My warped mind just hatched a crazy, crazy plan for Simple, and before the smarter parts of my brain make a deep analysis of it, I'd like your opinion of the legality.

In short: I might gift some minerals to the Protectorate.

Executive summary: Fill a freighter or two with minerals. (Standard freighter design; no special design name like "HereHaveSome.") Send the freighter to enemy planet, with w1 unload orders. Depending on size of local garrison, might need to accompany with small armed force to give the freighters time to disengage.

Strategic benefit: my enemy's enemy is my friend. The Protectorate are fighting a hot war on their far border against the Elementals. My universe intel leads me to believe that the Elementals are ranked either first or second. The other first or second place is probably the Humanoids, with whom I may shortly be in a hot war, on my far border from the Protectorate. I believe the Elementals have the upper hand against the Protectorate and will eventually prevail, but the longer it takes for that to happen while I am engaged against the Humanoids, the better things are for me in the long run. If I give the Protectorate a significant amount of minerals, they will better be able to prolong their struggle.

So, the question for you: would such an act be tantamount to communication?

It's communication of a sort, but I'm far from thinking that it is clear violation. cooperation without communication...

I'm not convinced this is counter indicated. You can't gift ships, due to diplomatic settings.
Use of standard freighters reduces any "comms" aspect. You're just gifting materials - unasked, unthanked...

As an aside it's almost not worth escorting the freighters...

Also as an aside it would make later invasion easier - the Protectorate might suspect another gift

Alright then, I'll make my full strategic analysis of the option.

Escorting the freighters potentially saves 2/3 of the cargo from becoming scrap. The escort would be counter productive if he sees it coming, since he'll send warships to defend, but no worries--I'll be invisible (ultra cloaks, how I love thee). Escort fleet strength will just be the minimum required to stall his garrison while the freighters escape. I might actually build a special ship for the purpose. Lots of dp, one x-ray. Probably a cruiser full of bears. I'd be tempted to call it Tank or Sponge or Speed Bump or Target or Armed Ship or something else clever, but I'll stick to my in-game naming convention.

Ah, I see the point.

And yes, invisibility will help you not be defended against. Presume you are at "tension" with the P?

Tension is the base state in no-comms.

I took Gollum from him in 2452 with a surprise packet attack. Two years later I fended off his initial counterattack fleet. Since then we have had no battles (aside from my occasional chaff pings and him killing an old cloaked ff). He built up a decent mixed bb/cc fleet, with a lot of bombers, and had them in place to launch another counterattack on Gollum (with a potential fork position against one of my developed worlds), but pressure on his other side from the Elementals forced him to redeploy that fleet in 2459.

He has left Dalmatian entirely undefended ever since I took Gollum, but I haven't had the spare resources to build bombers or fling a packet. The Gollum/Dalmatian dyad really can't be cohabitated for long without a lot of inherent tension.

Other thought (less efficient) is that if you know where he has mass drivers, you could fling him a gentle packet....

Less efficient, and visible to everyone else as well.

Still, an intriguing idea. The main problem is that he actually hasn't built any mass drivers, even though he's had the tech since at least 2454 (when he started building bbs with bears).

He has plenty of planetary defenses up, though. Otherwise I would have smashed a couple more planets by now.

Misread - *you* took a planet with a packet, not him.

If you had close planets you might have got away with it - can't recall if SS packets are cloaked?

I completely, entirely forgot about SS packets being cloaked. 75% cloaked, in fact, so long as they are not overflung.

So, sure, if he had a driver up at Silver or Blush, it might work.

I'm fairly certain that Elementals have NAS, though, and I have no reason to think they don't have highly cloaked meta morphs throughout Protecorate space, and perhaps mine. With just one possum on the MM, he could see the packet from 75 ly.

Still, though. Blush does have full defenses. Posey says that a 1000kt w7 packet over 69ly against full en10 defenses kills 2.7% of the colonists and destroys 3 defenses.

I wonder if the Elementals would see my packet and assume that I forgot to set the speed to 10.

I suppose I could fling it at warp6, which gives him a year to build a driver to catch it with. He has to *see* it for that to work, but I think he will. I'm fairly certain he does not have NAS, which means his effective planetary scanner range is 70ly. Possibly 80ly if he's up to el10.

So this leads me down another avenue of thought: what if I lob him, nice and soft, a big packet of minerals, with plenty of lead time to build a driver to catch with, or possibly build/gate freighters and intercept. At the same time (or a year later), I smash Dalmatian. Kind of a war reparations payment up front. Is that communication? It's kind of a "hey I need this planet here's some iron and germ for your trouble." Or at least it can be inferred as such. But the nature of no-comms means he might interpret it completely differently, and of course he is under no obligation to not use those minerals to build fleets to attack me with.

Hmm, it's fun isn't it. I think it might be interesting to lob so many packets that he stops checking them

Everything you (are seen to) do is communication - particularly as SS, you should never be seen!

I think that support in this way is likely to your advantage, and that without strings it is a risky move. Probably worth it though.
Without special ship names I think this remains "no comms"

Following up on this (in case you are not watching along):

I decided against packets. I delivered a LF with full minerals last year, and have two more en route.

I discovered something useful: the dump cargo option under battle orders leaves 100% of the cargo (either in a salvage packet in space or dropped onto the planet being orbited). So my delivery ships are using that checkbox.

I discovered a problem with the overall approach: the recipient of the mineral drop does not get a message about it the following year (even if no battle occurs and the drop happens like a normal waypoint1 unload order). That means I have to count on him actually noticing that his surface minerals have increased. Maybe the first time he doesn't, but I have to assume he'll get the picture when I send two more unescorted freighters.

The next sticking point, of course, is that he will accept my mineral gifts as sufficient recompense for taking Dalmatian from him. I have to assume he is thinking clearly enough about his situation to realize that we are both better off with me on Dalmatian than with him there.

So now I'm wondering if I can/should start to give him tech. I'm still convinced that the longer he lasts against the Elemental, the better my own chance of winning. The better his tech, the longer he'll last.

I'm assuming you don't have a problem with me sending tech lambs to his starbases for him to kill?

Running the same logic, I get the same answer. Without comms is the rule, consider yourself a MT who just doesn't ask for minerals. Scrapping works as well as lamb though.

Without comms you are relying on the same "he's fighting the elementals" assumption...

Same thoughts here. Just wanted to make sure.

Scrapping takes an extra year vs lamb. As long as my lambs have a weapon, they can fling themselves against the starbase and die in year 0 rather than scrapping in year 1.

Yes.

did you gift them a ship in the end?

Yes. In fact, several. I blundered at first and gifted one ship of the wrong design. I have since gifted several of the intended design.