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.