Hi Newworld! Hi Azz Kikr!

I'm tempted to play a landfarm on alliance next set, but still not tempted by FFA yet.

I dunno, I think Paulie has him beat. Cerberus might be #2 though.

I am not returning ... not yet anyways.

Let's go position by position
Catcher: Lucroy versus Martin/Sanchez versus Pena/Mesoraco
Advantage Brewers by a huge margin
First Base: Overbay/Reynolds versus Sanchez versus Votto
Advantage Reds by a ridiculous margin
Second Base: Gennett versus Walker versus Phillips
Advantage Reds by a decent margin
Shortstop: Segura versus Mercer versus Cozart
Advantage Brewers by a decent margin
Third Base: Ramirez versus Alvarez versus Frazier
About dead even between all three
Left Field: Davis versus Marte versus Ludwick
About even between Brewers and Pirates, Reds far behind
Center Field: Gomez versus McCutchen versus Hamilton
About even between Brewers and Pirates, Reds far behind
Right Field: Braun versus Bruce versus Snider
Brewers slightly ahead of Reds, and both way way ahead of Pirates

I consider the Brewers to have the clear best player at catcher and shotstop, and at all the OF positions, they're about tied with one team and far ahead of the other team. They're about even with the other teams at third base. With a healthy and unsuspended Braun, and Khris Davis and his .898 minor league OPS and .949 major league OPS in his very abbreviated rookie season being on the Brewers all year, they should score a lot more than last year. If they can fix their massive hole at 1B (seriously, Overbay was the best they can do??), they will have clearly the best lineup among the competitors for 2nd place in the division. Aside from 2B, where Gennett is still passable, 1B is their only weakness, and 1B is by far the easiest position to fill. If they're in the playoff mix still at the all-star break, look for them to grab a 1B via trade, and lock up the #2 spot in the division. But even with Overbay at 1B, I think their lineup is better than the Pirates lineup and equal to the Reds lineup.

When you look at the Pirates lineup, and look at the chance that their pitchers will regress from last year, I see them winning at least 10 games less than they did last year. That lineup is pretty horrible, especially if Marte's BB:K ratio dooms him, and Alvarez's bavg torpedoes his value. Aside from those two risky players, do any of the Pirates hitters have upside? Are any of their other hitters even average? McCutchen yes. The rest of the team no. Thus, when I look at the Pirates pitching staff and its likelihood of regressing, I am comfortable predicting the Pirates to finish under .500 this year.

I'm from the DC area, but I am a Cardinals fan. And I think the Braves will be better than the Nats this year. And that was before Ramos got injured, too. The Cardinals are the best in the league, though. I think the Brewers are the 2nd best in our division, and I think the Pirates will finish under .500

I cannot let this die just yet. Over two months since the last post, but still worth topping.

Actually, it appears that I do not have the motivation to play. I apologize for misleading people.

If you want an official pact with Mercs, you can contact me. I don't really see the need for it, I'll just be a one man tag, and I'm staying out of the politics of this server. I took a break for the last two weeks, three weeks, something like that. It's needed if you're going to maintain enough interest to keep playing this boring game.

Grats to everyone who managed to play all of last set, without getting so bored that they quit halfway through. Just playing an entire set is an achievement!

LaF's IRC is never active. But the other two points are correct.

11 million cash per spy op, equivalent to about 85k troops or 3500 tech points. Why would they keep doing that spy op when they're doing such little damage?

Please tag up your restarts. As you guys know, I've been killing untaggeds this set. I've also been killing Cerberus, and he hasn't tagged up all of his restarts. If you're untagged, I might kill your country. I've got no way of knowing which side you're on, and I honestly don't care. I'm not participating in the war for either side. It's really really simple to tag up. If you're untagged and you get hit, don't fluff at me. It's your fault for hiding as an untagged. You know the risks of hiding as an untagged. Especially if you're pulling a Cerberus and keeping zero defensive military while stocking missiles. Untaggeds with zero military and lots of warfare tech are suspicious. Just tag up.

boxcar's news isn't broken
instead, the entire EE community turned pacifist

It's not spin, it's called truth.

Because not everyone gets suicided every single set. One person being able to avoid suicides one time doesn't mean that everyone should be able to do that.

You don't seem to understand how stockpiling works. If the suicider has 10 billion cash, and you want to double his military, you need to spend 20 billion in cash on troops, 20 billion in cash on turrets, and 20 billion in cash on tanks. The suicider then gets to keep his low expenses because his stockpile costs nothing to maintain, but because you need to have enough military to stop however much he can get once he spends his stockpile, you're stuck trying to stockpile with huge military expenses.

It is easy math - keeping double your opponent's military in any way that they could attack you is not feasible. Sadly, that easy math is still too difficult for you.

You're under the misimpression that its possible to buy enough defense to not get suicided on. That's simply not the case.

It will work. It will make suiciders more powerful because they can restart so quickly with so much force. Stopping a suicider will be quite difficult. But that is the goal - to boost griefing, right?

