STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - http://flyingmoose.cjb.net) VOLUME 22 Dec. 20, 1999 CONTENTS Feature Article - Starweb HW defense Questions - Novice Question answered; Double loaded Merchant fleets SEDG Web Page URL The Captain's Log - The Post-End Game The Swap Corner - The Order Editor Part IV - Checking for Errors Correspondence - There was none (sigh)! FEATURE ARTICLE - Starweb HW defense! I know many of us don't want to think of defense. In fact, I think that in Starweb defense is much more difficult that offence and more unsuccessful. If it will help you to enjoy this article better consider it tips for offense because many of the tips will be to try and stop particularly nasty things that the enemy is going to throw at you. Of course the things you can do in defense will depend a lot on what else is going on in the web. So in the situation where you are grossly outgunned you may still prevail if you are bringing in a lot more ships than your enemy is. For the duration of this article I will look at HW scenarios in isolation. You are free to ignore my thoughts if factors outside the HW are favorable (or unfavorable). There are many factors that can tip the balance in or out of your favor so the following discussion need to be taken with a grain of salt - they are idealized and simplified and don't always apply. First a summary of the resources at the HW. 1)Industry - 30 of them whether they are suppressed or not. 2)Population - After T7 it's at 100. 3)I ships and P ships - the homefleet. 4)Keys 5)Total ships available 6)Metal Defense may mean anything from completely vanquishing the enemy horde to keeping the industry out of enemy hands (even destroyed). Setting your goals is important and if you are out keyed or outgunned you may have revise your defense objectives. 1) Firepower and Working Industry. The critical ratio is 1.25 for the defenders. To keep your industry from being suppressed you must have 100 ships or 50 I ships for every 100 enemy ships. To have equal firepower to the enemy horde and protect your industry from a possible AI attack you will therefore need 50 I ships (1/2 shots = 25) and 75 ships in the air. This equals 100 shots for both sides. 2) Firepower and Being Outkeyed The above firepower comparison is only raw ammunition counting. Keys are power and can tip the balance in any firefight. It is the number of keys that determines the number of targets you can hit. With 100 shots you have the maximum ability to destroy 50 ships presuming you can hit them. With an equal number of keys as your enemy both sides can try to hide ships on just a few keys. Each is hoping the other side will over target their smaller keys. Transferring ships back and forth from one key to the other is often called the ship shuffle. I have even tried and seen small keys empty into larger keys to make them larger (the old reverse ship shuffle). Here is where luck, intuition or just shrewdness and skill in thinking like your opponent comes in. But if the enemy has more keys than you then there will be keys you cannot target and ships you cannot hit. In a scenario where the enemy has twice the keys that you have there is a 50% chance of only destroying keys of 1 ship should the enemy make half their keys large and half-only 1 ship decoys. With 5 keys to your enemies 10 you can have 100 shots each and the next turn your enemy may have 95 shots to your 0 (this is a bit exaggerated because it assumed all the enemy ships found their target). If you're badly out keyed - you must bring in more. 3) Simple Warfare - no pirate/no berserker In this case the only way to capture the HW is to satisfy the basic requirements of having only 1 player ships not at peace. Even if you are badly outnumbered you may be able to make sure at least 1 key is present to foul up capture. To be successful the enemy would have to destroy all resistance and blockade ring 1 worlds so you can't slip by. This can be a very daunting task. If ships are more evenly matched then you can always protect the industry from being destroyed by AI with at least half as many I ships as the ships the enemy has present. You may even be able to keep it producing ships while under attack. 4) Pirate presence Invariably there will be a pirate present. They are the warriors of the game. Assuming no reinforcements the minimum number of ships you must have in a firefight (in the air) so that when the smoke clears you are not captured is 72 ships to his 100 (a ratio of 0.72). Assuming the maximum hits (not guaranteed but assumed to take the luck out of the equation) then the Pirate will be reduced to 64 ships whilst you will still have 22 and no 3to1 potential. Just having 71 ships will bring the tally to 65 ships vs your 21 and disaster. This does nothing to protect the industry or keep it building but is a much smaller ratio of required ships to survive the firefight at least for one turn. Assuming you would like the industry to keep working, be safe from AI and have equal firepower you will need to use the 1.25 ratio of ships previously mentioned (Think of it as 125 defending ships to 100 enemy ships). With 0.5 of this ratio (50 ships) on the ground the Industry can't be destroyed. With 0.75 (75 ships) of the ratio in the air you can see you already exceed the safety needs from the pirate and are not