codehappy's Imperium 28, all you need is love (and bombs)

[codehappy]

The short, short version:

Had an okay early landgrab; I just barely got Collassa and Helos, the Sakkra (interestingly enough) got Talas. Bears were stuck with Ursa and Paranar, just as well. I only got Helos by swapping nuclear engines for range 5. Although a nebula world, I wasn't worried too much about the pacifist lizards, and the koo-koo bears were very weak.

This was an extremely thin early tree (no first-gen cleanup, reduced waste, robotic controls, or planetary shield, no Controlled until Toxic, no range 5/6 or IT20, almost no choices anywhere, in fact.) Fortunately the other races had some huge gaping holes as well; the Klackons never got any missile or bomb upgrades, the Sakkras chugged along at warp 1 seemingly forever, and the Psilons, of all races, had no new factory controls!

Made contact with the Klackon faction by settling Barren Ryoun -- they had a colony way up north at Gion, via a Psilon alliance! Immediately I traded for their planetary shields. Early scuffles with the bugs and bears did not amount to much.

Interestingly, I reached Controlled Radiated at about the same time as the Klackons, maybe even shortly behind them. They were too slow with their colships, though, being far away. I nabbed Ultra Rich Crypto and both Rich worlds on the map.

Worried a bit about the location of the Psilons, all alone in the east, but they only made it to four planets. Enough for the brains, they were the strongest race in tech until I overtook them in the 2500s, even with merely two factories a head.

There were other interesting happenings -- a few more wars, lots of teching via spies, trade, invasion and regular Earth-scientists, a space monster, and so on, but the game was mostly over after I nabbed all the R/UR worlds. I was the only major power at that point. The Klackons, Darloks, Sakkra and Psilons all had their turn as the distant #2, but that was the best anybody else could hope for.

I stopped expanding at a quarter of the galaxy, 12 planets (but eventually took the bug's Gion as #13 for diplo boost). I could have easily conquered Kholdan and Sssla but that would have sucked all of the remaining challenge out of the game.

Eliminated the Guardian with a swarm of hard beam fighters, settled Orion and won by the vote by unanimous acclimation in 2568. 16 points, no races eliminated, no "soon control the galaxy".



You may read the ridiculous full account here:

http://www.codehappy.net/games/rbo28/

I'm looking forward to reading everybody's reports, this game was a treat!

[TheArchduke]

Sounds like you had it a lot easier. Why were the Bears so easy in your game?

Why was Ryoun uncolonized? Helos? In any case, good job!

[codehappy]

Sounds like you had it a lot easier. Why were the Bears so easy in your game?

The Sakkra colonized Talas in my game. Did the bears get it in your game? That would already make a huge difference, Talas was almost as good a world as Ursa.

You also got a bear DOW in 2383 -- I assume that was an erratic DOW and you could have done nothing about it. If the bears had done that to me at that point and come after me I could have lost Helos or Collassa, quite possibly both, and the game would have looked quite different. A bad roll of the dice.

Bears also evidently got some other good breaks, like the derelict event. That never showed up for me.

What this adds up to is that, instead of quietly developing your colonies and racing to Radiated for the mineral-rich worlds, you had to spend your resources fighting nasty wars with the Bulrathi and then the Psilons.

Why was Ryoun uncolonized? Helos?

I don't recall the bears ever even scouting Ryoun in my game. The Sakkra tried for Helos, but my laser fighters in orbit were waiting for them. Anybody could have taken Helos from me had they attacked it with a real force early on, but they never did.

In any case, good job!

Thank you. And congratulations for your game, you wrung a win from a much tougher start than I did.

[codehappy]

Really, Erratic neighbors might make bigger differences in comparison games than Artifact planets or even initial expansion decisions, because war before you're prepared can screw your growth curve up tremendously.

The Bulrathi get a lot of rep for being a "weak" race with no economic bonuses, but their Construction expertise is an economic bonus. Further, their +25 gropo bonus is obscene early on, and they are certainly the race with which I least like to see early war.

[RefSteel]

Wow - terrific report! And you're challenging my report-length record from Imperium 11! (Plus you get bonus points for staying on-topic the whole time. If you have a few hours to read my Imp 11 report, you'll see what I mean.) I was laughing the entire time -- one of the most enjoyable Imperium reports I've read. (Yes, I read the long version.) Never doubt the all-knowing VGA Sean Connery!

I agree that erratic neighbors can play a major role in the game. The very first game I offered the community (before the new Imperia started - my original Meklar Challenge game) had erratic humans nearby, and their actions had a huge impact on the outcome. See my game and Sullla's (I'll link the report thread if you want; my report is in the middle of page 2, Sullla's is on his website) for the extreme examples on either end. The truth is though, I think random AI decisions have a huge impact even if there are no erratics on the board.

Oh. And the only edits to the tech tree were to give every race Radiated (replacing an existing planetology tech in that tier if necessary). In choosing the map, sargon did look for challenging opponents, but also for playable terrain. This was the second map he rolled (the first was too hostile in the player's vicinity) - so the extra challenge of the tech tree wasn't wholly intentional - but it definitely wound up as a major factor (and an extra wrinkle) in the game!

Thanks for reporting; I look forward to seeing you in the next Imperium!