No worries dathon, I finished my turnset and we still hold Rha (for the moment):
Apologies for the long log, but a LOT happened.
Inherited: Poke around a bit, everything seems to be in order as far as production goes. Wait a minute! The Psilons have a fleet near Rha! They could be going to the uninhabited planet behind Rha, but I do not think they have the range for that yet. I reserve pump to get an extra missile base up before next turn and send half the minnows from Lyae to assist (although they will get there 1 turn too late).
2421: Good thing I built that missile base! Psilons sneak attack on Rha, I believe this is merely a border skirmish as we are still trading. No colships are in the fleet, so they appear to be trying to take it via ground invasion.
Psilons come with 3 designs.
1 Huge: 5 heavy blast cannons, 2 neutron blasters, shield 2, comp 1
13 Med: 4 fusion bombs
2 Med: 2 fusion bombs
I elect to attack the Large with my missile bases as I am not sure one missile base can take it down before it takes down the missile base. Also that will allow the minnows to peck the other bomb only designs to death next turn.
Results:
Psilons lose: 1 Huge, 2 Med FBx4
We lose: 2 missile bases, 16 pop, 69 fact
The Human fleet elected to move their Sol fleet towards Kailis into the teeth of our fleet. Since Kailis is already at max factories for its current pop, I elect to pump reserves into building some missile bases before the fleet arrives. It looks like we will take the Human fleet in one swift motion.
2422: I built a single scout out of Rha to assist in blocking the heavy bombers for as long as I could, had it been a favorable map (many roadblocks) I could have trapped them indefinitely, alas it was not to be they snuck next to the planet about turn 15 so they got off all their bombs. They lost about half their number before they retreated though. We came out on the losing end of that fight losing 20 pop and a great deal of factories (not sure but had to be ~100). I am rebuilding with emphasis on defense. I am also adding some bases to the surrounding colonies. I transfer some pop from the Fertile in the back lines nearby to help speed up the rebuilding on Rha.
2423: Human fleet demolished, only 2 escorts escaped (NPG larges). We lose a couple guppies. A definite win for us. The human fleet again is brought down to a handful of ships.
2424: Bulrathis want more trade. I decline. Psilon transports inbound to Rha (28) I build some minnows to thin the herd. The rest of the garrison at Lyae is sent to reinforce.
A scout will arrive at Denubis to have a look to see if I should attack there or SOL next. This will also allow the secondary fleet to get in position (Human fleet can reach us in 1 turn and it takes 2 for ours to cover same distance).
2425: Vote: Opponent Humans: 4 + 4 Darlok (chosen unwisely) + 2 Bulrathi (chosen unwisely), we have 15, just short of half the votes we and the rest abstain.
Humans send fleet to Kailis and run into 3 missile bases and our secondary fleet, our primary fleet will arrive at Sol next turn.
2426: Battle for Sol, We lose a few guppies and a couple flounders but we own the skies over Sol. It has 107 Pop and 206 factories, so I will be shipping Pop from all over to take it. I start from 8 turns out so the next person will have the battle during their turn. They are only up hand lasers on us, but that could change in transit. I will be shipping as many as I think we can spare. I start with 38 from poor Vulcan (they aren't doing anything there anyway but building pop and the IIT from Humans will make this colony much more productive anyway).
2427: Small attack on our fleet over Sol, they ran for no losses. I take 25 each from Voltanis and Draconis and 20 from Zoctan to ship to Sol. Psilon troops due next turn @ Rha, I have a decent fleet there and a few missile bases. I don't think they will get anyone through.
2428: Psilon transports all destroyed! 25 more troops from Stalaz.
2429: Psilons gather a fleet of 4 unidentified Huges. A misclick skipped most of what I was doing this turn, but the only issue is that I misclick so the reinforcements from Dunatis will be a turn late (Shouldnt be needed to win, so it will just up pop).
2430: 25 from Dunatis and 10 more from Gion added to the mix.
Next player remember that Psilons due at Rha next turn and that Kailis can ship troops to Sol next turn. These should not be needed to win, but it will help Sol get up and running quickly so we can move on to other fronts since Humans should have very few tech left after we take Sol (PRNG permitting) and should want peace (they offered it at least once during my turnset). The Darloks are second to Psilons in tech and are not allied with anyone, whereas the other 3 are in a dynamic of trading alliances with one another (currently Bulrathi <- Alkari -> Psilon with Psilons and Bears not in alliance). Hopefully Darloks will have gained some decent weapon/force field techs.
A note, I checked after I saved that the Psilons are willing to trade Hand lasers for Range 6 (they have range 7) and some other techs that I am not sure they don't have a better alternative for already. This would make our invasion of Sol more effective. Others will trade various things for Stabilizers.
Good luck to the next person (Liq?), I did the best I could to give Rha a fighting chance, but don't be surprised to have our fleet smashed by superior firepower from the brains.
StuporMan