Not suggesting making them stronger, just to prevent them from wasting their shots on missiles. Too bad that's not possible, then.
___________________
War report!
Trying to learn Unified again. Going with
UniAqu +1F +2P RLArt / -Growth -Rep
-Growth instead of -LowG because I want my colonies to be more produtive. Hopefully housing colonies will compensate for the growth.
Turn 0:
Spawned on the south-southwest edge. I may have the corner to myself - we'll see.
3 colonies in system, all hostile, 2 poor and 1 ultrapoor. This is both good and bad - 3 housing colonies but each one a bad one. Gonna colonise all 3 and see how it goes.
Turn 22-25 or so, forgot to check:
All 3 CBs built, and growing a total of 0.3 pop per turn. Didn't research labs or factories yet, as I'm counting on that early growth to be useful.
I don't know what's more efficient, to half-buy the CBs, or full (or half-) buy the factories. Quicktried a couple variants and the end results were roughly the same. Don't feel like doing exact research on this issue right now.
Turn 33:
Gallis joins. His effect will be next to nothing, though.
Turn 62:
First Colony Ship ready. I also have 3 extra pop waiting, and the housing colonies are almost done with building 2 freighters and 2 spies, after which back to housing.
Neighbourhood contains:
* Daban I - Ultrapoor Large Terran (18)
* Rial III - Poor Huge Arid (15)
* Pavone II - Poor Huge Tundra (9)
* a few Rich and Ultrarich planets, but they all have problems with climate, and either size or gravity or both.
* 2 very crappy planets with Gem Deposits
This may be my Demo-tech experience speaking, but I'm gonna go with the Terra first, and fill it with scientists, while using my homeworld for production. I do want that Zortium, after all. Afterwards we'll see. No contacts yet...
67: Alkari contact to the northwest, and cutting towards me. They took the Huge Arid.
Researcher Emo wants work. I'm short on cash right now, but he'll help that research colony. Colonizing a Gem Deposit to get cash without taxes. I wonder if Gallis's financial trait will help with that? (Tested: no)
69: Gnolans east of me. Gonna start producing something fleetlike soon. 3 Destroyers should do it to cover the Gem planet that's close to them - not MIRV yet, but will refit them later. I am so wary of Gnolans by now, more than any other race except Darloks. Not because they're strong, but because they're stupid and insane.
71: Crystal in the very southwest corner of the galaxy has a Huge Rich Gaia with Gems.
I want.
86: Trilarans to the northeast, occupying a goodly chunk of the galaxy.
I've colonised a few planets, including both Gems for money, as well as a Huge Ultrarich which will be useful later. For for now it'll serve as a refuelling station for an attack on the Crystal.
105: Sent 6 Tie Defend... err, I meant 6 Destroyers with 7 Mirv Nukes each to kill the Crystal, and succeeded after losing 4, precisely as I had calculated.
Sun Tzu said:
"Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all!"
See, even the ancient generals understood us.
Colonising the Gaia in 2 turns - already have a bunch of colonists itching to migrate there. -50% Growth, what -50% Growth? Will colonise a few more planets, but first rebuilding 2 more Destroyers for now - costs me only 2 turns and will look impressive until I get Battleships. Worst case, if Trilarans or someone attack, I'll spam them until my skies are clear.
Supercomputer researched in 1 turn, after that Zortium and Ion Drives, though perhaps not in that order.
And then we sound the drums of war!
Maybe.
Relations with everyone seem okay for now, though I am repulsive and I don't spam "hello". Probably helps that I actually have something resembling a fleet.
132: Done researching Zortium and Ion Drives. I have
* two production planets, Homeworld and the Huge Rich Gaia, which is close to full and just finished building everything it needed, including a Star Base.
* one research planet
* 3 farmable medium sized nothing special planets that aren't filled yet
* 6 dead rocks building Housing, 2 of them farming Gems
Time to kill someone off.
Trilarans to the northeast have a ton of systems and good tech. Gnolans to the east are weak, but their systems stretch in a long line that I'd be hard pressed to defend against the Trilarans later. I vote Alkari, to the north. With 5 systems and unimpressive tech and fleet, they are weak, and absorbing them will give me an uncontested, compact position in the southwest corner, to finish colonising and then growing upwards. Only their combat bonuses look dangerous, but the defensive one won't work against missles, and as to the other, well, that's why I got Heavy Armor. Will compensate for less Nukes by building more BBs - that's why I'm Production, right?
