Lions and tigers and BEARS, Oh my!! Not one to be scared at being
WAY over his depth and even less scared of being thought a fool,
Charis Ursus signed on for a task he had never undertaken. His grasp
of the subtleties of the ways of Orion were smaller than any could imagine,
and yet his comrades were both honorable and bright men, and he
expected to learn much.
Looking at the start, Charis Ursus tried to gauge what he would do
first. Our starting area looks quite nice, and his guess is that two
other races are going to have prime starts and two will have duds, with
the last an average one. Who would they be though? Our opponents were
Psilons (uh oh), Silicoids, Sakkra, Darloks and Alkari. The latter make
for a game both with ground pounders and strong fighter pilots.
The start does look good, with the three range-3 stars as pointed out by
Sirian. My first impression would be to send the colony to the yellow right
away and scout the two greens. The only reason I wouldn't is because there are
no NEW stars opened up by a yellow colony, and I would see if a green one might
support a good population and help open up new venues quickly.
> We chose the yellow star immediately.
Ok, at least my second choice is a good one, and straight yellow makes sense.
A posteriori Gion turned out better. That was the most likely result, although
Imri isn't bad either.
How many colonists to send? Sirian likes to send enough to put homeworld at half,
and chose one left due to micromanaging efficiency (I like that trick, btw).
How many would I have sent? 25 (!) I'll explain the math in another post.
Scout2 ships were ordered up, as expected, and he got the typical 5.
I also like how you found out research options for the three best fields quickly.
Before I read what you pick, let me see how I would have fared.
Reduced Waste 80%, a fine tech, and no choice to make.
Control Barren or Improved Eco? Interesting, we do have a barren in first ring.
I have to look up what Improved Eco does. Eliminates waste for a fixed cost.
While that's nice, quite nice, we're already heading for Reduced Waste. With a
barren so close and other planets looking a little dudly, I favor Control Barren.
> We chose Barren "since we not only have a barren planet in reach, but it is bridging
the way to a bunch of other stars" Yay!
Range 4 fuel cells is also a nice one, pretty expected.
Again for practice, I consider a dotmap before looking at Sirians...
I like Imra the ocean one soon and Klystrom after that. Yes, it's ultra poor
but it's coreward and opens up more planets. Everything else depends on how the
upcoming scouting goes. I look at Sirian's dotmap and see just how 'crude' my thinking
is

At least it makes complete sense, he's not speaking Greek.
How do we stand? Ursus pop 56 factories 61 growth 3, pop 32 factories 4, growth 5
Total net income (after clean eco) is 57+16 = 73.
What would it look like if I sent 25 instead of 7 colonists way back when?
Well, 24 after using the tick trick. I play through that and see, the results are:
In 2310, Ursus is pop 54 fac 58 gro +2, Gion is 36/6/+3. Total income is 54+20 = 74.
Just to compare apples to oranges I'm going to send BACK colonists to Ursus to equal
what went went on in the 'real game', and compare in the year 2413. (AFTER my real turn was done!!)
Sending 7 : U 65/79/+3 G 39/10/+2, Inc 70+23=93
Sending 24: U 68/76/+7 G 38/13/+2, Inc 70+25=95 (after sending 5 pop BACK to Ursus)
What's the difference? The total population is +2 higher, the total factories are
the same, with a few more on the colony and a few less home, and income is +2 higher
due to the pop being higher. That's with an extra send-back of 5 that I may not have
actually done, just to make the comparison cleaner. So sending enough pop to put you
closer to 34-40% of max, not 50% of max is optimal from a growth point of view. The
downside... sending colonists off Ursus slowed down my Scout2 production, for a 1-2
turn delay getting scouts out. That's not insignificant, but is situation dependent.
If you need less scouts, send more colonists right away.
OK, back to reality, and after all that verbiage, I'm ready to start my turn.
Should I hope to find wonderful news that will require bold decisions, or non-descript
planets found that won't rock the boat?! Fortune favors the bold!
Note this report will be more detailed than most, as I'm looking for any comments
on moves that I can get. I'll be short on screenshots as I don't know how to take them
just yet. (Note later: I found I can do them with DOSBOX at the cost of jerky play)
2310 - Hit return...
2311 -
- The gray NE star is Mu Delphi. Hostile Inferno 40.
- The blue NW star is Incedius. Hostile Tundra 30. Double ouch.
- The green E star is Argus. Ocean 70. That's better!
- The red SE star is Gienah. *ARTIFACT* Minimal (better than hostile) max
Free tech: Industrial Tech 8, factories cost 8. Cool!
That DOES impact our plans. Gienah is 6 parsecs away but can make it via hop via
the 'purple' path in the dotmap. I would have to think this planet takes priority,
and sets our agenda for colonization. The only question is when. I think when Ursus can
build the colony ships in 4-5 turns it will be time to go. No real need to push
faster because we need four hops, or two hops with range 4 tech. Actually, that does
suggest accelerating research toward range 4.
