| | Hello Commanders, here's my sector recap. It has three... | Write Reply |
| Hello Commanders,
here's my sector recap. It has three parts:
1. Pirates and PLS
2. Pirate campaign advantages
3. Sector experience report (Pirates' view without having looked into the other players' turns)
Please forgive bad spelling and grammer. I really wanted to do this and share my experience. If I'd tried to use clean language it probably would have taken so long that the project would have been endangered.
+++ Pirates and PLS +++
PLS is terribly bad for Pirates. Some reasons:
1. Ship slots aren't worth anything in PLS-Planets. You lose a ship? You build a new one. You conquer a ship while you are at your PLS-limit? It vanishes immidiatly.
In normal Planets a Pirate steals not only the ship but also the slot which allows a good Pirate to slowly create an overwhemling fleet. This aspect of a steal is irrelevant in PLS.
So the value of the Pirates's main weapon is at least halfed in PLS-Planets.
2. Pirates are bad in defending and even more in attacking planets. Defense is quite ok in normal Planets because any attacker of a Pirate planent faces the danger that the attacking ship is stolen. But in PLS this matters much less, see point 1.
3. Pirats are a race which typically needs more ships than others. They're a lurking race which has to set up traps and wait. Setting up traps means you need a few ships searching for a victim, a nearby wolfpack to rob and quite some sweepers to keep the area free of mines. It can take a lot of time until you make a catch and during this time all those ships don't contribute to expansion or anything else. In normal Planets it's worth the investment because a stolen ship has a very high vlaue. In PLS it hasn't, see point 1. And the Pirates generally have a hard time to conquer and hold planets to get the many ships they need, see point 2.
4. Stealing ships requires you to scrap ships in advance to get below your PLS limit. If you don't then the stolen ship will vanish immidiatly. Tow capture happens after ground combat so you can never be sure how many ships you have to recycle to really keep a cruicial steal. So you have to recycle a bunch of ships and you have to do it even without knowing if the rob will be successful. Tow capture also is after the first building phase which means that if you want to steal a ship you shouldn't queue ships in that turn.
5. The important Pirate tactic of using ships in combat which get captured and then are taken back by rob doesn't work anymore. E.g. if you use a Merlin as leading ship against a Rex/Missy/Vicky/DW then the Merlin will be conquered but vanishes immidiatly if the conquerer is already at his PLS-limit. No chance to get that expensive Merlin(s) back.
Of course there are also some helpful aspects of PLS for Pirates, especially that you can easily replace ships lost to mine hits or the typically destroyed tower to the wolf pack. But these advantages are far from compensating the disadvantages.
+++ Campaign features +++
I had actived
* Steal fighters: I just wanted to try it out. In this sector it had little impact - as expected. In normal Planets with campaign it can be useful to conquer undefended maxbases without losses. You could use 3+ Red Wind carriers to steal enough fighters that your aquired 10-beam-carrier has 100% winning odds. In PLS-Planets you can as well use sacrifice ships.
* Red Wind Storm-Carrier: Useful ship if you play with stellar cartography because of the advanced cloak in nebulas. See chaper "Goodies".
* Starbase mine sweeeping: This is really expensive. Not only in advantage points but also to use in the game. If you don't know: the base doesn't sweep with the beam type which is displayed as combat strenght but with the beam tech level. So you have to pay extra for good beams. But it's still useful in the late game when you have the money for the tech and your enemy has the money for huge minefields. As a Pirate you want your ships to cloak, tow or rob instead of being on sweeping duty.
* Dwarfstar II: As the higher hull mass isn't relvant as a PP-cost in PLS it's simply a better ship than the Dwarfstar in every aspect. A good cloaking transport and sweeper which can even survive the first minehit on the way to the enemy warp well.
I had deactivated
* Br4: I have regretted deactivating it. In a PLS-game a w5-laser-Br4 can be built with little money at your new frontline bases and quickly come into action as tower or fighter stripper.
* Br5: In my opinion the 30 advanatge points are always worth more as this in-between ship. Use the Br4 if you need a cheap ship and the MBR is you have money
* Refinary: As Pirate in a turn limited game I was hoping to have enough fuel without. I guessed right.
* Dwarfstar, Red Wind: for obvious reasons
Pleasure Planets, Hide in Warp Wells, Starbase mine laying, Ourider/Skyfire Transport and Little Pest Escort I haven't researched. Of these, only Starbase mine laying and Hide in Warp Wells seem interesting to me.
