The Void - Tick 432 - Cycle 19

My attack against Major Tom failed (3.3K ships including a smuggler, lieutenant and infiltrator lost) but enabled HelloThere (Maul) to breakthrough and claim a star. That's a success. 

I've launched a second wave.

So my own previous attack was a loss. I took a fairly damaging 3 vs 6 ship ratio because of a mix-up with waypoints (I was meant to wait a turn then attack, but I attacked right away) but it was fine because HelloThere punched through and our aim was to win the star at all costs. I also lost the (always doomed) Inf+Leiutenant attack on Evian that aimed to pin ships down there, and did.

As quick as I could, I've mustered another 2K ships (I'm producing 94 per tick now, so this is only 20 ticks production, but it's nice to see how fast I'm able to get that level of flow to the front lines) and I'm attacking Evian again and this time I expect to take it. 

If I do, I'll assess the situation but will likely throw up a warp gate and rush reinforcements in as a bridgehead. I'm fairly confident we outpower our opponents but I'm worried we need to break through quickly before something, somewhere, goes against us diplomatically. There are a lot of low/medium level risks. TdT (CRISPR) continues to defend ruggedly and is taking the full force of Tube-Pipe (LeDazz) with marginal defenses. So I need to start to relieve that. Battery also took a star in the south. The plan remains to pressure from both sides. 

At an alliance/galaxy level we're tracking a few situations

• I now know Holy Roman Empire is allied with Ragnar, has a NAP with Coobykins, and Coobykins and Ragnar are allied. It seems very likely this is now a full on northern alliance. HRE and Ragnar have gone to war this past turn with Sea Serpent attacking through the wormhole close to my northern border.
• Uy Scuti (Royluc) continues to brawl with multiple smaller opponents in the west and accounts from both sides report he is outplaying and outmatching them despite the number of foes. This could still all turn south though as the west seems to have lots of shifting alliances (this might be just my lack of real knowledge from being so far away)
• Amogus who is affiliated with Dieste (Battery), so a similar relation to me and HRE, is moving fleets towards him that are supposedly bound north to join the Royluc war on our side. The movement looks dubious though and both Dieste (Battery) and TdT (CRISPR) are paying attention and making some adjustments (dropping warp gates, changing waypoints)
• Aogami (Falken) has weapons 6 out west which is a whole level above me (I recently got 5) which is concerning. I think the rest of his tech is less developed though

As a note, I've thought through a few contingencies. If we start to lose the main southern war for any reason or if HelloThere/TdT are defeated or look likely to be defeated, I'll vie hard to join the northern alliance properly. That's my back up plan I hope to never need to use.