Breakout III - 2481-2500

Year 2481 - The Fall of Cherub

I'm in 9th place, 102 points ahead of the Archimeans, 9 behind the Lothans, and 91 behind the Falconians

Score Analysis - I missed getting a shot of the score last year (guess I was too overcome with grief over the battle of Cherub), so the score analysis of the 2470s will occur this year.

Whereas the rankings haven't changed much in 30 years, this past decade has been one of shake-ups. Partially due to their exit strategy, and partly due to Triad attacks, the Lothans have been on a steady decline since 2474. The only reason I wasn't ahead of them this year was because my own score took a slight hit. The Bejavoid, who've been in 2nd place ever since scores became public, slipped to 4th in the 2470, mostly due to a slowdown in growth. The Danis and Minions are now fighting for that spot, both having steeper-than-normal growth curves since 2472. Only 14 points separate them now. The Archimeans passed by me briefly this decade, but then began to decline about as fast as the Lothan have, and, as far as I know, the Archimeans aren't actively trying to leave the game. The Thrakians, at the bottom of the pack, finish the decade a bit lower than they were at the start, but at about the same score as they had in 2460 and 2450.

The drop in Archimean score is explained by the fact that they lost 3 planets in the past 4 years, and are 4 below their highest count, reached in 2473. However, in the middle of all this, they've been building unarmed ships by the hundreds, increasing by about 175 in the past decade, while their escort ship count has remained entirely flat. This leads one to suggest that they in fact may be throwing in the towel and allowing the Triad to take over their planets, while the Archimenas build mine layers or scouts, or some other unarmed ship in bulk. The Tobacs and Wolves have increased their planet count in the same time the Archimeans lost them.

The Archimeans, however, aren't the only race not building escort ships. The Bejavoid have remained essentially flat-lined in this area since 2460, lending continual credence to the Dani suggestion that they are actually helping the Triad by non-intervention in any conflict, with the notable exception of the worm hole incident. Either that, or subsequent to the wormhole attack they lowered their time commitment to keeping up their empire.

The Lothan escort ship count has, predictably, plummeted, and the Ninja count has, as per a prior E-mail, skyrocketed (over 500 new ships this decade compared to 300 by the Tobac, though, admittedly, those 300 are almost definitely much larger ships). Even with the losses at Cherub, my count has risen by about 300 as well.

The Tobac introduced capital ships to the universe in 2473, but this year the Bejavoid built 3 (though, compared to the Tobac's 33, there's a long way to go).

The two Mystery Traders did wonders for technical advances this decade, with the greatest gain being made by me due to the amount of minerals I was able to ship off of Arafat. I gained about 23 levels in the past 10 years, more than anyone else.

The meteoric rise of Tobac resources was arrested this year, dropping by about 1000 this year. They may be loading large numbers of colonists onto freighters for attacks, much like occurred at Cherub this year.

Battles - This year there was some activity at all 3 southeastern planets. At Hell, a Tobac M died from a shot by a Zoinkara, but the scan of my new starbase design was completed.

A Tobac M at Hell did the same thing, also getting a reading on the Spaceman Cruisers orbiting there (a typical Colloidal Phaser cruiser).

11 Dani Jacks (Jihad missile cruisers, with 3 super computers) came to help out my temporary Dying Break starbase, hoping to do some damage to the Triad ships there. The starbase took out the 4 Tobac All-Purpose Cleansers (Broom-type frigates), and while the Jacks did some damage to the Wolf ViMs, the ViMs returned fire, destroying 7 Jacks on their first shot. 6 Space Pinchers then removed my starbase, and the ViMs mopped up the remaining Jacks. Following this, Wolf bombs wiped out the remainder of the population of Cherub.

Observations - Looks like the Tobac took out some Dani ships near Ho Hum, since the salvage there shows a Dani origin. 14 Pinchers and 7 Auschkeshpielken took them out. They, and a nearby fleet of 15 Pinchers and 2 Auschkeshpielken look like they'll be reinforcing the large Tobac fleet moving in on Ho Hum, though that fleet is currently moving due west at a point almost due south of Ho Hum just under 35 ly away. Flying north between Ho Hum and Kludge, 9 ViMs and a Fire in Babylon scanner are moving through the Dani and Zoink minefields, no doubt to set up a scanning station behind the front lines. Given how close the Tobac are to Ho Hum, I'm going to let the Wolves pass and let the Dani and Spacemen know that they'll need to take care of them later on.

In the southeast, 14 ViMs and 9 unknown Wolf frigates are moving in to reinforce the fleet at Cherub. My own reinforcements continue to come in, but not nearly as fast. Hell is far more defended than Eisenhower is currently. The only fleet at Eisenhower is my own war fleet with 37 Zoinkulators, 3 Zoinkaras and sundry chaff ships (about 60). Hell War Fleet has 24 Zoinkulators, 9 Zoinkaras and about 80 chaff ships, but the Danis and Spacemen have arrived in force (5 Flashlights of Death, 22 Cruiser Ps, and 63 Spaceman Cruisers). Hell is a better planet than Eisenhower in terms of minerals and habitability, so I'm going to leave the ships at status quo, though small reinforcements are arriving from the outworlds for both Hell and Eisenhower.

Lothan Colony will be at Phaeton next year, and I've let the Lothan know about their imminent arrival.

I've bumped up my off-the-top research percentage from 0 to 14% to get the Battleship hull next year, though it seems that all I'm doing it delaying the inevitable.

Year 2482

I'm in 8th place, 49 points ahead of the Lothans, 137 behind the Falconians,

Tech Advances - I got Construction tech level 13 this year (Stargate 300/500, Battleship hull).

Battles - The Tobac/Wolf fleets arrived at Eisenhower this year and took out my entire fleet stationed there. The new Zoinkonian starbase did a good job at handling the Coventry Class fleet. The Pulsed Sappers did a serious number on their shields, and the Juggernauts took out 17 in one hit about 3/4ths of the way through the battle, and 17 more just before it was finished off by the Auschkeshpielken. There was a Spaceman scout in orbit, but it escaped during the fray. The Wolves then bombed the planet, killing 223,000.

Observations - The large Tobac fleet near Ho Hum is now on a direct course for Kludge. I still can't be sure of their final destination, as they're 25 lightyears from Ho Hum, and could make it through the remains of my minefield with no damage. The Dani minefield that had Kludge covered has been shrunk by the Triad fleet at Eisenhower.

The Danis and Spacemen both removed the ViMs and the Fire in Babylon that was heading between Ho Hum and Kludge. There's a nice salvage there, so I'm going to pick some up.

Now that I have the Battleship hull, I've created the Juggerzoink; full of Juggernaut missiles, 4 super computers, 3 Jammer 20s, 8 Bear Nutrino Barriers and 6 Organic armors. I went with Organic armor so that my Ironium requirements would be less (11kT of Ironium vs. 5kT of Germanium). However, now that I see how much total minerals are required, my front-line worlds can't build them but 1 every 3-5 years or so. Even at Arafat I can only make one per year due to resource requirements, but I'm going to give it a shot from there anyway and gate them in via Dani stargates.

I've also created the Zoinkonian 2, which replaces the bank of Heavy Blasters with more Juggernaut missiles, as the Blasters didn't do as much damage as the missiles.

Diplomacy - The end is near for the Lothans:
Well the end is here for Lothan; at least on numerous border worlds. Thanks to travel this past week I was unable to take a turn on Thursday and Friday. This doomed Hay Seed, Winky-Blinky, and Wilbury to immediate death. Unfortunately also, McClellan is not far behind but I do have >10k people there so can still do something small.
I have pulled off Phaeton this year so the Zoink can begin occupation. Devo should be owned by the Ninja this year as the base is now gone.
I did receive one tech advance in construction from the Dani's earlier in the week, thanks (I think)! I will have elect. 12 this year and so will be able to build stealth toys for trade. Let me know what you would like (if I should even bother). Poo...hex....and jinx on the MTs! I was prepared to intercept the one travelling across the north and he turns around. The Dani's now get a fresh 5000kt installment of Boranium on one of their western worlds ...... ooooo wow!
I see the Danis have succeeded in surpassing the Bejavoid, not too surprising. I guess the Bejavas really gave up after their initial excellent showing.

Lothan Colony now has orders to shoot up the Lothan starbase and land.

Year 2483

I'm in 8th place, 34 points ahead of the Lothans, 170 behind the Falconians, and 239 behind the Ninjas. My score continues on a steady decline, at about the same speed that it was rising up until the attack on Cherub. My escort ship count skyrocketed this year, as I threw Zoinkettes into production queues all over my empire. I now have more escort ships than any Triad member, and only the Ninja outnumber me, though the strength of those counts is entirely different. I also got onto the Capital Ships graph this year, making a single Juggerzoink.

Battles - At Phaeton, I destroyed the Lothan starbase, and will be dropping colonists next year.

