Home » Stars! 2.6/7 » Game stories » Stone Age Slaughter 1 has ended
| Stone Age Slaughter 1 has ended |
Mon, 06 July 2009 17:58  |
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 johng316 |
 | Chief Warrant Officer 3 |
Messages: 177
Registered: November 2002
Location: Indiana, USA | |
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Greetings gentlebeings everywhere! Stone Age Slaughter has ended, and the Stooges have emerged victorious.
Stone Age Slaughter was small, dense, 8 player universe. All players were required to take BET and Weapons Expensive. There were slow tech advances, ACC BBS start, and no tech trading allowed (except for legitimate battle with enemies).
Players, please post your game stories and perspectives here.
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| Re: Stone Age Slaughter 1 has ended |
Wed, 08 July 2009 10:42  |
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| johng316 |
| Chief Warrant Officer 3 |
Messages: 177
Registered: November 2002
Location: Indiana, USA | |
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THE STORY OF THE STOOGES
This game as mentioned required all players to take BET and Weapons expensive, and furthermore all tech trading is banned. In designing my race I therefore had the following objectives:
1. Tech self-sufficiency
2. Lots of minerals (to take advantage of ALL MT's that came through)
3. Something to offer potential allies
4. Ability to outproduce others on the bleeding edge (minerals being a potential constraint).
I decided to take a big risk and built a 4% HE, tri-immune, Weapons and Bio expensive, all else cheap, OBRM, RS, BET, ISB, IFE. 15/5/25 factories and 23/2/25 mines. G-box checked, start at 3 checked. This gave me minerals out the wazoo and tech self-sufficiency at the risk of slow start, but I knew that if I survived past 2430 without major conflict I would be a major player by 2460.
I considered IS because I figured Croby FFs would have a longer than normal lifespan in this game; WM because of the starting weapons tech, speed bonus, power of the BC hull, and ability to produce weapons on the bleeding edge cheaper than anyone; SD because they would have obvious advantages with limited weapons tech; JOAT because of terrific starting tech and other advantages; SS because I thought the research edge if planned properly could create a big advantage... Heck, the only PRTs I didn't seriously consider were AR and PP.
I knew selecting HE that I would need friends and have to play a reserved and diplomatic game to win. On 2403, however, the Undead showed up at Lawrence, my HW, with a scout! Was it possible that I started right on top of a neighbor? If so, could have been a quick disaster for me. Fortunately, being tri-immune, the hab of my HW was apparently not very tasty to the Undead. By about 2412, we had agreed on a North/south border and NAP-3 which allowed him to focus on a harrassing enemy without worrying about a hostile border with me (the *, an aggressive SD neighbor). The *'s hostility toward almost everyone played in my favor, as I was able to "help" the Undead by not being a demanding enemy, but a compliant and friendly neighbor.
I established communications with all neighbors. I was on the extreme West side of the Small map. Undead (IT) were to my North, the * (SD) and the Tin Plates (AR) were in the unlucky center positions, the Stoners (-f CA) were to my South in the corner, the Ancient Order (SD) were on the Southern edge. Away from me were the Nightbugs (-f IS) in the Southeast. NE were the Apes of Wrath (IT). I was surprised to see only one CA, but shocked to find no WM or JOAT in the universe.
My diplomatic strategy was to befriend everyone early (if possible). The poor Stoners were caught between the Ancients (SD) and me. Being -f, he was hungry for territory and began expanding into my space. By the time I had significant contact with the Stoners, the Ancients and I had formed a very cooperative relationship. I decided that wiping out the Stoners was a good idea since I didn't want their terraforming skills to help other players, negating the benefit of my tri-immunity. And as a tri-immune, I was able to offer the Ancients the incentive of every green planet in the Stoner territory, including the Stoner HW. I would simply take all the remaining planets the Ancients could not use. Further, this allowed us a protected SW corner from which we could expand. By turn 25 or so, the Stoners could not expand, stagnated at -f, and quit with 3 planets.
