From: leonard@mimsy.umd.edu (Leonard Dickens)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: INL: TWNN at TO
Summary: TWNN genocides in 90 minutes.
Date: 2 Oct 92 03:38:01 GMT
Organization: Deep Thirteen, Gizmonics Institute

Before this less than classic match, deep rumblings could be heard in
Toronto: "screw wotan.  It's too fast... they'll kill us... let's put it
on....  wellllll....."  Heads swivelled around to see with perfect
clarity the old sun2 sitting dusty in the corner.  "Knowbel!!! Yeah,
that should give us a fighting chance!"  "But they're already *on*
wotan!"  "Fire up a few compiles, that should scare em..."

After thrashing about for way too long, we finally assembled on
knowbel.ai.toronto.edu, port 4444.  TWNN chose Fed; TO took Rom.

Soon we were headed into their space at high warp.  But wait!  What's
this??  *Nine* Roms!!  Where the hell did this Rg come from?  We
paused, and finally convinced them to have someone leave.  Meanwhile,
we discussed our upcoming bombing runs.

Bombing went well, but already it was becoming apparent that the
server lag on this machine was very large.  After flattening four of
their core worlds, TWNN went for the ogg.  Bases and escorts had a
huge advantage, especially locally.  Every phaser lock could be
followed up by others since people had looong seconds to consider
every move.  MUCUS PIG was ghostbusted; the wave failed.  But a second
wave succeeded.  At this point, TWNN was up 50 armies; 25 on Wreck,
and the other 25 sitting on Arc.

We scummed kills, we ogged the hell out of them, we scout bombed.  We
carried furiously to both their agris.  In what seemed to be a matter
of a few minutes we had their frontline fuel planet and their two
agris.  Precision jack-thrust after jackhammer attack split their
defense like ripe fruit.  Then we went for Rom... and took it!  Things
looked great.  More planets fell... they were down to three or four.
But there was a problem.  Armies seemed to spring endlessly forth for
the Canadians.  We could barely ogg through the server lag, as our
ships would be ripped apart by 2 or three phasers at the first hint of
lock.

They retook Rom.

This was the last straw.  Our perfectly conceived strategy ruthlessly
annihilated by server lag!!!  A collective breath was ripped from our
tightly pumping lungs... then we got mad.  No pathetic crowbar for us,
it was the vaunted NUCLEAR ASSAULT that we pulled out.  Moving slowly
from world to world, we took methodically.  We spontaneously thought
up the Cruiser Fleet to Dra maneuver that used to dominate netrek
play, and succeeded.  Each and every planet they had had to be ground
down through a hail of super-slo-mo photons and hyper-accurate phaser
fire.  You could see your death seconds before it happened.  We took
planets once, twice, even three times.  But there was no remorse, not
a hint of mercy for those pathetic Romulan civs as their feeble empire
was GROUND to a single planet like a WHITE RHINO wading thought a
KINDERGARTEN.

And finally, even the Fleet to Rom maneuver failed.  People could
resurrect, look for cloakers, appraise the situation, fire eight
torps and get their phaser going easily in the time it took a single
phaser shot to end.  Clearing the planet was useless.

So we pulled out our final weapon: the WALL-OF-DET!!  In wave after
wave, 7 assault ships would cloak and move in, ruthlessly DRAINING the
pathetic fuel reserves of the wildly firing defenders.  Finally, a
single carrier or two would move to the planet past their drained hulls...

Time after time we would orbit and get down a single army before the
inevitable resurrected ship would find the phaser lock... from four
armies, it went to 2... then 6... then bombed in a massive wave to
1... then 3... then 2... then 1... and then finally,

	GENOCIDE!

in about 90 minutes of sludge hell.

Wreck
Minister of Information, TWNN