HEXATTACK 4.0 (now moderated by emlightened)

[emlightened]

Turn 14

(at last...)



Commentary:
Deaths!!
But first, Soupspoon's 5 does some quite nice whistling.
patzer's 5 finally bites the dust from a double attack from threetwoone, but managed to stop Soupspoon from also scoring a point from the kill.
patzer manages to stab threetwoone's 2 in the back whilst it attacks the aforementioned 5, scoring patzer's first kill. All players have now scored!
emlightened manages to pre-empt a grab from faubi and kill her wizard in the scuff
The board is possibly as spread as it's ever been, with the pieces in twelve different disconnected groups.

Soft Deadline is 23:59 UTC on the 16th October.
Hard Deadline is 23:59 UTC on the 20th October.

Please try to get your moves in by the soft deadline. If your moves are not in by the hard deadline, and you have not informed me about being unavailable, then another player may make your moves for you (this will be managed if and when it occurs). Moves cannot be changed after the soft deadline (except within an hour of posting).

[Soupspoon]

Live dangerously, baby! My moves are:

Spoiler:

1: Move Up
2, 4: Defend Left-Down
3: Grab Left-Down
5: Move Left-Up
W: Push Left-Down

Oh, okay. I'll admit to anyone reading this that I could be living fasterer and dying youngerer, by a long way. But I'm far too spread out in the wrong way.

[patzer]

Moves

Spoiler:

3 move down
2 move downright

[emlightened]

Try not to crash and burn!

Spoiler:

W - Grab Up
1 - Move Down-Right
2 - Move Down-Right
3 - Move Down-Left
4 - Defend Up
5 - Move Down-Left

[faubi]

Spoiler:

1 Attack up-right
3 Move up

[heuristically_alone]

Spoiler:

1 - attack down-left
4 - move down-left

[threetwoone]

Spoiler:

1 move up
5, 3, 4 move up-left

[emlightened]

Turn 15

Commentary:
No deaths.
This turn seems to mark the Great Migration - over two thirds of the pieces move.
heuristically_alone's 4 has been banished to the outer reaches of the board (specifically, where faubi's wizard started) by Soupspoon.
faubi's 3 decided to host a party with over half of emlightened's pieces - if there was an Explode move, it would be in a pretty good place.
threetwoone, Soupspoon and patzer seem to all be mobilizing in the top half of the board.

Attachment:

Spoiler:

Soft Deadline is 23:59 UTC on the 27th October.
Hard Deadline is 23:59 UTC on the 30th October.

Edit: Fixed threetwoone's moves.

[emlightened]

Question for everyone (playing): Do you want a notification when I push a new move out?
(it'd be either a DM here or a ping on Discord)

[Soupspoon]

Spoiler:

Discord? Wossat?

Not on it, not likely to be for joinidng- for other purposes, quite unlikely to be just for this notification.

On this forum, if I miss the "Hexattack, a thread you're involved with, has new messages" red-starred glyph (because it's inexplicably missing from the respective Quick Links links list, as does happen) then I may still check the sub-board when another visible thread reminds me it exists. I would also see a Reply notification if you namechecked me in quote, but that seems too much an onus upon you/whoever, and there's the very similar Spanner Icon/Subscribe Topic, for which the onus is on me.

For my part, I don't want anything special. I'm here enough (except when I temporarily can't be, due to battery/etc problems while away from civilisation and connectivity that I'm usually aware of in advance if it's noticable to others), so that you might only rarely have to deliberately ping-poke me as deadlines seem ignored. But that just suits me. Others, I'm sure, have quite different demands, because they fit these forums into a totally different personal online ecosystem.


Moves coming soon.

[Soupspoon]

Moves

Spoiler:

1: grab Left-Up
2,3,W: move Left-Down
4: attack Left-Down
5: attack Left-Up

Thoughts and rationales

Spoiler:

#1 and #3 have very little they can do directly, so backstop option and manouevering.
#2 and #5 were originally both moving LD. Mild but tangible danger for either, and still for #2. If Threetwoone1 wanted to work with me, they'd be the pincers after a geab, but no sign of that. If T1 does do this bit, though, next move is likely a killing one so long as other things don't spoil it. Out of my hands. Let the dice (that weren't rolled) fall as they may. And keep everyone else guessing?
#4 is probably sending no more than a sign, and not useful beyond that, but there's a chance…
#5 manoeuvering, but highly considered pushing Left-Up.

[patzer]

Moves

Spoiler:

3 grab upright
2 attack downright

[emlightened]

I made a mistake on threetwoone's move - Soupspoon and patzer are free to resubmit as late as they want (before the hard deadline).

