Neptune's Pride II: Triton Groghead MP game with AAR

[undercovergeek]

I'm still here you know!?

[Keunert]

but where were you when your people needed you?

[undercovergeek]

Fair point  :P

[Arctic Blast]

I'm still here you know!?

Indeed, I do. Nothing personal, you were just in the way of my galactic conquest.  ;D

If it's any consolation, your home world has continued building ships to the point that it basically can't be taken unless a person is willing to shatter their fleet power in the process.  >:(

[Arctic Blast]

It is my sad duty to announce that the once-proud Barthheart empire has ceased to exist.



Oh...uh...no, there is no celebration of this sombre occasion happening at all. This is a totally unrelated event with poor timing...uhhh...Nancy in Accounting told everyone here at Polar Wrath HQ that she's expecting. We like to celebrate things to keep the office light and fun, you know? Yeah...

[spelk]

It is a true sign of honour, when a defeated foe passes you his sword and remaining resources as his nation fades away into the galaxy dust once more.

The Spelkor Empire salutes you Barthheartians!

[Keunert]

Spelkors are next!  :(

[spelk]

Spelkors are next!  :(

Yes, it looks that way, you oppressive nebulous clouds of rancid space gas!!!!  ;)

We'll not go down without a fight! :)

[Arctic Blast]

Congrats, Keunert.



I made the right move by investing heavy in Science early on. I completely undervalued how strong an early investment in Terraforming could make development so much cheaper, though. By the time I caught on, you were way too far ahead in Industry points.

[TheCommandTent]

Congrats Keunert!

[Keunert]

thank you guys, that was fun. Arctic played very well, it was a close one. if i had waited any longer you would have made it.
i think economics are important in the early game, and science. Arctic and myself pushed both a lot and together with our alliance we pretty much crushed everyone else.

[spelk]

I'd just got the final shot ready for posting...



Anyway, congratulations to Keunert, a bit miffed I still came in 4th, but there you go :)

I was allied with Arctic too!!!

The cut and the thrust of the game is basically fought out in how you make your alliances. Early game, I was willing to ally with the Tent Empire, but his quick land grabbing around the southern end, really limited my expansion prospects, especially with Barthheart sucking out all the air from the middle (my north). I simply couldn't allow the Tentians to have my "living space". I tried to make peace with the Barthheartians, mainly to help me push out the Tentians from my zone, but they started to nibble away at my northern frontiers (in fact they were the gherkin in everyones burger, and started to seep their acidic vinegar all through the Galaxy midway belt!). So I renamed them The Betrayers and proceeded to push hard to the North. Using a planet choke point to hold the Tentians at bay.

Meanwhile Polar Wrath stretched his arm of non agression pact, which blossomed into a proper alliance later on. So the Spelkor Empire was being squeezed on all sides, and finally decided to chip in and try and hold what they had, and assist with smothering the wanton Betrayers and keeping the Tentians in check. The quiet Keunertians stayed well out of it all till the end. I had no idea the Polar Wrathians were in cahoots with them too! Towards the end, I was hoping for at least 3rd place, if my alliance with the Wrathians could decimate the Tentians. However, Keunert started his assault and just brought fleets my paultry armada just couldn't stand up against.

So, I decided on a course of rearguard disruption, flying isolated units into the back planets behind the enemy front. This helped to chop up the Tent Empire a bit, probably annoyed the Keunert like a Giant eating his gluttonous dinner swatting a fly, but only served to weaken my defensive fleets around my homeworlds.

The last bitter decision, rather than do a proper Last Stand on my homeworld with 700+ ships, was to abandon it, in the vain hope I could take the peripheral Tent Empires planets and ever so slightly squeeze me into 3rd place. This was not to be, sadly. Missed out by a planet. Bah! :)

Well played folks.. I do enjoy all the roleplay waffle that you can ladel onto the messages between allies!

[Arctic Blast]

Since we're talking about our plots and plans :

Keunert came to me with an offer of an alliance on the first day. It made sense, and we actually had a bit of a natural barrier between us anyway in the distance between our starting halves of the Northern stars. That set my eyes South. I started spreading out, when suddenly Barthheart is everywhere. I ended up with no room left to expand, so I git South along with my ally. Tent just happened to get intertwined in the Western expansion of Barthheart...initial attacks on him were actually accidental. but once they happened, I figured "What the Hell?" They were so busy fighting each other that they couldn't both entirely turn their focus on me. And I figured they had to also be leaving fleets to keep an eye on Spelk.

I first contacted Spelk right around the time of my first shot South. He was the furthest player from my position, so odds were good that we wouldn't end up hitting each other for quite some time, if at all. Once Keunert and I met with good initial success, I knew that it was only a matter of time before he turned on me as well. Having Spelk in my corner might at least provide enough of a distraction to let me win the race to the finish.

Unfortunately, I didn't notice until far too late just how massively Keunert had built up his Industry base. When he finally did come at me, his fleet was more than double the strength of mine. Trying to impede him was like dropping a few pebbles in front of a river. And my attempt to slip around his initial attack and steal planets behind that first wave failed when his second wave proved to be the same size as the first.

[Keunert]

Before starting the game i tried to get some info's from the forums. and i did stick with what i read there.

The first two or three days i invested everything in economy and science. the first phase is all about expanding and it takes a while until all empty stars are colonized. at this point you need several fleets to expand fast. as long as nobody get's further than weapons lvl 2, attacks on defended stars are very costly. from day three on, i had already a strong economy and started to slowly shift to industry. i was trying to keep well ahead of everybody else in terms of economy. at this time Spelk, Arctic and Tent were well ahead of me in terms of ships numbers. but i was getting a lot more money each round.

early on i contacted Arctic and tried to get an agreement with him. he shortly after had been contacted by Barthheart, so this came no second too early. sitting side to side an alliance between the two of us made more sense. if he teamed up with Barthhead instead, he would have been almost encircled once they would have finished me.

with Arctic we made a science agreement. we coordinated our efforts and exchanged tech. this made our tech advancement double the speed of the others, without spending all the money on science.

my expansion was slow though. Arctic grew faster than me. i did a lot of terraforming, that makes investment cheaper. this compensated my lack of speed. but i had to realize that if i wait any longer, Arctic would win. so i declared our agreement to be cancelled. having twice the amount of fleets i had a lot of flexibility once Arctic started to hit back. most of the times when i saw one of his fleets coming in, i had enough time to send enough fleets to the spot and defend it. this way you always fight with the defender bonus. this will cost your enemy. and with my empire having the higher production, Arctic could not afford to go that way.

Arctic played very well and fast. if i had not learned to emphasize on economics that much before our game, he would have beaten me. overall it was a great game and i enjoyed it a lot.

[TheCommandTent]

I was wondering how y'alls science was advancing so quickly.