Dathon's Imperium 14

[dathon]

I've always liked playing the Bears; they are probably my second favorite race after the Meklar. I can't exactly say why; I always seem to get more "in character" playing the Bulrathi for some reason. We actually tried a similar variant with the Bears in an early succesion game. There, the rules were that bombs and missiles could not strike planets. Unfortunately, we got a ridiculously good map draw, wherein we were able to take half the galaxy uncontested, which spoiled the variant. So I'm looking forward to trying this one!

Starting Out

Looking at the map, this is an interesting draw. We are isolated in the corner with a bunch of red stars, which have the highest probability of being poor. If the blue is habitable, that cluster to the south should open up without need for range tech, though. We definitely have easier opponents, though the Silicoid can always make things interesting by snapping up planets quickly. Taking planets is going to be painful this game, so my goal is (once again) to expand hot and heavy, then wait for tech to catch up to the point where invasions are feasible. At least it's Hard difficulty, which will cut down on the number of missile bases.

So the col ship went to the blue, and the scouts went to the red star cluster; odds are there's a homeworld down there and it's going to be a race to see who can colonize those planets first. Spica is size 70? That's a good break given the star color. Sure enough, we run into Mrrshan scouts at the Inferno world of Tao, but do scout Gienah first. As the scouting reports came back, I realized that I got unintentionally lucky; the red NE of Ursa is also 3 parsecs away! Had I caught that, I probably would have sent the ship there, or at least scouted first. I guess fortune favors the inattentive

After the scouts came back, I took stock. South cluster had only one immediately habitable planet in Gienah. The green down there was a size 30 Rich, but the cats would almost surely get that before me. I was surprised that I didn't run into scouts at Phantos or Rana in the NW; could it be that there's no homeworld at either of those stars? If that's the case, things may not be as cramped as they appear. I decided to take Range 4 over Range 5; that meant losing the Rich planet, but would get me to those yellow's faster.

Started trickle research into Improved Eco in 2419, the same year that GNN announced the Darlok were first to 6 systems. They beat the Silicoids? Interesting. I went ahead and maxed Ursa before building colony ships. Gienah was founded in 2336, with Zoctan following 2 turns later. Improved Eco came in as well, and I chose Controlled Dead over +20 to nab that size 50 in South cluster. I crash-researched Range 4 out of Spica and Ursa after Eco, and it was ready in 2341, the turn after Phantos' col ship was built; it was colonized in 2345. However, I made a knee-jerk reaction to select Nuke engines, and that was the wrong move. Seeing Range 6 absent, I probably should have backed up for Range 5, which would have put Selia in play. Oh well, cest la vie; I went for RW80% next.

Once Phantos was colonized, my hopes for escaping W out of the corner evaporated. The Silicoids were over there, and out to 7 stars, including the Yellow. Worse, that star and the red below it were 5 parsecs from Phantos. Well, I really botched that one I went whole-hog into Controlled Dead after RW80%, hoping to land Selia, even delaying factories at Spica. The tech came in my 2358, and I had a ship underway 3 years later. Would it make it? Would it make it?



Yep Turns out Selia was 5 parsecs from Fieras, and the cats must be lacking in range tech. While Selia's col ship flew, I built two more for Ryoun and Firma in the West, then stopped to build some popgun fighters to protect Rana; I did NOT want the rocks landing that planet!

The first election came early in 2369, Silicoids vs Darloks. They both had 5 votes, and everybody else abstained, so I threw my 4 behind the rocks for the diplo bonus. The 2375 election saw the Silicoids pick up 3 more votes from the Sakkra, but that was it, and I again voted for them.

I actually managed to land both Ryoun and Firma in 2373, Xengara in 2375, and Uxmai in 2380. I had been researching Controlled Inferno full-tilt, and that popped in 2379, allowing me to nab Rana and Tao in 2386 and 2387, respectively, bringing me to 12 planets first.

I met the Darlok's in 2378, and they were PISSED that I had voted against them. Relations were at Restless Worse, they were aligned with the Silicoid. Nevertheless, they agreed to minimal trade, and relations quickly "warmed" to Wary, and then Unease without incident.

