A Betrayal of Pride: Behind the times

So this is the problem. I started in a shit place! I could only expand in a limited area so I struggled to keep up with the other players early on. The problem is those who expand quickly can make their money go further. The idea being that the more systems you have the more likely you are to find ones with higher resources therefore the more upgrades you can afford in those systems. I like to spread my economy out and buy as much as I can early on to give me a boost in the mid game. While with Industry I like to concentrate it in a few systems to make it easier to collect the ships into fleets. Whether this is an ideal way to play I do not know but it seems to work for me.

Orange begins to outstrip my expansion, I am falling behind!

Now in this game I managed to keep up with the other major players for a while (three players dropped afk at the beginning, which often seems to happen in Neptune’s Pride, it can be a problem but I often find it doesn’t make too much difference). Soon however, their ability to keep their upgrade costs down soon outstripped my expansion. Every time you upgrade a system the next upgrade is more expensive. So while I was stuck in my corner my costs were increasing exponentially. I was in a bad way. Only through judicious negotiation with Pink did I even manage to get out of the crappy corner I was in. Now I am expanding into Light Blue territory and finally making progress. The issue is, I am already behind. I have to catch up somehow. 

HAHA! I am an evil genius! Fear me!!! FEAR ME!!!

So this is the plan, it is twofold.

1. Take as much of Light Blue’s territory as possible while minimizing losses.
2. While Light Blue is being annihilated speak to both Orange and Pink and make them realise that their main rival is each other. Convince them both that I am going to attack the other (using the trust built up over the course of the game) and when there seems to be a winner emerging. Attack them.

This plan will only work if they both smash themselves against each other and weaken themselves to the point that I can make huge territory gains quickly. By attacking the apparent winner the losing player may be able to hold them off and inflict enough loses to ensure that I am fighting one enemy who in turn is fighting two. This is really my only option. It has little to no chance of working. But at this point, because I have had to focus so much on research to get the Hyperspace tech, I am researching quicker than anyone. I hope this will give me some small advantage, which I desperately need.

Win or lose, at least I get to be a back stabbing bastard!