[Cheeze]

My thanks to Thermodyne for a very tough and very fun game! I'm honestly not sure what the "very gutsy move" was, so I definitely look forward to hearing the Thermolian side of things.

I was surprised to see Thermodyne yielding the game but I had no time to say anything here. I thought I was doing well, but I didn't think I was that strong. I spent most of the game in fear and terror of Thermodyne's ships appearing anywhere and everywhere, and moved in a slow, deliberate manner to victory....the way of the plant, you might say.

Everything was as I said during my Last update. One of my southern colonies weathered a serious attack and eliminated the Thermolian ships that probably could have done at least some damage in nearby systems. That allowed me a little extra time to move a force of my own in that area. Much of this match was a waiting game, with both us of preparing for battles.

I played a slow, deliberate game. It was funny that I was moving a sizeable fleet through Neckron (where my first major defeat occurred) and so was Thermodyne, and they just passed right by each other. I had a secondary fleet I was preparing in Yoshri, the neighboring system with one of my homeworlds. Since my Neckron fleet couldn't catch the Thermolians, I moved the Yoshri fleet to defend the warp point. I wanted to change that turn and send my Neckron fleet back, guessing that if I would lose the fight but at least do enough damage to slow his fleet and allow my Neckron ships to catch up. However, I didn't get a chance to undo my turn, and it proved unnecessary. My Yoshri fleet scored a massive victory over some tough ships. I rather regret having to win by being assured the first shot at the warp point, but I feared the Thermolian fighting advantage (bezerker and max aggressiveness/defensiveness) and didn't think my Flora ships would perform as well in open space.

All the while this was happening, I had developed a sizeable intel base, and had spent many turns hitting the Thermolians with Food Contamination, eliminating the population of approximately 8-10 Thermolian planets. I also used intel to gain star charts of Thermolian systems, and in one instant I hit one of his sweepers in that final fleet with ship bombs because I KNEW I had to stop it!