Pkrcel's Imperium 12

[pkrcel]

this is a placeholder until I get the chance to write down a more complete report.

Short story: I voted Myself emperor in 2600 (2599 according to the fact thet the vote comes at the end of the following turn)

I had to fight the Psilons all over, and push my initial expansions at the expenses of Ants and Birds.

Basically for almost all the game there was no challenge but against the psilons. which DID run away until I got some tech gap covered and bombed them down to Alakrii's population, at that time, I had more than 2/3rd of the galaxy population and voted myself emperor, even with 2 votes from the apes, with which I have been allied for almost ALL the game.

Curiously enuff, I have been for the most part (until atmospheric terraforming) the FIRST in population, so I didn't really need to bomb anyone till the late game.

[pkrcel]

Here comes my report, finally

I will not waste your time listing the pre-math of this game, reading the other reports I came to the same conclusions as many...except maybe for the fact that I planned to play defensive all the way till I could undergo mass destruction....I really really really didn't think I coudl go into the nominees for electione ever.....I have been proved worng it seems

The opening 2300-2351

The opening is fairly usual, I send the colship blindly to what it reveals to be Paranar (Jungle 80) and I batch out some newscouts to the range I have.
I chase off the ants at kakata in 2309 and se toff where Kholdan is relative to Zoctan (the "yellow inferno planet" , just one of the weird natural events in this side of the galaxy).



The pointer is on Orion, while Kholdan is circled.



It's a gamble to understand if it's more than 3 psc from the Bstar and the Gstar (Incendius and Arietis IIRC), but if that's the case, I predict that the ants will be no more than 3PE when I'll reach for them...provided they do not pop range tech from thin air.

In the meantime chasing bears scouts from the north (I think darrian), and immediately know where is Ursa.

From the map above, I decide to prioritize production til 200 facs on Meklon, then I'll split until 50-50 between facs and RPs and themn when over 300 I will push more towards tech...but the mani focus is to colonize the nice batch of habitables here, and so far, I colonized:

- Junga 2335, Kakata 2341, Zhardan 2345 and Berel in 2351, (right after getting Range 4) thus popping the following



which I am very satisfied to see, this does NOT happen all that often with ME playing on Hard....

In this turn fram I opened the fields one at a time (xcept Planetology of course) and set my researches to

Deep Space Scanner, IIT9 (whihc hits in 2335), FF2, Hyper-V and Range 4.


Studying around 2352-2365

2352 sees Meklon Maxing out at 400 facs, so much needed now are in my views the extended range, the contruction cleanup techs (with RW80 sadly missing) and SPEED, SPEED SPEED, mostly for our transports, cause my plan is to set two or three forward bases in the mid-late game and colonize them FAST.

I 2353 I am rated 5th on the tech mongers...no wonders there, first we see the Psilons....carramba che sorpresa! (surprise surprise!!)

Colly crawling trough turns, with no shipbuilding so far, I use my scouts to extedn my sighting radius but since my colonies are all on the easternmost of the galaxy, I only get a peek of Tyr and Arietis, along with the presumed Kholdan and Incendius.



By 2357 IIT8 hits..now things are up to propulsion (and Computers) or shall I pursue RW60? (other choice is ARS)

This needs to be thought out a bit...first, I do not feel that even with more range I can snatch nonhostile planets from the Ants and Bears, I't s far too late oin the game, anf I still crawl at warp 1..
On the other hand, I may end up finding a nice forward base for whatever I could glass in future, but since I chosen to play on the defensive (and I do not get how could I play in another way if I am stuck to nonhostile planets in this (still) favorable map....I split bwteeen construcion and computers.

Between 2359 and 2362 I receive the visit of a Brains Large vessel which comes to Berel (the desert Rock) and BOMBS me with gatling lasers, they reached me thorugh momentarily alliance with Ants....the very next turn they scuttle that vessel, which I understand got scrapped in the usual redesigns of the AI. whew



In 2364 Deep Space Scanner hits and I now see Kholdan but can't speak to ants so they have Range 4 and no more. I skip RC3 in favor of Cheap ECM1 since my empire is whole factory hog, and I'm pursuing IIT8..I am timely checking to have the possibility to breakthrouygh RC3 when most of my empire will be full facs and I'll have to build only 12BC facs instead od 15

to be continued....