By this time, the Nightbugs and * were emerging as an aggressive threat in the galaxy. The Apes played it cool, opposing the * but being careful not to take on the Nightbugs. I maintained a cordial relationship with the *, and since he was fighting everyone else already he probably didn't want to irritate me by expanding into my territory. This allowed me to focus some energy on controlling the expansion of the Nightbugs, which had taken about 35% of the map. I came to the aid of the Ancients. Without stargates, it was a pain, but the Nightbugs fought elegantly, still making advancements in the South vs. the Ancients AND the Stooges. The Ancients never fielded much of a navy in their own defense, relying on Stooge power and their minefields. Ultimately, the Nightbugs killed the Ancient HW on at least two occasions. I am still not sure what the Ancients were waiting on, but it became clear that their race design was possibly a little off for the settings.
My population continued to grow during this time, as I had no enemies within striking distance of my territory, and eventually I occupied every rock in my sphere of influence.
Ultimately, I surpassed the power of the Nightbugs, and the Undead were emerging as the Northern power, surviving wars with the Apes and the *. Once the Nightbugs were basically contained, I left them to the Ancients, prepared a bit for war with the Undead, and then canceled my NAP with them before he could totally consume the Ape empire.
Once the 3-year NAP expired, I launched a series of HUGE warp 13 packets at nearby Undead planets, killing any intersettled base quickly and several border worlds. I must've sent 100,000kt of minerals through launchers within about the first 5 years of that war.
The Undead were ahead of me in weapons tech, to at least WEapons 15, and I was at about Weapons 13 with superior resources. I decided to go ahead and build a pile of Colloidal / Sapper BBs with some Jihad BBs thrown in. The Flux Capacitor really helped me to stay in the game; without it, I would have been severely outgunned. The Undead built Blaster BBs. He was faster on the battle board and could eventually close to range 2. When he did, the big gap in firepower usually meant I needed much larger fleets.
He made some quick inroads, killing 2 or 3 Stooge production worlds on the Northern border. My ships were limited to Warp 9 with no gates, so I kept expecting him to attack me where my ships were far away. Possibly he was afraid that I would attack while he was away. But I felt I was at an extreme defensive disadvantage with no gates.
Eventually, I was able to overpower the Undead with sheer production, eventually catching up in weapons tech. I got very unlucky in battles, gaining tech only on 2 occasions throughout the whole game. The MT sucked (none appeared that were giving away tech, and the alien miner was the best item offered - which I could not use).
Kudos to the Ancients, who were steadfast and loyal allies throughout the game. Without their help, it would have been much more difficult to fend off the Nightbugs.
Also I think the Nightbugs (Altruist) and the Undead (MAC1) played brilliant games. I made several mistakes and was out-played sometimes by Mac and Altruist. Being out of Stars for a few years showed up occasionally.
I was lucky in that the * managed to blow up over 1000 Nightbug ships on two separate occasions by detonating minefields while trying to cooperate with the Nightbugs. While I think I would have eventually repelled the Nightbugs anyway, it would have taken a lot more time without the loss of those fleets, and the Undead would have been significantly more powerful by the time I was ready to take them on.
Looking back, the lack of Stargates was often a horrible limitation, and I'm not sure I would play HE again in this setting. I figured that in a Small the lack of gates would not be a HUGE problem, but at times it was a HUGE problem. But if I were to play HE again, I think I would choose a 5% design and take some compromises on production in exchange for faster ramp-time. I had to diplomatically tip-toe for the first 50 turns and wish I could have projected significant power earlier in the middle game. Slow early growth allowed me to shine the spotlight on other early threats, and that worked to my advantage. Being the early leader is not always positive. 
I hope the other players would post their game experience here. I'm always curious about what others experienced and were thinking at different points of the game.
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| Re: Stone Age Slaughter 1 has ended |
Thu, 09 July 2009 11:47 |
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| Mac1 |
 | Chief Warrant Officer 2 |
Messages: 159
Registered: November 2008 | |
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The Undead story:
This game give me the biggest headache about choosing race from all games i played so far. And that's why i really loves this settings from the beginning.
I started with making CA-f, SD-f or even joat-f. Then I realized that actually -f is a bad idea  , so i start to consider HG of same prt and maybe including WM.
