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

[Alneyan]

"The situation did not go exactly as planned". These were the Last words of the current Arcadia League's governement before the surrender. But I believe I owe you explanations. The reason for the defeat in the Jubrup system was obviously the lack of technological advances on our side. The Imperium was not courageous enough to fight without any electronical device to assist them. And our crews of glad volunteers from all our worlds were not quite as brave as we would have expeted during our ultime effort.

According to intelligence, we had a slightly more efficient economy, leading in more ships equiped with deadlier weaponry. However, this edge was negated by our lack of efficiency. Our third battlegroup had been built in emergency, relying on less than skilled crews and poor command, as the officers were designated randomly. Worse, our scientists were not on par with the Imperium. All these factors explained our disaster during the battle of Jubrup, our homeworld.

As for now, we have no choice but surrendering and hoping we will be able to negociate. Our ships are spread in all our systems and not in a position to fight. Our spies are killed or captured when they dare to try intelligence operations. We lost many a scientist when we had to abandon some of our worlds. And our main ressources will fall into the Imperium hands in no more than a few months, resulting in the collapse of our economy.

Now the proud cities of Jubrup will be no more, and all the glory of our civilization will be destroyed by the fury and the might of these barbarians. We shall remain only a footnote in the history, perhaps renowned for our tactical knowledge, but laughted at for the weakness of our technology. I wish you well, all of you, fellow citizens of Jubrup, to face up the upcoming dark age for us.

Geo, what were my mistakes except the really important problem of research? (I only had slightly more than 20,000 research points, not much) It also includes the lack of training, ECM and sensors, and poor weaponry. (Three PPB on a Light Carrier with a Heavy Mount would have helped, with proper training/devices)

[ September 24, 2003, 14:58: Message edited by: Alneyan ]

[Slynky]

As long as we are discussing training, I have a question:

When your fleet is trained, and it is set to break formation in battle, does it still retain its fleet training bonus (or does it "go away")?

[DavidG]

Originally posted by Slynky:
As long as we are discussing training, I have a question:

When your fleet is trained, and it is set to break formation in battle, does it still retain its fleet training bonus (or does it "go away")?

I'm pretty sure it still gets the fleet bonus.

[Slynky]

Though not in the actual game Geo and Alneyan just finished, I feel the need to comment.

I salute Alneyan for his bravery! He jumped into the KOTH competition and joined the Rating system even though he appears to be somewhat of an unseasoned player. That takes guts! That takes someone who likes the game, likes the competition, and wants to learn. Finally, he did it all in stride with good sportsmanship. Bravo to you, sir!

[Slynky]

Research in KOTH? For a standard 1-planet start, things are done a bit differently by the different players. For me, I use an benchmark of having my research points pretty close to my turn count by the time I get to turn 25 or 30. This is when the enemy isn't nearby. Certain aspects of each particular game my change that but as a target, when I get to turn 30, I worry if I have less than 30k research.

That's my take on research.

Some people use 3-planet starts, so, of course, what I have said doesn't hold true.

[geoschmo]

I think the lack of ECM/Sesors/training was almost all of your problem. Other than that just the misfortune of losing the early battles over the disputed system. That was the choke point in the quadrant and whoever controlled it was going to have a big advantage in the game. If you had been able to push me back the next system was an asteroid system with two warp points leading to different parts of my empire. I would have been unable to simultaneously defend both and train my ships. You could have broken through either and I would have been on the defensive. I don't know how fast you expanded, perhaps sending your first colony ships a little farther out would have helped, but that's hard to say for sure. It's always a balancing act early on. Sometimes the smart move in one game will be a mistake in another.

The carriers with the heavy mount weapons can be a devastating early game weapon. Luckily for me by the time you got them into play I had started laying mines and had ecm on some of my ships. I was a little suprised you didn't have any fighters in them though. They can be effective by themselves, but a few fighters thrown in can help tip the scales. At least until the enemy gets the higher levels of PDC.

EDIT: Also, I highly recomend considering the Advanced Storage Techniques racial trait next time. I use it for all Koth games, and most of my other games as well. For what you get compared to the cost I think it's the single best use of your racial points at game setup.

Geoschmo

[ September 24, 2003, 15:28: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Alneyan]

I had fighters, not many though, perhaps two hundred in the battle for the warp point and another hundred in my home system. Other fighters were built behind the lines, but they could not join in the battle. And finally, the Last problem was a certain lack of resources, Carriers are more powerful in the early game than other hulls, but they are also more expensive to build.

You're right, I forgot about ECM/sensors/training until too late. I also lacked research centers, as you were obviously researching at a much faster pace. As for the battle for this system, yes winning (it should have been the case) and harder, holding the system (I don't believe it would have been the case since your invading fleet would have engaged earlier while my mines were not deployed) could have helped quite a lot. (I did know about the strategic importance of the next system, as my scouts managed to... erh, scout some of your systems)

I expanded rather fast, although I lost a colony ship because of a Black Hole. But my problem with expansion was the lack of new research centers after turn 20 or so. I was still rather far from the 30k points Slynky mentioned. Finally, I considered taking the Advanced Storage Techniques, but I decided to take +5 in Maintenance instead. A not really clever choice I would say as 5% upkeep doesn't help much compared to 10% maintenance. And this costs 1000 points. Next time, I will do a few changes to my Empire.

Thanks to you Slynky for your comments! Yes indeed, I am not what you would call a seasoned player. But competitive games are the best way to learn, as the AI is heavily relying on bonuses to be a challenge. And of course, if you gave me a X3 bonus to research and resource production, I would win the game with Geoschmo. *Resumes his plot aiming at the removal of Deccan from the Last position in the rating system*

[ September 24, 2003, 15:41: Message edited by: Alneyan ]

[geoschmo]

Asmala, the Tbontob vs Nodachi game can probably be killed. No turns run since June and both players have gone into the ether. If you need to declare a winner I looked at the stats and I'd say Tbontob has the clear advantage in planets and ships. And he was the Last to play a turn for what that is worth.

Geoschmo

[Asmala]

The KOTH page is updated.

[geoschmo]

Hey, when did Master Bellisarius join the hill?

[ September 24, 2003, 17:06: Message edited by: geoschmo ]