RB OSG1 - Team II - Da not-quite-n00bz
- Thread starter Zed-F
- Start date
A good turn overall. Here's some answers to your questions, and some comments...
The rockets are only a problem if we have to try to crack their bases.
Good job, and good luck to TBC!
That would be because the Silicoids don't have contact with the Psilons yet.
I would not be too surprised if we did beat the Silicoids to some inferno worlds, had we researched that tech. They don't seem to be very interested in expansion for an Expansionist empire. Besides, by now they must be well behind in tech; we could take any planets they did claim away pretty quickly. However, we may get an opportunity for controlled Toxic or Radiated bases next time, so all is not lost. Enhanced Eco is good too, albeit a bit less of a priority than it would have been if we had not gotten both Improved Eco and Reduced Waste 80%. We shouldn't need to research any further waste reduction techs after this, unless we have no choice.
Our goal with the war is to take as many planets as we can with the ships and tech we have on hand. They started it, but we'll finish it! We want to get ahold of some of those juicy techs, especially Class IV shields, a better weapon tech, some improved terraforming, and most especially sublight drives. One of the best ways is to capture them.
Check the relative power meter on the status screen and see what the story is. If the Alkaris are weak, military-wise or total power-wise, then that's likely the answer. Asking repeatedly on subsequent turns probably won't help; wait a few turns between each attempt. If their power is low, we don't need to push it; they probably won't jump in on a war against us if we're stronger, unless they are allied with the Psilons. If it looks like they might be a threat, we can give them a gift to get them in on our side if necessary.
Even once we finish anti-missile rockets, it will still be a while before we can finish researching the next item in the weapons tree. What's your motivation for getting AMR sooner? Inertial stabilizers, we could use right now...
It would be useful to know what your options are, so we can try to figure out what it was possible you could have stolen. Missiles are useful, so no complaints on that score, but if sublight drives had been possible, they would have been better. We have a large empire, which is a logistical mightmare with only retro engines. I suspect that we could not have gotten Sublight drives, though, so probably this was a good choice.
The hyper-X rockets are not so worrisome from a defensive standpoint as the fusion bombs.We finally managed to plant a spy in the Alkaris. They are up ECM jammer I, robotic controls III, Hydrogen fuel cells, nuclear engines, hand lasers, hyper-X rockets, and fusion bombs on us.
The rockets are only a problem if we have to try to crack their bases.This is why we want to press the war with the Psilons now, while we have a chance. We have nothing that even comes close to penetrating planetary shield V + class IV deflectors, other than the Death Spores we stole from the Psilons. Even once we finish merculites, those will only do 1 point apiece. If we have to attack a planet with bases, then we will have to send our transports through the missile bases' fire -- not a good situation if they have more than a small number of bases. We want to take as many Psilon planets that don't have bases up NOW as we can, before bases start coming up in numbers.
Well, we did everthing we could short of bribing them to prevent it, so ok. We'll give them the same end of the stick as we gave the Psilons.
I think we definitely do want to spy against the Alkari, and a total of 4-5% spying is definitely sustainable. Fusion bombs would be just the thing to crack shielded bases, and Hyper-X rockets would be great too, at least until our merculite missiles come online. Even nuclear engines would be useful until we can capture/steal/research sublights.
Good job, and good luck to TBC!
Kabuki
Viking Expatriate
Got it and here is the post, I'll have to keep it short and sweet as my exam is in mmm... five and a half hours.
IHT - 2390
Refilling Planets:
Esper -> Panthos 15m
Helos -> Esper 15m
Gion -> Incedious 15m
Sitrep: We have no reserves!!!! I always leave one tick on industrial production. Reserves are very, very useful, among other things they allow standing up of worlds that are going to be hit soon at twice the normal rate... Which definately can make or break a defense. Also it allows for bribes... I set a couple of our more developed worlds to one tick of industry for reserves.
I would miss both of these abilities during my turns...
Change tech spending, evening it out and creating a three tiered system: Computers/Contruction, Planetology/Propulsion/Weapons and finally Force fields (I'm hoping we steal here).
Spy spending is good.
Colony 1.0 from Ursa to Moro. The two yellow stars may have a suitable planet.
Helos is set to base production as there is the (faint) possibility that some ships are heading there.
1 - 2391
@ Mobas our Laz destroys a medium
@ Phantos we loose a Laz, but our missile base destroys the enemy (the Corona completely outmatches us and we have no safe orbital superiority).
29/31 Psilons make it through our defense, none make it out of the gravity well.
I run through and tweek som production settings, mostly making sure that we aren't sacrificing too much on defensive spending.
2 - 2392
@ Phantos we destroy one medium
@ Gorra the Sakkara spies destroy 6 factories (another good reason to leave one tick on industry... as you now don't have to jump back and mm it as it will produce those factories in short order with one tick).
Build colonies at Rotan and Nitzen and populate from Gion (20) and Klystron (15) respectively.
3 - 2393
@ Mobus we destroy 2 mediums
We then steal from the Alkari and choose Computers (as so long as there are computer techs to steal these have priority as they enhance your future steal potential unless you are guaranteed a specific key tech from another field). We get ECJ Mk I - crappy, but it's +1 computer tech, and that matters.
4 - 2394
We steal again from the Alkari, and although computers are showing, we are 16% into their only Computer tech (IRC III) and I choose Propulsion. And we get Nuclear Engines!
@ Mobas we land 45 of 45 troops and have 31 left at the end of it. We capture 83 factories and get teh following techs: Hyper-X rockets! Duralloy Armor, Inertial Stabilizers and Class IV Defense shields.
Our propulsion research is set to Dotomite crystals (R7).
5 - 2395
We research IRC III and set industry to 25% empire wide. We set research to BC Mk IV.
We colonize Spika and Gion sends 15m.
The Psilons have Fusion drive. We really need some serious pointy stick teching.
6 - 2396
Alkari put 42 small fighters into the orbit of Incedius... We loose 2million and 1 factory there.
@ Phantos we destroy 7 mediums.
We check out Beta Celtsi: Min 30.
7 and 8 - 2397 and 98
Alkari bomb Incedius (loss total)
9 - 2399
@ mobas 7 medium ships were blown to scrap.
The Sakkara demand that we cease and desist.
10 - 2340
Can't hold the orbits of Nitzer and Incedius.
Our Scout Laz 1.0 retreats from Xendalla which has 46 pop and 76 factories.
The Ssakkara acquire range 4 or 5 and declare war on us (as we just occupied their entire neighbourhood).
I hire the Silicoid vs. the Psilons.
And that is it.
The only advice I'll leave is that we need another attack or two on the Psilons, we need both of the better drives and their FF techs.
Here is the save
IHT - 2390
Refilling Planets:
Esper -> Panthos 15m
Helos -> Esper 15m
Gion -> Incedious 15m
Sitrep: We have no reserves!!!! I always leave one tick on industrial production. Reserves are very, very useful, among other things they allow standing up of worlds that are going to be hit soon at twice the normal rate... Which definately can make or break a defense. Also it allows for bribes... I set a couple of our more developed worlds to one tick of industry for reserves.
I would miss both of these abilities during my turns...
Change tech spending, evening it out and creating a three tiered system: Computers/Contruction, Planetology/Propulsion/Weapons and finally Force fields (I'm hoping we steal here).
Spy spending is good.
Colony 1.0 from Ursa to Moro. The two yellow stars may have a suitable planet.
Helos is set to base production as there is the (faint) possibility that some ships are heading there.
1 - 2391
@ Mobas our Laz destroys a medium
@ Phantos we loose a Laz, but our missile base destroys the enemy (the Corona completely outmatches us and we have no safe orbital superiority).
29/31 Psilons make it through our defense, none make it out of the gravity well.
