The Void - Tick 354 - Cycle 15

Hot war in the south and... trouble in the north?

It's been 40 turns since the last update and we've had a number of big set backs in the south.

• Crab/Lobster guy allowed the southern alliance to capture his Cryo Chamber. I'd been warning for some time this was a major liability so close to their front lines and it proved true. We should have forcibly taken that Cryo from him soon as he was starting to fail and glassed it.
• HelloThere had a failed attack on a key logistics star on a turn where the enemy dropped the warp gate, allowing them to win a decisive battle. In HelloThere (Maul)'s defence, he was wary of the attack and only encouraged into it by me and CRISPR after we'd seen the warp gate stay up a turn more than we would have left it.
• I've lost one star and I'm about to lose another. However they were outpost stars 0-1-0 on infra for the one lost and 2-1-0 for the one I'm about to lose. No big deal. 
• Additionally, far out west - UyScuti (Royluc) is being attacked by Corn/Athos. He says  Aogami, Meoworion, Corn, Athos and Mar are all loosely allied. This could be a problem because just as Royluc is not geographically best placed to help us fight the SE, we will find it difficult/impossible to materially help him. He's on his own.

There have however been some positive developments.

• GeneralKenobi is all but defeated. I just see one remaining star. 
• Despite losing a star (2 soon) I am stars 81, so net +3 since my last blog. 
• I made some important logistics updates and now have some beautiful logistics lines bringing my ships to the fronts.
• Dieste looks likely to support us and is preparing for war
• I think I'm in a good position game wise. Back against a wall, a sort of reliable peace north of me*(let's see) and my industry and power base flowing south. It'll be interesting to see how things look at the end of the game and how everyone was doing about this time but my guess is I'm in the top three players and might even be in leaderboard #1 right now.

The War

I'm seeing some nice coordination from Major Tom, TheBorg and Tube-Pipe - kudos to them. Let's see how well this group work together over the long run. I know Tube-Pipe (LeDazz) won't tire but I don't yet know the quality of his allies. Hopefully none of them are Zorg/Karmadrome. 

A note on a discarded plan. 

I've had to do some calculating for what will happen over the next 6-12 turns as there is a chance they have the potential to try an audacious snipe of my super binary which currently has a warp gate up. I have enough front line ships in place/arriving now to defend once I consolidate but there's a window here where I'm still a bit vulnerable because I will have the 836 in retreat north for several turns. That opens up possibilities to strike at the super binary but only if my opponents have a black hole with some sort of orbital array/telescope on to see (they can reach it via hyperspace) I've decided not to buy the specs necessary to defend against this attack.

Further south this is the situation as CRISPR/Maul see it.

TdT (CRISPR)

Ok here’s my front line for posterity. My overall strategy is defense and ramp for now, as I have no good strategic openings. I’ll wait for your northern numbers to show and for my generals to spread the front lines. My one stab is down on lobstah territory where I think I drive into an open gap for ledazz

And then the front lines from HelloThere's perspective.

We all need to start getting 200-300 carrier fleets onto each others stars to help with war hero attacks in the future. I also want to expand my scouting operation to give me better visibility. 

The war is fun! It's started out with some losses but I'm hopeful the tide will turn soon.

'Trouble'? in the north

HRE has long been a source of puzzlement for me and this is the latest confusion. We're marked as allies in the Diplomacy tab so he can't attack me but he has thundered 600 ships onto one of my stars last turn with no advanced warning and no clear reason why. However, elsewhere he has moved 150 ships AWAY from my border and I am not seeing anything elsewhere on the front that suggests he has decided to attack me (I'd expect to see a spike in carriers moving south even within his space) and we're still allies on diplo. I'm just going to ignore it and keep trying to persuade him to attack Sea Serpent, which he might infact have done as his end of the wormhole looks empty. 

Frankly, I can't afford a war with HRE. If he starts one next turn because he forgot to turn alliance off this turn then I will be sitting round the diplomacy table with him. I do not want a split front fight. So I'm just going to assume it's not going to happen and work on that basis.

Update: a few hours later but before the next tick. Had some discussion with HRE and fairly confident he's not trying anything funky.

