The Void - Tick 624 Cycle 28

Hello, Ragnar Lothbrok.

I've had scan visibility of Ragnar Lothbrok for a long time but he was previously behind me on tech so I stopped checking, especially as he was fighting enemies/neutrals. However, this turn we heard reports of a 14k ship coward attack on Tzeentach (ZachSmack) which has woken everyone up to a renewed and more dangerous northern threat. My mental map also places Tzeentach bottom left so there must be another wormhole up north (which is probably a good thing, honestly. Rather Zach gets buried under those 14k ships than me.)

For reference. I have 19K ships total. I have been throwing them regularly into a grinder which is keeping my numbers down, but a single 14K fleet is a daunting total (currently my largest fleet is 3K). It's almost certainly the biggest fleet on the map and then behind it is 15 Terraforming which will be making all Ragnar's infrastructure upgrades cheaper. This is 4 levels above me and a MAJOR problem because it will snowball.

What's worse is we still haven't had our breakthrough attack in the south. Tube-pipe and friends continue to defend well and trade ships at ratios that favor them.

TdT wanted us to take Tube-pipe up on an earlier offer to accept ships for passage to new battlegrounds and NAP. I think this would be cheap and take the spice out of the game though so I've refused. We've had some discussion and I think we're all aligned now that we're going to attack the southern alliance with everything we've got. I'm OK with CRISPRs plan of attacking Major Tom in the west. The way to think about these situations is as if the whole alliance was one player and it makes sense. I can already feel this game slipping away as a potential win, I don't want to jeopardise an alliance win.

However, this is an interesting map from TdT (CRISPR) shared via Discord. With a single screenshot its hard to tell the timeline but it looks very much to me like he's had ample opportunity to attack Major Tom here and for whatever reason hasn't taken it. The MT ship moving east to west is also suspicious. Did they come to some sort of agreement to allow TdT to grow? He has now passed me on stars due to the bogged-down front line I have. Either way, what is is, I just need him to attack now.

Tactical Map

We both have options to attempt attacks this turn but I think with their inbound reinforcements they may be tempted to try and take a bite out of me. My warp gate has been up for a few turns now and it might be a tantalizing prospect. I looked at some of my own attacks - which work if their gates stay up - but compromise my position if they don't. As it is, I feel I need more reinforcements to make ground here so I'm going to drop my warp gate and watch and wait.

If all these stars were gated and they launched attacks they could potentially hit my rear star with an overwhelming 4.5K+ ships. They only see a Colonel on it so it might be quite tempting. 

Research wise I'd planned to Manufacturing then Specialists before end of cycle but I think I need to respond to that Terraforming threat and go Manufacturing then Terraforming, forgoing the token.

The Void - Tick 612 Cycle 27

Now that the weekend is over I'm planning to re-apply myself to the game and start making pushes. I haven't really gained any stars over the last few days and I'm conscious that others, including my allies are. If I want to win this game I need to start seizing stars fast. In the next 48 hours I want to turn that around with some important star captures.

My allies have resumed attacks on the enemies west flank, which has been necessary because they took full advantage of a shift in priorities to the west to reconsolidate and throw up some firm defense. The good news this morning is Dieste is preparing to launch some new attacks further south and TdT has hit them with a surprise deep smuggler attack (1k ships). HelloThere has also been chipping away over the weekend. Now I need to throw my ships into the fight to break through.

Here's how the front lines are looking. I launched a big siege breaker attack to try and dislodge the enemy from Kraela. I don't expect the fight to happen on Kraela - they will retreat or counter attack but I'll pressure them into doing this and test their coordination a bit. Seizing Kraela is really important to me to allow me to keep warp gates up more confidently in the area and streamline my logistics. At the moment I'm doing a lot of gate flickering (on/off) and it is expensive. 

If I can capture Kraela, plus the two Major Tom stars north of the wormhole that will give me a really nice defensible front line and allow me to build back up ships for the push south. The intel I've seen from TdT and Dieste suggests reinforcements will be thin from the south so sustained attacks will hopefully break resistance. 

The Void - Tick 588 Cycle 26

Quick update because it's the weekend and I have less free time.

War rages at the bridgehead and the enemy has taken advantage of a shift in priorities to the west from my allies to mass forces and start seriously pushing at the edges of the bridgehead.

