RBGC SG2 - In the Thick of It - TEAM N

[_G-Force_]

Theres not really much happening, I leave the game as it stands for a while.

MAR:
Elections we win with 83 seats.

APR:
Torian build manufacturing capital
We mine the military resource

MAY:
Yor build economical capital
We devellop Tri-Strontium Steel

JUN:
Space shark attacks Sol system, defending ship lost
We devellop Aphrodisiac, Gravity-Accelarators
Shift sliders to 80-20 soc/res

JUL:
Freighter arrives from the Carinoids

SEP:
Torian build economical capital on Titus
We trade with the Alexians:

Researh set to instant communication

DEC:
We devellop Frictionless clothing
Start construction on wonder for 10% influence increase

End game:

Save is: here

G-Force

 

[Kabuki]

OK, "I got it". This wil keep us moving.

 

[Zed-F]

Hi, I'm back! Glad to see the trade goods rolling in, especially Aphrodesiac and Grav Accelerators. Other than Diplo Translators, those are the most important early trade goods; don't trade those ones away!

One quick note, if we haven't traded to the Carinoids for their Diplo Translators, we should do that ASAP in order to make the most of any further dealings we make.

 

[Kabuki]

Zed-F - Traded for the translators as soon as they got them... cost us a pretty penny, but have been worth every single one of them. I'll post my turn in about 30min, you could probably pick it up if you have the time, and then we switch back to normal after this round, if not Cheng will probably be more than happy to correct my mistakes.

 

[Kabuki]

After a second quiet retirement former Emperor Walker said enough is enough and passed the responsibility for the year's government on to someone only known as Mist. Although not a particularily enigmatic figure, Mist was a relatively unknown in the party. He was a colonial, rather than an Earth man, something that was still viewed with some suspicion. But as the Republic had put down a comittee to identify more efficient forms of governing it was about time for one to take the helm of the Republic.

---

As my normal computer is down and out for the count I don't have any screenshots and I'll keep it tighter as this computer is a pain in the ass to type on.

---
January 2185

First things first - Fire Mr. Ford [plasma] until the bug is fixed in the next release I like making sure that our advantages remain ours.

Increase spending so that Galactic Exhibition is due in 7

Trading Time:

Carinoids: Improved Environment, Instant Communication, Nano electronics, Nano Frequency Electronics and Ultra Spices for Anti Matter, Turbo Phasers and Tri-Strontium Steel.

Altarians: Improved Environment, Instnt Communications and both Nano Electronics for High Density Materials, Warp Drive, Battle Armor and 143IP.

Torians: Instant Communication and Nano-Frequency Electronics for Defensive Phasors, Sensors, Zero Gravity Manufacturing and 146IP.

Alexians: All our techs for 100BC for 19 turns and 141IP.

Build Queue: Add Anti-Matter Power Plant @ 9

Kill the trade route with Markus and open the one to Artemis (Torians).

Now set spending to 84% -> Galactic Exhibition in 6

Tech set to Interstellar Marketing for the Restaurant of Eternity.

Set Vesta to produce Eyes of the Universe

February 2185

Shipyard @ Earth -> A-M Plant

March 2185

Interstellar Marketing -> Brain Wave Mapping for the VR Modules

Economic Exchange @ Dester II & III, Petroni II and Thuban III -> A-M Plant

April 2185



May 2185

Brain Wave Mapping -> Nanobots for Harmony Crystals

Spending to 100% as trade and tax income has gone up enough to warrantthis. Still at +12BC

June 2185

Drengin Freighter Arrives
Torians Declare War on the Drengin

Economic Exchange @ Wardell I and Gladstone I -> AM Plant

All three scouts are now functioning as stationary relays in major clusters.

