RBO OSG2 - The Klackon Menace

[Selentine]

First, agree about spying on Psilons, especially early before their security gets too high.

I know Dead plus either or won't work, but what about Dead plus both?

Well, I'm all wet on this one. Dead + TF+10 gives Planet=9, which is +8 levels or 79% size or 553 for the colony base. 80% alone gives Construct=5, which is +4 or 89% or 445 for the Tanks. Large hull size is 1000 + 20*Construct, or 1100. Power consumption is 100, or 10 retro engines, which are 9 each with just Range 4 (Prop=3). So this is in fact enough, with 12 left over. 80% AND Industry 9 gives Construct=6, which is +5 or 87% or 435, so that's 42 left over.

These are the tech levels shown on the T screen, 80% of the highest achieved (fractions truncated, I think) plus the number (excluding starting techs) learned. Tanks are initially 500 size and colony bases (all types) are 700. Size is then 97% one level above, then 94%, then 92, 89, 87, 84, 82, 79, 77, 75, 73, 71, 69, 67, 65, 63, 61, 60, 58, 56 at 20 above, where I stopped counting.

Power consumption doesn't change, but engines themselves get smaller with Prop advances. Retro engines produce 10, Nuke engines 20, Sub-light 30, etc. So a Mark I requires 20 size + 2 retro engines or 40 at the start of the game but 38 once Range 4 is learned. I don't have a complete spreadsheet but it could be built.

Selentine

 

[Patroclus]

So full, you can actually see the bills peeking out of the top. Crisp, green, 100 Billion Credit bills.

Cheddar. Moolah. Benjamins. Dough.

This is a succinct and accurate description of my turns. A fun way to start my first succession game.

Read on:

We have some defense issues. The sakkra have 72 small ships at Vox. With their population growth rate, if they scout any of our colonies they will get all Starship Troopers on our butts. And while we have a minimal trade deal with the lizards, they also have an alliance with the Psilons, who we are at war with.

I think our greatest asset right now is Firma. That will help a lot, but it needs factories. We have no planetary reserve at the moment so I can’t boost it any.

Goals for my turn are:
Build factories and population
Get some defenses up
Get over to at least one eastern edge colony with a LR colony ship

2340:
We need colonists on Vox, but I don’t want to reduce the population of Firma. I’ll do Erick’s suggestion of bouncing through firma (send now, then send from Firma in 3 turns if the coast is clear, just before colonists land.) I sent 12, and ticked up eco to handle waste from transports. Not much else to do, except worry bout our defenses.

If duralloy will let us fit fuel tanks on our colony (I’m not sure but I’ll take your word for it), we should leave half our research on construction.

I design a medium fighter (“Las Fig 1”, 4x small laser, computer, shield, warp 1) but don’t build any yet, keeping Firma on factory building. I won’t be able to get enough in position right away if they come after us immediately, so we might as well max factories.

2341:
Sakkra have a fleet of 12 daemons flying southwest past Laan. Must be using their alliance with the brainiacs. We also can see a psilon colony ship at Denubius.

I notice we were only on one tick spying vs the psilons. If we’re going to try and steal from them we should put more money towards it, but only once our hidden spy gets placed and we see if they have anything worth stealing. I leave it alone.

Firma says MAX on factories. I move sliders to just finish that, with the remainder into Defense; we want at least one base at this planet ASAP, followed by a whole bunch more just like it (eventually).

2342:
Firma’s done with factories. I move down defense to build a base next year, and move the rest to Las Fig 1 building, RELOCing the fighter to Vox. Will be built next year and arrive in 3. I also tweak Kholdan to max population next turn.

2343:
Kholdan maxes population. I transfer the 12 colonists from Firma to Vox as the 12 from Laan are about to arrive. Planetology bulb is nearly full.

2344:
Sakkras now have 106 of their small fighters at Willow. Volantis’ pop has caught up with its factories, so I move some BC from tech to factories to keep everyone employed. We still have 320 RPs going, and I notice the Sakkras alliance with the Psilons has broken.... Psilons are at war with everyone it seems.

2345:
Our first LasFig1 arrives at Vox, with two more en route.

2346: Dead Landings at 3%. Vox’s new population arrives and production starts to take off.

Our spies infiltrate the Sakkras and the Silicoids. Rocks have Deep Space Scanner, Hyper-X Rockets and Gatling Lasers. Sakkras have ECM Jammer Mk1, Duralloy Armor, Class II deflectors, Improved Eco Restoration, Controlled Tundra, Nuclear Engines, and Hyper V Rockets. And 121 of their popcorn fighters on Willow. Oh deary me, this Ruthless Expansionist might just have his eye on our holdings at Vox, donchathink? Well they don’t call this Impossible for nothing...