risking getting your keys/ships captured. In fact, since the I ships still get half shots (25 shots) you can shave some ships required in the air to prevent capture (at the cost of having slightly less firepower than the enemy. For 100 pirate ships you require 50 I ships and 68 ships in the air - a ratio of 1.18. After they all shoot there will be 54 pirate ships to your 18 ships in the air. You are safe - barely. Remember again that this an idealized case as I'm assuming the maximum kills for both sides and this would only happen if each side only had 1 target e.g. 1 key. Lucky shooting can really tip the scales here. Imagine that you manage to completely miss the pirate key (you are silly enough to target the merchant while the enemy transfers all ships to the pirate keys). In this case you may find 99 pirate ships and your forces taken from 68 to 18 and capture. I am also assuming no reinforcements. You know how many ships you can bring back but may not be as sure what the enemy pirate can bring in. In the case where there is an enemy pirate at your HW it is a good idea to run through this math exercise and try to minimize your danger. One good way to do this is to preferentially shoot pirate keys. Another thing to keep in mind is that if you are a pirate or have an allied pirate at the HW - this ratio works for you also. An enemy presence of ships less than 68% of your ships is at risk of pirate capture. If your enemy is at all intelligent this is probably a first wave and he is not worried about capture. If it is not a first wave then you should be careful that this is not a kamikaze run. They may intend to shoot the industry. Don't lift your I ships for an inferior invasion force because you are greedy to capture their ships. You could be walking into a Trojan horse like trap. If you can guard your industry and go for the pirate capture you can completely turn around the battle. 5) Berserker presence Lets assume for simplicity there is no pirate presence. More than likely the devastating military team of berserker/pirate will be present. The berserker has the ability to robot attack your HW. This bypasses the normal rules of capture and he can capture your HW if he manages to plant even 1 robot behind (no matter how many keys not at peace are flying up above). The second way to be a threat is to arrive with a PBB. Shots fired at a berserker will destroy robots first. The PBB is only successful if the fleet holding it survives the attack. To depopulate your HW and leave a robot a berserker must do an R13. So if you are worried about this you will have to use at least 26 shots on every berserker key as a minimum. Unfortunately the berserker can R attack with all but one ship on each key. To be absolutely safe from a berserker you will need to target every berserker key with twice the ships the berserker owns because you don't know which key (or all of them) will make the attack or if they will transfer ships to one key. The ratio of necessary ships is incredible. A berserker with 3 keys will require at least 6 times as many defending ships for absolute safety. This represents 600 ships versus 100 berserker ships. Thankfully, the berserker cannot fire while doing this. His ships are sitting ducks for the defenders. To fully invest in capturing a HW the ships the berserker uses are written off for the battle that turn. If the defenders have more ships than the invading berserker the result will be heavy losses for the berserker and if he does capture the HW the industry will likely be suppressed and not building. This is not necessarily a bad thing because it can turn the tide of battle. If the enemy overextends themselves you may win the war here and recapture the HW by utilizing your own berserker. When the invading berserker outguns you - you are not nearly as safe. He has surplus ships that he may not mind losing in a bid to get your HW. The safest bet in this scenario is to selectively target the berserker. At least you know that those ships will be hit as opposed to randomly targeting keys that could be all but empty. In the presence of a berserker you must make a good estimation of the chances of success. The more successful it looks (e.g. there are 5 berserker keys and more ships than defending) the more you may consider not defending the industry. Why is that? Well, if you drop I ships and the berserker successfully robot attacks he will capture those I ships also. It is better to risk losing the industry to an AI attack than to give them to the enemy and suddenly find yourself outgunned. And if the ships are in your hands you may be able to suppress industry function if the HW is captured. The PBB - since the fleet with the PBB must survive to be successfully dropped you can quickly calculate how many ships you require to stop the attack. Keep in mind that the PBB may be only there to distract you. I have brought them to Homeworlds and then transferred ships out of the key and used it as a decoy. This maneuver saved a lot of ships that were firing at me from enemy keys. So what do you do? If it's an obvious kamikaze attack and only 1 key shows up - if you can destroy it - do so. If the enemy comes but in forces smaller than yours and they can successfully drop the bomb (e.g. on a key of 40 ships where you only have 70 ships defending) then I would target the berserker PBB key. You take the maximum enemy ships possible, as he can't fire back while dropping the bomb. Where there is a lot of enemy keys/ships and they outgun you by a lot - the enemy may get greedy and try to capture the HW. You have to decide if you will just do standard fighting in the sky versus targeting the PBB. In the end if someone sets up for a PBB, makes it to your HW and you can't do a clean kill - the decision is the enemy's on whether the HW lives or dies. Unfortunately you rarely see pure pirate or berserker invasions. Since they both have such wonderful military uses - captures and robot attacks they often come in tandem. 