Cake in the Rain - 2400-2448

Name	Race
Sean Duggan	The Deliks
Paul Evans	The Harrads
Simon Matthews	The Mattari'iani
David Perrin	The Persuaders
Lars Moeller	The Vikings
Guido Barthels	The Sarduccis
Kristijan Secan	The Kzins
Gary M. Gray	The Xym Federation
Mark Forsyth	The A B Rs
Michael Davis	The Imperials
Roland Vilett	The Alphas
Doug Payton	The Zoinks

The victory conditions chosen by Martin were that a player meet 2 of these conditions:

Since two of these conditions deal with production, and since score often is closely tied with resources-related items, I chose my racial traits with a view towards these conditions. Now, this was my first E-mail game with multiple humans, and so my experience with this wasn’t all that extensive.

I chose the Jack of All Trades primary trait, since 70 years seemed too short to fully develop some of the other traits. Improved Fuel Efficiency, Mineral Alchemy and Only Basic Remote Mining are almost automatic choices with me. I took immunity to Radiation, looking towards the Radiating Hydro Ram Scoop engine. To increase points, I reduced Gravity & Temperature tolerances, so that with the radiation immunity, 1 in 5 planets would be habitable. I knocked down growth rate to 13% to get points for use elsewhere. 10,000 colonists could operate 13 factories, factories cost 1kT less of Germanium, mines required 6 resources to build, but 10,000 colonists could only operate 8 mines. Weapons & Construction research costs 50% less, Biotech cost 75% more, and all "75% more" fields would start at Tech 4. This left me with precisely 0 advantage points.

I find myself on the planet Shank in the far southwestern corner of the universe, which is perfect for defending myself, though it also means I have surrounding planets in only a 90 degree arc from me, instead of possibly all around. Such are the trade-offs. Shank is rich in Boranium, but has the minimum home planet concentration (30) for Ironium and Germanium. Good thing I chose factories use 1 kT less of Germanium.

33 light years away is a wormhole, which can certainly be both a blessing and a curse. We’ll see which it is. There are 9 planets within 150 light-years, which will be very helpful. I have the usual complement of starting ships; scouts, miner, freighter, colony ship and the classic Stalwart Defender.

Martin has said that the 4 additional turns will be generated upon submission of this turn, then 4 additional on the next one, then we’ll get back to 1 turn per day. Time to plan ahead and do some serious scouting. The wormhole is 1 turn away, but I’d hate to toss my Defender in there, and have him sit around the next 4 years, so I’ll have him scout some close planets then head on in. The scouts will zip around and pick up the other planets close by.

A battle recording already? I hope I don’t have to start researching too early. I’ve currently set Shank to contribute only leftover resources to research, because I want to develop that home soil first. Of course, there are 12 players crammed into this medium universe, so we’re bound to bump into each other sooner rather than later.

Steppenwolf, 96 light-years almost due south from me, is a 94% planet for my people! Germanium deposits ain’t all that hot, but I’ll deal with that later. We’re gonna colonize that sucka! Spaceball isn’t bad either. A Santa Maria is in the queue to be dispatched there.

The battle was against a Kzin Smaugarian Peeping Tom. The kicker was that it was at my home planet of Shank! This is a bad development, but what’s worse is that he’s not in orbit of Shank anymore. That would have to mean that Shank was one of his waypoints in those intervening 4 years. He couldn’t have done that if he came through the wormhole, so he must be pretty close by. I’m hoping it’s one of those planets in the upper right of the picture, a semi-decent distance away. I’m fearing that it’s Ice Patch (72 ly away) or Red Ball (129 ly). As it is, I’m sending the Defender, not to the wormhole as shown on the map, but to check out Crabby in that group of farther-out planets to look for them. I’ll send a scout into the wormhole. I sent a message to the Kzin to see if they’re willing to be non-aggressive until we’ve at least taken out other competitors. However, the easiest competitor to take out is one who’s still in their infancy, no? If I find him soon enough, I might not be able to resist trying to take him out early, especially since he’s obviously so close.

The Kzin Peeping Tom had a "Daddy Long Legs 7" engine, which take Propulsion tech 5. The "Interstellar Traveler" race starts with tech 5 in Propulsion and Construction, and this ship fits that description. If I find a starbase of his with stargates already in place, that will confirm my suspicion.

The Kzin own Ice Patch. This could get ugly. (And it has an Orbital Fort. Certainly sounds like Interstellar Traveler to me, but fortunately that would only be his outpost, not his homeworld.)

Scouting has uncovered a couple of new habitable planets. One of them, Red Ball, seems especially inviting. It’s rather poor in Boranium, but Shank should more than make up for that deficiency.

The Kzin presence on Ice Patch means that I’m going to have to invest in fleet defense sooner than I’d hoped. I’m sending the two Armed Probed I built to defend Steppenwolf and the mining efforts on Black Hole.

The enemy ship near the top of the map is a Kzin scout, whose trail leads straight from Decatur (not shown on the map). Looks like I found homeworld.

I built a Long-Range Scout, so that’s heading into the unknown of the wormhole.

I’ve tossed another Armed Probe into the queue to place in orbit of Ice Patch; gotta keep an eye on those guys. I’ve also put in 3 Santa Marias, as the number habitable planets I discover keeps rising. This means that the resource-intensive factories & mines won’t be built, at least this coming year, so research areas are going to get some attention. I’m one year away from knowing how to build a Privateer, which I’ll need given the proximity of the Kzin, so I’m hitting that first, followed by Weapons.

My colony on Steppenwolf didn’t seem to inherit the default production queue. That wasted about 4 of the 5 years that those folks could have been busy. Not convenient.

We’ll be doing normal single year updates from now on. That will help with colonies reluctant to automatically start default production.

Seems that Martin made a small glitch in turn generation, and instead of generating one turn from the 2410 position, he generated 6 turns from the 2405 position. This leaves us in the same year, but I’ll have to reissue my previous orders. Good thing I’m keeping a diary.

Some things were impacted. For example, in the 2410 map, my Stalwart defender wasn’t at Fizbin yet, so since his scanners had already got a planet reading I’d pointed him elsewhere. In this alternate universe, he made it to Fizbin and took a few pot shots at the Kzin scout. The scout way down south arrived at Olympia in the new universe, while in the original universe since he had already scanned it he was moving on. Ah well, chalk it up to experience (for the host), and on we go. It didn’t impact outcomes much.

Talk about your express trains! My Long Range Probe hit the wormhole this year, and wound up 1341 light-years away! That’s an equivalent speed of warp 36.5! And it flung him about as far away from homeworld as he possibly could go (see the map—that’s the entire universe shown there!). The wormhole is listed as "Mostly Stable", so if I’m going to exploit this, now’s the time. His 66/30 scanners don’t detect any other ships presently, so that’s a good sign so far.

I sent my Armed Probe to Ice Patch in 2412, but forgot to set his battle plan to "Chicken". So, upon arrival, he went and attacked the local orbital fort and got toasted in one shot. Not the way to maintain the peace. Hopefully, a message to the Kzin will allay any fears he has about that being a raiding party. (The fort had 100kT/250ly stargate. That settles the "Interstellar Traveler or not" question.)

Speaking of messages in 2412 the Kzin sent a message to me in response to my note saying I noticed his scout around my planet. He said, "Thanks for the hospitality". I said, "You’re welcome, but next time I’ll see you coming." (OK, so that’s not the way to maintain the peace either.)

Colonizers went out in 2412 to Red Ball and Scorpius. One that was built in 2413 is being sent to Crabby. Time to build some more to send into the wormhole, as well as two new rather decent planets, Vivaldi & Resort. Resort has concentrations of Ironium, Boranium and Germainium of 85, 92 and 106 respectively as well as being a 76% habitable planet for me. Definitely colonization material.

Continued ship building has left more resources available for research. I got Weapons 4 this year, and should get Weapons 5 next year, which will give me the Beta Torpedo and the Black Cat bomb (he said, eyeing Ice Patch, not necessarily all that interested in maintaining the peace). Then I’ll go back to Construction, since I want to get a Frigate hull to put mine-layers on.

Steppenwolf and Spaceball got their first truckload of colonists this year; 21000 each. I hope to bring these fellas online really quick. Since they’re way back in the corner, even more so than Shank, they could really crank out the fleets while being relatively easy to protect.

I’m sending a colonizer to Resort, and putting an Armed Probe in queue to protect it. Colonizers arrived at Scorpius and Red Ball this year. The number of planets I now have probably contributed to my standing.

Well, we've bumped into each other earlier than I had hoped, but I think we can work this to our mutual advantage. Let me give you an idea of how I see us working together.

What I would bring to this alliance is technology. I'll have mine layers in a year or two, and if we were to ally, I could start protecting your planets with minefields. I also bring a bit of mobility as well. I know the location of a wormhole that will shoot you up to the opposite corner of the galaxy; I already have a long-range scout up there, 1,341 light-years away. An alliance would keep me from shooting up any of your ships that try to use that.

What you would bring to this alliance is mobility. Use of your stargates would be very helpful, even if I can't gate cargo & people.

While minefields are a passive defense, active defense of our own planets via ships would be our own separate responsibilities, though I'm sure we may, in fact, aid each other in this area simply in an effort to preserve the advantages of this alliance.

