Need advice on breaking a stalemate

[Dfault]

Hi folks!

I recently bought Stellaris and im now 18 Hours into my very first game.
But now it seems i reached an impasse.

Since the beginning of my game i have been in conflict with a neighbor empire, or rather they have been with me. At the very first chance he raided my territory and burned his way through to my homeworld and i barely managed to fight him off.
To keep a 18 hours story short: I managed to take away most of his planets, including his Homeworld but now im stuck.
When i started i didnt really understand the war system well and missed my chance to completely destroy him and now he managed to secure a defense pact with a superior empire (their military strenght is about twice as big). I cant attack him or his friend empire will annihilate me and i cant grow my empire any further since i reached the point in the game where all planets are already taken.

Has anyone an advice on what to now?
Im not really familiar with the diplomacy system yet so i maybe missed something.
Is there a way to make them break their defense pact or ally myself with his friend?
I dont really have anything else to do at the moment other than sitt on my butt and wait for any wars to break out that i can take advantage of.
Oh and im currently playing without any of the DLC's, if that matters in any way.

Thanks!

 

[Alblaka]

Is there a way to make them break their defense pact or ally myself with his friend?

Not really. Even if you managed to ally them (which is unlikely because you are a rival of their ally), the diplomacy in Stellaris isn't advanced enough to give you some way of removing their alliance.
The only real way to bypass it would be to attack an empire your target has a pact with, or is guaranteeing. Which, given their size, is likely not the case.

Or just try to grow elsewhere (by conquest) until you're strong enough to tackle them. Or find another ally to help you overpower them (risky tho).

 

[Dfault]

The only real way to bypass it would be to attack an empire your target has a pact with, or is guaranteeing. Which, given their size, is likely not the case.

That might actually be a way. He does have a defense pact with a very small empire. I could take on both without any problems. By declaring war on his ally, how much damage could i do to him? Enough to wipe him out?

 

[Alblaka]

That might actually be a way. He does have a defense pact with a very small empire. I could take on both without any problems. By declaring war on his ally, how much damage could i do to him? Enough to wipe him out?

When you prepare to declare war on an empire, you can set war demands against anyone who will be called into the war. Aka, it's completely possible to declare a 'Phony War' on Empire B, just to take things from Empire A.
If your rival is small enough to completely annex him, you can do so.