From: btd@iastate.edu (Benjamin T Dehner)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Ogging/bombing/dogfighting
Date: 12 Oct 92 21:14:31 GMT
Article-I.D.: pv7440.btd.718924471
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA

In <Bw0xI4.7E.2@cs.cmu.edu> hill@norman.VI.RI.CMU.EDU (Robert Hill) writes:

>Benjamin T Dehner writes
>> In <wepSPw600VpdI2SUcW@andrew.cmu.edu> tw1r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Timothy C.  
>Worsley) writes:
>> 
>> 
>> >	Well, you win netrek by killing all of your opponent's armies. 
>> 
>> 	Here I disagree.  You win netrek by taking an opponents planets.

>Killing enemy armies is the best way to see who wins a game.  I bet if you  
>would look up INL stats from past games...in non LPS games the team who  
>kills more enemy armies wins.

	Typically I thought it was the other way around.  The winning team
had more planets most of them game, so the losing team actually had more 
armies killed because there were more popping planets for them to bomb.

>> Killing armies stops the opponent from taking, but does not gain you 
>> planets.  The game ends when a race has zero planets, NOT zero armies; 
>> they are not the same, since someone may still be carrying when the game 
>> ends.

>In a real game, you assume planets will be taken.  Furthur assume that a  
>team will use all its armies by dropping them on planets.  Then the only  
>way to really stop your enemy is by killing all their armies.  Bombing is  
>by far the most effective way to do this.  Ogging is more effective than  
>dogfighting, but not as effective as bombing.  Ogging is neccessary  
>because invariably some armies live.  These armies are carried en route to  
>planets, and must be killed somehow.  Ogging meets this need.

	And hurt oggers is probably the major source of scummed kills, too. 
Again, I am not downplaying the importance of ogging; as a matter of fact,
ogging is probably a natural outcome of the fact that there is very little
penalty when you die.  (That's gonna start another flamefest, I can tell.)

>> 	But you cannot take planets without kills, and it is difficult to 
>> get kills unless you can dogfight.  Furthermore, if most of a team can 
>> get kills, it can keep their opponents off-balance as to who is carrying 
>> when.

>Kills are easy to get.  You can always "scum" them.  For example, kick-ass  
>dogfighter number 1 is fighting kick-ass dogfighter number 2.  They are  
...
	Yes, I know.  A real kick ass dogfighter would know enough to mutual
so he can't be scummed, if he can't win by enough to run away.   Real kick-
ass dogfighter goes after ensign twink because he knows he can kill him in
two seconds, instead of having to face kick-ass dogfighter #2 in a stand-off
and then have his buddies show up.  

>> 	I agree that dogfighting is not all-important, nor even most
>> important, but I would put it on an equal footing with bombing and  
>ogging.

>Then you are clueless.  Not a flame, but a fact.

	Oh, darn  And for a minute I thought your opinions were going to
be worth something.

Cthulhu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benjamin T. Dehner    Dept. of Physics and Astronomy 
btd@iastate.edu       Iowa State University 
                      Ames, IA 50011