OSG20 - Bearly In Motion

[dathon78]

I cannot play Friday, Sat, or Sun, due to traveling to Ohio for a funeral for my wife's uncle.

As for screenies, I personally use Irfanview. You can tell it to just capture the foreground window, and then I can crop right then and there rather than going back through and doing it later, which I never seem to have the time for.

dathon

 

[StuporMan]

For screenies I use good old ALT + CTRL + PrtScn. I either trim out the DosBox window, or leave it depending on the amount of time I have and how lazy I am feeling at the time.

 

[Sullla]

Due to the nature of my schedule, I will likely not be able to do my turnset until Monday or Tuesday. The choice to wait, skip, or rearrange the play order is up to you guys.

Today and tomorrow I have long days. I have more availability Saturday of this week through Wednesday of next week. What do you guys think..does someone want to play, or wait until Saturday for me? (If we wait until Saturday I could play early, probably in the morning.)

I cannot play Friday, Sat, or Sun, due to traveling to Ohio for a funeral for my wife's uncle.

Uhh... that's a lot of unavaible messages! After looking things over, here's what we're going to do:

jmas can play first (on Saturday or Sunday).
I will take a turn next.
dathon can take his turn on Monday or Tuesday.
Then we'll be around to TheArchduke and StuporMan, who will both hopefully be back.

So jmas is up next, with the understanding that we're fine with waiting until this weekend. Whew!

 

[jmas]

Thank you to everyone for the screenshot suggestions, I can experiment..

I will plan to play on Saturday. I would play now, but this game has a way of getting my brain into a scheming, rather than sleeping, mode. Perhaps some of you can relate. By the way I can't get on the forums at work because of the SonicWall nannyware, unless folks know of a workaround..

 

[TheArchduke]

My short holiday is over, so I am avaiable from now on. Sorry for the delay.

 

[jmas]

2340 (my turn 1) send a scout to neutron star in W; I didn’t see the one dathon had sent because of the ship at Romulas. Arrange for 4 scouts to be built at Vox.

IBT White star SW of Tau Cygni, named Drakka, 25 Dead. Colship produced and is en route to Vox. The 4 scouts are produced and during the turn I route them toward Esper–good jumping-off point for systems W and S of Nordia once it is colonized.

2341 Ursa switched back to research.

IBT Yellow star NW of Tau Cygni, named Morrig, 100 Steppe and tucked away from the AIs. Boo-ya! 4 more scouts produced (perhaps overkill since there were some left at Helos). I route them to Dunatis to scout systems SE of Nordia later.

2342 Switched Vox to all-out factory building. Improved Eco Restoration (IER) now at 2%.

IBT 2 Psilon mediums arrive at Dunatis. I wait to see if they have missiles; they do; I retreat the scout to Nordia.

2343 Colship arrives at Vox, routed toward Nordia. IER at 10%.

2344 IER at 18%, I move some research funding into propulsion, but leave the IER with the 18% chance of discovery.

2345 IER doesn’t come in; it can go as high as 27%; I take it down to 25% and put the rest in Propulsion. Send a scout back toward Dunatis (prob’ly should have done it sooner).

IBT The scout I sent from Tau Cygni arrives to the neutron star in the W, encountering a Sakkra scout. The system is Antares, 20 Dead. We snag IER and reduce ecology spending. Choices: Barren, Tundra, or Terraform +20.

2346 I use dathon’s spreadsheet and see that a level 6 tech (Tundra) will come in quite a few turns faster than a level 9 tech (iridium fuel cells) at our level of tech funding. What I then meant to do was to put about 2/3 of our research points toward Tundra and the rest toward Iridium. However, I made a mistake thinking that the propulsion tech was the cheaper one, and put the 2/3 there. Sorry all.. I corrected this in 2351. Back to 2346, I noticed (consulting the handy strategy guide table for figuring out how to get reserve tanks and a colony base on a large ship) we will probably need construction tech in order to save enough space to make a LR Colony ship. I look at the option of building a Huge ship to try to snag the Steppe at Mu Delphi, but it would take 11 turns and be bad for tech research.

