RBGC SG5: Training Day OFFICIAL GAME THREAD

For the next installment of RB succession gaming, I will host a Training Day Game. This concept was originated a couple of years back for Civ3--and in this incarnation, it plays a bit differently than a normal succession game. (Thanks to Sirian for the original PROD training day game framework)

Here's how it will go...

Rather than play as a normal SG rotation, with me taking a turn every so often as I come up, and same for others, I'm going to play the whole game -- AND so is everybody else. However, instead of each playing the game separately, there will be one Official Game, progressing like a typical Succession Game.

It's going to look something like this:

Turn Order:
Bam-Bam
Player 2
Player 3
Player 4
Player 5
Player 6

Year 1, 2178AD is posted and everybody plays. Everybody posts their turn report, including me, and I will always post my version of the save game. I'll offer my view of each player's moves, the good, the bad, the ugly. Questions are welcome, then at some point we move to next turn.

Since I was "Up", my save game is used by everybody, to start from for the next turn. Everybody plays and posts a report, and I will always post my version of the save. In this case, however, Player 2 is up, so he should also post his save. I'll offer feedback based on the reports (the more detail you put in your report, the more I can examine and critique, so you'll get out of it what you put in to it.) After the analysis is done, we move to next turn.

Since Player 2 was "up", his save is used by everybody to start the current round. And on and on it goes. Everybody plays the whole game and gets continuous critiquing (according to how detailed their reports are) and they get to see what I do in the exact same situations -- and those who are on the roster also get as much input into the course of events of the "Official Results" as they would in a standard succession game.

A little complex-sounding, but in practice it will be smooth and easy to deal with. I'll handle directing the traffic and keeping track of what's where.

THE RULES:

* When you are Up, you are REQUIRED to play, and to do so in a timely fashion.

* When you are not Up, you are not required to play, but are strongly encouraged to play as much as you can. The more you play, the more critique you can get.

* No critiquing of other player's results, except by me. If you are playing in this game, then by definition you're no expert. mmm-kay? This rule is aimed at keeping each player's focus on their own performance and development, and off of getting into comparisons with the other players, and to minimize any chance for hostilities. Questions involving "what if" scenerios, regarding other players' results, are OK.

* No question is too dumb, no move too weedy, no results too poor. Nobody will be dropped or turned away for lack of skill or experience. This is your chance to stop being a wallflower and get out onto the dance floor.

* When you are Up, your results will be official, whether they are good, bad, or ugly. When you're not up, feel free to try stuff out, to take risks or do things you wouldn't normally ever dare, to see where it leads -- or play as if you were Up. Your choice.

* 24 hours for the player who is Up Next to acknowledge that they have Got It and are playing. This is a HARD RULE, so when you are On Deck or your turn is upcoming, you need to make sure you take time out to keep an eye on the board. If you do not acknowledge within 24 hours, you will be skipped as far as being Up and having your results affect the Official outcome.

* 96 hours maximum between every one year (12 turns) round. If the playing and reports and analysis finish early, we'll move on early. If 96 hours comes around, we'll move on regardless.

There will be a thread for the Official Game. What shall be posted there is the reports and results of the player who is Up on each turn, along with my critique and any questions and answers players have in regard to those results.

* The Shadow thread will handle everything else, including the turn reports of all players not Up on that turn, all critiques of these reports, and even my own reports from my shadow turns.

* Players who are UP should avoid reading any further in the shadow thread once others start posting shadow reports from the same turn. That is, it's OK to refer back to the shadow thread as a reference, but I ask that you not do so when you're Up, especially in regard to finding out what others have done on the turn you're about to play, so that your official turn results will be as "pure" as you can manage under these conditions.

I do not plan on running this as a typical SG. This will be a bit of sink or swim, with me saying little or nothing in advance, and then commenting on the results. There are many ways to do things successfully in this game. I am not at all interested in copying my gameplay, or in showing formulaic methods to succeed. The intent is to offer thoughts into what tactics and strategies are strong or weak, risky, safe, uninformed, or weedy about your decisions; i.e., help teach you how to strategize, not what to think.

Version: GalCiv Standard 1.20.086
Difficulty: Painful (All intelligent AIs)
Galaxy Stats: Huge, Loose, Common
Party: Technologists
Bonus Picks: 3 picks sensors (+4) and range (+1), 1 picks each influence (+10%), morale (+10%), trade (+10%), and weapons (+15%)
Victory Type: Any

Varient Rules: No selling techs for cash. This is a crutch that is not present on higher difficulty levels, so we will train without it.

