Trani - Feb 28 22:30 - Tick 189 Cycle 9

 Half way through Cycle 9 

Strategic

• I'm on alert tonight for a potential war with Darrow who is bringing forces (~450 in striking range, 220 already in my territory) to the border. Darrow launched a night attack on Ktoc yesterday so I'm vigilant for the potential of this. I'll discuss specifics in the Tactical section but if Darrow moves any forces toward Chothi I will switch my diplo status to enemies wiping out his Chothi fleet. Reinforcements are already on the way via Visya-Chothi warp gates (~ETA 8 hours since they've not yet reached the other end of the wormhole) I would also coordinate with Inerz on a joint attack on Darrow whilst continuing to press Ktoc. The aim would be to hold Darrow at my current borders until Ktoc falls.
• Built my first worldbuilder tucked away in my original territory. I think Gilgamesz will need Scan 8/9 to see it so it's not getting noticed anytime soon. I have 3 specialist tokens left. Since that figure will be 8 again in a few hours it's all good. 

Diplomatic

• Gilgamesz has been quiet for a few hours but I've sent him two techs and given him a star (that he was owed) so I'd like to think he thinks pretty highly of me at the moment. For the record current Ledger with Gilgamesz is fairly even, I've given him 60 creds more than he's given me but at any point in last few days that would have been +-100 each way.

Tactical

• War north of Visya (Northern Front) is going well. I'm going to lose Achos and Hanni (unfortunately Pathfinder Squid is going to die on Hanni) but unless Darrow comes in from the North I'll grind down these forces and re-take Hanni next cycle. New reinforcements continue to flow in through the Visya wormhole. It feels like +100 every few hours.

• War East against Ktoc (Eastern Front) starting to ramp up the production down here a bit. You can ignore Dust's AI building lots of Industry that I'll later snag (I won't do it until Ktoc is out of scan range or dead, if he tries I'll trade Dust whatever weapons level are needed to wipe out the inbound attack.) Just off screen there's an Infiltrator with 83 ships coming down to Jantoo so this will only briefly be held but I'm pressing. I could probably do with getting another 100 or so ships down here but I will be able to tomorrow morning if Darrow hasn't attacked.

• War North North (Extra Northern Front) this is only the potential of a war and I hope it doesn't happen. If it doesn't happen tonight/tomorrow then it probably won't/can't ever bother me but at the moment Darrow could cause big issues. In response to an attack I'll blow the warp gates on Chothi, destroy the forces there and rally troops to defend the landing points. A new warp gate on Bergelmir (3 hrs transit) is the threat not only to Chothi but to a good nights sleep. I'd pre-emptively blow the Chothi Warp Gate but I'd like to get my own reinforcements across to it. Current plan sees a new carrier with 130 ships pop through Visya wormhole next tick and pick up 30 more rushing across to Chothi. This would land the same tick as the fastest Bergelmir attack fleet assuming warp gate (and waiting for that carrier that's 1 tick away from Bergelmir)

Trani - Feb 28 17:30 - Tick 180, Cycle 9

Cycle 8 just ended and the map is starting to look nice as the attacks on Ktoc gather momentum. 

Stars: Gilgamesz (34) Necria (32) Inerz (26) 
Total Ships: Inerz (2133) Gilgamesz (2103) Necria (1916) 

New Ships: Necria (32.4) Inerz (27.6) Gilgamesz (24.5) 
Cycle Income: Necria (1354) Darrow (1092) Inerz (1082) 

Strategic

• A key priority at the moment is avoiding conflict with Inerz or Darrow. I think Darrow is a much higher risk than Inerz since I've stepped in the way of his attack on Ktoc. I've had a look at the numbers and I should be able to fight Ktoc and Darrow at the same time now, but it's a very close run thing. If I can delay this from happening for another 2 cycles Darrow won't be a problem.

Diplomatic

• I am considering having the talk with Gilgamesz about final places (a 1-2 interchangable between me and him) but I think it might be premature yet. I feel this alliance slipping away day by day, not in any significant way but I can feel it weakening. We're both viewing each other through the eyes of someone wanting to win the game and that's never healthy for an alliance. This next cycle I'm going to double down on being a good ally for Gilgamesz, quick and fast tech trading, lots of positive upbeat communications. Completely demilitarize the border (there's not much there, just some industry that isn't connected to the rest of my logistics network but what there is I'll pull away) Really try and rally this alliance. I want Gilgamesz to do well, I don't want to fight him, I'm not going to betray him. I'm happy if he wins. I'm in a strategic expansion race against him and I hope that we get to a point where we can just agree I'm the winner, but if he beats me in that expansion race then so be it.
• At the same time I want to do a single round of tech trades with Inerz for Weapons 5, not only is this a bit of a time-saver but I'm hoping it gives me flexibility and at the least keeps Inerz away from me for a couple of cycles.
• I've been engaging in conversation with Anita and they seem friendly, we just don't have much to bond over. I don't realistically see how we can have a strong alliance. I've asked them what their plan is after Denizen is conquered since they'll be boxed in by their ally and a NAP with Inerz.
• Ktoc is standing his ground. I engaged him in some chat just to pass the time and he's told me firmly that he'll be fighting to the death, which I respect. He'd have made a good ally under different circumstances I think, he rubbed me up the wrong way in the initial negotiations over Visya (probably for the best he did since controlling the wormhole was in my interest) but I'd be willing to work with him in future games for sure. 

