Imperium 12: sargon’s game

[sargon0]

Imperium 12: sargon’s game
Well no planetology tech means I want more range, Duralloy, waste reduction and some luck with the map. The invasion restriction means gropo tech has limited use except in trade. Send Colony ship to SE red and scouts to N red and SW yellow. N is red Paranar (Jungle 80) but I settle SE red Jinga (Ocean 75) and send 11 then 6. Scouts find a good group of safe opening planets with N green Zhardan (Jungle 85) and S red Kakata (Jungle 90) but all on eastern edge. Expansion west is made difficult by hostiles (some rich), Orion (green W of Meklon) and AI whose scouts reveal Klackon are second yellow to SW and Bulrathi are yellow NW of Nebula. The only habitable off eastern edge is SW red Berel (Desert 20) – a bit small for a Desert. Will need to skirt around edges or through someone.

Open Construction & Propulsion in 2308 finding IIT9 & Range 4, not best choices. Place a tech deposit from homeworld to research evenly then leave Jinga to research alone until 2318. Adding 1, 2 then 3 ticks from homeworld gets tech into percentages then return to factories. IIT9 pops in 2322 revealing only IIT8. Bad news since LR Colony will now require a 3rd level construction tech (IIT9 needs Warp Disspator just for retro LR). A year later Range 4 pops and I choose Nuclear Engines over IS. Decide to push factories for a bit longer then place deposit on IIT8 before starting Colony ships in 2331 with just short of 300 factories.

In 2340 settle Kakata, sending half of full under-developed Jinga, and Paranar, sending 25 then 7 then 3 keeping Meklon working all built factories. Zhardan is settled in 2345 sending 22 from Paranar, Berel in 2350 with 8 from Jinga gets GNN 6 planet message. IIT8 popped in 2345 and choose RIW60% (yippee!) over ARS. After Colony ships Meklon goes for Max (with Jinga refilling pop) but stops to push tech in 2348/49 before maxing around 2353 and starts future Colony Ship pre-build. In 2359:

So 4 factory Berel (the dodgy Desert) suffers a disaster - early for an event but at least avoided my larger Planets. Oddly for this variant I now have a hostile planet which was too small for Accident to leave waste and could be improved by a Super Nova or Space Amoeba!

In 2360 Nuclear Engines pop and Range 7 is next. Now Kholdan is only 5 parsecs from Berel but the Klackons have not made contact. Looks like they are short of range and green south of Kholdan looks 5 parsecs away so, with yellow on edge not a homeworld, there could be some expansion room after all. Range 7 with LR Colony will give access to 1 N and 2 S planets so all planets pump tech to kick off Range 7. Tech is supported by Meklon then later Jinga and other planets with RIW60% arriving in 2371 and Range 7 in 2377. This meets 5PE Klackon (Erratic/Expansionist) and start 80 BC trade. Discover Deep Space Scanner then in 2380 settle SW blue Rich Aurora (Minimal 50) and S green Tyr (Arid 70). S of Tyr green Whynil is settled in 2382. Kakata sends about 100 pop over 4 turns to southern planets refilling from Jinga and force buying. Tech continues with RC3 then Deflector Shield II and Hyper-V rockets before settling yellow Gion (Arid 60) in 2389. Next year Quake hits Paranar killing 16 pop and destroying 272 factories, ouch!

Contact but still no visit from Klackon. With economy improving, discover PDS, NPG, Improved Space Scanner then IIT6 during 90’s then Planetary Shield-V in 2402 and ScatterPack-V two years later. Shields go up everywhere and even Berel gets a Missile Base. Early armour is missing as is a decent beam but after SP-V I choose Anti-Matter Bomb over Graviton Beam. I will need a decent bomber and, with Fusion Bomb missing, I decide to concentrate on AntiMatter. Fitting this on a small will require smaller BC3 (available but currently on BC5), Impulse Engines plus IS (or Ion if no Impulse) and level 29 weapons (eg. Tachyon or AutoBlaster plus an extra cheaper tech). With no interference tech continues with RIW40%, BC5 (selecting BC3) and Anti-Matter Bomb selecting Auto-Blaster over Phasor or Tachyon Beam. My spy gets a look at my backward neighbours:


After quick BC3, get Deflector Shield V, Fusion Rifle and Warp Dissipator finding Impulse Engines as wished. Impulse arrive in 2436 followed by Auto-Blaster and IIT4 then quick IS. After IIT4 it is nice to see RIW20% but have now missed 4 armour upgrades! Have exchanged PDS for Fusion Bomb and RIW60% for ARS and now in 2439 my pre-builds for Auto-Blaster ARS WD Huge’s at Meklon, Kakata and Anti-Matter bomber smalls at Whynil are approaching completion. Then 2440 GNN announces Comet to strike Meklon in 8 years. I press for the attack leaving one huge produced 2442 to destroy Comet which should be adequate according to guide but post-game testing shows this was a big risk. My luck holds and Comet is destroyed early in 2446. Meanwhile, in 2442 with my other AB Huge and 100+ AM bombers about to launch, the bugs show impeccable timing by DOW’ing! A year later DS3 Kholdan is dust then resettled – at size 130 it is my best planet! This introduces 9PE Psilon (Hon/Ind). As Kholdan settles, Incedius is cleared and settled next generating GNN 12 planet message and introducing 1PE Alkari(Xen/.Exp) & 2PE Bulrathi(Agg/Eco). As BC6 arrives, spy reveals Psilon tech:

Hmm, wonder where they got that great gun from?

