RBO - OSG3 - Hard Rock Cafe

[Sirian]

Diplomacy, like espionage, has "penetration levels". There are some dice rolls in there. Asking over and over decreases effectiveness, so in fact, one should not ask repeatedly, nor "scout" options when not "up now".

- Sirian

 

[ToddMarshall]

Yeah, it does seem like it's not good to do that then, at least not to list the things the AI will take for ceartian items.

It allways seems to shop the same things on the first ask so I guess you could say its shoping X-item and no more than that from now on?? hmmm....

I'll do more checking on that tonite to make sure it allways offers the same things on the first ask all the time before deciding if we can mention a particular item they are selling and under what circumstances, but in light of what I know now, no more mentioning they'll trade "item A for item B", and no more scouting trades untill/unless I say otherwise.

-Maniac

 

[ToddMarshall]

OK, I haven't done any checking on if they allways offer the same things on the first ask yet, but I wanted to post the Roster to make sure everyone remembers where we are.

Maniac <- In the clubhouse
Therlun <- Just played
Zed-F <- UP NOW
dathon <- On deck
AlanSHB <- In the hole

OK, now I have done some testing, and, although the humans went 10 for 10 yesterday in allways offering the same slate, when I checked the other races today, they didn't. I'm guessing this was mostly because they had lots more than 5 obsolete techs, especially in computers. For instance, the Psilons and Kitties had so many BC's and Jammers, they mixed and matched which ones they offered, and the kitties sometimes even offered a better selection of goodies the SECOND time I asked . I guess what this is telling us is that, no matter how much this reality sucks to me personally (I allways went into checking every possible avenue for trades and such after everyones turns in Civ games and we often had fun lively discussions about this very sort of thing which was a source of much enjoyment to me), we simply can't be poking around in tech trade discussions in between players turns. All checking for trades must be done only "on the clock" from now on

Last Edit: This doesn't mean we can't look at what our spies say they have and suggest things we could/should try to trade for of course. In fact, I encourage that. Let's just pretend I suggested Zed might want to acquire Planetary V and that the humans would likely trade it since it was "obsolete" to them since they have planetary X.

-Maniac

 

[Zed-F]

My preference for ship building is a heavy fleet of deterrent bombers in 2 stacks and one or two support ships. Since the AI evaluates bombs as ship to ship weapons for some reason when deciding to stay and fight or run and live, I've had groups of fusion nuclear engine bombers drive off autorepair ion cannon stacks several times. One of these days I'm going to load a huge up with bombs and all the repair specials then see if the computer will retreat ships from a reasonable number of them.

Bombers work very well for scaring away small stacks of enemy air superiority ships -- usually best when used on offense. The AI will definitely retreat their ships under circumstances where your bomber force beats their ship + missle base force. Bombers as defenders to scare away the opposition doesn't work nearly so well since the AI will concentrate its fleet where it wants to attack and usually outnumber your defenders. I'm not sure it values bombers as combat effective when there's no enemy planet involved either.

 

[Zed-F]

THIS JUST IN: The Humans WILL trade Planetary V for Robotics III. The cost is steep, but..... I think I'd pull the trigger on that.

Not in a million years. Not when we can just research something else that's not a production tech in a few turns and trade that instead. I never trade production techs (RC, terraforming, or especially soil enrichment) unless I have no other option and am desperate. We are not at war with the humans and are not likely to be so anytime soon, so, the answer is no.

Besides, the humans would take a good long while to wax anything close to a significant fraction of our empire, and we could always pull some diplomatic shenanigans to stall them further.

DSS was not worth spores -- not unless at least one other race already got spores and might trade it around instead of us. But, no biggie.

 

[Zed-F]

We seem to be sitting pretty here, so I expect a mostly quiet turn.

2410: I set our Ultra-poor worlds off factory construction and onto terraforming. I never want to build factories here unless we can station a substantial fleet nearby to defend them; otherwise, we risk giving away tech to a cheap poach attempt. I only even build pop or tech at ultra-poors until such time as I can defend them from space.

