Neptune's Bountiful Pride 2

[Chris]

Well that was fun but I'm glad it's over.

Congratulations Chris. I'm curious why you didn't break up that huge megafleet sooner, you probably could have ended the game a few days ago. I do feel kind of bad for dragging the game out so long but I had a good reason.

Are you guys cool with some post game strategy disclosure? I have a few questions about specific things and I don't want to give anything away in case you guys are going to jump right into another game.

I totally want to play again but I need to take a couple weeks off.

Sure, I'm down for a mini-postmortem.

[SGP]

Yeah I don't care about sharing reasons for what/why/how I did things. I am disappointed that no one other than Shmeptune actually gave Remo grief. Maybe it's e-celebrity syndrome. I had good reasons not to, but the Cyan/Red/White Alliance should have shifted focus much much earlier than they did (or did they ever really shift focus ).

Also, in every game I've played, missing players imbalances things greatly. I was able to steamroll Wurtsi and then gobble up the Magraviate with Remo very early. That's why I had such ridiculous infrastructure stats.

[Murdoc]

It was a really weird game, I think the leavers really unbalanced everything out. I can say for certainty, which I already mentioned, my initial plans didn't work at all and really the only strategy I've seen consistently work is acquire, acquire, acquire.

It's sort of like the old rts' where whomever owns the most resource points wins. I know that's the goal of the game anyway, but it would have been nice to see a little more layers to the game that allow other play differently for different outcomes.

Which could still happen, I could just be terrible at trying something other then overt capture and conquering.

I tell you though, the plan may have worked if my norther neighbor stayed in the game because there would have been resistance to Remos massive expansions and later on if Jennoa, understandably, didn't have to leave Ethos would have never had a second wind. So, yeah, weird game that one.

Also, I'm not sure if it was because of what happened last game, but wow, Wizards Traverse had the most disagreeable players, I couldn't make deals with anyone without the stink eye or at all... and this time I was playing 100% truthful good. Even near the end when I offered legitimate good deals to people I couldn't get them to swing any which way.

[Chris]

Yeah I don't care about sharing reasons for what/why/how I did things. I am disappointed that no one other than Shmeptune actually gave Remo grief. Maybe it's e-celebrity syndrome. I had good reasons not to, but the Cyan/Red/White Alliance should have shifted focus much much earlier than they did (or did they ever really shift focus ).

Also, in every game I've played, missing players imbalances things greatly. I was able to steamroll Wurtsi and then gobble up the Magraviate with Remo very early. That's why I had such ridiculous infrastructure stats.

Which player were you?

Also I think the reason people didn't pay me as much attention was because I was actually pretty middle of the road in infrastructure stats for much of the game, and I was as non-combative as possible for as long as possible. I've gotten in really bitter wars and grudges in past Neptune's Pride games, and it really stressed me out, so this game I made a material decision not to do that. As a result my expansion halted for quite a while at a certain point, particularly when the massive factional war got started, so I mainly just built up.

I'm sure I slipped up a couple times, but until it was clear the game was basically over, I didn't attack players unless it was in self-defense or they had slipped into AI administration, often because they had been heavily damaged by someone who wasn't me.

Also, to be entirely honest, I think I understood the combat system better than most people in the game, which gave me a leg up in a lot of situations. It's possible I was just misreading certain people's actions, but it seemed like some players threw a fair number of ships away at times.

Anyway this was definitely the game where I put past Neptune's Pride lessons I'd learned into play.

[Lauren]

I couldn't make deals with anyone without the stink eye or at all... and this time I was playing 100% truthful good. Even near the end when I offered legitimate good deals to people I couldn't get them to swing any which way.

This was my strategy as well. I wanted to be 100% honest and not screw anyone and I didn't have to until the end. I think the end is when people get super paranoid because at some point someone has to make a move.

I'm sure that my immediate land grab helped a lot. I think my big problem was that I relied too much on trading tech. I was really stingy with my money in regards to science and I pretty much put it all into industry. Science was something that I really wanted to focus on when the game started but at some point, my economy wasn't high enough to justify putting that much money into science points.

I just need to learn to balance better. I've got a much better idea of how to do that after this game. My first two games were public and they didn't teach me anything compared to this one. Also, it's not until the end of the game that I remembered to set up ship building routes. I've done that all three games and I'm going to put a damn sticky note on my monitor for the next game.

Neptune's Pride True Confessions:

I've already told Murdoc about this but right before we went to attack Ethos (SGP), Jennoa was moving a big fleet right through my home star. I wasn't really sure why he was doing it and he could have moved through a dozen other stars that would have made more sense (closer, out of Ethos' line of sight). So naturally, I freaked out thinking he, and possibly Murdoc, were going to double cross me. I thought at that point that I needed a backup plan so I told Chris that he was next to be attacked. Now I don't know how soon the Chris/Ethos alliance began but I've been wondering if that caused it. If so, I effectively screwed Murdoc, Jennoa and myself by doing that.

