Round 30 - Gamethread
 

As predictions threads seem to last a whole round, this round I thought it would be better to have one thread for general comment on the round ahead. Obviously you can still rant about specific issues on your own threads (and I'm actively encouraging it!) but this is for your general predictions and comments as the round progresses.

Following Ascendancy's victory in round 29, making them twice in a row winners and having won three of the last four, can anyone stop them getting a record busting third round in a row? Will Denial challenge to regain their title? Will CT or ND step up to the fore? Will a new alliance come and challenge? Will a united front prevent a repeat of the last two rounds?

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

yes
no
no
yes
no

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Can we have more content than this please :(

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Im beginning to doubt there is really enough player quality out there which is not in asc for any single alliance to have a hope of defeating Ascendancy and going for the title themselves.
It looked to me like Denial was very demoralised and a real resurgence seems unlikely.
CT's concentration on 'planet ranks' seems to have been a bid for the good players possibly with a view to challenging asc but imo, it made them look stupid and attracted those who were looking to avoid asc incs so asking them to take on asc next round seems over-optimistic.
Audentes failure highlights the problems of cohesion any new alliance has if they try to aim high, Im not saying it cant be done, Im happy to be surprised!
I dont see any united front outlasting Ascendancy, however the most likely way for Ascendancy to be defeated is by one or two persistent alliances of reasonable quality fighting as a group, you will never get more than 3 to fight a long war though as it will provide a golden opportunity for others to get ahead by fence sitting, the waring alliances get envious then the coalition breaks apart.
The theory of Balance of Power dosent really work against ascendancy it seems, it did work against denial this round so perhaps Im premature in ruling it out.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

it's not exactley rocket science now is it
yes, the universe can stop asc but they prob wont because most ally HC are blinded by stupidity

no, denial have said they are not playing rd 30


no, Ct or ND will not step up to the plate as they can never see the big picture


yes, with denial not playing , venox and his buddies will prob form a new alliance , lets call it Denial v2 and they will prob challenge for top 5 placing

no, the aformentioned hc will let asc run away with it then whinge on the forums about how nobody did anything about it

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

I thought this was about a challenge to Asc not just for t5 rank; I thought Denial mainly failed in the HC/political management department last round so i dont see the HC trying to start afresh is gonna help much!

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Not a single one, no. But no one's stopping you from cooperating.

CT have been saying this was a rebuilding round, and that next round they will be going for alliance win. I am not sure how realistic this is, considering that CT has been flagshipping planets for at least 5 rounds now; changing that behaviour might not be as easy as they hope. It'll take more than a HC saying "ok guys, let's play for the alliance now, not our own planets". I expect drama on a scale of between a few members leaving (only to join Ascendancy, as all the good players seem to be doing these days), and the alliance exploding into its own face, leaving a lot of bewildered players standing around wondering what the **** just happened, and why there's pudding on their collective penis.

This round, the problem was that many people disliked Denial more than they disliked Ascendancy, even when it became clear we were running away with the round. This was a nasty surprise to us as well, we used to pride ourselves on being the most hated alliance in Planetarion; we clearly have a lot of work to do.

This round however, there is no such target to distract the trigger happy folk, so I imagine it'll be different than last. The past has proven it is not impossible to beat Ascendancy, and in my personal opinion, the more people think it is impossible, the higher our chances to win will be. Morale has a much bigger impact on the game than many alliance HCs seem to believe.


This made me giggle. It's funny because, you know, it's true.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Though my PA experience is limited to four rounds (plus those way back in the mists of time) I have been in two alliances which have collapsed under the weight of their own expectations, PA players capacity for self-delusion seems to be very great indeed.
Ascendancy starts off with the Morale and the rest of us without it, thats pretty much a given after two such trouncing, its not invented out of thin air the past plays a big role in it and also their community, the fact that the really good players who are not in asc are spread thin means that no one alliance can look at their player base and say 'Hell yeah we can do this!'
I guess the third factor in alliance morale is their HC, this round has proven most of the current lot to be blundering about in the dark so no redemption there either!

Yes I am a pessimist at heart; PA drives me to depression!

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Ascendancy won't win. We'll be playing solely to get Cardinal to win top planet so we can have the best eorc ever.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

im pretty sure the new alliance will consist of a significant part of the denial playerbase. but it wouldn't surprise me if some oldschool players are coming back to play for that new/restarting alliance also.
so that might atleast make it a bit more interesting.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Mzyxptlk's point about being most hated is quite correct, its the hate that fuels the lose and the alliance that is most able and least hated will be aided into the win.
eg:
ND won, most were congratulations, slap on the back etc to them though a small ball of hate was still there, when they won the next round the hate was begining to swell, the round after they were denied that win by that hate, it overcomes the jaded resignation that infects the universe, it gives it a goal, and no matter how hated the winner from previous round before they won was, the hate for ND was greater !