A Tobac M took a peek at Hexnut this year, but since all I had there were Zoinkettes, the M escaped. This may signal the Triad to make Hexnut a near-term target, so it looks like I'm going to have to work on building up defenses there now.

The big battle this year was against the Triad at Eisenhower, but it was just against my Dying Breath starbase. However, all it did was take out one Wolf Vengance is MINE before it was toasted by the Tobac battleships. The Wolves then dropped a hoard of colonists on the planet and erased all my colonists. Following this battle, they bombed the remaining colonists off the planet.

Observations - The Tobac fleet near Ho Hum turned quickly and headed for Kludge, but I think they expected to get there in one year, pretending to more away from it (due west) last year. However, my minefield stopped them 8.6 lightyears from Kludge, doing 8,250 points of damage and killing 9 ships. They have lost the element of surprise. (Of course, there are 127 ships left, and 21 not far behind.)

Another Mystery Trader has been sighted. It's starting in Triad space, about 1/5th the way up the eastern edge of the universe, moving northwest. It will spend quite a bit of time in Triad space before passing through Lothan and Ninja territory. At this point, however, it doesn't seem to matter much.

Diplomacy - The Lothan continue to be hit hard by the Triad, but have an interesting idea:
Yes, I did get the Ultra cloaks this year so have designed some ships for the future. For the Ninja there's a quick tech trader (frigate with an ultra). I have developed a galleon that will be used to save a remnant with the Lothan; this ship will be independent and has some fighting capability (beams), some scanning, and some mine laying. There's also the new Fleet Cloak; a simple Rogue design maxed out with ultra cloaks and other cloaking toys. This will be available for direct transfer to your fleets to use as you see fit (for non-SS players). It has the best (tech 12) ram scoop engine I've got.
As suspected, Winky-Blinky, Hay Seed and Wilbury have all fallen into Tobac hands. I'm still fighting at McClellan but that won't last long, though I've noticed that he is not attacking unarmed ships so am attempting to send in a large contingent of freighters to pick up the massive amount of minerals on that planet. These will be transferred to Planet 9 if the ploy works; I just need to survive one more year.
Green House will be under direct assault within 2 years (the enemy is traveling slowly due to my remaining mine fields). I'm building some freighters to pull out the minerals I don't need so they don't get these. In addition, the Tobac are bombing Endeavor as well.
All planets will begin building defenses and my new galleon as the Lothan race goes into hiding (he he he). I will also be developing a last minute highly cloaked colonizer once I've assisted the Ninja in getting their ultras.
Dani, let me know if you would like to begin occupation of Equuelus or some other world. I'm not worried about holding on much longer and would like to turn over as many worlds as possible to races who actually have a chance. Leo will also be available shortly once I have my new galleon fleets built; that will just be a few more years.

And I let the alliance know how things are going with me:
From the eastern front, the Triad are moving in rapidly. In just 4 years they have destroyed the garrison, and removed the population, of 2 of my planets; Cherub and Eisenhower. We are holed up at Hell, hoping to be able to either keep the Triad at bay, or possibly (he said, extremely hopefully) destroy any incoming invasion fleet. Hell would probably not stand up to it, but Ho Hum has amassed quite a number of ships (unfortunately, mostly chaff ships that will take the torpedoes in the gut while the bigger ships try to eat away at the enemy).
I can see Lothan worlds on my scanners biting the dust one by one as well, and the Dani world of Kludge would've been toast had my minefield not stopped the huge Tobac fleet. As it is, it looks like we just delayed the inevitable.
Here's the question I pose to you all: Does it look to you like the Triad have pretty much showed us they can mop us up, and do we give the win to the Tobacs, who are so incredibly far ahead of everyone else, or do we continue to fight back? Is it worth the work, is it possible to turn the tide, or are we just delaying the inevitable? If we decide to give up, should we hang on a little longer just to see how some of our plans work out? Let us know what you think.

Year 2484

I'm in 8th place, 80 points ahead of the Lothans, 171 behind the Falconians and 227 behind the Ninjas. My score popped up a little this year due to the landing of Lothan Colony at Phaeton.

Tech Advances - From wreckage at the battle of Hell, I got Electronics tech 15.

Battles - Sooner than I expected, the Triad has come to Hell, and while they were successful, they took heavy losses. This battle had 5 races in it; the Zoinks (13 Zoinkaras, 24 Zoinkulators, 21 Mini-Zoinkulators, 52 Zoinkettes, 42 Brooms and a Zoinkonian 2 space station), the Danis (28 Cruiser Ps and 5 Flashlights of Death) and the Spacemen (63 Cruisers) vs. the Tobac (25 Space Pinchers and 7 Auschkeshpielken) and the Wolves (38 Coventry Class ships, 6 Manchester Class cruisers featuring Heavy Blasters, 36 Vengance is MINE ships and 23 Snipers).

The Zoinkonian 2's Phased Sappers took the first shot, taking out the shields on the fleet of Manchester Class ships and softening up one fleet of Coventry Class ships. Jihad missiles from the starbase finished off the Manchesters and took out 4 Coventrys. The Flashlights got off two shots of 2,500+ points on the Tobac battleships before they got a shot off. However, when the Auschkeshpielken did fire, they removed all 42 Brooms and 8 Zoinkulators. The Spacemen Cruisers got hit by the Wolf ViMs early on, losing 2 ships right up front, but they responded by destroying 8 Coventrys. The Cruiser Ps held their own, destroying 5 Tobac Space Pinchers in their first shot of the battle. Cruisers began to fall left and right, with Coventrys and Zoinkulators taking early losses. The Tobacs and Danis, having started so close to each other, whacked at each other hard all during the battle. The Flashlights preferred shooting at the Pinchers to great effect, though without a direct enemy, the battleships continue to remove ships easily. The Zoinkonian 2, being given ample opportunity to fire given the mass of ships in the fray, took out 18 Coventrys later on, the last of that ship type in the fleet. About halfway through the battle, the ViMs, having been abandoned by the Coventrys and Manchesters, started their salvos, destroying all 52 Zoinkettes and 10 Spaceman Cruisers (though the Cruiser loss would've been worse if not for the Zoinkettes). The Wolf Snipers became chaff for the starbase to deal with in a single blow, leaving only the 35 ViMs to fight for the Wolves. Two-thirds the way through the battle, the Tobac battleships, now out of chaff to shoot at, concentrated on the Dani cruisers, killing 22 of them in one shot at one point. As the Danis and Tobac continued to duke it out, the Danis finally destroyed all the Space Pinchers, but couldn't stand alone against the battleships, and as the Spacemen closed on the Wolves, the ViMs ate away at the Cruisers until there were none left. By this time, there were just the Tobac battleships and Wolf ViMs vs. the Mini-Zoinkulators (which, as usual, never got a shot off before they were history), a dozen Zoinkaras and the Zoinkonian 2 starbase. The starbase did manage to remove 1 Auschkeshpielken and 17 ViMs before it too was dead. The remaining Triad ships destroyed the mine layers in orbit. The Triad was left with 6 Auschkeshpielken and 5 ViMs, plus bombers, so it was not an easy victory.

In addition, so many minerals landed on Hell (about 18,000kT), that the Dying Breath I could put up there was limited only by resources. The one for Hell was a starbase with a full compliment (64) Juggernaut missiles, 8 super computers, 6 Neutronium armor and enough shields to just use up all resources for one year. There are only 5 Space Pinchers on their way in to reinforce, so if the Triad ships stay at Hell, they could be in for some trouble, though the battleships would still probably win the day.

The Wolves then bombed Hell, killing 284,400 people. Interestingly, even though I didn't win the battle at Hell, I did gain 46,460 resources in Electronics from the wreckage.

Diplomacy - A major diplomatic incident occurred at Kludge between the Danis and the Makisachi. The Makisachi explain:
Well, it's happened and I'm speechless. I sent a fleet of 27 destroyers to help support the Dani at their planet of Kludge and the Dani destroyed them! I had them set to friend, so the issue to attack was from the Dani. Since this is the case, I have set Dani to enemy and will withdraw from the main anti-triad alliance since it doesn't seem to take care of it's members. As for our personal alliance between me and you, of course that still stands. I just don't want anything to do with any organization that includes the Dani.

I replied:
I'm sure that the incident at Kludge, awful as it was, was truly a misunderstanding. Are you not flying all around in Dani minefields without a problem? If so, then the Danis must not have their battle plans properly set, though they may not have thought their battle plans were out of line since you can navigate their fields. I will look into this ASAP.

After consulting with the Danis, I sent this message out to the Makisachi, copying the Spacemen:
Last year, the Danis got a message saying that there had been a battle in orbit of Kludge, but that since they did not participate in it, they did not get a replay of the battle. That is the sort of message you get if you have two races set to Friend, but those two races start shooting at each other. Are you sure that it was the Danis that shot at you over Kludge? Could it have been the Spacemen? The Danis have assured me that *any* help *anyone* can give is most appreciated, given how the Triad are just rolling over us over here. They have checked, and both you and the Spacemen are set to Friend.
Spacemen: When you get this, immediately check to make sure that you have the Makisachi set to Friend status.