[Soupspoon]

Moves?

Spoiler:

I think I'm OK, cheers

Thoughts?

Spoiler:

Looks like there's more 321 there, than before (T5,in particular), though doesn't really change things. Under careful coordination with my early-game compatriot I'm sure we could hammer home the advantage, but that doesn't seem to be happening now, likely because someone's angling towards the post-truce game. Big risk to me is if Patzer thinks I'm doing one thing that I'm not doing, tries to outwit me in a way Ivve anticipated, but then gets put in a better position by 321's attempts to do another grand gesture. Very messy. And the chances are that half of everything tried will be spoiled by other things being tried, or at least it seems that way in my head. Worst case scenario, some unintentional massacring, but I'm deliberately avoiding making anything I do go Blue-on-Blue, this turn at least.

(BTW, typoed "#5" for the intended "#W" at the end of my last Thoughts segment. Just for the record. Should have been obvious, and doesn't change gameplay as the Moves list was right.)

[patzer]

Moves

Spoiler:

Same as submitted before. (No change)

[emlightened]

Spoiler:

W Move Down
1 Attack Down-Right
2 Attack Up-Right
3 Defend Down-Left
4 Defend Up
5 Attack Down

[emlightened]

threetwoone has submitted their moves via DM.

[Soupspoon]

That's worrying me...

(Either way, I'd still have to wait until the board got revealed, but this way does make me nervous! Well, as nervous as one can get over a mere splash of floodfills over a 2D bitplane.)

[heuristically_alone]

Spoiler:

1 - attack left-down
4 - delightfully nothing

[faubi]

Spoiler:

1 Attack Up-right
3 Attack Up-left

[emlightened]

Turn 16

Commentary:
emlightened manages to kill faubi's 3 with two pieces at once. She tries to get two points for it, but fails, because that's against the rules.
patzer's 2 sneakily escapes capture and death from threetwoone and Soupspoon with a grab.

Attachment:

Spoiler:

Soft Deadline is 23:59 UTC on the 4th November.
Hard Deadline is 23:59 UTC on the 7th November.

Generally, when making commentary, I struggle to come up with stuff besides the kills to talk about. This usually means that I make the board and commentate on different days, which delays you getting this. What else can I talk about (preferably clear cut, is-this-a-thing-on-this-turn-or-not, if possible)? Does anyone want to add stuff?

[heuristically_alone]

Spoiler:

4 - move up-right
1 - attack down- left

Your commentary is perfect. Includes the important stuff that happens and makes me laugh.

[patzer]

Spoiler:

2 move downleft
3 move downleft

[Soupspoon]

I, for one, am surprised at ThreeTwoOne's choice of an attack. Though the Patzer Grab wasn't as high up in my rafar as it obviously turned out it ought to be, I was expecting a T1 Grab Left-Down to merely spoil my risky action (I considered how assumptions I would move my #5 Left-Down, plus other counter-coordinations would result in a #5 being lost).

But I can't predict what i will do, half the time (I note some weirdness of my own actions, some I'd planned, some I'm no longer sure I meant), so no use worrying at a lost opportunity.

Actions

Spoiler:

1,3,5: move Left-Up
2: move Left Down
4: grab Left Down
2: push Left Up

Rationale

Spoiler:

It's as much as I can easily do to form up a decent set of offensive lines. Lacking oomph in the lower cluster, by doing so, but adding some oomph in the upper cluster, as I've managed to abort every other attempt to bring pieces back down again, so might as well send another up, instead!
Now, if Em moves to one side or other (prob. won't. I'd defend, in that position, I think - though not being in that position, I've not thought very long about it) I'm possibly useful next turn. If not, we'll have to see.

[emlightened]

Spoiler:

W Grab Up
1 Move Up
2 Move Up
3 Move Up
4 Defend Up
5 Move Up
Up
Up
Up Up
Up

Based on response(s), I'll keep on doing what I'm doing with the commentary then. ^^

[Soupspoon]

Oh yeah, I also meant to say that you should do what you do.

[emlightened]

Hehe. I ended up coming up with an alternate solution - if I start making the board and commentary once the moves come in*, then I can come up with some beforehand, so it shouldn't pose a delay. (I've already come up with two. ^^)

Also, Soupspoon, pieces can't multitask - I think you made a typo in your move.

*I only do this after submitting my own move, and it disqualifies me from editing my moves.

[Soupspoon]

Also, Soupspoon, pieces can't multitask - I think you made a typo in your move.

