Turn 0:
Sign a NAP with the bears.
I also set Tyr to reserves since I love having a fat reserves account to play with.
I also go ahead and design a new ship:
It's Blake's Bizzaro Special time!
The main problem is, Ion Stream is HUGE! It's 472 space, thats well over half the remaining space after essential armor and stuff. With just Ion Stream and Sticky Glue Gun I could only fit on a single Heavy Blast Cannon. That's not enough firepower to matter. Taking off the HBC and the comps, I could fit on an Inertial Stabalizer or a Repulsar Beam. Since the design is unarmed and likely to be relatively unattractive to enemy ships, I decided to go with the RB.
By going with an unarmed design it's more justifiable having only a single Stick 5.0 with a fleet.
Final Turn 0 stuff:
I dumped reserves into various planets and made sure factories were being upgraded everywhere.
Turn 1:
The Rocks are coming to Toranor, all I do is make sure that there will be a Sticky 5.0 waiting... it'll take them 5 turns anyway.
I get 80 pop moving towards Endoria, from planets 3 turns distant. I don't know yet if I can take the orbit, but with Adv.Cloning pop is dirt cheap.
Turn 2:
Bears call to whine.
I get 42 more pop moving towards Endoria. Also, time to send in all available ships. As luck would have it, their fleet has mostly left orbit and most of their incoming fleets are 3 or more turns away.
Turn 3:
Pirates in Hyboria. Do we care? Do we have trade? I don't think so!
Turn 4:
Time for Battle of the rocks!
The rock ship designs are quite bad, and there's a super handy cluster of asteroids to hide behind!
Despite successfully getting the hercular barrages to go through the asteroids, attrition on our Bombers is still awful. However other than losing most of our bombers our fleet comes through mostly unscathed, and the Rock fleet is annihilated.
122 Psilons land and attack the 70 Rocks. We survive with 89 pislons, so it was actually overkill. But only slightly so.
Goodies: BC VI and VII, Adv.Eco.Restore, Doom Virus, Merculite Missiles, Imp.Terra 60.
While we missed the main goodie, the boost to our comp and ecology tech is certainly welcome.
At Endoria, our new maxed Rich, I can immediately throw up a Shield 10 and 10 bases. Sweeet. However I go with 5 bases this turn and get some eco slider in.
Turn 5:
Fusion Rifle comes in, and three is NO WAY I'm not making Sssla our next target. Sure sure we have a peace treaty, but it's PSILON STEAMROLL TIME! Next tech = Auto Blaster.
I immediately get 80+50+50 = 180 pop moving towards Sssla, at range 3.
At Endoria, 21 more bases, then it can work on finishing off it's economy.
Turn 6:
Some battles against the rocks, lose some ships, but really they are no real threat to us. Other than that Hercular missiles really would help.
Send 50 more pop on it's way to Sssla, 230 now. with our huge gropo advantage that should nearly max the world.
I sign an Alliance with the bears *laugh*.
Turn 7:
Star Gates come in -> Ion Drives.
Our massive Psilon swarm are now 1 turn out from Sssla.
The Sssla are feeling peaceful towards us.
I call up, and warmly offer a Non Aggression Pact. The Sssla accept. It is the dawn of a new era of peace and prosperity.
Turn 8:
The Lizards appear to be suprisingly suprised about the massive invasion fleet which has turned up at their home world. There are plenty of asteroids to hide behind and the 69 bases are only firing merculites, AND the planet only has shield 7 meaning the Stinger's will rip it a new one.
Still, 69 bases do some damage, and we lose a significant percentage of our fleet. But hell, the Lizard Homeworld is now wide open!
Our 230 Psilons attack the 180 Lizards.
172 Psilons survive, only 20 short of optimal!
Tech haul!
ZOMG Hand Lasers! Range 6... BC IX, Complete Eco Resto... come on goddamn it!... Battle Suits! Gah! Jammer V. Fricken. No Soil.
Sssla is a nice haul anyway, with 1200 reserves pumped into it it can instantly max it's terraforming and pop, plus build 6 bases.