And then the Danis gave their perspective to the Makisachi, as well as their view of how the war is going, copied to all alliance members:
I understand from the Zoinks that the Makisachi believe that the Dani have turned traitorous and have destroyed their destroyers that were sent to Kludge. THIS IS NOT TRUE!
1. I assume that the Makisachi used my stargates to get to Kludge since I did not see them enroute. The only way they could have gotten there is if I had them set to "friend."
2. I received a message from the stars game stating that there had been a battle in orbit around Kludge, but I was not witness to it since my forces there were not involved. I wondered at that - now I can conjecture as to who and what happened.
3. There are 60+ Spacemen Cruisers in orbit around Kludge - Since they have offered to help out in the major battle that the Zoinks and I are waging against the Tobac, they were set to friend by the Dani. I suspect that the Makisachi had not yet done so, so the unknown battle at Kludge was between the Makisachi and the Spacemen. I would suggest you set the Spacemen to friend when going in a battle against the Tobac.
4. I have been in the middle of many battles fighting on the side of the Alliance. Ask the Lothan and the Zoinks and they can testify to that effect.
Since I did not receive a copy of the message that went out, I can not answer to all the charges that may have been levied. But, I am going to assume that your email was a big misunderstanding on the part of the Makisachi and hope that I have sufficiently proven my allegiance to the Alliance. If you do not believe me and can not re-check the battle, please feel free to ask for verification from the Spacemen, the Zoinks and the Lothan as to my word on this matter.
As to the future of this game. I don't know how well most of you know about the battles that are going on, but the Tobac, Minions and Wolves will soon have complete control of this game. They have been very successful at attacking planets and two turns later, the population has been destroyed completely. The Lothan front has completely fallen. The Zoink front is presently falling. The rest of us are only a few years behind. I have been actively fighting on both the Zoink and Lothan front and can attest to the Ninja on the Lothan front. I hope that the Bejavoid, Makisachi and Falconians will soon join the fray, or this game is essentially over.
Hoping for feedback from this misunderstanding...

Speaking of the end of the game, the votes are coming in. First, a vote of "it's over" from the Lothan:
You know my answer .... games is over; Tobacs win.

Then, a vote of "no it's not...yet" from the Ninjas:
I think I may have some good news...
Last turn I finally got elect 11, so I have started to build Jihad cruisers. At 9 of my production centers, I can turn out 100 ships each in an average of 15-16 years. I know that's not a lot per planet per year, but taken as a whole, 900 Jihad cruisers can at least stop the bleeding. Further, I will have new starbases with 150/600 gates online next turn, at each of these centers, to allow for immediate delivery within range. The ships weigh about 275 kT each, so overgating w/o much losses or damage is possible. As long as the range is not exceeded... Another three worlds will come online as full producers before these ships are built, so it might be possible that an increase in production is forthcoming.
The Lothan leader has graciously offered to supply me with Elect 12, which would give me the Ultra cloaks. These would get my ships to the Tobac rear areas unseen, and then a large number of Triad ships would have to be pulled off the front to hunt them down one by one.
Unfortunately that's not all good news, as this depends on the successful tech transfer, and will need a few years to build and deploy the vessels. But the Pocari Sweat class cruisers (4 jihad, 2 bear shields, 3 SBC, 1 jammer 20, Prop 12 ramscoop) will provide some protection at least.
If the Eastern front collapses completely, however, then there is little use in having the game drag on only to go through the motions to the inevitable. For the time being, I do see a ray of hope, at least here in the west. Maybe if I can turn the tide here, I can influence fleet deployment across the front. Given a few years, it is possible.
So for the time being, I vote against feeding the Tobac ego with news of our surrender. I say let'em come and get it for themselves.

Year 2485 - The Fall of Hell

I'm in 8th place, 92 points ahead of the Lothans, 207 behind the Falconians, and 260 behind the Ninjas. In spite of heavy ship losses, and due to mass production of the Zoinkette, I now have the most escort ships of anyone, jumping almost 700 in the past two years. The Wolves built their first 4 capital ships this year.

Battles - This year, having built a Zoinkara at Hexnut, I finally took out the Tobac M that had been in orbit for the past few years.

The Wolves managed to fly in 91 S-Fighters, chaff ships, to keep the losses down in an attack by my Dying Breath at Hell. They did their job, taking the one shot I could get off from the starbase, and losing 64 ships, before the Tobac battleships killed the starbase in one shot. The Wolves finished off the planet, by bombing off all colonists.

Observations - The Wolves have now colonized Cherub with about 49,000 colonists.

The Danis had told me that they were going to have their Kludge garrison target the major Tobac fleet near Ho Hum, as it appeared they were coming to attack Ho Hum. However, the Tobacs slowed down enough to not make it there this year (short by just 1 lightyear), and now there is a huge salvage at that point, no doubt the remnants of the Kludge fleet. This leave Kludge undefended by the Danis, though there are 62 Spaceman Cruisers and 26 unknown Spaceman battle cruisers in orbit. It's still not enough to deal with the Tobac fleet should they go there, so I'm considering targeting the Tobac fleet at some point.

Diplomacy - The Bejavoid offered assistance, though too late for the 2484 turn:
I have a fleet of 94 destroyers and cruisers at the Makisachi planet of Humus. They are on their way to help you. Where should I send them? I have not yet submitted my turn, and can either direct them to a planet of your choosing, or will transfer them to you if you like.
The Makisachi have indicated they intend to make peace with the Tobacs along their common border, and will withdraw as an active participant in the alliance.

My response:
I understand the Makisachi situation, but it is due to a misunderstanding between them and the Spacemen that I hope has been cleared up.
Please send any help you can to Ho Hum. It would be very much appreciated, as I may be taking some drastic measures in the near future.

Year 2490

I'm in 8th place, 174 points ahead of the Makisachi (whom the Lothan have dropped beneath in points), 213 behind the Falconians (holding steady) and 238 behind the Ninjas (gaining slowly but steadily).

Score Analysis - The Tobac gained about 15 planets in this decade, due most likely to Archimean and Thrakian worlds (whose counts have dropped), though some alliance worlds have figured in to their count. The Wolves and the Minions each picked up about 10 as well. The Lothan, due to their exit strategy, have lost a number of worlds (about 10), but much has come due to Triad advances. Starbase counts have pretty much mirrored planet counts.

While unarmed ship counts have been erratic, they've not had the great spikes that escort ship counts have had. I added about 750 ships and the Danis (who have the most now) built over 1000, though this is almost entirely chaff. The Tobac and Wolves grew each by about 500, but the quality of those ships is probably much better. The Wolves, surprisingly, have been losing escort ship totals since just before 2470, and they lost about 250 this decade. The Ninjas added about 750 to their arsenal in the past 10 years, and we finish the decade close to each other in count. The sleeping giant Bejavoid empire came alive in 2484, but it's probably too little too late. The Archimean count remained flat for all 10 years, showing that they're just letting the Triad move in unhindered.

The 2480 were the decade of the capital ship. Up until then, only the Tobac had any, but now 5 other races have them. The Tobac count remained flat at 33 all 10 years, but the Danis and Bejavoid made good headway (15 and 10 respectively) and I put out 9 myself.

In 2487 the Wolves got a jump in tech, so the new Trader is also handing out tech levels. After the previous jumps from other Traders brought some parity to the tech universe, the Triad have continued to outpace the rest of us.

My loss of the southeastern planets gave my resource chart a hit that I'll never recover from. I'm growing again now, but not enough to make up the loss. The Minions grew noticeably faster this decade, most likely due to their planet acquisitions early in the 80s. The Danis are now consistently ahead of the Bejavoid in this area.

The score is, as usual, closely paralleling the resource curve, but the Danis have a better curve vs. the Bejavoid here, with the trend favoring the Danis staying in 3rd place for the short term. The Wolves, who've been struggling, have taken a good upturn and may overtake the Bejavoid soon.

Tech Advances - In 2488 I got Electronics tech 16 (better JoaT scanners, Elephant Scanner, Jammer 30, Snooper 500X planetary scanner). This year I got Weapons 18 (Myopic Disruptor, Rho Torpedo).

Battles - The Wolves sent 5 of their Phantom Lords (destroyers with Phaser Bazookas) to Humus this year. I had two Brooms there waiting to be joined by more from Hexnut plus the newly-given Lothan Fleet Cloak, but I thought by going to Humus I'd be safe from the Wolves that had been following me out of the minefield. They destroyed my Brooms, but I did get a few shots in, and the Makisachi took out the Wolf ships just after that.

