Maniac's Game Part One - We're Rich, ULTRA Rich

[Maniac Marshall]

First I must offer up 2 appologies:

1) There is no story this time. Blame World con, Gen Con and Dragon Con all happening over a 4 week period. I did good just to get the game played.

2) There are going to be a crapload of pictures in this report. I apologize in advance to any of you still on dialup. I'll break it into 4 so hopefully the threaded view will at least offer some relief.

Second I just want to say one thing: Sulla, you bastid, I have NEVER thought so hard or worked so hard on a game of MOO in my life! I literally sat and thought on some turns for like 20 minutes

That being said, I still think this report will be worth your while to read. Onward!

This event has custom scoring, so the first thing I did was look at the scoring and see how I could manage to hit the quadruple 150 points in each area.

My first thought was that the 150 in population would be difficult, but, if we get an isolated start and some large planets, and some good terraforming, it would actually be the EASIEST of the 3. I figure we could get about 90 points the first half.

If we had 20 planets the 2nd half, we'd need 40 votes, whcih would mean we'd better have at least Gaia's and Terraforming +80.

The researcher part would be more difficult. We might be able to get about 60-70 points the first half, but then we'd have to go all out on 3 fields thereafter... What 3 fields? We're the Klackons, so construction was obvious because it's the easiest, next would be computers, because we'd need to steal some tech, and finally planetology, because we'd need population. What of the other 3 fields? Clearly we'd need at least Hyper-X or merculite missiles, but beyond that, we could survive the first 150 turns just fine with no weapons tech. In force fields, Planetary V would be sufficient for our needs, and we could shut down research thereafter. In Propulsion, it'd be dicier. We might need range 7 and warp 3, because we would need to bomb enemy worlds...

Why would we want to bomb enemy worlds? Wouldn't that just hurt our score in Diplomat?? Actually, no. Lets look at why.

Feud: 0 points
Hate: 0 points
Discord: 0 points
Troubled: 2 points
Tense: 2 points
Restless: 4 points
Wary: 6 points
Unease: 8 points
Neutral: 10 points
Relaxed: 12 points
Amiable: 14 points
Calm: 16 points
Affable: 18 points
Peaceful: 20 points
Friendly: 22 points
Unity: 25 points
Harmony: 30 points

The top level you can get with an AI with whom you are not allied is Peaceful. With 4 Peacefuls you score 80 points. No way we'll have time to get 4 people anywhere close to Peaceful in the first 75 years. On the other hand, with 3 Harmony you score 90. It's actually far easier to get 3 Harmony than 4 Peaceful. Early contacts and trade agreements will be vital, as will getting someone under full dogpile and bombing them.

Another thing we're going to do this game is take full advantage of being Kackons for pop purposes. Other than the home planet and rich planets, we will grow Klackons BEFORE factories. The production you get from the pop is worth doing it this way in this scenareo and you don't have to deal with cleaning up that way.

2300: Looking at our starting location, I'm tempted to send the colony ship to the purple star. Purple stars offer the greatest chance of finding rich planets, and I wonder if there isn't one of those Rich minimal planets there... I expect there to be one somewhere close if Sulla really wanted mastery of the Triad to be possible, but I decide to play it safe and send the ship to the yellow star instead. We'll scout the purple star just in case. I decide to send the other scout to the blue star 6 parsects to the noreast.

2302: Well, I was right about some things. The planet at the purple star is a Minimal planet.



And there is a rich minimal planet within 3 parsects of the homeworld, but it isn't at the purple star...



2303: We whip up the scout 1.0 desidn and set the homeworld to make a batch of them. I send 15 million off to the ultra rich.

2304 Scouts fan out.

2305: We scout Size 50 Barren Anraq in the northeast.

2307: We scout size 70 Arid Poor Primordius at the red star just north of Omicron

2308: We scout size 65 Ocean Artifacts Artemis(Another early artifacts planet ) near Anraq, and size 50 Dead Morrig at the red planet in the southwest corner. We are the first to scout Artemis and we get:



Wow... Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good as Sirian would say. You know, I'm starting to feel like Sirian mining hills in CIV. Yeah, I popped another goodie. My luck has to run out some time doesn't it?