Let me add that the Pirates initially had an excellent campaign ship but Joshua replaced it with the Skyfire Transport because his statistics showed that noone used it. I three times curse all Pirate commanders from this time for doing so! :) It was a cruiser type ship with 4 tubes, 200+ mass and big cargo space/fuel tank. When I faced a campaign Pirate for the first time I much feared this ship and I hoped to use it myself later. Such a good planet defender in the early game and base defender in the late game! It won against Coldpain, Emperald, LCC, Resolute, was on eye-level with the Nebula and two of them even dealt easily with an Diplomacy or Ill Wind.
+++ Sector experience report +++
T1: Here we are
Waking up in a tiny 4-planets-cluster. The good news: I can move 162 LJ in one turn so I'm not busted immidiatly. The bad news: To stay unseen I have to tow my freighters with an MBR which binds two ships.
I'd rate this cluster as a bit below average. One planet had good temperature and good natives, the other two had bad temperature and one abundant mineral but in low density. No Duranium.
T4: We are not alone
My western neighbour is Sunny - a good name for an EE commander :) I know Sunny from a recent game. He's a very nice guy and I feel sorry about his unlucky fate.
No need to hide against him because he dark senses me anyway. Now a typical Pirate dilemma shows up: Do I destroy this helpless neighbour asap or do I wait until he has built something nice for me? PLS favours only one answer for Pirates: destroy asap.
T8: The second base
Frostie of the Federation is the overnext northwestern neighbour and he's at least partly in a nebula. This puts a hard halt on any Pirate expansion in this direction.
Second base built on the Humanoid planet in my tiny home cluster. It's meant for building Lady Royals now as money makers and rob outlets and later my big gun - the mighty Merlin.
T9: An early punch
Commander Koski hits my homeworld with a Falcon RGA. Infrastructure and treasure is halfed, colonists are at 30 happiness. I get a Falcon in return. I had better deals.
T11: Thrilling fights
The funny one: Sunny's SSF with no beams and no torps engages two times with the LDSF I tow captured earlier from him. Sunny builds his ships without beams so I can't rob with them once I have stolen them.
The decisive one: A SSCruiser with 700+ mass attacks my homecluster. I didn't see it coming. It can hit any of the 4 planets. I invest much of my resources for defense. Nevertheless this will be game over if the SSC has too many fighters and hits my homeworld.
SSC has 45 fighters, no beams and hits my secondary base. Two w1-Laser-Dwarfstars strip enough fighters so that the base wins. Remember base mission "refuel" when you need a last minute defender to strip some fighters.
Yippie, that was my second birthday in this sector.
T14: Emperors united?
North of me is Klingon mastermind SMN. Of course my life is in his hands. I have nothing against an early Usva. I can only hope someone else keeps him busy.
Or maybe he likes the idea of Emperors fighting back to back? There were already some public demands for the Emperors' heads. I indicated my proposal in the game feed and even without clear confirmation we had peace thoughout the game. Thanks for this, SMN, and I hope that stealing Faqudi's and Koski's carriers helped you in return.
T15+: Fight against Sunny. I'm over his bases and in a control position. But he doesn't give up and keeps me busy. Well done, Sunny.
Sunny is below FoF treshold but FoF hits not before T30. Until then my ships are bound over his bases which I have no means to attack. Expansion is slow. In T15 I have 15 planets, the leader Mursu, Erku, Robijnte have 25, 21,21.
T22: Nice neighbourhood
Now I know all my neighbours for the time after Sunny has gone. Clockwise beginning south it's Robot Treat, Lizard Hiko, Fed Frostie, Klingon SMN, Bird Souvereign, (later replaced by Bird vgapsycho), Klingon Coen and Lizard Mursu. Can a Pirate wish for better neighbours? ;)
Well, I had chosen the Pirates in the hope for a quick death because I was already in "no more new games" mode but couldn't say no to this melee after such a nice PlanetCon. Looks good.
T30: Sunny's cluster at stake
Sunny finally got FoFed but meanwhile Lizard Hiko infiltrated into Sunny's cluster and took Sunny's secondary base. I have no answer to Lizard GA and I can't take bases - not even Hiko's with just 41 clans. I station two Red Wind over Hiko's base. Every turn one of the them robs to keep the fighter count low.
T30+: The end is near
Lizard Hiko attacks from the west and Bird vgspsycho attacks from the east. I'm in defense mood and give my best. I defend with fuel denial, maxbases (streching my economy to the extreme), m8-Skyfires and Merlins. I use MBR+STF to ship clans to the Lizard front. I want 3000+ clans on a planet before I dare to build a base there. Of course this nothing more but buying time against Loki-Rex-Zilla and Resolute-Darkwing.
At least: In the north I have a solid border with Klingon SMN, in the south with Robot Treat, Klingon Coen and - to my surprise - with Lizard Mursu, too.
