Sooo... are you doing all of this on purpose to the Soviets, or is it just a string of incredibly bad rolls of the dice or something? Because at this point, the number of things that have gone wrong for them in a row has hit the improbable level, and there's no sign its letting up any time soon.
I'm not really doing this on purpose, exactly. The D'Bringi got a good string of luck in survey results, allowing them to build up their economy, and by extension their fleet. The Rehorish were the swing factor. They were allied to the D'Bringi first, then to the Soviets. Once the Soviets made contact with the Rehorish, and they realized that the Soviets were at war with the D'Bringi, the Rehorish knew they had a choice to make, and an opportunity. They told the D'Bringi that they were honoring their alliance with them, as it came first, and their dalliance with the USSR was a mere deception, but in reality the Rehorish made a hard-edged decision about which side to back based on what they thought they could get out of it.
And then there is the Soviet response to the initial invasion, which totally underestimated the threat and ended up piecemealing out their fleet in packets to get destroyed bit by bit. That was my underestimation of the threat as well, in spite of my superior knowledge. In the back of my head I considered the sides to be fairly equal, and thought that this war would see-saw a bit before being decided one way or another. That was clearly wrong, and when I looked at the situation more clearly, I immediately saw why. The Russians are at war with essentially three races, two of which have fleets every bit as bit as theirs was at the start of the war. They were out-numbered from the first, caught by surprise, and lost a significant portion of their fleet in the first moments of the war when it was ambushed in Rehorish territory.
In other words, I didn't set out to destroy the soviets, but it sure worked out that way. Now, having said that, given the reduced pop increase rates I've set for this game, the bulk of their income is still centered in the Solar System, as are their shipyards and their best defenses. Its not over yet.
By the way, that's something I've noticed about the Cold War universe, perhaps because of the pop increase and income restrictions I've set. The bulk of all of the race's income is located in their home system, with one exception, and the home systems are the best defended systems in the universe. Penetrating those defenses will be no small matter.
Kurt
