Round 12
Round Summary
After the convincing victory of 1up in Round 11 they announced that they would be playing not for the #1 ranking, but rather as "kingmakers", limiting themselves to a 2/3 full alliance tag (the tag limit being 100 planets during this round). Agreeing to support NewDawn to the #1 spot, 1up prepared for a different type of round to round 11. Other major alliance changes included the end of FAnG, many of whose members joined MISTU as part of the Angels BG, and the formation of Absolute, who could trace much of their memberbase back to Phraktos.
As protection ended the top alliances seemed to be Absolute, MISTU and LCH, #2 alliance from the previous round. Unfortunately for Absolute they began to suffer many of the problems that commonly aflict newly started alliances. In spite of their good start they lost their way as the round progressed. With a number of effective "mercenaries" having joined and lacking a dedicated core to drive Absolute forward members began either to drift into inactivity or to leave for other alliances. By the end of the fourth week of the round they had dropped out of the top ten alliances and practically speaking ceased to exist, particularly in terms of exerting a meaningful force on the course of the round.
Meanwhile the second week of the round had seen LCH jump out to a significant lead over the rest of the universe. Concerned over 1up and what course of action they would take LCH targeted 1up planets, many of whom were in the t100 planets even though 1up as an alliance was below strength. Responding to this, and as part of their role as "kingmakers", 1up, along with ND and others, target LCH intensively over the next week. LCH concentrated on fighting back against 1up and while 1up's growth stagnated other alliances were able to gain large numbers of roids off LCH. They lost the roid lead that they had built up over the first couple of weeks, although they were able to hold on to their score lead.
The primary beneficiaries of this early war were MISTU, who were able to hit the best targets and pick up roids from everywhere. However MISTU, when targeted by 1up et al in order to remove this roid lead proved unable to cope. Losing over 20% of their roids in 2 days they dropped quickly back into the chasing pack. A further blow to their hopes came when the Angels BG, citing difficulties in working alongside various MISTU HCs and officers, left the alliance in order to go their own way. This both lost MISTU a good chunk of their firepower and led to them dropping back to #5 on the alliance rankings and their chances to win the round now seemed slim at best.