Actually, it turns out I can still pack 20 Nukes 2x, fully modified, per Battleship. Nice! I only now checked... Heavy Armor and Class I shield both take 50 space? And I've been using Class 1 Shields in my previous games? Not what I would term one of my better-reasoned decisions. But I'll know better now.
159: TO WAR!
Took this long because I finally checked the race report, and Alkari have Ion Pulse Cannons. This, combined with their +50% offense bonus, means I'm not even going there without Class III shield. Taking out the Heavy Armor after all.
I have 900 cash reserves, 4 BBs, 4 DDS, 4 Transports (and counting). Overkill, you say? The devil take you, this is my first truly successful-looking Unification game. I'm allowed to go a little overboard, dammit.
Everything either has, or is about to get, Fighters + Radiation Shield. 'cause I have no Navigator and my drives are slower than the ones Alkari have, which means a defensive fleet will be too late everywhere. This'll be a bit of a slow Necron March of Doom.
I only have Deuterium cells, which means I have to follow a specific path to reach Altair, but the important thing is that that path exists - I don't have to research Uridium.
(Did you guys know that by pressing F9, you can compare distances between stars? I only found out not long ago. Useful.)
161: Tyr taken, only 1 planet colonised. 5 colonists, annihilating because Alkari have bad race statistics, only +2 food. I prefer my +1F+2P.
They had Lightning Field. I guess that's what I get for starting a war this late. Still, Star Base died in first salvo of missiles.
163: Rial taken. Alkari had BB and Star Base, BB fled.
Some of my colonies suffered attacks, one of them by a BB + 2 DDs. Figher Garrison + Bomber Bays + Radiation Shields held the fort. Ion Cannons are not very useful on the offensive, are they, my birdlike friends...
165: Got 1 out of the 3 colonised planets in Rukubi.
Looted Anti-Matter Torpedo. Meh. As usual I set a number of spies, too, and as usual that doesn't do diddly squat.
Rial under bombardment. It had a large pop which I didn't want to waste, so hoped I could build barracks before defenses for rebellions while Alkari ships were busy. Not busy enough, apparently. I'll send back the 4 DDs and see if that helps. I clearly don't need them on the offensive. 2 turns though, might be too late.
167: Rukubi is all mine. Iridium Cells looted, yay.
The 4 Destroyers cleared the skies on Rial. 1 colonist left alive there.
5th Battleship produced.
The Alkari seem to have combined all their forces into one fleet, 3 BBs and 1 DD. It's about to attack Pavome, on the far side from them. I can't do anything about it, but I have a modicum of faith in our pilots.
168: The defense of Pavome has been successful - in fact quite easy, with the Alkari's method of attacking consisting of staying at maximum range and firing torpedos at me. Of course Radiation Shield blocks low level beam weapons, but they could have armed themselves with actual, you know, bombs...
Explain to me again what Torpedoes are for in this game? I never quite understood. They fire every other turn, unlike missiles, and don't really do much...
169: Altair is mine! Had to bomb it down a bit, sadly - I have stronger troops, but few of them, and I want to end this war ASAP. Relations with Trilarians and Gnolans are looking worse, and they have outteched me too.
172: Xithias conquered.
Alkari finally got Zorthium Armor. All this meant, in combination with the Lightning Field, is that my 4 Battleships had to fire both salvoes of missiles instead of one. Good to know.
But this means that my 4 Destroyers heading for the last system, Tur, will probably fail, and the war will take a few turns longer while my Battleships move there.
173: Oh shiiiiiiii..., Nebula! Means shields aren't working, means two Destroyers went down to Ion Cannons before I could do anything (see why I researched Class III?). I should have seen this coming.
Withdrew the other 2. Will combine and attack with the entire fleet, except for 1 Battleship which is busy anticipating an attack somewhere else.
176: Trilarans and Alkari at war.
I will be able to combine my entire fleet after all, 6 Battleships and 2 Destroyers.
180: LOL, Trilarans bombed Tur out of existence 2 turns before I could take it. I guess that works.
WAR OVER! Let us now work on creating better worlds, where cripples could walk, and the blind could see...
(Or we can just try to survive in an out-teched position, that's a worthy goal too.)
