OSG 24 - The Guns of Sssla
- Thread starter RefSteel
- Start date
I like them with five shots, but two shots isn't a dealbreaker.
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 257
Looking good, jmas - and...
GOT IT!
One question: Do you happen to have any screenshots or notes on what the Bulrathi ships are mounting? I'll make do without it (and will find out soon enough) but it would help a bit to know in advance.
At this point in the game, building up infrastructure is still definitely worthwhile (though this will cease to be the case soon) ... but unless someone tells me otherwise, I don't think I'm going to build any. In fact, I'd make this my one big let's-see-if-it's-even-possible goal for the turnset:
1) Exterminate at least one more alien species.
Note: I'm afraid I'm not going to build any scatter boats. I also don't expect to build any more Sspectres. I mostly plan to grow a lot of lizards and build a lot of these:
More than time and a half as many AMBs per BC, at the same attack level. I don't care about defense. They don't have enough missiles to matter, even if any of them can catch up to my ships. I *am* considering a medium design with a battle scanner, but the overall missile tech level in the galaxy is such that I doubt I'm going to bother with it.
Okay, off to work! I'll check for comments before playing.
GOT IT!
One question: Do you happen to have any screenshots or notes on what the Bulrathi ships are mounting? I'll make do without it (and will find out soon enough) but it would help a bit to know in advance.
At this point in the game, building up infrastructure is still definitely worthwhile (though this will cease to be the case soon) ... but unless someone tells me otherwise, I don't think I'm going to build any. In fact, I'd make this my one big let's-see-if-it's-even-possible goal for the turnset:
1) Exterminate at least one more alien species.
Note: I'm afraid I'm not going to build any scatter boats. I also don't expect to build any more Sspectres. I mostly plan to grow a lot of lizards and build a lot of these:
More than time and a half as many AMBs per BC, at the same attack level. I don't care about defense. They don't have enough missiles to matter, even if any of them can catch up to my ships. I *am* considering a medium design with a battle scanner, but the overall missile tech level in the galaxy is such that I doubt I'm going to bother with it.
Okay, off to work! I'll check for comments before playing.
ToddMarshall
Maniac - Stellar Wingman
I completely agree with your bomber design choice. We're in the business of killing all their bases in 1 shot right now. However, bombers aren't even needed vs the Bears (Nor the Silicoids, who should probably be our next target). Stingers will slag their bases, we just need to consolidate our fleet, which is spread too thin to be effective at the moment.
Personally, I'd scrap the Hyper-X boats, and those new beam boats. In my opinion, if you build a beamer, you either build a beamer with repulsors and 2 space beams, or you build something with megabolt cannons. Not both. I really dislike the unfocused nature of that design.
I highly doubt we can kill another race in 10 turns unless you're planning on glassing some planets rather than invading, but I'm prepared to be amazed.
Personally, I'd scrap the Hyper-X boats, and those new beam boats. In my opinion, if you build a beamer, you either build a beamer with repulsors and 2 space beams, or you build something with megabolt cannons. Not both. I really dislike the unfocused nature of that design.
I highly doubt we can kill another race in 10 turns unless you're planning on glassing some planets rather than invading, but I'm prepared to be amazed.
Mojoqmeyvam
Warlord
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2009
- Messages
- 129
Yeah, that's a fearsome design. Drop 500 of those on a world, glass, glass, retreat...
I assume it's not cost-effective to fill that extra space with an ECM? Extra HP (shields or armor) are obviously a massive waste.
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 257
On a break at work; I won't actually start playing the turns until (at least) later tonight. In the meantime:
[EDIT: This is not correct; it would have to save way more than 1/9 of total ships built unless it prevented the loss of all ships entirely.]
Yeah. We only have two left, and they're ancient sublight craft; those are going away to make room for the Ssplats.
One-space beams plus repulsor can be very effective if you have superior initiative (see e.g. OSG 21) - I'm not a big fan of Cannonss' unfocused design either (the HBC and Stinger 5-rack don't fit its combat role) but they'll be useful, and I don't plan to scrap them right away. Of course, jmas and I have very different design philosophies - for instance, I generally dislike missile 5-racks - to me, the purpose of a missile boat is to hit its target as hard and as fast as possible from long range, then get out of Dodge. If you have to wait around for five rounds to empty your payload, you're better off as a beamer ship, in my opinion. Our Sstingerss rule in this respect. Our PewPew 5s were also terrific in their time (remember, they were designed more than 20 years ago now) - battle computers are great, but Mark 3s were good enough to get the job done against the fleets we were actually facing, and it meant we had room to fit more guns on the things. More guns = good!
As I've said before, I like to set goals that are just on the edge of achievability, so you may be right. Truth be told, I may give up on this one quickly, depending on how events transpire during my turns.
Yeah. ECM1 costs just 2BC, but that's 12.5% of the Ssplat's total cost! The one extra point of defense would have to save more than one ship in nine (not stop 1/9 of missile hits; single-handedly prevent the destruction of over 1/9 of the total number of ships built!) to come out ahead of just putting more bombs in space.
[EDIT: This is not correct; it would have to save way more than 1/9 of total ships built unless it prevented the loss of all ships entirely.]
ToddMarshall
Maniac - Stellar Wingman
You know, you could fit a cloak on the small (costs 4BC), and remove 1 Maneuver (Saves 3BC and still has the same combat speed) for only 1BC more. Not sure if it's worth it or not. My hunch is that it would be (unless we're using the wait button to dodge missiles. Is that an exploit? I never do it in SP) Probably depends on what we'd be facing. One of you more mathematically inclined folks could figure that out.