I have picked the map size and habitability to get a somewhat longer game. No speed picks and loose clusters means we will have to think through settling strategy. Party choice is to help the team develop use of SiBCaT (in other words, learning to manage free research when the game does not correctly display it).

Roster

Bam-Bam
Brackard
G-Force
Hegetaga
Rojo96
black smoke

- Bam-Bam

I have created the game, and played through the first year (12 turns).

For this first round, I intend to give you all a chance to play without any input from me, then I'll post my turn results and report and offer my critiques, once all the players have posted or the four day limit approaches.

Here's the opening game file. Play twelve turns (stop when you get to January 2179) and then write up as detailed a report of everything you did as you can manage, to be posted in the Shadow thread. Might be a good idea to note everything that you do. These first few rounds, that won't be too painful. Later on, it will get to be too much and we'll all have to cut back on the detail, but for now, try to note EVERY move or decision you make, and what your thinking is behind the bigger decisions.

RBGC SG5: Training Day Start

I dont think Ill be able to get in on this, I was in the process of reinstalling due to some pretty nasty bugs when I realized i dont have my disk.. So im getting it sent to me but it will be a while before I can get back in sorry.

Sorry to hear that Hegetaga. Feel free to lurk, and post a shadow turn (as an observer) if you get the chance.

Ok. We start slightly south of the center of the galaxy. Earth is a PQ20, with another PQ16 in the Sol system. With our enhanced sensors, we spot a yellow star, Cherryh (PQ15/15/14) to the southeast.



The first decision is whether to send the colony ship to the Cherryh system or to colonize the PQ16 planet in the Sol system. I take the latter, and here's why. The Cherryh system is in no danger from the AIs, settling the Sol planet will allow for large population colony ships to be produced more frequently (from Earth and Sol IV), and the ships to colonize the Cherryh PQ15s will have at least 150M pop versus the 100M pop in the starting colony ship.



Looking at the tactical map (F9), we spot no visible AI influence anywhere. You can perform influence scouting by selecting a sector and pressing F8, but I usually do not do that unless I am trying to pinpoint the AI starting location (sometimes even this is not needed, which I hope to show later).

January

Sol IV settled. I then call up the domestic advisor (F4) and set spending to 100% military, with total spending set to complete a colony ship at earth every 2 (+1) turns. Taxes are raised to the max amount while keeping planetary morale at 100 for all planets.

That task complete, it is time to move the survey ship. Looks like moving NW will put that other nearby star into view with one move. Done. Good--that star is also yellow, PQ16/14. The surveyor continues west--there are 4 stars within quick scouting distance (again relying on our enhanced sensors, which are great with the surveyor that has a +sensors bonus of its own).

February

Oh--now here's something interesting!



Looks like the Alterians are in our neck of the woods. From the tactical map, you can see their light blue influence. Since the initial influnce from a starting planet only extends into adjacent sectors, we can easily see that the Alterian homeworld is either immediately west or northwest of the colored sector (the homeworld cannot be in the colored sector, since we would be able to see influence in closer sectors).

March

Junk white star spotted just west of the Cherryh system.

April

Colony ship launched from Earth with 200M souls. Ship heads to the NW PQ16 system.

May

Another junk white star spotted by our surveyor.

June

Colony ship launched from Sol IV with 150M souls--heads to Cherryh system. A blue star system, Devra, is spotted with a PQ13. The system is tagged with a rally point (the small arrow button in the top right of the main display). Rally point name is changed to "PQ13" (click on the rally point--click on the name, and type in a new one). I generally tag non-yellow stars with PQ14/13/12s for later settling. I also tag resources.

July

Colony ship from Earth launched with 150M colonists. This one heads west to either settle the 2nd PQ15 in the Cherryh system, or to backfill one of the two nearby systems so that the earlier colony ships can poach a yellow star closer to the Alterian homeworld.

August

Star system to the SW of the PQ13 system is junk. Based on our surveyor location, the Alterian homeworld is NW of the original influence spotted. Colonize the PQ16 in the Unukalhai system, getting a morality event.



With the Alterians so close--I choose to pick the good option. Morality is now 51. Production on Unukalhai set to colony ship.

September

Surveyor heads west to scout the last star close in Alterian space.

