The Masked Avenger Map: Lazy Grudge 1455

8 24 20 24 (0) (0) Nursury School

2 12 10 12 (0) (0) Mud Pie

57 50 44 57 (0) (0) Swing Set

92 93 83 93 (0) (0) Tree House

100 100 100 50 (0) (0) Secret Hideout

55 62 62 55 (0) (0) Grandma's

23 42 60 42 (0) (0) Play Pen

62 48 89 62 (0) (0) Pup Tent

25 24 17 17 (0) (0) System 19,19

26 1 13 18 (0) (0) System 20,19

13 8 10 13 (0) (0) Toy Chest

28 18 4 26 (0) (0) Sand Box

29 32 44 32 (0) (0) Fort

3 22 29 0 (0) (0) System 18,18

3 23 17 0 (0) (0) System 19,18

9 17 17 0 (2) (0) System 20,18

7 1 34 0 (0) (0) System 21,18

2 8 6 8 (0) (0) Club House

100 100 100 81 (1) (0) The Leopard Clique

67 20 35 55 (11) (0) System 20,17

Despite the way the map might look, this should have been a relatively simple win for The Leopard Clique. I opened by tricking on the three planets directly around my Home World, but the ag on those planets was terrible (3, 20, 24.) Unlucky choice of exploration made this my only real option though. I made Tree House and Grandma's into builders and left Home World low. I met TLC with my sci in 20,19 the turn before tricking.

TLC explored all the way through my Home World, to Grandma's and all the way down that chain to Club House. It just so happened that those were the planets I had explored too. TLC tricked on 20,19 and made it into a builder. At this point his econ was 2 points higher than mine because I still hadn't found any ag to grow.

I colonized Toy Chest, Sand Box, and Club House early, but wasn't able to defend them. TLC kept a fleet in 20,19 and I had to built at Tree House to defend. Meanwhile TLC slipped three cloakers in and nuked those southern planets (the links from Toy Chest to 20,19 and Sand Box were open at the time.) By that time I had found the ag to the far north and east and had colony ships en route.

TLC had both econ and tech advantage, and could have easily moved in to nuke me if he had been more aggressive. He hung back, though, which allowed me to close off my links and build tech without having to build and defend. That was the end. Once I hit BR-4 I built terraformers and got my ag the rest of the way up, boosting my growth and economy. He still had a big tech lead, but I knew that with the econ difference I could build enough to compensate. He stopped my first attack moving south through Toy Chest, but I then moved and came south out of Tree House on my next attack. He didn't have the tech to build a large enough fleet to stop me, and it was downhill after that.

TLC tried one last desperate gamble to attack my Home World with cloakers, but I had expected that from his earlier attack so had a nice BR-1 mine waiting for him. When that failed, and with my fleet only two jumps away, TLC conceded.