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 257
That's odd - I could swear I checked for exactly this possibility and it was impossible. But now when I look, I can add the cloaking device even without cutting Maneuverability. I don't see a 3 BC savings for dropping maneuverability by 1 though - I don't see any change at all - and the Cloaking Device does indeed cost 4 BC.
That said, I'm now (that I see it will fit) likely to go with a Cloak anyway. Against the Bears' current tech, it doesn't make a difference; BC4+Mercs won't kill enough ships to matter anyway. Against the Silis' BC8+Pulsons though, assuming the Meklars drag us in, it's probably worthwhile. (Using the Wait button to dodge missiles isn't officially an exploit, and is technically allowed. But I haven't used the Wait button at all, for any reason, in something like two RL years, and I'm not about to start again now.)
Attachments
ToddMarshall
Maniac - Stellar Wingman
They're ok in some circumstances, but, generally, it's not a good design model imo.
Yeah, that's generally the best use of missile boats. They're either there to be bombers vs poorly shielded planets, or to smack down the enemies biggest threat, or blow up repulsors, or whittle down stacks
Completely agree. I know in the past, some people have even tried to BAN building of two shot rack ships as exploitive, so I think most people are with you on that.
At the time we built them, we could have but BCV on them and made one of the following adjustments: Dropped one class of maneuver, resulting in the same combat speed, but lower defense OR traded in one of the fusion beams for an IC. I thought about posting that at the time, but decided I really wasn't that sure either design was better. In retrospect, we probably should have done one of those, but they absolutely did the job they were built to do and did so very well.
If we want to build beamer ships now, we could build a medium one with BCV, Andrium, Max Maneuver, Satbilizer, 3 Megabolts, and an IC. We could also build Megabolt fighters with BC II (like BCV).
EDIT: And you're right. I dono what was going on earlier, but I'd swear when I took the manouver down a class it dropped the cost by 3 BC. It sure doesn't now though.
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 257
Sweet; thanks! I can understand forgetting to include screenies of designs as forgettable as those. Clearly, the Bulrathi haven't been paying attention to any side of our ship design debates!
True that. I'm interested to see what level of pwnage you can attain--good luck!
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 257
Maybe it was the same thing that happened to me: I was "building down" from the Sspectre instead of building up from scratch, and I think I did most of my checking before noticing that they had Andrium Armor (which I of course cut for the fighters). If you were clicking quickly, you might have clicked Andrium down to Zort, thinking it was a maneuver drop, and this DOES save 3 BC while allowing Cloak (which Andrium doesn't make available). Not that it matters of course; any small design will have Titanium armor except in case of certain incredibly rare circumstances. (Maniac's Imperium 11 report features the one example I can think of off the top of my head.)
Anyway, I'll see what I can do tonight, but probably won't get to the turns until sometime tomorrow, as it's getting quite late.
I think that would be me
ToddMarshall
Maniac - Stellar Wingman
Just a note for the next players not to need to rush. On the odd chance I'm up before Monday for a change... I won't be able to play until then anyhow, as I'll be in Chicago for a gaming con this weekend.
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 257
Okay, pre-flight analysis: This turn set will NOT be played in optimal fashion. Note the future tense: I'm writing this before I even start [Late note: But I forgot to post it until I finished]. I'm INTENTIONALLY not playing optimally, because this game is already won, and I'd rather have some fun with this (and find a challenge to overcome) by going all-out to exterminate another alien species. Let's see what I can manage!
Following discussion, I went with the following ship design:
A cloaking device upgrades my little bomber design to a Sshadow 5.0; our surviving pair of old, old, old Hyper-X Misssssssssssssssssssses hits the scrapyard to make room - they did great work for us for a long, long time, but their era is long past. (Note that we could have added Duralloy to the Sshadow at no extra cost - initially - but miniaturization will reduce the construction and maintenance costs faster without it, so it stays off anyway, being completely worthless on a ship like this.)
I plan to build a LOT of Sshadows, starting with several hundred on my first turn. We'll see how the plan survives contact with the enemy on subsequent turns, but I'm happy with these for the time being. Also, I'm sending out a few combat transports: Basically every planet not named Dolz or Beta Ceti sends about a quarter of its lizards to war. Yes, this means over half a billion Sakkra will be crossing space, armed to the teeth, on a single-minded mission to kill the bears. It might not be enough, even with more transports ready to set out soon - it's going to be especially difficult to land Rayden and Ryoun, which are currently out of range of even our advanced scanner - but we're going to try!
I actually am spending a fair amoung on research for now; I want our Personal Absorption Shield and Terra+60 to hit ASAP. Beyond that though, we shouldn't really need anything at all. I'll keep up our investment in other technology pretty much just so I can say I did. There's one exception though: Battle Computer Mark 8. I am not happy with our lack of progress on this tech thus far. So I'm going to speed it up. WAY up.
I had to give cloning to the Meklar for it, but I believe the trade was worth it. It will help our espionage efforts enormously, improve defenses at our bases, and allow the construction of some seriously sweet starships in the near future. (I selected IRC6 as our next tech, since nothing was cheap enough to grab just for quick, minor miniaturization. I don't expect to ever actually acquire this tech.)
