RBGC SG2 - In the Thick of It - TEAM G

[Sirian]

I think you should all adopt the habit of activating the economy screen as the first action of any months, to make sure the main screen is properly updated.

I've noticed many times that the treasury is not updated, but never noticed the calendar. That is most likely due to the fact that I mess with the sliders on most turns, and manually control many ships. I could see how someone using more autopilot and doing less slider management could get to the end of a turn without the month updating, and thus end up in the situation described here. That would mean all parties incorrectly identified and explained what happened.

Thanks for pointing this out, Jaxom, because it could still be a problem whether autoturn is used or not. Team G players can keep this in mind through the next round and we'll see how that goes.

I thought that it was more in keeping with the spirit of the rules to simply post the saved game with a comment.

You did the right thing, there, Ben. Let's chalk this up to a "getting to know one another" phase and move on. On your next turn, check out the information Jaxom revealed and see if that is relevant to helping you manage your turn.

I'm not going to be able to play and report before the Superbowl here (I had some leftover shoveling-out-from-under to do, you should see the snow piled neck high all around my driveway). So it may be tomorrow before I can report. No sign of any more signups, so we may have to go the distance short-handed. We can manage it, but I'm going to relax the time limits a bit.


- Sirian

 

[Sirian]

Oops, double post.

 

[oldgamster]

Originally posted by Sirian
(I had some leftover shoveling-out-from-under to do, you should see the snow piled neck high all around my driveway).
- Sirian

You live too far north... Move to Texas... Hardly ever snows here and when it does snow (usually flurries and never sticks) we close up and stay home! Actually we have more fear of the roads icing over from danged city water sprinklers that are left on year round!

Stay warm...

 

[JaxomCA]

Hmmm, Texas, isn't it where you have 120 F in the shade in the summer? I guess a couple of months of snow is worth it to avoid that kind of heat.

 

[Physicist]

Originally posted by Sirian

Let's chalk this up to a "getting to know one another" phase and move on.

Ben & Sirian: Basically there is no need for me to comment on this issue any more, but as I am part of this team, too, allow me to note that I am glad to hear someting like this from both of you and that this issue seems to be overcome. I want to play this game, and I want to play it with both of you. I am thankful for the time that both of you did and do invest in this event; I do know about the value of free time, as mine is rare, too.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I like discussions about the game and it's mechanics, but I agree with both of you not to continue discussing this autoturn / lost turn issue and to get back to playing the game. I still don't understand what happened during my turns (especially as I definitely did not reload), and from my point of view all explanations are possible, ranging from a bug in the game to me just making stupid mistakes. Would we be able to solve this "mystery" now? No, I don't think so. Does it really matter? No. All of us agree that we don't have to find someone to blame. Speaking for myself, I will definitely turn autoturn off during my next turn and have an eye on this whole issue. Then we will see if something like that happens again. More can't be done at the moment with reasonable effort.

Originally posted by Sirian

No sign of any more signups, so we may have to go the distance short-handed. We can manage it, but I'm going to relax the time limits a bit.

What a pity that we did not find another player . I think we can still handle this, but under this circumstances relaxed time limits are very much appreciated by me.


Looking forward to you report, Sirian.

- Physicist

 

[Physicist]

I realise the game is not being played at maso, but it caused me to reflect on the nature of the strategic process. At maso, most players are eventually outstripped in tech by one or more AIs - that is, the top AIs usually end up getting all the techs you have at some point. GalCiv is a game of time and space (no pun intended) that has some similarities to chess. In chess, one might seek a space advantage (to control more and more of the board) or a time advantage (to be two moves ahead of the opponent in striving for the same goal). Thus, trading away techs becomes an important decision making process that is not simply: "It'll help the opposition, so I'll keep it" but becomes: "If I trade this away NOW (rather than later, if at all) what TIME and SPACE advantages can I get for it?" I think the chess analogy is the sacrifice: giving away a key piece away to gain time and space for a successful attack. If I were able to trade Improved Environment for Advanced Trade (or whatever), the economic gain RIGHT THEN might well put me in good shape for years to come and outweigh the loss. Just musing - Wild Wombat, at the RB Empire thread of GalCiv.Com

Wild Wombat: To discuss your point, a have to do some philosophing first.

At the higher levels (and that's what we are talking about), GalCiv differs from chess due to the percentage boni the AI get; something like that does not exist in chess. Thus, in the early game, the human player is naturally behind the AI in production, research, economy and everthing else and has to find a way to get out of this hole. That's why it's a challenge and fun.

