OSG 26 - The Bearperor Returns

[Psillycyber]

OSG-26 Part 2 - 2320 to 2335

As Bearperor Psillycyber took the oath of office for running the fledgling Bulrathi Empire, he gave the air an inquisitive sniff. "Something smells fishy here." He surmised. "Naturally, being bears, that is a good thing! It must be those salmon delicacies shipped over from our fertile colony of Keeta." Psillycyber said, licking his lips and eagerly rubbing his paws together.

He quickly met with his foreign policy advisors. "Well, I think it's a no brainer. Birdies are much tastier than rocks! Let's eat!" His advisors were puzzled at first, doubting the mental capacities of their new leader, until one of them realized that the brief Psillycyber had been given had a typo on the front cover. "Oh, uh, that memo should read "Foreign Policy Threats," not "Foreign Policy Treats."" an advisor hastened to add. "Someone, you see...one of our cub scout interns, perhaps, must have left out the "h". No, we are not in a position to dine on either of our neighbors as of yet. They are still much too strong for us."

"Yes, especially the rocks must be watched carefully." Psillycyber concluded. "I have heard that their colony ships have been skirting around near Primodius. We shall have to watch that sector closely...."

With that, their meeting was adjourned, and Bearperor Psillycyber got down to the serious business of running the growing empire. Here are the notes from his logbook:

2320: Planets were busy building factories. Scouts were in place as far as they could go. So thankfully there were not too many tough decisions to make. (I have to say, Ianus did a great job with the first turnset!)



The main decisions this turnset were when to turn on the research, when to start building colony ships, and whether to build any fleet to help block the silicoids if they should colonize Primodius. Because even if we grab Talas early, I bet the Silicoids will have at least the range 5 to grab the rich dead Gienah world, which is not something we would like to allow if possible. (Thankfully, as you will see, the silicoids failed to colonize Primodius during this whole turnset. What luck!)

2321: The scout at Primodius had to chase away 2 more unarmed Silicoid colony ships.



(I got used to seeing this screen a lot, as you will see...)

2322: Nothing to report. Still building factories.

2323: Nothing to report. Ursa will max on factories (that it can work with current population) this turn. Will go over to colony ship production next turn at 5 years / ship.

2324: Chased away yet 2 more unarmed Silicoid colony ships without escort at Primodius. Boy, have we been dodging a bullet here that they haven't been smart enough to bring even a minimal escort!

I started building a colony ship at Ursa. I can do it in 5 turns with everything devoted to it, or I can set it to build in 6 turns and continue building factories with a sliver of production, and about halfway through I can switch it all back to colony ship production and shave it back down to the original 5 turns while getting some factory production thrown in as well, thanks to the power of exponential growth!



2325: Nothing new to report.

2326: We chased away yet 2 more unarmed Silicoid colony ships without escort at Primodius for the FIFTH time!

2327: After readjusting production at Ursa, 2 more turns on the colony ship, as planned. (It will have produced in 5 turns rather than 6, even with the factory production added).

2328: Keeta is up to 88 prod/turn. Next turn I will switch it over to research. And Ursa will have its colony ship ready next turn, destined for Beta Ceti, which I might rename.

2329: Our colony ship heads off for Beta Ceti, and Keeta goes over to research. Another is queued up to finish in 5 turns (I set it at 7 for now to get some factory production in, but I will make sure it finishes in 5).

2330: Our scouts at Primodius chase away 2 more Silicoid colony ships for the SIXTH time now.

2331: Nothing to report.

2332: The Galactic News Network airs breaking news that the Alkari Empire is now up to 8 star systems.



Yikes! And yet...our bears have smelled nary a trace of the bird brains down on the southern front....

Also, with range 4 in the percentages, I dialed research way back to 21 RP/turn and put the rest into factory construction at Keeta.

I do not feel particularly frantic to get range 4 to colonize Talas, what with the Silicoids not having even gotten to land on Primodius yet. So the plan instead is to colonize the very nice fertile jungle world Rigel up north of Beta Ceti first. It is a strictly better planet than Talas (size 105 and fertile vs. size 85), so why not?

I can send the next (3rd) colony ship to Talas in another 4 turns. Or, if worst-case scenario comes to pass and the Silicoids leapfrog past Primodius with Range 5 tech and snatch Talas, we could always invade their new colony quite easily. Yes, that would mean an early war with the Silicoids, but one where they would not be able to reach Keeta or any of our established worlds with factories, so at worst they bomb down a little bit of population...and good luck trying to invade, suckers!

Plus, what I can do to hedge our bets is relocate the colony ship from Ursa to Keeta (2 turns). From there, it can go to Rigel (4 turns) or Talas (4 turns) if it is deemed by the next turnset player as really imperative. Going straight from Ursa to Rigel, it still would have been 6 turns anyways.

2333: Our scouts in the Primodius sector chase off Silicoid colony pods for the SEVENTH time!

2334: Our colony ship starts relocating to Keeta. Beta Ceti is founded. I promptly rename it "Medved," which means "honey" in Bulrathese (hope the team doesn't mind!). Other names our cub scouts came up with were "Griswold," "Tannenberg," and "Bjorno," but those can wait for later if the Bulrathi senate agrees.



Keeta relocates 28 million adventurous cub scouts to the new planet.



(I would usually send 18 million to get the new planet up to 1/3rd, but since Keeta is fertile, it might as well shoulder more of the load for getting Medved up and running. Keeta can definitely spare the bears).

2335: As I pass off the Bulrathi Empire to the next Bear, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. We have a colony ship being relocated to Keeta in 1 turn.



This should probably get rerouted to Rigel next turn, unless you really think that Talas needs to be colonized ASAP.

2. We have another colony ship due in 4 turns from Ursa (it says "5", but it should max out with factories this turn and get trimmed down to 3 next turn). That colony ship should be able to go to Talas, because....

3. Range 4 tech should be coming in any turn now. It is at 20%.

4. The next turn player might consider switching on research for all of the fields. I thought about doing that, but instead I put excess production into building factories in Keeta instead. But next turn Ursa should be maxed out, and it should have a little sliver of production left over from what will be needed to build colony pods, such that putting that into building nest eggs on our tech points might be a good idea.



5. Still no peep (or should I say "chirp") from the Alkaris. They must be busy down there...

6. It is only a matter of time before the Silicoids finally bring an escort to Primodius. We will figure out what we will need to do about the Silicoids pretty soon (thankfully, I did not really face any tough decisions about that on my watch).

7. Edit: I also just remembered that there will be scouts to send forward as soon as we get Range 4 tech. I already sent one scout forward from Rigel after settling Medved.

Roster:
- RefSteel - You're up! Lead the Bulrathi Empire to a glorious 2350!
- Ianus - Slumbering soundly until Spring!
- Thrawn - Still hibernating