Ike

to the gods . . .

The RIPs once again earned their keep. I saw this guy's fleet a system away from my G1 moons, but the defenses made a conventional attack unprofitable. However, I saw a couple hundred K of deuterium on his moon, so I yoinked it last night. I checked this morning, and no reaction. So when my R.I.P.s returned, I jumpgated them over and sent them on their way. As noted, he already had a moon. That is two RIP moons on players with moons in 24 hours. Heh. As an amusing side note, his planet is named "Swift Death." I thought it ironic, as his is going to be slow and torturous. At 11-30 23:47:10 the following fleets met in battle: Attacker Ike (1:276:5) Deathstar 10 Defender Acc Stolen (1:277:6) Small Cargo 10 Large Cargo 82 Light Fighter 220 Cruiser 100 Battleship 200 Recycler 31 Espionage Probe 42 Destroyer 24 Rocket Launcher 2842 Light Laser 2400 Heavy Laser 170 Gauss 105 Ion Cannon 160 Plasma 62 Small Dome 1 Large Dome 1 SIX ROUNDS LATER Attacker Ike Deathstar 10 (Lost: 0) Defender Acc Stolen (1:277:6) Small Cargo 5 (Lost: 5) Large Cargo 40 (Lost: 42) Light Fighter 112 (Lost: 108) Cruiser 48 (Lost: 52) Battleship 85 (Lost: 115) Recycler 18 (Lost: 13) Espionage Probe 22 (Lost: 20) Destroyer 10 (Lost: 14) Rocket Launcher 1359 (Lost: 1483) Light Laser 1132 (Lost: 1268) Heavy Laser 81 (Lost: 89) Gauss 48 (Lost: 57) Ion Cannon 76 (Lost: 84) Plasma 48 (Lost: 14) Small Dome 0 (Lost: 1) Large Dome 0 (Lost: 1) The battle ended in a draw, both fleets withdraw to their home planets. The attacker lost a total of 0 units. The defender lost a total of 22,929,000 units. At these space coordinates now float 2,158,800 metal and 1,149,600 crystal. The chance for a moon to be created is 20% The enormous amounts of free metal and crystal draw together and form a[nother] moon around the planet. Your 200 recyclers have a total cargo capacity of 4,000,000. At the target, 2,158,800 metal and 1,149,600 crystal are floating in space. You have harvested 2,158,800 metal and 1,149,600 crystal. My deuterium costs: 5.

I was just reading Cyclops's latest hit and was wondering what is the n00bish thing anyone has seen? I have seen a few things that made me "weep for the future," but probably the most pathetic was the one leading to my first HoF. To sum-up: 1. I attack someone with Cruisers 116 and Battleships 200 and crush his fleet for a 10% hit. 2. His ally sends his entire (lame) battle fleet 2.5 hours to my planet -- Light Fighter 5, Heavy Fighter 17, Cruiser 23, Battleship 110, Bomber 2, and Destroyer 6. 3. After I HoF him and clean up the debris, I send my fleet at the remainder of his fleet. 4. He comes online and gibbers something about always being online, but then doesn't move any of his fleet, which I crash for another 7% hit. Between the three hits, I lose 2 Cruisers, 18 Solar Satelites, and 5 Rocket Launchers. I gain 712,698 in captured resources and 4,465,500 in debris. The two of them lose their entire fleets of approximately 14,917,000, in addition to the 712K of resources. Any other entries?

Actually, I haven't. However, I haven't been checking too regularly. Perhaps I should. Hmmmm. RIPs are off to smack a CSM turtle in G1. With luck I'll get a HoF out of it in about an hour and change. "Those defenses won't save you, n00b."

Ike [D.a.r.k] vs. praesepe [Jin Roh] -- Round 2 At 11-30 20:58:09 the following fleets met in battle: Attacker Ike (1:276:5) Weapons: 120% Shields: 130% Armour: 120% Battleship 333 Defender praesepe (1:273:4) Weapons: 120% Shields: 120% Armour: 120% R.Launcher 126 L.Laser 90 H.Laser 23 Gauss 20 Ion C. 1 S.Dome 1 Attacker Ike (1:276:5) Battleship 333 Defender praesepe (1:273:4) DESTROYED The attacker has won the battle! He captured 240,145 metal, 151,985 crystal, and 33,723 deuterium The attacker lost a total of 0 units. The defender lost a total of 1,344,000 units. At these space coordinates now float 0 metal and 0 crystal.

