Hi all.

I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, but just wanted to make sure.

This is my third game and it's the first that I'm playing at Galatic map with 9 oppoents set random from Normal (turned off influence victory). The game haven't been very challenging so far, I had a very good starting position, in the southeast corner and most of the other races were midmap. My closest neighbor was the Acerans, to my north. I was too far away to be attacked right off, and had pretty of time to develop my tech and economy. I made an alliance with Acerans, figuring they were the only ones that could really make my life hard. I could have won the game by tech victory many turns ago or by alliance victory, but I wanted to research everything and see what they all do and also, I figured it's a fun way to safely learn all the little details of the game, without the pressure of trying to stay alive. Well, by now, the game is down to 6 races (including me). The Dregin was 2nd in overall power and was busy conquering the other races in the middle map with them, so I decided to attack them, figure good pratice. The Acerans never said they would join in the attack because of our alliance, but I didn't really need their help anyways. Well, a few turns into my attacks, I suddenly saw alot of Acerans ships coming into the sector and attacking the Dregin. I checked the race relations screen (been lazy and haven't checked it in awhile) and shocked to find out Acerans has allied with all the other races except the Dregin. I didn't even realize they had research or traded for alliance, they didn't have it when I allied with them. So the game just got awhole lot more interesting, if they wipe out the Dregin (and I've asked them to make peace and they took my money but haven't stop attacking yet...those lousy backstabbing @#$#), I have to assume that they will win an alliance victory. So, I'm going to have to break my alliance with them and then if I attack any one of the other races, they'll all join in the fun. Not sure even with all my ships and tech, I can win a multi front war like that. I've made peace with the Dregin, but I've destroyed alot of his ships, so he's not too strong right now...like 4th instead of 2nd.

Lesson learned, keep a close eye on your enemies, but a closer eye on your friends...hehe

Thanks Stardock for a great game!