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April 30, 2005

Regrouping

The cover given to my retreating troops has netted me another kill, taking the score to 3-2.

However, I have some badly wounded XT's which need repairing, and I can see his Grenader moving up into position.

I'm going to roll backl into the bunker I started in, and repair what I can. If they get close then I'll probably have to roll the AI back out again.

I'm not going to withdraw completely... I'm leaving a few troops in fairly good positions to try to catch any other advaning troops, while I repair the injured. hopefully I can hold off an advance for 2-3 turns to get some of the worst troops up and running again.

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Posted to M2: 173848 Vs reedonly

Evening things up

Things took a slighjt turn for the worse... My pressing attack only suceeded in killing a single grunt, and while I was watching that I spotted two grenades bouncing my way....

I should have expected it (and in a way I did, but just didnt do anything about it).

The first grenade took out my two wounded XT's, and nearly killed my other hunter. The second grenade is due to go off this coming turn.

I'megoing to pull back a little and try to heal up the worst of my troops. At least I know that that grenader only has 6 shots left. Gulp....

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Posted to M2: 173848 Vs reedonly

April 28, 2005

First blood goes to......

...me!!

The grunt I targetted last turn is dead, giving me a 1 point lead. reedonly blew the far barrels on the left side, and a stray shot from the last turn took out the larger grouping just to the right.

I have a couple of wounded XT's but nothing too serious at this stage.

I've spotted his Commander just outside the room we are fighting over, and have also seen 5 grunts kicking about. That leaves 6 FPs undiscovered....

I've got quite a lot of firepower over on that left side, and I'm going to try to take out a few more of his toopws to get a better scoreline.

I'm moving a few units into position to fire through the holes blown in the top of the room by the barrels. I can get most of my troops attacking in this one turn, with the exception of the AI, which is rumbling onwards. I'm parking it up behind the remaining wall, so that next turn I can shoot through that wall to attack the units behind. If any are still standing....

The trouble with this plan is that a few good grenades will decimate me....

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Posted to M2: 173848 Vs reedonly

Hmmm

Its a bit of Give And Take so far....

One of his grunts ran in and blew up the same barrel pile I was going for... He retreated a little into the building, so I'm going to follow him up with my hinter form one side, and a couple of XT's from the other. This grunt is slightly wounded already as my central hunter got a shot off while he was making his grenade run.

On the other side of the map my hunter has spotted a lone grunt doing a little dance in the middle of the map. Shots were exchanged but my litle metal chap has come out a little worse-off.

I dont really want to give him an early lead at this point, so I'm going to withdraw that hunter and run it round for repair.

I havent really seen much of his troops so far, and I've covered a fair amount of the map with my hunters, so I think he is hunkering down and going for a point lead. I really dont want to have to try to storm his position, not with the slow moving Mechs.

It loks liek the rest of the barrels are going up this turn, so I'm going to advance my scanner up a bit to try to see what else he has hidden away.

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Posted to M2: 173848 Vs reedonly

April 27, 2005

A Batch o' Links

Watch your life ticking by at the Day Of Dots Clock

You'll need keen eyesight to watch the dots tick past as your day ebbs along. Thoroughly depressing....



To pass the time in a more amusing manner you could play Guess the Google

The program runs a Google Image Search and then displays you the first 20 images it find. You have to guess what search term was used. In 20 seconds. Blindfolded1.

Its worryingly addictive, as you can get enough right to make you feel let down when you fail.



Finally there are a couple of amusing blogsite to read.

We have Darth Vaders Blog and Marvin, the Paranoid Android

Most amusing reading.



fn1. Only for the very hardcore

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Posted to General

April 26, 2005

Far more fun than it should be

After a drunken night at the pub I stumbled across this game

There is something incredibly addictive about it.

My current high-score is 4645. Which is rubbish.

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Posted to General

April 22, 2005

Cat Buckaroo

Its sweeping the nation apparently, this chap appears to be rather good at it.

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Posted to General

My Little-Un


Little-un

Originally uploaded by Robmonster.

This is the first scan of my future insomnia inducer.

