OSG 24 - The Guns of Sssla

[ToddMarshall]

Actually there is. We currently need stabilizer just to muster combat speed 4. Considering they have HEF, they could make a design with enough maneuver to vaporize us before we could even move. their current dread lacks enough maneuver to do that, but they have the tech to make a ship that could do it. Also, when we teleport out, we recloak so they can't get a good parting shot at us. Now obviously, we want to avoid their ships as much as possible, but it isn't always 100% possible.

 

[RefSteel]

Actually there is. We currently need stabilizer just to muster combat speed 4. Considering they have HEF, they could make a design with enough maneuver to vaporize us before we could even move. their current dread lacks enough maneuver to do that, but they have the tech to make a ship that could do it.

Hmmmm. Teleporter claims (in-game) that it automatically gives first initiative.

[EDIT]

Teleports ships to any space on the combat map and gives first initiative to the teleporting ship.

[/edit]

Is this incorrect? Or [EDIT:was your point that cloaks will be needed] in case of interdictors?

Also, when we teleport out, we recloak so they can't get a good parting shot at us. Now obviously, we want to avoid their ships as much as possible, but it isn't always 100% possible.

Out? Teleport OUT?!

(This is a good point. In case someone more sane than I am ends up playing the turns.)

 

[vmxa]

Lurker:

Can't remeber last time I saw a teleporter, but would not an a sub space interdictor negate the porter? If they had porters and higher speed, they could go before your porter iirc. Otherwise your porter should take first move.

 

[RefSteel]

Lurker:

Can't remeber last time I saw a teleporter, but would not an a sub space interdictor negate the porter? If they had porters and higher speed, they could go before your porter iirc. Otherwise your porter should take first move.

Yup, interdictor should negate the 'porter entirely, and of course you're right that the enemy might move first if they and we both have teleporters aboard. As far as I can tell, our enemies currently have neither 'porters nor interdictors though. And if we play this right, they've only got eight years to develop them before their research centers start getting slagged.

 

[ToddMarshall]

Didn't realize they automatically made us go first (guess I just figured I always had superior initiative), so that eliminates half the problem. Still, combat will go like this: We teleport and glass, then they shoot at us, then we retreat (cloaking) (And in my experience, the AI doesn't always pick a good corner to teleport into as it's retreating either), and they shoot again (cloaks help a lot here) then we disappear. So cloaks will potentially save us losses. Not really worried about them developing cloaks, and they'd better hurry mightily if they are going to develop interdictors before it ends. In any event, the cloak only costs 1BC, so it wouldn't have to save many ships to be useful.

And by "they" I mean (HEF) Beam ships. We can dodge the missiles.

 

[jmas]

Sorry for the delay guys--because we're out of the original play order (and because I was busy yesterday and today), I didn't realize it was my turn till now. Please skip me until at least after the weekend. Computer seems to be running relatively ok, though it now has only 1 functioning memory module (it's quite a few years old and I'll probably get a new one rather than try to fix it, but would prefer to be careful about when I do it given how busy I am this month), but the main issue is my clinical: we have renewed issues with the instructor, plus a wknd-full of clinical coming up again.

Go team!

 

[RefSteel]

Sorry for the delay guys--because we're out of the original play order (and because I was busy yesterday and today), I didn't realize it was my turn till now. Please skip me until at least after the weekend.

In that case, GOT IT! Although looking over my schedule, I'm not 100% sure of when I'll be able to play ... fortunately, MoO turns don't take too much time, but I'll still have to figure a way to fit them in someplace.

Computer seems to be running relatively ok, though it now has only 1 functioning memory module (it's quite a few years old and I'll probably get a new one rather than try to fix it, but would prefer to be careful about when I do it given how busy I am this month), but the main issue is my clinical: we have renewed issues with the instructor, plus a wknd-full of clinical coming up again.

I'm glad to hear the computer is ... er, at least functional again - and sorry to hear about the clinical difficulties. An instructor who arbitrarily changes the students' schedules at a whim and with little notice must be very unpleasant. Good luck with all of it!

