Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

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Oberlus
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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#136 Post by Oberlus »

swaq wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 12:48 am Says the one who declared the war... I suppose it's better than conceding, which planets do you want?
:shock:
Not even in my dreams would I have expected you to accept!
Well, if you feel so overwhelmed, Mother could take care of all your planets, for you.
In any case, the planets we'd like to take control will be signaled by our fleets orbiting them. You'll see it coming.

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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#137 Post by wobbly »

Well that's a surprise! I had my bets on you to win Swaq and now I find out you are struggling? Well that's good news for me I guess.

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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#138 Post by Oberlus »

wobbly wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 6:44 am Well that's a surprise! I had my bets on you to win Swaq and now I find out you are struggling? Well that's good news for me I guess.
Beware of the scarabs' might!

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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#139 Post by Oberlus »

We thought we could tech dancing to our metallic foes-soon-to-be-friends. We've done some pretty good advances with the Exobots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn3KWM1kuAw
Mother is not completely thrilled with the idea...

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swaq
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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#140 Post by swaq »

wobbly wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 6:44 am Well that's a surprise! I had my bets on you to win Swaq and now I find out you are struggling? Well that's good news for me I guess.
I wouldn't say I was struggling. It went from doing fine (I had captured a couple planets) to completely losing in one misstep of a turn.

Oberlus already had a head start on shipbuilding when he declared war on me and he must have some sort of truce with Hyperant. I had a higher production/research output (presumably) but hard to overcome having all my pre-existing war assets tied up 14 turns of movement away on the other border (which in hindsight I guess I could have had time to relocate?). Then I lost the war of information by mismanaging my scouts and found myself in a battle against ships I didn't know existed... It was an absolute disaster of a battle. Probably lost about 20 turns worth of pure warship production output (over 90% of my ships on that front). Oberlus lost maybe 20% of his force?

Sorry to disappoint. What happens next depends on "Mother".

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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#141 Post by Oberlus »

I've been quite the peaceful guy in the neighborhood, trying to solve conflicts with anyone before they could happen. First chance of open war was when I found Kobuntura in a space between my two neighbors, Hyperant and swaq, and me, and they were going to see them too, soon. I contacted both and suggested sharing the Kobu instead of fighting over them, because that would make getting those natives much slower and costly, weakening us three relative to other empires in the galaxy. Swaq and I also decided some borders between us that allowed both of us to have Slith and Hhhoh without having to fight for them. Also because I wanted to try in-game that possible-exploit that is sharing colonies between empires at war. I do think it's an exploit when the conquest is so cheap (that is supposed to be fixed or alleviated in 0.4.10).

I then played risky, trusted my neighbors, and focused on undefended expansion. Not a single warship was built until many turns within game. At some point between 60 and 80 I build a few (3-5) symbiotic hulls with mixed designs (one had an Arc, the others heavy bombers and interceptors) just in case someone decides our truce was over. Before that I made sure I was able to produce Hhhoh ships in several systems: got four shipbuilding planets, close and far from my borders (and now I'm spamming orbital drydocks all over the place; it doesn't matter where I have to fight within my space, my fleets will be able to repair right after the battle).

Around turn 90 I was getting worried. My growth chances were slim already, only bad planets to get within my borders. I whispered here and there to get some information on how well are doing others, and I got scared. Hyperant was probably as strong as I was (we both had Kobuntura, but I got them 10 turns earlier; I got Slith and so telepathy to boost unfocused research, but he got Ugmors for some extra production and faster expansion). Swaq was something else, we shared our respective combined current RP+PP and mine was smaller, but combined target meters were quite worse for me (can't remember, but I got scared). That made sense because Swaq had conquered a Trith homeworld, as far as I knew. He should be getting a sizeable boost, just relatively slowly because of meter growth. With ThinkSome cowardly conceding, Swaq could only grow. Swaq told me it wasn't that good, because Ophi had taken most of ThinkSome's worlds. But then Ophi turned his empire into Hiber-Nation, while Wobbly was pushing on his borders, and that made me sure Swaq could only grow and grow (and grow) while I was confined in a tiny section of the galaxy ring.

I considered attacking one of my neighbors, Hyperant or swaq. Knowing Hyperant from previous games, I knew it would be quite difficult, even when he had an empire of similar size to mine, and the earnings for me if success was slim: more abaddoni for my abaddoni empire. Plus he wasn't growing, just fighting each meter with Wobbly. On the other side, I had Swaq, supposedly growing uncontested. Plus I got to know that Swaq's supply was already visible to Wobbly, so Swaq's space could he huge. I came to realize I had already lost this game. So I tried to make it fun until the end, and choose to attack Swaq, the big brother. Since we are Gentlemen that respect our words, I let him know by turn 101 my plans on attacking him, with a 10 turns warning: hostilities could start as soon as turn 111.

