Notes for the start of my round:
We should be in striking distance of a conquest win soon. There is a vote at the end of my turns (2449) but I don't know whether we have the wherewithal to get our pop up high enough by then, as I am writing this before I check the save. A few strikes on Psilon positions may lower their pop enough to do the job -- perhaps even bio strikes if we can't penetrate their shields? Their scatter packs could be a problem though...
2440: Turn off most ship production, and scrap our scout designs; I will send several of our warp 3 missile boats to scout a number of unknown systems. We have only 3 of our new Ion cannon design, but I will decide whether to scrap it after a couple more techs come in. Rather than building more of those, I design a new, temporary design: the biggest, most expensive huge ship I can. I plan to build up ship production points at a few of our planets close to the front by setting ship production to this new design for now, and then switching it to what I really want to build when the techs I'm waiting for come in. We have a construction tech and a weapons tech due soon, so I will wait until those come in before designing new ships to go on the offensive against the Psilons. I reallocate research spending to focus on those two techs, and immediately get them both up to a 3-4% breakthrough chance. Several of our new planets and some of our older planets which had sent troops off recently boost eco spending, even at the expense of factories; we don't really need more productive colonies, and I want our population as high as possible for the upcoming vote.
I note that Obaca, the remaining Silicoid colony, is ultra-poor, whereas we don't know what the Alkari colony is. I want to at least scout out the Alkari colony, as if we refrain from taking the Silicoid colony, that will be sufficient to keeping the vote alive -- it's well out of reach of random Psilon violence. To that end I send an expedition to Ukko to punish the Alkari for their actions at Jinga and Ajax. I also send a small expedition to Obaca to wipe out the Silicoid fleet defending it and prevent them from forming another, as we do have a couple of defenseless colonies in the neighborhood.
2441: Industrial Tech 6 comes in, all research but for a couple clicks in each category set to weapons. The Silicoids sent their fleet to Cryslon, so our fleet that moved to Obaca returns to Cryslon. The Psilons have recolonized Nitzer, we send troops from Jinga to take our colony back. Jinga goes to eco spending to regrow pop, and should be done within a few turns.
2442: Our fleet successfully defends Cryslon, losing one Rocket 2.0 in exchange for 3/4 of the enemy fleet. The enemy retreats its remaining large ship to Obaca, and most of our fleet pursues, leaving behind one Gatling to defend Cryslon. Ukko, the Alkari colony, is a size 50 world, better for our purposes than the Silicoid ultra-poor. We opt to invade, and do not bomb its factories. The Alkari are so short on funds that the planet is a waste dump; we will have to clean it up. Troops are enroute from Ajax and Yarrow; Altair will not contribute this time as it needs to build a Planetary Shield and a base to defend itself from an incoming Alkari small ship SoD.
2443: We successfully defend Altair, otherwise not much happens. An Alkari SoD chases away our missile boats at Ukko, as I didn't have a Gatling available to escort them at the time I sent them. However, Gatlings are now on the way, and will arrive in time for our 2nd wave of troops to capture the planet next turn. That should put an end to these thorny little beasts. Stinger missiles are at 30%, so I shift our research focus to propulsion for Fusion engines.
2444: Stinger missiles arrive! I start on Antimatter bombs next, so that we will have something with which to crack Psilon missile bases; after that we will want Megabolt Cannons for a better beam weapon. Of course, the Psilons haven't been idle either during this time. They have gotten Armoured Exoskeleton, Energy Pulsar (death on small ships) and Fusion Beams, as well as some other less important techs. However, we have now scouted Escalon, which has no bases, and may be able to nab it with an unescorted troop assault. 40 transports from Ajax are on the way. Lots of population moving around the Alkari sector, with much Eco spending to regrow the pop.
2445: Our Gatlings can't kill the Alkari SoD very quickly but that doesn't matter; since their popguns can't hurt our Gatlings at all, they flee, despite having nowhere to flee to. Our troops capture Ukko with ease, the planet is ours, and the Alkari are now a footnote in history, with a few captured specimens left alive in our exobiology zoos.
We immediately start soil enrichment on the planet.
The Psilons are starting to send Star Blades to harass our planets -- these are medium ships armed with Death Spores, and to combat them we need bases in volume. Fortunately, they are poorly shielded, so Scatter Packs work well against them. I also note we are at war with them again, though I don't recall anyone reporting that during their turns (but it makes sense if we took Denubius.)