This is what will prevent Asc from winning its 3rd in a row, its what has prevented all the 2 time winners from gaining the hat trick !

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Dont ever put ND and Ascendancy in the same sentence or paragraph again unless its, Asc JUST CAPPED 10k roids on ND over 1 tick!!!

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

eXi never played three rounds in a row.

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Luckily for her Mistwraith put ND and Asc in separate paragraphs!

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Denial arent playing next round and there is no Denial v2 either, just to clear that up, and theres no one alliance Denial members are going to as a whole, be it an existing or new alliance, I say this with quite some certainty. If I wanted to HC or run an alliance it would be Denial (same goes for Reese and eksero), since that is my (our) alliance, why would I (we) bother setting up something new that would inevitably be exactly the same. I look forward to playing a round as a peon again in an existing alliance and being able to focus on my own planet for once :)

I agree with the general theme here that lack of co-operation or personal greed (by flagshipped members/fencing HC's), will prevent any alliance but ascendancy winning round 30. I hope I'm wrong and every ally hits asc out of protection, but since everyones scared of asc hitting them back (oh noes, incomings!), they probably wont.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Ever since you joined ascendancy you've been trying extremely hard to be internet cool. And you're not. You're even worse than you were before. Just stop it. I'm not the only one who has picked up on this.

Ascendancy does have the best playerbase, but the other alliances can quite easily co-operate to completely take them out of the running early (and then make some sort of agreement to come back mid-round if Asc appear to grow again).

Sure; they're better than you, but with multiple alliances waving them at the start of the game before they establish their ascendancy (hoho) they'll just be overrun by the numbers. Unless you all start idiotically crashing (last sentence is pretty ironic coming from me)

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

I'd love to see a slew of alliances try to take Ascendancy out early on (or at all, for that matter) because quite frankly I don't see it happening.

Supposedly Angels and Omen are returning next round in some fashion, though that's just rumor at this point.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

And who gave you the power to be judging amy? This is really pathetic kila, and a personal attack like this has no place anywhere. You dont have the massive backup against CBA that you claim to have here, and neither are you ANY better yourself. Why dont you just ignore his posts if you dont like them, instead of doing personal attacks like this. Then you and your little gang of pesters can talk shit about him behind everyones back, and then lick eachothers wounds(balls) when someone who actually lived a life tell you how ridiculous this is.

"I'm not the only one who has picked up on this" COME ON! ive not heard that since the verbal fights girls used to have in secondary school

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Kila is just expressing his e-hate at never being in Ascendancy himself.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

My little gang? Awesome stuff. Do we mug old ladies and stuff too?
CBA is pretty shit. He has always been pretty shit. But recently he's been incredibly dire and someone (I can't even remember their name) picked up on it in another thread. I was merely being a helpful poster and trying to guide him :salute:


Also wintle is pretty correct I cut myself because I'm not in ascendancy

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

This thread is about r30. If you want to call people names, pm each other on IRC.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Denial would had won Asc in 1-on-1 battle and we all know that. The lot spoken 'PA-hate' came in to the picture and Asc had easy job to build shield for them selves while other alliances got beaten.

Kinda sad that Denial ain't playing R30 cause others would had possibly been more interested to stop Asc's run with victories than keep hating Denial. Now Asc will have hard time to get some sort of naps with the other top alliances and tbh i don't see any good reason for any ally to nap or even less to ally with them.

Not as a diss but still.. Asc got their latest win by politics and mindgames or what ever you call it. Personally i don't give a f**k bout those, but i hope that all of the alliance leaders are wise and brave enough to not let Asc have same kinda easy win in R30 and pay it by their own alliance member "blood".

Prediction: Asc tries to NAP and ally others to ease the load of incomings and if they do, they win. If the universe can resist the powers of evil mindgames there will be close battle between 3-4 alliances at the best.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

I really think Denial would beat Asc even if Denial got 30 members only! Really!

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

you forget and underestimate c200 dunkelgraf

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

All due credit to denial here, they're definitely a solid alliance, but you are ****ing delusional.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Can prove it if/when Denial is going to play again and there can be a pure chance for 1vs1 ;)

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

No I mean you're actually delusional. Sure denial got hit early on this round by a number of alliances and this benefitted ascendancy tremendously but with two and a half weeks to go in the round denial were part of a four alliance block (teamup, co-op, whatever, **** pedantry) hitting an ascendancy which was 4 million score in front. Four days later your HC told me denial would be switching back to gal raids, at which point we were 13 million in front. I could compose a list of errors that were made by denial during this time period, landing a 5.5 mil value loss attack would probably come close to the top here but my personal favourite would have to be the actually harmful inclusion of def fleets with attack fleets in large teamups seeing as this exact same mistake was made in r26, but I can only imagine you're tipexing over parts of the internet that you don't like so I doubt it'd be that helpful.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

There will never be a pure chance of a 1 vs 1, politics is what PA is, its not a duel.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

We all know how last round went and that cannot be compared to 1vs1 battle. Anyways, i stay with my statement and i'm up for the challenge if the opportunity for it someday comes.