 

[Catwalk]

You have a big challenge on your hands, 7 years to prepare for Final War and 5 years to exterminate the robots

It may very well be possible, with good logistics. We have the tech for awesome glassing, and they're quite inexpensive. If fleets are in place at the necessary locations, we only need to glass something like 4 planets a year. Could look something like this:

Group 1
Incedius > Centauri > Hyboria

Group 2
Bootis > Zoctan > Gion > Xudax >

Group 3
Phyco > Uxmai > Nyarl

Group 4
Kulthos > Cygni > Meklon

Group 5
Rotan > Phantos > Arietis

Group 6
Nitzer > Simius > Antares

This way you still have time to produce replacements if there are heavy casualties in any of those battles, and the fleets might be able to supplement each other a bit as needed. It's important that you can glass the planets in one turn, but that shouldn't be a problem at this tech level.

 

[ToddMarshall]

I think it's safe for catwalk and I to assume we won't be playing again, and it doesn't sound like jmas will be able to play for at least a week or so, so I'd say it's up to you if you want to try to finish it up in 12 years, which would be a spectacular finish (unless the Meklar declare in the next 3-4 years, giving you extra time, then it would be meerly very good), or if you want to hand off to codehappy at some point to finish it up.

Might also want to ask the question: If at the end of my set, they are dead in 1-2 years, fleets on the way, they cant stop us, do you want me to hand off or just click next turn twice and end it. Seen people go both ways on that, and sometimes it just depends on the game too. Like if you're handing off to someone who's played spectacularly earlier and deserves the last turn, etc. (If I'm ever in that spot, if I'm not getting at least 4 turns, don't hand it to me, just end it.)

Can't speak for what codehappy would want though, so you might want to pose the question.

 

[RefSteel]

unless the Meklar declare in the next 3-4 years

I found time to play the first half of the turn set; no DoW by the Meklar. Final War begins shortly after I next hit "Next Turn."

Can't speak for what codehappy would want though, so you might want to pose the question.

This is a good point, though I'm not sure if it will arise. I'm still thinking about how I want to play out the next six turns, and I'm not sure to what extent I'll actually pursue a five-turn win. Also: There's a fleet of basically 100 [EDIT: Nemesis] dreads at Meklon at the moment. By no means the only ones in their fleet. Should be interesting!

 

[RefSteel]

Glancing up at the message I just posted, I realize I didn't add the important bit:

That said, in case it DOES come up, would you want to play a few turns of Final War, codehappy? Even if it's just a bit of mop-up at the end? (Note I'm still in 2524 here, and though I've decided roughly what my plan is going to look like, I probably won't be able to actually finish my turns and report until at least Saturday night.)

 

[codehappy]

Glancing up at the message I just posted, I realize I didn't add the important bit:

That said, in case it DOES come up, would you want to play a few turns of Final War, codehappy? Even if it's just a bit of mop-up at the end? (Note I'm still in 2524 here, and though I've decided roughly what my plan is going to look like, I probably won't be able to actually finish my turns and report until at least Saturday night.)

Sure, I would play again, if it comes around to me.

 

[RefSteel]

Wellllll ... I finally decided what to do. I hope it's not too disappointing. There were basically four things informing my decision:

1) This game is already won no matter what; it's just a question of how much real and/or game time we want to invest in blowing up Meklar worlds.

2) The enthusiasm for playing out Final War in a Large galaxy when the game is already won appears ... underwhelming.

3) I haven't had time to play past 2424 anyway, and my schedule, like jmas's, is about to getting MORE difficult. (I won't be able to play for about a week and a half starting Monday.)

4) If I'm wrong about #2 above and someone really, really wants to coordinate a galaxy-wide Final War, they can always play from my 2424 save.

Nevertheless, there was a bit of excitement during my turn at least! Report to follow.

 

[RefSteel]

2518: With Gunsslinger Catwalk following Gunsslinger Maniac's prescedent for early retirement, I asssume the office with pride. My firsst move? A new sship design, of courssssse.



Thiss one's a little sspecial. (It has Zortium only because it was a free upgrade and I don't really care about maintenance cosstss anymore.) Enough of these sshould be able to kill Meklar dreads before they can even move! And I do plan to build lotss and lotsssssssssssssss of them. In fact, I don't think it'ss enough to have Artemissss fighters: I want a bunch of identical Huntressssses too!


2519: More fighters! MORE!!!!!



If you couldn't tell what was going on immediately when my reign began, I'm ssure you ssee it by now. But jusst how good will these fighters prove?


2520: The Klackons have made a grave error: They colonized another planet which appears to be lesssss valuable than the one they had already. I ssend ssome people to invesstigate.


2522: The moment of truth....



...as the Huntressssses strike! They teleport right up to the Guardian in spite of its massive weaponry, and hit it with everything they've got! Then the Artemisssss fighters join the fray!



