I’m in, I’ll try and get a turn submitted in the next 24hrs.
Sorry for the delay @Karmadrome but I’ve got a bit of a family health issue going on - should hopefully get some time tomorrow to submit …
That’s no problem at all. RL and family comes first. Hope all is well.
Just a little bit of “old-man-itis” … 
Move submitted and should be able to do so timely now … a very interesting map.
@Karmadrome and I are having a delightful game … it is certainly NOT trench-warfare … with strong body blows being through all over the place. Plus I thought I had the West side locked down, but he sneakingly stockpiled some ships and created some WG’s (not cheap!) to get them over there … so I ended up having to spend $400 (!) for a WG to defend … plus lost a lot of ships.
I do have a good advantage in stars due to grabbing the NE and SW stars in the opening moves … plus I opted to finished Hyper and begin the expansion of the back stars … whereas he finished Manu and is outproducing me.
So I thought I had @Karmadrome on the ropes … but got a bit too greedy … plus he made a couple of audacious moves … including some all-in’s especially against an inner warp gate of mine (that he just destroyed - GRRR) so this game could easily go either way!
He told me he was on vacation drinking Sangria … after seeing his latest big moves, I’m looking for the bottle!
Both @Karmadrome and I had some vacation, so our game play slowed down a bit … but we still got 444 (!) ticks in before I was able to put the final HULK SMASH on him. A very enjoyable game that played well.
I’ve updated the first post and after battling my way through the loser’s bracket, I now need to face the undefeated @SuperDave in this game. Note that if I win (a BIG IF!), then because I’ve already had a loss in the double elimination tournament, I’ll have to beat him again.
The HULK has cancelled all his appointments with his anger therapists and is gulping gamma-ray pills to hopefully help him SMASH @SuperDave 
Well played @HULK.
Good luck in the final(s) both. I’m looking forward to hearing all about what should be a fantastic battle!
Wellll … it WAS a fantastic battle … for a very, very short time!
SuperDave got me again. He went all-in against the Western side and while I did similarly on the Eastern side, my initial defense was 13 rather than 25 ships … so he was able to capture a key star and then I’ve been losing on defensive bonus since.
So I don’t see how I could pull this out … so rather than delay the inevitable, I conceded (again!) at 3 cycles to further burnish the legend of SuperDave!
It was unique for sure. I played it as an experimental game thinking that Hulk would never realize I’d be so aggressive to one side of the galaxy over and over and over. I got just enough of an edge that I took his industry from him and turned the game (and I’d intentionally built minimal amounts on my other side so he gained nothing in capture my planets).
I think if as SuperDave’s patented “twist the galaxy” strategy.
LOL don’t you two know how to have a long battle?!?
Well played both and of course especially @SuperDave
Congrats SuperDave!