Here's how the full map looks. I still expect I'm in first place with 89 stars, 435 economy, 271 industry and 139 science. I did reach 90 stars but have been pegged back.

And here is how the battle ground looks annotated

HelloThere has reassured me his cousin HRE is unlikely to attack me but I'm nervous about the force buildup on the other side of the SW wormhole (I have a scout down there on a black hole) there are several thousand ships and 4000 visible on my side of the WH. I've built up a ~1.5k contingency force in my north just in case. A northern alliance attack is the one way this game could really go badly from here I think, so it makes sense to plan to mitigate it a bit.

The Void - Tick 540? Cycle 25?

 I forgot to save the title with the actual tick number. I think this was about 540/550

Corn has quit and I'm watching the north like a hawk.

Up north I'm paying close attention to that wormhole. It's very close to my border and I have no idea what's happening on the other side currently. I have now reached it with a scout so plan to pop that through next turn and see the other end a bit more clearly. What I do see is 2K ships built up on the wormhole at the moment and it's not clear why they haven't gone through. I've decided keeping the warp gate close to the wormhole is too much of a risk so I've dropped that for now. 

Down south at the bridgehead the 'battle' rages. It's a point of debate how much battling there is actually going on from the other side here but they have fleets and specialists in the field and I'm working on the assumption I'm facing a coordinated, engaged enemy, because to do otherwise would be crazy.

I have three priorities at the moment

1. Retain and where possible expand the bridgehead so it's more permanent.

2. Find out where Tube-Pipe's core territory is. He's still the most dangerous opponent and at 78 stars (via the main chat, where he's rallying RTQs) he will need to lose 15-20 of them to improve the standing of my allies. That jobs likely to fall to me. Is he east of TheBorg, or south of him?

3. Make sure the north don't attack me.

I'm fairly sure now I'm first in the leaderboard lead (87 stars) but TdT/Uy Scuti/Ragnar are all possible alternative winners. I'd say at this stage the lead I have means there is about a 60-70% chance I'll win individually and I think a 90% chance our alliance wins. 

The quitting of Corn makes TdT's expansion much easier. 

The Void - Tick 528 Cycle 24

 A dangerous information war is ongoing

So after Tube-Pipe offered the surrender that conversation continued a bit. We discussed amongst ourselves and none of us feel the game is over or want to quit (even though I think I'd be RTQ'ing into first place at the moment.) all of his alliance and some of the others are now RTQ though. This is dangerous because we want to keep pressing the war but don't want the entire galaxy united against us.

Who is 'us' anyway? Well, here is how I see alliances.

Layering the onion my core alliance team is me, TdT and HelloThere. I've been working with those guys all game very actively and we coordinated together the inclusion of Uy Scuti and Dieste. 

I've also got a favorable relationship Holy Roman Empire. We haven't been coordinating on attacks or working together but we have a lasting peace. I don't have any plans to attack him and I'd consider defending him but I wouldn't say we're allies. It's still likely we may end up fighting eventually.

What's this look like at an alliance level? Well here's how I see it. Neither side is a 'mega alliance' but there are relationships and crossovers. 

The biggest diplo worry I have right now is the Northern Alliance turning on us. We have to really play up the fact that they're being pressured to do that. I think they are to an extent. Make no mistake, if they did actually turn on us now (meaning basically the entire galaxy against 6-people) we'd lose hard.

War

Politicking aside. I have my hands full actually fighting the enemy alliance. The bridgehead is still established but a good defensive move killed my smuggler and lost me 1000 ships. Reinforcements are inbound but you can see the ships facing me are starting to build up now.

I threw up a couple of gates to move some reinforcements closer and try to catch his Coward but I didn't succeed. The last couple of turns have improved their position here so I need to be cautious.

I think both gates have to go back down really. That's the first move. Now only Tooini and Bacre (the stars I'm willing to lose) can be hit before I can respond. I have 12 tokens to respond to other threats.

I think I'm going to attempt to reinforce Tooini with a further 450 ships. I think Tube-Pipe will be wary with his Coward and won't risk it attacking a fairly low-value star.  If I can reinforce it gives that star some more staying power. Other than that, I think it's a case of sitting tight for now and responding. 

