can win this is if my remaining stealth ships can do enough damage to you to collapse your ecoonmy before you can stop them. I seriously doubt that is possible. They have only managed to take out about 15 planets thus far. At best I may have managed to cause you to pause some of your build queues. And only temporarily I am sure.

[Fyron]

Well, at least you finally realize that the Talisman is not balanced.

[geoschmo]

Slynky, don't spend an hour doing this turn. I surender.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Well, at least you finally realize that the Talisman is not balanced.

I have never denied it's powerful. And in a multiplayer game it is still possible to team up on a single religious player. But it's just too strong for one on one play. It does too good a job of compensating for deficencies in other areas. The Talisman player can play a so so game and unless the other player is playing their "A" game they will still win, and sometimes even then. I guess I have just never had an experience like this where I faced a player had such high skills in other areas as well as having the Talisman.

[Slynky]

Originally posted by geoschmo:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Well, at least you finally realize that the Talisman is not balanced.

I have never denied it's powerful. And in a multiplayer game it is still possible to team up on a single religious player. But it's just too strong for one on one play. It does too good a job of compensating for deficencies in other areas. The Talisman player can play a so so game and unless the other player is playing their "A" game they will still win, and sometimes even then. I guess I have just never had an experience like this where I faced a player had such high skills in other areas as well as having the Talisman.

---

Long message coming...(OK, so everyone else will be bored to death, but what the heck )

PS: While I'm typing, my PW is 3939. Take a look at a turn back.

[ October 04, 2003, 22:44: Message edited by: Slynky ]