2309: Time to make some more scout 1.0's...

2310: More scouts fan out. We scout Size 35 Barren Beryl in the southeast.

2316: We find asteroids at Dunatis, a blue star near the center of the galaxy, and Size 20 Dead Klystron in the south center of the galaxy.

2317: We find Orion



We also find asteroids at Rotan, the red star midway along the eastern edge, Size 85 Terran Crius at the yellow star near the center of the galaxy, and Size 30 Desert Imra at the red star near Orion. And finally, we find this little gem of a planet.



2318: With Morrig nearly maxed out, I design a new colony ship, and start on it with every click Morrig isnt using to get the last 5 factories and last pop. We scout Size 50 Minimal Vox, at a white star on the western margin, and Size 75 Jungle Gion at the red star next to Vox.

2321: Colony Ship dispatched to Arietis. With the homeworld about to max out, I make one last set of scouts with the spare clicks.

2322: I open research. I allocate 3 clicks to everything that isn't planetology, and the rest to planetology. We select Jammer I over DSC (Jammer I is really cheap, and I don't plan to do a lot of threatening this game), Reduced 80 (only choice), Class II (always the only choice), Terra +10 over Controlled Barren and Improved Ecco (Great bang for the buck and we'll get Improved Ecco before going forward), Sub-Light Drives over range 5, nuclear engines, stabilizer, and range 7 (We need an engine and this one will likely be sufficent for our needs for the first 150 years) and Hand Lasers over Gats (Needs no explanation)

2323: Colony Ship dispatched to Primordius (to extend our range north) Terra +10 hits. The new choices are +20, Controlled Dead, and Death Spores. We select Improved Ecco Instead.

2324: We begin Terraforming.

2327: Colony Ship dispatched to Omicron. Aretmis colonized.

2328: Primordius Colonized.

2329: Colony Ship dispatched to Crius. We scout Size 65 Barren Ukko at a purple star in the middle of the galaxy.

2330: We chase a Psilon scout off Ukko. Colony Ship dispatched to Imra.

2331: We scout Size 20 Toxic Neptunis near Ukko. We colonize Omicron.

2332: Colony ship dispatched to Vox. We chase a Human scout off Ryoun, a Size 35 Inferno at a green star in the northeast. We get this message:



Raise your hand if you're surprised.

2333: We chase a Silicoid Colony Ship off Kailis, a Size 90 Jungle Planet. We also find Silicoids living at Rayden, a green star in the northeast. Their one base forces our scout to retreat. We also scout Thrax at a green star in the center east amd find a size 25 Inferno planet.

2334: Colony ship dispatched to Crius as a staging planet for Kailis.

2335: Colony ship dispatched to Gion. Hand Lasers hit. The new choices are NPG and IC. We select NPG.

2336: Improved Eco hits, we select controlle dead.

2337: Colony Ship dispatched to Herculis. We design a Placeholder Huge so we can pop several Dead Colony Ships at once when Dead hits. We chase a Bulrathi Colony Ship off Neptunis. Jammer I hits. The only new tech is BCIII and we select that.

2339: We colonize Crius.

2340: We colonize Imra, which leads to this message.



2341: We Dial up the Silicoids for trade and they accept.



Here is a look at the Sillicoid empire.



2342: We scout Gienah at a red star in the north and find asteroids. We colonize Vox. We scout Areitis at the red just north of Vox, and find a Size 30 Rich Toxic.

2343: We run a Silicoid scout off Nyarl, a size 65 Tundra planet in the southeast.

2344 we scout Incedius, a size 45 Toxic in the northeast. We colonize Herculis.

2345: We scout Bootis, a Size 50 Rich Barren planet in the north. Controlled Dead Hits, the new choice is Controlled Toxic. We go for it. We colonize Gion. I realize I've been letting the Colony ship for Kailis sit at Crius for several turns...

With Dead in the bag, I even out research to try to get some points before the scoring in 30 years.