Observations - Reinforcements continued to come from Planet X to beef up the Tobac fleet near Ho Hum. In 2487, the Tobac brought in a Super Fuel Export to Ho Hum to get a ship design reading. This showed me the design of the Spacemen Space Cruiser, which is a Battle Cruiser filled with Colloidal Phasers. My first Juggerzoinks would've been in orbit that year, but I'd accidentally targeted the nearby minefield to stargate to, so the battleship didn't come and, as luck would have it, the Tobac didn't get to see what they look like then.

In 2488 the Tobac reinforcement fleet swooped in towards Ho Hum, but hit my minefield, taking 9,625 points of damage and losing 21 ships. There are only Space Pinchers in that fleet now, so all the battleships were destroyed. My Juggerzoinks at the Dani planet of Hydra didn't arrive that year, either, because they are just too massive for the stargate. So now, after two years of delay, 3 Juggerzoinks arrived at Ho Hum in this year at warp 9. Fortunately, the Tobac fleet held back just a little longer. They've taken damage in a minefield before, only to stop their march entirely, which may mean that they intended to make me think they were coming in, when in fact it was just a feigning maneuver. I don't believe they can see the Juggerzoinks at Hydra, so they'll only get one shot of them in open space, after which if they targeted Ho Hum, they'd meet those new battleships. As it is, Ho Hum built a new Juggerzoink that year.

Also that year, with the Tobacs sitting on Ho Hum's doorstep, the minefield there had been sliced up severely down to a 7ly radius. I sent in more Zoinking Fields from Hexnut and Vacant and built more at Ho Hum to see if I could slow down incoming Tobac reinforcements.

In 2489, I created a new battleship design, the Shining Light of Zoink to try and get more battleships online sooner. It can take some punishment (Neutronium armor, enough Jammer 30s to get 88% jamming) while doing damage at the front of the battle so the slower ships can get more time to shoot from behind. Its main weaponry is Heavy Blasters, with a set of Pulsed Sappers to handle the heavily shielded Triad ships. I can build 2 per year at Ho Hum (especially due to the latest salvage load from the remains of the Dani Kludge fleet) and one a year at other planets (vs. only 1 Juggerzoink per year at the formerly-mineral-rich Arafat).

The large Tobac fleet near Ho Hum is now flying northeast from Ho Hum, while reinforcements are targeting Ho Hum itself. 70 of these ships are new Tobac cruisers whose design I don't know yet.

The Wolves have occupied Cherub and Hell, and the Tobac now have Eisenhower.

The Wolf galleon that my Zoinkette was following dove back into the Triad minefields at a high rate of speed, but my following Zoinkette took no damage. She's returning home to the Ho Hum War Fleet.

The Lothan gave me 3 Fleet Cloak ships this year at their planet of Equuleus. It's a Rogue hull with a Trans-Galactic Super Scoop, 3 Shadow Shields, a Chameleon Scanner 10 Ultra-Stealth Cloaks. The idea is to use them to cloak fleets for us non-Super-Stealth races. The ship itself is 98% cloaked for me, so I'll be gating it over to my planets to use them on stealth minesweeping or guerilla missions. I'm gating them first to Phaeton, then directly to Hexnut. At Hexnut, I'm building 4 more Brooms to add to the two that have been poking at the huge Planet X minefield and basing operations at the Makisachi planet of Humus. They'll continue to work at the minefields. I'll just one Fleet Cloak on the Brooms, with others to perhaps poke a hole in the Tobac M scanning net to allow another cloaked fleet to pass by easier. (These are big plans that I don't have the ships to implement yet, but at least I now have that option with these new ships.)

Planet X is virtually unoccupied, with some Tobac frigates laying mines and a couple of new cruisers being built. Now that the Fleet Cloak is at Hexnut, I'm going to build a few more Brooms to replace the losses at Humus and start flying in next year to start whittling away at his minefield and perhaps keep more of his ships close to home.

In 2487 Arafat went down to 43kT of Germanium, so the mineral bonanza is over.

A new Mystery Trader arrived in 2489. He's at the western edge of the universe, at the border between the Thrakians and the Ninjas. He's flying northeast, and his current path will take him right along the front between the Triad and the Lothan. After that, he'll pass through Bejavoid and Makisachi space, and into Dani space, passing between my planets of Ziggurat and Staff.

Diplomacy - In 2486, the Bejavoid told me their ships were on their way:
They are on the way. ETA 2 years.
I have stepped up cruiser (with Juggernauts) production, and would like to start supporting you guys on the front lines. More to come.
The Tobacs have also stated that they have no aggressive intentions against me, and are suggesting that I enter in a peaceful agreement with them, as have the Makisachi. I'm not sure how I'm going to respond to this, but rest assured, I will still support the Alliance. I may have to build and then transfer my fleets to you guys.

My response:
If we do this via ship transfer, I can only handle one ship type, as I may be taking up the Lothan on their offer of stealth ships. A possible transfer point would be my planet of Hexnut or the Makisachi planet of Humus. Thanks for your help.

The Spacemen cleared up the Kludge Incident that year as well:
Yes, very sorry to all, it was my fault. I kept Makisachi on "Neutral", and unfortunately I didn't check my battle plan. Now I'm correcting this point.

In 2487, the Makisachi decided to try to become an information resource on the Triad:
Hello Zoink. Well, I've been able to receive some vital information from the Tobac. They will soon be attacking Ho Hum via Planet X. Don't let the Tobac know that you got this information from me. I've been cultivating my double-agent relationship with them and it seems that they've taken me into confidence in matters near my space. As for the incident at Kludge, it is forgotten. It seems that the Spacemen were at fault. I've set the Dani back to friend. Also the Minion have told me they are on a mission to destroy the Lothan, but you probably already know that. I believe that the Bejavoid will be sending their ships in my space toward Ho Hum since my space is peaceful at the time being. I'll be sure to pass any more information I get in the future. Remember, keep this hush-hush so that I don't loose my cover.

My response:
The Tobac have been rattling their sabres at me for quite some time. There have been almost 200 ships flying about near Ho Hum ever since they and the Wolves destroyed my 3 southeastern worlds of Hell, Eisenhower and Cherub. I've been building up for a while now, but I'm not sure of my chances against them. What would really be interesting is to know what they plan to do after that. If I knew that, I could do a little advance planning. If you hear anything, let me know! Thanks.

The Makisachi replied:
I'll keep my ears open. The only reason I knew about Ho Hum is because they sweeped my mine fields in between Planet X and there so that they would have a straight shot there. I'll try to work the rumor mill. I'm in the process of trying to get free passage in Triad space. So far, I've been able to get passage in Minion space, but the Tobac are still wary of me. I'll see what I can do.

I also requested from the Lothan some of their fleet cloaking ships, to see if I could do anything with them, which they delivered this year.

In 2488 there were 25 new Wolf destroyers flying north from Cherub past Walla Walla and up into Dani/Spaceman territory. I couldn't deal with them at that point, so I gave those two a heads-up message.

Last year, the Spacemen got a reading on the Wolf ships heading north past Walla-Walla:
It's old model of destroyers. Armor/Rating/initiative/moves is 550/64/3/1,5. There are no modern weapons or unit. I think, this is a try to know a new Danis construction - Doom.

I've seen a new Wolf galleon starting to move northward, one of which is flying northwest past Ho Hum and one of them is mopping up the Hell minefield, so I asked them if they could tell me what's on that ship. They responded:
You are absolutely right. This is mine layer/minesweeper with 3 Standard mine Dispenser and 3 Gatling gun. It have 4 Super-Stealth Cloak (85%) and 2 Elephant scanners. It's name is "38 Special", but will be better to call it "Marauder". I'll destroy one of this (which is near Ho Hum) next turn.

Year 2491 - The Fall of Kludge

I'm in 8th place, 165 points ahead of the Makisachi, 210 behind the Falconians, and 223 behind the Ninjas.

Tech Advances - I got Propulsion tech 14. I'm trying to go after the Trans-Galactic Mizer Scoop to give me a warp 10 engine in hopes of flying past the Tobac front lines and bothering them from behind.

Battles - The Tobac have a new cruiser design, the Pee Shiver, featuring 4 Juggernaut missiles, 2 Battle Nexi, 2 Jammer 30s and 2 Gorilla Delagators. 133 of them, plus 7 Auschkespeilken and 25 Wolf Phantom Lords attacked the alliance group at Kludge, including the Dani contingent of 2 Dooms, 26 Archies (Juggernaut cruisers), and about 300 Crumb chaff ships. The Spacemen had 14 of their Space Cruisers there (Colloidal battle cruisers), and 44 of my minelayers, the group from Ho Hum. Also protecting the planet was a Dani Sentani 2 Ultra Station (64 Juggernauts, 16 Heavy Blaster, 16 Pulsed Sappers and full of Neutronium and Bear Neutrino Barriers). The chaff ships did help in letting the Sentani 2 get some more shots off, and the starbase did take out the Phantom Lords in short order, but the Tobac battleships and Pee Shivers dealt with them pretty handily in one round. The Archies were an early victim of the Pee Shivers as well. The Sentani 2 did some serious damage to the new cruisers, but never got a chance to destroy any, as the 1-2 punch of the Tobac battleships and cruisers took it out in a single round as well. The Spaceman cruisers were the last warships on the scene, but the Pee Shivers took care of them as well before the Spacemen got off a single shot. After all alliance ships were destroyed, 2 Pee Shivers were destroyed and 51 had 16% damage.

