Ok! Another LAN done and dusted!!

Fair to say a beaut time was had by all. Unfortunately for our resident story-teller, we had none of last year’s dramas like speeding tickets, missed planes or JJ charging off down the street like a mad man . Pretty calm really.

So as for highlights –

Gaming was beaut and we even managed to have some tough battles with Braidon in a game. For the uneducated, General Braidon is now the 4th ranked player in the world so his speed is a little awesome . Fair to say he stays on one screen for a split second b4 moving on. So watching him was a blur of changing screen images and constant whirling of his hands on his $200 mouse. Even if you have him totally outnumbered, his micro will wipe the floor in individual battles . Given that he warmed up over lunch by beating 3 computers on expert, you can imagine that there were plenty of volunteers to be on his side when we set teams. And dare I say, equally loud squeals of stacking every time I ended up on his team (boys, I had to win someem ).

We overcome the obvious imbalance by playing handicap games, with handicaps up to 20% for the elderly amongst us. When the forces of Braidon lost, the squeals were that the handicap was too high. Likewise, when he won, the squeals were that the handicaps were too low. You bunch of old ladies, just remember that I am all wise and all knowing when it comes to picking teams .

We did have a 4v4 without handicap that the anti-Braidon forces won so well done guys. Getting blearly but it was Braidon, Bish, Cutter and Lord V R2, vader, Taffy and Bear. I think.

The house stuff went really well . Cooking was easy, the boys tidied up etc etc. Turns out Cutter is a chef so used to organising a large kitchen. His use of fish sauce was applauded! Bear’s skill with fried eggs is also now legend. Taffy didn’t even burn the toast! Going to the supermarket to stock up with Taf and Lord pushing the trolley was kinda weird. Them sending me off to find the milk was predictable. Being able to then find them again by sound alone was also predictable .

R2 has toned down his hair style but upped his car image, rocking up in some silver 2-seater. He takes the crown from Bear for most kick-butt mode of transport to the LAN.

Talking of R2 he played bloody well, making it possible to get even games with Braidon on the other team.

Vader still looks like Vader, or is that Darth_vader? He continued his dutch streak with trained allies like taf and Termite sending him early wood so he can FF and mass cannons. He also still sneaks straight out the door for his usual u know what as soon as a game finishes. We have begun the collection for his wife if he doesn’t stop this soon .

Taffy was a somewhat toned down version of himself but still enuf to fire up Lord, maybe only once an hour . Taf had a brief period of fame on the Fri night, claiming 7 straight wins and trully showing some improved form. These wins did include 3 or 4 dropped games but hey, he waited til last to exit so if it says u won on the screen, who can argue with that.

Bear is looking a picture of country health, tanned and lean but not so mean nowdays. Like me, Bear was lacking in practice. However, he did set new levels in telling his partners what to do and I will never forget his anxiety about my poor 5 half-dead oprichnicks who couldn’t have killed a fly let alone had any importance to a nearby battle .

Bish arrived mid way thru the Sunday. As u would expect, being the CISCO kid he had insurmoutable problems with his operating system and was limited to one guest game on my PC.

Termite was his usual noisy abrasive self (as if) and continued his jungle tradition of walking barefooted to the beach. Times have changed and the pecking order moves on so the seasononed Termite and Vader were far too good for me and Lord in 2v2. Despite continued requests, Lord & I refused to play Taf and Vader in a 2v2 as a man needs to maintain some level of self-respect (as they would have kicked as severely and I do not need to see any more of Vaders cannons sending my jap archers flying to heaven ).

Ohh, Taf did take the biggest dummy spit award away from the title holder, Bish. In our ill-fated State of Origin (can u imagine Braidon, R2, Bear and Cutter versus me lord, Taf and Vader OMG), Taf oddly needed some help. Within 2 secs of Lord saying NO, Taf was out of game and down the stairs! We did need a dummy spit due to a general lack of controversary so thank u Taffy for giving me some mileage.

So that’s about it. Sleeping went well. Vader was quarantined due to an excess dBa level of snoring, taking over Lord’s usual suite. Bear slept in the garage and didn’t report any creatures crawling on him. Bear’s complaints about JJs snoring is now somewhat dimmed as we could still hear him from in the house!

Shame that JJ and Andy couldn’t make it so we hope u both OK for next year.

