Round 25
Dates and Times
Signups started on Friday 4th January 2008 at 20:00 GMT
Ticks started on the 11th January 2008 at 20:00 GMT
Ticks ended on the 29th February 2008 at 20:00 GMT
Round Summary
It marked the introduction of the ability to disband a galaxy once it fell into the bottom 10% by score, leading to an average 17-player galaxy by round end. It also marked the introduction of the ability to 'invite' a new signup into your galaxy after PT336. The support planet rule was disabled and combat was finally made independent of user ID; people no longer stole and lost the same roids in the same tick.
Top Galaxy Contenders
Smasher's galaxy, 11:7 dominated the rankings, with Elviz's gal (6:3) and Ascendancy's flagship (3:5) claiming second and third respectively. 11:7 had a greater-than-50% roidlead over 6:3 until Elviz encouraged a number of alliances led by NewDawn and Conspiracy Theory to launch a murderous attack which took 12k roids.
Top Planet Contenders
The primary contenders were Smasher (xVx, 11:7), Wishmaster (Urwins, 6:3), Bigbad (TGV, 11:7), Byrney (NewDawn, 11:7) and Elviz (Conspiracy Theory, 6:3), with Elviz eventually winning. He had dominated the early rankings, before a mid-round roiding by Ascendancy allowed the 11:7 crew to make a run for it.
The massive assault on 11:7 severely reduced Bigbad and Smasher's odds; in a spectacular battle, 35 CT fleets crashed into Smasher at a cost of 7.5 million value for ~650 roids and the ruining of his spectre fleet (a mistake which may have cost Smasher the round).
Byrney's chances were ruined by Urwins on the last day. Attacking structure killers destroyed his factories in a ratio which prevented the release of a large amount of hidden production. With the probability of this ratio occuring of about 1 in 4,000, Byrney was justifiably annoyed.
Elviz' frigates were conspicuous by their absence from the battle at Smasher's, and with his conserved fleet he was able to ensure regular roidgains from attacking smaller alliances like Subh, TGV, F-Crew & Hidden Agenda. These roidgains were sufficient to take a record third round win.
==Alliance politics== Perspective from Gate (NewDawn)
The removal of the support planet rule meant that some alliances fielded over the 60 member limit and accepted less active planets as support; both ND and Asc fielded 74 players and xVx had a 22-member extra tag called '5th Asylum'. NewDawn successfully hid a large amount of score out of tag all round long.
Early on, some Ascendancy planets massed distorters, whilst others hunted down scanners with structure killers and covert operations. They raced to a massive roidcount before NewDawn and Conspiracy Theory (henceforth NDCT) NAPd and launched structure-killing attacks, some of which landed blind & crashed spectacularly. The following day Ascendancy were hit across the board, an effort repeated periodically by NDCT, who feared Asc were hiding value. In the end, Asc's distorter count limited their income and although they spent most of the round with an impressive roidcount, they never breached the top 4.
During this time, Urwins (who had aligned themselves with Vengeance and claimed top spot) were considered the greatest threat and NDCT firepower shifted to them for a 2 week bombardment; with no support from Vengeance, Urwins' chances were ruined. It is testament to their skill, drive and commitment that they finished less than 500k behind Conspiracy.
CT were able to depose Urwins, but soon afterwards lost the top spot to xVx who planet targetted ROCK, citing ROCK hostility. ROCK, sat in 7th, claimed innocence and responded in kind with an heroic effort (complete with patriotic galbanners) which prevented xVx's growth.
NDCT were eventually able to come to ROCK's aid, splitting their fire between 11:7 and xVx. A single night effectively ruined both xVx's and CT's chances. With 35 of their fleets severely damaged at Smasher's & their 2 biggest planets either NAPing or avoiding top alliances, CT resigned themselves to defeat and maintained the NAP with NewDawn until the end. It wasn't all bad news though; their members' sacrifice was rewarded with CT's first top planet.
NewDawn considered xVx defeated and decided that a shift to full targetting was unnecessary, so disengaged. In the last 2 days NewDawn boosted their score by adding out of tag planets. Despite the loss of almost 10 million to a deletion and mistakes in releasing production, they were able to claim the win.
Final Rankings
Top 25 Alliances
Rank Name Asteroids Members AVG Score Score 1 NewDawn 61243 60 4,310,202 258,612,136 2 Conspiracy 58489 60 3,984,660 239,079,656 3 Urwins 66815 60 3,979,621 238,777,291 4 xVx 62368 60 3,921,823 235,309,437 5 Ascendancy 60096 60 3,724,883 223,492,998 6 Vengeance 49905 59 3,402,889 200,770,490 7 ROCK 45068 60 3,101,963 186,117,828 8 TGV 37412 51 3,408,853 173,851,533 9 Hidden Agenda 43384 60 2,746,410 164,784,606 10 Orbit 32975 60 2,666,055 159,963,337 11 F-Crew 38154 59 2,282,695 134,679,030 12 Howling Rain 33165 47 2,747,973 129,154,750 13 ASS 32941 51 2,197,921 112,094,005 14 Subh 27089 39 2,329,036 90,832,423 15 5th Asylum 11500 22 1,685,447 37,079,839 16 SPQR 9825 18 1,729,913 31,138,444 17 BGArmy 15377 37 753,375 27,874,876 18 PATSA 8420 20 1,133,480 22,669,608 19 InSomnia 4426 14 1,599,153 22,388,144 20 Ðragons 647 2 3,563,588 7,127,176 21 The Cobra Unit 1853 5 1,002,654 5,013,272 22 PNAC(alimuh) 828 2 2,355,744 4,711,489 23 Woooorsht 2152 6 699,924 4,199,546 24 Donut Army 856 2 1,976,386 3,952,772 25 I BPd elviz 2282 2 1,966,291 3,932,583
