I was Asia, ike was Russia, TORX Spun.Jo was Europe, Backlash was Africa, Apophis was NA. and Torig was SA. . Of these, the only one I recognized was Torig (and I'd only seen him play earlier in the evening), the others I dodn't know much about. I was concentrating mostly on Russia/Europe so I didn't see much of what happened elsewhere.
Default Game, Default Scoring, 200pop, Random populations, min speed 5x
Defcon 5
Set up silos in eastern and central Asia away from possible Russian radar range. Russia allied with Europe, NA allied with SA, and I allied with Africa (perfectly fine by me since I didn't have to fight over the Indian Ocean. I set up most of my navy in the Indian (4 subs, 9 carriers, and 9 battleships). The airbases I set up in Saudi and India.
Defcon 4
I found myself scrambling to get my navy placed. I placed three carriers and 6 subs in the Pacific. As the game was 5x minimum I wasn't quite fast enough to get the navy out the way I would have wanted. The six subs were in one group, something I don't usually do, but I got in too much of a hurry with less than 1 game minute before Defcon 3 I was just looking to get them on the board. This still happens to me sometimes when I'm a game that is set to a 5x minimum. As it was I think I didn't get two subs and three battleships placed when Defcon 3 hit :/ Annoying but I decided not to worry about it and do what I could.
I spotted one silo in the Russian frontier right near one of my radars, with two radars next to it. I also spotted one European silo in Spain that my ally's radar picked up and a radar near the Russian border.
Defcon 3
I launched fighters from three airbases towards Russia to look for more silos. I ultimately found three additional silos and one airbase in western Russia. I set my Pacific carriers to anti-sub and my Indian carriers to bomber-launch in preparation for an early-Defcon-1 strike against the installations I'd found.
Defcon 2
Started launching bombers from my three Pacific carriers as well as my land-based bombers and my carrier-based bombers in the Indian. I had most of my bombers airborne before Defcon 1. I aklso sent the 6-sub fleet towards NA/SA. My naval forces did not get into any naval battles before Defcon 1.
Defcon 1
I assigned targets to the bombers (silos, radars, and a few cities to try to get on the board) and sent them on their way. NA launched some sub nukes north of Japan. I sent the carriers in the Pacific to deal with them but Russian bombers were in the area and ended up taking them out. I then spotted them and tried to turn away and launch fighters at the bombers but the bombers ultimately got all three (the three BBs I didn't get placed would've come in handy). What was worse was I had bombers nearly returned to the carriers when they went down and lacking the fuel to reach an airbase, I sent them north to see if they could find anything (they didn't, it transpired). Losing the carriers stung a bit.
After initiating the bomb run I launched the nukes from my four subs in the Indian. I mainly targeted silos but mixed in some cities as well. A few Russian and NA nukes from bombers and subs hit my cities while this was going on. Once the nukes were launched I sent the subs away to the Pacific pinging away to try to find anything antisocial near my coastline. I also tried to use that 6-sub fleet on NA but truth be told, I did get some nukes away but the subs weren't really all that effective. I'd surfaced near a group of carrier (I think).
Once the bombers returned, I transferred them to airbases and carriers for rearming and sent them on another bombrun to Russia to collect a few more points. By the time they came back after the second run my airbases were out of nuke reloads so I sent some to the carriers to reload. I'd also opened up a couple of silos and sent some nukes towards NA and SA. Once the nine carriers were filled with bombers, I sent the 18 bombers across north-central Africa intending to target western Europe. I also informed my African ally of what I was up to so he wouldn't think I was going to backstab. After launching the bombers, I sent the remaining land-based bombers I had to the carriers to rearm as well. I also launched fighters from the carriers towards Europe to provide some cover for the bombers, and Africa launched some fighters northward as well.
When the lead bombers were almost directly south on the Euro silo in Spain, I turned the bombers north, sending 4-5 against the silo and the rest on cities. I also opened up a couple more of my own silos and launched at Russia and Europe. I didn't kill the silo but the bombrun did hit several European cities. I don't believe I lost a single bomber in this particular run. I launched my last few loaded bombers up to Russia when the vic timer started. Europe opened up its silos soon afterward, and the last of NA's, Russia's, and maybe SA's nukes also came my way. I held off on opening my last two silos until I was reasonably sure this barrage was over. I think Europe sent at least 60% of its remaining nukes at me. I almost didn't launch my last two silos at all, as I felt I had enough points to win, but I then decided "what the hell," and I went ahead and opened them up. Didn't get them all away before the timer expired, but I did snag a few more points before the end.
All in all, a very enjoyable game. I'm sure I missed a lot of what went down.
-Church
) again I started sweeping for subs along the coasts of Mexico and up towards the West Coast of my ally, NA, with 3 groups of 2 carriers on anti-sub (they were out of bombers and fighters).
