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

[Iansidious]

[ March 07, 2004, 23:42: Message edited by: Iansidious ]

[Iansidious]

Just let me know when you are updated.

[ March 07, 2004, 23:44: Message edited by: Iansidious ]

[Iansidious]

I hate it when I push the wrong button and double post! sorry

[ March 07, 2004, 23:45: Message edited by: Iansidious ]

[Alneyan]

KOTH: The Primitive Horde (Primitive) against the Arcadia League (Alneyan). Turn 65 or so. Settings were: a rather large galaxy, high tech cost, everything else default.

Primitive did the first blood, taking down a colony ship or two and likely a planet as well. (Afterwards warships went down to his nasty trick, or were damaged at the very best) After these initial skirmishes, the map was pretty well shared in two, with the Evil Ones in the north/north east and the Primitive Ones at the other end of the galaxy. Nothing too surprising, as we were both using the same scheme for expanding our influence (unless Primitive did altered his plan since the Last discussion on the forum about early expansion). In the end, there were about five or six contested systems, in three corners of the galaxy.

The League retaliated by building a few ships to begin the negociations and swiftly remove the Primitive Horde from a few contested systems. However, all of these were critical failures, being destroyed by minefields bigger than expected or by enemy fleets none too friendly. Worse, Primitive took a few minesweepers and outdated warships from the League, which were not outfitted with the Self Destruct Device due to protests from the crews of the aforementioned ships. Erh, let's just say I forgot to retrofit these ships, it will be closer to reality.

The League did not fret after her first initial plans backfired, and instead cheerfully kept up with producing warships to throw against the Primitive Horde. It goes without saying that a handful of these were once again lost, and the Fiendish Primitive managed to convince the League to withdraw peacefully from a few systems. (The fleets headed towards the aforementioned systems might have help for this peaceful resolution though)

As history tends to repeat itself, so the League lost a few more battles at wormholes, defeated by superior numbers, treachery and the bribing of some officials. Other do argue that the Primitive Horde won merely thanks to much more efficient tactics, but the gentle reader should not pay any attention to these vile lies. (Actually, I hadn't expected to lose so badly. I will ask Primitive about the why at the earliest convenience, but I'm afraid he will not let me in the secret until the end of the game. But I fear I know the answer, unfortunately) To the pride of the League, a few engagements were won however, and two systems were freed from the Horde. Once again, the scandalmongers are minded to think that taking down two enemy planets isn't exactly worth losing fifty warships and several systems, but they know naught about military strategy.

The League, in a pretty poor position, can only pride herself of her lead as far as score goes, as she took the first position at turn 35 or so and has remained ahead since then. One might question the truth of these rankings when losses follow slaughters, but being ahead in a field can never hurt. To handle this situation going out of hand, the League decided to take chances and launched a massive technological problem aiming at both keeping up with the foe and bringing Stellar Manipulation ships Online as soon as possible.

Thus the very first warp opener was out as early as turn 55 (recall the peculiar settings of the game) and its intent was to start wreaking havoc behind the enemy lines. Likewise, other ships were out the following months, or they should have been if an enemy operative had not sabotaged the spaceyards in which they were built. This unfortunate perfidy resulted in an additional delay of several months, while the enemy fleets were closing in with our very worlds in the meantime. (Actually I forgot to launch Emergency Build for several turns. I gather I deserve my dunce's cap. Yes, I will go stand in the corner as soon as I am finished typing this report.)

And so here is the current situation. The Primitive Ones are ahead and achieving critical successes at the borders, while the League went for technological superiority and played her gambit. Will these advanced ships and the economical powerhouse supporting the League be able to turn the tables? The circumstances do not bode well, but you may very well be able to help the League! Please enlist in the nearest recruiting center if you feel this patriotic blaze within your very own heart, and you may very well be the one saving our Beloved League! Yes, you! The League is undergoing her finest hour, and calls all her children to protect her in her direst need! (Erh, I am digressing, but it does reflect the current situation. Unless you can provide a miracle, Primitive will reach the Top of the Hill and will likely challenge Asmala if you ask me. )

[Phoenix-D]

K.O.T.H. Katchoo vs Phoenix-D, 2406.4; Katchoo surrenders.

This was on one of the Tesco maps, with lots of Rock None medium moons. Fortunately neither of us took that type. The map also had warp points..lots and lots of warp points. The resulting geometry scared the crap out of me early game, because it made defense difficult.

So I went for speed and dropped a lot of weapons platforms along the way. In the end I think that's what made the difference- I captured more systems faster; Katchoo filled his systems up, I concentrated on getting as MANY systems with 1 or more colonies as I could. It helps when in the end-game your ships are speed 9 (JP + prop. experts) while your opponents are speed 6 (ion engines)..