As they do throughout the year relations wih Toria and Altaria fluctuate a bit, but never dropping below Wary (Torians)

July 2185

Nanobots -> Advanced Diplomacy for Cultural Exchange Centre

August 2185

Galactic Exhibition @ Rathra II -> Restaurant of Eternity (6)

Taxes 43% -> Morale 92% and +2BC

September 2185

Altarians build a Manufacturing Capital

Economic Exchange @ Nesro I -> AM Plant

October 2185

Espionage level Medium for the Drengin

Advanced Diplomacy -> Interstellar Capitalism for Stock Exchange

Anti-Matter Plant @ Earth -> Harmony Crystals
Economic Exchange @ Petroni I - AM Plant

Novembe 2185

Drengin Freighter Arrives

EE @ Gladstone -> AM Plant
AM Plant @ Dseter II -> VR Modules, Dester III & Petroni II -> Cultural Exchage Centres, Thuban III -> Economic Exchange.

The freighter that has been obiting Dester is sent to Artemis

December 2185

Torian Freighter Arrives

Eyes of the universe @ Vesta -> AM Plant

United Planets vote next turn.

Torians Declare War with the Yor

Altarians have Battleships

Cultural Exchange Centres are added to the Govenor

January 2186

UP - Constructor Speed vote - we vote 5 parsecs, and 5 parsecs it is. Very good for poaching as we are in a central location.

Espionage to Medium for the rest.

Interstellar Capitalism -> Xeno Propaganda for the Propaganda Machine. This is totally vetoable as there are a number of interesting possibilities.

Alliance -> Star Federation
Terra Computers -> Roll up the tech tree for that (requires reprioritization of spending though).
Roll up the medical tree to Terraforming.
Hyperspace for the Hyerion manufacturing centre.

Economic Exchange @ Dester I -> Cultural Exchange Centre

Save here

----

Advice: We are currently threatening one Drengin planet. We could push the advantage with them, as long as we keep our back clear with the Torians and Altarians on our good side. That is going to get harder unless we get our morality to 50 or 51. WE will probably need ships, and the Battle Axes just got outdated. We can buy it off the Altarians for all we have, but I would probably wait.

Up next Chenglian or Zed-F - I guess whomever grabs it first...

 

[Zed-F]

UP - Constructor Speed vote - we vote 5 parsecs, and 5 parsecs it is. Very good for poaching as we are in a central location.

This is an interesting vote. While at first it may appear that a faster base speed of constructors is better for us, let's do some math...

Let's make a couple of assumptions for the sake of comparison.
- We are roughly at tech parity with the tech leaders; specifically, we are at parity with the top AI empires regarding ship movement speed tech.
- Let's say that over the next few years when the majority of poaching is going on, the average +speed tech that is generally available to the top AIs (and ourselves) is +3.
- Furthermore, we have a monopoly on Grav Accelerators and hold it tightly, such that no major gets Grav Accelerators.

Now, consider the following:
- Suppose we had voted the base speed of constructors to be zero. Then, with +3 speed techs, the AIs would have slow constructors with speed 3. Ours would be faster, speed 5. If we and an AI each send a constructor to the same location at the same time, theirs would have to be at most 60% of the distance away that ours is in order for them to have a chance at it.
- As things stand, we voted for constructors to have a base speed of 5. This is good for reducing tedium when assembling constructor packs for terror stars or party palaces, but does it really help with poaching? Sure our constructors are much faster - they go at speed 10 in this scenario! But, note, our opponents also have faster constructors - they go speed 8, not that much less. Now, in order for their constructor to beat ours to a resource, they only have to be at most 80% of the distance away, rather than 60%. Having everyone have fast constructors is actually WORSE for poaching if there is a race on.

Having very fast constructors is only to our advantage if there is no race. If everyone has slow constructors, this lets us maximize the advantage of our Grav Accelerators. So, did we really want our constructors to be very fast, or everyone else's to be very slow? The answer depends on how many races we expect to be in...

 

[Kabuki]

Did not think of it that way. Thanks for pointing that out.

In defence of higher speeds: The most likely poaching SBs are within one or two moves from our planets. The two (or three) Yor SBs are in the the very distant NE or E and the Altarians will beat us if they wish. Our arguable better productive capabilities will help.

As a side note the speed boost only lasts 3 years.