The Void - Tick 372 Cycle 16

Ikit Claw is formally defeated and I take the last GeneralKenobi star I can see.

Meanwhile, our alliance now has a long front line with the 'southern alliance' I lost the star I expected to lose since the last update but now my logistics and industrial base is turning the tide.

As a war update - it's been a quiet couple of turns. Both sides are consolidating and probing for next steps. It's very difficult from the current positions for either me or the enemy to attack across the 16 tick gap and create a breakthrough. For that reason I think we'll both look to take the battle elsewhere. My plan is to bring some fairly stacked smugglers down to HelloThere and look for probing attacks. 

To aid these smuggler attacks, I'm going to take Hyperspace up one more level after Terraforming finishes next turn. It'll only take 7 ticks and it's a nice enabler. Then it will be back to Manufacturing. I'm not racing weapons 5 yet because I'm comfortable with my 'break out time' of 29 ticks. I'll likely respond by going to weapons 5 as soon as I see anyone on the enemy side do so, but I'd prefer to build future capability and strength through terraforming and manufacturing.

The Void - Tick 312 Cycle 14

 War in the South is imminent.

After my start of cycle Ind/Sci purchases, I'm at Stars 78, Economy 179, Industry 105, Science 46

I'm doing well and continuing to expand West but I'm in semi-bad shape for the war in the south. My logistics are just not good enough, I know where I want all my warp gates but I need Hyperspace 5 to connect them all (4 would get me most) and this is slowing the flow of ships. I'll have Hyperspace 4 in 8 ticks which will start to help but by then I expect to be in a full on war. 

To my west, I'm pushing through GeneralKenobi with no resistance. Holy Roman Empire's deadly 1K smuggler attack has broken his spirit and he's been AFK ever since. I'm taking what stars I can but have largely stopped the flow of ships to these western stars now. 

Diplomatically, we're trying to recruit Dieste (Battery) because he's positioned well and is a potential swinger (he could join either our alliance or Tube-Pipes) both me and CRISPR are seeing this recruitment as a priority, and to be fair to us we are 1 ally smaller than what we believe the opponents to be. Battery is reluctant as he wants to bring his ally Amogus with him - but 6 feels too much. At the very least the aim is to keep him a sympathetic neutral. He cannot join Tube-Pipe or we're done.

Cool fact, from the northeast to the very south of my empire (longest distance apart stars) is now a whopping 6 days of travel as the crow flies. Definitely enjoying the epic vibes in this galaxy.

The Void - Tick 288 Cycle 13

 Smuggler revenge as my Smuggler kills the Smuggler that killed my Smuggler.

The day has gone well. I've gained a few stars and I'm close to weapons 4. I intend to go Manufacturing next after Weapons before detouring to Hyperspace 5 (a jump of 2) which will allow me a major logistics rework and then Specialists 3 for 50% more tokens per cycle. 

The latest intel from Tdt (CRISPR) is that the southern alliance are killing the guy with crab emojis as his name and seem rather desperate and urgent in doing it. Likely they know we will go to war with them soon and are looking to close out their conflicts as we are. TdT has engaged Crab guy and is looking to use him as a meat shield, as far as I can tell.

Here is how the core alliance is looking in terms of infrastructure and tech at this point. My screenshot was pre-infrastructure purchasing so I jumped up to 90 industry and 40 science. What is clear is that UyScuti (Royluc) strategy of buying mineral extractors has helped him supercharge his stars. His relative peace compared to the rest of us has meant he hasn't expanded as much though.

Tube-Pipe has similar tech to Uy Scuti so is likely sized around our size. 

There should be some epic battling over the coming days. 26/32 players remain.

Oh, an update on Pathfinder Jeronimo. He's currently at Solarii 38 ticks from the southern front line doing a circular logistics path bringing ships from the binary black hole I captured early on. He still has just the one battle (and star capture) to his name in that early war with C++.

The Void - Tick 276 Cycle 12

A vicious midgame has arrived.

The second weekend of The Void is over and the war continues. I had family visiting and held a holding posture over the weekend doing minimal checks. Now I'm back!