We went along yesterday for the 12 week scan and I was amazed at the clarify of the pictures on screen. It loses a little something in the translation from screen to printed image to scanned jpg but its still remarkably clear.

The little blighter was fast asleep, so Em had to give a little wiggle to wake it up. It didnt seem best pleased and soon was fast asleep again. Takes after me!

Hopefully the long sleep sessons will continue after the birth...

You can click the pic for a larger annotated view.

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Posted to Flickr | General

Happy to be a hoarder

The BBC have a story about a man who found an old magazine underneath his floorboards. That magazine contained the original publication of Moores Law .

Intel paid him a tidy £10,000 for it.

This weekend I'm going to rip up all the floorboards in my house and see if IOntel are interested in any of it.

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Posted to General

April 21, 2005

Grunt grunt

I've seen a couple of grunts corner dancing towards the top left. My scanner picked them up first. I've also seen one inside his military complex.

I think I'm going to try detonating the barrels on the left of the map, as his units are hiding out behind that wall section..... But first I'm going to move a few units a bit further up, so when the wall section goes I have units around to make immediate use of it.

The hunters are doing a bit of dodging around on the right, trying to get more info on what is where.

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Posted to M2: 173848 Vs reedonly

April 20, 2005

Its about time I deployed.....

Ok,

I've brooded on this one long enough.

I've decided to go to 3 regens. One in the centre room, and one in each corner.

In the central room I have put 2 warpers, 1 guardian and 1 Psycher, and I've deployed another two psychers and 5 sentries at the top of the map.

I'm hoping to fire off lots of warps to doa bit of damage, and if I come under heavy attack then I can fall back to another regen.

I've deployed the other troops at the top so that if I get really lucky with my warps I have more units available to do any finishing off necessary.

I also have another totally independant regen I can use to fall back to.

There, thats the planning done. Let the mistakes commence!

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Posted to M4: 174083 Vs Fatboy

I see you!!!

A few explosions over on the left, taking out both the barrel piles. That will make things a little easier for my hunters on that side.

I also see a bit of incoming laser fire, which means he is Marines. He must have seen those hunters through the walls he took out. I can't see any of his troops just yet though.

I'm moving my scanner inwards more to a better scanning position. I was going to get ot to move to the nbearby window to use its long vision for intel, but then realised that my hunter in the centre can do that for me, and maybe get a shot or two off. The other hunter is moving towards the far right of the map, hoping to catch any advancing troops offguard.

I'm still leaving the other units where they are in anticipation of the barrels going up.

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Posted to M2: 173848 Vs reedonly

And we're off!

True to my plans I'm moving forwards on the left a little, trying to keep clear of any blast zones, and also advancing the hunters on the right to see whats going on on that side. The Scanner is trying to move towards a more central position.

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Posted to M2: 173848 Vs reedonly

Upgraded....

The upgrade to Movable Type 3.16 seems to have gone ok. Rebuilt the website, nothing untowards has appeared just yet.....

If anyone does see anything odd, please let me know

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Posted to General

April 19, 2005

Emailing Jennifer Aniston

I received a rather odd email in my inbox today. It had a few authentic photos attached of Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox-Arquette and David Arquette at a babys Christening. The email urged you to read down to the bottom , through all the comments and FWD: FWD: FWD's to see who started it. The originator seems to be Jennifer Aniston herself, although the email address is missing.

It looks like I'm about 10 emails away from Ms Aniston, which gave me an odd thought. This email had reched me by being forwarded all around the world. I wondered if I could reverse the process to get an inane message back to the lady of Rachel fame.

So, I went through the mail figuring out who seems to have sent the message on to who, and constructed a chain-mail of sorts to get my message passed all the way back by the same route. Some of the people down at the bottom had addresses I could have mailed directly, but that would be cheating.....

I wonder if the message will ever get there?

UPDATE

Of course, this is a fake, however its a good job that I didnt post the attached pictures to this site :)

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Posted to General

Movable Type 3.16 released

Six Apart - ProNet - Movable Type 3.16 released

I thought I'd post this as an explanation for anything that might break on this site over the next few days.

