n20010510.5 - Easter Island III - a commentary
8:00 omega & ra have a commanding 11:5 base lead. the sw has been raped, the se & e spiked. max & nix have one unspiked base and one loosely spiked base to refuel from. pills are tied at 7 apiece but max/nix pills are clustered east and almost uselessly positioned. omega is se protecting [poorly placed] spikes while ra refuels nw. then everything starts to go horribly wrong.
nix goes to the remaining unspiked base sw to refuel. omega makes a half hearted attempt to frustrate nix, then attempts to go nw to refuel [imo he should have remained sw and refueled on the newly raped bases. harrying nix and attempting to prevent nix retaking bases and/or pills]. 8:26 nix refuels retakes sw/s bases. 8:39 nix drops mid south spike freeing up another base. omega sends in a poorly placed spike sw [imo the spike should have been about 3 squares south].
during this time ra had been harrying max east preventing him making progress.8:40 he abandons this to go futz with the neutral double west. [imo another grave error, this respite permits max to reposition a pill and refuel east. nix is also refueling se. with two spikes behind enemy lines max/nix are poised to gain a 10:6 pill lead with an intact se corner & regenerating sw. once deciding to take the w netural double it should have been dropped in about 10 seconds and used to reinforce spikes. the window is closing & the flailing pilltake wastes the few remaining seconds omega/ra have to win].
9:03 the first spike east drops.
9:15 omega shoots sw base too close to enemy pill, dropping one of their own pills.
9:18 both omega & ra lose their builders to nix while repairing the downed pill. [the window has now clanged forcefully shut. without builders the neutrals they took west are worse than useless. ra has to hide & can no longer harry].
9:48 the second spike se drops.
10:00 another flailing take by omega/ra (still no lgms) drops another spike. failure to stay on the x'd pill for the enemy lgm costs them a further three pills dropped. its now mop up time.
10:29 max/nix's pill lead has extended to 15:1
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pins 06/05/01