OSG17B - Alkari Alley

[Zed-F]

OSG17b
Alkari, Impossible, 4 opponents
Variant Rules: None

Lots of yellow stars nearby... some of them too near to be likely to hold enemy homeworlds. I'm guessing the enemy homeworlds are in the NW and NE corners of the map.

Describing my turns is easy, I colonize the closest habitable world (Tau Cygni) and send scouts everywhere they can reach. I also start research into planetology and propulsion, where I have as my only picks Controlled Barren and Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Luckily, these are exactly the picks we need (though more planetology options would have been nice!) as there are two Barren worlds nearby and several habitable worlds within range 4. Colonizing Uxmai is key as if we can snag that then everything else we want is within range 4 from there. Providing we can keep the Psilons from encroaching from the north, we should be in good shape to do just that. The Psilons do have a nice second planet in Hyboria, a Terran 90, but the system between that world and our expansion space is a Barren; if the Psilons don't have that in their tree or choose not to research it first we may be able to beat them to it.

In other news, the Humans are the first ones to three systems but I have no idea where they are. The only scouts I've seen so far are Psilon.

Attached is a pic of where things stand so far, and the save file. We'll probably play 20 turns each until the end of the first rotation and then drop to 10 turns each.

Roster:
Zed-F << Just Played
Blake << UP NOW
mostly-harmless << On Deck
Stuporman
Azoth

 

[mostly-harmless]

Ahem, checking in and cough, Zed, about that savefile ... its from 2300AD ... (?)
mh

 

[StuporMan]

Checking in. With planet #2 being size 90 we are already in good shape for the early parts of the game. With a plethora of planets available at range 4/Barren we should be in pretty good shape for the mid-game too.

It is also nice to have the Psilon's as the potential poachers. With their pacifist nature, we should be able to get away with scout blockades for long enough to grab all the quasi-habitable (Dead or less) planets we have scouted so far.

If we are really concerned, we could put a popgun or two to defend Uxmai, but that should not be necessary.

 

[Blake]

Checking in, wont play until tomorrow though.

 

[Zed-F]

Ahem, checking in and cough, Zed, about that savefile ... its from 2300AD ... (?)
mh

Rrr. I thought I double-checked that! I'll have to fix it tonight.

Incidentally, Stup, our second planet is size 45. It's the Psilons who have a size 90...

 

[StuporMan]

Ahh, my mistake. Well then, great start for the brains then. This game could get interesting more quickly then. Expansion now becomes a lot bigger priority (more so than it already was).

 

[Zed-F]

Ok, try this file:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=152264&d=1177984481

 

[Blake]

Turn 0:
Planning...

Turn 1:
Chase away Klackon scout at Cyngi.

Turn 6:
Factories maxed, start on Col Ship. Range 4 not in yet, but it's in high percents.

Next Up: Nuclear Engines vs Interial Stabilizers, I decide to go with nuclear and also continue putting most of our research into propulsion, since we have many "Green" worlds to colonize before moving on to the barrens.

Turn 12:
Colony Ship complete, design Popgun, 15 will be trained. After that it's back to another Col Ship.

Turn 17:
Vxma1 founded.

Turn 18:
Colony ship complete. Sent to Cyngi. Also i send 7 popguns to Cyngi and 7 to Torandor (barren near Psilons) and leave 3 on Vxma1.



Note that Tau Cygni has been stalled at 51 factories, for research and populating new colonies.

I'm not sure if we need any more popguns, waiting for Nuclear Drives and pumping out a bunch then might be best.

 

[Zed-F]

Note that we do want to make sure to hold that Barren just south of Hyboria with some popguns. Getting Barren bases for a colony there would be good and would take priority over settling our backline jungle world, though settling the furthest arid world is just as important. Hopefully Barren will come in soon since we've been researching it for quite a while now.

 

[mostly-harmless]

2340 (0):
Look around. Micro Tau Cygni to give 3 more research. Send two Toranor scouts coreward.