Tactical

• I've cut off Darrow from Ktoc's territory. This comes with a cost, meaning I now need to fight Ktoc without any of Darrows support. It also means Darrow might hit me since I've thwarted his expansion. The benefit though is that I get all of Ktoc's stars (hopefully) and I still strongly believe if I do that (fast enough) I win the game.

222 of the ships on Chothi belong to Darrow.

• Darrow is rallying ships to the border with me (and he still has 200 ships sitting on my Asteroid Field) I will have a big decision to make if he tries (with diplo set as allies) to move ships across to that field. I'm not going to let him choose when the fight stars. I'll probably diplo switch to enemies 1 tick before they land, wipe out his AF fleet and then destroy the inbound fleets if that happens. This will/should spark an unwanted war though. The only way I can mitigate against this for now is to consolidate strength on that border and put him off any such ideas.

Trani - Feb 28 12:00 - Tick 170 Cycle 7

Halfway through this Cycle and the Galaxy is progressing well. Ktoc responded to mine and Darrow's (uncoordinated) joint-attack by attacking Darrow which is interesting and helpful. I'm making progress on both fronts and I have secured and fortified the Asteroid Field at Chothi. 

Darrow will struggle to take it from me now and hopefully he won't even try. He should though. I have every intention of going to war with Darrow as soon as Ktoc falls and I don't feel at all guilty about this - he hasn't replied to a single message I've sent him all game (I've sent him 5) so we're not allies even if our diplomacy setting is set as allies. I'm not quite sure why Darrow is so uncommunicative.

Strategic

• I'm now the economy and ship production leader and I'll be the ship total leader in a few cycles. I'm the Science leader individually but Gilgamesz ability to trade with me and Anita makes him the de-facto Science leader.
• As soon as Ktoc/Dust fall I'll be splitting my forces and stars into two groups - Northern Command (all of Ktoc and Dust's territory) will prepare for war with Darrow. Southern Command (all of my initial territory) will feed around 50% of ship production to Northern Command but will also start to create a (secret, deep within my territory) contingency against Gilgamesz. Gilgamesz has met every agreement and been a good ally so far but as an alliance starts to near achieving it's goals members start to question their next steps. I'm not planning to stab Gilgamesz but I am planning and aiming to win this game. I believe I can do that by simply capturing territory and consolidating faster. If I can't and Gilgamesz is the clear leader then I'll be willing to accept 2nd place, GG and congrats. I will not be willing to accept 3rd place behind Anita though.

Diplomatic

• Inerz and Anita have a non-aggression pact, which is interesting. I've told Gilgamesz this.
• I'm cultivating a diplomatic off-ramp from Gilgamesz with Inerz. I don't actually want to flip but I like to have my options open. 
• Gilgamesz traded me Experimentation 5 when he could have traded me Experimentation 6. A mistake or is he intentionally trying to keep me behind him? Either way not to concerned about this since I think he's over-estimating the importance of Experimentation at this stage anyway. An extra 50 experimentation points is less than 2 ticks worth of science.

Tactical

• War with Ktoc is going well. Darrows arrival on the battlefield has distracted him and I now have an overwhelming advantage on every metric. I am pressing that advantage. My ship production is around 2x his and we have equal Weapons tech so I can afford to trade ships at 2:1.
• The Byormi Asteroid Field has a huge amount of Industry and Science on it that the Dust AI is building and it's only going to keep getting stronger. It's not time to capture this yet but I'm looking forward to capturing it when I can.

Trani - Feb 28 7:30 - Tick 160 Cycle 8

Cycle 7 just ended and my night time raid on Ktocs asteroid field was a success... but Darrow also attacked it and another star and our ships are both sitting on it courtesy of a diplomacy allies setting I put in place when I was asking Darrow if he wanted to join me attacking Ktoc days ago. 

Stars: Gilgamesz (31) Necria (29) Darrow (26)

Total ships: Gilgamesz (1686) Inerz (1600) Necria (1334) Ktoc (697)

New ships: Necria (27.5) Inerz (24) Gilgamesz (20.7) Ktoc (11.2)

Cycle Income: Necria (1186) Darrow (1009) Gilgamesz (977)

Strategic:

The long term strategic tug of war/race is unchanged but I have to factor Darrow into account. Darrow isnt chatty enough to be an ally so he will have to be defeated after Ktoc and Dust, however I need to be careful. For now the priority is peacefully cutting off his expansion and hoping he doesnt open a front. A three way Darrow/Ktoc/Necria FFA up north would be chaos.

Diplomatic:

Gilgamesz diplomatic posture has changed. Tech is flowing less freely and he keeps putting these smiley faces at the end of all of his messages :-) I think I am losing this diplomatic battle with Anita, likely because I am a 1st place threat. He has nothing worth talking about on my border so he isnt a tactical threat but hes slowly starting to act like a strategic one. I dont begrudge him this because I am a strategic threat but I have to plan around it. Priority is ensuring I take over Ktoc and Dust fast and retain a superior economy whilst bridging the science and ship gaps.