I trade Dotomite Crystals and Death Spores around to see what I can get. We get Class V planetary shields, Nuclear Engines, ECM Jammer II, Hyper-X Rockets, and the biggie, Improved Space Scanner! Woot, now we fear invasion no more, now that we have intelligence as to where enemy fleets are headed and some useful shields with which to defend ourselves! I also figure that now that relations are going to start to sour due to the size of our empire, and we've pretty much settled everything we are going to settle, it's time to start dialling up NAPs and improved trade agreements with the non-erratic races.

2412: Construction 6 and Scatter Packs come in. We do not have Stingers in our tree but do have Anti-Matter Bombs and Fusion Beams. I pick the latter, given that a real gun would probably be nice to have, though I generally prefer Megabolt Cannon. I tend to think 2-space weapons are overrated myself, though others seem to disagree. Our next choices in construction are Industry 5 and Exoskeleton so I go back for Duralloy, with the intention of going for Exoskeleton next. Factory construction commences empire-wide. It's time for a more even distribution of planetary spending as we need to keep pushing forward in all areas now. I put a small priority on computers and planetology so as to keep the production engine moving forward but the settling phase is nearly over and we are not looking to start a war soon (at least with ourselves as a primary participant) so a fast engine would be nice but is not super-urgent just yet. Cloning would be sweet, however.

Our new scanners tell us the Klackons are sending a small probe fleet at Dead Beta Ceti, which we just settled. The Klacks do indeed have dead bases so they can land; I'm inclined to just let them have the planet. We don't even have anyone inbound to the world and there's nowhere in our empire they can go from there where they can land. Come to mention it, I think it's out of range for them anyway so we're probably safe. They must have had a temporary alliance with someone to send ships there.

You guys might not like it but I think it's time to start to dial up some population spending as well. Relying on natural growth for those last few pop is not good, we need to terraform everywhere anyway, and we need more votes in case the next election should turn sour. We can afford the extra pop now that we have RC3 starting to kick in, plus the extra pop becomes more urgent the more RC we have.

2414: We settle Nyarl. No-one likes us 'cause we are too big, but our trade and NAPs should start undoing that damage soon. Kitties have a lone medium on the way to Nyarl already, but we can relocate some fighters there if I build them pronto since I traded for Nuclear engines. Let's see what we can get then! I can build about 100 BC worth of ships in 1 turn at Anraq, the only planet in range with even a slightly useful economy, which is enough for about 6 or so fighters depending on how I design them, which is probably not enough, but we'll see. Kitties tech is all lasers and missles, so not very strong offensively. He may not have enough ammo to figt off a fighter swarm even with his enhanced gunnery. I go for 7 warp 2 fighters armed with one NPG and BC II.

2418: Building factories and in some cases pop. Not much going on otherwise. We chase away the lone Kittie medium at Nyarl at the cost of one small. At Beta Ceti, they chase off our scout. I still don't see how they have the range to stick around, though, since they have no alliance and their nearest colony is range 6. Unless these are all ER ships, in which case they can't do anything but annoy...

2419: Well the Klack ship stuck around for another bombing run but now seems to be dead. Still the Klacks have sent a bunch of transports from Drakka despite the fact it's out of range. Ah, now they have an alliance with the humans. Well and good, they must have got that after their ships went poof. I start building some NPG fighters from Stalaz to shoot down the transports.

2420: Not much going on right now except for research and factory construction. We are close to popping Terraforming +30. Watch Beta Ceti; it's being fed fighters from Stalaz right now but that has to slow down in the not-too-distant future since Stalaz still needs to grow itself. F8 is your friend, use it! Also we have a ton of cash flowing into our reserves every turn, use that too. Don't build factories on the ultra-poors but otherwise use them for pop and research once they are done terraforming. They will autobuild factories once they fill up on pop so keep an eye on them.