 

[Zed-F]

It's not universally bad to have faster constructors, but there is a trade-off; I just wanted to point that out. We should be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of any decision we make. If we ensure that we maintain constructors handy near where our potential objectives are, it's great as we can cover many potential objectives at once with few constructors and still keep travel time to any one "poaching opportunity" down to 1 turn. By keeping travel time down to 1 turn, we can ensure that there is no race, as we will always be able to grab any vacant resource more-or-less instantly.

 

[chenglian]

Does Zed want to play this game or should we follow the queue, so
Zed-F
Walker
->Cheng - ??
G-Force

I would be up now? Since Zed was out of town, I think it's only fair that he plays entire this game and then goes to me or maybe play two terms once it gets to him. I await your decision.

About constructors, while technically, faster speed is not as advantageous to poaching, I always park a constructor next to a vital resource of warring civs and grab those as soon as it is free, so speed ends up not mattering. I personally prefer faster speed just because it's faster - less transit time to get those packs of 8 to a resource and max it out or packs of 5 to build a terror star.

 

[Zed-F]

I can take the game tonight, I think. Got it.

 

[Zed-F]

Turn summary, 2186AD:

Most stuff looks to be ok as I start my turn. I fiddle with the Kolaz queue a bit but otherwise not many changes. Resolutions for my turn:

• We should start thinking about beefing up our military rating a tad. We also need some constructors for poaching purposes.
• There are several PQ13-14 planets around in enemy-held territory that we now have the influence to be able to grab and hold. I plan to colonize these to help increase cultural pressure on the aliens.
• Other than that, pretty smooth sailing, just continue peaceful builder mode. We will need some more morale boosters soon, so I plan to head for that after getting a couple more wonder-related techs done.

Jan: I make a quick swap with the Torians for Tristrontium Alloy and all 100 of their IP, giving up non-monopoly techs for it. Start research on Xeno Propaganda at high science.

Feb: Complete Xeno Propaganda, start Hyperspace for Hyperion Construction Center. Relations with the Torians have improved to Neutral.

March: Complete Hyperspace, start the overpriced Interstellar Tactics. A bit of funding diverted to military but we will still finish the tech next turn.

April: Complete Interstellar Tactics. Sell Interstellar Tactics to Alex for 44gpt/19 turns. Sell Interstellar Marketing, Tristrontium Alloy, and Nanobots to Alex for 41/19. I find that Alex usually has a ceiling on the amount he will spend on tech in one deal, and that it is usually better to break deals up into small chunks to get the most out of him. Swap to military production rather than tech, though we continue a trickle into 1D phasing.

May-June: Build about a half-dozen each Constructors, Battle Axes, and Colony ships. A couple of the colony ships are used to redistribute pop from overcrowded PQ18-19 planets to Vesta, the others are sent off to found colonies: two at a single system in Torian space, one in Altarian space, one in Arcean space. We are also hoping for a positive morality event since relations with the Altarians are still cool. The constructors are sent out on poaching duty near the Drengin, Arcean, and Yor starbases of interest (i.e. those on resources.) The Altarians and Torians are leaps and bounds ahead of the evil races in every category so I don't anticipate an opportunity to poach their resources. Building half a dozen Battle Axes was sufficient to bump our military rating above the Drengin, Yor, and Arceans, that's how pathetic they are.

In other news, we complete 1D phasing and start research into Xeno Negotiation, which is not really useful but on the path to Extravaganza for Stadiums.

Jul-Aug: Complete Xeno Negotiation and start on Extravaganza.

Sept: Trading time again; we send Hyperspace to Altarians for Exotic Alloys, and Exotic Alloys to Torians for Alliances, Basic Repair, and some IP. In hindsight I could have held off on this to look for a brokering opportunity but the Torians seem to be just following along behind the Altarians. On the bright side, this lets me sell Exotic Alloys and Basic Repair to Alex for 45/19, then Hyperspace for 31/19. I still can't get a deal from the Carinoids on Battleships, despite our having a ton of older techs to trade for it.

Oct: A couple funny things happen this round. First the Drengin come calling...

