Imperium Eleven: The Frost Rain Continues

[Megafrost]

If the only part you're interested in is my score, scroll to the bottom. My ending score, snapshots and save game files will be down there.

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My game starts with an analysis of the scoring system, even before downloading the save file. Is 150 points in each role even possible? That is a good question.

Under the Colonist category, 3 points for each vote and each planet in 2375, 1 point for each in 2450. Assuming that I do equal scoring in both, I'd need about 19 planets by 2375 and about 100 pop per. Yeowch! This seems to suggest to me that I should spread out as quickly as possible while heavily emphasizing planetology tech. It also seems pretty unlikely that this can be accomplished with Silicoids as one of our opponents (although one could get lucky).

If Researcher adds up your total tech level at 2375, this suggests to me going as high as you possibly can, assuming your techs pop before 2375. Because of the scaling costs of research, it is better to spread across each field equally. After 2375, only the three best are added, which suggests focusing on three or so fields. Construction and planetology are obvious choices, to play to the Klackons' construction strength while also grabbing vital planetology technologies for the Colonist role. I'm not yet sure what the ideal third field is, but it isn't propulsion.

As for the Diplomat role, well, the sooner I meet each race the better, so again focus on rapid expansion. Then I have to be nice to all my neighbors. If I'm trying to be friendly with everybody, I'd need to have "Peaceful" relations with everybody, both in 2375 and 2450 to get the full 150. But AIs are aggressive and I seriously doubt I can maintain those kind of relations. It might be easier for one AI to get dogpiled, and while I bomb out their planets (and plant flags on them for the Colonist role) I forge alliances with the other races. Being at Unity/Harmony with 3 races could also get me the 150 I need.

My initial strategy should be thus: Spread as quickly as I can and meet all the AIs, while trying to research at the same time. With this in mind, I download the save game and open up the map:



Green circle is colony range, yellow and red circles are scouting range (yellow before colonization, red estimated after colonization). I've also made my guess at where each AI is going to start. I send my colony ship to the yellow star, and one scout to the purple star in case both systems defy probability. My second scout will go to the northern most white star to blockade it in case an AI starts at the nearby yellow star. The green star will also be under threat, however, so I'm going to build 1 scout this turn and send it there. If I'm going to have any chance at getting 150 Colonist points, I can't give up any of these planets.

And with that, my ships are off. Let the games begin! Three turns later, I get to see what is in colony range.



As Sirian would put it, sometimes it's better to be both lucky and good! The two systems have defied probability, but not in the way I was expecting! A habitable at Omicron and an ultra rich at Maalor. This could totally change the way I pull off my opening.

Usually I like to max out my home world so that I can start churning out colony ships, one every few turns. But this is different. My second planet is ultra rich, which means not only will I be able to stand it up more quickly, but by my calculations it will build one colony ship every two turns once it is maxed out. Therefore, I'm going to do something totally different: I'll send out a whopping 17 colonists from Kholdan, knocking it down to 30 pop so I can make this new planet my primary one. If I'm going to get enough planets, I need to make some bold moves.

The new colony only brings one red star into scouting range. Oh well. I build three scouts and send them out. My two scouts sent north in the first two turns scout their planets. The green star turns out to be an artifacts world that has not yet been scouted. It seems strange to me that in a scoring game, Sullla would leave this huge die roll in there. Maybe he figured the AI would always scout it before the players did? Or maybe it's a reward for those of us who scout aggressively and early. Whatever the case, I scouted it in the year 2306 and got the following technology:



Look familiar to anybody? This is the same tech I pulled from the artifacts in the previous game.

Good news is that the red star Primodius is habitable but poor. The bad news is that without better fuel cells it won't pull any more planets into range. It's vital to me that I start researching better technology so I can spread to more planets. In 2308 I have Kholdan put one click into research and open up planetology and propulsion.



A good draw in planetology, and also a really tough decision! Improved Terraforming would be cheap and easy to get for a very nice benefit, Improved Eco is one of the best economic techs out there and oh so expensive! But I've seen a barren planet already... I almost wish that I'd drawn only one option and had no choice at all. I decided that controlled barren wouldn't open up very many worlds to me and that I should see what's in the next tier before I go for controlled planet technology. Terraforming would be more beneficial to my ultra rich world as with its small size it won't have a lot of factories for polluting, plus its cheapness would allow me to see the next tier very quickly. I chose Terraforming, but I'm sure that all three choices were viable.

