Round 25
Round Summary
It marked the introduction of the ability to disband a galaxy once it fell into the bottom 10% by score, leading to an average 17-player galaxy by round end. It also marked the introduction of the ability to 'invite' a new signup into your galaxy after PT336. The support planet rule was disabled and combat was finally made independent of user ID; people no longer stole and lost the same roids in the same tick.
Top Galaxy Contenders
Smasher's galaxy, 11:7 dominated the rankings, with Elviz's gal (6:3) and Ascendancy's flagship (3:5) claiming second and third respectively. 11:7 had a greater-than-50% roidlead over 6:3 until Elviz encouraged a number of alliances led by NewDawn and Conspiracy Theory to launch a murderous attack which took 12k roids.
Top Planet Contenders
The primary contenders were Smasher (xVx, 11:7), Wishmaster (Urwins, 6:3), Bigbad (TGV, 11:7), Byrney (NewDawn, 11:7) and Elviz (Conspiracy Theory, 6:3), with Elviz eventually winning. He had dominated the early rankings, before a mid-round roiding by Ascendancy allowed the 11:7 crew to make a run for it.
The massive assault on 11:7 severely reduced Bigbad and Smasher's odds; in a spectacular battle, 35 CT fleets crashed into Smasher at a cost of 7.5 million value for ~650 roids and the ruining of his spectre fleet (a mistake which may have cost Smasher the round).
Byrney's chances were ruined by Urwins on the last day. Attacking structure killers destroyed his factories in a ratio which prevented the release of a large amount of hidden production. With the probability of this ratio occuring of about 1 in 4,000, Byrney was justifiably annoyed.
Elviz' frigates were conspicuous by their absence from the battle at Smasher's, and with his conserved fleet he was able to ensure regular roidgains from attacking smaller alliances like Subh, TGV, F-Crew & Hidden Agenda. These roidgains were sufficient to take a record third round win.
Alliance politics
Perspective from Gate (NewDawn).
The removal of the support planet rule meant that some alliances fielded over the 60 member limit and accepted less active planets as support; both ND and Asc fielded 74 players and xVx had a 22-member extra tag called '5th Asylum'. NewDawn successfully hid a large amount of score out of tag all round long.
Early on, some Ascendancy planets massed distorters, whilst others hunted down scanners with structure killers and covert operations. They raced to a massive roidcount before NewDawn and Conspiracy Theory (henceforth NDCT) NAPd and launched structure-killing attacks, some of which landed blind & crashed spectacularly. The following day Ascendancy were hit across the board, an effort repeated periodically by NDCT, who feared Asc were hiding value. In the end, Asc's distorter count limited their income and although they spent most of the round with an impressive roidcount, they never breached the top 4.
During this time, Urwins (who had aligned themselves with Vengeance and claimed top spot) were considered the greatest threat and NDCT firepower shifted to them for a 2 week bombardment; with no support from Vengeance, Urwins' chances were ruined. It is testament to their skill, drive and commitment that they finished less than 500k behind Conspiracy.
CT were able to depose Urwins, but soon afterwards lost the top spot to xVx who planet targetted ROCK, citing ROCK hostility. ROCK, sat in 7th, claimed innocence and responded in kind with an heroic effort (complete with patriotic galbanners) which prevented xVx's growth.
NDCT were eventually able to come to ROCK's aid, splitting their fire between 11:7 and xVx. A single night effectively ruined both xVx's and CT's chances. With 35 of their fleets severely damaged at Smasher's & their 2 biggest planets either NAPing or avoiding top alliances, CT resigned themselves to defeat and maintained the NAP with NewDawn until the end. It wasn't all bad news though; their members' sacrifice was rewarded with CT's first top planet.
NewDawn considered xVx defeated and decided that a shift to full targetting was unnecessary, so disengaged. In the last 2 days NewDawn boosted their score by adding out of tag planets. Despite the loss of almost 10 million to a deletion and mistakes in releasing production, they were able to claim the win.