Well, if we’re at war with the Psilons, we might as well get stealing while the stealing is good. I increase spying 5 ticks, so we might actually be able to get something.

2347: Spy infiltrates the Psilons... they have fewer goodies than the sakkras, but the very nice Personal Deflector Shield and Inertial Stabilizer. I switch our spy to Espionage, and would say take Shield Tech before we take Propulsion Tech, although of course we want both.

2350: Laan is terraformed, so I reduce eco to Clean, and keep building factories. The Sakkra buildup at Willow reaches 176 small fighters; we have 7 LasFig1s there and 3 on the way. Techs are about to pop across the board; construction at 3% and planetology at 15%.

I stop building lasfigs and switch Firma to a Placeholder (a huge ship design we’ll never build), in anticipation of getting Dead Bases and sending a colony to the Rich Tundra immediately.

2352:
BINGO! Dead tech comes in, and Hyper V rockets with it. We have our choice of Controlled Barren (useless), Death Spores (4000), Controlled Inferno (5760), Enhanced Eco (6760), or Controlled Toxic (9000). Hmmm! Toxic would get us the U-Rich planet, but the odds of us getting that tech before the Silicoids swipe the planet are not good. Inferno would only get us the little stub of a planet, while Enhanced Eco would benefit us across the board. I choose the cleanup tech. For weapons, we can choose Gatling Laser (1000), Neutron Pellet Gun (1960), Hyper X rockets (2560), or Ion Cannons (4000). Since we got Hyper V’s, our bases will already have some teeth, so I’m less inclinde to get the rockets. Ion Cannons will be a significant upgrade to our Lasers. I choose to research the Ion Cannon. I also move some research from Planetology to other fields.

I check ship designs. We CAN build a Large ship, with Standard colony base and Reserve fuel tanks as of right now. I design two colony ships: a LR colony (Standard base + fuel tanks) and a Dead Base. The Firma prebuild has enough to build a LR colony in 1 turn, which will go to Endoria; subsequent colony ships can fill in behind. Kholdan will build the Dead Base in 3 turns, which will go to the Rich Tundra nearby (the shorter trip from Kholdan will pay off too, so we only lose 1 turn on the Rich planet.)

I also adjust sliders. Laan has factories exceeding its population so I move some to RPs since Kholdan has stopped research for the moment. Volantis will max population and factories next turn.

2353:
Deep Space Scanner research comes in. I have the choice between ECM II (1960) and Battle Computer III (4000); I take BCIII.

Our first LR colony at Firma is built and sent to Endoria; it will pop another in 2 turns.

The Big Scary Daemon buildup at Willow continues... they have over 200 now, with 19 to arrive next turn, but so far they haven’t sent them our way (KNOCK WOOD). Our 10 LasFig1s probably can't beat them, but maybe a computer and shield will make the difference. There is a fleet of 35 transports heading southwest from Willow; looks like its heading to Denubius, but not totally sure... could be Laan, but did they ever scout there?

IBT: Event, Volantis is now Rich. Thats, uh... our planet?

HOLY CRAP BULLWINKLE! We have Firma (45 Rich), Volantis (80 Rich), we’re about to get Talas (Base 50 Rich, plus terraforming), and we will undoubtedly be getting Gorra (Base 40 Ultra Rich). We are, as they say, In The Money. Making the Tall Dollars. I don't think I've ever seen a production base like this... and we're the production-bonus Klackons on top? The only drawback is our research is down, but Kholdan shall probably be research central.

2354:
I switch Volantis to LR colony building (2 turns from no prebuild!), adjust Kholdan to finish its Dead Base next turn and the rest to research, adjust Laan to build a few factories and the rest to research (this planet will probably be sending people to new homes soon, so theres no point in spending on more factories than we’ll use right away).

IBT: Psilons come calling, asking for a peace treaty. I say no; they can’t really hit us, and they might offer us something. In fact, they do: they offer us 650 BC! I take their money. Do I call off our spies? Are you kidding?

2355:
Our LR colony (Firma) and our Dead Colony (Kholdan) are built. The next leader should send the Dead Base to the Tundra, but its an open question to go for Drakka (Terran 90 to the west) or fill in the colonies to the east. In light of our New Big Rich Planet, and our New Fat Bank Account, I would definitely say go for Drakka -- we should have no trouble holding on to it.

Next leader should:
o Send out our colony ships, first to the rich Tundra and the Terran in the west, followed by the four eligible ones in the east.
o Build at least one base at Vox ASAP and probably start piling up bases everywhere else. Once Shield 2 comes in, our bases will be immune to their laser fighters.
o Get some fleet defense to cover new colonies besides Vox. Our Scout 1 defenses won't hold them off for long. You might also send enough fighters to the Toxic U-Rich to hold off an armed colony ship.
o Check our spies; enemy techs changed a bit that I didn't report. You might also want to alter our psilon espionage efforts.
o Start spending our Planetary Reserve to speed factory building at new colonies.

