Year 2441

I've dropped to 9th place. The bombing of Deneb is really hurting my resources. I'm 7 points ahead of the Makisachi, 11 points behind the Thrakians, and 35 points behind the Ninjas. The Tobacs got 2 planets back this year, and their number of unarmed ships topped out and dropped back a bit. Their escort ships have leveled out, but the Wolves built about 20 more this year.

Observations - The Tobac fleets are so pervasive now, that I've decided to hunker down and stop going after them in deep space. All patrols are returning to a planet and mine layers are going to get cranked out for a while. Ho Hum will be able to use stargates to send defenders to the colonies. I'm spreading myself to thin, allowing him the potential to divide and conquer. Also, Tobac ships continue to mop up the remains of my two deep space minefields.

My wormhole scout that went back through the wormhole finds itself in the north-central portion of the universe, just about on the edge. Scanners pick up 5 Falcon privateers laying mines, which is rather strange, so I sent a message to the alliance about this. The other end of the wormhole, where it came from, has moved, so I'm sending it back through to find out where it is now.

Hell and Eisenhower Resupply fleets have returned to Ho Hum because the shipping lanes are pretty busy down south. They've been filled with colonists, matched up with 4 Zoinkifiers and will catch up with Hexnut Resupply. This will create a fleet carrying 156,000 colonists defended by 6 Zoinkifiers. More can be added as needed. To limit their vulnerability, they'll be using the stargates to return to Ho Hum, though the Zoinkifiers are 17kT over the limit. I've lost one already to overgating down at Cherub, but the losses should be recoverable. Eisenhower can be resupplied by Cherub, which topped 400,000 colonists this year.

Battle - Took out another Tobac Duff Paddy and a Wolf Sarah.

Just off of Cherub, a lone Zoinkifier, most likely going after a smaller fleet, found a bigger one once he got there; 4 Wolf War Childs (destroyer, 2 Beta torps, 2 computers & organic armor) and 3 Tobac Pucker Factors. The Zoinkifier did 7% damage to the Tobac ships but was toasted by the beams.

The battle at Deneb was lost for the same reason; beamers. The 10 Tobac Pucker Factors, which had been 44% damaged last year, closed in on the Dying Breath and did 693 points of damage on it's first shot, and the orbital fort only had about 1500 points of armor. The 40 Tobac Yar's Revenge ships mopped up the rest, but not before the Dying Breath set the Pucker Factors up to 60% damage. In order to put up yet another Dying Breath in one year I've reduced the Strobnium in half. I'm not going down easily. However, I am going down; the Tobacs bombed 66,100 more people there this year.

I got the all of the alliance planet files this year except for the Spacemen, so I decided to send out the combined map to those who had contributed; the Danis, the Makisachi, the Bejavoid, the Lothan and me.
Attached is the map I promised you. Only the Spacemen haven't sent me their planet file, but it probably wouldn't add much to what is already known. However, true to my word, they are not getting a copy of this, though in all fairness it may be because they are busy these days. I've received an E-mail from him suggesting that, so if he does come up with one, he'll get his own copy.

Given what you already know about player locations, it shouldn't be hard to figure out whose area is whose. The colored areas around planets were generated by the program I use (Stars Notebook) to give you a general idea on who controls what space. It computes this based on, I'm guessing, population, starbase present if any, and forces at the planet. There may be other criteria. It's only one program's guesstimate of the space you control -- your mileage may vary. Still, it makes the territories stand out better than just coloring the planets.

My suggested use for this map would be for players to examine where the enemy could be cut off and taken out, most likely with a combined effort with another nearby alliance race. If you do make any decisions, let us all know. This map may also be a bargaining chip for those who are not in the alliance; if you tell them where they can be of help, rather than just send a generic "help" request, they may be more interested in helping (and wonder how you -know- they own that planet >grin<). This also shows how poorly we have Triad space mapped. If anyone want to throw some fast scouts down there to give us a better view, fire 'em off, and keep me updated with planet information files. I'll forward maps on to the others.

(Click here to see 2441 Universe map)

Legend (moving generally from left to right, top to bottom) with example planets for easier identification:

Bright Yellow - Falcons (668, Hoof and Mouth)
DarkYellow - rv-988212g (Arafat, Vacant)
Dark Cyan - Dani (Mercury, Bach)
Bright Red - Ninjas (Galbraith, 409)
Bright Blue - Bejavoid (Hardball, Daisy)
Dark Blue - Makisachi (Arpeggio, Coda)
Very Dark Purple - Spacemen (Cochise, Castle)
Light Cyan - Zoinks (Ziggurat, Cherub)
Bright Purple - Lothan (Tiger's Tail, Phaeton)
Dark Red - Minions (Me, Climax)
Light Blue - Wolves (Nada, 90210)
Dark Green - Thrakians (Himshaw, Cancer)
Grey - Hsani (Scheherezade)
Dark Purple - Archimeans (Emerald, Provo)
Grey (again) - Humanoid (Lekgolo)
Orange - Tobacs (Sands of Time, Notlob)

Year 2442

I'm in 9th place, 1 point ahead of the Archimeans, 12 points behind the Thrakians and 55 points behind the Ninjas. My score has been pretty much flat since 2437, mostly due to the hit I've been taking in resources at Deneb, and in building so many ships. Again the Tobac lost 2 planets this year, but I looked closer and each time that shift of two planets happens, the Wolves and the Minions each add or subtract 1 planet each. They may be using alternative invasion of a couple of planets to aid in tech trading.

Observations - The Tobacs have parked fleets of Pucker Factors to the south and southwest of Ho Hum in an obvious attempt to keep me from moving out. It's probably also to keep me scanned, since they're all within 70 lightyears from Ho Hum and Cherub. The next starbase I design will probably feature some cloaking.

Due to my refocusing on economic growth, my research resources bottomed out. I've had all planets up until now giving over only excess resources to research, but to make sure I get Weapons 10 next year I've change that at Ho Hum and Cherub and raised the off-the-top percentage from 0 to 55.

Taking my own advice to scout Triad space, I've sent one of my scouts out west to dive in. Western Scout, near Planet 9, has been redirected to Putty, on the border of Archimean and Minion/Tobac space. At warp 9, he'll arrive in 2447. He's a Peeping Zoinker, so he's just a scout with a fuel tank. This will hopefully allow him to elude attackers.

Battles - A stray Zoinkifier must have followed some ship to Lynx. I thought I'd told all ships to return to a planet, but this one zipped down there, undamaged by minefield coverage, and took on the Tobac and Wolf ships there. Interesting new additions to their arsenal are the Tobac Spinal, the Wolf Fire in Babylon, and the Wolf starbase New Moon (32 Beta torps, 16 Yakimora Light Phasers). One shot from the New Moon took me out, but I informed the alliance of the new scanning ships:
The Tobac and Wolves have new scanning ships. The Wolves' "Fire in Babylon" is a frigate hull with 2 Organic Armor, 3 Stealth Cloaks (62% cloaked) and 2 Ferret Scanners (220/59). The Tobac "Spice of Life" is the same minus one of the Organic Armor, and it has no scanners, so their using their Jack of all Trades trait to get scanning, which is at least 140/70 (if they could build Ferret scanners themselves at Electronics tech 7).

The battle at Deneb went about the same way the last one did, only a little faster. The new Dying Breath did some more damage to the 10 Tobac Pucker Factors (from 60% to 78%), but their first shot did 85% damage and the 40 Minion Yar's Revenge ships mopped up. I've decided to throw whatever remaining resources Deneb has to research (only 120), since any new Dying Breath I might build would be a waste of time. Deneb is now down to 44,300 people, having lost 38,500 this year to Tobac bombs.

Year 2443 - Crossed Communication Lines

My turn did not get processed last year, and I'm sure I sent it. Ah well, I'll have to do some mop-up. Western Scout won't arrive until 2448 now, and I'll have Weapons 10 next year.

I'm in 9th place, 5 points ahead of the Archimeans, 10 points behind the Thrakians, and 58 behind the Lothans.

My space-based minefields are now all swept. The only ones are now based at planets: Ho Hum has 15 Zoinking Fielders laying mines, Cherub has 11, and Hexnut has 2 so far. The Tobac fleets consisting of mostly Pucker Factors that had been stationed in space near my planets have moved away, which means they aren't looking too closely at Ho Hum anymore.

Battles - A Wolf Sarah went after Hexnut Resupply, which is escorted by 6 Zoinkifiers. I can only think that this was a mistake, since I'm sure the Wolves have seen my Zoinkifier design. The Sarah didn't stand a chance. What's nice is that the battle gave me a tech level in Biotech.

Diplomacy - Given the lack of help and lack of advancement on the part of the Spacemen, I've been considering taking their planets. However, I wanted to find out if others in the alliance have the same view of them, so I sent a message to the Makisachi and Danis:
Have you heard anything from the Spacemen recently? I'm wondering if their presence in our alliance is really amounting to anything.

To which they replied:
I haven't heard anything and if the numbers in the score card are right, they don't amount to much of anything. Why? Are you thinking of booting them out?

I let them know that I am considering it.
Yes, I am considering taking them out at some point if they've not contributed. A back-up homeworld for me would be nice, now that my own is on the Triad front line. I'm giving them until I have better warships. If nothing's changed by then, I think it would be best to absorb their resources rather than have them struggle behind us.

I noticed 14 Makisachi destroyers heading to Planet X. I'm a little concerned over this, as this may show they're helping the Triad, especially since the Tobac message suggested they're trying to keep the peace. It also might be their first shot in defense of our alliance. I want to know which this is:
I see your 14 destroyers heading to Planet X. If you would, could you let me know what the defending Triad fleet looks like down there once you arrive? Are those destroyers attempting to help remove them from there? If so, it might be better if we were to coordinate an attack there soon. Thank you.

They explained:
They were headed there to revenge the killing of one of my scouts. I've pulled back however since the Tobac have offered to replace the one scout with two. I agree that we should coordinate our attack. Bejavoid have sent some destroyers into my space. If we could get all of us together at one point that would be devastating.

I asked them where they were considering a strike, though I may not be able to help other than in also striking Planet X at the same time, giving them two wars to fight, splitting their resources.

A true comedy of errors this year managed to shake up the diplomatic landscape more than a large fleet of ships could ever do. The Tobacs had an accidental altercation with the Makisachi (referred to by the Makisachi above). This accident was compounded when they sent their apology message to the entire universe:
Sorry about the loss of your scout...certainly did not intend this to happen. The destroyers were at the end of a long list of waypoints, and I didn't check up on them to see where they were headed and also forgot to check if other fleets were at Tweedledee.
The Tobacs have no quarrel with the Makisachi, nor any other race in this region other than the Zoinks. We humbly offer restitution in the form of 2 similar scouts sent to a point in Makisachi space of your choosing. Hopefully this will allow the Tobac and Makisachi to remain at peace. Please advise scout type/components/destination via subspace channel below.