Observations - One of my Fleet Cloaks is now on it's way with 4 Brooms as Stealth Sweeper 1 towards the Tobac Planet X minefield. They are staying away from all ships and planets, friend or foe, in hopes of keeping its position a secret.

Diplomacy - I sent a message to the alliance this year:
All is not well on the Eastern front. All forces at Kludge were wiped out this year, including the Dani Ultra Station. The new Tobac Pee Shiver (cruiser, Juggernauts and Battle Nexi) were the ships that did the most damage in that skirmish. While we may be able to annoy the Triad a bit more with a few more tricks, I believe there's little we can do to really push them back. Ninjas, I know you had thoughts of being able to get a few good shots in yet. Is there still a chance of that soon? Bejavoid & Makisachi, do you have anything with at least Armageddons to contribute to the cause? (Anything less will never get a shot off, just ask the Spacemen about the Kludge incident.)
Thoughts? Ideas? Ways to word our surrender? :)

Year 2492 - Victory at Ho Hum

I'm in 8th place, 176 points ahead of the Makisachi, 203 behind the Falconians and 213 behind the Ninjas. The escort ship graph got jostled this year, as I lost about 1,250 ships at the battle of Ho Hum. The Danis continue to climb steeply, while the Ninja lost about 800 this year.

Tech Advances - I got Propulsion tech level 15 from the battle of Ho Hum.

Battles - This year, the main Tobac fleet near Ho Hum stayed inside a small minefield they'd set up just east of my home planet, while the Pee Shiver fleet (101 Pee Shivers, 7 Auschkeshpielken, and 4 Space Pinchers) plus a small contingent of Wolf ships (10 Vengance is MINE, 10 Manchesters) moved in to attack Ho Hum itself. Waiting for them were forces from the Danis (79 Crumbs), the Spacemen (62 Cruisers, 91 Space Cruisers), the Bejavoid (6 D1 destroyers with Alpha torps, 41 D1(2)s with Beta torps, 16 Oh Yea? destroyers with Delta torps, and 26 Steph's Revenge Jihad missile cruisers) and the Zoink armada called the Ho Hum War Fleet (6 Shining Lights of Zoink, 6 Juggerzoinks, 24 Zoinkaras, 31 Zoinkulators, 46 Mini-Zoinkulators, 9 Zoinkifiers, 52 Brooms, 1,099 Zoinkettes and the Zoinkonian 2 starbase).

The starbase fired the first shots, destroying all 4 Tobac Space Pinchers, and the Shining Lights of Zoink started eating away at the Auschkeshpielken shields. The Juggerzoinks then continued to hit the Tobac battleships right in the armor. The chaff ships started their usefulness right from the start, as the Auschkeshpielken targeted them first, killing all the Dani ships and 61 of my Zoinkettes. The Wolves and the Spacemen had their own battle by themselves, with the Wolves Manchesters taking the first shots on the Spaceman Space Cruisers. The Zoinkettes continued to bear the brunt of the Tobac missiles (up to 404 lost per shot from the Pee Shivers), but this allowed the other ships, especially the beam-armed Shining Lights of Zoink, to get in closer for better shots. The Bejavoid then lost most of their Oh Yea? ships from a missile shot from the Wolf ViMs.

My aging Zoinkulators got in on things, since the chaff were working so well, and finished off 3 Tobac battleships at this point, followed by the Spacemen destroying all the Wolf Manchesters. Even the Beta torpedoes of the Zoinkifiers got in the action, though only doing 73 points of damage on the battleships.

At the halfway point in the battle, damage to the Triad ships was relatively minimal, but the tide started changing, thanks, I'm sure, to the presence of the Zoinkettes. Two more Tobac battleships bit the dust with a shot from the starbase, and the Pulsed Sappers on the Shining Lights started to work on the Pee Shivers. And even though ships with more serious firepower were moving in on them, the Auschkeshpielken continued to fire at the Zoinkettes, but with only 2 battleships left they could only take out 40 per shot. The Shining Lights put the Tobac battleships out of their misery following that.

The Pee Shivers continued to pound on the Zoinkettes and the Wolves kept at the Spacemen (killing 2 Cruisers) and the Bejavoid (killing the last 5 Oh Yea? ships). The Spaceman Space Cruisers finished off the Wolf ships at this point, and turned their attention to the Tobacs. My Zoinkulators and Zoinkifiers continued to get in good hits ("good" being a relative term when applied to the Zoinkifiers), the Zoinkulators helping to reduce the shields by over 4000 per shot.

The beginning of the end for the Pee Shivers started with a shot from the Zoinkonian 2, taking out just one ship, but setting the stage for what was to follow. The Zoinkettes, down to 190 at this point, had proven their worth because even the Brooms had made it into range to do 4,650 points of damage to the Tobac's shields, leaving only 9,150 points of shields left before beams started ripping into armor. Just before their shields gave out, however, the Tobacs finished off the Zoinkettes, freeing them up to hit my larger ships. In addition to the loss of the last Zoinkettes, they destroyed the 9 Zoinkifiers, 4 Mini-Zoinkulators, all 31 Zoinkulators and all 52 Brooms. The chaff, however, had bought me enough time.

The Zoinkaras struck first, destroying 5 ships, then the starbase killed 6 ships, and then the Juggerzoinks took out 21 more. The Shining Zoinks removed 7 more before the Pee Shivers got another shot in. 61 remained, and they chose the Spaceman Cruisers as the target, killing 58 of the 60 remaining, but the 91 Spacemen Space Cruisers returned fire dealing the mortal blow, destroying 42 of the remaining 61 Tobac ships. The Zoinkaras, the starbase, and even the surviving Mini-Zoinkulators, took out the remaining ships, securing Ho Hum for another year.

The salvage falling to Ho Hum left over 13,000kT of Ironium, 6,700kT of Boranium and 8,700kT of Germanium on its surface, and wreckage from the battle gave me 23,270 research points in Propulsion. I'm not sure if Ho Hum could handle another battle like that, considering I lost all my chaff, and support from the allies has been diminished. Therefore, I'm loading up all freighters and flinging large packets to get the minerals off in case the Triad fleet that has been lying in wait all these years decides to move in while I'm softened up. There are still 149 Space Pinchers and 14 Auschkeshpielken in that fleet, plus bombers. This battle was no doubt the advance party. The fall of Ho Hum is still a very real possibility as soon as next year.

Anticipating this, I'm upgrading the Zoinkonian 2, replacing the one bank of 16 Phased Sappers (that no one ever got in range of) with Juggernaut missiles, making it completely full of 64 Juggernauts. The Ultimate Zoink will be built at Ho Hum next year.

Diplomacy - Responses came in from my question about surrender. First from the Ninjas:
I mentioned to the Tobac that we have had words of surrender, but I still thought a reversal was possible. I don't know if it is possible to kill him without a concerted effort by all of us, but I have noticed a large increase in the Dani ships. Hopefully that can make some difference.
The battle I was referring to in my previous message is about to occur, at Scheherezade. The Tobacs are sending in 175 Jihad cruisers, and little else. I have over 400 Stingrays, and 110 Moray class colloidal cruisers. As well, another 70 or 80 Jihad cruisers will be in orbit. So if the battle can be won there, we may be able to quickly wheel around, and turn up their western flank, and retake some worlds. I have also started to build 98% cloaked minelayers and skirmishers(4X Jihad cruisers) to seed his space with. However, if the battle doesn't fare well, and I consider my position to be hopeless, I will publicly surrender. Unless any of you have a hidden trick up your sleeves, that will probably mean the game.
That's my thoughts, please let me know if you agree/disagree.

Then from the Bejavoid (noting that I had written "Armageddons" in my message to the alliance, but meant "Jihad"):
No Armageddons, but I do have 174 Jihad cruisers headed for Planet 9 to take on the Tobac fleet in 2 turns or so.

And the Makisachi:
I don't think that I can help that much. As you can tell from the score list, my tech is really low. My warships have either collidial phasers or delta torps. More or less cannon fodder if he attacks me.

