[Imperial Historian]

It's your go so we can't carry on

[Gnaw]

Imperial Historian, on 20 June 2014 - 08:38 AM, said:

Gnaw can you really afford to be giving up Procyon, trapping all your ships as even passing through territory with morgoth ships in will give you the traitor card if you have dip relations, and give up a VP from your 2vp token? You are already anchoring the bottom with points.

Regarding your cruiser, I'm willing to build some ships to free it up for more offensive duties, just say the word.

Re betraying alliance its actually a 5-9 point VP hit, depending on if you take the traitor card and how many diplomatic relations you break. Hardly a minor VP loss. I perfectly understand the if someone nearly wiped me out I'm going to try and stop them winning mentality without regards to my own score, but the I'm part of an alliance but not doing well, I'll leave and try and help the alliance win that way is fundamentally different.

I need resources for the last round or I might as well pass now. And Morgoth can out initiative me, out fight me, and out build me using +3 equipped flux missile interceptors. So I see no reason not to placate him rather than intentionally antagonizing him. Of course I'm not good at this so tell me where my logic is wrong please.
I don't plan on trading ambassadors until my ship is safely gone from his territory.

[Imperial Historian]

I guess it depends on if morgoth gets artifact key, if he doesn't he isn't going to be able to waste resources digging you out of minor 1 VP provinces, and even if he nukes you in Procyon you'd still get the resources from the hex. You need him to also have his ship not in delta corvi, as otherwise any ship you build has to go through his territory/ships and pick up the traitor card. So if he moves out of your way it's maybe a good idea, but I'd hold out for Procyon too. It is more valuable to morgy you not attacking him, as he wants to able to focus on stopping the hippies and holding what he has, than him not attacking you, as regardless if he nukes you this round you still get the production and research for the final round from CFS hexes, and it spreads him a lot thinner. Him nuking them could almost be better if it allows you to shift everything to money on the final round.

If he gets artifact key its pretty much game morgoth... And in that case I'd say you don't want to diplo him as it's just someone else off his back and he is even more likely to win. But diploing him and both of us attacking the hippies would probably be our best chance of 2nd.

So in conclusion, I wouldn't, but if you do don't negotiate easily, you are in a lot stronger position than you might think.

[Morgoth]

Pretty much game Morgoth is maybe a slight exaggeration. Even if I was to acquire another artifact, D'rek would still have more materials than I do, and a substantially stronger economy for next round.

[Imperial Historian]

Yeah but drek is in a weaker position VP wise due to her allies, spread out hexes and non upgraded ships. If you get Procyon/another artifact you'd have 40+ material which is more than enough to build all your ships and halt most aggressive designs. Even with your current 5 artifacts worth of material you'd be comfortably able to deal with tapper and what khell and drek can muster this turn. With cf around you were in a strong position, but even with the loss of his ships I think you are actually in a stronger position now.

[Khellendros]

Sorry about the delay, I'm currently on a research trip so it's going to be like this from me until mid-July in all likelihood. But today is Sunday, day of rest, relaxation, and trying to work out what I should do in Eclipse. So I'll go and do that then.

[Khellendros]

This has probably already been discussed somewhere, but: Tapper I wonder if you should research artifact key. It doesn't do much for you but it would be a spoiling move against Morgoth. A Morghy with fewer resources is a more vulnerable Morghy, and I think the only way we can win is to see him deprived of some hexes and their VPs.

[Khellendros]

Hmm, my options this round aren't great really. There's nothing useful (or even useless) for me to research. I guess I will build this round - I can either do a cruiser or stretch to a couple of interceptors if I exchange some science...and then I guess use them to harry Morgoth at one end. Thoughts? I think my options are pretty limited.

[twelve]

Khellendros, on 23 June 2014 - 12:19 AM, said:

Hmm, my options this round aren't great really. There's nothing useful (or even useless) for me to research. I guess I will build this round - I can either do a cruiser or stretch to a couple of interceptors if I exchange some science...and then I guess use them to harry Morgoth at one end. Thoughts? I think my options are pretty limited.

You know it's your turn in the other eclipse game as well right? And yeah build this round is as good as anything else you can do. Not that I'm paying even a smidge of attention to the rest of the board. Survival at all costs and all.