To which he appended his E-mail address. I took this opportunity to find out exactly why he has this problem with my race:
I'm sure by now you've been informed that you sent your message, intended for the Makisachi, to the entire universe. This brings up a question I've been wondering about, but haven't been given an adequate answer; what exactly -is- your quarrel with me? Up until 2428, when you landed on Planet X, the sum total of our engagements were over scouts in my space, and I certainly had tried to establish contact with you on more than one occasion and got nothing in response. There have been a few other altercations with your allies, but for the most part they've been minor, though overblown, especially on the part of the Minions, who seemed to think that their warships should be allowed to patrol around Deneb unchallenged. Essentially, you and I haven't had much to fight over (before Planet X), but your trigger-happy allies seem to have gotten you into a war over the destruction of a paltry handful of ships. Not to mention the fact that had they been my ships near their planet, they would've blasted them away just as swiftly, as they have done in the past.
From my perspective, the only quarrel you and I have is Planet X, and now Deneb, and our contact over this has been completely one-sided; I've been trying to talk to you about this situation, and I've even told your allies I wanted to talk with you about it, but I've had no response from any of you on this. I'm sure you've figured out by now that Ho Hum is my home planet, and that attacking a colony of yours 130 lightyears from there can only be considered defense of what is undisputedly -my- space. Combine that with your destruction of Deneb, and your actions can only be considered one thing; a first strike. The unwarranted nature, and the severity, of this strike has not gone unnoticed by my allies, and while some of them may be keeping the peace with you, be warned that they are fully aware of this situation. The fall of Deneb will only serve to increase this tension.
I'm not sure how to resolve this situation, as you've already devastated Deneb and it would take years to recover, and Planet X simply cannot stand, being so close to me. It seems you've already chosen the path both of us must follow, and all over a few small ships. I believe your allies are dragging you into situations without giving you the whole story. And as this won't sit well with the others who know about Planet X and Deneb, your allies have also caused you to perhaps bite off more than you can chew.
Please respond, or this will escalate.

And to let the rest of the universe know the true nature of this quarrel, I sent my own message out:
Just to elaborate on the Tobac message accidentally broadcast on this open channel: Our quarrel is entirely my fault, I must confess. It is rather overly aggressive of me to try to remove the Tobac from their young colony a mere 2 year hop from my home planet. (This after being met with silence when trying to discuss this turn of events.) And of course, it makes perfect sense to me that, in light of this new conquest, they would want to annihilate my much older colony, 250,000 strong, that is now behind their lines (and which is down to about one-tenth of their former population). It seems quite clear to me that the Tobacs, in spite of their actions in this minor spat among empires and wishing only to have (I am sure) a platform from which to launch hundreds of non-violent scouting ships, have no interest in launching an offensive into -anyone's- space, and are really peace-loving people.
Or not.

Then the Minions accidentally sent me a message in E-mail. It was sent to the Tobac and I, and since Wolf and Zoink would sort near each other in an address book, I'm guessing he clicked just a little too low. The result was this:
Go ahead and sent the message. What are you tech levels. Mine are E5 W6 P6 C8 E6 B6.
I have 4 large freighters in route to Lemnitzer to scrap. Do you want me to transfer them to you or just scrap them there. They are a cheep design with hydro ram engin, 2 fuel tanks, and 2 Cow-hide shields.
Are we going to get a new .p2 file again soon?

While it was very nice to know what the Minion tech levels are, it was disturbing to know that they are getting planet files from player 2, the Archimeans. After some more information from the Lothan, it all began to come together. I forwarded the Minion message to the alliance with this addendum:
Another Triad member screwed up and included me, instead of the Wolves, on this E-mail message. Take note of their tech levels compared to yours. It looks like they are pushing Construction.
The most disturbing bit of news is the last line. A ".p2" file would be a planet file from player 2, the Archimeans. The Lothans tell me that the Archimeans asked them to get all scouts out of their space, and Triad ships, including many colonizers, are now on their way to planets in Archimean space. Further, this means that anything the Archimeans know about your space, the Triad now knows. I've been giving their scouts a free ride up until now, but no more. Suggest you do the same, quickly.
The Archimeans sued for peace with the Triad recently. Either they're now simply not challenging them, or the name "Triad" may need to be changed to something like the Quad. Keep watching.

I also sent a message to the Archimeans that their scouts would no longer be allowed to pass through my space uncontested.

Year 2445

I moved from 9th to 8th place this year, passing up the Thrakians. I'm still almost 60 points behind the Lothan and Ninja.

Tech Advances - In 2444 I got Weapons 10 (Colloidal Phaser, Delta Torpedo, Radiation Terraform 11). In 2445 I got Electronics 6 (Scoper 220, better JoaT scanners).

Observations - I have 3 new colonies now. In 2444, I colonized Siberia and this year I colonized Staff, and landed on Vacant. I got 330 resources to Biotech colonizing Staff. Vacant had over 100 mines and factories, and over 1,000 kT of each mineral when I landed.

I realized last year thatI had put together Dipstick Colony but never loaded them or sent them on so I loaded them up and sent them off. However, when I went to route them through Cochise for refueling, I noticed that the Spacemen no longer have a starbase there. I sent them a message, copying the Danis and the Makisachi asking what happened. He said that the starbase is still there, so I imagine he's replaced the start-of-game base with a new, cloaked one.

This year, I created Sputnik Colony, with 100,000 colonists and germanium, plus Zoinkifiers and even 3 Zoinking Fields, since Sputnik is so close to Falcon space. They will arrive in 2459.

The Tobac Pucker Factors that were all over my space seem to be regrouping at Lynx.

Battle - In 2444 I sent a message to the Archimeans that, now that I know they're trading planet information with the Triad, they're scouts are going to be removed. I targeted 2 for destruction and took them out this year; one near Ho Hum and one near a Zoinkifier scout near Falconian space.

Diplomacy - In response to our discussion about taking over the Spacemen, and our discussion about an attack on the Triad, the Makisachi sent two E-mails:
That would be fine. I could use some extra planets. The Spacemen have all but disappeared from this universe. As for the Tobac, they have been tip toeing around me, asking about the purpose of my defenses, warning me of their warships in certain areas of space (Planet X--I had a fleet going there and they warned me off) and have been trying to be friendly with me. I believe that they have become nervous, or they don't want an all out war against another alliance. If they are nervous then we are doing something right.

Well, I'm building up now. The one problem is that either he has a powerful planetary scanner at Planet X or a cloaked scout nearby because on my approach, he noticed several years before I would arrive there. He might have time to build up defenses. One idea is for you to set up an attack at another location in hopes that he would divert resources from planet x. Nothing big, just a few destroyers and save the main fleet for attacking Planet X a turn or two later. How does that sound?

My response:
Yes, I'd considered a feigning maneuver, but I'd need some serious firepower to convince him that I'm really attacking another location. The other problem would be what location. I'll think about it, but if I make a strike, I may have to go in with all I can afford to go in with.
As to the Spacemen, let me know if/when you'd like to go in.

The Danis have expressed some concern that the Makisachi may be aiding the Tobac, so I'm now trying to hold back a bit.

My message to everyone seemed to bring another race into the alliance, the Ninjas:
Greetings! I have noted your tone of wry sarcasm. As far as I know, the Tobacs have pursued nothing but peaceful pursuits of war and expansion. They have made a point of bullying most of their neighbors, and are almost alone in the face of mounting pressure to deal with the #1 empire at this point. At the moment I am sending a fleet of 20 of my best destroyers, quite capable of eliminating at least their equal number of Tobac ships. This fleet will mostly harrass Tobac fleets, without getting into direct confrontation. I think I can divert a large number of ships to try and hunt my fleet down.
In the long run, I think that should you need any help, I can provide it.
Rest assured, the Tobac have not been offered the same.
Take care,
Hiro-Matsu, chief advisor to Shogun Toranaga-Sama.

I responded:
Thank you for your kind words and your willingness to aid the cause against what we are calling The Triad; the Tobacs, the Wolves and the Minions. As an overall strategy, we need to halt their expansion, then begin an all-out harassment, with the coordination of that harassment being most important. The Lothan, well known to you, have been helpful in this regard as well. Please keep me informed as to your front, and I'll keep you informed of mine.
Speaking of which, if you look at the game map, you'll see that the idea that the Tobac claim about Planet X and Deneb is specious, especially since I owned Deneb for far longer than he has had Planet X. Thanks for your help.

Then the Tobac responded to my missive:
Zoink Leader O' Sarcasm:
I actually intended everyone to get that particular message.
Planet X was uncolonized, and within what we have ALWAYS considered to be our border with you. YOU determined your own border, which is your right...however WE determined a different border, as is our right. Deneb and Planet X are on our side of the border, and you invaded our space when you colonized Deneb. It is not our problem that your homeworld is closer to our border than you may wish. Your colonization of Deneb and other incursions are the true nature of this conflict, a conflict we have only with you, and none other.
Having said that, we wish no further bloodshed between us. Once Deneb is returned to us, we will have no further quarrel with you. If then you or your allies choose to attack us, an escalation between us will be upon your head.
We wish it to be known by the rest of the races that we have no issue or problem with any of our borders with you.
Further, we are open to discussing as civilized races any differences of opinion you may have regarding this issue.

While I have trouble believing his message was intentionally sent to everyone, I considered that it could have been a ploy between he and the Makisachi to get me to believe that they are not allied. The Dani have been skittish about the Makisachi for a while, but I'm still rather sure they are on our side. If it wasn't a ploy, then this message is simply diplomatic maneuvering. Just for grins, and to perhaps educate races like the Falconians and the Thrakians, who've not been in heavy contact with the Triad, I responded to everyone:
Way back in 2409, the Minions, close allies with the Tobac, declared Deneb an informal border between our empires. I've honored that border; none of my colonies crossed that line. In 2416, I colonized Deneb. (It helps to keep good records.)
In 2430, the Tobac colonized Planet X. Now they want Deneb "returned" to them, as though they ever owned it.
Empires of the galaxy, treachery has a name; it is "Tobac".

That should tweak them.

Year 2446 - The Fall of Deneb and the Destruction of the Humanoids

I'm back in 9th place again, 4 points ahead of the Thrakians, 4 points behind the Falconians, 69 points behind the Ninjas. My score remained just about flat. The Humanoids were destroyed this year. The Lothan tell me that it was the Triad that took their home planet.

In terms of score, there are now 7 strata of empires:

The Tobacs: They are in a class by themselves, ahead of 2nd place by about 330 points (156%).
The Bejavoid: They, too, are quite a distance from those behind them (129%).
The Wolves, Minions & Danis: They are grouped together quite closely, less the 30 points separating the top from the bottom.
The Lothan & Ninjas: Only 7 points separate them, but they're about 80 points behind the Wolves, Minions & Danis.
The Zoinks, Thrakians, Makisachi & Archimeans: We are behind the Lothans & Ninjas by about 70 point, but only 20 points separate us.
The Spacemen & rv-988212g: 90 points behind us, and separated by 6 points. It is significant that the rv's are no longer playing.
The rest of the non-players: The (now dead) Humanoid & Player 5 (The Hsani, whom I never met).

I've put a Zoink-O-Rama in the queue of Ziggurat. It'll take 7 years, but I'd like to have some ship-building facilities that are not so close to the Triad, and my own refueling station for long-range expeditions.

Battles - I got a couple shots off at a couple of Tobac Spinal Taps between Ho Hum and Hexnut, but only damaged them 13%. I'll try again next year.

My Peeping Zoinker that was diving into Triad space from the direction of the Lothan didn't make it. I thought it might be able to run away quickly enough from any attacker, but it met up with a Triad armada that took it out. I did find out some more Minion ships designs though: The Smiter is a mini-bomber with Ladyfinger bombs, the Zeus's Pinky is a frigate with X-Ray Lasers, and the Word is a privateer with a colonization pod and a cargo pod.

The Minions landed with 175,000 troops onto Deneb, finishing up the siege.

Diplomacy - The Makisachi and I continue our discussion on attacking the Triad and the Spacemen. They write:
I understand that it would be difficult to feign at this point of the game.
As for the Spacemen, now would be as good as any time. The triple alliance has held back from attacking my southern border and they don't seem to want to antagonize me at this time. Since I have this peace now, it would be a good time to take out spacemen. If we wait til we are at full scale war with the triple alliance it would be much more difficult if not impossible. Let me know if you're ready.