Denizen is demoralised because all three of his neighbours are attacking him. I have dangled him a prospect of me having 'more flexibility' in 2 to 3 cycles to give him hope and urged him to try to pursuade Inerz to stop the attack and ally him. The aim here is to slow down Anita's advance. Will I actually attack Gilgamesz in 2-3 cycles? No. Even if I did the attack would come too late for Denizen. You cant effectively aid someone halfway across the map. However I dont want him to quit.

Ktoc will have woke up demoralized but its not the time to offer him an olive branch/vassal. I would consider this if he comes to me though to accelerate the capture of his stars.

Im going to reengage dialogue with Anita. This is something Ive neglected but a dream scenario would be them asking if I want to help them against Gilgamesz. Id immediately tell my ally this and then break their alliance. 

Tactical:

Chaos at Chothi with 200 Darrow ships arriving 2 ticks after I captured it. Ive bought an Infiltrator and the 4 new ships per tick are fortifying it. Ive sent an additional 150 ships across. There is no way I'm giving up this Asteroid Field and Infiltrator Cat and Colonel Octopus will do their job.

Attacking Achos to fully cut off Ktoc from any potential trade with Inerz.

On the Dust front Ive captured a star and moving in on another. The plan will now be to focus on Ktoc and later get Dusts stars though. I dont have the ships to spare attacking them when Ktoc could send him weapons tech anytime.

Trani - Feb 27 23:30 - Tick 144 Cycle 7

 Quick pre-mission update

Resya has been captured now and I'm preparing to launch a Colonel (Octopus) at Ktoc's Asteroid Field overnight. The attack will land the tick after I hit Weapons 4 and will be accelerated by the warp gates. Ktoc has never once in the game sent a message or bought any infrastructure/carriers during the UK/EU night so I'm fairly confident this attack beginning at 00:30 will catch him by surprise.

The prize will be 8 Industry and 90 credits.

I'm rapidly bringing in other forces and if I wake (early tomorrow) to find this is successful I'll immediately launch additional attacks to pin down Ktocs forces and try to re-take those Northern stars.

Ktocs carrier network isn't strong enough to withstand the rate I'm bringing new ships to the front lines.

Diplomatic

• Gilgamesz has asked me to give him Jerra back now that we're in scan range. This was part of the deal and I will, but it's raised my alert slightly as this was always going to be the first thing he would do before turning on me. I'm not saying I believe he will, but there was no likely scenario where he would where he didn't first ask for Jerra back.
• Denizen has reached out as expected and gave the bad news that Inerz is also attacking them. This is, in my opinion, a really big strategic mistake from Inerz and worse - it's bad news for me as it will accelerate Denizens demise and lead to Anita/Gilgamesz taking over them faster.

It's now a race to defeat our opponents. If Denizen falls before Ktoc does then I will struggle to win this game. It won't be game over, but I'll need to rely on Inerz and Darrow, which doesn't fill me with delight since neither of them talk much.

Trani - 27 Feb - Tick 140 Cycle 7

The 6th cycle just ended and Anita and Gilgamesz are attacking Denizen. So far the galaxy has been fairly passive but this should shake things up. This marks a new phase of the game where it will be clearer to see where alliances stand. The only logical response for Denizen/Inerz is to ally if they're not already and immediately counter-attack them both and to reach out to me to ask for my support. 

That's what I expect to happen.

Stars: Gilgamesz (28) Necria (26) Darrow (24) Ktoc (19)
Total Ships: Gilgamesz (1384) Inerz (1225) Necria (974) 
New Ships: Gilgamesz (18.45) Inerz (18.2) Necria (17.6) Note, Gilgamesz is currently 1 Manufacturing ahead of me, and I'm one ahead of Inerz. Inerz has a huge amount of Industry. I expect to get that science from Gilgamesz this tick.
Cycle Income: Necria (953) Inerz (871) Darrow (830) Ktoc (476)

Strategic

• War with Ktoc is going well but I'm starting to get concerned that it's not going well enough. I've built up a decent supply of tokens (10) so considering adding some firepower to my front lines. I'm not interested in spending them on Worldbuilders etc at this stage. If I can beat Ktoc I will double down hard on Worldbuilders in prep for the endgame but right now I need flexibility offensive/defensive specialists and the capability to buy them offers. I very rarely like to be completely without tokens and I wouldn't voluntarily allow it in the middle of a hot war.
• Anita and Gilgamesz are preparing their assault on Denizen. I believe ships may be in flight. I need Denizen and hopefully Inerz to put up a solid fight and drag that war out for several cycles. I don't think the two of them can beat Anita and Gilgamesz but I am worried about them losing too fast.
• Struggling to make sense of Darrow capturing one of Inerz stars without much fighting. What on earth is happening on that front? Neither of them are particularly chatty so I'll probably never find out.