One final note: The Meklar currently have Hercular missiles, ECM 9, BC8, and 22 layers of shields at their missile bases. I just hope our alliance lasts. (Hopefully it will help that they presumably will want our assistance against the Silis....) One thing that (I think) works in our favor at least: Unlike a DoW - which may be preceded by a "cold war" sneak attack - I'm pretty sure allied parties can't attack each other on the same turn the alliance is broken. That is: If (we had a different set of rules for the SG and) I broke our alliance with the Meklar this turn, none of my attacks on the Meklar would resolve until this interturn, after Meklar (and my) fleet/base construction, population growth, fleet movement, etc. had been calculated. And since AI diplomacy occurs later in the interturn than space combat, if the Meks break our alliance this interturn, I should at least have one more turn to bolster our defenses in the relevant systems. That's the theory, at least.
All fleets currently stationed at Sakkra worlds are dispatched to or toward Bulrathi targets. There are plenty more ships coming! I predict that this turnset will be spectacular! The only question is: A spectacular success ... or a spectacular failure?!
Following discussion, I went with the following ship design:
A cloaking device upgrades my little bomber design to a Sshadow 5.0; our surviving pair of old, old, old Hyper-X Misssssssssssssssssssses hits the scrapyard to make room - they did great work for us for a long, long time, but their era is long past. (Note that we could have added Duralloy to the Sshadow at no extra cost - initially - but miniaturization will reduce the construction and maintenance costs faster without it, so it stays off anyway, being completely worthless on a ship like this.)
I plan to build a LOT of Sshadows, starting with several hundred on my first turn. We'll see how the plan survives contact with the enemy on subsequent turns, but I'm happy with these for the time being. Also, I'm sending out a few combat transports: Basically every planet not named Dolz or Beta Ceti sends about a quarter of its lizards to war. Yes, this means over half a billion Sakkra will be crossing space, armed to the teeth, on a single-minded mission to kill the bears. It might not be enough, even with more transports ready to set out soon - it's going to be especially difficult to land Rayden and Ryoun, which are currently out of range of even our advanced scanner - but we're going to try!
I actually am spending a fair amoung on research for now; I want our Personal Absorption Shield and Terra+60 to hit ASAP. Beyond that though, we shouldn't really need anything at all. I'll keep up our investment in other technology pretty much just so I can say I did. There's one exception though: Battle Computer Mark 8. I am not happy with our lack of progress on this tech thus far. So I'm going to speed it up. WAY up.
I had to give cloning to the Meklar for it, but I believe the trade was worth it. It will help our espionage efforts enormously, improve defenses at our bases, and allow the construction of some seriously sweet starships in the near future. (I selected IRC6 as our next tech, since nothing was cheap enough to grab just for quick, minor miniaturization. I don't expect to ever actually acquire this tech.)
One final note: The Meklar currently have Hercular missiles, ECM 9, BC8, and 22 layers of shields at their missile bases. I just hope our alliance lasts. (Hopefully it will help that they presumably will want our assistance against the Silis....) One thing that (I think) works in our favor at least: Unlike a DoW - which may be preceded by a "cold war" sneak attack - I'm pretty sure allied parties can't attack each other on the same turn the alliance is broken. That is: If (we had a different set of rules for the SG and) I broke our alliance with the Meklar this turn, none of my attacks on the Meklar would resolve until this interturn, after Meklar (and my) fleet/base construction, population growth, fleet movement, etc. had been calculated. And since AI diplomacy occurs later in the interturn than space combat, if the Meks break our alliance this interturn, I should at least have one more turn to bolster our defenses in the relevant systems. That's the theory, at least.
All fleets currently stationed at Sakkra worlds are dispatched to or toward Bulrathi targets. There are plenty more ships coming! I predict that this turnset will be spectacular! The only question is: A spectacular success ... or a spectacular failure?!
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 257
2481: The Galactic Core Fleet arrives at Bulrathi Imra. Our Sstingersses validate Maniac's faith in them by wiping out the eight Bulrathi bases there in a single volley. Then our scientists come through for us with a Warp Dissipator, and we pretend to start work on Intergalactic Star Gates with no intention of actually working on them. We decline to bombard the pitiful world of Imra from orbit only because I don't want to wasste a design sspot on a colony sship for it, but M5-35 neverthelesss comes by to ... congratulate uss. It ssays that between the two of uss - the two mosst powerful empires in the galaxsy by leapss and bounds - we can challenge the "threat" of the evil Bulrathi empire. Challenge them, eh? Challenge them?! It ain't sseen nothing yet!
Hundreds of millions more lizards board asssault transsportss and sset out as our cloning labs race to replace them. We're building fewer Sshadows thiss year, in part because of the big Silicoid fleet inbound to our woefully under-defended ultra-rich world.
Fortunately, it'ss not the ssort of place that sstays under-defended for long.
We continue funding Force Fields heavily - I want Absorption Shields ASSSSAP* - and planetology isn't far behind. Only token invesstmentss in the other fields though, exscept (reluctantly) for Weapons. Additional fleetss disspatched.
*- That's "As Supremely, Specially, Sublimely Soon As Possible."
2482: The battle for Kakata ssees itss bases wiped out completely. We ssuffer zero lossses because Merculites are very sslow - though not sso sslow as to be without rissk. The following tacticss are known in the halls of Sakkra power as "Fancy Flying." They're known in the military sservice as "Sscraping passt by the sskin of your teeth!"
Sstabilized Impulsse Engines rock. "Wait"ing is for ssisssies.
