An Introduction from Leonidas
Hello, August Knights! I want to join your tribe.
I played T1 fanatically for six months in 1999. Toward the end of that period, I led a tribe into the top ten of the OGL League. My tribe disintegrated in the summer of 1999 due to a variety of factors. I learned a lot about Tribes strategy and tribe administration in my old tribe, and I hope to put that experience to work for AK.
I love strategy. The exciting part of Tribes is that with proper organization, a tribe can become more than the sum of its members' skills. I want to be part of a tribe that plays Tribes with careful planning and serious practice. I think AK will be that tribe. Sunday's practice session was very promising. Unfortunately, I will be very late to Wednesday practices for the next several weeks. I have a son due in August, and childbirth classes are on Wednesday nights.
I love to write about strategy. As soon as I get the opportunity, I look forward to participating in your strategy discussions. I like to write battle plans. I've been toying with some battle plans for the CTF maps, but with the game changing dramatically with each new patch, I'm holding off on serious map analysis until the game rules and maps become more settled. In the meantime, I'm devoting my attention to more general game analysis and experimentation, testing the exact interactions between the various game elements. Unfortunately, many experiments in T2 require two people, so if anyone else is experimentally inclined, let's meet up on the server some time and run some tests.
I'm also writing up some suggestions for competition Standard Operating Procedures that will be useful regardless of the map or the patch. For example: Use the tournament mode pre-game time to set waypoints to locations and people relevant to your assigned position. There is a script out that allows multiple waypoints to people. It could be very important in keeping an attacking force together.
In terms of my in-game preferences, I like to focus on objects rather than kill people. On defense this means I like to focus on deployment, and on offense I like to destroy gens, turrets, sensors, etc. I'm also pretty good in a Shrike. But I'm very flexible on this and don't really care what position I play. I prefer not to specialize, because my experience is that specialization accelerates burnout. Cross-training also improves performance overall. It always helps to get the other side's perspective.
No promises, but I may have the opportunity to get a T2 server for the tribe. I have a friend in Dallas who likes to buy hardware and bandwidth. He mentioned to me recently that he may have an opportunity to get a connection with enough upstream to run a good gaming server. He is toying with T2 himself, though I don't know if he would be serious enough to join a tribe. Stay tuned.
A note on the name. It's pronounced Lee-uhn-EYE-duhs, Leo or Leon for short. Leonidas was the Spartan commander at the battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. It's the Alamo of the ancient world. Three hundred Spartans held off thousands of Persians in a narrow mountain pass for several days, giving the Greeks time to organize their forces. Eventually the Spartans were betrayed. The Persians found a path around the choke point and hit the Spartan position from both sides, killing them all.
Organize Aggressively,
Leonidas
[This message has been edited by Leonidas (edited 05-20-2001).]
