And Petri, I hear what you are saying. I did not mean to imply (actually, I'm pretty sure I said the exact opposite) that my Magellan victory implied OP. It was just an impression gathered from how they worked, not how they turned out.
I had to go back and recheck the rules. I somehow thought that a half wormhole was sufficient for diplomatic relations if either party had wormhole generators. Apparently I was mistaken. Granted, that would decrease the potency of the proposed Lyran strategy of taking cover behind a one-way traversible barrier and choosing when to break out of your bubble.
But I'm really not sure there's such a significant opportunity cost in getting wormhole shrines after turn 3. It only costs 6 resources, about the price of one cheap-to-midrange tech, or a cruiser. And, mind you, no actual action is needed to build the shrines, and early-game actions in themselves cost about 1-2 money.
I had to go back and recheck the rules. I somehow thought that a half wormhole was sufficient for diplomatic relations if either party had wormhole generators. Apparently I was mistaken. Granted, that would decrease the potency of the proposed Lyran strategy of taking cover behind a one-way traversible barrier and choosing when to break out of your bubble.
But I'm really not sure there's such a significant opportunity cost in getting wormhole shrines after turn 3. It only costs 6 resources, about the price of one cheap-to-midrange tech, or a cruiser. And, mind you, no actual action is needed to build the shrines, and early-game actions in themselves cost about 1-2 money.