Umm, ok, whatever. I think you have bigger fish to fry. Torians and Altarians are at war with pretty much everyone but us at this point, and winning easily, though they haven't taken any actual real estate or blown up any starbases yet.

Then we get the following message:

Ok, surrendering I get, the Arceans have had negative income for pretty much my whole turn, as evidenced by the lack of production circles surrounding their planets. But, if you're going to surrender, why surrender to the YOR of all races??? Aren't those the guys stuck on a single planet in the far corner of the galaxy who are barely better off? Well, in the end it won't matter, our influence will spread just as well to the bottom right corner of the map regardless of who actually owns those planets.

We finish researching Extravaganza, and populate our Kolaz queue with them. I put them fairly high in the build queue, move Anti-matter plants to just after them, and Stock Exchanges to just after that. We have lots of cash right now so putting a slightly higher focus on production is in order.

Nov-Dec: We poach a former Arcean research resource. I send a constructor on the way to a former Arcean military resource. Otherwise, not too much is happening, we continue to build stuff at our planets.

Year-end summary:

We've settled 3 of the 4 planets I targetted with the fourth colony ship to arrive soon, but no morality events as of yet. There is also a constructor about to arrive at a military resource right next to the Carinoid homeworld. Our influence is dominant in a large portion of the map and we are starting to make progress on potentially flipping some Altarian planets. Note that while Vesta, Rathra, and Earth are a bit low on morale right now, that's a consequence of building long-running wonders. Give them a bit of time to build key morale boosters like stadiums and stock exchanges and they will start to shine again. I recommend about a half-year run on pure social building, then switch to research (for Large Scale Building -> Artificial Satellites -> Artificial Planets -> Terror Stars, all +influence techs, and also Drones for Nano-Rig Excavation) then a bunch of constructors for maxing out our influence SBs. That should be enough to give us the victory. Also be sure to spend a little bit of attention on our colonies in Altarian and Torian space; a few flips will complete our victory in short order.

And the save:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/rbgc2-n-2187ad.zip

 

[chenglian]

Got it.

 

[Zed-F]

NB. Check around the map to see if there are any more PQ13-14s we could send a lightly-loaded colony ship to. I saw a few but I didn't do an exhaustive search; there may be a couple more.

 

[chenglian]

2187AD

Senator Cheng takes power once again and decides to follow his past policies, while completing a few social projects set by his predecessors. His policies are outlined below:

-Maximize population growth with 100% morale, and since our income is quite high, the Senator decides that the Republic can indeed afford considerable dips in income
-Research into teleporters, construct morale boosters improve morale and thusly income
-Finish any wonders/trade goods and maybe try to nab some more

Jan 2187AD
-Set taxes to a low of 17% to have 100% morale with 100% spending, temporarily losing money, but with morale boosters soon income will be positive again
-Set enough military spending to construct a colony ship at one turn on Rathra to settle a PQ14 near Torian space, to project our influence a tad more into their territory
-Kept ships on their previous course
-Swapped all construction to constructors – after all, we’ll need those to max out starbases

Feb 2187AD
-Settle Lasitus, but no morality event
-Constructor reach research resource
-Shift social spending back to 100% as we push towards a stadium on every planet

Mar 2187AD

Wonders/Trade Goods:
Virtual Reality Modules
Propaganda Center

-Yor and Toria makes peace, but bets are that they’ll soon be back at it

-In settling Unukulkai, Senator Cheng sighs and decides to let some sea creatures live and incur some negative feelings among the people. After all, we want to look good to our “righteous” neighbors. Unfortunately, morality only went up 1 pt.

-Moved cultural exchange center up above harmony generators. We already have enough morale on those strong, productive planets, and building harmony generators wouldn’t really do anything. Once we finish stadiums and whatnot on our weaker planets, then we can start harmony generators on all planets. Right now, it would be a waste of resources and maintenance. On the other hand, we could use cultural exchange centers to speed up our victory.

Apr 2187AD

Hyperion Manufacturing Center completes at Vesta II. This gives us two productive planets, not just one really productive planet.

