I'm very happy with my early expansion which sees my star count rise to 14, as Ktoc misses a second turn undermining a potential north alliance of Ktoc/Bubblegum.
Strategy
- Ideally people wouldn't go AFK but they do and you have to adapt to it. The impact of Ktoc potentially going AFK if he misses another turn is that Bubblegum will have easier expansion up there in that northern section. As Bubblegum shares an effective border with me via the wormhole and has been very concise and brief I'm wary of him getting strong as he's unlikely to be my ally.
- There are essentially three viable strategies which should dictate my approach. When I say attack here I dont mean immediately, but work towards the conquering of that player.
A) Aim to attack Inerz. Lends itself best to an alliance with LimitingFactor.
B) Aim to attack CRISPR. Lends itself best to an alliance with Innoble.
C) Aim to attack Bubblegum. Lends itself best to a temporary alliance with with Vik Ia.
Note, I think practically speaking the possibility to attack Innoble (with CRISPR) isn't as good and I'm not seriously considering it. - I'm intentionally not going to decide which of these strategies to pursue just yet. I'm going to wait for one more round of diplomacy and carrier movements until the end of the cycle and then commit to one. If I had to pick right now, my choice would be work with Innoble and attack CRISPR, I think it puts me in a phenomenal position if Innoble goes for it (which I think he's tentatively willing to) giving me control of most of the south of the map.
- I am feeling threat stretch currently. I can't spend the next few cycles uncertain about Inerz on my western border, CRISPR and Innoble on my east/wormhole and Bubblegum on my Northern wormhole. My position has a huge amount of latent potential but requires effective diplomacy to minimize these risks and allow it to be achieved. If I split my defence 3 or 4 ways I'll get beat down by a determined opponent. I am particularly worried about the logistics of an attack to my east from CRISPR due to the distance between stars and empire stretch. Total ship count doesn't matter, only local ship count.
Diplomacy
- I prefer chatty allies and I'm not sure about CRISPR, who has been very crisp in his communication so far. Maybe he's just ruthlessly efficient and ha no time for wasted words, but strong communication aids cooperation and avoids misunderstandings. I also just have a spider sense alarm going off. I can't pinpoint why because LimitingFactor said he's a loyal ally (I asked if he'd played with CRISPR or Innoble before) and none of CRISPRs words or actions suggest hostility, but I don't know. There's something telling me to be wary.
- Likewise I'm not sure Inerz is communicative enough to be a long term ally.
- All in all, I think I'd prefer to ally LimitingFactor, Innoble or Vik Ia here both because the strategy lends itself that way and my early impressions are that these are the three most communicative.
Tactics
- I had a cheeky little look at what Bubblegum has going on through the wormhole. He set status to allies in diplomacy so I jumped a carrier through and back. I wonder if he will notice this, it depends if he rewinds ticks. I've made a note to do my own checks whilst we are diplo-allies. He has 10 ships through there and nothing to worry about at the wormhole basically. An immediate attack would cost me 20 ships (10 survivors) and seize 30 credits, denying him 30 credits. For me that would be around 15% of my cycle income. Tactically, Bubblegum would be in a real mess as he doesn't have any tokens to buy specialists (me either). I'd be able to cause quite a bit of havoc at the start of the new cycle and I've got further reinforcements on the way. The problem - and it's a big problem - is that I'd be committing myself to a war that I wouldn't win quickly, neither of us has the firepower yet to do that. I'd be extremely exposed to CRISPR/Inerz attacking me for a period of several cycles. Not only that but it will put a big marker on my head when the other players see me threatening up there. I don't think this is necessary, Ive not had a terrible start and don't need a risky gamble - I've got a brilliant starting position. This gambit smacks of 'winning the battle and losing the war' and I don't think it's a good idea strategically.
- Inerz 36 ships at Vane is a bit of a concern. He needs Hyperspace 3 to get across (so 2 with a pathfinder) and this is a strange place to put 36 ships. He also pointedly hasn't responded to my message clarifying borders. Inerz has all his specialist tokens (so 6 after the cycle.) I'm actually sufficiently worried about this that I'm going to send 15 (about half) ships from the defense of the wormholes over to that border until I can build Industry up.
- There's a tasty looking Binary star Nebula on the border with CRISPR and I think because he didn't drop a ship at it when passing, I can get to it first due to the requirement to build an industry, then a ship then turn it into a pathfinder and send it across. I'm pretty confident I can get to this star first with my Explorer and garrison it, but then what? A worry here is that I've seized a HUGE amount of land. You can get too big too soon and anyone not sleeping at the wheel will be paying me a lot of attention.
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