From: John Tailby <john_tailby@x...>
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:07:54 +1300
Subject: [GZG] The Triumph of the Daleks
_______________________________________________ Gzg-l mailing list Gzg-l@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU http://mead.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU:1337/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lHere's an update of how the Daleks went in our campaign. We still have to complete the final turn. I am not involved in the climatic battles and have possibly screwed up really badly to allow another player to come in and sneak the win. Ironic really the Daleks outsmart themselves, never happened before... So Turn 1 I end up skirmishing with one of my neighbors. He turns out to be using micro carriers mass 13 or so with a squadron of heavy fast attack fighters. eeek. Very nasty corvette design. My ships do OK but it's kind of even. The Micro carrier Race (the Grey) are also skirmishing with another race (the arachnid hives) and are doing much better against them. Turn 2 My ally (United Mankind so sort of eugenic supremacists) launch a complex attack on the Grey through a wormhole. The Grey and their ally (the Kitsune- yes foxes) counter attack and we end up with a massive fight ~10,000 points all up all packed into a table no bigger than 48mu in diameter and with ~60% entering from the wormhole in the middle of the table. It's a huge close range knife fight on turn 1. Fortunately the Daleks brought Gatling blasters and the Kitsune didn't bring shields. Turn 2 the Micro carrier fleet launches as do the Daleks, missiles and fighters fly everywhere. When the plasma clears the Daleks are down about 2000 points as are the Kitsune and Grey with the United mankind only losing 1000. So technically a victory for the Daleks...cough. In the meant time the Daleks capture a Grey outpost world and set up a base on it. The Arachnids also capture a Grey Colony as does another player. Turn 3 The Grey retreat to their home world. The Daleks undertake pest control and bayonet the surviving Grey ships. (in turn 2 I cut their supply lines so they could not rearm their fighters, I told you it was a complicated plan) The Daleks also capture the inner Grey colonies leaving only their home world. The United Mankind go after the Kitsune (with horns blaring). However the Kitsune send all their fleet to attack another player so its not available to defend their space. (not really fit to continue living at this point). The UM capture the Kitsune wormhole so the Kitsune fleet can't get back easily. Turn 4 The Daleks assault the Grey home world. In a scene very reminisant of the Dalek Saucers launching at the end of Season 1 doctor who the Daleks carriers launch ~40 squadrons of fighters to cover the assault group. The grey attack fighters can't cut through that amount of ordnance defence and get mown down. The Daleks lose 4 frigates and 8 scouts and kill 1700 points of Grey. a few surviving Grey ships escape but they have no combat power and no supplies. The Kitsune fleet is ambushed on it's way back to it's own territory and the survivors are polished off by the UM defences. The UM go on to capture the Kitsune home world and several colonies. the Kitsune are down to about half a dozen frigates at this stage and so effectively out of it. Turn 5 The Daleks and their allies have a good position but are vying for top billing with another alliance so we need to keep ahead of the kill tally. I attack the Decca confederacy who have been doing quite well up to now. My attack works like clockwork but succeeds in drawing off the home defence fleet of the Decca. The United Democratic Republic now launches a strike against the now undefended home world of the Decca. (I can see the Decca admiral saying something like "the window of vulnerability will be very small" famous last words). The UDR assault consists of something like 18 fast corvettes with massively oversized hyperdrives, but its enough to take out the Decca home planet defences. (probably) Now this is where it get complicated. To still win the Daleks need the Decca and the Arachnids to defeat the allies of the UDR otherwise the UDR alliance will have capture more home worlds than the Daleks and may be able to claim overall victory. So I now need to cheer for my enemies. So we have had a 10 person campaign playing 5 turns over ~3 months and we have had about 50 battles.