At the battle for Hyboria on the other hand, the Sstinger pilotss fail to pay proper attention to the ssituation, and three of the sshipss are therefore lost. The bases are neverthelesss desstroyed with no further lossses, and our Cannon cruiser takess out their ssilly Grizzly dread. Nexst, our sscientisstss come through with a Personal Absorption Shield, with time to sspare before the firsst land invasion of my adminisstration! I go for Class 9 deflectors insstead of Class XV planetaries, in sspite of the ~15% cost difference, for four reasons:
1) It's almost as much of an upgrade at bases, but doesn't need a sspecial sshield consstructed.
2) It can be fitted on sships if desired.
3) It advances the tree.
4) We're never going to finissh either project anyway.
I nexst have the option to bomb three different alien worlds, but of course I don't. That jusst wouldn't be ssporting! (Bessides, I want those factories!)
Ssevere overkill fleetss disspatched to Exis and Proxima; ressearch committed primarily to planetology and (sstill reluctantly) weapons.
2483: It'ss time for ssome mayhem! At Proxima, the Bombss race the Sstingerss' misssiles to ssee who can kill the planet firsst... and the bombers win! The planet'ss bases are desstroyed with no lossses before the firsst sstinger volley can reach the planet, or the first merc volley catch our sshipss! Nexst is Exis ... where the Bulrathi have a brand-new Dreadnought, far ssuperior to any other sship we've sseen from them to date!
Ssadly, it retreatss before our sstingers can blow it out of the ssky. Momentss later, our Sshadows prove themsselves for the firsst time, wiping out all the planet'ss bases in one volley with (of coursse) no lossses.
Nexst, the Bulrathi attack Ukko. With "attack" redefined as "retreat." But then we get a really interesting fight: The Silicoids have come for Ultra-Rich Beta Ceti! Some of their sshipss are almosst dangerous, but fail by taking "unfocussed" to an entirely new level. Their numbers are sso enormouss, they're ssort of dangerous anyway, but we beat them off without any really ssevere trouble.
With those all desstroyed or chased away, we have four opportunities to bombard Bulrathi planetss from orbit - all ignored once more - and then the fun begins!
Proxima falls.
Kakata falls, yielding...
...the only tech the Bulrathi have managed to acquire ssince our previouss Gunsslinger's term. Of coursse, by thiss report actually officially arrived...
...we'd taken Exis too.
Oh, yess, and Imra, with itss 8 (yipeeee) factories, jusst fell, with the lasst ssurviving batallion of Sakkra troopers planting our flag over the bodies of our enemies! Of course, there was a ssecond wave of transsportss already on the way, sso it would jusst have fallen nexst year anyway if we losst the battle....
And now for ssome reason, Emperor Krungo wants to ssee me! I actually break out laughing when I ssee his face on the holo-sscreen.
He wantss peace, but thinkss he can dictate the terms: That the empire that is handily sslaughtering his entire military will break a valuable alliance sso as to disscusss a meaninglesss peace deal with his urssine loonies. When I finish laughing, I tell Krungo to go away. Faaaaaaaaaaar away.
That'ss four worlds conquered within three years of my taking office. If I can keep up thiss pace (and good luck, with those lasst two worlds in the corner of the galaxsy, but even sso...) I may yet eliminate the bears by the end of my ssecond term in office! At any rate, I'm scertainly going to try!
Hundreds of millions more lizards board asssault transsportss and sset out as our cloning labs race to replace them. We're building fewer Sshadows thiss year, in part because of the big Silicoid fleet inbound to our woefully under-defended ultra-rich world.
Fortunately, it'ss not the ssort of place that sstays under-defended for long.
We continue funding Force Fields heavily - I want Absorption Shields ASSSSAP* - and planetology isn't far behind. Only token invesstmentss in the other fields though, exscept (reluctantly) for Weapons. Additional fleetss disspatched.
*- That's "As Supremely, Specially, Sublimely Soon As Possible."
2482: The battle for Kakata ssees itss bases wiped out completely. We ssuffer zero lossses because Merculites are very sslow - though not sso sslow as to be without rissk. The following tacticss are known in the halls of Sakkra power as "Fancy Flying." They're known in the military sservice as "Sscraping passt by the sskin of your teeth!"
Sstabilized Impulsse Engines rock. "Wait"ing is for ssisssies.
At the battle for Hyboria on the other hand, the Sstinger pilotss fail to pay proper attention to the ssituation, and three of the sshipss are therefore lost. The bases are neverthelesss desstroyed with no further lossses, and our Cannon cruiser takess out their ssilly Grizzly dread. Nexst, our sscientisstss come through with a Personal Absorption Shield, with time to sspare before the firsst land invasion of my adminisstration! I go for Class 9 deflectors insstead of Class XV planetaries, in sspite of the ~15% cost difference, for four reasons:
1) It's almost as much of an upgrade at bases, but doesn't need a sspecial sshield consstructed.
2) It can be fitted on sships if desired.
3) It advances the tree.
4) We're never going to finissh either project anyway.
I nexst have the option to bomb three different alien worlds, but of course I don't. That jusst wouldn't be ssporting! (Bessides, I want those factories!)
Ssevere overkill fleetss disspatched to Exis and Proxima; ressearch committed primarily to planetology and (sstill reluctantly) weapons.
2483: It'ss time for ssome mayhem! At Proxima, the Bombss race the Sstingerss' misssiles to ssee who can kill the planet firsst... and the bombers win! The planet'ss bases are desstroyed with no lossses before the firsst sstinger volley can reach the planet, or the first merc volley catch our sshipss! Nexst is Exis ... where the Bulrathi have a brand-new Dreadnought, far ssuperior to any other sship we've sseen from them to date!