[pkrcel]

First Heavy Breakthoughs and infrastructure builds 2366-2396

These 30 turns were incredibily quiet, and many should notice that it would be time for an election....which didn't come...I think my game is quite peculiar by this point of view, since I think the AIs battle over and over delaying expansion...and easing off the way for me.

This phase for me was focused on infrastructure build, bases and tech. I got some fundamentals when I got RW60 along with popping IIT6 and RC3 a couple turns one from the other....basically I found myself timing really good the breakthroughs (call me lucky) and have my entire 6PE maxout in facs around 2391, so I go "full tech mode" 5 turns and get Range 7, so...

Making Contact and Further expansion 2397-2430

In 2397 I make finally contact with Ants, which are a 3PE as guessed, but I waste no tuime in dealing with them, I dial one-click spying.



Also Hyper-X pop now, and I go scatterpack-V...there are my notes on the imperium

I fan out some scouts to the many new reachable locations (including what I thought to be Ursa) but I am quite surprised that there are no elections so close to 2400!!!!

Anyway,one turn later I just checked that I can build a decent LR colony ship that warps at speed 2, so I immediately queue up these on Kakata and Junga, waiting for the scout reports to come in shorlty...which leads to send the colships to Tyr and Aurora (minimal 50 rich!!!) in a couple turns.

In 2400 I see that "Ursa" is Ursa and pah! stincky bears, no planetology? no constuction armor? Scouting Arietis revelas Ants have duralloy, but they may have reached Arietis not too long ago.



On the plus side I see that ants an bears are fighting over Ursa.

In 2407 I reach for Tyr, and see immediately a Ants colship incoming, I only have 4 scouts to face it but they have nuke engines so I try to keep up, and dancing around the asteroids I lose only 1 ship and the battle is a tie, having the ants go back! :neenernee
I think I should also have retreated but the AI can invade at long range, so this is only fair game to me.

I also make contact with the nice birds this same year...



..and they are a 3PE as well....I smell a psilon runaway.



In the map you an also see in the SE corner the colship bound for Aurora, which lands in 2410, growingmy empire to 8 planets ...

The unfortunate news is that I didn't even scratch the ants colship but they did get offense, and declare HOT WAR ...oh my stupid erratic bugs...they cannot even reach me....

In 2412 the new scout reports say that I have 2 new habitables in range and the prebatch of colships will be ni the area in 5 turns.

In 2413 I prioritize Propulsion right after getting ClassV planetary...since I estimated that Tyr, Whynil and Gion coudl eventually be the Last peaceful expansion opportunities I will have, and I will need faster transports asap.

My spies on the ants meanwhile stole RW80 and i am able to frame the brains hoping they dissolve their alliance but that is not.....still...the brains may have smoked something since they had a colship inbound to Gion (at warp 1!!!) but scuttled it enroute..leaving me open field. :wink2:

Lety's have a look at my 2417 notes...

2417 The pops I sent to Tyr arrived JUST NOW! GIMME A FREAKING DRIVE! Bad news about Ants, the developed BC4 (ack!) and Neutron Blaster.....

In 2418 I face hard times in my weapons choice, since the only beam is graviton and it's not 2-space..I go for the AM-bomb (which was a nobrainer) since I will have to drop some bombs here and there sometimes in the future. the spy reports say that Alkari are TIED with Klackons in propulsion tech..

Anyway in 2421 I colonize both Gion and Whynil (a Psi large comes in but has only 2 missiles to fire so in the end it gives up with no damage dealt)..in the upcoming turns I steal duralloy, IS and anti-missile rockets, while getting BC3 and going on on BC5, and got Range 8 and FINALLY I see Impulse Drives.

Then, the birds DOW on me according to their bugs alliance....a bug indeed, they have range 4 and I am at best at range 5 or worst 7....phony war indeed.

I scout a bit the extended range and see that Bears do nothave ANY barren colonized..so much for an ecologist....

In 2427 Ants dissolve all their allies , and in 2429 I am listed dead last in military power



to be continued....

[pkrcel]

Packing In the first council votes 2431-2456

I notably stretched my empire aving 4 of my 10 planets in developing in the southern cluster...but I have "ants shield" as long as the bugs do not form alliances and do not develop range tech over 5.

