[Jtownsend]

Update - Turn 18

No hostile contact beyond a blasted colony ship - R&T alliance with that player now

20 colonies in 5 systems, 4 borders, each guarded with a few capships and a mess of crude fighters - fighter tech being a freebie as I've mentioned.

Score is 212k, ranking is 2nd, 52 tech levels, 29k research per turn, 15.1b pop, 314 units (all fighters, I've been lazy about mines because fighters move themselves instead of me picking them up) 21 ships, including 5 or 10 PPB3 light cruisers and 3 PPB light carriers, 3 starbases around my homeworlds.

The only major threat I'm aware of in the wider universe is my relative isolation, a lowish number of SYs, my resources are still not being balanced - and one player who is playing a very fleet-heavy mercenary-mongol game and allegedly has 80 ships. I'm just about done researching intel and will soon set up a few facilities and start on counter intel projects, my only use for them.

Mid-game or late-beginning tips are very welcome.

One particular worry is that fleets don't seem to be "pooling" supplies as I would expect. Instead my capships are 55/3000 and so on while my fighter groups in the same fleet are often 2/3rds full. What's up with this? How do supply pools work, what is the easiest way to deal with supply when fighters are in space draining them, and any info on supply mechanics generally is greatly welcome.