I'm not sure how we'd handle a situation where I want to mine a planet, but you want to colonize it. We'd have to deal with that situation as it came up, unless you have any ideas on how to handle that.

As a gesture of goodwill, should you agree to this alliance, we would park a warship in each other's home planet's orbit to keep tabs on what is going on. With regards to this, I would want to park a warship in orbit of Ice Patch as well as Decatur, since they are but one jump away via stargate, and my home planet is but one year away from Ice Patch at warp 9.

I need an ally in a universe with 11 other players. What I offer is friendly minefields (i.e. death trap should I suddenly designate him enemy), and a wormhole (i.e. transitory transportation). But stargates are a different story; mobility is one of the main keys to success in the universe, and if he designates me an enemy, the worst that can happen is that I just can’t use them anymore. Mutual defense would be in my best interest, but I don’t want to commit to that just yet, because he may only have the two stargates, which are of limited use to me right now. And frankly, I’m not really sure how to handle the mine vs. colony use of a planet. So generally, as with most diplomatic endeavors, I’m trying to get more out of an alliance than I put into it. The question is, will he go for it? This game is made up mostly of rank amateur E-mail players (like myself), so hopefully their diplomatic talents are amateur as well (and hopefully mine are somewhat better). I’m hoping I’ve learned something about diplomacy over the years.

The only thing that I worry about is that, as I said to him, Ice Patch is 1 year away at warp 9. If he decided to break the alliance and go after me, I may have just 1 year to react after he gates in an attack fleet to Ice Patch and takes out my observer. Or he could gate them in with the story that Ice Patch was just a staging point, so no need to turn the friendly mine field into an enemy one. That’s the Achilles Heel of this whole idea.

I've marked you as a friend, but since I don't have much time on my hands right now, I'll e-mail you the details of our alliance tomorrow morning.

I slipped into 2nd place for a while but I moved back into 1st place in 2417, and am still there.

I set the Kzin to "Friend" status in 2415 while my Ice Patch Monitor arrived. I found the Kzin homeworld, which is "Crazy Horse", not "Decatur". It’s a 99% planet for me, so our Gravity & Temperature tolerances are similar. He sent colonizers to Fizbin & Spittle. I hadn’t heard from him by 2418 as to our alliance, so I sent him a message:

4 game-years have passed since I set you to "Friend" status, but I still haven’t heard from you as to whether or not you wish to ally. If I do not hear from you by 2420, I will cease negotiations and be forced to consider you an enemy.

I'm sorry about not contacting you sooner but as I've already pointed out, I've really really been very very busy. As for our alliance, I would like us to be allies simply because no one can win this game alone and since we're neighbors it's only logical for us to join forces. We have to develop colonization strategy as to protect our border. I need to know into which direction are you planning on expanding so that I choose different location for my own expansion. I support your idea to place warships into each other planets orbits as a friendly gesture. I'm just a little bit insecure about your minefields around my planets but if you insist that it is necessary for our alliance then I'll agree to that.

Ah, so he realizes the problem with enemy minefields protecting him. I can live with that. My reply:

This sounds fine with me. Minefields are not a requirement, so we’ll forego those. In the meantime, I’ve been colonizing a bit across the south edge of the galaxy. In doing so, I’ve found scouts from ABR and the Xym Federates. ABR will be colonizing due east of me but some distance away on Wumpus. His home seems to be somewhat north of there, past Alpha Centauri. The other end of the wormhole down by me has some good planets as well, and thus far I have only spotted a single ship on my scanners up there; a Mattari scout. But if you’re going to use it, you better hurry; it’s stability has been reduced to simply "average".

Here’s to a fruitful Zoink-Kzin Alliance! Or perhaps we should call ourselves "The ZoinKzin". See you in the skies.

Santa Marias had entered the wormhole and colonized Aquarius & Orbison. Scouts up there have found a Mattari scout poking around, but nothing else. I keep finding loads of wormholes on both sides of the current wormhole, but I just don’t have the resources to commit to them. What a pity. I placed 2 Cotton Pickers & 2 Teamsters in the queue to send to the wormhole, and they came ready this year. There’s lots of good mining prospects beyond the wormhole.

I’m planning on colonizing 2 more planets up there; Arcturus (84%) and Ripper Jack (27% but high in Ironium & Bornaium). I created the Little Zoinker class scout with Beta torpedoes and a Mole Scanner to increase it’s ship scanning range, and I put 3 in Shank’s queue for protection of the wormhole colonies. Ultimately I want to scrap all Armed Probes and free up that ship slot.

Scouting out east has brought to my attention some very nice planets (Alpha Centauri, for one, which is 92% for me with minerals of 94, 83 and 84!), as well as a couple of neighbors; the ABRs and The Xym Federates. The ABRs will be colonizing Wumpus & Oop Be Gone soon, just south & east of Alpha Centauri. I also found an ABR colony at Bakwele, northwest of Alpha Centauri. I’m bringing back my Stalwart Defender from the scouting mission to scrap him and build a better destroyer. A Long-Range Scout was built to replace the destroyer’s scouting maneuvers.

Alpha Centauri is such a good prospect that I’m moving the Armed Probe that was to defend Vivaldi into Alpha Centauri’s orbit. There will be more there to protect, not to mention that I want to keep out any foreign colonizers. It’ll be 6 years before the colony ship on it’s way there will arrive.

Research has been moving along. I hit Weapons 5 (Beta Torp, Black Cat bomb, Rad. Terraform +/- 7), Construction 6 (Strobnium, Frigate, B-17 bomber), Construction 7 (Super Fuel Export) and Propulsion 5 (Daddy Long Legs 7, Stargate 100/250 [for use with my new partner], Gravity Terraform +/- 7). I’m back in Weapons now. With the Frigate hull, I’ve designed mine layers, but haven’t built any yet.

I am currently in 1st place, but I have no idea why. I am leading only in tech levels (and were it not for Jack of all Trades’ initial tech bonanza I probably wouldn’t lead there, either), I’m 4th in planets, 2nd (i.e. last) in starbases, 2nd (almost 3rd) in unarmed ships, 2nd in escort ships, and 9th in resources, but 1st in score. Those ships must count for quite a bit. My lead is only by 3 points, and I’ve bumped into the second place folks, the Xym Federates, already. Looks to me that overall they are really winning. So of the species I’ve met, they are in places 2 (Xym), 4 (Mattari’iani), 9 (Kzin) and 12 (ABRs). Hmmm, sounds to me like the ABR are ripe for takeover.

There are pluses & minuses to public player scores, and one of the minuses is when you’re in one of the top spots. People know who to go after, and if one of those people happens to be close to you in ranking, it could get ugly. What’s worse, the Xym are heading my way. Just this turn, 3 Xym colony ships popped up on my far eastern scanners. They appear to be going after Oop Be Gone, Wumpus and Novelty. The interesting thing is that those first two planets also have ABR colony ships heading towards them, and the ABRs will get there first in both cases. Perhaps this will tick off the Xym enough that they’ll concentrate on taking them out early instead of going after me sooner.

The 3 Xym colony ships all seem to have come from the planet Farragut, which is about halfway across the southern edge of the universe.

I’m putting 5 Little Zoinkers into Shank’s queue for use in keeping those colony ships from getting too close to my interior, as well as some foreign scouts. (The Xym scout will arrive at Crabby in 4 years, if he stays on his present course. I’m not sure I want that.) The interesting thing is that he’s flying past, not to, the planets between him and Crabby, and the ship picture is similar to that of my long-range probes, so it could be that they are a Jack of All Trades race as well, using their penetrating scanners to pick up those planets in between.

I’ve stayed in 1st place this whole time, but still not by much. The Xym Federates took 7 planets this past two years, but is still in 3rd place, 1 point behind the Mattari’iani.

Recent enemy sightings: The Xym are on the move in my area of space, though the ABRs have foiled some of their colonization efforts by getting there first. There is currently a Xym colony ship at Wumpus (lost it to the ABRs) that appears headed due west, one heading to Ultima Thule, and one heading to Same Here. The Xym scout nearing Crabby has kept on it’s course now passing Scorpius and heading towards Fizbin. Another Xym scout is farther south, just passing my colony at Resort and on course for Shank. Since he’s not stopping at any worlds, I’m pretty sure he’s a "Jack of All Trades" race with the built-in penetrating scanners. The ABRs have successfully colonized Wumpus & Oop Be Gone. I found their homeworld of Skloot. (It’s an 80% world for me. Another potential colonization problem.) There are 2 Mattari scouts poking around beyond the wormhole where they can see my mining efforts. Saw an Imperial scout up there in 2421, but haven’t seen it since.

I now have 4 colonies beyond the wormhole, Arcturius being the best planet in terms of habitability and number of nearby remote mining potentials (though concentrations aren’t that fantastic). Two planets west of my wormhole colonies, Chubs & Greene, aren’t habitable, but 5 of the 6 combined mineral concentrations on them are 98 or above. I’m hoping the scout over there finds a habitable planet nearby. (The wormhole is currently considered "Slightly Volatile" at both ends.) Alpha Centauri will be colonized next year. I colonized Resort, which is 76% and has concentration between 85 & 106.

