Turn 2403.5
Researched: Medium-Light Hulls 2, Repair 1, Armor 5, Applied Research 2, Medium Hulls 1, Applied Research 3
Things are heading towards war again. Above is the currently known galactic map. The Devs (me) started in Pawtril. The Amon'krie were in Wertreken. The Sithrak are in Dornot and Obotron (and probably beyond). The Youbut are in Cretirk.
Naturally, this is making Fwandrei a hotly contested system. So far, neither the Youbut or the Sithrak have tried to come into Fwandrei, but they both have large fleets near their sides of the wormholes. Fleets with good weaponry, lots of point defense, and good armor.
So far, my fleet is mostly composed of missile ships (Crystalline Torpedos), but in the few initial skirmishes I've had so far (including one where they attacked one of my planets in Cretirk with 8 frigates against 3 frigates + a satellite), it seems that my ships do well enough, but their point defense is quite good. So, I'm starting to tool up a different kind of ship that uses shard cannons as their primary weaponry. I don't have any near the front lines yet, so I don't know how they'll do, but we'll see. Currently, I'm just trying to hold on to my planet in Cretirk where the Youbut have a large fleet in orbit above it. I'm massing a fleet at the Cretirk wormhole to come rescue the planet (and for some reason, the Youbut aren't bombarding it!), but mostly, they're older missile ships and so I need a lot of them to overcome the Youbut fleet.
Yes, I still snicker at the Youbut's name, but it's more under my breath, along with a few choice imprecations about their ancestry.
So far, the Sithrak are staying quiety in Dornot and I have a larger fleet waiting at that wormhole. I'm hoping they'll stay on their side for a while and let me fight the Youbut without opening a 2-front war. Given their fleet size, however, I don't have a high degree of confidence in that outcome.