The good news:
-We now control 6 planets, including Iranha, Laan, Phyco ... and Neptunus - an Arid ARTIFACTS 65(!) - and have two more colships en route. One will reach Mu Delphi, the desert in the southwest corner, in 4 turns; the other is shown here:
It'll hit Iranha in 4 turns, so make sure to give it new orders then. My suggestion is that you send it to the yellow star at the top of the nebula, where my cursor is resting. We just chased a Darlok scout from there (we arrived first, last turn) and it's Rhilus, a Terran 85.
-We not only snagged Neptunus for ourselves, but scouted it before anyone else.
The tech we pulled from the place put it
just within range of Fieras!
-We do have Scout 1s already en route to every unexplored star within range which is neither Orion nor an AI colony. If we colonize Rhilus however, we may need more. Note that we also have a ship due to reach the 'Lok star of Reticuli next turn (it wasn't a colony when I sent the Scout 1 out).
-We managed to scout Whynil (now a Darlok colony; the Meklar owned it when my scout arrived) and Rana (a Sili colony) before any bases or fleets could stop us.
-We have minimal trade agreements with the 'Loks and 'Coids, and neutral relations with everybody we've met thus far.
The bad news:
-Our factory situation is still abysmal. Fierias is maxed of course, but Paladia still has only 20 factories (not the end of the world, as I've kept its pop in the mid-teens anyway while it helps feed other colonies, but still...) and
none of our other colonies have
any! Laan, being poor, has been handling most of our research since being founded, and the others are just too new. (Neptunus should finish its first factory next turn.)
-With the exception of the ART world pull, no new tech came in on my turnset - I soft-pedaled Barren, and though it hit percentages several turns ago, it's being stubborn about coming in. (Now at 16%)
-Our scouting situation remains iffy. There's no scout over Darrian in the far northeast (I judged it far enough away to be safe) and all our current scouts are spoken for (well, except for one who's out of position and the one who'll reach Reticuli next turn). We also have as yet made no attempt to scout the Darlok worlds (all in scouting range) of Tauri or Phantos (well, or Nazin, but come on...) or the now-Meklar colony (formerly 'Lok) of Nyarl.
-The first race to 6 worlds was the Alkari in 2343 ... I think. I didn't see the actual GNN message due to a misclick, but extrapolated what it must have been from other data later in the turnset.
-We
had a minimal trade agreement with the Meklar...
...but lost contact when the 'Loks took Whynil, only to reachieve it when the Machines took Nyarl. That was just two turns ago, and I decided to leave the question of whether to ask for trade again up to you; who knows how long they'll keep Nyarl. As you can tell, the Meklar and Darloks have been waging a cold war, but have no official war in place, and so could well become allies at any moment. Gotta love the A.I.
The pretty-good-at-least news:
-We have a (very) small planetary reserve available. All the new worlds have been given little bits of it over the past few turns, but either are about to run out or have run out already; I think Iranha needs some more now, and of course it won't hurt to feed the others early. If you want to get them standing up as quickly as I'd want to, you might want to pump some more from Fierias too.
-We have a Scout 1 at Kailis (the Barren world south of Fierias) that can be sent out immediately, as another is arriving there next turn. I realize he's not in a very useful spot for future scouting though.
-The first set of transports is due at each of our new colonies next turn (it just came out that way). Neptunus is getting 20 (plus another the turn after), and the others are getting smaller first installments, but with semi-decent numbers en route. Our colonies haven't even started standing up yet, but at least they're about to.
-I've opened all fields of research, so you won't have to pay the opening costs; there's a little invested in Nuclear Engines (I dunno ... 50ish?) and of course Barren's up in the percentages, but the rest are just starting out. I chose
Deep Space Scanner over ECM I for the intel, and
Shield 2 and
Hand Lasers over No Alternative. As we've reached 2350, I recommend maintaining at least some research in all fields from now on; we can't afford to stay too far behind in tech for too long.
-Fierias is just starting a new Colship (due in 3) which it hopefully will not build in that form; if Barren doesn't hit in the next couple of turns, you might want to switch to a huge placeholder, as we'll want at least three Barren ships, including at least two more-or-less ASAP (I would have had a prebuild already going for these if we hadn't discovered that Terran...). For that matter, the slider settings at Fierias, Paladia, and Laan are arbitrary, and will probably have to be changed, depending on your plans for your turnset.
Unofficial Scouting Reports:
-As of 2338, the (northern - by their standards) 'Coid colony of Jinga had 31 pop, 46 industry, a missile base, and a Shark cruiser in orbit.
-As of 2340, the 'Coids still hadn't maxed their homeworld! (83 pop, 147 industry, 20 missile bases, and 4 colships in orbit.)
-Paranar, the red star in the nebula, really
is in the Nebula (based on the color of the background stars on the combat screen). The Meklar (and maybe 'Loks) may have scouted it before we arrived, but I don't know for sure.
-As of 2349, Ursa (the yellow star in the center of the galaxy) is maxed at 100/200, plus 19 missile bases, three Tooth cruisers, and four colships in orbit.
-We have yet to encounter the Alkari, but they are allied to both the Darloks and Meklar. I've also yet to see Bear ships anywhere but over their homeworld, but they too have a Meklar alliance (for the time being).
-Carnax the Xenophobic
Technologist Silicoid, with an Artifact world in his empire, is
still last in technology!