I might have said yes, but some new developments caused me to reconsider trying to absorb the Spacemen:
Something is happening that is now making me rather cautious in creating my own conflicts (i.e. with the Spacemen). There are now 24 Tobac bombers on their way to Planet X with no other target to go after than me (or perhaps you, if the peace you two have isn't so peaceful). I can't see what ships he has down there, so this influx is cause for concern. At this point, I think I need to spend more resources on economy and defenses. I'll let you know as soon as possible when I'd be ready to deal with the Spacemen. As I said, I'd like to wait until I have better warships, especially now that it seems he's upgraded his homeworld starbase.

The Makisachi agreed to sit tight, mentioning that any of his scouts down by Planet X get destroyed so he doesn't have any good scans of the area.

The Lothan updated the alliance on the state of Archimea. Apparently the multiple change in rulers has created some confusion:
I received a message from the Archimean player claiming they have not given out any .pXX files. In fact, before my message to them requiring a response about the message from the Minions, they had asked me about sharing .pla files and the consequences. It may be true that they have not submitted anything. However, the Minion message may also be true -- this is the 4th player to run the Archimean race (some of you may not be aware of this) so a previous player may have shared the planet file without communicating this information with their allies.
The Archimean has also, unfortunately, begun said they are breaking their formal alliance with the Lothan as they don't believe I should have questioned them about the planet file nor about them allowing Tobac colonizations of some of the worlds within Archimean space. This is disappointing, but I will continue to work with them through a non-agression pact but may be forced to do the dirty work of attacking Tobac fleets within Archimean space. That effort will have to wait a few years as I'm sure Lothan planets are now in the scopes of this alliance since the Humanoid world has fallen.
Take this as you will. I know some of you have been destroying Archimean scouts (I have not yet) but you be the judge. This may add some confussion to the mess but you can take up the conversation directly with them via Stars! mail if you feel the need.

The Lothan then sent out a message with some tactical information to the alliance:
I've got some good scans of some border regions you may be interested in. I don't know where some of you stand on a direct assault against Wolf, Minion, or Tobac worlds but hope this will be of some help.
The Wolves have recently taken Jones (~9600 colonists) within Makisachi space. They also appear to have just started their build up of a colony at Nada (~61K); this includes an orbital fort and, for now, there are 3 Tobac Pucker Factor, 1 Tobac destroyer (unknown class), and 1 Wolf privateer there. Minions have scouts stopped and stationed in the area. The Tobac have a cloaked scout 70ly south east of Nada. There are currently no mine fields around these two planets.
I don't have a current scan of Me but will have next year. My previous was 3 years ago and they had begun a good build up there. I see 2 Minion fleets enroute from Leviathan - each with 10 destroyers.
Lekgolo just fell this past year (was the final stand for the Humanoids but they weren't playing so was easy pickings). This frees up their bombers and other fleets, probably will be targeting Lothan worlds. There are currenly 45 Tobac & Minion ships stationed there (about 14 destroyers, and 10 armed frigates). Between Lekgolo and Montcalm there are 2 fleets, Minion - 44 ships, mostly privateer or bombers, some scouts - and Tobac - 11 Pucker Factor destroyers.
I know Montcalm has a good size fleet but don't have a current penscan on that.
As for mine fields on these later worlds; they are the current size: Me - 33 ly, Lekgolo - 28 ly, and Montcalm - 28 ly.
The Minions also have some scouting frigates (armed) near my worlds of McClellan (5 ships) and PiR2 (5 ships). These have Yak Phasers only. The scout frigates near PiR2 are headed due north and may continue on between Canis Minor and Quixote.

My scans had shows a Wolf colony on Jones 20 years ago with about 2,400 colonists, so apparently they've not been beefing it up at all, which is strange given it's proximity to the Makisachi homeworld of Gangtok.

Finally, I sent word of the fall of Deneb to the alliance:
Deneb has fallen. Early this morning, 175,000 Minion hoards landed and finished off my colonists. Also, 24 Tobac bombers were seen near Planet X, due to arrive next year. The war with the Triad is certainly not over.

Year 2449 - Preparations for War

I'm currently in 8th place, though I've been battling for it against the Falconians, whom I'm only 1 point ahead of now. I'm getting farther from the Lothans and Ninjas; I started 70 points behind in 2447, but now I'm 90 behind, losing ground 10 points per year. . The Thrakians took a hit in points the past couple of years, probably due to the drop of about 50 escort ships. My number of escorts ships jumped this year due to my new frigate fleet (see Observations).

Tech Advances - Technology has advanced each year these past three years. In 2447 I got Propulsion 7 from Dani tech transfer (Alpha Drive 8). In 2448 I got Construction 8 from Dani tech trade (Large Freighter), and Electroncs 7 from research (Ferret scanner, better JoaT scanners). This year I got Construction tech 9 due to Dani tech trade (Kelarium, Super Cargo Pod, Cruiser hull).

Battles - In 2448, 6 Zoinkifiers gave one Tobac Spice of Life scanner scout 98% damage. This shows me how hard I'll have to hit them to take them out in one turn, though torpedo percentages have something to do with that. This year I took out Tobac Spinal Taps near Lynx and south of Hexnut, just north of Humus. Another one, in an apparent escape attempt, blew up in my Ho Hum minefield. One of my own scouts was also a victim of a minefield; a Falconian one in the far northwest. One of my Triad scouts, northwest of Planet X, was removed by a rather large Triad fleet (one Tobac Gnarly Gnat, 11 Wolf Sabres), and another southwest of Deneb (one Tobac Pucker Factor and one Wolf Salvation destroyer, with 2 Yakimora Light phasers, two maneuvering jets and a stealth cloak). My scout deep in Triad space escaped a conflict with 2 Archimean Snuffleupagus' (destroyer with 3 Yakimoras, and Carbonic armor). A fleet of Wolf 4 War Childs took some damage in my Cherub minefield (apparently on their way to take out my scout keeping an eye on them). I've redirected the 7 Zoinkifiers that removed a Spinal Tap to go after them, since they're so close.

Observations - There are 32 Tobac Pucker Factors moving at warp within the overlap of minefields between Planet X and Ho Hum, sweeping mines as they come. They only swept about 120 in 2448, the year they entered the field. While my Ho Hum Minelayers are putting out 1800 per year, they can sweep 2500 and did about that many this year. I've therefore created a ship designed to specifically obsolete the Pucker Factor; the new Dispuckulator. It's a frigate hull with a Fuel Miser, 2 Cow Hide shields (best I can do right now) and 3 Blackjacks (range 0, 90 dp each). In tests, an equal number of Dispuckulators get on top of the Pucker Factors, and their first shot kills two-thirds of them. Their shields absorb the return fire, and their next shot destroys the rest. I put 32 in the queue of Ho Hum in 2448 and, since they're mostly Boranium, they were all ready this year. They're ultimate target is the fleet of 32 Pucker Factors, but the Tobac ships are inside the overlapped portion of our minefields, so I can't go blazing in there at warp 9. I'm sending my ships towards Humus, a Makisachi planet, for 1 year at warp 7. This will put them in direct line with the Pucker Factors, though it'll take 2 years for them to get there. At least from that point, I can move in on them at a slower speed, while not scaring them off as they see 32 new frigates flying towards them.

I've redirected Dipstick Colony to the rv-988212g homeworld of Arafat (a year closer to the fleet, currently gassing up at Cochise). The Danis tell me that the Bejavoid had destroyers in orbit of Arafat and seem to be claiming it for themselves. I'm sending them a message saying that I have a colony fleet already going there, and mention that the Danis agreed to help me eradicate the rv's on the planet.

Diplomacy - The Minions continued the war of words in 2447:
The Zoinks are right about Deneb being an established border between our two realms. And since the Zoinks are such good record keepers they should also be able to agree the we ( The Minions ) have not attacked any of there worlds beyond Deneb.
The border at Planet X was established with another race.
Our disagreement with the Zoinks is the following:
1) A single ship was sent to close to our boarder with the Zoinks.
2) The Zoinks were notified that the ship was exploring and was low on fuel. When refueled it would leave.
3) Our ship never went into there agreed upon space.
4) The Zoinks had agreed to not send armed ships in our space.
5) The Zoinks send a fleet into our space to destroy our ship.
If our ship had been in there or some other races space there would be no problem. But they attack our ships on a peaceful mission in our space by breaking an agreement to not send armed ship into our space. The Zoinks cannot be trusted.

My response, to everybody of course:
Well, it took an open forum to get the Minions talking, but good to know that they will.
I was notified of the low-fuel ship, and I did destroy it in spite of the warning because it's path of fuel-collecting took it more and more into my space. This didn't seem appropriate after I'd warned you off already. And I -never- agreed not to send in armed ships into your space. I said I didn't want to be restricted that early (2411) and that ships of our empires would be considered fair game. Hence the removal of a destroyer moving closer and closer into my space.
You informed me quite early on of your alliance with the Tobac and Wolves. Was it foolish of me to assume that your allies would honor the border one of you established? How convenient to have one race of an alliance make promises, another break them, and pretend that there's no connection.
Your mother was a Tobac, and your father smelt of Leviathanian wine!

I received some strong words of encouragement from the Ninjas. Looks like they are now a strong ally:
Greetings! I have spoken to the Bejavoids, and the Lothans about this menace. Through the Bejavoids, I have learned that the Dani and the Makisachi are also involved in the fight. So far that makes six, yourself included. I am trying to organize an assault force to send your way, but I have a feeling they would be out of date by the time they arrived. But the Beta fleet is still enroute. They will be able to aid in some defense duties, hopefully. How many ships do you think it takes to effectively squash the Triad defense? I estimate about 200 destroyers could do the job. Perhaps significantly less if a properly conducted skirmishing war is fought by someone with the SS trait. Like the Lothans and me :-). If you and the Makisachi can provide a large enough force to act as the anvil, I believe I can persuade the Lothans to help me in being the hammer. Of course this would take time.
We should plan this out.

My response:
Thank you for your offer of assistance. My original ideas centered around multiple massive attacks on Triad worlds; perhaps the Danis, Makisachi and me on one planet, and the Lothan, Bejavoid and you on another. However, I like your idea of putting your stealth capabilities to use in a skirmish war just prior to the anvil striking.
My first worries would be Planet X, Deneb and Lynx. The Makisachi may have other targets they're concerned about. Perhaps what we should do is pick a couple of planets to concentrate on, soften them up around there, then move in for the kill. What I think you and the Lothan could help with is mine-sweepers. If you could invest in weapons and get some good beamers, I imagine that invisible mine-sweepers would be pretty annoying, wouldn't you agree? And with the proliferation of minefields these days, I think it's quite a necessity.
A couple hundred destroyers would certainly make a serious dent in the Triad's defense, that's for sure. I've been working up my war fleet with that in mind, but I'm a long, long way from that. Hopefully the Bejavoid can assist in this.
Keep me informed as to the location of your Beta fleet. You're kinda hard to see. >grin<

And their response:
Ok, nice to see such a quick response. I agree with most of your points. What I had in mind to combat the Triad is to use multiple fleets of about 20-25 cloaked destroyers, and hit the Triad's smaller fleets so that they would have to invest in massive sized escort fleets, or just reduce the number of fleets. With this kind of scenario, it could be easy to divert the Triad's attention to this skirmishing war, while the main assault force, comprised mostly of regular uncloaked destroyers, would move in on the targeted planets. The Triad would probably see them, but be either strung too thin to respond with anything more that a token force, or if they can defend the planets under attack, the skirmishing fleets could unite and threaten another couple of his planets. This way at least one planet could be caught undefended at any given time. Once that planet is taken, repeat as needed.
Of course this kind of action can backfire easily, but with PPS, the chance of that is greatly reduced. The major problem I see with this setup is the length of time it takes to set up and move the skirmishing fleets to their proper location. As you may know, I have one fleet that is close to its base of combat operations, but I am still about 6-7 years away from being able to conduct any offensive campaigns. Also, one such fleet can fall prey to a concerted effort to counter it much easier than two or more. My fleet is enroute to Houdini as we speak, but I guess that is not much help to you right now. I think I can offer significantly more in the near future.
As for what you propose, I think that could work, but I think I would also include some torp ships to fight the Triad interceptors and ships that wander too close.
I really have no say in which planets to pick, as I have not had a decent scan of the area in a long time. So I would leave that up to you guys, but with the following: I would like to establish a base at a planet of my choosing, currently owned by a triad member. I would like this planet to help my economy to catch up. I will not use the planet to launch an offensive into anyone's space, I merely need the additional resources.
This planet will not be one of the the homeworlds, you can split them up any way you choose. I simply need to base to help with any refueling(also open to you and any other alliance members) and as a base for scouting operations. If this is agreed upon, I will devote all my energy to fight the Triad according to whatever plan we come up with.