I'm still bummed about no soil enriched. The Gorilla's have Advanced Soil Enrichment now, but someone (*glare*) glassed SoL so we can't haul it from them. But nevermind I still have 2 turns to stick the next player with the chore of upgrading all planets with Advanced Soil Enrichment. And I now have a massively deep population well to take more Lizard planets. I get about 50 population moving to Herculis, with the plan to dump a load more next turn from Sssla. Also altough I was supposed to be building a Stargate at Endoria, I decide to convert it into 8 Bombers.
Turn 9:
Improved Terra +50 comes in. Thank the gods that I got +60 just in time! Woulda sucked to had to do two upgrade cycles. next up: Advanced Soil Enrichment *grumbles*
The Pirates continue to have a field day, I care so much
.
I finalize the invasion of Herculis, with 80 pop from Sssla, so 130 should turn up.
Turn 10:
I notice something rather odd at the battle of Herculis, I had my bomber stack wait behind a couple of asteroid belts, within 1 turn range of the planet. Now here's the weird thing, the planet had an attack level of 10.
My ship moves forward and waits.
Planet fires at ship.
Ship waits, missiles fly through the asteroids and hit the ship.
Planets fires again.
Ship waits again, missiles fly through hte asteroids and hit the ship.
Ship now flies up to the planet and bombs it, TWICE.
How on earth did the ship manage to save up two volleys of bombs?!!!!! Was it because the planet had such a high attack level allowing it to fire twice in one turn???? I don't quite get this...
Anyway the Gropo battle on Herculis was nothing spectacular, 91 Psilons survived..... and the tech haul!...
Soil Enrichment. ECM VII, ADVANCED SOIL ENRICHMENT!!!!!, Improved Ind 4, Cloning. Bio-terminator!
Next tech = Terra 80.
High Council Vote:
It is us, vs the Rocks. And hey, thanks to my whimsical alliance the bears should vote for us...
Lizards vote Rocks. (7)
Humans vote Rocks (4)
Birds vote Brains (1)
Bears vote Brains (3)
Rocks vote Rocks (10)
I vote Brains (18)
With only 22/43 votes, we are far from winning. Maybe if we got Advanced Soil Enrichment in the raid on Sssla it might have just been doable...
We also lose contact with the humans.
As of this turn the Lizards are now cleaned out of tech. Only the Rocks still have tech which we don't.
We are #1 in Computers, by a significant margin - I mean OTHER than against the Lizards who we just fleeced the tech from.
Anyway that means less spy problems and our bases should have wicked too-hit.
Summary:
My objective was basically to establish a forward base for launching gropo invasions. Sssla has 210 population and Herculis should have about 130 or 150, I can't quite remember what it was. You should now be able to expand exponentially, launching one-turn invasions of nearby worlds and instantly bringing them up to speed and using them to launch the next invasion.
My other objective was of course to acquire Advanced Soil Enrichment and that was a success. Note that I have micro'd every world to complete Gaia and also max out population. As such you should only need to end turn. For now an existing Gaia world we took from the Lizards earlier is holding the research burden. Not that research matters anymore. All the tech we need is in Rock hands.
Finally, although it would have been nice to pick up Herculars first, our ship designs are seriously outdated. We can basically now design ships with twice the firepower along with being faster and tougher, and I have taken the liberity of comitting a couple of designs.
The new Megabolt design is an amazing upgrade over the old one - asides from having twice as many guns, it also has all sorts of init advantages and it has all the other component upgrades. The new bomber has more bombs, of a higher generation bomb, and has +3 more init (I neglected the shield 7 to fit on the missiles and an extra bomb). You will have to assign the new ships to production queues as the Gaiafication completes.
I fully expect that the game wont return to me, it should be possible to sweep across the galaxy taking a world or two every turn, there's only about 25 worlds left to take/glass. If the game does return to me, it'll certainly be all over except for the mop-up.
Happy Hunting.
Sign a NAP with the bears.
I also set Tyr to reserves since I love having a fat reserves account to play with.
I also go ahead and design a new ship:
It's Blake's Bizzaro Special time!