Aurora anyway maxes out in 2434, and begins funding reserve to standup Gion-Whynil-Tyr.

In 2435 I said thanks to RefSteel when I got the dreaded "Planetology Only"..



but what comes out is that in 2436 there is the first counciil , and I am listed against Zygot..could...get..ugly.

Comes out that I have 7 out of 23 votes....bears vote for me so I readily block the election abstaining...next up in 2450.

And I quickly realize I have nothignon hand to get better for 2450, but diplomacy..so in the upcoming turns I try to make peace with Ants, which accept after a couple trialsand alkarii, whih refuse all the way (stupid xenobirds).

Also I got several breakthorughs which get me to BC6 (stinking comps tree...) AM bomb (go fusion rifle to open up), ClassIV deflectors, and another ants stolen device...gatling lasers....I would habve preferred the blaster of course.

The only planet that maxes out is Tyr and 2450 comes to me with a sudden shudder.

The elctions go as follow

ants vote psi 3
apes abstain 3
bears vote me 1
psi vote for themselves 7
birds vote psi 3
I have 8 votes, menaning I am the BIGGER, I abstain.

Going over ants with boots 2451-2500

Fow whatever reason ants go mad at me again and go hot war mode, but the persistent espionages get me ARS! Mixed with Class IV, my huges will be are more than match to ants fleet (and for that matter, also for Birds).
I have no need to declare on them since they did on me, I guess, they have chosen unwisely

Have alook at my seriously scrappable fleet.



No news In the fact I seriously lack beams.

I dial up some large bombers and go smack Kholdan and Arietis....Kholdan is down to 6 bases but I ran out of bombs so I had t come back to Tyr (no unlimited bombs exploit bro')

In this turns, in 2456 the COMET hits me....but I send a couple spare ships and see the result.

On the other hand, Arietis is in range and far more squashable....and in 2462



Unluckily this planet is BARREN, so it will become a spud for the whole game an on.

Meanwhile I see ants have a spore design, 200 vessels....well crap -_-.

But I can dance around them for the time being, and I can swattle the vessels if I engage in combat.



They obviously retreat, but in 2459 for some unforeseen reason I get space superiority over the wounded Kholdan...It's a no brainer to prepare a colship ....I smiled whern I discovered Incendius is a Jungle planet...so far so good..2/3rd of the Ants empire are recolonizable....actually, they leveraged their alliwance with Psilons and were able to found Imra (barren) in the far North...are the bears slleping..anyway this is good news for me cause I can delete them from the southern cluster and have no fear of genociding them.
(I am not quite sure I coudl handle ANY diplomatic penalty).

In 2463 I destory the comet which has not been a real threat ever, and then Incendius has been burnt to the ground (the irony for the Italian player!)
And in 2465....



Broken the contatc with ants....only tghe birds are there...at least until I get my feet on Incendius and Kholdan...but I guess it's time to go bird watching!
Well, say that I use lasers...

to be continued....

[pkrcel]

Hunt for the birds 2466-2500

Well, let me introduce you the Birds Fleet in 2466




They can't get past my shielding, and anyway can't deal damage iver my aRS threshold....so what? I go and face them as soon as I get Incendius and Kholdan going (with help from rich Aurora of course).

That ahppens in 2467, and I get in touch with Brains&Bears...the latter at PEACEFUL since I pounded on the ants for so long!



The psilons are the second in pop after ME....at least staying to the bars...well, they hate bears so I love bears, it's simple as that..I sign up a pathetic 75BC trade which is the max for the ursine beings...so a NAP is also signed to further our relations.

In 2470 also Kholdan is rebuilt, andI get the 12 systems message from GNN...this is by far the LAST thing I would imagined about my RBO12....

Here's the map from 2467



Brains really smoke me out in tech, having nothing less than controlled toxic in the planetology tree...but we almost macth in computers, I gamble to steal somethig from them.

I only Have Maretta in feasible range for pounding, and doing it makes the brains my friends



Bombing Maretta out of existance makes them eager to ally with me, I accept, but then they ask to attack da bears, and I refuse...being them honorable..this marked the events from now on.

Refounding of Maretta in 2479 is followed by the 1800BC Merchant event for me...yay!
Making contact with Humans reveals that they hate birds as well, so I foresee an alliance.

