2300 Scouts head to C, D. Colony to System A. Build 2 Scout 1s, and 2.7 factories.
2301 Two new scouts head to systems B and E. Full factory production.
2302 Well, you win some and you lose some. Our colony ship arrives at Talas (system A). Good news is its Rich, bad news is its Tundra. Shift the colony ship over to system B, which will take 2 turns. Oh, well, were no worse off than if we had waited for the scouts to get there first.
2303 Our scout arrives at system B a turn ahead of the colony ship, and discovers Volantis, an Arid 70. Thatll work! Send the scout on to white star at the east edge.
IBT: We colonize
Volantis.
2304 Scout finds Gorra at system C, an Ultra-Rich Toxic 40. Its at range 4, but would have been range 3 to Talas, and will put D within range 3, so at least that part of the pre-game analysis was correct, even if its academic for now.
Time to shift people to the new colony. Kholdan just now hit 51, since we only started with 40. I run the numbers through Charis Max Growth formula, and come up with 20, but I dont really want to take Kholdan below 1/3, so I fudge it and send 18. Also set Kholdan to kick out 5 more scouts, to cover all remaining planets in range.
2305 Scouts find Laan, a Desert 45, at system D (range 4). New scouts head out, two to blockade at Talas and Volantis, two to the south, and one to system E to relieve that scout, who can now reach the first Yellow to the north.
2306 Scout arrives at system E, which is Firma, another Rich, this time a Minimal 35. A habitable Rich this early is definitely a Good Thing! Its also at Range 4. Im sensing a pattern here. Its obvious we cant expand without better range tech, or Tundra, which is a second tier tech, so although its early, I think its time to get started on research.
The colonists have arrived at Volantis, which is now at 19 production. That should be enough to get it going. I divide it among Construction, Planetology, and Propulsion. Were excellent at Construction, so hopefully we can pick up a cheap clean-up or factory tech quick. Planetology could get us cleanup or terraforming, and also open up the next tier so we know if we have tundra. Finally, propulsion is our poor area, but at least one of the range techs will be there, and that will get us going. The other three areas offer no immediate benefits, and since Volantis will be our research provider for a while, Id rather focus on what we need right now.
IBT: Drum Roll Please
Construction:
Industrial Tech 9 (210rp) or Waste 80% (600).
Planetology:
Terraforming +10 (160) or Barren (360).
Propulsion:
Range 4 (450).
My choices are in bold, with the base research cost listed. The two Construction techs were both useful, but Tech 9 is cheaper, and we are definitely in the building phase, so I gave it the nod.
2307 Send the scout from E north to the Yellow. I am going to postpone factories on Volantis and devote it entirely to research, while still building up Kholdan, so it will be ready to crank out colony ships when the tech comes in. It will hurt Volantis in the short run, but with proportionally more of our production coming from our people, rather than factories, it shouldnt be too bad, and the Industrial 9 will help when it is time to catch up. I divide our abundant research effort, with 50% toward Range 4, and the rest split between the other two.
2308 Scouts find Helos, a Minimal 30, at the white on the east edge.
2309 Two scouts report in, finding Vox, a Desert 35, at the yellow north of Firma, and Imra, an Inferno 10 at the green to the south.
2310 Nothing happens. Well, I guess my paranoia about getting our scouts out to beat rivals from the nearby yellows was unfounded, but better safe than sorry. I havent seen any sign of intelligent life out there.
2311 More nothing.
2312 Scout discovers Celtis, an Ultra-Poor Steppe 50 at the red to the NE. I also get the MAX sign on Kholdans slider. Still a ways to go, but we are passing the 2 factory/person point. I back off on factory construction a little, putting an extra 30 bc into research, so we can speed up our techs. Kholdan will still build enough factories to keep up with population growth.
2313 Whats that? A blue scout near Vox? Must just be a UFO.
2314 Nope, its for real, and its the Sakkra. Our brave unarmed scout chases their cowardly unarmed scout away from Vox. Well, at least the Sakkra usually make decent neighbors. We definitely need to push north quickly, though.
2315 Back to nothing.
2316 Techs are getting into the low percentages
2317 Waiting
IBT: Finally, we have
Range 4! [dance] Our choices now are Nuclear Engines (Warp 2) or Inertial Stabilizer, I take the Engines first. The problem is no Range 6, which we need to get the systems to the S and E.
2318 Going into the tech screen, I reduce the percentage on propulsion, boosting our research on the other two. I originally thought about opening all the areas, but Ill leave that for the next player to choose those techs. Start Kholdan on a colony ship, it has a net production of 140, so it shows 5 turns, but with population growth should bring it down to 4.
IBT: We discover
Terraforming +10, our choices now are Dead Environment or Death Spores, such a lively choice! I take the Enviro tech, as it will open the Tundra world.
2319 I manually set both planets to start gradual terraforming, making sure to keep the colony ship completing in 3 turns. Balance tech a little more, hopefully we can get Industrial 9 before I turn over the reigns. I also push a couple of our scouts out to newly in-range systems.
IBT: Sakkras show up at Vox again, this time with an equally cowardly Colony Ship, and our brave scout again chases them off, but sends a message: Hurry!
2320 Well, our tech didnt come in, but its at 33%, so it should be any turn now.
As I said, Ill leave it for the next Great Leader to rebalance techs and open the three remaining areas. We could also back off tech (dont stop it entirely) and get Volantis building factories, especially once Industrial 9 is done.
Colony ship is due in 2, I would humbly recommend colonizing Firma, the Rich world to the north, but just a suggestion.
Our only choices are Firma and Laan, the desert 45. Firma will also let us reach Vox, but thats about it until we get Range 7. Of course, Firma, Laan, and Vox should open some new systems to scout, so hopefully we can keep expanding N and W.
Check the scouts, I sent a couple out from close to home. We may need to build a few more to take up blocking positions, and relieve the forward ones so they can push out once Firma is settled.
Kholdan is at 76 pop, 153 factories, and terraforming has bumped the max up to 102, should take about 4 more turns. Volantis has 51 of 72 pop, but no factories yet.
Heres the map of our fledling star empire, and what we know of our Rich neighborhood. This should be a very good location, once we get the techs we need to access the other rich planets. I have to believe there is someone to our W, but no sign of them yet, once Laan is colonized, we should be able to scout further that way.
