OSG20 - Bearly In Motion

[dathon78]

Great turns there Sullla

Was that really too much pop from Paladia? I sent 15 when the plague first broke out, figuring on 3/turn over the five turns it would take to get there. After those 5 turns, the planet was still down to 41/45, meaning it lost 19 pop. So I sent 20 in the next batch. Maybe we just got really unlucky in those first 5 turns? I don't know. You're right, I am a little inexperienced with the events, but I just don't like them in this game. I've had too many really fun, very close games suddenly ended and ruined by an untimely event.

dathon

 

[sargon0]

Plague kills random 5% to 10% pop each turn so for size 45 your estimate of 3/turn seems reasonable for the reduction but normal growth still happens so I think a net loss of 10 in 5 turns would be a good guess. Which means you were very unlucky with those first 5 turns. It seems the events simply don't like you!

 

[jmas]

Props to "those who have gone before" for some excellent work. I shall try to avoid oversights..

2410: All is well. Check ratios and move 4 BC at Tauri into research from pop production.

IBT Encounter Psilons (2 mediums) at white star SE of Centauri and Kholdan. Route our ship back next turn in case they leave. (They don't).

2411: Tauri maxes pop. All spending moved to bases. Adjust Vox spending to have +1 pop and have fewer factories go idle while we wait for the transports to land. Robotic Controls III (RC-III) at 4%.

2412: Colship produced and is on its way by RELOC to Centauri. See Psilon colship which I thought was headed to the white star (it later turned out to be going to Phantos). This time I route our LR Laser to the red star to the SSE to arrive ahead of the other one already en route. At Proteus, add to Eco for +1 pop to keep the factories in use. Can’t put reserve fuel tanks and dead colony base on a large ship yet, so I switch Ursa to research.

IBT Psilon colship arrives at Phantos. I can’t bring myself to retreat our scout, for which there is no other immediate use, but the colship destroys it and colonizes the planet.

2413: Adjust Ind, Eco, and Tech at Vox and Proteus to optimize. Move money into terraforming Gion and Tao. RC-III at 15%, Duralloy 6%.

2414 Vox maxes factories. Meklars are advancing on the gnat-horde of the Klackons with 6 huges and 3 larges. Could get ugly..

IBT Red Star SSE of Kholdan is the Darlok colony Primodius. I engage 3 smalls but do poorly so retreat our ship toward the white star (to see if anyone is home) before it’s destroyed. More on Primodius later. Duralloy pops. Choose Battle Suits over Auto Repair, following variant rules. We can now build a LR ship with a dead base but Phantos is now a Psilon colony.

2415: Proteus maxes factories and pop. Vox maxes pop (last 1M). Adjust Gion Ind/Eco ratio. Colship arrives at Centauri, route to Berel. Tao finished t-forming, funds moved back to Ind. Meklars control the orbit of Nordia but lost a huge–let’s hear it for completely statistical / abstract AI fleet battles! The Meks have 30 transports going toward Nordia. RC III at 28%, Enhanced Eco 6%. Those two will go hand in hand..

IBT RC III pops. I opt for +75% Industrial spending, which I of course adjust for the worlds building bases or terraforming. Choices: ECM Mk III, Improved space scanner, or BC Mk IV. Scout Meklar colony Herculis, Fertile Terran 150 max, pop 28. Withdraw our LR Laser toward Berel during next turn.

2416 Check ratios, tech spending is of course way down with the RC transition. I put more of what’s left toward Enhanced Eco.

IBT The LR Laser that was moving toward Primodius when I started arrives and engages 1 Darlok small. After many misses, we destroy it. Primodius: Steppe, 50 max, 28 pop. Colonize Berel. Way to see that possibility and set it up, Sulla!

2417 Pop movements: Tao, 6 million to –> Gion, 7 million to –> Centauri, 8 million to –> Berel. More people are displaced than with one move, but for fewer turns. I calculate equal cost except for the cost of the transports themselves (1 BC each), and the transition will be shorter. 2 Psilon fleets on the move with combined 44 mediums & 1 huge in a SSW course.

IBT Another Darlok small at Primodius; since we have scouted it already, I observe that it now has 30 pop and 13 ind. and retreat toward Kronos to have an armed ship there. Enhanced Eco pops!!! thereby reducing eco spending by 60%. Options: IT+30, Toxic Environment, Bio Toxin Antidote, Radiated Environ., or IT+40. That erstwhile Psilon interstellar rest stop, the white star Rha, is scouted. Uncolonized Inferno, 10 max.

