2340: I concur with the others, first order of business is to veto the planetary reserve tax. We will be far better off getting our reserve from rich worlds.
Second order of business is to scrap research for the moment. Most of the time I prefer to expand like mad, and let the AI tell me what is too far by poaching a few of them. This is especially true with Silicoids which must expand early or die, since they lose out on key terraforming techs and are sucky researchers in general. Getting range 5 was important, yes, but research is not our strength and too much early research will strangle our empire before we even begin! Oftentimes we can keep several planets we might not otherwise get just by virtue of being there first. I don't really concern myself with the possibility that they might declare war, since usually it's not too hard to enlist aid. Moreover, on a map this size, we can certainly afford to lose a few planets.
I agree that Tauri needs more population to grow into a useful research colony. I send 7M from Rha, which is still shy on factories relative to its current pop, to fill that role. Newly colonized Seidon already has enough current population plus incoming that I don't need to send more. What I need are scouts and colony ships! 100% of Cryslon and Aquilae industrial output are redirected to these activities, excepting a couple clicks in industry on each world. To keep science going at a minimal level, I throw in a couple clicks from Aquilae.
2341: Bad news. The Humans are the first to reach 8 systems. However, we needed range 5 to get outside our current nucleus, so we probably could not have beat them in this regard. This makes early expansion all the more critical, however, as we need to at least have the potential to top 1/3 of the vote as soon as possible. In other news, we construct 12 scouts at Aquilae and dispatch them, in many cases to planets our scouts have recently left behind to explore elsewhere. <b>It is important to keep a scout in orbit above every planet until that planet has a missle base up.</b> A key point for the AI is it is reluctant to attack planets it has not scouted, so preventing the AI from scouting your planets (or planets you intend to make yours) reduces the chances the AI will come after you and increases the chances it will go after someone else. There are no guarantees of course, but you go for whatever will give you the best odds of success.
I also realized I neglected to send the colony ship to Iranha in the nebula last turn (actually I assumed it was a scout, and didn't realize we had a colship just sitting around in orbit of one of our non-col-ship-building planets.) I do so now. I select Iranha primarily because it will extend our reach further.
2342: We explore Thrax (Desert 45) and Maretta (Dead 40) in the east. We should have no problem claiming these unless someone in the SE does an end run on us. Another batch of scouts are built as a hedge against future explorations, and sent to various staging areas so they will be in the right place to push ahead as new colonies are founded. Please keep an eye out as you colonize so that we always have scouts expanding our frontiers. Aquilae switched to colony ships.
2343: We discover Incedius and Cygni in the south. Incedius is a Dead 50 in a nebula, but Cygni is yet another Asteroids. Fortunately Incedius is within range 5 of Phantos and will be our gateway to the size 100 to the south. It is vital to colonize there ASAP!
2344: We chase off a Human scout at Maretta which we just explored. Worse, the Klackons chase off our scout at Iranha with a medium and settle it. We will have to divert our colony ship that is about to arrive at Iranha (we would have lost the race even if I had sent the colony ship on my first turn.) We now have contact. The Klackons only have 3 planets! They must be being pressured by the Sakkra as well. They are Erratic Ecologists and so will likely declare war at some point just because they feel like it, but even more likely because they are being squeezed for living space. This doesn't deter me from wanting to expand as much as possible, however. They can't land on most of the kinds of planets we can and won't be able to for a while due to not having a sufficiently large production base. Still, we will need to make sure Seidon is well-fortified to deal with them. They are likely to build a large fleet. Nevertheless, I negotiate a minimum trading agreement with them to boost relations.
In other news, Cryslon completes a colony ship and sends it to Phantos.
2345: We scout Proteus in the NW, size 45 radiated rich. The Iranha colony ship is redirected to Firma. I am beginning to think we should have sent the ship to Phantos as soon as it was built so as to open up further colonization options, rather than head west with it, but hindsight is always 20/20.
2347: We colonize Phantos. We also explore Collassa, a size 45 in the SW, already occupied by Humans. Our scout moves on so we don't annoy them. Rha is mature enough that I start it building a colony ship, too. I send some pop from Seidon to Phantos; Tauri is poor and can better afford the pop loss, but it is not in a position to donate yet since it had never been given its initial boost to get started. It should be ready fairly soon though.