I'm on a mac, and I think I got the gamefile export and zipping correct... if its not readable let me know and I'll try and fix it ASAP.

 

[Selentine]

I'm on a mac, and I think I got the gamefile export and zipping correct... if its not readable let me know and I'll try and fix it ASAP.

It's readable (got it), but the mixed-case ship names are freaking me out.

I need to get a grasp on the situation before I take my turns, so don't expect it tonight, more likely tomorrow afternoon.

Selentine

 

[Selentine]

I need to get a grasp on the situation before I take my turns, so don't expect it tonight, more likely tomorrow afternoon.

Well, I'm not gonna finish tonight. Did what I intended, will think some more in the morning.

2355: I get a grasp of the situation. The deadbase from Kholdan goes to Talas (Rich). I decided not to spend 8 turns in transit from Firma to Drakka, and sent that ship instead to Helos (m30 on the rim), expecting to hit nuke drive within 4 turns to reach Drakka just as quick. I want to bring the dead40 into range, and the Ultra Poor is of course the lowest priority.

Vox goes to bases, with a couple cliks from reserve. Volantis goes to reserve. Kholdan and Laan go to tech. Firma stays on shipbuilding. I note what the enemies have researched, but don't change the spy allocations yet.

I set Duralloy to 18%, Shield II to 15%, one click on BC3, 5/1, and IC, and the rest on Nuke Drive. Duralloy and Shields both hit! The construction choice is Ind Tech 8 (blah) or Auto Repair (hurray!). The shield choice is Shield 3 or nothin. ARS is 4700 and S3 is 4000, for future reference.

2356: A couple cliks of reserve go to Vox--just enough to get 2 Y in case of emergency. One click on everything else and the rest on Nuke Drive, which gets it to 5%. I want better odds, so I spend the 200+ reserve I generated last turn on tech, which gets Nuke Drive to 8%. It hits!

Given the choice of Stabilizer, Sub-Light, or Range 7, I take Sub-Light (7200). On medium maps I don't pay for range > 6 if I can help it; that's what spies and pointy sticks are for.

2357: I save. My immediate goal behind me, I need to sleep on this before bearing onward.

Raising the scarlet standard high,
Selentine

 

[Justus II]

Not a bad start!

 

[Selentine]

Overnight: Class III + Mark III + Auto-Repair + Heavy Ion Cannon + Sub-Light will make a decent ship. Of those, IC is most urgent because we may need to make smalls. We're getting about 1.5 BC/pop now, and with all these new colonies we'll need to breed workers. They pay off in 13. 5/1 will save us 0.24 BC/fac and costs 6760. For it to pay off in 13 we'd need close to 2000 facs. Nursing it along to get the kickback looks better. I start with 25 cliks on IC and 5 on the rest, with minimal research. When Kholdan goes back to research I'll switch the allocations to 40 and 2.

2357: now that we have Nuke Drive, I design a warp 2 laser-armed LR Colony and relocate one from Firma to Laan. This won't save or cost time, but I don't like being in hyperspace longer than necessary. I also design a warp 2 LR Dead-colony to build on Volantis and send to Escalon in the corner. This is all six designs so I'm constrained for a while.

Kholdan sends 18 pop to Talas and switches to ECO. I send ~300 BC to Talas (it needs 50 to Terraform + 540 for 120 facs, so ~300 is half of that to max it).

2358: Kholdan on 105/110 sends another 14 to Talas. Vox is set to finish its base; Sakkras aren't bothering us, seem to have their hands full already. Firma and Volantis throw some BC into the dock and some into the reserve.

2359: Vox has its base up and switches to facs. A Psilon colship appears next to Drakka (within 1 pc of our scout there) but is in a funny spot that suggests it's just passing by. Kholdan at 104/110 sends 13 more to Talas, that'll be enough.

Land on Endoria

2360: Indeed, the Psilon bypasses Drakka. Vox is at 32pop/40facs now. I send 10 men to Endoria (too far from anywhere else) and set Vox to slowly Tform and build ~3facs/turn with some left for research. I also send ~100 BC reserve to Endoria, will send more if the Sakkras let me keep it.

2361: Nothing.
2362: Nothing. IBT, land on Drakka, Helos, and Escalon. This brings up the first vote! Sakkras 3 for us, Silicoids 5 themselves, Mrrshans 3 abstain, Alkari 2 abstain, Psilons 4 for us, and I throw our 4 votes to the Silicoids.

Oops. I build a LR col on Firma for the stupid ultrapoor, but I forgot to unrelocate.