I need starbases for refueling and ship-building, so I put empty Starbase hulls in the queues of Spaceball & Steppenwolf, with enough mines in front of them to reduce the time necessary for their completion. Spaceball’s will be complete in 2427, and Steppenwolf’s will be done in 2431.

I rethought my strategy on defending my borders with mine layers, and thus put some Little Zoinkers in the queue to defend outlying colonies. Then, with the influx of Xym colonizers, I rethought it again, put 3 Fielders (mine-layers), 3 Little Zoinkers and 3 Gas Stations (Super Fuel Export) in the queue. I’m going to keep the original Little Zoinkers in the queue, and sent them to the wormhole colonies, where they’ll really need protection. I am also currently building Cotton Pickers & Teamsters for use with the wormhole colonies.

As a test of friendly stargate functionality (and as a test to insure I actually am set to friend with the Kzin), I sent Ice Patch Monitor (an Armed Probe) through the stargate to Crazy Horse. It worked, and now I have Crazy Horse Monitor.

There are a couple of wormholes near you (one between Crazy Horse & Kidney and one southwest of Silicon). Do you know where these exit and how stable they are?

I mean, hey, not much has come of our alliance yet. Might as well do some information sharing.

This year, my diplomatic strategy was quite fluid as I picked my way through my messages. At first I saw the Xym colonizers delving too deep into my territory (or, at least what I consider my territory), and figured an alliance with the ABRs would be useful in holding them back. The defender at Alpha Centauri, an armed probe, would be enough to take out 2 nearby colonizers, and thus I could establish that I meant the ABRs no harm (since I hadn’t used it on them) and that I wished to help them out. So I created this message in the "Stars!" message system:

The Xym colony ships are delving too far into what I might consider "my space" for my liking; one is orbiting your newly colonized Wumpus, and one appears to be headed for Ultima Thule. I intend to take both of them out.

Note, however, that I haven't bothered your colonization efforts. I think that we could work together to keep the Xym out of our space for at least the time being. While I may be in 1st place, he is not that far behind, and has a significant number of planets more than I. I believe his capability for expansion is currently far greater.

What I suggest is at least a non-aggression pact between us, but what would be better would be an agreement to cooperatively defend both our sets of colonies from Xym incursion, and to take out any attempts by the Xym to colonize inside our boundaries.

If you believe this would be in your interests, respond here or via E-mail at "dpayton@processtg.com".

Well now there’s an interesting thought. Still, I don’t want the Xym too close to home, being as powerful as they are. So the question becomes, should I turn him down and start to work with the ABRs, should I erase that message to the ABRs and instead listen to what the Xym has to offer, or should I pursue both options, seeing where they lead? In any event, do I take out the colonizers, or ask the Xym to call them off?

My situation is very interesting. I’m in the southwest corner, and to the north and to the east of me are players rather low on the totem pole, but they’re in the way of my expansion. However, they are also in the way of external forces moving towards me, so they could act as buffers to the Xym and whoever else is out there. If I solidify treaties with the Kzin & ABRs, they could help me with my border keeping, allowing me precious time to expand beyond the wormhole, where I am currently not hemmed in, but whose access window is, I fear, rapidly closing. What’s unknown, and upon which much of this hinges, is to what extent the Kzin & ABRs actually could defend the borders. If I framed the alliance with all our interests in mind, perhaps I could make it worth their while to work for this, and thus give them a reason to build defenses. I can see 3 Kzin destroyers on my scanners, so they are actively building them.

I really haven’t exploited the resources of the planets close to me in terms of remote mining, and neither have the Kzin nor the ABRs. Before I join with another major power, I believe I’d rather solidify my current position economically while still trying to spread my colonists far and wide. This could best be done by creating an alliance of the Zoinks, the Kzin and the ABRs as an economic & military alliance, sharing the access to minerals in our portion of the universe. This would be combined with a non-aggression pact between us so that our resources could be more directed towards building up our economies rather than in warships. Also, keeping foreigners out of our space would be necessary so as to reduce the need for heavy defenses within our space.

My conclusion, then, is to propose the ABRZoinKzin Commonwealth in order to achieve those objectives. The Xym have too much of an advantage in terms of planets right now for me to feel comfortable around them, so while I’ll listen to what his ideas are, if any, I’m quite predisposed to forming the Commonwealth. Thus, I deleted the above message to the ABRs, and wrote this message to the Kzin and the ABRs via E-mail:

We have a potentially very good situation here that I believe we can work to our mutual advantages. Among the three of us, we cover about 25% of the southwest corner of the universe. However, due east of us are the Xym Federates, possibly based at Farragut. They currently have colony ships entering our territory and will have more on the way soon, I’m sure, if those efforts are fruitful. While I am currently in first place, the Xym have been hovering between second and third place, generally not more than 10 points behind me, yet with more than twice as many planets as I, far more unarmed ships and more resources than I. Thus, I believe he is currently our worst threat. The Mattari’iani, who have been right up there with the Xym, are much farther north (information I have gathered from exploring a wormhole) and are not a threat to us currently.

Frankly, none of us are in any position to take on the Xym. (The current score placing me in first is, I believe, quite deceiving.) Further, the Xym have approached me as to forming an alliance, but again I’m not prepared to deal with it if the Xym were to turn on me. I would much rather solidify myself economically at this point, and I believe both of you would like to do that as well. With that in mind, I am proposing "The ABRZoinKzin Commonwealth". Specifically:

We would set each other to "Friend" status, so as not to accidentally destroy ships, and allow community use of Commonwealth assets (fuel at starbases, stargates, etc.).

We would mutually defend the borders to prevent colony ships of other races from settling in the interior.

Each of us has the other two close by, and thus relieving the military pressure on those sides would free the resources that would go to war-making and defense, and allow them to be used for the building of our respective economies. This, I believe, would be the prime benefit of our commonwealth. It also keeps the future in mind, as we would be a formidable force later in the game.

Regardless of your respective decisions, I find I must act now, because colonization by the Xym in our quadrant can only be harmful at this stage. It is therefore my intention to destroy two Xym Federates colony ships; one currently orbiting Wumpus, and one just east of Oop Be Gone. I have an armed ship that should take care of these. If you agree to this alliance, this will be considered the first official act of the ABRZoinKzin Commonwealth.

However, understand that, given your current strength, I cannot currently afford to allow you to colonize any closer to me than you already are. Therefore I intend to remove any colony ships I deem a threat until such time as we have some sort of agreement, if any. I do not intend this to be an act of war, only of border defense.

The Xym note went via StarsMail, which means he won’t get it until the following year. The reason for this is that I would actually like the chance to pit one of my warships against his colonizer and see if it can kill it before it runs away.

Of course, the one drawback to all this is that if the Kzin & ABRs turn against me, I’m rather cornered. But, I’m cornered if they don’t ally with me anyway, so at least it’s a delaying tactic, and at most it’s the beginning of a good economic & military plan.

I'm all for the ABRZoinKzin Commonwealth. I don't have much (as my score clearly shows) but I'm willing to share my resources, stargates and technology with members of our Commonwealth.

The Xym, the Mattari’iani and I have been jockeying for position. I’ve been in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places during these past years, and now I’m in 2nd place, 9 points behind the Xym.

Recent technological advances: Weapons 7 (Blackjack) and Weapons 8 (Phaser Bazooka, M-70 bomb).

The wormhole has been volatile all during this time. I’ve placed miners, Teamsters and colonizers into Shank’s queue to send into the wormhole before time runs out. Shank has also produced 3 Fielder fleets (a Fielder, a Little Zoinker and a Gas Station) and they’re on their way to Alpha Centauri (which was colonized in 2425), Resort and Vivaldi. This should slow down or stop the Xym for now.

Other construction included a Starbase Hull at Spaceball. Two other planets are now building Starbase Hulls; Red Ball (ready in 2433) and Aquarius (ready in 2437)

On the battle fronts, not much has happened. In 2425 I found the Imperial scout (that I had seen earlier) near Cornwallis. For some reason I had not set my Armed Probe scout to fly by Skloot (ABR’s homeworld) and I wound up in orbit of it, sporting the default battle plans instead of the "Chicken" one. Not yet having set the ABRs to "Friend" status, the probe attacked and was easily defeated by the fleet there. I sent an explaining message to the ABRs, and also asked for a response to my proposal. Information from that battle, however, has led me to believe that the ABRs may be a "Super Stealth" race—their destroyers have the small Stealth Cloak device, but nothing else special.

A Mattari scout had parked in the orbit of Cirrus (beyond the wormhole) and seemed to be keeping tabs on me. Not wishing to let this forward observer go unchallenged, I dispatched the Little Zoinker orbiting Arcturius to take him out. He will arrive next year.

This year I destroyed a Xym colonizer northwest of Resort. An earlier attempt at another colonizer failed when I ran out of fuel. A Little Zoinker going to defend Vivaldi has a Xym scout in his sights for next year.

Diplomatically, there has been some movement, but not as much as I’d hoped. The ABRs sent me a StarsMail message in 2425 suggesting an alliance, but this came after I’d sent the Internet E-mail proposing the ABRZoinKzin Commonwealth. As of now, I’ve heard nothing from him on this, so I’ll probably have to send a cage-rattling E-mail like I did with the Kzin. In 2426, the Kzin said that they were just entering one of the wormholes I had asked about, but no information since then.