Now I had to work on catching up in tech. I took Ion Cannons when Hyper V's popped, hoping for Mercs or Stingers in the next rung. I wanted a beam weapon on hand if things went south with any of my neighbors.

So 2394 rolls around, and the first event of the game comes in. Supernova at Tyr. That's a Silicoid world? Excellent! However, I've got a bit of a problem. I've got just about as much pop as the rocks now. 530 on the planet screen, which is 6 votes. Last election had 22 votes total, so that's nowhere near a bloc. Plus, the Darlok and Silicoid have been allied for a long time, though they aren't at the moment; the shifters will probably vote for the rocks. That right there would give them half the vote. Thing is, I don't think that I can put enough pop in space to take me out of contention either. So I went ahead and dialed up the Silicoid, and asked them to declare on the Darlok, which they did. Hated to cheese out diplomatically like that, but I didn't see any other way to avoid a council loss.

Here are the results of the 2400 vote, us vs the Silicoid:

For the Silicoid:
Silicoid(6)
Bulrathi(6)

For the Bulrathi:
Sakkra(3)
Darlok(5)

Abstained:
Mrrshan(5)
Meklar (3)

The Sakkra voting for me was quite a surprise; they also had been aligned with the Silicoid at one point. Checking the race screen confirmed why; the Darlok had somehow convinced them to go to war on their side. Well, at least that eliminated a council loss for the forseeable future.

My next round of tech saw Ion Cannons, ECM II, and Soil Enrichment come in shortly after the election. I chose Scatter Packs, +20 (I had skipped it, going directly to Soil. Not sure that was the right call either, given my small planets, but oh well), and ECM III.

Tyr did indeed explode in 2404. The AI never seems to be able to solve this event, probably because they don't funnel cash through the reserves very well. Four years later, GNN popped up again. Well, what is it this time? What? Xengara went rich? Wow! I was so relieved not to get hit I forgot to take a screenie. Maybe my luck with the event generator is changing, knock on wood? I also went ahead and upped trade with both the Darlok and Silicoid; I wasn't going on offense without better engines and some armor, so might as well try and keep relations cordial.

Met the Mrrshan in 2412 when Range 7 popped. Here's the galaxy at this point:



So far no planets have changed side in the Darlok/Silicoid conflict. I think that the Sakkra have to be where my cursor is pointing, and I'm going to guess that the Meklar are at the yellow in the extreme south. You can also see a white ship on its way out from Berel, the red star in the middle that's unclaimed. I had 2 LR large sentries there to fend off the rocks, and a col ship standing by at Selia for when Range 7 popped. As such, I colonized the planet in 2415. I found out I was right; Meklon was where I thought it was, and they had all of the stars down there except the green one, which was probably empty.

The next couple decades passed without incident. I terraformed when +20 came in, took Stingers when Scatter Packs came in, and just teched up. I would need at least need Cloning, Zortium Armor, and Fusion Drives, all of which I was currently researching, before I even thought about trying to go on offense.

The Election of 2425:

For the Silicoid:
Silicoid(6)
Bulrathi(10)

For the Bulrathi:
Sakkra(3)

Abstained:
Mrrshan(5)
Meklar(4)
Darlok(4)

I didn't quite have a bloc, but everybody would have to vote against me, and that seemed unlikely, so I felt pretty safe. Well, 2447 rolled around, and I no longer felt safe. The Silicoid had signed the Meklar to an alliance, and the Darlok just declared war. *sigh* Time for another phony war; the Silicoid agreed to attack the Meklar for 725 BC. So what had I been doing all this time? Just teching up. When the three techs I mentioned earlier came in, I decided to do some poking around for potential targets, and hit a limit I hadn't thought of; I can't send troops to planets I haven't scouted! That means unless I could land a diplomatic coup (unlikely), I'd need Advanced Scanners as well.

