Imperium 35 - Shadow Report and Notes from the Sponsor

[RefSteel]

My report is now up in the usual spot (here)! This one has "just" thirty pictures, with less text than I usually write to accompany each one - I don't want to swamp everybody here. Also note that it is not normal to write crazy, image-filled, lengthy, in-character reports like I do. If you have a short report with no pictures at all, it'll be a lot quicker to read than mine are, and a lot more fun than no report at all!

By the way: The last line of my report is a question, and if it weren't a shadow report anyway (since I created the map) the answer to that question would be no. As it stands though, the answer is, "Not soon, but ... maybe."

NOTES:
I really liked toddestan's simple but elegant idea for a variant, and ran with it here. Especially after the first couple of replies to my poll were of the "Not too extreme" variety, I was thinking of putting an introduction/reintroduction type of game together, sort of like Imperium 1 and Imperium 10 - that's what I was aiming for with Map A, but even with the beneficial edits I made, the challenge on that one will be much stiffer than for a "regular" average game like those; the variant is quite significant. (That said, in playtesting Map A, I was able to reach a winning position fairly quickly even without the edits.)

But - as I sort of suspected would happen - some people asked for the game to go BEYOND EXTREME. So I tried a few maps and settled on Map B - after playing it for a number of turns, I'd labeled the starting save "Harder Than It Looks." This game will be very challenging for anyone; you need to play it extremely well AND avoid really bad breaks.

For those who have read my report:

My game could have been played better - my next wave of exploration after securing Deuterium was too slow, my research priorities after the first three or four techs were not ideal, and I had an excuse to play a last-minute council trick that could have preserved nominal peace at the end that I failed to take, but my real mistake was diplomatic: I should have capitalized on the Meklar war a lot more, and gotten some allies (and more importantly Meklar enemies) that way. Oh, well. Seems I'm a bit rusty too!

And for general consumption, here are the edits I made to the maps:

Map A:

If I remember correctly (I wrote these down but have somehow lost my notes)...
1) Changed Sssla's color to green
2) Changed the green star NW of Sssla (Ukko) from empty asteroids to a minimal 10
3) Changed the green star south of Sssla from an Inferno to a Tundra
4) Added RC3 to the player's tree
5) [EDIT]Replaced some redundant tech in the player's tree with Improved Space Scanner[/EDIT]
6) Replaced some redundant tech in the player's tree with Advanced Space Scanner
7) Added Class IV shields to the player's tree (there were otherwise no ship/individual-base shields between Class 2 and at least Class 6)
8) Added IT+10 to the player's tree
9) [EDIT]Replaced ~useless Controlled Toxic with[/EDIT] IT+30 in the player's tree. Seriously, we had no early terraforming before I started editing.
10) Added Soil Enrichment to the player's tree
11) Added Atmospheric Terraforming to the player's tree
12) Added Advanced Soil Enrichment to the player's tree
13) Added [EDIT: Nuclear Engines and] Fusion Drives to the player's tree (otherwise there woud be no engines before at least ... uh ... Ion Drives?)
14) Added Merculite Missiles to the player's tree (which was otherwise severely lacking in early missiles)
I think those are all essentially right, but I'd have to do some digging to make sure.

Map B:

1) Changed Sssla's color to green
No other changes.

I hope everyone enjoyed this one. I'd love to see if anyone managed to win on map B, and everything about how Map A played out!

[Zygot]

Great report, RefSteel. I wonder if anyone will beat this one, or survive a long time, playing straight through according to tournament rules? Those Meklars were scary dudes.

[Nad]

I agree - great report, Ref! It is very interesting how fast you were compared to my approach, but still it didn't help you. I was afraid that I was the only fool loosing that game...

[timmy827]

Wow, some seriously bad luck with the early DOW and Meklar not fighting others (unlike my game) - awesome you managed the early invasion gambit!

And then...well all I can say is I'd be fine with a new RB rule that events can be on or off in Imperia but the 'assassination' should always be off. MOO is a brilliant game but that event is sometimes a "sorry, you lose now" button.