Ike [D.a.r.k] vs. praesepe [Jin Roh] -- Round 1 At 11-30 20:57:43 the following fleets met in battle: Attacker Ike (1:276:5) Weapons: 120% Shields: 130% Armour: 120% Battleship 777 Defender praesepe (1:273:4) Weapons: 120% Shields: 120% Armour: 120% R.Launcher 186 L.Laser 133 H.Laser 38 Gauss 32 Ion C. 2 S.Dome 1 Attacker Ike (1:276:5) Battleship 777 Defender praesepe (1:273:4) DESTROYED The attacker has won the battle! He captured 591,313 metal, 303,935 crystal, and 67,438 deuterium The attacker lost a total of 0 units. The defender lost a total of 2,098,000 units. At these space coordinates now float 0 metal and 0 crystal.

thought to be . . .

Ike's so-called heart.

Excellent Arianna. More, more, encore, Brava! Incoming cruisers, I jump gate my battleships, There is much debris.

went, his sheep . . .

Hmmm. He is a little far from my nearest moon . . . about 55 SS, need to get more deuterium over there. Maybe I'll send some RIPs over to say "Hi!" when I get through with Chase Edmunds.

Ike's little mind.

Here's a vacation pic for you . . . I'd like to go back to Ireland, and my wife is anxious for a first trip there. Perhaps in the Spring. Hmmmmm.

Well another disappointment. Still on the low end of the SIMs. Guess I'll just have to try again with 10 tomorrow. BTW, he already had a moon. At 11-30 01:26:46 the following fleets met in battle: Attacker Ike (3:433:7) Deathstar 9 Defender Chase Edmunds (3:418:6) Small Cargo 2 Large Cargo 47 Battleship 178 Espionage Probe 29 Bomber 8 Solar Satelite 96 Destroyer 13 Rocket Launcher 6746 Light Laser 8093 Heavy Laser 252 Gauss 75 Ion Cannon 130 Plasma 108 Small Dome 1 Large Dome 1 SIX ROUNDS LATER Attacker Ike Deathstar 9 (Lost: 0) Defender Chase Edmunds (3:418:6) Small Cargo 2 (Lost: 0) Large Cargo 33 (Lost: 14) Battleship 142 (Lost: 36) Espionage Probe 19 (Lost: 10) Bomber 6 (Lost: 2) Solar Satelite 80 (Lost: 16) Destroyer 9 (Lost: 4) Rocket Launcher 5204 (Lost: 1542) Light Laser 6220 (Lost: 1873) Heavy Laser 182 (Lost: 70) Gauss 60 (Lost: 15) Ion Cannon 98 (Lost: 32) Plasma 74 (Lost: 34) Small Dome 1 (Lost: 0) Large Dome 1 (Lost: 0) The battle ended in a draw, both fleets withdraw to their home planets. The attacker lost a total of 0 units. The defender lost a total of 14,531,000 units. At these space coordinates now float 559,200 metal and 328,800 crystal. The chance for a moon to be created is 8% The enormous amounts of free metal and crystal draw together and form a[nother] moon around the planet. Your 120 recyclers have a total cargo capacity of 2,400,000. At the target, 559,200 metal and 332,400 crystal are floating in space. You have harvested 559,200 metal and 332,400 crystal.

sheep, whose fleece

Sweeeeet! Sweet first HoF and excellent Rik! Enjoy the profits.

Well this was a bit of a disappointment. The very low end of the SIMs. Median was 17% moonchance. At 11-29 01:32:47 the following fleets met in battle: Attacker Ike (3:433:7) Deathstar 9 Defender Chase Edmunds (3:418:6) Small Cargo 2 Large Cargo 61 Battleship 214 Espionage Probe 35 Bomber 10 Solar Satelite 121 Destroyer 18 Rocket Launcher 7290 Light Laser 8765 Heavy Laser 276 Gauss 81 Ion Cannon 137 Plasma 117 Small Dome 1 Large Dome 1 SIX ROUNDS LATER Attacker Ike Deathstar 9 (Lost: 0) Defender Chase Edmunds (3:418:6) Small Cargo 2 (Lost: 0) Large Cargo 47 (Lost: 14) Battleship 178 (Lost: 36) Espionage Probe 29 (Lost: 6) Bomber 8 (Lost: 2) Solar Satelite 96 (Lost: 25) Destroyer 13 (Lost: 5) Rocket Launcher 5643 (Lost: 1647) Light Laser 6789 (Lost: 1976) Heavy Laser 210 (Lost: 66) Gauss 63 (Lost: 18) Ion Cannon 104 (Lost: 33) Plasma 81 (Lost: 36) Small Dome 1 (Lost: 0) Large Dome 1 (Lost: 0) The battle ended in a draw, both fleets withdraw to their home planets. The attacker lost a total of 0 units. The defender lost a total of 15,352,000 units. At these space coordinates now float 577,200 metal and 348,000 crystal. The chance for a moon to be created is 9% Your 120 recyclers have a total cargo capacity of 2,400,000. At the target, 577,200 metal and 354,600 crystal are floating in space. You have harvested 577,200 metal and 354,600 crystal.