He also listened to Fyron a little too much. Didn't deploy a single weapon platform. the result was my fleets running unchecked except by his fleets, while several of his fleets were bLasted apart by my platforms.

[Asmala]

Koth page is updated.

We have a new player: Welcome Zharktas!

[Katchoo]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
K.O.T.H. Katchoo vs Phoenix-D, 2406.4; Katchoo surrenders.

This was on one of the Tesco maps, with lots of Rock None medium moons. Fortunately neither of us took that type. The map also had warp points..lots and lots of warp points. The resulting geometry scared the crap out of me early game, because it made defense difficult.

So I went for speed and dropped a lot of weapons platforms along the way. In the end I think that's what made the difference- I captured more systems faster; Katchoo filled his systems up, I concentrated on getting as MANY systems with 1 or more colonies as I could. It helps when in the end-game your ships are speed 9 (JP + prop. experts) while your opponents are speed 6 (ion engines)..

Well, my bubble certainly burst once my Fleet of 14 Frigates & Escorts got slapped aside by Phoenix's Weapons Platforms. Watching those Ships fall as every single shot from the WPs struck (none missed that I could tell) was like a hot knife slowly digging into my heart.

I've tried Phoenix's strategy of placing 1 Colony in as many Systems as possible in a previous game with MasterBelisarius; and fell flat on my face in that game. So in this matchup with Phoenix I secured as many Colonies in a System that I could before moving outward. The strategy seemed to work as my Resource & Research Points grew steadily, and I didn't encounter the early resource shortages I did against MB.

He also listened to Fyron a little too much. Didn't deploy a single weapon platform. the result was my fleets running unchecked except by his fleets, while several of his fleets were bLasted apart by my platforms.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I deployed WPs soon enough against MB either. I made building ship hulls the priority over other defenses, so that when the time came to attack Phoenix, i'd have number superiority.

Unfortunately Phoenix didn't conduct his Research in the path I expected him too. Right from the outset I pumped all my research into Sheilds; reason being that I wanted to negate any advatage Phoenix could get if he researched PPBs. Once I reached level 5 Shields, I stopped to start researching Combat Support & Sensors, along with Hulls & APBs inbetween (having seen that Phoenix had Destroyers & level 5 DUCs). Although I had plenty of Frigate Hulls ready for retrofitting, I didn't have enough minerals to upgrade all of them. Thus by the time Phoenix started to pick off my Planets, I could only upgrade 4-6 Ships per turn. Add in the problem that my Ships couldn't intercept his Ships in any reasonable amount of time, and quite soon I was in trouble. Planets started rioting and my resource base went to hell (along with all of my research). My Frigates couldn't matchup 1on1 with his Destroyers, so I had to pool my Ships together, which meant that I couldn't intercept all of his Ships which were all over the place.

Needless to say, the bird pecked me but good.

Oh, and in the final couple of turns he started assaulting me with Intel Projects.

Phoenix, congratulations again on thumping me but good. Don't fall back down to the bottom of the ladder anytime soon please.

PS, Fyron's name shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as my mess. There's only enough tar a feathers for me, and me alone.

[Phoenix-D]

That intel assult took about a year to do, actually. I was getting parinoid because your score was higher than mine, and with 50% intel I needed to have CI up -before- you attacked if I was to survive it. Once I had a decent base and no attacks came..well, the answer was obvious.

The game was a bit insane..I had retrofit problems too. Even into the Last battles I was fighting with ships that were 2, 3 models out of date. I don't bother retrofitting, ussually- I do suicide missions instead. Which is why I almost panicked when I warped into your home system and saw "40" over your home world..

[Paul1980au]

This was interesting - you got lucky with that Intel project Phoneix and good work - the slow but sure expansion usaually works against the AI, the only alternative i use is to settle into new systems quickly with lots of green star planets (they of course are better in terms of resources and potential) lots of defenses are maintained. It also expands my systems faster and fastre contact with new races and if i am rock and i come into contact with gas and ice types - i exchange 10K of minerals and propulsion tech for their other colony types - it is way to easy. ALso capturing some of their planets - take away their populations to settle youre other atmosphere and take advantage of the native population and the removal of domes.

Missile and projectile and point defense weapons are the early reserach projects.

[Slynky]

Now, THERE are some excellent write-ups! I find those interesting to read. Entertaining.

Of course, I must still question my spy friend from France who seems to do a better job at whipping out a story in his second language than I do in my native tongue .

Welldone, Phoenix-D, Katchoo, and Alneyan!