Save file: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/rbo-osg3-2420.zip

 

[ToddMarshall]

Ah, I guess I over value Planetary Shields V then. I've allways considered that the single most important tech of it's era most of the time, ahead of Robotics III and Improved Scanner, and if I don't have access to it and am staring down an opponet I fear, and there is only one source to get them from, I allways trade for it no matter how steep the cost is. I'm more scared of the Humans now than I expected I would be 50 years from now. However, I seem to be the only one who feels this way so I suspect I'm totally stupid for feeling that way. Maybe I'm too into small map thinking, where losing 3-4 planets = game over.

I've had several games in a row where the only way to get them when they became available is to trade Robotics III. I dono if I just got a statistically absurd run of "bad penetrations" or what, but I assumed the AI only took "Uber" techs for them because of that. I had no clue it would trade them for comparitive crap like range 7. Now that the trading deal has been exposed a bit, it may be time to adjust my thinking on this a bit. I'm still not totally convinced, but im getting there....

Anyway...

2410's trading was pretty much a perfect deal. You got the really important scanner and planetary shields for 2 fairly nothing techs, especially as spores had allready been traded out.

Getting bigger trade deals and naps made perfect sense too, as I'd suggested after my turn it was probably time to do that soon.

I tend to think 2-space weapons are overrated myself, though others seem to disagree

What do you do if they show up with repulsors? All of your one space beams are junk until HEF or Cloaking device. If we had Neutron Blasters, or good ship missiles like mercs or stingers and the choice was Megabolt or Fusion Beams, then I'd like Megabolt.

I basically never design ships with 2 space beams unless the enemy has repulsors because the 2 spacers arent damage to space efficient.

Our next choices in construction are Industry 5 and Exoskeleton so I go back for Duralloy, with the intention of going for Exoskeleton next.

That's the proper call IMHO.

Klacks do indeed have dead bases so they can land; I'm inclined to just let them have the planet.

Annother good call, IMHO.

You guys might not like it but I think it's time to start to dial up some population spending as well. Relying on natural growth for those last few pop is not good, we need to terraform everywhere anyway, and we need more votes in case the next election should turn sour. We can afford the extra pop now that we have RC3 starting to kick in, plus the extra pop becomes more urgent the more RC we have.

I DO agree with that. I thought about suggesting it, especially at some of the planets that are sending pop to the new colonies, but didn't because I didn't think anyone would like the idea .

So basically, based somewhat on a misconsception, I DO suggest a universally reviled stupid idea, but don't suggest the smart, probably univerally liked one :suicide:

Still the Klacks have sent a bunch of transports from Drakka despite the fact it's out of range.

Alliance or not, the AI CAN AND WILL send troops to any planet it has scouted and has a ship overhead, even if it does NOT have the range. I've many times had an AI THAT WAS NOT IN CONTACT WITH ME send troops to one of my planets in the early game. This includes situations where they were the closest AI to that planet, so they were NOT getting there because of alliances.

This was back in the days when I'd send off scout ships when I settled, and 3 turns later an AI scout would show up in orbit . I've since wizened up to that particualr brand of and never send scouts off front line worlds for a long period after settling.

Bottom Line: If one of their scouts can reach it and stay in orbit, they can and allways will send troops. Aparently the AI transports all have reserve tanks

You're right about the Ultra Poors not building factories. Considering where they are at, they shouldn't build factories. It's one thing if they are back line, but these aren't. If they someday do become back line and are completely defendable and we have factory 2, that may change, but its not likely to in this sceanareo.

F8 is your friend, use it!

Is it ok if I use F9 instead? I wouldn't wan't it to feel left out. (I've allways used it actually)

Looks like annother really good turn.

-Maniac

 

[AlanSHB]

The only thing I wish you'd done was start the great kitty-human war. Ah well, dathon can get them thinking in that direction I'm sure. May need to get the Psilons and klackons to attack the humans fight first so the ruthless mrshann see an embattled victim....But you have to break some eggheads to make an omlette, and the klackons are erratics so they don't mind. I swear I could sell an erratic on attacking themselves if they could only figure out how to land troops....

