Here's the scenario:

There is a player who has control of a 274 sector bubble in a 20k sector game. Planet mods are in use in this game, 15k turns per day. There are 81 planets in use in the game, 8 of them are not his, so there is no telling what is beyond those 3 sectors. (I assume that 1 is Terra, 2 is Ferrengal, 3 is the Kilrathi, 4 is the Aliens and 5 is the Humans. All NPC) That leaves 3 that are in use, but not his.

The entrance to this bubble has 1 toll fig, 250 mines, and 5 shielded volcanics. Volcanics can hold 10,000,000 fuel ore, 5,000,000 figs and 50,000 shields. Behind the entrance are 3 sectors, also with 5 shielded volcanics in each. Somewhere behind one of those 3 sectors is this guys home sector, where he parks when offline.

Assuming that all 20 of those volcanics are at max fuel ore, max shields and max figs, with 1 of them in each sector having an active IG, how would you go about taking this guy down? He is a single player, corp'd but he is the only member. He also has about 500k exp and 4.5M align. Any suggestions?

Personally I'd test his cannons by torping in, and if you live, fire about 10 gtorps in the sector and overload it. I'd try it just before extern.

Unless his planets are very low on fighters, you need to start by getting a fig in
his sector. With that, you can park your own cannons in the sector and deny him
access while you work on them.

To get a fig in the sector you need to get past his sector cannons. That means
mothing in to drain them down. If you are unable to moth them down far enough,
or if he refills them frequently, or rotates used planets with fresh ones, then you
simply can't invade. So start by mothing and getting a fig in his sector.

Once you have a fig in his sector and have planet support, you can then use
exit-enter to clear out the remaining ore on his blaster planets. Then you can tug
on the IG to moth his interdictor. Keeping careful track of the planets, you can get
the ore low and then go for a test land.

The next task is getting to the shield prompt. You may need to atmos moth the
planet down if it's still blasting too high and if it's IG and sector cannons are off.
If you don't have the resources for that, you can focus on the planets you can
take and try for a collision at extern.

Once you get to the shield prompt, take it down to 190 shields (just right under
200). Then go out a sector and run a photon-invasion macro. Basically, it's pwarp
adj, photon the sector, pwarp back, lift, land on enemy planet, blast shields and
figs, then retreat. If the macro is correct you can see whether military reaction is
on or not and decide from there how to best take out the planet's figs. By using a
photon invade approach you can conserve figs while keeping ore on the planet,
that makes it easier to move the planet out once you take it.

Repeat the photon invasion if you need to conserve pods, if they have a high MR
and you've got a ship with strong defensive odds then moth their MR w/ your
def odds, if you have a ship with high offensive odds use that, etc. Just loop attack
until the planet is yours or until you're out of resources.

Repeat until all of the planets are yours, then start working on the next sector.
Always remember to keep your own cannons and planets set to deny him access.

And if none of that works because he is too storng .. try an old tactic I used a few times ..

locate aliens and put toll figs around them .. then clear a path for them to walk directly to his door ..

this does take alot of time .. but when it works .. they do the mothing for you

best to use a couple of corpies to help manage the alien roundups .. like cattle.

Might hope the aliens are set to not attack each other , or you'll have
to use one race at a time.

my 2¢

Interesting solutions, especially Vid Kid's. I would probably never thought of ""drafting" the alien races in that manner. Although it seems now that the point is pretty mute. Everyone else in the game has abandoned ship as it were, and I am the only one left. Kinda lonely having a 20,000 sector game to myself. If anyone is interested in giving it a shot, I'm in game C at feloniousgames.

hey I"m looking for a game. Shoot me a email on here and I can help you out.. What is the address and port number?

I'm looking for a game too and I've had plenty of pratice herding aliens. PM me if you are are still looking for help.