I send men from Kholdan to Escalon first (it's hostile and needs help) and from Firma to Drakka. I also send ~100 BC to the three new colonies.

2363: More pop from Kholdan to Helos. Talas says MAX so I push the ECO to +1 POP.

2364: Talax maxed at 120. I don't bother sending more men; let it fill up naturally. Kholdan switches back to tech; I think we need Ion Cannons more than we need to boost our backyard colonies.

2365: We have plenty of reserve. Another ~100 BC to the new colonies, which are all being left alone while the AIs make war with each other. I leave Endoria building factories. With reserve it could build a base in 4, which is fast enough to raise one if the Sakkras launch at it.

2366: Nothing
2367: I cut down the % spying on the Psilons since our income has increased and our spies aren't hitting anyway (Psilons have BC3 now).

Finally land on UPoor Celtsi. I set it to ECO, since making Klackons raises the prod faster than making facs.

2368: Send some BC to Celtsi. Nothing really happening.
2369: Vox will finish terraforming this turn. Our new colonies are coming along fine and no one is bothering us. I scrap the various colony ship designs and make a Huge Hull so our rich planets don't accidentally produce something useless. In my own games, I like to have 000s of BC in the dock when Auto Repair comes in. Ion Cannon is at 6%.

And hits. I don't know if this is a quirk in MoO or in the VMWare virtual machine, but I have better luck hitting breakthroughs than the %s indicate. Ion Rifle (5760) is the only new choice. I take it since we missed Hand Lasers (and none of our neighbors have it to steal).

I never sent armed blockers to the Toxic URich because with warp2 we can beat the Silicoids there if they target it. And I prefer not to build gunships until absolutely forced because I'd rather build them later with better tech when higher income makes them more affordable too.

I did not encounter any enemy ships or I'd include their specs here. I won't type in enemy techs; they're available on the R screen.

Now I just have to figure out how to attach this savefile...

Selentine

 

[Zed-F]

Sounds like good results so far, team! The rest of the galaxy is squabbling, but we're growing up nicely in peaceful builder mode; this bodes well, as it's likely that anyone amassing an SoD will find someone other than us to use it on. So long as we don't neglect military power too badly, our economic power ranking will hopefully be enough to keep the AIs off our backs long enough to build up an overwhelming advantage.

Justus_II
Erick the Red
Patroclus
Selentine
JMB <== UP NOW
Zed <== On Deck

 

[JMB]

I've got it and will play sometime tonight/tomorrow night.

JMB

 

[JMB]

0 - Wow, that is quite the reserve we have... (well, much more than I've ever had at this point in the game... ) I reallocate our research from weapons (>90%) to a more balanced approach with a slight emphasis on improved eco restoration.

1 - Transfer some of our reserve to our recently colonized planets. Other than that, not much.

2 - Not much.

3 - Vox maxes out its factories and I spend some more of our reserves. That's all folks!

4 - Laan maxes its factories and Vox maxes its population.

5 - The High Council convenes. It is us versus the Geodes. The Sakkra and Psilions vote for us (3 and 5 votes), the Alkari vote for the Geodes (1), and the Mrrshans abstain (3 votes). Both the Geodes and us have 6 votes ourselves. Since the Geodes can't win, I vote for them. The Sakkra come calling wanting to upgrade our trade agreement to 300 bc/year. I agree. Not much else. Our huge ship will complete in Volantis in three years and once it gets one year from completion, I'll start redirecting its funds back into our reserve. I'll do likewise as our other huge ships near completion.

6 - Helos maxes out its factories. Nothing else of note.

7 - Not much.

8 - Escalon maxes its factories. Not much else.

9 - Nothing much.

10 - Finally, we make a breakthrough on our spying efforts against the Psilions. We can choose between Computers, Force fields, Planetology, and Weapons. I have looked at the Psilion techs recently, but have forgotten what we could steal from them... I remember propulsion being the best field though. I also remember that the Psilions had Personal Deflector Shields and that was their only Force Field advance that we didn't have. In the Planetology field, I think they had Improved Eco Restoration, but we are over half way there, so I don't think it is a wise choice selecting that one. I don't really remember what they had in terms of Computer or Weapons techs. So, I decide to choose Force Fields and we get Personal Deflector shields. Looking back afterwards, the Psilions had ECM Jammer I, Battle Computer Mark II, Class IV Deflector Shields (a new discovery, I believe...), Improved Eco Restoration, Death Spores, Gatling Lasers, Neutron Blasters, and Fusion Beams (in the Construction and Propulsion fields, they have Reduced Industrial Waste 60%, Deuterium Fuel Cells, Inertial Stabilizers, and Sub-light drives). So, I think I made the right decision...