By turn 101, I had the starting 2 frigs, and some 5 symbiotic hulls with mixed designs (one had an Arc, the others heavy bombers and interceptors). Then I put 80% of my production into more warships (not much else I could do, actually), which soon were diamond armor carriers and later gunboats with plasmas. Clearly, I chose to break the truce coinciding with me getting in position to focus on military production, when I had nothing else worth colonizing and I got good techs for combat. But Swaq had plasmas already before I began building my first one.

So turn 111 arrived and I attacked the Slith and Kobu planets that Swaq had almost within my space. I could see few Swaq's ships, got bold and advanced towards one of our chokepoints, were he had some stuff, but less than my 8-10 ships (that by the moment was my main fleet, by far; I had three more ships coming from rear). Then "Boom boom Oberlus!", yes, he attacked me from within a ion storm or something and I got much outnumbered. I had to retreat with my beaten-up survivors (lost half of my fleet at the time). More ships from Swaq appeared from darkness and went towards my closer Hhhoh shipyard. I had to keep fleeing, his fleet was like twice of mine. But by the time I had already many ships queued and getting ready for combat, and I had just added the new plasma+diamond gunboats that I hoped would help me turn the tides in my favor against the swarm of fighters that was the main weapon of Swaq.

So a few more turns, Swaq gets some reinforcements, without haste, while I do the same, frenetically, 60% of my production dedicated to gunboats, 35% to more interceptors, rest to drydocks. I was piling them up in two stacks, covering the two main chokepoints through which Swaq could try to enter with his main fleet (a third chokepoint was left guarded by a single frig, risky, but I bet he would not try that route plus it was at 2-3 turns from my middle chokepoint). Then his fleet of 6.6k structure and 66 fighters (plus some cannon damage) advances to his ex-kobuntura colony, one of my two guarded chokepoints. My other half of the fleet, in the northern chokepoint could make it in two turns but Swaq was arriving in just one, with troopers after another turn, so I retreated from there to gather my whole fleet before attacking (to reach a 6k structure fleet). Then Swaq said "you run away again?" (or something like that) and I just realized he didn't see my other half of the fleet!!! I had managed to get 40 interceptos and 44 bombers/heavy-bombers, plus some 500 damage in plasmas. I could not lose so jumped head on. Anyways, I had to fight him or face defeat sooner. The combat wasn't unlucky for me. He lost all his fleet because the 30% of ships that survived had fuel to only one more jump, not enough to reach own supply (one armed ships left behind to enforce own supply could have solved that), so I chased them with my less damaged ships. I lost 25%, and I have another batch of 6 gunboats and 3 interceptors getting out of several shipyards in the next two turns.

I still don't understand how come I was able to outproduce Swaq big time... Too much research-focused planets? I'm puzzled.

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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#142 Post by wobbly »

Hmm, as Oberlus and Swaq have shared info on the current status of the game I may as well share some details of mine. My supply lines now turn on both of sides of the ring, though it is deceptive as one side is due to a space elevator. There was a time that I was sure I was in trouble because over half of my production was going to a space elevator + asteroid processor. Those things are damn expensive, though great once you get them down. I think a lot is still hanging in the balance. I control a lot of space but most of that is empty colony-wise. Very hard to build colonies when you are fighting on 2 sides. On the other hand I don't mind as I have ships. Lots of ships, a navy that cracks 50+. If only I could teleport them from 1 side of the board to the other. So I think there's still a lot of fun to be had for all, if people are smart about handling there strengths and weakness. I mean oddly enough I'm behind on research compared to Abaddoni and Replicon, despite being Scyllor. Go figure.

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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#143 Post by swaq »

Oberlus wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 11:04 am [...] because Swaq had conquered a Trith homeworld [...]
ThinkSome was Etty in this game. And I still have another 12 turns before production maxes out on his homeworld...
Oberlus wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 11:04 am Swaq told me it wasn't that good, because Ophi had taken most of ThinkSome's worlds. But then Ophi turned his empire into Hiber-Nation, while Wobbly was pushing on his borders, and that made me sure Swaq could only grow and grow (and grow) while I was confined in a tiny section of the galaxy ring.
Ophiuchus evacuated all of the former ThinkSome worlds. I did end up getting two of them (at like 0.10 population) but I think only because he canceled the evacuation on the last turn for some reason? My current total population is only 11-12% former ThinkSome colonies. And maybe 14-15% if you include his planets I had to colonize myself. By total systems in supply from what I can see my controlled space is about ~40% more than Oberlus's. A justifiable concern.
Oberlus wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 11:04 am Since we are Gentlemen that respect our words, I let him know by turn 101 my plans on attacking him, with a 10 turns warning: hostilities could start as soon as turn 111.
I probably should have started queuing up some ships on the other border just in case as soon as ThinkSome conceded but I figured our war was still far off in the future...
Oberlus wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 11:04 am Then "Boom boom Oberlus!", yes, he attacked me from within a ion storm or something and I got much outnumbered. I had to retreat with my beaten-up survivors (lost half of my fleet at the time).
You lost 3 out of 8 ships and I lost 2 out of 9. By hitpoints it was a huge victory for me but I wasn't able to chase down and finish off the remaining ships before they repaired. Also, the two ships I lost then were my interceptor carriers which would have been very useful in the upcoming big battle later.
Oberlus wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 11:04 am Then Swaq said "you run away again?" (or something like that) and I just realized he didn't see my other half of the fleet!!!
Yup, I really kicked myself for not sending in my scout. Even if I had lost it to the planet defenses I still could have seen your other fleet in time. But from the vantage point I had it really looked like there were no reinforcements.
Oberlus wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 11:04 am He lost all his fleet because the 30% of ships that survived had fuel to only one more jump, not enough to reach own supply (one armed ships left behind to enforce own supply could have solved that)
If I had had been cautious enough to do that I wouldn't have ended up in the big battle in the first place.
Oberlus wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 11:04 am I'm still don't understand how come I was able to outproduce Swaq big time... Too much research-focused planets? I'm puzzled.
I only had 3 research focused planets (4 if you count Trondheim which you took at the start of the war). I think part of the problem was I still had a dozen warships on the other front that increased my shipbuilding costs (upkeep). Maybe my fleet composition was less efficient too?

