A Betrayal of Pride: The tyranny of orange

In hindsight there was a chance, when Orange had moved his ships to the frontline, when I could and should have attacked. But I couldn’t, it had no longer been about winning. When faced with honest decent players I found I could not betray them, even though they were faceless opponents. So I didn’t do anything, and in doing that betrayed them both anyway. In an effort to find contrition I sent both the following message.

My large fleets sit motionless, I don't even summon the
energy to move them out of sensor range.

Hi Both,

I feel bad. I would like to thank you for a great game. You are really good opponents and you both stick to your word.

So much so that I actually formulated a plan to try and win, and then bottled it in the end because I couldn't carry it out. I told you both I was going to go to war with the other. I then intended to attack the person who was winning, which was most likely to be [Orange]. It was a long shot but the only real way to win.

There came a great opportunity too, [Orange], there was a couple of days when you were pulling fleets from the Bunda area and I had a 500 fleet ready to attack, but I just couldn't. I agonised about it! I felt so bad going back on our agreement we had held from the start. I just couldn't make that mouse click and send my fleets.

Then I thought I would attack [Pink], but I couldn't do that either. So I sat and watched you two fight while sharing techs between you and telling each other the fleet movements I could see; which in hindsight is somewhat worse than just attacking. I felt bad, because you two are the only people I’ve met who’ve stuck to their word in Neptune's Pride (I played a lot of the original) and I didn't want to be the one to break the alliances we formed.

[Pink], thanks for letting me out of my corner, and sorry for letting you down. I am going to attack you now and end this game, which will be won by [Orange] anyway soon. It is a matter of attrition and simply the way Neptune's Pride works. I missed our opportunity and so I am sorry. [Orange], thanks for the tech and honesty and very well played.

All the best, it was a pleasure.

Nutritious!

The final devastating attack. For me anyway.

So after explaining to them both what I had done, I attacked Pink. Conscious cleaned by my confession I just wanted done with the game. Pink was losing anyway, he didn’t stand a chance, so attacking him was the quickest way for me to lose.