The History of the Cancer War (Written by the victor)

The Cancer War has ended and WMerkel has become Emperor of the Echo Cluster. It is certain this event will lead to new technological breakthroughs and a new era of prosperity for the Nuniverse.  

Our illustrius emperor has written a history of the Cancer War. Books are now being printed and distributed to all school children throughout the galaxy. See this synopsis below:

1. The Cancer War - A synopsis by WMerkel - Emperor of the Echo Cluster

The "Cancer War", lasted 282 turns from 29/09/2016 until 10/12/2018. I participated as the crystalline entity. This is a battle report "from my point of view". It might be entertaining and even help you to play a championship (cs) game, because I try to evaluate some important aspects about championship (cs) games.

2. Pre game ("Ready-steady-go")

Analysis: Races which usually do well in a cs game are 2/4/6/10/11. Looking at the roster, players to fear were truly bilbo (2) and joesnoffy (9); dont get me wrong, all others are great players, too - but bilbo and joesnoffy have proven to play extremly powerful in the past. So I had to be careful when dealing with 2/4/6/9/10/11.

I decided to follow these four guidelines:

- dont draw too much attention at the beginning

- dont get isolated in diplomacy 

- eliminate favourite races and players

- wait for the right time to step up (usually after 2-3 potential candidates have been terminated)

3. Early stage T1 - T28 ("life is like a box of chocolates!")

No one likes a strong crystal. Crystals tend to win cs games if you wait too long. Same is true for the borg. But what happens if the crowd tries to make the other players engage crystals AND borg ? They start a mutual agreement. And so did we. This cooperation made the borg build firecloud and biocides for me (using my starbase and resources), and I offered web mines and spare biocides built with my resources for him. Cover for both of us ! We both knew this friendship couldn't hold forever, but each of us thought he would be in a better position afterwards. 

Since the Privateer did not know about this cooperation, he traded a meteor blocade to me, which the borg cloned for me.

The ship limit hit turn 28. My fleet showed 5 Diamond Flames, 8 Biocides and 5 Fireclouds; not to mention several meteor blocade runners and support ships like 6 emeralds and 10 rubies. Mobility and firepower as a crystal. 114 PBP for planetary killers, sweepers, anything I need. 

Since the borg held ownership for some of "my" biocides, my military score did not reveal my full strength at this time ... yes, the borg had the chance to wipe me out during that time. But he didn't, he acted as a man of honour.

4. first conflicts T28 - T50 ("who let the dogs out")

The fascist and evil empire were the first forged coalition right after the crystals and borgs, and they wanted the borg dead. They asked for my cooperation to achieve this. I declined due to my treaty with the borg, warning that I would defend the borg, and they shrugged it off. I think my diplomatic support was worth the borgs economic support in battleships at that time.

Around T30 I found my first enemy: the colony of man (COM). It was a quick assault ranging from turn 37 - 48. He offered support for me, but I already made too many friends (fed, privateer and lizard), so the logical action was to wipe him out. From other directions the robot attacked (unasked) and the borg and privateer, too. Poor COM !

5. medium stage, T50 - T125 ("friendly fire isn't friendly")

While I had a safe border with the privateer, our treaty run out on turn 50. I wasnt happy with his growing strength at the ex-COM empire. He claimed planets I claimed, too ... so I reminded the privateer some turns before turn 50 that we must renew our treaty, but under different conditions. No reaction. Since I was still in a bad mood due to the COM-affair, I took the chance to revoke safe passage after turn 50 and, of course, took him by surprise. It made my fleet and empire stronger, but my diplomatic influence was lowered a lot.

At the same time the robot suddenly grew much stronger, supported by the birdmen. I saw the threat that he would go for a win, so I supported the lizard against him. Funny enough, when joesnoffy found out he couldnt stop a crystal/lizard cooperation he did not ask for anything, but demanded that I stop my support - else he would give away all his fleet to the borg, making him win (T59 messages). After a rough night I decided against this "offer" (T60). I warned the borg to take this "poisoned gift" - but he did not listen. The full takeover of ships and planets by the borg and the death of the robots took less than 5 turns after I declined, so I assume this handover had been offered long ago, and the "offer" was more sort of a trap than anything else.

With robot and bird forces combined, the borg made a leap to first place and destroyed the rebels. While I had a peace treaty with the borg, I had to make sure he would not actually grow stronger. So I decided to support the lizard against the borg, by laying web mines under lizard control - in return for ships - but I told the borg where they would pop up. :evil:

The borg still disliked lizard web mines and canceled our treaty (or what was left). The result up to now was a weakened borg, a weakened lizard, a gone robot and a gone rebel - a comfortable position for me.

As the borg was weakened, the lizard tried to make a leap towards place 1 - excellent. He feared me, and declared war, and allied to the borg against me! So I needed new friends ... and found the fascist! Our cooperation was essential for the outcome of the game. With the fascists help and loyal support through all the remaining game, I managed to "divorce" the evil empire and the fascists, who had been allies from the turn they found each other. They did not go to hostile, but to a neutral stance (for now).

6. final stage T125 - T175 ("all in")

During all stages I hold close contact to the federation. He liked the idea of a 1/5/7 cooperation, so I was able to get the privateer back to the table. I needed the privateer on my side - at least not on my enemies side! I offered to give him all the ships back I had captured in our past conflict! Now a surprise: He declined, but assured me a neutral position. Exactly what I needed. This neutrality stayed through all the game, and (in my opinion) made the fed, even with the replacment player Othrym, stay friendly to me.

I managed to take a lot of ships and planets - with fascists help - from the lizard and borg. Suddenly the evil empire took over the remains of the borg. That was a shock - it made the evil empire much too strong for my taste. 

At that time I was tired and exhausted. So I offered the evil empire to support him if he wants to get the crown. And now another surprise: He turned down my serious offer, he feared a trap (there was none). 

And that's how I managed to overcome my exhaustion, and decided to got for the crown. So I attacked the Evil Empire. I think the exhaustion leaped to the Evil Empire, and finally he gave a lot of his ships to the federation (I managed to killrace a lot virtually the last second). The federation now had the strength, but not the will to fight me. 

7. endgame T175 - T280 ("High five")

It would have been still possible to stop the crystal. The crystal was neither too strong, nor in an unbeatable position. But no one wanted to challenge me in the diplomatic "web" I layed out. I think there was some diplomatic actions behind the curtain, but they failed to unite. All I had to do was to finish the lizards, who declined to support me. Honourful - but as the last resistance player, his fate was doomed.

8. Conclusion ("war does not determine who is right, only who is left")

The result in this game is satisfying, but some collateral damge isn't. I had to backstab some players to achieve this, which left marks on me, too. I would have loved to emerge from this war as "the knight in the shiny armour", but that was an impossible task for me. And I did not come up with a new tactic. Sadly.

Facepalms: 

T123 - 5 biocides web-trapped, but allowed the evil empire to fly through my web mines an actually ... stole some of the trapped biocides from me.  

T167. A chunnel of death, EE gorbie vs crystal biocide. Gorbie started with 0 shields, and won with 94% damage. 

Turns which worked great: 

T192. Using 2 glory devices to take out 8 evil empire ships (non-native designs) and damage 3 more. 

T237, the killrace turn; I had played 236 "risk-averse-turns", this turn prevented a lot of gorbies, fireclouds pp to be transferred from the dying evil empire to the federation.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this battle report ! Thanks to all players who participated in Cancer War and to the spectators and crowd. I hope to meet all of you soon in another sector !

-Wolfgang