I've looked at whether they can attack my landing star from Kraela but because only TheBorg can hire speed specs from there and because he only has ~800 ships on the star I think it's safe for now. His weapons level is still level 4, so even if he went up to 5 and attacked with a coward it'd be 5 vs 8 next turn when my weapons go up and I'll have enough ships to defend.

Comparison of techs between me and Tube-Pipe. He's ahead right now.

The Void - Tick 516 Cycle 23

 The enemy offers a surrender as the attack continues.

Tube-pipe reached out early this morning offering the surrender of their alliance and reporting a lack of desire to continue pressing the fight. I'm continuing to attack and follow my plan for now, but I'll be paying close attention over the next couple of turns to see how the wider galaxy responds. Without knowing how their discussions are going, I think their surrender is premature but it's possible the robust defence in the west by HelloThere/TdT and mine and Battery's attacks have broken their spirit.

I've changed some of my northern waypoints to pool ships. The northern alliance might be persuaded to attack me. It's unlikely, and I think we could talk them out of it, but I'd like some contingency.

I'm also continuing to expand my attacks at the bridgehead.

They still have threats, so I have flicked my warp gate at the arrival star off for now and I've flicked my warp gate at Evian (where my smuggler launched from) back on to start building a force there. I'm continuing to be conservative with tokens and resisting the urge to buy a second smuggler. I want options to hire destroyers or colonels/infiltrators as needed. 

I did look briefly at throwing a siege breaker at the large force to the west of the bridgehead, before Tube-Pipe gets there and they have the potential to hire a +8 war hero with his w7. The aim here wouldn't be to win the fight just to inflict damage and minimize the force to reduce it's potential. I don't think it's worth the tokens it would require though. 

The Void - Tick 504 Cycle 22

 BOOYAKASHA! The first part of the attack was a success.

In the end not only did the Explorer move (it had not moved in the previous 4 turns) but Tube-Pipe went up to Weapons 7, meaning when my smuggler landed on the deep-lying star it did so at ratios of Weapons 5 vs Weapons 12. However, the star was so lightly defended I only lost 264 ships meaning I broke through with 3.5K. What a breakthrough. And 2k more reinforcements are coming quietly from the north.

Now I have to really make this count because this is a one-off. 

What are my goals:

1. Establish a permanent bridgehead.

2. Ensure the second fleet can arrive safely.

3. Cause maximum chaos and disruption.

Okay so, I don't want any rapid counter-attacks with Siege breakers on my shiny new star. If he wants to take it he will need to broadcast that attack and give me possibilities to respond to it. I also don't want any counterattacks at Evian (my launch star.) this would be a risky play since they now don't see how I'm reinforcing it but either way let's not give that possibility. I can always rebuild.

What would be nice is if they all collectively drop the warp gates I can see. I can see 5 in total. Just because they'll then need to rebuild them. They will be worried I'm going to jump at them, but I plan to use the speed of the smuggler for more conventional attacks.

Kasha being a Nebula and Asteroid field makes it a nice star to hold and I do intend to hold it. A hostile Nebula in your backyard is a bloody nightmare and it will cause them no end of fretting until they re-take it, which I would have the choice of making them bleed for. By being sparing with the tokens I've invested in the attack I'm close to being able to buy a destroyer.

I also need to maintain initiative/chaos though. That means spreading to more stars.

The plan is to keep 1.5K on Kasha and send 1.8K north to capture the landing star for the reinforcements. I've checked distances and I think even with Major Tom's black hole they won't be able to see that Pathfinder next turn, so I don't need to take out the black hole (6-tick jump with a smuggler.) which is something I was considering. I'll then bounce to another star.

The hope here is to be cautious, wait for them to make another mistake and bring in reinforcements. They will need to move a lot of ships to deal with an active 3.5K threat behind their defensive and general lines so this should relieve pressure on HelloThere/TdT. With combat on the cards, I'm finishing a hyperspace level to allow me to reinforce without the use of pathfinders and then going to Weapons 7.

* * 

Just a note, unfortunately, this adventurous pathfinder is NOT Pathfinder Jeronimo. I actually have three pathfinders operating now. Pathfinder Jeronimo was somehow up doing logi by my north border with Holy Roman Empire (I have no idea how that happened, last I checked it was out east) he is now racing south to join the forces across the breach though.

After buying economy here is how I sit. And yes, the missed turns were intentional. Every little helps.