 

[ToddMarshall]

@ Alan

Hmm. The Kitties and Humans DO have contact now, finally. I don't see a reason not to get them at war. I'd be stunned if the Kitties refuse. Usually an AI you are on good terms with will allways attack a top 2 AI if you ask it to, though sometimes they want a bribe.

Maybe if we give the Erratics Range 0 and get them to park scouts over all their own planets (or maybe we could just repaint some of our own and they wouldn't notice ) they'd send troops to all of their own planets

-Maniac

 

[AlanSHB]

Ideally we'll convince the kitties to war on the humans for the extra mud in the human/kitty relationship that they'd get from the honorable humans response, but either way, priority one should be a human kitty conflict. It'll do a nice job of cutting down on those fleets strength and will waste valuable production the cats would otherwise use on research....Both of which are good things. Also if we get them to go to war with either the sakkra or klacks we'll pick up free brownies when we "liberate" those worlds from their "unjust and crazy" leaders.....

 

[dathon78]

Busy weekend, so I haven't had a chance to post, but I HAVE been reading along, so I'm ready for my turn at the Emperor's cloak. Got the save, will be playing right now, report this afternoon or tomorrow.

-dathon

 

[Zed-F]

The only thing I wish you'd done was start the great kitty-human war. Ah well, dathon can get them thinking in that direction I'm sure. May need to get the Psilons and klackons to attack the humans fight first so the ruthless mrshann see an embattled victim....But you have to break some eggheads to make an omlette, and the klackons are erratics so they don't mind. I swear I could sell an erratic on attacking themselves if they could only figure out how to land troops....

Well, you see, that's the thing... I've been kinda thinking that starting "let's you and him fight" wars are a bit TOO strong in MOO. We don't really need to do it just to survive here, we're reasonably close to getting a decent engine and thus able to build a reasonable fast reaction force in case of war, we're about to pop another terraforming tech for more votes, we have lots of $ flowing into our reserves to stand up bases and fleets fast... and we're only playing on Hard. Seems a bit cheap to pad our massive advantage vs. the AI by playing diplo games on top of that.

 

[Zed-F]

Ah, I guess I over value Planetary Shields V then. I've allways considered that the single most important tech of it's era most of the time, ahead of Robotics III and Improved Scanner, and if I don't have access to it and am staring down an opponet I fear, and there is only one source to get them from, I allways trade for it no matter how steep the cost is. I'm more scared of the Humans now than I expected I would be 50 years from now. However, I seem to be the only one who feels this way so I suspect I'm totally stupid for feeling that way. Maybe I'm too into small map thinking, where losing 3-4 planets = game over.

Planetary Shield V is very useful, no question. Is it worth more than RC III or Improved Scanner? I'd say not. If I could only have one of Improved Scanner or Planetary Shield V, I'd pick the scanner. There are more opportunities to get planetary shields later than there are opportunities to get scanners, and other options such as overwhelming firepower, repulsor beams, and especially diplomacy at your disposal to prevent damage to your planets. Improved scanners are critical to knowing when war is coming, which is what allows you to prepare an appropriate response before the bombs start to fall on your missle bases. Intelligence is key, especially on a larger map where there's no way I'd be willing to track every movement of every AI vessel and guess where it's going.

What do you do if they show up with repulsors? All of your one space beams are junk until HEF or Cloaking device. If we had Neutron Blasters, or good ship missiles like mercs or stingers and the choice was Megabolt or Fusion Beams, then I'd like Megabolt.

I basically never design ships with 2 space beams unless the enemy has repulsors because the 2 spacers arent damage to space efficient.

I do what I always do whether they have repulsors or not -- rely on missles. And, in fact, the one-space beams are not junk until HEF or cloak, since the AI tends to only put repulsors on ships for a few years until more advanced specials such as warp dissipators become available. Moreover, if you have repulsors of your own, you can still use your one-space beam weapons against even repulsor-equipped AI ships, if you wait for them to come to you instead of advancing into them, and especially if you have initiative over them. There are definitely ways of getting one-space beam weapons to work against enemy repulsor ships that don't involve teching your way through the roof. If all else fails, you can simply pick someone else to go on the offense against and let your missle bases handle the repulsor-armed AI.

