NecriaSolaris: March 2022

This was probably the most 'boring' 8 player game I've played. If you look at my day 0 strategy I more or less just followed that and that means I never got effectively challenged.
AFKs and starting position neutered the two experienced players (Dust and Denizen) that could have most effectively challenged me and whilst Ktocs position had latent potential when Dust quit, I got in there first.
Ktoc might have won this game if he had negotiated more evenly over the Visya wormhole. I was initially prepared to cede this and only dug in when he was very demanding. I underestimated the importance of it and I should never have negotiated it.
The war against Ktoc was correct strategically but took so long. Too long. I need to look back at this and assess what happened. A potential mistake was attacking when I did and not allowing Ktoc to send his ships at Darrow first, but if I'd let him take Dusts stars I'd have struggled so its delicate.
Denizen did well to survive, and I think this was a sloppy war from Anita/Gilgamesz. With the ship count differences this should have been easy.
Gilgamesz did some successful expansion but my message to them would be, be more aggressive and cut throat next time. You had the potential to win this by attacking Anita OR throwing your full weight into Denizen
Inerz also suffered from being a bit too passive. They did launch a big attack on Anita successfully thru their wormhole but never really went further even when Gilgamesz went afk.
Would love to know why Darrow never spoke. Darrow being unreachable diplomatically probably helped me a lot. He was a potential strengthening ally for inerz or ktoc.
Whilst i schemed against Anita most of the game (mostly unnecesarily) it wasnt personal but strategic. I felt Anita held the keys to a Gilgamesz win. Anita was quiet but friendly via chat.
I hope Gilgamesz would agree I was a good ally until he quit. Did i do some low level scheming? Sure. But I never attacked or considered attacking him even when I knew his east flank was weak and always intended to ensure he finished first or second.

All in all, a bit of a cruise - but that is how I like my games to go. I'm not going to make things more difficult for myself, but I'd have been ready and acted swiftly if required.

Thursday, March 3, 2022

Trani - Mar 04 7:30 - Tick 352 Cycle 17

Gilgamesz went inactive last night, the third player to do so during the game. I had been counting the hours since his last activity and immediately launched an attack on his western flank.

The situation as per last night. 11pm

And the map this morning

Strategic

Plan now is clear a pressing attack into Darrow who is barely active and Gilgamesz who is inactive.
There was a danger of another player with unknown motivations taking over Gilgamesz and potentially allying Inerz so Ive acted fast to eliminate that threat. Anyone taking over the empire now will do so whilst under a multi pronged attack from the east.

Diplomatic

Ive messaged the galaxy telling them its over and that I'm RTQ whenever they are. Ive said my forces will capture enough of Darrow/Gilgamesz stars to win in 2-3 cycles. Lets see if we cant wrap this up sooner. This is the least interesting part of the game.

Tactics

At this stage of the game tactics are relegated and its all about the unstoppable snowball.

Trani - Mar 03 08:30 -Tick 306 Cycle 15

Victory in jephardy as Darrow returns and mobilises.

When I checked the game at 10:30 last night I got a shock. This is how things looked at that point. Darrow re-appeared and immediately began moving against the stars I had captured. I fired off a rapid "Hey I didnt know you were coming back" message to the silent communication void and immediately gave orders to withdraw my General and Saboteur. This would be something to reflect on and plan around in the morning and neither had enough strength to hold the initial bridgehead. I wasnt prepared to lose 15 tokens worth of specialists.

Which brings us to the morning. Now I have to solve this problem.

Strategy

My broad strategy remains unchanged, defeat Darrow, nibble Inerz and win. The situation is more difficult now though because I'm much more exposed to a 2/3/4v1. Inerz and Gilgamesz have longer to rally than they did because even if they ally when I'm halfway through Darrow I will have to deal with those threats whilst holding Darrow whereas against an AI I could just withdraw from that front to combat Inerz.
The combination of my hubris and a pressing war against Ktoc meant Northern Command had ships in all sorts of strange places. My first act was tidying up Northern Command's waypoints to get good flows of ships to the front lines via the extensive warp gate network I built in the latter stages of the war on Ktoc.
Strategically my high level plan to defeat Darrow involves a massive attack from multiple fronts using heavy hitting Specialists and my higher Weapons technology to obliterate his eastern flank. It's not the most nuanced plan ever, but sometimes a sledgehammer is the right tool for the job.
I've reinstated some of the waypoints in Southern Command to resume flowing ships to the wormhole. Time is the priority here, the faster Darrow falls the better.

