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

[geoschmo]

Geoschmo vs. Phoenix-D: turn 2404.1

The Last few months have been quite active. After a long buildup with no interaction the war has begun in earnest. We brought a sizeable fleet of destroyers in and captured one planet and glassed three or four others. In addition we have destroyed a handful of coloy ships and several warships. The enemy did manage to sneak a few raiders past our fleet and took out two or three of our planets. We carted off the bulk of the population from the captured planet before their counter attack destroyed it as well. Those that have any useful military knowledge will be interogated, and the remainder will be put to work on our many methane atmosphere worlds.

A few weeks to consolidate our positions and bring up reinforcments and then we press the enemy again. Victory will not be easy, but we will acchieve it for the glory of the Imperium.

[Asmala]

Originally posted by geckomlis:
Gecko surrenders to Asmala. I became demoralized by my own stupidity. Thanks Asmala for a good game. I really like your playing style, tactics, and strategy.

Nah, I was just lucky to manage capture your colony ship. But new colony tech and different breathing population would have boosted my empire quite well

[Slynky]

2404.8

What I really like is this:

Alneyan does his turns in 3 minutes...I take 15;
He has fewer systems than me yet passes me in tech and ship count;
Leads in first place nearly the whole game;

and

acts like he might lose.

Hmmmmm...I think I've been had...

[geoschmo]

I was fortunate to face Alneyan early in his Koth career. Sounds like he is a very fast learner.

[Alneyan]

*Sighs* You may say whatever you want Slynky, Last turn was a killer for me. I just lost a whole fleet, twelve fighters (right, that isn't exactly important) and your weapon platforms are doing a fine shop at repelling my skirmishers. Great. On top of everything, I am no more leading as far as score is concerned.

It seems like I gambled, and lost. Nevertheless, I will try to hurt you at least, although the situation seems hopeless now. Twelve of his cruisers are heading towards my systems, while I don't think I have the firepower to hold him off. Still, I managed to make him doubt and even survive five years.

So unless the impossible happens, Slynky should win in no more than a few turns. And Lastly, Geoschmo, it isn't hard to learn when you forget (or rather, delay too much) sensors and ECM among other things. This time, I *merely* forget to change the basic ship strategy of my carriers, and here we go, ten of them went down will all hands. *Grumbles*

[Slynky]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
I was fortunate to face Alneyan early in his Koth career. Sounds like he is a very fast learner.

Well, he "confesses" to having a good start...BUT, he knows what he's doing. I don't think I underestimated him...I don't do that with anyone. But I gotta say...since turn 30-something (and I mean around turn 37 or 38), I've been putting out 70K per turn in research and everytime we meet, he has better stuff. I always figured if your research can equal your turn count by around turn 25 (or so), you're doing good. After that, expansion coming to a close and all, if you can output twice the research of your turn count by turn 30 or 35, you're doing quite well. Even though I did that, I'm still losing. I have over 60 colonies...but it doesn't seem to allow me to keep up. We should be about even on combat...he has superior Ratings and I have impressive but I add 5% for warrior. Yet, he hits my destroyers pretty easily and I don't hit his carriers much better.

He's an enigma. Guess we should watch out for him.

It's been an enjoyable game...a very good game I must say, even though I will probably lose. What's good about it is that there have been battles on three different fronts. Not ONE killer battle that ends the game, but "medium" battles that DON'T mean the end of the game.

He's a fast player (as I said) and I always like that about us KOTH players. And, a bit of "tongue and cheek" along the way. Win or lose, it's been a good game!

[Alneyan]

What? Don't you already see I almost don't stand a chance now? The second front is too poorly defended for now, although I believe I have still the lead in the other backwater systems. Not for long though.

Indeed, you guessed right. My main priority was research since the early game, as I had slightly better maintenance than you and thus didn't need quite as many resource facilities. I hit the 90,000 research points quite early, somewhere during the fourth year (That is, between turn 30 and 40). Erh... I checked and I was actually on equal footing with you at this time. (Perhaps slightly ahead, but not by much. My memory seems to be faulty) Perhaps was I ahead during the very early game? (Turn 10 to 30) Apart from that, I cannot see why I was leading on the research field.

At any rate, I was lacking systems and breathable planets after the few good systems at the beginning. No matter what 40 colonies (including more than a few one facility unbreathable colonie) cannot keep up with your 60 planets. That's why I was researching Gas Colonization, it was done in five turns and was needed so that I could keep up with you. (300 additional facilities would have been most welcomed!)

However, you stroke Last turn, meaning my research won't help me much. (I will have done this research next turn or in two turns) And in the end, your bigger production base eventually pays off against my stranded League, and logic is once again ruling as queen on the battlefield. That was also why I tried to make you stay on the defensive, at least for a few turns, but it didn't work as you saw. (I am not sure sending wrecked ships over your worlds helped in any matter)

It was indeed a very good game, proceeding at an hectic pace and enjoyable to play, although the outcome is not quite to my liking. The end of the Oxygen Breathers is unfortunately coming, in spite of their efforts.

[ November 24, 2003, 19:27: Message edited by: Alneyan ]

[Alneyan]

I surrendered to Slynky after the destruction of my smallest fleet (in the southern front) while yet another fleet was sighted heading towards my systems. Given the... hmm... poor state of my military, and my collapsing economy (he does have a bigger share of the galaxy after all), the situation is now hopeless here.

Once again, thanks for the good game Slynky. I would have two questions about the game, if you don't mind answering to these. How is the cloaking ability on the cloaking armor is working? Your ships managed to spot mine without problem. Or did you deployed Tachyon Sensors as well? (It would seem quite likely after all) And did you willingly use the hulls you used, or were you basically lacking research in this field? I admit I was quite unsettled by this fact, but it seems like it worked fine in the end when my technological asset was gone.

[Slynky]

Alneyan:

(1) I have no idea why you surrendered. Your position was good. If you have gas tech like you said, then you are colonizing like crazy in the background.

(2) Yes, I captured some of your ships and will soon have the tech on them. But that makes us equal, not ME ahead.

(3) Having said this, I just received your surrender. I glanced (VERY) briefly at the map. So, I don't know much.

So....

If you absolutely think it's not worth playing...you have 12 carriers headed toward me..., then say so again. I just can't believe your position is hopeless. You have taken ground from me. In two different places.

So, I will offer you another chance to withdraw your Last turn. This is in the name of sportsmanship. I just barely felt like I had a chance at the Last turn.

[Asmala]

Congratulations to Slynky!
Nice game, almost all the time both players were sure they're going to lose