Ssadly, it retreatss before our sstingers can blow it out of the ssky. Momentss later, our Sshadows prove themsselves for the firsst time, wiping out all the planet'ss bases in one volley with (of coursse) no lossses.
Nexst, the Bulrathi attack Ukko. With "attack" redefined as "retreat." But then we get a really interesting fight: The Silicoids have come for Ultra-Rich Beta Ceti! Some of their sshipss are almosst dangerous, but fail by taking "unfocussed" to an entirely new level. Their numbers are sso enormouss, they're ssort of dangerous anyway, but we beat them off without any really ssevere trouble.
With those all desstroyed or chased away, we have four opportunities to bombard Bulrathi planetss from orbit - all ignored once more - and then the fun begins!
Proxima falls.
Kakata falls, yielding...
...the only tech the Bulrathi have managed to acquire ssince our previouss Gunsslinger's term. Of coursse, by thiss report actually officially arrived...
...we'd taken Exis too.
Oh, yess, and Imra, with itss 8 (yipeeee) factories, jusst fell, with the lasst ssurviving batallion of Sakkra troopers planting our flag over the bodies of our enemies! Of course, there was a ssecond wave of transsportss already on the way, sso it would jusst have fallen nexst year anyway if we losst the battle....
And now for ssome reason, Emperor Krungo wants to ssee me! I actually break out laughing when I ssee his face on the holo-sscreen.
He wantss peace, but thinkss he can dictate the terms: That the empire that is handily sslaughtering his entire military will break a valuable alliance sso as to disscusss a meaninglesss peace deal with his urssine loonies. When I finish laughing, I tell Krungo to go away. Faaaaaaaaaaar away.
That'ss four worlds conquered within three years of my taking office. If I can keep up thiss pace (and good luck, with those lasst two worlds in the corner of the galaxsy, but even sso...) I may yet eliminate the bears by the end of my ssecond term in office! At any rate, I'm scertainly going to try!
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 257
2484: An old Bulrathi dread thinkss it'ss going to attack Proxima, then notices the 11 Sstinger cruisers in orbit, and turns tail immediately. A pair of the new Warbear dreads sshows up at Kakata too, and for ssome reason forgetss to flee from our 8 orbiting Sstingersses. The firsst volley kills the firsst Warbear. The ssecond volley kills the ssecond. Sso much for that battle. Then, finally, at "19%" odds after sseveral years in the perscentages...
We have Terraforming +60! The only non-sstupid option that isn't obssolete yet is the nexst level of the ssame thing (T+80) sso I choose that, with no intention of doing any real ressearch into it.
And then we get the besst news of the year: The worlds we conquered lasst year brought Rayden into Advanced Sscanner range...
...and it's a little ssnowball at the galaxsy's edge. Can you guesss what thiss means?
(Hint: Bwa. Ha. Ha. Ha. HA!)
There's alsso bad news though: The Meklar have glasssed another planet: The terran Silicoid world of Hyboria, where almost 200 of our transsportss are due to arrive (and ssplatter) nexst year. I therefore order another Poach at Regulus, with maxsimum reserve funding, and take sstepss to prevent thiss from happening (or at leasst from being sso devasstating) in the future. Meanwhile, everyone and his iguana is sset to terraform.
2485: Jusst as my landsslide re-election is confirmed for my ssecond five-year term in office, more bears arrive at Exis, revealing their newesst cruiser design:
At leasst they put some tactical sspeed on it, but it can't touch our "Cannonss" cruiser. (The sstingers make the dreads go away with ease.) Nexst, our Hyboria bombers have an opportunity to run away from a Bulrathi Warbear. (There's nothing to bomb, ssince the Meklar glasssed the planet lasst year.) And that brings uss to the battle for Artifactss Misha. Our Sstingersses take out all the bases only because the Sshadows were worried they might desstroy too much infrasstructure if they hit the planetss' ssurface with 193 anti-matter bombs. Thiss workss quite nicely, as only two million bears and ten of their factories perissh before our fleet declines to bomb the place and...
...the planet is ours. Not, of course, before a bunch of messsages informing uss that our transports bound for Hyboria crasshed when the colony accidentally failed to exisst.
I go ahead and sseed planetology jusst sso I can ssay I sseeded ssomething. Weapons now at "8%." Hoping for that tech to come in and produce ssome real miniaturization, I make a couple of tech trades for much lesss significant miniaturization: Hard Beam to the bugs for BC6, and IIT5 to the Mekss (who already have IIT2!) for Scatter Pack V.
2486: The battle for Hyboria sshould be interessting. Firsst we face the Klackons in neutral sspace: A good opportunity to sscan their fleet at least....
...but the Heavy Fusion Beams on their sseventy Ranger autorepair cruisers make it clear that is all we can hope to accomplissh here for today. Our "Cannonss" cruiser retreatss, and the Poach is desstroyed by their sswift Rangers - the firsst losss of any Sakkra sship in sseveral years! Nexst comes our attack on Dunatis. Thiss one sshould have a more aessthetically pleasing outcome! Our "Cannonss" cruiser desstroys their colony sship, their Warbear retreatss rather than being desstroyed by our sstingers - and as for our Sshadows...
