[Slynky]

Trithian Empire (Slynky) -vs- Kif Hegemony (Mark the Merciful): 2405.5

(standard KOTH game: 1 medium starting homeworld)

Expansion and exploring as usual in the usual "circular" sort of galaxy. Ran into each other in the northeastern part of the map and established some boundaries there. Then, later, found each other in the southwestern part of the map.

Mark was in first place from the beginning and stayed there for the first 15 or 20 turns. Got me worried a bit. Then, I popped into 1st. Stayed there till very recently when he saw 1st place again for one turn. THAT got me plenty scared since I fell to 2nd place on the turn I had 7 cruisers come out of the shipyards!

But on to the action, such as it is for the moment. Mark has played mostly a defensive game up till now (though I am on the lookout for a change). I made the first advance (small one) into a "tentacle" in the Northeast. All I did was pave the way for a colony ship into a system where he had a few colonies. Plopped it down. He attacked my 4 carriers with 4 or 5 ships and lost all of them while taking down about 25 fighters. I launched all the rest of my fighters to move and sit at the warphole so the tentacle would be cut off from the rest of his empire.

In the Southwest, we shared a system. I put together a fleet near there and rushed into the attack hoping a sweeper capability of 80 mines would be enough. Wrong! Swept 80 mines and lost 5 ships to the remainder. Glassed the planet leaving the system to me at the loss of those ships. A few colony ships of his have encountered fighters here and there but no real advances till I moved 26 ships into a system I had never been in (in the Northeast). That's when I discovered he already had gained another colony type. Now he has gas and rock ability. There were no defenses to speak of and I popped the first colony of his and there is one left. Holding this system further cuts off the tentacle I mentioned before. Still no signs of a major fleet of his though to have gotten into 1st place for a turn, there must be one somewhere.

Strangely (or perhaps NOT so), he seems to have skipped fighter ability (not sure if it's OK to say stuff like that as I don't like to give away other people's ways of playing...but I mention it because he could easily change that approach in his next game). The only weapons we have seen of each others are DUCs and PDs.

(OK, OK, I'll quit running off at the mouth)