O2SG1: The Ants Go Marching

[Till]

1:
We are a bit short on command points, but i see several starbases are already in production in order to take care of that.

3:
We have researched Mass Drivers. Start research on Merculite Missles.

5:
Segel II finishes a Strobe Light. I replace the scheduled Grappler with a Transporter. What i have seen of the Psilon fleet thus far is less than impressive: Three destroyers compared to our three + three cruisers.
I feel we might already be able to beat their fleet, but we currently have nothing to invade planets with.

7: The Psilons come asking for a Non Aggression Pact. Do they suspect something? I reject.
Kholdan Prime finishes a Strobe Light. Our income plunges to -28BC/turn. I schedule a transporter. We really need those Starbases now.

8:
A leader offers his services:

I sign him up and assign him to Segel. With him, he'll take the rest of the fleet. His instruction bonus should prove handy in getting the crews trained.
The Alkari offer a NAP and i accept. Sal Prime finishes a starbase and our income skyrockets.

9:
Segel finishes a transporter. I order another one.

10:
Mentar, the Psilon home world, has been upgraded to ultra rich!
We finish research on Merculite Rockets and i go for Security Stations next.
Several leaders gain a level.


Notes:

- We might want to fire a director, as we have four colony leaders now.
- Personally, i would try to capture Mentar very soon. Once we have 3-5 transporters, i'd risk it. Unless they have lots of ships hidden somewhere, we should be able to take them down with our current fleet.
- Feel free to change research.

 

[Shadowlord]

I don't think security stations will be very useful - they only apply when the enemy tries to board our ships (so I've changed it).

3517.0
Switched Juga III (5/8 pop) from Housing to Biospheres
Switched research to Fusion Bomb (we need something to weaken their ground forces)
Increased the number of guns on the StrobeLight design (making a StrobeLight 3) to take advantage of miniaturization advances.
Added a nuclear bomb to the grappler design.
Upgraded one of the missile launchers on the Shotgun to have MIRV.
Cancelled Segel II's transport and had it refit one of the oldest StrobeLight's to the new model instead

3517.1
Kholdan Prime finishes a transport. It is ordered to build another one.

3517.2
Sal Prime finishes a transport. It is also ordered to build another one.
Segel II finishes refitting a StrobeLight 3. It begins refitting a Shotgun.

3517.3
The Psilons thank us for the research treaty.
Segel II finishes refitting the Shotgun. It begins refitting another one.

3517.4
We finish researching fusion bomb. I order our scientists to begin researching inertial stabilizers.
Segel II finishes refitting a shotgun, and begins refitting another.
The Grappler would be updated to have a fusion bomb instead of a nuclear one, but it doesn't have enough space.

3517.5
Segel II completes refitting our last shotgun. There are a couple unrefitted StrobeLights there still, but I order it to build a Grappler instead.

3517.7
Juga III completes biospheres, and begins work on a research lab.
Sal Prime finishes a transport, and begins work on a Grappler.
Kholdan Prime also finishes a transport, and starts producing trade goods due to our income having become negative (from all the transports).

3517.8
Our transports are ordered to the Segel system so the Psilons won't be able to see them with scanners.

3517.9
Sal III finishes a star base, and begins producing biospheres.
Kholdan Prime switches from trade goods to freighters (we only have 4 left).

3518.0
Nothing happens.
The first Grappler will be finished in 6 turns, and the next in 9 turns, unless we speed them up with cash. I would want to have more than that before invading, though.
We're close to finishing our current research, and will then be able to research class III shields. Alternately, we could research battlestations to get more command points, but upgrading our starbases would take some time.

Our income is currently +0 BC/turn. We don't really need to raise taxes, though, since we have 1715 BC in the bank (unless we're going to spend it on finishing ships fast).

 

[Till]

I think you are up, Kan!
(That smiley starts to grow on me...! )

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

I'm definitely going to have to skip this turn - I played it yesterday and today, and both times the game crashed on me. I think I mixed up a file somewhere when I was uploading the saves. I'll do a reinstall later, but I am a bit swamped for time and don't want to keep this game waiting longer than I already have.

My apologies to all, hope the war goes well

 

[Yuri2356]

And away I go...


3518.0 - I intend to throw myself into battle against the Psilons with the utmost haste. I buy the grappler in Segel, and refit our remaining Strobe-I into a Strobe-3.

3518.1 - Kholdan Prime finishes Fright Fleet, starts on Colony ship. (It will go to Delta III, to claim the Gold Deposits)

3518.2 - Sal III builds Biospheres. I have them work on housing to fill the new population, and transfer two of their workers to research. (We'll need some bio-tech in order to help with expansion and development of our worlds)

3518.3 - Segel II refits the Strobe, I order up two spies and assign a scientist. Juga III gets its research lab - Spaceport, Housing, and Starbase to follow. I send the Fleet to Mentar.

