Now i have built this new carrier that has cost me so much. And -oh no- there are some enemy carriers on the other side of this gap .. i guess. Ahh, i’ll just sit and wait here until they attack – i don’t want to waste my strongest ship – do i?

In the last years i have seen many players act in exactly the way described. They simply don’t use their new carrier to cause a lot of destruction on the nearly undefended planets of the early game. I also suffer sometimes from the Shiny Ship Syndrome, although as a Lizard player i should be used to losing greater amount of ships in battle. In my last game i stood only a few lightyears before a crystal planet that seemed to have a star base.
But instead of stepping into the ring with my opponent i chose to go on sweeping with my Heavy Phaser T-Rex fleet – until the ships were empty and stolen.