They teleport in before the Guardian can react!



...and FIRE!!!!



Wow. Um. My colony sship didn't have time to retreat. The Guardian didn't fire a sshot. That was ... a sslight case of overkill.

...

Good.



The purpose of thiss entire exserscize was to improve our miniaturization levels. We've been doing ressearch too, but it'ss way sslower (or at leasst lesss fun) than thiss.



Oooooh. Inertial Nullifiers! (And Gauss Autocannons and some more computer tech and Death Rays of course.) Cool! Ummmm ... kind of a dissapointing tech haul actually, but sstill, it'ss nothing to ssneeze at.

Oh! And my invesstigators arrived at Crypto - the better of the two Klackon worlds.



Invesstigation complete! The final analyssiss of their other world will have to wait a few more years though. For now, let'ss try to work out ssome more miniaturization.


2523: Okay, thiss sshould help with logissticss at leasst ... depending on what you mean by "help..."




2524: I take a long time to decide our variouss policies. How besst to deal with the aliens now that we bassically own the entire galaxsy? And in the end, there is only one posssible rational descision.



It'ss time to sshow these high-council loonies what Democracy (or at least a Republic) really means!



Will you aliens PLEASE sstop ssquabling for ONE MINUTE and lissssten?! If you'll jusst pay attention, we'll sshow you the ssecretss of our ssuccsesss as a peaceful, democratic ssosciety! And then we can work on claiming OTHER galaxsies ... together!





(2524 save attached for those who want more fireworks, or just some high-tech toys to play with. I just didn't feel like playing it out, as I have too little time right now and the victory is completely inevitable. The only thing that would slow us down at this point would be interdictors, and the only thing that would stop us would be ... ... um, there really isn't anything, actually.)

 

[RefSteel]

Thanks very much to all of you - I had a lot of fun with this game!

As I mentioned above, I won't be able to play at all for about a week and a half (and my internet access during that period will be sporadic at best) - sorry about the short notice - but hopefully I'll see you soon!

 

[Catwalk]

Very nice Guardian spanking! Completely understandable about accepting election victory, and thanks for providing the 2524 save. I definitely want to fight out the final war, and anyone who's interested in teaming up is most welcome. I'll let it sit for a couple days before starting.

Thanks to everyone for a great game, special thanks to RefSteel for setting it up. I'd love to play another one in maybe a month or so, if we can gather at least 4 players for it. I just signed up for the TFTD SG on the RB forums and am playing a Civ2 SG as well, but there's room for a little more fun

 

[Catwalk]

I just discovered an interesting way to take out the Guardian. With the teleporter, we can very realistically achieve a 1st round kill. This means we can use a huge design with no armour and no shields, just max BC and weapons with nuclear engines. Add a bunch of separate medium designs each with an ion stream projector to bash its armour before being hit, and we have a very easy win.

At the 2518 save, this gives me a dreadnought which costs a mere 7.5 BC per MB Cannon, versus 18 BC per MB Cannon for the traditional design RefSteel employed succesfully.

 

[codehappy]

Excellent, RefSteel! Thanks to all, it was a fun game. Looking forward to the next one.

 

[RaiddinnRZ]

Hello everybody, my name is Raiddinn and I don't know much about Civ games, but I do know about Orion games. Orion 1 is my favorite of them.

I am posting in here because this has traffic from today. I have been a CivFanatics lurker on and off mostly trying to learn from the way other people play.

I am up for being included in a succession game with any settings.

I am not going to claim pro status, but I know my way around the game well enough. I wrote the WikiStrategy articles for Orion 1, if anyone has read them, and I have beaten the game on Impossible with every race at least a couple times.

Anyway, I hope to get to play a game with some of you long time 4x gamers in the near future.

BTW, sorry if I shouldn't do introductions here. I didn't see anything saying not to, but I only peruse the Master of Orion section of the CivFanatics board.

Raid

 

[jmas]

Nice work Ref! And...would have liked to post this when others were saying it, but great playing with all of you!

Hopefully things will get (a little) easier for me during this week, but I still have to finalize & submit my tax return, and then take an exam on Tuesday, so I'm not quite there yet--and not sure I'll be up for Final War at that point, so don't count on me at least for now. After May 1, I should have more free time, and hopefully a new computer around then too.

Nice to meet you, RaiddinnRZ! I looked at a couple of the StrategyWiki articles--all I have time for tonight. Some good points made there.