OSG 17a--Alkari alley

[TheArchduke]

Got it, will analyze it and play it quite soonish if nothing comes up.

Cryslon wasn´t that crappy, I like Autoblaster, as I like all auto guns.

 

[OlorinStormcrow]

I don't know if I would have done so many tech trades. I probably would have swapped the Antidote for the RW60--with that and Advanced Eco which should be about to pop, our pollution problem would be done with. I don't know that upping our shields by 1 level (when we already had a research investment into FF7 was as good a deal). RW60 would also have allowed you to skip trading for RW80 later.

I agree with trading for the Stingers, and out of the options, ASS was the best choice (as much as it hurts to trade comp tech). I don't understand trading FF6 for IT8 though. We already have IT6, so we don't get much out of 8, and the Humans have FF 11, so FF6 doesn't do much for them (aside from a +1 to tech level). I wouldn't really consider it an exploit, since we effectively traded a +1 construction for a +1 force fields.

Obsolete techs like IT8 can be gained from espionage. There are times when your spies don't penetrate well enough to steal top-tier techs, so you get lower ones. If you already traded for all the lower techs, then when you spies hit for a low level steal, you get nothing. At this point, some aggressive spying on the Silicoids should bring in the rest of their techs.

I think the rest of their worlds are too hostile for us (and the Humans only have Dead, the Psilons Inferno). We should watch for a world trading hands between the Humans and Psilons with some factories intact, and try to take it before they get a shield up.

Another option is to genocide the Rocks, as no one has Toxic bases to take over those planets anyway. This would change the election dynamics, giving us a larger proportion of the total votes. We might be able take the vote if the Psilons side with us.

Too bad that ISP only fits on large hulls. It does 20% + 1% per two ships in the stack, so if we could field a stack of 160 ISPs, they should do 100% damage per shot. I've never tested this as 160 larges is a very large fleet commitment.

---Okay, I tested it and found out that the max damage an ISP will do is 50% per shot (for 60+ ships in the stack). They work wonders to boost the effectiveness of missile bases (2 shots of ISP puts a ship at 25% of max hull). I took out some bases with them as well, and only survived because I could outrun the scatter packs.

Anyway, it was not a bad ship: Large hull, IS, ISP, 1 Hvy Fusion, 1 Fusion. Combat speed 4 was crucial to move in, ISP and back out of range. I didn't fit any shields or ECM on, but it's high maneuver helped to make up for it.

Unfortunately, it is not a base killer. It takes too many ISP shots to wear down a base, and anyone with fast missiles would tear them apart. It works wonders for defense though.

 

[ignatius]

Too bad that ISP only fits on large hulls. It does 20% + 1% per two ships in the stack, so if we could field a stack of 160 ISPs, they should do 100% damage per shot.

ISP maxes out at 50% IIRC

Another option is to genocide the Rocks

Don't forget that we still need the AM bombs. Otherwise our expansion is stalled.

ignatius

 

[TheArchduke]

I decided for quite a risky move, but it worked out, guys!


2520

Everything looks fine as I takeover, so next turn it is. I update our huge design though, with Zortrium and a lot more bombs as autoblaster means a new minituatisation.

2521

Hard Beam pops and we can choose between handphasor/particle beam and Plasma Cannon. I choose Hand Phasor as a massive boost to our gropo and as with autoblaster we don´t need the bad other beams and hard beam is good enough as a shield halving weapon. No new missiles, guys.

2522

And the Humans dow us, hurray.. I decide to defend on the human front and engage the Silicoids another time.

2523

Meaning, I bomb the living crap out of Willow.

2524

Which proves not too much fun as the buildings are quite resistant, thanks to the ISP not coming to use with bombardment.

2525

The human fleet attacks Kailis with their huge and 30 ISP Larges. My whole fleet goes down in flames trying to ISP those Larges down, and they turn off after killing my fleet even though I couldn´t hurt them. Voting time.
Us with 13 votes against the Humans with 7 votes. Spell close?
Thanks to the Humans and me not realizing the AI would not be smart enough to ISP Kailis down, I decide to redesign our ships, taking advantage of the Auto-Blast which needs more space than the Fusion Beam but is in effect 3times as strong. Checking the Psilon and Human shield strengths a bit more closely: Class 11? brings me to question if we should rather try for a ship that can be mass produced and hurt the ISPed ships of the tech guys.

So the HBeam 5.0 design is born as a medium. The Human fleet is enroute to Cryslon and judging from the last battle, no amount of bases will help. We need those human pulson missiles somehow.