I forwarded his message to the alliance, with this addition:
With this message sent to me, I'd like to formally greet the Ninjas to our anti-Triad alliance. We've discussed some attack strategies, and I like his ideas about cloaked destroyer fleets using hit & run tactics to annoy the Triad and force them to spend more in minerals and resources just to escort scouts. Let us know how you like these ideas and, if so, let us all know what you'd like to contribute to this, and suggest planets that we can consider for targeting. For the Ninja (and possibly the Lothan), locations of stargates would be very important in order to get their ships into position quicker.
For my money, of course, I'd suggest Planet X as a target for those of use close to it, not just because that it's close to me, but it's probably the farthest point north the Triad has come, and they're gating in fleets there. I'm creating a war fleet, but the more the merrier, that's for sure. Especially since it's better to hit an adversary with one big fleet than fewer little ones. Any other ideas? Let us all know!
By the way, things have changed quite a bit since our last alliance-wide planetary map. For me, I've been able to scan some more Triad planets that may help with target selection. So toss your planet files my way, and I'll send out a new picture of the universe. As before, only those who send me a planet file get the picture. If you need to know how, just ask.

Then, some intelligence from the Lothan:
I've got that scan on Me this year as promised. The ship count of consequence is as follows:
Tobac Pucker Factor - 11
Minion Zues's Pinky (Frigate w/ 3xYak. Phas) - 19
Minion Frigate (unknown class) - 2 [Probably mine layer]
The Minion fleet of 10 Yar's Revenge destroyers (3xbeta) will arrive next year.
I will be attacking the two Minion scout fleets of Zues's Pinky (5 in each fleet) next year. The had stated that these were for scouting only and didn't want them destroyed. However, a couple of years ago I told them plainly (via regular e-mail) that any ship in this area of space was fair game for attack. They have stopped the ships but, I'm sure, are looking for an excuse to go to war. Since I'm already at war with them (whether they think so or not), I'm proceeding with my attack. One of these fleets is near McClellan and the other is the one headed north into Bejva territory (east of Houdini). They also have a 13 destroyer fleet (unknown class) leaving Leviathan going towards Lynx, though that's a long distance at wp6 they are traveling. That might be their destination as this is a Wolf world on the Zoink border.
The rest of our "front" appears to be quiet. Though, I do see a 2 ship Tobac scout fleet (unknown class) headed into Makisachi territory from Planet X. It will be near Humus next year. I'm sure, as well, the fleets at Montcalm and Lekgolo are just waiting for an excuse to attack my border.
I am preparing a large fleet of scout ships to attempt a major mission into the Tobac/Minion space.

The Danis offered transport via stargate, and continued the theme of getting the Triad to commit to a multiple-front war:
The Bejavas, Lothan and Ninja are welcome to use my stargates to get from the northwest to the front lines. Right off the bat I can recommend the following route: Wellington (to the far north - if the Bejavas want to get south) to Gas to Hydra to Walla Walla or the Zoinks planet of Ho Hum. For the Lothan and the Makischi who are already on the front lines, I don't offer a whole lot of help as of yet, but I am working on colonizing a couple of planets that will give you access to my stargates in 5-8 years (I hope) which could give you access too eastern battles in zoink space.
The Triad has stockpiled a HUGE fleet at Planet X which has the potential of going after either the Zoinks or the Makisachi. I would suggest if we could all contribute towards the defense of those races, it will help us all in the long run because if the Triad defeats those two races, the rest of us will then be on the front line.
But, I also think that if the Triad was forced to fight a two front battle - their forces would be split and easier to attack. With the Lothan being on their northwestern front, it would seem logical to have the second attack coming from there. How and when this is all going to happen will need to be determined soon. I would suggest we all start doing a concerted effort at sending war ships to one Zoink planet of his choice, one Makisachi planet of his choice and one Lothan planet of his choice. If each of you could let us know a good gathering place, then report back to us in 3 or 4 years and let us know how the accumulation goes to let us know where help is needed... then we plan the attack.

I replied, to the whole alliance:
TheTriad have 89 ships at Planet X (plus 32 Pucker Factors that have left to sweep my minefields), but Lynx has an additional 71 ships from all Triad races (very close to my planet of Cherub). The front is quickly building up, at least from the Triad side.

The Lothan replied with further Triad ship movements:
A good world to congregate on the Lothan front with the Minions would be Silicon. I have a 100/250 stargate there in case any one has gatable ships. This is also close to 2 key Tobac/Minion worlds - Lekgolo and Montcalm. A 3rd, Me is not too far away but is closer to Makisachi territory.
The Tobac and Minion are both sending armed scouting forays to Silicon this year but I'm going to be try to stop both prior to arrival. Information such as this (what I have on my world) is just about as critical as actually destroying a fleet.
The Triad actually have large fleets (>50 ships) at a number of border worlds; I know of Lekgolo, Montcalm, Me, Planet X, and Lynx. I'm sure there is at least one more down in Archimean space. Unfortunately the Archimean is allowing the Tobac and Minion free access to worlds down there, though I tried to stop that.

The Bejavoid said they'd have Cruisers next year and suggest they make the second front one of the Wolf incursions into Makisachi space. I replied:
Before you build cruisers, make sure you have the hardware you want on them. If you need to wait for Weapons 10 or better shields/armor, hang in there just a bit. We don't need to tip our tech hand to them too soon, letting them know we have cruiser hulls so that they start building some serious ships before we're ready to take them on.

They agreed:
I do have weapons level 10 - but I understand what you are saying. Anyways, it will take me several turn to get my production going, and by then my weapon levels should be higher. I will keep these ships hidden until the right moment.

The Makisachi offered to lend a hand on the front line, asking what size the fleet at Planet X was. I replied:
See my other message to the whole alliance. I see you're reinforcing Humus for an attack. Let me know when you feel comfortable going after Planet X. Currently there are: 20 Minion Yar's Revenges (tri beta destroyers), 31 Tobac Spice Of Lifes (bombers), 16 unknown Tobac frigates (probably mine layers), 12 Tobac Pucker Factors, and 9 Wolf War Childs (dual beta destroyers). My war fleet at Ho Hum consists only of 19 tri beta destroyers, though I have a new frigate type that might give Pucker-Factor-only fleets a run for their money. Additionally, the Danis have currently contributed 10 beta frigates. We're probably not ready just yet, but soon I think.

Their reply was that they'd hold on and attack when I said I was ready. The battle for Planet X would be, in his words, this game's Battle for Endor (comparing it to the battle in Star Wars that turns the tide for the rebellion against the Empire).

The Danis still advise caution when dealing with the Bejavoid, after I forwarded a Bejavas message telling me they'll have cruisers next year:
I still say they have made no committment to helping except for the Makisachi. There has been no offer to help YOUR cause. I would remain cautious if I were you.

Finally, the Falconians saw my Zoinkifier scout and asked that it be turned away, seeing as it's armed:
Greeting Space Travelers.
This is the High Command of the Falconians. We have spotted a warship of your species entering or space. While we wish for contact with other species we do on allow ships of war to enter our space. So your ship Destroyer#19 which is heading towards the Planet Witter is in violation of our defense strategy. Please remove the ship from our sphere of influence.
thank you
Grand Admiral Proteus

I replied that I would redirect my ship to the nearby wormhole. The alliance has enough data about the Falconians for now.

Year 2450

Score Analysis - The Archimeans, who'd been losing planets since having 14 in 2427, due in part to the changes in leadership, started to climb again in 2446. This year they regained their former glory. The number of planets owned by Triad members has fluctuated virtually every year, owning to their probably tech trade via planet invasion tactics, but their general trend remains upward.

The Tobacs are still winning the starbase race, but the Danis continue to give them a run for their money. Still, the Tobac have 24 to the Danis 16 (33% more).

The Tobac started out this decade with dropping numbers of unarmed ships, while still far outpacing everyone else. Then, in 2457, they began rebuilding, and now have significantly more than back then. This decade has seen large increases in Archimean and Falconian unarmed ships as well.

The Thrakians started a significant drop in escort ships in 2447, and this year have about as many as they had 15 years ago. This is due either to Triad losses or war with the Ninja and Lothan. The three Triad members comprise the top 3 in this area, with the Archimeans (a suspected Triad ally) in 4th place. Makisachi build-up had made them the top non-Triad empire for most of this decade, until the Lothan passed them up this year.

Tech Levels have been more closely grouped than other areas: The Tobac's lead isn't quite as significant, and both I and the Ninja, at least, could build cruisers with tech 10 weapons (Colloidal Phasers, Delta Torpedoes) this year. By 2460, I predict that at least half the races will have them built. For me, 7 of the past 10 years have seen tech advances.

My resource curve has been pathetic, mostly due to my lack of planet expansion earlier on. The Tobac, of course, have a curve way outpacing any other race. There are noticeable dips in my curve denoting when I removed 100,000 colonists or so to send to colonize or resupply new worlds. Were it not for the strong 2nd place the Bejavoid are holding, I would hold out little hope that this alliance would amount to much.

In overall scoring, the groupings I mentioned in 2446 are generally the same. The Spacemen now have a better score than the rv-988212g, putting them in 13th place. The Falconians and I have begun to put a little distance between us and the rest of our group, though that is only a 1-year trend. The Bejavoid are losing ground to the Tobac, who simply dominate this game.

Tech Advances - I got Electronics 8 this year (Gazelle Scanner, LBU-17 bomb, Scoper 280, better JoaT scanners).

Observations - The fleet of Dispuckulators moved out far enough, so that changing course to intercept the 32 Tobac Pucker Factors can be done at warp 4 if they continue at their present course and speed. That could be a big "If", because of the size of my fleet. I may have jumped the gun, but I have to try to catch him next year, given how close I am. If he runs off and sees me chasing, he might never move back out without escorts carrying longer-range weapons.

I noticed that a scout in orbit of the Bejavas planet of Cramp did not refuel automatically. I sent them a message asking if they've set me to Friend or not.

Year 2452

9th place, 42 points ahead of the Makisachi, 1 point behind the Falconians, 94 behind the Lothans.

I'm in 8th place, 18 points ahead of the Falconians, 88 behind the Lothans, 97 behind the Ninjas. This year I gained slightly against the Lothans, and the trend of the Falconians and I has continued. The Tobac have lost about 30 escort ships during the past couple of years.

This year, I got Energy 6 from Dani tech trade (Wolverine Diffuse Shield, Beam Deflector) and researched Biotech 6 (DNA Scanner). I can get Biotech 7 next year, which will give me Organic Armor, which I'd like to put in new cruisers.

I finally built a new Zoink-O-Rama at Ziggurat this year.

