Cycle 49 commentary link
Raw data is a bit late, but finally out.
2 weeks left until a whole year of PP has gone by.
Known Merits
ALD had no expansions, so Hudson dominated the total merits.
Aisling, Mahon, ALD and Winters all had a similar number of total merits.
Patreus was 6th, with a much larger amount of merits than usual, with the total merits steady declining down to Delaine.
On the effective chart, Mahon was number 1, quite a bit ahead of the 2nd most amount of effective merits.
2nd down to 6th was very close, and Sirius had the least amount of effective merits, which I believe is the first time.
Opposition
Undermining continued its downward trend, perhaps due to the Beta.
Mahon was most opposed, with Hudson in the second position.
Total opposition from Winters down to Antal was at very low rates compared to usual.
On the effective opposition chart, Hudson had a massive amount in his failed expansion.
ALD had the most effective undermining, but at just over 200000, it is what would normally be described as a medium amount of effective undermining.
Hudson, Mahon, Winters and Patreus got a low to medium amount of undermining, and Sirius, Aisling, Torval and Antal had virtually no effective opposition.
Effective ratios
Patreus, Delaine, Winters, Antal and Mahon all had low amounts of fortification waste.
The top right chart shows the average amount of over fortification that fortified systems had.
The bottom chart shows how many systems were fortified over 150% for each power.
Speculation and Commentary
Mahon 88
The Prime Minister is again in the 1st position
He won 4 expansions, 2 of which were ones in his own territory which his own players wouldn't have wanted to win.
This brings his total number of systems to 101, the first power to get to 100 systems so far.
He also has an exploited population of 957.8 Billion, slightly in front of Hudson on 948.9 Billion, who will be the first Power to exploit over 1 Trillion people?
This week Mahons number of expansions are reduced down to 4, which is still the most expansions of any power this cycle.
2 of the expansions are more systems in his existing territory, and they are currently "winning" easily, and should win based on the history of the past month.
The other 2 expansions are weaponised inside the Federation again, and they are both currently losing.
If Mahon loses all his expansions, he will still be in the number 1 position at the end of the week, but he will probably win 2 or 3 of them.
Winters 72
The Shadow President moved up one position (just) to second.
The battle for the Hyades Sector IC-K b9-4 (or Kappa) bubble was on again, which is the most contested bubble in PP history, going back 33 cycles.
Last weeks fight turned out to be a dud however, with the ALD/Patreus/Mahon Axis only being able to put up 642% vs Winters 5266%
With the Hyades/Kappa bubble no longer being available, there are very few profitable systems left for the powers to fight over.
Winters is currently expanding into the ex-ALD system of HIP 47328m and has a light-weaponized expansion into Ch'iang Fei, both of which are currently losing.
With only a 1% lead over Hudson, Winters may drop down to 3rd at the end of the cycle.
Hudson 71
The President moved down one position after failing to win their expansion.
This weaponized expansion, into Zvaithhogg, had one of the largest battles in PP history, with the end score (according to the hour old raw data) being 9793% vs 10942%.
Both sides combined nearly put in 1.5 million merits.
This week Hudson has no expansion, so his players will be able to focus on stopping the weaponized expansions aimed at the Federal Powers.
Hudson may move back up to 2nd at the end of the week, or remain in 3rd.
Torval 61
The Senator retained her 4th position, and was able to secure 1 more expansion.
This brings her total number of systems up to 63, only 1 less than ALD.
This week Torval is expanding into the ex-ALD system of HR 4720, and also has a second profitable expansion.
She is also currently preparing the only profitable system anywhere near the Imperial powers, Kherthaje, but is far behind Aisling, who is also preparing this system.
Torval will probably receive no opposition to her expansions again, so should overtake ALDs number of systems, and retain the 4th position at the end of the week.
ALD 58
The Emperor lost one low income system to turmoil, and moved back up into the top 5.
Her players were able to stop the Hudson weaponized expansion into her territory, but couldn't also stop Winters from winning her expansion into the highly contested Hyades/Kappa bubble.
This week she has no expansions, but is currently preparing another weaponized expansion into the Federation.
If Aisling wins her expansion, ALD will probably fall back into the bottom 5, and with Torval likely to also win expansions, 5th is the highest ALD will be at the end of the cycle.