2347 Vox is almost at full employment (73 pop, 140 factories); bump 60 points into research.

2348 Send 2 LR Lasers I designed toward Mu Delphi. First pixel row on propulsion is now lit up.

IBT Humans arrive to Mu Delphi with 2 mediums, 1 scout, 2 colships (unarmed; they retreat). I retreat our scout to Rotan, NE of Ursa. GNN announces Humans control 6 systems. We reach Dunatis again and find no colony there.

2349 I get Helos set to produce 4 fighters for systems that will be within our 4-parsec range when our colship arrives to Nordia.

IBT Colonize Nordia. Encounter Klackons–Ruthless Expansionist. They are allied with the Humans (as are the Psilons; the Psilons are also allied with the Darloks). Kholdan is in the South, east of the galactic centerline, not in the SW cluster of 4 yellow stars.

2350 Form trade agreement of 30 BC/year with Klacks. Check exchange tech out of curiosity; they have Mark II BC but for some reason I didn’t feel moved to trade our Improved Eco for it (especially to those busybody Klackon workers).

I move 21 M to Nordia from Helos since Nordia seems so exposed; shuttle 4 M from Vox toward Helos to spread out the pop recovery. Scouts are directed to the SW. One sent to Phantos in case the Klacks don’t have defenses there. Inbound human scout near Vox which should retreat whenever it arrives.

2351 Discover my tech spending error, fix it (2/3 to planetology, 1/3 to propulsion). 2M moved along chain Vox–> Helos–> Nordia.

IBT LR Lasers arrive to Mu Delphi, belatedly.. The 2 Human mediums, scout, and remaining colship are still there. Pop 3, no industry. I retreat–we don’t have the range to land troops and destroying the two mediums (if we could) would damage relations by 4 points (according to the strategy guide).

At Phantos, our scout encounters 15 missile bases (with missiles that were one tile away from our scout on the back row after two rounds of missile movement; that sounds like Stinger speed but that seems like a bit much for this phase of the game; maybe a lesser missile?) , and 10, 30, and 39 of three small ship classes, and two mediums. Run away! Phantos has 80 pop and 189 factories.

The Darloks come calling and want 100 BC/year in trade. I accept.

2352 nothing to report

2353 Tip more spending into planetology from propulsion–getting close to Tundra.

IBT Find Sssla–it’s the northernmost of the yellow stars in the SW cluster.

2354 Planetology at 1%. Put 1 click in Def at Ursa–not much, but I figured there’s something to be said for building a good habit, without taking too much away from tech. I route 2 Scout 2s to Drakka so that the blue stars in the W can be scouted when Iridium comes in. Also route a fighter to Mobas. Since our two old Scouts are 1) in the West also awaiting range to scout the blue stars, and 2) at Mobas, by the time the Scout 2s arrive to Drakka (in 8 turns) there will be no need to retain the old Scout class.

IBT Scout Vulcan, 45 Tundra at blue star in SW cluster, just 5 parsecs away. More use for controlled tundra when we get it and Iridium. Spot Klackon bogey–2 smalls, but don’t see direction of their movement.

2355 Tundra at 9%, Propulsion bulb filling; tip a little more into Tundra.

IBT Klackon bogey disappears. Tundra tech discovered! Choices: Barren (obsolete), Terraforming +20, or Enhanced Eco (5 levels higher than T-form +20, but we will have to research it in order to advance in Planetology).

Scout Rhilus, 95 Terran S of Sssla, W of Vulcan. No colony there! but 7 parsecs distant.

2356 Increase factory building at Vox again (from building some fighters and a very small investment over 1 or maybe 2 turns in Eco because +1pop came with one extra click; there must have been an accrued balance in Eco); employment at Vox is better now that population has recovered.

The situation as I see it: With our new Tundra tech, Mobas (30 Barren) N of Tau Cygni is available (at our leisure); Romulas (Tundra by Helos) can be colonized safely; Morrig (100 Steppe) in the NW can be colonized once we have Iridium, and appears to be safe from pesky AIs; Vulcan (45 Tundra in SW) can be colonized with Iridium, and we could then reach Rhilus as well as the other yellow star (which will be scouted next turn), but colonizing Vulcan would bring us into contact with the Sakkra, who might snag Rhilus first. Seems like a peculiarity of the game AI that they haven’t colonized it already. Those lizards must be sunning themselves on rocks at Sssla.

