Sorry Ace, I’m not really going to be able to play much for the next few days. Things are crazy busy here at Iron Helmet HQ.
thanks for the game Jay. Hope all is well
Yep, Ace kicked my butt!
I was aggressive early but made a few missteps and Ace was able to park large fleets on the doorstep. I was unlucky in tech and only received experiments in experimentation, sanning and I think range.
I conceded defect because I was basically pinned on the my homeworld. Things were stabilizing but I was behind on both tech and two fairly good stars, and a whole point of science. Even If I played well, the numbers were against me, he would slowly grind me down.
After an extremely hard fought battle, I prevailed over kexsel - very enjoyable mano-mano game against a skilled opponent - fun stuff!
I still think these duel games would benefit from a larger galaxy for more nuanced play - below is a screenshot of the final techs. As I mentioned earlier (and obvious from looking at the small maps/parameters), there’s a temptation to just forgo the Science aspect since the fighting is fast & furious with the game being decided fairly quickly.
Note that the Experimentation Dice Gods didn’t do kexsel any favors by finishing Range … which is almost worthless in such short-lived games. Jay’s “unlucky in tech” comments also tie into this … a longer game would smooth out the randomness and allow different strategies to emerge. Plus we might actually see Warp Gates used as a strategic tool.
Just squeaked past the major. Fantastic map with homeworlds almost in scanning distance of each other. 
Ok just Dysp and Unicycle to go!
If you’d like to do a random.org pairings and I’m not playing the winner of Dysp/Unicycle, be happy to get started on my game if my opponent is up for it. I’ve got some major travel starting the 2nd week of February.
This has been a blast LDG - thanks again for organizing and everyone for playing.
The Reign of Awesome has ended! Long live Rosslessness! Thanks for the game, such a different experience in that galaxy with everything almost on top of everything else.
Great game Hulk, I now know how Loki must have felt after your encounter in Avengers. 
I wonder if a bigger galaxy and starting all techs further along would make for closer games. Early on there are a few techs where if you get to level 2 first you could have a significant advantage that can last days. It seemed to work starting weapons at 3, why not all the other techs?
Also, it would be nice if the minimum distance between stars could be increased. It wouldn’t have been an issue in real time games, but even with 6h turns I ran into the situation that ultimately lost me the game which was I knew attacks would come but could not see which star the attacks were targeting until 6h into their travel, meaning i would not have enough time to send ships to respond. Increasing the space between stars would minimize this potential for indefensible attacks.
Or we could go hardcore with a real-time tournament.
That said it has been fun and I don’t want to take anything from Hulk’s victory, he definitely earned it.
Yeah, it was the same for me. I was trying to use it aggressively against golden ace at the start of the game, but at one point I guessed wrong, he guessed right, and everything went bad for me.
Good comments kexsel … although I wouldn’t increase the level of the other techs. I.e. instead, I’d use those simple earlier suggestions I made which effectively lengthens the game to balance things out. It also gives you a chance to recover from “you guessing wrong, your opponent guessing right … and all downhill from there” as Jay pointed out.
Or at least I think so … we’d have to try some game play to see how it works.
Having said that, there is something to be said for just close-in fighting … it’s a nail-biter!
I’d rather go for 24 stars a player, but keep things close. We want fast and nasty!
I’m cool with that too - it’s brutal in tight quarters.
Ross: if Jay will create a game for us (and with LDG’s blessing), want to go up against the Big Green Guy in the semi-finals?!?
I’m ready for you if you are ready for me …
Im sure I’ll see you in the final!
@LDG It seems that @Unicycle247 just went AFK couple of hours ago. I hope everything is ok for him.
What do the tournament rules say about this situation?
Don’t mind really.
You win!
I’m going to bed, will draw next round during my lunch break tomorrow
Semi finals here we come! Who has the mettle to make it to the final round?