I run through and tweek som production settings, mostly making sure that we aren't sacrificing too much on defensive spending.
2 - 2392
@ Phantos we destroy one medium
@ Gorra the Sakkara spies destroy 6 factories (another good reason to leave one tick on industry... as you now don't have to jump back and mm it as it will produce those factories in short order with one tick).
Build colonies at Rotan and Nitzen and populate from Gion (20) and Klystron (15) respectively.
3 - 2393
@ Mobus we destroy 2 mediums
We then steal from the Alkari and choose Computers (as so long as there are computer techs to steal these have priority as they enhance your future steal potential unless you are guaranteed a specific key tech from another field). We get ECJ Mk I - crappy, but it's +1 computer tech, and that matters.
4 - 2394
We steal again from the Alkari, and although computers are showing, we are 16% into their only Computer tech (IRC III) and I choose Propulsion. And we get Nuclear Engines!
@ Mobas we land 45 of 45 troops and have 31 left at the end of it. We capture 83 factories and get teh following techs: Hyper-X rockets! Duralloy Armor, Inertial Stabilizers and Class IV Defense shields.
Our propulsion research is set to Dotomite crystals (R7).
5 - 2395
We research IRC III and set industry to 25% empire wide. We set research to BC Mk IV.
We colonize Spika and Gion sends 15m.
The Psilons have Fusion drive. We really need some serious pointy stick teching.
6 - 2396
Alkari put 42 small fighters into the orbit of Incedius... We loose 2million and 1 factory there.
@ Phantos we destroy 7 mediums.
We check out Beta Celtsi: Min 30.
7 and 8 - 2397 and 98
Alkari bomb Incedius (loss total)
9 - 2399
@ mobas 7 medium ships were blown to scrap.
The Sakkara demand that we cease and desist.
10 - 2340
Can't hold the orbits of Nitzer and Incedius.
Our Scout Laz 1.0 retreats from Xendalla which has 46 pop and 76 factories.
The Ssakkara acquire range 4 or 5 and declare war on us (as we just occupied their entire neighbourhood).
I hire the Silicoid vs. the Psilons.
And that is it.
The only advice I'll leave is that we need another attack or two on the Psilons, we need both of the better drives and their FF techs.
Here is the save
Kabuki
Viking Expatriate
Note: The Alkaris are allied with the Psilons.
Kylearan
compound eye
All this pointy stick research sounds great - especially the nuclear engines (although we could need even faster ones) for our transports, and the Hyper-X rockets and the Class IV Shields are nice, too!
What's not so good is that we are now at war with three races; maybe we can cultivate friendship at least with the Silicoids?
Does this mean we lost Incedius completely?
Good luck on your exam, Kabuki!
-Kylearan
What's not so good is that we are now at war with three races; maybe we can cultivate friendship at least with the Silicoids?
Does this mean we lost Incedius completely?
Good luck on your exam, Kabuki!
-Kylearan
Sounds good overall, but some comments:
While I agree that having some in reserves is good, I usually prefer not to take one tick from every mature planet. A more efficient way to do things is to have those rich and ultrarich planets that are not busy building ships contribute to the planetary reserve, and leave everyone else on tech.
I'm not sure why we would want to put construction as a top priority tree, unless there were something in particular there you were going for. Normally planetology is a better bet. In this case, since we are at war with most of our neighbors, we might want something else that will help us prosecute that war.
The Sakkra are pretty weak, being a 2PE. We might want to take Sssla from them, as they are reasonably close and we should be able to stand up defenses on a big planet like that pretty quickly. We may also get a few techs from it. The Sakkra can't have much up on us, but every little bit helps.
Stealing ECM from the Alkari... I agree that if you don't know what the enemy has or if you're just looking for spare tech levels and not for stuff that will help you immediately, then stealing from computers is a good idea. In this case, however, there were other things that would help us more right now than ECM 1. ECM 1 only helps us a tiny bit with stealing tech via spies; right now most of our efforts are focussed on protecting what we have and on pointy stick research. Even Hand Lasers would have been a better choice at this point. Stealing computer tech just because it's computer tech is fine for cold war scenarios, but not for hot war scenarios!
Roster:
Zed-F <-- On deck
Kylearan
Ozymandous
Kabuki
JMB
TBC <-- UP NOW
EDIT: We still have Incedius, but it has no factories and the Alkari are in orbit with 45 sparrowhawks and more on the way. The planet is still set to build factories, which is IMO a waste of time since the Alkari will just bomb them until we chase them away or take over the planet. It should go on ships, bases, eco, or RP -- probably one of the latter two, since it has no chance to build anything useful as far as ships or bases go anytime soon.
If we attack at Yarrow, the Alkari artifact world, we will cut off any fleet at Incedius from needed supplies. Yarrow does show one base, but only one, and we have scouted it in the past, so we can send troops now without waiting for a fleet to scout it. If we send enough troops, that one base won't be able to shoot down enough to matter.
On the Psilon front, we have scouted Morrig and it has 50+ factories so that looks like a logical next target. If we can deny them access to the space behind the Silicoids, all the better. It'll make the Silicoids happy too. We should send some scouts to the far south on the other side of the silicoids, as the Psilons will settle there if we don't and there may still be planets we can settle back there. We can probably scrap all our colony ship desgns (even the one that we have one of) and build a speed two colony ship. We should also consider building some warships with nuclear engines, probably with missiles on them since our beam technology is way behind now.
While I agree that having some in reserves is good, I usually prefer not to take one tick from every mature planet. A more efficient way to do things is to have those rich and ultrarich planets that are not busy building ships contribute to the planetary reserve, and leave everyone else on tech.
I'm not sure why we would want to put construction as a top priority tree, unless there were something in particular there you were going for. Normally planetology is a better bet. In this case, since we are at war with most of our neighbors, we might want something else that will help us prosecute that war.
The Sakkra are pretty weak, being a 2PE. We might want to take Sssla from them, as they are reasonably close and we should be able to stand up defenses on a big planet like that pretty quickly. We may also get a few techs from it. The Sakkra can't have much up on us, but every little bit helps.
Stealing ECM from the Alkari... I agree that if you don't know what the enemy has or if you're just looking for spare tech levels and not for stuff that will help you immediately, then stealing from computers is a good idea. In this case, however, there were other things that would help us more right now than ECM 1. ECM 1 only helps us a tiny bit with stealing tech via spies; right now most of our efforts are focussed on protecting what we have and on pointy stick research. Even Hand Lasers would have been a better choice at this point. Stealing computer tech just because it's computer tech is fine for cold war scenarios, but not for hot war scenarios!
Roster:
Zed-F <-- On deck
Kylearan
Ozymandous
Kabuki
JMB
TBC <-- UP NOW
EDIT: We still have Incedius, but it has no factories and the Alkari are in orbit with 45 sparrowhawks and more on the way. The planet is still set to build factories, which is IMO a waste of time since the Alkari will just bomb them until we chase them away or take over the planet. It should go on ships, bases, eco, or RP -- probably one of the latter two, since it has no chance to build anything useful as far as ships or bases go anytime soon.
If we attack at Yarrow, the Alkari artifact world, we will cut off any fleet at Incedius from needed supplies. Yarrow does show one base, but only one, and we have scouted it in the past, so we can send troops now without waiting for a fleet to scout it. If we send enough troops, that one base won't be able to shoot down enough to matter.
On the Psilon front, we have scouted Morrig and it has 50+ factories so that looks like a logical next target. If we can deny them access to the space behind the Silicoids, all the better. It'll make the Silicoids happy too.
We should send some scouts to the far south on the other side of the silicoids, as the Psilons will settle there if we don't and there may still be planets we can settle back there. We can probably scrap all our colony ship desgns (even the one that we have one of) and build a speed two colony ship. We should also consider building some warships with nuclear engines, probably with missiles on them since our beam technology is way behind now.Black Cursor
Chieftain
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2001
- Messages
- 64
Got it!
