The Void - Starting Out - Tick 0 Cycle 0

It's been a long time since I covered a game, but I've decided to fire back up the blog to cover the ultimate Solaris experience which is an anonymous 32-player game.

I've won 32-player matches 2x before, with a further two 2nd place finishes but I come into this game having finished 16th in my last two games this size. Two of my worst results ever. I'm looking to put those bad results behind me and win, or at least podium here. 

The rules (highlights)

• Anonymous, extra dark galaxy. Nobody will know the shape of the galaxy or who is playing.
• Speedy turn-based rules mean that 6 ticks pass every 6 hours.
• Huge 1k+ star galaxy. Very rare wormholes (Estimate: 5-6 pairs). Common asteroid fields, nebulas, and black holes but rare binaries. No pulsars to hint at the galaxy shape.
• Slow research and expensive infrastructure will slow down development.
• No experimentation. Crazy expensive scanning, very expensive weapons and specialists, and expensive terraforming and manufacturing tech. Banking and hyperspace are standard costs. 
• Players start with level 3 scanning, level 3 weapons and level 2 specialists.
• All tech, credit, and specialist token trading is disabled. Players can ally with up to 3 people to travel across their stars and scout.
• Disabled War Machine, Saboteurs, Scramblers, Worldbuilders, Financial Analysts, Trade Ports, Stellar Engines, Stellar Beacons, Stargates, and Research stations. 

What I expect from this ruleset is a long game where players will have to manage constrained resources and choose carefully what to research and when. The special stars (AF, nebulas, BHs, etc) will have strategic importance for at least the first hundred ticks. Binaries will have game-long utility. 

The other players

With it being anonymous, who knows what opposition is out there in the galaxy. Historically these big custom games have drawn a very competitive lobby though. It's likely there are multiple 32-player game winners out there. All you can look at is who has past form and that's 

LeDazz (6) CRISPR (5) ArtisticDodo (4) Luckyfish (4)  Necria (2) Highscore (2) Royluc (1) Atomsun (1) Karmadrome (1)  Innoble (1) Solfyre (1)  Cryptious (1) TheLastHero (1) Q24H (1).  

These players represent the biggest threats.

I've used Red or Amber coloring for anyone who is very unlikely, or unlikely to be in the game in my view, though of course who knows. There are lots of other very competitive players beyond this list but I think looking at those who have won games this size first is a starting point. I'm also apprehensive about Zorg (0) who would surely have won one or more of these if 32 players were typically turn-based and has a strong 16-player record and will be in the game.

My starting position

I've gone with the pseudonym Baskerville for this game and plan to run most of my messages through ChatGPT to translate them into the style of Sherlock Holmes.

Every player starts with 5 starting tokens and my plan is to prioritize expansion and use 3 on an Explorer, and a further 1 on a Pathfinder that I'll buy after the first turn to cross a divide. I'll use my two new tokens at Cycle to buy a second Explorer. I like Explorers. If you're lucky with discovered Warp gate placements they can be a real asset for early and mid game logistics. The pathfinder loses it's utility fast, but I can have some fun with it and see what adventures it gets up to during the match.

In the run up to the game there was some Discord discussion about Mineral Extractors (MEs) and particularly with WB's disabled I'm expecting some players to go heavy on MEs. I believe I'll get better benefits and early momentum from being first to more stars, so all my tokens go on expansion. 

My early plan is simple, expand fast, capture whatever I can first. Do the necessary diplomacy to avoid any fights that aren't on my terms, and try to decide who I am going to attack first very quickly.

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A final point on these posts. I'll publish all posts post-game but my commitment is that all posts will be wrote at the time, with no retrospective edits, meaning if my judgement is wrong on something or indeed if I get killed, you'll get to read through that happening play by play.

I'll aim to update frequently, but probably not every turn. It depends how much is happening and where the timing falls in my schedule.