I'm planning on upgrading the software that constructs this site on Wednesday night. From the sounds of it it should be relatively painless, and will mean that I'll be able to put entries together a bit easier.

If you notice anything wrong then please let me know

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Posted to General

April 16, 2005

Payback time?

Tie for my rematch with Fatboy.... I gave him a serious drubbing last time we playing in this competition, although I cant really fault his play in that game. He is bound to be after revenge also.

The map this time is Vantage ehich I have played quite a lot . It was the map of choice for one of the official Codo Tournaments if I remember correctly....I'm deploying in the green area this time.

I've had wins and losses on this map. However, as a Greys Vs Marines map its not too bad. Its fairly long so with some well placed Regens I should be able to move my force around fairly quickly. I'm almost tempted to go with 4 regens, one in the outside buiolding for a quick Warp-n-Run , one in both corners and one in the middle.....

I still need to give it some thought, but I'll have to come back to that later.

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Posted to M4: 174083 Vs Fatboy

Going well so far

My saucer in the bottom right took quite a few shots at the MT and XT's over on that side of the map. The MT is at about 25% health and the XT right next to it has about 1 Health left. However, that saucer is completely out of energy as it took a few XT shots and a missile exploded nearby. Time to run it back to the regens!

Up the top of the map my Saucer has found the approaching AI along with about 3 XT's. Unfortunately for gobbo, those XT's are stood just about where my warp is going to go off in about 3 seconds. I'm firing a couple more Warps towards them, firing my sentries up in that direction and also bringing the saucer round that way. Hopefully I can deal with them this turn or next.

My other psychers are firing towards the MT to track where it goes for finishing off :)

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Posted to M3: 172317 Vs thegoblin

On the up

My retreating saucer at the top managed to discover a hunter trying to sneak round the top of the map to get to my deployment zone. I shot it in the back while it was struggling with a doorway. I also managed to psyche the hunter i saw at the end of the last turn, which headed directly for the same saucer. It had no idea what hit it.

On the other side of the map a psyched hunter showed me that his scanner was moving into one of the central rooms.

My saucer in that area also took a few shots at the MT, which is being guarded by 2 XT's as far as I can tell.

I'm going to move the top suacer back out to take a few shots at the XT's and AI up in that area. I'll probably have to withdraw it next turn as its likely to take a bit of a beating if they have advanced on in. I'm going to move my Warper up into that area a little to help out with clearing up the XT's in that area. Hopefully it'll be able to make a dent in the AI too.

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Posted to M3: 172317 Vs thegoblin

First League game for a while.....

This is the first Codo League game I've played for a while. I have been moving steadily up the Vet division, so am hoping to continue on up with this match.

I've not played Demonspawn before so have no idea how good he is, although we are similarly ranked. Its a 10 point match, as even as they get.

The map is Space For Rent , one I havent played before and I am over on the Blue side.

It looks like quite a good map for Mechs, since its all destructable scenery so MT;s would have a field day on this map. Greys might also be good, but its only a 20 FP game which would leave me a bit short of units.

Actually I've just noticed that there is a large metal wall running up the middle of the map that would shield a lot of space from direct missile attack.

I think I'm actually going to go with Spawn. There are quite a few routes to take that would be hidden from the enemys view, and since its a 20 FP game I'm hoping that I might be able to overrun him with sheer numbers. Also, any units I can eat and recycle 'count' more in a 20 point game.

I've taken 1 Queen, 5 Buzzers, 6 Drones, 4 Spikers and a Goo Spitter.

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Posted to 173683 Vs demonspawn

April 13, 2005

Intel give AMD Best CPU Award

You just couldn't make it up!

Link

Actually, I'm not familiar with that site, so maybe they do make it up!

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Posted to General

Progress on the FI Roster

I've finally solved a problem I have on the Field Instructor Roster . I wanted new LSN players to be able to post their details to the site, so that one of the Field Instructors could issue then a training game.

