OSG 26 - The Bearperor Returns

[RefSteel]

Don't despair: A key alliance might be broken (the Psilons might even erratically declare war on the birds) just before the vote; the Meklar might control an enormous empire - they might even face the Alkari in the election for all we know - or of course we might lose the election with nothing we could do about it (and nothing we could have done about it except perhaps as the humans with their diplo bonuses to "break the alliance" requests). And even if we do lose the vote ... we are Bulrathi ... and there are a handful of lightly-defended worlds on our borders. Final war against Impossible AIs in a large galaxy could get pretty ugly, but it could be fun - and if it isn't anymore, or if we're finally defeated, we can always start another game!

[RefSteel]

And the most important thing to remember: this is a Large map, and it sounds like no one has gotten into the west yet, except maybe the Meklar but we don't know that yet. The vote may be some time off, and in order for it to be here now someone will need to get a lot more planets changing the dynamic of the election.

This is also an excellent point. The election happens when two thirds of the stars in the galaxy have colonies. If the Meklar aren't a serious counterweight to the Alkari, that's probably a sign that the election's not going to happen just yet. (And vice-versa. In fact, if we do have an election and find it means there are runaway Meklar in the west ... then hold on to your seats, everybody! We're going to be in for a game!

[Psillycyber]

True, the alliances have lasted a while, which makes it even more cheesy in my mind because what have the Alkari done to deserve this support? Have they been sending fleet after fleet against the Silicoids? (Maybe...that could be why the Silicoids are so crippled...but I would have thought that we'd see some Alkari ships zipping through our space in that case....) So actually, I take it back, you're right. Certainly complaining won't help. We shall just have to peel off some of the Alkari's support.

If we can gain another vote, and peel the Psilons off, I think we'll be in pretty good shape.

Hmmm, so now I am leaning towards invading the Silicoids after all. It's just 1 vote, and it might help increase our pop by a pivotal amount (taking Primodius) and improve our other relations (such as with the Psilons). I have ships in orbit around Primodius right now (the shark and remaining colony pod left, and not in our direction....) I can land 30+ million there in 3 years.

I think I'm going to pull the trigger.

[Psillycyber]

Unfortunately, the Silicoids are so anemic that it would take them forever to colonize the planets we want. Better to just get them stood up on our own ASAP, especially the dead rich worlds.

Building a better fleet and attacking Cryslon might be an option for the next turnset player, however.

I would not want to take on the Sakkra any time soon. They are much too strong.

[Psillycyber]

OSG 26 - Part 5 - 2360-2370

As Psillycyber gallumphed into his office for his second stint as Bearperor of the Bulrathis, he barked at his interns, "You better not be the same bird-brains who were responsible for letting that computer virus hit our propulsion research! If someone like that were to happen to our planetology research, you just might find yourself shipped off to Sol to become a dancing circus bear. Yeah, ever heard of that?! It's a star on the very outer reaches of this galaxy, where rumor has it that these bipedal insectoids known as "humans" take organisms of similar shape and stature to us as slaves to be used as mocking entertainment for jeering crowds of these "humans." And that's what our whole people will be reduced to, if we don't FINISH. OUR. CONTROLLED. DEAD. PLANET. RESEARCH!"

The interns stubby tails somehow found a way to tuck themselves in between their legs, they were so frightened. One of the interns spilled his cup of bearbrew all over the Lizard-skin carpet. After a minute of awkward silence, one of the interns spoke up with a quivering voice. "Uh...sir...would it please you to know that we have designed a new Honeybee design, the Honeybee II, with nuclear engines, giving it a travel speed of 2 parsecs per year and a maneuverability rating of 4?"

"Hrrmmmph...well...I suppose that's a good start," acknowledged Psillycyber. "I also want a placeholder design in which to stockpile our sheet metal for to build our new dead planet colony bases when that VERY. IMPORTANT. RESEARCH. COMES. IN. GOT IT?"

The interns nodded and shuffled off, one with bearbrew still all over his coat (not a coat he was wearing, but his actual fur coat, mind you).

