Beta 9

From Astro Wars

Duration: 3 Jan - 24 Mar 2005
Players: 25072
Winner: Satanik_boy(ZoB)

commentary

During Beta 9 many famous players became infamous as they followed the Dark Side of the Force. The four riders of the Dark Force were:

• DECEIT. After long investigation TheBride proved and revealed that most of members of Space Cowboys [REAL] alliance are multis, including their leader, Orphebus. The truth was killing for the alliance - most multis resigned or were defeated and the alliance ended as 8-member group (in comparison with 25 members at the start). TheBride claimed also that ITZZ, the winner of Beta 8 was also multi although in this case she did not provided evidence. But ITZZ did not also finish Beta 9.

• BETRAYAL. In Empire Solaire [ES] the Dark Side seduced many respectable players, including neron92 and Netchaiev, who decided to betray another leader of ES, amoncarthage. The conspiracy was very wide as amoncarthage made many mistakes as the leader and - according to the rebels - broke many rules of the alliance. They decided to give their planets as jump-points to [ZoB] alliance (largely ex-ES member) to hit amoncarthage. [ZoB] fleets were on their way to the jump-points when they were noticed on the alliance screen of [ADES] and announced on ES forums. The conspiracy was revealed. At decisive moment it appeared that although many ES members do not like amoncarthage they will not betray him. And the leaders of the conspiracy understood their fault and helped to kill incoming [ZoB] fleets. Some peaple fogave them, other not but ES regrouped and again was ONE alliance to focus on the victory in the game. However, it was obvious that many members would leave after the end of Beta.

• FEAR. When ES / ARMs attacked ARoCK the defending fleets withdrew as they were afraid of defeat and decided to change their aims. Although the defenders had fleets of 794 kCV (vs. 719 kCV of attackers), also the biggest defending fleet was 150 kCV large and no enemy exceeded 100 kCV.

• OVERCONFIDENCE. The fleet of damek [BSF] demolished Satanik_boy in the morning on the last day. It brought him below 500 points and thought that it is enough. They believed the boy who said "I give up". Instead of continuing the attack and finish him damek moved against aigam, another leader.

the last days

Meanwhile, it seemed that the winner of the game would come from Alpha Alliance. Three top players of [AA] were on positions 1,2,3 with about 490 points and it seemed obvious that they would start the countdown on the following day. However, on the following day they disappeared, similar to some other top-players that approached 500 points but did not break this level. In Beta 9 attacks on the leaders started long before the countdown. One of these attacker were the alliance Ionstorm who used the strategy of speedfighting to bash the leader in their tradition of several beta's. But this attackes causes the IS-War.

After several days, when clear leaders were demolished, four players started countdown at the same time: ARoCK [XR], planarvoid [ES], aigam [HNU] and Satanik_boy [ZoB]. Planarvoid was killed first as he was the leader of Empire Solaire, which started countdown as the first alliance and had a chance to finish the game before the single players. [ES] defended fiercely for almost two days but it was attacked by too many enemies to survive, including players from [RAGE] (definitely most successful in attacks, led by Stakhanov), [TWE], [MILL], [SRW], [WHS], [REAL], [XR], [SL], [AT], [IBM]

Another alliance, Men of War [MOW], was defeated by a speed attack during the night after it started countdown. Most damage was done by a single player, kaptnsparrow. Rumor suggests this is a ghost of Travolta

On the last day the largest fleet of the game (400 kCV, led by damek, financed - again, like in Beta 8 - by [BSF]) crushed defences of Satanik_boy and aigam and massacred their planets. Luckily for Satanik_boy he was the first prey and he managed to rebuild some population and improve scoring by friendly attacks before the midnight when he was announced the winner. Just 3 points above the countdown level....