Aisling 52
The Peoples Princess won 2 more expansions, but moved down to 6th.
She has another slightly profitable expansion this week, and if she wins this, she will be back up to 60 systems, equal to Sirius.
This week she is in a prep war with Torval for the HR 4720 system, which ALD just lost 2 cycles ago.
With ALD and Sirius both not having any expansions, Aisling should move up to 5th, but 6th is as low as she should be at the end of the cycle.
Sirius 43
The CEO dropped down to 7th.
He again has no expansions this week, but can afford to prepare one system., but with there being nothing profitable left, his players will probably try to prepare a systems another power is preparing, in the hopes of losing.
This strategy will keep him from the bottom 3, since he has a 5 system lead over Patreus, but it will keep him in the 7th position for the foreseeable future, until Torval, ALD or Aisling are put back into Turmoil.
Sirius should be 7th at the end of the cycle.
Patreus 40
The Admiral won system number 55, which means he moves onto the low 62 overhead increases from now on, but he has shattered his cc starting balance down to -175.
This is still much better than Aislings -565, and he will need to emulate what Torval has been doing this year to repair his CC and allow further expansion.
The system he won was a weaponized expansion into Hudsons territory, the first weaponized expansion one of the Imperial Powers have won.
This week he has no expansions, if Antal wins his expansion Patreus will move down to 9th, if not, he should be 8th at the end of the cycle.
Antal 34
The Utopians had a quiet week with no expansions, and maintained the 9th position.
This week he has one expansion, which is currently losing.
If the Utopians manage to win this expansion, they should move ahead of Patreus at the end of the cycle.
Delaine 31
Last week the Pirate lord had 3 expansions, one of which was won to bring his total number of systems up to 46.
This week Delaine has another 3 expansions, one into the ex-Mahon system of Dhanchu.
This expansion will probably face stiff opposition.
The expansion into the system of Kelie is receiving some mystery opposition, similar to who opposed Antal when he tried to expand there a few weeks ago.
This is a certain sign of more anonymous Player Minor Factions half playing Power Play.
Raw data is a bit late, but finally out.
2 weeks left until a whole year of PP has gone by.
Known Merits
ALD had no expansions, so Hudson dominated the total merits.
Aisling, Mahon, ALD and Winters all had a similar number of total merits.
Patreus was 6th, with a much larger amount of merits than usual, with the total merits steady declining down to Delaine.
On the effective chart, Mahon was number 1, quite a bit ahead of the 2nd most amount of effective merits.
2nd down to 6th was very close, and Sirius had the least amount of effective merits, which I believe is the first time.
Opposition
Undermining continued its downward trend, perhaps due to the Beta.
Mahon was most opposed, with Hudson in the second position.
Total opposition from Winters down to Antal was at very low rates compared to usual.
On the effective opposition chart, Hudson had a massive amount in his failed expansion.
ALD had the most effective undermining, but at just over 200000, it is what would normally be described as a medium amount of effective undermining.
Hudson, Mahon, Winters and Patreus got a low to medium amount of undermining, and Sirius, Aisling, Torval and Antal had virtually no effective opposition.
Effective ratios
Patreus, Delaine, Winters, Antal and Mahon all had low amounts of fortification waste.
The top right chart shows the average amount of over fortification that fortified systems had.
The bottom chart shows how many systems were fortified over 150% for each power.
Speculation and Commentary
Mahon 88
The Prime Minister is again in the 1st position
He won 4 expansions, 2 of which were ones in his own territory which his own players wouldn't have wanted to win.
This brings his total number of systems to 101, the first power to get to 100 systems so far.
He also has an exploited population of 957.8 Billion, slightly in front of Hudson on 948.9 Billion, who will be the first Power to exploit over 1 Trillion people?
This week Mahons number of expansions are reduced down to 4, which is still the most expansions of any power this cycle.
2 of the expansions are more systems in his existing territory, and they are currently "winning" easily, and should win based on the history of the past month.
The other 2 expansions are weaponised inside the Federation again, and they are both currently losing.
If Mahon loses all his expansions, he will still be in the number 1 position at the end of the week, but he will probably win 2 or 3 of them.