I wanted to get your feedback on whether to make a play for Vulcan and Rhilus or not, so here we are at year 2356. If someone wants to take over, feel free, or give your advice and I will be happy to play till 2360 later today. I have a conference call coming up here at 2pm my time. From what I understand, I will have a break around 2:45-3, then be busy until around 3:45. If I have left out information you need, please let me know.

BTW, the save game is slot 4. I seem to recall you guys alternate between 3 and 4? But if you want slot 3 like where the last save game was, I can save there in the future.

The galaxy (not sure how to get it to appear in this message? BTW, it is CTRL+F5 in my DOSBox, and doesn't appear to include the DOSBox frame):

 

[Sullla]

If we can reach those planets, by all means colonize them. Just make sure we don't lose out on the closer systems by doing so.

I would have done a number of things differently, but that's part of the fun of succession games. I'll wait for you to finish your turns before posting anything else.

 

[jmas]

I can do that (try to grab land in SW yet not let other systems (Romulas, which after all, does require Tundra tech) slip away; also, the Desert 20, and there is barren Quayal in the east, 35 pop max, would bring us into contact with Psilons if they are at the yellow star in the area, which would make sense given their alliances with Darloks and Humans). Do others want to weigh in?

Also, I forgot to mention what I saw at Sssla: 34 missile bases with slower missiles than the Klackons had at Phantos, 408 small ships, 1 small ship named "Fighter", and 4 colships. Lotss of lizard shipss.

OK, here I go for the rest of the turns.. will post report soon.

 

[jmas]

Here we go..

2356 I decide to shift population to worlds with more factories, from Tau Cygni. I move 20M (in hindsight, a bit much) toward Ursa. I also decide to open computers and weapons (in hindsight, something I could have done earlier). I also decide to go all-out toward discovering range 6--then Vulcan (and theoretically, Quayal--but the SW cluster is more attractive; see below regarding ANOTHER large planet in that area) can be colonized.

IBT Chase away Sakkra scout at Nitzer, the last yellow star in SW cluster to be explored. 75 Jungle--and no colony there either! There is some serious real estate in that cluster. Computer choices: ECM I or Deep Space Scanner--a more expensive way than ECM I to open the next "box" of computer tech, but also more useful. Weapons: Hyper-V Rockets or Gatling Laser. No hand laser option. I figure it will be good to have bases soon.

2357 Shut down comp & weapons research for now (only one click had been spent on each). Tweak Vox's bars to try to keep employment near full but also contribute to tech as much as possible.

2358 Range 6 at 6% chance of discovery

IBT GNN announces population rankings: Klacks, us, Humans, Sakkras, Psilons, Darloks.

2359 Send 20 M from Ursa toward Vox to make room for arrival of the 20M from Tau Cygni next turn. Vox is at full employment, so I shift more clicks to tech. Range 6 at 12%.

IBT I found this baffling. A Darlok fleet of 2 mediums arrives at Nitzer in the SW cluster ; Nitzer looks to be 9-11 parsecs from Nazin, and the Darloks' only alliance is with the Humans. After several rounds of shooting at our scout, they manage to land a shot and destroy it.

2360 Just tidying up, feel free to change if you want to. Routed 1 Scout2 to Nitzer from Nordia and 2 to Vulcan in case they should come in handy. Range 6 is at 19%. Reminders / Things I wanted to point out: In two turns 20M people will land at Vox; some pop from Vox can be moved toward Helos to make room. Nordia is maxed on pop, so if there is going to be excess at Helos then they will have to be routed back to Tau Cygni. Sorry, I guess moving 20M was too much. At least they have some travel experience now. 2 Scout2s will arrive at Drakka in 2 turns and then the Scout class could be scrapped. Vox will soon max pop and factories. Defense would be very good to have soon; we have just a few fighters at the areas nearest the Humans and Klackons. There are 2 LR Lasers en route to Vulcan, ETA 12 turns. It could be good to keep an eye on the Klackons in particular: they are Ruthless (and therefore more likely to attack) and they have the largest population and alliances with the Humans and Psilons. They might not have a way to get 2/3 of the vote at the first Council (which may yet be a ways off), but I still hope they won't get too friendly with the Sakkras (they may not have contact yet, partly due to the Sakkras' apparent lethargy).