Finally i thought to myself: In every game i played so far IT had to take ~~100 points handicap, so if i dont have to do it here I will take IT and see what happends.
Finally my race was:
IT
17% , 1/4
IFE, NRSE, OBRM, NAS, RS, BET
12/9/10 factory
10/3/12 mines
no g checked
ene,prop,con - cheap
rest expensive, start@3 checked.
My start was nice. 2 80% planets in range of 2 years and 3 60% planets in my backyard. One of this 80% was straight to the west and it appears is tasty for * (SD race) as well.
I launched big colonist fleet fast and stalwart defender, which was usufeul vs minelayers.
* was a very aggresive SD -f race and i was affraid. I tried to make peace with him but it seems he was dumb enough to fight with just everyone and not sign peace with anyone  . So few years later i made few xray DD () and go futher west with massive colonist. I killed his minelayers, tranports and invaded 2 planets (50 and 70%) and that was actually all i wanted in that area.
Fortunatelly SD fighting ability was minor so I easily fortified what i got and stopped to fear of him at all.
In meantime to my south i found HE very quickly. I knew he could be a thread, but all planets in his teritory were totally red for me, so i had no reason to expand there. I had already war with * and soon with Apes (futher west), so only reasonable thing to do was sign a nap with HE stooges and friend treaty.
After defeating * a bit i could expand more west, so i did.
Actually i had to cuz all of my planets were rich in germ rich in bor and totally crap in ironium. West was ironium land for me so no other choice.
I found Apes there, firstival we sign a treaty, then few years later he just attacked me with no warning and no reason. I was already making fleet vs *, so i just moved it to defend.
Next years for me were defending vs much more advanced in techs Apes (IT HP) and attacking * (SD) with any fleet too old to fight Apes (* was actualy no threat so i could fight with junk).
Apes made massive BBs on jihads, big armor and warp10 travel speed, when i was stuck on weap11. Luckily he did many bad moves and many times fall in my trap, so i managed to beat him with my Bone Dragons (colloidal BS) + some chaff.
When i kill Apes fleet it was obvious that victory is between me and stooges. So i decided to tech fast w17, make massive BS and then cancel NAP.
But it appears that stooges thought about war with me much earlier. Few turns later he canceled NAP and i wasnt ready. MY tech was only w15 so i had to choose what to do. I decided to make ghost dragons (w14 +ene10 +prop11). But my main mistake was not enough defences of my main planets.
After nap expired i saw meteor shower on sky. Few hundres MT of minerals flying at my main planets (on better ones it was 20-30Mt per planet). I wasnt prepared and lost many of my production worlds. I managed to save some colonists and recolonize some worlds soon, but packets kept on coming turn after turn, leaving only dust behind ...
After this meteor shower the fleets appeard. Many many and even more. When i had about 100 bone dragons, i could see 200 Larry Hairs (coloidal + flux BS)
He attacked from many directions and this gave me advantage at start. I jump and jump thru gates killing 30-50 of them every few turns. But they were like worms, for every 1 killed, 2 new were flying off from factories. So even after big losses Stooges manage to prepare one big fleet of 300 larry hairs (+ 86 jihad BS) and started to kill my planets for real (with bombs).
I was out of minerals and my production was slowing down, so i decide that soon i must take final battle. If i win there is a hope, if i lose all hope is gone.
I manage to gather 300 ghost dragons + about 70-80 jihad BS + 30 new BS on phased sapppers to take some shield fast.
In simulation i won the battle, but in real life Stooges change their tactics nicely and outgunned me before my ghost dragons came in range. The battle was lost. All dead except Larry hairs. 60MT of ironium left on planet but i couldnt pick it up anymore. And the game was over.
I finished 2nd. Thanks to the stooges for exciting war.
If I ask myself, what could I do more ?, I reply "nothing"
I played very good game, conquered 2 races, but stooges played better.
Surely they had big advantage at start, that 2 of their neighbors were totally bad (AR + CA), abandoning the game few turns after start.
Such things happends, some got lucky, some not
Cya in other universe
[Updated on: Thu, 09 July 2009 11:49] Report message to a moderator
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