"Sspread quickly, reach, sstretch, take and claim everything within 20-ly, everything, even though thisss will undoubtedly ssqueeze ssome of the closer neighborsss," offered Ravana. "It'sss the ssame asss a wolf pissin' on bushesss, markin' hisss boundariesss: 'thisss isss my territory'. Plant the flag. Force othersss to react. Force othersss to make the decision on whether or not to object; force othersss to decide if they will trespassss into already declared territory; force othersss to decide if they want an early war; force othersss to make the early decisionsss that few wish to make. For if no one objectsss, then a 12000#-14000# domain will have been carved out and occupied."
This is the crux of the Colonial Rush.
It was with this in mind that CityState [cS] raised its flag in galaxy Prometheus, and sent transports to those distant planets seen by our most powerful telescopes.
"Be ready for the Early War," warned Kang, and sure enough one neighbor, Esquimaux, complained. Expecting an early conflict, but not knowing where it would occur, a small squadron of warships were built t05.
"If a border disagreement takes more than 2 turns to resolve," continued Kang, "then assume it isn't resolved, regardless of what the complainer may say; expect him to attack as soon as he feels ready." On t06, as the rhetoric continued between CityState and Esquimaux, the ships built the previous turn began moving towards the contested border.
"Do not fight an early war alone," enjoined Santo the Slaver, "find close aboard allies." Koridan_Empire [KE] and Moose [M], both neighbors of Esquimaux [E], were enticed to join the fight. E's homeworld was attacked and burned t08. Three planets, including E's hw, went to CityState, while KE and M divided the rest. When the dust finally settled on the Colonial Rush and the Early War, the CityState Empire had claimed and colonized 30 planets worth 14254.26#. A good beginning!
"If the early domain is large enough, wars due to economic pressure will not need to be fought prior to t30," added Santo the Slaver. "All near-future wars, if there are any, will be driven solely by politics."
"And politicsss," reminded Ravana, "isss the most important of elementsss. Without a strong political base, without communicationsss with all of your many neighborsss, those both near and far, you will be blind to the happeningsss and doingsss of those around you."
In order to secure Moose's assistance in the Esquimaux War, cS had to agree to assist in a war with Behemoth [B], a war scheduled to begin t24, the turn following the end of a nonaggression pact between cS and B. As things turned out, this agreement was pivotal, in that all other actions rotated, or pivoted, around that date.
"The Diversion War", added Ravana, "isss a political war, one whose ssole purpose isss to ssolididfy a quadrant. Thisss war sshould be initiated at the first ssign of ssectorial unrest." One of Esquimaux's neighbors, nyx, showed signs of displeasure with the early departure of E. Previously, nyx had spread alarm throughout the fringes of his territorial claim by "exploring" with armed vessels [seems there's always one who attempts this]. When nyx mentioned to Koridan_Empire that he wished to "rob the robber", it was decided to begin the political process which would initiate the Diversion War, which, if successful, would completely pacify, politically speaking, CityState's entire eastern sector, an area in excess of 60-ly in width, an area running through nyx all the way to Q's western border.
Sykather [S], Tribes_of_Man [ToM], and Koridan_Empire [KE] were enlisted for this effort. I wanted this war to be finished quickly. Although ToM had once speculated that he would be nyx's target, cS was convinced that nyx's "rob the robber" statement could mean only one target: CityState.
Adama of Tribes_of_Man coordinated this war. nyx's warfleet arrived in CityState space, that which was recently claimed from Esquimaux, a full turn before the combined forces of cS-S-ToM-KE invaded. nyx found only burned planets and very small, just established colonies. With nyx's fleet out of position, the war was shortlived, although it did take a couple of turns to eliminate nyx's fleet which had first invaded cS, and then unexpectedly veered into KE's domain. The arrival of nyx forces in cS space insured the outcome of the nyx war, but it did cause some concern first to cS, and then to KE, before this lone warfleet could be cornered and destroyed.