T42: Good battle with a bad surprise
My 3 HB-Merlins destroy 2 T-Rex at p235. Two of the Merlins got captured in the process as planed and I have ships ready to rob and recapture them. But where are those Merlins? Oh dear, PLS striked! Hiko was at his ship limit when he captured the Merlins and this caused the Merlins to vanish immidiatly. This means I have to build and deliver new Merlins for every battle. Quite a task for a challenged Pirate.
I happy to see that Hiko is also attacking Robot Treat south of me. So he can't throw all his forces against me and this will care for ongoing - maybe even long-term - peace between Treat and me.
T46: Waterloo
I throw all my local forces (2 HB-Merlin, m8-Skyfire, SSCruiser with 70 fighters, 2 MBR) against an attacking couple of T-Rex and Zilla (7 bays, 250 fighters). After all my ships are destroyed the Zilla has 0 shields and 21 damage, fights my maxbase at p235 and ... wins with 99% damage.
T47: Better lucky than dead
Lizard Hiko faces a surprise attacked by EE Erku and it seems Erku has assembled a huge Gorbie fleet. Hiko choses not to send more ships towards me. His little fleet of Loki, LCC, Zilla is still a hard nut for me but somehow I'll get them.
Meanwhile EE Talespin has defeated Fed Frostie in my northwest and I smell bounty. Talespin is nearly all in a nebula but I have a secret weapon - the Red Wind Storm Carrier with advanced cloaking. Not easy to rob a Gorbie with just 85 KT tank but it opens opportunities. I start to attack Talespin's few planets outside the nebula and plan to infiltrate the nebula later with Storm Carriers.
I also got aware that in my north SMN is attacked by Faqudi's Virgos and Koski's Rushs. Looks promising.
T49: Zilla down!
I finally destroy the Zilla in my area with a couple of ships including a full Bloodfang. This Zilla costed me 20.000 mc just for the fighters I threw against it. What mad brain gave such a carrier to the Lizards!?!
Ok, the Hiko thread is history but now I face vgspsycho's Darkwings at the other side of my empire. What to do against them? I have not stolen a significant warship yet.
T52-T54: First bounty
OMG, a curious advanced MBR #60 finds itself on the same planet as a Rush! But my MBR has just 40 fuel and enemy minefields are near. In a nutshell: with chain towing and countermining I secured my first real warship, a Rush - of course with 0 fighters.
T54+: The duck wars
Eastern border: I defend with minefields against Bird vgspsycho and counter attack with a special task force: ground attack a low clan Bird planet, move in Merlin and Rush and build a maxbase asap. This is not so easy to counter because Merlin + Rush demand 3 Darkwings to win and that's not an easy task if you don't know where the next attack will happen.
Then rinse and repeat. I am quite happy to be able to conquer and fortify 5 strategic important border planets from p64 to p271 this way. All that with DWs and Resolutes lurking the the orbits. I move m8-Skyfires on rob mission in random orbits. A Birdmen can still take those out but it costs time and includes some risk. Oh wait, not with Cloak and Intercept because the DW is cloaked when rob happens. Ok, well done, vgspsycho. Lesson learned.
Later vgapsycho shows me that he even has Super Spy Command and destroys all those bases together with the 9000 mc per base I had paid for the fortification.
T60+: Operation nebula
Western Border: I infiltrate Talespin's Nebula with Red Wind Storm-Carriers while Talespin threatens my planets outside the Nebula with free floating Gunboats, Gorbies and mine laying SSFs. I can only dance around those ships as long as they stay in open space and hope not to hit too many mines in the process.
T68: Second bounty
I also visit some planets of SMN - of course with friendly intentions. I'm just searching for Virgos and Rushes which are coming in large numbers to SMN. I hope that my MBRs don't meet a glory device on trg before I could steal a carrier and show SMN that I'm a useful parasite. If SMN would turn on me it would be game over. Those Usvas appear in my nightmares.
In T68 I find a Rush at p169 and can steal it. That can be a big help for operation nebula, I just have to figure out how. The Rush is too valuebale to risk it against a base or a Gorbie.
Btw, my other Rush is fighting on my opposite border which is now 650 LJ away.
T71-T73: Finally ... but not
In T71 I get a Virgo on the hook and tow it to a wolfpack. A 10-beam-carrier! This is what I need against bases. With a Merlin or 2 Dwarfstars as sacrifice ship I can be sure the Virgo wins. Finally I can attack fortified land.
The tow capture happens in T73, the reports tell me that the Virgo was boarded but ... I can't find it on the starmap and no message which explains what happened. It took some minutes until I realize that it is PLS again. But wasn't it said that Pirates can tow-capture up to 10 ships over their PLS limit?!? Oh no, this was only a house rule of the early hand-made PLS-games and I puzzled that. Stupid me!