[Tapper]

Pre-emptively: research Artifact Key.
Turn all the gains (5 points) into materials.

[Khellendros]

Exchange 3 science for 1 materials - BUILD 2 interceptors in Lambda Serpentis.

[Morgoth]

Hmpf, well that's what I get for risk. I guess I might have chosen to do otherwise had I spent less time looking at the numbers, but I honestly couldn't find a way to keep a point lead without those extra ten materials.

[Imperial Historian]

Any ideas on future strategy gnaw/tatts?

I guess at this stage both of you grabbing as many hexes as possible, and getting production up as high as possible so you can get some ships down makes the most sense.

Massive aggression against either of the two alliances right now is probably not in our best interests. Reclaiming hexes and getting a higher production is probably our best bet. At this stage new tech is not going to make much difference in terms of VP or game advantage I don't think so maybe shuffle economies to focus on production? Our ships won't be top range, but we might be able to grab something. Gnaws missile cruisers/dread are fairly challenging to counter, and tatts ships will be great if he gets some more.

Gnaw I can free up your cruiser with some builds, maybe possible to grab some good hexes this way. Tatts do you want me to support you vs drek? I can probably get some ships over to you, but I don't know if you will need them/whether it will make a difference if she really wants to defend the hex. I'd grab fusion source while you can, so you can use more plasma cannons.

[Tattersail_]

I hear you IH, I have been listening to what you are saying and think Fusion source is my best bet.

[Khellendros]

Surely it's in your alliance's interests to take Morgoth down a peg or two as well? It's all very well acquiring more hexes, but it will still land you third out of three alliances in the end.

We should utterly destroy Morgoth, and then fight to the death over the corpses of his people!

[Gnaw]

I'm all for resources this round. But I'm waiting to make any decision to see what Morgoth is going to do. It's his turn.

IH, the thing about my cruiser is that it's probably more useful to the alliance if it stays where it is helping to bottle twelve up. You can build anywhere once we start to see a pattern form.

[Imperial Historian]

Gnaw, on 25 June 2014 - 06:08 PM, said:

I'm all for resources this round. But I'm waiting to make any decision to see what Morgoth is going to do. It's his turn.

IH, the thing about my cruiser is that it's probably more useful to the alliance if it stays where it is helping to bottle twelve up. You can build anywhere once we start to see a pattern form.

I'm going to build at least a few interceptors to keep twelve bottled up for a bit longer anyway. That frees up my cruiser if I need it, and your cruiser as well. I actually think your cruiser currently carries more offensive threat against most folks, so having either available could work well.

Not sure what morgoth plan is, he might move the cruiser in delta corvi to avoid being pinned by khell, go for an influence or just research. Is there another artifact key still in the bag?

Tapper looks like he will be able to move two buff dreads against one of morgys hexes so I guess he will be holding off building for as long as possible.

Going to be an interesting couple of rounds!

[cerveza_fiesta]

i still can't believe I ballsed up that last round so severely. Took morgoth from good chance of winning to a good chance of defeat now. eff.

[Galactic Council]

Round 8 Action Phase


Turn 1

Morgoth - Influence - Kappa Volantis, placing cubes on both econ and one materials planet. Return disc and cubes from Nu Ophiuchi and place same disc on Fomalhaut. Flip two colony ships back up.

IH - I researched plasma cannons, trading 6 material for science. Sorry if you missed it.

Twelve - build Dread and interceptor you know where.

Gnaw - Move interceptor from 212 hive to Procyon.

Tatts - build I dread in the hex with my cruiser, 8 materials

D'rek - DEVelop Artifact Link

Khell - Exchange 3 science for 1 materials - BUILD 2 interceptors in Lambda Serpentis.

Tapper - Pre-emptively: research Artifact Key. Turn all the gains (5 points) into materials.

Turn 2

Morgoth - *crickets*

IH

Twelve

Gnaw

Tatts

D'rek

Khell

Tapper
[/quote]

[Morgoth]

Yeah, I know I'll work out something soon. I'm getting married in a week, so I'm having trouble focusing on the game.