This war solidified the politics in that region, which permitted CityState to look in other areas.
valar emeraldknights
the
outer_rim zorg tsalia
(A)
\
\
\ koridan_empire
b \
e \ q
h (C)------ \ -------------(D)
e \ {esquimaux} {nyx}
m \
o \ sykather
t \ tribes_of_man
h \
\ moose
\
(B)
aelian_conclave {pokemon}
hackers
While cS dealt with nyx, Moose invaded and quickly overran Pokemon.
Following the Diversion War [cS/KE/ToM/S vs nyx], the CityState Empire looked something like the above map. It stretched more than 90-ly from A to B, and was in excess of 40-ly in width. It contained 30 planets, of which 2 were hw's and 3 were colonies in excess of 1300#, as well as another colony only a point shy of being a hw. Now was the time to begin developing the economy, but...
...but CityState's northern neighbor, Zorg [Z], presented a potential problem, one that threatened to destabilize the entire northern reaches, that area marked by point (A). Located at point (A) was a group of planets which cS often referred to as the 3-planet-cluster; this cluster was worth slightly more than 4500#. Zorg had seen it. Outer_Rim [OR] had seen it. And so had Behemoth [B]. Zorg was now saying he needed room to expand, that he had nonaggression pacts with all of his immediate neighbors except for CityState. Paranoia immediately set in! The squadrons which fought the nyx and Esquimaux wars couldn't possibly hope to reach point-A in time to be of any support. Also, the Behemoth War, scheduled to begin t24, was only a handful of turns away. The question loomed, how could I protect the northern reaches and still produce the weapons needed for the Behemoth war?
Again, it was Ravana who had the answer, "although the Diversion War isss a political war, it isss a war which can be initiated more than once." Then Santo added, "everyone wants the homeworld, so give it away! You don't need it."
With this advice, it was decided to turn this brewing situation into another Diversion War; with the help of EmeraldKnights and Valar, it was hoped that Zorg could be eliminated and divided, and in the process a peaceful northern region would be established. CityState, not able to send any capital ships, was hoping to use only the couple of gunboats it had stationed at the 3-planet-cluster; because it could only provide raiders, cS was asking, as its share of the spoils, for a small handful of Z's planets, those located just north of the 'Cluster, leaving the rest of Z's domain to be divided by EK and V.
At this point, the relationship between CityState and Koridan_Empire must be mentioned. KE was the only player met in Blind Galaxy who liked to talk as much as cS!! Right from the beginning we hit-it-off, so to speak, with messages flying at all times of the day and night; it was not uncommon for the two of us to swap 3 or 4 notes in a single day. We even reached the point where "raw thoughts", penned ideas which hadn't been considered or pondered, were being swapped; those are the notes which usually contain gems of genius. There were even some players who thought He was Me! According to Howard the GM, record highs were set in Prometheus for the vast bulk of message traffic sent! When nyx's fleet veered away from CityState territory and headed for KE's domain, cS immediately sent its most powerful units to assist. When, much later, Tribes_of_Man threatened KE, cS again shifted forces to assist in KE's defense. In return for the military assistance and general insight regarding the many facets of Blind Galaxy, KE provided cS with invaluable data regarding the neighbors, who was where, who was saying what, and literally thousands of drones as flak for each campaign.
It was during the beginnings of the Zorg War, while at the height of the communications barrage, that the idea of Blitzing the Galaxy took root. KE had established commlinks between CityState and Valar, EmeraldKnights, Outer_Rim, Tsalia, Q, The, Pyrrans, Aelian_Conclave, and Hackers. From these connections, cS began talking with Valar and EmeraldKnights about an invasion of Zorg, and talks began with Tribes_of_Man, Hackers, Sykather, Outer_Rim, Moose and Koridan_Empire about a dual war, conducted simultaneously, against Behemoth and Q, who had showed signs of being an active alliance.
cS was also discussing the "Zorg Problem" with Tsalia and Koridan_Empire, so cS was aware that most of Z's neighbors were looking at taking a bite. The only real concern, at this time, regarding the upcoming Zorg War, was whether or not Lord Zorg would launch his counterattack, if there was a counterattack, against CityState. The experiences of Ravana, Santo, and Kang all led cS to believe that this would be a possibility. As Ravana once said, "While it isss important to open and maintain communicationsss with asss many neighborsss asss possible, the wrath of the Fallen isss oftentimesss, perhapsss alwaysss, aimed at the one who appeared friendly."
