Vidboi believes we should aggressively grab as many critical systems as possible so that we can build up our economy and construct powerful fleets for the later game. It seems to me that this could go either way after we expand: we can either attack immediately, or employ a "turtling" strategy to stockpile a gigantic fleet and wipe out the enemy in one fell swoop.
From an intelligence standpoint, we don't actually know much about the situation. However, what we do know needs to be written down for later perusal.
Here's what I know:
- The map is divided into 15 systems, and it will be roughly symmetrical for both sides. I don't know the layout in detail, but I think it's likely to be... webby.
- None of the Alliance's ships are worth shit except WaW's. Other shipbuilders' designs tend to have either cruddy parenting, poor armor distribution, or startling vulnerability to Artillery.
- The Alliance's leadership has been shifted recently. Bad Boy is no longer the Arch Admiral; instead, Water and Wind is. It is likely we will see a lot of WaW's strategies, a lot of WaW's ships, and a lot of WaW kicking our asses if we're not careful. It's no certainty, but the threat level has certainly increased.
- We know nothing solid about the AA's command structure atm, but remember that at one point it was utter chaos. They've likely made a lot of progress since then. It's probably something decent now.