2526

Again the Human attack is only turned off as the AI is too stupid to realize that the 2 huges are enough to beat us if they got ISP, but they only see our shields.
Advanced Eco Restore pops and next is Cloning, but yay, Advanced Soil Enrichement I shoot for it. I attack Morrig with my sole Huge, but as expected Pulsons are too much and I retreat in time. Morrig has 20 Pop and 20 bases but 300 factories so it is my main target.

2527

I wait for my new huge ISP design with Zortrium.

2528

I aim for Morrig.


2529

I engage Morrig. I can´t even scratch the surface? No but I can ISP you down. Not one Fusion Bomb, not one hard beam or heavy fusion beam strikes one damage to a base. But 2 Huges ISP 5.1 and 1 Huge ISP and 6 Large ISP do it. The Humans got Shield Rating 26!!

And after an assault with 70 pop which succeeds we get:

Tada:

Pulson Missiles, Red Ind Waste 40 %, Rejax Fuel Cells, Neutron Pellet, yay, but tada Planetary Shields XV and Robotic Controls V.

Some decent shield wouldn´t hurt, but our missile crisis and planetary defense crisis is over. I would have wished for Shields XI, but this is sick enough I guess.

I don´t have to tell you how close it was, the bases actually scrapped my 2nd Huge already, but Morrig is ours. I hope noone objects to my move, but we wouldn´t have gotten any techs from the rocks.


For the next emperor, I decided to up our Factories, but the decision where to build the XV Planetary Shields is yours. And please put more research into shields, those Shield IX would really help our offensive capabilities. Save is attached and a screenie of the battle at Morrig.

 

[ungy]

I don't know if I would have done so many tech trades. I probably would have swapped the Antidote for the RW60--with that and Advanced Eco which should be about to pop, our pollution problem would be done with. I don't know that upping our shields by 1 level (when we already had a research investment into FF7 was as good a deal). RW60 would also have allowed you to skip trading for RW80 later.

I agree with trading for the Stingers, and out of the options, ASS was the best choice (as much as it hurts to trade comp tech). I don't understand trading FF6 for IT8 though. We already have IT6, so we don't get much out of 8, and the Humans have FF 11, so FF6 doesn't do much for them (aside from a +1 to tech level). I wouldn't really consider it an exploit, since we effectively traded a +1 construction for a +1 force fields.

Obsolete techs like IT8 can be gained from espionage. There are times when your spies don't penetrate well enough to steal top-tier techs, so you get lower ones. If you already traded for all the lower techs, then when you spies hit for a low level steal, you get nothing. At this point, some aggressive spying on the Silicoids should bring in the rest of their techs.

My reasoning was as follows: (not necessarily correctly)
I took s7 over rw60 as it looked like our main attack strategy was likely to involve ars huges with isp and max ecm. So a little better on the sheilds helps quite a bit, esp against merc. Since we were almost to adv eco, RW60 was less important as adv eco solves 80% of the wast problem so we'd pick up another 8%. Also our bases were vulnerable to beam attacks--one more def helps a lot there.

On the IT8 trade, I agree about espionage. It was a short term play--I knew we were about to pick up a haul from Cryslon and I figured the more obsolete techs I could eliminate the more chance of getting something good (AM esp).

 

[ungy]

Very well done emperor Archduke!

Boldness was definately called for--the risk reward was clearly in our favor.

 

[ungy]

The human fleet attacks Kailis with their huge and 30 ISP Larges. My whole fleet goes down in flames trying to ISP those Larges down, and they turn off after killing my fleet even though I couldn´t hurt them

Why couldn't you hurt them with the stingers?

 

[TheArchduke]

Also as a note to our next emperor, please concentrate on biology, getting our planet to gaia size would help alot.


Because despite having stingers, the bases are equipped with Scatters.
JESUS, you can actually switch between Scatters and Missiles?? I didn´t know that.

 

[ungy]

One strategy we could use to take down the human bases--I think it is somewhat exploitive but I don't think prohibited is several huge ISP ecm ships with ARS (all different designs). Send the targeted ship back a few squares, the bases will target another. As long as the first shot doesn't kill--and even with pulsons with our ECM I don't think it will with 60 or so bases, we can take them down. If there are some rocks to fly the missiles through probably 2 or 3 at the most can do it, otherwise it might take 5.

 

[ungy]

Also as a note to our next emperor, please concentrate on biology, getting our planet to gaia size would help alot.

If we can make that happen by the next vote and keep the psi vote without losing planets we win.