Before the EK/V/cS triumvirate could decide on how/when to invade Z, Tsalia [T] launched a preemptive strike deep into Z's territory, the turn before Z's planned invasion of T, burning his hw and, luckily for cS, destroying Z's invasion fleet! There would be no counterattack. EK then broke from our 3-way discussions, and began what cS often referred to as "the Crusade". He arbitrarily, and erroneously, linked cS and V to Tsalia and KE, referring to it as an evil alliance, and sent out an all area call-to-arm's. Having by this time a rather extensive communications net, cS learned of this almost as quickly as his neighbors...
...it was at this time that the Quest to Blitz the Galaxy came to life. If it hadn't been for The Crusade, it is unlikely the Blitz would have been attempted. CityState had developed close ties to Koridan_Empire, Moose, Tsalia and Valar, and had good communications with Sykather. Comms with Outer_Rim were in the developmental stage, but ambassadors were working around the clock to solidify that connection. Although there was some hesitation from the others to bring OR into the fold, cS felt it was necessary, since OR was planning an independent attack on Behemoth, an attack tenatively scheduled to begin before t24. Under normal circumstances, OR's planned war would have dovetailed nicely with the plans which were already underway, except that OR was brand new to Blind, and what cS was hearing regarding his plans led the military leaders of cS to believe he would not be successful in his effort; that all he would accomplish would be to put B on a full warfooting just as Moose, KE and cS were about to attack. So, he was pulled into the group. It must be added that at no time was OR's strategic or tactical prowess being doubted, it was just that he was a newbie, and as such had not yet learned the value of drone/flak killers.
The idea behind the Blitz was simple. With so many Hall of Famer's [HoF] playing in Prometheus, it was thought that it would be best if each could be attacked and overrun before they had the chance to implement their winning style. Of the members of the Group of 7, only one was a HoFer. If we could wipe-out the remaining HoFers, then there would be an excellent chance that a new name would be added to that illustrious list. Although a strategy which required constant warfare, moving immediately from one campaign to another, would mean we'd be fighting with low tech levels, it was believed that two factors would overcome that liability: (1) the defenders would also have low techs, and (2) with overwhelming numbers of ships, whatever small tech advantage the defenders had could be overcome. In other words, it would be a swiftly moving war of attrition.
Valar, Sykather and Tsalia launched the invasion of EmeraldKnights. It had been quickly decided to take-out the talker, the organizer of the Crusade, as quickly as possible, in the hopes that this would bring his call-to-arm's to an abrupt end. This campaign was somewhat successful. Although much of EK's domain was in ruin, EK was not eliminated. cS wanted to participate in this campaign, but was forced, due to the needs of the Behemoth Campaign, to leave the planning and execution to those who were nearer.
By t24, the "Group of 7" alliance had been formed, and the timetable for the conquest of the galaxy was set. Although EK hadn't yet been overrun, and the Behemoth Campaign was just beginning, it was felt we were as ready as we would ever be.
The Timetable: the PYRRANS campaign; begin t28: Valar [campaign coordinator] Outer_Rim Tsalia the THEFORCE campaign; begin t29: Sykather [campaign coordinator] CityState Koridan_Empire [drone support plus fast shooters] Outer_Rim [drone support plus fast shooters] the HACKERS campaign; begin t30: Moose [campaign coordinator] CityState Koridan_Empire [drone support plus fast shooters] the TRIBES_OF_MAN campaign; begin t31: Koridan_Empire [campaign coordinator] CityState Moose Valar [300 drones plus 3 fast shooters] Tsalia [300 drones plus 3 fast shooters] Outer_Rim [300 drones plus 3 fast shooters] Sykather [mop-up duties]Assuming an easy victory over Behemoth [4:1 odds], and that EmeraldKnights would be successfully crushed if not overrun [3:1 odds], it was believed that by t35 all major empires would have been reduced to minor state status. This would have left 16 turns for the 7 to decide who would be the eventual winner.