2346: Reduced 80 and Class II both hit. The only new choices are Improved 8 and Class III.

2347: SEVEN Dead colony ships roll off the line and fan out. We scout Ajax a Size 35 Desert planet in the northeast corner. We design a LR colony ship to grab it.

2348: We find Sol at the western yellow of the cluster to the north. We run. Colony Ship Dispatched to Ajax

2349: We find Humans living at Denubius, the westernmost of the northern yellow cluster. their fighter chases our scout away.

We colonize Kailis, which triggers this message:



2350: We find the Bulrathi living on Paranar, a Size 60 Arid planet near the southeastern corner. Colony Ship dispatched to Morrig.

We dial up the humans and make this deal.



At this point, we pull our scouts off the two highly hostile planets near the Sillicoids (not the Barren planet, we want that one) We want them to have them. Why on earth would we want to GIVE AWAY planets??? Simple, we're going to declare war on the Sillicoids soon. We're going to (hopefully) get them under full dogpile, but the last thing we want is for the Sillicoids to get eliminated from the game before the end. Letting them have the Inferno and Toxic along the boarder gives us some place to bomb that the other AI will hopefully LEAVE ALONE because they CAN'T LIVE THERE! We hope to have all contacts and be bombing them shortly.

At this point I saved for the night. I was tired from all the thinking this variant required. Our winning is not in doubit, but executing the plan for the tripple 150... that's a long shot, everything has to go right, and ONE stupid move could end up costing me my chance at it.

When I restarted the next day, I realized I had a serious problem...

[Brackard]

OH! The suspense!!!

[Maniac Marshall]

OH! The suspense!!!

And now, a report well calculated to leave you in... suspense!

When I started back up the next day I noticed I had a problem... a REALLY BIG problem.



The Purple Circles are planets I'm going to Colonize, ships already on the way. When I colonize the southern purple circle, I will get contact with the Bulrathi at Paranar. I will also be only 5 parsects away from that yellow star circled in red. Most likely thats Ursa, though it could be Mentar or neither of the above. If that's NOT Mentar, and I doubit it is, I'm in trouble.

The two planets I circled in Green are most likely Psilon planets. They are definately NOT Bulrathi planets because the Bulrathi have no contact with the Sillicoids. Both those planets are SEVEN parsects away from my nearest prospective settlements and I have Range 6 and am researching Warp 3. Somehow, in the next 20 or so turns, I'm going to have to pop both Warp 3 and Range 7 with a race poor in populsion. I'll also need to finish my weapons research so that nuclear bombs will fit on smalls, and pray that the Sillicoids don't develop Class V planetary shields. I could play it safe and just go for the 75's, but meh, there is more of Capablanca in me than Karpov. I want the brilliancy, not the grind it out win. Besides, the 75's are in the bag either way I expect.

Crashing research this way will set me back for making the 150, but I MIGHT pull that off. I have NO hope of winning if I dont get AT LEAST 60 and preferably 90 points in Diplomat.

I set research up to crash Propulsion and Weapons, and pray that I have time to pull the rabbit out of the hat on this one.

2351: Berel colonized. We get the message that we have the most prolific strippers in the galaxy!



2352: My fears are partially confirmed. This is Mentar...



It's still possible that the 5 parsects yellow is a Psilon Planet and Ursa is the Yellow at the back, but it's not likely. Npg's hit, the new choices are mass drivers, merculites, and neutron blaster. We select Mercs. All research but a single click now diverted to Propulsion.

2354: We attempt to scout the 5 parsec yellow and find Ursa. My fears are now totally confirmed... We colonize Anraq, Morrig, and Klystron, which triggers a vote. Our opponent is the Bears surprisingly.

Humans abstain 3 votes, Rocks abstain 2 votes, Psilons abstain 2 votes, Bears 4 votes themselves, us 7 votes the Bears (they'll like us when we get contact, speaking of which)



2355: Of course, we sign the bears up to trade



Once we settle Nyarl, we can set up a NAP.

