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[mainiac]

If we are going to be splitting hairs then he demanded that I withdraw warships and I had no warships in orbits.  I only had non warships as cargo (I didn't even know they could fight as cargo).

[Il Palazzo]

If we are going to be splitting hairs then he demanded that I withdraw warships and I had no warships in orbits.  I only had non warships as cargo (I didn't even know they could fight as cargo).

I saw these bombers, so they were not cargo.

[Kebooo]

Yeah, there were bombers out in the open, though of course it's a silly technicality anyway. I wanted to commit some kind of treachery at least once in this game and that was not only the best opportunity to do it, if I hadn't, the game might have been essentially over. There wasn't much Aqizzar could do honestly, even if he demanded my star bases get disbanded. I would just keep them in the shield and what would that leave him? A ground invasion of my territory with the fleet? Even if I had disbanded the star bases, at any moment I could have transported in fighters/bombers to attack unguarded transports. But hey, look at what the ultimate result got me, the loss of Tethys and Sutek, and the loss of the 60-70% of Cadavus I controlled, also the loss of my fleet. But every other house gained.

[mainiac]

There wasn't much Aqizzar could do honestly, even if he demanded my star bases get disbanded.

Well for starters he could have started shooting your ships on sight.  Seeing as he had promised a defensive alliance that is exactly what I had expected him to do.

But every other house gained.

I disagree.  I think that the big loser in this war is Aqizzer and the big winner is Il Palazzo.  Margrave profited a little and the two belligerants were both losers, but not as much so as Aqizzer.

Aqizzer has painted himself into a corner.  He is in a tripod situation with two neighbors, both of whom are growing more powerful to him.  I basically amount to an outside power in this but I'm an outside power who can act as a counterweight to any action by Aqizzer but can't (and won't) intervene to help him.  So Aqizzer is trapped, he needs to attack someone and that means a 2v1 alliance, but any 2v1 alliance is likely to turn into a 2v2.

Spoiler: scores (click to show/hide)

Note that some Decados cities are promised to Li Halan in the treaty of Cadavus and aren't yet moved in this score graph.

Spoiler: map (click to show/hide)

Note that Vau is effectively controlled by Hazzat,

Now look at the incentives for Il Palazzo and Margrave.  Margrave wants to sustain the status quo as long as possible.  This will let him build more cities in the south east and grow into the largest economy  Il Palazzo is probably the second most claustrophobic after Aqizzer, but why should he ally with Aqizzer against Margrave when he could just attack Aqizzer?  Margrave is unlikely to come to Aqizzers aid, since he wants to keep building up.  And it's not like Margrave needs to defend Aqizzer to protect against Il Palazzo.  With Aqizzer gone Margrave would just find himself in another tripod.

Given time Kebooo will rebuild and threaten my northern border and keep me from being too eager to commit myself down south.  But time is working against Aqizzer, he's going to be falling behind.

I figure there are two ways for this to play out.  One possibility is that Aqizzer goes out in a blaze of glory then we fight for scraps of the corpse.  The other possibility is that he sits tight, stagnates and eventually one of his more powerful neighbors eats him up.

The most likely candidate for that seems to be Il Palazzo.  Margrave and myself have more economic avenues available to us.  Il Palazzo would be running out of space to expand soon, but Aqizzer is kindly providing that space to him.

Now I consider myself a loser in all this because I lost the relics, who's value I greatly underappreciated at the time although the gained territory helps.  Keboo lost some territory but he destroyed the relics.  That's important for him because he needs to play a waiting game until he can fight for an economic domination of the galaxy.  The destruction of the relics is also good news for Margrave but that boon is tempered by the fact that the status quo is a little less stable and Decados is once more again free to make a bid for the territory in the east.

[Il Palazzo]

I basically amount to an outside power in this but I'm an outside power who can act as a counterweight to any action by Aqizzer but can't (and won't) intervene to help him.

Il Palazzo is probably the second most claustrophobic after Aqizzer, but why should he ally with Aqizzer against Margrave when he could just attack Aqizzer?

The most likely candidate for that seems to be Il Palazzo.  Margrave and myself have more economic avenues available to us.  Il Palazzo would be running out of space to expand soon, but Aqizzer is kindly providing that space to him.

Hehehe, mainiac, mainiac. Trying to nudge me in this particular direction, are we? Not very subtle, I'm not impressed.

And let's not forget the latest statement by our dear Regent, may his reign be long and prosperous, which kinda suggests that somebody might've got spanked already:

How many times did I warn him?  How many proclamations did I have to make?  More than enough to convince him they were only idle threats, obviously.  Well no more.

I can't wait to hear how he might complain.  Yes indeed, I did finally enact due justice on a cadre of warriors trained for the explicit purpose of slaying noblemen.  Defy me a grievance, most reverend sir.

Kinda sounds like it's mainiac, maybe?

[mainiac]

Hehehe, mainiac, mainiac. Trying to nudge me in this particular direction, are we? Not very subtle, I'm not impressed.

Not really.  For me it doesn't matter either way.  That's why I was so verbose.  Usually I have to keep my cards close to the chest but in this situation I didn't need to.

How many times did I warn him?  How many proclamations did I have to make?  More than enough to convince him they were only idle threats, obviously.  Well no more.

I can't wait to hear how he might complain.  Yes indeed, I did finally enact due justice on a cadre of warriors trained for the explicit purpose of slaying noblemen.  Defy me a grievance, most reverend sir.

Wow, how did I miss that one the first time?

I must say that if this is Aqizzer moving against me then his timing lacks a certain something.  Strike earlier and he might have changed the balance of the war between Kebooo and myself.  Striking as soon as the war ended?  Strange.  And I don't know who else he might be talking about.