Good luck to the next emperor..

 

[jmas]

Also, relations are Amiable with the Humans, so they might agree to a non-aggression pact, but we should probably only ask for one if we really want it, since they are Honorable. Tips Sullla?

 

[Sullla]

Just a quick note: we'll take 15 turns each for this trip through the roster, then go to 10 after that. Also, we usually stick with one savegame location for these succession games, so just remember to stay with slot 3 from now on.

Turn 0 (2360) First of all, some comments on jmas' turnset. You are correct that 20m was far too many to send from Tau Cygni, but the overall idea (shifting unemployed population to somewhere more useful) was a good one. Maybe a little too far to be chaining pop, although I don't want to be too picky. I can send a few colonists to Helos and get decent use out of those travelers.

I personally feel that this is way too late in the game to be slamming all research on a single tech; we really don't have all that great of a need for Range 6 anyway, as we've got several Tundra worlds to colonize at the moment anyway. I equalize out the research spending, with a slight emphasis to Planetology and Construction (my default pattern for the early game). There is one major weedy move , which is not building any colony ships to take advantage of our Controlled Tundra tech. Uh, we've got a Tundra and Barren world RIGHT THERE on our borders! I'm not sure what Ursa was building during these past few turns, but more colony ships is way more important than research! Ursa immediately onto colony ships (4 turns).

The popgun fighters orbiting our core worlds are a waste. Those planets can defend themselves with missile bases. I would probably have put that production into colony ships... anyway, water under the bridge now. We CAN get good use from these ships by having them defend uncolonized planets that are within range. However, that means combining them into a single stack - little groups of 8 Small ships scattered on various planets are totally useless! You need about 20 even to chase away armed colony ships. I'll send them down to the southwest, once our Range tech pops.

Apologies for any comments that seem harsh. I'm just trying to explain what I would have done differently. The only real mistake was not building colony ships immediately when Controlled Tundra popped. Everything else was fine.

Turn 1 (2361) Psilons come after us at the Barren planet in the east. They've brought a Large and three Mediums with their colony ship, so we've got no chance in this fight. I retreat the scout to save it. This of course brings us into contact with the Psilons, a three planet empire crammed in between the Humans and Klackons. Brains have drawn a bizarre personality for them, Honorable Expansionists. Interesting. I sign a minimal trade agreement to up relations.

Vox will max next turn, I shift a couple of colonists to Helos to take advantage of the incoming 20 transports.

Turn 2 (2362) As predicted, Vox maxes out. Since it's closer to the worlds to be colonized, I also have it start a Tundra colony ship (4 turns). This means that I can now swap Ursa over to a cheaper Normal colony ship and get it out a turn earlier, using it to take the Desert world (Dolz) to the southwest. Anyway, you don't have to know all the details, just trust me that I'm getting the colonization done slightly faster!

Turn 3 (2363) Range 6 pops, yay! Now Ursa can continue churning colony ships for the newly opened northwest sector. We have the choice of Inertial Stabilizer or Sublight Drives. As great as the IS may be, we have a greater need for faster engines, so I take the second option.

Increased Range tech also means that our extra scouts do the expansionist dance, heading out to check on some more systems.

Turn 4 (2364) There's an unescorted Human colony ship moving into our space. Not sure where it's headed yet; Romulas (the Tundra planet we're about to settle) is the most likely destination. I'll send another scout there just in case there are missiles on the colony ship. Helos will max next turn, and take over the research load for our colony-building planets.

Turn 6 (2366) Nuts! Helos rebels:

This early in the game is a bad time to get the event, and having it hit at a size 100 planet is especially painful. We'll have to send very large amounts of population from Ursa and Vox to take back the planet. This will drastically slow our colonization and research efforts. On the plus side, both Ursa and Vox finished colony ships this turn, so at least they are free for rebel suppression duty. I'm sending 30m from Ursa and 40m from Vox, timed to land together naturally in 6 turns. (Ursa starts spending on the Eco slider to regrow the departed marines.)