A small comet crashed into the Lothan planet of Endeavor, in the middle of Archimean space near the Triad border.

I found a rather decent planet on the border of Bejavas, Makisachi and Lothan space, Quixote (35%), 485 light years from Ho Hum. I'm building a new colony fleet featuring my new U-Zoink large freighter, complete with 2 Super Cargo Pods, giving it 1400kT capacity.

Battles - The Tobac finally took out my scout checking things out down south. A few Pucker Factors finally did the deed.

The attack of the Dispuckulators did not happen. The Pucker Factors moved further into their minefield while still sweeping some of mine. I will continue the edges of my minefield with them, keeping my fleet between the Pucker Factors and Planet X. Either this will give me a chance at some point to attack, or it will keep them from sweeping so many mines.

The Lothan sent out some ship location information, and a change of status for the Archimeans:
There are a number of Minion and Wolf fleets on the move. Just to be sure everyone is aware, this is what I have on my scopes:
Minions: 19xZues's Pinky (frigate) & 10xYar's Revenge (destroyer) : Leaving Me at wp 9, headed nw and will be ne of PiR2 next year at current trajectory (about 40ly); may have been attempting to attack a Bejava scout that was not destroyed.
Minions: 2 Scouts, 10xSmiter (bomber), 6xDestroyer (unknown make), 10xYar's Revenge(destroyer). Left Stonehenge last year and headed towards Kiwi, though not directly targeting there. Will, of course, run smack into the Machisachi mine field if they continue at that pace.
Wolf: 16xSavlation (Destroyer), 2xPrivateer (unknown make). Moving from Nada to Jones at wp 4. This is probably a protected colonization transport run.
There are 30 Minion ships in orbit at Stonehenge.
Current Mine fields:
Me: 44 ly.
Stonehenge: 44 ly.
Bonn: 49 ly. (opps, I lost a scout that that last year)
Lekgolo: 39 ly.
Montcalm: 53 ly.
I'm sure there are others at Leviathan, Planet X, and Deneb but my scans don't have those.
Well that's my update. Hope the war fairs well with you.
Note: Though the Archimeans are still talking with the Lothan from time-to-time, the Lothan continues to be suspicious they have switched sides to the Triad. They are building up fleets on the Lothan border but we still have a non-agression agreement which does expire this year. Deal with Archimean scouts as you see fit. Lothan has official down graded them to Neutral.

The Bejavoid sent me a message saying they'd now set me to Friend status in 2451, but this does make me wonder as to their actual dedication to this alliance:
Actually, I had just done that before I received your message. Sorry, it was an oversight. Saturday's turn should have you set as friend.

They also replied with respect to Arafat:
Yes, I had intended on taking it. However, I suppose that I could change my plans. There are over a million colonists on that planet that will have to be removed first. Do you or the Danis have any bombers?

Sounds like I could get it after all! My reply:
The Danis and I both have plans to remove the current rv colonists. They have bombers on their way as we speak. My invading hordes will follow soon thereafter. Thank you.

This year, the Lothans forwarded on to the Danis and I a message from the Archmeans, showing that theThrakians are War Mongers:
Cancer is now subdued. I will be invading in a few years.
Beware, the Thrakians have 1 Battlecruiser with Gatling Guns, meaning Weapons 11 and Construction 10, at Rickover. The config is warp7 engine, 4 man jets, 4 Kelarium, 9 Gattling Guns, armor 1720, rating 452, initiative 5, movement 2 1/4. Quite a beast, at this point in the game anyway. But, quite expensive also, even with the WM weapons discount.
The Tobacs informed me that they received a message from the Thrakians, which appeared to be accidentally sent to them instead of you. The message basically was asking to keep "your ally", me, out of their space, and in return they would help to kill the Tobacs. Interesting...I trust that if you did receive some offer to this effect, it was rebuffed/ignored.
It may be moot at this point anyway, since that was before I bombed Cancer. I doubt the Thrakians will be content just to have me out of their space after that.

The Spacemen still won't say much about what they're planning or doing:
Still alive...:-? My current tech levels are: En-6, W-8, P-8, C-8, El-7, Bio-6. I'm growing up little by little.

But they got talkative when they saw some Makisachi bombers:
What the ...(beep)... is this?! I see Makisachi bomber fleet heading to my planet (Desert). Do you know, what is happened?

I responded with the Makisachi's E-mail address, but questioned them myself, wanting to know if they're making their move against the Spacemen.

I created the new universe map and sent it out:
Here is the Universe map as of the year 2452, with territories as before. Again, only those who sent in a .PLA file are getting a copy of this.
This version has larger dots for larger populations, and a square around any planet with some sort of starbase. Colors are the same as in the previous map.

(Click here to see 2452 Universe map)

Year 2453

I'm in 8th place, 21 points ahead of the Falconians, 88 behind the Ninjas, 91 behind the Lothan. The number of Lothan escort ships continue to rise sharply, while the Thrakians continue to fall and the Archimeans take a hard hit this year.

I got Energy tech 7 from Dani tech trade (Energy Capacitor) and Biotech 7 from research (Organic Armor, Smart Bomb).

I'd had 5 Zoinkifiers going after a Tobac Spinal Tap, but it merged with the 30+ Pucker Factors and about 20 more all around Ho Hum, so when it went in it got nailed.

I started creating Quixote Colony this year. The defending Zoinkifiers will be ready next year.

Triad minefields are growing so big, that my planets' starbases are now being used to sweep them; Hell and Cherub swept some this year, and the one around Planet X is rapidly approaching Ho Hum. I'm sending my last remaining Little Zoinker II (who has been faithfully sweeping 16 mines per year from the Tobac Planet X minefield) on into Planet X at the safe speed of warp 4. My hope is that the Triad ships there will wait for him to arrive, and take him out there, allowing me to see the design of the Tobac frigates and destroyers there. There are some Wolf War Childs there, and they could ruin this plan by sending one of them out and killing my scout away from the planet. It's a long-shot, but the Little Zoinker II has long outlived it's usefulness and I'd rather get some information on Triad ship design than just scrap it. It should arrive in 2458.

I sent a message to the Falconians, to see if they'd be willing to help:
Good Falconians,
Located where you are, I'm not sure if you are aware of the problems looming for those of us in the universe. The races known as the Tobac, the Wolves and the Minions have banded together and threaten to completely dominate the game (some say they already do). I am soliciting your help in warding off this threat, or at least helping to defend against it. The Lothans and Ninja, near you, are part of this alliance. Would you consider aiding them, at least in their defense so that they may commit to more offensive forces? Please let me know.

The Makisachi said that, yes, they were making their move against the Spacemen, and asked if I wanted them to hold off for the moment. I told him he could go ahead and have at it as far as I was concerned. I certainly couldn’t stop him, but the Spacemen didn't look like they were going to contribute much to the alliance, and the resources of those planets could be used by others who are more able to use them. My only worry about this is that if the Makisachi turn on me, Desert is only 2 years away from Ho Hum at warp 9. I'd like to claim some of those planets for my own, especially Cochise. With that in mind, Ziggurat will start making Zoinkifiers, albeit rather slowly.

Year 2454 - The Dispuckulation of the Tobacs

I'm in 8th place, 14 points ahead of the Falconians, 95 behind the Lothans, 98 behind the Ninjas.

Quixote Colony is on their way with 170,000 colonists. They will arrive in 2461.

Battles - The one battle I had this year validated my creation of the Dispuckulator. While the Danis watched, my 32 Dispuckulators attacked 49 Tobac Pucker Factors between Planet X and Ho Hum, and defeated them without taking any permanent damage; the shields held. My rule of thumb had been going for a 1-for-1 ratio between Pucker Factors and Dispuckulators, but this battle shows they can handle a 2-to-3 ratio. Each shot took out 23 of the Tobac destroyers, doing about 8,630 points of damage. I'd pay real money to see the look on the Tobac player's face this morning when he sees the battle and the big drop in his Escort Ship graph.

This certainly will escalate the war between us, and will possibly force their hand to start creating cruisers. I'd like them to build them first so I can determine how to build ships to defend against them. This victory also severely curtailed their minesweeping operations on the Ho Hum minefield.

Diplomacy - I sent an E-mail to the alliance explaining the design of the Dispuckulator and how they can use it:
Alliance members! The mainstay of the Tobac fleet, the Pucker Factor, is now officially obsolete! 49 of these Yakimora Light Phaser destroyers were removed completely by 32 frigates, and without taking -any- permanent damage. Take a look at the Escort Ship graph for the Tobacs, and you'll see the proof of their destruction. The Danis also witnessed this glorious battle.
The Zoink "Dispuckulator" is a frigate hull with a Fuel Mizer (should also work with Radiating Hydro-Ram Scoops), 2 shields (Cow Hide or better), 3 Blackjacks and no scanner. The Blackjack is a range 0 weapon that, I must admit, I've had my doubts about ever using. But in specific instances, it works wonders.
The beauty of the Dispuckulator is it's initiative. The Blackjack weapon has a higher initiative than the phasers and so it fires first. The use of shields (and an engine with a battle speed of at least 6 (e.g. Fuel Mizer or Radiating Hydro-Ram Scoop) keeps the ship light and allows it to get on top of the Pucker Factor fleet, where it can use the Blackjack. Even though the Dispuckulator has 1 movement and the Pucker Factor get 1.5, it still is able to get on top. (This is due to how the movement vs. the shooting portion of the battle VCR works; during the movement phase, the Pucker Factor winds up moving up right next to the Dispuckulator, the Dispuckulator gets it's one move, but when it's time for the Pucker Factor to use it's .5 move, it just stays on top of the Dispuckulator, since it's beam weapons do more damage at range 0 than at range 1.) Once on top of each other, though, the Blackjack gets to fire first due to it's higher initiative. In the battle of 32 Dispuckulators vs. 49 Pucker Factors, that first shot did 8,630 points of damage, destroying 23 Pucker Factor destroyers! The remaining 26 Pucker Factors then returned fire, but since their numbers were severely reduced, they didn't have enough punch to get past the Dispuckulator shields, so no ships were lost (hence the need for good shielding). The next round, the Dispuckulators killed 23 more Pucker Factors, leaving 3. Even with shields almost gone, the remaining Pucker Factors could not take them down enough to kill even one of my frigates. The last shot, of course, finished the job.
It appears that this frigate design can handle up to a ratio of 3-to-2 Pucker Factors to Dispuckulators (though you may want to stick with a 1-to-1 ratio to play it safe). Any more than that, and they would start taking heavy losses, but could still do the job. (Testing showed that this is true.)
Advantages to this design: It's mostly Boranium (66%), which is something I know we all have in vast quantities, and very light on Germanium. Therefore, you can create a very large fleet quickly. Also, at about 50kT, they fit easily through stargates.
Disadvantages: They only work against range 1 weapons. A ship with torpedoes or longer range beamers can keep away and shred them from a distance. It's possible that huge quantities of them could survive long enough to get in against slower moving larger ships, but this hasn't been tested. For now, I plan to use them solely against Pucker Factors or other ships with Yakimora Light Phasers.
Note: You should keep your Dispuckulators in a single fleet when attacking. As a fleet, they share shields and so attacking ships must destroy the shields from all ships before they start hitting armor (again, assuming range 1 beamers only). That is how my fleet survived intact. Also, since this ship design is extremely specialized (it's designed to combat one specific class of ships), you should probably only build a fleet if you know for sure you will need it soon. (Though, since Boranium is in such good supply, you may not mind building those ships for future use.) Finally, you may want to insure that the movement of your ship is 1 (via engine selection). It -may- be that if my ships were slower, the Pucker Factor may have actually moved away one space before firing, or instead of ending one movement phase at range 2 and not being able to fire until the next round (when we were on top of each other), it may end the phase at range 1, and get a shot off before the Dispuckulators move in. (See, I -said- this was a very specialized design!)
I think you'll start seeing fewer fleets comprised solely of Pucker Factors from here on out, but if you do come across one, you can now deal with them safely and effectively!
The engineer who came up with this design has been awarded the Big Zoink Medal of Honor.
Sincerely,
Yabigg Zoink - President of the Zoink Empire

The Ninja had an additional caveat in using Dispuckulators in the future:
Hi all...I just want to state that while the design worked one time, if I were the Tobac, I would set my Pucker Factor battle plan tactic to 'Minimise damage to self'. With this setting, the pucker factor will always move away after your frigates move on top of it, and will keep doing that to shred your fleet to bits.
I would use caution, and try to assess whether the Tobac have indeed changed their battle plans. If they have not, then go ahead and use the design. But if they have, then it is unfortunately not a viable design to counter their Pucker Factors. On the other hand, WM's can use the design due to their movement bonus regardless of the Tobac battle plans.
In summary...the design may be useful, but if the Tobac is smart enough to realize what's happening, he'll change tactics. I advise caution before you rush headlong into producing these ships.

