I&D - Faction Analysis - Angels

[Archaic]

*Post to be edited according to discussions in thread*

Team Makeup
AdamTG02
Enigma_Nova
FlameFlash
Foolish_icarus
GeoModder
Hercules
Johndmuller
Makahlua
Mart7x5
Shiny
Trithemius
Mellian (unconfirmed)
Col. Emil Furst (unconfirmed)

[Archaic]

Know thy enemy. If anyone's got info on any of the players here, now's the time to spill the dirt. The better we can predict their moves, the better we can move against them, and manipulate their actions to our own needs.

FlameFlash: Loud, confident in his own ability....and frankly not all that good a PBEMer in my experience. Very easily manipulated in diplomacy into bad deals. Doesn't seem to know the value of techs on important beelines.

Hercules: Similar to Flameflash. More experienced certainly, but from what I've seen of him, even worse in skill. Dislikes micromanagement, and has an even more shoddy military than mine. Fairly easy to manipulate in diplomacy if you appear to be an authority on the subject in question. Once tricked him into running Police State while he played Morgan, wasting him the credits he needed to rush defenders from a Yang attack that his SE change was by far too late to stop.

[jtsisyoda]

I would like to caution that these forums will eventually be opened to everyone, so be nice.

Enigma was booted from the Gaians and not allowed into the Spartans. My personal theory (based on limited knowledge of the players) is that the Angels picked up Enigma because they needed a skilled micromanager with a killer instinct. So maybe this thread will turn into a debate on whether Enigma's skill matches his mouth. From what I've seen (not having faced him directly), he's not ALL mouth, at least. He understands the insane power of IA.

Herc has tended to stay under the first b-limit. Maybe that supports the idea he's not a fan of micro-management. Herc knows to infiltrate lots of factions early with the Angels so other factions will do your research for you.

[Archaic]

I'll make sure I edit my posts before they're opened up. ^^;

Is Enigma likely to end up the leader figure of the faction then? Several other names on that list sound familiar, but I've never faced them in a game.

[Chaunk]

Yeah, cos the "Last edited by Archaic, 5 minutes before the forums opened" won't be obvious

I suspect the angles won't tell us Enigma seems to be competent enough, but he's very easy to get on the wrong side of, and he also seems extremely tempted to bend the rules as far as possible. His diplomatic skills seem... unpolished shall we say That will undoubatly change with time.

To my mind, the angels seem the least experienced of the four teams, and that may be something we can work to our advantage.

[Mead]

Originally posted by Archaic
I'll make sure I edit my posts before they're opened up. ^^;

Is Enigma likely to end up the leader figure of the faction then? ***

No.

He is very talented at gameplay and micromanagment.

He is also very difficult to work with.

Although I am not certain that it is not some pretend persona, Enigma is is very controlling. He is both very critical of other people while, at the same time, hyper-sensitive to any question of his actions.

During my time in the Hive I tried to draw him out and have him explain himself. I managed to avoid any direct confrontation with him, but there were others in the Hive who were not so lucky.

I view the Enigma screen name to be a very talented but troubled soul. If he did get control of a faction it is likely that he would be playing it by himself, he would be ejected, or he would resign before being ejected.

Perhaps, if there is a strong, patient community that could help Enigma through his problems he could use his talents and be very effective. It is, though, very far from certain whether that is possible. - I'm not volunteering for the job.

I did not participate in the aborted Police State game. I understand he played a siginificant role there. Does anyone have any input from that?



Mead

[Impaler[WrG]]

I did some talking with Enigma Nova, talked a bit about the numerous people he has managed to offend. I think that if their are going to be an "grudge" based wars in this game they will relove around (against or started by) Enigma. He is currently pestering the Gaians to play their turns faster so he can play the Angels turn.

He seems to have independently reached adsactly the same conclusions as to the overall shape of the map as I have in layed out in the map room. He also revealed that they started on a river and planted both bases on the first turn which with the bonus tec explains their power graph. He said he suspects everyone has river rich territory (I ofcorese did not confirm this but he is likly right so we should assume the other factions will have a desent energy and reserach rate for a period)

He dosent seem very hostile towards Morgan, his only grudge against us is that Tass is on our team, but as long as tass is inactive this likly wont bother him much.

Enigma seems to have softened his lust for power as he is able to get along (so far) with the other Angel members and has not yet tried to monopolize the reigns of power as he reportedly tried to do with the Gaians.

[Archaic]

Interesting. If he's no longer such a loose cannon, then a Pact with him may be desirable. They're about the only human faction I can see who'd agree to that with no recriminations, and while they may derive some benifit from it, I'd think our commerce benifit would give us the overall advantage there.

[Vander]

I've seen Foolish_icarus before. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he was in the Hive forum; not too active.

Also, how well are these players going to magnify the strengths of the Angels while mitigating the weaknesses?

[jtsisyoda]

Can you explain how this supposed "takeover" of the ACDG would work? Sounds megalomaniacal.

[Mead]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
Well, I would get a bunch of IRL friends to register on Apolyton and vote for me in every election in Morgan, thus making me the head of the entire government. I would then ban elections.
Enigma would somehow conquer his faction.
Then we would either strike deals with the remaining 2 faction, or conquer them. Or, as an alternative , get a bunch of other IRL friends to register on those factions, vote for 1 person, and surrender to me or Enigma.

Congratulations! Enigma and I just conquered the ACDG, legally! The game is ruined for everyone, but at least Enigma feels like he crushed the evil ignorant peoples of Apolyton

***I *really* need to edit this post once we open the forums

Do you still have the PMs and MSN logs between you and Enigma?

Please do not destroy them and please take all necessary steps to ensure their safety.


Mead

[Archaic]

With Enigma now out of the picture, how does this affect the Angel faction?

Who will be the main turnplayer? GeoModder? Johndmuller? Hercules?

[AndiD]

GeoModder has been the only one playing the Minigame instead of E_N in the past. (Are we weakening the Angels by continuing the minigame? )

Makahlua has posted one or more Angel turns, too.

[Impaler[WrG]]

The loss of Enigma significantly weakens the Angels in my opinion (besides the fact that their wont be any cheating). The remaining Angels are basicaly last games Pirates + Geo and a few newbies. The Pirates failed to impress me much last game they traded poorly, left themselves vulnorable and ultimatly made a lot of small mistakes like not adding Stockpile Energy in their quees.

If we can resist their atempt to Infiltrate us by Probe team then I think we might be able to get into some good tec trading or even getting them to Pay US for a Pact to give them their Tec Share going.

[jtsisyoda]

Interesting idea re Angels Pact, Impaler.

If the Angels find us before we find them, it's a good bet it will be with a probe attempting to infiltrate us. So to make that offer worthwhile, we need to find them before they find us.