No choice in propulsion, but thankfully I drew range 5. Most of the out-of-range habitables are 5 parsecs away.

As Kholdan picks up the research, Maalor maxes factories in 2314. I have it build a colony ship (in three turns) as I ship population from my homeworld to bring the ultra rich planet to full capacity. In 2317 Terraforming pops, revealing that only controlled tundra is missing from the second tier. I've seen two barren and one dead planet so far. I haven't seen any rival AI scouts at the stars I've blockaded, which I hope means I have time. I select controlled dead to open as many worlds as possible.

If I'm going to have any shot at getting enough tech points, I can't afford to leave the other fields behind. It's time to start spreading out my research.



Construction and Force Fields are no-brainers. The computer field represents a tough choice for me. I may want the cheap ECM so that I can move onto the next tier sooner and pick out the highest tech that I can reasonably obtain before 2375...but deep space scanner is so much more useful. I decided that I'd probably have enough time to get deep space scanner and a second tier tech. I chose Deep Space Scanner.

Once again my missile pull has given me a huge weapons tree. This one gave me the ever-so-useful hand lasers, as well as all my favorite beam weapons and even stinger missiles should my scat packs fail. No bombs though, which means that it'll be harder to gain favor with an AI by glassing its enemies. I will have to think about how to deal with that when it happens. But for now, I'm going for the cheapest and arguably most useful tech on the list: Hand Lasers.

I settle Omicron in 2322, obtain range 5 in 2325 (choosing nuclear engines over inertial stabilizer), and settle Primodius in 2326. In 2327 colony ships are ordered to travel to Herculis and Artemis. I haven't scouted any other habitables yet (although that's likely to change soon), so I think it's about time that I started building armed ships to protect my border planets. I throw together a ship design: Medium, shield 1, 6 lasers. Ordinarily I would've gone with small ships, but the two designs had roughly the same bc-per-laser cost, with the medium ship being tougher and able to stand up to more confrontations. I'm guessing the missile tech helped a lot with miniaturization.

My scouts meet hostile forces for the first time.



I haven't seen hair nor hide of the other races. This could be good or bad. I could spread like the plague, thus insuring the success of both Colonist and Researcher roles, but a huge empire would have a difficult time making friends.

On the same turn, Hand Laser pops. Stinger missiles sure are tempting, especially considering that no events will be disrupting my research this time, but Refsteel is right. I'd go a very long time without an upgrade, and besides, there's no way that will pop before the landmark 2375 date. In fact, given my current researching capabilities, the only ones I really stand a chance of getting (for now) are gatling laser and NPG. I choose NPG.

After settling Artemis in 2332 and Herculis in 2335, I get a GNN report.



Of course, this means that I'm settling planets more quickly than even the Silicoids. What could cause me to settle planets more quickly than they do? I'm sure that even the ultra rich planet wouldn't have been enough. Silicoids can spread faster than locusts. Maybe I should look at the galaxy map again.



The yellow star in the middle is surprisingly not a home world. This means that one or possibly both of those clusters of 3 yellows have at least two AIs. The silicoids could be having a rough time if they got into fierce competition with an early neighbor.

In 2338 scouts arrive at Ukko, the purple star in the northeast, where a Psilon scout was waiting (and soon running). On the same turn RW80 pops, leaving IIT8 as my only option. The next turn I get a GNN report revealing that I am #1 in fleet strength, with apes #2, rocks #3 and brains #4. I've got a whopping 15.5% of my income going into ship maintenance. Oops. But I can't afford to stop building ships right now, since I have lots and lots of planets to grab.

DSS and Class 2 shields pop in 2341, revealing BC3 and Class 3 shields for advancement. I considered going back for ECM in the computer tree, but I decided that BC3 would do more for my score if I got it, would be more useful in general, and that I *might* be able to obtain it before 2375. I'd definitely need more than just Kholdan on research to get it though, so I would have Maalor start funneling into industry and channel that extra industry into extra research on other worlds. Of course, I still needed it for making colony ships, but given how far away any new habitable planets would be, it would probably be quicker to wait until at least nuclear engines popped.