Cheers boys and please add any scoops that I missed……… .

hey all hope you all well and making the odd visit to the web site. I know that me and Lord have been hanging out for the next LAN for about the last 6 months.. hope you all keen to go around again too! Speeder is an IN as well but we need to give a bit longer to book those airline tickets this time.

If we choose the corresponding weekend, by my reckoning this would be the IN on the 21st March (friday) to Mon 24th.

Let me know if you are keen....
Let me know if this date seems OK for you want to nominate a different one...
Let me know if you are happy for the same venue, etc..............
Let me know if you want to reserve the colour green for your civ!!!

Cheers all

Asian Dynasties Expansion Pack.

The Indians will be appearing in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, the second expansion pack for Age III, along side the Chinese and Japanese. Coming soon!

I think Crow's write up deserved to be on the front of the web page. So I made it it's own post.
JJ

Crow's write up:

well, good to see recognition of my role as clan historian and scribe Yeah the LAN is done and dusted for another year. We stayed in the same house at Coffs as the prev yr. Reason? cos its got a great top level room that looks over the ocean and can fit us all in with a U-shaped table design thx to Bish and Taf (as our local logistical support crew) A nice sea breeze helps too since most forget to wash after 48 horus of constant gaming.

So for the stories: the sadest is a close race betw Speeds and Termite Dean knew he woudl be last cos he stayed til the end at work (not the like the rest of us slackers). So with the sniff of battle in the air, he kinda forget about the speed limit. So $272 later, his night got off to a bad start and then as one would expect, he arrived mid-game, had to wait to get set-up, and then his PC just wouldnt play ball It wasnt until about midday the next day b4 we had Dean's PC on song and we could all play. As for SPeeds, he apparently lost the happy smile about the great deal he had got on airfares when he found he had booked the wrong month!!!!! Oooops. So some $500 later, we had our guest leader of VIE clan, Brigidier Speeder to kick all our butts. which he did, playing mostly as Aztecs and setting new pop limit up to 270 -300 using his big buttons.

Speeds went 100% wins until later on the Sat when we finally found a combo to beat him - JJ, Ob1, R2 and me (with Vader, Taff and Lord on SPeeds team).

Apparently he did lose another game, was it a 5 v 1??

Yeah u guessed it, Speeds is an awesome player and tho he kicks our butts, we all love him cos he a top fella.

So what else happened.....

Oh yeah, some local kids decided to practice their trampolining skills on the roof of JJ's car not knowing that JJ was on the balcony watching and that the house contained 11 blokes intent on death and destruction I think JJ's yell was heard in Brisbane - he is a big fella with a healthy diaphram. JJ chased em off down the hill and we were taking bets on whether he could get back UP the hill. (There is some suspicion about JJs level of fitness ).

We ran a kitty to buy food that worked well adn we set a new world record for consumption of absolute garbage. There were no nervous vegetables near this LAN.

Termite continued to prove that u couldnt meet a nicer guy

Bear scared me by talking about slaughtering my intended new family cow. Oh yeah, Bear upped his image by arriving on a kick butt motorbike, which he managed to damage at the local supermarket....

Ob1 and R2 versus Speeds and JJ were great game highlights, with a big race as to who could take down their opponents TC the fastest.

Vader driving everyone crazy by fine-tuning his dutch strategies. After 1,023 consecutive games of making halbidiers and cannons, he is finally mastering this art form.

Taffy's walking back and forth lecturing the guys on the direction of US interest rates while they were in game was rather odd

The State of Origin (NSW rep by me, Taf, Bish and Vader) versus QLD (Bear, ob1, JJ and R2) went to its predictable conclusion but not until we had scored the first try by taking out JJ. NSW enjoyed this brief lead

With 11 players, we did have some trouble with game setting partic if we had a 4v4 going, so there is definitely a spot for a 12th. We all had too much fun to think we wont back up again next LAN.

OMG, thinking about these things cant forget how Speeds uses his left hand so much in game play. ANyone else notice him killing every treasure guardian group with his explorer regardless of his health or the number of guards? Hmm, amazing mate!

THe guys did pretty well with the kitchen this year so the house mother (me) didnt have to clean up too much

Lord and Taff seemed to take a particular shine to one another... a shine with a bit of an greenish hue ... ah boys can be funny about what colour their army is We did see the odd spit the but nothing untoward. Bish gets the award for biggest growl but nothing scared us more than JJ's "f...... off" as he leapt from teh balcony in his Shrek-like chase of the startled teenagers. Actually, to help u picture JJ, just think of Shrek when he got turned to human form!