Now, there are different strategies to get out of this hole, and one of them is the strategy that I know under the name "tech whoring". Try to get a tech and, if a good trading possibility occurs where you can sell it with a gain, DO IT. Don't care who it is. Sell to everyone, as long as you get something for it. I think, most players do that on the higher difficultiy levels where the AI gets boni. It is the way to catch up in research when you are terribly behind in the early game. And that's what Ben did, and he did do it in a perfect manner: got monopoly tech, traded to all known majors for one tech each, making this a three-for-one deal. Almost flawless. Can't do better in the current situation.

Basically, that's the strategy you are refering to in your post.

There are other strategies, of course, and one of them is based on the theory "population equals power". The basic point of this strategy is that whatever way you want to win the game, high population (usually meaning strong economy) helps or even is the key: Military victory? Have to build and support a lot of military. Alliance victory? Needs a lot of money to buy allies. Research victory? Do I really have to explain?

The good thing is, most of the time, these two powerful strategies can be used in parallel, without interference. There is one point, however, where they do interfere, and this is Improved Enviroment Control. The AIs tend to skip this tech in the early game, so "tech whoring" says "Research it and sell it to everyone for best prices". But "population equals power" says "Research it and never sell it away as it is something like 1/3 Aphrotisiac, and we do not sell that one to majors, either." Both are valid strategies, which one you eventually follow depends on personal taste (and current in-game situation).

Now, with all that stuff said, I turn back to your point, Wombat. I think that trading away techs in a situation like ours is actually a no-brainer. In the case of any other early tech, no-one would have discussed it. I, personally, sell away almost each single tech in the early game if I get something for it - even diplo techs (don't bash me). Otherwise, I simply can not catch up.The AIs are such strong researchers, so if you have a tech they lack, I sell it, as in the most cases I know that they will soon research it with their superior economy anyway, and then I won't get anything for my monopoly tech. There are only two cases where I consider not selling: techs the AI usually do not research, and techs that give population advantages (as, in the end, I am a "pop equals power" follower); now guess what tech I am talking about . In any other case, I sell, as otherwise I can not catch up to Crippling/Maso AIs. Handing an advantage to the AIs now, an advantage that they will get anyway in a few turns, this usually is not an issue for me (well, except for wonder techs, maybe).

Talking about the early game, of course. I usually stop selling when Battleships/Dreadnoughts arrive, when I start to go for the win.

- Physicist

 

[Sirian]

January, 2182AD

Paying off the government debt is chosen as priority. I continue social spending, but dial it down a bit to where the projects due to complete this turn will still do so, the minimum amount to make that happen.


February

Another dial-down on spending, same formula. Several projects will complete. Between turns, we meet the Alexians. I sell them all our known techs for 92 bct for twenty turns.

March

Major spending decrease. Three projects set to complete will do so. I settle one of the PQ13 pair at Betelgeuse, no morality event. Between turns, the Drengin connect a second trade route to us. That gives us three routes total between our civs, and with our alignment still a moderate 57, threat condition from Drengin reduced to "Guarded" from "Elevated". Relations are Neutral.

April

I connect our second trade route, from Sol to the Torian double system. Our treasury deficit is down to 18bc and we will go into the black on this turn. I set research as priority, with Interstellar Refining as our project. I start the Economic Capital at Petroni. I continue a sliver of social spending, as well, to complete a nearly-finished Habitat on one of our planets.


May

We learned Refining. Our treasury is in the black. I end social spending and continue our research priority. Why trade away kaboodles of value for Deflectors at an overinflated price? We will research it ourselves, on the cheap, at regular price, and allow one more round of surplus to roll in, to give us a workable amount of cash for dealmaking.


June

We discover Deflectors. Cari has learned Advanced Trade. I trade them our non-monopoly techs for Advanced Trade plus change.

I set research to Corvettes. The top majors already have it, but the minors do not, so I will wait for them to learn something useful, trade them Corvettes for it, and try to pull us toward tech parity through an n-fer trade. (2fer, 3fer, 4fer, or whatever is available).


July

Well, that was quick. We research Corvettes. Vettes to Cari for Energy Channeling, Battle Armor, plus change. Those techs plus change to Drengin for Antimatter. Battle Armor to Alex for Weapons Theory. Antimatter to Altarians for Space Militarization plus change. Space Mil to Torians for Zero-G Research. I have managed a 6fer, and we are now the technology leaders (for the moment) because I protected our monopoly on Refining.

Time to swap to military spending. We WILL get the military resource in our space, but I have seen that we won't get the morale or tech resources on the fringes, as I saw a Torian and Altarian constructor heading for each of those. There is a tech resource to the SW, off the coast of Vesta, and we may have an outside shot at it. I am inclined to try, with Drengin relations stabilized. I ratchet up the spending to break-even, set 100% military spending, order up vettes, defenders, axes, and other goodies as applicable, leave Petroni on freighters, and here we go.