100 lightyears indeed. Alpha Centauri is 324 lightyears away from Shank. Still, an alliance with the Xym, versus the two fellas I’m working on right now, who are in 11th and 12th places and aren’t all that responsive, may make just a bit more strategic sense, especially if the Xym don’t like taking "No" for an answer. I don’t think (but I don’t know) if the Xym could really start bothering me, so I’ll play it close to the vest for now and tentatively agree to some sort of alliance, until I have a better idea of what he wants out of it. My response:

I’d like to know a little more about the details of what you believe an alliance between our empires would require of me and what I would get out of it. It certainly does sound like if we were to pool our resources we’d be unstoppable. I need to know more about your intentions before I agree to anything.

As to colonization, due north of your colony on Novelty is the planet Skloot. Anything south and west of that point I consider my territory. Until such time as we are full-fledged allies, any ships of yours in that area will be challenged. The sooner we have a deal, the sooner that restriction is removed.

He’s got 34 planets now. It’s hard to say "No" to that. That exchange took place in 2426, and I hadn’t heard anything since then (from anybody), so I decided to prod things along. I sent this message to the Kzin and ABRs:

OK, we've been rather tentative about all this, but now it's time to ally in earnest.

ABRs, I got your request for an alliance in my Stars messages after I had sent you my Internet E-mail proposing the ABRZoinKzin Commonwealth, so I imagine they crossed in the mail. I would assume that you, then, would be interested in such an alliance, but I'd rather not do too much assuming.

If this is going to work, we need to keep each other updated as to what we know about the universe. I'll start by letting you both know that I took out a Xym colony ship northwest of Resort. I missed another when I ran out of fuel. I let him know that any ships in our region would be challenged, but I didn't tip our hand too much. I didn't mention this alliance and spoke as though I only represented myself. I don't want him getting worried about us and starting a war.

There is a wormhole near Shank (way in the corner) that fires you all the way to the far northeastern corner of the universe. If you want to use it to spread out, go for it. The pickings are great, and I've only run into other players' scouts (the Mattari'iani and the Imperials). No foreign-owned planets found there yet. However, the wormhole is currently "Volatile", so you'd need to hurry.

Here's the kind of information I'd like to get from you: Three of his colony ships a few years ago all came from the planet Farragut, and I'd like to know if that's his home planet or not. There are wormholes near the Kzin, and it would be good to know where they empty out. What other player have you seen besides all of us and the Xym?

As you've no doubt seen, I do intend to enforce my own personal No-Fly zone until such time as we have some sort of agreement. I agree that we could become a serious contender for winning alliance if we work together, but as of yet I haven't heard what your intentions are, nor what each of us are to contribute and what each of us get out of this.

Make this worth my while, and I may enjoy working with you. I may bring more to the table then you're aware of.

Recent technological advances: Energy 5 (Temperature Terraform +/- 7, Missile Battery defenses).

Steppenwolf built a new Starbase Hull in 2431, and is in the process of building miners and freighters to help with it’s dearth of Germanium.

Scouts beyond the wormhole discovered a colony of the Imperials at Midnight, and an Imperial colonizer heading toward Yes. An Alpha scout has also been discovered approaching a planet southwest of Ripper Jack.

My relations with the Xym have taken a turn for the better. In 2429, I attacked a Xym Scout, but the torpedoes kept missing, so I only did 60% damage to it. I also saw his colonizers emerging from a wormhole near Fizbin. The Xym sent a StarsMail message that same year (to everybody, though possibly by accident) wondering why I killed his colonizer, probably sent before getting my Internet E-mail. I responded (solely to him) suggesting he pay closer attention to his E-mail and asked again to let me know what he wants to do with an alliance. In 2430, I got a StarsMail from the Xym:

Xym scientists have now developed a universal translator to facilitate communications.

The Xym are interested in working with the Zoinks to ensure that both of our races have room to expand. It is our philosophy that cooperation with our most powerful neighbors is much better than confrontation, especially when all races are at an early stage of development. Those races that get involved in early conflicts waste resources that are better used for other purposes. The Xym propose a nonaggression and mutual defense treaty with the Zoinks together with technology trade. If desirable, this can later be extended to mutual cooperation against races in the way of our expansion. We also request that you propose an eastern border between our spheres of influence. If we work together quietly, we should become too powerful for any other race and will have an excellent chance of dominating the southern half of the galaxy.

I like the sound of your proposal. I accept your non-aggression and mutual defense treaty. With regards to a border, a line from Skloot due south would work for me.

With regards to technology trading, I am currently at Energy 4, Weapons 8, Propulsion 5, Construction 8, Electronics 4 and Biotech 4. Let me know where you are, and we can discuss specifics.

As of now, your ships will not be challenged, and I have set you to "Friend" status.

Due to this, the Fielder fleet that was flying to Vivaldi had its orders changed to go to Scorpius. This is really what I had been waiting for; a powerful ally that will, hopefully, put some effort into an alliance. In anticipation of this alliance with the Xym, I don’t intend to actively pursue the ABRZoinKzin Commonwealth any further. Keeping a non-aggression agreement with them will allow me to concentrate on expansion.

In 2430, I set Crazy Horse Monitor’s course to the wormhole the Xym were coming out of. It arrived in 2432 north of Farragut and 300 lightyears due east of Skloot. Along with some freighters, were 2 more Xym colonies, and I’m rather certain now that he’s got a huge habitability range. I also saw a Mattari scout, which surprised me a bit, but he too may be using wormholes. The question is, is he closer to the north or south?

The Mattari situation hasn’t changed too much, but things are happening, and I anticipate some diplomatic relations to emerge soon. Beyond the wormhole in 2429, I took out their scout orbiting Cirrus and my miners, and I found a colony of theirs, Curley, which had an orbital fort. In 2430 I found their colony Dachshund, which did not have an orbital fort, and saw a Sarducci scout orbiting Curley. Then, in 2431 I got a StarsMail from the Imperials that reminded me of a strategic advantage with regards to the northern races that I might be able to employ with my wormhole colonies:

Hail leader of the Zoinks. My radar indicates your home planet is the planet of Chubs. If this is correct, I hope a mutual friendship can be reached between the Imperials and our eastern neighbor.

I wondered if and when someone in the northeast corner of the universe would think I was based there. Of course, I thought the illusion would be a tad more accurate as to planets that I own, but he may have seen scouts coming from there and made an assumption. In any event, I’m in no position to annoy anyone in that vicinity (the incident with the Mattari scout aside), so my response is:

Hail, Imperial leader. While I’m not based at Chubs, I am in the vicinity, and I do wish to engage in a "mutual friendship" with your empire. For the short term, perhaps we should enter into a non-aggression pact. This will allow us to work our economies up to a reasonable state and perhaps we could become a military alliance in the mid- to long-term. I have noticed the Mattari’iani moving into this region as well with substantial sized colonies. Keep me in mind.

The Imperials and I are close in score, and this would be a very interesting pairing. However, it has occurred to me that my score is divided between my original colonies and the wormhole colonies, and thus at neither place am I truly a power as implied on the scoreboard, though my original colonies have a majority of that power. But I can pursue alliances as though I am 2 widely separated empires; I can form alliances at both ends and possibly play them against each other. With that in mind, and hopefully to allay any aggressive ideas the Mattari’iani may have against me, I sent this to them via StarsMail:

In spite of a recent confrontation between us involving a scout of yours, I wish to propose a non-aggression pact between our empires. First, however, please let me explain the situation involving your scout.

The planet which your scout was orbiting is home to one of my mining operations. Had it simply scanned the planet and moved on, I would have had no cause to worry. However, it remained in orbit for a number of turns, and it concerned me why it would want to keep an eye on my miners. My thought was that it was acting as the forward observer for an attack; insuring that ships were still there while the attack force was on its way. For that reason, I destroyed it. It has occurred to me that a simple request for it to leave sent directly to you should have been my course of action. Hence, I regret my action, and ask your forgiveness.

If you accept, then perhaps we can begin to build a bridge to the 26th Century by working together in the northeast portion of the universe.

Please respond here or via Internet E-mail. Thank you very much for your understanding.

These messages went out in 2431. Hopefully, the illusion can be maintained even though that Mattari Scout can see my scout near the wormhole in Xym territory down south.

I put a Starbase Hull in the queue of Arcturius (with mines enough to build it sooner), and by this year mines were still being built. However, after thinking this strategy of illusion over, I took the hull out of the queue and put in a regular Starbase like the one at Shank, which will be ready in 2437. This, along with the load of colonists I’ve been dumping there, could create the illusion that Arcturius is my home planet. Even the mineral concentrations are very close to everyone’s home planet values.

The ABRZoinKzin Commonwealth has produced precious little. In 2430, I saw a Kzin scout in my scanners beyond the wormhole, but he hadn’t used my usual one. The one near Crazy Horse apparently dumps out very close to where the one near Shank does. This was confirmed by a message from the Kzin. To keep up at least the appearance of an alliance, I sent this:

Heh, I realized where that wormhole exited when I saw your Peeping Tom on my wormhole colonies' scanners. They're both extremely volatile, so if you're going to use them, ya' better hurry. I would suggest filling colonizers & freighters with colonists (along with some defenses, though I could help with that) and pump them through the wormhole, and -then- worry about where to settle them. I'll help with picking out a suitable spot if you'll let me know what your ideal habitability is.

