OSG 26 - The Bearperor Returns

[RefSteel]

Erg - sorry; the last couple days got even more complex (mostly in good ways, fortunately, but that doesn't speed the game along) than when I posted here before. I've made time to play a few turns, but they're unusually complex and intense ones and haven't gone quickly. I'll try to finish tonight, but will definitely be late. If all else fails, I at least have the day off tomorrow!

(The turns would admittedly go [EDIT: a little] faster if I took fewer screenshots and kept less-thorough notes. The in-character reports actually don't slow things down, since I write them at times - like now - when I couldn't play anyway, but I take the turn-by-turn notes in real time and boil them down into something vaguely readable after the fact.)

Spoilers for examples of some of the in-game complexity so far:

Tachaon's been sending additional fleets to Cryslon every turn, and now the Sakkra have a fleet en route - and of course the Psilons have transports coming - as well. This might slow down after we take the world, but we'll still presumably have to dislodge any ships they have in orbit (or en route) already. Meanwhile, the Silicoid navy has responded to the three-way threat to its homeworld by ... setting out for Keeta! (Arguably our best colony for now...) Also, the Alkari have Controlled Toxic, the Sakkra (I think; I don't have the game or images in front of me, so it could be the Psilons ... or both...) have Controlled Dead, and we have several far-flung and important worlds to claim at the edges of our empire, with nothing but Nuclear Engines!

Also: The reason Psillycyber didn't see the Psilon fleet earlier is that it hadn't left yet the previous turn: They have Sublights, and the things are fitted on all their ships! The nebulae also make things interesting by generating uncertainty and false information on ETAs exactly where we want to know when everything will be arriving. And all that's without even mentioning the domestics, which have their own multiple layers of complexity!

[EDIT: Oh, and did I mention? We met the Meklar too....]

There's a huge amount to do in these turns, and it's lots of fun to figure it all out! ... But not speedy.