2348: We colonize Firma. We also build two new colony ships. One goes to Incedius, the other to... oops. All these asteroids have completely cut off our access to the east until we get range 6 or can do an end run from Incedius. Having had an asteroid crop up at Cygni as well as everywhere else really hurt us, as that's what I was going to use as my staging area! I send the other colony ship to Moro in the west instead, though it will take forever to get there. I consider pulling some funds off of shipbuilding and into research but I know we will need at least a couple more colony ships once we colonize Incedius so I hold off for the moment. I am thinking, though, that soon we will need to temporarily turn down the volume on colony ships until we find a way to open the east.
2349: Klackons chase us away from Proteus but they won't stay, it's radiated. We discover Tau Cygni in the SE, an Ocean 75 poor. It's 5 away from an unexplored green star we have a scout on the way to, which is in turn 5 away from Incedius. An end-run might be possible if all works out. Here's hoping we don't have yet another asteroid...
2351: We explore Spica in the SW, a Toxic 30, chasing away Klackons, and in the SE we chase away a Mrrshan scout at Tau Cygni and discover the green star I mentioned is Ocean 40 Rigel, and the Kitties are already there! Grr, that's very bad. It's going to be a bit of a race to see if we can get to our eastern frontier before someone else does.
2352: We discover Primodius in the SW, a Steppe 50 colonized by the Humans. We also complete 2 colony ships, and next year will complete a third. I send one to Cryslon to forward to Ryoun, and the second to Firma to forward to Proteus. Now I have 2 planets freed up for research, but the question is, what? I don't think Industrial 8 will be enough by itself or even with Terraforming +10. We would need Industrial 8, Terraforming 10, and Terraforming 20 to miniaturize enough for large Colony ships with reserve tanks. (We know those are the techs we would get since we are Silicoids and are already researching Industrial 8.) So, if we want range, the best bet is Range 6. I still want Terraforming 10 though as it's the bet bang-for-the-buck tech in the game.
2354: We discover Terraforming +10 and redirect all research to propulsion. We also got a virus in our propulsion research, destroying 550 odd RPs. Good thing that happened early in the research cycle rather than late. I should be able to make that up shortly as I redirect all research to propulsion.
2355: We colonize Incedius. I immediately send a colony ship to Ryoun, as well as some population to Incedius. I also send a second colony ship to Incedius to forward elsewhere later (actually I should have done this earlier.) We gain contact with the Humans (Honorable Diplomat) and Mrrshan (Ruthless Technologist), and I set up trade agreements with each. The Humans are now up to 9 planets, while the Mrrshan only have 3, same as the Klackons.
2357: The Mrrshan send a colony ship to Tau Cygni and chase away our scout. We could have beat them there if not for the asteroids! Now they are likely to get a couple good planets out near what should be our backyard. Fortunately, there is a Dead world they will have to be able to go through to get at the top corner, but that's still annoying.
2358: We discover Berel, yet another asteroid south of Incedius. Yuck.
2359: Mrrshans colonize Pollus, next to Tau Cygni, and are up to 6 planets now. We colonize Moro in the west. I send the colony ship I moved to Firma on to Promima. We also get contact with the Sakkra. They are Erratic Expansionists but still only have a 3PE in the NW.
2360: My turn ends. We should colonize Ryoun shortly. We have a colony ship enroute to Incedius that needs to be forwarded somewhere useful. We should complete Irridium fuel cells soonish and then start colony ship construction again. We will also need to complete 2 techs in Industrial and Ecology to extend our range further from 6 to 9.
Screenshots to come soon, unless someone takes their turn before I get them up.
Save file:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/rbo-osg3-2360.zip
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![[pissed]](/images/smilies/pissed.gif "Pissed [pissed]")
I've seen worse asteroids (once saw SEVEN no habitables on a SMALL map), but this is still pissing me off. The only silver lining in this is that BOTH those planets they grabed are POOR, so they'll have a hard time defending them. The kitties are playing as TECHNOLOGISTS this game, so they'll be good to steal off of too
:suicide:
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