*headdesk*
That second "2" is intended to be a "W". Happened before, will happen again, the next time I let my concentration lapse with on-screen typing! I'm sure you'll find easy to accommodate in whatever you've already part-done with my move, without my having to repeat or edit it with the correction. But let me know if you'd prefer that anyway.

[emlightened]

threetwoone has submitted their moves via DM.

[faubi]

Spoiler:

1 Attack Up-Right

[emlightened]

Turn 17

Commentary:
emlightened seems to have broken her joystick - all of her pieces did actions facing upwards this turn. Fortunately, she was still able to choose what action to take - all of threetwoone's pieces moved straight down. Into the Abyss. Wait, we don't have an abyss? We ran out of money again? Not even enough for a bottomed abyss? Fine...
Soupspoon has a family reuniooo... nevermind. Soupspoon's 4 tries to meet up with 2 and 5, but emlightened's 3 blocks the way. How rude!
Also, you know how I said it was the Great Migration two turns ago? Well, all but three pieces moved this turn. That's over six sevenths. And yeah, I'm sorry for my mistake, but y'all are like a flock of hecking birds! I can't see the future (otherwise I'd have killed patzer's 2), so how could I have predicted this? That's it, I give up. I'm obviously not a very good birdwatcher. (I am, however, an amazing commentator, and do accept tips.)
But hey, no-one died. I mean, there were only two attacks, so it's not much of a surprise. But still! That's really disappointing - I thought we were barbarians!

Attachment:

Spoiler:

This is a comment. First file with a comment, in fact. Does anyone read these? Well, you do, mysterious reader. You are reading this, and you know exactly what this says. Mostly due to being able to read. Yeah. That's how reading works. I hope you enjoyed this educational lesson from emlightened inc. I also hope the image works - I'm having a bit of trouble right now.

Soft Deadline is 23:59 UTC on the 11th November.
Hard Deadline is 23:59 UTC on the 14th November.

[faubi]

Spoiler:

1 Move Down

[emlightened]

Spoiler:

W Grab Up
1 Move Up-Left
2 Move Up
3 Move Up-Left
4 Move Down-Left
5 Move Up-Left

[Soupspoon]

Moves

Spoiler:

1,3: Attack Left-Up
2: Attack Down
4: Defend Left-Up
5: Grab Left-Down
W (not 2!): Push Left-Down

Reasons

Spoiler:

#1&3 are reacting to H1 doing anything non-safe. If H1 is wise, they'll dodge elsewhere (but unsure exactly where).
#2&5 obviously after P2,who could force an exchange of pieces if a Grab-Attack-aware attack comes back my way. This could be messy, depending on everything everything else does in the vicinity, or could he just as impotently bland as prior attempts.
#4: This may look like a paranoid move, if things don't go bad enough to need it. But if they are going bad then this is one of the very few possible things I can do, anyway.
W: Almost regardless of how 1&3 resolve, I'll take the chance of being angled between F1 and H4. If H4 dodges up at all, I've got a new angle with the pushed piece. (Wizard is a bit exposed, with just one companion, but I'll take that risk if it makes people think twice about my sanity.)

[patzer]

Moves

Spoiler:

3 move downleft
2 attack upright

[heuristically_alone]

Spoiler:

1 - defend down-right
4 - move up

[emlightened]

threetwoone has submitted their moves via DM

I tried to post that last night, but my computer complained a bunch.

heuristically_alone's moves have been accepted, but they should post before the hard deadline. The only reason the move has been accepted is because I was asleep and offline between the deadline and them posting their move. Otherwise, I would have asked a third party to move instead.

[emlightened]

Turn 18

Commentary:
Woo! Death! Barbarianism! Assassination! But first, the weather.
There appears to be a heavy wind due west near the middle of the board, as many of threetwoone's and emlightened's pieces near the middle moved leftwards.
Soupspoon's 5 grabs patzer's 2 for a two-piece sneak attack (attacking courtesy of Soupspoon's 2). It works! Whoa... (Has that happened before (with just two pieces)?)
However! patzer's 2 attacks Soupspoon's 2 in return, successfully!
This means that the only player who hasn't lost any pieces yet is emlightened, who gets zero (0) bonus points. Good for her.
Lastly, I've figured out that pieces is spelled pie-ces (not peices), which sounds like pie-says. Are our counters all talking pieces of pie? Probably not.

Attachment:

Spoiler:

Soft Deadline is 23:59 UTC on the 22th November.
Hard Deadline is 23:59 UTC on the 25th November.

[patzer]

Spoiler:

3 move down-left

[Soupspoon]

Moves

Spoiler:

1: Attack Left-Down
2,4,W: Move Down
3: Move Left-Down
5: Rattle chains, groan and shriek as the bells ring midnight.