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.