 

[AlanSHB]

The diplo games are important if only to set the field of battle. I don't mind not setting the entire galaxy to war if that feels unfair, but lets have the big fight be human vs kitty with rocks waiting to choose the side to jump in on instead of kitties vs rock with humans waiting to jump in. The cats are going to go to war--ruthless technologist is a nice euphemism for I will settle, I will Research, I will attack, attack, attack.....I want them to make the right choice (kill the apes). We can easily lose this if the kitties and the humans both attack us.

 

[ToddMarshall]

Oh, I'm fairly sure we could get the entire universe (except the Sakkras who don't know them) to declare on the Humans if we ask nicely for the reasons I mentioned above. In fact, I suspect that just by asking for war declarations from everyone, we could probably get elected in 5 turns if we were allowed to take the win now, which we aren't as we haven't met the 50% + Leaders Preparing to Merge yet, and definately don't have 2/3 of the pop.

I'm pretty much at the point where Zed is about 3rd party war declarations in my own games as I've been mentioning in my recent posts over at RB. I "abused" the heck out of it in the Meklar imperium, winning w/o ever firing a shot simply by getting everyone to declare war on my opponent. I did NOT bribe any of them, they just all said sure ok, then voted for me.

I'll do it when I HAVE to on impossible, but I've eschewed it from hard games completely (I play some of both, depending on other variables). I do NOT have a problem with doing it in an SG if that's the direction we want to go, so I'm not saying don't do it.

I really think the techs Zed traded for pretty much won us the game. I doubit we even need to attack the Humans or the Kitties to win unless we really want to. Depends on what victory level we want.

I dono how many planets we have to go to the leaders are preparing to merge message. I thought that happened at 7/16th's, but this size map = 70 stars so that would be 30. We allready have just 30 and aparently haven't triggered it yet, but it won't take more stars than the 4 the sakkra have because it DOES happen before you get half. I think we'll get 50% of the galaxy's pop by just continuing to grow our planets and taking out the 2 erratics. I wouldn't be surprised to see this over by, at the latest, the middle of dathons turn after this one.

I do what I always do whether they have repulsors or not -- rely on missles. And, in fact, the one-space beams are not junk until HEF or cloak, since the AI tends to only put repulsors on ships for a few years until more advanced specials such as warp dissipators become available.

This has not been my experience. In my games the AI tends to redisign half or more of it's fleet to accomoldate these things. It also likes to build repulsor + dissipator ships as far as I've seen. Maybe my sample size isn't as large as yours, so this could just be a run of luck, I dono.

I love missiles, i really, really do. It's absolutely the most important weapon category in the game. Get enough ships with merc/stinger/pulson on them about this tech time and sometimes you wouldn't need annother ship ever! (ok, maybe a colony ship )They have been bomber and attacker all in one for me many times.

But there are plenty of situations where missiles aren't the best answer. Right now, scatter packs aren't a great answer vs the humans with shield V for instance.

I'm also aware of the let them come to you trick, but that doesn't work if the AI has 2 space beam's on its repulsor ships because they don't come to you. They just sit out there and "shoot fish in a barrel". It's been my expertience that the AI puts 2 spacers on its repulsor ships the vast majority of the time. Aparenly this doesn't happen in your games?

I guess I'm just way more parinoid than you are. I like to be able to trot out the optimal response to any situation, even when I don't expect that to be necessary.

As for losing if Kitty and Human attack us. Yeah, thats possible, but what I'd do in a personal game is wait and get them at war if one of them declares on me. Again, feel free to start the war if it floats your boat though.

Edit: My gf has just confirmed that I am, in fact, way more paranoid than you are She also says that I'm a control freak when it comes to games. Now you can consider the source from now on

-Maniac

 

[AlanSHB]

*Shrugs* I view taking the initiative and starting the wars we want to see on our terms as a strategic decision, the kind of decision we're playing Moo to make.

