Beta 8

Dates: October 2002 - December 2002

Winners: Ajaxians

Best-Known Boraxian LC: Josephine5, Unicorn, Dream

Best-Known Ajaxian LC: Jhyphi

Best-Known Tibran LCs: Shiid, EwokDude

Best-Known Krilgorian LCs: Platao, Defeatious, Suptorpedo

Beta 8 started with the Ajax hitting the Bors (destroying the Boraxian scan tower early) and the Krils hitting the Tibs, until an early NAP between the Tibs and Krils was sparked by the Tibs desire to gain a little breathing space. This was joined by the Bors, and the three legions collectively attacked the Ajaxians, inflicting their only major defeat of the game in Dragor. After the battle of Dragor, the Tibs left the tri-NAP and attacked the Kril scan tower, taking the pressure off the Ajaxians. While the Krils went to teach the Tibs a lesson, the Ajaxians went back to attacking the Bors, and although the Kril-Bor NAP held, there were no further collaborative attacks until after the Krils had destroyed the Tib scan tower, and in turn had theirs destroyed by the Ajax, losing a large portion of their fleet in the process.

By this time, the Ajaxians had emerged as clearly the most powerful legion in the game, and the Tibs as the weakest. The Bors and Krils together just about matched the Ajax, and went back on the offensive against the Ajaxians by attacking in turn either the Ajax scan tower or Tibrar, attempting to pull the Ajax fleet out of position. Eventually they gave up on this (relatively unsuccessful) tactic, and attacked the Ajaxian scan tower in force. This resulted in an Ajaxian victory, and the badly damaged fleets retreated to their respective homeworlds. Eventually, with the Krils bombing Tibrar fairly ineffectively, the Ajax and Tibs combined to try and chase the Krils back to Krilgore and destroy it. However, a quick change of direction by the Kril fleet resulted in a bombing campaign against Ajaxus, which came within two turns of success. However, the Ajaxian fleet returned in time and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Krils and Tibs, resulting in both legions once again retreating, and this time the Ajax followed the Bors home and destroyed Boraxus. After that they moved on to Krilgore fairly quickly, and finally destroyed Tibrar to gain a deserved victory.

Submitted by VoxDei on 17/12/02

This Beta saw the birth of the first Ajaxian Inquisition, a Cloaker Squad inspired by the pre-existing Taunt "Nobody expects the...!" Many squads have styled themselves as the Inquisition since, but all have been general-purpose, forgetting the original nature of S13. The AI were probably the closest TVS has seen to a perfect Cloaker Squad, with sufficient pilots & activity to execute corps-level operations unassisted. However, unsympathetic, bomber-obsessed LCs have always persisted with the "one blob" strategey, so this tactical innovation has never been properly realised, even in the "Golden Age" of TVS. Nowadays, ofc, there are rarely more than a few effective Cloakers per legion, so the whole idea of a CS is virtually untenable - alas!

Additional notes by B.