Topkilla's Expedition Tournament - Stage 1, Game 7 - An account by Pandasecret
Six players - Dominashawn (Dom), TheRealBen (Ben), Pandasecret (Panda), Square, frenchytheasian (frenchy/pink), and Horitino.
The game starts out with everyone having 4 generators and 1 factory, and there are only dormant factories - no generators. (This was before the map update)
Panda buddies up with Square, asking Ben to tag along, while it is assumed Horitino and Dom have formed a pact.
Everyone agrees which dormant outposts to take on, but the first conflict arises when Dom asks Panda to join him, and Panda assumes it is an invitation to take Kiesling - a distant outpost which is in a field of dormant ones.
Dom fights back, and Horitino joins in attacking Panda by sending continuous streams of drillers to Humblerod, where the sub going to Kiesling originated.
Panda sets his next hire to inspector to hold Humblerod. However, Horitino is persistent in taking Humblerod, and the Inspector is lost.
Believing Horitino or Dom will send a large driller attack, Panda schedules a double agent to back up Samet, the outpost near Humblerod.
Upon arrival at Samet however, Panda realizes Humblerod cannot be kept.
Queuing up a diplomat, Panda is able to retrieve his Inspector and Double agent (his first hire was an intelligence officer, hence the safe release distance)
While this was happening to his South, to his North, Dom was attacking two of Panda's outposts - El-Farolito and Chongos.
Overwhelmed, Panda looks for peace deals with both Dom and Horitino. Panda gave up Chongos to Dom and Humblerod to Horitino.
Promoting his now saved Inspector to a Security Chief, Panda turtles up and builds two mines. Only having a total of 7 outposts, he is not likely to win against the other powers, but perhaps he can get 3rd place.
While Panda was dealing with Dom and Horitino, pink was avoiding as much conflict as possible, and building up two Queen's Bounty combos.
At the same time, Ben was keeping peace with minor conflicts against Horitino and building up lots of drillers with his Minister of Energy turned Tinkerer.
Square was also fighting Dom and Horitino, but at a higher cost than Panda. He had the disadvantage of being L1 (could only schedule up to 4 orders) while both his enemies were L2.
He hired mostly offensive specialists and a tycoon to maintain a war against Horitino, as Dom was not as keen on taking on square at the time.
As square looked like he was going to be run over by hordes of Horitino's drillers, frenchy secretly gifted square one of his Queen's Bounties - navigator and martyr.
Having no pirate, Horitino starts to flee, but an unfortunate time span of afk lets square eliminate Horitino along with his 5 specialists and 2 hires, one of them which would have been a pirate.
At this point, Ben is concerned by square's boisterous actions, and he reduces his support gradually, eventually turning to Dom's side.
At the same time, Panda was gifted a Queen's Bounty by pink to take out Dom's princess.
That plan may have come to fruition if it weren't for Panda going on Subterfuge when he was tired, accidentally confirming his plans to Dom instead of frenchy.
Dom now knows frenchy is using Panda to attack him, and offers Panda peace in return for no war - Panda opts for peace.
Put in a precarious position, Panda refrains from taking any outposts other than Horitino's now owner-less ones, which include his old Humblerod.
However, once Panda captures Humblerod, Dom asks Panda to give it to him in return for funding. Panda agrees, and disables the shield, handing over Humblerod to Dom.
However, funding never arrives, and Panda moves forth the Queen Hunter. At this point Dom sees it, and tells Panda to move it and he'll get funded.
Panda refuses to comply since Dom didn't fulfill his first deal, but fails at taking Dom's princess; the princess fled at the last tick and Panda's Queen hunter was returned by his Diplomat.
Because of Panda amassing units near his border, Ben gets a bit paranoid, but Panda reassures him those are for Dom. Ben agrees Dom has been treating Panda a bit too unfairly, and doesn't do anything.
Panda also attacks some of Dom's outposts; not enough to make Dom lose, but enough to depose Dom from 1st place.
Now, Ben is able to get 1st, Dom 2nd, and Panda 3rd.
For those who were in the game, please do comment! This is all from my perspective, so I'd love to hear yours! Also, general comments on playstyle, strategy, or other are welcomed!