Here is the first report from first round......
I took klingons and CRAZYGOOPDOG took feds. I lost.
The game took much longer than it should have.
goop was not aware of no restart rule and messaged me on first turn with "I want restart I am in the middle" I had upper left on the edge. so I informed him of no restart rule and told him I would. The reason I allowed this was I did not want the advantage of knowing where he was.
On next load goop was mid upper left on the edge. I was almost in center just a little right and lower.
I figured I needed a fleet and I could build very fast. turn 30 my credits was in red.
I only had 5 scouts 9 kvorts 36 battleships 5 TT 2 colony and 8 systems and had already meet cards, ferengi, and roms, intel security was holding attacks back with about 3200 points and 35% security bonus. So I went Hunting for easy targets and went further in the hole building TT for systems to subjugate. with the lower right with empty I sent scouts to look around. found 4 minors and since I had no money I declared war on everyone
for morale boost. I had also encountered romulan fleet with my main fleet at turn 45 and got lucky they were split up and came to defend romulus while I was raiding them in fleets of 18 -24 so they went down with no trouble. but 4 very nice battles. and I continued raiding til the well went dry.
turn 60 I had 9 TT and took the time once fleets were all together to arange them so TT were last and stayed that way. and went minor subjugating
with only 6 orbitals they fell on first turn and only lost 1 maybe 2 battleships on first 2 systems then took 3,4,5 system and started losing 3-5 and 6-7 and noticed I was attacking with 1/2 hulls on most ships. But had taken all the lower minors (5) . My credits were in great shape.
but now I had 2 scouts 4 k'vort's and 25 battleships. So Factories had been pumping out replacements for 5-6 turns and replacements were on the way. I let my ship heal at last system and replacements were on the way down (green).
Then to my surprise romulans had rebuilt a huge fleet and the went straight to Qo'nos,
I put up all orbitals and sheilds I could. with no ship help system took out 68 warbirds and 12 destroyers and 12 TT. before my fleet took out last 4 warbirds.
I was totally shocked system held 5 assaults. This made romulans no threat for a short time.
turn 70, I went after romulans, I did not like them at my back door. they had 12 systems, I went after there easy colonies first at top. fell quick but lost all 12 TT I had on both systems. So just went to wipe out all life on remaining systems til I could get TT over there. took out 5 systems and had lost half my fleet (not working vs 18 orbitals each system). so went home to lick my wounds and rebuild. (again)
turn 80 - 90 got ships ready.
turn 90 went to see what was going on with cards and found goop had wipped out all life on cardassia. while I was over in cardassian space I saw goops ships numbers were equal about 50 - 60 each. but I was 10 turns away from battleship II upgrade
and right then the ferengi turned there ugly head with over 120 ships assaulting nassauica 130 pop fell first turn. I went after their fleet when they retreated to ferenignar. With a grand battle 120 ferengi ships vs my 50
My battle ships took out 50 raiders cloaked on first turn and was left facing 70 marauders, They ran. So I sat and raided while the sent back 20 -30 at a time and I killed them. By this time I got upgrade. at turn 105 this could have been earlier but built fleet fast early.turns 1 -30 before putting as much as I could on research and intel.
turns 105 - 150 I did nothing but defend my systems AI was building so fast I could do almost nothing else and lost 4 systems to ferengi at turns 140 - 150 defending card/ romulan attacks on bottom of map.
150 though 168 (end) I wanted to go after goop it was past time. I had found none of his systems, But knew where he was (no other place unexplored) I built a starbase in the perfect spot in a nebula any ship that attacked had no sheilds and hull and fire power of starbase won everytime (I was glad no large fleets attacked). I would have lost range.
I found Bajor and Sheliak he had 36 orbitals at each I only had 9 TT's so changed mind when I saw ferengi main fleet 160 ships about to attack one of my colonies that was weak. I was in range of ferenginar so went there, to my surprise they jumped back to protect ferenginar 160 ferengi ships vs 48 klingon ships, I should have ran,
But I did not, I took out 100 ships before losing my fleet. I hated to give game but I did not want to start all over from scratch with ships and romulans had already rebuilt their fleet and cards were also on there way to my space too.
goop offered to load last save before I lose my fleet and I killed his fleet with only 2 battleships lost. If I had any scanner I would have seen him and went after him
just 1 major error and this can end a game.
Goop you played the game well, nice touch with orbitals
I will rememmber that one.
BTW I loaded game later with all orbitals powered and everything powered (energy wise at max) and even allowed system to be that way one turn. I took Sheliak first assualt and only lost 2 battleships, I should have attacked any way.
I know we both learned alot about BOP and next tournament I will do better, I am sure you will be a challange to your next opponent. and good luck.
If you was to ask me I might take ferengi.
thunderchero