The Phhths were a factoryless WM with NAS. To compensate for no minefields, no pen scanners, no factories, and expensive tech, they would need to have a lot of planets to keep up in technology and maintain a superior military. It's a very difficult race to pull off, but the Phhth were wildly successful in achieving this goal, taking over the centre completely. It didn't matter much that they didn't have pen scanners if they controlled every planet in the centre and the ring is fairly narrow making planet hoping against them less effective. They had more minerals than any other race, the WM edge in battle, and the skill to win. On year 2493, I voted for Phhth's victory and continued to vote for them regularly for the next 60 turns.

My biggest regret is not giving the Phhth's a better game.

Shortly before the game ended, I lost a fleet of over 200 Nubians in a lapse of judgment as I carelessly gated in a half finished fleet to 'defend' against a large fleet of dreadnaughts. There was no battle simulation. I had no idea how the battle would go, though I was hoping for a pyrrhic victory. I don't know what I was thinking. Against my better judgment and my original plan to have a larger fleet first before revealing it, I simply gated it in. It was a real waste of ships and embarrassing to say the least. Unfortunately, a mistake like that was not one that I could recover from. The Mega Disrupter Nubs were specifically designed to catch Phhth's Armegeddon dreadnaughts using retreat fire (movement speed 2.5), but it would have limited effectiveness long term since the Phhths could have easily countered with AMP Nubs and tear my fleet to pieces.

It was an enjoyable game, but it seemed to drag out a bit. Considering I conceded in year 2493, it was about 60 turns too long. I'm not sure if it was because other players were not voting? I think requiring 100% of votes for victory is okay for small universes, but for a huge universe, the requirement for victory should be less strict. To give you an idea, it would take about 2300 ly of travel around the ring for me to reach Phhths HW from my own HW. Perhaps 80% of votes is more than enough, where voting power is proportional to the player's game score and must own a minimum number of planets to be eligible to vote. I'm not sure what other players think, but I'm of the opinion that at higher levels of play, it's not necessary to play to checkmate, but this may simply be due my habit of applying chess etiquette to Stars!.

Hank