Heeeey, are you whacking MY turtles:) Funny, he never comes online when I send my RIPs on 12-hr soujourns to his res fields. He must just not like you.

. . . Season 7, which is available on DVD.

At 11-28 02:08:02 the following fleets met in battle: Attacker Ike (5:254:7) Weapons: 120% Shields: 130% Armour: 120% Deathstar 8 Defender avalon (5:266:4) Weapons: 100% Shields: 100% Armour: 90% Solar Satelite 87 Rocket Launcher 901 Light Laser 1561 Plasma 12 Small Dome 1 Large Dome 1 SIX ROUNDS LATER Attacker Ike Deathstar 8 Defender avalon DESTROYED The attacker has won the battle! He captured 622,244 metal, 149,992 crystal, and 261,373 deuterium The attacker lost a total of 0 units. The defender lost a total of 6,418,000 units. At these space coordinates now float 0 metal and 52,200 crystal.

I saw Andr007's topic on FSing to invisible DFs, and thought I would share my insights on hitting people who FS from moons to DFs. I worked with Beowulf on four of his five HoFs (three of which were ADV 20+) that utilized this tactic, so I have a good behind-the-scenes knowledge of the tactics and defenses. Beowulf's hits, with which I assisted, were against Kavish, maxx, coadic, and Hellsing. There are four stages: 1. Figure out when your mark FSs. 2. Figure out where your mark FSs. 3. Figure out at what speed your mark's ships FS. 4. Figure out when your mark's fleet will return. The first stage is to determine a window for when your mark FSs. Most people are creatures of habit and fairly regularly FS the same ships, from the same place, to the same place, at the same time, and for the same duration. To determine the window, use any or all of the following: A. Probe - send espionage probes to determine if the fleet is there or not. B. Phalanx - phalanx planets to see when ships arrive. Many people send ships from their colonies back to their home world before fleetsaving. C. Attack - send an attack, feint or real, to determine if the mark is online (moves fleet, etc.) or to get a PM. D. Monitor - Watch times on Galaxy View. If you do several of these methods for a few days, you can get a pretty good idea about when your mark will leave on any given day. Then attempt to get a 5 minute window (anything less than 15 minutes is OK, but the bigger the window the more time you spend watching DFs and the more likely the windows will overlap). In the second stage, you need to figure out to what your mark FSs. You need to get a rough idea of when your mark returns (use the same techniques as in stage 1), and also figure out roughly how much deuterium the mark uses and how long the mark's fleet is gone. A. Determine tech levels and fleet size/composition - probe the fleet to determine type and number of ships and technology levels (Combustion/Impulse/Hyperspace Drive). B. Use o-calc or similar to determine if your mark FSs in the same SS or outside by plugging in number of ships and possible speeds and destinations until you get a rough match. In the third stage, you must determine where there are visible and invisible DFs, either in the same SS, or in adjacent SSs. It is rare for people to FS more than a couple of SSs away. A. After the mark's fleet is away, send a single recycler at 10% to the DF of every inhabited planet. If there is already a DF you don't need to do this, but note the size of all visible DFs. There is always the possibility that someone else will recycle a large DF, but people rarely bother with <1K DFs. B. Send 2-3 probes to attack any planet that has an invisible DF. (Note: once a planet/moon is attacked regardless of whether or not there were any casualties there will be a DF -- visible or invisible -- until the following Sunday at midnight). If there are any invisible DFs around planets without defenses, you may be out of luck if your mark sends to that DF. A single probe rarely creates a visible DF, so use a couple. C. Calculate the time (using o-calc) the mark's fleet will take to each planet within the SS and to reach each adjacent SS for each speed (10%-100%). D. Add the possible one-way travel time to the departure window to figure out when the mark's fleet could reach any of the now-visible DFs. E. If the mark FSs within the SS, you can simply watch the SS from the Galaxy View and refresh every 2-5 seconds during each window until a DF disappears. F. If the mark might FS out of the SS, you probably need a second person to watch either the higher or lower SSs. G. When a DF disappears, click a stopwatch. Then hit "attack" and send 2-3 more probes to the planet to create a new DF. Continue to watch until the end of the window. Use the stopwatch to determine when the DF disappeared, and then verify that the time was within a window for the given DF. If so, and no other DFs disappear within the window, you should know where and when the mark's fleet left, arrived, and will return. The final stage is relatively straightforward. Simply add the one-way time to the time the DF disappeared to get the return time. If the mark sends decoy fleets (usually a recycler before/after the main fleet to pick up the DF and throw off the calculation), you may be able to figure this out by probing prior to the fleet's departure. You will see the number of recyclers and deuterium drop and you may be able to figure out the possible length and destination of those recyclers' flight times based on the deuterium used. General notes and defenses. Most people who send decoys send them to arrive outside of the window and you can therefore disregard those disappearances. If you use decoys, they should arrive within a minute of the actual fleet so that the attacker will not have time to recreate the DF before the main fleet arrives. You should always be online when your fleets return. This reduces the attacker's window to attack. If possible, always send to invisible DFs around banned or inactive players without defenses. This will prevent an attacker from creating a DF. If someone is repeatedly probing you when you are planning to go offline, wait for a probe, send a recycler to your intended destination at the intended speed and send your fleet and res to your planet/DF at 10%, wait for another probe to come in, recall your fleet, and then resend it. This will screw up the attacker's window. It is probably best to wait at least 5 minutes after the second probe so that you are sure that they are no longer watching. Verify that you left the exact same amount of res after each launch. It is best to try this early in the week when there are the fewest DFs available. It is also a good idea to check for invisible DFs prior to the mark launching the fleet and then again afterward. If a new DF suddenly shows up, it could give you a good indication of where the mark's fleet is going.