2446: Fusion Drives come in, and I readjust spending to a more even distribution, still favouring Planetology, Computers, and Weapons technologies, however. Fusion Drives should give me the ability to build some potent (i.e. fast) small bombers. Indeed, we can build FusB 4.0s with Battle Computer II, Fusion Engines, Maneuver 6 including Inertial Stabilizers, and a Fusion Bomb. I would like a better computer but one will not fit. Still, this is a powerful little bomber, as you can bet the Psilons will use Scatter Pack V missiles against them... and this bomber can outrun them. In sufficient quantities, and with judicious care in movement and use of the wait button, this bomber can reach firing range in 2 moves, without eating any missiles enroute. I immediately start production with my saved-up production points allocated to huge hulls -- we just carve them into pieces and strap on a bomb, I suppose.
Should I also build a space superiority ship? Our Ion cannon warp 3 ships can't keep up with these bombers, after all... and then I notice our Ion cannon ships have no shields. Not good on a large ship with beam weapons, which is expected to fight a protracted engagement at close range. Missile boats can get away with no shields, but not beamers. The Ion 3.4s get scrapped then, and replaced with Ion 4.0: Battle Computer 4, Class IV Shields, Duralloy Armour, Fusion Engines, Maneuver 4, Battle Scanner, 18 Ion Cannons, and 6 Fusion Bombs. Not the best ship to be going against Fusion Beams in Psilon hands, but they shouldn't have many ships with those onboard yet. I could also design a missile boat to replace our aging Rocket 2.0s with, but we still need them to fend off Psilon Death Spore attackers in former Alkari space. I'll decide later if I still need those ships or not once I've dealt with a couple incoming attacks. For now, we have close to 400 bombers coming off the lines, due next turn. They have enough strategic movement speed that if the Psilons leave one of their planets uncovered by their fleet, they will feel our sting.
2447: Psilons attack Altair, with 3 missile bases and 16 Rocket 3.0s defending -- another 55 Rocket 2.0s were enroute but didn't make it in time. Here's what they brought:
If they had had a bigger fleet, they might have done serious harm to Altair, as the defenses in place were able to take out the Star Blades handily but were insufficient to make much of an impact on their Nova huge death ship. Stingers will prove more effective against these heavily shielded designs. Our northern frontier is quite weak against these attacks, which is a bit worrisome. We are still rebuilding these planets and our fleet is more concentrated at Mobas on the Psilon frontier; I would like to get some more, faster ships into the area to deal with the threat. On the other hand, any distraction preventing the Psilon fleet from being fielded against our upcoming bomber strike serves our purpose. Moreover, the Psilons really don't have the industrial capacity to field these in significant numbers.
Our own attack against Escalon fared much better, and we were able to capture some tech -- Armoured Exoskeletons, to be precise. We thus retain our godlike advantage in gropo action. Unfortunately, Willow gets a Nova event, but this scarcely matters much at this point. I allocate some reserves to speed up factory construction for a couple turns, and will then switch to research.
2448: The Psilons have 45 Star Blades at Mentar; however, that will not help them against our bombers. I know they have reinforcements arriving at Xentalla next turn, retreating from their attack at Altair, so I will not strike there just yet. Besides, I know Mentar is a size 100 planet, so it is a valuable place to strike. I send our entire fleet in the area, composed primarily of 425 FusB 4.0 bombers, plus 33 Rocket 3.0s, 8 Rocket 2.0s, and 6 Gatling 2.0s, into the fray, in two groups, with the bombers arriving ahead of the other ships by one turn.
On the Alkari front, the Psilons have a couple Star Blades at Nitzer, and a couple Rocket 3.0s are enroute to chase them off. However, they also have a Nova headed to Ukko, which has neither shield nor base built yet, as we but recently captured it from the Alkari. It is building them as fast as it can with reserves allocated, but it will be a turn or two before they complete and are able to chase off the Nova. I have what ships can reach in time there, but I don't think it will be enough.
2449: At Ukko, our planet gets spored, but our Gatling 2.0s are able to stay the course; despite not being able to damage the Nova, the Nova doesn't have enough firepower to kill both Gatlings within the time limit, and is forced to retreat. Our bombers strike at Mentar, and find it defended by only 2 Star Blades and 12 missile bases. Our bombers evade the bases' fire and destroy the planet's defenses in one volley of bombs without losing a single ship, and the ineffectual Star Blades flee.