2418 Tweak tech spending to be a little less lopsided, adding to comps, const., f.f., and one click more to weapons.

IBT Klackon spies destroy 5 factories at Ursa.

2419: I send the LR Lasers at Tauri toward Antares, perhaps later than I could have, though I was waiting to be sure the Psilon fleets weren’t headed toward a colony of ours such as Tauri. I notice our developing worlds in the SW are vulnerable to the Klackons. I ponder the options for defending them, and decide on the most cost-effective option–making peace! They also agree to trade 175 BC (the medium option). Their Erratic emperor must have woken up on the right side of the bed.

IBT Computer virus event strikes Mrrshan Weapons research for a whopping 202 points.

The Psilons declare on us!

2420: Misha re-maxes factories. I move enough funding into Def to build a second base at Firma (6 parsecs from Psilon-occupied Crius) in one year. Firma is still building factories so I will defer to the next player to decide whether to put more in Def. Tauri could also stand to build more bases. Misha has 10 bases–the next emperor can decide how much to keep spending on defense there. It’s rich, so the Psilons will be more interested in it.

Centauri is terraforming, can add 6 million to its current max.

If not for the Psilon DOW, I'd say things were awesome. As it is, it could be either really bad, or no big deal if they don't attack in force and allow a peace treaty to be signed in a few turns. Convincing the Meklars to break their alliance with the Psilons at this point would be a very good thing.

dathon <<< on deck
Sullla
jmas <<< just played
TheArchduke <<< UP NOW

 

[dathon78]

Convincing the Meklars to break their alliance with the Psilons at this point would be a very good thing.

Here, Here!

Actually, convincing the Meklar to go to war with the Psilons would be even better. And, ironically, would probably be easier (one of my few gripes with this game). Normally I would be against starting a war we have no intention of finishing, but there is no way we could defend ourselves right now, and hoping the brains just won't attack is wishful thinking. We're the only enemy within range, and with that much territory, I'm guessing their tech bar is about 3 times as long as ours. Lead us onward, Archduke!

dathon

 

[jmas]

The Psilon tech bar is closer to "only" two times as long as ours; I've attached a thumbnail.

An additional benefit of splitting the Psilon-Meklar alliance (which is also augmented by getting the Meks to declare on the Psilons) would be to split up their Council votes in 5 years. The Psilons are also allied with the Mrrshans, with whom we don't have contact, so they may get the Mrrshan vote no matter what we do.

Have at it, Archduke!

 

[TheArchduke]

Bad news first, the Meklars won´t break the alliance, nor attack the Psilons.

2420 Turn 1

Berel and Centauri are still very small and underdeveloped, if the Meklars dow us this will get ugly. I shift a little bit of our research funds to weapons.

2425

Quiet turns commence and then voting time and we actually get 2 guys to vote for us, leaving me to vote for the Psilons, they can´t win anyway, and we get some goodie points.

Ion Cannons pop and I decide for the nice scatter pack V, don´t leave home without them.

2426

Apart from chasing us away from toxic, the Psilons for now seem content with Sitzkrieg.

2428

Psilons incoming on Tauri.

2450

Combat at Tauri, it put as many bases as I could on the planet, but some nasty spies blew up 2 bases some turns before.
Thanks to our low shielding the Psilons blast through our defenses with no loss of a large ship, our bases are at it is now useless, we don´t need +40 terraforming we need scatters and shields imo.

The good news, the Meklars offered us a NAP and have dowed the Psilons themselves, but if we don´t get some serious rockets/shields soon it won´t matter if we have 1 or 10 bases. So I leave Ursa on research.

 

[dathon78]

I will do everything in my power to get to this today, but don't be surprised it it's tomorrow.

dathon

 

[dathon78]

2430(Turn 0): Psilons aren't having any talk of peace, despite our vote for them. Swing even more research to scatter packs; we need those before we lose Ursa. Take Misha off research, I'd like to have some reserves in place so we can pump bases wherever the Psilons decide to strike next. Tauri goes on pop growth. Won't be enough to save it, but better than flushing the spending to a useless base, and we'll take down a few more of the invaders.

2434(Turn 4): Class III popped, chose Class V planetary over Class IV. This will be the next tech to crash out after scatter's land (30% this turn)

2435(Turn 5): Psilons bomb Tauri back to the Stone age, no factories and 2 pop. At least they won't get anything out of the invasion.