Diplomatic

• Gilgamesz has put off creating a 3-way chat with Anita. Their alliance is a big issue for me especially now they're going to war together. War is a strong bind to any alliance and I'm concerned that Gilgamesz is slipping into a closer alliance with Anita than he is with me. My preferred end to the game would be to suppress the others and then fight a short skirmish with Gilgamesz for 1st/2nd. No betrayals, no backstabs, just a 1v1 fight.
• Inerz has obviously offered an alliance, but they're just not chatty enough to really persuade me. 
• Waiting for Denizen to contact me. If it's not imminently I don't know what he's thinking, I've been friendly, I've suggested I may not see myself allied with Gilgamesz long term (I'm not being entirely truthful, but he doesn't know that.) Hoping to get some intel from him.

Tactical

• I made a mistake and sent 80 ships to capture Resya from Dust, coinciding the attack with the arrival of his looped Explorer. This, unfortunately, limits my potential nighttime operations (I intended to send 20 and got the waypoints wrong 'collect all v do nothing'.
• A small tidbit but Anita has bought a Destroyer to put at the end of her wormhole to Inerz. Useful to know this exists. I am tempted to tell Inerz about it, but if he's sensible he'll pre-empt any attack with a 1 ship carrier to gauge force size anyway. Not worth the potential risk.

Trani - 27 Feb 17:30 - Tick 132, Cycle 6

 

Strategic

• Ktoc has invested heavily in Industry. A jump from 20 to 42 industry. This will slow me down which is a problem, but without some sort of diplomatic aid I don't think he can hold out. My cycle income is now almost double his, and current shipcount is not far off double either. 

Diplomatic

• Inerz has offered an alliance and a territory (which happens to be a black hole) and asked what my relations with Gilgamesz are. I've told them we've been trading but out of necessity and that Gilgamesz is allied with Anita. I don't want to ally with Inerz as I'd have to stab them later.
• I no longer believe Darrow and Inerz are fighting all out. There's been very little ship destruction and no territories trading hands for some time now. It could be a big border stand off or they could have come to an agreement.

Tactical

• The Dust front has been opened and I've got two pathfinders working shifts shuttling ships to it.

• Considering a early hours of the morning assault on Chothi to seize it's 8 Industry. Both Chothi and Visya currently have warp gates and I've placed Ktoc's timezone as somewhere in UK/EU. I can do some more analysis into purchase/reply time later to try be more specific.
• A ready flow of ships coming to the front line on the northern front. Ktocs 6 cant complete.

Trani - Feb 27 09:30 - Tick 116, Cycle 5

Approaching the end of this cycle but I'll be out and about for the next few hours so a good point to do an update. There's also a lot happening diplomatically and strategically.

Stars: Gilgamesz (28) Necria (26) Inerz (24)
Total ships: Gilgamesz (981), Inerz (835), Darrow (651) Necria (583) Ktoc (310)
New ships: Gilgamesz (14) Inerz (14) Necria (13.6) Ktoc (6.65)
Cycle income: Not really accurate since people will be buying economy before end of cycle and I've already bought mine. Biggest economies are Necria and Inerz though, Gilgamesz and Darrow close behind.

Strategic

• Gilgamesz is a really good ally but his alliance with Anita is a problem for me because whilst the tech is flowing across to me from Anita and visa-versa, Anita has no strong bond with me. Gilgamesz is using his geography wisely to have an ally on either side. This means in the endgame he has the choice of who to 2v1 with and should then win the game.
• Anita preparing to capture Denizen's territory is a further problem. If Anita stays weak then I could probably handle Gilgamesz in a 1v1 for the win later but if Anita is strong this will be a major problem. One option I have considered is warning Denizen and advising them to bulk up their Weapons and southern front but it's a risky ploy. If it gets out I leaked info it might undermine the alliance with Gilgamesz and create security risks for them. To be clear, I want Gilgamesz to do well but I don't want Anita to do well.
• A big priority is securing the Ktoc/Dust block of territory. I need to fight for this and keep out Darrow/Inerz and Gilgamesz (on the route to succeeding with this via diplomacy.) If I control all this territory, and especially if I can do it before Darrow/Denizen fall I think I win the game.

Diplomatic

• Successful negotiation with Gilgamesz over Dusts territory. He asked for three stars. I negotiated him to one star, this means I will cut off the route into Dust from him and if I can suppress Ktoc should mean I'm on my way to that big strategic priority.
• Trying to open up communication with Inerz. At the moment it looks like the game will be won by either Inerz, me or Gilgamesz so it makes sense to know what they're planning. Inerz is keeping mostly to themselves though. 

Tactical

• Updates in the image but key points. I have a huge economic, industrial and logistical advantage and barring some external diplomacy driven intervention (possible scenarios: Darrow alliance, very unlikely. Inerz alliance and intervention, plausible 20% chance) I will beat Ktoc, it's more about how fast I can beat him. Ideally he will fall before Darrow or Denizen do. This three way race may decide who wins the game (even though Anita will take most of Denizens territory as per Gilgamesz plan, if Anita does that I think it's a big boon to a Gilgamesz win)

Trani - 27 Feb 07:00 - Tick 111, Cycle 5

Dust has been kicked for inactivity sparking what I expect will be a star rush. 

Strategic

• As mentioned whoever can claim most of Dusts lightly defended stars will get a big boost. A priority is ensuring Ktoc cant but I'd also prefer that I did over Gilgamesz. Pathfinder Squid is racing into action to get there first.
• Today should hopefully reveal who is in the western alliance. Are Denizen, Inerz, Anita all working seperately or is there coordination there?