[Kebooo]

Can't be me! The Decados are taking a long vacation from Byzantium II because it's such a grey and drab place with a high crime rate.

[Margrave]

First things first.
(Turn sent.)

Nextly: Sorry about the wait, I started a new job monday and it is really kicking my ass so expect slightly longer turn delays from me.
Thanks for posting the soundtrack Kebooo. I too have never heard the soundtrack when playing the game and these days not even sound so I turn it on when playing my turn.

One possibility is that Aqizzer goes out in a blaze of glory then we fight for scraps of the corpse.

I think you give the dear Regent too little credit having the Fleet in hand and his own forces. But it certainly has surprised me considering whom he has decided to target.

As for the Li-Halan/Decados war, I can't say I shed any tears when Kebooo broke the decree to destroy the relics. And you are right that it certainly has helped me build and consolidate not having to worry about Decados expansion for a time. But unless your war so greatly shifted the balance of power by capturing economically important worlds and/or capitals then I think when the late game wars roll around we'll all be more evenly matched then you might think. Mistakes will be made, short term technological advantages will be very short indeed. As both our northern neighbors know, invading a planet is not an easy endeavor (especially if it is given the time to fortify) and space superiority is not always guaranteed.

And sometimes space bombardment isn't all its cracked up to be when a Garrison cruiser decides to bombard a friggin' EXOTICA RESOURCE THREE TIMES as opposed to several Symbiot tanks.

[Kebooo]

I think space bombardment is a tad overrated considering infantry are immune to it and PTS weapons are much cheaper than ships. It's more the controlling of transport lanes that wins the wars and cruisers/dreadnoughts happen to be some of the most cost effective per power ships there are. Suppose I have a large garrison on some world, and mainiac controls the space lanes. I might hold out there for a while, but he will have the combined production of all of his worlds pouring into it, while I would be stuck with just that world's production unless I could break the blockade. I even had transports sitting on Cadavus that could have brought in a lot of elite troops to fight on Cadavus, but to what end? He would have troops pouring in from around the galaxy at a faster rate, and that devilish relic and battlemaster bonus. We would both be losing units, but he would eventually win and the spoils would be worth it, while I'd be out units all for nothing. And I know the Li Halan are not the only ones coveting the throne...

[Aqizzar]

Mainiac, there are three things you need to understand about my motivations, now that we've all dropped any pretense of actually cooperating.

One is, I don't give a shit about your war with Kebooo, and I never did.  I didn't help you at Cadavus because I literally could not.  Kebooo attacked you before any Fleet craft that could have done a damn thing got there, and after they got there they frequently couldn't spot anything to attack.  You can keep calling me a liar all you want, but I'm not going to care.

Second thing is, I'm not making a move against you, I was just fucking tired of seeing your Noble-killer stack hanging around next to my area and I was long since tired of asking politely for you to at least keep up a modicum of not being poised to attack me.  How would you feel if another player had three Assassins hanging around next to your Fort turn after turn?  Yeah I thought so.

Third thing is, I'm perfectly aware of my situation, and I've been aware of it since about Turn 15.  Delphi is a terribly resource poor world, this galaxy left me little room to expand quickly, and I wasn't playing the best I could for a while.  By the time I had developed enough industry to be proactive instead of desperate colonizing anything I could, the rest of the galaxy had long since left me behind.  I have clung to the Regency ever since I won it, I guess either through flowery prose or the recognition that weakest player would be the least dangerous in such a position, because it's the only thing that has kept me halfway relevant to the rest of the game.  I've been expecting somebody to crush me for a while now, and the giant fleet Palazzo has roaming around my periphery has actually given me a little hope of finally having something to do.


And a fourth thing not relevant to the game: It's Aqizzar, not Aqizzer.

[Margrave]

True, wasn't it that ancient emperor who said: "He who controls the Bulk Hauler, controls the universe."
Whoever can outproduce and out reinforce his opponent has the advantage and it can be better to sacrifice two earth worlds for peace instead of fighting to the last. But for anymore conflicts there are going to be some serious units coming along, new tech provides new strategies, today's Cadavus will be tomorrows Byzantium or Terra or even Leagueheim. Armies of Marauders, whole invasions of Mastiffs or hordes of Xyll Warbeasts can skew the ratio against a numerically superior enemy with inferior troops. Plague bombs may very well soon turn worlds into dead zones (although I have yet to see just how effective it really is).

Its going to be one helluva ride.

[Kebooo]

Plague bombs can potentially be devastating to a world and I'm not sure whether I would even use them on a world I fancied to take for myself. I never did test Xyll warbeasts or cybercorps vs DNA legions, I think it's high time I did that.

[mainiac]

I will say that the manner of the war between Kebooo and myself had many unexpected twists.  The fights took many an odd form.  I won't say any more because I don't feel like giving you guys and of the hard fought knowledge that our efforts gained for us.

-------------------

The Regents insanity has deepened and he is now seeing assasins in every shadow.  He just launched and unprovoked attack on Li Halan troops, troops that had no part in any assasination attempts.  He claims to be defending the policy but we just had to endure the sight of close assault tanks overrunning the afflaunt city blocks around the imperial palace!  Madness!

I have no interest in seeing the capital engulfed in war so have ordered my troops to show restraint instead of avenging their brethren but I demand that an explanation for this behavior be given!

[Kebooo]

Results:

DNA assault legions mop the floor with Xyll warbeasts and Cybercorps as expected (and this is with both of the latter started completely unspotted). I really think DNA legions simply have no counter.

[Kebooo]

This, my friends, is the future I saw:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)