Homeworlds Online (SDG# 11582)
Started: 2008.10.7, Ended: 2008.10.25
Participants: MadWuher (S), TwoShort (N)
Winner: TwoShort

1) TwoShort: Homeworld R1 B3 G3

2) MadWuher: Homeworld B1 R2 G3
TwoShort: Howdy
MadWuher: Hey there. It's been a while.

3) TwoShort: Build G1 Twoshort

4) MadWuher: Build G1 Madwuher

5) TwoShort: Trade G1 Y1 Twoshort

6) MadWuher: Trade G1 Y1 Madwuher

7) TwoShort: Build G1 Twoshort

8) MadWuher: Build G1 Madwuher

9) TwoShort: Discover G1 Twoshort Y2 Yolonda

10) MadWuher: Discover G1 Madwuher Y3 Edora

11) TwoShort: Build Y1 Twoshort

12) MadWuher: Build Y2 Madwuher

13) TwoShort: Discover Y1 Twoshort G2 Grogar

14) MadWuher: Discover Y1 Madwuher G3 Bologna

15) TwoShort: Build G1 Twoshort

16) MadWuher: Build G2 Madwuher


17) TwoShort: Discover G1 Yolonda Y3 Yak

18) MadWuher: Sacrifice G2 Madwuher
Build G2 Madwuher
Build Y2 Bologna

19) TwoShort: Sacrifice G3 Twoshort
Build G2 Twoshort
Build Y2 Grogar
Build Y3 Twoshort

20) MadWuher: Sacrifice G1 Edora
Build Y3 Madwuher

21) TwoShort: Discover Y1 Grogar G3 Grody

22) MadWuher: Discover G2 Madwuher B3 Edora

23) TwoShort: Sacrifice G1 Yak
Build Y3 Grody

24) MadWuher: Move Y3 Madwuher Edora

25) TwoShort: Trade G1 R1 Twoshort

26) MadWuher: Build G1 Edora

27) TwoShort: Sacrifice Y2 Grogar
Discover Y3 Grody R1 Gunrule
Move Y3 Gunrule Edora

28) MadWuher: Build Y2 Edora

29) TwoShort: Trade Y3 R3 Edora

30) MadWuher: Sacrifice Y2 Edora
Discover Y3 Edora R2 Camelot
Move G2 Edora Camelot

31) TwoShort: Trade Y1 B1 Twoshort

32) MadWuher: Sacrifice G1 Edora
Build Y1 Madwuher

33) TwoShort: Sacrifice G2 Twoshort
Build Y2 Twoshort
Build Y3 Grody

34) MadWuher: Trade Y2 B2 Madwuher

35) TwoShort: Trade Y2 R2 Twoshort

36) MadWuher: Build Y2 Camelot

37) TwoShort: Sacrifice Y3 Twoshort
Move Y3 Grody Madwuher
Move R3 Edora Madwuher
Pass

38) MadWuher: Sacrifice Y2 Camelot
Move Y1 Bologna Madwuher
Move Y2 Bologna Madwuher

39) TwoShort: Sacrifice R2 Twoshort
Attack G3S Madwuher
Attack Y2S Madwuher
TwoShort: I think that's checkmate; thanks for the game. You had me really worried for a while there.
MadWuher: If I might ask, where did I make my first bonehead move?
MadWuher: I see that you like to move ships to planets of size 3 right away (and of course it puts the pressure on me). Any comments or hints as to when you came up with your strategy here?
MadWuher: Since it's game. Want to go for a big bang? Suppose we fill up my system with as many ships as possible (I think the max is 16, but I digress) and do one giant catastrophe. Up for it?

40) MadWuher: Sacrifice G2 Camelot
Build B1 Madwuher
Build B2 Madwuher
TwoShort: Eh... I'm not that intrigued by a big catastrophe; but I'll always rehash strategy :)

TwoShort: I didn't come up with this specific strategy until two moves ago when I took the R2; but I basically always try to get more big stuff in range of moving in than you can take in one turn, and get a sacable R2 in the backfield; and also some ships of the color of the other guys stars and a bunch of big yellow. I just try to push whatever threats I can. So as far as where you went wrong, it's where I was able to switch from making the moves you forced me to, to making ones that forced you to do things.
TwoShort: You were doing well when I took the r1: it was because I couldn't figure out how to stop you from getting more 3 points than me. According to the "Gun Rule" (if the other guy draws a gun, draw your gun), you should have taken a red yourself, which would have thrown you off your grow pace only slightly, but it was the best I could do. When you didn't take the red, I was able to jump on the offensive and force the action a few turns. Once you got your ships out of there to Camelot though, you were back in control: poised to sacrifice your G2 to take the remaining y2 & y3, which would have given you a commanding lead in 3s and in yellow. So I flipped the y1 to blue mainly to put it back in the stash and force you to use the g3 if you wanted all that yellow, which would have been more painful, but you probably should have done it. At the least, you should not have taken the y1 there. Letting me take the big Ys is probably the move I'd say decided the game. Obviously you didn't see the threat represented by my taking the r2, but by that point the defense options would have been pretty drastic and probably just delayed the inevitable.

TwoShort: Hmmm, did I mention a willingness to yack on about Homeworlds strategy?

41) TwoShort: Sacrifice G3 Madwuher
Build R1 Madwuher
Build R2 Madwuher
Pass
Catastrophe Madwuher Blue
Catastrophe Madwuher Yellow
Catastrophe Madwuher Red
MadWuher: Time for a quick death....... and bow out gracefully.
MadWuher: RUNNNNN!!!!!!
MadWuher: ARGH!!!!! I am trying to go out either in a blaze of glory, or just by running away, but it won't allow me to leave the system undefended. =(

MadWuher: Oh well, guess you get to take me out in style....

TwoShort: Thanks for the game!
MadWuher: Anytime..... Still trying to figure out the multitude of strategies that people use. If I might ask, how many moves ahead do you typically plan out. Another few questions, since you are the highest rated player here, do you find yourself using any similar game ending moves against your opponents?
TwoShort: Hmmm, I don't really plan ahead in the sense of a strategy I'm going to follow; I'll re-evaluate that each turn. As far as thinking ahead the results of a particular move, for the critical ones I'll set it up, make my move, and look through the responses I see, playing out the most obvious chain of moves. But generally I don't think you need to look at much more than a couple moves ahead. In most cases, a Homeworlds player has so much power to affect the board that purely tactical advantages are short lived; If I'm trading material for position, I want to be pretty sure I see a payoff that gets me back to a material advantage in fairly short order.
TwoShort: As far as ending moves... My basic strategy is to threaten to blow up stars or move in and sacrifice red so they'll be forced to spend moves dealing with the threats and I can take more pieces. If that works you eventually get enough of an advantage that they can't stop everything. But at least as often, they don't notice that I'm forcing them to do something particular or be destroyed, and they do something else. That seems to most often be leaving themselves open for me to move in more big pieces than they can take in a turn while I have a big red in my backfield.
TwoShort: But really, the actual game-ending sequence is usually academic; it's just a matter of what turns out to work for the guy in control of the game, which is generally the guy with more 3 pointers.