August

We pull a free defender out of an anomaly next to an Altarian planet. Tsk tsk on them for neglecting that. I send the ship to our PQ13 sitting nearby. Between turns, Petroni builds another freighter and I switch it to battleaxe. Our first contructor completes. We build some vettes, and I send one toward Vesta, which is building another constructor.


September

There's a shark near Rathra, and our intended starbase. Not good. We may have to fight it. Too bad we don't have battle hammer designs available yet. Vettes don't do very well against sharks, but we don't want to lose the starbase. I sell four techs to Alex for ~150bct over five.


October

I redirect our vette from Vesta toward the shark. I wake a star fighter and send it too. Cari builds Galactic Stock Exchange.


November

We have produced a second constructor. I send it eastward, in the thin hope of grabbing a resource out there. If not, I suggest we leave it in the area for future poaching opportunities, should the AI's go to war. No harm in parking a constructor out in the Void, right? I connect our third trade route from Sol to the Altarian homeworld.


December

Arrgh. The Hero got destroyed by a shark. My bad. It was on autosurvey at the time. Oh, and I noticed the calendar bug. Still said November when the turn started, so that is probably what happened with the earlier confusion. It straightened up after I opened one of the info panels. Lot of sharks floating around. I recommend against using much autopilot until the space monsters are thinned out. I haven't lost the Hero to a shark since... well, I've never lost the Hero to a shark before. There seem to be at least four of them out there.

Between turns, Earth produces a constructor. We build a pack of warships on different planets. We have (for now) jumped into the military LEAD, and we've got bubkis for a fleet, so I wouldn't worry about the Drengin for now. Might be time for a mad social push, max spending, 100% social, try to grab some wonders, since we are still in the tech lead, and could let tech sit for a while. We're also good on military, even have spare constructors. Up to the next leader, though. I forgot to add Research Labs to the governor list. Maybe other things, too. Since I did no social spending the last two thirds of my round, I wasn't focused on it. I did NOT set up the starbase. The constructor is parked on the resource for the moment, in case our warships fail to kill the shark, we could flee and not lose the base. Up to next leader to "go fishing".

We are not going to get the third resource near Vesta.

Probably still worth building a constructor there, though, since we may get a poaching opportunity. Note our treasury. The short term payments from Alex will end any turn now, but the longer ones will last through next player's turn.

We can't start wars, so I don't think a massive buildup of cheap, dispensible ships is a good idea. I built enough for us not to have to worry about being bullied around by the AI's much, though. And frankly, if they do start making more demands, if it happens on my watch, I'll tell em to stuff it. They can attack us if they have a mind to test our resolve.

Here's the tactical map. We have five freighters, circled in orange. Some are scouting. I suggest we connect from Petroni to the Torian double planet and to the Yor system, next. We might ought to want to choose a non-Petroni freighter to send down to Arcea, for long term potential, though maybe not the one from Vesta because it would go right through Drengin home space. I forgot to rename the new freighter from Petroni, but it was recently launched, so next leader can do it if desired.

Our three constructors are circled in pink. Don't repeat my error and let the sharks get them. I built a colship to nab the last PQ13, shown by the blue arrow. The red arrow shows the shark that is posing an imminent threat to our plans.


ROSTER:

Sirian
Samurai Ben <<< UP NOW
Physicist <<<< On Deck


Team G - 2183AD


- Sirian

 

[samurai_ben]

OK, I have the save file and will try to get a round in this evening...

Fast question, Sirian. Including taking snapshots and doing the writeup, playing a full year took me close to a couple of hours last time. Doing it in one sitting is obviously the way to go; but that may not always be convenient. Is playing a round in "fractions" to get it out sooner acceptable, or should I wait to have a couple of free hours all at once?

BTW - I realize that this tends to affect the sector influence and in some cases can cost us a turn of income, besides affecting all of the session variables...but if we're going to be playing short-handed, I think all of us may have scheduling issues as the game develops, so I thought I'd ask.

 

[Sirian]

Best to play in one session if possible. Every time the game is loaded, the AI's initiate a round of diplomacy, including tech trades with one another, checks for making threats, etc. Bad enough we already get that once a year.

If you are short on time, you might play through, save a new save file every other turn, and then go back and write the report at a later point. I think that would be better than playing half the game and writing half the report in one session, then the rest in a second session. If you have to save and quit, that's OK, but avoid that if you can manage it.

The sector influence is affected for two turns. Some other things are affected for one turn. Also a good idea to check diplomacy and pull the trigger on trade opportunities right before ending a session. That will help minimize the loss of trade opportunities due to the extra trading the AI's do on reload.


- Sirian

 

[samurai_ben]

Jan 2183

Here's the opening screen:

So, we've fallen behind on tech. We're still not bad, all things considered; and there are a few key early wonders that we have a shot at if we start prioritizing Social building, and FAST. In particular, I'd love to get Diplo Translators, especially if we're going to need an Alliance win.

