Baby rhino 🦏 R28

Second round in a row of failed fast attacking. We knew it would likely suck but decided to go with it anyway since the best choice with changes was converting and none of us were really keen on that.

Pack of myself, Gothia, Oment and bigBell stuck together again but we really had no time to prepare decent sims with all being busy so my FW was the only one with decent numbers. Gothia's halfer and BigBell's lyc both seemed pretty lackluster and Oment was ust going to do his own thiing with an exploring gobbo.

Our realm was very quiet. We had a halfer (OMGnoob) who came online and ended up helping with ops after the first few days and a newish guy (Skyite) playing troll who would try his hand at attacking but other than those 2, the realm was very distant.

My OOP was decent. I planned on hitting a top attacker if I could. Realm 10 looked strongest with a bunch of large attackers on good networth so I hit one end of hour.

In the first 48 hours or so I was making generally larger hits than most others unless they got lucky. My mil was probably best and I was looking good but we jut had no real sense of what was going on and we all barely spoke due to real life schedules. The inevitable happened when Bobbo (#5) halfer did a GN and spec OP pump to safely hit me. #4 halfling (Puntti) then semi-suicided me afterwards leaving less DP but he got away with it.

This set me back to being probably 1.5 hits behind Bobbo. I could probably catch that up but their realm also had a squad of people looking like being dedicated black oppers so we'll have to defend against that.

For a while, Gothia, BigBell and I were 3 of the top 8 or so OPs but not really looking like being most threatening and every few days have to pump up our spies/wiz. Just a matter of time until Bobbo breaks away unless we get lucky.

At one point Gothia has to make a send in the middle of the hour as he had a meeting to go to. #4 nomad then semi-suicides him but gets away with it. If Gothia could have sent end hour he'd have been safe. Just bad luck and bad timing.

We catch a slight break when Rey Mysterio (Allegorical) suicides Bobbo. Bobbo and InternetFett double him and BigBell can break too but for some unknown reason, BigBell doesn't full send and bounces. That ends up being the final real mistake we make but ends our hopes of getting back into it. Gothia deconverts a short time later.

I also decide to change things up. I don't fully deconvert but I do get rid of my few OP mod buildings and go heavy schools. With how they work now I should get a tech every 24 hours or so, which may end up adding up nicely. After the restructure I get back to growing and soon find myself being 4th top attacker behind Bobbo, InternetFett and Allegorical.

Bad timing hits us once again. Bobbo got suicided by Iron Man (ivetza). It happens to be in the only 15 minute window that I had no internet or phone access in the entire round so my pack can't get hold of me. Rather than me being able to send first and BigBell safely doubling, BB has to send first and by the time I get the message I'm only 4th to hit so make about 100 acres less than I would have had. Worse than that, BB will also be heading into Bobbo range and won't have enough DP to defend him. BigBell gets hit a short time later, makes a couple small hits then deconverts too.

My days are numbered so I decide I'm just going to train sui OP and see if I can soften realm 5 up to let them be challenged by converters. It'll make things more interesting at least and will help Oment's explorer if #5 can't get completely loose.

I hit realm 5 black oppers a few times (Eenie Meanie halfer and dark elf). They blop me a little in the 12 hour window but nothing too bad.

My first real opportunity comes when Merf (#5 merfolk) sends out on shaky DP. He'd done an extreme restructure of his dom when he had been in the best position in the game having cover from Bobbo. It was once again a ruined opportunity for him and he found himself in a position where he had to send unsafely because he couldn't defend me fully. I gleefully oblige with a semi-sui on him early in the hour. InternetFett can hit me easily as I don't even both trying to defend him but if Fett hits me early in the hour then Allegorical can safely double Merf ending his chances of making a difference in the realm. We had also scouted converters and knew that Sarmis (Green Mountain #7) could safely hit me too as he was out of Fett's range. Allegorical could just about safely hit me too but it is tight with him defending Fett. Sarmis ends up hitting me before Fett reacted and Allegorical safely doubles me later on. This is just about the best cast scenario. #5 are hurt, and two of their contenders get boosts. Annoyingly two things happen later on. Firstly, one of the woodie converters does a small rezone to triple me. Arguable whether it was worth it for them and they ended up not being much of a threat in the round so wasted acres from me. The second was ivetza growing into Fett's range so he got an easy hit anyway.

I made a bot hit to get myself back up to a little higher than I was before and retrain OP. Meanwhile, #7 gnomes start getting into Bobbo range and keep getting hit all in. Maybe they weren't the best people to help balance the round?

Nothing is really moving until I find myself in a spot outside of Bobbo and Fett range while converters start making risky hits. I find myself in the position of being able to make a fairly safe 100% hit on either 13 gnome (rvv) or 14 dwarf (Erix). Gnome will probably have a better chance of scaring #5 later and I checked their realm name. They reference "Amateur Hour" which is what I called realm 7 when their gnome got hit all in by Bobbo. Sorry dwarf, but that is enough to save the gnome. It's a big hit and it gives me enough pop boost to start threatening OP again on realm #5.

My second opportunity comes but this time a lot more dangerous for me as it relies on more people knowing what they're doing.

Realm #5 woodie (Peabrain) sent out and if he gets home safe will start getting very dangerous for everyone. I decide to plant a semi sui on him. We're roughly the same size and he has 260k DP. I hit him and take him down to 250k leaving a little over 230k myself. I sent on the last second of the hour meaning if Fett wants to get me this time he has to hit me early in the hour or he'd have to be afraid that others will first. He is quick enough to react this time and does so. Before the hit, I knew that the other #7 gnome (AlexJones) had done a huge pump so was starting to threaten Fett either all in on this send or very soon. Fett won't be a problem for long so his days are numbered even with hitting me. But by forcing Fett to send early, if #7 and Allegorical know what they're doing, they can safely finish off the woodie. They don't. I don't think they even considered it to be honest or maybe they just panicked as both hit me soon after. Those 3 hits end up being 6 as other converters pile on. By the last hit I wasn't even a good target since my DP barely moved while my land size dropped and I think it took more woodie rezones to get me.

Oh well, I did my part for the round by hurting #5 as much as possible. The Eenie meanie guys were held down a little and I stalled Merf and Peabrain enough to stop them taking over.

Too bad the converters weren't able to organise themselves properly enough to take it to realm 5. Next time, we'll have to do it ourselves.