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Basically, most people refuse to type there opinions in public until someone respected (who is well known to be able to read the stats) has posted there opinion. So they can agree with basically what they've typed and not sound foolish or get flamed for being wrong. The only exception to this, is when someone always plays X race and they argue that X race is weak against Y and so X needs to be buffed (They dont care if its right or not, they just want there race to be as powerful as possible).

but here's my opinions anyway, although im pretty crap at reading stats, im usually lucky as to pick the right race even if its for the wrong reasons. Like ETD last round as i wanted to be emp fi/co.

I think first off, its important to note that with 30minute ticks.. It may not be a big issue for ETA's from Fi/Co, to FR/DE or FR/DE to CR/BS as it is in previous rounds.

For clusters to get defence, its 30mins, 60mins and 90mins for each class type and for galaxy is 3hours 30mins, 4hours, 4hours 30mins. So now the gap is reduced from 2hours between Fi/Co and CR/BS to just 1hour. While Fi/Co is obviously still slightly stronger when looked at from ETA's, its nerfed to the point where it's more down to ships available rather than time.

Without even looking at the numbers, i'd eliminate going Cath BS straght away. Ziks have a faster ship with a smaller ETA and caths would need to split build all 3 ships. Coupled with the fact that some Xans may be going CR as well, its easy for other races to build counter ships quiet fast which fit into there normal roiding fleet (so have the flak for them).

Xan FR looks to be pretty strong. Able to target Cath Co (and any Zik Co roided fleet who manages to get co pods), Zik DE and Xan CR within its roided class. The bonus is that they are also able to roid any other Xan at the beginning of the round who hasnt researched CR/BS hulls (which again, shows that we might be getting more CR this round than we usually get).

Xan CR looks to be abit stronger than Xan FR and could probably roid any Xan FR player from the beginning of the round, as most Xan FR players wont be building anti CR as there main ship. The main downfall of Xan CR though is that any Xan player can build Santa's which will stop cause any Xan CR player to think twice about landing on them. It doesnt really matter how outnumbered your santa's are, they still will inflict damage for minimal losses. So if Xan CR is well used this round, expect most galaxys/cluster alliances to ask there Xan players to build some Santa's.

Ziks seem to be the same as usual, need to cap to become powerful. With so few numbers though, it seems that Ziks will find it hard to cap a good fleet. The only real advantage is that it only takes 6hours to land now, so may be able to land while people are asleep but people should be setting there fleets to run and hide. They are certainly the race to go, if you've got a friend who cant be bothered with this miniround and will be your shipfarm. Get some Cath Co pods early and you're setting yourself up for a nice round.

Cath Co seems powerful enough. They need to build 3 ships in order to attack and defend themselves from most attacks but there downfall may be that they will struggle to cover themselves from most attacks as the universe will certainly have quiet afew CR players (maybe some BS players), so they will need to invest in enough Snowmans as well which will inherently cause there offensive fleet to be more underpowered. They are a nice race to go, if you're in an organised private galaxy, with at least one Xan BS player who can you rely on for some santa's to cover your hole. I like the look of caths but i just dont think they're strong enough to last the round especially without a dedicated alliance helping you win as we'll have limited defence this round and certainly not enough alligience to our cluster alliances to dedicate resources/ships to stopping a cath from getting roided all round (or it could just be, that im going random, so i'd die if misrebly if i went cath).

Overall, i'd say that Xan is certainly the race to go for the majority of players, especially as it seems a low number of people are playing this round which potentially means there will be a lack of scanners. I'd personally recommend going Xan FR at the beginning, then getting CR/BS hulls and decided weither its worth switching to a CR fleet (depending on how the rest of the universe went). Xan FR faked as CR is a perfectly viable tactic this round. Although, you can certainly rush CR for the first night and do just as fine.

As for roids, this is one of the few rounds i'd also recommend only init'ing to 300. With a low turnout of planets signed up, those who go over this limit.. are almost certainly going to get incomings on the first night. While in normal rounds, you can usually get away with it due to alot of people doing the same thing.

Edit: I'd also like to add, that maybe this round.. going Distorter heavy is a viable tactic.

Edit2: As for governments.. Demo seems like the most likely government to take this round, considering most players will need to get CR/BS pretty fast (especially if your Xan) and with the lack of scanners around, you'll want scans as quickly as possible.

Edit3: Seems Zik Co pod has been added since i last checked, Zik are better than i originally thought but Zik is always the race that people tend to go if they like Zik regardless of the stats (unless they're stupidly bad).