2436(Turn 6): Scatter packs FINALLY pop. Choose Fusion Beam over Graviton to keep the tech advancing.

2438(Turn 8): Tauri has fallen



At least they lost 25 of 32 troops.

2439(Turn 9): Battle Suits come in. I probably dropped the ball here. I forgot we were researching that, and if it had popped before the Psilon troops got there, we probably would have held Tauri for a little longer. Chose ARS over IIT6; yes, it's a step backward, but in this case I think the tech is worth it. Hmm, the Psilons left Tauri undefended. Wonder if I can slip in and lay claim for the moment? Will keep them from establishing for awhile, anyway, and we might draw a tech out of sheer luck. 45 troops sent from Ursa.

Post Game: And that's it for me. Relatively quiet turns. There are some Psilon troops headed to Tauri from Obaca, but only 11, and it will take awhile to get there. There's 1200BC in the reserves now, who knows, maybe that will be a big enough opening to re-secure the planet. I'm out until next Monday, have a great holiday to the USA'ers, a great week to everybody else.

dathon

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/52773/osg20_2440.zip

 

[TheArchduke]

We definetly need to retake Tauri, seems like the game has chosen the Psilons as our major competitor and we definetly don´t want that planet on our northern flank to be secured by them.

But their bombing capabilities prohibit trying anything without a good fleet..

 

[Sullla]

While losing a planet is not good, we're only a short ways away from early game security with Scatter Pack V online and Planetary Shield V in the works. I like the call to go after Tauri again; we're got a MAJOR edge in gropo tech vis a vis the Psilons, so let's use it! Of course, they could move a fleet back there and wipe out all progress, but the attempt is worth it.

Got the save, should be able to play tonight, hopefully.

 

[Sullla]

2440 (Turn 0) Let's see what we have here... Initial status of the empire is fair. Our core worlds are safe for the moment, and although the Psilons are the AI juggernaut (as usual), their Erratic personality has saddled them with warfare against pretty much everyone. We should be able to avoid the brunt of their fleets. I'm pleased with the development of our colonies, and happy with how research is progressing. Planetary Shield V looks likely to pop on my round, and will be a major help. We do have some tech holes elsewhere that need attention; most significant is our shortfall in Battle Computers (still using the default model!) Luckily, BC IV is in the pipeline, and I plan to emphasize that once the Planetary Shield is done researching. Scatter Packs are useless if they don't hit their target!

I also note that aside from a couple of key border worlds, we're pretty lacking in defensive bases. Most planets have only the single one that I built on my last turnset, and our backlines have nothing at all. Guess what I'm going to build on my turns? Rather than sit on this reserve surplus, I'm also going to use it to stand up our immature planets faster, while switching Misha (our Rich world) from research to feeding more into the reserves.

Tauri will definitely fall to us. The question is whether we can hold it against a returning Psilon fleet. My instincts say no, but I'm darned well going to try!

2441 (Turn 1) Psilons offer us a peace treaty! Well, since our marines will be landing next turn on Tauri, I have no choice but to reject this. Otherwise our name would be scum for signing peace, then immediately redeclaring war. D'oh! At least now we know that we can probably get peace if our situation is truly desperate.

Then they offer me Neutron Blaster tech to accept the deal. Dang, the brains really want peace!



You know what? Screw being a nice guy. That's a better gun tech than anything we have. I take the deal and slink away. On the plus side, our Weapons tech level is now up to 16!

Planetary Shield V enters the percentages at 1%.

2442 (Turn 2) We recapture Tauri with ease, losing 4 bears to kill 9 Psilons:



As predicted, the Psilons immediately declare war again. Par for the course. GNN also reports that the planet of Proteus has been hit with the Mineral Depletion event. Let's see... that's a Tundra world, size 30. Could have been a lot worse for us there.

Psilons appear to have a small fleet heading for Tauri. We can build a missile base there in 5 turns, make that 3 that with reserve spending. I'll make a play for getting a base + shield added; at worst, the world should be reduced to spud status. Not optimistic, but worth the attempt.

Possible danger note: the Meklar have pulled ahead of the Psilons in population, and will be our next Council opponent. Since the Psilons definitely won't be voting for us, that could be a problem. Fortunately, the Klackons are at war with the Meklar, and won't vote for them. So long as the Darloks and Mrrshans (who we haven't met yet) don't both vote for the borgs, we should be OK.

2443 (Turn 3) Hit on Range 7 tech, we have the option of Fusion Drives (warp 4), Range 8, or Warp Dissipator to move the tree forward. I like the Dissipator, but Fusion Drives are definitely the right choice here.

