Vespae VI - Tick 228, Cycle 9

The war is (I hope) approaching its conclusion and if my name is not yet engraved on the trophy, someone is running off to fetch the stencil for it. 

Strategic

• I haven't devoted much attention here to the other two 1v1's so I'll cover what's happening. For my own battle, it's enough to say that even if MiniMe was Sun Tzu he wouldn't stand a chance now. My plan is simply to defeat him and CRISPR's last stars and then ensure I have enough ships to make even the most adventurous ally reconsider breaking ranks.
• I'm sat on 11 specialist tokens at the moment. I'm going to wait out this cycle and save up another 5 and then add a worldbuilder to my systems. 

Cypher v Vik Ia

On tick 132 these two terminated their NAP but the first attacks I can see started about 30 ticks later with Vik Ia launching an attack on Cypher's easternmost star Telia which was blocked on Turn 180. Cypher then launched a big attack from Telia on Vik Ia's star Wessi. There was some math needed and I think Innoble shared a couple of specialist tokens to allow Vik Ia to pick up a War Machine and block it. This is a really even battle at the moment with Cypher having a narrow ship advantage and Vik Ia having the long-term star advantage. The alliance tech trading will eventually decide this but it'll be interesting to see how long the front line stays stalemated. No stars have exchanged hands yet.

Limiting Factor v Innoble

Innoble started this war by making a good move and abandoning the conquest of CRISPRs stars that I'd left for him realising he'd need his ships. I can't see too much of this one from scanning but Innoble has taken a fairly even starting position where he had a ship disadvantage and made some good ground with a pincer-type two-front attack. The momentum has shifted now and it'll be difficult for LimitingFactor to do much as the weight of the extra stars and increasingly high level weapons tech flowing across from me: it's now 8-7 but I'll have Weapons 9 soon.

Diplomatic

• A bit of a diplomatic play this cycle, MiniMe did a galactic call to arms to see if anyone was willing to help him against me - nobody is in a position to really with Vik Ia and Cypher sparring and Innoble and LimitingFactor tussling. There was a 'moment' where the possibility of a breaking of the alliance was on the table after Cypher called out there was nothing they could do against a 3-person alliance of the strongest three players - but it passed quickly. I think if anyone would have wobbled it would have been Vik Ia, not as a betrayal but as an honorable shift from an overwhelming alliance to a new status quo for a more fun end to the game - likely with plenty of notice and justification. On the other team, I'd have really tried very hard to persuade Vik Ia to break ranks and wouldn't have considered it a lost cause. I think Innoble or myself would be lost causes. I certainly wouldn't do anything that risks what I hope will be a boring coast to victory. 
• I haven't mentioned this because keeping it focused on this game but as a sub-plot, me, Innoble and MiniMe are in another 8-player that is in play. It's on tick 120 at the moment and we're in different alliances (they may be both together) Innoble and I probably mixed things up from this game and didn't even flirt with the idea of an alliance or working together in that game (so far... you never know.) I'm actually looking forward to pivoting my full focus to that game soon as I can see an untimely demise and being on the losing team coming down the tracks.

Tactical

• My barrage of MiniMe has mostly landed now and I've inflicted some serious ship losses. Everything on the Southern/Central fronts was blocked but on the Northern (Eastern) front my Infiltrator/Colonel seized a star and I'm about to grab a Research Station too. A third star (the Asteroid field furthest north) may also yet fall.

• I'm now keeping the pressure on. You can see a new attack of 170 ships on the central front and I'm going to launch some additional attacks this cycle. There's not too much to the strategy other than continue to hammer fleets into him without risking my two specialists and dancing around his two Generals. MiniMe's Weapons is now 3 below mine so I could tackle these head on but I think he'd magic up LimitingFactor's Weapons 7 before the fight and Generals are slow and easy to maneuver around.