Round 17
Dates and Times
Signups opened Monday 3rd April 2006 at 20:00 GMT
Ticks started on Friday 14th April 2006 at 20:00 GMT
Ticks ended on Friday 8th June 2006 at 20:00 GMT
Round Summary
Round 17 began with a different feel than the last few rounds. eXilition remained on the sidelines, Ascendancy, after their success last round, began the round with barely half as many members as they had finished Round 16 with, and there were questions over how 1up would be playing. Another of the big alliances of the last number of rounds, LCH, announced that they would be playing as a much smaller alliance this round. The XP formula, after the controversy during Round 16, had been altered and winning the round via XP-whoring now seemed extremely unlikely, if not impossible. The likely return to more conventional value playing brought different alliances in for the round. In terms of the main contenders Angels and NewDawn both continued on into Round 17 and were joined by new boys Omen and a returning Insomnia.
The first week of the round saw Omen build a small lead, based on a high average roid count and better value, over Insomnia, ND and Angels. 1up still had less than 30 planets in their tag at this stage and many people were wondering if after their surprising loss last round they weren't playing at the same level as previous rounds had demonstrated. Regardless for the minute the alliances to watch were Omen, Angels, ND and Insomnia. As Omen looked to increase their lead over the rest ND and Insomnia struck out heavily at them. Angels, with whom Omen had had friendly relations with since before the round and many shared buddypacks, agreed on a NAP with Omen. Nonetheless Omen were under heavy fire and lost their #1 spot to NewDawn for over 10 days as they lost roids to ND and Insomnia.
However despite their status as a new alliance Omen did not prove a pushover. They fought back, aided by Angels, and retook the #1 spot some 4 weeks into the round. As the top group switched back towards galaxy raiding somewhat Omen were able to stretch their lead over the next week, building a 30% roid lead over ND in #2, who were trailed closely by Insomnia with Angels a little further back. At this time the rumours over 1up had begun to coalesce into a clearer story. Although they had some 60 odd planets intag, which was the alliance limit for this round, it became apparent that they had a number of larger planets out of tag. Although nobody was quite too sure how big they really were it became obvious to many HCs that they were definitely in contention for the round win, despite what the rankings said.
It was a question of who would make the first move to take on 1up? Omen, as the #1 alliance, were looked to by some but while they were willing to get involved too much bitterness had been built up by the wars that had taken up the first half of the round. An attempt to hit 1up was discussed between the top alliances but it fell through. However ND lacked the level of intel on 1up that others, particularly Omen, possessed and were far more concerned about Omen than 1up. In the end ND and Insomnia both launched on Omen together with 1up. The same night 1up tagged up and took a narrow lead. In reality they had been well ahead of Omen et al, at least on roids for much of the middle of the round, and the last week had actually seen some of that roid lead disappear. Unfortunately for Omen, and the rest of the non-1up universe, the political situation was now firmly against them. A devastating night of roid losses, 30% plus, ensued for Omen and although they didn't lose many fleets this knocked them further back. This last act of hostility ensured that nobody was capable of putting together a united front against 1up.
Due to 1up managing to avoid wars throughout the round while their score was similar to Omen's their value was significantly ahead. Building on this and taking a huge roid lead, as Omen were unable to fend off massive incomings, 1up stretched their score lead as well. Their military machine was fresh, in distinct contrast to everyone else's and combined with the quality they had throughout the alliance they simply outmatched the other alliances. The wars of the first half of the round had meant that a united front versus them was nigh on impossible to orchestrate. In the end 1up won comfortably with Omen coming in second and Insomnia and ND in third and fourth respectively. One of 1up's big out-of-tag planets, elviz won the round and the #1 galaxy was 7.1, who overtook long time leaders 10.9 in the last week.
After this round, and due to controversy over the way in which 1up hid their "real" planets as well as Ascendancy in the previous round to a certain extent, this tactic was effectively removed from the game, with alliance score being altered so that only a planet's score while being out-of-tag/in his current alliance's tag counted.
Final Rankings
Golden Roids
Metal Roid 1:9:5 [MC]Hellfire Angels
Crystal Roid 7:2:9 Turbo Insomnia
Eonium Roid 8:9:13 Razgriz
Construction Roid 13:3:8 r0x Angels
Production Roid 7:2:1 Kandinsky TGV
Research Roid 8:2:13 Lesh HR