I’ll certainly help him if he needs it, but I fear this is a diplomatic and strategic dead-end.

I got Energy 6 (Wolverine Diffuse Shield) this year, and switched to Electronics research.

I colonized Cornwallis beyond the wormhole this year. The planets of the Imperials have changed their characteristics so drastically and so soon, that it appears that they are a Claim Adjuster race. On the south side of the universe, I scanned Farragut, and it has 848,000 Xym on it and a starbase of some sort, so it must be homeworld.

Diplomatically, this has been an active year. The Mattari explain their side of the scout incident in a StarsMail:

I'd would be please to take steps towards peace in the 26th century, as well as now, in the 25th century. The loss of the scout went without notice; after all, I didn't notice that it had stopped moving (the location was merely coincidental -- I missed the end-of-path message). It's loss has little or no impact on the possibility of a long term cooperative effort.

In that vein, I will let you know that I'm planning colonization of Chubs (X:1921/Y:1929), which is in a region that you would perhaps lay claim (it appears to be half way between our homes). Is this a problem? Hopefully not ...

Would you be interested in tech/mineral trade? If so let me know ... While I'm currently inferior to you in overall tech levels, I'm sure that we both have tech to exchange ... after all, you've got a jump in weapons tech, and I construction. Currently my techs are 4/3/6/6/3/4. Please let me know ...

(OK, no more references to U.S. political catch-phrases.) He’s seen my Beta torps, but believes he can help me with construction tech. Actually, I’m ahead of him in all areas of tech except Propulsion (and even then I only lag by 1 level), so I can help him out there, but how many minerals are enough in exchange for tech? I could certainly use minerals, as I’m just really getting going out there. My reply (via the Internet):

I am very happy to hear that you are agreeable to a cooperative alliance. We are quite evenly matched, in terms of score, and combining our efforts would most certainly make us an impressive force.

One never has enough minerals, so I propose a Tech-for-Minerals trade between our empires—tech from me, minerals from you. We may need to negotiate a little over prices, since I’m not really sure how much would be a fair price. One possibility would be to allow me access to a mining operation of yours (that is, allow me to send my own transports to gather minerals) as the price for tech. Let me know what you think of this arrangement.

In addition, I think an alliance with the Imperials may be very helpful to us. (Have you seen them yet?) I believe, based on my observations, that they are a Claim Adjuster race, and if so, could add a lot to an alliance, by providing terraforming for a price. If you agree with this idea, what do you think of my sending a message to them on behalf of the both of us? I’m sure that the Imperials would see that allying with both of us would be in their best interest.

I will await your reply, but to speed things along a bit, you may wish to respond by Internet E-mail as well, as the turnaround time for Stars messages is far too long to have efficient negotiations. Time is critical right now, and we need to solidify our alliance and our economy as soon as possible.

I'd be quite interested in a broad-based agreement. Tech-for-Tech might be more appropriate, see below ...

A little difficult ... I consider digging in the dirt as work for hobbits and dwarfs, two races that are in short supply at my HW :-)

I don't have great supplies of minerals, but can certainly share. Do you have Stargate techs yet? If not, I can send to some ...

Please do so ... while Terraforming is of less of a concern for me, I'd be interested too!

As would I ... I would like to get the opportunity to setup a small colony in both of your regions of space (and would be agreeable to the reverse, of course) ... by ability to move ships loaded would be very useful, both in the short term, and definitely in the future!

Both my regions of space? I checked again and sure enough; a Mattari probe (quite likely the same one Crazy Horse Monitor saw when he went into a nearby wormhole) is orbiting Farragut, and I have a long-range probe flying by, coming from the southwest of Farragut He’s seen two scouts out there now. I don’t think the secret will be safe from him for long, and no sense giving him a reason to distrust me, so I’ll have to be up front with him very soon, but not just yet. In fact, "both" may have been referring to the Imperials and me. For now, I’ll ignore the word "both" and press on. (And he’s still hooked on tech trading.)

I take it that, based on your message, you either have only basic remote mining, don’t build mines too easily, or both. (Or possibly you have huge habitability and don’t require remote miners.) Hence you only wish to trade tech. However, suffice to say that I am ahead of you in all areas of tech but one, and therefore such a trade agreement would currently not do much for me. I am, however, still very open to negotiation as to some sort of economic agreement.

Yes, I do have stargate technology. I can build the 100/250 variety but I don’t have any on my starbases yet. Do I take it, based on your message and your tech levels, that you are an Interstellar Traveler?

I noted your suggestion of posting a small colony in each other’s territory. As this would facilitate tech transfers (as well as mineral transfers if you agree to such and are, in fact, an interstellar traveler), I would certainly agree to that.

I will send out a message to the Imperials and copy you on it. It will be essentially from "us", inviting him into some sort of alliance. Let’s see how that goes.

On behalf of myself and the Mattari’iani, I would like to propose an economic (and possibly, in the future, military) alliance in our area of the universe. Based on my observations, you are a claim adjuster, and that ability would be useful to us, as well as your participation in a non-aggression agreement so that we may each expand our economies without wasting resources on war.

Yes, my people are claims adjusters, and I would be very pleased to enter into a (primarily) economics, as well as a possible military alliance. In fact, I am having problems with another race, but it's nothing I cannot handle, and would not want to drag either of your empires into battles with which you have nothing to gain.

But an economic alliance would please me very much. My empire has a dire shortage of Ironium and Germanium, and a HUGE surplus of boranium...which tends to be the most useless of the three =/ Hopefully the Imperials can exchange boranium and terraforming services to your two empires for an amount of ironium and/or germanium.

Normally, that news about boranium would be met with a yawn. All the home planets are very rich in boranium. However, from my wormhole colonies’ perspective, that may not be such a bad idea. And once again, folks are asking for minerals, while the Mattari’iani want tech. I asked the Mattari leader what he thought, suggesting that excess boranium would be useful for the Mystery Trader if nothing else, and that while we my not have the other minerals lying around in large quantities, giving the Imperials access to a mining colony may work.

The pack of 5 at the top of the scores have been shifting around quite a bit, but either the Xym or the Vikings have been on top the whole time. The Xym currently hold it. I’ve been as low as 5th in 2438, but I’m now in 2nd place, only 10 points ahead of the 5th place Mattari’iani.

Recent technological advances: Electronics 5 in 2435 (Possum Scanner, Stealth Cloak), jacked resources to research up to 50% in 2437 to go after Weapons 10 sooner, got Weapons 9 in 2438 (Pulsed Sapper), Energy 7 in 2439 (Energy Capacitor) accidentally, and got Weapons 10 in 2440 (Colloidal Phaser, Delta Torpedo, Radiation Terraform +/- 11). I moved the resource percentage to research back to 15% in 2440.

General discoveries: In 2434, I found a small colony of the Sarduccies northeast of Skloot at Dunsany. The last time I had seen the Sarduccis, they had a scout orbiting a planet near the wormhole colonies. By this year, I’ve found a number of Sarducci colonies in the vicinity of Dunsany, so I’m not exactly sure where they are based.

In 2434, I began building ships to colonize marginal planets, since the supply of good habitable planets had pretty much run out for me, both at home and beyond the wormhole. At this point, I’ve colonized Kalamazoo and am almost at Olympia, and beyond the wormhole I’ve colonized Poly Siren, Hummingbird and Goober. In 2437 I did find one good 51% planet for me, Ney, near the Kzin home planet of Crazy Horse. I put a colonizer and 7 Teamsters in Shanks queue to put 100,000 colonists and most of the minerals to build a basic Starbase (I was a little short on Ironium at the time), plus a couple of Gas Stations to speed up the trip. They left in 2438 and are still on their way this year.

Starbases (mostly empty hulls, still useful for fuel and ship-building) have been going up all over. I now have 7. In 2435 Aquarius got a Starbase Hull and Arcturius got the same kind of starbase as Shank, in an effort to make it look more like a homeworld. Hulls went into the queues of Scorpius, Crabby and Alpha Centauri in 2437. Crabby’s was built this year, but Alpha Centauri’s won’t be ready until 2442, and Scorpius’ in 2448. The base at Alpha Centauri will be useful in tech trading, as scrapping high-tech ships at any planet can give the tech, but you get some more minerals out of the deal at a starbase.

Other sightings: I spotting a Viking scout cruising toward the wormhole colonies in 2436. I also found a small Alpha colony southwest of Ripper Jack in 2439, and two Alpha privateers heading northeast, though not to any planets that seem to have Alpha mining ships that I know of.

During this whole time, the main wormhole that has been my highway to the northeast corner of the universe has remained "Extremely Volatile". I’ve seen other extremely volatile wormholes disappear, so I’ve been very lucky to have kept this one around long enough to allow the wormhole colonies to become rather self-sufficient.

Diplomacy: These recent years have seen quite a bit of diplomatic development. Negotiations with each of the different parties haven’t affected any of the other parties just yet, though I may have to take sides at some point, and that could get rough.