Klackons declare war. Oh crud! Right before the elections, no less. Damned Erratic personalities. This is NOT good; the Meklar have an alliance with the Darloks. I honestly don't know what to do here. The Meklar WILL be our opponent, the Pslions and Klackons will both vote against us, and the Darloks will probably vote for their alliance partner, the Meklar! I'll try my best, but this is a nasty, nasty diplomatic situation. If only I could TALK to the Mrrshans or Darloks!

2445 (Turn 5) Breakthrough on Class V Planetary Shield, at 17%. Some good news, for a change! I leave some minor research taking place in our backlines, while every planet even remotely in danger starts to work on the shields. Research emphasis shifted to Computers tech. Our only choice going forward is Replusor Beams, so that's what we research.

Whoa! The Psilon fleet heading to Tauri is GONE! Just disappeared. I don't know what the Psilons did; maybe they just scrapped those ship designs (?) Either way, we caught a huge break! Now I may be able to secure the planet.

2446 (Turn 6) Things still eerily quiet militarily. The Psilons had a fleet headed to Misha, but they retreated when they arrived without a battle. Weird. Planetary shields going up everywhere. If we can just avoid losing this next council vote, we'll be in terrific shape.

The Psilons and Meklar are absolutely dead even in population on the bar graphs. I cannot tell which one will be our opponent. Let's pray it's the Psilons!

2448 (Turn 8) The Psilons have 200 Small ships arriving at Tauri next turn. We only need another turn or two to get the base + shield finished there, so hopefully bombardment won't do a lot of damage. It sure would be nice if you could see how close you are to finishing Planetary Shields!

2449 (Turn 9) Psilon stack of Small ships either chose not to bombard, or wasn't strong enough to conduct orbital bombardment. Tauri will complete its base + shield in just *TWO* more turns. I think it's going to make it and hold on!

The best news of all, however, comes on the bar graphs:



The Psilons have pulled ahead of the Meklar in population - they will definitely be our opponent next turn. We aren't going to lose the game, woohoo! (Yeah, they may look close, but when you've played MOO a lot, you get pretty good at reading those graphs!)

2450 (Turn 10) Council time!

Klackons send their 1 vote to the Psilons
Darloks 3 votes us!
Meklar 5 votes us!
Psilons 6 votes themselves
Mrrshans 3 votes us! (Wow, no one seems to like the Psilons!)

That leaves us with 11 votes and the Psilons 7. With our 8 votes, we can name ourselves the Diplomatic winner! However, this is an interesting game, and it's really just warming up. I think we'd probably rather all keep going than end it here. Therefore, I vote for the Psilons and continue onwards.



Let the record show that we could have won a Diplo victory in 2450!

Elsewhere, Tauri finishes its Planetary Shield, and just in time to meet a Psilon attack next turn. We've snatched victory from the jaws of defeat there, it seems. Battle Computer IV is at 7% and should pop on the next player's turn; I think we should backtrack for Improved Scanner next so we can see enemy ship destinations. (Not knowing where the Klackon/Meklar ships are going in the south in a real headache!) Terraforming +40 is also due shortly, and I think we should grab Controlled Radiated next, which will open up a few more worlds for colonization, including that tiny Rich 10 planet.

Soon we should be in position to think about going on the offensive (most likely against weak Klackons). If we have an opportunity to trade or steal for Fusion/Antimatter bombs, that would be a huge help. Probably time to find out what techs everyone else has shortly as well, after BC IV pops maybe?



dathon78
Sullla
jmas <<< UP NOW
TheArchduke <<< on deck

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/12069/OSG20-2450s.zip

 

[dathon78]

The Psilons had a fleet headed to Misha, but they retreated when they arrived without a battle. Weird.

Psilon stack of Small ships either chose not to bombard, or wasn't strong enough to conduct orbital bombardment.

Side effects of the brief peace declaration, I think. When peace is declared, any AI fleets enroute are immediately placed on retreat status. Further, and this part is anecdotal, my experience is that ALL AI fleets are put on retreat status for a number of turns, at least 5. Same thing happens when the AI backs down from a threat (probably the same piece of code). Going to war again immediately should clear that status, but obviously it doesn't; minor bug. I'll call the ghosts at Infogrames to track it down immediately

However, this is an interesting game, and it's really just warming up. I think we'd probably rather all keep going than end it here.

