Time: Sun Dec 10 16:34:27 1995 Server: ruddy.cqs.washington.edu
From: botelle@blue.seas.upenn.edu (Justin Botelle) Date: 11 Dec 1995 22:45:59 GMT
Anyone that has been around netrek long enough would appreciate the irony of the encounter: Tywong, habitually pestered by uwashington people since his early DD days brings his first successful team to LaggU's server to decide who will play the championship game.
The server wasn't up until 2 minutes after the scheduled start time, since LaggU was conducting base ogg/defense practice on different ports. More irony - see below.
The game started off on a sour note, as I noted that two of the players were not on Tywong's roster. I had downloaded the roster two days ago, but I reloaded the current version, both for all teams, and for the IOWA STATE team. Ben Peal (Fire Hose!, and the leading contender for Rookie of the Year honors) and one of the chclee logins (there were two) were not on tywong's roster. Tywong insisted that they were on his roster (or should be, and blathered on about how Ben had played against Golden Bears), but wouldn't agree to forfeit the game if Ben wasn't on their roster.
Rob, our kind and gentle captain, not wishing to risk a forfeit by not playing the game, agreed to play, but did not agree to having any non roster players playing.
We chose Fed after they picked Rom.
They pulled the Erik base to the front maneuver with probably about 20 armies on the homeworld and 25 on the base. Our base picked Earth then went to Alt. I managed to hold den and alp due to some poor rom decision making (having a DD and an AS but neither tried to take me out or effectively split me). As a result our base dropped on alp, whom rob (I think) then guarded while the base picked Den and Veg. We ended this move with 42 armies on Alp (ag/rep) and 25 on the base.
Regulation was basically LaggU up 11-9 or even, although at points we were down 8-12. Our base played a much weaker position, while there base (popcorn) would move up to org at times. We were unable to kill their base at any time, due to piss-poor synchronization and attention (note irony here) to ogg calls/open base. DFWI did a good job of reacting to and stifling oggs, to their credit.
DFWI didn't seem to have any problems taking Org (a rock), and would continuall pick at it. We took a timeout at halftime, which was effectively a waste :) We were even with their front line weak or up a planet at the time.
We maintained our army advantage for most of the game. Not until the last 15 minutes or so did our base go under 20 armies.
LaggU made a late hard push to take Reg and then Ind while the base was repairing while time was running out (I paused to put shields up after taking it and still +3 to take the incoming rom. Unfortunately he initiated a chain which destroyed me on the planet :( ). We held the planet for one wave, but they retook it on a second wave, in the last 10 seconds of regulation. Our base still regrets not sacrificing himself (he was just below ind) in order to preserve the win.
When OT started there was a pause (not sure why) or DFWI took their timeout. Ronk quit out then came back in, and repeated this for a bit, perhaps to heighten the excitement.
In any event, rob I believe got the first kill. Ind was at 2 as was Cap (I AS bombed it), and we had 5 armies on Reg (which for some reason 8 who was in an AS and had the chance didn't bomb). Rob quickly picked but was unable to neut Cap. After a few failed takes, DFWI dooshed our base (further irony from above noted). I had 3 kills from defending the wave, but our base had no armies left. I limped to Rig (80 internal) to try and pickup to neut cap for the win while they ogged, but a Rom nabbed me. They crushed our base then proceeded to take Reg.
With their base, they were able to maintain a big kill advantage: at one point we were kill flat for several minutes while they had about 10 kills between them. Nevertheless, we pushed on, and managed to retake Reg. I got a kill and picked up 2 and wandered to Eri, untouched. I saw wedgie get a kill and a scout and come follow me so we could neut eri for the win.
Unfortunately, he got held up and never made it. Since no one came after me I stayed up hoping for a lucky bomb to 2. They then neuted reg, and wedgie and I tried to sync on hyd, which was at 3. It popped to 4 as he approached so I went back and dropped Rom, which had been bbombed to 3. However, it popped to 3 as soon as I dropped, and I soon died. Meanwhile, DFWI had neuted our Rig and Can, leaving the score 9-8-3 DFWI-LaggU. Fortunately we had enough armies to retake these planets. Rob got a bunch of kills and took a ship of lose to try for eri. I tried to cripple 2-3 ships but f made it through unscathed and stopped him at Eri. I then decided to focus on Reg and let Rob fend for himself. We took Reg and I was trying to hold it. I had pretty much given rob up for dead, and was focusing on trying to keep alive long enough at Reg to stop them from retaking it. I had 2k fuel left with f nearing orbit, and I was slowing moving away and about at max torp range with 2 defenders near the planet when the game paused. I started to pound my fist, but then looked up and saw that Rob had somehow managed to slip by his two defenders and neut eri for a glorious victory.
Kudos to DFWI for a strong presence. Tywong did a great job of (a) not quitting out in the middle of the season, and (b) pulling together his team, some of which seemed kind of twinky when I saw them earlier (I thought tcsmith sucked when I saw him last week, but he did a great job when it counted). I was very impressed with the way they played.
Justin