This turned out to be far trickier than I had thought, until I stumbled across some nice details on Arvind Satyanarayan's Movalog website. I've given them a run through on my test blog and it seems to work fine. I need to make a few adjustments to tailor it to my exact requirments but that doesnt look too tricky.

Hoepfully this will make the FI Roster much easier to use for any new players seeking a bit of help finding their feet.

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Posted to General

April 12, 2005

Lots of Intel!

By moving my saucer up near the forcefield I was able to get a good look up the corridor. That, combined with my Psyches meant I could see lots of units.

I've seen 3 XT's , 2 hunters and a scanner up the main corridor. One of the psyched XT's stumbled upon the HQ with an MT parked next to it. I've also spooted 1 further HT on the left, and 1 at the bottom.

At the top I psyched an XT which spotted another, along with an AI.

There is also something else up by my Saucer as I saw a door open and close.

That totals

Which is 19 points of known units. Once you take into account the 1 point I already have then that leaves only 5 points I do not know about.

I'm going to try to psyche the Scanner to see what else I can see, then I'll start on the MT and surrounding units. I'm also sending a few psyches towards the Hunter that popped out at the top left towards the end of the turn. My Warper is sending a few warps through the compleox to see if I can catch anything.

I'm also trying to move one of my Psychers towards the forward psycher as that location seems to have better coverage towards the MT. I dont think many units have gone through the middle areas to catch with random psyches.

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Posted to M3: 172317 Vs thegoblin

He must be SOOOOO Confident!

Gobbo has to be very confident in a win, as he has killed one of his own units on the first turn.

Lots of explosions in the bottom left, setting off some explosive barrels looks like it killed a Hunter that he had whizzing off that way. Thanks for that!

For my turn I'm just moving my troops up into nice positions, and moving my saucers out a bit further. I'm sending out a few exploratory Psyckes also. I have to assume that he has a scanner on this map so he is going to know where my troops are fairly quickly. If it comes to it I'm going to use my Sentries to block off the room entrances and Psycke any attacking units.

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Posted to M3: 172317 Vs thegoblin

April 11, 2005

Lets get started

I've ha a lack of timne and an overload of games lately, but I think I need to press on with this game against gobbo.

As I said before he's going to be looking for revenge after the drubbing I gave him last time round. I think he's going to give me one too. A drubbing, that is....

This first turn is spent moving troopsmup into position. I'm trying to get my psychers and warpers up close to the centre of the map, and am running my saucers out to the extremities for intel gathering.

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Posted to M3: 172317 Vs thegoblin

April 9, 2005

Shooting some b-ball outside the school.

Check out this cracking video clip of some rather special basketball moves.... There MUST be some video editing going on there.... Right..?

8.8MB Quicktime Link

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Posted to General

A new game begins

My month 2 Guerilla League game is against reedonly. I've not played him before, and have no idea how good he is. Looking at the league table though shows me that he has won both his games so far, taking the top spot. This might be a tough game.

The map has pulled Gasoline , with me in the Green deployment zone.

This is a map covered with explosives, so I think I'll go with Mechs for a bit more armour.

I've deployed mainly on the left, with that force consisting on my AI, a scanner and 7 XT's. Over on the right I've deployed 2 Hunters to scout that side of the map.

I think I'm going to sit back until some of the explosives have gone up before making too many more plans.

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Posted to M2: 173848 Vs reedonly

April 5, 2005

Done and dusted!

Andurils final comment worried me a little...

Sorry, but I have to commit HARA-KIRI ...

It almost looked like his waprer was about to fire on his regen! He needn't have worried, and the incoming warp and twin saucer fire took out the regen and the warper in one last explosion.

I'd be interested to hear from Anduril what those units were that I managed to wipe out early on...

All in all a nice revenge game for my earlier defeat. Something tells me our next matchup will be tense. I look forward to it Anduril!

Final score 25 - 0

My wholegame can be downloaded here.

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Posted to M3: 171966 Vs Anduril

Almost done....

I managed to finish off the Sentry, and my leftmnost Saucer took out the badly wounded wounded warper. It was trying to rearm from the regen, which I've also managed to damage.