The Election of 2450:

For the Silicoid:
Silicoid(8 )
Bulrathi(10)
Darlok(4)

For the Bulrathi:
Sakkra(3)
Meklar(4)

Abstained:
Mrrshan(5)

Oh, and you know that great even I got, turning Xengara Rich? Well, the game must have been pissed that I started that war between the Meklar and Silicoid, because Xengara went Poor the year of the election

I belatedly founded Kronos in the deep S in 2452. Sadly, the planet was too small to give me another vote. I had some colships and a small fleet standing by in the vicinity of Klystron, which had hit spud status since the late 2300's, but hadn't gotten a window to get the planet up and running. Well, I got an opening in 2453. The Darlok managed to wipe out the planet while under Meklar hands, and there were no large fleets on the way, so I decided to try for it. I had 2 old large LR laser sentries and a dozen large Ion Frigates, Warp 2, Shield 2, and 22 Ion Cannons. I designed and started sending some medium Scatter Pack missle boats from Selia and Rana for support. About this time, our war with the Darlok got useful:



That helped my economy immensely, especially since RCIV hadn't been in the tree. Now when Advanced Soil came in, my empire would be in good shape; it was about 1/3 done. Then the next turn, ANOTHER event hit:



Well, hopefully that will let me get that planet up and running before the Darlok can pancake it again. And hopefully the event generator will take a break for awhile! Four events by 2456 is a bit much for me.

So 2462 rolls around, and the AI decides to test to see if I'm serious about keeping Klystron. The first to try were the Meklar. It's up to 62 peeps, and I've managed to get 2 missile bases up. No factories, though. I did, however, manage to get two large repulsor ships into orbit, as well as 52 of the Scatter Pack boats. Unfortunately, this is what the Meklar where fielding:



I don't think I can beat that. However, I should be able to fight them to a stalemate. As long as I can make sure none of the Stingers hit the repulsor ships, I should be able to let the Repulsor beams and my speed keep the Repulsor ships alive for the rest of the battle. But alas, it was not to be. I did make it about 30 rounds, but just couldn't avoid the damage for long enough, and the planet was bombed into oblivion. But I resolved to try again. I hadn't lost any of the missile boats, just the woefully outdated large ships. RW40% and BCV were nearing completion, so I'd see what I could field then. A couple Huge ARS ships should be enough.

[dathon]

Speaking of BCV, when it came in, the only option was ECMV. No scanners. Rats. But, I had thought of another idea. You can use sabotage missions to scout a planet! So that's what I would have to do. Advanced Soil finally popped in 2471. The Silicoids had managed to sign both the Sakkra and Darlok to alliances, so I doubted I could gain enough pop to steal a Council win, but I tried anyway.



So close! If the Sakkra had voted for me instead of abstaining, I would have had it. I didn't know if I could research +60 in 25 years, but I was darn sure going to try. I also asked the Silicoids to declare on the Darlok, just in case. But then disaster threw a monkey wrench in my plans when the Mrrshan up and declared in 2477. They had been upset with us after somebody framed us in an espionage job. *sigh* I guess the easy win is out for this one. On the other hand, the cats were way behind in tech, already at war with everybody else but the Meklar, and only had Hyper V missiles. Maybe I could poach some worlds off them? I turned up spying towards sabotage so I could get some reports. I already had (old) reports on Imra and Mobas. The former was too deep in kitty territory to defend, but Mobas might be doable.

Well, the very next turn (2477), I got a hit at Dolz. My spies failed to blow up the one missile base there, but I now knew it was a size 85 world. That would be my first target for sure. The cats had Battle Suits, PDS, and Fusion Rifles. I didn't like those odds, so I traded Cloning to the Silicoids for their suits. I had Zortium while the cats didn't, so that made their advantage +25 (Fusion + defense) to my +30 (racial + Zortium). I arranged for 185 troops from Ursa, Xengara, and Spica to converge on Dolz in 5 years. In the mean time, my two Hure ARS ships and 60 missile boats deployed to try and clear the air space for their arrival.