2342 (2):
Red star in the center (northwest of Toranor) is Orion. Sout Morrig in the southwest Dead50. Colony ship finihes in Altair, send to backyard Jungle world.

2343 (3):
Controlled Barren comes in. Controlled Dead & Death Spores are the options. I go with the cheaper Controlled Dead, since we just scouted Morrig. Barren Colony ship designed and ordered up. We need two of these fellows.

2345 (5):
Scput chaes away Human scout at the green center star. Kailis Tundra Rich 30. Yummie. Currently at 7 parsecs. If we settle Cygni, we might pull that star in range of our popguns. Move Uxmai garrison to Cygni in anticipation.

2346 (6):
Silicoids move into orbit around Toranor (Northern Barren) with a col ship and medium escort, but are chased away by 6 popguns. Cygni settled. Kailis stays away 5 parsecs. Now, is it worth to design LR popguns? I hold designing for now as nuclear engines will come in any turn now, plus the settling of Toranor in 7 turns might do the trick and pull Kailis into our 4 parsec fleet operational radius.

2348 (8):
Paranar, Jungle backyard settled.

2349 (9):
Chase away Klackon scout at Cygni. Nuclear engines come in. Options are Inertial Stabiliser and Sublight Drives. I go with Sublight Drives. Comments on that decision are welcome.

2350 (10):
Scout Nordia to the far soutwest toxic 10.

2353 (13):
Settle Toranor (Northern Barren) (6 system warning) which brings us into contact with the Psilons (2 planets). They are Honorable not Pacifist and are allied with the Silicoids and Klackons.
A minimal trade arrangement is signed.
Toranor does not do the trick bringing Kailis into range 4, so I design a Medium LR Laser (2) ship with nuclear engines and class II combat speed. Excess shipbuilding at Altair is spend to contruct 6 of these ship. Altair is otherwise switched back to research, giving Tau Cygni a chance to resume factory building.
Scouts are send out northwestward.

2355 (15)
The yellow star west of Kailis? Aurora Fertile 110 Jungle and unsettled. Why is noone around? huh?
Does that mean we have the complete south of the map for us?

2356 (16)
Settle Keeta the Barren wordl close by. That triggers the council vote. We are up against the Humans.
Here is the vote:
Humans 4 for Humans
Silicoids 3 abstain
Klackons 1 abstain
Psilons 2 abstain
Us 3 for Humans

2360 (20)
Things are looking good. We have a lot of planets, which are slowly coming up to speed. Altair is in research. Controlled Dead is the one we want to get soonest. That will bring us the dead in the south and with a Huge-LR commitment Kailis in the center together with the fertile 110 jungle in the west.
I already diverted half of our LR LSR designs to that planet. Two more planets are being scouted in the next turns.
Remember that the red north of Toranor is Orion.

Good luck.
mh

 

[Zed-F]

I hear the fat lady warming up already...

 

[Azoth]

Checking in...
Things are looking pretty good.
I'm travelling tomorrow so I probably won't be able to get this (after Stuporman) until Thursday morning/afternoon (3.5 hours behind GMT).

-Azoth

 

[Zed-F]

Hey, Stuporman, you out there? If you want to take your turns, better speak up quick!

Azoth, if you see this and are ready to play before Stup posts, go ahead and take your turns. Stup is well past his 'got it' window. Hopefully he'll be back for next round.

 

[StuporMan]

I have it, but l have been busy the past several days. I will try and get my turns in today.

 

[StuporMan]

Mobas - Silly: 89/153, 5 bases, NW of Orion.

Humans discover a Derelict (Weapon and Shield).

Discover Herculis: Dead 10 (White in Center)

Planetology comes in, choose +30 over Spores. I take this opportunity to open up all tech areas. We get Scanners, Class 2 shield, IIT9, and Hand Lasers (over gats). I also build a Dead Colship and manage to get Morrig.

