OSG 15b - Profound Psilons

[Zed-F]

Our Psilons are so confident of their innate technological superiority that they see no reason to research anything other than in their own sweet time...

Psilons, Medium, Impossible, 5 opponents

Variant rules:
1. Must research all techs in order from cheapest to most expensive
2. All research set to = in all fields
3. All ships with large hulls, unless unarmed
4. No tech espionage

The starting save file and a shot of the galaxy map can be found here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=149918&d=1174102798

Roster:
OlorinStormcrow
Blake
IamI3rian
Sullla(?)

 

[Zed-F]

In the interests of keeping a fair start for everyone, I'll post my save 3 turns in after the colony ship travels to the only star within 3 parsecs and finds an Artifacts planet. If you want to eliminate what the artifacts planet gives you as a source of variability, feel free to take the attached alternate start point.

 

[IamI3rian]

I won't be able to play til at least wednesday, as my ex-girlfriend is coming to visit me. Someone can feel free to take the first turns, but please do post 'got it' and when you'll be playing, to prevent multiple sets. Also, please use the save Zed posted from the 3rd turn with artifacts, to keep the starts 'fairer'.

Feel free to write me in last position on the roster.

 

[OlorinStormcrow]

I've got it, I'll play the start out (from turn 3) tonight.

--Olorin

 

[OlorinStormcrow]

2303: I set Mentar to build 5 of the new scouts, enough to cover all planets in range.

2304: I send out the scouts, and start trickling some pop to Maretta.

2305-2320: Next turn alot.

The neighborhood:

Two radiateds, one of the an ultra-rich 25. Two minimals, one only 3 parsecs from Maretta. 2 no planet systems. Finally, Obaca, a Terran 100, which is 4 parsecs from the range 3 Minimal. The Bulrathis tried to scout Obaca in 2313.

I debated whether or not to keep the homeworld on factories, or to start either shipbuilding or research. I decided to keep on factories, since we need to be able to put a decent amount into research when we start, since we have to open all fields at once. My suggestion would be to wait for Maretta to get to 1/2 factories, then switch it to tech (this will allow 1/2 the pop to be transported to Obaca when it's founded w/o idling factories).

I could have started on a colony ship, but it wouldn't have finished during my turn, and they can be built much faster now that there are 149 factories on Mentar. Our next leader can decide whether to build a colony right away, or go for another few turns of factories. Zed included a LR Laser design with his save, but as it has to be a large hull, it takes almost as long to build as a colony ship (though one of them should be enough to defend against most early game attempts to poach a planet). If it looks like range 4 is going to take a long time to research, we should get one of those to Obaca.

We don't have a great terrain draw this game, so Obaca is going to be a key planet for us. We have a size 50 minimal in range, another size 45 at 5 parsecs (which will take awhile if we have to research R4 first). The good news is that it looks like the Bulrathi will need at least R5 (maybe even 6) to get to Obaca. But we won't be able to expand any farther until we get down to the R5 in the south, as the Bulrathi will probably have any habitable locked down past Obaca by the time we get the range to access them.

The two radiateds are going to sit there for awhile as we research every planetology tech between here and there. We will need to make sure and put some defense there if the Silicoids come into range though. We don't want them snagging an Ultra-rich in the middle of our empire.

IamI3rian has requested to go last, so Blake (or Sulla) is up now. Just post a "got it" when you take the save. Sulla, if you are going to join us, give us a shout (if so, both you and Blake can go before I3rian, as he isn't available until Wednesday).

 

[OlorinStormcrow]

After checking with the thread over at RB, I see that Sulla has opted not to play, but that Archduke will be added to our team.

So our new roster is:
Olorin
Blake*
Archduke*
IamI3rian

*Either Blake or Archduke can claim the second spot, the other will be 3rd. Whoever has time, post a 'got it', and you're up.

 

[Blake]

Got it .

 

[Blake]

Um that appears to be the 2303 save.

 

[OlorinStormcrow]

Sorry about that, grabbed the wrong save.

This is the 2320 save, in the game 3 slot.

 

[Blake]

Turn 0 looksees:

Ok so Obacca is critical. Gotta have that planet. That'll mean securing it with a LR large. That's going to be my first build. Take no chances...

Man Scatterpacks is a nice draw from the artifacts world... damn nice...

So getting to strategy, max factories then pop out the LR laser ship, that's the plan. Well, was the plan. I realize we don't have the pop to make use of worked factories and I don't really feel like slowing down our artifact planet growth, so I keep factory level up to pop level but otherwise put BC into the LR Defense.

The turn out LR defense pops out, 3 Bulrathi Colony Ships turn up! Ouchy...

TECH Unlocked:
Computers: ECM1, Scanner, BC2
Construction: Ind9, Waste80
Shields: S2
Planet: Controlled Barren, Improved Eco
Propulsion: R4
Weapons: Screw listing them all...

