Pre-Game Ruminations
Taking a look at out situation, we're in pretty good shape. The birds are gone, and the bugs will soon be relegated to distant planets on the opposite ends of the galaxy. Darloks aren't much of a threat either. That leaves the Sakkras and the Humans. Well, the Lizards don't have much tech, so that makes them prime targets. However, I would really love to stick it to the Humans if we can, and sooner rather than later to cripple them. They have quite the large fleet, but it has a weakness: massive amounts of small and medium ships. We need energy pulsars and repulsor beams. With those, we can reduce the Human fleet of small, 1-space guns to dust with just a few ships. Now, how to procure them. Only Humans know the repulsars. They know pulsar too, but so do the Darloks. So my plan is this: After Kholdan, invade Nazin, which should pick up the pulsars, and hopefully steal the repulsars from the Humans.
2470:
*Two clicks off spying on the Darloks, leaving it on minimal, added to the Humans.
*With a little pumping, Altair will build a shield and a base for next turn.
*Fierias and Endoria get 3 clicks to reserve, rest to ships, redirected to Tau Cygni to begin making an invasion fleet for the far West. I keep Endoria on bombers and Fierias on fighters.
*And that's all as I accidentally click next turn
IBT:
*Human fleet arrives at Altair. Destroy all of the mediums without a loss. Smalls retreat.
*Attack at Kholdan. Destroy all missile bases and their 1 large Avneger without losing a single ship.
*Controlled Radiated Pops. Only Option is Doom virus
2471:
*That's really weird. The yellow N of Talas is an uninhabited minimal, size 50. My only guess is that it got razed and was never refounded. It's actually in range too, but way too exposed.
*Altair will finish terraforming and build 4 bases this turn, then will go on factory construction.
*50 transports ordered from Phyco, 25 each from Rana and Xudax ordered to Kholdan. Altair will add 50 more in two turns.
*Tech re-balanced so Doom Virus and Reuced 60% get 5 clicks (10%), everything else 20%. My standard research configuration, I like to keep things in units of 5 clicks.
IBT: Nada
2472:
*40 fusion bombers at Altair ordered to Tau Cygni. I think ~150 should be sufficient, with the missile boats, to take down Nazin. Endoria will have produced about 120 by next turn, at which time I can switch to fighters exclusively.
IBT:
*Recon ship at the Human world of Willow makes an alarming find
Those merc boats won't hurt our worlds, but will also take down a repulsar/pulsar approach right quick. But 200 some medium death spore ships
Keep an eye out for those corvettes!!
*Battle at Altair. Humans again lose all their mediums, retreat their smalls, we lose nothing.
*Darloks attack at Tau Cygni. They lose 8 medium nuclear bombers, no losses.
*Anti-Matter Torps hit. Choose Auto Blaster over Tachyon Beam.
2473:
*50 troops from Altair to Kholdan. K-day is in 2 years.
*Endoria and Fierias taken off reserves (we have almost 2k) and pump fighters. Should have a fleet ready to go by the end of my turn.
*Oops! Forgot we got Radiated and have planets to colonize. Design a lightly armed col ship, set Fierias to build in a turn.
IBT:
*Humans suicide 17 more mediums at Altair.
*Advanced Scanner comes in, as does Reduced 60%. I take RC V over ECM VI, IIT 5 over IIT 6 and IIT 8
2474:
*Post-clean-up-tech slider fiddling.
*Fierias will build another col ship and add a lot to the reserve this turn.
*Altair is more than capable of defending itself, and there are none of those Spore ships anywhere but Willow. Ship all 96 ion 3.0's to Tau Cygni, leaving the 362 Ion 2.0's.
IBT:
*Battle at Kholdan. We win (surprise, surprise), killing their 110 with 62 losses of our own (leaving 88)
Election time! Us vs the Humans (of course)
Humans: 12 for themselves
Darloks: 5 for the Humans
Klackons: 1 for the Humans
Sakkras: 5 for us.
Mrrshans: 14 for us.