TBC
TBC
Ozymandous
Prince
I concentrated all spending on those two categories EXCEPT for 2 ticks everywhere else. They weren't in percentages at all when I did this, and I believe I left them like that until they reached at least 15%, but more like 20%.
My definition of "break through potential" is roughly 20%, because if you get to 3% let's say, then reduce spending to 1% because you've equalled everything out you could wait for many turns before you discover that technology.
If you'll notice we still hadn't gotten Controlled Tundra even with things concentrated (all was in Planetology except 2 ticks each once the construction tech came in), but we were very close to it when I handed off the turn.
I know some like to equalize everything and not worry about it, but I felt the necessity of getting those two tech's in justified the means, and now we have ships with reserve fuel tanks on standard colony ships to show for it.
Kabuki
Viking Expatriate
Thanks Kylarean, I appreciate your comments, it's exaclty why I love SGs. I'll try to respond to some of them to flesh out my thinking as my report was written both before I saw your prevfious post (which I only read just now) and while "taking a break" from my studies.
I disagree (obviously), I find that one tick is generally less disruptive of production plans. If it affects production of defense and/or ships by one turn I don't do it, and I avoid (as a rule) doing it on artifact planets. Rich planets may get two ticks if I don't have them producing ships. I only occasionally use the empire wide slider (on the planets screen) as I feel it is too disruptive and invisible. The reduction in MM is a big thing too for me, as I find managing the sliders in large empires (17+ planets) all the time to be annoying at best. The one click takes away the problem of factory destruction from spying as a side effect, one I appreciate very much, although possibly inappropriate in SGs. The early build up of a treasury that the one click allows often allows an early concentration of force as planets can be stood up with missile bases earlier and being able to redistribute production in general allows standing up planets faster, especially in a hot war situation that is as population intesive as ours.
It was specifically to reduce the economic strain on our planets as IRC III was coming in. Also with the huge lead the in FF that the Psilons had I felt a reduction there was beneficial.
I thought they were a 1PE... where is their 2nd? And I think they have two or maybe three techs on us. However another T100 is a good deal, although getting enough ground forces there is going to be hard as our planets are still refilling from the recent settlements and ground attack.
I actually was aware of what they had, and what the Psilons had up on us. Computer tech would help in espionage vs. both the Psilons and Alkari as well as quickly maxing us on that tree with IRC III coming in. Yes, there were other techs that were potentiall more useful, but I don't believe there was an armor or ground attack tech available as I didn't see one used against me from them. As we are not about to be over run by either the Psilons or the Alkari this is really not much of a hot war. In the south east we will not loose a planet as long as we can put in missile bases, and the two tundra planets were too late and too close, and when they were settled (with no treasury) it would be almost impossible to stand them up in time. Overall I will stand by my decision although I definately understand your objection.
Yupp, my mistake, I should have seen that.
A good move. I suspect it will have more bases (5+?) so we need to send a good lump of troops. Again, offensive operations are tough and to mount a soild operation quickly we will cut into core world populations as I had to for populating the front lines. I think Yarrow is higher priority than Sssla and Morrig.
I think hitting Morig and then Beta Ceti in rapid succession is a very good idea. Grabbing just Morring won't do the trick.
W.r.t. to the new ship designs I wanted to leave that for a bit as I am very bad at early game ship design as I rarely fight before the late mid-game, choosing not to contest (I also haven't been forced to do so as I haven't played alot of smaller maps on hard, prefering Large maps which means you don't usually have to fight until later). Althoguh a new colony design is in order, the missile boat (our beams suck) is in order, although I think we may want to wait for our weapons tech and two next assaults to come in before we commit to it as right now we are far enough behind that our ships will be eaten alive unless they are in massive numbers. My turns saw the Psilons come in with their new Large designs, and we can't fight them yet without missile bases.
There is probably a cross post here, I'll edit if needed.
Yupp - it was.
Ozy: Makes sense. I just wanted to know your thinking behind it, as that is what it's all about. And I think the percentage cut off (mine is generally 10-15%) is mostly a personal preference, although if I'm doing focus research (like early propulsion) I'll just run it till it pops so as to get the range I need that one or two turns earlier for an expansion jump...
I disagree (obviously), I find that one tick is generally less disruptive of production plans. If it affects production of defense and/or ships by one turn I don't do it, and I avoid (as a rule) doing it on artifact planets. Rich planets may get two ticks if I don't have them producing ships. I only occasionally use the empire wide slider (on the planets screen) as I feel it is too disruptive and invisible. The reduction in MM is a big thing too for me, as I find managing the sliders in large empires (17+ planets) all the time to be annoying at best. The one click takes away the problem of factory destruction from spying as a side effect, one I appreciate very much, although possibly inappropriate in SGs. The early build up of a treasury that the one click allows often allows an early concentration of force as planets can be stood up with missile bases earlier and being able to redistribute production in general allows standing up planets faster, especially in a hot war situation that is as population intesive as ours.
It was specifically to reduce the economic strain on our planets as IRC III was coming in. Also with the huge lead the in FF that the Psilons had I felt a reduction there was beneficial.
I thought they were a 1PE... where is their 2nd? And I think they have two or maybe three techs on us. However another T100 is a good deal, although getting enough ground forces there is going to be hard as our planets are still refilling from the recent settlements and ground attack.
I actually was aware of what they had, and what the Psilons had up on us. Computer tech would help in espionage vs. both the Psilons and Alkari as well as quickly maxing us on that tree with IRC III coming in. Yes, there were other techs that were potentiall more useful, but I don't believe there was an armor or ground attack tech available as I didn't see one used against me from them. As we are not about to be over run by either the Psilons or the Alkari this is really not much of a hot war. In the south east we will not loose a planet as long as we can put in missile bases, and the two tundra planets were too late and too close, and when they were settled (with no treasury) it would be almost impossible to stand them up in time. Overall I will stand by my decision although I definately understand your objection.
Yupp, my mistake, I should have seen that.
A good move. I suspect it will have more bases (5+?) so we need to send a good lump of troops. Again, offensive operations are tough and to mount a soild operation quickly we will cut into core world populations as I had to for populating the front lines. I think Yarrow is higher priority than Sssla and Morrig.
I think hitting Morig and then Beta Ceti in rapid succession is a very good idea. Grabbing just Morring won't do the trick.
W.r.t. to the new ship designs I wanted to leave that for a bit as I am very bad at early game ship design as I rarely fight before the late mid-game, choosing not to contest (I also haven't been forced to do so as I haven't played alot of smaller maps on hard, prefering Large maps which means you don't usually have to fight until later). Althoguh a new colony design is in order, the missile boat (our beams suck) is in order, although I think we may want to wait for our weapons tech and two next assaults to come in before we commit to it as right now we are far enough behind that our ships will be eaten alive unless they are in massive numbers. My turns saw the Psilons come in with their new Large designs, and we can't fight them yet without missile bases.
There is probably a cross post here, I'll edit if needed.
Yupp - it was.
Ozy: Makes sense. I just wanted to know your thinking behind it, as that is what it's all about
. And I think the percentage cut off (mine is generally 10-15%) is mostly a personal preference, although if I'm doing focus research (like early propulsion) I'll just run it till it pops so as to get the range I need that one or two turns earlier for an expansion jump...Actually those were my comments.