October

Colony ship from Earth with 175M. Heads northeast. Cherryh II colonized with no morality event.

November

Cherryh IV colonized, and we get a PQ morality event.



As tempting as the evil option is--the neutral option gives a nice benefit with no impact. Cherryh IV ends up a PQ17 base planet. In hindsight, perhaps sending the colony ship to continue south would have gained us more systems, but time will tell. Getting a +2PQ morality event for no morality hit is a good thing (TM).

December

PQ12 planet spotted in a star just south of the Alterian homeworld.

End of Year

Colony ships complete from Earth and Unukalhai. Launched with 200M and 75M, respectively. The latter choice was designed to keep a reasonable base population on Unukalhai... >150M.

Here is our current tactical map and planet listing (F9 and F2).



You can see the Torian influence to the Southwest. Good thing we were not picking evil choices, eh? The sector with two stars (highlighted with the yellow box) has a settled planet. Based on the lack of Torian influence in the sector immediately north, this is not the Torian home system. You can also tell that the Alterian homeworld is the one-star system to the NW of the 3-star system, since we cannot see any Alterian influence south of our surveyor.

Folks, with the exception of Brackard, who is UP, take this save and play another shadow year, reporting in the shadow thread. Brackard will take this save and report the official turns for the next year of our empire, and report in this thread.

Good luck to Brackard!

Roster:
Bam-Bam (just played)
Brackard (PLAYING)
G-Force (ON DECK)
Rojo
blacksmoke

The game

Brackard, you have 24 hours to post a got it, and 96 hours total to play and report your game here. The rest of us have 96 hours to play and post in the shadow thread.

Got it. It will most likely go up Friday night.

Ok, let’s take a look at our situation. We’ve got three systems colonized, five planets, and a few more to be settled. The Altraians are relatively close to the NW, the Torians close to the SW. The fact that we haven’t seen a colony ship from the Altarians most likely means they’ve found greener pastures to the W/NW of their homeworld. They look to be in pretty good shape. The Torians, however, look to be in pretty sad shape. With their homeworld likely to be W/SW of the spotted influence, they have slim pickings. With two majors and us in close proximity, that leaves the Arceans, Dren, and Yor with the rest of the galaxy. Seeing as the northern portion of the galaxy seems to be more densely populated, we could be in for a bit of a ride (especially if another one of the majors gets caught in the E/SE portion of the map).

My first goal for this turn is to crank out a few more colony ships to complete filling in the PQ 14’s at Unukalhai and Cherryh. I will pass on Devra (PQ13) and the PQ12 south of the Alt homeworld for the time being. I’ll take a second look at it when we get the basic env control tech. I will send out a few colony ships to the E/SE. With luck, we’ll find a system or two out there. The Hero will scout to the S/SE of its current position, and I don’t know why (cough), but I don’t think we’ll find anything out there. From Hero’s position, we know the NW is covered as well as the SW, we might as well head E/SE and see what is down there. I’d like to minimize contact with the majors until we are ready, so I’m backing the hero back into our space. We might even get lucky. (Maybe the Caranoids didn’t settle down there right?)

My second goal is to begin researching. I will adjust taxes to make sure we keep morale at 100% on all planets. As long as morale is at 100% (and we are still have money in reserves), I shouldn’t have to worry about social spending. Or that is my thinking anyway. If morale becomes a problem, I will move to social spending and set up soil enhancement at the minimum. The cost is relatively cheap at 50pp so it shouldn’t take too long. Otherwise, I’ll continue on with research.

Ok, so following are the beginning techs and associated costs to the paths I generally start with:

Med Theory (50), Basic Env Control (220), Improved Env Control (320)
Comm Theory (50), Univ Trans (120), Diplo (120), Trade (130)
Wpn Theory (50), Photons(120), Phasers(120), Corvette(400)
Prop Theory (50), Cold Fusion (100), Impulse Drive (300)
Def Theory(50), Deflectors (200)

The situation normally dictates which path I start with. If I have no contact with the majors, and a good number of stars, I’ll go with the Med Theory branch. This allows me to work on my PQ and population. If I have the Dren knocking on my door, I’ll go with Def and/or Wpn Theory in order to get some cardboard cutouts on deck quickly. If I’m stuck in the corner, I go with prop theory. However, in this situation, where we have a decent start, and will soon have contact with two majors with matching alignments, I will go ahead and go comm. theory. This will allow us to put out some freighters for trade/relations and a chance (if the next leader is so disposed), at the all mighty diplo translators. So with that being said, let’s begin:

Load it up and this is what we get:



January:
Hero moves SE. Colony ship with 75M at Unukahai settles the PQ14 there. Yes, I know it’s a bit high, but it was better than creating another one at the time. We also get this:



We obviously don’t understand it, so we don’t touch it. The sol colony ship moves SE, the other colony ship moves NE. towards the collection of planets there. The sliders are still at 100% military for the final colony ship.