The diplomacy has been hotter than the fighting, with CRISPR (TdT) in the middle of it. Being allied with him again has given me a real taste of his drive and ruthlessness to win. He is a great competitor. There was a window on Saturday night where a potential alliance with LeDazz (Tube-pipe) was on the cards. I noped the idea from our side when I woke up for game balance reasons, and LeDazz later did the same thing. Putting me CRISPR LeDazz and Royluc on the same side not even including others would be overpowered. This now means we're destined for war though.

As of Monday morning it's clear that Ikit Claw/General Kenobi and Sea Serpent are well on their way to being defeated and a new threat grows in the south. That is Tube-pipe (LeDazz) TheBorg (Kip) Major Tom, Beez and Corn - though its possible that this is not one cohesive group but two joined at the hip somewhere. More time will reveal but this is how I see things diplomatically.

Regarding Holy Roman Empire. I've had reservations about him for a few days. He opted not to join the discord server, he made a secret northern ally (at least one) he has had dubious (but inconsistent) fleet movements at my northern border, he hasnt to my sight pressed an advantage against General Kenobi and appears not to have fought him at all over the weekend, and he was massing a huge 800 ship fleet centrally in his territory equidistant from his Kenobi front line and my border. As of this morning, that fleet has departed west towards Kenobi and hes replied in the group chat for then first time in days saying he will attack Kenobi with it. 

If pushed, I would say my allies are TdT (CRISPR), HelloThere (Maul) Uy Scuti (Royluc) and I'm giving HRE (SteveFree) the benefit of the doubt. I don't see myself going to war against him but I know he is playing his own game and that situation could develop any way yet.

The war in the north (Kenobi, Sea Serpent)

Annoyingly, I lost a smuggler here on Sunday morning. I'd seen the threat and potential attack but underestimated Kenobi recognising it and executing it. However, you can see from the ship counts, Kenobi is starting to look defeated and with a few more reinforcements and heavy pushes I can see his resistance faltering. 

The war in the south (Ikit Claw, Tube-Pipe, The Borg, Major Tom, others?)

Ikit claw is defeated but the new threat rises.

This a very vulnerable time for our alliance. We are waging war against Ikit Claw, General Kenobi, Tube-Pipe, Sea Serpent TheBorg (Kip) and MajorTom and Royluc is too far away from those front lines to help. We can win but it could be very gruelling and we need to remove Ikit and Kenobi from the equation fast. Ikit is mostly defeated with the new front lines with the southern alliance forming in his territory, Kenobi still has some fight in him.

I'm reworking my supply lines to send more ships south but I'd like to send EVERYTHING south. That's not a luxury I can afford yet. Kenobi must be defeated first.

The Void - Tick 240 Cycle 10

 I've been busy in real life over the weekend hence the time skip.

A lot has happened

1. TdT and I swapped aliases. He was CRISPR as I expected. I joined a Discord server with him and HelloThere who was not Zachsmack as expected, but Maul. Holy Roman Empire is SteveFree but is not in the Discord and I think is playing his own game as he's also allied to Ragnar Lothbrock (who apparently is 2x his size) to the north. No ID on Lothbrock.
2. Attacks on Ikit Claw and General Kenobi began as planned, and have been successful so far. I'm +8 stars including one binary and one black hole.
3. After CRISPR, Maul and I shared maps, I identified Royluc by remembering he had used the alias Uy Scuti before. CRISPR reached out to him and discovered he was working alone so far, and he became a very high-value joiner to the alliance. 
4. I have a 98% ID on Rakec as Dieste (a mixture of some conversational clues, a hunch, and a bit of guesswork) and CRISPR is confident Tube-Pipe is LeDazz. I trust that call.
5. My star count is now 69, my economy 124, my industry 67, and my science 27.

So I'm now in a strange 4-man alliance but also allied to Holy Roman Empire who is in a different alliance that I'm not supposed to know about (he hasn't told me, General Kenobi did). I'm still a bit worried about HRE. He opted not to join his cousin Maul in Discord and is very clearly playing his own game. I'm considering the other three solid allies but this more a relationship of convenience now and I have taken a few steps to contingency that border a bit. The carriers on my northern supply line now take a slightly longer route, giving me a more constant military presence across the border.