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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#144 Post by Oberlus »

swaq wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 3:44 pm
Oberlus wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 11:04 am [...] because Swaq had conquered a Trith homeworld [...]
ThinkSome was Etty in this game. And I still have another 12 turns before production maxes out on his homeworld...
Doh! :lol:
I'm not paying all the attention, it seems.
swaq wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 3:44 pm You lost 3 out of 8 ships and I lost 2 out of 9. By hitpoints it was a huge victory for me but I wasn't able to chase down and finish off the remaining ships before they repaired. Also, the two ships I lost then were my interceptor carriers which would have been very useful in the upcoming big battle later.
Oh, I thought at least one was chaff, named "Empty".

swaq wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 3:44 pm from the vantage point I had it really looked like there were no reinforcements.
It seems you underestimated me and I overestimated you. I was scared out of my wits. I also thought you had stealth ships and rushed neutron scanner, without checking your researched techs to realize you had no stealth whatsoever.

swaq wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 3:44 pm I only had 3 research focused planets (4 if you count Trondheim which you took at the start of the war). I think part of the problem was I still had a dozen warships on the other front that increased my shipbuilding costs (upkeep). Maybe my fleet composition was less efficient too?
Hmm... So I don't think you are done yet. If I can't haste myself into conquering a sizeable amount of your planets...
And yes, I think I was able to tailor my fleet composition more or less effectively against yours. I stopped building bombers/heavy bombers, not a single one more, because you had plenty of interceptors, so focused on interceptors (could have been flaks, but interceptors were good to draw some fire from your interceptors to let my already-built bombers shine a bit) and plasma cannons. With enough interceptors to take down most of your bombers after they shoot just once, and 4 bouts per combat to let my plasmas overheat while you had very little cannon firepower, I had the advantage.

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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#145 Post by Hyperant »

Cycle 144


Mantle Chronicles




Calamity of the Southern Scorpion Cloud




It has been many cycles since the last publication and lots have changed. Our former colonies have been reconquered and we have begun an offensive into the Aquatics, which ended up going south, both literally and figuratively on the first few cycles.


One of our main fleets has been all but knocked out of commission by an unknowingly larger fleet guarding a chokepoint, while they only lost a single measely scout. That is not all however, as concurrently, they have launched yet another doomed expedition within our space, with their objective seeming to suicide more of their resources.


In more warmer news, our top engineers have finally unrolled a new generation of armed vessels, due to replace the previous model that is now considered several dozen cycles obsolete. This new development can prove interesting in securing our stellar interests.


Dig dig
Monarch of the following realms:
-Lumin Federation
-Gamma Republic
-Holy Commune
-Supreme League
-Frost Syndicate

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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#146 Post by Oberlus »

Mother decided to take care of as many foreign worlds as possible, for the Greater Good (GG). And so we are working hard to accomplish that goal, trainning many carers and sending them to all the worlds that the metallic empire has left undefended. We are still worried that their aggressive fleet might reappear out of the blue to attack us again, so we also work hard on keeping our fleets in good shape and size. In any case, all this war is stressful. Peace was more pleasant. Too bad the galaxy is full of imperialists.

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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#147 Post by swaq »

You're free to go back to peace at any time.

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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#148 Post by Oberlus »

But it would be ephemeral. We would stop our growth, and the space under Mother's control is still small compared to what other aggressive empires have. We can't stop until we have at least as many planets as the strongest empire in the galaxy. Problem is we have no idea how many planets have each empire... Maybe this is the right time to scout the universe to be beter informed. We don't want to end up conquetaking care of more planets than anyone else...

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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#149 Post by swaq »

Ah, more bullshit.

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Re: Fourteenth game on the multiplayer slow game server

#150 Post by Oberlus »

swaq wrote: Mon Jan 04, 2021 9:59 pm Ah, more bullshit.
Who is this? The emperor of the metallic empire?
We don't have bulls, so no bullshit here.

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