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Home » Stars! 2.6/7 » Game stories » The Ring 2, victor's account
Re: The Ring 2, victor's account Thu, 11 October 2018 22:49 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Hank is currently offline Hank

 
Crewman 2nd Class

Messages: 16
Registered: November 2002
That was a fun game. I want to thank everyone who played and the hosts for making it possible. There were a lot of good players in this game. Congratulations to BackBlast for a well deserved win and an excellent display of skill. His exciting play style and willingness to take calculated risks made him a tough opponent. I was Player 4 of the Hobbits and thought it would be a fun challenge to use Packet Physics, but I didn't intend on making it this far in the game.

Player #2, The Weaklings, was a WM on my north and Player #9, the Communists, was an IS on my south. So much for my peace loving Hobbits because it seemed that both neighbours were dead set on killing the Hobbits from the very beginning of the game.

The Weaklings was off to a fast start in the centre, with Pirate colonized by 2417 and three medium freighters in orbit. Most planets in the centre were terrible to me. Sadly, Kruger, was the best green planet in the centre that I could reach, a 29% planet with Ironium concentration of 18 and Geranium concentration of 6. Awful. Allegro was a great planet, but clearly under Weakling influence with their fast dash for the centre. Taking the centre was hopeless so I decided to exploit the Weaklings slower development in the ring.

In year 2421, the Communists pop-dropped and captured my planet, Salsa (a 75% world with good minerals). I scrambled ships to defend my southern border, but in 2423, the Weaklings pop-dropped and captured my planet in the north, Wilbury (a 74% world with good minerals). Although it was a very bad start for the Hobbits, it was a thrill to be on the receiving end of such a well planned surprise attack. The Weaklings were not weak at all, but controlled by a skilled player, and I think if it wasn't for their northern neighbor, The Jedi, who was SD and cramping Weakling's expansion, they would have been fine. Being in a two front war, I was at risk of losing my HW to the Weaklings.

I managed to retake Salsa in 2424 and desperately defended it against the Communists for the next 20 years. The Weaklings took IS instead of IFE. Against an experienced player who plays without the fuel mizer, you have only about a 3-year window of opportunity to punish them as they attempt to reach the Trans Galactic Fuel Scoop at the expense of weapons research. You need to put them in a position that forces them to either build warships before they're ready or to give up planets. Not attacking them during this crucial time will allow them to consolidate their position and use their cheaper propulsion and space docks against you.

In year 2432, I had a fleet of 80 phaser bazooka destroyers and 32 mini bombers and I was finally able to recaptured Wilbury in 2437. In the meantime, I was barely hanging on in the south, with the Communists putting a lot of military pressure on Salsa. I was willing to sacrifice all my southern planets if necessary to capture the Weakling HW. What's interesting was that the Communists had opposite hab range compared with the Hobbits so virtually all their worlds, including their HW was negative. They would have made a great ally, but an unfruitful race to attack.

It seemed that the Weaklings were so focused on killing the Hobbits that they were complacent with The Jedi who launched a surprise attack on planet Shank just 56 ly from the Weakling HW in Year 2443.

It wasn't long before the Jedi was in an all out war with the Hobbits fighting for the Weakling HW and planets in the area. I was still defending against the Communist in the south while attacking in the north. With much toil fighting against SD minefields, I finally managed to wrestle Shank away from the Jedi in 2467 and secured Flourine, the Weakling HW.

By 2470, I realized the great dilemma that I was in. The game leader, the Phhths, were gaining ground in the centre with only the Weaklings and 8472 to hold them off, and though they're both great players, they needed help. How could I get into the centre without attacking either the Weaklings or 8472? I couldn't, but it didn't matter anyway because I was locked in a stalemate with the Jedi; my main fleet was tied up on Shank to defend against Jedi's main fleet on Spaatz. Retreating my fleet against an SD was not an option because SD minefields are too much of a pain to deal with if I give up any ground against them. This left me with a pitiful fleet to advance slowly against the Communist in the south. What's more was that the Krootz, a powerful SD race in the south that had just overran the Dearie/Blossom, a WM, and about to advance on the Communist and then the Hobbits shortly afterward. With no immediate threat in the ring, it was the perfect scenario for the Phhths to gain major ground in the centre.