Turn 7 (2367) Ha! One of our scouts chases away a Klackon colony ship from settling a planet in the extreme east! At the very least, we've delayed them a bit. We find the Sakkra planet of Colossa (size 60, maxed out, 11 bases) in the west, at the blue star just northwest of Ssla. The Klackons also warn us for attacking their ships, even though absolutely no combat took place. Methinks they've been smoking whatever passes for weed among bugs. More unescorted Human colony ships are waltzing into our territory, still not sure where they're going or how they have the range to get there!

Turn 9 (2369) Romulas colonized:

We're a little short on population to seed the new colony, due to the rebellion. Vox is still the best option, although it has to send 40m pop this turn to deal with the filthy scum on Helos. I'll send over 15m to Romulas in a turn or two. Fortunately Ursa has now remaxed its population and can finish building the last colony ship for the northwest. Tau Cygni (which will soon seed the northwestern colonies) takes over research duty for the moment.

Turn 10 (2370) Dolz colonied:

Tau Cygni sends 10m to help it get started. It'll take them a while to get there (7 turns), but better than nothing.

Settling Dolz also brings us into contact with the Sakkra, a two planet Aggressive Expansionist empire. (That has trouble written all over it!) We sign up for minimal trade with the lizards as well.

Turn 11 (2371) The Sakkra obviously have Controlled Dead tech, because one of their colony ships lands near us at Drakka and establishes a colony. They also have a colony ship accompanied by 800+ popgun fighters heading... somewhere. If it's coming at one of our new acquisitions, obviously there's nothing we can do about it. We'll need to start getting some bases up soon at our core planets; fortunately Class II deflectors are almost done researching, which will invalidate laser fighters! Hopefully though, we'll stay out of war entirely for the moment.

Turn 12 (2372) Chase away a Human colony ship at Dolz, our new little Desert planet. (I got their colony ship stuck in an infinite loop on the tactical screen, moving back and forth around some asteroids!)

Our luck at Helos is TERRIBLE as 65 soldiers lose to 50 rebels. ARGH! (There are still 14 rebels left, so we lost 65 to kill 36, at 1:1 odds!) Poor Vox now must send another 25m to be sure of retaking the planet. That means I have to chain 20m pop from Ursa back into Vox, so MORE turns in which our best planets are just regrowing population. My god, this event has been just a terrible killer.

Turn 13 (2373) Chase away a Sakkra colony ship from Dolz this turn, again by getting it caught in an infinite loop on the tactical screen. Almost feel bad about abusing the AI that way, but this IS Impossible, after all.

Nordia, our tiny little planet in the south, maxes this turn, and I set it to building defensive bases. We probably should have it do that for a while, at least until it hits 5 bases. It's pretty vulnerable down there.

Turn 14 (2374) Well, the Sakkra brought their huge fleet to Dolz:

This planet is toast. Fortunately it's not a major loss to us, being only size 20. Hopefully it will slow down the lizards some and give us time to get some bases going elsewhere.

In more positive news, we colonize Morrig, the size 100 in the northwest corner. Tau Cygni will seed it with 20m to get it started.

Turn 15 (2375) The Sakkra and Humans both grab planets with colony ships by plowing through our scout blockades. Not much we could do, since they were both armed with lasers. We finally retake Helos from the rebels, good riddance!

Vox and Helos will both remax next turn and then can be used for research or base construction. I have Ursa working on a colony ship for the remaining unclaimed worlds in the southwest; I don't actually think we'll land the planets, but I feel we have to try. Feel free to veto if desired. A lot of techs should pop soon, opening up new choices there. Looks like we'll have 8 planets to work with for the forseeable future. Fortunately most of them are quite large - four of those eight are size 100 or larger!

Sullla
dathon <<< UP NOW
TheArchduke <<< on deck
StuporMan
jmas

Looks like we've got an interesting game on our hands!

