Vespae VI - Tick 252 Cycle 10

MiniMe is defeated, and whilst Innoble and Vik Ia are starting to run into trouble in their respective battles the cavalry will now be arriving to make sure that the alliance finishes first through third. 

Strategic

• I've been allowing the other two 1v1's to take place to give everyone a fair and fun fight but with the battle tilting towards Cypher/LimitingFactor and MiniMe defeated it's now time to ensure my allies are well supported and can finish the game in second and third.

Diplomatic

• I've ramped up the support I'm providing indirectly to my allies (i.e. not ships.) I'm now no longer asking them to balance the ledger after tech exchanges and I'm providing some cycle by cycle funding for their war effort. It does seem more direct support will now be needed though.

Tactical

• Plan now is to eliminate MiniMe's last remaining systems (I'll probably leave him 1) and then the ships on that front will attack LimitingFactor from the south.
• Seperately I am sending 500-600 ships north towards Cypher/Vik Ia's battle to turn the balance of the war there. Cypher is starting to get momentum and it's important to stop that from getting out of hand as it will only get more difficult later.

I think Cypher/LimitingFactor will be a bit salty when I start attacking them but as I see it, I've let them have their 1v1 and the reality is both of them are/would win their 1v1s. They've had that fight and they've done well at it, surprisingly well actually as I thought Innoble and Vik Ia would each win. 

If I sit back and do nothing Innoble and Vik Ia will start to lose stars and they would quite rightly be unhappy at me not helping. So the cavalry is on it's way...

You can probably tell by the update length and gap between updates but I'm looking forward to this game being over now. It's been enjoyable, but I've been pretty lucky and directionally, I've known I am probably going to win for a very long time at this point. My chances were probably as high as 40% even by the end of the second cycle due to the combination of starting position, neighbour activity and that big basin of stars off to my east which I ended up with exclusive access to.