I heartily concur We do NOT deserve a win yet. Kudos for surviving this long, possibly, but not a win. We need to show some initiative to earn that, IMO. Not that we've had a chance at that yet, but still

I like the idea of Scanners next. FWIW, Fusion bombs are available if we need to backtrack to grab them. Terra +40 should see the council loss eliminated as well.

dathon

EDIT: From the MOO strat guide, when peace is declared, a de facto peace treaty is signed. All spies go into hiding, and the AI will not send ships/transports for 8-15 turns. If that peace treaty is violated by the players, they get an oath-breaker penalty to their relations with that race. Same mechanism for cowering to a threat. So to avoid the oath breaker penalty, player must wait at least 16 turns before re-declaring war. So there you go, you oath-breaker you

 

[jmas]

I have read the reports and started my turns. I hope to finish them tomorrow and post tomorrow or Thursday. Gobble gobble! (for the U.S.ers)

 

[jmas]

2450: I ask for a peace treaty; Psilons decline, referring to us as the “dishonorable” emperor Third Time. By the way, if we ask for something diplomatic we want, such as peace, toward the end of a turnset, I think it would be helpful to report what turn the request was made. If the request is refused then a -30 temporary modifier is applied to any repeat requests for that same diplomatic item that turn, and that modifier moves toward 0 by 10 points per turn, so in three turns it is completely gone. That way we can know when the negative modifier should be gone.

Since seeing what techs the other races have was mentioned, I decide to dial up spying now on all three races with whom we are in contact, because spies become more expensive with higher levels of computer tech and BC IV is getting close to popping. By the way, as the reports later came in, I eliminated spy funding for the races we got reports for, so the economic impact should be small. Money moved from reserve to Centauri and Berel.

2451: Berel and Centauri complete shields. Tauri builds its base and the Psilon large and 170 smalls leave without entering combat (but a big Psilon fleet is incoming). We get a spy in the Klackon empire (see thumbnail). Of note, they have the Personal DS, Class IV shields (but no Planetary shield), Death Spores, Inertial Stabilizer, and only range 4 and Hyper-X rockets. I meet with the Meklars and increase our trade with them to 725 BC.

IBT Klackon spies destroy 25 factories at Firma.

The Meklars threaten us. And just last turn they wanted our “fine goods”!

2452: We get a spy in the Meklar empire. They are looking like tough opponents indeed, having nearly as high tech levels as the Psilons. I design a nuclear engine-powered scout for when Range 7 comes in.

IBT BC IV pops. In my mind, there were strong cases for RC IV and ECM either Mark II (cheap!) or III, since we don’t have any ECM yet and it would be good for missile bases. But my intuition told me to go with the Improved Space Scanner, which others had mentioned in their posts is desirable to have, so I did.

2453: I ask the Psilons again for peace (3 turns after first “ask”); again declined. I look to see if we owe money for the BC IV upgrade at missile bases, but it doesn’t show up this turn, I only see it in 2455 when I look again. At least the upgrades are put into place even before the expense is paid (according to the strategy guide).

IBT Meet Darloks–Xenophobic Diplomat, allied with Meklar, wars with Klackons and Psilons (!) Check out their far-flung empire. Can you say “alliance” ?

2454: Psilons about to arrive at Tauri. IT+40 at 2%, ARS 1%. Darloks agree to trade 175 BC.

IBT The Psilons arrive at Tauri. Their colony ships retreat and I was not quite able to take down one of the huges before all of our bases (3) are destroyed. They do bombardment: 44 million and 15 factories lost. Their troops arrive, and our 1 surviving Bulrathi troop takes out 9 of their 11. The colony is lost to us. For now..

2455: Proteus finishes shield. Move money into Def on various worlds to pay for the (retroactive) cost of missile base BC IVs.

IBT ARS comes in. IIT6–only choice. Pop rankings: Us, Psilon, Meklar, Darlok, Mrrshan, Klackon.

2456: Move money into tech in Misha, since the tech budget has fallen due to the need to upgrade and build missile bases.

2457: Nothing exciting; make some more spending adjustments.

IBT: Klackon colony at Nordia is wiped out by Meklar. Now the Klackons only hold Kholdan. We have a report on the Darloks. I just realized I’m not sure when our report on the Psilons came in, but I did get one on them.

2458: Psilon diplomat is back. It’s been another three turns so we do the dance again. I ask for peace, they decline. I increase our tech budget while maintaining some base construction.

2459: Meklars are moving in on Psilon-controlled Tauri!