...they're more worried about accsidentally desstroying the colony than about failiing to take out the bases. They do leave a decent number of ssurvivors after all, and sso follow the example of our Hyades fleet in sskipping orbital bombardment. Then, after hundreds of millions more Sakkra perissh at Hyboria - thankss to our "allies" desstroying the colony two years back - the real action begins...
...and ends with Sakkra control over two more ex-Bulrathi worlds.
Meanwhile, our advanced sscanner, working from our new base at Missha, has finally gotten a look at the farthesst corner of the galaxsy.
We now have sscans of every sstar ssysstem, without exsception. The Bulrathi are down to their lasst two worlds, both of them ssmalissh and hosstile.
Transsportss are now on their way.
2487: Bulrathi attack Proxima, about a zillion parssecss out of their current range. They've losst a few worlds ssince thiss fleet was launched. It conssisstss of two old dreads (which I wipe out with Sstingersses) and a ssmall handful of Hyper-X boatss (which retreat). They then attack Exis - about a zillion and a half parssecss out of their current range. Thiss "attack" conssisstss of two of the new Warbear dreads. I have 15 Sstingersses in the ssysstem, and wipe the Warbears out in one volley. Nice try, bears!
Now it'ss my turn.
Not 100% ssure here, but I think mine went a little better.
I play around with a few ssliders, move a few sshipss around, sseed computer and weapons tech ... and put the champagne on ice!
We have Terraforming +60! The only non-sstupid option that isn't obssolete yet is the nexst level of the ssame thing (T+80) sso I choose that, with no intention of doing any real ressearch into it.
And then we get the besst news of the year: The worlds we conquered lasst year brought Rayden into Advanced Sscanner range...
...and it's a little ssnowball at the galaxsy's edge. Can you guesss what thiss means?
(Hint: Bwa. Ha. Ha. Ha. HA!)
There's alsso bad news though: The Meklar have glasssed another planet: The terran Silicoid world of Hyboria, where almost 200 of our transsportss are due to arrive (and ssplatter) nexst year. I therefore order another Poach at Regulus, with maxsimum reserve funding, and take sstepss to prevent thiss from happening (or at leasst from being sso devasstating) in the future. Meanwhile, everyone and his iguana is sset to terraform.
2485: Jusst as my landsslide re-election is confirmed for my ssecond five-year term in office, more bears arrive at Exis, revealing their newesst cruiser design:
At leasst they put some tactical sspeed on it, but it can't touch our "Cannonss" cruiser. (The sstingers make the dreads go away with ease.) Nexst, our Hyboria bombers have an opportunity to run away from a Bulrathi Warbear. (There's nothing to bomb, ssince the Meklar glasssed the planet lasst year.) And that brings uss to the battle for Artifactss Misha. Our Sstingersses take out all the bases only because the Sshadows were worried they might desstroy too much infrasstructure if they hit the planetss' ssurface with 193 anti-matter bombs. Thiss workss quite nicely, as only two million bears and ten of their factories perissh before our fleet declines to bomb the place and...
...the planet is ours. Not, of course, before a bunch of messsages informing uss that our transports bound for Hyboria crasshed when the colony accidentally failed to exisst.
I go ahead and sseed planetology jusst sso I can ssay I sseeded ssomething. Weapons now at "8%." Hoping for that tech to come in and produce ssome real miniaturization, I make a couple of tech trades for much lesss significant miniaturization: Hard Beam to the bugs for BC6, and IIT5 to the Mekss (who already have IIT2!) for Scatter Pack V.
2486: The battle for Hyboria sshould be interessting. Firsst we face the Klackons in neutral sspace: A good opportunity to sscan their fleet at least....
...but the Heavy Fusion Beams on their sseventy Ranger autorepair cruisers make it clear that is all we can hope to accomplissh here for today. Our "Cannonss" cruiser retreatss, and the Poach is desstroyed by their sswift Rangers - the firsst losss of any Sakkra sship in sseveral years! Nexst comes our attack on Dunatis. Thiss one sshould have a more aessthetically pleasing outcome! Our "Cannonss" cruiser desstroys their colony sship, their Warbear retreatss rather than being desstroyed by our sstingers - and as for our Sshadows...
...they're more worried about accsidentally desstroying the colony than about failiing to take out the bases. They do leave a decent number of ssurvivors after all, and sso follow the example of our Hyades fleet in sskipping orbital bombardment. Then, after hundreds of millions more Sakkra perissh at Hyboria - thankss to our "allies" desstroying the colony two years back - the real action begins...
...and ends with Sakkra control over two more ex-Bulrathi worlds.
Meanwhile, our advanced sscanner, working from our new base at Missha, has finally gotten a look at the farthesst corner of the galaxsy.
We now have sscans of every sstar ssysstem, without exsception. The Bulrathi are down to their lasst two worlds, both of them ssmalissh and hosstile.
Transsportss are now on their way.
2487: Bulrathi attack Proxima, about a zillion parssecss out of their current range. They've losst a few worlds ssince thiss fleet was launched. It conssisstss of two old dreads (which I wipe out with Sstingersses) and a ssmall handful of Hyper-X boatss (which retreat). They then attack Exis - about a zillion and a half parssecss out of their current range. Thiss "attack" conssisstss of two of the new Warbear dreads. I have 15 Sstingersses in the ssysstem, and wipe the Warbears out in one volley. Nice try, bears!
Now it'ss my turn.
Not 100% ssure here, but I think mine went a little better.
I play around with a few ssliders, move a few sshipss around, sseed computer and weapons tech ... and put the champagne on ice!
