Turn 22

The Caffeinians tried for a peace treaty to allow time to build up new technology and new ships.

Meanwhile the Clangers had the technology break they had been trying to reach. Weaponary Tech Level 5 gave them a boost to all their marines and the Particle Accelerator Spinal Mount.

Further diplomatic efforts by the Sagittarians had now brought the Chroniomany of Iyanden into the grouping planning an attack of the Jerandi People's Republic.

The Jerandi, meanwhile, has also reached a Weaponary Tech Level of 4 (raising the average for this Technology across the cluster to 3).

Turn 21

The Worati completed the interdiction of the worlds taken from them in Turn 16 and 17 (N13 and N11 respectively). The Worati now have enough fighters to take the Caffeinian homeworld, but don't realise it (due to not having found and scanned the Caffeinian homeworld).

The Sagittarians join the club of Tech Level 4 Weaponary users.

The Gobbannaen Principalities boosts its production for the next turn to beyond 1,000 points while Strata Inc.'s production exceeds 1,500 points.

Strata Inc. agreed to hand P5 to the Drahmini by allowing the Drahmini to form a joint colony and then purchase marines (taking over the colony).

Turn 20

This turn I made an attempt to rank all the empires in various areas:

In retrospect I should have included a viewpoint on diplomatic status as the state of the empire's alliances and enemies had a much greater effect than any of the factors I did take into account!

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 18

It was apparent that the rest of the cluster's reaction to the Caffeinian/Worati/Fleet war was one of indifference. Exploration and Colonisation was still the main focus for the other empires (with even the Drahmini colonising a world this turn).

The Worati and Fleet, unaware of the shakiness of the Caffeinian position, concentrated their efforts on boosting the defences of their two capitals.

Both the Kellesonians and the Jerandi People's Republic boosted their production totals for the next turn beyond 1,000 points.

The Picans raised the the Tech Level of their weaponary to four, joining that of the Caffeinians and Clangers.

Turn 17

The Caffeinians now moved onto L21, the Worati homeworld and on N11, a second Worati colony. The sideshow of N11 fell easily to the attacking Caffeinians. However, at L12, the Worati had managed to arrange a deal with the Fleet. The fleet had two fighters of an identical design to that of the Worati and so by repainting the ships and by using Worati communication officers from their trading fleets these were sent to aid the defence of the Worati Capital.

This, the first major space battle of the game, ended in victory for the Worati. The two major factors:

1. The two extra ships from the Fleet meant that the Worati defenders still had ships available even after taking the initial hits from the Caffeinian attackers
2. The diversion of forces to the attack on N11 meant that the attacking forces counldn't destroy the defending ships fast enough.

The result left the Caffeinians with only one fighting ship (at N11) while the Worati and Fleet still had most of their ships.

The Fleet achieved Tech Level 4 in Maneuver Drive while Strata Inc. achieved the same level in Communications.

Turn 16

The Caffeinians launched their attack with overwhelming force on N13. The defenders didn't manage to inflict a single casualty. The only Worati ship in-system surrendered immediately on seeing the three size 20 Caffeinian frigates entering the system. The Worati were not expecting the attack and the political situation looked bleak as it looked like the Alliance would also attack. (In practice, this worry was ill-founded as the alliance had no plans to attack) and the Fleet sounded unwilling to help.

The Saggitarians and the Chroniomancy of Iyanden set up their joint colony at G19 making this the third joint colony on the map.

Turn 15

The Clangers joined the Caffeinians on Tech Level 4 on the Weaponary track this turn.