Do you understand why I prefer to use rich and ultra-rich planets to build up the reserve? I appreciate that you might find it saves micromanagement to do it this way, but I don't find rebuilding factories to be a big deal. However, any money I take away from non-rich worlds will be halved when it goes into the reserve, relative to the number of RPs I could have bought with it. Rich worlds will get the same number of BCs into the reserve as they could buy in RPs. Ultra-rich worlds will get MORE BCs into the reserve than they could buy in RPs. In fact, if you send money from the reserve to an Ultra-rich world that is pumping the reserve, you will actually get back more money than you put in! Hence, you get far more cash into the reserve by focusing your reserve pumping at your Rich and Ultra-rich worlds, rather than spreading it all over.
I will put spending into the reserve from non-rich worlds, if I don't have a rich world to do it from, exactly for use to bolster defenses or whatnot as you described. Nevertheless, even then I still tend to pick one or two worlds to do it from. If I then capture a rich world, it's easier to shift pumping the reserve from the regular world to the rich one.
But what are we researching there? Reduced Waste 60%. That won't make it any easier for us to build factories. We already have Industrial Tech 8, which is good enough for IRC III. We do want another level or two of Industrial Tech before we get IRC IV if possible... but we can capture IT 7 from the Psilons, and since we're already researching Enhanced Eco, Reduced Waste 60% isn't going to do much for us.
You're right, they are a 1PE. Not sure why I thought they had a 2nd planet.
Well the Alkari definitely had Hand Lasers up on us at one point, I'm not sure whether we have them as well yet or not. Right now we're starting to run out of options for places we can send troops to without parking a naval force in orbit first, though, and our naval force is suffering from lack of firepower, defenses, and mobility, so you can see why ECM might be a lower priority.
We may not be about to be overrun, but it would be nice to be able to continue to make gains, right?We have enough room in our fleet if we scrap all the current colony ship designs that we can afford a new colony ship design, one warship design now, and another warship design when we get more tech. Once we get a number of newer ships up, we will probably be able to scrap our old laser and gatling laser designs as being pretty much useless.
Kabuki
Viking Expatriate
Yupp, I totally agree with the preference for using rich or ultra rich planets. We are unfortuantely a bit short on them, and I actually prefer to have all planets contribute, and yes I am aware of the limitations and problems here.
*notes the limitations of his argument and chalks one up for ingrown habitual strategies*
All the landings we were up by at least 5 as far as I could tell, then again at 3am I might have missed something.
And ayupp, totally agree with you on the boats, and will stick with the fact that I suck at early boats and leave it at that.
*notes the limitations of his argument and chalks one up for ingrown habitual strategies*
All the landings we were up by at least 5 as far as I could tell, then again at 3am I might have missed something.
And ayupp, totally agree with you on the boats, and will stick with the fact that I suck at early boats and leave it at that.
Black Cursor
Chieftain
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2001
- Messages
- 64
Well shoot, I had thought that I could have a nice relaxing weekend (as opposed to last weekend) and get some MOO'ing in, but this was not to be -- more emergencies at work (gotta love Microsoft "security"). My facilities are fine, but of course I am a SME (subject matter expert) for all things security and have been tasked to advise/consult for other branches -- less stress, same number of hours.
Having just now sat down to look at this turn, I find it sufficiently complex that it would occupy a good chunk of the rest of my limited time today. So in other words, I'm going to have to be skipped again and since that makes two in a row, and things don't look to be getting better, it would be best if I bow out of this game and let another person who can devote more time, play instead.
Be seeing you...
---> TBC (Things Being Crazy)
Having just now sat down to look at this turn, I find it sufficiently complex that it would occupy a good chunk of the rest of my limited time today. So in other words, I'm going to have to be skipped again and since that makes two in a row, and things don't look to be getting better, it would be best if I bow out of this game and let another person who can devote more time, play instead.
Be seeing you...
---> TBC (Things Being Crazy)
Hey, TBC, no sweat on RL problems. I don't know that it warrants dropping out -- we can always just postpone your turn & fit you in where when you have the time. If you're constantly busy, that's one thing, but if you just happen to be busy when your turn comes up, that's something else.
Anyway, I will get the game later tonite, but feel free to just jump in when you can and grab it.
Anyway, I will get the game later tonite, but feel free to just jump in when you can and grab it.
Notes for the start of my round:
- Change Incendius spending off of factories which will just get bombarded
- Make an effort to capture Yarrow & Morrig, also possibly Beta Ceti and Sssla
- Get some new ships built as our current ones are obsolete
- Re-evaluate tech spending
2400: Ok, here we go. Tech evaluation:
Obviously we want to continue focusing efforts on the Psilons for the most part. I trade Gatling Lasers, Shield II, and Deep Space Scanner to the Silicoids for their 3 techs. Kind of sad that Improved Terraforming +10 is the best terraforming tech in play at the moment...
A lot of our planets are building new factories, but slowly. I usually build new factories with at least 50% of my income on a per planet basis. I drop research spending across the board in favor of more factories. Also, a few of our planets fairly close to the front have no bases at all! I usually leave at least a tick or two allocated to bases on any planet that's even remotely possibly in range. The Alkari are naturally strong in propulsion and the Psilons are already up to Fusion Drive -- either of them could come up with a range tech at any time, and we really don't want to be stuck with targets with no bases when they do! I up spending on defensive bases on several planets.
Research-wise, I see that we are fairly close to breakthroughs in planetology and construction, both waste-reduction techs. We're getting to the meaty part of the planetology tree soon, though, with lots of tech we might like to research potentially showing up in our tree. I think a planetology focus is better than a computer focus for the moment, especially since we are so poor in Improved Terraforming tech. I'll let the construction tech complete before removing some focus from that area, however. I'm not convinced we want to be ignoring force field tech and hoping for steals and captures in that area, but I'm willing to let it ride until I'm presented with evidence that this really is a bad idea. In fact, given the reduced priority on research at the moment in favour of infrastructure, I reduce funding to all areas other than construction and planetology. Since we have reduced focus on research of our own right now, I increase spying efforts on the Psilons, devoting a total of 6% of our economy to spying. I see this as a temporary measure until our research engine is back in gear, as normally I prefer to keep espionage spending closer to 4%.
Scrap all 3 colony ship designs, and design a new LR Tundra 2.0 to replace them. It also has a battle scanner in case it gets into a fight, so we can at least see what we're up against. I would like to design a new warship to replace our Laz 1.0s as well... the problem is, until we get this infrastructure build underway, I don't have anywhere to build one. I will hold off on designing a new ship for a bit longer. However, I would still like to send an assault force to pester the Alkari and Psilons at Yarrow and Morrig. I decide to play a gambit and send unescorted transports. One thing I can do is build some new scouts to take a quick boo at our invasion targets and scout out some planets at the bottom end of the map we have not yet colonized.
Start coordinating invasion forces for Yarrow and Morrig.
2401: Our scout discovers Nazin (Darloks homeworld,) with 10 missile bases, almost due west of Moro. We retreat.
The Sakkra send a small fleet to Moro, we have nothing in the area to prevent it. The Alkari are sending transports from Altair to Incedius, we can only hope to hold on, but they are sending a LOT of troops -- 50 to our 15. At least that wil hurt their production pretty badly. They are also sending 12 troops from Yarrow to Nitzer; please do!
2402: Nitzer defends against the 12 Alkari assaulting it with no casualties. Our transports attempting to reinforce Moro, however, do not meet with as much success, and are all destroyed.
2403: A Coronara (Ions/Heavy Ions) and 3 medium ships with Gatlings assault our base at Mobas, we trade a Laz 1.0 for the Coronara and hold the planet.
2404: Yarrow is confirmed to only have one missile base. More Alkari transports are enroute to Nitzer and Incedius. We successfully defend Nitzer against 28 Alkari transports, incurring 5 losses of our own.
