From: hde+@cs.cmu.edu (Herbert Enderton)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: misconceptions
Date: 11 Jan 93 01:38:16 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.C0o1vw.5D8.1
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

In article <1993Jan10.230814.28042@ncsu.edu> jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu writes:
>
>hde+@cs.cmu.edu (Herbert Enderton) writes:
>
>>1) One kill isn't enough to start taking planets.  FALSE
>AS Junkies unite!

That's not what I meant, as much as I like AS's.  What I meant is that
you can be extremely effective delivering 2 armies at a time in any
kind of ship with a kill (except a SB).  Perhaps the real misconception
is that you think you need to collect enough armies to actually take
over a planet before delivering any of them.  Make several trips,
perhaps reducing several different planets, just use the armies
as quickly as you can.  An agri is a special case, of course.

> 1a)  Whenever you see an enemy planet with armies, bomb them.  FALSE

While it's true that you kill an extra army if you use an AS to bomb
a planet that's at 5, I consider this a minor point, and not
particularly relevant.

>>4) Dying with armies is worse than not picking them up.  FALSE
>This one should be tattooed on the back of the neck of anyone in a LPS or
>core-planet situation.  If a planet being attacked has armies, PICK THEM UP.
>That way, your planet is no worse off than 4, while leaving 'em there and
>gambling on destroying the attacker FIRST can get you bombed all the way down
>to 1. Bad karma.

Also not what I meant.  What I meant is, don't be afraid to try, and I
was thinking more of situations where you have lots of planets.  Better
to try to take a planet, get hunted down by MUCUS PIG or somebody and
die horribly with 6 armies, than not to try at all.  I've seen a lot of
players who don't have confidence in their ability to evade an og or to
take a planet under pressure, and so they don't even pick up armies in
the first place.  What's even worse is people who rag on their
teammates for carrying too many armies or for getting killed carrying
armies.  Armies that nobody picks up will usually get bombed anyway.
Also if MUCUS PIG is off killing you with your armies, that means he
isn't killing me with mine.  The LPS-defense situation that jecoleb
mentions is not a good example, because if your team really is short of
armies then it often makes sense to leave them on the planet.  I guess
I didn't word the original statement well.

> 4a)  Running away while carrying armies is better than going for the
> planet, trying to drop and dying.       FALSE

As written I'd mark this as TRUE.  In the followup paragraph you
say something about dropping an army before dying or having a
chance at success, but those are different questions.

> 5)  You can be productive and effective without reading messages and acting
> on them.     FALSE

Wrong, this is TRUE, at least for me.  In fact I think I play slightly
better with my message window turned off, and I've tried this on
numerous occasions.  There's a wealth of information to be gleaned from
the galactic map and the player list.  Messages are much clumsier way
to communicate.  If you have to depend on messages to know who is
carrying or where they're going, you're probably too asleep to do
anything about it anyway.

Hm, how about
5) That message (or post!)  must have been aimed at those other guys,
because _I_ know how to play.    FALSE

  -- Red Shirt