The Xym Federates: I sent a message to the Xym in 2434 asking how he wished to handle tech trade, and I offered my tech in Construction and Energy, and asked for Electronics and/or Propulsion. At the time, I was ahead in tech levels of the 3 players above me in score. I wasn’t so hot on giving away Weapons tech, but if I’m going to have alliances, I’m going to have to bolster my allies.

Your proposal for technology trade sounds good. We are currently at energy 4, weapons 8, propulsion 8, construction 4, electronics 3, biotechnology 3 and are researching propulsion 9. I suggest that I provide propulsion to you and you provide construction to me. I believe that you know that my homeworld is Farragut. Where should I send the ships, then should I start and how often do you wish to trade?

I’m thinking this will work pretty well. Thus, in 2436, I created the "TT Freighter"; a large freighter with just a Fuel Mizer engine, and I started to build three. He said he would start building scouts with tech 8 engines. The wormhole southwest of Crazy Horse that he had been using to send colonizers through a few years ago had disappeared at his end. It was still around at my end, so I sent 3 TT Freighters there in 2437. Unfortunately, my end of the wormhole disappeared in 2438. I informed the Xym about this and redirected the freighters to the Xym colony of Novelty (they are the 3 ships going there in the 2440 Home Colonies map).

The Xym informed me that the tech 8 scouts were ready and that he was sending them to Genesis. I haven’t even scanned Genesis yet (too far east), so I sent a message back informing him, but I want to know who’s on Genesis, in case this could mean he’s also tech trading with someone else. I sent a scout there pronto.

Meanwhile, in 2437, a Xym scout, scouting out my homeworld, went into my main wormhole and is now present near the wormhole colonies. Fortunately, he has been flying southwest from it, and my colonies are mostly east and far south of the wormhole exit. However, I’m sure I can’t keep that secret from him too much longer. He also has scouts flying up from the south, quite likely without the aid of a wormhole.

The Kzin and the ABRs: Not much has happened with the Kzin. I sent them a message in 2439 asking if they’d decided to use any of the planets beyond the wormhole and offered to find planets for them if they would let me know their habitability, but I got no response.

Having never really responded to any of my alliance offers, the ABRs became simply someone I coexisted with, not having set him to "Friend" status. There were no open hostilities between us up until 2436, but from that point on, I began to wonder just what the ABRs had in mind.

In 2436, I had a scout going from Vivaldi to a planet just north of it, Eridanus, at warp 4 in an effort to fill up it’s gas tank. The same year it arrived at Eridanus, an ABR scout arrived, and since they weren’t set as friends, my Armed Probe attacked his unarmed scout. He asked:

Nope, don’t want war with you sir, but as I’ve mentioned, I’ve not heard anything from you regarding my Commonwealth proposal, and as such have not set you to "Friend" status. My probe was simply shuttling around gathering fuel with the typical battle plan (i.e. blow ‘em away if they aren’t friends). Your non-response in quite some time has let me to consider you neutral, for now.

I did not receive any more messages from them, though by this year I had destroyed a total of 4 ABR scouts, mostly due to their arrival at planets with Little Zoinkers orbiting them. This year, I noticed an ABR Privateer & Medium Freighter fleet moving towards the Kzin colony of Fizbin. I’ve noted their weight, and will see if they leave there heavier. If they do, this may signal some sort of cooperation between them. Given that I’d suggested cooperation among all three of us, cooperation between them & quietness toward me may signal that something is brewing up there that doesn’t sound good for me.

I sent a message to the Xym asking if the ABRs have been in contact, and suggesting that, given my history with them (no response to requests of allying, complaining when his ships are shot down), he will be more of a thorn in our sides.

The imperials and the Mattari’iani: The Imperials officially set me to "Friend" status in 2437, and I reciprocated. Not much else happened with regards to this alliance beyond the wormhole until I sent a message out to both of them in 2439:

It's time to get cranking. A non-aggression pact is great, but I think we may need to start work in earnest on economic and/or technological aid. Let's first let each other know what we have to offer, and what we need.

In terms of tech, I'm currently at Energy 7, Weapons 9, Propulsion 5, Construction 8, Electronic 5 and Biotech 4. In terms of tech, I think I'm doing fine. What I need are minerals. As I'm sure most folks are a little short on Ironium & Germanium, I propose a cooperative mining colony on a rich planet. For example, the planets Greene and Radian have huge concentrations of all 3 minerals, and if we sent loads of mining ships from all our empires there, and used it as a common mineral store, we could churn up loads of minerals and then pick and choose just what we needed from what was uncovered. When one planet was dry, we could relocate the colony to another location and start digging.

Let me know what you think. Let's pick a target soon and start sending miners there.

>In terms of tech, I'm currently at Energy 7, Weapons 9, Propulsion 5,
>Construction 8, Electronic 5 and Biotech 4. In terms of tech, I think I'm
>doing fine.

>What I need are minerals. As I'm sure most folks are a little
>short on Ironium & Germanium, I propose a cooperative mining colony on a
>rich planet.

Or get them from me. I currently have 17000 of each on my planets. Do you have a gate near by?

> For example, the planets Greene and Radian have huge
>concentrations of all 3 minerals, and if we sent loads of mining ships from
>all our empires there, and used it as a common mineral store, we could
>churn up loads of minerals and then pick and choose just what we needed
>from what was uncovered. When one planet was dry, we could relocate the
>colony to another location and start digging.

>Let me know what you think. Let's pick a target soon and start sending
>miners there.

Either or both planets would be good. I should describe my race. I've admitted that I'm IT ... I have taken a team strategy with my race. I'm a min hab (all right end) race ... do you have any planets (hunks of rock will do) with maxed habs? That'll allow me to establish transport colonies in your territory ... while my gate are little better than anyone else’s at this point, it's still safe for me to overgate anything.

If you need a reasonable amount of minerals, I can deliver it to any gate you'd like. Please let me know ...

He apparently has been hammering on research (or doing tech trade elsewhere). Comparing these tech figures to the message he sent in 2433 shows significant growth. Also, letting him colonize a planet close to me would be disastrous should he turn on me (he will, at some point, be able to gate in huge ships), but it would aid in tech & mineral trade. For now, I think I have to join into an alliance beyond the wormhole since I’m so relatively weak there. Thus my response:

I could really use the Electronics tech. Perhaps we can trade that for Weapons tech. Let me know if that sounds good to you and I can start sending you some ships with Weapons 6. I've heard that sending 3 of a tech-trading ship really raises the odds of transferring the tech when they are scrapped, though I'm not sure if it's better to scrap them as a fleet or as individual fleets. Let me know where you'd like them. Scrapping at any planet could give you the tech, it's just that scrapping at a starbase will get you more minerals out of the deal as well.

We can do the tech trade for now, and get to minerals later. I don't have gates on my starbases yet, and I'm waiting for better tech in other areas before I design a new one. When I have stargates, you'll be the first to know. :)

The planet Mu is very close to my planet of Arcturius and seems to fit your habitability (Grav 1.96, Temp 156, and Rad 93) while having very nice Ironium & Boranium deposits (78 & 83, Germanium is 1). You can set up shop there.

I noticed you didn't copy the Imperials on your message. Would it be OK for me to forward it on to them or not?

I'll construct some ships with ferret scanners and send them your way (in fact, I what I'll do is transfer them straight away, so you'll get scans of the intervening space). It's much better to scrap the ships as individuals ... that way you get 3 50% chances instead of 1 50%+ increment ... I could also use help with construction -- it's a prime requirement for me!

You may have noticed my scout at the planet, and don't worry ... there's already a colony fleet underway :-)

Once I reach Mu, I'll throw up a PinPoint station ... then you'll have ready access to my gate network. Then we'll be able to trade freely.

>I noticed you didn't copy the Imperials on your message. Would it be OK
>for me to forward it on to them or not?

As I've just sent off in the game [those bloody messages are just too slow], I am also seeking a military alliance as well. I don't know offhand what my techs are, but I'm in the lead for it, so I guess they're ok =) If you do wish to agree to a military alliance, I will send each of you an adjuster that is capable of terraforming 2% [actually, I'll send three to each of you] per year.

I'm currently in a heated war with another empire, but I will not ask either of you to become involved, as I don't want to drag you into a fight you have nothing to do with =) In the future however, if anyone tries to come off all big-and-bad, I suggest all three of us threaten with retaliatory force to get whoever it is off our backs...agreed?

Also, I have a treaty with the Vikings [they're in the far west]. If we continue using teamwork, we can form quite an impressive display between all of us.

I like the idea, and responded as such. I’ve got some yellow planets, and some tiny green ones, that need adjusting. I’ll suggest Goober and Cornwallis as initial locations.

The pack of 5 at the top of the score chart have pretty much settled into position by this year, as no one of us has changed ranking in the past 3 years. The Vikings are barely holding on to 5th place, only 6 points ahead of the Imperials. The Mattari’iani are almost 20 points ahead of the Vikings,

the Alphas 14 points ahead of the Mattari’iani, I’m 32 points ahead of the Alphas and the Xym are 44 points ahead of me.

Recent Technological Advances: Construction 9 (Kelarium, Super Cargo Pod, Cruiser hull) in 2441, Energy 8 in 2442, and Energy 9 (Mass Driver 7) in 2444.