The other warper sent a shot towards the centre where my second saucer is. It would have been a direct hit, however after killing the sentry my saucer started advancing, managing to fly right over the incoming warp, leaving it to explode harmlessly behind me.

I'm left facing a single warper, so its a pretty easy turn to plot. All out attack on the final position.

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Posted to M3: 171966 Vs Anduril

Need a few words?

I got sent this link today.

A lady has collected together all the amusing .sig entries that she has come across since 1990. There are a HUGE number of entries here, some are awful but there are a fair few gems.

They are all credited to the original poster, so see if you can find your name on there.

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Posted to General

April 4, 2005

Oh dear oh dear....

This really isn't Andurils game.....

The warp I sent up towards the final room was intended to remove some of the walls so I can get a decent look in there. It went slightly off target (as warps tend to do when you issue long plots) and ended up headed towards the doorway. The doorway that Andurils Warper was standing in.

That direct collision has left him with a heavily wounded Warper. I think the other warper must be inside that building cowering a little....

However, he did also get a direct hit warp on my central saucer. I had a warper rearming from that saucer so he's taken a bit of a pasting. Down to 2 health, so he's off for a trip to the home regen also.

My central saucer is taking direct fire orders against the remaining sentry, and the visible Warper, and then when those can no lponger be carried out is advancing towards the enemy position.

The leftmost Saucer is moving out in front of the metal walled building to get a better firing angle in to the final room. My other warper is also advancing, pausing only to send a warp off towards the enemy.

Current score 15 - 0

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Posted to M3: 171966 Vs Anduril

A Lucky Escape

My saucer managed to get away with 9 energy remaining, its rushing back to the regens!

All the incoming Waprs were directed at where my Saucer was at the beginning of the turn, which meant I could easily do a runner.

The Regen at the bottom got taken out under heavy fire from the saucer and Warper. It looks like I took an enemy unit out with it too, as I can see a corpse next to it.

I'm bringing my bottom warper up towards the metal room, hoping that I can start bombarding the only possible regen location ( top left room) min a few turns. It'll take a few to get it into position, and I might want to regen from the saucer also.... I'm moving that saucer up round the back to get a view of the top of the map, and I'm also moving the second saucer out into the centre of the main wall (whats left of it...)

The centre warper is sending an attack towards the top left, and then rearming off the saucer. Hopefully I'll be able to blow away a wall piece or two, or maybe the door so I cen get a bit more of a gander inside.

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Posted to M3: 171966 Vs Anduril

A good choice!

Boy, did I make the right move getting that saucer out of there!!

1 warp came from the centre passage, and exploded nearby (also damaging the regen) and 2 more came up from the left passage. If my saucer had remained to make a third shot on the regen it would have been toast. Thankfully I only needed two shots. That Saucer is now on its way back to safety although it only has 21 energy left. I also saw another warp ball heading for its current position, so I hope it can make it back to safety.

Judging from the frequency of the warps at the bottom he must have teleported both of the other warpers into that bottom regen. The one I could see didnt have enough energy for a warp1 . Since two warps arrived together thay must have been fired from two different warpers. The bad news for him is that my full saucer is poised right around the corner to make an attack, and my warper has just blown a nice hole in the wall to throw some warps through. What was really good from my point of view was that my wall busting warp didnt actually explode until this turn, meaning that Anduril will not know about the missing wall pieces. I hadnt actually intended it that way, but it worked out nicely for me :)

Halting my retreating saucer before the full 10 seconds were up was also a nice idea. It means that I was able to spot the two advancing sentries in the top centre. One looks wounded, so some of my earlier waprs must have hit home. the wounded one also looks like its out of energy, as it gets a shot off but then doesn't go into the attack pose like his bretheren. I'll send them a friendly warp to keep them company.

Current Score 9 - 0

1 Or so it appeared to me... It was in the middle of making an attack on the last turn when I hit it with a laserbolt, causing it to halt the attack....

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Posted to M3: 171966 Vs Anduril

So far so good!

My forward saucer has uncovered a regen round the back of the metal walled room as I expected. It was empty, so the warper at the bottom had most likely teletported from it.