Start with a few tweaks. Autoturn set to off. Rename the freighter from Petroni. I add Research Lab to the Governor's queue and bump it ahead of Manufacturing Center. I usually place Research Labs ahead of Manufacturing Centers because they're relatively cheap to build, giving us the benefits earlier. Also pull Medical Center from the queue completely. Figure it's going to be awhile before we need it.

There's a constructor almost finished; I'll wait for it to be built before starting the social push, and we'll pick up a couple of warships to boot.

Switch to manual control on several ships for the moment because there seem to be a lot of sharks. I note that Sirian sent the new Petroni freighter to the northwest a bit, but we already have a Petroni freighter close to connecting with the Torians. I agree with the suggestion about setting up something with Arcea; if we use this Petroni freighter, it will only skim the edge of Drengin space - safer than one from Vesta. Send the ship on its way.

Set up our Corvette and Starfighter for a (doomed?) attack run on the shark - figure I'll wait a turn to let the fighter die first.

Feb 2183

Gladstone III builds another Battleaxe. Start on a Constructor, though with the social push coming nothing is likely to happen here for awhile.

The shark didn't move; so, we'll need one more turn before we can hit it with both ships at once.

Just in case, I bring out the Corvette from Wardell and shuffle the defense ships to cover the planet.

We have maximized our trade routes. I park a freighter next to the Yor system.

A scout notices that the Drengin have yet another culture starbase at the southern edge of the map; combined with the one next to Vesta, this could be problematic if (when) they both are completely developed. Something to remember if (when) the shooting starts.

We settle Betelgeuse II and get a minor event.

Our morality stands at Neutral (58). With no real prospects for viable colonies left, except maybe a random PQ13 or 14 in the few unexplored systems, we're going to have to either play a long game and pray for random events, or start shredding the cheese in colonizing any system we can find just to grab events. Being new at this, I'll wait for input from my teammates; shouldn't be a problem for awhile, as we have no colony ships in the field anyway.

March 2183

We get an Altarian freighter - good. A pack of ships is finished, including the latest freighter at Petroni and the Constructor at Vesta. I switch all of the defended planets over to Constructor production, including Petroni - we have plenty of freighters on the way, and we've already hit our trade route cap; we can always switch back later.

Switch to 100% social production. Cut taxes to 35% to bring another couple of planets to their maximum population boost; cut spending to 79% to keep the cash flow positive.

Another freighter is in a holding pattern at the Torian capital. Hurl both the starfighter and the corvette at the shark; get it down to six hit points. Good thing we're bringing that other corvette in, as we'll need reinforcements. I decide to scrounge up another 'Vette just to play it safe.

April 2183

Alex builds a Manufacturing Capital. Our southern scout notes that the Drengin have yet another resource starbase, this one a Tech resource. If we ever go to war with these guys, we're going to need dozens of constructors just to make use of the resources!

Our eastern scout finds Cari's home system, which contains a PQ24 and a PQ19. Ought to make a nice place to send our newest Petroni freighter. The Arceans have a whopper of a military starbase near it.

Our autopiloting Constructor finds another space shark. I decide to get cocky, go to manual, and see if I can get it to follow our Constructor off to the east. I've never tried this with a Constructor before, so I have no idea if it's going to work.

May 2183

Send the two Corvettes in against the Shark. It's up to 7 hit points. The first 'Vette takes it down to two; the second, unbelievably, goes down in flames while only knocking off a point! We've now lost four ships against this thing. We'll need to back our two Constructors off while we bring in reinforcements - our last Corvette and Starfighter. If this doesn't work, we're actually going to have to go back into warship production, as we're down to Battleaxes and Defenders across the board! Of all the luck!

June 2183

Nothing particularly interesting; more scouting and movement.

July 2183

We get a trade route from the Yor; Cari builds Tri-Strontium Steel and Diplo Translators IN THE SAME TURN - and as far as I know, they only have two planets. We are going to have to get Diplo
Translators from them at some point. Ironically, Earth just became our first planet with both a Fusion Plant and a Manufacturing Center; I WAS going to start Diplo Translators this turn.

On the plus side, we're the leader in trading:

Pull Earth off of the Governor queue to build Grav Accelerators; 11 turns to completion.

August 2183

Rathra II finishes the fusion plant, shifts to Aphrodisiac. 10 turns to completion. Tweak spending to 81%; we're still raking in positive income despite the increased spending as our trade routes start to pay off.

The eastern shark isn't biting on the Constructor bait, and is flying right into the east side of our empire. Who let all these things loose, anyway?

September 2183

Thuban is set to build Frictionless Clothing - the only Wonder left on the list. 11 turns to completion. I was tempted to start the Manufacturing Capital there, but will save it for Petroni in a couple of turns. Being much closer to the Drengin, we may want to build ships more quickly there at some point.

