OSG-27: Lumbering Rocks

[Ianus]

Oh Ref how I love your writing!  I am really going to try to produce something of the kind for my own turns. Really I am!  That said if you have a less rocky log I would like to see that too. And thank you for spoilering your report. It makes thread navigation much nicer!

I don't expect to get my report up until Monday unfortunately, but we will see. I'm still playing around with population growth mechanics.

I did take a quick look at the save, and I would say that our most pressing goal is to get  Irridium Fuel Cells and expand into the SE as much as possible. And to just generally grab all the real estate that isn't nailed down. So onward to Range 6!

[RefSteel]

Thanks for the compliment, Ianus! Definitely don't feel obligated to match my insanity though - I love reading in-character reports, but the last thing I would want would be to turn people off from participating in SGs by making them think they have to put write a novel at the same time!

One exception to the R6 and expand SE of course: There's one particular star to the North that deserves considerable attention!

[EDIT: Simpler report below.]

[RefSteel]

Basic, fairly detailed report without all the in-character story stuff:

2320: Three transports sent to Artemis from Cryslon. Set Cryslon to regrow a pop (probably a mistake) while nudging the techs along (slightly less spending since they're pretty high in the percentages already though) and completing the colship.

2321: IT10 and R4 both hit! IT20 and R6 are the only choices - but they're the ones I would have chosen even with a full slate in each field! Colship completes at Cryslon and is sent to Tauri. Cryslon and Artemis both set to terraform in one turn, while Cryslon uses its overflow to build two Scouts. Send some more transports to Artemis. (2? I think? Didn't record it; sorry.)

2322: Continue seeding IT20. 1 more transport to Artemis. New scouts sent to Centauri and Bootis.

2323: One last turn of seeding IT20 and sending transports (2, I think? Didn't record the number at the time) to Artemis.

2324: Colonize Tauri and send 7 transports from Cryslon. Notice a Human Scout bound probably for Bootis or Tauri, ETA probably 3 years either way. My guess is Bootis, but I need a couple more Scouts anyway and have Cryslon build a pair, relocing to Tauri, while seeding R6.

2325: Discover Tyr, an Arid 65, at the red star beside the nebula, at the edge of the galaxy. The scout responsible continues to the yellow star right by the nebula while another Scout just arriving at Centauri goes to take its place at Tyr.

2326: Scout arrives at the white star that would have bridged us toward the center of the galaxy, but it's Vulcan, an asteroid field. Scout heads for the red star, even closer to the galactic center.

2327: Human Scout reaches Bootis and retreats from our Scout, which continues to hold station, awaiting reports from the Vulcan scout. GNN reports advanced tech leaders: Psilon > Meklar > Sakkra > Alkari > Us > Humans.

2328: Colship from Artemis arrives at Cryslon via reloc and departs for Centauri.

2329: The yellow star by the nebula is Sssla. It has 11 bases (I think Hyper V, but not sure) and 7 Spirit destroyers with titanium armor, 100 pop and 197 factories. Not actually in the nebula. No asteroids on-screen. Our Scout retreats and will arrive at Tauri in (as it later turns out, post-nebula) 2336. Relief Scout arriving at Tyr chases a Sakkra Scout. At the red star ~toward the galactic center from Vulcan, we find Phyco, a size 115 Terran with a human colony. 65 pop but only 10 facs so far, so it may be size 115 naturally(!) - no defenses yet.

2330: Ukko, a size 50 Minimal ART world with a human colony, discovered at the white star north of Phyco. Like Phyco, it's well-populated but has no defenses yet. Scout dispatched to the purple star by the nebula to get a report a turn sooner. Colship complete at Artemis, already en route to Cryslon via reloc.

2331: Centauri colonized; 9 transports sent from Cryslon to get it started.

2332: Colships arriving at Cryslon and just completed at Artemis are dispatched to Tyr and Quayal respectively; 2 'sports sent to Centauri from Tauri.

2333: 2 transports to Centauri from Cryslon.

2334: Paranar, at the neutron star by the nebula, is a Radiated UR 10. Artemis maxes pop and factories. 1 more transport to Centauri from Tauri. IT20 is now at 4%. Put a turn into terraforming at Centauri since it's at 5 net BC and this can't increase by next turn. (I did the same thing at Tauri a few turns ago, but I don't remember precisely when.) This is honestly kind of silly - I should have just left the terraforming until we had more factories - but at least not a waste.

2335: Artemis completes another colship and switches to reserve feeding for now (subject to veto). New colship sent to Bootis (also subject to veto). And that's the set!

[Reformations]

I'm really looking forward to hearing how you guys handle move 1 battles =)

[Ianus]

One space at a time...

[Ianus]

My apologies for lateness.  Report follows:

2335 - Everything looks good.  Colony ships are en route along with population.  My usual strategy with the Rocks is to provide seeds to new colonies and then grow pop as needed.  Micromanaging fleets of transports is not my cup of tea.
As for long term strategy I am most interested in pushing into the southeast corner of the map, so with that in mind I readjust tech spending to 1/6 planetology, 5/6 propulsion in order to get Range 6 faster.  This drops IT20 from 9% to 5%, but I don’t care all that much about IT20 right this minute.
Much to my chagrin I discover that I can’t grow pop until I finish terraforming all of my worlds, which is something that i am not inclined to do until I manage to get some more production.  So for now I leave most of my planets to fend for themselves.  
Tyr in the north will be colonized in four turns once our colony ship arrives.  I know that there are lizards lurking around up there somewhere and so I decide to spend Cryslon’s accumulated ship production on a fleet of 40 basic laser fighters which will head up toward Tyr next turn.  Artemis covers research for one turn.