The funny thing is, Chris and I never traded anything. I just gave him that information. (Where is the face palm emote?)

So I guess that's my question. Was that the point when the alliance began?

Anyway, this was a lot of fun and I definitely want to do it again.

[jennoa]

My early departure from the game certainly came at the worst possible moment for me. It would also seem that I don't understand the combat quite as well as I thought. There were certainly instances where battles didn't go the way I planned.

Before the attack on Ethos was launched I was seriously considering attacking Remo, to the point where I had a large fleet amassed at his borders. Murdoc then emailed me and suggested that we take out Ethos. I thought, eh, what the hell, and went with it. In retrospect that was the turning point of the game for me.

Neptune's Pride True Confessions:

I've already told Murdoc about this but right before we went to attack Ethos (SGP), Jennoa was moving a big fleet right through my home star. I wasn't really sure why he was doing it and he could have moved through a dozen other stars that would have made more sense (closer, out of Ethos' line of sight).

I don't remember what I was doing at that particular moment. No doubt in my mind it was a brilliant maneuver.

[Chris]

Before the attack on Ethos was launched I was seriously considering attacking Remo, to the point where I had a large fleet amassed at his borders. Murdoc then emailed me and suggested that we take out Ethos. I thought, eh, what the hell, and went with it. In retrospect that was the turning point of the game for me.

I assumed you were gearing up to attack me, so I had started to prepare for it, but it's certainly true that since you didn't end up doing so, I was in a stronger position in the long term, and in that respect it was probably also a turning point for me. At least from my perspective, that encounter kicked off the bloodbath involving you, Ethos, and Murdoc, and I tried to stay out of it as much as possible.

[Lauren]

I don't remember what I was doing at that particular moment. No doubt in my mind it was a brilliant maneuver.

It certainly made me super paranoid.

I was totally down for attacking Ethos first too because I wanted to expand South. I'll admit I wasn't looking at the big picture at all. Ethos tried to make a deal with me but I was trying really hard to be loyal to my allies. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if I had teamed up with him.

[SGP]

Hahaha oh well. I wanted to stay good with Remo because Jennoa and Ens allied up early on and I needed a nearby neighbor. I was fine sitting on my stars because I had a resource lead on everyone and would have sat there until the end of time.

Eventually, Murdoc sent me a hurried message saying Jennoa was about to invade him. Naturally, I looked at the stats pages and at Murdoc's territories and nothing had been taken. I told him to let me know when Jennoa was actually committed to an assault and that I would back him up then. His reply: things have changed, I should have taken his offer (and I still am confused about this offer business) and he wished me good luck.

I sat again, and saw ships starting to amass near me by Jennoa, Ens, and Murdoc. I was able to grandstand with a huge amount of ships and Ens and Murdoc seemed to be losing interest in the pursuit, so once they started scuttling ships back, I figured why the heck not and attacked Jennoa's massive fleet. I felt I had it in my rights since he organized a coalition against me, but Murdoc and Ens disagreed.

I had a lot of fun this game defending. I think that's one of the few things I do well, but the numbers eventually caught up to me. I do recommend Jennoa and Ens re-read the tutorial and make use of the battle calculator [http://www.josteinb.com/npCalc/]. Defenders get first strike, with ws+1, so much of my defense was letting 1 ship take out x+1 of theirs.

In future games, you all might want to focus on key stars, instead of every little star. An important strategy in my infrastructure was to invest industry in only high resource stars. That way I could gather my fleets much faster. This works for an offensive player, but once I was being completely invaded, I shifted over to buying as much industry as cheaply as possible. That method makes you a harder bubble to pop. At that point, I didn't care about gathering fleets, I cared about planting myself on the stars for as long as possible.

I do wish that Remo had galloped in to my rescue earlier. He was content with quietly growing and expanding, and although we had been trading tech for a while, I kept trying to point the CRW alliance his direction (even calling them dimwits at one point for not listening to me, which I'm sorry for doing.)

All in all, I am happy I held up as well as I did. Murdoc, I would have been more open to negotiation but my experiences with you led me to see you as being mercurial in your ways. I couldn't turn around and suddenly trust you after you jumped on me for doing nothing to you earlier.

Anyways, I'm up for another game whenever and if you all would have me. I'd really like to play in a game *without* leavers for once, and I have a clever roleplaying crutch that I think you all would find entertaining.

[jennoa]

I had a lot of fun this game defending. I think that's one of the few things I do well, but the numbers eventually caught up to me. I do recommend Jennoa and Ens re-read the tutorial and make use of the battle calculator [http://www.josteinb.com/npCalc/]. Defenders get first strike, with ws+1, so much of my defense was letting 1 ship take our x+1 of theirs.