Diplomatic

• N/A been asleep :) 

Tactical

• In the battles with Ktoc I've been booted from some of the stars I captured but not too concerned about it. I'll plan to harry him with a second wave later today/tonight. This cycle timing should allow me to place his timezone (he will buy infra when he wakes)
• Launching a 85 ship Pathfinder Seagull attack on Dusts star Tara (10 hrs to arrival). This is in striking distance of his Asteroid Field Byomi and gives me a route in round the back of his territory. This is a big commitment of ships but I want to open a second front with Ktoc and be able to hold any stars I take. Im fairly sure but not certain Tara is undefended.
• Il also time an attack on Dusts star Resya for when his Explorer is landing at it. This will be later tonight.
• As mentioned in last post Im using this cycle to upgrade my Economy and Logistics network. I now have more than 10 carriers more than Ktoc. This is a huge disparity and I hope it continues. 

Trani - Feb 26 23:30, Tick 96, Cycle 4

Approaching the end of Cycle 4, which is annoyingly going to fall at around 1:30AM for me.

Diplomatic

• Relations good with Gilgamesz, alliance holding strong. I just sent Terraforming 3 to him.
• Interested to see what Anita does now that Denizen and Gilgamesz have blocked them in. Gilgamesz believes Anita is a loyal ally, I'm not sure. Not enough information to assess.
• Inerz is at war with Darrow. This is a good outcome as they're both strong powers, currently the third and fourth in the game by stars. I'll keep an eye on this.
• Denizen hasn't replied to me asking what his intent was on tick 64. Do I interpret this that he has correctly put me and Gilgamesz together and is focusing on trying to thwart us? If I was him, how would I do it? I'd probably turn Anita against Gilgamesz.

Strategic

• It's never ideal when a cycle ends overnight but I'm going to make the most of it with a big economy & carrier update next cycle which is less time-critical. I think I can get away with this in my current position. The cycle after I'll go big on Infra & Science.
• I'm very happy with how the war with Ktoc is going. In the Tactical update to follow you'll see that he's pressing to re-take a few stars. This doesn't really matter. I'm not yet trying to take and hold stars yet. What I'm doing is degrading his economy and capability and restricting, both directly through holding stars and through threatening stars so much he can't safely build infrastructure on them, meaning he has to build it elsewhere at a cost. I'm happy to be temporarily pushed back to Visya/Kreete and then I will launch the second set of attacks tomorrow night.
• The best way of thinking about how the war has gone so far is what would have happened if I hadn't attacked when I did. Well, I'd have the same stars I do now, slightly more ships. However Ktoc would very likely hold 1-2 of Darrows territory and be pressing into it and I suspect his Pathfinder was going to capture some of Dusts stars. He would be substantially stronger than he is now. It's not a fight that would have got easier. As it is, I'm stronger, Ktoc has stagnated.

Tactical

• Summary with comments below. General Bison continues to hold the Visya wormhole.
• Ktoc is going to feel like he's making some progress over next 10 hours, re-taking stars I took.

Trani - Feb 26, 17:30 Tick 83, Cycle 4

 

Stars: Gilgamesz (28), Necria (26), Inerz (24)
Total Ships: Gilgamesz (621), Inerz (542), Necria (384)

New ships: Inerz (11.9) Gilgamesz (11.2), Necria (10.85)
Cycle Income: Inerz (706) Necria (665) Anita (500)

Strategic:

• Starting to pay more attention to Inerz. Hoping they stay out the way for now.
• Feeling I have good prospects of taking Ktoz, Dust's territory and being on way to winning.

Diplomatic:

• No real developments except Gilgamesz has been very free and helpful with tech. I think we have a good relationship now. 
• Gilgamesz/Denizen negotiated a border between them which works fine for me. I don't want Gilgamesz getting in a 2v1 with Denizen and Inerz

Tactical:

• The attack is going successfully. I used the Warp Gates (random, not built) to spring a third attack and two of the three have broken through. I'm interested to see how Ktoz responds and preparing for potential counter attacks.
• I don't feel I need to press a huge advantage beyond what I've captured here. I have a big infrastructure lead and a narrow ship lead. I also have better tech and Ktoz is isolated technology wise unless Dust returns or Darrow starts trading with him.

Trani - Feb 26 13:00 - Tick 75 Cycle 3

 Approaching the end of cycle 3 and I've just started outright war with Ktoc.

War with Ktoc

There's strategy, diplomatic and tactical elements to this so separate section. 

• Ktoc hasn't spoke to me since Tick 14 when I refused him the Visya wormhole. I explained myself at the time but no reply. I reached out a few hours ago and attempted to feel out his stance by pointing out Dust has been inactive. I got a fairly cold reply back so I think it's fair to say he's still annoyed (fair enough) but for me that means there's no chance of repaired relations.
• Ktoc looks to be preparing for a war with Darrow and moving ships to his border. There's a window of opportunity to strike now which may be better than another I'd get for a while.
• Dust IS inactive and Ktoc will take over his stars soon. I have a good edge on Ktoc in most metrics right now so I think it makes sense to press that advantage before it degrades.
• Ktoc is currently Weapons 1 to my Weapons 2 but I fully expect him to have Weapons 2 by the time my ships hit his stars.
• I've fired off a message to Darrow informing him about Ktocs attack fleet. I don't need Darrow's help for this war (I don't think) but I do need his neutrality and anything else is a bonus. Hopefully this buys me some good relations.
• No word from Dust.

