The 2019.14 turned out to be a tough cycle in NR03-ECHO-14. The biggest confrontation was mostly on the local-level, with both factions focused on destroying BAFs on the outskirts of town and building their own. This cycle witnessed much more activity around the checkpoints and strategically placed cross-links than many others before it. The results seemed quite similar, but the Enlightened were in the lead at every checkpoint. By the end of the cycle it was clear that a city-covering field is needed for the Resistance to overturn the result.

After some discussion the fielding was scheduled for the 33^rd checkpoint. That evening was a bit chaotic. The plan was finalized mere minutes before the teams set on the road and the transcript was only three lines. One cleaning crew had only 100 XMPs on two people. The opposition was prepared (which is something to be expected when you use the same base-link third time in a row) – there were at least three Enlightened teams making cross-links and delaying the fielding. As a pleasant surprise – one portion of the cross-links went out into the opposite direction, as they probably expected a larger field. The experience of the Resistance teams and sheer luck was what made it possible to put up the fields just before the checkpoint. Two newbies were suddenly promoted to fielders and dropped-off on the anchor as their driver rushed off to take-out the final cross-link. Three layers went through the checkpoint, which was enough to overturn the result at the checkpoint.

Everyone scattered around afterwards, trying to take out as much green, as possible. One team patrolled the southern part of town for better half of the night. Both factions made final local fields in the early morning, before the 6 AM checkpoint.

After such hustle, the morning was a bit anticlimactic. The Resistance had lost the cycle by only 15 MU (126.967 to 126.982). Which means that less than 550 MU were needed to win the cycle – one more layer at the checkpoint, one more inner field, one more taken-down green field… That „one more” didn’t happen for the Resistance that night, reminding once again the lesson, that every MU in every little corner of the cell counts towards the victory.

Participants of the 33^rd CP fielding:

Plan — @KabinZ
Intel — @INeedMoreTime
Cleaning — @Alfux, @Kabinz, @ApuokasKvadratu, @trajakas289, @Zymanc, @Perkuns2, @pukisBalta, @cryingrock1
Fielding — @lordb1 and @kamiccolo (Našlėnai), @gosferano and @cryingrock1 (Turgeliai)
Checkpoint — 20:00 Tue 16 Apr (UTC+3)
Layers — 3
MU captured — about 690K MU
Medals — gold (@gosferano)

Also, two level-ups that night (@gosferano and @shimis)

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The 2019.13 septicycle in NR03-ECHO-14 finished with a new local record for Resistance – highest single-cycle score of 2.5M MU. Which is not that surprising, as the town of Vilnius was under blue fields for the better half of the cycle – 19 checkpoints.

Fields from the previous cycle successfully withstood several take-down attempts. A clever selection of anchors was one of the factors that ensured the longevity of the fields – it was impossible to destroy all layers by visiting just one spot, thus giving enough time for the Resistance to rebuild and add layers. The most significant input in this matter was from agent @Alfux, who, among other adventures, had a 12 hour drive visiting Sekonys and making 19 blue layers on Wednesday.

When the multilayer was finally taken down from all three corners on Saturday night, the accumulated MU was sufficient to beat the previous best cycle score of 1.9M MU.

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On Monday night Vilnius Resistance covered the city with a multilayer, which not only stood through the night and accumulated 19M MU, but also managed to overturn the result of the cycle which otherwise had seemed lost.

Septicycle 2019.12 started to go south on Friday night when a successful fielding by Enlightenment put them 18M mind units ahead in the cycle. Green fields covered the city for three checkpoints. Saturday OP by the Resistance won back only 5M mind units, as the fields survived only one checkpoint. Sunday went by with most of the team tired from the previous day or doing non-ingress stuff, and the remaining two days of the cycle looked grim – start of the work-week with few convenient CP times.

Surprisingly, enough volunteers signed up on Monday morning for one last attempt. The fielding was scheduled on midnight, hoping that the fields will stay up for the 1 AM checkpoint and through the night. During the day a plan of 19 layers (Dieveniškės-Sekonys-Kernavė/Našlėnai) was carefully drafted and responsibilities assigned. It needed to stay up for at least three checkpoints to have a chance to overturn the cycle result. Then, almost at the last minute the drawing was revised, more layers added, making a total of 25, and additional fielding from Švenčionys outlined.

The evening turned out to be tense. First, the fielding started 25 minutes late, when navigation system of one of the cleaners acted up and sent him in the opposite direction from his alert. Then, one layer was lost due to an unchecked small cross-link in Jašiūnai (remember the last minute changes?). Another one – because of a portal, which turned out to be inside a gated territory with guard dogs (submitted in the wrong location, as we later found out).

Despite the delays, fielding was finished before 1 AM. 23 layers went through the checkpoint, gaining 6M mind units. The same result repeated for the morning checkpoint, tipping the cycle average in favor of the Resistance (the chart below pictures measurement results and running averages of the first 34 CPs). The last 2 checkpoints were like waiting for the final whistle in the soccer match. The cycle was won, continuing the longest Resistance winning streak in NR03-ECHO-14.

The bulk of the largest fields was taken down after three checkpoints, and now only 6 layers are over town, earning about 1M mind units at each measurement in the new cycle.

Short zoo-sightings report of the night:

• 11 hares
• 8 roe deer
• 5 cats
• a fox
• and a „night bird” (probably an owl)

Photo: @HikerWithDog

Plan — @KabinZ
Intel — @KabinZ, @INeedMoreTime
Key-breeding — @pukisBalta
Cleaning — @susivienijimas, @Zymanc, @RoastedDuck, @ApuokasKvadratu, @KabinZ, @trajakas289
Fielding — @Alfux (Dieveniškės), @MartynasAxe and @GintarisLTU (Švenčionys), @lordb1 and @kamiccolo (Kernavė), @shimis and @BinaryConflict (Našlėnai)
Checkpoint — 01:00 Tue 2 Apr (UTC+3)
Layers — 23 (from 230K to 312K in size)
MU captured — 19M (6M at first 2 CPs) and counting
Number of checkpoints — 8 and counting at the time of writing
Medals — Black (@lordb1)

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5M MU – not so bad for a plan which was whipped up in 30 minutes. A special nod to the team, who executed it flawlessly and still had the energy to catch pokemon and submit new portals.

Plan and intel — @INeedMoreTime
Cleaning — @cryingrock1, @Zymanc, @lordb1
Fielding — @MartynasAxe, @cuteMiho, @GintarisLTU, @susivienijimas, @KabinZ, @ApuokasKvadratu
Checkpoint — 17:00 Sat 30 Mar (UTC+3)
Layers — 19, from 235K to 310K in size
MU captured — 5M

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