At the PlanetsCon 2015 in Leiden, Netherlands the first Turn of the Year Awards were held. Many turns in four categories were handed in from all over the world, nominated by the PlanetsMagazine Crew and presented to the PlanetsCon participants who then discussed and voted democratically for each winner. A big ‘Thank you!’ goes out to all participants who handed in their turns and made this event happen.

Here are the results of the four categories:

 

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Best new tactics: 

Nominees:

• Emork the Lizard King – Merlin Build Control (MBC)
• Ted (et al) – Birdman Minefield Control

Winner:

• Ted – Birdman Minefield Control

Ted handed in this new birdman tactic that was developed for (or during) the Capricorn War together with his partners in order to safely manipulate enemy minefield friendly codes. It works the following way:

• First a prisoner ship of the target race needs to be ‘created’.
• Then a (very) high ID planet with reduced defense posts is used to NUK attack the prisoner ship, so that the prisoner ship wins – which creates a prisoner planet.
• Once the prisoner ship has taken over the high id planet, 5 bird ships (in order to have 100% chance) change the enemy global minefield friendly code mfX using the bird mission Superspy Deluxe.

Comments from the Jury:

This new tactic can only be played by the Empire of the Birds and it is clearly one of the most unique tactical developments in the last years. It takes up the idea of the ‘prisoner ship’ which was invented for Emorks well-known MBC (Merlin Build Control), and transforms it into the idea of the ‘prisoner planet’. While MBC (the second nominee) is a universal tactic that can be done by any race with any enemy ship, the birdman minefield control targets one enemy race at a time. The Jury believes that the preparation of this tactic requires a lot of effort to create the right setting for the execution, much more than the core moves describe. The impact of this tactic however, especially since it can be played by the loki-immune Empire of the Birds, make it spot-on and very powerful. Congratulations!

 

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Ship of the Year

Nominee:

• Endymion – Alienation Sector, Turn 21: Resolute Class #100

Winner:

• Endymion – Alienation Sector, Turn 21: Resolute Class #100

Endymion handed in his Mark4 / Heavy Blaster Resolute Class that took out his neighbour’s Homeworld while bypassing 3 empty Victorious Classes.

Comments from the Jury:

Resolute #100 was the only ship that was nominated for the ‘Ship of the Year’ award, therefore the result was clear before the votes. Other very brave ships were handed in, but either for different categories or simply too late. Nevertheless this specific ship has truely deserved the ‘Ship of the Year’ award as it’s timing, firepower, risk and impact was identified and balanced by the player in a perfect way and executed in a spectacular attack. Congratulations!

 

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It Happens Award

Nominees

• Garth Vader – Mirak Sector, Turn 75:
  Massive combined attack is jeopardized by tiny minefield.
• Andy44 – Sagittarius War, Turn 94:
  Loosing the Cyborg Homeworld to an open player.

Winner:

• Andy44 – Sagittarius War, Turn 94, Loosing the Cyborg Homeworld to an open player.

Andy44 was nominated, because his homeworld was taken over by an open Lizard player that had resigned 35 turns earlier. This is what happened:

• Dines (Lizard player) resigns from the game in Turn 59
• Andy44, his Cyborg neighbor takes over Lizard territory and regularly chunnels cargo and ships from there to his homeworld.
• On the way he takes up some cloaked Lizard Class Cruisers that go into the chunnel automatically due to being cloaked and then end up at Andy’s Homeworld.
• In turn 91, 35 turns after Dines has resigned, an LCC uncloaks in orbit of the Cyborg homeworld due to fuel shortage.
• Andy44, who has chunneled his fleet a few planets south, decides to attack the LCC with his starbase, but seemingly forgets that he took all fighters off the starbase and that the planet has only 20 defense posts.
• As a result the Lizard Class Cruiser conquers the Cyborg Homeworld.

Comments from the Jury:

Only a small majority of the votes went to Andy44’s worst turn, as there were very good reasons for both nominees. Many points spoke for Garth Vader’s turn – not only the identification of the target, also finding the vulnerability and the plan for the execution in a multinational attack were so good that this set of turns was also nominated for the ‘Turn of the Year’, but also the way the plan was jeopardized in the very last step made the decision very hard. What spoke for Garth’s turn was that a small mistake (a counter-minefield ending up just one lightyear short and leaving one tiny minefield intact) produced a chain reaction that can only be described as extremely bad luck. If one of the two ships that were stopped by these 27 lightyears of minefield had made its way through, the result would have been devastating and by far the most successful of the nominated turns. What eventually convinced a very small majority of the votes towards Andy44 was that it was just too ridiculous to not to be chosen.  If it is the right way of saying it: Sorry, Garth Vader, that this turn once again was wasted on the last meters – and congratulations, Andy44!

 

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Turn of the Year

Nominees:

• Dazdya – Kattia Sector, Turn 76
  Short distance intercept with 2 Glory Devices on 2 Diamond Flames results in
  3 destroyed Emeralds, and a big damaged Crystal fleet. In the following battle Dazdya destroys 6 Diamond Flames and a Crystal Thunder while loosing only one Victorious Class.
• Garth Vader, Mirak Sector, Turn 75
  Perfectly identified and prepared multinational attack results in a catastrophy due to a counterminefield ending up 1 lightyear too short.
• Endymion – Alienation Sector, Turn 21 (to 23)
  Attack of a Resolute Class bypasses the enemy guard ships and takes over the fascist homeworld in a decisive blow.

Winner:

• Endymion – Alienation Sector, Turn 21
  Attack of a Resolute Class bypasses the enemy guard ships and takes over the fascist homeworld in a decisive blow.

What happened:

• Turn 20: Resolute Class #100 finds his neighbour’s homeworld with three guarding Victorious Classes and a D7A Painmaker Class in orbit.
• Endymion deducts from the masses that these ships most likely are unfueled, but armed differently – and orders his Resolute to attack.
• Turn 21: The Resolute bypasses all enemy ships and takes over the fascist homeworld while taking heavy damage.
• Turn 22: Endymion builds a starbase on the former fascist homeworld.
• Turn 23: The new starbase forces the guard ships to surrender.

Comments from the Jury:

The decision for the Turn of the Year 2015 was once again quite tight, especially between Dazdya’s and Endymion’s turns. The choice would have been much easier, if Garth Vader’s combined attack in the Mirak Sector would have been successful, as the result would have been extremely devastating and a clear winning candidate.
But, unfortunate once again, Garth’s turn went really, really wrong.

Both, Endymions’s and Dazdya’s turns however both showed a strong combination of very thoughtful decisions and a great portion of luck, respectively playing mistakes of the opponents. What eventually made the difference was that Endymion’s surgical attack appeared a bit less based on luck, a bit more engineered – and that it had a tremendous impact on his game. Well-played and congratulations, Endymion!