Being the type of person who loves having intelligence reports, this GNN report is right up my alley.



Bulrathi are probably their regular ecological selves and managed to get a decent grab of land. Fine with me, I'd rather campaign against bears than apes. However, the real kicker is that the Silicoids out-populate the Psilons. The Psilons must have been cut off from early expansion. I ran into some of their scouts in the lower part of the galaxy, so they are almost certainly in that cluster of yellows to the right. They must have had a bad start, and so somebody is going to fill in the gap left by the Psilons. Right now, looks like that someone is me.

At long last, I have finally managed to find a planet that is already inhabited.



The planet had 2 missile bases, which almost certainly means that the rocks have had it for a while. Maybe Cryslon is the yellow star to the right of it. Take note of the human ships in the upper left. That's a stack of 4 mediums travelling from the right-most of those three yellows to the middle one. Sol is around there somewhere. My scout on the eastern-most yellow confirms that one as the homeworld (and promptly flees from the 9 missile bases there).

Nuclear engine pops, leaving me with a tough choice. Sub-light drives and range 7 are options for advancement, but with my poor propulsion-researching capabilities, they are mighty expensive. I could go back for inertial stabilizer, or I could go for sub-light which would be more useful. I decide to go for the gamble. Sub-light drives it is. They'll serve me better than stabilizer will when I get it. I'm not looking at full-fledged war anytime soon. I'm not even in contact with any races yet! (2349) Playing it safe is not going to get me the 150 points in each field that I need for quad-score.

NPG pops in 2351. I doubt I have time to get anything above Scatter Pack V Rockets, which means I have to choose between ion cannon and gatling laser. I may have time to get both, but there's also a little doubt in my mind that I'd be able to get ion cannon in time. I choose gatling laser, as NPG will be good enough for me.

Scouts confirm that the lone yellow star in the northeast is Cryslon in 2352.

In 2353 Controlled Dead pops, presenting only Controlled Toxic as an option for advancement. With its high cost, however, I don't stand a chance of pulling it in before 2375. Instead I opt to go back for the things I've missed. Since I already have Terraforming +10, I choose Improved Eco over Terraforming +20. On the same interturn, I settle my 11th planet, Kailis, and establish contact with the rocks and the apes.



*huge jaw drop*

The humans have only three planets? The ROCKS HAVE ONLY TWO?!!? And with my recent discovery of controlled dead, my lead on number of planets is only going to get bigger. I've also established that both the brains and the brawns are in the lower right, and I've already blockaded several worlds near that. I could very easily grab enough planets to trigger the "preparing to merge" message.



A wise man once said, if you can achieve tech parity with the AI on the harder difficulties, you have already won. How about having a massive tech lead before finishing the land grab phase? If I was only playing to win, this game would be over already.

This is a double-edged sword, however. My empire is going to be so huge that my diplomatic relations are going to suffer a lot for this. I need to do everything I can to win these AIs to my side, and given the variant rules for this imperium, the only way I'll be able to do that is...



Establish trade. Maximum trade for maximum relations. Ordinarily I would use spies to gather intelligence reports, but since I need as many brownie points as possible, I'm not even going to do that. Caught spies lower relations.

Rich and ultra rich planets are good. But I think artifacts worlds are way better. I'm getting LOTS of research points from Arietis and it's not even at full factories yet. And if one artifacts world is good...



TWO is even better. This one is unclaimed, so I'm going to plant a flag and hold it if I can. I make a colony ship design with extended fuel tanks, build one at Maalor and immediately send it towards the planet. Of course, being an island in enemy territory means I may not be able to defend it, but it's worth a shot. After all, given how many planets I have, I can easily afford to lose a few.



Improved eco pops in 2362. On the same turn Herculis maxes factories and pop, the two combined nearly doubling my research output. Two turns later class 3 shields pop, leaving only class 4 as an option for advancement. However, I cannot get class 4 before 2375. Only 3 tech fields count for score in 2450. Therefore, I'm redistributing my research allocation.



I'm cutting off force fields entirely. I want to finish that propulsion project as quickly as I can, then I'm going to cut that off too.

Unfortunately for me, the Silicoids are feeling massive pressure to expand and declare their intentions to do so.