2357: Sub-Light Drives hit, we go for range 7 (New choices are Warp 4, dissipators, and Energy Pulsar)

2358: With Sub-Light in, I whip up one of the crappiest bomber designs that you will ever see.



As long as the Rocks don't develop Class V Planetary shields, it should work. I think it's unlikely, though not impossible, that they can develop those in the first 70-80 years in this size universe on hard, but I have no choice if I want to hit the 150 I have to go for it. I'll make a couple hundred of these and send them out, ready to pounce when I have full contact. Also, Ukko and Nyral are colonized.

2359: We dial the Bears up and set this up:



2362: Bootis colonized. We get this message:



2363: We spy on the Rocks to make sure this is going to work on them, otherwise, we'll have to hope we can get people to go for the Bears instead.

2364: Our spy reports back. Their tech, as expected, sucks. It's a go.

Range 7 hits! We go back for Stabilizer for now. And we get this all important message:



Yes, YES! HARMONY! That's what I want us to live in!

2365: Well, now that we have all contacts, it's time to go for broke. Will the Humans declare war on the Sillicoids?



Will you trade with me Brainiacs?



Oh, and you will declare war on the Sillicoids right?




Wait, what?! The Bears still don't have contact with the Sillicoids, so I can't sign them up CRAP. If only I could give them Range 7 . Laan colonized.

2365: With their tech looking like so



Bombers head for Cryslon.

2366: The Psilons have signed the Bears on somehow Ajax colonized. With only a few planets in the galaxy left to colonize, we're going to start the bombing campaign none too soon. A neverending cycle of complaining about out size would be starting right shortly. We're messing about with tech, desperately trying to get Weapons to level 3, and computers, construction and Force Fields to level 2. We really need to get to about 60 if we're going to have a chance at this...

2367: Time to Dance




Of course, there is only one response to this for the Rocks



But hey, I got some people's attention



The Humans are similarly impressed, though they don't make an appearance to tell me so.

2368: Time to jump in with both feet.




The Psilons have only budged as far as neutral.

We bomb Cryslon again in the interturn,



and this time the Braniacs take notice.

Improved 8 hits, the only new choice is battle suits.

2369:



I don't want to glass Cryslon immediately, so I send about 1/2 of my bombers off to look for a second world to bomb while I take one last parting shot at Cryslon. They'll look at Misha first.

We bomb 8 of the 17 million remaining off Cryslon.



2370: Well, that's got The Bears and Apes up to Harmony, but the Psilons are only Friendly. looks like we'll have to bomb one more round at least. BCIII hits, the only new choices are Jammer III and BCIV. We select Jammer III.

This is what we find at Misha:



We bomb



We Bomb Cryslon



The Psilons show up



2371: And indeed, when we look at the racial relations, we see that Universla harmony has been achieved. I pull my bombers back, and set the few boarder worlds to making a base. One base should be enough to stop the Sillicoid "fleet". Merculite Missiles hit. New choices are Graveton Beam, Fusion Beams, and Stingers. Who needs a 2 space beam? We select Stingers.

2372: BCIII and Class III Deflectors hit. The new choices are Jammer III and BCIV and Class IV. We select Jammer III and Class IV.

2373: Battle Suits hit. The new choice is Zortium Armor. Hey, we ARE excellent at Construction right? Where the heck are all our choices??

2374: With everything important having hit in Computers, Weapons, and propulsion, those fields are reduced to a single click. My idea to use computers over force fields got nixed since Planetary V Shields aren't in the tree. We'll hope Class X ones are just in case we need them. It's highly unlikely that we will, but I don't want to risk it.

Vote Time: Humans 3 votes for us, Rocks 3 votes the Bulrathi, Psilons 2 votes us, Bears 4 votes themselves, us:



Note we do have enough votes to win the game.

2375: Here's our "halfway" screen shots:

The fleet:



The map:



The races screen:



Note, we're #1 in everything except fleet strength, where we're #2. This is a completely won game at this point.