3518.4 - Breakthrough with Inertial Stabilizers. I go for cloning. (Two techs away from terraforming, which would make a world of difference since we have so many barrens.) Our income is suffering from all the ships we own, (-30!) so I rush the spaceport on Juga III and order segel to Trade goods after the spy is done.

3518.5 - Juga Prime fills up, giving me a new source of Trade Goods. We're now at a more stable -13.

3518.6 - The Fleet Arrives, I dive right for their homeworld, and this is what faces us: Two of these, and their friend the Starbase.

The opening Volleys from the Strobe IIIs rip thick, juicy slices out of the Destroyers. One is imobilized, the other destroyed. Naturally, the rest of our fleet opens up on the starbase, so the grappler can get into position and take their crippled ship. Our lasers whittle away the shields and structure of the Station, one of the Shotguns takes a firm hit from a graviton beam and survives, and none of their missiles manage to pass the PD lasers of our Strobelights. Sadly, the cruiser Self-Drestructs before we can catch it. The missiles finish pff the Starbase.

A Quick bombardment cuts the numbers of their infantry from 10 to 5, then we invade with 20 soldiers. Only 2 are lost in the battle. (Which reveals that the Psilons have fusion rifles and anti-grav harnesses.) Our victorious fources steal the secrets of the Neutron Blaster.

3518.7 - I opt not to annihilate our new slaves, but instead order their 7 million to toil in the name of the Queen. 3 farm, while three work on building a marine barracks, to be followed by biospheres, a research lab, and a starbase. The last becomes a scientist.

It appears that they maynaged to sneak out and settle Delta III. I'll leave it to the next player to see to invading that particular rock.

3518.8 - The fleet attacks and invades Mentar II. 16 Soldiers to 7, 6 losses. 3 Million new subjects are added to the empire. (2 workers, 1 Scientist, to build Biospheres, Spaceport, Starbase)

3518.9 - We complete Cloning Centres and move on to Telepath Training. An additional Grappler is completed and sent to join the rest of the navy.

3519.0 - All is Quiet as I prepare the save. Over to Till.


So, should we import any Bugs to the conquered worlds, or just let the locals repopulate under our new administration?

 

[Till]

Starage 3519.0
Three colonies are found to produce "trade-goods". To the emperors ears, this sounds like they are slacking off!
One is ordered to construct a new colony ship. We need more of them, in order to support and expand our massive armada.
Helios looks like a decent candidate. The planets are all a bit small, but they are rich, not radiated, and the system has a wormhole to boot!
This could come handy, when it is time to conquer the Meklars.

Starage 3519.1
The peons on Mentar Prime rebel and 'liberate' the planet! How dare they?

The Meklars come begging for Titranium armor.
He offers Hydroponic Farms, Deuterium Fuel cells, or Battle Pods in return.
Now i sure would like to know, if we can research Iridium Fuel Cells. So i fire up another instance of MOO2 and check.
Turns out we can, so i trade the armor for Battle Pods. I really like Battle Pods.


Starage 3519.2
We take Mentar Prime back.

Starage 3519.3
Mentar Prime gets Marine Barracks. Hopefully that'll keep them down.

Starage 3519.4
The fleet arrives at Udha. No defense vessels are to be seen. The rebels have put me in a bad mood, so i let the bombs fly. (Also, we have only 4 Infantry left)
The invasion brings us knowledge of Class I shields.
We also meet the Mrrshans, who inform us of their intent to wipe us of the map. No actions follow their words, however.
Meanwhile, scouts bring news of a Psilon settlement in the Delta system.

Starage 3519.6
The Psilons come begging for peace. In exchange, they offer the Anti-Grav harness technology. Forget it.
Two new transports are ready for action.

Starage 3519.9
The transports arrive, and the Delta system falls. The Psilons are no more! Our scientists finished work on Telepathic Training.
I set research to Battlestations. We could use those command points.

Starage 3519.10
The fleet is order to Udha. By the looks of it, the Mrrshan empire consists of only two systems. They should be easy to take out.

 

[Shadowlord]

Well, this was an uneventful run.

3520.0
Replaced housing with a cloning center on Juga III
Took a conquered farmer off farming on Udha Prime and put him on production, so the barracks finishes faster.
Changed a worker on Juga III to a farmer (we went into negative food from the last change).
Moved a spy to the Mrrshan. They have planetary missile bases.

3520.2
We steal Autolab from the Mrrshan. They notice, and whine.
Sal III, Juga III, and Kholdan II begin working on autolabs. That means no trade goods (for now).
Sal Prime finishes a transport. I order another one.
I raise taxes to 20% to get back to positive income.