After his brief little pep-talk, Bearperor Psillycyber got down to business. Here is his logbook from those years:

2360:
I sent off 23 million en route to Hefalump to get it started.



I scrapped the "lostcub 1.0" design that had reserve tanks and 2 lasers. (None had been produced). In its place, I designed the Honeybee II with nuclear engines and move-2 in combat. I set Ursa to build 19 of them this year to send to Celtsi to fight off the Psilon colony ship seemingly headed there.



Afterwards, their mission would be to harass the Alkari at the purple star in the NE and obtain scouting of that planet.

Meanwhile, our trusty interns also designed a huge "Bearclaw" design as a placeholder design in which to store our sheet metal, anticipating the completion of our controlled dead planet research. (You can see the dead planets that we intend to colonize numbered in the image above).

2361:
We got Controlled Dead! Hit it at 20% odds! (That motivational speech must have done the trick!)



I immediately scrapped the Bearclaw design and created the "Moonbase2" design: a large ship with a dead planet colony and nuclear engines on it. I put Keeta's and Ursa's production on the new moonbases, each due in 3 turns. I will re-route the one from Keeta straight to Porridge to colonize Gienah ASAP, shaving a turn off travel time.

As for the next planetology tech I chose, I know that we have scouted a controlled inferno planet, but it's only one planet, and it feels like it would be a bit of a reach to try and snag it from the Alkaris. After we get our dead planets online, we need to consolidate and grow upwards. Enhanced Eco Restoration was one option for that that I considered, but we just got a restoration tech. So I went with Improved Terraforming +30. If we can apply that to those dead rich worlds, they will be rocking size 50 and size 85, and will be pivotal assets to our empire!



That said, we won't be making much progress on that right away, because I have decided that this is finally the time to open up research in all the fields semi-evenly. We can't afford to fall too far behind in computer tech, weapons, force fields, etc.
Since Keeta wouldn't be able to build Honeybee II's like I had planned, I put Porridge up to the task, setting it to produce 4 per turn.

The other planets, I left doing a turn of full research to jumpstart our research projects. We will be putting down a down-payment of 305 RP this year. Next year I will dial that back to about 30 RP and have the rest continue factory construction / terraforming.

Also, I was about to have the Honeybee II's at Ursa go to Celtsi to guard against the Psilon colony ship, but then I realized that they didn't have the range for it! D'oh! Well, we can put these fighters to other uses. I'll send some directly to challenge the Alkaris at the purple star in the NE, and the others I will send to reinforce Primodius. As for Celtsi, there is a scout wandering about up in the NE that, now that I look at it, should be able to get back to Celtsi in time. Let's just hope that that Psilon ship is unarmed. If it is, oh well, we will just have to deal with it.

2362:
We have settled Escalon. I renamed it Griswold.



I sent 18 million from Sanders to get it jumpstarted.



Our scout happened upon a size-100 terran poor planet in the extreme NE.



Now, the question is, should I leave this scout here, or send it to Celtsi? Because...watching the interturn closely, it appeared that the Psilon colony ship was actually headed for the purple star controlled by an Alkari sparrowhawk. And that's precisely where our Honeybee IIs are going. Let's hope my eyes were not fooling me. Of course, now the Psilon ship is out of radar range, but if I am right it will probably pop back up on Dither's radar next turn. Actually, I will send the scout back to Celtsi anyways, because it turns out that the star it just scouted is already inhabited by the Alkari! (And as it turned out, the Psilons must have scrapped their colony ship, because it never did arrive at any of those stars. Weird...)

I sent the Nose 1.0 to the purple star to join the Honeybee II's arriving there on the same turn to get a look at the Alkari fighter design and also the Psilon colony ship design.

More ominously, the Sakkra are sending a Juggernaut-class ship our way. Based on the star geometry, I would guess it is headed for Artemis. I might be sending Ursa's first colony ship to Dunatis instead...



I toyed with the idea of designing a Nose 2.0 scanner ship with nuclear engines that could get to Artemis in time to have a look at that Juggernaut design. But there was nowhere I could produce it in time without sacrificing Moonbase production, so I decided against it. I'd almost rather just kill it with Honeybee II fighters.