Our rate to a colony ship now is 10 turns, so we're not even close. Factories it is!
To get it down to 5 turns will take double the factories, and as we're now producing
about 7 per year we could start to build colony ships in about 9-10 turns. It would
be ideal if before year 14 we had the range 4 tech. Is that possible? At 270 RP
with an average 1.4-1.5 of minimum, we would need to spend 27 RP per year to make it
in time. How feasible is that? It would cut our factory production rate well over half.
Nope, can't do it, too short sight. Voices ring in my head... "I urge you to think
long term!" Max factories continues to be the path here.
2312 -
- Space combat!! At the north green star the Sakkras want some... they get some,
as our unarmed scout chases off an unarmed colony ship. (gulp)
- Second space combat! Just below there, a small yellow star, we find to have a
planet and some ships in orbit. It's a green flagged star, the Sakkra.
Planet name: SSSLA. 5 spectre, 5 scout, 1 fighter, 1 colony ship. Population 95
Industry 51. 96? Must be their home world (?)
We reached the north green star the same turn as the colony ship, since we now get
the report that the system is called Iranha.
I interpret the above that the Northern edge central yellow stars are home to Sakkra.
In fact, the small yellow star (Sssla) is almost surely their capital. These guys are
close, and we're going to be in conflict for worlds sooner rather than later. I think
I'm glad I have the turn finding out this info rather than having to take it to them
The fact that we chased off a colony ship and that we're in their first ring means
that at some point, perhaps not long, the Sakkra will come back armed. Do I want to
do something about that? No, not really. It pulls off too far away, it would slow our
growth considerably, and we're good at ground combat, not ship combat.
(Hmm, he sent his colony ship to an uninhabitable world? Go ahead, bring an escort!)
- I send the retreated ship back to Klystron, where it will be ready to visit the next
unexplored planet after we settle the ocean world.
- The good news... if I understand the map and technology correctly, the Sakkra can *NOT*
contend with any planets with us for quite some time, as the only border ones are
uninhabitable and hostile (tundra). They'll need tundra and range 5 (4?) to reach us.
- Continue to max shields. Note that to optimize overall pop/factory growth I should
send more colonists from Ursus to Gion, but what I think I want to do is to emphacize
not total growth right now but Ursus, to be able to crank on colony ships.
In fact I *almost* want to pull back about 8 colonists from Gion, but as the population
will sustain the factories through the first 2 colony ships, there's no advantage.
2313 -
- Scout red start up North - Spica Mineral Poor Jungle 80.
- Next turn, as we stick to factories.
2314 - Nothing.
2315 -
- No report IBT
- Ursus: 70/102/+3 (+10 fact) net inc 84. Would take 7 years for a colony
- Gion: 42/18/+2 (+3.7 fact) net inc 30.
Optimal growth swap would be 7 colonists to Gion, but we stick with Ursus factory push.
2316 - Nothing.
2317 -
- No report IBT
- Ursus: 74/123/+2 (+12 fact) net inc 97. Would take 6 years for a colony
- Gion: 49/26/+3 (+3.7 fact) net inc 37.
In a few turns there will be more factories than we could man at Ursus, so I have
a few choices: let that happen anyway, send over a few colonists, or start a colony.
I think we can wait 1-2 more turns then crank out colony ships and our factories
will be twice pop, while Gion has enough pop to transport some people.
2318 - Nothing.
2319 -
- No report IBT
- Ursus: 78/149/+2 (+12 fact) net inc 112. Would take 6 years for a colony
- Gion: 53/36/+2 (+5.5 fact) net inc 44.
Ursus is only 7 factories from max for pop, it's time for a ship. I go near max
on ship, backing off two ticks keeping 6 turn ETA but building a few more factories.
I've shifted Gion to research, as it will be sending troops soon, as as we would
like range 4 tech sooner rather than later. Our next leader can throttle back if
this isn't smart, but for now, I'm spending 2/3 propulsion and 1/3 planetology, 44 RPt.
2320 - (no report IBT)
- Ursus: 80/150/+2 (+1.8 fact, ship in 5) net inc 112.
- Gion: 53/36/+2 (+5.5 fact, 45 RP) net inc 45.
There we have it, some interesting analysis and decisions to make up front, and an
uneventful remainder of the turn which is fine.
Recommendation: send some troops from Gion to Ursus in 1 turns, so that you can continue
them on along to the new colony, and save 3 turns in getting them there.
I would send to Imra (max 55) 23 colonists, although 18 ish to drop Gion to 40 would work.
After it's colonized, get a couple more scout2's and explore/blockade.
Thoughts? Comments? Give me da prod!
Da Bears OSG1 2320 AD Save 4 -- To Imra!
Charis