More unwelcome news: the Silicoids decide to declare war on us! We were at relaxed relations and were already at war with the Alkari and Psilons, but they are Aggressive Expansionists. Maybe they learned a new range tech and decided they needed more elbow room. If we are successful at taking Yarrow and Morrig, perhaps we can patch things up with them. Regardless, our border with them should be pretty secure, but we will definitely want a fleet before we think about colonizing too much more down south. They may well attack Proteus, but we can build bases there pretty quickly and should be ready for them.
2405: The Sakkra send 55 pop to capture Moro and succeed against our 4 defenders. Rotan will be next on the list, but we have considerably more population there. Next turn will see us try for Yarrow and for Morrig.
2406: We successfully capture Yarrow and Morrig, and defend Incedius, but unfortunately learn no new techs. I send some of the Morrig victors to assault Beta Ceti. I need to design and start production of new ships soon, if we are to defend our holdings and make any more significant advances; we need to be able to defeat the Psilons and Alkari in space, not just on the ground. We should be getting a construction advance soon, however, so I will wait for that to come in first. I had been hoping for a new tech on capturing Morrig, but no dice.
2407: The Psilons are colonizing everything in sight. Fortunately it will take them a while to get all these planets stood up. I send a few pop where I can to try to steal some of their planets from under their noses.
2408: Nothing much.
2409: Yarrow now has a missile base up and successfully defends against a small stack of Sparrowhawks. Enhanced Eco restoration comes in, and I have to make a difficult decision about what to pursue next; we have Improved Terraforming +40, Soil Enrichment, and Radiated colony bases. I choose Soil Enrichment this time, for faster troop growth and more production at fertile worlds, but we need Radiated bases as well. That should be our next priority.
I'm not sure why the Silicoids declared war on us, they don't even have the range tech to reach any of our worlds! In fact, they are still stuck at range 3. Not sure what's up with that...
2410: We defend Nitzer, and capture Willow and Beta Ceti, both new Psilon colonies, prompting the message that we now control 27 star systems. I leave our new colonies and Nitzer working on terraforming/ecology until we can get a fleet in to cover them while they build up their industry; otherwise, the Psilons are likely to just bomb those colonies back to the stone age rather than sending troops. Incedius is behind the lines relative to the Alkari and Psilons now, at least for the moment, but the Sakkra have decided to send a small stack of fighters at it. I had already switched it over to factories, but I think we can get a defender there soon. We may also need one at Rotan on the top edge of the map, which has also switched back to factories, despite being unable to defend itself, in anticipation of defenders arriving soon if need be.
Also, Reduced waste 60% coms in, and we get Industrial Tech 6 as our next option. Time to reallocate spending and design a new ship! Unfortunately, we have not been successful either at spying or at capturing tech during my round, but several of our planets are now done infrastructure for the moment and back on research or available for shipbuilding. I reduce our spy spending back to the 4% range; we will have to make do with what we have for our current generation of shipbuilding. Unfortunately, that's not a lot in terms of offensive options, but we will see what we can come up with. Hopefully once we capture some more built-up worlds, we will get some better options.
Tech spending adjusted as follows: Higher emphasis on Planetology, moderate on computers and weapons, lower on construction, force fields, and propulsion. I am still hoping to capture/steal some useful force field and propulsion tech from the Psilons. Emphasis is on planetology as there are several nice techs in there right now we could use in the short term.
Ship design: I design a large ship Gatling 2.0 with the following: Class II Battle Computer, Class IV Shields, Duralloy Armour, Nuclear Engines, Inertial Stabilizer, Battle Computer, 5 Gatling Laser, 6 Nuclear Bombs. These should be more than sufficient to tackle the Silicoids and the Sakkra, neither of which have missiles better than Hyper-V or any battle computer worthy of the name. They will be highly resistant to enemy ship-based fire as well. These ships might even be sufficient to take on the Alkari, as a large portion of the Alkari combat power is based on small popgun fighters, whose lasers can't penetrate Class IV shields.
The Psilons, however, won't have too much problem handling this design with their own large ships, as it doesn't have the ship-ship firepower to really compete with them. For that, we will need something else. Unfortunately, we will need something we don't currently have -- something to penetrate a planet with a shield of 9. We could use death spores, of course, but we won't gain any tech that way. Worse, the Psilons now have Scatter Pack V technology, which combined with their half-decent computer tech means any assault we could send in would be suicidal. We really need to either steal Fusion Engines, Fusion Bombs, and get enough miniaturization to build small fast bombers in large quantities, or else we need at least Stinger Missiles, which on a fast enough ship could do hit and run raids on their bases and wipe them out that way. So, rather than try and attack the Psilons directly, we should go after the Sakkra, Silicoids, and Alkari, and try to get enough of the galaxy under our control that the Psilons become irrelevant. We will still need to defend our own colonies from Psilon attack, however. To that end, we need a missile boat with enough firepower to penetrate Psilon shields and enough maneuverability to have an initiative edge and to be able to keep itself out of trouble. I design a medium missile boat Rocket 2.0 with Battle Computer II, Titanium Armour, Nuclear Engines, Inertial Stabilizer, a single Hyper-X rocket with 5 shots, and a Nuclear Bomb. When paired in sufficient quantity with one or more of our gunships, it should provide the hammer to the gunship's anvil, but be careful with exposing them to enemy fire as they are pretty fragile. It will also help with taking care of pesky Alkari, Silicoid, and Sakkra targets, of course.
I've started a few planets on some Gatling 2.0s, but no-one on Rocket 2.0s yet. We are nearly done infrastructure on several worlds, though, so some of them might be allocated to the task. Be careful to leave a good number of planets performing research, however, or the Psilon tech lead will begin to widen.
Some images...
Status screen:
Overall map:
Silicoid front:
Sakkra front:
Alkari front:
Psilon front:
And the save:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/osg1-team2-2410ad.zip
Roster:
Zed-F
Kylearan <-- UP NOW
Ozymandous <-- On deck
Kabuki
JMB
TBC
- Change Incendius spending off of factories which will just get bombarded
- Make an effort to capture Yarrow & Morrig, also possibly Beta Ceti and Sssla
- Get some new ships built as our current ones are obsolete
- Re-evaluate tech spending
2400: Ok, here we go. Tech evaluation:
- Psilons have up on us: Battle Comp III, Industrial Tech 7, Class III Shields, Class V Planetary Shield, Sublight Drive, Fusion Drive, Ion Cannon, some early techs we've outpaced.
- Alkari have up on us: Hand Lasers, Fusion Bomb, Hydrogen Fuel Cells.
- Silicoids have up on us: Improved Terraforming +10, Hand Lasers, Industrial Tech 9.
- We don't know what the Sakkra have, we need a spy.
Obviously we want to continue focusing efforts on the Psilons for the most part. I trade Gatling Lasers, Shield II, and Deep Space Scanner to the Silicoids for their 3 techs. Kind of sad that Improved Terraforming +10 is the best terraforming tech in play at the moment...
A lot of our planets are building new factories, but slowly. I usually build new factories with at least 50% of my income on a per planet basis. I drop research spending across the board in favor of more factories. Also, a few of our planets fairly close to the front have no bases at all! I usually leave at least a tick or two allocated to bases on any planet that's even remotely possibly in range. The Alkari are naturally strong in propulsion and the Psilons are already up to Fusion Drive -- either of them could come up with a range tech at any time, and we really don't want to be stuck with targets with no bases when they do! I up spending on defensive bases on several planets.
Research-wise, I see that we are fairly close to breakthroughs in planetology and construction, both waste-reduction techs. We're getting to the meaty part of the planetology tree soon, though, with lots of tech we might like to research potentially showing up in our tree. I think a planetology focus is better than a computer focus for the moment, especially since we are so poor in Improved Terraforming tech. I'll let the construction tech complete before removing some focus from that area, however. I'm not convinced we want to be ignoring force field tech and hoping for steals and captures in that area, but I'm willing to let it ride until I'm presented with evidence that this really is a bad idea. In fact, given the reduced priority on research at the moment in favour of infrastructure, I reduce funding to all areas other than construction and planetology. Since we have reduced focus on research of our own right now, I increase spying efforts on the Psilons, devoting a total of 6% of our economy to spying. I see this as a temporary measure until our research engine is back in gear, as normally I prefer to keep espionage spending closer to 4%.