-Found a battleaxe with our surveyor. Sent it to a nearby undefended planet.

(IT) –Altaria goes to war with the Yor

May 2187AD

-With stadiums online at most major planets, Senator Cheng raised taxes to 39% and yet can still maintain 100% morale.

Jun 2187AD

-Traded Hyperspace and Advanced Democracy to Toria for Star Democracy, revolted to new government.

-Traded Star Democracy to Altaria for Advanced Engineering, Large Scale Buildings, Gravity Mastering, and 300 IP.

Jul 2187AD

-Nothing

Aug 2187AD

-A few planets run out of social projects to build. Starship foundry was added to the governor build list, but Senator Cheng believes it is time to look into new technologies and thus new things to build.

-Taxes are now up to 45% with 100% morale. Don’t the people just love the Universalist policies?

(IT)
-Altaria declares war on the Drengin Empire

Sep 2187AD

-Researched Organic Piercing.

Oct 2187AD

-Researched Genetic Mapping

-Altaria builds a political capital. It will not save their civilization from the influence of the Terran Republic!
Nov 2187AD

-Altaria builds a Hyperion Manufacturing Center.

-Most of our new planets complete soil enhancements/habitat improvements/entertainment networks

Dec 2187AD

-Researched Molecular Medicine

-Toria builds a political capital

Jan 2188AD

-Researched Transporters

-Toria goes to war against both the Drengins and the Yor. Senator Cheng is pleased and calls in his bets, making a handsome profit. What a great way to retire for the year!

Notes for next year:
-Morale and thusly taxes are up greatly, even though much of our income from the Alexians are gone, we can now maintain a positive balance WITH 100% spending AND 100% morale.

-Add Teleporters to a very high position on the governor’s build queue. This is one of the best social improvements, as it raises both morale and economy substantially.

-Consider turning Unukalhai into our Political Capital. A political capital there would counteract the morale lowering effects (it is right now the planet that when taxes are raised its morale go down) and to help spread our influence into Toria.

-Time to research some more techs and get some more wonders/trade goods, but remember to let our manufacturing planets catch up on social projects, especially the morale and production boosters. Perhaps one can even allow a weaker planet that has already finished all of its projects to take on some of the 400/500-cost trade goods.

-Or, we could research the starbase module techs, e.g. drones, nano-mining, then max out our two influence resources and that may be enough to win. If not, some more population or a few more wonders should be more than enough to clench our victory.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/rbgc2-n-2188ad.zip

 

[Zed-F]

While having 100% morale on all planets is nice, it's not really necessary to win. Right now all we should really need to win are the remainder of the +influence techs and to mine our starbases. Good turns otherwise, though.

Next up is G-Force.

 

[_G-Force_]

Got it

G-Force

 

[chenglian]

True, in the interests of an expeditious win, 100% morale is not important, and what's really important is just researching the starbase module techs and building the constructors, but...

Where's the fun in that? I love 100% morale and population growth and seeing the planets all very nice and fancy. Good management definitely does help on maso though, and I have a feeling we'll be going there soon enough.

 

[_G-Force_]

I'm not having much time so I apologise for the lack of screenshots.

JAN 2189: set spending to 70/30 soc/res, set research to cultural maximizing

FEB: Altarian declare war on Alexians, Drengin influence down to 1 sector, we now control 53 out of the 64 sectors with influence.

MAR: We loose a trade route from MArkus to Vesta (spending set to 97% to compensate), Alexians build manufacturing capital, Torian & Yor declare war.

APR Elctions: we get a nice 94/100 seats , Teleporters are added to the queues above starship foundry

MAY: nothing to report

JUN: Yor & Altarian make peace, we're 3rd in top cruelest civs

JUL: nothing to report

SEP: Cultural Maximizing research completed, next up trade organisations. I set spending back to 100% thanks to teleporters being completed.

OCT: shift spending to 40/30/30

NOV: we come accross an anomaly that is good for a 25% increase in our tech database.