By 2480, I was sandwiched against two SD. The Jedi still had my main fleet tied up on Shank in the north and I was defending against the Krootz's main fleet in the south, and losing territory fast. Meanwhile, I watched in horror as my cloaked Galleons with dolphin scanners revealed the iron grip the Phhths had in the centre. The strength of the Weakling and 8472 was fading fast. I started to build my first capital ships, Heavy Blaster Battleships with Gorilla shields.

Finally, in 2483, the Phhths were in position to begin attacks on the Jedi. I finally withdrew my main fleet from Shank feeling confident the Jedi would not take advantage of the vacuum I was leaving, freeing their fleet to fight the Phhths. My fleet made it to the south just in time to hold off Krootz advance.

By 2490, fighting Krootz exploding minefields made advancing against them painfully slow. The dilemma I was faced with now was even worse than in 2470. The Phhths were about to take complete control of the centre. Attacking the Phhths in the centre would mean leaving the Krootz alone, and the last thing I wanted was to have to retake SD territory as it requires a lot of resources, focus of military power, and micromanagement. Even if Krootz decided to attack Phhth and it became a 3 vs 1 scenario, it would mean Jedi and Krootz would gain territory at the expense Phhths, and if there's anything I don't like, it's an SD gaining territory and spreading their minefields even farther. I'd rather have WM win than an SD with a lot of territory.

The Phhths were a factoryless WM with NAS. To compensate for no minefields, no pen scanners, no factories, and expensive tech, they would need to have a lot of planets to keep up in technology and maintain a superior military. It's a very difficult race to pull off, but the Phhth were wildly successful in achieving this goal, taking over the centre completely. It didn't matter much that they didn't have pen scanners if they controlled every planet in the centre and the ring is fairly narrow making planet hoping against them less effective. They had more minerals than any other race, the WM edge in battle, and the skill to win. On year 2493, I voted for Phhth's victory and continued to vote for them regularly for the next 60 turns.

The Krootz's territory was about a large as my own, and had an increasingly dangerous fleet of approximately 500 battleships capable of annihilating my entire southern fleet. The only reason they didn't crush me is that they were factoryless (which is difficult to play in this type of game) and had trouble keeping up in weapons technology.

In year 2510, a series of major real life events occurred which seriously limited my time I had to take Stars! turns. The host looked for a replacement player, but unfortunately none was ever found. As a result, the focus of my next 50 turns was to keep the race alive until a replacement player could take over. Typical turns were only 5-10 minutes doing only what was most important. I avoided complications, made decisions based on minimizing micro management, and had to be content with submitting turns which were 'good enough'. Ship design and battle simulations were done almost entirely mentally with me grabbing a calculator during lunch break at work and crunching numbers. My biggest regret is not giving the Phhth's a better game.

Shortly before the game ended, I lost a fleet of over 200 Nubians in a lapse of judgment as I carelessly gated in a half finished fleet to 'defend' against a large fleet of dreadnaughts. There was no battle simulation. I had no idea how the battle would go, though I was hoping for a pyrrhic victory. I don't know what I was thinking. Against my better judgment and my original plan to have a larger fleet first before revealing it, I simply gated it in. It was a real waste of ships and embarrassing to say the least. Unfortunately, a mistake like that was not one that I could recover from. The Mega Disrupter Nubs were specifically designed to catch Phhth's Armegeddon dreadnaughts using retreat fire (movement speed 2.5), but it would have limited effectiveness long term since the Phhths could have easily countered with AMP Nubs and tear my fleet to pieces.

It was an enjoyable game, but it seemed to drag out a bit. Considering I conceded in year 2493, it was about 60 turns too long. I'm not sure if it was because other players were not voting? I think requiring 100% of votes for victory is okay for small universes, but for a huge universe, the requirement for victory should be less strict. To give you an idea, it would take about 2300 ly of travel around the ring for me to reach Phhths HW from my own HW. Perhaps 80% of votes is more than enough, where voting power is proportional to the player's game score and must own a minimum number of planets to be eligible to vote. I'm not sure what other players think, but I'm of the opinion that at higher levels of play, it's not necessary to play to checkmate, but this may simply be due my habit of applying chess etiquette to Stars!.

Hank

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