Sounds like you are firmly planted under the thumb PontiusBruinPilot

Remember what Quack said about playing defense? What do you think my job is. If I am not fixing something on the surveyor of doom, I am manning a gun (tail gun preferred). I just spend a lot of time in the comm room manning the sensors and hogging the radio - while drinking. Beats the old days though. Before we had tail guns, I was throwing mines out the back.

And, for the record, I almost said suicide sheep bombers in my post on the GROSS thread, but I got to thinking about why would anyone want to waste a perfectly good trained sheep if the sheep can use remote bombs instead? I mean, those disguised sheep pretending to be Alpacas was a pretty good stunt. So they already got infiltration skills. And I am still suspicious of the so-called goats and mountain sheep nearby...

Quack - I'm sure it was Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "That rabbit's a killer......."

Yes, I can just see furry cute bunny rabbits hopping over to Gerakken and Pontius.....BOOM....I say take out the jokers in the pack before you go for the Kings and Queens! LOL

I've found the highly trained snappy sheep give themselves away when they start tap dancing to "I have happy feet" on their IPods*. We haven't fully ironed out the sheep in wolves clothing ploy yet. The goats aren't us, I think they may be Canadians. And the shepherds could be The White Council, but I'm guessing. The ANZAC dirty tricks department is trying really hard, but we don't have the budget of the more tyrannical Empires.

[*Note: Um, just stop me if this gets too silly]

Silliness at maximum Cap't - I can't hold 'er, she's breaking up...she's breaking up.....

Why don't we make a mock cardboard effigy of Staffa - worship idol of the GROSSlings - fill it full of C4, and roll it towards their mothership...mmmm, yes....

Staffa worship? I don't think so. He is well respected in GROSS, yes, and I respect his skill and insight, but one person does not a team make. I mean really, what if a scenario came up where we lost Staffa, but ANZAC lost Cataleptic? The two empires would temporarily be about even, but GROSS has a nasty habit of being resilient. Our tenacity would prevail and we would climb yet again, for we only have one direction on our map: up! Look at Pontius. At the start of GROSS, he was a low scorer. Now he hits pretty hard. And me, I have always been a middle of the road scoring guy, but I slug along for the team. My small bits add to the large score pile in the end, when I am not in the radio room, that is. Do always bear in mind what someone can do for the team, but do not assume that the entire team is reliant upon that person.

Yes. The Napa valley is about an hours drive or so from San Francisco as is Sonoma and Mendocino. Napa is the more well known and is probably where you should go as a tourist first. Berringer provides a great great tour. But be sure to get there early, it's popular. It's a historical tour in a cave. Across the street at Charles Krug is a production tour. There are about 50 or 60 wineries in the napa valley alone and about the same in sonoma. The Mendocino wineries are usually by appointment only. They are smaller but the wine made there is some of the best of its type in the world. Due to intense pressure from mothers against drunk driving (Madd), the wineries have cut back on the free tastings and some now charge a modest fee. Others limit you to 3. But it's well worth it.

Also, expensive does not necessarily mean better.

Some wineries also have little stores where you can buy stuff (cheese, cold cuts and the like) for a picnic on the grounds.
It's a great trip.

At the start of GROSS, he was a low scorer. Now he hits pretty hard

I was just using the Rope a Dope. Float like a butterfly. Sting like a Bee.

Now Gerakken, don't take this stuff TOO seriously...but this is the player Pontius eulogised in his post: "The Babe Ruth of Gal Civ"!

I'm sure GROSS has many nasty habits....and I suppose I shall acknowledge resilience as one of them

Chris: why don't you just head up to the Hunter Valley? Closer and cheaper!

I'm sure there was a sketch on the TV show with random exploding animals. The rabbit didn't explode until he met the Holy Hand Grenade, remember?

Hmm... I see a new good/evil event:

Our sociologists have discovered a new species of hyper-bunnies on Botox. This harmless pest species (from the planet Duracell) are a delicacy among the Deregin, but only when killed slowly, and prepared a certain way - any ranged weapons ruin the flavour. The species is not native to the planet, we have no idea how they arrived. They are starting to run amok in our
industrial plants, causing disruptions. What are your
orders?

A) They have the same rights as we do. Let them go forth and multiply. (-17% Production)

Hire some animal experts from Duracell to round
them up and take them back. (-36 bc)

C) No ranged weapons, hmm? I've got some marines who love knife-fighting. Give em hell, boys. And inform the Deregin we'll be getting some new trade goods. (+152 bc)


God help them if they choose C...

Cutscene:
A bunch of troopers, out of armor, with
only knives and sidearms, are strolling through the
thinly wooded countryside. It's a lovely day on Botox.

The marines are spread thin, doing their own thing. Two of them spot a hyper-bunny looking the other way, and immediately freeze. They signal each other, and quietly move around the hyper-bunny. One of them jumps out in front - the hyper-bunny takes a step back in surprise. It turns its head and sees the second marine
diving on top of it, but the hyper-bunny doesn't move. It just watches with cold eyes.