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/12069/OSG20-2375s.zip

 

[StuporMan]

Really bad luck on the rebellion event. That is the most damaging event we could have at this point. All others tend to affect only one planet either with population loss or tying it up for a while. This one managed to take down 3 of our biggest planets for nearly a whole turnset.

And you are mistaken about the 1:1 on attacking the rebel planet. They get a +5 bonus for defending, so in essence, they had hand lasers when we did not.

StuporMan

 

[jmas]

Thank you for the feedback Sullla, that was helpful.

I wasn't thinking that those numbers of fighters would be enough firepower against a serious AI fleet, but more that having some fleet would make it less likely that we would be attacked in the short term, since the AI does weigh fleet strength (purely in terms of "ship points" proportional to non-colony base-carrying ship sizes, I believe) into its decisions whether to attack or not. I agree those fighters will serve better at uncolonized planets.

I see your point about the virtue of colonizing Romulas quickly. I had considered it but was trying to get Range 6 with all possible speed to try to break into the SW cluster via Vulcan. Since range is the one aspect of ships that can be upgraded after they are built...I agree that it would have been good to start a tundra base ship or even crank one out. The NW Barren world wasn't as much of a priority for me, though I would have given it more weight had it been within 4 parsecs of Morrig.

I agree that the game looks interesting. I think the large planets will serve us well. If we can land (and keep) more of them in the SW, all the better. Bummer about the rebellion, but we can just keep marching forward anyhow..

 

[dathon78]

2375(Turn 0): Set Helos to building a col ship in addition to the one at Ursa, and order up some more LR lasers from Vox. I know it's unlikely, but I'm going to make a play for Rhilus.

IBT: Hyper-V's come in. Hmmm, tough choice here, Hyper-X, Fusion Bomb, or NPG. We'll want those bombs eventually, but not right now. Hyper-X doesn't seem on paper to be much of an upgrade compared to Hyper-V, but I've found in my experience they are MUCH more effective, especially for missile boats. However, there are two better missile techs in the next rung. So I decide to go with the NPG's. If neither Merculite's nor Scatter Packs are available, I would strongly suggest backtracking for the Hyper-X's.

2376(Turn 1): Now that's odd. The Lizards had a col ship orbiting Dolz last turn, and I assumed they'd colonize it. Instead, looks like they sent it north! That Klackon col ship is definitely heading towards Dolz, but we don't have anything in the area that can get there in time.

2377(Turn 2): Mobas founded. 13 ordered from Tau Cygni.

2378(Turn 3): Klackons beat us to Rhilus Didn't see the ship on the map. Looks like that Lizard col ship is heading into our territory Not sure if it's heading to Mobas or Tau Cygni. Start some fighters at Tau Cygni, MIGHT be able to get enough to beat them off.

IBT: RW80% comes in, and as per rules, I select Duralloy, though I would have anyway given it was the only next option

2379(Turn 4): Humans have some ships that I think are heading to Nitzer in the south, but might be heading to Helos. It will have a base next turn just to be sure.

2380(Turn 5): I'm almost positive that Lizard ship is heading for Mobas, and I'm pretty sure I see a Human heading there as well. Should have enough fighters on hand to take them out, though.

IBT: Sakkra show up at Vulcan with 3 mediums and an armed col ship. Unfortunately, the mediums had gatling lasers, and probably some pretty good computers, and they easily smoke our fleet.

2381(Turn 6): Well, looks like our hesitation in the S cost us both planets. I think we still have enough to be competitive though.

IBT: Class II comes in, PDS is the only option.

2382(Turn 7): Well, the good news is that the Human ships were not bound for Helos. The bad news is that their shipping lane passes right through it, so it's going to be hard to tell incoming attacks there.

2383(Turn 8): Rebuffed the lizard ship at Mobas without a fight. And that Human col ship is headed for Dolz, where it will promptly be destroyed by the incoming Klackon fleet.

2384(Turn 9): Bugs are assembling quite the large fleet at Dolz. This is troubling.

IBT: First council vote, us vs the Klackons. Sakkras(3) abstain, Psilons(3) for the Klackons, Darloks(2) abstain, Humans(4) abstain, Klackons(6) for the Klackons, Us(5) for the Klackons.

2385(Turn 10): Turn up research on +20; I'd like to have more votes by the next vote in 2400.

