I Became a Commander in a Crappy SF Game.

Ch.162Victory☆ Requires Much Contemplation (1)

by fnovelpia

After checking the gallery reactions and monitoring the enemy fleet’s status, I suddenly sensed something odd.

‘Wait, why haven’t they come yet?’

Even with such a vast territory, it shouldn’t take them a full day to arrive.

With fleet numbers at 408 vs 150, they could simply overwhelm us with brute force. Why are they hesitating instead of attacking?

Could they be planning another one of those “fun and happy resource zone patrols” to completely drain our resource lines?

‘I cannot forgive such malicious behavior!’

But when I voiced these concerns, Jessica shook her head and explained the situation.

“Commander, the enemy fleet is currently stationary at the outer perimeter of our sector.”

“Stationary?”

“Yes, strangely enough, they’re not attacking resource zones or taking any action. They’re just… sitting there.”

“…Hmm?”

Hearing this from Jessica, I felt more questions bubbling up about their incomprehensible behavior.

Why on earth…?

No joke—if they split their forces in half and moved around, I wouldn’t be able to respond at all and would end up being torn apart again.

Why aren’t they moving? Why are they just sitting there?

As my mind raced with suspicions about their inexplicable behavior…

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-<Dock #1>

—————————————-

Just as news arrived that the second battlecruiser’s construction had finished, I decided to immediately begin building a third battlecruiser for firepower while the enemy remained stationary.

But just as I was about to start construction…

‘Tsk… no, I should build a light carrier here instead.’

Suddenly struck by a brilliant tactical plan, instead of the big and beautiful battlecruiser, I chose:

—————————————-

-<Dock #1>

—————————————-

Big and beautiful but, as evident from the shorter construction time, with inferior combat capability compared to not just battlecruisers but even cruisers.

Since I couldn’t afford to wait three days in the current situation, I dumped all the rapid construction systems I’d been carefully saving.

—————————————-

-<Dock #1>

—————————————-

I produced one light carrier comparable in size to a battlecruiser and began filling it with carrier-based aircraft.

Of course, our bunny Jessica standing beside me expressed concern about this decision.

“Commander, isn’t adding a light carrier in this situation a bad idea?”

“The light carrier?”

“Yes, if we deploy aircraft without proper leveling, they’ll just be sitting ducks.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“Plus, you just used all of our remaining rapid construction systems.”

To summarize simply, she was saying, ‘Why waste something so valuable on carrier aircraft with terrible levels that will just melt away?’

After birthing—I mean constructing—the light carrier, I started the construction of the third battlecruiser in the large ship shipyard, then said:

“There’s a plan behind all this, Jessica.”

“Ah, yes.”

I indicated that I wouldn’t be explaining further for now.

==========

Anyway, while the third battlecruiser was being constructed at its own pace…

Despite the fact that our attackers had stopped advancing…

“Commander, what if this large fleet is actually a decoy, and their real forces are taking a detour to strike our base?”

“I was thinking the same thing?”

“I agree, Commander. If five commanders of your caliber are coming, it’s certainly possible in terms of scale.”

Jessica, who had come with Berial, offered advice based on their common sense regarding the enemies’ unusual behavior (or lack thereof).

Nevertheless, I maintained my composure.

“Don’t worry. They don’t have forces to spare for a detour.”

“What do you mean by that…?”

Seeing Berial’s puzzled expression, I shrugged and provided my answer.

“Well, I only just realized this myself, but unlike us who are on home ground… they’re on an expedition all the way out here, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“So they must have allocated a portion of their forces to defend their base in case of emergency…”

With those words, I manipulated the command console to bring up the enemy fleet power analysis I had seen earlier, then continued.

—————————————-

<Battlecruisers: 7>

<Destroyers: 230>

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“What comes to mind when you see this?”

“…That there are a lot of them.”

“Yes, and there’s another critical issue here.”

I displayed the “point” requirements for each ship type alongside the list and continued.

—————————————-

<Battlecruisers: 7> – 210 points

<Light Carriers: 3> – 120 points

<Heavy Cruisers: 75> – 750 points

<Light Cruisers: 28> – 168 points

<Destroyers: 230> – 690 points

<Escort Ships: 25> – 37.5 points

<Patrol Ships: 30> – 30 points

<Resource Mining Ships: 10> – 15 points

Total: 2020.5 points

—————————————-

“Five people brought a fleet totaling over 2000 points.”

“Yes.”

“But at this stage, individual users probably have around 400-500 points, maximum 600 or so.”

“…Aha!”

“I see, so that’s what it was.”

Seeing that they understood my point, I calmly presented my conclusion.

“If they’ve spent some of their points on fleets to defend their base against other players…”

“That means each commander effectively came with only 300-400 points worth of ships?”

“Exactly.”

Of course, if we calculated it that way, the total for five people shouldn’t actually reach 2000 points, so some must have brought more than 400 points worth. But the important thing was that they had likely brought all their available forces except those needed for base defense.

Unless some unexpected support arrived from other clans or users, they wouldn’t have forces available for a flanking maneuver.

“So we don’t need to worry about the enemy taking a detour at this point.”

“Right, though… even if they split their forces in half, we’d still have trouble winning in a direct confrontation.”

Of course, this realization didn’t improve our disadvantageous position, so Jessica, Berial, and I continued our agonizing deliberation on how to overcome this situation.

But at this point, I noticed another important fact…

‘Wait a minute, why are there only three types of user markers on the battlecruisers in their fleet?’

For some reason, despite five users being present, only three of them had battlecruisers. And thinking about it further…

It wasn’t that the five users were sharing fleet command points, but rather that their points were simply added together (400+400+400+400+400), meaning their command structure was fragmented.

‘Hold on, I might be able to use this somehow.’

In this chaotic situation, I began to see a potential opening.

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