Ha! Counting on us to do what, exactly??? We're not even in the senate yet!
Ok, well I played my turns, here's the skinny...
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/RBMoo1C_Turn_0181.zip
Most of my turn was taken up with subduing the Tachidi. I didn't like the construction of the 2 fleets we had there (one with all recon and no teeth, the other with all carriers and no support) so I disbanded them and built a new IF fleet instead. The ships from those two TFs should now be back in our reserves. The Tachidi used to have 6 planets in the Khumba system; they are now down to 1 and it should fall by next turn as it has a mobile corps on it which has nearly conquered the planet. Please remember to disband all ground troops in that system once it is clear; I already disbanded the main armour armies that I used on the larger planets but there are probably a couple of mobile corps around in system that still need to be disbanded.
I also tried to get some concentration of our forces happening in Aulavuana territory so we'd have enough ships in one spot to be able to take out enemy planets having missile batteries. Our ships in the area are pretty much all at Malec now and assaulting the two large Aulavuana planets there, with 2 armour armies on the way (again, remember to disband the armies after the planets are conquered.) I built a mob center at Trilar so we should be able to get more transports going in that area in a reasonable amount of time as we get the opportunity.
I ignored the Kar-Zinoaur leeches again I'm afraid. A single LR TF there won't cut it on its own; we need some significant carrier presence in the area if we're going to be serious about assaulting planets with missile bases. I didn't bother to try to send any down there as we really didn't have enough on hand at the start of my turn and it seems like a very low priority front at the moment. We could probably spare a couple carriers with an appropriate escort of Pd/Lr and Rcn ships if we wanted to now, but the next leader may decide we have bigger fish to fry...
We now have a significant number of ships in our reserves, probably enough to form a carrier armada (incl. some escorts and recon) though I didn't check, as well as a fair number of transports and enough armour for several armour armies at once. They are all warp 3 ships though so they are not super fast. Fortunately, we were recently able to steal Impulse Drives (warp 5) from the robots so I went ahead and redesigned all our ships except the colony and outpost ships. I got rid of the PD class since we can just use LR ships instead. These ships all incorporate cloaking technology and use mainly Autofire Ion Cannons for defense which should give them quite a punch and good PD capability (assuming the PD bug doesn't strike.) The carriers are using a large swarm of Ion Cannon fighters with a smaller number of Gauss Cannon fighters added in for extra punch.
Given the fate of RBMoo1B, I am seriously thinking about taking the fight to the Icthys, even though they are the closest thing we have to friends.
I didn't bother to give the NOs any planets but the Zibal system is a good possibility since it's out of the way and only has 2 planets in it. In order to go after the Icthys we will probably have to go south from Misarius through Alcyone to Sirrah. From there we should be able to go south to Indu San which I believe is their capital (it has something like 22 system ships in it.) If you do build a carrier armada and start in on this path try to be careful about picking off the system ships (preferably by attacking planets without missile bases) before you attack the planets with missile bases. Also, it might be helpful to bring along a sacrificial TF if you are thinking of going up against a heavily defended target to absorb the first missile strike; the AI will seems to send the first missile strike against a colony or transport ship if one is around, which might save your attackers a big beating and give them time to take out the bases before a second volley can be launched. Another thing to consider is that even with a fairly large reserve of transport ships and armour armies, it takes time for planets to be conquered and for ships/armies to make it back out of the delay box and then back to the front, so more never hurts. Try to keep building mob centers close to the front when possible (i.e. you capture an enemy planet with significant industrial output.)
I'm not sure how much further we can take this. If we do go after the Icthys, will that ruin our chances of getting in the Senate? Now I'm not 100% sure considering the Aulavuana still seem to like us even though we are slowly absorbing their territory. If, on the other hand, our relations with the Icthys do in fact go down the tubes, I'm not really interested in going for a total conquest win. At the rate we're going, the code patch will be out long before we can even consider getting that far.
Anyway, I guess we'll just keep going and see what happens.