Diplomacy

One advantage of Darrow returning is I now have a good excuse for not joining the fight against Inerz/Gilgamesz. I was at the early stages of attacking Darrow and he's annoyed about it and is fighting me is both the truth and an
I haven't actually heard from Darrow.
Ktoc has 900 surviving ships and 1 star. He's been sharing tokens/credits with me and I've told him any stars he can take from Darrow will be his. I'll leave him a path to take a couple. I mostly don't want to have to deal with these ships unless I need to.
Gilgamesz is less active the last few cycles, checking just once/twice per cycle. To try balance things up in the West I've told Inerz this. Hopefully this allows the under-strength and under-scienced Inerz to punch above their weight and hold out longer.

Tactics

So obviously the first tactical move I made was ensuring I kept my Saboteur/General alive.
Next planning the attack. I'm thinking I'll have 3 attacks each utilizing specialists.
A Since the General is going to take some time to get back I'm going to just put General Bison on defensive duty. Saboteurs pair really well with Colonels anyway due to the same movement speed so Saboteur Horse will get a new companion - Colonel Crab and they will attack the Warp Gate that was my initial springpoint into Darrow with the aim of seizing the Bacia Asteroid Field.
B Colonel Cockroach and Saboteur Slug, fresh from defeating Dust will attack and seize the other Asteroid Field.
C Colonel Octopus and Infiltrator Cat (or possibly a new saboteur) will attack together.
All in all it will take around 10-11 hours for everything to be in position to start this attack. That's a full cycle and a long time in a game like this, but Darrow has considerable forces 5800 ships to my 9940, and those stars are well defended. I need to attack together and I need to attack hard. I'd rather sacrifice one cycle and hit him with a hammerblow than bite away and lose a tonne of ships. I'm burning Weapons research at the moment and flooding ships to the front line.

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Trani - Mar 02 19:30 - Tick 280 Cycle 14

We're now into Cycle 14 and victory is getting closer.

Stars: Necria (45) Gilgamesz (37) Inerz (29)
Total Ships: Necria (6587), Gilgamesz (6160) Inerz (5313)
New ships: Necria (112) Gilgamesz (99) Inerz (58.5)
Cycle Income: Necria (2525) Gilgamesz (1823) Inerz (1542)

Strategic

A scenario I am taking slightly more seriously than I was a day ago is Gilgamesz and Anita making quick work of Inerz. The infrastructure gap has started to rise and Gilgamesz ship production is now far outstripping Inerz. There are also signs that Inerz knows the fight isn't going well. Darrows worlds are all also very well fortified. His ship count is not insignificant and is only a little shy of Inerz. I should be able to make fast progress but it would be a disaster if Inerz was for example, to quit. If Inerz actually quit (stated themselves defeated) I'd offer a RTQ to Gilgamez and Anita and I'd give them a full cycle to respond to it and agree to it.
I've made sure I have high Scanning (6) to give me lots of notice of any hostile fleet movements.

Diplomatic

Inerz has contacted me and said they would accept 2nd place with me in 1st if I'll help them against Gilgamesz. As this will involve betraying my game-long ally I can't accept this. I need to think about my response though, I don't want them to lose hope yet.
Now is very close to the time to reach out to Gilgamesz and start talking RTQ. I don't think he would accept yet and I don't think I am 100% winning yet. There's still paths to defeat (though most involve a very unlikely Inerz/Gilgamesz 2v1) that are slowly thinning each tick.

Tactical

Ktoc has downed tools and surrendered. His final worlds will be captured shortly bar one. My forces will be leaving this area

Colonel Cockroach and Saboteur Slug will be capturing and eliminating Dust's final world.

There's no real tactics to talk about against the AFK Darrow but General Bison and Saboteur Horse are working as a team to capture worlds with minimal losses. Reinforcements are flooding to them and I'm going to deploy the Roach and the Slug for a second pair.

Trani - Mar 02 14:30 - Tick 270 Cycle 13

Half-way through this cycle and as you will see from the headline stats below I'm on path to win and Gilgamesz should finish second.