Notes for the next leader... Our computers, construction, force field, and planetology research are maturing and should pop in the next 5-10 turns. Volantis will complete its huge ship in two turns with just one click into ship building. Talus will complete it in 14 turns with one click into ship building and Firma will complete its ship in 5 turns at the present rate.

Here's the save: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/OSG22380.zip

JMB

EDIT: I know I shouldn't be playing after my turns are over ( ), but I just pressed enter after turn 10 and two of our Huge Hull ships were produced at Talus and Volantis . They shouldn't have been as Volantis wasn't sending any funding towards building its ship, and Talus supposedly had another 14 turns or so. Even decreasing the funding at Talus to none, doesn't prevent the ship from being built (maybe this has something to do with the fact that us having discovered Personal Deflector Shields has reduced the price of the Huge ship but it hadn't updated the sliders yet...) So, I'd strongly advise the next leader to design a new ship so that we don't waste our prebuild (even though we sort of already have as the techs we were interested in haven't popped yet). Sorry about that guys...

EDIT 2: Actually, one thing we might be able to do is to redesign the Huge ship to something that costs more than our current design...

 

[Selentine]

0 - Wow, that is quite the reserve we have... (well, much more than I've ever had at this point in the game... )

Yer welcome. We got lucky with rich planets, and I used them for reserve since that gives us more flexibility with no penalty. We also got a peace dividend from the Psilons. And I only had 80% (40 of 50 clicks) on weapons research--I wanted to make sure you'd be able to make decent warships if needed.

EDIT: I know I shouldn't be playing after my turns are over ( ), but I just pressed enter after turn 10 and two of our Huge Hull ships were produced at Talus and Volantis . They shouldn't have been as Volantis wasn't sending any funding towards building its ship, and Talus supposedly had another 14 turns or so.

When you stole Personal Deflector Shield, it decreased the cost of the Huge's shield, so however many BC were in the dock already became enough to commission them. Redesigning the huge to utilize the 1100 free space would indeed stop them from launching too soon. And I agree about not launching until the techs we have simmering come through.

Nice job. Looks like you've left things in a good position for Zed.

Selentine

 

[Zed-F]

Ok, got it.

 

[Zed-F]

2380: Taking over on my turn, I make a few adjustments... firstly, there are some circumstances where I will spend money building a huge hull I don't intend to complete, such as when I am already at war (or planning to be at war shortly) and have only a short wait before all the techs I need to design my ships come in. However, in this case we are still waiting for quite a few techs -- we haven't even made any serious effort to research sublight engines yet! I would rather have used those funds to boost colony growth, or fund research which would have paid dividends right away, such as Enhanced Eco Restoration, rather than sock funds away in big ships we weren't planning to build anytime really soon. There would have been time enough to start building those ships once we were a bit closer to our research goals. Still, since we have a big reserve built up in our stardocks, we might as well make use of it, so I plan to start construction of a wartime fleet as soon as the techs we need come in. Similarly, having a reserve is good in case we run into an emergency, but we don't want to allow it to grow too large. If a multi-turn emergency crops up, we only need enough cash on hand to cover the first turn; we can redirect funds from rich planets to the reserve and generate enough to cover subsequent emergency turns on the fly. Better a bird in the hand than two in the bush!

Secondly, I don't at all like the idea of letting factories sit idle while we wait for pop to grow naturally. I would much rather spend on eco to grow pop where needed, especially since we have few planets that are really large to begin with. Natural population growth is far too slow to be worth the lost income, especially with the Klackons whose population are worth more to begin with. Moreover, there are other ancillary benefits to higher pop, including powergraph status for disuading enemy attacks, more votes, and extra troops available for ground assaults.

Thirdly, we are seriously underdefended when it comes to bases. I boost spending across the board to help with this. While everyone else is still at war with one another, and probably won't hit us, it would be foolish to be completely unprepared in case they do -- especially since we are going to start going on offense soon.

I increase trade with the Silicoids to 750 BC/annum. I don't get the impression that we are planning to go to war with them soon. More likely if we are going to try to overrun anyone, it will be the Sakkra. The Sakkra have a fair-sized navy but they have the worst tech of everyone we might consider fighting, and the smallest empire, so if we can fend off their navy, reinforcements will be less of a problem. We will want to take at least 2 of their planets including their homeworld, but since I don't know what their other planets are, we will have to see what their other planets are before we decide whether to commit genocide or let someone else wipe the Sakkra out.

2381-2383: Nothing.

2384: Enhanced Eco comes in, we can choose Soil Enrichment, Controlled Radiated, or Terraforming +40. I know the Sakkra have +40 already, so I don't choose that in case we can steal/capture it from them, but Soil vs. Radiated is a hard choice. I pick Radiated, but we will also want Soil next. The Silicoids are expanding pretty much unchecked and are up to 12 planets already. The Sakkra complain that our empire is growing too large.