Recent Colonization Efforts: Colonized Olympia in 2441, and Poly Siren became a green planet and I colonized Virgo beyond the wormhole in 2443. In 2444 I put a Nina (large freighter colonizer), a Gas Station & 3 Little Zoinkers in the queue of Shank for colonizing one of the yellow worlds discovered northeast of Crazy Horse called All Work. They left in 2445 on their 490 lightyear trek. The Ney Colony fleet didn’t have Colonize orders, and they arrived at Ney in 2444 at the same time a Persuader Watcher armed scout arrived. The 7 Teamsters took 10% damage but escaped. They colonized this year, but the starbase won’t be ready until 2451 because I apparently didn’t supply enough Boranium for construction, so I’ll have to build some mines. Also this year Kalamazoo and Olympia turned green, and I colonized Kulu near Aquarius beyond the wormhole.

General Discoveries: Found a Persuader scout heading towards Ney from the north in 2441 (the one mentioned earlier). Since then I have seen a number of their scout ships peeking in from the north along the western edge of the universe. Found a Delik colony ship stopped in orbit of Allen, and then the Delik homeworld of Castle, 260 lightyears northeast of Ney.

A Mystery Trader has appeared! He first showed up in 2441 just west and a little north of Ney moving northeast at warp 10, which just glances off the edge of my home colonies, but will go directly through my wormhole colonies if he doesn’t change course. I built 5 TT Freighters at Shank and loaded them up with excess Boranium (8169 kT on the surface of Shank in 2441) and fired them through the rapidly closing wormhole. They are currently waiting at Arcturius. If the Trader keeps his speed & course, he’ll pass right by Arcturius in 2454, but I may be able to link up with him sooner than that.

In 2442 I got a new Space Station Hull at Alpha Centauri, which will aid in tech transfer, not to mention allowing me to build ships closer to any fronts.

Diplomacy: Cool & calm in the north, getting hotter in the south. Before, I thought that I was being slick allying with both ends of the universe, but now I feel as though I’m digging a hole for myself. This northern alliance could really give the Xym a run for their money. At some point I’m probably going to have to choose sides, and the side I don’t choose is going to be down my throat pretty quickly. The question is; who will be better able to protect both my areas once that decision is made? It looks like the Xym might be, but I need to know more about the Mattari’iani.

The North: The Alpha Privateers I saw earlier with unknown destinations now appear to be heading to two different scouts to team up. I found an Alpha scout parked in orbit around Weed in 2444.

In 2442, the Imperials offered 3 planetary adjusters that can each alter a planet by 2%/year in exchange for a long-lasting military alliance. I agreed, but haven’t heard from him since. (I’m told Spring Break may be a factor.)

In 2443, the Mattari’iani gave me a number of ships with Electronics tech 7 scanners for me to fly back to a planet of mine, picking up scan information along the way, and scrap for tech advances. However, he hadn’t set me to Friend yet, so on the turn he gave them to me at his planets, they went into attack mode. Since they were unarmed they simply disengaged. He fixed that problem quickly, and it’s a good thing; the planets he gave them to me at were surrounded by his minefields. Some have arrived at Ripper Jack and will scrap next year, other are 1 and 2 years out.

The South: The ABR privateer and medium freighter that was heading for the Kzin’s Fizbin colony disappeared! There is nothing there that would have destroyed the ships; no starbase nor warships. It appeared that he had scrapped the fleet in attempt to give tech, and this would indicate cooperation with me out of the loop. I was worried that I’d have to start beating on them too soon. So I sent a message to the Kzin to see if he knew the whole store between the ABRs and me, and to try to figure out what was going on:

The ABRs have never really signed on to the Commonwealth idea, and as such I’ve not set them to "Friend" status. Because of this, any of their scouts that have arrived at planets where I have stationed a defense have been destroyed. He complained about this once, but I restated that I hadn’t heard from him in regards to an alliance. I haven’t heard from him since then, yet his scouts still show up at my defended planets (and, of course, die).

I was wondering if you’ve heard anything from him that might explain this. Has he mentioned this situation at all to you? Thanks.

The ABRs had also sent another "Ouch" message due to another scout being taken out by me:

Ouch that was my scout. Id rather not start a war, would you like to sort out some sort of boundary?

My response was that I’d been trying to begin negotiations for quite some time, and that we seem to be rather intertwined in terms of area so a boundary seems difficult. My suggestion to him was to keep the status quo in the area southwest of Skloot, though he can have Lever, where I’d seen a large contingent of ABR freighters and a colonizer.

Greetings. As per your suggestion, I will send the scouts to a planet that you actually occupy >sheepish grin<. They will arrive at Alpha Centauri in 4 years.

Xym can comfortably colonize Chopin if that is acceptable to you. I will dispatch a colonizer next turn.

For your tech transfer, you can send ships to either Dollar or Cramp as I have starbases at both. Both are four turns at warp 8 so tech transfer should go relatively rapidly.

Are you planning to colonize either Eridanus or Gunk? If not, I could colonize them and share the minerals with you. Let me know if you are interested.

I checked out Genesis by 2442, and it belongs to the Xym, so the mistake was just a mistake. Allowing him to colonize Chopin will aid in tech transfer, and while it’s in my interior, I think I could contain him if it became necessary. And minerals from Eridanus or Gunk would really help my outlying home colonies, so all this sounds good to me. Why he wants me to scrap way out at Dollar or Cramp is beyond me, but I’m sending them there, though I suggested that Novelty is better in terms of distance from a starbase that I can actually build the tech transfer ships. In my message I added this paragraph:

BTW, the ABR’s and the Kzin appear to be doing some sort of cooperation behind my back. I say "behind my back" because I approached them very early about an alliance, but not much ever came of it; the Kzin agreed but never did much, and the ABRs never agreed. Yet I’ve seen a couple of ABR ships disappear at a Kzin planet and there was nothing there to destroy the ships, so they must have been scrapped. Have you heard anything from them?

He answered in 2442, saying he hadn’t heard anything from the ABRs in about 15 years, ever since an incident with one of the Xym’s unarmed scouts (sounds familiar) after which the Xym tried to establish a border. He added:

As to your suggestion about an attack on the ABRs, that is a possibility. I usually prefer to delay attacking as long as possible to avoid wasting minerals on semiuseless ships and until I have good bombs. What time frame, if any, do you have in mind?

I’d like to begin planning right away, depending on the response I get from the Kzin. I asked about the disappearing ships and his response will determine my response. I am currently in a good position to build some rather decent warships; ones that I’d use over the long-term. I’d also want to start upgrading my starbases with stargates to aid in moving forces into position. It’s still a few years away, but the ABRs have been too quiet for my taste. It may be because he doesn’t have enough time, but it may not be. I'd rather delay war as long as possible, too, but there's no sense in letting him get too big if an alliance with him is not going to do us any good.

Another thing that’s bothering me is that the Kzin have 4 Destroyers in orbit of their home planet, Crazy Horse. Two of them are of a new design, though I don’t know what’s on any of them. Granted, he’s had them there for quit some time, but all the same, with evidence of possible cooperation between he and the ABRs, I’m keep a close eye on him.

In 2443, a very interesting battle took place at the Kzin homeworld of Crazy Horse. An ABR scout showed up there and my Crazy Horse Monitor disengaged, but the Kzin destroyers took out the scout, which may indicate either he’s not set the ABRs to Friend, or that being Friend with me and me not being Friend to ABR caused his ships to attack the ABRs. I think in the latter case the Kzin ships wouldn’t have engaged, so it really made me think that perhaps the Kzin weren’t quite on friendly terms with the ABRs just yet.

Again, that same year, the ABRs tried to make ovations of friendship. They said that they had sent a message asking about borders, which they did, but still no mention of allying via the Commonwealth. My response:

You never responded to my "Commonwealth" messages, and at this point I've stopped pursuing it. FYI.

The Xym and I agreed in 2443 to send messages to each other in even-numbered years letting the other know what kind of tech we wanted, to help that process along. They scrapped 3 ships at Resort in 2444, but I got no tech from it.

An ABR freighter blew up in the minefield surrounding Alpha Centauri in 2444, and ABR Smaugarian Peeping Toms stopped in the orbits of Beacon and Cephus. I dispatched Little Zoinkers from Black Hole and Spaceball to remove them. They were successful.

The Xym sent a message in 2444 detailing where other races were as well as his thoughts on going to war:

I am somewhat hesitant to take on the ABRs at the present time because I am short of both Ironium and Germanium. This will limit my ship building capabilities, and I would not like to go into combat unprepared? I am currently trying to build up my supplies but this will take several turns. In terms of growth by the ABRs and Kzin, I am not too concerned. They seem to be boxed in and have few planets to expand to. The Persuaders are to the NE, the Harrads directly N, the Sarduccis NW, I am W and SW and you are S and SE. They also do not appear to be a problem from a technology or a resources standpoint.

If we do decide to go to war, what is your timeframe, and what types of ships do you suggest that we build? I would like to make sure that we carefully coordinate our moves so that we take them out as quickly as possible and with as few losses to ourselves as possible. A massive strike from two directions with bombers would seem to be best.