2460: Klackons and Meklars both en route to colonize glassed Nordia, 2 Darlok smalls also appear to be headed that way to scout. IT+40 at 10% and Weapons is nearing a full light bulb. The Psilon diplomat is still gone. If he is back next turn, the temporary modifier for a peace treaty request should be gone by then, though the -5 permanent modifier for our oath-breaking will last until (unless) we give them a tech. I looked at that option a few times, but they always wanted things like RC III, Enhanced Eco, and the like, whereas I was hoping they would accept an obsolete technology like a lesser Controlled Environment or IIT than what they have. The quality of the tech given doesn’t matter--anything will eliminate the negative modifier, but I didn’t want to shoot us in the foot.

A Psilon fleet is approaching Firma–see picture. We will have 21 bases next turn, or maybe more if the next emperor wants to use money from the reserve. The 21 bases with Scatter Pack V can pump out 315 rockets (Hyper-V equivalent) per combat round, which is good. The Psilons do have good weaponry and the Coraona class has Class III shield, so we shouldn’t get too cocky.

Psilon Tauri has been glassed by the Meklars.

My take on things is that we should keep trying to balance defense (both upkeep of current missile bases and cost of building new ones) with having a good tech budget so we can hopefully get better missiles (Merculites are available for research), shields, and other combat items. ECM would be good to have for our bases, though of course RC IV is very inviting also. I don't see much else exciting that we can do at this point. Peace with the Psilons sounds like a good deal right now if we can get it. If we can blow up some Klackon ships somewhere it could be a good relations boost with the Meklar. I would advocate seizing Kholdan, but it would be genocide on our part unless the Klackons can hold another colony, at least briefly.

Archduke is up;
dathon on deck;
Sulla;
jmas just played.

Thumbnails: Klackon report, Meklar threat, Meklar report, Computer tech options, more to come.

 

[jmas]

Pix: Report on Psilons, map with the Darloks' 3 planets showing, Psilon fleet details at Tauri battle, report on Darloks, and lastly, the Psilon fleet inbound to Firma.

 

[TheArchduke]

I got to write more elaborate round reports, as mine seem to be rather short and to the point. I promise to tell more of my 10 turns and get some nice screenies to make up for it.

Turn 1 2460

I am not sure with what jmas planned to attack Kholdan if the oppurtunity arrives, as we have yet no viable spaceship design which could hold a small fleet of current tech at bay. Ah well, onto a peaceful round with getting our colonies up 30 pop points, I hope.

Turn 2 2461

The Psilon fleet is incoming and before I dial up the Psilons I nudge propulsion research up a bit, as the cheesy fusion drives should be a high priority. The Psilons decline our request for peace. Tough luck. The battle at Firma is underwhelming to say the least. Our 25 bases slaughter all the three stacks, one after the other. Against current Psilon technology our bases are secure. Terra +40 pops. Bio Toxin Antidote looks tempting shortly, but there haven´t been any bad guys around in this game, so I go for Atmospheric Terraforming next, hoping it wasn´t a crazy move. I am not sure if the one rich planet to the south justifies an investment into controlled radiated enviroment. And we got enough hostile enviroments.

Turn 3 2462

With terraforming I adjust our defence/research sliders a bit to free up capacity to already increase production, we got several small planets so terra +40 will be a big boost which we should take advantage off now as we are secure from the Psilons for now.

Turn 4 2463

Another fleet enroute to Firma, and I stop base building on ursa and Firma when 25 bases are complete. They are sufficient for now. 250 small ships die per shot, 6 large per shot. Another Psilon fleet bites the dust and they didn´t scrape our bases.
The scatters+BCIV are a life saver.

Turn 5 2464

My scout explores Nordia on our southern border, arid glass planet, I disappear afterwards.

Turn 6 2465

A nailbiting round of adjusting the eco slider back to the industry slider, while trying to keep some research trickling in.

Turn 7 2466

I ask the Psilons for peace again, they decline, well they can send more suicide runs for all I care.

Turn 8 2467

"unknown" spies destroy 38 factories on Jinga. Another psilon fleet inbound for Firma, with 2 HUGEs as support, this will be hairy.

Turn 9 2468

2 Psilon huge ships are dead and 46 large ships are gone, several bases have been grounded. Strike!

Turn 10 2469

I upgrade the TA with the Darloks. But techwise, they demand only crucial highend techs.

