Neptune's Pride War Diary #1

Jamie - AKA JaySeeYou

I haven’t been gifted with the best starting position, however it could have been worse. I’ve been deployed beside Mike and on top of Harry; the makings of a great time, I know. We’re located on what I like to call the Florida of The Galaxy, a deadly appendage of stars almost separate from the rest.

My short term goal after surveying my surroundings is to survive the imminent jostle for dominance in Florida, as I am sure Mike and Harry will want to move into my cluster to secure this end of the galaxy for themselves.

My only hope is that I can build a strong armada of ships to hold my borders until I can make my move. That's all I'm willing to reveal at the moment, as there are some troubling battles ahead and I don't want to provide too much info to the wrong parties. I will say, however, that I have named all my ships after elements of the periodic table.

Alex - AKA Sifter

On starting the game my first impression was that I wasn’t taking it seriously enough, courtesy of a message I received from Paul. Or at least, I thought it was Paul - at first glance, I thought maybe it came from a computer controlled character. Wrong about the first bit (it is him), right about the second. It's not him, it's his character, a space religious zealot who signs off his messages with "we pray for your souls daily."

My opening tactics will be simple. In real life, I’m a firm believer in the many shades of grey; the power of human agency and action to change the world and the fact that one person can make an impact by doing what they feel is right, true, best. Truth and beauty and all that. In the game, I will be Milton Friedman incarnate: the market will sort everything out and everything will come down to money in the end. As a result, I plough my initial starting budget into upgrading the economies of my stars; when the first turn ends, I’ll receive around $30 more than the competition.

Soon afterwards, the atmosphere in the office catches me: across the floor, I see Kev checking his empire. I return to my desk to find Clive and Joe murmuring to each other. I begin to worry about leaving my chair for lunch; with Jamie and Harry joining Clive and Joe at the bit-tech desks, there are many powerful empires with idle time on their hands.

I begin to send a few messages - receiving the religious text back from Paul - but am probably too small in my scope. I send only a few messages to a few players, to form alliances I intend to back. Others are not so discerning, wilfully pinging messages to everyone around them. This is an easy approach to make right now, when our ships are slow, underpowered and there are plenty of blank stars for us all to seize. When the pressure starts to tell, it will be interesting to see how well people react to these alliances when they are dropped - especially against my own fleet, which is named after Britpop bands.

Mike - AKA Mike The Destroyer

I've not exactly played many 4X strategy games in the past, so perhaps it's fitting that my starting cluster of galaxies is set apart from the rest of the action: five players occupy the busy north section of the map while, to the south-west, there's a trio of us. I don't know about the other two, but I'm nervous.

The nerves started, as most things do, in the pub. The impending battle was the first topic of conversation, with tactics, conspiracy theories and nervous glances exchanged at will. I got home and immediately checked if the game had started yet. It hadn't, but I was already planning. And worrying.

I've decided that my main strategy will be one of aggressive wool-pulling. For starters, my in-game alias is Mike the Destroyer. I've also named my four initial fleets as Decoy 1, Decoy 2 and so on. They'll never know. I start plotting movements to nearby planets in an early bid to expand, but hours later they’ve move only four pixels.

As Day Two comes around I’m glad I've been paid but, compared to my starting kitty of £250, it's a pittance. $90 doesn't go far in deep space, so I resist the urge to save my cash for science upgrades, instead opting for some economy and industry improvements. Got to spend money to make money and all that. Oh, some progress elsewhere, too: seventeen pixels.

Harry - AKA Bazamataz

The game has begun and I find myself decked out in brown, positioned in arguably the best starting spot on the map; tucked away to the far galactic South West with dozens of worlds behind my position to exploit.

It’d all be fine except for having to share this paradise with both Mike and Jamie, who fill the worlds to my North West and North East respectively. It’s clear that there’s going to be a mini-campaign within itself between us three, and I plan to emerge from it smelling of roses. An alliance between one of them and me is obviously key, but right now I’m not sure who to side with...

Because many of my worlds are far from my home planet, I’m rapidly researching range to extend how far my ships can fly. I intend to try and avoid combat with my neighbours until I can tie one down to a firm alliance, instead focussing on rapid expansion.