I replied:
Ah ha! Hadn't thought of that. Thank you, sir Ninja, for pointing that out. Still, I think that if he changes to "Minimize damage to self" it won't help. You see, we met in round 3 of the battle. At the start of that round we were at range 2. He closed in to range one, then I moved on top of him, then, in the shooting portion of the round, I shot first. Had he been set to "Minimize damage to self", it would have been too late to react. In round 4, no one moved, we just shot, thought the other participants moved (Dani frigates, Tobac Spinal Tap). In round 5, he moved off one, but I followed, and finished him off.
Now, I'm just speculating based on how moves were made in that battle. It's possible that during round 4 he may have moved had his tactics been different, and I may or may not have had the opportunity to counter. It's a tough call, but from what I see, it looks like that would make no difference.
I think the most likely change we'll see is a change in fleet makeup. Pucker Factors will no longer go out by themselves. This means the Tobac will either have to build more ships as escorts, or take them away from planet garrisons; the former options causes him to spend more resources and minerals, the latter weakens planetary defenses. Either way, I hope this battle will give us some breathing room while he regroups, and an opportunity to strike at his Pucker patrols.

The Falconians replied to my request of defensive aid:
Greetings Zoinks.
This is Tom of the Falconians. We welcome a defensive alliance to prevent attacks. while we will not send our ships to attack other worlds at this time we would agree to creating a defensive barrier to protect the Alliances planets. But before we commit to such a scheme we need to receive messages from the other players and their intentions.
Please have the Lothans and Ninjas contact me so I know they are part of the alliance and could you also tell me where your plantes are in a general idea.. I have just constructed a fleet of scout ships to explore the galaxy but do not have a good idea of your sphere of influence. Our sphere is the upper left corner at this time :)

I let him know where I was generally, and forwarded on his note to the Ninja and Lothan to let them verify their participation in the alliance.

Year 2457

I was in 8th place in 2455 and 2456, but the Falconians passed me up this year. I'm currently in 9th place, 13 points ahead of the Archimeans, 1 behind the Falconians, 135 behind the Ninjas. The Hsani (the Player 5 I never saw) have been eliminated. In 2456, the Tobac escort ship count increased by more than enough to make up for the Pucker Factor massacre.

Tech Advances - In 2456, I got Weapons tech 11 (Gatling Gun, M-80 bomb).

Battles - In 2455, 14 Tobac Pucker Factors mopped up my scout watching Lynx escorted by 7 Zoinkifiers and 6 Dani F-stops. 2 Pucker Factors removed my scout keeping tabs on Bonn and Tweedledee. 3 Wolf War Childs took out the Little Zoinker II that was on the suicide mission to Planet X. That's the last of that ship design.

In 2456 the Tobacs sent out a new destroyer design towards my Dispuckulators, and ships of this design are bulking up at Planet X. I'm recalling them home except for one, which attacked to see the new design in 2457. I figured they were carrying beam weapons, since the minefield around Ho Hum started to be swept again (2127 in 2456). Sure enough, this year my suicide Dispuckulator took on the unknown Tobac destroyer and it's a beamer. It's called the Maduro, and has two Collodial Phasers, an Energy Capacitor, two maneuvering jets, and Organic Armor. My frigate, of course, lost to the 25 destroyers.

Observations - 4 Makisachi B-17 bombers and a large freighter were still on their way to the Spaceman planet of Desert in 2455. By that time, the Spacemen hadn't built any new escort ships in response to this. They have only 2 dual-beta-torp destroyers guarding the planet. Later on, the Makisachi called off the attack, as they hadn't escorted their bombers.

I created Johnson Colony in 2456 to colonize that planet in the far west, just inside Lothan space. They will arrive in 2466.

In 2456, I saw a contingent of 6 Wolf Sabres plus a Fire in Babylon scanning ship moving towards Cherub, and 21 Wolf Salvations moving in through the 3-planet area of Hell, Eisenhower and Cherub. I've build some Dispuckulators to deal with the Salvations (which are just Yakimora armed, but have 2 maneuvering jets, which may change the way the battle goes). The Pucker Factors in the area are moving out, while 4 of the new destroyers are on their way north.

My Vacant Resupply fleet, sending 156,000 new colonists to man all the taken-over rv988212-g factories that were there, finally arrived this year, and now there are more than enough colonists to man all those factories. Vacant can now continue to grow.

Libra Colony is on its way. Libra is unfortunately located just south of the newly opened wormhole, so hopefully no Triad colonies will be there before I get there in 2468.

The minefields are getting pretty thick around this portion of the universe. Other than Pucker Factors, there aren't many good minesweeping ships around, but that changed in 2456 when I got Weapons 11 and created the new ship type The Broom; a frigate with 3 of the new Gatling Guns for use primarily as mine sweepers. Since each one can sweep about 1500 mines per year, I put some in the queues of Ho Hum and Cherub to deal with the ever-expanding Triad minefields. They were built this year and are starting to move into the minefields.

I'm sending a Gas Station with Planet X Bombers, figuring I'm not using them on Planet X anytime soon. They're going to Arafat to help out with the bombing. Their first stop is Ziggurat via stargate, which may be dangerous since all the ships are over 100kT each, but I need to do something with these guys. I'm also building another Gas Station at Ziggurat so they can get to Arafat quicker (or to replace the current one, just in case it is destroyed by the stargate).

In an effort to boost resources, I'm going to be building a U-Zoink to shuttle colonists off Ho Hum to the nearby worlds, to keep my overall growth rate up. A little late to be doing this, but better than not at all.

I'm starting to see cruisers. The Bejavoid and the Makisachi are starting to build a contingent of them in a few locations.

The Wolves are really starting to move in B-17 bombers and large freighters (I'm guessing colonists) in to Lynx. Sounds like they're planning a major offensive, so it's time to start a serious bulking up effort here. With this in mind, I'm starting to build my own cruiser, the Zoinkulator. Having 6 Collodial Phasers and Organic Armor, I hope to get more bang for the buck out of this than just building more Zoinkifiers. Cherub, Hell and Ho Hum are building them, though Ho Hum's mineral shortage (Ironium and Germanium) is slowing that effort down. I also want to get a starbase producing ships at Eisenhower, but I'm about 5900 research resources from getting the Mass Driver 7, so I don't want to start another Zoink-O-Rama just before getting these. However, the mass production of new Zoinkulators really strapped me for resources, so I've set my resource percentage for research to 54% this year to get half that amount, and will readjust next year for the other half. It's going to kill my Zoinkulator production, but it's just for two years. I don't think the Wolves will be attacking in that time. I've also pushed the Zoinkulators down in the queues so that I don't just build one or two at a time. I'd rather hold off and build a bunch, which won't give the Triad as much of an advance warning of my new capabilities.

It appears about 6 of the Falcon scouts that were fanning out from Aquarius were victims of the minefield surrounding the Bejavas planet of Cramp.

The Makisachi bombing fleet has turned and is coming to Ho Hum, while it's associated large freighter is returning home. The Spacemen moved their few warships to Desert, and the Makisachi had no escort at all. They sent me a message explaining:
I'm postponing the attack on Spacemen. The Tobac have become very threatening lately, so I'm going to concentrate on border defense. As for the bombers, I've sent them to Ho Hum and then they will be transferred to you so that you can use them in the war against Tobac. Enjoy.

I appreciate the thought, but I don't have room in my list of ships for a bombing ship that's lower tech than what I could make (I'm just about ready to scrap the lightly used Planet X Bombers as I don't think I'll ever want to use just Black Cat bombs on a mini-bomber hull). I replied:
Thanks for the bombers, but first tell me what's on them. If they're lower tech that I currently could build, I don't think I'll use them. When I'm ready to bomb the Tobac, it'll be with state-of-the-art boomers. :) I see, too, that the Spacemen decided to put up a token defense. Next time, bring escorts with your bombing fleet. >grin<

The Makisachi decided to contribute those bombers to my mineral storehouses:
Hehehe. Well, it was just on a whim. I forgot what tech is on it. I built them a while back, so it's probably not any good for you then. Just scrap them and use the minerals for building your new super fleet.

The Danis are guessing that the Triad ships we're way seeing up north are evidence of a wormhole:
Evidently there is a wormhole that originates somewhere in Tobac/Minion space and empties out just east of Sputnik. Right now there are 6 Tobac PuckerFactors there and 6 Minion Cruisers. The threat could be very serious. Unfortunately since I have been sending my warships and my mine layerers south, I was not prepared to defend the space from an attack from behind the lines.
Also the Falcons are finally launching out. They have a couple dozen scouts leaving their space from the northeast. Where do they stand? Anyone know?

My response to the alliance:
Just this year (2456) I did see a wormhole just southwest of Sputnik that the Triad ships may be using. This is situated between Bejavas, Dani and Falcon space. I have a contingent of ships up north, but they're mostly colonizers and small planetary garrisons. If you folks could work on keeping the Triad ships in check up there, it would make a big difference, I'm sure.
As for the Falcons, I talked to them recently and they seem to have agreed to help in the defense of the Ninja and Lothan, or at least not go attacking them. Bejavas, you may want to work out a similar deal to keep your back door shut. I see their scouts fanning out as the Danis mention (all coming from Aquarius). If you've not heard from them as to friend or foe, I would say feel free to whack them as you see them.

The Makisachi also let the alliance know about a new Triad threat, related to the wormhole up north:
Speaking of this new wormhole, a fleet of 20 Minion destroyers will be passing through this wormhole next turn. Be sure to warn everyone who is up north that they Triad is indeed planning to capitalize on this new resource.

Year 2458

I'm currently in 9th place, 22 points ahead of the Archimeans, 6 behind the Falconians, 129 behind the Ninjas. The Tobacs score actually dropped this year, due to a significant drop in escort ships (about the same number as I reduced him by before, around 50) and a slight drop in resources (after decades of unimpeded growth). What seems very significant is that the Wolves also lost escort ships (about 25) as did the Archimeans (about 50). So the Triad lost approximately 125 armed ships this year, so I sent out a message to the alliance asking for information anyone might have about this.

Tech Advances - I got Energy tech level 8. Next year I'll get Mass Driver 7s, so I can build my next generation starbase.

Battles - The 25 Tobac Maduros apparently took a shot at going warp 5 in my Ho Hum minefield and caught up with the retreating Dispuckulators. As I thought, they shredded them easily. They also swept about 5,600 mines from the minefield this year as well, reducing it significantly.