T76: Alternative tactics for nebulas
Without the Virgo I need a new plan for Talespin's bases in the nebula. Let's do the ones with bad temperature and therefore low population first. In T76 I attack p206 which has 131 clans:
A Red Wind Storm Carrier with full tank is in orbit when two MBRs tow in a Rush with 120 fighters and a Merlin with 2000 clans. All 4 ships arrive without fuel.
2 Gorbies and some other EE ships were in range in T75 and indeed one Gorbie and one SSF flew to p206.
My ships are refueled by the Red Wind, the Merlin takes the planets by ground attack (preventing beam up fuel), I rob SSF and Gorbie and tow capture the Gorbie in the same turn.
This time I take care not to queue any ships but to recycle some ships to stay _safely_ under my PLS limit.
At my eastern front vgspsycho was always good for a ground attack and you never know what other surprise happens.
Hurray, a 10-beam-carrier!
The SSF is not captured but banned into the phantom zone to block one of Talespin's ship slot.
Btw, Of course I had to consider that the base could have been set to "nuk". Therefore combat order was Merlin, Rush and the Rush and the MBRs also had some clans. It was good that I looked up if there's anything special about the combat order in nuk-battles. ;)
After T75: Multiple fronts
Northeast: In T82 Koski rides an ion storm to attack me with 5 Rushs and some command ships. He destroys two of my bases but then diverts towards SMN. I can steal one Rush thanks to the Red Wind which can also cloak in ion storms.
In T88 I make the biggest catch of the game. A MBR finds the low fuel Rush fleet and robs when this fleet tries to depart. 3 Rushs and a Command ship change owner due to a single robbing MBR.
East: vgspsycho continues destroying my bases with super spy command. I can just keep him busy and slow him down with minefields, surprising occurences of a Merlin+Rush, rob traps (no success), fuel denial and ground attacks.
Southeast: In T80 Coen attacks me. I'm not happy because I assume this decides the game in favour of Mursu. Much to my surprise the attack is executed a bit too furious and I can repell it with no carrier losses but end up with an additional Vicky. After some turns of war we make peace at the old border.
It's funny that around T90 Erku shows up also in my southeast, destroys my base at p271 and moves on further east where vgapsycho's DWs are harrasing me. I hope they clash by accident but they don't.
South: Mursu's long awaited big attack starts as late as T94. Reason is that Robot Treat made a brave uphill ride towards Mursu in T70 and kept him busy.
Well, what now comes to me looks like D-Day. But we have just 6 turns left so he can't get too far. Problem is that every planet he takes from me counts as two in our race for victory. I use all means, e.g. I tax my natives into civil war early so when Mursu takes a planet he loses it again. A short as this war is it is very entertaining and has a lot of funny details. E.g. many fights Merlin vs. Rex or flying a _low-id_ Merlin with 250 clans and mission "land and disassemble" to unowned p11 (very unhappy Amorphs) in the last turn to prevent Mursu from doing the same with a LCC.
Northwest: I take one more base from Talespin with Merlin ground attack. I steal one more of his Gorbies which attacked a planet of mine in the nebula. The planet was protected by a fuelless MBR and the notorious Red Wind. As Talespin is also attack by mightly Bird Kwesy he crashes at some point. After that Kwesy and me fight for his remaining planets. Kwesy is still engaged with Robot Quinic and has not many ships in the nebula so I can secure most planets inside.
Southwest: It takes Erku until T86 to defeat Hiko. I don't join this attack because Hiko acted like a gentleman when he engaged me. Well, after Hiko is gone Erku and me fight about his heritage. It's a hard fight and we have a lot of VCRs in turn 100.
After T90: Crazy calculations
The last 10-5 turns of a turn limited game are an unlimited time sink. It's like solving an equatation with many unknown parameters. It was great fun, though. Believe me that I was very unsure about the outcome. In the last turns of a game rob loses it's threat potential. In theory, my neighbours could have appoached with many big ships and waited for the last turn to attack. A Pirate can't do much against ships floating in open space. A few such attacks happened but not many. I could compensate these with some MBRs I had moved in the former territory of Rebel Ndek who was defeated by a combined attack of Erku and vgspsycho. After their victory they divided the area, moved on and left it unguarded.
T100: Happy end
All in all it was enough to end up first. I rate this as my most unlikely victory yet. Of course it couldn't have happened without some lucky events, the attack of Erku on Hiko which saved me from certain death being only one of them. But that's Planets! You can't fully control your fate but you can try to be ready to seize any good opportunity.
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