At the moment I think he has probably got 3 warpers, 3 regens and 2 sentries left.

I've seen one of the warpers at the bottom left corner, and sapped all its energy with a nice Saucer shot.

I'm going to leave that warper be, as its most likely going to teleport as soon as it flees back to the regen. I'm going to take 2 shots at the regen1, and then pull that saucer back to rearm as its down to 40/90 energy. A few nicely placed warps from Anduril will lead to the possible loss of the saucer, which I dont want at all! On its retreat I'm making sure I stop it before the full 10 seconds are up for all round vision.

I'm moving the second saucer in towards the first regen I spotted, and am also moving a warper in. I'm sending a warp off towards the wall hoping to blow a section away that I can use to drop more warps right onto the regen. I doubt I'll kill any troops but at least that will narrow down the possible danger zones for me.

My other warper is moving forwards a little, and sending a warp off towards the rear regen. Hopefully that, coupled with the saucers attack will mean I can finish that off withing a turn or two....

1 Only two shots as test orders show that that can be enough to destroy the regen. If its not enough then hopefully the incoming warps will finish it off.

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Posted to M3: 171966 Vs Anduril

April 3, 2005

What has he got...?

I've just seen two sentries hiding out in the building at the top next to the main wall, and also spotted 1 regen with a Warper re-arming at it.

I think he probably has a regen behind the metal walled building, where he fired off some warps, and then teleported to the other one to regen.

I'm going to push the saucer further in to catch a glimpse of whats behind the building. I then want to pull it out to regen it, as its getting a bit low.

Meanwhile I'm moving the other saucers and warpers into position at the bottom of the map where the wall has been blown open. I want to send some warps in to the newly discovered regen.

The warper at the top of the map is going to send some shots in to the room the sentries were seen in.

By the way, I can now see the bodies from my initial warp attack at the bottom. It looks like there were 3 units of the same type, and 1 of another judging by the bodies left behind. Could it have been 3 psychers and a sentry? That would make up the correct number of points....

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Posted to M3: 171966 Vs Anduril

Warps everywhere!

There are a lot of incoming warps, so I think he has gone very heavy on Warpers. I saw his retreating Warper run round to the back of the metal walled building in the central left. He must have another one somewhere, towards the bottom left I think.

My central Saucer finished off the Sentry and is retreating for regen. My rear saucer is passing its energy onto the first warper ready for another attack.

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Posted to M3: 171966 Vs Anduril

A little lucky

My middle saucer took two direct Warps, which drained a bit of energy. However, it also spotted 2 Wqarpers. It managed to wouind one, and I am set to persue that warper this turn. The other looked like it was retreating into the room in the top left, so thats a likely Regen location.

I'd like to send a few Warps of my own in there....

With the seven points I've killed, plus the 2 Warpers and 1 sentry I know about that makes 16 points I know of. He is likely to have at least 2 regens, but that still leaves a lot of unknown FPS.

Based on those unknown FP's I'm a little unsure whether the persue order on the Warper is a good idea as I might run into trouble. I think instead I'll have my lowered energy Saucer try to finish off the sentry in the centre then regen.

I'll have one of th efull Saucers move through the centre of the wall, and down the left hand side, ending up near the junction with the buildings.

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Posted to M3: 171966 Vs Anduril

More Spotted

It looks like he had a similar idea to me, seeing as some Warps have just exploded at the top of the map. I've also spotted a Sentry moving into the gap between the main wall, but thats exactly where my warp was heading so it may not be too health on this turn...

As for the final bit of wall breaking.... its STILL not done. I wish my troops were made out of the same stuff as this wall piece. Its resisting all attempts at destruction (and no, its not the blue military wall..... :) )

I'm moving a saucer into the gap I've just blown into the wall, and sending a Warp up one of the outside channels in the wall.

I'm also moving one other saucer and the other warper towards the top of the map in preparation for an attack.

The final saucer is on demolition duties again, although if its not cleared this turn I'm giving up on that.....

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Posted to M3: 171966 Vs Anduril