The planets Screen




The tech screens








So, lets add things up:

Colonist: 20 Planets + 13 votes = 33 X 3 = 99 Points

Researcher: 10 + 11 + 10 + 10 + 14 + 14 = 69 Points

Diplomat: 3 Harmony + 1 Hate = 90 Points

Analysis of what I need in the 2nd half

Colonist: I need 51 points. As of now, I'd have 33, so I'm 18 short. I plan to grab at least Areitis and Incedius, and maybe a couple planets from the Sillicoids if needed. I figure Terraforming 60 and Gaia or Terraforming +80 will be enough to put me over the top. Shouldn't bee too hard if I pay close attention.

Researcher: I need 81 points. That equates to three fields at level 27. I really don't think this will be a problem. Heck, I might be able to get close to that in TWO fields if I tried. This one should be in the bag.

Diplomat: This is still the problem child. TBH, I think Sulla made this one a little too hard. The only way this one works at all is if none of the AI declare war on each other (fortunately with events off the ambassador is out of play, and none of them are big enough to tick the others off), if you get all contact, and and if you get lucky. So far all of those things have conspired to come true for me, but it could all come crashing down on a die roll at any moment. The Humans and Psilons won't declare war on me as long as relations remain strong, because they are Honorable, but the Bulrathi might. Probably not with relations high, but it's possible. Also, none of these guys have very many planets. If they don't nab a few off the Sillicoids, the pressure on them to expand somewhere will mount, possibly causing them to break the alliance. We dont need 3 people at 30 this time, but we either need two, or one at 30 and the other two at very high, or all 3 people at 20. The last two only work if the Sillicoids manage to survive the next 75 years, which is iffy... yeah, this is going to be interesting...

[Maniac Marshall]

2375: Sillicoids show up at Ukko



They still haven't armed the colony ship ... They are no threat to the planet, but that ship might deter somone else, so I decline to shoot at it and let it flee.

2380: The Bears have droped to friendly. Controlled Toxic hits, the only way forward is Terra +40. We scout the uncolonized planet behind the Bulrathi, and find size 10 Dead Jinga. Guess we'll whip up 3 more colony ships.

2381: Zortium Armor hits, we select Exoskeleton over Improved 5 or reduced 40.

2382: Colony ship dispatched to Jinga.

2383: The humans disolve our Alliance and drop to Amiable... I forgot to get a screenie of it We're still over 60 combined points for the moment. We start crashing up bases near the human worlds. Colony ships dispatched to the 2 Toxic planets.

2386: Class IV Deflectors hit. The new choices are Class V and Repulsor Beams. We go for the beams. We colonize Areitis.

2387: Incedius and Jinga colonized, triggering this message.



2388: Improved Terraforming +40 hits. We do NOT start terraforming anywhere except Jinga, which is only size 10. No sense ticking everyone off with our size until absolutely necessary. New choices are Cloning and Atmospheric. For now, we select Atmospheric.

2389: Exoskeleton hits. New choices are Andrium and Improved 4. We select Andrium because it is the cheaper tech, and hopefully 3 will be in the tree.

2395: Repulsor Beams hit. New options are PAS and Class X. I doubit we need either, but Class X would make me feel a lot safer, and we've got exoskeleton, HL, and tons of Armor Tech, so I select it. The Humans move up to Calm and they will FINALLY talk to us again for the first time in 12 years. It's probably a lost cause, because we'll probably get a lecture about how *WE* broke the Alliance, but it can't hurt too much to ask for a NAP...



Thats peanuts for us, so yeah. Lets hope they don't immediately break it...

2398: Atmospheric Hits. That will slow down some of the inadvertant terraforming... Stabilizer hits. New choices are +50 (No soil enrichment of either kind for us :thumbsdow ) and in Propulsion we select Fusion Drives, which might be useful to bomb out the world later if we get a decent bomb.