Destroy/re-settle Maretta introducing 1PE Humans (Hon/Ind) with map in 2448:


Spies steal Zortium from bugs and exchange Fusion Rifle for Psilon Stinger missiles as I bomb out hostile Arietis & Herculis, bugs settling SW yellow. As I consolidate my gains and steel some minor techs, the 1PE Humans DOW in 2453 and the mighty Psilons 2 years later. In between wealthy Merchant contributes to my cause. In 2456 the Klackons genocide to a LR Colony with a few bombs while the main fleet removes the Humans. New Planetary Shield-X will help defence and ECM6 helps the steals. I take control over Mentar as the Psilons launch against my now impregnable defences. As Mentar & Kailis are destroyed, the main Psilon fleet perishes at Incedius:


Then it was just a bombing out of the remaining planets with Alkari then Psilon, stopping off for Bulrathi, and extermination at Psilon Morrig in 2469 (with Virus event hitting propulsion tech on last turn).

[RefSteel]

Looks like a great game, with terrific execution in your opening (in spite of IER being off the table - heh) - reaching Aurora in 2380 is amazing! I'm curious about the Psilons' Auto Blaster. Is this a new bug of some kind? I encountered something similar in my Imperium 11 game, with Battle Computer 8 - no AI was anywhere near the tech level needed to research it, nor did they have any tech level in any field high enough to take it by espionage; I never lost a planet to an invasion (in fact, no alien transports ever reached any of my worlds) and of course I didn't gift or trade it to anyone (I wouldn't have done it even if both options weren't forbidden in that game). Yet the Humans still showed up with the thing! If I had to guess, I'd say AI espionage isn't limited to the level of their own best tech level as it is for the player, and now and then they actually get spy hits that ought to be impossible. That's just a guess though; do you have any further insight on it?

[sargon0]

The Psilon Auto-Blaster was a gift! No, not from me, from the game. Like you, I have seen this thing before and wondered why. Well this time I had saves which, after game completed, could show what happened.

I discovered Auto-Blaster in 2438 when the Psilons, having taken weapons research up to Stinger Missiles [level 18], were currently researching, wait for it, Hyper-X Missile! Next turn they are continuing their crucial Hyper-X research but are now the proud owners of level 28 tech Auto-Blaster. The Psilons matched my Computer level and their highest tech was level 20 (BC5, DS5, WD) but spying was not the cause. Apart from the fact they had no spies and no investment in spying whatsoever, we did not establish contact until 2444!

I did not mention in the report but in 2449 my spy reported the 1PE Alkari with no computer techs and only gatling laser in weapons also obtained Auto-Blaster! Do not be too successful, you will make the AI angry!

[jmas]

That was a great opening. Looks like your tech seeding and planning is better than mine, and I thought mine was fairly good! Kudos for colonizing Tyr, Aurora, Whynil, and Gion; I wasn't even close to doing that.

Ref and Sargon: So the human player's tech steals are limited to his/her highest tech level? I didn't know that. The guide mentions a roll being made from 1 to the highest level of the _infiltrated_ player, but you are saying it's actually the infiltrator's highest level?

As for the Alkari, the guide does mention that an AI race at war with another race will sometimes give a third race a free tech in exchange for inflicting damage on their enemy, though it says the tech will be "at least 10 levels below the third party's Tech level in that sector [tech field]"

[sargon0]

Ref and Sargon: So the human player's tech steals are limited to his/her highest tech level? I didn't know that. The guide mentions a roll being made from 1 to the highest level of the _infiltrated_ player, but you are saying it's actually the infiltrator's highest level?

I had heard this before that your steals are limited to your own maximum tech level in any field so I assumed it to be true. However I decided to run a test so I picked a save with a runaway Psilon and upped my computer level and number of spies to improve my chances. My tech levels were 26/19/12/24/15/14 and his were 26/36/42/31/25/37. I was able to steal Pulson missiles (level 29) and Deflector Shield VII (level 30) so I do not think you are limited to your own tech levels on steals.

[RefSteel]

I had heard this before that your steals are limited to your own maximum tech level in any field so I assumed it to be true. However I decided to run a test so I picked a save with a runaway Psilon and upped my computer level and number of spies to improve my chances. My tech levels were 26/19/12/24/15/14 and his were 26/36/42/31/25/37. I was able to steal Pulson missiles (level 29) and Deflector Shield VII (level 30) so I do not think you are limited to your own tech levels on steals.

Wow - great work, challenging received wisdom with actual experimentation ... and advancing the state of our knowledge in the process! I'll try and run some simple tests of my own just to make sure the experiment is repeatable - go, go scientific method!