The main problem is, Ion Stream is HUGE! It's 472 space, thats well over half the remaining space after essential armor and stuff. With just Ion Stream and Sticky Glue Gun I could only fit on a single Heavy Blast Cannon. That's not enough firepower to matter. Taking off the HBC and the comps, I could fit on an Inertial Stabalizer or a Repulsar Beam. Since the design is unarmed and likely to be relatively unattractive to enemy ships, I decided to go with the RB.
By going with an unarmed design it's more justifiable having only a single Stick 5.0 with a fleet.
Final Turn 0 stuff:
I dumped reserves into various planets and made sure factories were being upgraded everywhere.
Turn 1:
The Rocks are coming to Toranor, all I do is make sure that there will be a Sticky 5.0 waiting... it'll take them 5 turns anyway.
I get 80 pop moving towards Endoria, from planets 3 turns distant. I don't know yet if I can take the orbit, but with Adv.Cloning pop is dirt cheap.
Turn 2:
Bears call to whine.
I get 42 more pop moving towards Endoria. Also, time to send in all available ships. As luck would have it, their fleet has mostly left orbit and most of their incoming fleets are 3 or more turns away.
Turn 3:
Pirates in Hyboria. Do we care? Do we have trade? I don't think so!
Turn 4:
Time for Battle of the rocks!
The rock ship designs are quite bad, and there's a super handy cluster of asteroids to hide behind!
Despite successfully getting the hercular barrages to go through the asteroids, attrition on our Bombers is still awful. However other than losing most of our bombers our fleet comes through mostly unscathed, and the Rock fleet is annihilated.
122 Psilons land and attack the 70 Rocks. We survive with 89 pislons, so it was actually overkill. But only slightly so.
Goodies: BC VI and VII, Adv.Eco.Restore, Doom Virus, Merculite Missiles, Imp.Terra 60.
While we missed the main goodie, the boost to our comp and ecology tech is certainly welcome.
At Endoria, our new maxed Rich, I can immediately throw up a Shield 10 and 10 bases. Sweeet. However I go with 5 bases this turn and get some eco slider in.
Turn 5:
Fusion Rifle comes in, and three is NO WAY I'm not making Sssla our next target. Sure sure we have a peace treaty, but it's PSILON STEAMROLL TIME! Next tech = Auto Blaster.
I immediately get 80+50+50 = 180 pop moving towards Sssla, at range 3.
At Endoria, 21 more bases, then it can work on finishing off it's economy.
Turn 6:
Some battles against the rocks, lose some ships, but really they are no real threat to us. Other than that Hercular missiles really would help.
Send 50 more pop on it's way to Sssla, 230 now. with our huge gropo advantage that should nearly max the world.
I sign an Alliance with the bears *laugh*.
Turn 7:
Star Gates come in -> Ion Drives.
Our massive Psilon swarm are now 1 turn out from Sssla.
The Sssla are feeling peaceful towards us.
I call up, and warmly offer a Non Aggression Pact. The Sssla accept. It is the dawn of a new era of peace and prosperity.
Turn 8:
The Lizards appear to be suprisingly suprised about the massive invasion fleet which has turned up at their home world. There are plenty of asteroids to hide behind and the 69 bases are only firing merculites, AND the planet only has shield 7 meaning the Stinger's will rip it a new one.
Still, 69 bases do some damage, and we lose a significant percentage of our fleet. But hell, the Lizard Homeworld is now wide open!
Our 230 Psilons attack the 180 Lizards.
172 Psilons survive, only 20 short of optimal!
Tech haul!
ZOMG Hand Lasers! Range 6... BC IX, Complete Eco Resto... come on goddamn it!... Battle Suits! Gah! Jammer V. Fricken. No Soil.
Sssla is a nice haul anyway, with 1200 reserves pumped into it it can instantly max it's terraforming and pop, plus build 6 bases.
I'm still bummed about no soil enriched. The Gorilla's have Advanced Soil Enrichment now, but someone (*glare*) glassed SoL so we can't haul it from them. But nevermind I still have 2 turns to stick the next player with the chore of upgrading all planets with Advanced Soil Enrichment. And I now have a massively deep population well to take more Lizard planets. I get about 50 population moving to Herculis, with the plan to dump a load more next turn from Sssla. Also altough I was supposed to be building a Stargate at Endoria, I decide to convert it into 8 Bombers.