A very, very battered Corvette FINALLY kills the shark. Not a moment too soon, as our Torian pals are sending constructors at our Military resource:

We have two extra Constructors nearby. It's obvious we're not going to grab a spare resource anytime soon, so I earmark both of them for expanding the new base. I may regret this later, but I
don't see a need to immediately boost our military abilities. With such a central location, it's irresistable to develop the sector-boosting abilities of this base instead. We can boost Rathra's
production, or boost the culture of a good chunk of our empire. I figure that with only two constructors to spare, the culture is a better bet, particularly as the Drengin have two cultural resource starbases already.

October 2183

An election is held, and we win handily:

Rathra II builds a colony ship, which is odd as military spending is still at 0%; then again, they did just finish those production boosters. That's what I get for not micro-managing. Also, I didn't launch the ship, yet it's in orbit. I honestly have no idea how many colonists are on board - perhaps 1000, based on what I remember of Rathra's population a couple of turns ago. Did we switch on auto-launch? There are a couple of PQ14s in the southeast corner that our scout has uncovered; there's a LONG way from our power base, but could come in handy for flipping the Arceans at some point. Send the ship on its way. While I'm at it, I set Petroni I to build another colony ship for the second PQ14; it's our closest world, and the pop loss should be minimal in a double system.

November 2183

We get a freighter from Alex. Petroni I finishes its colony ship. I have seen no sharks in the southeast, so both colony ships are set to autopilot towards the PQ14s.

The eastern shark has nearly reached Thuban. With two Battleaxes in orbit, I'm fairly confident we can just let it try to shoot at us. Better than losing another handful of military ships.

December 2183

Our tribute just kicked out; we're at -93 bc per turn. I'm tempted to let it run a few turns yet without any adjustments, as at this rate we'll still be positive when we finish our third wonder seven turns from now. But with one month left to go, that will be my successor's decision.

There's a bit of autopiloting going on:

A defender is en route to Wardell, making up for the two Corvettes it sent after the shark. When it reaches port, Vesta will be our only undefended planet. We may want to move something over to Vesta for basic defense or just to sleep easier.

We have freighters parked near planets of the Altarians, Torians and Yor. Two additional freighters are en route to Arcean and Carinoid space. After we finish the social rush, we will want to start developing trade techs to take advantage of these routes.

Two scouts are autopiloting to the last few areas of unexplored space. When this has been explored, we can park the scouts near resources to see when they open up, give them away, or disband them completely.

Jan 2183 Handoff

We get another trade route. Gladstone I finishes its build queue. To avoid the empty queue, I manually start an Economic Exchange. My successor can change this without penalty if desired.

Final note: The Drengin have three Corvettes and a Starfighter south of Petroni, as well as four Corvettes near Rathra. They're officially at war with the Altarians, so they're probably just cutting through...but it's disturbing all the same, considering the fact that the shark beat up our military a bit. We are Friendly with the Altarians and Torians, and Neutral with everyone else, including both minors.

Due to an oversight on my part, the map graphic shown here represents the end of December rather than the beginning of January. But as no manual moves have taken place, it should be close enough to give you the broad overview. Enjoy.

At the Plate: Physicist
Warming Up: Sirian

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/rbgc2-teamg-jan2184.zip

 

[Sirian]

Well done on that report. Lots of detail, good screenies, explanations behind your moves. Physicist should be in position to make more gains for us.

Only one odd thing I noticed: the screen listing us as behind on tech. We still had a one tech lead to start your turn, as the AI's did not research a single new tech the last half of my round. Only thing I can figure there is that our "tech score" was lower, because we got most of our techs in trade. Thus, even though we had more total tech, we had a lower tech score.


- Sirian

 

[samurai_ben]

Any idea what happened with that auto-launched colony ship? I've never seen that before...then again, I've never fiddled with that particular option and didn't see it coming. If you don't even get a chance to choose the amount of population on board, it seems of questionable usefulness.

Not that it would be a problem until we need to build transports or another colony ship...

 

[Physicist]

Very good reports, from both of you. I will try to put more work into my upcoming report, too, in order to keep the high level. I especially like your final map, Ben.
Concerning the alignment issue: During my turns, I will not settle low PQ planets; we still have some time and can hope for a random morality event. Once we are approaching an Alliance victory and still have an alignment below 70, we might have to rely on this strategy, however.

I see the file, but I am not sure if I can play tonight as there is another issue I have to work on. Especially, I do not think that I can play and report tonight. I will keep the 48h deadline, however.
- Physicist

 

[Physicist]

Ben: Concerning the autolaunch issue: I am not sure if I fully understand what happened, but fact is, if a planet is put on autolaunch and a colony ship or transport is built, the ship is launched with an amount of troops depending on population or morale (I don't know) on that planet. You can *not* influence the amount of troops in that case. That's why I usually turn of autolaunch on all my transport/colony ship producing planets. One of the few, annoying micromanagement issues of GalCiv.