I would like to invade Mentar with a ton of population but... the vote is this year. Maybe I should have bombed the planet instead, but if we are not quite at the vote threshold, I don't want to miss this opportunity to grab Psilon tech as the spoils of war. Mentar is likely their best world, with the most factories -- it's too juicy a plum to pass up. Still, I can't afford to send off a massive invasion force right now. Instead I will send off enough to hopefully take the planet, but no more, and will follow up with another wave later. The Rockets and Gatlings should arrive at Mentar this turn to defend the planet, and I will move the bombers on to glass another one or three. I decide to be bold and split the fleet in thirds, sending one third to each of 3 nearby worlds, Romulas, Xendalla, and Rayden with a few new construction bombers reinforcing the attack at Xendalla. I don't know if that will be enough force at each world to win through, but I guess we will find out...
IT: We successfully defend Nitzer, and all 3 of our bomber fleets are successful at destroying Psilon planetary defenses around Romulas, Xendalla, and Rayden, bombing the planets and killing about 90 million Psilons. That should make a significant impact in the voting numbers, speaking of which...
Psilons 5 (themselves), Silicoids 1 (Psilons), Darloks 2 (Psilons), total 8.
Bulrathi: 32 votes.
There you have it, folks! A conquest victory in 2449. Pretty good time to completion! Good game, everyone, and hopefully you had fun and maybe picked up a trick or two. Unfortunately our new Ion ships never came into play, as the first two would have rolled off the lines for 2450, but we managed without them. Bomber stacks can be quite the powerful force for ending the game, as you can see, but the real star of the show was fighting a population-based war. With the Bulrathi, I don't go out of my way to start wars, but when one does come along (as it inevitably does) this is a great trick to pull out of your bag, especially on larger maps where it's easier to coordinate large invasion forces.
The map of the galaxy at the time of the vote:
The status screen:
And, our victorious fleet:
Here is the save from 2449. This should give you a chance to play with a big stack of fast bombers and see what it can do, if you are so inclined. You can decline to vote for yourself if you want extra time to play. An extermination win is not too far off at this point, should we choose to pursue it. Our bombers can hit the Psilons anywhere they are weak (which is pretty much everywhere) without too much to fear in terms of a counterattack; the Psilon fleet is largely useless at preventing us from bombarding their worlds, as it is highly focussed on bombarding ours. Moreover, the new Ion ships should be quite capable of taking out any space superiority ships they do manage to field, as they don't have the industrial base to field them quickly or in quantity.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/osg1-team2-2450ad.zip
- Check fleet composition & see whether we want a new design now or in a few years, also whether/what to scrap.
- Check what Psilon planets have been scouted or are in scouting range, & see whether we want to invade them yet
- Not much other than work towards a conquest win by growing pop as quickly as possible.
We should be in striking distance of a conquest win soon. There is a vote at the end of my turns (2449) but I don't know whether we have the wherewithal to get our pop up high enough by then, as I am writing this before I check the save. A few strikes on Psilon positions may lower their pop enough to do the job -- perhaps even bio strikes if we can't penetrate their shields? Their scatter packs could be a problem though...
2440: Turn off most ship production, and scrap our scout designs; I will send several of our warp 3 missile boats to scout a number of unknown systems. We have only 3 of our new Ion cannon design, but I will decide whether to scrap it after a couple more techs come in. Rather than building more of those, I design a new, temporary design: the biggest, most expensive huge ship I can. I plan to build up ship production points at a few of our planets close to the front by setting ship production to this new design for now, and then switching it to what I really want to build when the techs I'm waiting for come in. We have a construction tech and a weapons tech due soon, so I will wait until those come in before designing new ships to go on the offensive against the Psilons. I reallocate research spending to focus on those two techs, and immediately get them both up to a 3-4% breakthrough chance. Several of our new planets and some of our older planets which had sent troops off recently boost eco spending, even at the expense of factories; we don't really need more productive colonies, and I want our population as high as possible for the upcoming vote.
I note that Obaca, the remaining Silicoid colony, is ultra-poor, whereas we don't know what the Alkari colony is. I want to at least scout out the Alkari colony, as if we refrain from taking the Silicoid colony, that will be sufficient to keeping the vote alive -- it's well out of reach of random Psilon violence. To that end I send an expedition to Ukko to punish the Alkari for their actions at Jinga and Ajax. I also send a small expedition to Obaca to wipe out the Silicoid fleet defending it and prevent them from forming another, as we do have a couple of defenseless colonies in the neighborhood.
2441: Industrial Tech 6 comes in, all research but for a couple clicks in each category set to weapons. The Silicoids sent their fleet to Cryslon, so our fleet that moved to Obaca returns to Cryslon. The Psilons have recolonized Nitzer, we send troops from Jinga to take our colony back. Jinga goes to eco spending to regrow pop, and should be done within a few turns.
