[Asmala]

Originally posted by Stone Mill:
He even (for the first time in my KOTH) conquered my population and used my breathers! I have never been able to pull this off.

This had also its disadvantage: when I lost few planets all of my planets with Mercator people started rioting.

Asmala torched my fully trained invasion fleet- and responed with a devastating counter attack. His tech edge was so vast; it seemed like it was all over. He ripped through about 5 systems, but by sheer luck...
-- if he would have made a right turn at Alburquerque, (thanks Bugs Bunny ) he would have found my home system and it could have been BIG trouble.

Yep, this game could have went quite different way if I had chosen the right warp point.

I ensured to keep him on the defensive, although, he made some Last minute strikes to test me, including a cloaked strike against my interior, which I'll never know how it got through?!? Almost looked like a random event.

How it got through? Well, I think it got through because the ships were cloaked so you didn't see them

-- Aslama's choice of mid-late research was diverted into a few non-critical areas: Gas Giant, Dreadnaughts, etc. In my experience, you really should only do this when you are pretty sure your opponent can't beat your front line security. I think my retaliation surprised him a bit- I managed to retrofit those DUC V ships with PPBs.

You're right Stone, your retaliation really surprised me. I think the inordinate concentration to the research was the main reason why I lost the game. I should have been concentrated less at the research. It's no point have dreadnought tech when I have only a few ships. I have heard that one learns best from the losses and that's true: I won't do that mistake again (or at least I'll try to avoid it )

So many great thank-yous to Asmala, who is awesome. A challenge match at the top worthy of many legends. My favorite match to-date!

Thanks, that's balsam to my wounds