I bomb out herculis and ALTAIR by 2485, discovering that Sol, Altair and Mentar are SOO close to each other...that I wonder how all the RBOs out there will evolve.

In 2490, the brains wipe out the bears, and I lose the race to altair due to distraction...BUT

In 2492 I get PHASOR beams, so I can redesign my ships to make them a bit more effective, even thou, brains shielding is just too strong.

In 2496 I steal Merculites frmo Brains, anmd in 2498 they ask for peace offering 1800BC..I refuse.

In 2499 I bomb out Rigel, las tof the habitablesof the birds, and get the cuop to RECOLONIZE it.

Ants now are so much eager to make peace that they accept unconditionally and are even at PEACEFUL for pounding the Birds...stupid ants....

Well, things get a bit repetitive but in 2502 I get this sight of the map....



which shows why I slipped past 2500 with no election...one thing less to worry about for now.

I now need to concentrate on the brains.....

[pkrcel]

Bogging Down the Psilons and Voting Myself Emperor 2500-2599

I consider the last part of my game the most repetitive even thou I had a lot of thrill cause I didn't really know IF I could bog down the psilons putting myself in position to win the elections...so there was either the total extermination or the conquest victory out there in my views.

In the turns following 2500 Brains Invade SOL and so I lose contact with my Apes allies, I found rigel and I get ANOTHER Merchant event of 2000BC magnitude.
With Rigel as a leapboard, and when I'll have range 10, I can basically strike wherever I need at warp5, being the centre of the galaxy so dense, I can pop from one planet to the other in 1 turn so to make countermeasures more difficult to implement for the AI.

I never had the chance to test this with the so called "scientific method", but I had the clear impression that the AI does not respond well when you are able to jump from one of their planets to the other in 1 turn, which basically negates the scanners advantage of knowing the destination of the fleets. *I* for sure have difficulties there, but seems to me that the AI is even in worse shape

There are 20 turns in which I continously bomb out Altair and Sol to dust and Brians continue to recolonize, and a bit later I understand why, they are leveraging their toxic base landers and hit the 18 starsystem mark in 2520.
I also develop plasma cannons in this turn and I am "about" to get the HEF.

In 2525 obviously the council comes back and votes cast tell that I am STILL the major actor in population, votes total are 25, result is 13 (11+2 apes) mine vs 12 Zygot (10+1+1 from all the others).

My puonding in the centre of the galaxy cotinues and in 2536 the Pislons get the "majority of the galaxy" warning, which tells me that I should move on.

I design two different small AM bomber with all the good stuff that they can pack and begin producing in 10s, aiming to have some 1000 in two 500 packs.

I see that I will lose Maretta to the psilons, so I decide to go full bases there, reaching 32 bases, but retreating my small fleet parked there since I stand no chance. In the meantime I got High Energy Focus.

In 2539 I lose maretta but I thikn that was close...



A turn later I bomb out maretta, incredibly the Brains SoD got away at warp 5....so much for improving relations with EVERYONE.

I dial up Ants and give them Uridium fuel cells to declare on Psilons (which being honorable will not take it lightly, at least I hope)

Right before the elections, these are my relations with the universe



The upcoming vote says once again that I should move on.
With all the universe voting for me we are 14 for me, 13 for the psilons.

For some reason the bugs declare ALSO on me the next year, umf stupid bugs...anyway, now I am packing a number of huge ARS design filled with plasmas and sporting the HEF, and about 1000 small AM bombers in two disticnt packs of 500, time to move on.

I begin bombing the southern Brains empire, that they were beginning to ATMOS, so I reach Guradas and Crypto, feeling a bit on the edge, Psilons offer me 4450BC for peace and I accept bombing out Guradas right after the intergalactic credit transfer was ackowledged (is this explotiable behavior? is definitely not honorable, but I am a ruthless industrialist ).

A bit later I also take Crypto....weird thing, and hostile on which I can land with the standard colony base....



I steal the fundamental ZORTRIUM armor form the brains, and then when BC6 hits I have ONLY BC8 in the tree.....sic!

But now the path is marked, I rally my forces at Altair and bomb it out, and the WEIRD thing is that birds came to complain!!! Later they will recolonize their homewolrd only thanks to ME, and they complain?!? :thumbsdow

In 2571 Psilons came asking for peace, and I send them some peace offerings myself....