Humans Poach Aurora (sent 2 larges and an armed Col ship) I lose 2 LR Def ships hoping for good Alkari defense to pull out a win, but no dice.

Brains Poach Kailis (rich Tundra). They sent 2 armed colships. We just did not have the firepower to take them down in time.

IIT9 Comes in, I choose Durralloy over IIT8 (still no cleanup tech!)

Vote comes up, Human Blok - Humans (4), Psilons (2), Klackons (1).
Silly's (4) abstain and so do we (5). We are just shy of 1/3 pop!

Hand Lasers come in and I choose Hyper X over Gat and Ions (I believe, it doesn't really matter with a missile in the group).

Not the best turnset, we lost several really good potential worlds, but we just did not have the resources to fend off the fleets that were sent after them. We will just have to take them later.

 

[Zed-F]

That was quick, Stup! I'm glad you were able to get your turns in. Sounds like you did what you could, but I guess the fat lady is going to be warming up for a while yet.

Still, we should have enough space claimed by now that we can pull this one off without too much difficulty, so long as we can avoid war before we are ready for it.

 

[Azoth]

Got it earlier today...my turnset thus far:

2380 (Inherited Turn)
I dial down Ecology spending on Altair, Tau Cygni, and Toranor.
For whatever reason, we were spending more than necessary to keep the planets clean.

2381-2385
Uxmai, Paranor, and Toranor max on population and factories. Toranor begins building bases while the other two are set to research.

Speaking of research...
Class II Deflector Shields ---> Personal Deflector Shields (only choice)
Deep Space Scanner ---> Battle Computer Mark III (only choice)
I leave research sliders where they are (equal RCs in each field). Nothing strikes me as particularly worth chasing after.

We gain contact with the Aggressive, Technologist Silicoids. They own three worlds; the closest, Mobas, is five parsecs away. I establish a minimal trade agreement of 60 BC/year.

GNN announces that "the heavy metals on Paranar have been depleted to be point of making the planet mineral poor." Well, at least Paranar is a backline world...

2386-2390
Keeta hits maximum factories and population.

Our popguns are no match for a large human ship which arrives at Nordia; we retreat and the Humans scout the small, size 10 Toxic world at the fringe of our empire. On the same turn, we gain contact with the human leader, an Honourable Militarist. The large Human Empire consists of the five stars in the extreme west. The Klackons, then, occupy one star system in the northeast corner of the galaxy. We establish minimal trade.

The Humans, Silicoids, and Psilons all complain about our expansion efforts. Relations drop all the way to Wary in the case of the Psilons. In other news, Kholdan becomes rich.

2391-2395
GNN provides rankings of empire production: Human, Psilon, Alkari, Silicoid, Klackon, in that order. The Psilons and Klackons scout Nordia.

Sublight Drives ---> Uridium Fuel Cells [Range 8] (instead of Inertial Stablizier and Fusion Drives; we need an upgrade from Range 4)

2396-2400
Hyper X Rockets ---> Ion Rifle (instead of Galting Laser and Ion Cannon; it's necessary to advance plus I daresay we're unlikely to need Ion Cannons in an offensive capacity until we have better bombs)

The Humans appear to have sent a gigantic fleet to Morrig, our westernmost world, a Dead size 50: 18 assorted larges, 1259! smalls, and two colony ships are incoming in four turns, followed by two more larges and 125 smalls a turn after that. I hastily set about building bases, transferring Altair to reserve funding to speed them along. I'll have one, maybe two bases up in time.

At this point (2497) I'm going to take a break. I won't be able to post the save until tomorrow morning anyway, and as this is one of my first games on Impossible, I wonder if there's any advice some of the more experienced players could give me. The smalls are probably irrelevant thanks to Class II shields. As for the rest...I can arrange for our three defense ships to be at Morrig, but that's about it...
Should I build more military at nearby worlds? Our new rules forbid yo-yo tactics...
Should I (gasp!) prepare to lose Morrig?