Yeah. You do that. Why you haven't expanded past two systems is beyond me, your colony ships are probably armed and would easily scare away my scout blockades. On inferno planets no less. I won't be grabbing those anytime soon.

After colonizing a few more worlds, I establish contact with the Psilons and the Bulrathi, giving me the following picture of the galaxy:



The Psilons colonized that second world only this turn. They got seriously stunted, even more so than the Silicoids did. In the past few turns the humans grabbed the two barrens near their home system, establishing themselves as my most powerful neigbors at a measly 5 worlds. Compared to my...



Every single one of my AI opponents has been stunted somehow, or maybe they were just too dumb to expand. And when one race is stunted, another comes in to fill the gap. It isn't long before the first elections are held.



Rival nominees vote for themselves, Silicoids vote against their enemies. Everyone else abstains. The main thing to note is that I already have a blocking vote and most of my planets are nowhere near full capacity. 2374 marks itself as a critical date. By that turn, all of my current research projects have finished. I managed to grab ion cannon, gatling laser, sub-light drives, battle computer 3, ecm 1, improved eco, controlled barren and terraforming +20. All fields are at 0 rp, so I have no qualms about stopping all research for now to bring my planets to full capacity. Furthermore...



I'm already at the domination threshold. About the only thing I can really do at this point is to try to get on better terms with my neighbors and hold on to what I have. The Silicoids are willing to talk, but not about peace. Oh well. 2375 passes and I take snapshots for my score (shown at the bottom).

Because I've been spreading so quickly, I don't have anywhere near the forces to defend everything. I planted a flag on some worlds north of Silicoid space, and the war-mongering rocks managed to gain orbital superiority over one. 6 of my laser ships arrived a few turns later to drive them off, but they've already sent their troops.



Aurora has only 4 population, but it's not beyond saving. I have a huge tech lead over the Silicoids. They may or may not have the tech to compete with my battle suits and hand lasers. I have 6 laser ships hovering over the planet. What's more, their ships are only travelling at warp 1. My transports go 2 parsecs per turn, which means...



There may be a bigger army than they were expecting. Poor researching capabilites and poor population growth make rocks terrible ground fighters. I better make sure this situation doesn't get any worse though. The apes and the rocks are allies. It also occurs to me that the Psilons definitely have enough range to reach Silicoid worlds. I dial both up and ask them to declare war.



Since I don't expect any diplomatic points from the Silicoids for a long time, I'm figuring it would be better to just bomb their worlds and get better relations with these other two races. Probably best not to do that just yet, however. If I bomb them too quickly, I could wipe them out and have my allies suddenly change targets.

Silicoid transports land on Aurora.



I lose 4 in the fighting. That's a 3:1 kill ratio and I outnumbered them. They can't invade this planet.

However, my other neighbors are getting unhappy with me because of my huge empire, so I decide to lay some smackdown on the rocks.



Complaints quickly cease. Silicoids have pissed off the Bulrathi as well, meaning easy relations boosts for me. In order to insure that I will always have Silicoid worlds to bomb, I have to leave these glass worlds for them to colonize. I will not be planting my own flag on any of these worlds.

Over the next few turns, nearly all the planets I've grabbed max out and I research some techs in the construction, planetology and weapon trees.



The construction tree gives me options for the very first time. Every other tier has had only one tech. Since my worlds are nearly already maxed and I'm not researching computers, improved industry doesn't seem very useful to me. Armored exoskeleton seems a little redundant when I already have battle suits, so I go for reduced waste. In planetology I had grabbed everything from the first two tiers except for death spores, and then selected controlled toxic to continue. I'm glad not to have drawn controlled radiated. This galaxy doesn't have a single radiated planet anywhere. Unfortunately there's no soil enrichment. I chose the weapon tree over the computer tree because I already had a third-tier weapon tech and would be able to go straight to fourth-tier tech. I initially went for stinger missiles to advance the tree and give my missile bases more punch in case they needed it. I still want to advance the tree, so I go for the fifth-tier weapon tech that I'm most likely to use: fusion rifle.

I'm pretty much done grabbing uncontested land now.



Can you imagine trying to fight out of a hole like that if you were one of the AI players? I've been leading the tech graph for the entire game and the only reason I'm not ending it now is because I'm going for score. Humans declare war on me in 2396 for no reason, which is really annoying, but the game isn't over yet. In the meantime, if I'm going to be at war anyways, I may as well get some benefits out of it.