OH MY...I AM SO SORRY, THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO BE KITTEN!

In 2573 I have been hit by a virus in the Force Field research....ouch.



In 2574, Birds DOW on me but I do not really know why...well that really doesn't matter, since....

in 2575 the elections are quite strangely again all in my favor (with ants which asked for peace the very same turn) except birds and brains.
Result is 14 vs 10 for me......meaning Brains are down to 7 votes...I cut them in half in 25 turns.

I now know I will win this game, but I don't want to risk the total extermination since I cannot land hostiles and it would be a mess to take care of all the colships that woudl span over the galaxy...I decide to take my final 25 turns of delivering bombs and vote myself the next election.

[pkrcel]

Only a couple of quick comments by myself about my game to ask for your opinion RBO community!!!

First, I found that I may be the only one that had a leading population throughout almost all the game, and I think that was weird...I read that many players did NOT colonize peacefully the SE corner of the galaxy (Tyr, Whynil Gion and especially Aurora)...I'd like to know if in the eyes of the experienced players out there it was more a luck factor (after all Ants and Brains were allied for a good part of the initial game...at least when I made contact), or a good execution by myself of the initial expansion phase.

Second, I definitely could have won this game earlier....a LOT earlier, but I didn't know that the AI was so vulnerable to quick bombers swarms.. I DID know that in this game that was one obvious way to go, but I ge that my timing seems much more of an Impossible win, when you face ~60 bases per planet instead of ~25 like on this Hard setting.

Nevertheless I had a TON of fun in this game, and besides, I do not win all that often at Hard, to the contrary, I usually LOSE Hard games , even with the strong races, with no variants....so even if n00bishly exectued, I am fiarly satisfied with my result here, a big thanks to all RBO community cause I am convinced this is mainly due to the fact I learnt a LOT from the other reports over all the previous games.

-pkrcel

[dathon]

I'd like to know if in the eyes of the experienced players out there it was more a luck factor (after all Ants and Brains were allied for a good part of the initial game...at least when I made contact), or a good execution by myself of the initial expansion phase.

I'd say a little of both I didn't go back through all the reports, but here's a smattering of how it played out:

*sargon probably got down there the earliest in 2380, and claimed the corner. He made a dedicated push to do so.
*The Klackon's in RefSteel's game had the entire corner locked up by 2380.
*jmas and timmy noted that the corner was locked up by various races and Klackons, respectively, though timmy managed to scrape out Aurora.
*My Psilons had the south locked up by 2400 at least. Hell, they were colonizing the hostiles on my doorstep in the 2420's!
*kjn had a similar draw to you, nobody down there by 2400.

So lots of variation. It seems like the AI in most games had the corner locked up by at least 2400, with some outliers both sooner and later. If you had made a dedicated push like sargon, you probably could have gotten there a little earlier. But good to recognize the need for LR colships and take advantage of the opening.

One thing of note, the Meklar do not pay extra for their RC factories, so delaying RC tech for IIT tech is not very useful. The factories after RCIII would still have been 10, not 15, and IIT9 would have taken that to 9, not 12.

dathon

[kjn]

/AI landgrab/
So lots of variation. It seems like the AI in most games had the corner locked up by at least 2400, with some outliers both sooner and later.

Ayup. I think the main variation between the various games were how the AIs reacted to each other. The player was safely out to one side, and had little impact on the relations. My Psilons grew aggressive, and started beating up on the other AIs. This meant noone had any energy for the SE corner. If, however, the Klackons could trade for some range tech, or some race got an alliance with the Klackons, then the corner could fall far earlier.

[pkrcel]

Thanks for your comments guys.

One thing of note, the Meklar do not pay extra for their RC factories, so delaying RC tech for IIT tech is not very useful. The factories after RCIII would still have been 10, not 15, and IIT9 would have taken that to 9, not 12.

dathon

Sure, and I realized it reading this note of yours ......thanks, I'll say that this has been a training for any other race I would time up for an IIT8+RC3 combo

As I said in my report, having the Sol+Altair+Mentar cluster in the centre of the galaxy injected a LOT of variations in the games, and this seems to be confirmed by anyone's impression.