Stars: Necria (43), Gilgamesz (37), Inerz (29)
Total Ships: Gilgamesz (6060), Necria (5566), Inerz (5235)
New Ships: Necria (106.7), Gilgamesz (82.5) Inerz (58)
Cycle Income: Necria (2134) pre Economy purchase Gilgamesz (1730) Inerz (1270)

Strategic

I think I'm now very very likely to win this game. I've done a few things to try ensure that happens.
I've stopped the carrier flow at several stars in the south to the Wormhole. I'll now naturally let the ships on these stars build up as a wall against Gilgamesz. In total we're talking ~30 of my Industry so a significant percentage.

Maintaining a diplomatic justification for not yet attacking Inerz/Gilgamesz with each of them. As their fight ramps up I'm hoping they'll become more and more consumed by it.
Pressing an attack into Darrow to seize his Infrastructure.
Once Ktoc is completely defeated I'll shift my military posture further to an assumed rest of the galaxy versus me type posture whilst an elite specialist force slowly chips away at Darrows stars. I don't think this will happen, but I'll begin war planning it. As a very high level summary my plan will likely be to deter any Inerz/Gilgamesz 2v1 by diplomacy and if that fails to hit one of them (likely Gilgamesz) with an overwhelming attack whilst fighting a defensive retreat against the other. The aim would be to capture territory and infrastructure faster than I'm losing it on the other front.
I'll keep an eye on the Inerz/Gilgamesz war. I don't want this to go too decisively one way or the other but I expect Gilgamesz to win it due to his tech edge and if he starts to struggle I'll intervene. If he starts to win, I'll intervene (to grab stars first.)
I'm not a huge warp gate fan, I think simple carriers well organised can do the same job with good planning and they create a defensive liability, but as the snowball stars I am putting some infrastructure in place to move forces quicker to where I want them to be.

Diplomatic

Gilgamesz is really holding out on sharing tech with me, but my own Science now outpaces his and Anita's combined and it's not an issue. The tech will just stop flowing from me to him if this isn't rectified soon. I'm not making a point of it because the only thing I really need from Gilgamesz at the moment is him to not attack me for the next 2-3 cycles and allow me to consolidate. After some pressing he traded me his Specialists tech (7) one tick before he went up to 8. It is what it is. I don't hold it against him. I understand what he's doing.

Tactical

I've seized Dust's mega asteroid (16 industry, 4 science!) and dispatched a force to take his last remaining star for the extra infrastructure on there too.
I made a bit of a mistake hiring a Saboteur (Horse) before I had enough Hyperspace Range to deploy it where I wanted it to go in Darrow's territory, this has slowed me down there and cost me a couple hundred ships. Better to make mistakes when you're winning and learn from them.
Ktoc is trying to hold on to his last worlds and is building War Machines etc to do so. I'm skirting around them and trying to claim as much of his infrastructure as possible. I'm happy to let him turtle on a War Machine until it dies and then attack it.
Attack on Darrow has begun. Aim here is to use the Saboteur/General to combine and take stars with as minimal force commitment as possible. There's some nice Asteroids etc I want to get.

Where are the specialists?

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Trani 2 Feb 07:00 -Tick 255 - Cycle 12M

Gilgamesz and Anita are fighting against Inerz whilst I close in on Ktocs remaining stars, and with them the game.

Me v Gilga tech infra etc. He hasnt bought econ yet to maybe +20 there.

Strategic:

I'm going to win this game. Ktocs resistance is collapsing and its turning into a steamroll over there. General Bison and Infiltrator Cat have left Chothi to start causing havoc in Darrows territory, the only two players capable of defeating me are now at war and neither of them will attack me and both understand I cant intervene yet.
By the time this galaxy rallies, if this galaxy rallies (I dont think the remaining players are scheming enough) it will be too late.
My plan is clear now. Wipe out Ktoc who has fought nobly, attack Darrow and seize his Eastern worlds - probably with the assistance of a new Saboteur. Attack Inerz when Gilgamesz cant wait any more or is struggling/starting to clearly win himself and then request RTQ with me firmly in first place.