In terms of tech transfer, I now have a starbase at McClellan. You can send your ships there. I could put a 100/250 stargate there if you think it would facilitate transfer. My current tech levels are 4/8/9/7/7/3, and I am researching construction. Please let me know what tech you would like to transfer next and how often you would like to do it.

The ABRs: In order to build what I would consider a long-term warship, I want to get to Energy Tech 10 and get the Bear Neutrino Barrier. It'll be about 4 years until I get that, so an attack on them, if we decide to do it, wouldn't happen until at least then. At that time, things may have changed, so we'll come back to this issue then. They have been dropping huge numbers of colonists (multiple medium freighters worth) on planets nearby that I believe would be red for them.

The Persuaders: I've seen Persuader scouts flying south from points due north of me along the western edge of the universe. They may be spreading out quite a bit farther than just to your northeast.

Tech Transfer: After Energy 10, I'll be designing a new starbase with 100/250 stargates that should facilitate these transfers. I'll let you know when I have them up and trading at McCellan will be great. I'm at tech 5 in Propulsion & Electronics, so any aid you can give in those areas would be appreciated. Looks like you could use Energy tech, so I can create some ships with Wolverine Diffuse Shields to send your way. Sound good?

This year, however, everything became much clearer. Fizbin, the planet those two ABR freighters disappeared from, is just outside the penetrating scanners of the Little Zoinker defending Scorpius, and after noticing that the freighters disappeared it returned to Scorpius. In 2444, when the minefield around Scoprius was larger, it again venture out within the minefield to park there and keep Fizbin and Spittle in penetrating scanner range. In arrived in 2445 just far enough out to be in the minefield but also to be able to penetrate Fizbin & Spittle. It found that the ABRs now control Fizbin. I’m quite confident that the ABRs used a ground assault to take the planet, then scrapped their ships. This prompted two messages.

Some ABR ships disappeared at a Kzin planet (Fizbin) a couple years ago. Just scanned Fizbin this year, and the ABRs own it. I really don't think this was a case of the Kzin giving the planet to the ABRs, but I'm going to check anyway. I agreed to protect the Kzin long ago in exchange for non-aggression, and I think this may be time for the Kzin to cash in on that agreement. If so, I'll handle it alone so that you aren't taxed (especially for a war you have no real interest in), and to keep our XymZoink alliance close to the vest for a while longer.

This is just an FYI, in case you see warships flying around. I don't want you to get nervous. :)

It appears Fizbin has fallen to the ABRs. Do you require assistance? I'm ready & willing to lend any aid I can, including the construction of warships. Let me know what you need.

Once I get Energy 10 (in about 2 years), there will be very little keeping me from outright attacking the ABRs. I think the Kzin player has become too busy to keep up, and the ABRs are taking advantage of that situation. I may be in an all-out war by 2450.

This is a year of great change, though the rankings themselves haven’t changed. I’m still in 2nd place behind the Xym and ahead of the Alphas.

Recent Technological Advances: Weapons 10 (Colloidal Phaser, Delta Torpedo, Radiation Terraform +/- 11). None of the attempts at tech trading, with either the Mattari or the Xym, seem to have worked in either direction.

General: A new Space Station Hull has been built at Scorpius, I put a Space Station Hull in Vivaldi's queue, due in 3 years (2451), and Goober and Hummingbird turned green this year.

The wormhole has closed. From this point on, there is nothing "beyond the wormhole", only northern and southern colonies. The northern colonies are now completely on their own. A few ships slipped through at the last minute, most notably (and most importantly) the Grey Matter Colony, built down south in 2447 and sent through the wormhole to colonize Grey Matter up north.

War is in the air. In 2446, 5 ABR privateers were seen resupplying Fizbin, and I sent Crabby Defense (now called ABR Defense) to attack them to at least see their design. Turns out they are unarmed colonizers with a little stealth, but everyone left the engagement with little to no damage. Eleven destroyers with Alpha torps and X-Ray Lasers are destined for Fizbin as well, making Fizbin look more and more like a staging point for further expansion.

Up north, the Alphas had posted a scout around Weed some time ago, which, betting they are a Jack of all Trades race, would allow them to penetrate Orbision and possibly Poly Siren, not to mention that I’m planning on mining Weed. I sent a message to them in 2446 asking them to remove the scout, but they replied:

The Xym and I have been trading message, tech (well , trying to trade tech) & tech info pretty openly, so I believe that we’ve got a good, solid alliance. In 2446, the Xym let me know that there appears to be a major conflict going on between the Imperials and the Vikings/Persuaders. Knowing that the Imperials have been incommunicado for some time, I can guess how that war is going. I’m sure that will have an effect on our alliance with the Mattari’iani.

I checked the score, and the Kzin did lose a planet several years ago (2443). That was probably Fizbin. If you and the Kzin decide to go to war against the ABRs, I would like to join in. The ABRs have probably guessed that we have an alliance by our tech trading in any case. Given the large numbers of ships that the Vikings are building, I feel a little nervous having no warships in any case, and would also like to get in on the spoils from the ABRs. Please keep me informed as to the timing for the attack and the types of ships that we should build.

My scouts got a better view of the Viking area this turn. I think that the Vikings may be attacking the Harrads as well as the Imperials. I would guess that we will have to deal with them in the not too distant future as they appear very aggressive.

I've designed a Cruiser with Colloidal Phasers & Bear Shields. I haven't built any yet, however. All his destroyers have tech 3 weapons at best, but then he hasn't needed anything stronger yet. What I'd like to do is design decent warships and stockpile them, while nipping at his heels with my Little Zoinkers (that only have Beta torps). Then, when I'm ready to attack, he'll see loads of these new ships, and have to start ramping up while I'm pounding on him. The catch here would be that you'd be pounding on him at the same time.

The key to all of this would be his home planet of Skloot, and possibly the surrounding planets of Magellan and Bakwele, both of which are also well-developed. He still has the standard low-tech starbase at Skloot, and it should be relatively easy to take it out using advanced weapons. He has a 50-ly-radius minefield surrounding Skloot, so beam-type weapons would be useful in taking out that as well. Skloot is about 360 ly from my homeworld (5 years @ warp 9) and about 300 from yours (4 years @ warp 9). We could take out any easily-destroyed world between us, but our main contingent would concentrate on Skloot. With the both of us coming from opposite directions, he'd have to split his defenses. If we went after all 3 of those planets, he'd have a tough time of it.

There are 2 problems; the first is surprise, which we could really use. I don't have enough stargates deployed, and I'm going to be working on that in the near future. I'd like to simply pop in on his front doorstep if possible, and if you can, that would be a big help. I've designed a better starbase with stargates, and I could have one up on Alpha Centauri in 3 years, and on Shank in 1. The cruisers I've designed would be a little over the limits of the stargate's weight and the distance would push the stargate's limit as well, but neither by much, so I think I could sneak them in relatively safely, assuming he can't scan ships in orbit of Alpha Centauri (but he only needs Electronics 10 to be able to do that). An alternate plan would be to act as though we're going after each other, telling him that the warships he sees are meant to be used in a squabble we're having over mining or colonizing or some such thing. If he bought it (and it may be a tough sell), we could have forces staged right on his doorstep which would allow us quicker strike, though he would probably start building defensive warships, so that may not work quite as well. Let me know what you think.

Secondly, he out techs both of us 47 to 43. The fields in which those tech levels are could make a big difference, and thus we do need to keep up our tech trading efforts. I should have Weapons 11 in 2 years, giving me the Gatling Gun for mine-sweeping and the M-80 bomb. Let's start our stockpiling, and see how fast (or slow) our forces can be built, and decide in 2 years as to a date to begin the invasion.

At the same time, I'm sure he won't go down without a fight, so prepare defenses at any smaller world near ABR world. The 4 worlds of Beta, Ultima Thule, Wumpus and Coda are cause for concern to me since they intertwine with my fledgling colonies of Alpha Centauri, Resort and Vivaldi. I'll have to keep an eye on them.

I'm pretty sure I'll stick with my Cruiser design, so I'll start building them this turn. If you have any concerns about this plan, let me know.

I put Shining Zoinkers in the queues of Shank, Alpha Centauri and Red Ball. (The Red Ball base will cut the jump between Shank and Alpha Centauri to legs of less than 250 lightyears, to avoid pushing the stargate’s limits.) I also put 5 Zoinkifiers in the queue of Shank. Got confirmation from the Kzin:

I have no agreement with ABRs. It was purely hostile action on their part. But since I'm deeply behind everyone else there's not much I can do. My weapons are totally underdeveloped and I'm trying to catch up with the rest of player. So I didn't want to bother you with first problem that showed up because you probably have better things to do than to waste your resources on saving me. However, if you could spare a warship I would really really appreciate it. :) I would just hate to see a good player such as you getting involved into some little stupid war because of me.

The ABRs have been less than responsive in regards to alliances, and now that I see they have no problem with seizing planets. Given how intermingled their planets are with mine, I'd consider it a defensive of -my- planets, let alone a defense of -yours-, to go after them. I'll work on a response. Thanks for your message.

I forwarded it on to the Xym, noting that I hadn’t divulged our alliance yet, even to the Kzin, to prevent the Kzin from accidentally spilling the beans to the ABRs.