Man, I hear ya, Rags. I had a similar start (meaning at the edge) with Kazarp and though I had two lines out, they both went to nebulas. Thought I was in trouble for sure.
But, it sucks when expansion is the name of the game and you only have one road out of your home system. Not to mention Goz must have started in the middle somewhere, making it somewhat easy to block you in (not saying it didn't require skill, just that position helped out).
I guess you never saw his homeworld?
It's good to see such a good attitude when luck throws you a curve.