Diplomatic:

Gilgamesz and I had a good chat and he understands I cant/wont attack Inerz until after Ktoc falls. Hes still holding out on tech trading (hes now ran up a close to 250 credit debt) but I'm not tok troubled and not going to push it. My science advantage is now growing every cycle and hes now more dependant on me for tech than visa versa.
Inerz asked me for a formal alliance and I've politely declined and called it a partnership which it is. I get a NAP whilst I conquer Ktoc and start conquering Darrow and Inerz doesnt get 3v1d.

Tactical:

Sweeping attack into Darrows lightly defended stars from General Bison and Infiltrator Cat

Saboteur Slug and Colonel Cockroach will seize Dusts mega AF

Phased conquering of an on the back foot Ktoc who has in real terms 1240 ships (750 existing ships + ~490, 40 ticks of new ships) I have 750 ships on front lines with an additional 500 coming up not including those attacking Dust. Colonel Octopus is participating in this attack

Trani - 1 Feb 21:00 - Tick 235 Cycle 11

My Specialists are starting to make a breakthrough against Ktoc, but...

Darrow is now an AI.

Inerz has attacked Anita

I've been particularly scheming since the last update.

It's all happening.

Strategic

To get to 80 stars I need to control all my existing territory (36), all of Ktoc's (+11 to 47), Dust's (+2 to 49) all of Darrows (+24 to 73) and 7 additional stars from Inerz.
Once I secure Dust's heavily developed Infrastructure I will have a big advantage. I need to capture two more of Ktoc's systems to prevent him sharing Weapons tech across with Dust. I'll then attack with my new Saboteur and capture these with minimal losses.
Funny - I wrote this half an hour ago and then went and had dinner - No further indication that Darrow is going to attack me, or Inerz. Inerz has his hands full but Darrow has made a strategic mistake not making any allies and turtling. It's similar to what he did in the last game we played together. You can't win Solaris by defending. Update: Darrow is now an AI and has changed his diplomatic status to enemies and there was a fight immediately on Chothi with Darrow losing his 220 ships. This is a bit of a shame for the game but very good for me.
I've provided some more direct support via a tech trade (Specialists 5 to Inerz who previously had Specialists 2 for Weapons 6 to me) and advice suggesting they may want to work with Denizen to push back against Anita and Gilgamesz. The aim here is not to actually help Inerz defeat Gilgamesz which a) I don't believe they can do even if I stay neutral b) I wouldn't allow to happen anyway. This is purely to slow Gilgamesz/Anita's march north down whilst cultivating good relations for the off chance I need a beaten down but not defeated Inerz as an ally later.

Diplomatic

Tech between me and Gilgamesz is diverging a lot as we each become a little slower to share. At the same time Gilgamesz and Anita are closer aligned than ever on tech. Previously Gilgamesz was a little slow to share tech across with Anita (likely asking for payment for it since Anita cannot keep up on science) but this seems to have accelerated.
There was no way Gilgamesz wasn't going to notice Inerz jumping from 2 to 5 specialists tech so I've pre-emptively told him about my trade and said I'll share Weapons 6 with him. The angle here is that I'm pretending to be Inerz ally (which I guess I am to an extent, though I've tried to be very straight with Inerz and not committed to anything more than the tech trade, I've said I need time to defeat Ktoc) this way Inerz has more specialists to repel Anita/Gilgamesz, I have better weapons to accelerate the defeat of Ktoc and Gilgamesz has better weapons too. I think this is a really good outcome for me but there is a risk Gilgamesz won't see it this way.

Tactical

There has been a back and forth between me and Ktoc now for a while and I still think he has some tricks up his sleeve but I've now got solid defensible borders and active specialists at the front lines. I am pressing him and I think he will collapse quickly from here.
The border with Gilgamesz is slowly militarising (via Industry build up rather than carrier deployments). I'm completely fine with this. There is nothing on the border that troubles me from a defensive perspective and I don't intend to attack. Infact, with greater ship production and better logistics it's in my interest for Gilgamesz to have more ships on my border, away from the action, not capturing Inerz or Denizens stars.

Where are the Specialists and what are their orders?