 

[TheArchduke]

One strategy we could use to take down the human bases--I think it is somewhat exploitive but I don't think prohibited is several huge ISP ecm ships with ARS (all different designs). Send the targeted ship back a few squares, the bases will target another. As long as the first shot doesn't kill--and even with pulsons with our ECM I don't think it will with 60 or so bases, we can take them down. If there are some rocks to fly the missiles through probably 2 or 3 at the most can do it, otherwise it might take 5.

Which is the first weapon which can cut through 26 shielding? Even the Pulsons can´t do it. Tri-Focus Plasma?

 

[OlorinStormcrow]

Tri-focus can't do it, beam damage is halved vs. planets, taking Tri-focus from 20-50 to 10-25 vs. bases. The only beams that could punch through would be mauler devices and death ray.

On the other hand, AM bomb do 10-40, Omega-V's do 20-50 and Neutronium do 40-70. Any of those would crack the Human shielding.

For missiles, you need Zeon, 30 damage, otherwise Proton or Plasma torps.

As to the Scatter/Missile question, there is a button along the bottom bar during the missile base's turn that says 's-pack', click it and it will say 'missiles', and the base will fire missiles instead.

 

[OlorinStormcrow]

Where is the roster at now? Is it ignatius's turn?

 

[ignatius]

@ Archduke

Duke, you're the man! Barring a major screwup, I think this should mean victory.

@Olorin

Good question. If we follow the original roster (considering our switch as temporary), it's your turn. If we consider the switch as permanent i.e. just repeat the pattern of the last 4 turnsets, it's my turn.

Since I am in Europe (it's midnight here) and happen to have time to play right now, I will go for it and you should still be able to play this evening, so no one should be delayed. I hope this is OK with you guys, but waiting for comments will probably take much longer than the turnset itself, so would make no sense.

ignatius

 

[ignatius]

So here it is. Nothing exiting really ...

2530

• 1st thing is I dial up the Coid's for AM bombs, but it's not on the menu :-(
• Beef up espionage on Humans and Coids - I want those AM bombs and repulsor beams!

2531

Attack on Cryson repelled. Learn that only dreadstars and escorts feature ISPs, so Cygni is safe - only Morrig is in some danger (not really, as strat. bombing does not use ISPs, and there's hopefully enough time to get bases before the troopers come in), but our existing ISPs and some bases should be enough to handle it, so no new ships ATM.

2532

Notice that Humans and Psilons are no longer at war, a phone call to the Psilon ambassador takes care of that.

2533

Cygni defended, Morrig can build 2 bases next turn

2534

• Morrig defended
• We finally steal AM bombs from the coids, framing the Humans
• range10 pop, HEF next
• checking the status page, we're fist in production and tieing the Psilons in tech
• I decide to delay designing a bomber as comp. and constr. are almost full and put up placeholders in Kailis and Cygni

2536

The Psilons intend to visit us at Kailis (ETA 3).

2538

• Westeal SP-v from the Coids and they complain
• Armored Ex. pop, Andrium next
• Still not enough to fit ecm4 on a small AM-bomber for 5% CTH vs. the Human pulson bases, so I decide to wait for ecm6 to pop

2539

The Psilons arrive at Kailis:

• the 26 coraona larges have ISPs but only shield7 and speed2,
• the 6 huge star furies are speed 3, have 50 megabolts each and feature IS, ARS and WD
• the 322 comets are speed2 fusion bombers

I lose one large ISP due to a stupid error

2540

ecm6 pops, hyperspace comm. next

I can fit a ecm4 on a bomber (so 5% CTH), but only along with bc3, which means a CTH of 30% against current Human and Psilon bases (ecm4) - It takes almost a 100 of those to take out a single human base in one shot, so ISP support is recommended. Kailis and Cygni are set to build 367 of these next turn, but it can still be changed.

With our best comp., our CTH can be doubled, but their CTH will raise from 5% to 20%. Also, a bigger ship with ecm6 might also be an option ...

Roster:

ignatius <-- just played
Olorin <-- UP NOW
ungy <-- on deck
Archduke

Good luck emperor Olorin!

cu

ignatius

 

[OlorinStormcrow]

Pre-turn: We are looking very good now. Our planets are pretty much untouchable thanks to our new shields and missiles. The AM bombers are ready to roll off the production line. I plan on using them to take Aurora, the largest Human planet. The bad news is that going by the graphs, the Psilons are already ahead of the Humans in population, so the Psilons will likely be our opponent in the next election.

Depending on how well the takeover of Aurora goes, I may move on and take more Human worlds, to see if we can get enough pop to win the election by ourselves (or with the Silicoid vote).