Also, I just noticed, holy Batman, we have a spy report on the Psilons! I guess we had one tick trickling into them. Well, I'll go ahead and re-assign that to the Sakkra. Let's see what the Psilons have...



What??? They are strangely backward. Not even one construction tech researched yet? This is impossible difficulty, right?

2363:
The Silicoids got air superiority over Primodius and colonized it. My reinforcements had not arrived yet. I could not hold on with my 9 Honeybee IIs.



I sent 16 million from Keeta to Porridge in preparation for an invasion to take it back, especially because, as you will notice, the Silicoids are at war with everyone. It can't hurt our relations to join in on the dogpile, right?



2364:
We met the Alkari.



Uh-oh, they are way out in front of everyone in population and planets, and with their innate bonus, their fleets are going to be unstoppable for a long while now. AND they are in alliances with the Psilons and Sakkra. I started minimum trade with them and the Silicoids, backing down from the idea of invading the Silicoids, considering we might really need their 1 measly vote come election time.





2365:
We chased the Alkari away from the NE purple star. I got a look at the sparrowhawk design before it fled. Just a laser on them, nothing more.



Scouting revealed that this was a size-30 minimal planet. Excellent!



I queued up a standard colony base (or so I thought!) and queued up a moonbase in Keeta to colonize the Tundra planet of Celtsi once our range was extended.

Also, after some discussion with the team, I decided to invade the Silicoids from Porridge with 35 million troops. I figured, it might help our relations since the Silicoids were at war with everyone, and if we were dependent on their 1 measly vote, we would be in bad shape indeed.



I tried to get the Psilons to cancel their alliance with Alkari. No such luck. I tried the same with the Sakkra. No luck there either.

2366:
Once again, I tried to get the Psilons to cancel their alliance with the Alkari. No luck. But: the Sakkra cancelled their alliance with the Alkari all on their own! Yay! A sliver of hope for the council vote!

We also founded two new colonies this turn: Tannenberg (was Gienah), and Bjorno (was Artemis).





I got population transports sent on their way in short order.





2367:
Scouting revealed this ocean planet of Whynil in the NW. Will be a good planet once we get range 6 tech, or once we can fit reserve fuel tanks on our large hulls...



At the end of the turn, our transports landed in Primodius. The Silicoids had just reinforced the planet, but no matter. It was not a battle, it was a slaughter.



16 million bears remained at the end to take up the Rocks' former abode. But I could already see that a counter-attack was on the way for next turn....

2368:
The Silicoids counter-attacked with 2 sharks. My 10 Honeybee IIs could not handle them. After some losses, I had to retreat.



Also, I discovered a horrible mistake I had made: my standard, warp-2 colony ship design that I had built in Medved and destined for Gion (the purple NE star) didn't have a colony base on it at all! It was just a hunk of empty metal, a Potemkin spaceship constructed by my engineers to pull the wool over my eyes that they had been doing their jobs, when it turns out they had been traipsing in the woods on vacation, scratching their backs on nice, coarse tree trunks all day while witless assemblers assembled an empty hull and asked no questions. "Wot's this empty hull for?" "Heck if I know, just do what the engineers say..." So I scrapped that empty hull (now orbiting lamely around Gion) and redesigned a real standard colony ship with warp-2 to be built at Medved again. I advise holding back the Moonbase in the area for colozing the Tundra (maybe even send it forward to Gion so it will have less travel time to Celtsi, but don't colonize Gion with it. Wait for the cheaper standard colony ship).

2369:
Our glorious fleets struck back at Primodius. 17 Honeybee II's were enough to take down both of the Sharks with minimal losses on our side.



We now have air superiority over Primodius and 19 million bears on the planet, but there are 22 million Silicoid transports on the way. No matter. We will probably have hand lasers when they arrive, and in any case it should be another slaughter. And I'm guessing that these transports are badly depleting the Silicoid homeworlds of population. They probably have tons of factories going unworked because of it right now. I do not consider the Silicoids to be much of a threat going forward. ~15 Honeybee IIs should be enough to hold onto Primodius for the foreseeable future...unless another race tries to attack there.