February:
Hero continues SE. Colony ships continue NE and the other E.

March:
The final colony ship is produced at Cherryh. This is where I made a misclick. Instead of launching the ship, I simply clicked the planet. The result, a larger than wanted majority of the planets’ population fled to the lesser PQ planet. Not good. I don’t save every turn because of the tech trade ‘feature’, so I apologize to the team for that one. Anyway, I move sliders over to 60% research/ 40% social. Spending has been around the 60-75% mark. I’m trying to hit zero roughly about the time that banks come online. My initial research project is comm. Theory. Comm theory can still be completed in one round at 60%, so I do it. The governer is set up with the two projects we have, soil enhancement/entertainment. Colony ship moves E, and NE. The NE surveys a useless Rhea.

April:
Comm. Theory comes in, begin Univ Trans. Ships SE, E, NE.

May:
Universal Translators come in. Set up for diplomacy at 100% research. Running roughly 75% spending. Ships, E, SE, NE.

June:
The NE colony surveys Sivil, a PQ 15. The next question, take it or mark it and move on? I think I’m going to take it. That will increase our range for another ship. An econ resource is spotted and tagged. The hero spots a Caranoid colony ship to the SE heading E. Wow.

July:
Still researching, hit a +2 morale with Hero. Colony continues E.

August:
Diplomacy comes in. I change governments. Move on to research trade. Hyadea surveyed, worthless. Alconius surveyed, PQ13, tagged.

September:
ELECTION DAY!! We win. 84 votes. Lacroix surveyed, worthless. NE colony ship colonizes Civil. Hey this looks familiar:



Again, we don't touch thing we don't understand.

October:
Trade comes in. Hero continues E. Switch to 100% military spending. Set up the governer with Soil/Bank/entertainment in that order. Morale still at 100% but has been dipping now and then. Having to move the slider to compensate. Set up Earth and Sol IV with freighters due next turn. Another colony ship is due as well.

November:
Colony ship from Cherryh IV. Put on 75M and head them eastward to investigate the new borders. 2 freighters from Sol. Head one NW towards Altarians, one SW towards Torians. Hero continues E.


December:
Spending set to 100% social. We will have several planets due for soil and banks here shortly. Move Hero E. Investigate Maestro. Maestro has a PQ14 unsettled. That must be what the Caranoid ship is heading towards. Xasica surveyed and tagged. (PQ13). The caranoids are up cold fusion and defense theory, and down trade. I did not make any trades at this time.

Ending stats and maps below.





edit: Save game

First thought--you could have just restarted from the beginning to correct that misclick. Being only three months in, that would not have taken too much time to replay, and we are not about perfect clicking. Food for thought for the next time this happens. I have done that too many times, so don't feel bad about this one.

Your approach on spending was a bit different than I usually take it, spending on social while researching. I think that might shave a few months off hitting a good self-sustaining economy, but I will have to test it out. I usually do not do this for a couple of reasons--1) it keeps my initial cash around longer, and 2) slider management becomes a real pain in the butt. From what you wrote about your spending on diplo and trade, I suspect you overspent for these techs. I did a quick check on your savegame--switching to imperial gov and setting spending to 75% (100% research). That is about 88rp (which is probably higher than you were at the time). That means you probably wasted around 40bc on the diplo research and even more (over 100bc) on trade if you kept spending at 75% after the government change, since you still took 2 turns to research trade. Ouch. Our treasury is going up in . Not good.

You should have checked the Caranoid techs right after getting translators--they may have had dipomacy. They have it now, so I do not know when they got it. It USUALLY (see exceptions in some of the shadow turns) is one of the first few techs to be researched by the AIs.

I am not sure I would have switched to social this early, but with no contacts with any majors, this is not a bad move. Good work on getting the freighters out first, especially both of them coming from Sol. Would have been nice to get another one out in anticipation of advanced trade, but not critical.