Oh, i gotta say what a fine young man R2 is becoming too It is a pleasure gaming with R2 and Ob1.

Well thats about it for highlights. First night games finished about 530Am and first games started about 10AM the next day so u get the picture of our days. No wonder some r now nursing colds and sore backs. Its not the healthiest sight but the house does have a great beach nearby. A few games, a few drinks, a quick dip to freshen up and back to games.... ahhhhhhh

So cheers to anyone who wants to add some more but Coffs 2007 is done and roll on 2008. If u missed it, dont miss it again!








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The server transfer has been complated. Hopefully the only thing you will notice is an improvement in site speed.

Just to let you know that the site will be moving to a new server with a more powerful processor, more memory and a lot more storage space. The move will commence at 6am GMT on Sunday 11 February (ie in about 7 hours from when I post this) and is expected to take 3 hours to be completed. Most of the files have already been moved so it is just a matter of copying anything that has changed and then shifting the databases.

hey guys well we all had a great time at the LAN earlier this year at Coffs Harbour. For anyone who missed it, there will be earlier posts but we rented a holiday house and was it 10 of us who played for 3 days?? Who can i remember - Ob1., JJ, Bear, R2D2, Termite, Taffy, Bish, Lord and Vader and me, yeah thats 10. It was bigger than Laura Bingle and we all said lets make it an annual event. Well that one was a bit special cos Ob1 was getting married. So was it a one-off or do u wanna do it again early in 2007?? Maybe bi-annual is a possibility too cos leave passes for us married dudes every year may be stretching it I reckon the same location and same house cos i just wanna get ice from that fridge again It was a reasonably even travel spread and having Taffy and Bish as 2 locals makes sense with logistics for tables and computer gear etc. So, Speeder reckons he is in and bringing CJ too. If these Melbourne boys are coming, maybe we can get Razoo and Vegas?

Anyway time to start registering your interest. The forums can take a little while for news to spread nowdays so if talk about it online too. Log back in and let us know.

With the warmer months upon us and some actually emerging from hibernation, it would seem fair to get togehter and worship the sun by staying indoors and playing games.

Well the annual 8 player max lan at Taffy's is upon us again.

The weekend fo the 27th October is especially good and those confirmed are;

Vader, Termite, Bish, Taff, a poss of Chris0123(Termites mate), with Crow and Lord yet to confirm.

Mainly because the 27th October is Crows brthday!!!!!

So Dropbear may trip down for the weekend from Brizzy but failing that we have one slot free. All Star Clan members are welcome and its 2 to a room for the 3 rooms and Bish being local treks home or collapses on the lounge.

So add comments guys and confirm away.

If there is enough interest we may expand it with the wife and kids visiting the outlaws in Sydney, so we could be in for a noisy good time.
Not sure and it all depends on you guys replying.

Look forward to hearing from you all soon.

Taffy in Coffs Harbour (near the beach)

$765 3 nights http://www.stayz.com.au/7523

Thanks to Taffy for checking both places out. Based on Taffy his feedback this place is best for our purposes. The other place was overkill and a bit too "pretty" with lots of expensive stuff that can break easily.

Add benefit, this one is $435 cheaper.

I have booked, paid and confirmed this place, sooooo.....all better show up.
I will haunt you for money on the first day.....

I suggest we start some topics around additional requirements

* Taffy is providing 3 mattresses which means everybody will have their own sleeping place. If possible, can some people take a sleeping bag. I will take mine.
* Taffy, Big Fish providing tables/chairs so we dont need to rent any
* Taffy taking 5 Lan cables
* JJ Taking 6 extra long Lan cables

Watch this space.......

Crow is already picking some teams for 2vs2, 3vs3, 4vs4
I recon Friday night is gonna be 2vs2 comp, with winners having first choice of the beds.


Cheers,
JJ

Confirmed and comming:
Ob1
Big Fish
Taffy
JJ
Crow
Lord
Termite
Vader
Dropbear
R2D2

Possibly:
RogueTrader

Due to availability down to two
$400pn http://www.stayz.com.au/15785?
$765 3 nights http://www.stayz.com.au/7523

Crow is able to arrange for 2 Mattresses so it might seem we can all have our own bed. Lottery on the Friday I think for first choice.

Taffy is checking out both places and will give us an update.

So we looking at $150 each for Link 1
and about $95 each for Link 2

There are some price and feature differences.

Also keep in mind money for food and some drinks.

Cheers,
JJ