TdT (CRISPR) is playing a very diplomacy-heavy game and is speaking with everyone. He is very invested in winning this game. In our Discord alliance, there is not much between Me, Royluc, and CRISPR in strength or star count right now. If our alliance did win any of us could turn out a winner. HelloThere (Maul) is a little bit behind but again not far.

War with General Kenobi

Kenobi has opted to keep his fleets alive, and rally reinforcements. After very good initial gains (I didn't expect to be able to push to the binary in the south) the fighting is about to get fierce. I'm racing reinforcements in across all fronts (100 arriving via Smuggler at the top of the image, 180 via Infiltrator in the middle, and another 100 or so via the southern axis), and with 5 tokens in my pocket after the next turn might get the opportunity to defend then counter if GeneralKenobi launches an offensive of his own. If he doesn't and allows me to reinforce the frontline stars I'll dictate the battle.

War with Ikit Claw

I've got three new stars and I'm attacking a fourth with 140 ships. Otherwise, I'm planning to hold a bit. I have more ships flowing to the front line to defend but I don't have the firepower to take the binary.

Meta

The meta situation is that whilst I'm positionally safe, Uy Scuti (Royluc) HelloThere (Maul) and TdT (CRISPR) are at some risk in the short term, particularly Maul and CRISPR because there are coordinated groups out west that outnumber them for now. If we can defeat Ikit Claw and GeneralKenobi before they are attacked we have good winning chances.

With a likely positive ID on LeDazz as Tube-Pipe and with him being on the other side of Ikit Claw I'm also strongly in favor of immediate attacks as soon as we border him. 

We can assess that better though over the next 24 hours.

The Void - Tick 204 - Cycle 9

 I've captured the super binary bringing a successful end to the war with C++. 

The next step is attacking General Kenobi and Ikit Claw in the confidence that my allies will back me. The reasoning is TdT and HelloThere are warning of powerful western alliances, so I want momentum and collectively as an alliance we need to pivot west and present a united front against that soon. Holy Roman Empire has also been fighting for some time against General Kenobi and Sea Serpent and though he has the aid of Ragnar Lothbrock according to my intel Kenobi feels confident they will win which means I need to tip the scales back in HRE's favour.

War Plan

General Kenobi is my main target and I plan to attack at three points opening two fronts.

Front: Kenobi East Priority (140 initial ships, 28 industry) I'll launch a smuggler attack on his northern border black hole seizing that visibility. The smuggler will take 9 ticks to arrive but he will only have three to respond and the point of attack (a low NR black hole that is ungarrisoned) and timing toward end of a cycle will limit his response options. Once arrived the Smuggler will begin causing chaos. Additionally, I'll attack a second star further south.

Front: Kenobi South (130 initial ships, 7 industry) - I'll attack with an infiltrator. He has more visible force strength down here and my resupply will be limited so its possible the front will stalemate after I capture the first star. Seizing the binary would be a huge success but I don't believe I have the initial force or resupply to do it.

Front: Ikit Claw (250 initial ships, 19 industry) - I don't think I'm well placed location or force strength wise to seize either of Ikit Claws binaries. With Ikit my plan is to advance, seize some stars and play a supporting role as TdT and HelloThere attack from his west. I have an Infiltrator deployed to this Ikit NE front. War objective: Capture any 5 stars. 

I've reworked my logistics lines to the new objectives, though the Kenobi East logistic line will be optimised after I get hyperspace 3 next turn. The attack will start in 6 ticks after the next turn 

Just as a point, I have a half-eye on Holy Roman Empire. There's a couple of his carriers making movements that don't fully make sense to me. The force sizes are small but he does outnumber me across our northern border and I know he's not been transparent about his alliance with Ragnar Lothbrock. I think the root cause is just bad logistics and I don't expect him to betray me. I generally work on a trust basis with all allies because there are costs to not trusting your allies (keeping forces at borders they don't need to be) but I'm aware of the carriers and watching the slow buildup of forces at the two circled stars too.