pat Has His Way With Musashi

Musashi thought he had the perfect game to go along with his 2-on-1 guide, and so rushed to put up this map and description. And he was quite happy with it...at least until he found out that he'd been had. I stole the map and desciption from his website right after he posted it, before he quickly pulled it down. :-)

This was probably one of pat's most successful games. I knew from IRC that Musashi often gets mistaken for a girl because of his icon, so I played that to the hilt, and the presence of WOOLF made it all the better. I started "flirting" with Musashi as soon as we met, going through all the stereotypical pick-up lines. When WOOLF introduced himself I told him that "Musa was a nice girl and that he should take his advances elsewhere."

When Musashi finally couldn't stand it any more and informed me that he was indeed a guy, I just switched tactics. I asked him if his choice of icon meant he was gay, or a cross dresser, or something like that. By this time I had him so involved in talking to me that he was becoming distracted from the game.

When that theme played out (Musashi was, um, rather out of sorts by this point) I went into the innocent newbie routine. I told him that the stuff I said earlier was all an attempt to "be friendly" and began asking for advice on what to build, what a clan was, could I join Musashi's clan, etc. When things started "turning against" me I then started begging for an ally out...from a *blood* game!

All the time this was going on Musashi was giving reports on IRC of what was happening. He had absolutely no idea that it was me, and I almost missed several updates trying to keep up with conversations in both the game and IRC (a task made even more difficult by how hard I was laughing by that point <grin>.)

After the game was over I waited for Mush to put up his map...but then couldn't resist dropping hints that it was actually me. When he finally caught on he just about died laughing at the whole thing. He didn't want to leave this map up, though, so I grabbed it before he took it down to add to the pat files...

100 100 100 100 (5) (5) pat

4 15 16 0 (0) (0) The

19 17 11 0 (0) (0) Mighty

26 59 44 52 (0) (0) System 24,24

50 50 50 14 (0) (0) elcocote

43 26 35 0 (0) (1) System 22,23

46 29 44 52 (8) (0) System 23,23

100 100 100 100 (0) (0) Musashi

2 23 52 52 (0) (0) System 25,23

24 23 9 0 (0) (0) System 26,23

14 9 8 0 (1) (0) System 22,22

50 52 55 0 (1) (0) Coop

18 2 2 14 (0) (0) System 24,22

39 21 19 12 (0) (0) System 25,22

50 50 50 0 (0) (0) WOOLF

11 20 18 0 (0) (0) System 23,21

Musashi's Analysis

This one should have resulted in my being nuked.....but it didn't. :) I started by building 3 scis and a col, with only 3 jumps from my hw and one opponent in the game, exploring 24.24, 24.22 and 23.23 the following update. By this point players 3 and 4 had joined.

On update 6, I managed to pop trick with 23.23, 24.24 and 25.23, taking a chance with Woolf's sci entering 23.23 while beginning the trick. Woolf, as expected, continued to explore, rather than nuking the system, and explored my homeworld the following update. It was a calculated risk that paid off. Woolf and pat both made a series of assaults on 23.23, all of which were successfully fended off with sats. During this same period of time, fortuitously, Woolf botched a pop trick, by failing to dismantle a sci in Musashi territory. The loss in tech that he suffered slowed down all subsequent attacks as he attempted to recover.

Elcocote, who had explored my homeworld on update 4, was in the meantime sending a series of fleets threatening 25.23. Short by two systems, though, his eco was insufficient to break through. Upon hitting BR3, several updates ahead of elcocote, I was finally able to send a small fleet pushing for the elcocote homeworld for the nuke on update 20.

pat, much to my satisfaction, had given up on threatening 23.23 on update 18, moving to nuke one of Woolf's systems, resulting in both their ecos being 4, with mine rising to 7 upon colonizing elcocote's homeworld. With a Musashi fleet poised to move into Coop, Woolf walked away from the match on update 23. Woolf was consequently nuked on update 26, followed by pat on update 29. pat, I thought, displayed remarkably good humor throughout (except, of course, when he tried flirting with me at the beginning of the match! PLEASE, people, don't let the icon fool you! I'm a _guy_!).

This could very easily have resulted in a loss for me. The reasons it didn't were 1) the relative inexperience of two of my opponents and 2) the fact that I pursued a very focused objective (nuking Elcocote quickly while delaying Woolf and pat) while the opposition was indecisive.

Musashi's Response to this page on SC Talk

Yes, Mushy was had in a big way. :) The only thing I'd disagree with in pat's analysis of the happenings in this match is his statement that I was "out of sorts." In point of fact, I had written on irc "aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhh." Aggie ever-so-sympathetically asked, with great concern, "what's wrong Mushy?" To which, I plaintively replied "another damned player is flirting with me!" Aggie/pat deserves an oscar for this one. :-)

For all you "greats" in the game, beware: pat lurks in wait to teach humility and make your life a living hell. It's a community service. ;-)