The other fact is, however, that during my last turns, autoturn was "on" on a few planets, and I did not adjust that (laziness ) as I did not finish any troop transporting ships.

Question to the team: Should we decide on a common rule for autolaunch?

- Physicist

 

[Sirian]

I can confirm that I did not hand the game off with a colony ship set to autolaunch. No colony ships were in production. I make heavy use of autolaunch for all other ship types, however, as I have a long history of overlooking newly produced ships unless they are launched immediately, especially on larger maps. Thus my routine is to set EVERY planet to autolaunch as a rule of thumb, and to specifically disable the autolaunch for a given planet any time I set it to build colony ships or transports.

Having a colony ship autolaunch is very bad news. It will take half the system's population with it, and any time after the early colony phase, that is always undesirable. Players following me can expect plenty of autolaunch orders to be set, though, and should double check any time they change production to build a colony ship. That is, expect autolaunch. It will be there if I'm playing. If others don't want it on, I won't turn it on unless I'm building ships, but I will still use it if I am building ships, because that helps me macromanage, without sweating the details of what is building where and when it will be done.

It's a lot less work to remember to flick the autolaunch off when building a new colony ship, than it is to go without autolaunch. Once the galaxy is settled, player will not likely build many more colony ships, but will be buildng warships and constructors on and off for the rest of the game.

Sorry for the crossed wires. Best thing in that case is probably just to merge the colony ship right back into the system, since you do NOT want to start a new colony with way too much population and let it sit on 1 morale for an extended period.


- Sirian


EDIT: One more note. Reloads are permitted to correct major misclicks and mishaps of this sort, where an error or oversight caused or allowed something unintended to happen, which affects the course of the game. The problem would have to be significant enough to be worth the costs of a reload to correct it. In this case, this was not a strategic oversight, but an interface option set up in a way not normally used by the player in question. Reload might have been the best move, or, as I said, merging the colony ship back into the system if it was a one planet system or has a high PQ planet that can absorb the full load.

 

[samurai_ben]

Physicist:

The colony ship in question is the one en route to the PQ14 at Martzia. If you wish, you can easily divert it to either of our southeastern systems without backtracking; might want to replace it with a fresh colony ship with a lower pop.

 

[Physicist]

OK, I will check the colony ship issue and handle it as discussed by you.

I usually turn autoturn on at all planets except the ones building troop ships, so probably I will do so during my turns, too. As soon as we do not build colony ships any more, an occasional autolaunched CTransport is not a hugh problem as we can merge it back without losing the ship.

I tried to play yesterday. I had basically finished my initial turn (which usually takes me hours (literally) to complete as I try to get a feeling for the game by checking almost everthing, and as I try to forge a strategy for my turns). But then, a RL issue took place (not completely unexpected) that I could not delay, so I saved the game (still in January) and quitted. Sorry for that . I know that it's better to play in one sitting, but it was impossible this time. I have written down the diplo/trade situation before quitting, so I will check if the additional reload triggered further trading between the AIs.

I plan to play tonight, so expect me to post my report in something like 6 hours (currently, I am still at work )

Sirian: frostblade has declared interest to join the event (in the SG Q1 thread). Might be a chance to turn back to a four player roster.

- Physicist

 

[Physicist]

Report on the year 2184

January-March

The initial report:

Look who's the most powerful civ!

My first action: I turn Autoturn off...

Looking over the empire, I find it well managed. Only a few things are to be considered:

Then I check
Diplomacy & Trade:

We can learn two important different things from this picture:

* Relations with the Drengin are warm. Very well.

* We are not spending any money on espionage. I intend to begin an "espionage offensive" during my reign in order to avoid a possible unwanted war. We are going for Alliance Victory, after all .
Thus, I start spending 4bc (= one click) espionage per turn on the two "minor majors" and 8bc (= two clicks) on Torians, Altarians and Drengin.

Meeting all Ambassadors, I learn that our monpoly on Interstellar Refining is broken as the Drengin know this tech. The Drengin are at war with the Altarians, so they won't sell to them, but not with the Torians, so the tech might go round soon. As I can not sell it for a reasonable price (would have to add a lot of money and influence points just to get Zero Grav Manufacturing; no chance to get Warp Drive or Turbo Phasers), I decide not to sell. We need to research a little bit in order to make some decent deals. I plan for a research phase during my turns, probably directly after our current social build-up.

In real time, I saved the game once in January and reloaded it one day later, getting exactly the same report as the last time. The trade situation did not change during the additional reload.