DEC: we loose trade from Gauss to Petroni, Trade organizations is researched, next up Cultural focus. A constuctor gets build and I sent him to our influence resource. The Drengin lost their starbase on moral resource so I build one of ours on it.

JAN: Drengin & Altarian make peace.

Conclusion: still at 100 % spending, we should build more constructors, the survey ship is on route to a system with another PQ14 (I believe sector 7-7). We should start winning soon.

Save is here

G-Force

 

[Zed-F]

Ok, back to my normal spot in the turn rotation, so got it.

EDIT: above link is bad (misspelled save file), so file is here:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/rgbc2-n-2189ad.zip

 

[Zed-F]

I usually prefer to end my games relatively quickly without worrying too much about what my score is. On Maso, this usually means ending the game right after I have finished terraforming my planets, as I'm usually out of the hole you start in on Maso by then. We won't need to research even that far this time; I think it's time to start bringing this one home now.

Pre-turn: Veto research on Cultural Focus as this doesn't really do anything for us (only trade +10) and instead swap to Drones, with an eye to get Nano Mining, which will allow Nano-rig Extraction modules on our mining starbases. Purchase manufacturing center on Andersona (Altarian space) and swap to Political Capital. Set spending to mostly military with a bit of social & research, with the intention of pumping up our influence mines and putting together a couple of cultural palaces. I turn on autolaunch on all planets.

For no particular reason other than to get ahold of the remaining AI-held techs, I swap a bunch of commonly available techs to the Carinoids for Battleships and Energy Focusing. We also sell Battleships to Alex for 135/19 and Corvettes, then sell Star Democracy for 72/19. Eventually this will help us research at full-bore without going deep into the red. I try not to sell Alex too much as I don't want to completely strip him of cash & let the Torians gobble him up.

Q1:
We establish a new trade route to the Torian planet Artemis since we just discovered Trade Organizations and we happened to have a spare freighter sitting there. The Paradians show up on Hatch (right next to our Gladstone system) with all our tech, but I don't do anything about it. Normally I would bribe everyone to declare war on him or capture him myself with a quick transport, but we've almost won anyway so it really doesn't matter too much if he trades all our tech away, and we value diversity too much to conquer him. We research Drones and Nano-mining; research is turned off for now & focus is mostly on military with a bit of social build.

Q2:
We are starting to populate our influence-resource starbases with mining modules. All the necessary constructors are on the way and we are starting to assemble 7-packs for cultural palace construction, the first one being in Drengin space. I should probably have started with Toria instead but they will come next. Geta III in former Arcean, now Yor space, starts to exhibit rebellious tendencies. We complete the Political Capital on Andersona.

Q3:
Antra in Altarian space flips to us. This should help put more pressure on the remaining Altarian sectors. We complete a culture palace in 2-6, near the Alexians and Drengin. Drengin's Markus is starting to look rebellious. We have 3 sets of 7 constructors gathering in Torian space.

Q4:
UP vote, our constructors get slower but we get 20BC/month, woohoo. We swap funding to research on Artificial Satellites for +10 influence and access to Historical Preserve. Markus (Drengin) flips to us. Poseidon (Alexian) flips to us. One culture palace completes near Torian space and a second is started. In addition to Geta (Yor), we now have Ditla (Torian) and Hestia (Drengin) that are looking rebellious.

Year-end summary:
We have completed Artificial Satellites and research is set to Artificial Planets (+10 influence). After that should come Terror Stars (+10 influence.) Another option is to set spending to social and build the Historical Preserve in a likely spot, possibly Ditla when it flips. Our last constructor 7-pack is currently heading to Torian-held space but the completion of the 2nd culture palace should turn the sector they are heading to blue so we can build a culture base there. Alternatively you could redirect the last 7 constructors to a back-lines Torian sector that just turned blue, but I'm not sure how much they would object to that. We don't want to start a war....

Map:

As you can see from the map, we should be getting the 1-year-to-win message soon. Whoever gets that message should just finish the game.

And the save:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/rgbc2-n-2190ad.zip

Zed-F << Done
Kabuki << UP
Chenglian << On Deck
G-Force