I recall the background and a couple of the starting-page images (like the D.a.r.k. logo) taking a while, but if you are used to dialin' up, you are used to pages taking a while to load. Given the choice, I would use broadband but the site was useable on dial-up.

I was viewing the Board on Dial-up (40K) over the weekend and it was passable. Some of the graphics took a bit to load, but nothing worse than I expect from dial-up in the first place.

I stopped at 8, which was worth it for fast bombers. 9 seems pretty expensive given the reasonably slight boost in speed for dessies and bombers. I have a lot of other projects waiting in queue ahead of hyper drive 9 atm. Most of my crystal has been going to RIPs, JGs, and Phalanxes.

Well, I thought it only polite to share a recipe, as the new kid on the block. I originally pulled a recipe off an online site and have since modified it after some experimentation. I normally cook 2-3 racks at a time and freeze them. When I want some ribs, I just take them out of the freezer and let them come to room temperature and then complete the last step, which is pretty quick. Find a barbeque sauce you like, and feel free to switch around ingredients to your taste. I don't like spicy foods, so these are a bit tangy, but not HOT. The important thing is letting them simmer for about 3 hours, 'cause it makes them really tender and they fall right off the bone. *Drool* All measurement use English system, sorry, I don't cook metrically. Ingredients: One Rack of Baby Back Ribs (multiply ingredients for multiple racks) BBQ sauce (36oz) A-1 Steak sauce (5oz) Liquid smoke (2oz) Apple cider vinegar (1 1/2 cups) Garlic (1 clove) Honey Celery Salt Bay leaf (2) Onion (1) Mustard Oregano Bell pepper Directions: Put ribs in a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Add 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar. Simmer for 30 minutes Add: BBQ sauce (8oz) A-1 Steak sauce (2oz) Apple cider vinegar (1/2 cup) Garlic (1/2 clove) – peeled and sliced Honey – one long squeeze Celery Salt – a dash Bay leaf (1) Onion – ½ diced Mustard – pinch Oregano – dash Bell pepper – ½ diced Let simmer for 2.5 hours, skim grease every ½ hour Remove ribs from water and place in 1 gallon Ziploc bag with: BBQ sauce (20oz) A-1 Steak sauce (3oz) Liquid Smoke (2oz) Apple cider vinegar (1/2 cup) Garlic (1/2 clove) – peeled and sliced Honey – one long squeeze Celery Salt – a dash Bay leaf (1) Onion – ½ diced Mustard – pinch Oregano – dash Bell pepper – ½ diced Tequila (a shot or two) if desired Allow to marinate in fridge for 8-12 hours, flipping occasionally to allow all areas to soak. Remove from bag and place on non-stick foil/pan. Cover in BBQ sauce (8oz or so) and place in oven on broil. Let bake for 15-20 minutes, sauce should begin to caramelize. If ribs were frozen, best to heat at 350 for a while to get them warm and then broil. You can also heat them on a grill instead.