The first time you beat your teacher at something is always special. DarkFalcon took me from the newbie to intermediate stages, explaining pop tricking, overbuilding, and the importance of exploration, as well as dozens of smaller details. This map was incredibly even, with my tenth system equidistant from both of our homeworlds. Both of us ignored offense early, as my builder at Orion faced off against his empty planet at 22,24. With this planet as a buffer, neither of us wanted to be the agressor, since the fleet sent would doubtlessly be outnumbered by the time it reached its destination. Instead, we both concentrated on colonization and terraforming. I finished first, just as DNM got around to colonizing the buffer planet. I had built tech faster by virtue of my stronger opening pop trick, and once my BR advantage became apparent, the outcome was unavoidable. The game before this, I had DNM beat as well, but he showed me a new cloaker trick to steal the win. This time the nuke was mine.
