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sniffnoyYesterday I played an especially long, bloody, and strange game of Nexus Ops against Mike Baumstein and Ross.
Ross took the monolith early, but wasn't really attacking people and so didn't gain points. All the 2 mines were near me so those quickly became contested resources.
Mike, after coming in and taking my 2 mines on his border, realized my defense in that area was pretty weak and swept in for the points.
The thing is that because I didn't manage to keep the 2 mines very long, I was low on money most of the game and found that instead of using rock striders as my asic unit - I probably only bought 5 or 6 all game, all pretty early - I stuck with the low 3 units. And, it worked. I repelled Mike's and Ross's invasions (though not really recapturing my mines).
When Mike realized his invasion had failed, he sent his surviving invading fungoids actually deeper into my territory to get more points. This resulted in him having pieces only one space away from the space on the board farthest away from him.
Also, all the lava was concentrated away from me, in the Mike/Ross area, so lava leapers became kind of useful there.
While he was occasionally knocked off or locked in combat, nobody other than Ross ever took control of the monolith (except maybe Mike at the end - he and Ross had some rock striders stuck up there failing to kill each other for quite a while). But he was always last in points from not attacking.
Meanwhile Mike and I were close in points most of the game, but with Mike having the far better board position.
It eventually got to 11-11, with me drawing Dominate the Forests immediately after getting to 11. If Mike were to not win the game next turn, I could just move my pieces onto my unoccupied plains and immediately win. However, he had 12 rubium and a Day of the Dragon card he'd been holding since the beginning of the game, so he just bought a dragon, killed an isolated human, and won.
Other interesting things:
Ross: Unfortunately, you've been outflanked.
Me: So have you.
(As the clashing armies consisted each of just 2 rock striders, how this was possible is not clear.)
Ross playing Frenzy when Mike and I are fighting, just so we each lose more units.
Ross giving one of my humans a battle stimulant, making me win the battle, when I was on defense - specifically so I couldn't get any points from it next turn.
A battle so large (Mike vs. Ross) that we had to move the pieces off the board. (IIRC Ross had 1 lava leaper, about 5 rock striders, and about 3 fungoids, while Mike had 1 lava leaper, the same number of fungoids as Ross, and about 2 humans. After playing a Critical Objective, Ross won.)
Mike's increasingly inconsistent terminology.
-Harry
Ross took the monolith early, but wasn't really attacking people and so didn't gain points. All the 2 mines were near me so those quickly became contested resources.
Mike, after coming in and taking my 2 mines on his border, realized my defense in that area was pretty weak and swept in for the points.
The thing is that because I didn't manage to keep the 2 mines very long, I was low on money most of the game and found that instead of using rock striders as my asic unit - I probably only bought 5 or 6 all game, all pretty early - I stuck with the low 3 units. And, it worked. I repelled Mike's and Ross's invasions (though not really recapturing my mines).
When Mike realized his invasion had failed, he sent his surviving invading fungoids actually deeper into my territory to get more points. This resulted in him having pieces only one space away from the space on the board farthest away from him.
Also, all the lava was concentrated away from me, in the Mike/Ross area, so lava leapers became kind of useful there.
While he was occasionally knocked off or locked in combat, nobody other than Ross ever took control of the monolith (except maybe Mike at the end - he and Ross had some rock striders stuck up there failing to kill each other for quite a while). But he was always last in points from not attacking.
Meanwhile Mike and I were close in points most of the game, but with Mike having the far better board position.
It eventually got to 11-11, with me drawing Dominate the Forests immediately after getting to 11. If Mike were to not win the game next turn, I could just move my pieces onto my unoccupied plains and immediately win. However, he had 12 rubium and a Day of the Dragon card he'd been holding since the beginning of the game, so he just bought a dragon, killed an isolated human, and won.
Other interesting things:
Ross: Unfortunately, you've been outflanked.
Me: So have you.
(As the clashing armies consisted each of just 2 rock striders, how this was possible is not clear.)
Ross playing Frenzy when Mike and I are fighting, just so we each lose more units.
Ross giving one of my humans a battle stimulant, making me win the battle, when I was on defense - specifically so I couldn't get any points from it next turn.
A battle so large (Mike vs. Ross) that we had to move the pieces off the board. (IIRC Ross had 1 lava leaper, about 5 rock striders, and about 3 fungoids, while Mike had 1 lava leaper, the same number of fungoids as Ross, and about 2 humans. After playing a Critical Objective, Ross won.)
Mike's increasingly inconsistent terminology.
-Harry