2370:
We colonize Fnarglo (was Promixa). Size 55 rich, baby!



I get transports headed toward Bjorno, in preparation for forwarding some of them to Fnarglo.

Also, we got a spy report on the Sakkra.



I re-assigned the tick of espionage to the dreaded Alkari.

Here is the state of the empire in 2370:







Things for the next head of state to consider:
1. There are probably some scouts in the SE sector that can be moved forward now that Fnarglo is settled. But: there are a bunch of Alkari fleets buzzing (or should I say "flapping"?) around in the area, so I have queued up some Honeybee IIs in Ursa. You can change that if you want.
2. Primodius should be safe, but keep an eye on it. You can reinforce it with 5 more honeybee IIs at Porridge right now (should be enough to repel any more Sharks). Or, you could send some Honeybee IIs to patrol the SE sector. In addition to the Alkari fleets, there are some Psilon Coraonas zipping around, perhaps headed for one of the dead worlds, I couldn't tell. Watch that area closely. By the way, I have our final Moonbase headed for Dunatis, due in 2 turns.
3. Weapons tech will pop soon. I recommend going for Hyper V rockets next. We need some defenses ASAP.
4. Computer tech will also pop soon as well. I recommend battle computers so that we can sort of deal with the Alkari, although improved robotics controls III is always nice if it is available...
5. Remember that there is a Moonbase in the N sector orbiting Griswold. I recommend sending it forward to Gion, but not using it to colonize Gion. Use the colony ship in production at Medved to colonize Gion, then send the Moonbase forward to Celtsi. Or, if you think time is of the essence, you could settle Gion with the Moonbase, and change the build in Medved to another Moonbase, but that would trade some wasted production (about 200 BC worth) for time. (I already wasted about 150 BC building a stupid empty hull).

Good luck, and may the force be with you!

[Ianus]

Wow great turns! We are in fantastic shape with (by my count) 12 colonies and great position. Now that we can start teching in earnest we are all set to blow past our neighbors for the victory. Easy right?
In terms of future strategy I think that there are two goals to pursue, which dovetail together well (that is the right term isn't it? My business-speak is a bit rusty):
1) we have 2 totally anemic neighbors in the Silicoids and the Psilons. Attacking the rocks was absolutely the right choice and we should push ahead in the war (more on that in point 2). The Psilons are more dangerous because of their alliances, but we don't want to give them any more time to tech than we have to. Maybe we can leverage goodwill gained taking out the rocks to peel away some of their allies? The Sakkra if at all possible because they have contact with EVERYBODY, and the Alkari as a secondary concern.
2) The West! We don't know what is happening over there, but the Meklar pretty much HAVE to be in the deep southwest, and no one else has made any play for those stars. Thus we need to get over there to grab as much as we possibly can. As for how to do that I would say we need range 6 to grab Whynil in the north but we should also push right through the Silicoids and keep going westward. We should try to scout that second Silicoid colony, but if we can manage to take Chryslon we probably should unless that blue star is rich or something.
That's all I've got for now, but this game is shaping up to be a great one!

[Psillycyber]

Thanks, Ianus! You are more optimistic than I am. I feel like we are really spread thin, and the Alkari frighten me. One inopportune war dec, and it could all come crashing down at this point.

I really hope my mistake with the colony ship didn't jeopardize Gion and Celtsi. That, plus Dunatis, would put us at 15(!) planets. Then I feel like we need to consolidate. But if others can figure out a way to do that AND fight a war against the Silicoids at the same time, then be my guest!

Plus, the anticipation of the vote still troubles me....

[Psillycyber]

OK, looking at the map, there are exactly 35 uncolonized stars and 35 colonized stars on the map. But that is not including the Meklar! So, in all likelihood, the ratio is probably more like 30 uncolonized, 40 colonized.

40/70 = 57%.