2385-2386: Nothing.

2387: Our spies penetrate the Psilon research labs. We can choose anything other than Force Fields and Construction, which means this is a relatively low-level penetration. Computers won't get us anything useful, nor will Planetology, but either Weapons or Propulsion are possibilities. I choose the latter, and fortunately we get Inertial Stabilizer (other options were Sublight, which was probably out of reach, or Deuterium Cells.) I also note that the Sakkra have allied with the Psilons against the Silicoids and Mrrshan. They used to be at war with the Psilons -- must be some enemy-of-my-enemy action going on with the Silicoids and Mrrshan.

The inertial stabilizer steal is significant. The Sakkra don't have any computer technology other than ECM, which means that ships equipped with stabilizers & decent engines will be difficult targets for Sakkra missile bases, which only have a total attack value of 2 (Computer I + Battle Scanner).

2388: Sublight Engines and Battle Computer III come in, we choose Improved Space Scanner and Fusion Engines next.

2389: Automated Repair System and Force Field III come in, we choose Industrial Tech 6 and Force Field IV next. We have everything we need to build our first huge ships. We do need some better missiles soon for our bases, but we also need to keep up in Computer & Planetology tech and it seems silly to underuse our natural bonus in construction tech. I underemphasize Force Fields and Propulsion to some degree and allocate a bit extra to the other four fields. There is nothing coming up soon and none of the techs we are researching are particularily urgent, so steady progress seems to be the order of the day. After the current round of techs complete, however, the situation might change a bit. Going back for Soil Enrichment could merit some prioritization for Planetology tech, for instance. Stinger missiles and Robotic Controls IV would be really good to research sometime soon, too, if we get the option to do so.

Ship design time. For our huge ships, I opt to go fairly heavy on defense for our huges, so as to maximize the defensive potential of our auto-repair systems. I do include Inertial Stabilizers as I want a combat move of 3 for these ships, but I don't quite max out on maneuver defense as I want to leave some room for guns. I also design a small fighter armed with nuclear bombs and Inertial Stabilizers. Anytime we are on offense, if we bring along a big enough stack of these, the enemy bases should target them first; they have a defense of 7 so should prove quite difficult for the Sakkra to hit, seeing as they lack any sort of battle computer. Nuclear bombs are hardly the greatest bomb we could hope to have, but they should be able to penetrate the Sakkra's shields, seeing as no-one has a planetary shield just yet.

2390: Our fleet strength jumps from effectively zero to parity with the other races, as 2 Ion 3.0 huges and 200 Nuker 3.0 smalls complete. When on offense, it is vital to use combined arms; our Ion 3.0 ships are effectively invulnerable against small enemy forces but can be overwhelmed by a larger force and don't really have a lot of punch themselves. Ideally I would like to pair them up with some missile boats to provide a hammer, but we don't really have any decent missile tech. Otherwise, we are doing pretty well, and are in second place overall behind the Silicoids.

I also include a couple pics of the tech situation, showing both the Psilons where we are conducting espionage, and the Sakkra where we hope to make territory gains:

A picture of the Sakkra border, showing the bulk of the Sakkra fleet, and a picture of the overall map:

Here is the save:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=55505&stc=1

Justus_II <== UP NOW
Erick the Red <== On Deck
Patroclus
Selentine
JMB
Zed

 

[Zed-F]

Well, I tried to use the attach within a post instead of the upload folder this time... I can put a link in where I want, but you still have to click to follow it. I suspect the reason it doesn't work is because the vB code doesn't recognize as images urls that don't end with a known graphics extension. It might be possible to play with the vB parsing rules to figure out a workaround, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. This method wasn't really any faster than using the upload folder, so I may just go back to doing that.

Another note: I didn't try to drive a wedge between the Sakkra and the Psilons during my turn, but if we can get them to cancel their alliance or for one to declare war on the other, it would be a good thing for us as we wouldn't get involved in a 2-front war right off the bat. Since the Sakkra are ruthless, have a half-decent fleet, and have been at war with the Psilons in the past, we might be able to convince them to attack the Psilons or at least break off the alliance, and of course we can try asking the Psilons as well. On the other hand, if the attempt doesn't pan out, that's not necessarily sufficient cause to stall the attack on the Sakkra. We will want to wait a couple more turns before we launch the attack anyway to build up some more bombers (I think we want at least 300, possibly more) so that should give a small window for negotiations to work in.

 

[Justus II]

Got it, but I may not be able to get to it until tomorrow. Handing me the keys to the fleet, and a green light to use it! Thanks!

 

[Justus II]

Well, I may not get to this one tonight after all, I'm still working on finishing my RBO Imperia Two report. If I can, I will get it in, otherwise I will play it tomorrow morning. Thanks for the patience!