6)Mixed Pirate/Berserker invasion. OK - you know the ratios of ships you need. If the Pirate comes with 1 or 2 berserker keys accompanying you have to do some math. What if you target only the berserker keys with enough to protect your HW from a robot attack? The next turn you will have less ships in the air and the enemy may have opted to transfer most of their ships to the pirate for a capture. You must now do both types of calculations and make some assumptions about your enemy. The ships required keeping you safe from capture may be astronomical so you may have to forgo luxuries like keeping the industry safe with I ships. Here is an example. 100 ships invade and it is made up of various pirate keys and 1 berserker key. You have 125 ships defending. Let's make a couple silly assumptions. Let's assume there are no reinforcements. Then the enemy is not going to do an R99 capture the HW and lose it to you immediately. Heck, even if they do an R30 you will wind up having 125 ships to their 70 ships that can still fire - without I ships you have almost 2to1 odds and likely will blow them away. Should you drop I ships? It's your call but I am very reluctant to give it to a desperate berserker. He may have gambled on a large R attack and hoped to recoup his ship loss with your I ships. He is even more likely to do that if he sees you have I ships on the ground when he arrived. He most certainly will consider it if he feels he has a lot more reinforcing ships arriving than you do. It is a safe bet that you can get away with targeting the berserker with 60 shots and leave 65 to shoot the pirate. The next turn if the berserker R attacks he is unsuccessful and there are only 38 pirate ships left to your 65 surviving ships. That's pretty good. The bigger the R attack the worse off they are unless they can bring in more reinforcements than you can. If they didn't opt for the R attack and stacked their ships with the pirate perhaps you will destroy 30 ships and they will destroy 50 but when the smoke clears it will still be 70 enemy ships to your 75. Still no pirate capture. If there are 2 berserker keys and you have the advantage of ships you may be able to target them both with enough ships to stave off robotization. So long as you can calculate that you won't get pirate captured then the berserker keys are the primary targets. If there is a significant risk of pirate capture then you will be forced to take the risk of berserker robotization to target the pirate and prevent capture. Hey, if you have an allied berserker at your HW and surplus ships you may even robotize your own HW. Then the enemy berserker must satisfy the capture requirements just like other carbon based character types by being the only berserker with ships not at peace. He can also shoot out the robots and rerobotize the planet but unless they have superiority of ships they won't waste their ships doing either of these things, as they can't shoot at you while they do. The scenario gets much, much more complex when the enemy outguns you, can bring in more reinforcements than you do and has 2 or more berserker keys. In this scenario where you are outgunned you must presume you are not in the driver's seat. The enemy can robotize it from you if they wish. Your best bet is to minimize damage. If your outgunned and your industry is already shut down don't drop I ships as they have half the firepower and can be captured. Don't worry about enemy tactics that destroy the industry - it's suppressed already and won't work again unless you win this battle. Just keep an eye on your ships numbers and don't let the math get you into a position of pirate capture. Since I am talking about defense in a situation of multiple berserker keys and being outgunned it is obvious we are talking about scenarios where you are going to lose control of the HW. It's time to talk about other things you can do. At the very least you don't want a fully functioning Homeworld added to your enemy's collection. 7) Ambushes - do you have any? If the enemy has less ships or even fairly equal forces to your defending forces then reinforcements for them is critical. Having ambush ships at the correct ring 1 and 2 worlds can cause considerable damage to incoming forces. Remember each ambush ship gets to destroy 1 ship on EVERY fleet that flies through. That is considerable firepower. They may even slow down the influx if the enemy must stop and eliminate them. Of course as I ships they are at risk of capture from an enemy robot attack and in keys the pirate capture is possible. 