Returning to the original topic, i hope R30 will be way different than R29 was.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

And the band marches on...

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

i beg to differ, it just doesnt happen at the upper levels !

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

possibly the funniest thing I've ever read on these forums!

R30 -
Asc will probably win, just because...
CT will take 2nd, because they nap Asc
Rock will be 3rd because they have a core of players from Denial and that's probably just the thing they need to be able to compete.
VgN/ND will be 4th/5th, because that's just what they do...

I reserve the right to edit this prediction as more information on the alliances become available, but yah, hard to see anything else 'interesting' happen really...

Also I really wanted to flame on about some posts on this thread, but I'll stick to topic instead...

And Happy Holidays To All :D

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Im being somewhat optimistic and unrealistic debatably even utopian in estimating that asc will recieve serious pressure from 3-4 alliances from t200, by t400 theyll of decided that 'this round requires too much effort'.

Meaning they'll return to inactiveness to argue 'they never really wanted to win this one anyway and the core asc were taking a break from their previous hardcore expenditures' leading to the rest of the average alliances scrapping over this round, and then asc coming for us in the subsequent two rounds in a row giving everyone a good thrashing again - before everyone gangs up on them in r33 again at which point JBG gets a girlfriend and asc fall apart :(

It is rather worrying to consider that the fate of the universe all depends on JBG's social life...

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Other people do stuff too you know :(

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

That is pretty optimistic, right there!

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Asc will win, they'll probably manage to set up every other alliance against their main competition (Omen this round?).
ND / CT will fall for it yet again and create another boring round where everybody is too chicken to hit asc

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If given the chance, HR would have won every time ;)

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

My planet is going to be flagshipped and I will win.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Not to diss my HC, cause i should have sudgested it myself as well, Denial should have ptargeted or heavy gal raided ascendancy at t180 or so. We didnt, so in a way we can blame ourselves as well. If we had we might have gotten the universe to see ascendancy tag up earlier (or maybe not? worth a try tho :P) and thus maybe just maybe getting someone to rid along with us. Anyways, cba with hating anymore.

Gl on trying to get the hattrick ascendancy, ill enjoy my last round playing someting i havent done so far :P

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Sadly for you this game is also about having the ability to speak to other alliances and get the goodwill of them, on this, Denial fail in epic proportions. Ascendancy have the ability to treat others with respect (when they want to that is) while Denial and their IN YOUR FACE and we're teh 1337-people policy just pisses most people off.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Around those ticks asc didn't even look threatening :(

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Ascendancy had added everyone in tag, including scanners, at ~PT150. We only had around 50 players total at this point but then there was a gradual influx of ReSa and Audentes members until we strengthened our galaxies with late signups at around PT336 or so. I'm fairly sure we didn't close recruitment overall until much closer to the midway point of the round.

But seriously dude, without even having a grasp of how or why you lost last round how can you possibly expect to understand how to win the next?

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

Im not planning on winning next one dude, so chill :)

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

This game is simple tho, attack those with the most roids else you will lose. since no one attacked ascendancy, even when they had only 10k more roids, they won.

kind of lame, but that's how the round ended.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

4 alliances attacked us for 4 night's straight before they collectively decided to die on Elviz. At the same time we were P-Targetting Denial solo and dropping them roids every single night. At the end of this four night stretch we were further ahead than we had been before it started. It's really not as simple as some people would like it to be and there is a world of difference between trying and succeeding.

But don't take this to mean I think Ascendancy are super-awesome unbeatable when, to be honest, we're probably not even half as good as we like to think we are. The reasons we win go much deeper and were well outlined by JBG in a recent post. I have my own acronym* though:

Focused Aggression. Hit your main enemy, always.
Arbiter access for everyone. This is just common sense.
Group decision making. People can be as involved as they want to be.
Solidarity. Actively looking out for one another's planets limits mistakes.

*oops

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

acronyms are

For
Absolute
Gay
S.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

They're acronyms.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

since I still won't be playing I predict it to be a boring round!
(but the ones I did play were boring aswell, hmmm)

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

As long as the other top alliances can pull their head out off their collective asses long enough to do something productive, Asc will find winning R30 to be a difficult prospect.

Re: Round 30 - Gamethread
 

with a ten week round the alliances had better work together to prevent an ownage by anyone such as happened over the last 2 rounds because if asc owns like it did last round or the round b4 then we would have 5 weeks of an unchallenged hegemony, which would imo be rather boring for everyone