2336 - Laser fighters are on their way to Centauri and from there to Tyr.  Cryslon back to research, Artemis back to reserve spending.  Quayal will be colonized next turn, and from there we will see what the Humans are up to.

2337 - Quayal colonized.

This reveals a Human scout incoming at Bootis in two turns.  This is why its important to maintain scout screens at uncolonized planets!  Our colony ship is due there in three turns, but the dirty apes will get a look at it first.  At least they can’t colonize it yet!  Scout t Quayal departs of the red star south of the Human Phyco colony.  Its so nice of the Humans to hold it for us while we prepare our fleets to take it over!
Cryslon sends 7 pop to Quayal, but as a poor planet it will be on its own for the most part.
Propulsion tech is starting to fill.  Good.

2338 - Laser fighters arrive at Centauri and are sent on to Tyr.  I wish I could build more but I can’t spare the production right now.

2339 - IT20 hits.  

IT30 is the only option.  Nuts!
I also colonize Tyr.

This brings us to 6 planets and the first colonization announcement.  Go Rocks!

We also get introduced to the Sakkra:

Hissa is an Aggressive Industrialist with 4 planets

and a decent fleet incoming to Tyr.  I’m afraid that it will beat our laser force by a turn, which is very poor luck.  I send pop to Tyr from both Centauri (4) and Cryslon (10).  I hope that this isn’t a huge mistake!
I sign Hissa to a 25BC trade deal, which I hope will boost relations enough to make him agree to leave Tyr alone.  Stupid lizards!  He will accept either of our terraforming techs as tribute but won’t trade anything for them.  Too bad.

The lizards are also outranking us rather handily, but at this point I’m not too worried.  They only grow population four times faster than we can.  

Stupid lizards!

2340 - The humans redirect their scout and we colonize Bootis unopposed.

It looks like their scout is heading for the southernmost white star which means that they have an alliance with someone in the SE as if they had range to reach it alone they would be in contact with us by now.
The Sakkra are incoming at Tyr next turn

while our fleet is still two years out.  I resort to my tried and true tactic of bluffs and empty threats.

Miraculously it goes pretty well!  Maybe I didn’t need those laser fighters after all…  Of course our relations take a small hit, but we are still trading, so I’m not too worried.  Also Hissa has other directions to expand without pushing us around.

2341 - The Sakkra fleet turns back from Tyr without incident.  Yay!  We do not need a war right now!

2342 - We discover Stalaz south of the Humans.

Now we REALLY need range 6!  The bulb is about half full.  The scout heads off to try and intercept the Humans at the bottom white star.  I wish I knew who else was out there!

2343 - The Sakkra grabbed their 5th planet.  Looks like they are moving east.  Apparently Industrialist actually means Expansionist in Lizard.  Stupid lizards!

2344 - A quiet turn.  Range 6 is almost into the percentages, and our planets continue to grow.

2345 - Nothing to report.

2346 - Nothing to report.

2347 - Xengara scouted at the bottom of the map.

Range 6 is in the percentages!  Yay!  Time to start some colony ships as we have at least 3 planets to grab once it comes in.  Artemis can build one in 2 years!

2348 - Nothing to report.

2349 - Colony ship en route to Tauri for the UR planets in the galactic center once range research completes.  All quiet.

2350 - And that is all she wrote!  Range 6 is at 20%, planets are growing slowly, and that is about all.  I have not spent any reserve funds this turn.

As far as long-term strategy, I would say that we need to push colonization both to the southeast and into the galactic center, and then see where we can go.  The Sakkra are growing quickly and they appear to be largely unopposed to their east, which could make them runaways down the road.  We have not had any status reports lately, so that information is sorely needed to give us a sense of how things stand.  Other than a scout I haven’t seen anything from the humans, and their south is uninhabitable anyway.

[TheArchduke]

Uh, a new OSG, shame I did not see this earlier.

Hoping to be able to join the next one.

[RefSteel]

Great turns, Ianus! I'll point out you could have built most of the fighters from Cryslon without stopping research there (and building more fighters from Artemis if desired) - except first I'd have to advise myself to have built those fighters several turns ago so they'd be able to protect Tyr in a timely fashion! Maximizing the force capable of reaching Tyr on the earliest possible turn makes all kinds of sense. If Hissa took our fleet strength into account in buckling to your threat, it certainly was the right call - as it would have been if he'd refused you and we had to fight! (I think the ships you had coming could probably have beaten that fleet, as the colships aren't likely to be armed yet, but since they'd have held orbit for a turn, trying to shoot down all the transports would have been another matter entirely, and we'd probably have lost the world.)

As for runaway Sakkra, I'm with Thrawn. I'd rather face the Sakkra than the apes in an election any day, so the more Hissa can grow, the more power to him! Of course, he may yet make me eat my words, with a massive runaway advantage or a doom fleet and huge waves of transports. As I believe someone mentioned recently: Stupid lizards!

[RefSteel]

Uh, a new OSG, shame I did not see this earlier.

Hoping to be able to join the next one.

Wait, wait, hang on, we've only gone once through the rotation! You're practically in on the ground floor! A fourth player is always welcome: Are you sure you don't want to slot in after Thrawn?

[Ianus]

Please come play with us Archduke! We still need more players and you really haven't missed anything important. Please try to play!