I dial down the spying on the Humans. I'm about to get all their techs by pointy stick anyway. I start espionage vs. the Psilons, as they have lots of nice tech, and since they are going to be our election rivals, I don't care if we get them mad.

2541: Repel the Human attack at Chryslon. They lose 2 Huges and a few cruisers, we lose our 1 Large, then they retreat. We also build 420 AM bombers. Thanks for the pre-builds ignatius!

I decide to send the fleet to Tyr first, as it only has 24 bases rather then the 41 at Aurora (Aurora also has a big fleet defending it).

2542: Silicoids declare on us. I talk to the Psilons, and they agree the those Rocks are a menace.

2543: We lose 28 bombers in the first volley, but 3 ISP shots have dropped the bases down to 37 health, and 392 bombers take out 13 bases. The last 11 bases are toasted before the next volley has a chance to hit.

2544: Our spies steal Megabolt cannon from Humans.

2545: We steal Range 5 from Humans. First wave of 75 lands on Tyr, 43 survivors. We get FF 11, Repulsor, Adv. Soil, Warp Dissipator. I shift Planetology research to Terra +60.

I reject peace with the Humans.

2546: All non-hostile planets finish Gaia and start aggressively growing pop. I'm hoping to grow large enough by the election to take it solo. I'll also get peace with the Humans and Silicoids just before in hopes of getting their votes.

2547: I send a fleet to Aurora. 1 Huge, 2 Large ISP ships, and 720 bombers. They've got a lot of ships in orbit, so I'm hoping they send them off this turn, or we might lose a lot of bombers.

2548: They did send most of their fleet away. 13 Mediums and 7 Larges left. Still that's a lot of guns they can use to whittle away at our bombers, and I need the ISP ships to hit the bases, which will also waste their beam shots. Ouch, Warp Dissipator slows the bombers, only 507 reach the planet. Still, only two rounds of bombing are needed, thanks to the ISP shots reducing the armor of the bases. We manage to win with 460 bombers remaining.

Before sending an invasion force, I realize that they wouldn't land until 2450, and therefore, taking Aurora would not help us in the election. The Rock diplomat is still gone, so I want to make peace with the Humans.

I decide to leave the fleet at Aurora, but just glass it next turn, then ask for peace.

2549: My plan goes awry, as the Humans sent a large fleet to Aurora, and their Warp Dissipator froze my Huge, and they had enough firepower to take it down. My bombers all got away, but I didn't get to glass Aurora.

I dial up the Apes and ask for peace regardless, and they accept for the price of PAS, ouch. It does mean that I don't need Tyr to finish bases next turn, leaving them free to grow 24 pop instead. I also make sure that all other planets will max out too.

Election: We have 14 of 28 votes, but our opponents are the Humans? I later checked the status, and they are in a dead heat with the Brains in pop, though they were definitely behind earlier. Must be the Brains lost a lot of pop due to transports in flight, or losses on the ground.

Anyway, the Humans (5) vote themselves, joined by the Rocks (2). But the Psilons add their (5) to us, so we take the election 19 to 7.

Wow, that was a long one.

Congrats all around!!

 

[OlorinStormcrow]

That turned out to be a great game.

I'm happy to take the diplo win at this point because we've shown that we can take Human worlds at will with the AM bombers (though we would have needed to build more escorts to secure new acquisitions).

I'm sure that we could have also taken Psilon worlds as well, it just would have taken awhile.

Looking back, I probably should have gone all out on shipbuilding, to get more bombers and a few more Huge escorts. We didn't really make much progress in tech during my turn, and we really didn't need anything new to win.

The biggest thing was getting Adv. Soil off the Humans, and then pushing the pop increases through before the election.

Overall, I think we did well with a mediocre race against a couple of powerhouse AIs.

 

[TheArchduke]

The game was awesome as in my opinion the nailbiting ended just 3-4 turns before our actual win and I gotta admit, I wasn&#180;t sure we make it on the way.

Thanks a lot for a great team. And again I learned something (Scatters needn&#180;t be used on bases.)

Congrats to everyone and I hope we play again in the next OSG.

 

[ignatius]

Congratulation everyone! This was really a great game with an excellent and dedicated team (you rarely see 2 or even 3 turnsets a day in an OSG). I'm quite happy with a diplo here, because we clearly reached a winning position so we might as well skip on the mopping up. Now let's see how the other team fares.

ignatius

 

[ungy]

Great game everyone!
Very exciting as I think victory was very much in doubt until the last few sets.
I enjoyed playing with you all and hope we play again soon.