I know about first strike and all of that. What confused me was that calculator actually. There were numerous times when I lost battles it told me I would win. I say stay away from that damn thing.

[Chris]

I do wish that Remo had galloped in to my rescue earlier. He was content with quietly growing and expanding, and although we had been trading tech for a while, I kept trying to point the CRW alliance his direction (even calling them dimwits at one point for not listening to me, which I'm sorry for doing.)

The primary reason for this is that, in my experience, it's almost impossible to genuinely come to someone's rescue in this game, without simply allying up and parking a bunch of ships on their stars. But generally speaking, attempting to draw fire is a very inconsistent and often inconsequential tactic, I've found.

[SGP]

Yeah I understand, and honestly you clearly made the right choice.

I would caution Murdoc though, the policy of expand-expand-expand probably won't work if you're in a galaxy of people that have their stuff together and decide to jump you. I think the real winner is the one who can grow but stay off the radar, which usually means being right in the middle of things.

Persuasive words count for more than anything in early-mid game. If someone becomes a total giant in late-game, they really can't do much, but if people respond quickly, they can prevent that from happening.

[Murdoc]

Murdoc sent me a hurried message saying Jennoa was about to invade him. Naturally, I looked at the stats pages and at Murdoc's territories and nothing had been taken. I told him to let me know when Jennoa was actually committed to an assault and that I would back him up then. His reply: things have changed, I should have taken his offer (and I still am confused about this offer business) and he wished me good luck.

Oh that's right, Jennoa was lining up my border so I thought I was about to get smoked, so figured if I could make a deal with Ethos he'd want the territory and I just wanted to not be wiped out.

When Ethos didn't take the deal, I figured screw him. hehe.And yeah, fair enough about the trust as my motives changed from minute to minute in the game.

I was pretty dead set on playing neutral in the game and didn't plan on attacking anyone. I figured I could just buff my neighbors enough that they would conquer the galaxy. But my plans folded when not enough stars or economy could produce significant research, then Diumm left.

But I still remained truthful, if not overly neutral. Not sure what the term would be, but basically being upfront and honest with every offer, having zero motive except the "right" course of action at any given time. I didn't care if Jennoa came out on top or Ethos, just whomever wouldn't attack me at the moment.

Since Bdmonkey and Diumm were MIA Remo was able to collect the north without much of a scuffle or anyone being vocal about this. And Ethos was making sense about Ethos, but since I had no motives, I just went with whatever course of action panned out at the moment. Who cares if Remo took over, I figured I could just cut a deal with him in the future, even insuitated that if he didn't attack me I'd just march on someone for him to soften them up for his conquering.

He's a tough nut to crack, wouldn't take any offer.

So by the time the war was in full swing with Ethos Remo was a super power, by the time it was probably too late if everyone could have agreed to tank one civilization I think we would have had a chance, with all our combined incomes we could have maxed out one of us to compete with Remo on some level. Understandably Ethos wasn't down with it and Jennoa went MIA making most of that idea fizzle... though I still think that would have been cool. Basically smaller states feeding money to create a superpower to have a bipolar galaxy.

So there wasn't much left, Remos science and industry was way too much for any two or even three civilizations to handle, so it was either wait for death or just go kill someone out of spite, so I picked Ethos. I think Ens was doing the same and when Jennoa came back probably thought why not as well. So yeah, it was all about spite, not how to damage control.

Confession

Though I did have a last thought of declaring war on Ens when the last 5 stars were about to be taken by Remo, I was going to scoop up just enough to get second(at this point my roleplaying went out the window anyway) but he nabbed them up too quickly when I wasn't watching so I didn't get that chance.

It was the last 40 minutes of the game anyway, so I don't think anyone noticed as I was too slow to even get to the first one, lol.

[Chris]

Confession

Though I did have a last thought of declaring war on Ens when the last 5 stars were about to be taken by Remo, I was going to scoop up just enough to get second(at this point my roleplaying went out the window anyway) but he nabbed them up too quickly when I wasn't watching so I didn't get that chance.

It was the last 40 minutes of the game anyway, so I don't think anyone noticed as I was too slow to even get to the first one, lol.

I noticed! I probably noticed everything that everyone did for the last few hours of the game, because I had basically full map visibility and I was glued to my screen, refreshing compulsively, trying to do anything I could to get the game to keep every star I had so the game would end as soon as possible and I could finally relax.

[Hermie]

Well, it was my first time playing, so I basically spent most of my short lifespan figuring shit out. I was dark red, situated at the top left of the map.