2399: Vote time. The Humans are the new opponent. Humans 4 votes themselves, Rocks 3 votes the Humans, Psilons 2 votes me, Bears 4 votes me, Me 17 votes abstain... I nearly have a "conquest" voting block despite not taking (or even glassing) anyone elses planet. Contrast this to my Imperium 10 game, where it took me much longer to get myself into a position to win. It definately shows the power of "lets you and him fight", which is why I ordinarily don't employ this tactic and only ask for help if I'm actively at war (although, in this case, I didn't ask for wars until I was pretty well committed to jumping right in, so it wasn't TOO bad on my part)

2400: I notice that the Humans have made peace with the Rocks... much as I'd like to give the Rocks a breather to keep them going, I simply can't allow that. With the Alliance Broken, they only have contact with the Rocks and me, and I'd rather they not come for me, even if I know that I can hold them off with ease. Umm...



Well, that could become problematic, we'll just have to see. Against my better judgement, I decide I better do some single click spying. I need to monitor shield levels just in case... Jammer III and Andrium Armor hit, the new choices are Robotics IV and BCV, and Improved 3 and Tritanium. We go for the Robotics and Improved 3. It occurs that I've cost myself a good bit by not getting the Robotics in a timely fashion. Oh well, that's the least of my worries at this point. Time to change some research around. Computers aren't that far behind force fields, lets just make that our 3rd area once Planetary X hits.

2405: The spies have all planted and geez, no one has computer tech better than the Sillicoids? The Humans have Jammer II and everyone else has BCII. If anyone had anything I REALLY wanted I could probably steal it fairly easily. I MIGHT want the fusion bombs the Bulrathi have later. Unlikely to bee needed, but it's worthy of note. Also worthy of note is that the Bears and Apes have Planetary shields, but the Braniacs do not.

2406: The Sillicoids appear, and no, we have no intention of doing this.



2409: It's been a few years, lets try to reason with the apes again. Will you declare war on the Rocks yet?



Well, that's a huge relief. One of these days, relations will drop and I'll have to bomb the rocks some more. Frankly, given our realtive size, I'm amazed they haven't dropped more. Perhaps relations this high are more stable? I so rarely ever make alliances I wouldn't know. Robotics IV hits, Class X Planetary hits, New choices are Advanced Scanner and BCVI in comps, and Cloaks in forcefields. We pick Advanced Scanner.

2410: There is no sense building factories until Improved 3 hits, and it's just entered the %. Now is the time to build Shields everywhere within 7 parsects of another race though.

2412: Improved 3 and Stingers hit. New choices are Improved 2 only, and in weapons Ion streams or Fusion Rifle, we select the rifles.

2413: Time to build factories, then terraform. We can't wait forever to get the pop up, and we'll just bomb the sillicoids for happieness if needed. They've only lost one planet, so their continued survival is fairly assured.

2415: Terraforming + 50 hits, the only new choice is Terraforming +60. The Humans show up and complain about our size. I once again failed to get a screenshot of it, but they did. They have dropped all the way to Wary. Looks like it time to do some attitude adjustment bombing. Oh, and my top 3 tech fields now equal 82. so I have met the researcher goal.

2416: We bomb Ryoun



2417: The humans are up to neutral. Bears back to Harmony. I can't bomb Ryoun again or I'll glass it, so it's time to find somewhere else... Lets have a look at Thrax.

2418: We find 38 million at Thrax.



You might notice that I'm bombing the hostile worlds. Again, that's because no one else has the technology to live there (No one has anything better than controlled Barren!!), so wiping out their bases won't open them up to being invaded. We don't wan't the Sillicoids to die.

2419: That bombing run at Thrax got people's attention. Time to renew old agreements.



and to improve relations



2420: The Humans are up to Peaceful, I'll bomb once more and save the rest of the pop for later.



2421: The humans are up to Unity, which is good enough for now. I recall the fleet to Ukko.

2423: Fusion Drives hit. The new choice is Range 9, which we select.

2424: Vote time! Humans 4 votes themselves, Sillicoids 3 votes the Humans, Psilons 3 votes me, Bears 4 votes me, Me 25 votes abstain.