Economy & Strategy

As Samurai_Ben described in his report, we are in full social mode and, actually, are about to finish some wonders. I intend to continue to this policy. We are currently building Aphrotisiac, Grav. Accellerator and Frictionless Clothing.
We have not yet build the Manufacturing Capital, which is an improvement I would prefer to have sooner than later. I consider building it in Vesta or Petroni (the latter had been proposed by Ben).
Vesta is our highest PQ planet (PQ24). It still has quite low production due to low population (it was settled late and slightly suffers from a pop growth -4% penalty), but on the long run this will be one of our most powerful planets. It's main diadvantage: it is in a bad geographical location (at the W border of the universe, far away from our core, with a Drengin planet in between).
Petroni is a PQ 22 without penalties and, currently, slightly higher pop & production. It is our Eco Capital and positioned at the S part of our core, near the frontier to Drengin space. Exposed regarding the Drengin, for sure, but placing the Manuf. Capital here would mean short ways for our future Battleships, whereever we intend to send them.
After long consideration, I decide to vote for the Petroni due to the better geographical position. Petroni's Research Lab is cancelled (we have not yet spent money in it) and Manuf. Capital is ordered (Petroni is handed over to Governor General Kuperman, who will leave all the decisions to the President.)
Comments on this decision are very welcome.

Starting to spend on espionage has shifted our income from -77 to -109 bc per turn. I try to adjust the spending rate, but the value is already kind of optimal to finish all wonders around the same time, so I just go from 81% to 82% (-116bc). I do not want to spend much more (to avoid going into the red again) or much less (to avoid delaying the wonders). Grav. Accel. is due in 4 turns, Aphrotisiac & Manuf. Capital are due in 5 turns, Frictionless Clothing in 6.
I do not veto Economic Exchange at Gladstone, as I do not see any other reasonable building order.

Ships

At a few planets, I would prefer to strengthen our defenses, but we lack the military for that. On the long run, a few additional BAxe might be useful, especially at Vesta (the isolated PQ24). I consider sending a Defender from Gladstone to Vestia, but it would take ages to travel there, and during that time Vestia should be able to build a BAxe itself. Thus, I plan for a short military build-up at the end of my reign. I agree on not building a lot of weak corvettes. BHammers or BShips will be more useful, also regarding the Space Shark problem.

I decide to veto two of Ben's goto orders:
* The freighter going to the Cari's home planet. As we are heading for an Alliance Victory, I consider the main advantage of trade routes the improved relations, not the financial gain. Thus, we should send the freighter to a major civ; relations to minors do not matter, in the end.
* The constructor in the west. Ben had sent to the military starbase, which is a resonable option, but Altaria & Drengin are at war, so we might see the destruction of a Altarian or Drengin starbase. Thus, I prefer to keep the constructor to grab a possible free resource.
I will send the constructor here (pic taken in March):

Concerning Space Sharks:

Maybe the UP event in Dez 2181, the space shark "aquarium" at Hestia, triggered all these Space Sharks?

The beast is strong and has some hit points left .Thuban is defended by two BAxes (Att5, Def6, Hits30). The attack of the beast might cost as a BAxe, but there is nothing we could do about it. (A quick jump into the future: as a matter of fact, between Jan and Feb, it will kill one BAxe, just to be destroyed by one of the many Altarian Corvettes that are sailing trough our space. This Shark is history.)

Concerning the colony ship issue discussed in the last posts: There are 1795 m souls on the colony ship for Martiza. Hm, that's too much for settling a PQ14. Bad news is: there are more than 2000 m souls on the colony ship going towards Lasitus' PQ14, too. Too many.
I redirect the E colony ship to Petroni (short distance, and Petroni should be able to handle the additional population, and Petroni is our Eco and (soon) Manuf Capital). The W colony ship is send towards Vesta (PQ24), as this planet almost needs more pop, and all other planet already have morale below 100.

 

[Physicist]

April-June

OK, there is another issue we should keep an eye on:

On Maso, this planet would be doomed. This is Cippling, so our influence is not bad, but the Torians' is better, and it is beyond 500. We should ty to keep more as high as possible at Betelgeuse, in the worst case by Propaganda, until we go beyond 500 infl here. I order a NewsNet at Betelgeuse I, B. II is allowed to continue EntertainNet. Note that B. I is not under the control of Ms K. any more.

And I begin collecting the fruits that you guys put the seed for:

I adjusted the spending during the last turns in order to save some money, a little bit too much actually, as I lost one turn on Frictionless Clothing.

Finally, the half-year report:

No comment necessary here, except that the text was the "What should we research" one which does not give any important info.

July-September

A lot of Torian ships are entering the borders of our emire. I realize that they are war with the Drengin (which is good). Hm, I seem to have overlooked the message. In the beginning of my turns only Drengin and Altarians were at war.