Overall, a solid turn. Biggest drawback was burning up the treasury during reasearch. Reread the ending of my shadow post, and visit the link for SiBCat.

Could you post a link to your tech spreadsheet. That would help out the team.

For the team--it is not necessary to continue to mark things (PQ13s, resources) with rally points, Though this is good practice, there is a bug in 1.20. The rally points are invisible. They still can be seen from the rally point menu, so we haven't lost what we have marked,

G-Force, you are up. Please post a "got it" in a day, download Brackard's save, and post your turns in a total of 48 hours (note the change). I am trying to speed up the game a bit. The rest of us should download the game and post to the shadow thread in 48 hours. My comments will be posted not later than a day after that, and then we can move on to the next round.

Oh, and One More Thing (TM): G-Force, if your schedule is too nuts to play the official game right now in 48 hours, let me know and we can switch the rosters. Since we all have not played in our slots yet, it is easier to switch now than later.

Roster:
Bam-Bam
Brackard (Just played)
G-Force (UP)
Rojo (ON DECK)
balcksmoke

You are probably right about me overspending on tech. What I was attempting to do was spend at 75%, using only the required amount for the tech, and the other proportion for social. That way I could work on soil/habitat/banks with no slowing of research.

Seeing as I didn't account for the bonus tech, I know I overspent. I'll need to go back and check out Sibcat. I'll report my success/failure rate with it next turn. One thing I traditionally do not do in my games is check with the other races on a tech by tech basis. I see I will need to begin this.

Link to spreadsheet is posted in shadow thread, but here it is again:

http://www.kingwoodcable.com/brackard/games/galcivtech.xls

Originally posted by Brackard
One thing I traditionally do not do in my games is check with the other races on a tech by tech basis. I see I will need to begin this.

Click to expand...

Not so fast. I am overemphasizing this right now because 80+% of the time, you can get diplo and trade for peanuts (two starting techs) from the minor AIs. I do not check diplo after every new tech. This is not Civ3--the AIs do trade but they are not the tech whores that Civ3 AIs are. You can get away with not checking. Besides, one of the joys of GalCiv is the lack of micromanagement. Once the middle game comes along, you can usually cruise along with minimal micromanagement. The early game is important enought to keep a weather eye.

Got it

I hope I did ok

January 2180:
- We are the most wealthy
- I marked an economy resource on the map

February 2180:
- 3 soil enhancements are completed
- We discover the Piers system in sector (10 - 11) with PQ 14,16,3

March 2180:
- 2 more soil enhancements are completed
- We trade with the Carinoids:

- Our surveyor gets transported accross the galaxy to Torian space, I mark a morale resource.

April 2180:
- We meet the Torians
- Several improvements complete
- We spot a Torian constructor heading for the morale resource, unfortunately it doesn't show on their trading list
- We trade with the Torians:


May 2180:
- We colonize Piers 2 (PQ 16) with 200M, no events

June 2180:
- Earth is done with social queue, I allow just enough research to get Industrial theory next month: spending 0/57/43

July 2180:
- Most powerfull, ubnfortunately not:

- We get Industrial theory, I shift spending to 0/100/0 and add a manufacturing center to the build queue

August 2180:
- We trade with the Torians:


Next few months are a bit boring: they consist out of ship movements and improvements completing.

December 2180:
- Earth completes manufacturing center: I set it to Diplomatic Translators.

In this year I also marked a militairy resource due North of Unul (you know wich system I mean). We have 1 colony ship remaining heading east.

End year image:


Save is here

G-Force

First---you broke a game rule

Varient Rules: No selling techs for cash. This is a crutch that is not present on higher difficulty levels, so we will train without it.

Click to expand...

That said, we did not gain a whole lot of coin on this. In fact, your trades gave more than you got. V1.2 does not let the minors piss away their cash on techs with the player, which is A Good Thing (TM). Trade for cold fusion and defense theory is a bad trade. [EDIT] The problem I had with this trade was not with getting cold fusion--that is good tech to get--rather, you were giving more than you were getting out of this trade. [/edit] You can get something more useful like impulse drive from a minor for Trade. Defense theory is not usually worth getting, especially for such a valuable tech.

GAA--letting your surveyor hit a wormhole at this stage of the game is another gaffe. Not a game breaker, but gives you contact perhaps earlier than desireable. Since the Torians are so close, it is not a big deal here--but better to first meet majors with freighters.