Scrap all 3 colony ship designs, and design a new LR Tundra 2.0 to replace them. It also has a battle scanner in case it gets into a fight, so we can at least see what we're up against. I would like to design a new warship to replace our Laz 1.0s as well... the problem is, until we get this infrastructure build underway, I don't have anywhere to build one. I will hold off on designing a new ship for a bit longer. However, I would still like to send an assault force to pester the Alkari and Psilons at Yarrow and Morrig. I decide to play a gambit and send unescorted transports. One thing I can do is build some new scouts to take a quick boo at our invasion targets and scout out some planets at the bottom end of the map we have not yet colonized.
Start coordinating invasion forces for Yarrow and Morrig.
2401: Our scout discovers Nazin (Darloks homeworld,) with 10 missile bases, almost due west of Moro. We retreat.
The Sakkra send a small fleet to Moro, we have nothing in the area to prevent it. The Alkari are sending transports from Altair to Incedius, we can only hope to hold on, but they are sending a LOT of troops -- 50 to our 15. At least that wil hurt their production pretty badly. They are also sending 12 troops from Yarrow to Nitzer; please do!
2402: Nitzer defends against the 12 Alkari assaulting it with no casualties. Our transports attempting to reinforce Moro, however, do not meet with as much success, and are all destroyed.
2403: A Coronara (Ions/Heavy Ions) and 3 medium ships with Gatlings assault our base at Mobas, we trade a Laz 1.0 for the Coronara and hold the planet.
2404: Yarrow is confirmed to only have one missile base. More Alkari transports are enroute to Nitzer and Incedius. We successfully defend Nitzer against 28 Alkari transports, incurring 5 losses of our own.
More unwelcome news: the Silicoids decide to declare war on us! We were at relaxed relations and were already at war with the Alkari and Psilons, but they are Aggressive Expansionists. Maybe they learned a new range tech and decided they needed more elbow room. If we are successful at taking Yarrow and Morrig, perhaps we can patch things up with them. Regardless, our border with them should be pretty secure, but we will definitely want a fleet before we think about colonizing too much more down south. They may well attack Proteus, but we can build bases there pretty quickly and should be ready for them.
2405: The Sakkra send 55 pop to capture Moro and succeed against our 4 defenders. Rotan will be next on the list, but we have considerably more population there. Next turn will see us try for Yarrow and for Morrig.
2406: We successfully capture Yarrow and Morrig, and defend Incedius, but unfortunately learn no new techs. I send some of the Morrig victors to assault Beta Ceti. I need to design and start production of new ships soon, if we are to defend our holdings and make any more significant advances; we need to be able to defeat the Psilons and Alkari in space, not just on the ground. We should be getting a construction advance soon, however, so I will wait for that to come in first. I had been hoping for a new tech on capturing Morrig, but no dice.
2407: The Psilons are colonizing everything in sight. Fortunately it will take them a while to get all these planets stood up. I send a few pop where I can to try to steal some of their planets from under their noses.
2408: Nothing much.
2409: Yarrow now has a missile base up and successfully defends against a small stack of Sparrowhawks. Enhanced Eco restoration comes in, and I have to make a difficult decision about what to pursue next; we have Improved Terraforming +40, Soil Enrichment, and Radiated colony bases. I choose Soil Enrichment this time, for faster troop growth and more production at fertile worlds, but we need Radiated bases as well. That should be our next priority.
I'm not sure why the Silicoids declared war on us, they don't even have the range tech to reach any of our worlds! In fact, they are still stuck at range 3. Not sure what's up with that...
2410: We defend Nitzer, and capture Willow and Beta Ceti, both new Psilon colonies, prompting the message that we now control 27 star systems. I leave our new colonies and Nitzer working on terraforming/ecology until we can get a fleet in to cover them while they build up their industry; otherwise, the Psilons are likely to just bomb those colonies back to the stone age rather than sending troops. Incedius is behind the lines relative to the Alkari and Psilons now, at least for the moment, but the Sakkra have decided to send a small stack of fighters at it. I had already switched it over to factories, but I think we can get a defender there soon. We may also need one at Rotan on the top edge of the map, which has also switched back to factories, despite being unable to defend itself, in anticipation of defenders arriving soon if need be.
Also, Reduced waste 60% coms in, and we get Industrial Tech 6 as our next option. Time to reallocate spending and design a new ship! Unfortunately, we have not been successful either at spying or at capturing tech during my round, but several of our planets are now done infrastructure for the moment and back on research or available for shipbuilding. I reduce our spy spending back to the 4% range; we will have to make do with what we have for our current generation of shipbuilding. Unfortunately, that's not a lot in terms of offensive options, but we will see what we can come up with. Hopefully once we capture some more built-up worlds, we will get some better options.
Tech spending adjusted as follows: Higher emphasis on Planetology, moderate on computers and weapons, lower on construction, force fields, and propulsion. I am still hoping to capture/steal some useful force field and propulsion tech from the Psilons. Emphasis is on planetology as there are several nice techs in there right now we could use in the short term.
Ship design: I design a large ship Gatling 2.0 with the following: Class II Battle Computer, Class IV Shields, Duralloy Armour, Nuclear Engines, Inertial Stabilizer, Battle Computer, 5 Gatling Laser, 6 Nuclear Bombs. These should be more than sufficient to tackle the Silicoids and the Sakkra, neither of which have missiles better than Hyper-V or any battle computer worthy of the name. They will be highly resistant to enemy ship-based fire as well. These ships might even be sufficient to take on the Alkari, as a large portion of the Alkari combat power is based on small popgun fighters, whose lasers can't penetrate Class IV shields.
The Psilons, however, won't have too much problem handling this design with their own large ships, as it doesn't have the ship-ship firepower to really compete with them. For that, we will need something else. Unfortunately, we will need something we don't currently have -- something to penetrate a planet with a shield of 9. We could use death spores, of course, but we won't gain any tech that way. Worse, the Psilons now have Scatter Pack V technology, which combined with their half-decent computer tech means any assault we could send in would be suicidal. We really need to either steal Fusion Engines, Fusion Bombs, and get enough miniaturization to build small fast bombers in large quantities, or else we need at least Stinger Missiles, which on a fast enough ship could do hit and run raids on their bases and wipe them out that way. So, rather than try and attack the Psilons directly, we should go after the Sakkra, Silicoids, and Alkari, and try to get enough of the galaxy under our control that the Psilons become irrelevant. We will still need to defend our own colonies from Psilon attack, however. To that end, we need a missile boat with enough firepower to penetrate Psilon shields and enough maneuverability to have an initiative edge and to be able to keep itself out of trouble. I design a medium missile boat Rocket 2.0 with Battle Computer II, Titanium Armour, Nuclear Engines, Inertial Stabilizer, a single Hyper-X rocket with 5 shots, and a Nuclear Bomb. When paired in sufficient quantity with one or more of our gunships, it should provide the hammer to the gunship's anvil, but be careful with exposing them to enemy fire as they are pretty fragile. It will also help with taking care of pesky Alkari, Silicoid, and Sakkra targets, of course.
I've started a few planets on some Gatling 2.0s, but no-one on Rocket 2.0s yet. We are nearly done infrastructure on several worlds, though, so some of them might be allocated to the task. Be careful to leave a good number of planets performing research, however, or the Psilon tech lead will begin to widen.
