Turn 3

Strata Inc. went for a quick expansion policy and was lucky enough to find a habitable planet straight away (on Turn 2!). With colony ships at the ready Strata Inc. was the first empire to gain a second colony.

The Kellesonians were also exploring well. They achieved TL3 communications on Turn 1 and built four 100% scout ships on Turn 2.

The Drahmini, the Jerandi People's Republic, the Regul, the Saggitarians, the Fleet and the Worati had invested almost all their Production into Research.

The Caffeinians had all their Turn 1 and Turn 2 productions pumped into Weaponary and continued their research into other topics on this turn.

All the other empires adopted a mixed approach whereby they built some ships on these first few turns while still doing some research.

Turn 38

The Clangers continued their attack on the Jerandi People's Republic by interdicting the new Jerandi capital at K20. Although the Jerandi People's Republic had taken advantage of the respite provided by the attack on the Kallikanzaroi the improvements in the Clanger ships (from new technology discoveries) had overtaken these improvements and the Clangers took no losses whilst establishing their interdict. In addition the Clanger had now reached Tech Level 7 in Weaponary.

By this point the Federation (Kellsonians, Picans, Gobbanean Principalities and Strata Inc.) felt that it had done enough research between them to switch production over to producing ships. Far from having ignored the wars in the south of the map they had been biding their time. By using freighters to move ship components the federation was able to build ships using the best technologies from across their empires.

The Fleet used its Tech Level 6 in manuever drive to develop a system defence boat capable of a speed 25, the best ship speed attained in the game. This vessel also had Tech Level 4 computer so had it been involved a battle it would have acted before anything else.

Turn 26

The Sagittarians (and friends) attacked the homeworld of the Jerandi People's Republic and overcame its defending space base and fighters. The attackers did lose a fighter and some damage to the other ships in the attacking fleet.

The attackers then landed Clanger marines who were able to relatively easily take the world.

The misplaced Auron ships, together with a few Sagittarian and Regul vessels interdicted F16.

The attackers were a little lucky in their timing. The Jerandi People's Republic had been building a size 30 space base which would have been armed with 10 fusion guns and have 11 armour blocks to help with their durability. If this had been in place for this battle would have been much more even (perhaps it would have led to a Pyrrhic victory).

The Clangers did very well out of this battle. They gained Tech Level 5 computers from the Jerandi, a good complement for their Tech Level 5 weaponary.

Turn 19

A round with plenty of research being conducted. The Kallikanzaroi improved their computer Tech Level to 4 while the Regul improved their Ship Size Tech Level also to 4.

The Chroniomancy of Iyanden, desperate to find worlds to colonize, were able to take adavantage of the war preparations of Saggitarians and colonised the world at C18. I had expected this world to be colonised by the Sagittarians.

Those Saggitarian war preparations consisted mainly of technological improvements but the Sagittarian had also made several diplomatic negotiations which included convincing the Clangers of the need to move against the Jerandi People's Republic. As a result the Clangers built two troop transports and started the long haul southwards on the map.

In the opposite corner of the map Strata Inc. continued to add new worlds to its empire.

Turn 7

The most significant event this turn was the accidental joint colony between the Fleet and the Worati. Both empires had detected the world (L13) between them without detecting the other empire. So both empires sent out colony ships which arrived together. Since neither colonising fleet had any weapons I decided that both would land and thus a joint colony was formed. The joint colony had the effect of helping to pull these two empires together which turned out to be a very useful effect for the Worati in later turns....

Elsewhere it can be seen that most empires now had at least one colony. There are six exceptions: The Caffenians (still researching), the Drahmini (still deeply researching), the Gobannaen Principalities (still waiting to find an unoccupied world), the Chroniomancy of Iyanden, the Jerandi People's Republic (these two both having only just discovered a world to colonise) and the Picans (who researched and built two Large Colony Ships in preference to the standard size one).

Turn 42

The final turn of the game before I ended the game due to referee fatigue.

This was a fairly quiet turn as all sides considered the implications of the interdiction of the Clanger homeworld.

The only combat in the turn is an attempt by the Fleet to remove the Jerandi People's Republic from their last world. They easily defect the space defences at H16 but their ground forces are unable to overcome the defending marines. However the Jerandi are unlikely to be able to resist another such attack.

Outline plans from the players revealed that the Picans planned to move their battleships to deal with the perceived threat from the Fleet (to which they would send 4 battleships) and Worati (1 battleship to be sent). However both defenders would have been able to defeat the attacks. This would have left the Fleet and Worati in the ascendency for the next few subsequent turns and it would remain to be seen how the Federation would do on defensive.

My final ranking for the empires (an admittedly somewhat subjective list and ending with the empire I reckoned to have the best chance at dominance in the cluster in the long term) was:

1. Jerandi People's Republic
2. Kallikanzaroi
3. Caffeinians
4. Regul
5. Drahmini
6. Chroniomancy Of Iyanden
7. Gobbanean Prinicipalities
8. Clanger
9. Saggitarians
10. Worati
11. Auron
12. Strata Inc.
13. Kellesonians
14. Picans
15. The Fleet

Turn 41

This time the Picans do turn up for the party and join the attack on the Clanger homeworld. In addition to the Picans, the Kellesonian vessels that had imposed an interdiction on E9 moved over to D9 and joined the attack. The defence of the Clanger homeworld was improved by the arrival of some Regul but this didn't prevent the destruction of all the space defences and leaving the Clanger homeworld interdicted and in a lot of trouble.

Gobbanean Principalities reached Tech Level 5 in Communications while the Kellesonians reached Tech Level 7 in Communications. The Picans made Tech Level 5 in Archaeology and Strata Inc. achieved Tech Level in Weaponary.

J3 will turn out to be the only uncolonised world.

Turn 40

The Federation make their move and attack both Clanger homeworld and E9. In the classic lack of co-ordination shown by every alliance the attack on the Clanger homeworld did not have the back up of the Picans that the rest of the Federation expected. Unsurprisingly this lack of support led to the attack on the Clanger homeworld being repulsed. E9, on the other hand, was easily interdicted withut loss to the attackers.

In the meantime the Gobbanean Principalities developed Tech Level 5 weaponary and the Kellesonians achieved Tech Level 6 in Communications.