RBO - OSG3 - Hard Rock Cafe

[AlanSHB]

Poor formatting happens. It looks like you've set up a very nice industrial base for me to work with....The only screenshot/summary missing is what the lizards techs look like. I'll check the save for that. I suspect my turns are going to start with some fleet designs, and may end with the start of the war, but it will probably be maniac at the helm when it's time to decide on genocide or not. That's assuming of course that the Sakkra can mount something resembling a defense, which might not be the case. In any event I'll play tonight, planning to run over the lizards/bugs as the mood strikes me.

Alan

 

[ToddMarshall]

Actually, the lizards are more advanced than the Klackons, though the Bugs do have mercs.

There are now 2 sides in this war. Its Human/Lizard/Bug vs Kitty/Brainiac. All alliance have crumbled though. I'd rather take out the Bugs first, though I could be easily swayed by a good argument against it.

I'm going back to bed till my doctors appointment. I may or may not play after you do tonite.

(This is starting to remind me of that LK allways war team where we played a full rotation in 16 hours. Lee posted his turns and the very next time he loged on he was up )

-Maniac

 

[dathon78]

Hope you feel better soon, Maniac

-dathon

 

[AlanSHB]

I plan on looking at the tech first, but from what I remember of zed's save both the bugs and the lizards are easy meat. Although they might require different sauce.

Do you have a preferred fleet Maniac? I'd hate to leave out your favorite flagship.

 

[dathon78]

The Sakkra are up in OVERALL tech, but they are behind the Klacks in both weapons and shield tech. True the Lizards have Neutron Blasters, but that's not going to help them when a whole fleet of Scatter Pack V boats show up in orbit of their worlds... . Plus, the bugs will be easier to spy on. Or, since we have large, rich worlds out on the western frontier, we could make the point moot by assimilating some of both of them...

Have fun Alan!
-dathon

 

[ToddMarshall]

Thanks. I just wan't them to tell me what's wrong with me so I don't either miss more like work or wish I'd die to avoid going in .

One last thought. If anyone but the Humans shows up with Stabilizer, try to steal it so we can combine with our Fusion Drives to reach planets in 2 moves.

-Maniac

Edit:

Do you have a preferred fleet Maniac? I'd hate to leave out your favorite flagship.

Warp 4 pelet gun fighters with high manouver and small Fusion Bombers with the same should handle these 2. I don't usually put scatters on ships because they don't make good "bombers" for long, but if you want to, go ahead.

Fusion Drives are at 5%, so will hit soon. Either wait till then to make a fleet, or design a huge called "placeholder" and "build" that till the tech comes in.

Looking at tech levels, I dono if we can yet build a good small fusion bomber.
VS these 2 clowns, I'd prefer a small Warp 4 high manouver NUKE bomber with a good computer to a warp 2 fusion bomber with a crappy comp.

 

[AlanSHB]

That's the plan then. Wish I could play now, but I'm at work and I think they'd object to me loading moo on the exchange server........

 

[Zed-F]

Fusion Engines + Fusion Bombs (or nukes if Fusion doesn't fit) + decent computer. That is the answer to both the lizards and the bugs, and we could take both without breaking a sweat just on the strength of the rich worlds in the area plus the reserve pumped from those not in the area. Turtling is not necessary at this point, though I agree that building a minimal suite of bases everywhere is prudent just in case someone does try to sneak attack one of our worlds. Use of the scanners should give us ample warning of war in most cases. I would be sure to leave each of those two races one junk world somewhere and not genocide them, but otherwise we should be thinking about going on the offensive soon.

I don't agree with shifting research away from computers at this time, and I would probably have left excess research in planetology even though we don't really need it. The surest way we can win would be to maintain and extend our production advantage, and we don't really need any better tools of war than we have right now given the current diplomatic situation.

Speaking of which, it's true I have used this sort of trick extensively in some previous Imperia. It was probably useful to participants to see what can be done with diplomacy; it's certainly a more powerful tool than is at first apparent, and well worth learning about. But you have to understand how something works before you can decide it's ultimately too good. If every game devolves into "let's you and him fight while I build up" then there's not much variety in gameplay, even if you win every time. Perhaps at some point there comes a time when you say, "yes I know I could win pretty much automatically if I used this bug/feature, but I've done that so many times before it's uninteresting. Let's try playing things out a bit suboptimally and see if I can recover."

 

[ToddMarshall]

Fusion Engines + Fusion Bombs (or nukes if Fusion doesn't fit) + decent computer. That is the answer to both the lizards and the bugs, and we could take both without breaking a sweat just on the strength of the rich worlds in the area plus the reserve pumped from those not in the area. Turtling is not necessary at this point, though I agree that building a minimal suite of bases everywhere is prudent just in case someone does try to sneak attack one of our worlds. Use of the scanners should give us ample warning of war in most cases. I would be sure to leave each of those two races one junk world somewhere and not genocide them, but otherwise we should be thinking about going on the offensive soon

Or in other words, what Maniac said I'm glad to know I got SOMETHING right, though aparently you thought I was suggesting TURTELING? Shields + 5 bases + use of F8/F9 = plenty right now. If somone does come after us, we'll have time to pump the planet with bases and warp 4 fighters, which probably saves it. Losing a planet or 2 doesn't affect us much right now either, and we'd have more than plenty of time to go agressive on defense to avoid losing more than 1 or 2. I think all but the backest line or weakest of new worlds should aspire to having 4-6 bases soon.

