just a quick note. Dethadder has pmed me and offered his help in running the elections. So when voting begins guys, direct your pm's to either myself or Dethadder please.



No we are fine mate....



So with JustinSane4 we are back to a 5 man team.

Thanks for contributing an opinion.


Great. I didn't remember that I had the foresight to include teams in the tie rule. It's also clear I don't have the rules memorized. But as Scorekeeper you've probably looked at them more recently than I have.

As far as team ties in both categories go that's a *lot* more unlikely to be accomplished but if any team can do so then they absolutely deserve a bonus point.

Well played everyone.

Now that this round is over...

Wyndstar, how did you get that great 0yr score? I'm still trying to figure it out.

Ferrel.

Actually I went back and re-read the section related to team ties and in fact they really aren't specified the same way individual ties are although it is a matter of picky sematics and knowledge of how the text evolved that makes me come to that conclusion.

I don't want to make a big deal about this but the text actually reads as follows.


The aspect of this that is not clear is that at the time this was written individual ties were not broken by the "other" criteria and so reference to team ties being treated "as with individual bonuses" did not specifically refer to score breaking speed ties and vice versa.

The rule about speed ties being broken by score for individual bonuses was added later and at that time I changed the wording under the individual bonus points section but made no change to the team bonus point tiebreak criteria.

I also carefully looked at the wording that was voted and approved for the individual bonus tiebreak and nowhere was mentioned ties for team bonus points.

I therefore conclude that we currently don't have anything specified about ties for team bonus points.

However as I said I don't wish to make a big deal about the situation and think the proposal that team ties *should* be handled just as we do individual ties is a totally reasonable proposal that I would expect that the league could accept by consensus.

Therefore I propose that we simply change the wording listed above to the following that explicitly mentions this case.

Hi!

That's exacly what I asked him. He answered he had luck with habitable planets, and he also had MCC in May. Early enough to almost double his econ score.

BR, Iztok

Well, I played an all-labs strategy along with a simple spore rush, and I did manage to colonize a few close systems. I usually skip colonization all together on smaller maps, but I had a few planets right next door so I couldn't resist leasing a few colonizers.

My first year of my Altarian Rebellion AAR looked real close to my first year of this game. I never built a factory, but I did go straight for concepts of malice and a MCC to try and afford my spore ships and research.

Perhaps this summary of my end scores will help you:



Good luck next round.

So, uh, how did my team do?

~ Wyndstar

You may ALSO notice that in my 20 turn suicidal game I managed a score of 24850, which was quite a bit higher than my 50 turn game which I submitted here (only 20650). True, the tech rate I think was 1 different.

Still, I might be a bad teammate, but I didn't play several games with the league settings going for the best score. As time was a factor, I just submitted the first one I tried. I think I could push that 0 year score quite a bit higher with a few tries, especially if I got lucky with starting tiles.


You know how it goes though, on medium and smaller maps, fortune (and score) favors the bold. The very, very bold.

~ Wyndstar

It would be useful if some other people that got 0-year DA wins would enlighten us on what methods they used to achieve it. Anybody care to comment?

Sentient species taste better...

Ah, Mumble, no reason to fear. DL is very competitive for the fast win, in fact, its easier. Engine techs are cheaper, its just harder to score well going fast.

Just for fun, and because it only took me 10 minutes, here is a 10 turn suicidal victory using the latest patch of DL. No fancy super abilities or funky stat maxing... but suddenly I have anomalies that give WAAAAAY more cash.



This isn't a submission to the league of any kind, just way of example that the zero year win is very easy in DL as well.

Hope that helps,
~ Wyndstar

I am definately outclassed with these 0yr wins. I don't think I could ever get one. Also DethAdder could you please send me the password for team A. Thanks.

Hehe...no Wyndstar, I meant some additional people should comment, so Mumble's fears could be quelled about being at a disadvantage playing DL. You've always been helpful with lots of details.

Sentient species taste better...

I regret bringing up the topic. I hope no one thinks I am questioning anything about anyone's game or implying that anyone is holding back anything. I had no intent to be accusatory, I was simply seeking understanding.