Propulsion theory is worthless, since we already have cold fusion. Good recovery--using defense theory to get med theory was a good trade. More on the cash for tech front.

I think you stayed too long on social. We haven't the economy to be pushing manufacturing centers, and diplo translators can wait for now). You missed out on the opportunity to push a few more colony ships eastward and to get basic environment. Habitability improvement is more important than manufacturing centers in a general social build queue.

Looking at the save, you missed an opportunity to get impulse drive from the torians, who are well behind us in tech.

Mediocre turn overall. Too much emphasis on social too early, and your tech trading was too generous to the AI. Tax rate looks good, but the social spending has already put us in the hole while neglecting key tech that needs 2-3 months of research. You've got some room to improve, but that's why we're here.

Ok. Time for Rojo to show his stuff!

Roster:
Bam-Bam
Brackard
G-Force (just played)
Rojo (UP)
blacksmoke (ON DECK)

Rojo, please post a "got it" in 24 hours, download G-Force's save and post your turn in 48 hours. The rest of us will download G-Force's save and post our reports in the Shadow Thread.

BTW--overall, the official game is in a very good position. That may not be the case if this were a maso game, but we are in good shape here.

All--please re-read the rules of the game, so we do not break any more variant rules. I will make penance for the cash-for-tech on my official turn.

Good luck to Rojo!

Got it!

Rojo (2181 - 2182)

Jan 2181
Opening shot:


We have met the Carinoids, and Torians and see influence to the west representing the Altarians. We are currently at 100 social spending with most planets working Manufacturing Centers which will come within 3 - 7 turns and Earth is building Diplomatic Translators in 16 turns.

Tax rate: 39%
Spend rate: 60%
Approval: 100%

Net Income: -38bc
Treasury: -9

We have 2 freighters and 1 colony ship on the move. We have too few colony ships in circulation so I have the option to change back to Military to pump them out or continue with the social spending. I decide to stick with Social spending for 1 more turn to allow 1 bank center to be built. I drop Spend rate down to 53% which will still get the bank next turn and save us 17bc.

I check in with the Carinoids and Torians to see what they have to offer.
Carinoids:
+ Deflectors
- Industrial Theory, Medical Theory

Torians
+ Impulse Drive
- Diplomacy, Industrial Theory, Trade

I like the Impulse Drive but the Torians are asking for everything which is too much so I skip this round of Tech trades.

Feb 2181
Bank Center built. I switch to 100% Military to start pumping out colony ships. At current spend rate it will take too many turns to get some out, so I boost tax rate to 50% and increase spend rate to 89%. This will allow me to get 1 colony ship out next turn and 4 more in 2 turns at the cost of us going further into debt, but I believe this is worth it.

I check in again for trades and the Carinoids now have Impulse Drive. I make the following trade:


Mar 2181
Unukalhai builds colony ship. Load up 150 colonists and send SE.

April 2181
Earth builds colony ship. Load up 200 colonists and send E.
Sivil builds colony ship. Load up 100 colonists and send NE.
Cherryh builds 2 colony shipds. Load up 150/150 colonists and send E and SE respectively.

Change spend rate to 58%, but we are still negative income at -12bc, but will still allow us to get 3 colony ships next turn.

May 2181
Sol builds colony ship. Load up 200 colonists and send NE.
Cherryh builds colony ship. Load up 150 colonists and send NE.
Piers builds colony ship. Load up 75 colonists and send E.

June 2181
Earth builds colony ship. Load up 200 colonists and send SE.
I switch to 100% research. I keep tax rate at 50% for the income. I set research to Basic Environment Control. Dial in SiBCaT which tells me that for 220rp at 20% research bonus, I should spend around 184rp. I change spend rate to 45% to give 100rp to be sure. Tells me it will be ready in 3 turns, but I am trusting SiBCaT to give it to me in 2 turns.
We spot Tacitus in the north east but it has nothing.

July 2181
Mid year report:


Check in with both the Carinoids and Torians, but only the Carinoids have something to offer, that being Deflectors. No deals here.

Aug 2181
We get Basic Environment Control. Switch to Interstellar Refining. Dial in SiBCaT and determine for 200 with 20% research bonus, I need to spend about 168rp. I set spend rate at 40% giving 90rp which should be more than enough to allow me to get it within 2 turns.

