Cluster Game Pallas - Summary from Mutant_Donkeys Point of View --------------------------------------------------------------- Inner-Cluster Consolidation Wars ================================ In the cluster I started in, of five races, three were willing to talk. I allied with them, the other two were taken out. Of us three, one dropped out (at least he stopped talking), so it was down to Z and me. We decided we'd do a lopsided sharing: I would become larger than Z. The World Outside our own Cluster ================================ Relations with the other clusters was friendly with all at first: I had friendly talks with The Huts, Bulls and ScreamingMonkeys, one from each cluster. The four clusters (each began with five races): - Mutant_Donkeys (Murral the Mule), Z (General Z), Devil, MikleMs, CSA - Bulls, Wyzhnyny, Strykyr, SwollenOstrich, Wukas - The_Huts, Autocrazia, CCCP (formerly Dreamship), Elerians, ? - ScreaminMonkeys, ELSM, ISRM, Warlock_Empire, hades Interestingly enough, one cluster managed to keep its numbers up at the the original five. That would make growing room a difficult (unless they got more early enough). The First War between Clusters ============================== It seemed that drive techs were will too low to effectively invade another cluster, when Screaming Monkeys started screaming: they were being invaded by Bulls/Wy/Strykyr/SO, and the first strike was so effective that it was clear that a decisive victory would be declared after one or more two turns. How could this happen? Apparently, Bulls had lured Screaming Monkeys with talks about a possible alliance, Bulls speaking about possibilities while Screaming Monkeys took them as de facto allies. So one of the four clusters had researed drive tech, but failed to defend itself. One down, three clusters left. Three Clusters - The Dance for Domination ========================================= At that point, Bulls, as speaker of his cluster, offered me, as speaker of my cluster, that now my cluster should take out the remaining one, and then we'd slug it out against each other. I considered the options - Huts/Autocrazia/CCCP was, quite differently than ScreamingMonkeys, heavily defended. Drive techs were still so low that having to cross about fivehundred lightyears made ships a lot less effective. So, even if we would manage to defeat them, by that time, the Bulls team, five races with two clusters, would be so powerful that they would be unstoppable. The problem was, the only other option than a treaty with Bulls was war with Bulls and his allies. So we made a treaty... but while it said the idea was that we fight it out after everyone else is eleminated, the treaty did not contain any terms saying we have to do that. Actually it was a treaty of the sort that gives you a headache when reading it. With the exception of a few blunders (one by us for which we gave reparations, and some by the other side which were not really acknowledged), the treaty was adhered to. It lasted until turn 60. And then came the big bad bang for the so called Team Moo: I had made sure ScreamingMonkeys can contact The Huts and his allies, and we had agreed to attack one cluster each: my cluster attacked Bulls and allies' home cluster, the others attacked their newly acquired cluster. The supposedly betrayed Bulls/Wy/Strykyr/SO/Wukas team decided to retaliate exclusively agaist us (as far as I know the few attempts to do damage to Huts/Autocrazia/CCCP were not very effective). Huts/Autocrazia/CCCP took that chance - their war effort was reduced and then stopped for a while, after which some effort was renewed. It became quickly that this way, we could wear each other down so much that we're practically giving victory on a silver platter to Huts/Autocrazia/CCCP. Bulls initiated peace talks with me at once. We tried to get a truce, but apparently the team did not agree with their bovine leader, so attempts failed for several turns, while distrust grew. (The details of this time should better be forgotten). At long last, a peace was reached, though the terms were very fuzzy and I'm not sure anyone really intended to uphold them all. Hostilities stopped, and we started to attack Huts/Autocrazia/CCCP. We. We, in this case, is the fleets that were attacking our cluster, and some newly built drones, plus all the power Z and me could bring to bear. After several turns of battle that way, Z and myself decided we cannot accept things as they were: while Bulls' allies threw against the enemy what they had, Bulls himself, by far the largest of his team, spent his energy on growth. First I bullied him into building some stuff and sending it to do battle, but when Autocrazia demanded a peace treaty against Bulls, I agreed. The treaty was never signed or properly discussed, though the basics were clear enough. So we attacked Bulls and his allies together with Autocrazia, who at that point was clearly the main force of his cluster. Bulls was surprised, and thus finished off quickly. I wrote a call for surrender to all races. Autocrazia took that as the cue to renew the attacks on me and Z. Autocrazia fought very well, but at that time, he had a too small industry base, and was brougt down by superiour numbers. On turn 107, he wrote his surrender. A few thoughts ============== I don't think any game has been as annoying as this was during the mid-turns (60 to maybe 90?). Distrust between the clusters was high, and annoyance over agreements that we not upheld sometimes almost made me give up - if it hadn't been for the fact that I could not make myself give easy victory to someone I was so annoyed with ;) Near the end, I decided to no longer hanicap my cluster with trying to make a treaty I can keep, instead I adjusted to what I perceived as the style of the other clusters. For a long time, I didn't think we'd have a real chance to win. Bulls could have made it if they had either really stepped up their effort so that we had not turned against them or if they had betrayed us maybe two turns before we turned on them. Autocrazia would have made it if they had colonized more. At least that is what I think. __ (__`\ (__`\ \\`\ `\\`\ \\ \ `\\`\ \\ \ `\\`\#\\ \# \_ ##\_ |## (___)(___)## (0) (0)`\## |~ ~ , \## | | \## | /\ \## __..---'''''-.._.._ | | \ `\## _.--' _ `. Y | \ `##' \`\ \ / | \ | `\ \ /_...___| \ | `\\ / `. | / ## | | | / #### | | | / #### | () () | \ | | _.-' ## `. .' `._. |______..| |-'| `------' | | | | | || | | | | | | || | | | | | | || | | | | | | || | _____ | | | |____| || | / `` |-`/ ` |` | \________\__\_______\__\ """"""""" """""""'"""