Turn 9:
Improved Terra +50 comes in. Thank the gods that I got +60 just in time! Woulda sucked to had to do two upgrade cycles. next up: Advanced Soil Enrichment *grumbles*
The Pirates continue to have a field day, I care so much
.I finalize the invasion of Herculis, with 80 pop from Sssla, so 130 should turn up.
Turn 10:
I notice something rather odd at the battle of Herculis, I had my bomber stack wait behind a couple of asteroid belts, within 1 turn range of the planet. Now here's the weird thing, the planet had an attack level of 10.
My ship moves forward and waits.
Planet fires at ship.
Ship waits, missiles fly through the asteroids and hit the ship.
Planets fires again.
Ship waits again, missiles fly through hte asteroids and hit the ship.
Ship now flies up to the planet and bombs it, TWICE.
How on earth did the ship manage to save up two volleys of bombs?!!!!! Was it because the planet had such a high attack level allowing it to fire twice in one turn???? I don't quite get this...
Anyway the Gropo battle on Herculis was nothing spectacular, 91 Psilons survived..... and the tech haul!...
Soil Enrichment. ECM VII, ADVANCED SOIL ENRICHMENT!!!!!, Improved Ind 4, Cloning. Bio-terminator!
Next tech = Terra 80.
High Council Vote:
It is us, vs the Rocks. And hey, thanks to my whimsical alliance the bears should vote for us...
Lizards vote Rocks. (7)
Humans vote Rocks (4)
Birds vote Brains (1)
Bears vote Brains (3)
Rocks vote Rocks (10)
I vote Brains (18)
With only 22/43 votes, we are far from winning. Maybe if we got Advanced Soil Enrichment in the raid on Sssla it might have just been doable...
We also lose contact with the humans.
As of this turn the Lizards are now cleaned out of tech. Only the Rocks still have tech which we don't.
We are #1 in Computers, by a significant margin - I mean OTHER than against the Lizards who we just fleeced the tech from.
Anyway that means less spy problems and our bases should have wicked too-hit.
Summary:
My objective was basically to establish a forward base for launching gropo invasions. Sssla has 210 population and Herculis should have about 130 or 150, I can't quite remember what it was. You should now be able to expand exponentially, launching one-turn invasions of nearby worlds and instantly bringing them up to speed and using them to launch the next invasion.
My other objective was of course to acquire Advanced Soil Enrichment and that was a success. Note that I have micro'd every world to complete Gaia and also max out population. As such you should only need to end turn. For now an existing Gaia world we took from the Lizards earlier is holding the research burden. Not that research matters anymore. All the tech we need is in Rock hands.
Finally, although it would have been nice to pick up Herculars first, our ship designs are seriously outdated. We can basically now design ships with twice the firepower along with being faster and tougher, and I have taken the liberity of comitting a couple of designs.
The new Megabolt design is an amazing upgrade over the old one - asides from having twice as many guns, it also has all sorts of init advantages and it has all the other component upgrades. The new bomber has more bombs, of a higher generation bomb, and has +3 more init (I neglected the shield 7 to fit on the missiles and an extra bomb). You will have to assign the new ships to production queues as the Gaiafication completes.
I fully expect that the game wont return to me, it should be possible to sweep across the galaxy taking a world or two every turn, there's only about 25 worlds left to take/glass. If the game does return to me, it'll certainly be all over except for the mop-up.
Happy Hunting.
). Will play in some seconds..
We did destroy over half their bases in the process though.
. I had a BLAST! Check out the thumbnail. This picture was taken about 2/3 of the way through the game, when I finally managed enough tech to go on offense. I just took the three southern-most planets from the Bulrathi, and would proceed to take all of their holdings in the SE and NW. The center remained spudsville for the entire game. After that I eliminated the backwards Mrrshan, and then the Meklars, then stopped when it was clear I had won. I would have needed to glass some Klackon worlds to get a conquest victory, which was eminently doable, but that would have required a fleet re-design, and I didn't get around to it. The game went well into future-tech territory, and it was actually a lot of fun playing with some of the late-tree toys when everybody else had them as well. 