That's every tag on the server. No real alliance respects untaggeds. Every alliance farms untaggeds. If you want to play without an alliance, go play primary or express. Or create a one man tag on FFA.

Stop pretending like it is LaF's actions towards untaggeds which caused this suicide. We all know that's not the case. Many alliances farm untaggeds, but the suicide on LaF was premeditated. The suicide on LaF was for political reasons by someone has enjoyed tag protection from LaF's rivals. He created the country with the intent to suicide LaF. He didn't create the country with an open mind where suiciding Evo or MD or Omega was also a possibility. This was a pre-planned suicide for political reasons where the suicider picked a good looking country in Laf to mess up out of a personal grudge against LaF for LaF's actions towards other tags.

This is purely political, and this is someone suiciding for political reasons. So stop talking about the way untaggeds are treated. Start talking about the way LaF treats other alliances, because thats what actually caused this suicide.

Your forces invaded Mercenaries Inc Founder (#2543)!
They broke through the defender's defences!

They took:
1 Acres(10 Gained)
10 Buildings
1 Bushels
$101,920
219 Technology Points
Your military lost:
12 Jets
Your enemy lost:
Nothing



Really dude? After I mocked you once for being landkilled by a 1k jet SS, you again sold all of your military on your private market to buy jets and got landkilled again while having ZERO defensive military?

Just to show off some of the confidence he had in his own countries, and how disparagingly he thought of my countries.

All of Cerberus' originals are dead, he has just 5 restarts tagged up, for a combined networth of under 7 million. He's set me back a little bit with his nukes, but that's about it.

I declare victory over Cerberus, and no longer claim his countries all to myself. Anyone who wants to use his restarts as a missile dump should feel free to use him for that purpose. It's about all he's good for.

Where will these suiciders come from, Aron? Are you one of them? If so, let me know your country numbers, and as soon as I finish taking care of Cerberus, I will neutralize your threat as well.

Who is the current FFA moderator? I'm on vacation, i wanna make sure its okay for me to login to my countries.

http://earthgraphs.com/...rberus&warreport=Show

3 originals left for Cerberus. He's at 22.7 million networth, I'm at 144.8 million networth.

Still waiting for his war machine to power up...

His 3 originals just threw 15 missiles at me, and I shot 14 of them down.

[edit]: The country he chose to shoot missiles at has 86.86% SDI, so shooting down 14 out of 15 isn't that unlikely to occur.

Cruise missiles are useful. You just gotta war people that are war-prepped and have SDI & military. If you war people that don't have SDI or military, then no, cruise missiles are not useful.

I know. This is almost as bad as warring Paulie.

11.3 hours ago
A brigade from Fox Hunting (#279) has invaded your lands!
Their forces broke through your defences!
They took:
73 Acres (73 Gained)
17 Buildings (7 Stolen)
1192 Bushels
$1,070,698
1593 Technology Points
Your military lost:
15,176 Troops
16,137 Turrets
1618 Tanks
Your defence allies lost:
7572 Troops
12,735 Turrets
818 Tanks
Their military lost:
362,712 Jets


You put that country into max DR yourself, and then you spent all your cash on jets (instead of badly needed troops) just to make a 73 acre PS. Do you not understand that grabbing a country after you put it into max DR is a bad idea? Or that spending all your money on jets when you're at war is a bad idea?

http://earthgraphs.com/...rberus&warreport=Show

Right now I have 140 million TNW, you have 52 million TNW. Whose troop count is depleting, and whose troop count is maintaining itself?

They are sustainable if you have a good economy ... which I do have. 25000 troops isn't much at all. It doesn't bother me to lose that many. If you actually made good countries, you'd realize that 25000 troops isn't much. You're forgetting, I'm capable of getting 5 billion TNW with my 16 countries. 25000 troops to someone that can do 5b tnw isn't much.

Since I was attacking with just 1000 jets, I didn't lose that many. I did 22 attacks, which cost me about 2000 jets total. Since I produce over 3000 tech points per turn when I tech, and tech sells for about $3600 and jets cost about $120, it will take me about 1/40th of a turn to make enough money to replace the jets I lost. So one turn of teching would give me enough money to replace 40 times as much as what I lost in killing your landfarm.

You don't seem to understand how powerful my countries economies are, even despite their tiny size.

P.S. Two more of Cerberus' countries are dead.

Jan 01/14 10:50:18 PM NM TapDancing Tanks (#244) (Cerberus) Mecklenberg Vorpommern (#112) (Mercs) 537 A
Jan 01/14 10:50:19 PM NM TapDancing Tanks (#244) (Cerberus) Mecklenberg Vorpommern (#112) (Mercs) 510 A
Jan 01/14 10:50:24 PM NM TapDancing Tanks (#244) (Cerberus) Mecklenberg Vorpommern (#112) (Mercs) 484 A
Jan 01/14 10:52:39 PM NM Festooned with Guns (#250) (Cerberus) Mecklenberg Vorpommern (#112) (Mercs) 460 A

Message from Mincing Marines (#283) sent on Jan 01, 23:06
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Dropping the unused land, eh? LOL Better get used to that control, you're going to be using it a lot. :)





FYI Cerberus, you nuked me. I didn't drop any land.