2425: Hmm, lets see. We had 99 colonist points earlier. We have 23 planets and 25 votes... that's not going to cut it, that's going to leave us 3 points short. We're maxed out on pop everywhere, and we have Terra +60 going to pop before long, but thats only 2 of the 3 votes we need after terraforming. Looks like we need to take one planet off the Rocks just to be safe. Advanced Space Scanner hits, new choices are Robotics V and BC VII. We select BC VIII. We scan every unscanned planet in the galaxy except Escalon. With only 25 turns left, I once again shut it down for the night. This close to the miracle game, I wanted to make sure I had full concentration for the homestrech. Little did I know that tomorrow, things would indeed start to go wrong...

[Maniac Marshall]

2428: Wow, the Sillicoids are actually trying to attack Ukko... Their weapons tech reads Lasers, Hand Lasers, Hyper-V, Rockets, Hyper-X rockets. Umm, yeah, not scared. Cloaking Device and Terra +60 hit. New options are Class XV Planetary (We think about going back for PAS, but decide we don't need it. We're already ground fighting gods), Universal Antidote, and Bio Terminator. We select the Antidote.

2429: Improved 2 hits. Adamantium armor is the new choice. We go for it.

2430: With the planets all at their new pop max, we discover that we actually do not have to take any planets. We have just enough to win as is. We'll still take a few planets anyhow in about 10 turns. Fusion Rifle hits. The new choices are Scatter VII, Pulson, and Tachyon Beams. Can't go wrong with either missile there. We select the Scatter Packs.

2433: Uh-oh



They drop to Amiable. It isn't as if I don't have enough happyness to win, but it's still disconcerting.

2435: Oh MEGA Crap. Look at this.



In one turn, the Humans have gone from at war with the Sillicoids and no contact with the Psilons and Bears, to ALLIED with the Sillicoids and at war with the Bears and Braniacs! OMFG I worked SOOOOOO hard and I was THIS close, and now a die roll is going to beat me with 15 years left??

Any day now, either the Humans will show up demanding our aid against the Psilons, or the Psilons will show up demanding our aid against the Humans. I consider a lot of options, and decide the best one is to try get the humans back at war with the sillicoids and to stick with the Psilons. This way, I can bomb the Sillicoids and get a peace treaty near the end. It's not optimal, but it's Obi-wan Kenobi, my only hope. As long as the Bulrathi don't declare on the Psilons or vice versa, we still have a chance at this. Those two MUST remain on good terms or I'm screwed. I dail up the Humans...



But then, today turns out to be "any day soon" and the die is cast.





2436: The bears have droped to Relaxed. I think my best bet at this point is to start bombing now, then invade after the bombing has the pop nearly gone. None of the hostile planets the Sillicoids have has bases except Rayden, so I get to work.

I design a fighter to blow up the Sillicoid ships in case they get to be a problem. Note the shield actually matters because they have only Hyper-X missiles, which means my ships effectively have nine hp vs their eight hp missiles



I do some bombing.



2437: The Humans are Wary, the Bears are Peaceful. Adamantium Armor hits... guess I should have waited a turn but it was only like 3%. We go for Neutronium Armor. We don't want to glass the planet, so I split the fleet. Class XV Planetary hits, the new choices are Stasis field and Personal Barrier, we go for the Barrier.

We bomb Thrax



Relations don't budge. Come on people, They only have so much pop.

2439: We bomb thrax again. Forgot to get a screenie Still no change. If only the stupid Bears would talk to me. I guess there is no point bombing more until they will...

2441: Universal Antidote Hits, the new choice is Terra +100, we go for it.

2442: Bears will finally talk. Time to do that last bit of bombing and get ourselves some planets just in case.

Bear boy, how about an alliance



We send 75 Transports off Kalis to Rayden. It has 5 bases, so our bombers might be in trouble there, so we'll just make that

our extra planet instead

Our fighter stack bombs Ryoun.



The Bears are up to Friendly.

2443: We bomb Ryoun some more.



We invade at Rayden




Our new tech? Nuclear Engines

2444: We're at Harmony with the Bears and the Braniacs. Barring a catastrophic die roll, this one is in the bag. I send the Fighter stack to cover our new acquisition, and the bombers to bomb Exis in 4 turns if I need to. It's all up to the dice now....

