Shadowhal,
Didn't know you cooperated. You were just on my border and kept sending in scouts. After we whacked Hobo/Dereknor by taking out their fleets and Dereknor's home world I repositioned back on your border thinking you might take a shot at me. When that didn't happen I invaded. Hobo/Dereknor were able to get back on their feet while I took out your home world and Ron's fleet. Was going to switch again and go after Hobo/Dereknor again while Ron defended when we crashed the game.
ah, well I was just about to fortify it into a monster planet when you showed up.
scouts were more for recon reasons. I dont trust people in this kind of games, so I wanted to have as much of an advance warning as possible in case you did anything stupid. I never scout as much as I want to, but I'd say information is pretty much the most important ressource in a ffa game.
I might have stood more of a chance, if I hadnt had so much trouble getting refineries up. so much money, but virtually no metal/ crystal.
besides ... attacking you when your fleets were busy would have been tempting, but annatar and his ai allies didnt leave either of us much chance to do so and since it would only have provoked a counter strike sooner or later we let it be.