Sponsor:
RefSteel
Opening Date: Monday, October 19, 2009
Duration: Four Weeks
Map Generation: Random (unedited)
Race:
Mrrshan
Difficulty: Hard
Galaxy Size: Medium
Opponents: Five
Color: Red
Events: On
Scenario:
The noble Mrrshan people are the rightful rulers of the stars, and need
no advantage to overcome their rivals. They will fight for their right
to power, but never by means of tricks not available to their enemies:
Their victory on a level playing field - or rather, one that is level
in every way except where it favors their enemies - will be the proof
of their tactical and strategic superiority! The Mrrshans will not stoop
to offering gifts to their rivals, even in "exchange" for other
technologies; the knowledge they acquire on their own behalf will be all
that is needed. They will not pretend for political gain that any other
race is suited to the
galactic throne, for that spot is reserved for the Mrrshan emperor alone.
And they will not seek to win any battle by bluff or by fancy tricks of
timing; rather, they will honor the words of Lord Purrration Nelson: "Never
mind maneuvers; always go straight at 'em!"
Variant:
In Master of Orion, there are any number of advantages the AI receives
over the player, from free colony ships to easy diplomatic sailing ...
but there are also a number of advantages given to the player of which
the AI can never make use. Most can just be avoided, but one that seems
difficult to work around is any ship - armed or not - in orbit at a given
star will cause all unarmed AI ships to retreat. Fortunately, as the Mrrshans,
we always have initiative in these
early "battles" - so we can hand this advantage to the AI instead
just by retreating immediately! So, for this game, we're going to see
how the game goes if we use none of the advantages the human player is
given!
- The Mrrshans
give tribute to no one, and never accepts bribery. We may not offer
tribute, nor exchange technology, nor accept a "counter-offer"
when a diplomatic request is rejected.
- The Mrrshan emperor alone is the rightful ruler of the galaxy. Whenever nominated for the galactic election, we must vote for ourselves. If not nominated, we must abstain.
- The Mrrshans will not descend to treachery or bluffing. We may not request a war declaration against a race with whom we are not already at war, and may never threaten to attack.
- "Never mind maneuvers..." We may not use the "Wait" button in combat for any reason. If we are forced to retreat from a battle, our fleeing ships may not be redirected from the colony to which they are retreating naturally unless and until we acquire Hyperspace Communications.
- "...always go straight at 'em!" Any stack in combat known to lack armament capable of affecting the enemy (including completely unarmed ships, a Warp Dissipator ship once all enemy stacks are frozen in space if the ship has no other armament, laser fighters if all enemy ships are known to have shields of class 4 or better, a missile boat that has expended its entire payload, etc.) must retreat at the first opportunity. Of course, other ships can retreat as well if you wish. If you really want to play this to the hilt and add an extra challenge, you can also go a bit further: Always fly any non-retreating ships directly toward their next target, closing to point-blank range if possible and firing, or simply hit "Auto" once all ships with limited-ammunition weapons (or none at all) have retreated.
Scoring: This event has custom scoring. SCORING IS OPTIONAL. You are not required to track your scoring if you prefer not to do so. If you want to be scored, just record your final game result, the dates when you reach the relevant planet benchmarks, and the number of planets you control by the end of those turns. Note that it may be possible achieve a decent score for this one even if you lose the game or resign. The benchmark numbers are the same as the GNN droid's for a medium galaxy: 6, 12, 18, and 23 worlds, and all points are scored only the first time you reach or surpass a benchmark (i.e. not if you lose a world and regain it again).
- Victory: +10 (regardless of type)
- First among participating players to reach a given "number of planets" benchmark: +6
- Second to reach a given benchmark: +4
- Third to reach a given benchmark: +2
- Each additional colony beyond the benchmark number formed on the same turn you reached a given benchmark: +1 (i.e. if you have 4 coloniesin 2349 and build 3 more colonies in 2350, your "6 planets" date is 2350, and you get an additonal +1 for building a 7th colony the same year. If you go from 5 planets to 13 in a single year, you would get 7 bonus points for the "6 planets" benchmark PLUS 1 point for the 12 planet benchmark.)
- Shooting the Moon: If you manage to win an Extermination Victory without ever expanding beyond 5 worlds, you gain a bonus of +150! Whether this is actually possible or not, of course, remains to be seen....
Closing Date: Monday, November 16, 2009. Reports due by the end of Tuesday, November 17, your local time.
