I Thought I Said Not To Take It Personally

I had a fantastic weekend with PapawTexas and Waynea1, Ingressing in South  East Plano near 15th Street.  The toads had about 50 L5-L7 portals all linked up pretty as you please.  It was a very tempting target that Waynea1 pointed out.  The AP potential was pretty huge, even for three players joining forces which we do not do much.

So after breakfast at Mom's Cafe in Allen, the three of us went off to link a few portals before heading down to P-Town.  Before we left the cafe, I gave each of my Smurf brothers 75+ L7 resonators (a gift from ViktorLaszlo) to seed on any Smurf portal we ran across.  I was also armed with 150 extra L7 and L8 XMP's as well as some Ultra Strikes from MisterAlex (much of which I still have thanx to farming)

We arrived at GZ and scoped out the portals with the highest point value (links/fields) and worked our way backwards.  We hacked, liberated, and brought on line ~50 portals in a very short time (we did this walking ... need to upgrade our Trekker badges).  We did not waste our time linking them back up because we knew the toads would fight like crazy to reclaim it and I did not want to give them more points than I had to.  This was simply a controlled carpet bombing.

The mid-level farm was being maintained by a few toads, one of which is a member of a family who lives in Allen, who just happens to live within spitting distance of Waynea1.  This attack would not be taken lightly, as it would most likely be perceived to be personal.  And while it COULD be looked at like it was personal, it wasn't...it just happened to be the juiciest low hanging fruit I could find in the immediate area.  It made sense from a points gathering perspective.  There were bigger farms but they were much more heavily defended than this one...heck many of the portals didn't even have basic shields.

This attack also helped contribute to netting me over 200k AP, over 150k AP for PapawTexas, and over 100k AP for Waynea1  (he did not take out as many portals as we did) during the weekend.  It was euphoric once it was all taken down (even though a few toads began rebuilding shortly after we finished).

Once we left Plano we headed back to Allen where we all met and took out many of the remaining toad portals along the route.  This is where I think it became personal because all (or at least most of)  the portals belonged to one family.  I affectionately refer to them as "Hockey Family".  Hockey family was quiet for a while but they went out at 10 or 10:30 PM that night and the next night to begin taking things back.  This is where it gets confusing to me.

I don't quite understand their logic (I am not a strategist or do I feel I am smarter than anyone else) on why they would waste SEVEN Jarvis Virii flipping portals (5 alone in one small park alone), several of which had no real strategic value.  And on top of that, they have a history of flipping these portals (not getting any points for doing so) and letting them decay....never maintaining them.  I guess they could be waiting to build them back up but why waste the Jarvis and AXA on them?  Those are pretty rare.  However it is their choice...they certainly can play the game as they wish.

Normally when I experienced players hit the portals I maintain, it is usually because of the lure of the AP's or because it is in the way of a bigger field.  Not with the Hockey Family.  The three of them (Dad, Mom,  son) appear to hit portals randomly, not creating  big fields, and dropping  AXA shields on them, then let them decay...no teamwork at all.  I mean, if I have a key to a friendly portal, I will remote recharge if I am not  out playing, keeping portals up and running when I cannot visit them.  I do not see anyone coming in behind them to fortify  their work...things just decay.  With many of the people I Ingress with, we go out  of our way to fortify/upgrade portals (as team players and to work on our badges)...upgrading  and recharging any chance we get.  I just don't see that with this family. That is kind of sad.  If they  would think about their attacks/defenses better, they might have more success in the game and in the area they play, but it obviously their choice to play as they like.

One of the areas they hit on Sunday night They linked it up pretty well, but they placed the AXA shields on the portals with the fewest links.  Why?  If I go selective link hunting, like I normally do, I am going to hit the weaker one, take the points, and move on.  Knowing their habit of letting things decay, I will just come back  in a week to take back the stronger one when it is close to death.

The father of  that family has sent me taunts  such as "Sucks to be you since you lost all those portals last night..." and "have fun wasting all your gear taking those portals back..." that I find amusing.  He obviously does not realize I farm almost every day and thanx to generous, higher level smurfs Dragnlo, MisterAlex, ViktorLaszlo), I have more than enough gear to do what I WANT to do on a daily basis.  I don't have to "waste" my gear.  I will just plan my attacks around toad weaknesses. Simple as that.  Have 3 portals linked without shields and 7 others linked and heavily  defended? Take a guess where my spare L6 XMP's are going to be used.  Wasting gear?  L6 XMP's are my daily drivers with my L7 and L8's in reserve for serious battle.  So what if I did not build out what I took down?  I liberated it, left a few L8's and/or L7's reso's to keep the tadpoles away and moved on.  All in the strategy.

Don't take it personally just because you cannot understand me as an opportunistic link hunter. Study Sun Tzu  and then you will understand.

And besides...it is just a game, right ;) ?