Cerberus - you lost 5 countries, but the worst part is that you lost 2 of them while you were online.

And even funnier, one of the two that you lost while you were online was killed by a 1k jet SS

Is this the awesome war machine you're bragging about? So awesome at absorbing damage that it can't even stonewall when you're online?

When I wake up tomorrow morning after new years, I'll start hitting you. If you want to start farming me today, or doing whatever it is you think you can do to me, go ahead. You wanted this war, so you can have it.

Message from GroundPounder (#247) sent on Dec 30, 22:26
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Gee, look at all the FAT mercs countries in my scores list. 10K acres. Really?

Message from GroundPounder (#247) sent on Dec 31, 7:00
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At least mine don't suck like yours, they can defend themselves. :)

Come at me Bro

My countries are crap. I don't mind it if you trash them. They're tiny, they have no stockpile. I'm not netting. I won't hold a grudge if you hit me. The only reason to spy an entire tag is if you're planning on warring them.

Come at me. If you won't come after me, I'll go after you. But I'll give you 24 hours to get the first shot in.

My countries all have the same build, same military layout, they're almost identical to each other. Why so many failed spy attempts on so many different countries? My countries are crap, and your small dictators can't even get spy ops on my crappy countries?


5.9 hours ago
FlashBang (#249) [Cerberus] attempted to spy on Saarland (#99) [Mercs]!

5.9 hours ago
FlashBang (#249) [Cerberus] attempted to spy on Nordrhein Westfalen (#101) [Mercs]!

5.9 hours ago
FlashBang (#249) [Cerberus] attempted to spy on Nordrhein Westfalen (#101) [Mercs]!

5.8 hours ago
Festooned with Guns (#250) [Cerberus] attempted to spy on Hessen (#102) [Mercs]!

5.8 hours ago
Always something (#276) [Cerberus] attempted to spy on Sachsen Anhalt (#105) [Mercs]!

5.8 hours ago
One damned Thing (#277) [Cerberus] attempted to spy on Brannenborg (#107) [Mercs]!

5.8 hours ago
After Another Damned Thing (#278) [Cerberus] attempted to spy on Brannenborg (#107) [Mercs]!

5.7 hours ago
After Another Damned Thing (#278) [Cerberus] attempted to spy on Bremen (#109) [Mercs]!

5.7 hours ago
Fox Hunting (#279) [Cerberus] attempted to spy on Bremen (#109) [Mercs]!

5.7 hours ago
Fox Hunting (#279) [Cerberus] attempted to spy on Bremen (#109) [Mercs]!

5.7 hours ago
The pursuit of the inedible (#280) [Cerberus] attempted to spy on Hamburg (#110) [Mercs]!

5.7 hours ago
by the unspeakable (#281) [Cerberus] attempted to spy on Mecklenberg Vorpommern (#112) [Mercs]!

It's really easy to not get retalled. When you spy someone before attacking them, make sure to look at how many turns they've used. Don't hit people who will have a lot of turns next time they play their country.

Oh, and run a very very high defense, too obviously.

Perfected? You had about half as much networth as you should have had if you were doing it perfectly.

I used to explore to 12k for my explorer techer strategy on the alliance server. With these new explore gains, I'd probably be exploring to 13k or so, if I remade the strategy.

So Ares has a 1:kill policy if you have too many turrets?

Or maybe you shouldn't be bragging about how awesome your countries are. It's fine to run crappy countries, its what I'm doing this set. It's just sad to not be aware that your countries are poorly constructed with weak economies and weak militaries.

My countries are all between 4.5k and 5k acres right now with more than enough defense for their land. Despite doing over 300 attacks each, and having more land than almost all of your countries, they've still got plenty of war techs. I'm not sure what you've been doing with your turns, I'm intentionally playing inefficiently because of my warring, and my countries are still in better shape than yours. I haven't been war-prepping, so my countries have fluffty economies, but that probably offends you because my countries still have better economies than yours.

I'm not going to brag about my countries, because I'm not trying to netgain or war with them, all I'm trying to do is kill off all the untaggeds. And that means staying small, because growing big will make me too big to attack untaggeds. If I was trying to netgain or war, I'd actually build decent countries with decent economies. My countries are crap, and I'm well aware of that.

Because even you're talking about damaging him rather than defeating him. You're leaving the door open to claim moral victory when he kills all of your countries, but you've stolen thousands of points of tech and destroyed hundreds of thousands of bushels and oil barrels though spy ops.

Having just 3k acres is much more pathetic than having just 1k spy tech points.

It doesn't change how much you take when you hit for land, except for the effect of having slightly better military strategy tech.

What it means is that your economy sucks and you can't afford as much military as your opponent. It's not a good thing.