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.