[kalthalior]

Had an interesting game before I bought Gold where (due to galactic geopgraphy) I was blocked by black holes, long planetless voids and the like from entering the NW quadrant of the galaxy. I started in the NE quadrant, had to fight tough battles against the Romulans (they eventually surrendered), and a couple of other races to get into the SE quadrant and move west from there. The Sergetti had a score of 3.1 million (with most of the systems in the NW corner, and 200+ ships) before I developed Stellar Manipulation and popped a couple of fleets into their home systems via new warp points. I bypassed several planets that had as many as 3 SB's on them to slag several colony worlds with my 30 DN fleet w/ QR's. The Aquilarioans were over 2.5 million as well with a group of systems in the far western edges of the galaxy, never did get around to face off with them. Could well be the longest game I have ever played.