Turn (11) 2470

I hand over the save. Our industry base has seen a massive boost and as we don´t need to invest in more bases on our direct border we can finally pull some research in. I advocate trying for Fusion drives pop fighter and perhaps finally some decent big ship design so we could take advantage of the weakness of the southern races.

 

[Sullla]

Hey, those look like great turns there, Archduke. We held our ground, substantially increased our population + production base, and gave the Psilons a bloody nose at Firma. I might have gone for Controlled Radiated after the terraforming came in, but I'm certainly not complaining about Atmospheric. I mean, we only have like 10 hostile worlds! Can't wait to see our tiny little size 20 Tundra worlds reborn with +40 and Atmospheric terraforming.

dathon won't be home until Monday, so I am up now, and will play either today or tomorrow.

 

[Sullla]

2469 (Turn 0) For whatever reason, either jmas or TheArchduke only played 9 turns; I'll play 11 to get us back on even dates. Looking through our planets, nothing is precisely wrong per se... it's just that I can make some more tweaks to improve efficiency. Most of our planets are running a couple clicks in defense building, a couple clicks in research, a couple in ecology, and the rest into factory construction. This is partly a personal preference, but I basically NEVER do this. From my experience with the Civ games, I've found that you almost always want to be pushing 100% forwards towards an individual goal; trying to do a little of one thing and a little of another thing only ends up getting you neither in timely fashion.

With that in mind, I max factory spending at all worlds below the maximum amount. (Unless there is a DIRE need for something, I always will max factories/population before doing ANYTHING else!) Our slow-growing Hostile worlds will have their population filled out by infusions from nearby non-Hostile worlds. Misha, our Rich world, is putting most of its BC into research?! That gets fixed immediately; I'll use it to fund the reserve, and spend heavily to speed up the development of our smaller worlds.

I also want to make a play at Tauri again (currently controlled by no races), but that will have to wait until a little later on my turn. Overall, there was nothing bad happening on TheArchduke's turns, I just thought I could make things run a little more smoothly.

2470 (Turn 1) Combat at Firma: Psilons bring 10 Larges and 271 Smalls. Easy pickings, but they run away. I'll have to put a scout in orbit next time to bait them into staying. Between turns, Misha maxes factories/pop, Paladia maxes. Paladia is sending population to our nearby weak Hostile worlds. Currently pumping reserve funds at Centauri and Proteus. Elsewhere, still pretty quiet. Psilons look like they have bigger fish to fry in the east.

2471 (Turn 2) Drakka maxes, Firma maxes, Paladia re-maxes after sending population offworld. With some of our other planets finishing their infrastructure, Ursa can construct a colony ship for Tauri. Hopefully we can colonize, then immediately sign peace. That's the only chance we have to stand it up... one worth taking, IMO.

2472 (Turn 3) Tao maxes, Ursa back onto research. Our colony ship bravely heads out after the empty world at Tauri.

2473 (Turn 4) Vox maxes, Gion maxes, Berel maxes, Centauri maxes. The worlds in the south will continue adding bases, with those in the backlines can go onto research. We are too late at Tauri; the Meklar have set up a colony there. Hmmm... Maybe the Psilons will wipe it out for us? (Turns out that was a "no".)

2474 (Turn 5) The Psilons came after us at Firma (again), where our Scatter Pack bases smoked them easily, killing a dozen Large ships with no losses. Research is up to 2200/turn and several techs are in the percentages. Once we get breakthroughs in Weapons/Propulsion, I'll design us a new ship and go for the Klackons' throat.

There is a Council vote upcoming for the next turn, but we are quite safe. The Psilons will be our opponent, and everyone hates them. I expect that we'll be offered another chance to win, which I will decline.

2575 (Turn 6) Discover Fusion Beam, yay! One of my favorite guns in this game; since we lack good missiles or bombs, I may elect to design us something using the Heavy version and shoot through Planetary defenses that way. We have our choice of Omega-V Bomb, Antimatter Torpedoes, or Megabolt Cannon to move the tree forward. Well that's an obvious choice: high-level bombs, here we come!

Council Time:
Klackons (2) for the Psilons
Darloks (3) for us
Meklar (5) for us
Psilons (7) for themselves
Mrrshans (2) for us

That makes the vote 10 to 9 in our favor, with us having 11 more votes to cast. Obviously we could vote for ourselves and win 21 to 9 with 70% of the vote. But again, I decline the option to play on; we actually have to abstain this time, because our 11 votes would hand the PSILONS the win!



Note that we have a voting block of more than 1/3 currently, insuring us against a loss. (That is, unless AI population increases, which it very well could!)