Winters 72
The Shadow President moved up one position (just) to second.
The battle for the Hyades Sector IC-K b9-4 (or Kappa) bubble was on again, which is the most contested bubble in PP history, going back 33 cycles.
Last weeks fight turned out to be a dud however, with the ALD/Patreus/Mahon Axis only being able to put up 642% vs Winters 5266%
With the Hyades/Kappa bubble no longer being available, there are very few profitable systems left for the powers to fight over.
Winters is currently expanding into the ex-ALD system of HIP 47328m and has a light-weaponized expansion into Ch'iang Fei, both of which are currently losing.
With only a 1% lead over Hudson, Winters may drop down to 3rd at the end of the cycle.
Hudson 71
The President moved down one position after failing to win their expansion.
This weaponized expansion, into Zvaithhogg, had one of the largest battles in PP history, with the end score (according to the hour old raw data) being 9793% vs 10942%.
Both sides combined nearly put in 1.5 million merits.
This week Hudson has no expansion, so his players will be able to focus on stopping the weaponized expansions aimed at the Federal Powers.
Hudson may move back up to 2nd at the end of the week, or remain in 3rd.
Torval 61
The Senator retained her 4th position, and was able to secure 1 more expansion.
This brings her total number of systems up to 63, only 1 less than ALD.
This week Torval is expanding into the ex-ALD system of HR 4720, and also has a second profitable expansion.
She is also currently preparing the only profitable system anywhere near the Imperial powers, Kherthaje, but is far behind Aisling, who is also preparing this system.
Torval will probably receive no opposition to her expansions again, so should overtake ALDs number of systems, and retain the 4th position at the end of the week.
ALD 58
The Emperor lost one low income system to turmoil, and moved back up into the top 5.
Her players were able to stop the Hudson weaponized expansion into her territory, but couldn't also stop Winters from winning her expansion into the highly contested Hyades/Kappa bubble.
This week she has no expansions, but is currently preparing another weaponized expansion into the Federation.
If Aisling wins her expansion, ALD will probably fall back into the bottom 5, and with Torval likely to also win expansions, 5th is the highest ALD will be at the end of the cycle.
Aisling 52
The Peoples Princess won 2 more expansions, but moved down to 6th.
She has another slightly profitable expansion this week, and if she wins this, she will be back up to 60 systems, equal to Sirius.
This week she is in a prep war with Torval for the HR 4720 system, which ALD just lost 2 cycles ago.
With ALD and Sirius both not having any expansions, Aisling should move up to 5th, but 6th is as low as she should be at the end of the cycle.
Sirius 43
The CEO dropped down to 7th.
He again has no expansions this week, but can afford to prepare one system., but with there being nothing profitable left, his players will probably try to prepare a systems another power is preparing, in the hopes of losing.
This strategy will keep him from the bottom 3, since he has a 5 system lead over Patreus, but it will keep him in the 7th position for the foreseeable future, until Torval, ALD or Aisling are put back into Turmoil.
Sirius should be 7th at the end of the cycle.
Patreus 40
The Admiral won system number 55, which means he moves onto the low 62 overhead increases from now on, but he has shattered his cc starting balance down to -175.
This is still much better than Aislings -565, and he will need to emulate what Torval has been doing this year to repair his CC and allow further expansion.
The system he won was a weaponized expansion into Hudsons territory, the first weaponized expansion one of the Imperial Powers have won.
This week he has no expansions, if Antal wins his expansion Patreus will move down to 9th, if not, he should be 8th at the end of the cycle.
Antal 34
The Utopians had a quiet week with no expansions, and maintained the 9th position.
This week he has one expansion, which is currently losing.
If the Utopians manage to win this expansion, they should move ahead of Patreus at the end of the cycle.
Delaine 31
Last week the Pirate lord had 3 expansions, one of which was won to bring his total number of systems up to 46.
This week Delaine has another 3 expansions, one into the ex-Mahon system of Dhanchu.
This expansion will probably face stiff opposition.
The expansion into the system of Kelie is receiving some mystery opposition, similar to who opposed Antal when he tried to expand there a few weeks ago.
This is a certain sign of more anonymous Player Minor Factions half playing Power Play.
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