(October 5th, 2015, 07:15)Psillycyber Wrote: 2. We could re-route the colony ship to neighboring Escalon (directly from Dolz, right? Or, as per exploit rules, would we need to let the colony ship retreat to the nearest base first?)
The exploit rules are very narrow: They only forbid sending a missile boat or bomber back to the same star at which they just fought a battle and expended ammunition. I always let my retreating fleets head back home, but even the most stringent exploit rules wouldn't forbid sending a ship someplace else when it arrives at a star unchallenged. (Doesn't mean we can't make that a variant rule some day though...)
(October 5th, 2015, 07:18)Psillycyber Wrote: Also, by my count, even with the Alkari scooping up some of our backlines, we should be able to get a core of 8 worlds even before we get the dead worlds online. That will allow us to stay competitive until we can start invading, no? Sullla has often remarked that 7 or 8 worlds on a large map is the magic number. (Below that, and you really fall behind in tech).
Well, it depends on the worlds and on the AI - including how soon we have to fight off war fleets! It's also a little different with Bulrathi, but the bears are easy to underestimate, and if we can land those dead, rich worlds we'll be doing great. That said ... let's not count our chickens just yet. Even with just four planets so far, Tachaon terrifies me. It's not just the tech (Range 7 already, and that was years ago! We're still not out of the first tier!) - it's that erratic diplomatic personality. We could face a dogpile, a diplomatic loss, or both long before we're ready.
(Which would be pretty fun to play out, actually. Like I said, it's easy to underestimate the Bulrathi.)