I dial up a little spying on the Klackons to get an updated picture on what they have now. I also am waiting for Warp 4 engines (7%) to pop; we might have a chance to invade the Klackon planet of Nordia even without escorts! (The Meklar have gained orbital supremacy there, and are waiting for their own transports to arrive.) There's no point in launching marines until we get faster engines, however.

2576 (Turn 7) I sent a scout to the Klackon homeworld a couple turn ago; they have 33 bases on Kholdan. Yeah, that looks pretty doable. For sure when we get Omega-V bombs, if not earlier. Waiting on techs to pop...

2577 (Turn 8) Improved Space Scanner discovered, yay! Now we can end the guessing game and check incoming attacks with F8. Do this every turn! Even better, we also get Fusion Drives (warp 4), woohoo! I can pick either Robotics IV or Battle Computer V to advance the tree in Computers; that's a no-brainer for Robotics IV. (Pretty nice selection of Computer techs for the bears in this game!) In Propulsion, I can either backtrack for the Warp Dissipator or push further down the tree with our only option, Impulse Drives (warp 5). Even though we don't really need the engine upgrade, I strongly believe that you should always move forward on the tree unless there's a critical need for another older tech. We don't need the Dissipator that bad... so warp 5 it is.

Time to design a ship... We're lacking in new missiles or bombs, so I'd like to use the Heavy Fusion Beam for planet busting. (Should work just fine against anything that lacks a Planetary Shield X). With the Auto Repair special in hand, that sounds like a Huge design to me. We have Repulsor Beam popping in a couple of turns as an added bonus, a ship with two-range guns that can hang in a gunfight or defeat lightly-shielded planets. 4-5 of them should have a good shot at Kholdan, which lacks missiles better than Hyper Xs. I'll start work on a generic Huge design now, then re-design the ship when Repulsor Beam pops.

At Nordia, we have the opportunity for a daring raid - I have to try it!



The Meklar are invading the Klackon planet this turn. But we may be able to kill the Klackons, then become the defender ourselves and kill off the Meklar! Anyway, it might be a total bust too. But if we can get a whole planet for the cost of regrowing 30m population, isn't that worth the attempt? Let's try it!

2578 (Turn 9) First we scrap another Psilon fleet trying to attack Misha, killing a dozen Larges and 500 Smalls without losses. More importantly, at Nordia 26 of our 30 transports are shot down by a Klackon fleet that I must have missed, leaving only 4 to attack the planet. The attack fails! However, there are only 5 Klackon defenders remaining...

...which we will overwhelm with our second wave of attackers! ETA two turns, I bet that the Klackons won't have the fleet discipline to hold their units over that world. And even if they do, we should have enough to slip through and capture the planet anyway. Remember, we're the Bulrathi - ground pounding is what we do best!

2579 (Turn 10) Yep, the Klackon fleet moved off! Say goodbye to your planet of Nordia, bugs!



Unfortunately, the planet has been so decimated by bombardment that the max population is only 10m, so 35m of our marines vanish into smoke. Still, we've secured ourselves a new world... if we can hold it. I dial up the bugs and ask for peace... done! Maybe this will keep them from attacking at Nordia (?) I guess jmas will have to find out on his turn. Even if my gamble fails, I think it was worth the effort.

Note: Repulsor Beam is at 13%, when it comes due, we should redesign our Huge ship to include them. Ursa, Paladia, and Misha are working on these dummy ships right now. I would make sure to include our best Battle Computer, shield, and the special combo of Battle Scanner/Auto Repair/Repulsor. A couple of those ships should be enough to genocide the Klackons; just make sure to do it right after a council vote, so we have time to repair our reputation!

Map:



dathon78
Sullla
jmas <<< UP NOW
TheArchduke <<< on deck

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/12069/OSG20-2480s.zip

Good luck!

 

[jmas]

I see I'm up and I'm planning to play tomorrow.

 

[TheArchduke]

Misha, our Rich world, is putting most of its BC into research?! That gets fixed immediately; I'll use it to fund the reserve, and spend heavily to speed up the development of our smaller worlds.

Point taken. I never use my rich worlds for research, but if I got no valid ship design (or the appropriate tech to design one) I concentrate on research.

Reserve gets the production bonus from rich worlds applied, no? Will try to keep this in mind from now on.

Also isn´t it the case that you should keep a trickle invested in research all the time so that you are actually no loosing progress in MoO?

I see I still got much to learn despite most of the times beating impossible.