Neptunes Pride – The GD War – Part 3

My scrounged defences were enough, beating back Miker’s crazy lunge that nearly choked me. I’m just lucky he didn’t send them all in one big wedge towards Mothallah. Me and Dante are now left in a tricky spot, waking up from our sleep to find we’d conquered 2 worlds each in a little 4 world cluster, with Miker all around us in a 250 degree arc. Dante doesn’t have enough ships here yet, and neither do I. If we attack, Miker can either defend everywhere easily or defend only the jucier parts of his empire but retake our precious foothold. For now my big fleet will have to sit as an impenetrable guard till reinforcements get there.

When they did arrive, unfortunatley so did Mikers. Around 200 of them, all sat on one star with a few other fleets of around 70 each sat on the nearby clusters. We were at a stalemate, with my reinforcements bringing my fleet to around 250 and Dante having about 140 ships. We could take out those ships, but if they counter-attacked into our territory we were screwed. This meant we’d have to attack and pin them down. The only way we could be sure to do this would be while Miker slept.

Cunningly, we arranged to attack at a pre-designated time. It was agreed to act the next morning at 8am, when Miker would most likely be asleep

Mana:

FIND MODULE SPEECH…..FOUND
INITIALIZE TRANSLATORS…..INITIALIZED
CALL FUNCTION SPEAK……
–ZFZZzzZt…FizzzkrrrrrD–sCrAAaaaaaa–
ERROR
RECALIBRATING.

Just what do you think you’re doing, everyone?

Poseison:

Perhaps giving WasteManager free tech was not my most considered move, though how could I have planned for Mana’s withdrawal? His strength was now greater than mine and only the AI’s thin defences were keeping his ravening red hordes from my doorstep. Unlike the rest of us, it did not seem as though he was at war with Miker, though the stellar fog obscured events on their borders. If not in conflict with Miker, he could readily wait and see what possibilities may reveal themselves following the Miker war.

I reclaimed Zuben-el-Akrab, Muphrid, and Alderamin while the saffron fleets jumped South. Scraps, perhaps, but vengeance can build from a largo to a presto in an instant.

Dante:

It seems Poseidon was planning to attack Miker anyway, my poison words are taking a toll. I lose one fleet charging blindly at Mike, but Ironcock moves forwards with a strong fleet and pushes him back. I bring in two mobile, small fleets in support and take Pollux and Altais, the latter of which is already developed. This leaves us in a stand off against Mike, he can block us whichever direction we move, but we can beat him if he comes at us. It’s a waiting game, which favours him, Ironcock and I hold council and decide a dawn attack will catch the Yank in his sleep (we actually set alarms and got up at 8am for this). Meanwhile I trade as much tech with Ironcock as I can get, I’m well behind here and trying to buy my way out of a poor position. Miker suggests I attack Ironcock now or he’ll dominate, I play along but I’m not falling for it. Ironcock, and everyone else, will have to be dealt with eventually, but I’m in no position for a frontal war. I draw up preliminary plans for a deep strike at midnight into Ed’s territory for when it all goes pear shaped.

Heironymous Dante
Ruler
Dantonian Dominion

Miker:

Neptune’s Pride is no longer as fun as it used to be, and I’ll be honest, a lot of it is because I’m losing. Ironcock has an enormous 151-ship fleet heading towards my cluster of high economy and high industry planets. I’ve sent two fleets toward his planets in retaliation, but I’ve miscalculated his numbers, and he has apparently has enough ships in place to destroy both fleets. He’s also blown through the tech tree, meaning my forces don’t stand a chance against his faster, stronger, defense-bonus buffed forces. Dante is also trying to take my planets, but his rather small fleets will be swallowed by Ironcock’s. Because I’ve pulled my ships from the north to defend my home cluster, Poseidon is now retaking the planets that I took just yesterday, and it won’t be long before he joins the fray.