2442: Our fleet successfully defends Cryslon, losing one Rocket 2.0 in exchange for 3/4 of the enemy fleet. The enemy retreats its remaining large ship to Obaca, and most of our fleet pursues, leaving behind one Gatling to defend Cryslon. Ukko, the Alkari colony, is a size 50 world, better for our purposes than the Silicoid ultra-poor. We opt to invade, and do not bomb its factories. The Alkari are so short on funds that the planet is a waste dump; we will have to clean it up. Troops are enroute from Ajax and Yarrow; Altair will not contribute this time as it needs to build a Planetary Shield and a base to defend itself from an incoming Alkari small ship SoD.
2443: We successfully defend Altair, otherwise not much happens. An Alkari SoD chases away our missile boats at Ukko, as I didn't have a Gatling available to escort them at the time I sent them. However, Gatlings are now on the way, and will arrive in time for our 2nd wave of troops to capture the planet next turn. That should put an end to these thorny little beasts. Stinger missiles are at 30%, so I shift our research focus to propulsion for Fusion engines.
2444: Stinger missiles arrive! I start on Antimatter bombs next, so that we will have something with which to crack Psilon missile bases; after that we will want Megabolt Cannons for a better beam weapon. Of course, the Psilons haven't been idle either during this time. They have gotten Armoured Exoskeleton, Energy Pulsar (death on small ships) and Fusion Beams, as well as some other less important techs. However, we have now scouted Escalon, which has no bases, and may be able to nab it with an unescorted troop assault. 40 transports from Ajax are on the way. Lots of population moving around the Alkari sector, with much Eco spending to regrow the pop.
2445: Our Gatlings can't kill the Alkari SoD very quickly but that doesn't matter; since their popguns can't hurt our Gatlings at all, they flee, despite having nowhere to flee to. Our troops capture Ukko with ease, the planet is ours, and the Alkari are now a footnote in history, with a few captured specimens left alive in our exobiology zoos.
We immediately start soil enrichment on the planet.The Psilons are starting to send Star Blades to harass our planets -- these are medium ships armed with Death Spores, and to combat them we need bases in volume. Fortunately, they are poorly shielded, so Scatter Packs work well against them. I also note we are at war with them again, though I don't recall anyone reporting that during their turns (but it makes sense if we took Denubius.)
2446: Fusion Drives come in, and I readjust spending to a more even distribution, still favouring Planetology, Computers, and Weapons technologies, however. Fusion Drives should give me the ability to build some potent (i.e. fast) small bombers. Indeed, we can build FusB 4.0s with Battle Computer II, Fusion Engines, Maneuver 6 including Inertial Stabilizers, and a Fusion Bomb. I would like a better computer but one will not fit. Still, this is a powerful little bomber, as you can bet the Psilons will use Scatter Pack V missiles against them... and this bomber can outrun them. In sufficient quantities, and with judicious care in movement and use of the wait button, this bomber can reach firing range in 2 moves, without eating any missiles enroute. I immediately start production with my saved-up production points allocated to huge hulls -- we just carve them into pieces and strap on a bomb, I suppose.
Should I also build a space superiority ship? Our Ion cannon warp 3 ships can't keep up with these bombers, after all... and then I notice our Ion cannon ships have no shields. Not good on a large ship with beam weapons, which is expected to fight a protracted engagement at close range. Missile boats can get away with no shields, but not beamers. The Ion 3.4s get scrapped then, and replaced with Ion 4.0: Battle Computer 4, Class IV Shields, Duralloy Armour, Fusion Engines, Maneuver 4, Battle Scanner, 18 Ion Cannons, and 6 Fusion Bombs. Not the best ship to be going against Fusion Beams in Psilon hands, but they shouldn't have many ships with those onboard yet. I could also design a missile boat to replace our aging Rocket 2.0s with, but we still need them to fend off Psilon Death Spore attackers in former Alkari space. I'll decide later if I still need those ships or not once I've dealt with a couple incoming attacks. For now, we have close to 400 bombers coming off the lines, due next turn. They have enough strategic movement speed that if the Psilons leave one of their planets uncovered by their fleet, they will feel our sting.
2447: Psilons attack Altair, with 3 missile bases and 16 Rocket 3.0s defending -- another 55 Rocket 2.0s were enroute but didn't make it in time. Here's what they brought:
If they had had a bigger fleet, they might have done serious harm to Altair, as the defenses in place were able to take out the Star Blades handily but were insufficient to make much of an impact on their Nova huge death ship. Stingers will prove more effective against these heavily shielded designs. Our northern frontier is quite weak against these attacks, which is a bit worrisome. We are still rebuilding these planets and our fleet is more concentrated at Mobas on the Psilon frontier; I would like to get some more, faster ships into the area to deal with the threat. On the other hand, any distraction preventing the Psilon fleet from being fielded against our upcoming bomber strike serves our purpose. Moreover, the Psilons really don't have the industrial capacity to field these in significant numbers.