The war plan here is simple. Press the advantage I have disrupting Ktocs supply to his outer stars. Use the infrastructure advantage I have (and the seized Infrastructure from the attack) to contain Ktoc and then slowly chip away at him. If Dust returns, persuade him to side with me.

Strategy

• War with Ktoc is now the main aim. I need to degrade his ability to fight.
• Maintain the alliance with Gilgamesz.
• I'm not bothering to leave any reserves back to defend against a Gilgamesz stab. I assess the likelihood of it happening in the next 2 cycles as less than 10% and I'm happy with those odds. However, I HAVE kept my attack on Ktoc secret from him for now. There's no reason at this point for him to know that I'm fully committed in the north. He knows I was going to attack Ktoc at some point, so that's enough.

Diplomacy

• Gilgamesz and I had a long debate about his secret alliance plan. He was asking me to keep Specialists and Manufacuturing at level 1 (suspicious) and was fairly insistent about it. There was no way I was going to agree to that so I just said no and he disagreed but sent me Manufacturing, so I've got my way. I haven't yet figured out what his angle with this is though. It might be just being new and excited about the idea of a secret alliance, but we'll see.
• I've started sowing the seeds of a potential alliance with Denizen, or at least the idea that I'm not aligned long term with Gilgamesz. The key to this is offering up true information that can be validated later and revealing most of your plans.

Tactics

• None apart from those already discussed

Trani - 26 Feb 7:30 - Tick 63, Cycle 3

 The third cycle has now finished.

A few updates though due to cycle timing not everyone may have built their infra yet.

Im first on economy but lagging on total ships. I will slowly correct this. 

Strategic 

• My position is good but now I need to start thinking much more seriously about expansion. Ktoc and Dust (afk still) are the targets.
• I have concerns that Gilgamesz isn't cut throat enough to take over Anita and that Denizen will be working hard to spin a Gilgamesz-Necria alliance narrative. 
• Almost all free stars are now captured which should mean I get a clear picture of alliances soon. 

Diplomacy

• I  didnt wake in time to send Gilgamesz banking before the cycle ended so I guess that makes us even since weve both done that once. 
• Gilgamesz is continuing to try to spin an elaborate narrative and deception to make people we arent working together, staggering research trades etc. This is a big risk imo as a) I dont think it will fool anyone b) I think he should be consolidating power by taking over Anita. I will try to guide him in this.

Tactics

• Not too much to say here other than that from Visya-Kreete I threaten multiple Ktoc stars meaning he has to split his defense.

Trani - 25 February 19:30 - Tick 40, Cycle 2

So that's the second cycle just finished. I'm happy with how the game is going.

Current stats

Stars: Gilgamesz (23), Darrow (20), Necria (19)
Ships: Gilgamesz (242), Inerz (224), Anita (183), Necria (142)
New Ships: Inerz (5.4), Gilgamesz (5.1), Ktoc (3.85) Necria (2.4)
Cycle Income: Darrow (430), Ktoc (428), Necria (369)

Strategic 

• I'm aware that Gilgamesz is doing very well but I'm not threatened by it. I believe in trusting your allies and helping make them stronger. I intend to win the game but I'll worry about how to get into first later. It's always good to be aware other players will be looking at this as a threat though.
• I expect Dust to snap back into activity later this evening but if he doesn't for any reason then I'll need to do some re-evaluating. Possibly more expansion up north sooner (south westward.) I don't want Ktoc to take his territory without a fight and then ally Darrow.

Diplomatic 

• Despite capturing the territory Gilgamesz and I agreed and me sending him Terraforming he didn't send me Experimentation before the cycle ended. I don't believe this was intentional as he wasn't active in the hours before the cycle ended, but he's still cost me 50 potential research points and I'm paying attention to what he does next.
• Dust has been AFK for 19 hours. I know this from the turn-based game were in and could infer it from fleet movements too. What it also tells me is that he'd negotiated certain starts from Ktoc as Ktoc hasn't taken them when he could have. These two are in cahoots.. 
• I want to make Darrow & Denizen believe Gilgamesz and I are less cooperative than we are. There'll be no elaborate story about a border war to achieve this, from me anyway, I'll just sow doubt. Denizen has already suggested I should be worried about my expansion prospects so I'll just let him believe that I am. This achieves a dual purpose of keeping my options flexible whilst also hopefully making other players less threatened and inclined to form their own dangerous alliances.
• Darrows silence is never-ending.

Tactical 

• General Bison continues to defend the Visya wormhole.
• Another carrier with 46 ships is a couple hours from Kreete to garrison that. There's now 27 ships on Resya (20 more than before) I think due to a loop Dust set up yesterday. 

Trani - 25 Feb 14:00 - Tick 29, Cycle 1

 

Strategic 

• My expansion in my corner is going fairly well, I've just found two asteroid fields tucked away behind my systems. I'll capture one this cycle and the other late next cycle. Neither is in a good defensive location but they have good NR.