3520.5
Our spy spying on the Mrrshan is mysteriously assassinated.

3520.6
The second transport is completed at Sal Prime. It begins work on an autolab.
We send a Shotgun to the yellow star between us and the Mrrshan.

3520.7
We finish researching battlestations. I order research on security stations (there's another automatic research building tech after it).

3520.8
The shotgun arrives at Rav, finding a medium barren 4 max pop world, a small desert 3 max pop world, and a gas giant. We will need to either take this system, or place an outpost, or improve our fuel system to be able to reach the Mrrshan.
Segel II's colony ship will be finished in 4 turns.
Part of the fleet is sent back to Juga so that at least some of the ships can be upgraded with shields. (I'll leave it to the next player to add that to the ship designs and order the refits, since it'll take 4 turns for them to arrive) - Both grapplers, a strobelight, and the transports remain at Udha, in case of a Mrrshan sneak attack.

3521.0
Our third transport arrives at Udha.

Someone else can set up battlestation replacing.

 

[Till]

Do you need another skip, Kan? Or is Yuri up? Either way, let's get this moving again.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

Give a skip - if someone doesn't take it in the next few days I'll get it done, but the game is needing a full reinstall and I've been too busy drawing and job-hunting to pay much heed these few weeks.

 

[Till]

That's just fancy talk for "preparing Scotland's defenses for the aftermath of the Liverpool vs Milan match", but fair enough!

Edit: I do hope you efforts weren't in vain, though!

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

The defences point inward, Till, I dare not allow too many of my people to go over to Germany to laugh at such a beautiful Liverpool victory! Do you think we may fear your kind?

And thanks, I hope so too!

In-game: I almost definitely can't play tomorrow due to sitting at pub filling out applications, so I urge the next person to play theirs.

 

[Yuri2356]

Meh, not finding any motivation to do this. Skip it over to Till.

 

[Till]

1. The Meklars come asking for an alliance. I don't really see the upside, so i reject.
2. V'Larr gains a level. His increased mega wealth helps our finances somewhat.
Segel finishes a colony ship and starts work on an autolab. Our ships designs now include shields. I had to make a call between losing a tractor beam or the extended troop pods for the Grappler design.
In the end, i decided to get rid of the troop pods. That left me with some additional room, which i filled with Auto Fire, Point Defense and Armor Piercing laser cannons. The colony ship is ordered to Rav.
3. We complete research on security stations. Research on Planetary Supercomputers starts. Sal begins construction of a Battlestation.
4. Mentar begins building an Autolab.
5. The Mrrshan ambassador must have an itching funny bone, as he demands 700 credits as tribute. A colony ship completes in Kholdan, and i send it to the unclaimed system of Helios.
6. I realize that we've been running a 20% tax rate, and promptly slash taxes to 0. That should just about lock the conservative vote for us.
A Mrrshan battleship and a frigatte are on their way towards Udha. This could get ugly.
7. We are not at war with the Mrrshan. Two Grabblers and a Strobelight 3 guard the system. One Grabbler gets destroyed in the battle.
10. Colonize Rav 1. The Mrrshan systems are now within reach. We learn about Planetary Supercomputers and start research towards better shields.



I think the war is pretty straightforward, from now on. Besides a lonely transport, there is nothing to be seen from the Mrrshan fleet. They might be out of gas already. A lot of our systems are on long term Battlestation constructions, but you might want to delay these a little in favour of a couple of transports.

 

[Aabraxan]

6. I realize that we've been running a 20% tax rate, and promptly slash taxes to 0. That should just about lock the conservative vote for us.

lurker's comment: Would you mind clarifying how this works for me? In all the years I've played MOO2, I never new that taxes had any effect on voting.

 

[Yuri2356]

It's a joke about Politics.

Ya know, Right wing... Tax cuts...

 

[Aabraxan]

lurker's comment: Whew! I thought I'd missed something huge all these years.

 

[vmxa]

I got it and that is was amusing Yuri.

 

[Shadowlord]

3522.0
Ordered Segel II to build transports after it finishes its Autolab in 1 turn (it's our second-best industrial colony. The first-best is Mentar I, which can't make transports).
Ordered Mentar I to build freighters after it finishes its Autolab in 1 turn.
Ordered the Grappler and Shotgun II at Rav to fly to Trifid. They'll see if it has any planetary defenses, and if so, blockade the system until our other ships can get there.

3522.1 (or at the very end of 3522.0, apparently)
Galactic elections: The contest is between us and the Alkari. The Mrrshans abstain (2 votes). The Meklars vote for us (2 votes). The Alkari vote for themselves (2 votes). We vote for ourselves (8 votes). We win 10-2! o_O



The Mrrshan didn't seem to mind much:

 

[Yuri2356]

Well, so ends our first MoO2 SG. Good work everyone!


I'll launch the next one in a day or so.

 

[Till]

Wow, that was unexpected!