 

[Justus II]

2390 Pre-Turn: I see what Zed meant about the Huge ships, they’re indestructible, but not much firepower. I look into a missile boat design, I could put 2 Hyper-Vs on a medium, but probably not worth it. It’ll be at least 10 turns before another huge comes off the docks, and I don’t want to wait that long to start. I finally settle on an Ion Fighter design, Ion Cannon, Warp 3, but only maneuver 2, and can’t even squeeze a computer on. It’s not much, but it’ll add some punch, and will be good enough to scare off any stray ships that head our way. (I hope to hit his main fleet with the Ion 3.0’s). Firma keeps building the Nukers, until we can get 300, by then we’ll have another 100 fighters from Talas and Volantis. I do want to see what we are up against, so I’m going to send our scouts out to the Sakkra planets, but I do it in stages, so they will all arrive on the same turn (3 turns from now). Now, for the diplomacy. I start with the Sakkra, since our relations are better there. They won’t break the alliance, but when I ask them to declare war, they say they’ll do it, if we throw in Inertial Stabilizers. Well, if this plan works, they’ll be gone before they can use it anyway, so I go ahead and make the deal.

2391 Scouts moving, Ion Ftrs and Nukers getting into position.

2392 More of the same.
IBT: Our scouts arrive at their targets. Looks like the Sakkra have been building some defenses!
Sssla: 36 Bases, 3 Titans (large). 140 pop/280 factories
Toranor: 12 Bases, 5 Valkyrie (large). 70/102
Willow: 21 bases, no ships. 110/220
And the red to the North of Sssla is Orion, (Maybe we already scouted it and I missed it).

2393 OK, time to get this party started! Move our fleet to our first target, Willow.
IBT: Battle of Willow- we have 2 Ion 3.0, 291 Nukers, and 94 Ion Ftrs, vs. their 21 bases and 14 assorted larges (scan is attached at the end of post). Basically, a mix of NPG-armed cruisers, with a few Hyper-Vs thrown in. Our Ion fighters prove their value immediately, as the AI targets all his bases on them. His ships alternately kill off fighters and waste time on the huges, while our Nukers run in and start to hit the planet. They are taking out about 4 bases/round, while losing 3-4 fighters to his volleys. Not exactly a fair fight, but the best ones never are. Our fighters get chewed up, losing about half, but take 3-4 larges in the process. The Ions don’t get a scratch, but they also don’t kill much, about one large every other round. Once the bases are gone, he retreats 5 of the larges, and we scout Willow, a 110 Ocean. Time for the gropos.

We also achieve an espionage penetration on the Psilons! Choices are Computers, Planetology, Propulsion, or Weapons, probably not too high. Probably cheap techs either way we go, so I go for weapons, and we get Gatlings. We get warnings from both the Psilons and the Sakkra, they’re not too happy with us at the moment.

2394 Send in the troops. I send from Endoria, Firma, and Vox, in phases, so they will all arrive in 3 turns. Meanwhile I send troops from Laan and Celtsi to replace the pop on Firma and Vox, I don’t want those factories sitting idle. I’m tempted to bomb them down a bit, but I’d like to get all those factories intact, and also better chance of getting techs. While I’m at it, I pump our weapons research up to all but one click on the others, to try and get Ion Rifles here faster, it’s now at 8%. It hits on the interturn, and our troops are issued new weapons enroute! Our new choices are Neutron Pellet Gun, Hyper X, Hard Beam, Fusion Beam, or Anti-Matter Bomb, which is what I take, those nukes will be pretty obsolete once Planetary Shields comes around.

2395 In transit…
IBT: We get a complete penetration of the Psilons! Tough call, I’d like Force Fields, as we don’t have either Class IV or V, but the Sakkra have Class IV. The other fields have tempting goodies, but also junk, and I don’t want to waste a good opportunity. Construction is a sure thing, though, they have Waste 60%, no one else does, and it saves money everywhere, so I take it. We get another warning from the Psilons, and the Sakkra declare actual war, I guess they don’t like troops on the way.

2396 In transit…
IBT: Troops land at Willow, we have 79 vs. their 110. We have superior gropo tech, however, up Personal Defense Shield and our new Ion Rifles, and we win with 18 remaining. A second group of 15 is following, due next turn (insurance). We also get 217 factories, and the techs roll: Improved Eco, Industrial 7, ECM I, Terra +40, Tundra, and Inferno. Jackpot! With our smaller, but rich planets, the Terra boost will be HUGE.