We get the Silicoid 6 planet Expansion Warning.

Our first Colony Ship pops out so I pump resources into research.

ECM1 Comes in, we have ECM2, RC2 and BC3. Naturally I pick Deep Space Scanner.

Also our colony on the 50 minimal is founded. I send 15 pop from the artifacts world (pretty much the entire non-factory workers), and set it to full research while the homeworld goes to colony ship. Range 4 is at 10%.

Ind9 comes in. Ind8 is the only new one. I pick Waste80 ofcourse.

Controlled Barren comes in, fortunately so does Range4, at 24% odds, on the turn the colony ship completed. Perfect timing.

In Planetology we have T20, Controlled Dead and Death Spores. I pick ImpEco ofcourse.

In Propulsion we are blessed with Intertial Stabalizers alone. Not so good but hopefully we'll get a nice engine.

So anyway I direct the coloiny ship towards Obacca and set Mentar to REsearch and allow our artifacts world to resume factory building. This also happens to be 2340 the end of my turn set. Nice timing.

Not much has really changed so I don't feel the need to include a screenshot.

 

[Blake]

Now basically we have a perfect economic tech draw.

We have both clean up techs, RC III and Terra20. It doesn't get better than that.
Unfortunately we do have to research through a lot of chaff to advance in those fields.

In propulsion we have got singletons so far, Internal Stabilizer wont really be that useful for us and it's expensive, but at least we aren't researching through chaff. Both a better engine and longer range will help much.

In weapons we have a huge range of stuff. Our defenses are totally sorted. We have guns, bombs and missiles. Granted we do have to research through some useless stuff, but the order of advancement is not too bad.

The one thing which ought to keep things interesting is that our weapons has NO gropo, and we are up against the bears. This means that liberation of tech is going to be expensive, for us.

Mind you we might have more luck with a south-eastern neighbor (even if, at the moment, it looks like we wont have much population base down there to launch effective invasions)

 

[OlorinStormcrow]

Olorin
Blake <--just played
TheArchduke <---up now
IamIBrian <--on deck

Too bad about our propulsion options. Now the only way to expand to the south will be to use a LR Colony (right now, that means a Huge hull and over 3x the cost). Or we can wait until we can squeeze a LR Colony onto a Large hull, but that might take awhile given our research restrictions.

For the immediate future, we need to pop out another batch of scouts and explore all the worlds that have come into range, either via colonization or gettting to range 4. Depending on what they find, we can decide what to do in terms of nabbing more planets (if Obaca brings some new planets within R4, those would be better to go for next, rather than the Min45, though if there is any AI activity down south, a LR Laser should be sent to secure it). If there is nothing else with 4 parsecs, it's a tough call whether to pour BC into a Huge LR Colony, or spend it on research instead, which will eventually allow a Large LR Colony for significantly less cost.

Good luck Archduke!

Since this is the first round, play 20 years (until 2360). When the next round starts, we'll start playing 10 years per turn for the rest of the game.

 

[OlorinStormcrow]

We haven't heard anything from TheArchduke on this thread, so if you have time and want to play IamI3rian, post a 'got it' and go for it.

If we don't hear from TheArchduke by Friday, we'll just go ahead with a 3-man team.

 

[IamI3rian]

Sorry my internet was being mean last night. I don't have it but I'll get it and play it tonight. If archduke shows up and has time he can go first. I'll post a real 'got it' when I get it

EDIT: Sorry guys, but I just don't have the energy tonight. Again, if archduke posts a got it before me, he can play first, but I won't be able to get to this until tomorrow night. I only have to watch the front end, so I'll have plenty of energy.

 

[TheArchduke]

Sincere apologies, I didn&#180;t notice Sulla&#180;s post that I can have his position until now. If you still like to have me, I participate happily.

Will read everything throughly now and then play.

Got it.

 

[TheArchduke]

Turn 1 start looks good

Turn 2 Press turn

Turn 3 Hyper-V comes in, you should think that we know Hyper-V when we have Scatter-V.

Turn 4 Deflectors II are in, starting on Personal Deflectors.

Turn 5 our northern Scout uncovers the poor Ocean world (size 75) of Kakata, settled by Bulrathis after chasing away 3! colony ships

Turn 6 Southern steppe world (size 45) is settled by the Humans and contains ancient artifacts. I send both scouts onwards.

Turn 7 Maretta is fully industralized and is now researching happily

Turn 8 I scout the Bulrathi homeworld in the north, strength: 23 bases! Obaca is settled and contact is made with the Bulrathi the very same turn.. The Bulrathi have six worlds settled

Turn 9 Silicoids chased away from Tyr, they reach it already! I send population to Obaca 10 from the homeworld, 10 from Paranar, allowing the artifact world to research onwards. I decide to build a dedicated Laser/Scatter V ship to protect Tyr for real.