47/70 = 67%

So I would wager that, during the next player's turnset, we will trip the threshold. We are set to settle 3 more within the next 5 turns. The Meklar will probably settle more, if they haven't already.

If we are lucky, the vote will occur after 2374, so that we will have some breathing space before the next election after that. (Assuming we skate by the first one!...)

[Ianus]

Oh don't get me wrong! The AI on Impossible ALWAYS terrifies me! But with careful planning and forethought the risk can be minimized. The Alkari and to a lesser extent the Sakkra are terrifying, but the rocks and the brains are not. Well the brains' alliances are, but that isn't exactly the same thing. So yes, we need to consolidate what we have while expanding to stay competitive. My plan at this point would be to move counterclockwise swallowing the Silicoids, Psilons, Sakkra and Alkari in order and dealing with the Meklar as they require. At this point we are still relatively underdeveloped but we are poised to surf our increasing size and development to become quickly dominant.

[RefSteel]

Based just on the report, it looks like you've done a great job of expanding the empire!

(I see the save, but can't actually download/"get" it until I get home late this evening.)

Don't worry too much about the uncolony ship; that's an easy mistake to make, and at this stage of the game, <100 BC isn't a huge deal. (Only half of the ~150 is wasted in comparison with building reserves, which is a perfectly legitimate thing to do in order to feed our new Rich worlds!)

Preflight plan:

Overall Priorities: I intend to stand up our Rich worlds as quickly as I can while colonizing everything Dead or better we can reach - and extending that reach as best I can. Beyond that, it's going to be all about research unless I decide to go for a ... special project instead. (Unfortunately, preliminary calculations suggest the project will have to wait for later.)

Fleet Design: I'm hoping at least to replace and scrap all the old warp-1 designs, including Scouts and the Nose, leaving us with Warp 2 scouts, fighters, a scanner, two colship designs (for the moment) and space for one more. The last spot could get used for the aforementioned "special project," in the event it proves feasible after all.

Diplomacy: Surviving the first vote is more or less random, but I'll do what I can; I'm really glad the Sakkra broke their alliance with the bird-brains! I'm going to assume (unless told otherwise) that in the short-to-mid-term we'll want to remain peaceful with the Sakkra and Alkari while taking advantage of everyone's hatred of the Rocks and possibly laying the groundwork for our inevitable war with the Brains. (Ianus makes a good point, and even if we weren't sure, remember that Tachaon is erratic!) I may also start spending a bit more on espionage if it looks like we have a little production to spare - we'll see. (You can blame me for the single click of spying we had going already, but the current situation may warrant more.)

Tech: We need a lot of it. I'll see what I can do! Our current projects look good, and my priorities going forward will depend on what our diplomatic situation looks like, but I suspect I'll be investing heavily in Construction and Propulsion. We'll see.

Some contrary opinions on details:
- A back-of-the-imaginary-envelope calculation suggests that ~200 BC is only worth about a 2-turn delay in colonizing Gienah, even ignoring strategic considerations, so I'll probably just colonize it with the Dead ship already stationed nearby, depending on how the overall timing works out.
- We don't need a battle computer to fight the Alkari right now: We need either shields (if they're still fielding nothing but laser fighters) or a strategy that doesn't rely on killing their fleets. If RC3 is in our tree, I'm in favor of snagging it; if not, you're probably right that a mark 3 computer will be the best bet, but I might be tempted by ECM2 just as a faster way up the tree.
- Similarly in Weapons, Hyper-V Rockets (Maniac says the V stands for "Vapoware") won't be viable much longer than nukes, and doesn't take us up the tree. If NPGs are out there, I'll take those without looking back, but even if they aren't, I'll want to grab something in the second tier without delay.

All in all, things are looking great! Let's see what I can do about that, shall we?

Stretch goals: (Note this is without looking at the save, so contact-with-the-enemy caveat applies to both these and the above in spades...)

1) Acquire at least 8 new technologies - and maybe give Ianus a chance at #2...

OR

2) Take Cryslon. That's the special project I was talking about, that I don't think is actually possible yet, but mayyyyybe....