- Azoth

 

[mostly-harmless]

I am anything, but an experienced player, but can we issues a threat to have them turnaround? According to the rules we would enter a hot war if they decline. I guess we are not ready for that yet.
mh

 

[Zed-F]

Since we have an established presence at Morrig, and have been there for some time, yes it would be legal to issue a threat to the humans. We would only enter a hot war with the humans if they declare war on us. Since we just suffered a 'you're too big' relations hit with them, there may be some possibility of that occurring. On the other hand, if most of their fleet is obsolete popguns, we don't necessarily need to be that scared of them. A threat might indeed be a worthwhile gamble.

At this point I would consider building some Hyper-X missile boats to act as mobile missile bases and help support some of our developing worlds. They won't do much against 1000+ smalls but they will help whittle down the enemy larges before they are forced to retreat.

 

[Azoth]

Sorry about the delay...things just came up.
I'm still within my 48-hour window, I believe, so here goes...

Well, I've made up my mind.
I will not give up Morrig without a fight!
So, let's see...

2397
Duralloy Armor is at 15%...
I'd really rather wait for it to come in before designing ships, but I'll design some anyway, and hopefully change the designs before they are built:
a medium HyperX 2.0: 1 5-rack of Hyper X missiles, BC I, Warp 3, Speed 1
a large HLaser 3.0: 7 heavy lasers, BC I, Warp 3, Speed 2, battle computers

I don't really intend to build any of the large ships; they are convenient "prebuilds" while I'm waiting for Dullaroy to come in, taking between 6 and 10 turns to build at the three worlds closest to Morrig: Cygni, Toranor, and Uxmai.

2398
No luck on Dullaroy, as the Humans inch ever closer to Morrig.
In other news, the Silicoids scout Nordia.

2399
Dullaroy hasn't come in yet. *sigh*
I note that an election will be held next turn, and the Humans are allied only to the Psilons, so we should be safe.
I keep transferring reserve funds from Altair to Morrig.

2400
The vote proceeds as expected: the Humans vote for themselves; the Psilons and Klackons vote for the Humans; and the Silicoids abstain. We also abstain. I seem to have lost the exact numbers, but the Humans received about 50% galaxy wide support, and by voting for them, we would have tipped them over 66%.
At this point, we still don't have Dullaroy Armor. A Human fleet is incoming in two turns. If we don't build and reloc ships by next turn, they won't arrive at Morrig in time. Even then, we'll still only have about 10 Hyper X missile boats.

So, I decide to gamble...and threaten to declare war on the Humans!
They opt to...gift us INDUSTRIAL TECH 8!
Relations drop to Wary, and the Human ambassador takes his leave, but we're saved!
The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that we really stood no chance at Morrig. This is the year 2400, and the Humans are the largest empire in the galaxy. I wouldn't be surprised if those smalls were sporting Ion Cannons! (it's happened to me on Impossible before)

All right, then, some notes for the next emperor:
-- We've just been given Industrial Tech 8 and we will soon have Dullaroy Armour. We should redesign the missile boats (we can give them better armour and more tactical speed.) In light of this, I have scrapped the HLaser 3.0 (we did not build a singe one), redirected Cygni, Toranor, and Uxmai to build Dead 2.0s (which will not finish next turn either), and transferred their spare production to research. Once we have the construction tech, we can use the production already stored on those three planets to quickly build a dozen or so missile boats.
-- Altair has been switched from reserve spending to research.
-- Ever since I noticed the incoming Human fleets, I have been placing emphasis on Construction research. It's at 22% now. I have equalized the research sliders, and our next emperor should adjust them as he sees fit.
-- One major gap in our technology tree is early cleanup techs. If we research Dullaroy and still don't see one in sight, we should consider trading for one. I'm not sure what we have to offer, maybe Sublight Drives?

- Azoth