Easy victory. Of course, I get only a single cheap construction tech from it. Every bit helps, right? This was the same year as the 2400 election.



In 25 years, I've more than doubled my voting power. With the support of the Bulrathis, I could've cashed in on the victory right here.

I try to take out the human world of Sol, but they've been capitalizing on their excellent force field technology and my lack of bombing technology. A stack of 400 of my bombers dealt only 50 damage in one volley, and they had 20 missile bases. So instead I have to settle for bombing the two barren worlds they have. I'm still running on nuclear bombs here, about the only way to up my punch is to start building ships with stinger missiles. From here to the end of the game, I built them non-stop. In no time at all, the 2425 elections roll around.



Bulrathi replace the Humans as my opponents and have unanimous support. I, however, have passed the conquest threshold.

Unfortunately, my diplomatic situation is getting a whole lot worse.



The pile-up is getting really annoying. It's time to change tactics. Bears are still at war with humans and silicoids. If I make peace with the two of them and then have the Psilons declare war, I could get some brownie points by glassing a few bear worlds.

Surprisingly, all 3 of them are up for it (although the Humans wanted 875 bc payment, which I gladly payed). A few short turns later, the Silicoids are begging for a non-aggression pact, which I sign. The next 20 or so turns are spent bombing the bears every once in a while, bringing up my relations with the other three races. 5 years before the election, the apes and rocks both ask for alliances. It's a risky move, since they are still at war with the brains. But on the other hand, it would allow the possibility for harmony relationships. I've been stuck at peaceful for a while. I signed their alliances, and then signed one with the Psilons.

My techs have still been coming in. One turn before the election, I obtained this noteworthy prize:



That's right, I've managed to grab the highest technology in the construction tree. With such a huge empire, my tech levels have sky-rocketed. The 2450 elections roll around. No more techs pop in-between turns and I had no new planets to get between turns. The humans had complained about my relationship with the psilons and thus our own were reduced to neutral, but relations all around were good enough that I could at least get the 75 points for the Diplomat rule. Furthermore, my memory told me that diplomatic complaints could happen after the elections and that it was possible I could lose diplomatic points if I went further.

So I decided to end the game right there.



Probably the easiest victory I've ever obtained. Could've been my earliest too, but I wouldn't get many points for that.

My strategy this game was way different from my normal one. I like maxing out the homeworld immediately, but the awesome second world made me max that one out first. Kholdan didn't max out until after 2375, as I was using it a lot to seed new worlds and focus on early research.

I didn't spend any points on spying the whole game. Usually I have spies up at all times even when my opponents don't have anything. I love spies! Perhaps the main reason that the darloks are my favorite race to play. But doing everything to get on my neighbors' good side meant that I had to drop the idea of spying.

I also love invading and taking worlds from my opponents (making Bulrathi my second favorite race to play), but as much as I hated the rocks and apes for declaring war on me for no reason, I needed to keep them alive. When I'm at war, I usually do everything I can to hurt my opponents and strengthen myself. I held back. As my previous imperium shows, I like to hit early and hard. I'm aggressive.

RefSteel is right, NPGs are awesome weapons. I'm not used to using them (preferring 2-space range weapons), but this game I had a stack of around 300 smalls with NPGs and they pretty much tore apart any enemy ships that they got in combat with. The only weapon I used that was higher tech was the stinger missile, and that was because I needed something better than nuclear bombs for destroying bases.

I did notice some interesting things about the tech tree as I was going up. First of all, the weapons tree had no bombs what-so-ever. I was stuck with nuclear. The construction tree was missing ship special goodies. The planetology tree had atmospheric terraforming, but it didn't have either of the soil enrichment technologies. I wonder what would've happened to my game if I had gone up the computer tree instead of the weapon tree. My thought is that I probably would've gotten improved robotics and been able to research more quickly, but that my ability to glass AI worlds would've suffered as a result. I think I made the right choice, as the Diplomat score was the one I was most worried about and most wanted to score high on.