And finally, from the Lothan, noting the outcome of the battle over Scheherezade:
Well, I guess this is going to about wrap it up. The battle at Scheherezade went badly for the Ninja and Lothan. The Minion fleet was wiped out (about 50 Jihad cruisers), however, the Tobacs did it a good job of wiping this up. They lost about 15 serious warships. The 174 Jihad cruisers from the Bejavoid would be nice except the Tobac are using more and more (in quantities of 50+) cruisers with the Juggernauts. These do quick work of Jihad fleets. Also the Minions have >350 Jihad cruisers at PiR2 within 2 turns of Planet 9. Perhaps we can mark Planet 9 as the final test for the western front.
Unfortunately, me being somewhat a beginner, I thought the minerals would not fall to the planet (thought I'd read somewhere that any minerals from dead ships were lost over a planet). Anyway, I pulled all minerals off Sheherezade so there would be none left when the Tobac took it...argg, now there is over 8000k of each there due to the lost ships and I've no way to use that up. This means, in a couple of years, the Tobac will have a wonderful new planet that also has the added bonus that it was the homeworld of the old Hsani race.
As for the Lothan, I vote for surrender.
By the way, I believe the Ninja meant Juggernauts in his message, though if Armaggedons were possible at this point, it would certainly work wonders on the Tobac fleet. Of course with all their advantages they will be acquiring the Armageddon technology first.

Given the bleak outlook, I sent this out to the alliance:
Based on the feedback I'm getting, it appears that the Triad War is lost. Scheherezade's fleets were destroyed, and while I won a major battle with the Tobacs and Wolves over Ho Hum, I only beat the advance fleet, designed to soften me up. There are still about 150 Space Pinchers spitting distance away ready to move in on the remains of my and other alliance fleets guarding my homeworld. (By the way, my huge drop in escort ships is mostly due to the 1,100 chaff ships that came in extremely handy. They are all, unfortunately, scrap metal now.)
Barring any serious suggestions to the contrary, I intend to send out a game message in 2943 (to arrive at all players in 2944) speaking for the alliance. I will suggest that the game end in the year 2500, with the official final score being that year's score (i.e. the 2500 "m" files would just be sent out to let you see the final score), and that whoever is in the lead (1 guess who that will be) be proclaimed winner. This will give anyone that has some last minute plans to carry them out ("Gee, I wonder what would happen if I did -this-!") and bring the game to a close.
Speak now, or forever hold your peace.
Le Grand Zoink

Year 2493 - Defeat at Ho Hum

I'm in 8th place this year, with my score just a couple of points different from last year. I'm 159 points ahead of the Makisachi, 222 behind the Falconians and 231 behind the Ninjas. The Thrakians were wiped out of the universe this year. The escort ship count of the Danis continues to skyrocket, while the Tobacs and mine continue to drop. The Wolves, Tobacs and Danis are cranking out the capital ships like crazy.

Battles - As predicted, the Tobac main fleet arrived at Ho Hum this year. A few more ships would probably not have changed the outcome, which is why I tossed out a packet of 23,000kT of minerals to Hexnut this year.

There were only three races involved in this battle; the Zoinks (6 Juggerzoinks, 6 Shining Lights of Zoink, 24 Zoinkaras, 42 Mini-Zoinkulator and The Ultimate Zoink starbase), the Bejavoid (6 D1s, 41 D1(2)s, and 26 Steph's Revenges) and the Tobacs (150 Space Pinchers, 14 Auschkeshpielken, and 29 Pee Shivers). The Tobacs started out by taking out all Bejavoid destroyers. My first shot was at the 3 Tobac All-Purpose Cleansers (frigates with Gatling Guns for minesweeping), that were acting as a small bit of chaff. The Tobac continued to hammer at the Bejavoid, killing all the Steph's Revenge next, while the Tobac and I exchanged a few damaging shots between us. The Space Pinchers then turned their attention to me, destroying 2 Shining Lights. My battleships then started to work on the Tobac battleships with Phased Sapper and missiles, but they responded by destroying all 42 Mini-Zoinkulators and 2 of my Zoinkaras. This is where chaff saved me in the last battle. The Pee Shivers directed their next salvos at my Zoinkaras and Shining Lights, softening them up so that the next shot from the Space Pinchers killed them all. The Juggerzoinks and the starbase stayed close to each other, and managed to take out 2 Tobac battleships next, but they couldn't handle the firepower of the entire Tobac fleet, and all Juggerzoinks and The Ultimate Zoink were quickly eliminated. Fortunately, there were no bombers in the fleet, so Ho Hum as a planet is still very much alive.

I created the Major Dying Breath for use at Ho Hum, as I have plenty of minerals now (8,600kT Ironium, 3,250kT Boranium, 5,400kT Germanium) and enough resources to put up a serious starbase just to keep needling the Tobacs. It's the same as The Ultimate Zoink, but I swapped out the stargate and mass driver for two Jammer 30s. It will be ready next year.

Observations - The Spaceman battle cruisers had left Ho Hum to go to Kludge, and this year they and the Danis re-secured the orbit, though there about 35 ships just off of Kludge, and they may be the fleet that was in orbit. So the Tobac didn't lose any ships, but they did lose control of Kludge.

Diplomacy - The defeat at Scheherezade severely demoralized the Ninjas, who were the last hold-out to ending the game:
All right, based on the summary defeat of all Ninja forces at Scheherezade, I vote for surrender. If 800+ ships could not halt the Tobac advance, nothing will. At least, nothing I can procure in the next few turns.

So I sent out my surrender proposal this year to everyone in the game:
From: The Zoinks, speaking for the alliance of the Danis, the Makisachi, the Bejavoid, the Falconians, the Lothans, the Ninjas and ourselves (hereafter referred to as "The Alliance")
A Proposal:
WHEREAS the alliance of empires that consists of the Tobacs, the Wolves and the Minions (hereafter referred to as "The Triad"), plus other subordinate races, have consistently succeeded in major battles over the past 10 years, and
WHEREAS The Alliance members are generally out-teched, out-manned and out-gunned versus any given primary Triad member, and
WHEREAS one Triad member, the Tobac, has more than double the score of the highest scoring Alliance member, the Danis, and another Triad member is in second place, and
WHEREAS the generally accepted idea among the Alliance is that this trend will continue (barring things like huge comets smashing into Triad worlds 3 per year over the next 20 years, which is considered unlikely),
THEREFORE let it be proposed by The Alliance that the receipt of all game files for the year 2500 will constitute the end of said game, and that whichever race has the greatest score at that time (year 2500) be declared the Winner of Breakout III. As the winning conditions were not formally set by the host, it is also proposed that the aforementioned Winner be allowed to declare an "alliance win", by naming those empires that he/she/it wishes to share the "alliance win" with.
Proposed by The Alliance (Le Grand Zoink, messenger) in the year 2493, to be sent out to all other empires and received in 2494.

Year 2494

I'm in 8th place, 186 points ahead of the Makisachi, 206 behind the Falconians, and 207 behind the Ninjas. The Ninja score graph is leveling out due to their leveling off of resources. The Danis lost about 1,000 ships this year, probably mostly chaff ships. The Lothan resource graph dipped below the Archimeans this year, though their score is still just barely above them.

I forgot to send in my turn file, so I didn't get my starbase at Ho Hum, nor did the message go out. I resent the message, updating the dates appropriately, and the starbase will be ready next year.

Observations - Wolf frigates on the western front are moving into Lothan space at warp 10, showing that they have higher Propulsion tech than anyone in the alliance.

My Stealth Sweepers barely dipped into the Planet X minefield this year. Next year they should take full effect. The Tobac are rearranging their M scout ships closer to Ho Hum, making it easier to get my sweepers past them. For fun, I'm taking the other two Fleet Cloaks, merging them with the 6 Zoinkaras from the Hexnut War Fleet and sending them in to follow the Stealth Sweepers to destroy ships left in the open as the field is swept. The new fleet Guerilla 1 is only 93% cloaked, even with both cloak ships, but that will do just fine.

A couple of the Wolf minesweeping galleons are moving north past Walla Walla, and there are plenty of Spaceman ships to deal with them. There is also one moving northwest, toward Hexnut, so Guerilla 1 may go after them.

Diplomacy - The Danis report victory on two fronts from last year:
Well, I can say there were two victories this year!
1. Thanks to the Bejavoid, we beat the invading Tobac at Planet 9. The Bejavoid had a HUGE stack of Jugernaught Cruisers which did the job. I had built quite a fleet of Heavy Blaster Cruisers which were toasted as easily as chaff. Bad move I guess. So thanks for saving the day Bejavoid.
2. Thanks to the Spacemen, we beat the Wolves and the Tobac at Kludge. I will admit it wasn't a huge Tobac fleet as has been the usual, but still, it felt good to see another Tobac defeat. The Spacemen had not had as much luck with their Colloidal phasor cruisers in other battles, but in this one, they were successful. Thanks for saving Kludge for at least one more turn, Spacemen!
I am tempted to take the fleets I have guarding my planets and go on the offensive since we are nearing the end of the game. Give my planets away if I have to to the oncoming assault just so I can have the pleasure of attacking one of HIS planets. We shall see.
On with the war, at least for a few more years.
Chief Wamuwan

The big drop in ships this year for the Danis, therefore, may have had quite a number of decent ships in the mix.

Year 2495

I'm in 8th place, 177 points ahead of the Makisachi, 195 behind the Falconians and 199 behind the Ninjas. The Tobacs are now cranking out the capital ships, building over 100 in the past two years.