Some images...
Status screen:
Overall map:
Silicoid front:
Sakkra front:
Alkari front:
Psilon front:
And the save:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/osg1-team2-2410ad.zip
Roster:
Zed-F
Kylearan <-- UP NOW
Ozymandous <-- On deck
Kabuki
JMB
TBC
Kylearan
compound eye
Except the fleet strength graph, I really like that racial stats screenshot! 
Got it.
Got it.
Note: That the Psilons now have fusion bombs and scatter pack V to mount on their ships means we need better shields for our planets... but they did not send much of a fleet our way during my turn. That may change in the near future, however. We do want to complete research on Class V planetary shield as we are not going to be capturing it anytime soon -- to get it, we would need to steal it, and propulsion/weapons tech would likely take priority over shield tech for theft right now. Maybe I should have bumped shield research a bit higher... time will tell.
Ozymandous
Prince
Looks like the Silicoid and Psilon have contact via the Psilon colony down south. The Psilon probably asked/bribed them into a war against us.
Kylearan
compound eye
Diplo status: Our best relations are with the Alkari, who feel troubled about us. We are at war with all four of our contacts. It's nice to be liked... 
Psilons are up Batte Computers III, Improved Industrial 7, Class V Planetary Shields, Controlled Dead, Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Sub-Light and Fusion Drives, Fusion Bomb, Ion Cannon and Scatter Pack V Rockets.
The Silicoids and Sakkra are behind.
Alkaris are up Fusion Bomb.
27 colonists will arrive at Incedius in three turns while the planet already has 14 pop and can hold only 40 max - some precious Bulrathi will die here.
2411: I wish the game would show the relative movement of enemy fleets - on such a large map with different fronts, I have no idea where exactly the Psilon fleets had been before compared to where they are now.
Imra, Esper, Jinga and Phantos have maxed factories. Imra, Phantos and Esper go on ship production, Jinga on research.
I reduce construction research by two and weapons research by one tick and increase force field research instead, to get planetary shields sooner.
The paranoid Psilons have caught all five of our spies.
2412: Incedius gets bombarded: 2 factories destroyed. 22 Psilons land on Willow and kill four of our 23 Bulrathi. We land on Aurora - our 10 vs their 38 - and we capture the planet, five Bulrathi left. This is sick.
Helos has reached its population maximum and is now on max industry.
I notice that the Psilons are also at war with the Silis and the Sakkras.
2413: Our spies have infiltrated a Psilon base! I go for propulsion and...we get Hydrogen Fuel Cells.
2 out of 14 Alkari manage to land on Yarrow and die. 40 Alkari land on Nitzer and kill 8 of our 21 troops.
Helos and Exis have max factories, Xudax max pop. Helos is producing ships now, Exis is set on research.
Alkaris have a new tech: Sub-Light Drives. Wish we had faster engines, too. Go spies, go!
I transfer 400BCs to Rotan - it's a poor system, but it's reasonably large (105) and is already building factories, and the Sakkras are sending a small fleet towards it. It will have a base in a few turns.
2414: Sakkras chase away our scouts at Rotan, and one of our Gatling 2.0 chases away 11 of their small fighters at Incedius. Nitzer gets bombarded, and we lose 10 millions. The Alkari seek peace, and I accept. Relations are back to neutral, and I ask for a trade agreement of 100BC/year - and they accept only because we helped them to develop Anti-Missile Rockets. I decide to continue spying on them, though, for a chance to steal Sub-Light drives.
Only now I notice that Nitzer has only four pop left and that 13 Alkari pop are on their way to the system, so we may lose it.
2415: 37 Psilons land on Willow, and we lose 12 of 24 ground troops. Then, the Psilons ask for peace as well, and I accept - we need more tech to advance on them, and peace will help consolidate our gains on that front. I don't initiate any trade and continue spying on them, though.
Two Gatling 2.0s are sent to Willow to chase away the Psilon armed colony ship.
2416: The 13 Alkari don't manage to kill our 5 Bulrathi at Nitzer, and we keep the system!
Now the Sakkras come and beg for peace too, and I accept. Trax and Rana have max factories now and go on research.
Dunatis and Gion switch production to LR Colony 2.0 ships to colonize Antares in the south and Tau Cygni northwest of Sakkra space, and one Gatling 2.0 is sent to Tau Cygni to keep the Sakkra away until the colony ship arrives.
2417: Spies destroy 4 factories on Esper. 51 out of 55 Sakkras land on Incedius, but we defend the system, despite them being better prepared than our other enemies, having personal deflector shields and hand lasers. 34 out of 39 Alkaris then land on Incedius as well, but we resist again with 23 Bulrathis still breathing.
The two colony ships are produced and sent away.
2418: Nothing.
2419: Rotan has a missile base now, which drives the Sakkra away.
2420: We discover Merculite Missiles. Our choices now are Ion Cannon, Ion Rifle, Mass Driver, Anti-Matter Bomb, or Stinger Missiles. While we need a better bomb tech as well, I decide to go for the Stinger Missiles because they are more versatile; they will help our bases defend against the Psilons, they will do enough damage to overcome planetary shields, and they will be nice against enemy ships as well.
There's still the Alkari SoD of 160 Sparrowhawks, 11 Falcons, 5 Space Gulls and 4 Colony Ships at Nitzer. Gatling 2.0s are gathering at Yarrow and Incedius to drive them away once we feel we have enough of them.
Phantos is the gathering point for Gatlings for the Psilon front; I chose that system instead of Mobas or Willow so not to annoy the Psilons too much, and the ships can be sent in against the Silicoids from there as well. With our amount of spying, war could break out again anytime soon. Because it's peace at the moment, I have set Willow to factory production and transferred some money from our reserve to stand it up faster.
Cryslon and/or Obaca can be attacked soon. Gatlings are gathering at Proteus, and ships from Phantos could be used as well. The Silis have several of large/huge ships in orbit, though.
Since we haven't built any of them yet, I have scrapped and redesigned the Rocket 2.0 ship design, now with Merculite Missiles.
Sorry for the lack of aggressiveness on my turns, but I felt we needed to take a break and consolidate our gains. Let me rationalize a bit here, so we can better discuss if this was
or not.
Against the Psilons: We haven't been able to send ground troops to more Psilon colonies as we haven't scouted them yet, and we don't have the tech to attack or scout full-grown colonies. So by taking peace, we now have some breating room to fortify our new border worlds, probably using our planetary reserve. Heavy spying and our large number of systems will lead to war with them again soon anyway. If we manage to spy on them again, I'd vote to take propulsion as only the faster engines are left for us in that tree.
Against the Alkari: They have a large SoD at Nitzer and were slowly eating away at our population there, and we were not be able to send in reinforcements because of the fleet in orbit. Nitzer was under pressure from the Sakkra as well, so I felt we needed a break there, too. Once we have enough warships, we may attack again, and spying continues to tick them off and for a chance to steal Sub-Light Drives.
Alternatively, we could shut down spying, up our trade and try to cultivate their friendship - they are at war with the Sakktas and Silicoids, if I remember correctly, so pounding on the Silis should improve relations.
Against the Sakkra: Here I thought longest about accepting peace or not, but their ground troops are the most dangerous of the bunch, and I had no real feeling for their fleet strength. Maybe I should have said no to take a look if they were willing to bribe us for peace.
Against the Silicoids: I wouldn't have accepted peace even if they had asked for it. They only have two worlds, one even without bases I think, and now with them as our only real enemy, we should be able to conquer them soon. They have a fair number of large ships, though. After they are gone, I guess we will have enough ships and hopefully enough tech to attack the others again - if they haven't done so on their own already.
But maybe we have enough votes to win already at the next election or the election thereafter? We have an impressive number of stars, not counting Tau Cygni and Antares which we will have colonized in two and three turns, respectively. Do we want to win the election? Or are we going for extermination?