We've now reached the 1/3 voting bloc point. There shall be no final war in our time unless the humans manage to explode their pop.
*Invading Kholdan ended contact with the Klackons, heh.
2475:
*With pumping, Kholdan will have a shield next turn. No threats incoming, though. I make the decision to move the missile boats to Tau Cygni, will take 4 turns to get there. Fierias starts building fighters again, aimed at Kholdan.
IBT:
*Sakkars smalls: Daemons are nuke boats, goblins are ion fighters.
2476:
*Kholdan builds a shield, pumped again to both terraform and build 4 bases next turn. Darlok's have a small fleet incoming to the planet. That was their fleet guarding Quayal, so I send the 135 Ion 3.0's waiting at Tau cygni to rough them up a bit. And more importantly, make the shape shifters move their large fleet at Nazin to protect it (hopefully).
*Arrgh! I meant to keep that Scanner at Willow and forgot
Oh well, we can still see the spore ships there with our scanners.
IBT:
*Our armed col ship destroys the 2 Human sentries at Vega (Radiated Rich)
*Darloks run from Quayal
*Vega founded.
*Destroy all 27 factories and 18 pop at Quayal.
*Sakkras want to trade. We decline as per rules.
2477:
*23 pop from Jinga to Vega. Faster we can terraform/max that planet, faster it can be used to build lizard hunters
IBT:
*Humans suicide 180-odd smalls at Altair.
*Ooh, tech steal from the Humans. Unfortunately it's construction or weapons. I take the construction to up our tech level and make more room on ships. Steal IIT8.
*Absorption shields come in. Take Cloaking device over Class VI to keep us advancing.
*Bomb 15 more pop off Quayal.
2478:
*Ha! It worked. The bombings at Quayal made the Darloks move their large fleet at Nazin to the planet. Will arrive in 4 turns, Nazin only has bases defending it now.
*I set us on course to invade Nazin. Probably should have started this a couple turns ago. We are up Battle Suits (+10), Ion Rifles (+10), and Absorbtion Shields (+20) on the Darloks. We thus have a +35 advantage in the battle (they get +5 for being defender). That's about a 3.5 to 1 kill ratio. So I should only lose 37 troops taking the planet. Given the proximity of the humans, I'd like to take the planet full to stand it up immediatley, so let's say 180 troops. That's 50 from Phyco, 30 each from Kholdan and Altair, and 55 from Tau Cygni (well, that's 165, but who's counting
) Troops from Phyco ordered up.
*Human feints incoming at Tau Cygni and Vox, but will be fought off easily.
*Humans have a new large design, incoming at Neptunis in 3 turns. I can land a sensor ship there when they arrive, probably has either torps or auto blasters.
IBT:
*Klackons chase us away from the uninhabited minimal, but no col ship?
*Bomb 1 factory and 17 pop at Quayal.
2479:
*Troops from Kholdan and Altair ordered.
IBT:
*Bomb 23 million more off Quayal.
2480:
*Order fighters at Quayal back to Tau Cygni.
Post Game
Alright, we're set up to take Nazin. The inbound transports will arrive in 4 turns, and should be reinforced with troops from Tau Cygni in 2 turns. The fleet can travel the distance in 2 turns as well, your choice when to send them in. I would personally time it so fleet and troops arrived simultaneously. All inbound human fleets will not hurt their targets. Please report what's on those large Human Escorts at Neptunus next turn. Spore ships haven't moved, and our invasion of Nazin will land us the antidote, so I'm no longer worried on that count. Impulse Drives are at 7%, auto blaster at about 2/3. We've accumulated quite a few fighters at Kholdan, might want to make a few bombers to take it to the Sakkras. I would suggest that our first strike at the Humans be either at the worlds in Darlok space, or at Neptunus. There's a col ship scheduled to land at that radiated in the center in 2 turns; it sat at Altair for a couple because I forgot about it
The Save
It's enough to have scanners roaming around between enemy planets. So, since I don't think we need scouts any longer, I scrap them. Just keep one scanner pestering each AI race and that will be sufficient.