Battles - My Major Dying Breath at Ho Hum took out 2 Space Pinchers (of 148) before it met its demise. Another will be ready next year, but the Tobac will have bombers at Ho Hum next year as well, so future Dying Breaths will not be as major.

Observations - Another Mystery Trader has appeared. Just like many of the other traders, this one is starting out deep in Triad space, in the southeastern corner. It will not have left Triad space by the year 2500, so it will have no impact on the alliance.

I'm laying 5,250 mines per year at Hexnut now, and its field extends almost to Ho Hum. At the same time, Stealth Sweeper 1 swept 5,268 mines from the Tobac minefield around Planet X and 2,323 from the Wolf minefield around Deneb.

The Lothans gave me 3 more Fleet Cloaks at Equuleus, but I won't be able to do much with them before the end of the game. I may merge some of them with the stealth war fleet to try to cloak them better.

The Danis and the Spacemen still own the orbit of Kludge. Looks like the Triad are not interested in that if they can get Ho Hum.

Year 2496

Battles - Another battle at Ho Hum against a Major Dying Breath took out two more Space Pinchers and two Stellar Boraxes (Frigates with Gatling Guns) before being destroyed. This allowed the recently-arrived bombers to kill 240,300 colonists. Yet another Major Dying Breath is in the queue.

Observations - 20,300kT of minerals arrived at Hexnut this year from the Ho Hum mineral packet. Time to start building.

Stealth Sweeper 1 continues to fly unhindered towards Planet X, sweeping up all the mines in its path (5,116 from the Tobac minefield, 4,017 from the Wolf one). Guerilla 1, the fleet of cloaked Zoinkaras, is heading for a Wolf minesweeping galleon that is targeting the Hexnut minefield.

Diplomacy - The Tobac, speaking for the Triad, accept our terms:
The terms for the conclusion of this great contest of powers, empires, and alliances as set forth by the Zoink representative on behalf of the "Alliance" are designated as acceptable by the "Triad", otherwise known as the Minions, Wolves, and Tobacs. We will continue to pursue our goals to the fullest up until the year 2500 and then will cease all hostilities and consider the game over. We further propose, along with the final submission of turns for year 2500, that one representative from each side, presumably the Zoink for the Alliance and the Tobac for the Triad, email the host declaring for both sides the contest over. If this is acceptable to the Alliance, please respond post haste during the next turn.

I responded that this was acceptable.

Year 2498

Battles - In 2497, another Major Dying Breath took on the orbiting Tobac fleet. It took out 3 Space Pinchers before being destroyed. The Tobac then bombed 574,200 Ho Hum colonists.

Also in 2498, my cloaked Zoinkaras met up with the Wolf galleon the 38 Special. As the Spacemen said, it's an 85% cloaked ship, with a 3 Minelayer 50s and 3 Gatling guns. However, joining up with the Wolf ship were 2 Tobac Geshundeits (battleships with 20 Juggernauts, 3 Battle Nexi and beam deflectors). I destroyed the 38 Special in one shot, but the Geshundeits took the Zoinkaras out in one shot, and then quickly finished off the 2 Fleet Cloaks.

Observations - My Stealth Sweeper fleet continues to chew up the Planet X minefield, but there is another on, based a bit east of Planet X that is still quite large and closer to Ho Hum. I'm redirecting the fleet, but I fear I've gotten to close to one of the Tobac Ms to completely escape detection. To prevent any Tobac ships from zipping out and taking me out in one turn, I'm going to alter course to stay within the Makisachi minefield around Humus.

The fleet Hexnut Protector will fly in to Ho Hum to take on the fleet there in a last ditch effort to blow up more Tobac ships in the year 2500. They consist of 6 Shining Lights of Zoink, 66 Zoinkettes and 3 Fleet Cloaks (bringing the fleet to 86% cloaking, to make their approach less noticeable).

The Trader Bait ships are now assembled at Ziggurat, and will meet with the Trader next year.

Ho Hum has been de-terraformed by ships of the Tobacs, down to 97%. I had heard early on from the Lothan that they believed the Wolves were Claim Adjusters, and now I have proof that someone in the Triad is CA. The Tobac have been known as JoaTs for a long time.

Year 2499 - The Liberation of Ho Hum

Tech Advances - From research, I got Propulsion 16 (Trans-Galactic Mizer Scoop, Gravity Terraform 15), and from meeting the Trader I got Biotech 12 (Enriched Neutron Bomb), Construction 14 (Super Fuel Tank) and Propulsion 17.

Battles - Thanks to the Danis and the Spacemen, Ho Hum has been liberated from Triad control. The Danis brought 6 Dooms, 26 Kabooms (battleships with 16 Heavy Blasters and 4 Pulsed Sappers), and 173 Crumbs, and the Spacemen brought 190 Space Cruisers. The Tobac had 143 Space Pinchers, 11 Auschkeshpielken, 8 Geshundeits and 8 battleships with a blank name carrying 16 Heavy Blasters, 4 Pulsed sappers and no armor. One of my Major Dying Breaths was there, but the battle took place outside of its range. The Danis did their heaviest damage to the Tobac shields, and the Spacemen cleaned up the remains, as they were faster than the Dani battleships. The Danis lost all but 5 Dooms and the Spacemen were left with 155 Space Cruisers. Ho Hum was liberated, and the Hexnut Protector fleet that was going there will not be needed, though they will still show up just in case there's an unexpected attack.

Observations - The Tobacs don't seem to have noticed my Stealth Sweeper fleet yet, though they are probably close enough this year to a few Ms to be seen. They may just be leaving them alone due to the imminent end of the game. The fleet is now targeting the center of the Tobac minefield east of Planet X.

As a final indignity, the Wolves have flung a 8,000 kT warp 10 packet from Hell to Ho Hum. I'm going to upgrade the Major Dying Breath with just a couple of warp 7 mass drivers to minimize the damage. This is known as the Last Ditch Receiver. I'll also be rebuilding 16 destroyed defenses.

Given the points you get for them, I'm just building as many battleships as I can throughout the universe for the last turn.

Year 2500 - The End

The game is now over and I am in 8th place out of 16, 142 points ahead of the Makisachi, 256 behind the Ninjas and 281 behind the Falconians. The Tobacs have won the game, 3,501 points ahead of me.

Battles - For some reason, my Last Ditch Receiver did not get built in time. It's only 44% complete, even though last year the queue showed that it would be ready this year. Hence, the Wolf mineral packet slammed full force into Ho Hum, killing 299,500 colonists and destroying 55 defenses. The minerals lying around on Ho Hum from that and the recent battles are now 20,000kT Ironium, 12,000kT Boranium and 13,000kT Germanium.

Observations - The Stealth Sweeper fleet has done quite a good job with the mines and I only wish we'd had more time (or got this Fleet Cloak earlier) because it would've really slowed down the Triad minelaying capabilities and perhaps not allow them such unencumbered movement in my space.

Diplomacy - A final word from the Lothan to everybody:
Good bye! Had fun; learned a lot. Thank you Tobac for blowing us all away (well those directly on the front) :-). You did extremely well as a beginner and I'm impressed. Congratulations on winning!

The Tobac announced to the host the alliance with for the Triad:
Gene,
This email serves as the final "victory" announcement for Breakout III, as agreed upon by myself, representing the "Triad" and by the Zoink representative for the "Alliance", to bring this game to a close as of the year 2500.
Although I finish the game ranked #1, I would like to announce an "alliance" win, as 2 other players, the Minions (rank 2, player #8) and the Wolves (rank 4, player #15) have been allied with me almost since the beginning, and this victory is due as much to them as it is to me.
Let me know when you post to the newsgroup. Thanks for a great game and learning experience...you've been a great host. I look forward to playing a Gene-hosted game in the future.