Diplomatic 

• Gilgamesz has built an elaborate story about how we're at a border war and I am going to steal a star off him. I've lightly suggested nobody is going to believe this when we start trading tech, but he likes the plan and if it makes him happy then a happy ally is a loyal ally. As part of this ruse he also wants to send me ships to make it look like he's lost ships in a fight with me. I've tried to tell him this is unnecessary but again... he likes the plan and I like ships.
• Denizen is asking about my relations with Gilgamesz, I've shared my side of Gilgamesz's ruse with him. I don't believe for a second that he will believe it.
• Dust has still not been online, so I'm still none the wiser whether he's allied with Ktoc and trying to take me down or not. I assess it as 75% likely.
• No word from Darrow. I really hope he's not in a three-way alliance with Ktoc and Dust. I don't think he's chatty enough to be, but I'll be happier when he tells me he's at war with Ktoc.

Tactical 

• There's a decision to be made about the star Kreete. Do I split my forces defending it and do I invest in it? My thought is to lightly invest and give at least the pretense that I intend to defend it. There are two big benefits to this (beyond having an extra star.) Firstly if an enemy ever holds it, it's a 3-hour jump to Visya which means I'll never sleep again. Secondly, my enemies will almost certainly attack it before Visya giving me a good early warning and a commitment of hostile intent. Ultimately, I don't intend to stick two Generals up there and I probably won't actually defend it but it's nice to have the option to so I will stick 40-50 ships on it.

Trani - 25 Feb 10:00 - Tick 21, Cycle 1

The first cycle ended a tick ago and things are looking OK, all things considered.

Strategic 

• Plan remains unchanged. Work with Gilgamesz
• Suppress Ktoc/Dust with a view to eventually taking over this territory.
• 2nd on economy, 6th on ships, 3rd on stars. Fine fine fine.

Diplomatic 

• Gilgamesz and I have agreed a territory I can take where we can trade. I have Pathfinder Squid inbound and hope to exchange Terraforming 2 for Experimentation 2 at the end of the cycle.
• No word from Dust. He didn't see my message before his ships defeated my carrier but it certainly looks to me like an intentional block. I think I slipped up in one of my messages to him and gave away my intent to stop them two allying. I didn't directly reveal my plan but I skirted too close to the truth and he might have made the logical jump. Clumsy wording.
• I've asked Darrow if he's interested in cooperating against Ktoc.

Tactical 

• General Bison has been hired to defend Visya. His +3 weapons should help hold the star for a long time with my starting ships and mean that I don't need to prioritize Industry as fast. 

Trani - 25 Feb 630AM - Tick 14, Cycle 0

I've woke up to my plan in danger.

Strategic: No change. My priority remains a) Undermining the Ktoc/Dust alliance and b) Ensuring Gilgamesz long term loyalty and alliance. Early signs suggests I might be failing to do a) but no panic yet.

Tactical: 

My carrier headed for Resya has been cut off by Dust and will be lost. Since Dust knew my expansion plans this is likely an intentionally hostile act. 

Ktoc is moving on Visya and will wake up to find I broke the agreement we originally negotiated and his carrier will be lost. I intend to put a Colonel and later an Infiltrator on that end of the wormhole.

Diplomatic:

I've fired off a question to Dust about his latent ships and changed diplo status to allies to try and save my carrier. Now we'll see what happens. Were still in a turn based game together so I can check if he sees this message before my carrier dies. At the very least I'll get a good gage of his intent.

To Ktoc I've proactively informed him I'm holding both ends of the wormhole and this is now non-negotiable. I've attempted to rewrite history and blame Dust for cutting off my expansion but he is going to be annoyed for breaking the pregame agreement. 

Closing comments: Now we wait and see. 

Trani - 24th February 23:30 - Tick 0, Cycle 0

Three hours have passed as the game counted down to start.

Denizen (Royluc) rank #5 overall and with replaced the quit player but starts with a big disadvantage as before he left VMJ007 built a very expensive piece of science costing $400. Ouch. 

This part of the game is always so interesting because there are so many unknowns, and I've fallen into the trap before leaving myself paralyzed by indecision. Last time I did that I made myself commit to the idea that "a bad plan is better than no plan." so here is my plan and I'll talk through it.

Firstly, here are the diplomatic insights that are leading me down this path

• Gilgamesz seems like someone I can cooperate and work with on first impression.
• Ktøc and Dust had a marriage of geography as expected and I think this alliance is a problem. Especially when considering their communicated expansion paths which combine to block me in.
• Ktøc demanded rather forcefully that I give him the Visya wormhole, which you'll remember I was actually considering offering him. This combined with other red lines is an issue for me.

Now the plan.

Carrier waypoints:

I'm going to ally with Gilgamesz, he's struck up an alliance with Anita (he's friendly, and he doesn't want to fight either of his neighbours.) but I am going to be the bestest ally and I'm going to make sure that when the decision point comes he chooses to align with me. This does also give me a plan B of jumping into a three with the both of them if the other part of my plan goes south.