The information you referenced is significant, in fact far too significant to digest in the moment between my eating breakfast and my wife yelling at me to get in the shower or she would, which would make me at least an hour late to work.

I fully intend to read through the AAR that you referenced and I'm sure that I'll be able to gain significant insight from it.

However like I said I was looking for understanding and you do have to see the point that a quest for understanding one thing is not helped by the display of information on another thing that on the face of it is even more amazing than what you asked about in the first place.

No one here is questioning anyone's ability or integrity. Like I said I would have rather simply have never asked the question than to have anyone think that I was impuning anyone's game or character.

What I assume Kzinti's comment meant was the same thing I was trying to say that your game is not neccesarily a good game to take as a model of average play since it obviously is not average by any stretch of the imagination.

At this point I still don't have the understanding that I initially sought however I prefer to drop the subject rather than be perceived as questioning anyone.

No, its alright. The internet often breeds misunderstanding. I didn't think you were attacking my character or skills, I thought you didn't think that I was being clear. I try to give good advice, and I was failing to see where I went wrong.

But these games are super fast to play through, so... although I will regret it later tonight, I put off work a little longer to do you a very quick AAR on EXACTLY the play settings for this league using DL 1.5. Here goes:

Knowing I want to blitz early, soldiering bonuses are going to be important, as is research. Here is my starting list of abilities:


Turn 1 I research better labs, go to 100% research and production, and sink my taxes to keep my approval up. Here is my starting planet:


Not great but workable. On turn 2 I switch to impulse drive for a quick speed boost, and manage to get two steps in the tree done this turn. I add a new factory to my home planet:


On turn 3 I start researching towards planetary invasion, and take stock of my situation. As usual, I just ignore colonizing completely:


While the Thalans and Altarians madly build colonizers as if it will matter, I methodically research up to the "ultimate" tech in the game, PI - and do NOTHING else. On turn 9 I have my first transport:

Speed is king by the way in DL, so here is the design:


I continue to kick out a transport every turn. On turn 11 I knock out the Thalans at the cost of two transports:


I continue to lease buy transports as often as I can, and by turn 14 I've attacked the Altarians:


Again, it costs me two transports, but by turn 16 I've taken the Altarian jewel. Now the rest of the game is a simple job of finding where their colonists landed.


By turn 20 I find the first outlying colony and easily capture it. I went away from invasion line for more speed and longer range techs in research, just in case I have problems finding the colonies.


On turn 22 I finally have a transport scout out the last two Altarian worlds. It will take me a few turns to fly transports out here, lets hope they don't have enough money to buy fighters.


By turn 26 I have the last planet surrounded, but they now have a few scouts for defenders:

Fortunately, I always mix in a few particle beam transports with my early rush crowd:


And by turn 27 its over:


Using exactly the settings for this particular league round. Also, submit another game to the metaverse for this morning:



Again, not a high score, but early score is much harder to get in DL because of the lack of real raping of bonuses, and I'm not using any of my super cool early game score techniques in this simple demo. Hopefully this step by step illustration answers whatever questions or tricks you think are involved in a zero year win on a smaller map.

I'm sorry if I was unclear, to me it seems simple, and I really don't mean to seem to be talking down to anyone. You just build labs, get PI, and win. Its about as easy as the year 0 altarian tech win, where you just build labs and research. Starting location can help, so can bonus tiles, but neither is necessary.

The AI just can't handle if you never build colonizers and instead just start invading. Its like Brad never thought of it

All kidding aside though, its a hard thing to plan for if you don't expect people to approach the game that way. It IS easier with the Korath, because i can have my first spore ship by turn 6, and then I can ignore any further soldiering techs or a soldiering bonus in my abilities. And its faster if I get good bonus tiles, which for this round I did not.

I really hope that helps. And if you get the chance, please read my other AAR too, it may help more. If there is anything else I can do to help illustrate a rush win, let me know, I'll try what I can.

I understand yelling wives too
~ Wyndstar