2397 Not sure why I left the whole fleet at Willow waiting for the troops, but I change that, sending them on to Sssla, although I leave 48 Ion Ftrs back to guard Willow. I manually go through our planets, setting most front-line worlds on max terraforming (even plow a little reserve into the rich ones to get it done quicker), and let the rear worlds go half terra, half research. Kholdan builds an Inferno Colony ship (2 years), with some terraforming, to grab the system to the south. Nothing else in range.
IBT: Battle of Sssla- 2 Ions, 112 ftrs, and 341 Nukers square off against 37 bases, and 14 assorted larges. Again, he targets the fighters first, and between that and the larges, they are gone in about 4 rounds. But again, he can’t hurt the Ions, I gradually kill off a few larges, and the Bombers are knocking out 5 bases/turn. The result is the same, we are in control of the system, and scout Sssla. Now, we have the “Enemy of my Enemy” factor kicking in, as the Psilons suddenly beg to ally with us! I can’t see any advantages to tying us up with an Erratic Psilon, so I respectfully decline, but it’s good to see relations in the green.

2398 Drakka finishes Terraforming, the others are getting there. I leave most to go for pop growth when finished, we need people and fast. I start the first group of troops to Sssla, but this is going to be tough, our northern planets are still recovering from Willow.

2399 Kholdan finishes the Colony ship, and several other planets finish terraforming, most income is still poured into pop growth. More troops head to Sssla, the fleet swings over to Toranor to destroy the bases there, leaving a small stack of nukers and one of the Ions at Sssla.
IBT: Destroy one new base at Sssla, and 13 bases at Toranor. Tempting, but I don’t bomb anyone, although there is some collateral damage from the space combat. We also get our next Vote: 31 total, it’s us vs. the Silicoids. Geode gets votes from the Sakkra (2), Alkari (2), and himself (10). We get the Psilon’s votes (5), the Mrrshan (4) abstain, and we abstain with our 8 votes as well.

2400 Adjust some sliders, as the rich planets are nearly maxed again on factories and pop. Research has been limping along at <500 rp, but it can start going up as more planets are remaxed. There is a colony ship that will arrive at the Inferno in the south next turn. The main assault wave will hit Sssla this next interturn. We have 82 enroute, vs 126 defenders. Based on the last battle (79 vs. 110) it will be close, but winnable. There’s another 15 arriving the following turn, if there are a few survivors, otherwise they will just help get it stood up. You can send more from Vox or Willow for a 2nd wave if you want. Most northern systems have been focused on maxing pop rather than factories, so we have more troops. I haven’t sent anything to Toranor yet either. The bombers are in orbit over both planets, with an Ion with each group. I haven’t been bombing, that many bombers would probably trash all the factories in one strike, so I’d rather take my chances on the ground combat.

Here's a map of the situation around Sssla:

 

[Justus II]

Tech wise, we’re still spying on the Psilons, they still have several techs I’d like: Toxic (opens the UltraRich next door), Robotics IV, and Warp Dissapator. The Silicoids also have some decent techs, we may want to consider some espionage there, although I don’t think we want to provoke a war. They have Merculite Missiles, Robotics IV, and Planetary Shields.

Here's a scan of the Sakkra ship designs, and the save. Have fun mopping up the Sakkra! With their planets, and getting ours maxed again, I think we’ll have a very strong production base, and it’ll be time to think about our next target.

 

[Zed-F]

Some good results there, Justus! You made the right call on not bombing the populace, for sure. This war seems to be going as we had hoped. After it concludes I think we will want to spend a short while on infrastructure before considering choosing a new target and possibly building a new fleet.

As far as the next target goes, I think it will be a choice between the Psilons and the Silicoids. I'm not super-fond of trying to cozy up to an erratic, but the Silicoids have a lot of population and if we want to win a vote, we might consider reducing their voting block, plus they have an artifacts planet nearby that would be nice to have. OTOH, if we are in this for the long haul, then containing the Psilons might not be a bad idea either.

 

[Erick The Red]

Got it.

I still have to do my imperium write up though, so I may not play tonight.

It looks like it will be a turn of mostly consolidation - it will take a while to build up to max population and factories but is worth it. Researching the bomb tech seems critical. It looks like we could also use better missile technology.

What are the trade-offs to eliminating the Sakkra?

 

[Zed-F]

Makes everyone annoyed at us until our relations naturally improve again due to trade agreements etc. We get an extra planet in exchange. If the planet is very small or ultrapoor, it might not be worthwhile to eliminate them. If the planet is decent, it probably is. I haven't looked at the save so I don't know what Toranor is.

Good missiles don't seem to be in our tree at present. We may have to steal/conquer/trade them from someone else. Stingers or Scatter Pack V, if available, would be great. Merculite will do in a pinch. Antimatter bombs are very nice bombs, but won't fit on a small ship just yet. Who we go after next and what their tech looks like will determine whether we use them or not. If you don't feel like making that decision on your turns, that's ok.