BigB wins in 42 updates
What a game, one of the bloodiest in memory. BigB and BugLady didn't even meet until update 12, since the link from Sly's Place to Monkey did not exist until late in the game. System 19,21, once known as PoohBear, then BigBear was nuked twice and after the link to Sly's Place was closed, BigBear was invaded. In between, BigB slipped past BugLady and was able to nuke Amber, further reducing BugLady's resources, giving BigB an econ lead of 13 to 11. BigB held on to this lead the rest of the game. BigB saw BugLady open a link from 21,20 to 21,21, which BugLady immediately closed after exploring 21,21. BigB made the move of the game when he luckily guessed and opened a link to 20,20 instead, rightly suspecting that BugLady would not open a link that would give away the location of her HW. BigB was ecstatic to find it was the BugLady Homeworld, Monkey! For safety, I closed the northern links from Sly's Place and The Maze. Concurrently, BigB sent portions of the BR 3 fleet in to enter the BugLady HW without a minesweeper on 4 consecutive updates, from 37 to 40, each time intentionally exploding the minefield to keep the BugLady resources lowered, at the same time slowly dumping old BR 3 ships while building tech to reach BR 4 and gain Minesweeper technology. At update 40, I overbuilt a huge 18 ship fleet with 2 Minesweepers and gated it to Sly's Place. BugLady was amazed to find that it was able to repair to full strength in just one update (the calculating BigB mind at work). Moved in to Monkey, 12 ships survive, Game Over!
Wild Game, and my first victory ever over BugLady. Thanx for a great game. The series is now ever at one game apiece. The rubber match has started in LazyGrudge 346. Stay Tuned.