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 257
2488:
We ssuffer the final Bulrathi attack of the game: Three dreads and 32 desstroyers at Exis. We have nothing in the ssysstem excsept 24 Sstingers, sso we fire a ssingle volley at each sstack, and they all die prettily. Then we go to Rayden.
Our bombers outrun our misssiles again, neglect orbital bombardment, and then...
Not anymore, my Sili friend. Not anymore.
Sssssssoooooo.... There's a bit of a problem, it would sseem. Ssuddenly, I find I'm not at war with anybody! Oh, well. I guesss I'll just have to do peaceful sstuff for now. Moreover, in sspite of the enormouss wave of popularity I sseem to be riding, I sshall sseek no third term in office: I have accomplisshed all that I ssought to do as Gunsslinger of Sssla!
Just call me Gunsslinger RefSsteel K. Polk.
2489: We receive a GNN special report: Apparently the Meklar world of Nitzer has been ssuffering from ssome kind of masssive plague ssinsce before my reign began - no doubt caused by their exsperimentss with doom viruss technology. They've finally managed to get it under control though, and cured the lasst of their people. Annnnd ... that'ss it. To my continuing ssurprise and chagrine, the Meklar sstill don't want our help with their Silicoid war.
2490: Sso my reign ends much as it began ... exscept with nine more worlds in our ssaurian claws!
Well, and alsso a bunch more factories and defensses and technology and sstarsshipss and things. The Bulrathi were ssuch pusshovers, and the Meklar sso adamant in their refusal to assk for help in their war, I really had nothing better to do than the boring sstuff that'ss going to make our empire even more invinscible in the long term anyway. Notice that some of the planetss in that lisst have already had their production doubled for (at leasst) thiss year (I was dumping reserves in by the batch in advance to ssave time) but Gunsslinger-elect Catwalk sstill has well over 6,000 BC of reserves on hand.
I asssume you'll want to reasssign tech sspending to fit your own whims and/or interesst calculations (I paid very little attention to accrued interesst in the lasst couple turns of my set) - I'll ssay thiss though: When I thought we would never ressearch the variouss technologies we sstarted during my reign, I was completely wrong. I invessted in all of them mysself. I was asssuming that we'd be at war with the Silis before long, and you ssaw how that turned out.
You'll alsso want to reasssign ssome of our sspies' funding. I forgot to do thiss before leaving office mysself. (Our reports on the Meklar and Klackons are current; our sspies were jusst caught thiss year.)
Notice that everyone is ambivalent about uss at besst. Thiss is partly because we exsterminated the bears, but partly jusst because we've been getting bigger and sstronger rapidly.
Thiss is of course a potential problem. Here is part of a ssolution to that problem:
If we ever actually wind up at war with anybody, thiss sstarfleet sshould be of ssome use. I was going to sscrap the old Bombssssssssss at ssome point, and probably the Cannonsses too once I had an enemy in mind and a better sspace ssuperiority design I wanted to build, and of course when we actually attack ssomeone, we're going to need a lot more sshipss - but thiss isn't bad as a sstart. Also note the Dead Colsships I'm sscattering around the galaxsy. (I couldn't fit a Toxic base on a Medium hull, and there aren't many toxic worlds left anyway.) The idea with these is jusst to sslip in and ssnatch any world that might get glasssed in the course of the upcoming battles. For instance, there's a chance that the (currently) Meklar Hyboria colony may get blown apart any year. One of our colsshipss is at Regulus, one turn away.
Ssome parting words of advice that I hope you'll take to heart for your time in office:
Have fun! And do what you like - we're going to win thiss thing!
(Save is attached)
Oh me of little faith....
We ssuffer the final Bulrathi attack of the game: Three dreads and 32 desstroyers at Exis. We have nothing in the ssysstem excsept 24 Sstingers, sso we fire a ssingle volley at each sstack, and they all die prettily. Then we go to Rayden.
Our bombers outrun our misssiles again, neglect orbital bombardment, and then...
Not anymore, my Sili friend. Not anymore.
Sssssssoooooo.... There's a bit of a problem, it would sseem. Ssuddenly, I find I'm not at war with anybody! Oh, well. I guesss I'll just have to do peaceful sstuff for now. Moreover, in sspite of the enormouss wave of popularity I sseem to be riding, I sshall sseek no third term in office: I have accomplisshed all that I ssought to do as Gunsslinger of Sssla!
Just call me Gunsslinger RefSsteel K. Polk.
2489: We receive a GNN special report: Apparently the Meklar world of Nitzer has been ssuffering from ssome kind of masssive plague ssinsce before my reign began - no doubt caused by their exsperimentss with doom viruss technology. They've finally managed to get it under control though, and cured the lasst of their people. Annnnd ... that'ss it. To my continuing ssurprise and chagrine, the Meklar sstill don't want our help with their Silicoid war.
2490: Sso my reign ends much as it began ... exscept with nine more worlds in our ssaurian claws!
Well, and alsso a bunch more factories and defensses and technology and sstarsshipss and things. The Bulrathi were ssuch pusshovers, and the Meklar sso adamant in their refusal to assk for help in their war, I really had nothing better to do than the boring sstuff that'ss going to make our empire even more invinscible in the long term anyway. Notice that some of the planetss in that lisst have already had their production doubled for (at leasst) thiss year (I was dumping reserves in by the batch in advance to ssave time) but Gunsslinger-elect Catwalk sstill has well over 6,000 BC of reserves on hand.
