The Slides of Death

The Slides of Death?

Does anyone remember Clan Zeptar? Here's a story of a clan's lessons learned about the effects of sliding...

The skirmish was coming to a close. Clan Karstan had won, at least had inflicted much more damage upon Clan Zeptar than they received. Clan Karstan was fighting other, more advanced forces, and chose to cease fire with Clan Zeptar in order to put more effort into this larger battle. Clan Zeptar agreed to the cease-fire since they now felt some measure of revenge had been gained for the earlier incursions of Clan Karstan. Clan Zeptar had been fighting with gen 50 to gen 70 titans against gen 90 to gen 109 titans, and had started to gain ground. Besides, Clan Zeptar was planning a 22 day slide starting in just a few days. So Clan Zeptar began slowly migrating toward less crowded breeding grounds.

Fast forward to the end of the slide, turn 512, and this is the scene to which Clan Zeptar returned.

Clan Fallen Pride and Clan Minions of the Law, now found themselves in an area with bountiful targets. Clan Zeptar's fast breeders and large breeders. All of whom had been well behind the line of fighting with clan Karstan, but were now easy prey for themselves. Clan Zeptar had to quickly reorganize to fight off this new attack. After losing the two highest tech fast breeder chains, new chains were started and the battle began to turn.

This battle was a battle of equals. Both sides were fielding gen 70s titans, with a mixture of older, less advanced titans as well.

By Turn 527, a clear battle line was defined, and once again Clan Zeptar was getting into a position from which it could begin to push back the enemy. But real life would not allow that, so enter the long slide, the slide that could signal death for Clan Zeptar.

Turn 567 Clan Zeptar entered a slide for 30 days. This slide was then extended another 8 days. Upon returning, the battlefield had altered once more. Clan Minions of the Law was no more, but Clan Fallen Pride had taken advantage of Clan Zeptar's absence and was eagerly waiting for their return. Without mercy every fast breeder and breeder within sight was painted with numerous red dots. Clan Zeptar had two turns pass without orders being received.

I'm told it was due to confusion from a change in time zones from -9GMT to +10 GMT, but I haven't been able to confirm my source.

The effect was devastating. Clan Zeptar now had 4 of it's most advanced breeding chains destroyed, and very little fighter breeding capability. The tech difference had changed as well. Before the slide the tech difference was roughly equal. Now clan Fallen Pride was adding a few tech 90s and one or two tech 118 fighters to the mix of mostly tech 70s titans.

And so the battle for survival began. Clan Zeptar quickly redistributed all fast breeder chains and started a few new chains to replace those killed off by Clan Fallen Pride. New breeders were spawned to replenish the front line fighters. Spies were dispatched to determine the extent of enemy forces. New battle lines were established and the trench warfare began. The battle seemed very much 'uphill' for the weaker Clan Zeptar forces, but they were determined to seek revenge for the ambushed breeders. Slowly Clan Zeptar built up forces. Superior numbers were needed to advance against superior technology.

Turn 593 Now that superior numbers had been achieved, along with breeding capacity to maintain these numbers even in the face of loosing four or five fighter titans each turn, Clan Zeptar began to push back Clan Fallen Pride. Then it appeared as if Clan Fallen Pride failed to get orders through to the front for several consecutive turns. Next the Fallen Pride titans to the north east began mysteriously dying off. The answer to the mystery was quickly revealed. Clan AMERICAN MANIACS was attacking from the northeast and driving the few remaining Clan Fallen Pride titans out of what they were going to claim as a new home. Clan Zeptar was driven out as well. In the end, it was a disappointing 'win' for Clan Zeptar. They had beaten back Clan Fallen Pride, only to have final victory stolen from them.

The land had become even more cluttered with titans, waste and destruction. Clan Zeptar had survived the slides, but now had to find a new home. South? Southeast? Southwest? Where's the beach? The last thing I heard was the leader of Clan Zeptar saying something about we've still got revenge to seek against those other three clans that wronged us while we were young.

News Flash

A Short time after this story was originally written, Clan Zeptar received a permanent recall to Planet Zeptar. Just before they left, I was able to get an interview with Admiral Zachyrious, the leader of Clan Zeptar.

Admiral, why did you come to the sphere?

We came in search of the sacred Zilocross. It was stolen from our home planet Zeptar and various spotted reports indicated that it had been brought to the sphere by a rogue Clan.

What was your strategy?

We didn't want to make trouble, so we only shot at Clans that shot at us first. We were called back to planet Zeptar several times for various reasons and various lengths of time. The shortest time was just a few days, and the longest was for nearly 40 days. We didn't have a Clan Hall until just the last several weeks, so fast breeders were key to our success. We had several setbacks due to fast breeder chains being destroyed, mostly right after returning from a slide.

Do you have any advice for the younger clans?

Yes. Three bits. First, if you're not going to have a clan hall, it's going to be difficult, but you can manage. It'll be key to have a few good allies. Also, start your fast breeder chains on the first turn. Second, if you are going to have a hall, it should be spawned as soon as possible. Third, be careful when you slide. Always spread out your fast breeders and have a fighter or two close by so that when you return from the slide you can return fire if you're shot. Also, if you're going to slide with a clan hall, it'd be a very good idea to have that hall located inside an area protected by your allies. Otherwise you could return from your slide to find your hall surrounded by your enemy. There are two bad sides to a slide. The first is that you loose any terrain tactical advantage that you had before the slide. Second, you lose tech relative to your enemy. If at all possible, time your slide so that you are not at war before you slide.

Who were your allies?

We didn't really have any allies, which is part of why we had such a difficult time. Battling a clan that has superior tech is difficult, but when that clan has more titans, and brings in a few other clans, all you can hope for is to survive without having your entire clan wiped out. At one point we were under attack from four other clans all trying to get some easy points. I'm not sure if they had a formal alliance, I don't think so, but when one clan asks another for help and it looks like they'll be on the winning side, it's real tempting for clans to join in to get the easy points.

How hard was it without a hall?

At first there didn't seem to be a difference. Then the clan size limit of 60 became a hassle. Getting credits and not spawning a hall helped. Now we had a size limit of 100 just like the clans we were fighting. Before that it was really hard. Being limited to 60 titans and fighting against four clans that each had 100, meant we were often fighting with 1 against three or four odds. And that was mainly because the clans we were fighting, were also fighting other clans. After about 200 days on the sphere, not having a hall began to be an obvious disadvantage. Clans with the same age were now sending titans against us with total tech levels about 100 above ours. We could tell that while we were almost always fighting with titans about 5-10 tech less than our absolute maximum, clans we were fighting could use their battle relics from another war against us. Due in part to the slides, and to our migration, we eventually moved into areas where the clans that were our age, but now out teched us, didn't bother us anymore. We then had to be very careful not to attack any younger clans without provocation. If we were seen as the aggressor, then the younger clan could scream 'bully' on the war cry and bring in several older clans to their aid. In reality, a clan half our age with a hall would generally have higher tech by about 10-20 because of our slides and loosing fast breeder chains several times.

Any parting words?

The sphere is a fantastic place. Clan Zeptar may be departing, but the player of clan Zeptar most definitely is not.