7) Salvage maneuvers - In the situation where it is inevitable that you will lose the HW you may wish to do one of the following to ensure the enemy cannot capture it cleanly and use it to build ships. Render it neutral with an AH. Still at risk from Berserker attack. Plunder it and it won't build for 3 turns. This will fail if the ownership for the Homeworld changes. Destroy the industry yourself - AI. Of course there is nothing so maddening than doing this and finding your enemy is doing AI also :-). A smart enemy berserker can always drop I ships (on your homeworld) on the turn he does a very large R attack so that you cannot torch your industry. That is why even if you don't have I ships at your Homeworld it isn't a bad idea to issue an I ship fire order. If you have no I ships then nothing is lost. If some are transferred down you will fire them back at your enemy. Destroy the HW in PBB fire! It takes a turn to build the PBB, which also uses up ships AND your key must survive the drop order and cannot fire. So this tactic could be very costly in ships for you. I tend not to nuke my own Homeworlds. Why do the enemy's work for them? It is better to fight because at least you're destroying enemy ships. If they wish to destroy the world they will be the ones who will invest heavily in ship losses. Jettison metal - It's not much but the opposition may not have brought much metal with them and even if they capture your HW they can't do much without metal - at least not right away. 8) Apostle presence - I haven't seen this done often but I have done it. An Apostle who arrives at your Homeworld with 200 ships has a unique battle opportunity. If he feels the losses are acceptable he can fire 160 shots AP. Very few players have enough ships to worry about pirate capture in the air, I ships to protect industry and have leftover to protect their population. Why would they? The P ships don't protect against an R attack and you have 70 more population than your industry needs to run! But the very next turn after the Apostle fires there will only be 20 population and 4 will be converted. If the Apostle armada still has 180 ships or more then the Homeworld will fall to the Apostle 2 turns after his arrival due to total conversion. As I've said - I have done it and the only defense would be P ships and unloading metal as consumer goods which you can do as soon as you see the Apostle AP. Well, believe it or not that is a superficial view of HW defense. You may need to vary your approach based on such factors as -Your knowledge of reinforcements available for you or the enemy. -The status of character mixes - does one side lack a berserker or pirate? -How many HWs do you own versus the enemy alliance - perhaps sacrificing one to PBB fire rather than capture is desirable for you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS - Can anyone answer these? 1)I asked last issue to the neophyte players - In one of my first games I did this to someone. How did I manage it? W11 (22,34,156) [WINKAS] (Metal=3,Mines=3,Population=25,Limit=110,Turns=2, P-Ships=1) (F111[SOMNOS]-->W156 F111[SOMNOS]-->W34) Answer - It appears that I sent my key in two directions - literally splitting it in two. In actuality I did an in and out. I ordered F111W156W11W34 with F111 starting at W11. I remember distinctly that this was in my second game of Starweb and Winkas was playing his first game. I do remember that Winkas called and asked me about it :-). 2) A long time ago someone asked if a doubly loaded merchant fleet can still ambush (it is not explicitly defined in the rules). A couple of my allies in SW L/29 tested this hypothesis. John Symons said: I've seen undeniable proof before my very own eyes now that doubly loaded merchant fleets do NOT ambush. The MICMAC key at W220 was doubly loaded, MICMAC DID remove me from his ally list, but my key went through W220 without harm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP - is now available on the web. Look for our new MAPPER'S SECTION on the SEDG Web Page. http://www.accessv.com/~somnos/sedg.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE - THE CAPTAIN'S LOG 991127.0928-5 The Post-End Game: More An Indication Than A Promise By Walt Schmidt walts@dorsai.org "There are no accidents, only nature throwing her weight around. Nor can (we) "alter" nature: she will absorb it all. After the (game), nature will pick up the cards we have spilled, shuffle them, and begin the game again." - Camille Paglia To recap from two logs ago - you've lost the game. Those resources you still have do not warrant your continued play. You are in the Post-End Game or PEG. There are three things you can do: 1 - a form of "Blitzkrieg or BK, " 2 - just do a "Walk-Away or WA," or 3 - the "Thank-You or TY." As was then explained: 1 - The "Blitzkrieg" is your last ditch attempt to rain destruction on your opponents. You do your damnedest to minimize their immediate use of your remaining resources which will soon be theirs. 