@Dr_Gaming conceded in our match and I claimed victory in a tough battle, where he used the random warp gates early in the game to surprise me and took an early lead. He was on a straight way to capture the 60% for a long period of the game, but luckily I managed to take back some stars he captured and was able to stay in the game. But TBH, I almost threw in my towel…
In the end, I was lucky to take some of @Dr_Gaming’s strategic key stars and to block his final attacks, which allowed me to pull over the game. But this battle was close!
I really enjoyed the game and I have the feeling that your next opponent will have a hard time! Hope to face you again soon!
Congrats! Just in time before the deadline. According to my rating system, this was to be the closest match, and it looks like you guys indeed made it a banger.
Time for the 3rd round then! As per the Swiss rules, here are the next match-ups (in brackets the countries and updated Top28 World Ranks):
Password is 1vs1 - make sure to join your game within 72 hours - otherwise it will be automatically forfeited. Also be mindful to try and submit at least twice per day so we can get as many clear results by December 7 (adjusted for earlier Round 1 finish) as possible.
If you finish your game, please post about it in this thread to make it easier for me.
Was definitely a close one, fun as well. Feels like I would’ve done better if I reeled in the aggression after a certain point and built up with my star lead. When I was close to getting enough stars for a win I felt like I had to make some attacks and get enough stars but most of them failed and I only got set back further. Either way it was an exciting match.
Also I just joined my next match and it turns out random warp gates can spawn on your starting stars, didn’t know that before.
Finished by game against @Sneferu just earlier. Can’t say any grand strategies were employed, though I was a tick away from taking his home star when the game ended. Map was kind of interesting though, the home stars were off to one side of the map but several stars leading to the opposite side had random warp gates meaning travel was quick in either direction. In the end getting hyper 2 a bit earlier and taking all the far off stars on one side while contesting the other ended the game before any large attacks into enemy territory were made.
Reminder to @SUP, @puffin and @HabitableFiction to join your games by tomorrow. Otherwise they will be forfeited and counted as victories for the other player - who would surely rather play the game
Thanks to @Vernitrax for the fun game and good banter - I took the victory after Vernitrax conceded. A couple of his assaults failed to take ground and I was counterattacking successfully as well as building up an increasing lead in infrastructure and ships.
He cited running into the issue of building early warp gates, and then falling behind economically which I can certainly relate to. In this round, I went for a more slow building, terraforming-focused approach and it worked out.
Haha, well I think risk-taking is a great element of the game, so well done for giving it a shot.
I don’t know if terraforming is always the right choice… I remember playing @HULK once and he went for range off the start to expand more rapidly. But you can’t go wrong with terraforming.
Heck 'ya Terra is good to have - the reduction in cost from Level 1 to 2 is significant, especially with the initial stash of cash. But Hyper is good for expansion … so it’s a toss-up.
That’s the nice thing about the 1v1 parameters - there are different ways to win.
And ditto @Vernitrax what @Macomber about you gotta take some risks (plus this makes the game more fun) … so when you hit the SUBMIT button, you’ll either say “OH YEAH!” or “OH SH*T!”
I won against @HabitableFiction
I took a good lead with an early hyperspace range that allowed me to use the stars in the back to buy cheaper eco and science, and to take advantage of a warpgate on the front line
@gaz123 and my match just concluded, with a close fight ending in a hard-fought win for me. I grabbed a few more stars in the centre early on, but Gaz took both flanks and we were dancing around in terms of who lead on star count for ~200 ticks before I finally managed to pull away. In the end I managed to use my lead on Hyper Range to position some gates strategically just out of his reach, which allowed me to push through on the flanks. Up until the last few turns it could have been anyone’s game though!
The remaining 6 players still actively playing their games have 6 more days to finish them. Keep in mind that wait times will be a factor in the point distribution if a game does not exceed 196 ticks by then.
@kinghuang and I finished our game with me managing to slowly secure a win in the last 60 Ticks.
The game was a very close back and forth fight that needed all my attention and planning. @kinghuang was constantly pressuring me and I was scrambling to defend. Around the 150 tick mark the map was split northeast vs southwest, showing how we both managed to overcome each others forces on one flank each.
Warp gates played a crucial part in my final attack pattern allowing me to summon fleets at a quicker rate as well as take some of his to start pressuring his HP.
This pressure on his backline allowed me then to have a fleet Advantage on the east flank slowly advancing singular planets. An offensive without gates in the beginning. The long distances between many ungatet star lines allowing for easier interception of reinforcements or at least favorable trades.
All in all big compliment to a very hard fought and close game. Too many fights and moments to remember or put in writing. Looking forward to an eventual rematch.
I think that just leaves me and @DarkDragonwing to complete our game, which is very evenly balanced owing to the map configuration. Hopefully we can play out to a result…
I forgot to post my win here, so here I am, won a few days ago. Was close at the beginning but I slowly took over the galaxy and even a few of their back stars towards the end. The difference was becoming a little too big for me to lose and I managed to win, was a nice game, first win of the tourney
Looks like your and @DarkDragonwing’s game played out in a diagonal way, ending up in a position where it’s hard to avoid a stalemate. Not ideal given that the winner would play in the final, but we do have Buchholz scores in place to break the tie (in the tournament, not the game). Stats at Tick 210 look very even right now - I don’t see what’s happening on the map, but if you guys don’t think you’ll get to a clear(er) result soon, I would call it a draw and award you both two points.
If you’re happy to give us another few days, we can maybe try and break the deadlock one way or another - or if that doesn’t happen, we can then call it a draw. Does that sound OK?
I confirmed with @FinrodFelagund that he’s fine to wait a bit longer for the winner of your match, so it’s also fine by me. As mentioned in the OP, I give the finalists flexibility to bilaterally agree on an alternative timeline in this first edition.