(cut)

The platoon lieutenant is looking at a map, giving patrol orders to his sergeant, when a huge explosion is heard. The boss gets angry, but he doesn't realize the danger.

"Who the fuck brought grenades! I said knives only! All squads, report in NOW!"

Everyone is nervously looking at the LT. No-one notices the hyper-bunny burrow up from the ground.

"Delta-six, sound off!" As the LT uses his binoculars to look where they should be, a shadow moves in front of the lenses. He sees a hyper-bunny going for his throat and screams...

Everyone hears the blast, and looks at the crater where the boss used to be. Then, they see hyper-bunnies screaming out of the ground. With horror, they see that the Duracell batteries have been replaced with sticks of dynamite. The sarge immediately starts giving orders, and the marines draw their sidearms and try and form up. But for every hyper-bunny they put down, two more heads pop up from the ground. The few remaining marines move back to back, but they are drowned in a sea of white fluff.

One last explosion rings out, then all is silent.

(end cutscene)

Text:
(extract from the Galactic Guide Book)
History of the Terran Alliance, 2193-4
p. 395

The GIA eventually learned that the hyper-bunnies were planted by I-League agents. This was the last provocation the Terrans needed, and they formally declared war on the I-League. Terran fleets moved to strike, but many of their best special forces troopers were lost in this incident, and it took a long time for their ground forces to recover.
(-12 Soldering)

That'll teach you to always take evil

Cool, linked events.

What you are waiting for, TheQuack?
The Library awaits.

Great stuff Quack LOL

But evil is good! And besides, I never take stuff too seriously. Whether it is me being silly or being logical, I never sweat the small stuff. Just that once in a while, I must teach you heathens what it means to be GROSS!

Oh Quack, what a kack. I can't stop chuckling. I hope Frogboy is taking notes. LOL

Pontius: 50-60 in the Napa?! I think that may do me. Obviously I can research this elsewhere, but what style of wines does the Napa best produce?

Evening gents, just bought game 2 days ago and managed to win on my second game (on fool mind you). Anyways, I joined the Anzac's in the Metaverse and hope my meagre scores add to the tally. I'll be upping the difficulty and map size in my next game and see how I go.
BTW, I'm with Chris on this one and I favour a nice drop of shiraz while I play

Cheers.

Welcome to the team Elthium!!

...and with all due respect Pontius, I have yet to find an American wine that rocks my world. I understand that there are a lot of boutique wineries and so I certainly havent tried them all (in fact given the choice between something I know I will like and some strange US wine I go with the former).

The varietal which the US seems to have made their own is the odious zinfandel (sp?) which I cannot stand in any of its white, red or (blech) pink incarnations.

Hi Elthium! Every score is a winning score. Just have fun and don't get TOO tipsy like those other pirates.

Kiwi Greg: I had a friend who came back from the US a few years ago raving about Zinfandel. I tried some and it was ghastly. Mind you he didn't have a good nose for wine. :notsure: The S.Aussie wines are just getting better and better. I'm not a white wine drinker so I miss out on the good Kiwi whites.

Greetings Elthium - go you good thing!

Just submitted another small win, whilst downing a lovely antique tawny port from the Barossa....wait....this thread is being dragged off topic....must resist talk of alcohol.......

Actually I have been drinking a fair amount of sancerre while I have been here - my UK partners (who are all without exception wine snobs) will drink nothing but French (or, at a pinch, Italian) and got me onto it.

But at heart I am a red wine drinker!

And I have submitted nothing for a while . Started to play last night and couldnt focus; tried a couple of games of EU II and was crap at that too so went to bed.

Gonna watch Die Another Day tonight unless my wife persuades me to go and see XMen 2

Me too, minus the snob bit! Went to the UK in December '02 on hols - interesting to note Aussie reds turning up in lots of clubs/restr being touted as something special.

Aussies need not fear the quality of our wines on the international stage, I think.

Go see XMen2 - worth it for the special effects alone! Have you checked out Matrix reloaded yet?

Cheers all. Just checked out the small map ladder and we have 4 in the top 27 including Quack the newbie! Space Wombat: I note that you got a miltary victory this time: they get more points too (if that's a thing). I can't understand why hardly anyone (myself included) ever played small maps. Actually a lot of *quick* fun.

Talking about ports, nothing beats a good muscat or tockay (sic) from Rutherglen, specially this time of year!

Agreed, Chris: military wins seem overly rewarded at present. I'll try working my way up to the next difficulty level.

I actually think you will find that even crippling is not difficult in the sense that maso is now just not fun (even for Staffa or RayChua). Oh, and don't forget about The Beer Wars: every day I look at the Empire screen hoping against hope our team of fighters have tipped us into number 3. Alas, unless we can pull together like the Sydney Swans we will lose our women, our beer and more importantly our wine. Good drinking and good night.

Sadly I probably wont be playing again until Saturday night...

And the Matrix Reloaded both blew and sucked