I see Tor influence in sectors 10-6 and 11-6. Best guess is that their home world is in sector 12-3 or 13-4.

We spot Umera system (16) with colony ship and direct it to settle there.

Sept 2181
Ships move.

Oct 2181
Meet Altarians with our freighter.
Meet Alexians with our surveyor.
Election is held and we continue to hold power.

No Interstellar Refining!!!! I am sure I had set the calculations correctly, but I guess I did not put enough fudge into it. If I drop spend rate to 0% it still shows 9rp in research and me getting it next turn which should be correct, but I do not trust it so I put spend rate at 8% which gives 21rp. Curse the fear of over-spending!

Check in with every one for techs.
Alexians:
+ Nothing
- Basic Environment Control, Cold Fusion, Impulse Drive, Medical Theory, Industrial Theory, Propulsion Theory.

Carinoids
+ Deflectors
- Nothing

Torians
+ Deflectors
- Basic Environment Control, Industrial Theory, Trade

Altarians
+ Deflectors, Shields
- Medical Theory, Trade, Universal Translators, Impulse Drive, Cold Fusion, Diplomacy, Basic Environment Control, Industrial Theory.

I try to go for Shields, but the best offer with least techs is as follows:


I think the deal is good, but based upon Bam-Bam's evaluation of IP's being over 100 means I should wait till there is more from them to offer, I turn down the deal.

I settle Umera and get the following event:


I pick good selection since we are in close proximity with Altarians and Torians.

Nov 2181
Get Interstellar Refining. Switch to Artificial Gravity. SiBCaT says to spend 168rp. I reduce tax rate to 39% and change spend rate to 37% giving 94rp which should definitly be enough to get it in 2 turns. Treasury at +1 bc and we are at positive income at +8bc.

Surveyor spots Decimus (Alexian Home world) in sector 9-14.

Colony ship spots Thebes System (20/15/15) in sector 13-10! Make beeline for system. Another colony ships spots Vitellius system in sector 12-9 but it holds nothing. I redirect ship SE.

Dec 2181
Ships move.

Jan 2182
United Assemblies meet:


Torians win it.

We get Artificial Gravity. I set research to Controlled Gravity for now and leave rates as is for next person to decide where to spend. We will be able to settle Thebes this turn, and we should check in with the majors to see if there is anything worth trading.

Year end shots:






Save Game

Nice report. Lots of detail, and lots of screenies.

Good reasoning on your opening analysis. Like I said in Brackard's shadow, I turned down the impulse drive trade with the Torian's too. It's a good trade with a major, but the minors will give a much better deal. The tradeoff here is between getting a +speed tech sooner (Brackard's choice), vs. getting more value out of a trade. Either are valid options. You ended up getting impulse one month later, so I think you picked the right move (sometimes it is better to be lucky AND good ).

I like your reasoning on spending a bit more to get the colony ships out on a specific timetable. That's the kind of thougt needed before you choose to prolong having debt.

You look to be putting the right amount of folks on colony ships. I would have stopped production in may vs. June, but that's a judgement call.

You missed interstellar refining. Remember, SiBCaT is finicky---you need to check in for multi-turn research. The game will get the bonus research right for the current spend rate after one month of spending, so if the game is telling you a two-month tech is not coming in after the first month of spending, believe the game and up spending.

After you got interstellar refining, I would have stopped research. The AIs will go for the gravity techs, and you could have started some needed social spending (habitat everywhere). You did place it in the right slot (actually one of the 2 slots I prefer) in the queue.

The trade I would have done (and did in my shadow) for shields is Trade, Diplomacy, and Propulstion theory. I never hesistate to trade away 1st tier techs, and I want the AIs to have Trade. I have never beaten an AI to Diplomacy in any of my maso games, so I haven't experienced this.

Overall, solid turn. I am glad the official game has all these colony ships enroute.

We are in a very solid position--check out the population graphs between us and the Alterians and Torians. Good stuff.

Ok, blacksmoke is up. 24 hours to post "got it", 48 total for him to post his turns here, and for us to download Rojo's save and post our turns over in the Shadow thread.

Roster:
Bam-Bam (ON DECK)
Brackard
G-Force
Rojo
blacksmoke (UP)

My apogies to the team for being a day late with the comments--if I get a weekend around this house without someone being sick, I will be a happy man.

Good luck to blacksmoke!