As everyone knows by now, things didn't progress quite as planned!
Both the Behemoth and EmeraldKnights campaigns began as expected, with victory following victory. cS turned its attention to the Pyrrans campaign, giving the needs of the fight with Behemoth little in the way of thought. That was a huge mistake and, as things turned out, a precursor to future events. In what was to be the last big battle with Behemoth, cS failed to send a big gun, thinking the flakKiller had large enough firepower to carry the day. That cS fleet, accompanied by more than 800 pieces of KE flak, was unceremoniously destroyed. This combined cS/KE fleet was supposed to transit immediately from B territory to Pyrrans domain, leaving the Behemoth mop-up to OR/M, to join with V/T/S in order to assist and/or deliver the final blow(s) in the Pyrrans campaign. cS's tactical failure against Behemoth snowballed into a strategic failure, since without this fleet, the killing blow couldn't be delivered against Pyrrans.
The biggest blunder of all, however, the error that sealed the fate of the Group of 7, occurred t26. It is possible, maybe even probable, that the Blitz could still have been successful, or, at the least, if t51 was out of reach, the 7 would still have been able to eliminate all others, except for the what happened t26...
...in the days leading up to t26, cS had established comms with Aelian_Conclave [AC], who had been crushed by Behemoth/Q. cS offered a safe haven for the remains of AC's forces, a planet inside the ex-Esquimaux domain. Also, believing AC was a newbie to Blind Galaxy, cS began including him in most all message traffic, in an effort to provide a glimpse into the political machinations...
...with the heavy traffic load [cS was easily sending 50+ messages per week], cS had gotten into the habit of using a shortcut when addressing the subject line. This shortcut, however, required a small bit of diligence on cS's part, diligence which, in this one instance, was missing...
...it is remembered that KE once said, in reference to the numbers of notes he was sending every turn, and this is paraphrased, "with so many messages, I'm afraid I'll send one to the enemy!" Well, it wasn't KE who sent a note to the enemy, it was cS! The complete timetable for the Blitz of the Galaxy was accidently sent to Hackers!!
Hackers quickly passed the timetable to everyone else. The Group of 7 became known as the Forces of Evil. Hackers invaded Moose, and Tribes_of_Man invaded Koridan_Empire. Tsalia fell to The/Pyrrans/EK. Valar, now alone, fought against EmeraldKnights, The, and Pyrrans.
Not knowing what was truly happening, and believing the wars all around were being fought by individuals, not suspecting a coordinated alliance effort, cS shifted internal defense forces to assist KE, and sent attack squadrons into Hackers and Pyrrans territory. But Koridan_Empire sued for peace with ToM. CityState's eastern flank was now exposed. With Moose crushed, Hackers and ToM, now unimpeded, moved against cS. With defensive forces out of position, and with offensive fleets scattered throughout the galaxy, key cS colonies began to fall. The end came quickly. Before t35, when cS had planned for all but the 7 to have been invaded and overrun, CityState, and its allies, had themselves been overrun and eliminated.
Although the Blitz was a failure, galaxy Prometheus has been the most enjoyable of the 5 or so games I've played thus far. IF-IF-IF the Timetable hadn't been sent to Hackers, things undoubtedly would have turned out quite differently!
Because of that t26 gaffe, I have been awarded the "Anti-Bernhard Award" for the Worst move, or series of moves, in a galaxy game! Besides receiving the inaugural award, the award is now called the "Tom Dodd Award". Oh, well, I always wanted to be famous...I suppose infamous is as close as I'll get!!
Until the next time...adios!
td.
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