I made a non-aggression pact with bdmonkey early on, because the two of us were the northernmost guys. Inevitably, I got attacked by Dium, and slowly losing ground.

After a while of this, Murdoc contacted me, asking me to join forces with him and Dium, to face against bdmonkey. I was hesitant, because I'm not the backstabbing type, but I realized it was either that or face extinction.

So I did, and turned around to face bd, but that was the point where I had my exams, so I went away for a few days. When I came back, bd was all but extinct from Remo, and not only had Dium turned AI and was thus attacking me, but Murdoc had taken a lot of my stars too!

I realized that I had lost, so because of Murdocs betrayal, I sent my remaining ships in his direction, surrendering the other stars to Remo.

[dibs]

I got beat up pretty quick. After a few half hearted attempts to get people to attack my agressors failed i didn't have too many options left but to fade away.

[SGP]

Ah Dibs, if I had made an alliance with you and sat on your stars to help fend them off, I think it would've paid off in the long run. It would've been nice to have another ally in the south

Unfortunately, I was preoccupied with grabbing stars in the east. My apologies~

[jennoa]

I got beat up pretty quick. After a few half hearted attempts to get people to attack my agressors failed i didn't have too many options left but to fade away.

On a side note you're about to wipe me out in Puffin's Galaxy. At this point you've got that game wrapped up.

[Murdoc]

Well, it was my first time playing, so I basically spent most of my short lifespan figuring shit out. I was dark red, situated at the top left of the map.

I made a non-aggression pact with bdmonkey early on, because the two of us were the northernmost guys. Inevitably, I got attacked by Dium, and slowly losing ground.

After a while of this, Murdoc contacted me, asking me to join forces with him and Dium, to face against bdmonkey. I was hesitant, because I'm not the backstabbing type, but I realized it was either that or face extinction.

So I did, and turned around to face bd, but that was the point where I had my exams, so I went away for a few days. When I came back, bd was all but extinct from Remo, and not only had Dium turned AI and was thus attacking me, but Murdoc had taken a lot of my stars too!

I realized that I had lost, so because of Murdocs betrayal, I sent my remaining ships in his direction, surrendering the other stars to Remo.

Oh yeah, sorry about that, I needed a Northern expansion to either retreat to or build and you were the only one smaller then me at the moment. That was right around the time my neutrality plan went to shit.

I figured that if dium stuck in it you could have expanded into bdmonkeys territory and all of that would have stopped Remo from expanding above.

And for the record it wasn't a betrayal, we had no agreements what so ever, our living god Neptune demanded that you stop fighting with our neighbor, you didn't have to listen to him.

In the end the Green Remos liberated out home planet killing the mind controlling alien who was forcing us to worship him as the space god Neptune. It truly was a relief, we left our newly liberated home and settled in the Ethos empire, so everything worked out for my people.

[Lauren]

Though I did have a last thought of declaring war on Ens when the last 5 stars were about to be taken by Remo, I was going to scoop up just enough to get second(at this point my roleplaying went out the window anyway) but he nabbed them up too quickly when I wasn't watching so I didn't get that chance.

It was the last 40 minutes of the game anyway, so I don't think anyone noticed as I was too slow to even get to the first one, lol.

Haha. That's pretty funny because the "good reason to keep the game going" I mentioned earlier was to get you to third place. I figured I would try to do that to make up for blabbing about our plans and because you basically locked me in to second with the last ditch effort to team everyone up against Chris.

[Murdoc]

On a side note you're about to wipe me out in Puffin's Galaxy. At this point you've got that game wrapped up.

I was just starting to get somewhere in it too, but while Im still playing like its the first 3 days when everything is slow as crap and there is no room to expand dibs is winning the game, lol.

Man what a weird galaxy, afkers on 3 sides of me, an AI bot, who turns out isn't an AI bot but actually someone(unless dibs lied about blue contacting him) on the other side, we just piled ships up to next each other and stared at each other for 3 weeks, now its basically game over.

I think we basically just did what Toblix and Boris did in the first game, it feels so weird like a totally other game was going on out there.

[jennoa]

I think we basically just did what Toblix and Boris did in the first game, it feels so weird like a totally other game was going on out there.

Yeah, that game has been quite different. Unfortunately for me it was over before it started. By the time I had researched the range tech to let me expand all the other stars had been acquired.

[Joflar]

Would people be up for another game?

[Murdoc]

Would people be up for another game?

I'm going to be MIA in july; but will be back in aug, but would like another one sometime. I think a bit of a break will be nice though, not like the previous two have been super intense.

It'd be nice to get a list of people that are willing to stick it out in the end (come back Marek, you can still change the course of the galaxy!) as the previous two games seemed to have toppled over because of a few key drop outs.

[toblix]

After my longer than usual stint as Space Gentleman, I've got the taste for more.