2 - The "Walk-Away" saves you a turn fee - and leaves all your resources as they are. 3 - The "Thank-You," is the antitheses of the Blitzkrieg, and maximizes your opponents ability to immediately utilize the resources they were about to capture anyway. And while all this makes sense to me - it has been suggested that the Blitzkrieg is the only way to go, with the Thank-You making you the most likely target in any new games. The logic to this way of thinking goes something like: "Who would you rather attack - someone who leaves you nothing - fighting to the bitter end, or someone who will give his/her remaining stuff to you as part of their last turn." Now as far as it goes, I agree with the obvious answer. But note I said as far as it goes. It seems far too many people think in just black and white, ignoring the obvious nuances that can and do make Starweb as great as it is. [YOU tell them Nemo! What a game - what a guy - what a load of sentimental clap-trap] [Alter, while I am not surprised by your comment - I had hoped for more.] [OKAY, how's this - chess is great, bridge is great, even Hearts and Spades can achieve a form of greatness - but Starweb - gimme a break!] [Like I said - far too many only think in black and white - pity]. As I also had mentioned, I do not advocate _a_l_w_a_y_s_ doing the PEG TY. But even if you do it more than most, by my definition what are we talking about. We're talking about gifting two worlds and transferring ships from your keys - my definition of bitter-end. If that combination of stuff is enough to have you always attack me - well - what can I tell you - get a life. But I will also tell you that for you, I will make an exception - and only consider the PEG BK! And that's just one of the nuances. [NEMO, you call that subtle?] [Hell no - and it ain't really much in the way of a nuance either, but then again I'm not thinking just in black and white] [AHHHH, I see your point]. The major point here, and as it was also in the past column, is that when one has been trounced, depending how that trouncing was given - there is more than one response - and each different response can have its own reaction. And has been a continuing point in all my logs - while this is only a game - I would never suggest the reputation one develops by one's play in this game - should be relegated to an "only your reputation" type category. Leastwise, that's not how I think about it. As we face just a few more weeks before the year 2000, let me leave you with one last quote for the 1999's: "It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth." - John Steinbeck Shai Dorsai ! Nemo ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE - THE SWAP CORNER The Order Editor Part IV - Checking Your Orders. I may do a part V dealing with the various templates you can generate and preferences for the editor then we are done! Once you are finished you can use the Check Orders button to look for errors. A list of information, warning and error messages will be generated at the bottom of the order sheet. Also the number of orders written statement will be added after the END statement. If you click the mouse on a warning/error the mouse pointer will appear at the order in question to facilitate you finding and correcting it. It will also highlight the world on the map and the world in the World list to facilitate showing you where this order is to take effect. Error Messages An Error message tells you about a major problem with an order. An order with an error message will not be accepted by the game. You should definitely fix any errors before you send in your orders. Because of the nature of error messages, the Analyzer does not continue to check for more subtle problems if there are error messages reported. Warning Messages Warnings are not as severe as errors. They are likely legal Starweb orders but are suspect with regards to other orders or game information. Such as when you transfer more ships than are on the key. Information Messages Less severe again then warning or error messages. These are just "oh, by the way..." pieces of useful information. Often it will tell you about something you intentionally decided to do, but sometimes you can be surprised and avoid a mistake. The Final Viewer Tab If you have taken advantage of the extra features of the Order Editor such as comments and ambush orders, you'll note that the orders as they are will not be acceptable to submit to FBI. The Final Viewer will show you what your final orders suitable for submission will look like. The Order Editor always maintains two files of orders. The final version always has the name of your draft version with "_FINAL" appended to the name. When you save your orders, both the draft and final versions are always saved. For example: The Draft version with all your plans and comments will have the name _turnout_.txt and the final version for submission to FBI as orders will have the name _turnout__final.txt in the game folder you designated for the turn sheets. Orders are checked whenever you turn to the final viewer. This ensures that the check is done before you submit your orders. It also makes sure that the order count is correct. Previous Order Tab This tab will bring up the previous turn's draft orders so you can see the comments you wrote. This allows you to easily find any plans, comments and previous orders if you are having difficulty remembering what you had intended. This tab will not appear if the previous turn's draft order file cannot be found. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE I didn't receive any correspondence - C'mon guys, let's keep this discussion group lively! Well, that's it for Volume 22. Don't be afraid to submit articles or suggestions. They don't have to be long. Address your correspondence to Elliot Hudes at somnos@compuserve.com