There are times when setting the galaxy to war is not the right choice. For instance, when your opponent would erradicate and colonize the dummy you prop up, or when you have two opponents with very different technologies that you would rather not have randomized by ground combat. That latter one happens alot with bears who don't have toys vs someone with nice ship toys. The bears invade one world, get lucky on the tech steal and suddenly they're running around in effective larges again.

Here it seems that the risk of setting the mrshann vs the humans tech wise is an increase in shielding for the kitties and some slightly better weapons for the humans, but a combined arms fleet fielded by the human/mrshan conglomerate doesn't look scary to me. Although to be fair, human fleets in general don't scare me--they are definitely middle of the road in war-they just bring friends.

If the cats weren't ruthless I'd be ok with letting this situation sit, but they are going to go to war with someone, and it seems contrived to wait for that then set the humans on them when we're "surprised" by their natural attack.
We can win a war with the cats, but I view having to fight one as a failure of strategy on our part.

Now if we're going to totally eschew the "Please smite the infidels oh faithful ones" option, we need to start building the grand army of the republic immediately.

 

[dathon78]

Pregame:
*I think we can hold Beta Ceti. I think the Klackon's will lose interest after we re-buff their advance. Therefore, unless
the Humans suddenly decide to turn hostile, the planet is ours. And if the apes DO go into pointy-stick expansion mode,
we'll have bigger concerns then some Dead rock on the other side of the galaxy.
*The Sakkra's look ripe for the picking. They are WOEFULLY behind in shield technology, and the best missile they can fling
at us are Hyper X's. We have two rich worlds nearby, I intend to build some missile boats are bombers to go after them, once
research into Shields, Construction, and Computers comes in. Proteus and Firma should be able to whip up a fleet pretty
quickly for Alan to have some fun

2420: 10 from Anraq to Nyarl to help it recover from the Kitty incursion. As Anraq is radiated, they won't be coming for us
there anytime soon. Alright, time to dial up the Kitty's.

"You know Yalara, Emperor Strader of the Human Coalition was talking to me after the last Galactic Council session, and
made some rather intersting comments about your heritage. Of course I didn't believe for a second his implication that
there are canine members missing from your family tree... Why yes, I do think that rotton liar should be taught a lesson...
Troops? Oh, well, er, you see we just implemented a some new policies for our armies, and I'm afraid all of our troops are
busy with their sensitivity training, but don't worry. I'm sure you can keep the Humans busy for a little while until we
can join you."

IBT: nada

2421: Tauri, Bootis, and Incedius all reach max pop. BTW, I do agree with Zed's decision to grow pop. The opportunity cost
of leaving those factories empty for the decades it would take to let the planets max on their own far outweighs the cost
of growing a few rocks artificially. Noting that our tech in Computers, Shields, and Construction is progressing rather
rapidly (Computers is already up to 2%), I will definitely be holding off on designing our Lizard-Hunters for a few turns.
Looking at the diplo screen, I notice something I either missed before or wasn't there. The Humans are now at war with the
Psilons as well! Ah, the Brains are allied with the kitties, so the war declaration must have pulled them in. That could
result in them losing that corner system. We have a rather large reserve, so I decide to shift to defenses at Moro,
Proteus, Firma, and Xendella in anticipation of fighting the Lizards. The extra research from the planets that just maxed
makes up for the research loss at Moro.

IBT: Terra +30 comes in, and the only option is the Antidote.

2422: Extra reserach in planetology shifted to the Fusion techs. Empire-wide terraforming ordered. When I terraform at
later stages in the game, I usually keep one or two worlds on research to keep progress, and then max the capacity on mature
worlds as quickly as possible by spending about half and half to the Ind and Eco sliders. That's not perfectly efficient I
know, but it is very quick to set, and unless the game is on a shoestring it doesn't make much difference. The Klack's
are now at war with both the Mrrshans and Psilons. Galactic War I.