I asssume you'll want to reasssign tech sspending to fit your own whims and/or interesst calculations (I paid very little attention to accrued interesst in the lasst couple turns of my set) - I'll ssay thiss though: When I thought we would never ressearch the variouss technologies we sstarted during my reign, I was completely wrong. I invessted in all of them mysself. I was asssuming that we'd be at war with the Silis before long, and you ssaw how that turned out.
You'll alsso want to reasssign ssome of our sspies' funding. I forgot to do thiss before leaving office mysself. (Our reports on the Meklar and Klackons are current; our sspies were jusst caught thiss year.)
Notice that everyone is ambivalent about uss at besst. Thiss is partly because we exsterminated the bears, but partly jusst because we've been getting bigger and sstronger rapidly.
Thiss is of course a potential problem. Here is part of a ssolution to that problem:
If we ever actually wind up at war with anybody, thiss sstarfleet sshould be of ssome use. I was going to sscrap the old Bombssssssssss at ssome point, and probably the Cannonsses too once I had an enemy in mind and a better sspace ssuperiority design I wanted to build, and of course when we actually attack ssomeone, we're going to need a lot more sshipss - but thiss isn't bad as a sstart. Also note the Dead Colsships I'm sscattering around the galaxsy. (I couldn't fit a Toxic base on a Medium hull, and there aren't many toxic worlds left anyway.) The idea with these is jusst to sslip in and ssnatch any world that might get glasssed in the course of the upcoming battles. For instance, there's a chance that the (currently) Meklar Hyboria colony may get blown apart any year. One of our colsshipss is at Regulus, one turn away.
Ssome parting words of advice that I hope you'll take to heart for your time in office:
Have fun! And do what you like - we're going to win thiss thing!
(Save is attached)
ToddMarshall
Maniac - Stellar Wingman
Surprised you had enough marines to take all the worlds. Figured you'd either have to glass a couple or leave a couple in the corner for the next person. I probably underestimated our ground combat, which apparently had a major advantage, rather than being at even odds.
I haven't looked at the save yet, but really, it seems to me that if we weren't hell bent on triggering final war, and this was an SP game I'd be thinking that if I could stand up those Bulrathi worlds, we probably wouldn't need anything but bombers the rest of the way.
Being that we're going the final war route, we'll probably have to take and stand up one more races worlds, unless we get asked to kill the silicoids in the next turn or ywo. We could probably finish them in about the same time it took to kill the bears, unless they have made major advances recently.
I haven't looked at the save yet, but really, it seems to me that if we weren't hell bent on triggering final war, and this was an SP game I'd be thinking that if I could stand up those Bulrathi worlds, we probably wouldn't need anything but bombers the rest of the way.
Being that we're going the final war route, we'll probably have to take and stand up one more races worlds, unless we get asked to kill the silicoids in the next turn or ywo. We could probably finish them in about the same time it took to kill the bears, unless they have made major advances recently.
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 257
Okay, okay, so I do have a bit more information than that in case you want it. First, if only for the lurkers, here's a current map of the galaxy. Terrain type is noted only for systems that can't be colonized by our medium Colsship 5Es:
If the Meks had asked me to declare war on the Silis, it would look a little different, but those are the breaks. I also missed an opportunity to resume our old alliance with the bugs (while they were delighted with our bear-killing feats) - which would have increased the chances of a Sili war and probably netted us a planet. (Our colship would have taken Hyboria if we had an alliance or NAP with them. Of course, we would have had that world already if the Meklar hadn't glassed it first.)
Also, for reference, here are our current spying reports:
Yes, the Meklar are scary.
There will be an election at the end of your turns, and depending on how the dice roll (DoW so we're allowed to attack) and how you play it, we might have an option to walk away with a Conquest victory. If not, Final War could still present a serious challenge*, considering the techology and production base we'd be facing (and some of the designs and numbers of alien ships we've seen). If you're planning to go that route, you've got just ten turns in which to prepare the empire! (Admittedly, we've got a good start on that already now.)
I'd like to hear from the rest of the team though: Should we go for Final War in 2500? I suspect Catwalk would say yes, but the game might not get around to Catwalk again regardless of what we do here, so....
*- Well, not THAT serious. I've seen what this group can do even against terrifying odds. The game is unquestionably won at this point, I think.
If the Meks had asked me to declare war on the Silis, it would look a little different, but those are the breaks. I also missed an opportunity to resume our old alliance with the bugs (while they were delighted with our bear-killing feats) - which would have increased the chances of a Sili war and probably netted us a planet. (Our colship would have taken Hyboria if we had an alliance or NAP with them. Of course, we would have had that world already if the Meklar hadn't glassed it first.)
Also, for reference, here are our current spying reports:
Yes, the Meklar are scary.
There will be an election at the end of your turns, and depending on how the dice roll (DoW so we're allowed to attack) and how you play it, we might have an option to walk away with a Conquest victory. If not, Final War could still present a serious challenge*, considering the techology and production base we'd be facing (and some of the designs and numbers of alien ships we've seen). If you're planning to go that route, you've got just ten turns in which to prepare the empire! (Admittedly, we've got a good start on that already now.)
I'd like to hear from the rest of the team though: Should we go for Final War in 2500? I suspect Catwalk would say yes, but the game might not get around to Catwalk again regardless of what we do here, so....
*- Well, not THAT serious. I've seen what this group can do even against terrifying odds. The game is unquestionably won at this point, I think.
Similar threads
- Sticky