10 nothing

11 We are 6th in production, the Sakkra leaders.

12 Deep Space Scanner is in, Research to CPU Mk II.

13 turn

14 turn Council vote for the first time, Sakkras versus Bulrathis, I vote for the Bulrathis to suck up to them a bit as they are the only one in contact.

15 Tyr Defence finished, putting Mentar back to research, human colony ship sighted near Tau Cygni in the asteroid field. Ajax a death world to the south uncovered

16 Red Waste comes in, IT8 to research

17 Imp Eco is in, we really have no more waste problems. Research to Terra +20

18 Tyr Defense arrives

19 My scout is chased away by the Bulrathis in the south..

20 The Bulrathis declare war on us. Crap, but there was nothing I could do.


Being my first Orion SG I hope I haven&#180;t screwed anything up too much. The dow by the Bulrathi is unfortunate and I fear we have not much to defend with apart from our LR Defend and the Tyr Defense battleships for now. Being Erratic, I am not sure if we had any chance to befriend them at all. Please notice that they are also allied with the humans!

On another note, it seems I am unable to snatch pictures with my old "Print" and paste into irfanview tactic. Maybe someone else could post a picture as there is new information to digest.

 

[OlorinStormcrow]

The only thing I can think of with the Bulrathi is if you started a trade agreement when we made contact. They are the only thing early on that can improve relations with the other races. But Erratics declare war for no reason fairly often.

A few questions:
Did the Silicoids come to Tyr with a scout or colship?
If they are in range for colships, we should have contact. I'm going to guess they were only able to get to Tyr due to an alliance with the Bulrathi, which is now over. Even the Bulrathi would have a hard time reaching it, because it's 8 parsecs from their nearest planet (close enough for scouts, but not colonies yet). I would advise sending a scout to cover Tyr, and gettting it's defense ship up to Obaca in case the Bears come calling. We only need to hold them off long enough to get a few missile bases up.

Did you see any activity near Rha in the south?
Rha is a planet that we want to hold on to, but we won't see anyone coming for until too late (no colonies down there). When there is time, a LR ship should be designed to defend Rha. (The first one that is at Obaca can be used to guard Klystron once Obaca is secured).

Why use 2-shot missile racks on the Tyr defense ship?
I will sometimes use 2-shot racks on medium hulls in order to fit them in (and since they are usually the fire-and-flee portion of my fleet). On a Large hull designed to stick around and defend a planet, 5-shot racks lets you fit more total missiles on your ship. You could have gone with either on 5-shot rack (1 more missile), and had room for more lasers, or two 5 racks (10 missiles) and sacrificing some of the lasers.

Comparison:
2 x 2 shots = 4 missiles x MIRV5 = 20 warheads x 6 damage = 120 max damage
1 x 5 shots = 5 x 5 = 25 x 6 = 150 max damage
2 x 5 shots = 10 x 5 = 50 x 6 = 300 max damage

The 2 shot rack will be able to take out 1 colony ship or large escort before reverting to lasers (assuming most missile hit). One 5 rack should take out one colony ship easily, or a large escort (even if it has a bit of missile defense), it would also have more lasers for taking on any remaining ships. Two 5 racks could handle up to two large ships with a bit left over for smaller stuff, or to weaken a third. It would have less lasers to finish off stragglers though.

I think for our purposes, we will want to build ships with 5 racks in order to maximize total damage. Larges are expensive to build in order to be hit-and-run attack ships, plus we are on defense right now.

Overall, a good turn. You got pop to Obaca, built us another defense ship (which may make the difference if the Bulrathi send a probe to Obaca!), and got a lot of research done. We just need to keep slogging through the tech until we can get another range boost to start colonizing again. If we get stuck with only 4 planets, this variant is going to get tough.

 

[TheArchduke]

Silicoids reached Tyr with a scout, you&#180;re right no need for panic yet.

No activity whatsoever in the orbit of Rha, but I got chased off the dead world immeaditly.

I apologize for my mediocre ship design, I think my Moo2 experience taught me using 2 shots is better for fights. Moo fights tend to last longer and large hulls should be no through away designs with 2 shots.

Thanks for bearing with me guys.

I guess we should start on building some bases on Obaca and get 1-2 large ships as a defence force equipped with Scatter V 5 shots in.

 

[OlorinStormcrow]

The missiles are not a big deal. My first missile ships are usually 2 rack's too, just medium hulls. This variant requires quite a bit of rethinking of the usual moves.

I don't know if we need to invest too heavily in ships to defend Obaca. The two we have already can deal with any minor attacks, and once we have 2 or 3 bases there, we should be pretty safe. Plus, by the time we build a ship and fly it to Obaca, we can probably build a base there. Shifting some more pop over might be a good idea though to speed its growth.

It'll be an interesting set for IamI3rian to play

 

[TheArchduke]

No life sign from IamI3rian it seems. Not that I am impatient, but I have hold up things long enough already.