I entered this game late, on turn 3, because Skai feared a two-on-one in a three player game. With my position though, we both should have been gonners.
BoP's Home World was right next to my third planet, and even worse it was the one that had virtually all my resources. Needless to say he quickly colonized it and prevented me from getting it. I was able to explore all the way west, but didn't have an extra sci to go south to find his Home World.
I overbuilt a fleet of 9 BR-3 ships, including a col, to try to get the planet back, but at the same time Skai found BoP's Home World and we agreed that the only way we could win was the 'neer trick. So I moved my fleet down into Skai's Home World, he opened the gate, I sent my sci through while he build more ships — and then we poured 15 BR-3 ships through. At this point my economy was 3, Skai's was 4, BoP was 6, and V-T was 5. BoP was trying to outflank us from the north and somehow didn't think to bring his fleet back to protect his Home World. V-T didn't have enough to kill our fleet by himself, so laid back and we got the nuke.
The win still wasn't guaranteed though. V-T brought his fleet in and killed Skai's two colonies, leaving us with only his and my Home Worlds, and BoP (which I had colonized immediately.)
With my fleet in BoP though, V-T couldn't push for the nuke on Skai without exposing himself to my counter attack, so he pulled back. He had colonized Am I safe? and made it into a builder. We remained at a deadlock while Skai recolonized his two plus one of mine and I finally colonized my third planet.
I gated in ships to defend until I could build at the front, and with Skai's ships backing me up V-T couldn't go on the offensive. V-T had to leave right after we nuked Am I safe? but by that time the win was in the bag anyway. His Home World was the unexplored jump at the bottom of my map.
A little note about this empire: Parakeets of Prey was designed with the sole purpose of finding BoP in a game, nuking him, and being put on his nuke diary...what fun. With that in mind, I would often enter a game with Parakeets and simply leave if BoP wasn't there. Even though I didn't get the nuke on him, just winning despite such overwhelming odds is enough. I proved that the true birds of prey are the Parakeets, so this was my last game with this emp.