Another sweet fruit for Realms Beyond:

With the completion of Frictionless Clothing, I end social spending in Sept. We are down to 674 bc, so I plan to have positive income for the rest of my turns in order to hand the empire to the next President with ~ 1 kbc, as I have recieved it.

Strategy decision: What to do now? Both Research '(we are ~3-5 techs behind ) and Military (the Drengin are closing the gap to us in the military graph) would be necessary. I decide to go researching first as:
* I am not able to trade for the Cari's two trade goods, not even for all of our three trade goods and all aour techs.
* the Drengin are still warm, so should not attack us during the next turns
* I see the chance to get Energy Focusing (& Energy Magnification), two techs the AI value high (you are able to get Trade Goods from majors for these techs, at Maso this is).

Thus, I go ~ 45% spending on 100% research (Energy Focusing) due in 2 turns.
The next turns, I adjust spending to minimize losses without taking the risk to loose one turn one the tech.

October-December

In November, I shuffle most of our funds to Military. Two colony ships are queued at the weaker planets in Petroni & Gladstone systems (for the two remaining PQ14). All other planets are set on Autolauch! A BAxe is ordered at Vesta, the isolated PQ24 that is still undefended.

When Energy Focusing comes in (Dec), I start trading:
* E.F. to Drengin for Defensive Phasers, Nano Electronics & Sensors + Infl (as a side note, the warm Drengin offer me a better deal than the friendly Torians (2 techs only) !?!)
* E.F., Interst. Ref. & Nano El. to Altaria for Turbo Phasers & Inf.
* Frictionless Clothing and all techs we know except for Defensive Phasers to Cari for Tri-Strontium Steel and Diplo Translators.

Interturn events during the whole year:

Drengin, Altaria & Toria: Espionage Level "Low" (Oct)
Freighters connecting: Yor (9 bc, Jan), Drengin (9 bc, March), Toria (9 bc, Oct)
Yor complete Eco Capital (Sept)
Altarians complete Manuf Capital (March, at Sauron (PQ18))
Drengin complete Manuf & Eco Capital (both in March, both at Dester (PQ26, PQ23, PQ15) )

These Manuf Capitals are not good, as this increases their wonder building abilities. We will have to have an eye on this. Note that Dester is the planet that separates Vesta (PQ24, in the W) from the rest of our empire ...

Summary and Final Comments

* The white dot is Betelgeuse, the planet under Torian cultural influence. We have freighters next to each majors top planet (except Drengin), two next to Arcean planet (not necessarily wise to connect that second one), and one additional freighter in the north.

* Note our and the Drengin military graph on the pic...
* Vesta needs defenses urgently. Only a Scout (!) is defending here. That's why I ordered a BAxe. Generally, it is a good idea to look over the build orders. BTW, we are able to build BHammers now.
* Only one of our scouts is still scouting (in the NW). The seconding is on its way to Vesta, the third "defending" Vesta. Maybe we should gift them to someone (Drengin?). Or simply disband them.
* Autolaunch. It is on at all planets except for the two (Petroni&Gladstone) building a colony ship. There is an unlaunched colony ship at Gladstone, fresh from the assembly line. (The colony ships are intended for the PQ14 at Martiza and Lasitus.)

* Diplo: Relations are stable, warm with Drengin, Friendly with the good civs, Neutral with the rest.
* Trade: We are two techs behind Drengin & Torians (IS Tactics & Warp Drive). Note that I did not research any Trade Route techs, so our freighters are still waiting for possibilities to connect. This is somewhat suboptimal as we want to improve relations... Ah, we have *not* yet spend any money on the current tech, so feel free to change that one.

* I did not touch the eco sliders in January, but you will want to adjust them. We should have enough cash again.

Good luck to the next player.

- Physicist

The file: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/rbgc2-g-2185.zip

[Edit: Sorry, I messed up those "reduced size" pics.]

 

[samurai_ben]

Sorry about the snafu with the colony ship pop, guys. I tend to use 100-200 pop on these, depending on the target; but I haven't used autoturn before, and so was caught napping on this. I'll keep an eye on it if we start mass-producing transports, though.

Physicist: No problem with your decisions on the Mfg. Capital - as you pointed out, I'd already figured that Petroni would be a good choice.

When it's finished and we have some positive cash flow, we might want to think about warship production. Once we research alliances, we can basically "declare war" on the Drengin anytime we want by setting up an alliance with the Alts or Torians, as they'll ask us to attack the Drengin in short order...that would also free up a trade route slot. It would also free up a ton of resources in Drengin space. With two capitals and its position between Vesta and the rest of our empire, Dester is looking very much like a tempting target.

Oh, that's right, we're GOOD...must stop thinking about ways to legally become militaristic!