IBT: Scanner pops, choose BCIII, the only choice for advancement.

2387(Turn 12): Humans are beginning to expand into that back corner. Looks like they and the bugs are going to be our chief competition.

IBT: +20 pops, yay! Should be more than enough time to terraform and max before the next election. Take Enhanced Eco over Controlled Barren, of course.

2388(Turn 13): Setup for terraforming. Bugs took Nitzer from the Humans in the South, and looks like they are going to take Vulcan from the Lizards as well.

2390(Turn 15): On my last turn, the game decided to give me this parting shot:

Ouchie!! We've been really screwed by the events this game. All of our worlds are terraformed, and working on factories and pop where appropriate. Ursa is on research, and should probably stay there until Vox and Helos can take over.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/52773/osg20_2390.zip

dathon

 

[Sullla]

Wow, that's really rough. Looks like the MOO engine saw us complaining about the last game being "too easy" and decided to send some karmic payback. We'll probably get the Assasination event against the Klackons next.

Looks to me like our immediate strategy should involve turtling for the moment and building up our defensive position (Sirian-esque lots o' bases). Watch the inevitable AI-AI warring and wait for an opportunity to grab some more worlds. We're clearly quite some distance away from that right now.

 

[StuporMan]

Sulla, while I agree that we are not likely to attack soon, we may want to be a bit more decisive in cultivating the AI-AI warring. I am not saying we start any sideline or phony wars, but that we may be better off starting the inevitable trans-galactic war sooner rather than later. With the productive races we are facing, and without a lead in territory, the last thing we need are the Humans, Psilons, and Klackons to buddy up and blitz through the tech tree.

That said, I think our priority should be as Sulla stated. It is time to consolidate, build missile bases, and keeping from falling so far behind in tech that our pointy-sticks get dulled. Remember that for our race a large fleet is not so important. As long as we can bomb out missile bases and land troops, we can conquer worlds. We can always attack where their fleet isn't.

 

[TheArchduke]

I wouldn´t be so pessimistic, we are on par with the AI as far as population and planets are concerned, so as long as we can hold onto what we have, things look good.

I will play my turnset in the afternoon.

 

[TheArchduke]

Devastating news. We lost the game.

Spoiler :

My turnset:

Looking around everything looks fine.

Turn 1 (2390)

Turn 2

Bad news, the Humans have equipped their colony ships with weapons and chased away 3 scouts from Klystron, the Death World to the north and 2 other worlds.

Turn 4

The Humans got everyone in their alliance par the Klackons, as we can´t start any phony wars, we sit tight.

Turn 5

Another planet goes to the humans who now "outstrip all other races", this is not good, looks like the humans are running away with the game, only our high population saves us atm.

Turn 6

Our new Pellet Guns come in and I decide to backtrack for Hyper-X as the RNG has only given us Neutron Blaster and no missiles in our tree.

Turn 7

Another planet to the Humans. Grr... They are insanely high up in the planetology tech tree and colonize everywhere.

Turn 9

For unknown reasons the tiny Darlok Empire dows us. I dial up the Brains and the Humans to ask them to join as this is a real war for us and god forbids the Humans could actually jump on us now.

Turn 10

Duralloy comes in and I backtrack quickly for the cheap IT 9, as it only costs a bunch of beakers really.

On Turn 10 the unbelieveable happens, a vote starts between us and the Klackons and everyone, and I mean everyone votes for them, putting them at 22 out of 29 votes.

Thanks to the spamming of colony ships by the humans and they willigness to vote the Klackons has cost us the game.
I am not sure if I could have prevented this somehow as our scout 2 ships couldn´t hold off any colony ships and we vastly underestimated the AIs friendlyness to each other.

 

[jmas]

Sorry to hear of the loss.. Archduke, I don't see what you could have done differently without knowing the vote would go that way, which of course wasn't possible.

On a side note, I wonder if the Klackon leader's name, Xantak, was based on the stomach medication Zantac by the game designers?

 

[TheArchduke]

Well, so much for an easy game the second time around. It is a shame all the AI civs cuddled up with each other as they were, the question is now, do we dare to try again?