General Bison - Move to and defend the Chothi Asteroid Field on Darrow border.
Saboteur Slug - Attack Ktoc
Colonel Octopus - Move away from Chothi now that Bison is arriving and participate in attacks on Ktoc's remaining systems.
Colonel Cockroach - Following succesful defense of Jyeshtha againt Ktoc participate in a counter-offensive to take New Florence from Ktoc
Infiltrator Cat - Work with General Bison to defend the Chothi Asteroid Field/Darrow border.
Pathfinder Seagull - Operating as a standard carrier on the Ktoc Eastern Front.
~~Pathfinder Squid (KIA, by Ktoc)~~

How do I lose this game?

With Darrow now an AI I assess my chances of winning as greater than 85% but it's not certain. A chess habit that can be quite useful when you're ahead and have the edge. Stop and think about what needs to happen for you to lose the game. So how do I lose this game?

Scenario A) Gilgamesz attacks me whilst Anita/Inerz are fighting and catches me off guard. This is impossible. Gilgamesz won't beat me in a 1v1 at the moment and he doesn't have the logistics or force posture to pull this off. We can put this aside.
Scenario B) Gilgamesz and Inerz get in a chat with each other and say "hey Necria is winning, look he's won all these games. Shall we work together to take him out?" In this scenario I don't win but I think this would require some strong diplomacy from them both. I don't know if Inerz is scheming enough for this, and I don't know if Gilgamesz is disloyal enough. I assess this as a possibility but 5-10% likely. I think it's even less likely now Inerz has attacked Anita. I think Gilgamesz will feel obliged to defend her. The only way I can defend against this outcome if it happens is by quickly defeating Ktoc, and then at the first sign of a Gilgamesz betrayal hitting him hard and using geography on my side and hoping to get momentum.
Scenario C) Gilgamesz goes in hard on Inerz with Anita. They break through quickly, meanwhile Ktoc frustrates me and my invasion of Darrow takes longer than anticipated. In this way, by the time we reach the endgame Gilgamesz/Anita are approximately as strong as me or stronger. They subsequently work well together to defeat me. I think this is unlikely, but plausible 5%.

All in all, I think I'm on the path to victory now. I need to make sure Gilgamesz doesn't flip or turn against me in the next 24-48 hours which should be very easy diplomatically and then I just let my snowball gather momentum as it rolls around the north.

Trani - 01 Mar 14:00 - Tick 220 - Cycle 11

The 11th Cycle has begun and it's a good opportunity for a stock take. I assess my chances of winning the game at the moment at around 60%. This is based on my read of the current diplomatic situation, the state of the race and the belief that in an even or near even 1v1 (or 2v1) I'll beat Gilgamesz.

Stars: Gilgamesz (37), Necria (35), Inerz (27) Ktoc 12
Total Ships: Inerz (3379), Gilgamesz (3316) Necria (2963) Ktoc (980)
New Ships: Necria (45.9), Inerz (40.9), Gilgamesz (40.9)
Cycle Income: Necria (1594) Gilgamesz (1542) Inerz (1207)
Total Tech Levels: Necria (39), Gilgamesz (39), Anita (37) Inerz (26)

Strategic

Gilgamesz has closed the economic gap to me the last two cycles with a change in purchasing priority and also the acquisition of some new worlds. I intend to respond to this by spending 650-700 credits on economy next cycle and delaying the trade of Terraforming 7 until after he's purchased his Industry/Science for the cycle. Once I control Ktoc's stars I'll have plenty of stars to put new economy on and restore a healthy lead here.
Research is now switching to Manufacturing and I intend to take Manufacturing from 4 to at least 6 and maybe 7 before switching to other research. The goal is to establish myself as the ship leader.

Diplomatic

Peace with the ever-silent Darrow continues. Maybe he is playing Solaris hard mode and trying to win without speaking to anyone.
No other significant developments. Everyone is quiet today.

Tactical

The Northern front is now secure and I'm looking forward to pressing east. There is a big attack coming in from Ktoc with 389 ships on a Leiutenant specialist. This represents over 1/3 of Ktoc's entire Fleet and I'm looking at specialists/warp gate options to stop it. Once defeated the path will be open to advance.

The Eastern front is not going as well as it should be. Reinforcements are inbound. Again I'm looking at specialist options here to hold Jyestha (which I've just built 4 Industry on) I likely can't also hold Tooini but Ktoc can take that with losses and I'll re-take it later this cycle.