I don't agree with shifting research away from computers at this time, and I would probably have left excess research in planetology even though we don't really need it. The surest way we can win would be to maintain and extend our production advantage, and we don't really need any better tools of war than we have right now given the current diplomatic situation.

I'd agree because the vast majority of our worlds that are ever going to matter are maxed out to current tech, so I wouldn't slow down of Robotics IV.
Somehow, I don't expect research strat to matter anymore though. We've either got or are about to get all the tech "biggies" of the era I think, excepting stabelizer to go with fusion drives, and we can't get that atm.

About your last paragraph, I think that's pretty much what I said above so I won't go into that. I've used it in the past too, so it's not like I'm anyone to say anything bad about its use. I've just sort of eschewed it lately as overpowered and somewhat illogical, but I don't mind if others use it.

-Maniac (off to see the doctor)

 

[Zed-F]

At this point, 5 bases *is* turtling.

I was thinking more along the lines of say 1 base. Enough so that we don't spend forever on a shield if we decide we need to start a crash base-building program, and no more.

 

[dathon78]

I only shifted the research away from computers to top off the Shields and Duralloy, with the full expectation that it would be re-arranged later. I figured getting those techs into play quicker means we can start making our fleet sooner

-dathon

 

[ToddMarshall]

Bah, 5 bases is never turtling! Maybe its being PARANOID, but not turtling. I wasn't suggesting we CRASH them up, or try to see if we can out base Sirian (we couldn't!), but I get your point. Your point is I'm just way more paranoid than you are! I probably do play too defensively, but it works for me .

Actually, reading back, this all started with me saying that I'd be building bases and shields? That was meaning rather than starting the human/kitty war so it'd give me something to do on the planets that weren't going to be used to slag the Klackons/Sakkras in case we got declared on by the Humans or Mrrshans. That's much less likely in this situation anyhow, but I'd still build about 4-6 on border worlds anyhow simply because I AM paranoid. Clearly, I've been playing too many small maps....

Once we start in on the Erratics, the Kittys will us. I'm planing on leaving the Klackons that little size 30 Barren they beat us to. We might just want to exterminate the Sakkra, depending on how relations with others are and if they have any dud planets or not.

Good explanation dathon.

It isn't paranoia if everyone really IS out to get you.

-Maniac

 

[AlanSHB]

2430 - Designed placeholder set several planets to building it
2431 - 2435 - ZZZZZ When are my engines going to hit....they've made it to 26%
IBT - Fusion drives hit and Mrshann break NAP
2436 - Design fusion 4.0 small bombers with one fusion bomb and move 4-design scatv5 4.0 Mobile defense scat ships.
Fusion Beam still hasn't hit.
2437 - decide to launch at iranha to get some positive diplo from the enemies of the klacks
2439 - Fleet will arrive on the ibt.
IBT - Combat at iranha - 931 bombers obliterate the 5 bases in one salvo--the enemy fleet retreats before the scats get them.

Maniac--the scats are not intended to go agro--they're a much better mobile response to the klack/sakkra. You can take them on an attack but the lack of maneuver required to fit the scat 5 shot on a medium will really irritate you. I left the last placeholder for you in case fusion beam hits so you have a headstart on them. You'll also need to send troops to iranha--aparently the game didn't catch my ok on that

Save File

 

[Therlun]

uhmm. why do we research advanced eco restoration?
and HOW could we start researching it as rocks?

 

[dathon78]

I've seen this "bug" before while playing the Silicoids. Sometimes, they get offered Advanced Eco Restoration. And if that is the only choice, then you are stuck (at least I'm assuming it was the only choice. if not... ). Probably something as stupid as the programmers forgetting to flag the tech as not available to the Rocks. Don't know this can happen with other techs or not.

-dathon

 

[AlanSHB]

It was indeed all I was offered, but since we're likely to win with this round of techs I didn't worry too much about it. Sufficient bombing of the erratics, who the rest of the galaxy hates, will assure us happy relations with the cats, apes and eggs.

 

[ToddMarshall]

Hmm, the Klackons turned on the Humans and the Humans took their bad planet? That sucks. I may not invade Iranha as it appears to be the worst planet they have left.

Why did we build scatter v ships instead of warp 4 npg fighters? I don't usually build scatter V ships precisely because they are a sucky fit on mediums for a long, long time. Were we waiting for Fusion beams to hit so we could make a "real beam ship"? If so I follow your logic, but I'd rather have npg fighters than fusion beam mediums right now.

I guess your plan for the scatter ships was mobile bases?

I probably will put a stop to making those unless somone behind me wants those.

Other than that, not much to say.

I got it.

-Maniac

 

[Therlun]

after a short look:
arnt that too many ships?

personally i would never build that many ships which will become obsolete so fast.
one third of our fleet would probably be enough to break the defense of any klackon or sakkra planet., while we have only very limited ship-ship fighting abilities, and in a real game (where our win would not be already settled ) an AI with a strong fleet could easily bring us into trouble.

 

[dathon78]

What did the doctor say, Maniac?

 

[ToddMarshall]

The doctor said we'll get the tests back in a couple days and we'll get back to you.

BTW, those "lame" scatter ships just proved to be HUGELY useful at Kholdan because the Bugs are all warp 1. I'm not sure if 500 bombers would have been enough there, even with the fighter stack doing all the ship killing.

-Maniac