Observations - I've decided to send out the Ho Hum War Fleet, 21 Zoinkifiers, to do what I can to this Tobac Maduro fleet, since they're sweeping so many mines there are now gaps in my coverage. Also, I'm sending out 10 Dispuckulators and the 11 Zoinkifiers in Cherub War Fleet to go after the 21 Wolf Salvations and 5 Sabres keeping tabs on me down there.

Planet X Bombers arrived at Ziggurat with a little damage but no lost ships. The Gas Station built there is joining up with them, but its addition only reduces the ETA by one year to 2464.

Four remaining Falconian scouts are now east of Arafat, but two find themselves within a Dani minefield. I imagine they may bite the dust next year.

Through the northern wormhole, a fleet of 6 Minion cruisers and a long-range scout are heading for Sputnik. I'm rearranging the fleet to have just the colonizers land and set up shop next year, while the Zoinkifiers and Zoinking Fields start laying a minefield to cover themselves on their way in to the planet. Also, I'd send a small fleet of Dispuckulators via stargates to Sputnik about 5 years ago to deal with the Pucker Factors that were sitting there. Now, however, the landscape has changed, and they'll meet up with the mine-laying fleet. Other ships that have just come through the wormhole include a Wolf Salvation, 20 Minion Yar's Revenges, 4 Tobac Maduros and 2 Pucker Factors to add to the 4 already there. The Maduros and Pucker Factors will threaten any minefield I can create (only 450 per year with the ships I have).

The Ninjas have been doing some tinkering, and wish us to benefit from their work:
Hi all... I may have some good news.
I have been tinkering with the Dispuckulator design the Zoinks came up with. I have changed the engine, to an Alpha Drive 8. This gives a move of 1.5, for a slight increase in cost. In conjunction with this design is a destroyer with 2 Phasor Bazookas, the prop. 8 ramscoop, 2 organic armor, a capacitor, a man. jet, and a shield.
I think that used together, these designs can be effective even against larger craft. I have put over 130 of each into the queue, and they will all be built in 5-6 turns. Supported by sf-xports, these ships can reach the front lines very quickly. I plan to use these ships as one big fleet, and take out some mid-sized fleets of the Minions and the Tobacs. If you need some quick firepower, and my ships are in the area, just let me know, and I will be glad to help out.
It might be hard to see these ships, they're 80% cloaked (I'm SS). I will periodically update their position, so you can keep track if you can't see them.

My immediate suggestion for a use of these ships is to work on plugging the leak that the northern wormhole has created. The Ninja responded:
Ok, I have noted your concern, and have informed the Danis that they are getting a shipment of 50 to 60 destroyers sent to them next turn. If I can get the location of gates nearby, that would be helpful in speeding up delivery. I will also send some frigates, as needed, as soon as they are built.

The Lothan also gave us all an intelligence report:
The Minions are moving their cruisers to the border with the Lothan. I'm sure these are moving to other regions. I spot 16 enroute to Lekgolo with 3 already in orbit. There's 8 west of Me and 7 inbound. I'm sure there are some in orbit of Me and should have a direct check this year (a scouting destroyer will be there this year).
I have begun taking out Minion scouts south of Kiwi and moving fleets into the area as possible. I request the Bejava and Makisachi to consider a move - against Jones perhaps. The Wolf have just pulled their fleet off (though it could still return). Currently there's only an Orbital Fort in defense (composition unknown).
The Lothan are also actively at war against the traitorous Archimeans in the south. We have defeated them at a number of planets and will continue as we are able. They have obviously assigned full friend status with the Tobac/Minion/Wolf as fleets of these races are moving at full speed through Archimean mine fields. The Tobac also occupy worlds in the south - specifically Snake's Belly. The Lothan now have a very long border (from PiR2 down to Hay Seed, around to Winky-Blinky and on to Wilbury) with these enemies and request any assistance you can give.
I understand there has been a recent worm hole open in the North. By all means, if you are near by direct ships there as we don't need them opening up new worlds to colonize.
The Thrakians have signed a temprorary truce with the Lothan so we can both concentrate on the Archimeans. However, the Thrakians still continue to be isolationist and do not expect to have to go to war against the Tobac alliance. I believe they will soon find out that will be necessary as well. The Thrakian would be a good addition to our pact against the Tobac and I am trying to bring them on board. Note to any who approach them - though they are low on the overall tech scale they do have battle cruisers and Jihad missles (over 20 battle cruisers too).

Year 2459

I'm in 8th place, tied with the Falconians, 124 behind the Ninja, 141 behind the Lothan. The Tobac resource curve hasn't returned to it's standard sloped curve, but it is on the rise again. Their escort ship graph continues to bounce, this year rising again by over 50. The Wolves recovered a bit as well. And, true to their word, the escort ship count of the Ninjas jumped by a little over 100.

Tech Advances - I got Energy tech level 9 this year (Mass Driver 7).

Battles - Apparently colonizing occurs after battles. While the Danis and I made it to Sputnik at the same time as the Triad ships, I though colonizing would happen first. Instead, the Tobac ships (Pucker Factors and Maduros) destroyed all our ships. I don't think, however, that the 4 Zoinkifiers I left behind would've made much of a difference. They blew away 3 B-stops and 2 Rad Deterrents easily, finishing me up after that. That really hurt.

Observations - My first Zoinkulator ships were built this year at Hell and Cherub.

All the Triad ships that came through the northern wormhole are either at or going to Sputnik. They are probably going to use it as a base of operations.

The Falconians lost one more scout to the Dani minefield around Albemuth.

With the addition of the Mass Driver to my available components, I've created a new starbase design; the Zoink-A-Mundo. It's basically the Zoink-O-Rama with more and better torpedoes, better beamers, better armor and a Mass Driver. Cherub and Hell will have one in 2460, Eisenhower and Hexnut in 2461, and Ho Hum and Vacant in 2463.

One of my Broom fleets was destroyed in the Tobac minefield, though I thought for sure it was doing warp 4. In the same area, the 25 Tobac Maduros have retreated to Planet X, so my remaining Broom fleet will merge with Ho Hum War Fleet to move to the edge of my minefield sweeping the Tobac minefield, though it's currently targeting a Wolf Fire in Babylon scanner ship moving towards Ho Hum.

Diplomacy - I sent a message to the Makisachi, to let them know I can do some serious sweeping now, and suggesting that we look at moving in on Planet X soon:
I now have minesweeping ships that should be very busy with the Tobac minefield around Planet X. How are you coming along with a possible Planet X attack fleet? If you'll be ready soon, I can head on in sweeping as I go, so we won't have to worry about damage.

And I let the alliance know of the new Triad base of operations:
After a decade-long sojourn, over 120,000 Zoink colonists were mercilessly slaughtered as they arrived at Sputnik, finding Tobac ships in orbit, and other Triad fleets on their way there. Any war fleets in the area that exist or can be built need to converge there, as this will certainly cause major problems, especially if they colonize and can build a starbase. As yet, I don't see anything I would consider a colonizer, but the wormhole is still open. I am sending in a ship to find out where the other end of the wormhole is. This may allow others in our alliance to deal with Triad ships before they enter our space. We need to plug this hole now.
Thanks are in order to the Ninja, who are expediting a fleet to the affected area. (Helm, set a course for Sputnik, warp 9. Engage!)

There is a fleet of Falcon minelayers whose field is just now encompassing the northern wormhole, and I'm worried I might hit it on my way in. I'll be doing warp 9 to get there in one turn, as it's about 74 lightyears away, so hitting it could destroy me entirely. I sent a message to the Falcons, hoping they'd let me through:
I have an urgent request. Would you please set me, the Zoinks, to Friend status, at least for this turn (2459)? I need to fly into the wormhole southeast of your planet of Brin because ships from what we call the Triad (Tobacs, Minions and Wolves) are coming through it, way behind our front lines. We need to know where it leads so that others of our alliance can see if they can take out Triad ships before they enter the wormhole.
However, you have 5 minelaying privateers laying mines in that vicinity. At this time, the minefield just barely includes the wormhole, but by next year, when I will be flying into the wormhole, your minefield could be large enough that I could run into it and either get stopped or die, and we need this information desperately. If you would set me to friend this year (2459), my ships will be able to fly into the wormhole safely. In 2460, you can then set me back to whatever you have me set for now, that's fine with me.
For my part, I will do the same for you. It may not matter much for you--your ships are not near my space--but I'll do it as a good faith move on my part.
If you will, please do this as soon as you recieve this message. Thank you very much. Our alliance will remember this.

He replied with some very good information:
I have already set everyone as freind at this time to prevent accidents.
Except for the Triad of course hehehehe.
The wormhole leads to a spot between Nada and Sprinfield. Closer to Nada than Springfield.
The only planet in scanner range at this time is the Planet Nada which belongs to the Wolves. I shall explore the surrounding area and let you know. If you wish you can enter the wormhole and explore yourself
Currently in scanner range is 5 Wolf FrigatesIII that are stopped to the east of the wormhole. A tobac Frigate Stopped east of the wormhole. 10 Wolf FriagteI stopped west of the wormhole. 7 Minion's cruiser South of the wormhole heading West towards McClellen. 7 Wolf Frigates II west of the wormhole heading towards Halsey. 16 Minion Destroyers North West of the wormhole heading south towards Stonehenge. 5 Wolf Destroyers South East of the Wormhole heading towards Deneb. And that is about it.
I have currently warned the Minions and Wolves to leave their ships from the sphere of myself and the Bejavoid. The have ships headed towards Sputnik at this time. I am sending a fleet of 50 ships to ask them to leave if they do not then I will open fire on their ships to prevent colonization of Sputnik for your forces. I am currently buliding a new fleet of ships to be stationed around the wormhole and a fleet of Miners to protect it.
Hope that is what you needed to know
Grand Admrial Proteus of the Falconians

I thanked him profusely and forwarded his message to the alliance. I'm still going to go through the wormhole, just so I can get it on my map, and see what specific ship types are down there.

The Ninja let us all know his fleet is on it's way:
I see several Minion destroyers in the area, and there are probably more in orbit around Sputnik and/or surrounding planets. I have the fleet of ships I promised, they are converging on Diamond prior to shipping out. I am debating whether I should send the ships direct, via the Falconi homeworld, or through Bejavoid space, via Sheridan, and gate up north. I would like to go through Bejavoid space, as then I can refuel more often, and speed up delivery even if gates are not available. The shipment is about 70 destroyers, with prop.8 ramscoop, 2 organic armor, 1 shadow shield, energy capacitor, 2 phasor bazookas, and a maneuvering jet apiece. I hope this will be enough. If you require more ships, just let me know, and I will build them.
I will have const. 8 next turn, so I will build some 98% cloaked rogues for scouting missions. Then, hopefully we can get some pretty good intel on enemy troop movements, and act to counter them in time.

I responded that his fleet should be more than enough to handle what is currently through the wormhole.

I'd asked the alliance for their thoughts on adding the Falconians to all of our general alliance messages. I got a few responses. The Ninja want to take a wait-and-see attitude:
I don't know about whether the falconi should be included, but I can say that if they do turn out to be traitors, they will not live long. Consider this... they are in a corner of the universe, bordered by the Danis, the Bejavoids, the Lothans(to a lesser extent), and by myself. (that I know of) He will only cut his own throat if he thinks he can turn on us.
I have him set to friend, and think he will eventually be included in all our mails, but for the time being, I have no set opinion. My relations with him have been limited to asking him to abstain from colonizing a planet that's green for me, in exchange for a planet that was yellow for me. He complied, and that was that. After that, I only wrote some turns back to show him that there is indeed an alliance that needs his help. So I am a little wary, until I get a feel for his playing style, I would probably vote for more time to prove himself.
But like I said, it is not very important. I am sure he would not like to hear that I don't fully trust him, but I personally do not have what I consider to be enough evidence of loyalty. However, in light of the message he sent, I am considering it. I will accept whatever the alliance decides.

