
I had and have a still ongoing epic mp game with Bluesintainct.I just simply love this game , it had so many dramtic changes and suprising moments and so much very even, tough assymetric,struggle.Really it was all time fight for life (at least for me , but i think for Blueinstinct too), if you made even one bad decision, you would feel it soon.
I decided to write a sort of AAR , tough a special one.It wont be a story/history but more of a plan/strategy overview and then the outcome of that plan.I think it shows very good why i consider SOTS2 the deepest strategy on market atm (if only AI would be smart enough to force you to stuff like this:) ) and why I like it that much:).You got plans inside of plans, deceits, counters, playing for time etc....

Settings:
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Map Wave -An interesting choice for 2 players as there is one slot/part of galaxy left for grabbing, that isnt obviously near anyone.
Random 50 % - at my request, to slow undefended reckless expansion
No GMs
5 minutes battle timer
Begining Era (From start till first serious battles/defining of borders)
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Overall analysis before the game: The Liir will grow stronger and stronger as time go by and they got time to research.The sooner and harder I strike the better.The last sweet spot for morrigi is around flagship and ideally the game should be won or strongly in my favour by then( we alrdy know it didnt happen


Begining Era plans
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1-Scrap station level 3 (to high upkeep) build a level 1.Design for no prototypes needed ships.
2-Colonize as many low CH world as possible.Leave high CH for later,when colonizing one wont shut down your entire economy.
3-Explore fast to discover low CH best worlds.
4-Get as soon as possible in Liir space and start exploring/mapping, bombing whatever defensless planets are left, using the relative high initial speed of morrigi (my standard scout fleet :1 command,4 supply ,1 gravboat).Hurt them and force to spend on defence, slow their expansion.Also additional pressure on this as i observed a tendency of Blueinstinct to expand very recklesly, leaving him vulnerable but very dangerous if not stopped.Map will favour his approach as he has the galaxy 3rd players empty slot arm access, i am bottlnecked and farer from it.
5- Trade trade trade --research trade first and build it up everywhere apart from few production systems.Honestly there were maybe 30 turns i avent been buildinng/funding freighters ( many were lost to pirates tough)
6-Build defense fleets around the 3 startign planets so they can avert a catashtorphe (loss of one of them early) due to unlucky random encounter(drone platform wouldnt stop von neuman , which could drain the planet dry ).Defend with drone platforms only on rest of the planets, leaving them defensless early on (if they die no big loss, can recoloznie fast)
7-Build a station around every a bit developed planet (when a loss would start to be felt ) to save from ghost ship
8-Concentrate on trade/economic research , the liir are slow early and their ship fragile as glass. Moreover the battlefornt will develop along the newest colonized planets, if i loose a few wont be much of a loss, i will have time to build the fleet.
9-Overpopulate all planets except designed "shipyard worlds" for max incoem and more importantly trade.
Begining Era outcome
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1-The defense fleets around the 3 home systems were a waste, there was no von neumann in this galaxy.
2-No ghost ship either, maybe with 50 % random it doesnt appear, so the rush build of stations was also wasteful
3-Nevertheless imho my expansion and economy were impressive.I chanced into very good systems nearby, tough that good luck was soon offset by gigantic bad luck in research....
4-The drone platforms have saved a few planets that would die from random encounters, so it was the right call.
5-The exploration of Liir part of galaxy was a moderate success, I managed to map many systems and more or less extrapolate the extend of Blueinstincts expansion, bombed 2-3 planets, maybe forced him to produce some defense fleets.The final result of the analysis was that Liir had few colonized systems and even less with trade stations, and that things looked quite good for me.
Big ugly suprrise at end of the era -> First serious battle contact on the slowly developing border between our empires: My fleet , albeit basic armor ships, was shred to pieces by Liir battleriders cruisers. I was tottaly shocked to see battleriders that early on.To this day i cant understand how Blusintict managed to do it, with his puny scouted earlier empire.Anyway the battle was lost fast and the planet destroyed.Altough the planet loss was a calcualted risk and expected outcome, the battleriders cruisers were a nasty surprise.
I woudl love if BlueInstinct would write his recolection , so we can confront our point of views....
To be continued soon , with counter to BRs...