Overall, I'm not happy with the Ktoc campaign. It's been slower than I expected. I'm not sure if this was my initial assumptions or timing being wrong or if I've just not used my ships wisely since then. I should have made a greater use of specialists (especially since I've had a General on the Northern Front sitting idle most of this time) To correct I'm going to add a Saboteur and a Colonel. These can also later combine to retake Dust's high value stars for me and are good investments (better than a second worldbuilder). I'm also going to move my General guarding Visya to Chothi and release the faster moving Infiltrator & Colonel for the war effort.

Trani - Mar 01 09:30 - Tick 212, Cycle 10

Approaching the end of Cycle 10 and the galaxy looks to be a 2-way race to the top between me and Gilgamesz. Inerz and Gilgamesz are now at war.

Strategic

'The race' is in the balance. Yesterday it looked like I had the edge but Ktoc was able to slow me down by taking stars behind my front lines and it's taken a bit of time to close that net. Now that I am (close to) re-establishing clear borders I will start to slowly push him outward. Denizen is hanging in there against Anita and Gilgamesz and war between Gilgamesz and Inerz has begun.
The consequence of Inerz and Gilgamesz getting into a hot war is that Gilgamesz is going to lose a tonne of ships. However, I do expect him to beat Inerz who is significantly behind us on technology. Gilgamesz also has more specialist tokens and specialist token income. Inerz can't be allowed to collapse completely and give Gilgamesz her industry before I'm well into my attack on Darrow.
Darrow didn't attack me last night which is a major boon. I need him to give me maybe 2 more cycles of peace and then it doesn't matter what he does.

Diplomatic

I got Weapons in my Experimentation roll so my agreed trade with Inerz fell through (I didn't need the tech they had researched.) Inerz is falling increasingly far behind on all tech now so I don't expect us to be able to trade much moving forward.
One option I'm considering to prop Inerz up is trading them some tech to match Darrow's tech level. This way Gilgamesz won't believe it's coming from me and it might slow him down. I haven't made a final decision on this and I probably won't do it - is it a betrayal? I'm not sure. It's in a grey area. If I did do it I'd need to do it in such a way to prop Inerz up without risking them actually winning against Gilgamesz. This would be a delicate balance to find. All in all, I'd prefer not to go down this road and hope I don't need to but I absolutely cannot afford Inerz to just quit. Their spirits need to remain high - to that end I've offered them help once Ktoc falls.
Gilgamesz and I working well together last cycle. We've agreed to shift trading high level tech to every 2 levels. He is still pushing Experimentation and after the game I'll explain to him why that was not the best strategy to help him out for future games. I'm prioritising Terraforming at the moment but will need to raise Manufacturing 4->6 soon.

Tactical

The Extra Northern front remains quiet. Darrow didn't attack and hopefully wont.
On the Northern front I'm closing out Ktoc's attack forces. By the end of the day he won't have any ships or stars behind my lines. This will net me 2 stars.

On the Eastern front I'm faring slightly less well. I'll capture 2 stars shortly but I'll lose one of them after. Reinforcements coming in from the North will also cause issues.

Ktoc has a 368 ship force moving in. This force could deploy or split to either front. I hope it comes to the Northern Front. It will cause chaos on the Eastern front if it moves south. As a data point I now have 31 industry in Northern Command versus Ktocs 47. Since reinforcements are still flooding in every few hours from Southern Command this is fine but it'll be a good milestone when I flip this and Northern Command is capable of standing alone.

None of my opponents value logistics as much as I do and this will be their downfall.

NecriaSolaris

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Saturday, March 5, 2022

Trani - Posts in Chronological Order

Friday, March 4, 2022

Trani - Tick 384 - The game is won

Thursday, March 3, 2022

Trani - Mar 04 7:30 - Tick 352 Cycle 17

Trani - Mar 03 08:30 -Tick 306 Cycle 15

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Trani - Mar 02 19:30 - Tick 280 Cycle 14

Trani - Mar 02 14:30 - Tick 270 Cycle 13

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Trani 2 Feb 07:00 -Tick 255 - Cycle 12M

Trani - 1 Feb 21:00 - Tick 235 Cycle 11

Trani - 01 Mar 14:00 - Tick 220 - Cycle 11

Trani - Mar 01 09:30 - Tick 212, Cycle 10

The Void - All Posts in Chronological Order

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