Our own attack against Escalon fared much better, and we were able to capture some tech -- Armoured Exoskeletons, to be precise.
We thus retain our godlike advantage in gropo action. Unfortunately, Willow gets a Nova event, but this scarcely matters much at this point. I allocate some reserves to speed up factory construction for a couple turns, and will then switch to research. 2448: The Psilons have 45 Star Blades at Mentar; however, that will not help them against our bombers. I know they have reinforcements arriving at Xentalla next turn, retreating from their attack at Altair, so I will not strike there just yet. Besides, I know Mentar is a size 100 planet, so it is a valuable place to strike. I send our entire fleet in the area, composed primarily of 425 FusB 4.0 bombers, plus 33 Rocket 3.0s, 8 Rocket 2.0s, and 6 Gatling 2.0s, into the fray, in two groups, with the bombers arriving ahead of the other ships by one turn.
On the Alkari front, the Psilons have a couple Star Blades at Nitzer, and a couple Rocket 3.0s are enroute to chase them off. However, they also have a Nova headed to Ukko, which has neither shield nor base built yet, as we but recently captured it from the Alkari. It is building them as fast as it can with reserves allocated, but it will be a turn or two before they complete and are able to chase off the Nova. I have what ships can reach in time there, but I don't think it will be enough.
2449: At Ukko, our planet gets spored, but our Gatling 2.0s are able to stay the course; despite not being able to damage the Nova, the Nova doesn't have enough firepower to kill both Gatlings within the time limit, and is forced to retreat. Our bombers strike at Mentar, and find it defended by only 2 Star Blades and 12 missile bases. Our bombers evade the bases' fire and destroy the planet's defenses in one volley of bombs without losing a single ship, and the ineffectual Star Blades flee.
I would like to invade Mentar with a ton of population but... the vote is this year. Maybe I should have bombed the planet instead, but if we are not quite at the vote threshold, I don't want to miss this opportunity to grab Psilon tech as the spoils of war. Mentar is likely their best world, with the most factories -- it's too juicy a plum to pass up. Still, I can't afford to send off a massive invasion force right now. Instead I will send off enough to hopefully take the planet, but no more, and will follow up with another wave later. The Rockets and Gatlings should arrive at Mentar this turn to defend the planet, and I will move the bombers on to glass another one or three. I decide to be bold and split the fleet in thirds, sending one third to each of 3 nearby worlds, Romulas, Xendalla, and Rayden with a few new construction bombers reinforcing the attack at Xendalla. I don't know if that will be enough force at each world to win through, but I guess we will find out...
IT: We successfully defend Nitzer, and all 3 of our bomber fleets are successful at destroying Psilon planetary defenses around Romulas, Xendalla, and Rayden, bombing the planets and killing about 90 million Psilons. That should make a significant impact in the voting numbers, speaking of which...
Psilons 5 (themselves), Silicoids 1 (Psilons), Darloks 2 (Psilons), total 8.
Bulrathi: 32 votes.
There you have it, folks! A conquest victory in 2449. Pretty good time to completion!
Good game, everyone, and hopefully you had fun and maybe picked up a trick or two. Unfortunately our new Ion ships never came into play, as the first two would have rolled off the lines for 2450, but we managed without them. Bomber stacks can be quite the powerful force for ending the game, as you can see, but the real star of the show was fighting a population-based war. With the Bulrathi, I don't go out of my way to start wars, but when one does come along (as it inevitably does) this is a great trick to pull out of your bag, especially on larger maps where it's easier to coordinate large invasion forces.The map of the galaxy at the time of the vote:
The status screen:
And, our victorious fleet:
Here is the save from 2449. This should give you a chance to play with a big stack of fast bombers and see what it can do, if you are so inclined. You can decline to vote for yourself if you want extra time to play. An extermination win is not too far off at this point, should we choose to pursue it. Our bombers can hit the Psilons anywhere they are weak (which is pretty much everywhere) without too much to fear in terms of a counterattack; the Psilon fleet is largely useless at preventing us from bombarding their worlds, as it is highly focussed on bombarding ours.
Moreover, the new Ion ships should be quite capable of taking out any space superiority ships they do manage to field, as they don't have the industrial base to field them quickly or in quantity.http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/osg1-team2-2450ad.zip
That had been fun.