Smash the Silicoids!
Roster:
Zed-F
Kylearan
Ozymandous <-- UP
Kabuki <-- on deck
JMB
TBC
-Kylearan
Psilons are up Batte Computers III, Improved Industrial 7, Class V Planetary Shields, Controlled Dead, Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Sub-Light and Fusion Drives, Fusion Bomb, Ion Cannon and Scatter Pack V Rockets.
The Silicoids and Sakkra are behind.
Alkaris are up Fusion Bomb.
27 colonists will arrive at Incedius in three turns while the planet already has 14 pop and can hold only 40 max - some precious Bulrathi will die here.
2411: I wish the game would show the relative movement of enemy fleets - on such a large map with different fronts, I have no idea where exactly the Psilon fleets had been before compared to where they are now.
Imra, Esper, Jinga and Phantos have maxed factories. Imra, Phantos and Esper go on ship production, Jinga on research.
I reduce construction research by two and weapons research by one tick and increase force field research instead, to get planetary shields sooner.
The paranoid Psilons have caught all five of our spies.
2412: Incedius gets bombarded: 2 factories destroyed. 22 Psilons land on Willow and kill four of our 23 Bulrathi. We land on Aurora - our 10 vs their 38 - and we capture the planet, five Bulrathi left. This is sick.
Helos has reached its population maximum and is now on max industry.
I notice that the Psilons are also at war with the Silis and the Sakkras.
2413: Our spies have infiltrated a Psilon base! I go for propulsion and...we get Hydrogen Fuel Cells.
2 out of 14 Alkari manage to land on Yarrow and die. 40 Alkari land on Nitzer and kill 8 of our 21 troops.
Helos and Exis have max factories, Xudax max pop. Helos is producing ships now, Exis is set on research.
Alkaris have a new tech: Sub-Light Drives. Wish we had faster engines, too. Go spies, go!
I transfer 400BCs to Rotan - it's a poor system, but it's reasonably large (105) and is already building factories, and the Sakkras are sending a small fleet towards it. It will have a base in a few turns.
2414: Sakkras chase away our scouts at Rotan, and one of our Gatling 2.0 chases away 11 of their small fighters at Incedius. Nitzer gets bombarded, and we lose 10 millions. The Alkari seek peace, and I accept. Relations are back to neutral, and I ask for a trade agreement of 100BC/year - and they accept only because we helped them to develop Anti-Missile Rockets. I decide to continue spying on them, though, for a chance to steal Sub-Light drives.
Only now I notice that Nitzer has only four pop left and that 13 Alkari pop are on their way to the system, so we may lose it.
2415: 37 Psilons land on Willow, and we lose 12 of 24 ground troops. Then, the Psilons ask for peace as well, and I accept - we need more tech to advance on them, and peace will help consolidate our gains on that front. I don't initiate any trade and continue spying on them, though.
Two Gatling 2.0s are sent to Willow to chase away the Psilon armed colony ship.
2416: The 13 Alkari don't manage to kill our 5 Bulrathi at Nitzer, and we keep the system!
Now the Sakkras come and beg for peace too, and I accept. Trax and Rana have max factories now and go on research.
Dunatis and Gion switch production to LR Colony 2.0 ships to colonize Antares in the south and Tau Cygni northwest of Sakkra space, and one Gatling 2.0 is sent to Tau Cygni to keep the Sakkra away until the colony ship arrives.
2417: Spies destroy 4 factories on Esper. 51 out of 55 Sakkras land on Incedius, but we defend the system, despite them being better prepared than our other enemies, having personal deflector shields and hand lasers. 34 out of 39 Alkaris then land on Incedius as well, but we resist again with 23 Bulrathis still breathing.
The two colony ships are produced and sent away.
2418: Nothing.
2419: Rotan has a missile base now, which drives the Sakkra away.
2420: We discover Merculite Missiles. Our choices now are Ion Cannon, Ion Rifle, Mass Driver, Anti-Matter Bomb, or Stinger Missiles. While we need a better bomb tech as well, I decide to go for the Stinger Missiles because they are more versatile; they will help our bases defend against the Psilons, they will do enough damage to overcome planetary shields, and they will be nice against enemy ships as well.
There's still the Alkari SoD of 160 Sparrowhawks, 11 Falcons, 5 Space Gulls and 4 Colony Ships at Nitzer. Gatling 2.0s are gathering at Yarrow and Incedius to drive them away once we feel we have enough of them.
Phantos is the gathering point for Gatlings for the Psilon front; I chose that system instead of Mobas or Willow so not to annoy the Psilons too much, and the ships can be sent in against the Silicoids from there as well. With our amount of spying, war could break out again anytime soon. Because it's peace at the moment, I have set Willow to factory production and transferred some money from our reserve to stand it up faster.
Cryslon and/or Obaca can be attacked soon. Gatlings are gathering at Proteus, and ships from Phantos could be used as well. The Silis have several of large/huge ships in orbit, though.
Since we haven't built any of them yet, I have scrapped and redesigned the Rocket 2.0 ship design, now with Merculite Missiles.
Sorry for the lack of aggressiveness on my turns, but I felt we needed to take a break and consolidate our gains. Let me rationalize a bit here, so we can better discuss if this was
or not.Against the Psilons: We haven't been able to send ground troops to more Psilon colonies as we haven't scouted them yet, and we don't have the tech to attack or scout full-grown colonies. So by taking peace, we now have some breating room to fortify our new border worlds, probably using our planetary reserve. Heavy spying and our large number of systems will lead to war with them again soon anyway. If we manage to spy on them again, I'd vote to take propulsion as only the faster engines are left for us in that tree.
Against the Alkari: They have a large SoD at Nitzer and were slowly eating away at our population there, and we were not be able to send in reinforcements because of the fleet in orbit. Nitzer was under pressure from the Sakkra as well, so I felt we needed a break there, too. Once we have enough warships, we may attack again, and spying continues to tick them off and for a chance to steal Sub-Light Drives.
Alternatively, we could shut down spying, up our trade and try to cultivate their friendship - they are at war with the Sakktas and Silicoids, if I remember correctly, so pounding on the Silis should improve relations.
Against the Sakkra: Here I thought longest about accepting peace or not, but their ground troops are the most dangerous of the bunch, and I had no real feeling for their fleet strength. Maybe I should have said no to take a look if they were willing to bribe us for peace.
Against the Silicoids: I wouldn't have accepted peace even if they had asked for it. They only have two worlds, one even without bases I think, and now with them as our only real enemy, we should be able to conquer them soon. They have a fair number of large ships, though. After they are gone, I guess we will have enough ships and hopefully enough tech to attack the others again - if they haven't done so on their own already.
But maybe we have enough votes to win already at the next election or the election thereafter? We have an impressive number of stars, not counting Tau Cygni and Antares which we will have colonized in two and three turns, respectively. Do we want to win the election? Or are we going for extermination?
Smash the Silicoids!
Roster:
Zed-F
Kylearan
Ozymandous <-- UP
Kabuki <-- on deck
JMB
TBC
-Kylearan
Ozymandous
Prince
The victory condition is CONQUEST. This means we have to have 2/3's of the vote OURSELVES as a minimum. We're going to have to win this by war anyway, so might as well get it over with before the enemies take the time we give them in peace to become stronger as well...
I'll see what I can do with this sometime today.
Officially "got it".
Kylearan
compound eye
Whoops, I forgot to check the victory condition, thanks Ozy for the reminder. So conquest it is! 
(Just for the record, this hadn't influenced my decisions to agree to peace on my turns)
-Kylearan
(Just for the record, this hadn't influenced my decisions to agree to peace on my turns)-Kylearan
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