IBT: Zilch

2423: Growing...

IBT: Nothing

2424: Halt ship production at Stalaz. A total of 126 NPG's will greet the Klackon transports in two turns.

IBT: Mark IV comes in. Choices are: Mark III, Mark V, and IC IV. I think our economy is advanced enough to handle the controls
so I choose them.

Council Vote
Mrrshans: 7 for us.
Psilons: 3 for us.
Sakkra: 4 for us.
Klackons: 4, abstain
Humans: 9 for them
Us: 17... for them

Well, we now have a 1/3 bloc to stave off a voting loss. We could have taken a diplomatic win there, but of course that isn't
our goal with this game. I voted the Humans to keep them friendly. Also, the Klackons must no longer be allied with the
Humans.

2425: Divert extra computer research to construction and Shields. Yep, the Klacks traded their alliance with the Humans for
one with the Sakkra. Maybe this time it will last for more than one turn Oh, the Psilons are now at war with the Sakkra
too, as are the Mrrshans. My what a bloody situation we've stirred up

IBT: All bugs attempting to land on Beta Ceti are swatted. Cryslon, Seidon, Rha, and Aquilae come online at full capacity.

2426: Duralloy and Shields IV are ripening.

IBT: Proteus, Firma, Incedius, and Ukko reach full capacity.

2427: Fun with Planetary Sliders. Oh, and the Erratic alliance crumbled yet again

IBT: Duralloy arrives. I follow Zed's choice of Exoskeleton. Everybody but the Klackons dial up to complain about our size.
Thrax maxes out.

2428: More Fun with Planetary Sliders. We are now #1 in Production and Population.

IBT: Class IV comes in (been having good luck with the tech pops), choose the only option, Repulsor beam. Ryoun, Moro,
Phantos, Vox, Maretta, and Bootis are all ready to go.

2429: Wow these little sliders are cool...

IBT: Tauri and Xendella finish growing.

 

[dathon78]

First, a map of our current situation.

Not much has changed, territory-wise. I've marked with dark purple dots the systems that are done growing. The two light purples will complete between turns. Now that more than half our empire is mature, and we have some tech, I think we should give some thought to acquiring the West. My vote would be to annex the Lizards first, as they are in a worse tech situation. Plus, we can spy on the Bugs in the mean time. Nobody has shown any interest in trying to take Beta Ceti from us, and given the state of war that the Galaxy is in, I don't think anybody will. Not many screen shots, but I spent most of my turn attending to the economic needs of our people. It will be up to Emperor (Dictator? :devil2: ) Alan to satisfy their bloodlust...

Save File

 

[dathon78]

Sorry about the poor formatting in my report; I forgot to change it from the
notes I was taking in Notepad.

-dathon

 

[ToddMarshall]

I don't care which way we go. It's not my call. I'd be building sheilds and bases right now if it was me. I'd be looking for mercs or stingers when they become available. I'd be thinking of taking out the Klackons soon too, while our fusion bombs would still own them. There are many, many ways to win it from here.

Yes, getting the kitties and humans at war is a strategic choice, but so are the exploits in Civ. OK, maybe thats a bit harsh. Maybe it's not quite into the relam of exploit, but it surely is "dastardly" . We'll probably never all reach agreement on what is "broken" and what isn't in games.

Other Moo examples are some people consider the wait button broken, others say if the game designers didn't want you to have the option to use it, why is it there? Same thing with putting a single rack of obsolete missiles turned off so a ship can fire and still finish movement.

I'm not going to pout, or feel cheated or anything if we do it! I really expected Zed to do it going by his past use of it in his Imperium Reports. I can't speak for Zed, but I suspect he would feel the same way I do (If I'm wrong about that, I'm sure he'll let us know ). If you want to do it, please don't stop on my account! There ARE wonderful reasons to do it, and you've clearly listed them . I'm fully expecting you'll set it off if dathon doesn't, and I expect he will.

-Maniac

Edit: all hail the mighty of the cross post . Reading the report now.