2445: Neutronium Armor hits. Remaining Techs are Improved 5, Reduced 40%, Improved 4, and Tritanium armor. Reduced 40 actually DOES serve a purpose so we select it.

2446: We queue up an invasion of Ryoun from Kailis because we can.

Personal Barrier Shield hits. The new choice is BHG. We go for it.

Oooo we get to try out those shiney new shields.



Yeah, this game is so beyond over...

2447: I decide to go ahead and invade both Neptunis and Thrax. They'll count on the last turn, so no reason not to.

We bomb Exis for fun



2448: Reduced 40% hits The game is over, but we pick Improved 5.

We bomb Exis some more



Our 30 Troops arrive at Thrax




Our 30 troops arrive at



Damnit, we lost a guy!

Our freebie tech is DSS.

2449: I know we're going to win the game, so I go ahead and take screenies at this point, and since it's THIS turn that matters according to the rules, I dial up the Humans and do this:



They improve to relaxed. I could have made peace with them earlier, and probably scored higher, but I was playing it safe. What happens if my allies ask me to redeclare on the humans then one of them breaks the alliance? We'd have ended up with 140ish points. By waiting on the Humans, I had a backup of their 12 Relaxed votes.

I also dial up the Sillicoids and do this:



Here is the "mighty" Klackon fleet that has so terrorized the Sillicoids



The galaxy map:



I could probably have taken a couple more planets, and maybe taken a couple planets earlier and boosted my colonist score about 5 points or so, but again I was playing it safe by allowing myself plenty of places to bomb. I'm satisfied with my score here.

The races screens:




I was very tempted to just glass the universe instead of taking the "Conquest" win. With this lead in stuff, I could have crushed everyone before the next election, but I kinda just wanted this game over at this point. I'd invested a lot of time and a LOT of energy into this game.

The Planets Screenies (There's three not shown planets in the middle. If you really want to see those, check the save file)




And finally, the tech screenies








OK, time to click Next turn.

Range 9 hits (too late), we select Stargates over Range 10 (propulsion won't be a scoring category anyway) I decline to bomb the Sillicoids because there is no point. Sillicoid Transports headed to Ryoun are all destroyed. Wow, the PSILONS have come from nowhere to be my opponent.

Humans 4 votes me, Sillicoids 2 votes me, Psilons 5 votes themselves, Bears 4 votes Abstain, and me:



FWIW, conquest victory in 2449







Now about points:

Colonist = 99 first half + 27 Planets + 30 Votes = 156

Researcher = 69 first half + 50 Construction, + 38 Force Fields + 37 Planetology = 194

Diplomat = 90 first half + 2 Harmony + 1 Relaxed + 1 Troubled = 164

Victory = 1 Conquest = 100

614 X 4 for all goals 150 or more = 2456.

So ends a nerve wracking, but ultimately safisfying game.

I know the file says "start" but all 3 saves should be in there. The starting one is Gam6, the others are 75 and 149. Just rename them to any slot you want to load them in and it shpuld work.

[kjn]

Wow. Just wow.

[meatbalz]

congratulations on an awesome game! you made the most of your artifacts draw, which was hands-down the best possible result for this scoring system. the way you used the tech to get early contact & manipulate the diplomatic picture from an early date should be required reading.

[sargon0]

Awesome is certainly the word. This game took more of my time than any other also (even my half game) and more than 20 minutes on some turns was not unusual.

Uniting the triad always looked possible but very unlikely to survive any bad breaks. You coped very well with focusing on your objectives and changing them when needed. A game full of Capablanca style & precision.

[Brackard]

We all seemed to know exactly what we needed to do to complete the Triad, but you are the only one (so far?) to pull it off.

What we really get to see here is exactly how far you can push alien diplomacy on Hard through the use of a whipping post opponent. Congrats on the win and thanks for the report!

[TheArchduke]

Congratulations on a great game and report. I need to perfect my game like yours, I guess.