The Danis, however, had even less of an impression of the Falconians:
I would be cautious for now with regards to the Falconians. The message they sent you regarding information about the wormhole was very informative. However, he is still making challenging statements to some of us.
If we are talking about advances by the Triad and he is willing to help, he should be included. However, if we are talking about ship designs and more revealing information, I am not willing to risk the relationship.

Therefore, I sent out a message suggesting that we use the Dani's option for now.

The Lothan once again gave us some good information about the goings on with the Triad:
Well I see there's been a lot of communication in the last 24 hours. I'd like to thank the Falconians for their useful information and welcome them to our alliance against the Triad/Quad. As for Archimean scouts in the North, I would recommend destroying them as these are functioning now as scouts for the Tobac and other races in that alliance. Keeping them blind is a good way to keep them out.
It appears the Minion and Wolves are sometimes indecisive or trying to pull ships into traps (I'd bet the later). There are now 60+ ships at Jones where there were none last year - the fleet left and then returned. Quite strange as it didn't appear to have any target. I've seen the same near my border near Silicon and McClellan.
The Minions have another cruiser fleet on the move toward McClellan (20 cruisers). I will intercept if they move too close -- one more year. I have just built 97% cloaked starbases at PiR2, Silicon, and Hay Seed; McClellan is next year. I will then make my move, so hopefully they won't know the number of ships invovled (over 75 destroyers). Hopefully we'll see another large fleet of theirs fall on the front...but they may use their old "tactic" and just run home (fortunately their too far away to get into that wormhole as reported by the Falconians).
Warning to the Falconi: your scout that came through the wormhole between Nada and Springfiled is deep in a wolf mine field so you may want to slow down.
My take on the frigate ships reported by the Falconi in the north is that some are possibly standard Minion or Tobac mine layers so watch out when moving through the area.
The war with the Archimeans is proceeding; Green House will fall this year. However, as I'd suspected, the Tobac have been called on to support other positions. The Tobac have moved a number of Madura's and Pucker Factor's to Hyperbole and that will certainly slow things down. The Thrakians continue to "support" us in the south in their assault against the Tobac and Archimeans; they are unfortunately rather grudging partners (simple non-agression agreement with Lothan except against Lothan ships in their space; they consider all other races as hostile).

I responded, to all recipients:
In response to the Lothan intelligence report, the Danis have mentioned to me that perhaps the name "Triad" might still be useful in describing our enemies. The late addition of the Archimeans may not necessarily mean that the other three races in that group won't ever go after them. If anything, they could be best described as "The Triad, with a little Archimean on the side". We'll stick with "Triad" for now, I think.
For those who may not have heard about or seen the Minion cruisers, they have mere Beta Torpedoes on them. Don't let the cruiser hull scare you, though it's hull armor will take more punishment than a destroyer. They can be beat.
You must know that I like hearing about the Tobac having to support their new ally with ships. This means they are having to spread thinner. I do hope folks are picking targets! >grin<

Year 2460

Score Analysis - The Triad continue to use planetary invasion as a method of tech transfer, as the jagged lines on the planet graph show, though they've leveled out for the Minions and Wolves the past couple of years. The Tobac, however, continue their planet grab, mostly, I'm guessing, in the space of the Archimeans. The Archimeans themselves, however, aren't faring as well. They're down to 13 planets this year, losing two from last year, and having had as many as 16 in the 2450s. The explanation may come from the fact that the Lothan gained a planet this year (Green House), and the Thrakians gained a couple planets this year, one possibly being Archimean, as they are now beginning to understand the threat they pose.

Starbase building seemed to hit a plateau in 2455. The Tobac, Dani and Lothan graphs have leveled off for 3 years, and the Tobacs haven't built one for about 7 years. The 2460s may be the decade of the starbase upgrade.

The Danis, Falconians and Lothan have been building unarmed ships faster than anyone else. Even the Tobac dropped a few this year. The general trend is still upward (mostly due, I'm sure, to minelayers and bombers), but some folks, like the Archimeans, are bucking the trend. (The Archimeans have lost unarmed ships every year since about 2452.) The Thrakians, who went from just over 50 to almost 20, are now slowly rising again.

The escort ship graph has been turned on its head since 2450. The Tobac are now in 3rd place in this category, and I'm proud to say that they first dipped into 3rd place when they got dispuculated by me. The Wolves hold this category, but were challenged one year by the Minions, though the Minions have taken a big hit this year (about 40 ships, mostly due to the Lothans, they tell me). The new ships designed by the Ninja are being mass-produced by them in unbelievable quantities. Since 2457 they've climbed by about 160, after having been virtually flat for 10 years before that. The Archimeans, mirroring their losses elsewhere, have dropped by about 90 this past decade.

The tech level picture remains generally the same, though I'm losing some ground in this area. I was tied for 3rd in 2450, but now I'm in 6th place. Notable is the fact that the Lothan have gained one tech level every year so far since 2446. The biggest break from the pack is by the Falconians, the Archimeans and Thrakians, who've not been gaining as well as others, but the Thrakians seem to be changing that now, gaining 2 levels in each of the past two years.

The Tobac's resource graph took a hit a couple years back, but he's back on his way now. The Danis have made impressive gains in the 2450s, passing up the Ninjas and the Wolves. The Archimeans graph is a bit shaky, while the Thrakians were slightly below 2450 levels all the intervening years until this year when they've about recovered. The Spaceman's resource graph is almost a mathematically perfect curve, moving slightly upward, which is most likely due to not moving colonists around nor gaining new planets.

In terms of score, the Tobacs still enjoy a huge lead, followed by the Bejavoid. The Minions and Danis are fighting tooth and nail for 3rd place (only 4 points separating them), while the Wolves have fallen behind the Danis and have stayed in their spot pretty solidly. The Ninja and Lothan continue to swap 6th and 7th place. The Falconians and I battle for 8th place, while the Archimeans, now in 10th, have been a bit shaky but are not that far behind. Following them are the Makisachi, whose graph has been going up, but in a straight line instead of a curve, the Thrakians, who's bumpy score curve mirrors their resource curve, and the Spacemen, who's curve is also more of a line. The rv-988212g, far behind them and the last of the inactive players, are one planet (Arafat) from extinction.

My prediction in 2450 was the by now half the races would have cruisers. So far I have then as well as the Danis, Bejavoid, Makisachi, Wolves and Minions. Of the 13 active players (not counting the rv-988212g), that's just about half, and I hear tell of more cruiser-based ships in the design phase.

Battles - My Zoinkifier and Gas Station exploring the other end of the northern wormhole were met by 5 Tobac Maduros and 4 Pucker Factors. I was easily beaten, though now I know the location of that end of the wormhole.

Observations - The freighters supplying colonists to the overtaken rv-988121g world of Vacant has returned to Ziggurat. They're being filled with colonists to be used as the marines going after Arafat once it's number of colonists is low enough. The fleet includes 6 Zoink-a-longs, 6 Zoinkifiers and 2 Gas Stations.

The Makisachi gave me those bombers this year (the Throne of Blood, a B-17 bomber with Black Cat bombs). I'll be scrapping them.

27 Tobac ships have emerged from Planet X in two paths; 19 are going north between Ho Hum and Hexnut (15 Maduros, 4 Pucker Factors) and 18 are going between Ho Hum and Hell (14 Maduros, 4 Pucker Factors). Ho Hum War Fleet (21 Zoinkifiers) will chase down the fleet of 18. They're probably on minesweeping missions.

The Falconian scouts have found planets they can use, but most are being used already. Also, he sent this to the Lothan and me, but the Lothan are hundreds of lightyears from these planets:
Greetings Zoinks and Lothans,
This is Tom of the Falconians wondering if I could colonize the worlds Mobious, Dunsany, and Wammalammadingdong since it appears neather of you have colonized those worlds. If you have prior claim to them just let me know. Or if another species around there has claimed them. I believe both of you are in that sphere of infulluence.

The Lothan told the Falcons to ask either me, the Danis, the Spacemen or the Bejavoid about those planets. I responded to the Falconians and copied the Danis and Spacemen:
As to the planets of Mobius and Dunsany, those planets are being mined by me and/or the Danis. As to Wammalammadingdong, I have no use for that one, but you may want to check with the Danis and the Spacemen.

The Makisachi told me they were currently building cruisers for an attack on Planet X and asked how I was coming along:
I'm doing my own cruiser building, but it's slowed down a bit as I upgrade my starbase. I'm going to continue to use my minesweeping ships to keep his fields in check and maybe cause him to build more mine layers instead of warships. (No worry, my minesweepers are cheap and mostly Boranium, of which we all have gobs. I'll just match him.) If you would, could you send a contingent to go after the fleet of 19 destroyers flying north between Ho Hum and Hexnut? I'm sure they're there to do minesweeping, but they'll screw up my shipping lane to Hexnut. The fleet I have moving out from Ho Hum will be going after the other fleet of 18 ships flying between Ho Hum and Hell. If you can't, I understand. My suggestion would be not to send any cruisers to go after the Tobac fleet, as I think it would be best for him to find out their designs only when they attack Planet X.

The Falconians continue to work against the Triad:
This is Tom of the Falconians letting you know that I have officially closed off the wormhole in my area to all ships belonging to the Triad. This includes Scouts. Hopefully this will allow us to have a safe area to build up ships and when we are ready to attack the Triad. Below is the message I have sent to the Tobacs to pass along to the Triad.
Dear Tobacs
We are grateful that you are moving your ships away now. Due to Treaty considerations we must now close off the wormhole to all ships. This includes scouts at this time since we understand you are at war w/ some treaty partners. Please inform your Allies in the Triad that any ships shall come under fire. We do not want any problems to occur but we cannot allow any ships to enter our sphere or the sphere of our treaty partners.
Tom of the Falconians
Now since I worded it like that I hope that they will think I am staying quiet and not helping you guys much. If this happens then we will have an avenue to attack the Triad from the wormhole. On my end the wormhole is slightly unstable and tends to move a little. While at the other end between Nada and Stonehenge is marked as Rock Solid. Now I do not know if they will believe me or not but there is a hope that it will happen. Currently since I am nearly in last place I don't think they will be worried about me but we shall see. I feel that we should not use the wormhole unless really in trouble because once it is used we will lose that option of surprise but all of you let me know your opinions on that issue. I do know really know the area the Triad holds so don't know if that the wormhole will be useful or not.

I responded, suggesting that I don't believe the Triad will be put off by just a message, but we'll have to wait and see.

The Ninja let the alliance know that they have more ships coming than expected, and files a flight path with the Falconians:
It seems I need to learn how to count... I forgot to add one fleet to the total I will be sending. So scratch 70, I am sending 103 destroyers to aid the Dani and the Falconi in defending the Northern region. I have also changed the flight plan to go through Aquarius, as it is somewhat shorter. I only ask that the Falconi set me to friend for the duration of my flight through their minefield, and refuel my ships at Aquarius. ETA is 7 years, 6 next turn, to Aquarius, and another 2 to reach the battlefield.
I hope I will not be too late. If it is ok with the Falconi and the Dani, (and anyone else with an investment in the area,) I would like to station some ships in that area, in case something like the wormhole appears again.
I have 8/9/8/8/7/7 tech, with bio and elec. 8 probable next turn. I am working on Weap. 10, but due to my increased construction spending, I can't make much progress for the next two years. After that, I will be able to put 8000 resources into research.

I responded that I voted to have the Ninja keep their garrison there as long as the wormhole was around.

Previous (2421-2440) Next (2461-2480) Breakout III main "Stars!" Diary main