Good game all! I can't wait to see how everyone else did.
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2375 snapshot:



2449 snapshot:



Colonist
3 points for each planet under my control in 2375 - 23 planets - 69 points
3 points for each vote I cast in the 2375 election - 11 votes - 33 points
1 point for each planet under my control in 2450 - 28 planets - 28 points
1 point for each vote I cast in the 2450 election - 33 votes - 33 points
165 points

Researcher
1 point for tech level in each of the six fields in 2375: 11 + 11 + 10 + 12 + 12 + 13 = 69 points
1 point for tech level in my three best fields in 2449: 51 + 39 + 46 = 136 points
205 points

Diplomat
2375:
Humans at Amiable: 14 points
Silicoids at Discord: 0 points
Psilons at Neutral: 10 points
Bulrathi at Neutral: 10 points
2449:
Humans at Neutral: 10 points
Silicoids at Harmony: 30 points
Psilons at Harmony: 30 points
Bulrathi at Hate: 0 points
104 points

163 colonist points
205 researcher points
104 diplomat points
100 points for conquest victory in 2450
x2 for at least 75 points in each of the three roles

Final score: 1144 points

[Sullla]

Very nicely done! I will come back and say more tomorrow, but for now:

1) I was impressed by your opening moves.
2) What the hell was wrong with the Silicoids in your game?!

[Doug.Lefelhocz]

Pretty impressive number of planets there Megafrost. If I had built scouts with nuclear engines I might have equalled your planet total. I rarely ever see the Silicoids pack a weapon onto their colony ships until later. Other races seem to do it much more often in my experience.

[sargon0]

Nice game. Similar opening to mine and stunted Silicoids also. I decided to stay small & friendly & take cheap early diplo but your expansion was impressive and great final score.

[RefSteel]

Very well-played game, and I love those composite screenshots. Of course, switching to enemy-of-my-enemy diplomacy earlier on (taking advantage of the Silicoids' early war declaration) would have improved your score even more. Just to harp on the game's variability though - the way there's no single strategy that's right in every game/situation - I'd have followed a very different weapons tech path this time. With our ridiculously strong and isolated start, and no enemies yet in sight when the tech was opened, I wouldn't have started with Hand Lasers here if I'd pulled a Weapons tech from Artemis. Running the Sakkra last game, I knew I'd do lots of ground invasions, especially with the Klackons starting right on top of me. Playing the bugs this time around, I'd want to avoid ground combat wherever possible; each bug lost in ground combat costs twice as much to regrow as a lost Sakkra would be, and can produce twice as much before factories!

I also think it cost you some points (as a sort-of-similar move cost me some) to go back for gats/ions/mass-driver instead of advancing the tech tree - this looks to me like it was just caused by underestimating the strength of our unbelievable start; with the incredible infrastructure of our Ultra-Rich Klackons with an Art world to feed and half the galaxy to play with, I'll bet you could have pulled in Stingers or even Fusion Beam by 2475, on top of (say) NPGs.

I should also note: Though I do love Neutron Pellet Guns, they're not an uber-weapon; they're just the cheapest thing better than lasers, easy to fit on a small, and possessed of a long effective shelf life. I had long scrapped my NPG designs by the end of this game, and if I survive long enough for a chance to win in Imperium 12 (I haven't started it yet) I'm sure the same thing will happen in that one, even assuming the things are in our tree! (The chances should be just about 50-50).

[meatbalz]

great game! i did have one question - if you reached neutronium armour before 2450, then your construction score should be higher - i suspect you posted the wrong screenshot as it shows tech level 51

[timoteob]

Great game and great report MegaFrost. You did much better than I did. We hit the 1/8 and 2/8 benchmarks at almost exaclty the same times, then I fell behind. I think the AIs' stunted growth was due in large part to your aggressive expansion.

And I can't believe that you pulled Scatter Pack V missiles two games in a row!

[Megafrost]

I admit, for all my talk of needing to take a lot of gambles to get the best score, I was playing an awfully "safe" game. I'm not used to playing with deadlines and I wanted to be guaranteed that my techs would come in before 2375. As for the NPGs, the long shelf life is really what I liked about them. I never scrapped my NPG fighters, although after a while they stopped seeing combat as the enemy kept retreating every time (probably because of the accompanying stack of stinger missile ships).

Regarding my construction tech level, I double-checked that. The save game has me at tech level 51, which fits with what the manual says on the total tech level: 80% of the highest tech level you've researched, add 1 for each additional item you researched.