He also sent me an explanation of how some key events looked like from his side of the fence:
Some thoughts on your very exhaustive and enlightening analysis of ranks, ships, etc...
Most of the dips/slowdowns in my resources over the years were due to massive shipments of 1-2 million colonists at a time, usually every 5 or 6 years, out from my 10-12 core worlds mostly to fill up western border worlds with the Lothans/Thrakians. My growth rate was 19%, so I always had a lot of work to do and a lot of colonists to ship out to keep my 90%+ planets in the optimum growth range (col growth >60k per year per planet).
Your "Dispuckulator" indeed did take me by surprise, as I didn't think it would ever get close enough to kill my Puckers.
The whole exchange over the Deneb border was just an excuse to take the planets, as I'm sure you know. Planet X was a 85% world for me along time ago, and I coveted it. Not very neighborly of me, I know... ;)
The reason I didn't pursue Ho Hum and the Hell cluster (as we called it) mid-game was I was really focused in the west, taking Thrakian, and then much later, Lothan planets. I knew a war with you at Ho Hum would likely bring in the Danis (as it did when it finally started) but also the Bejavoid and Mak, which even though low in the rankings, owned all the closest planets into our interior. A combined assault along our entire Mak/Zoink border, if you guys ever could have gotten your alliance on the same page, could really have stopped my/our expansion in the west. As it was, we were able to keep things relatively quiet along the entire Mak/Zoink border, and I was able to gate almost 80% of my armed fleet production for many years to the west. In fact, a fast raid into my interior (Linq/Springfield) would have found me scrambling to gate ships back from the west, delaying any expansion there. The west really was the only place I could expand, so I took advantage of it, as the Thrakians were not allied with anyone, and seemed to be just as aggressive towards the Lothans as myself. Thus, my expansion into Thrak territory didn't carry much risk of pulling in your alliance to help against me.
A pity we couldn't take more advantage of that wormhole deep behind enemy lines, but I felt that the amount of ships needed to send up to Sputnik to hold off all your combined defenders long enough for a 150/600 gate to be put up would have seriously degraded my defensive capability in my own territory.
Oh, and that message to the Mak "accidentally" sent to Everybody really was intentional, however the message you got accidentally copied on later from the Minions was certainly not intended for you, and certainly revealed prematurely the Archimeans subjugation to "the Triad".
Believe it or not, we were all mostly scared of what the Lothans/Ninjas were capable of, and felt the fear and loathing towards them which most non-SS players probably feel when pitted against SS. This was another reason for my expansion in the west, as I felt the races most threatening to us eventually would be the Lothans/Ninjas, and I wanted to deny them the Thrak planets which they would certainly have taken had I not.

My response:
The Dispuckulator's success can be attributed to using a testbed. I set up a test game and tried all sort of combinations (shields, armor, all ships in a single fleet, all ships in separate fleets, etc.). I knew I could beat a Pucker Factor fleet if I had an equal number of Dispuckulators, but as it turned out, they hung in there even when outnumbered 3-to-2. This was wonderful, because I knew that I'd only get away with it once, and wanted to kill as many of your ships in that battle as possible. I told my allies, "What I wouldn't give to see the look on the Tobac's face today!" :)
Yes indeed, I figured the differing views of what our borders were with respect to Deneb and Planet X were simply ploys to get both planets. My responses were designed to solidify the alliance. As I mention in the diary, there were times when some of us wondered who the Bejavoid and the Makisachi were fighting for, and if I could demonstrate any Triad treachery, I thought that I could get them off the fence.
Which brings up the whole Mak/Zoink border situation. I'm sure you noticed that I certainly -tried- to get us all "on the same page", but I think the Makisachi were hampered by being behind on the tech curve (for reasons that could be economic or race related) and didn't feel like they could mount a successful campaign against the Triad, even if bolstered by the alliance. In addition, the Bejavoid were a little slow in reacting to emerging situations. I took sort of the leadership role in the alliance, in terms of diplomacy, but I would have preferred that the Bejavoid take the role of General due to their far superior economy and their centralized location. A system of (well-publicized) stargates in Bejavoid space would have gone a long way to allowing the alliance to act as a group, and allowed us to reinforce hot spots, or even execute a punching maneuver into Triad space. They did have their moments, though, like when they annihilated the first Triad foray into the wormhole near Sputnik. That, I am sure, is what caused you to decide it wasn't worth the effort.
So what was your reasoning behind the message to Everybody? Was it to pacify the other races on that border, to get them to lower their guard thinking you'd be concentrating on me? If so, it worked in spades! Of course, you -did- concentrate on me. >grin< And of course, the revelation of the Archimean treachery was most helpful in solidifying Lothan/Ninja diplomacy towards the Archimeans. Without that knowledge, they might have wasted more time trying to turn them to our side.
Yes, the Thrakians certainly were the western wild card, not allying with anyone and thus being subject to takeover by either. The Lothans told me that they were generally lone rangers from the start, to their detriment, and in spite of all the warning tossed their way about trying to take on the Triad single-handedly.
Tell me, what did -you- fellas call yourselves? :)

They responded:
On the topic of their reaction to the Dispuckulators - Yes...I had a sour face most of the day (:(
On my attempt to solidify the alliance - I wondered that myself, and thought many times if the Beja would only step up to the plate, so to speak, we'd be in a much more even (and I daresay, more interesting) battle for supremacy. Fence sitting in a game with an apparently aggressive alliance (us) usually means you die on the fence.
On the Bejavoid cruisers keeping them out of the Sputnik wormhole - Right you are...we didn't feel like spending the vast amount of resources to counter the Beja's Jihad cruisers that far away from home with a less than solid wormhole as our only way home.
On how well the message to Everybody worked - Well then, exactly as planned :) I above all else wanted to keep the very long Makisachi border quiet so we could concentrate on you and out west. If I could get your less-committed allies to second-guess your alliance or at least question attacks on the Triad after receiving my email, then it would have done it's job.
On the accidental E-mail - Yep, I freaked out when I saw the Zoinks were on the address list! My Minions friend felt terrible, and knew that there would be little use in damage control, although I think he did try. The Archimean damage-control message to the Lothan/Ninjas was at that point an outright lie, just to try and keep them guessing. But from all his immediate scout losses the following year, we all knew that the gig was up, and that the Arch was officially in our alliance in the eyes of our enemies.
On the Thrakians - He was tough, though, with superior weapons (for a while), movement, and building capability. Took me many years to get the upper hand.
On what they called themselves - We actually never used anything other than "our Alliance". Very boring, I know. I loved it when I found out from the new Archimean player that you guys were calling us the "Triad"...very ominous, which is how I kind of wanted to play this game. I considered calling ourselves the "Axis", but thought the reference to Nazi Germany too inappropriate. But we were clearly the "evil" aggressors, and so I thought it sortof fit.
And finally - Just finished reading the 2461-2480 installment. I had no idea the Lothans were backing out, as they were quite challenging up until we took Winky Blinky, Green House, and Hay Seed. Again I wonder, what kept the Beja on the fence? Did he/she just not have the time for the game, and so let it slide until the very end? That was probably the single-most defining anti-decision in the game. If he had come on strong from the beginning, we could possibly have been toast, or at least put in check, by 2460.

Following the posting of this last portion (2481 - 2500), he had more comments:
Regarding the Mak thinking he had an "in" with us to feed you all info: I sortof wanted it that way ;) I used this to my advantage when hitting Kludge the first time in 2491, when I think/hope you guys all thought I would hit Ho Hum.
I did see your sweeper fleet, I think starting in 2496, but just didn't think to worry about it at that point in the game.
I was very irritated (with myself) about the whole Ho Hum affair, starting way back when my advance fleet arrived and got mauled. This was a mistake on my part, and shouldn't have happened. The plan was for both fleets to arrive at Ho Hum: the fleet at Kludge (which did arrive) and the larger fleet in space off of Ho Hum (which didn't, to my dismay). I thought I had checked and re-checked their vector, but in the end they didn't move because I had foolishly set them to lay mines at waypoint 0 "indefinitely", which kept them from moving. This really bugged, because it set the stage for the retaking of Kludge by the Danis/Spacemen, killing off the all the Wolves' bombers in the process which I had planned for him to send to Ho Hum, and ultimately resulted in your liberation of Ho Hum. If my combined fleets could have been at Ho Hum initially, with the Wolves B17 bombers arriving later, I pretty sure I would have had the strength at that point to own the orbits of both Ho Hum and Kludge until bombed into oblivion. Alas, probably the most irritating lesson of the game for me.

To which I replied:
Ah ha, used our own alliance members against us, eh? There was a brief time I though the Makisachi might be acting as a double-agent, but I figured not at that late stage of the game. There was not enough time to do any real damage, so that thought was short-lived. However, I hadn't considered the fact that he might be fed bad information. You'd think after all those episodes of "Hogan's Heroes" I would have known better. :)
Yeah, I figured your M's would be able to see the cloaked minesweepers. If it had been much earlier, I probably would've spent some time to punch a hole in your web, but it was almost over, and I just wanted to enjoy shrinking that blasted minefield. :)
As to the massacre of the Triad at Ho Hum, frankly I thought that was your plan (soften me up, then go in for the kill), though generally in Stars it's better to hit all at once than piecemeal. But it was good to see our alliance hang in there to the end, as the liberation of Ho Hum was done solely by non-Zoink forces.

The Wolves made some comments as well:
Good game by the way and your diary makes interesting reading. (I know my mistakes from your view now). Sorry about hitting your HW with a Warp 10 driver so close to the end, it was only an experiment. No hard feelings. I look forward to the next part of your diary and maybe meeting in combat again some day.

I replied:
Hey, certainly no hard feelings on the mineral packet, because I if I'd thought about it, I would've done the same thing, though you knew my starbase had been nailed, which made it a good target. Funny thing was, I had a quick upgrade to that starbase that put 2 warp 7 mass drivers that should've been built that year, but when the turn arrived, it was only 44% complete and my population devastated. Nice shot!

Final Results

Click here for the End-game Planet Map

My view of the universe