I'm also going to cooperate with Dust to throttle Ktøc. I'd negotiated handing over the Visya wormhole but Ktøc's negotiation style made me regret it. Instead, I'm going to take it and hold it and contain Ktøc's western expansion. Dust will then eat him from the other side, I hope. The desired outcome here is that all I need to do is fight a defensive war against Ktøc whilst I expand in my corner. Dust defeats his own long term ally and is likely still weaker than me. Gilgamesz is validated that I'm doing what I said I'd do (fight Ktøc) which will help pull him into a tighter alliance, and I get a route into the centre.

As I write this, it strikes me that a better plan might have been to just peacefully expand in my corner and keep my head down. Too late now.

Trani - 24th February 20:30 - Tick 0 (3 hrs til game starts), Cycle 1

This is the first in the Trani galaxy series of posts. https://solaris.games/#/game?id=62100437f554192d5f781a80

Trani is an 8-person real-time galaxy with standard rules. 500 starting credits. 60 starting ships. Starting infrastructure 5 Econ, 5 Ind, 1 Sci and 5 starting specialist tokens.

Other players:
My Record at time of game start: 8 wins, rank #43 overall and rank #6 in 1v1's

Dust (Goliath) 
Record: 6 wins, rank #63 overall and rank #23 in 1v1's.
A very familiar face. My most frequent Solaris opponent/ally so far. We were allied in the 32 player game Mintai where we both finished well. We also teamed up in the 3v3 tournament (still in progress) and we've played a turn-based 1v1 against each other (which I won.) I know I'll need to work hard to finish ahead of him in this game. He's a formidable friend/foe and a good all-rounder. My hunch is we're going to be enemies here since we've been on the same side in other games.

Darrow 
Record: 1 win, #rank 48 in 1v1's
Came 4th in the 8-player game Othan that I won. We didn't interact too much because I was already well on my way to victory by the time we had a border. He will probably remember me and see me as a threat (I hope) so I'll need to factor that into consideration. 

Inerz
New player. Won their new player game. 

Anita
New player. Couldn't find their new player game.

Gilgamesz
New player. Has played 3 new player games. Won 1, winning another.

Ktøc
Relatively new player. Has set up his own guild [NHRE] active on discord.

[Player Quit]
Hopefully this slot is filled by someone else. 

Initial thoughts:

• My starting stars are fine/good NR 50/48/39/28/27/26 no complaints. Lots of access to stars around me. A wormhole on Dalcha leads north. Overall a very good starting position.
• I'll research banking first in this game and aim to get Banking 2 on Cycle 2. I think Experimentation/Terra/Banking are all good first options.

Key questions

• What do I do about the Visya end of the Dalcha-Visya wormhole?
• Do I gun for Gilgamesz or work with them. My gut says cultivate an alliance because I think Dust and Ktøc will and Darrow and Inerz should. An alliance may stagnate my growth though.

Strategic priorities:

• Expand peacefully and seize as many stars as I can before war kicks off.
• Ensure the Visya end of the Dalcha-Visya wormhole is controlled by someone friendly to me. Either me or Ktøc. If Ktøc then ensure I have a scout there.
• Get a path into the centre.

Diplomatic: 

• I've reached out to every player wishing them good luck. 
• With Gilgamesz/Ktøc, I've entered discussions on potential borders. My preference in the early game is to agree on reasonably fair borders everywhere around me initially and gather information.
• The aim is to go light on Science and trade freely into most early game (L2/L3) tech.
• I need to cultivate a good relationship with Darrow as a counter against a likely Dust/Ktøc alliance. 
• Need to keep my Gilgamesz options open with Anita

Tactical: 

• N/A 

What to expect

 

This blog will document regular updates on selected 8-person or 32-person games I'm playing in Solaris.

Solaris is a space strategy game filled with conquest, betrayal and subterfuge. 

The blog is intended as a point of interest for Solaris players to show how another player thinks through a match, but I will assume that readers are familiar with the game and its intricacies. For that reason, you may find a tactical explanation of why I'm deploying a particular specialist but not an explanation of what specialists are. I considered doing a video diary of a game and you can consider this a text-based version of a video diary, I can better articulate myself via text.

I'm going to try to make galaxy update posts in the same format most of the time and these updates will always be 'live' or not at all. By that, I mean that I'll write down my thoughts at the present time before I know what is going to happen later. In some cases, I might have to publish the post a few hours later than I captured my thoughts (on a mobile notepad, etc) and events might have moved on. In these cases, the post will be time/date stamped in the title at the time it was written and unchanged.

Once I've committed to recording a game I'll see it through, whether the game is going well or badly.

A typical post format

Title: [Galaxy Name] [UK date & time] [Tick count]

Post Contents: 

[Galaxy Map] [Any other useful screenshots]

Key headlines since last post 

Strategic covering my long-term aims and objectives. What is my path to attempted victory, which locations or fronts am I prioritizing etc? You should expect to see strategic updates slowly shift and evolve over time rather than radically change between posts.

Diplomatic covering my diplomatic relations with other players. Note: I believe conversations between players should in most cases remain private, so to respect my opponents I will summarise dialogue but I will paraphrase what other players are saying to me rather than showing their communications.

Tactical Front-line updates. Key attacks/defenses. Locations of offensive and defensive specialists. 

Closing remarks Summary of what I'm going to do next/any reflections etc.

I'll try and keep all these updates brief.