I got another spy hit in 2480, and used it to blow up the one base at Dolz. The cats had only stationed a couple large ships there, which my fleet easily defeated; as such, my troops landed uncontested in 2482, killing the 85 cats there with only 49 caualties. I also picked up the crucial tech I was looking for:



Now my advantage was +25, enough to attack fully defended worlds. 2485 saw another sabotage hit, which I used to scout Incedius. Size 40 rich desert? Oh yeah, that was my next target. I dispatched 85 troops from Ursa, to arrive in 4 turns. The Darlok accepted Zortium for peace the next turn, and +60 was at 7%. Everybody was at war with the Silicoid, so if I could take a couple more kitty worlds and avoid any more diplomatic pitfalls, I had this one in the next election.

The cats brought an actual fleet to try and defend Incedius. 4 Huges of two designs, and 20 some larges of 3 designs (sorry for the lack of pictures; I was a little pressed for time at this point). They had no shields or two-space guns, so were easily obliterated by my ARS ships. Speaking of those, they really were a poor design, only 8 Heavy Fusion beams, but they got the job done against the technologically inferior cats. 2490 saw 74 of my 85 troops land on Incedius, and wipe out the 40 cats there losing only 18. The story was much the same at Mobas 4 years later.

2499 rolls around... the Meklar call me up. So, Mr. Cyborg what do you want to talk about? War. Now. ONE FREAKING TURN BEFORE THE ELECTION!?!?!? Seriously, what is UP with my AI declaring war out of the blue before elections? Is it coded? Do I have gremlins in my game? WHAT GIVES!? They were on the high side of neutral, almost relaxed. This was highly annoying, as I clearly had the game won:



Now I wasn't sure I would have enough in the election to get it. And sure enough...



I can't even begin to communicate how angry I was. Now only had the Meklar now voted for the Silicoid, but somehow the Rocks got out from under war with both the Darlok and Sakkra in 4 turns (last time I checked), meaning they abstained their two each. The Meklar had 5 votes, so put that together, and I would have coasted to a landslide with 31 votes.

And that's where I stopped. I knew the game would not be fun from here on out. Meticulously finishing off the cats, then engaging the Meklar would have been a tedious chore. Plus, given my increasing size, it was only a matter of time before the Darlok's re-declared, and the Silicoid as well, meaning once again the diplomatic win was out the door. I was faced ONCE AGAIN with having to tediously mop up the galaxy to a conquest or extermination win. This is the third Imperium in a row where I reached a winning position, but had to keep on playing because of the stupid AI. And this time, it would have taken even longer, having to invade each world one at a time. Well, I didn't have the patience or RL time to pursue that, so I resigned the game.

Overall, the game concept was a good one. I'm kind of sad that I didn't get to finish the first Imperium sponsored by somebody else, but I did enjoy the game right up to the ending. Thanks to RefSteel for putting this one together, and here's hoping the next Imperium goes better!

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This is where I had left the game until late last week. I decided that I had been unfair. I really hadn't "proven" that I had won the game. I still had yet to engage the two biggest powers in the galaxy, the Meklar and Silicoid. Further, after taking all of the cat's worlds, and researching +80 (which was in the cue), I would only need a few Silicoid/Meklar worlds to just vote myself the leader. So I decided to finish this one out properly.

Looking at the last status screen, the Meklar were zero threat. Their fleet bar is the lowest in the galaxy! So they won't be coming for me any time soon. I spent the next decade annexing Mrrshan space, leaving them the tiny world of Helos. I then gave them peace, and even managed to secure minimal trade. Maybe I could get them happy enough to give me their vote? The Meklar came asking for peace near the end of the fighting with the cats, without having attacked, and I accepted. Relations there shot up to Relaxed.

That was one odd thing that I noted in this game. Typically, the quickest way to raise relations via enemy-of-my-enemy tactics is through bombing. It seems that you have to inflict quite a bit of damage to worlds to get that diplomacy boost. I've never noticed it coming from invasions, only bombings. Here, however, I was ONLY invading, and still getting good diplomacy boosts with other AI's! The Meklar were at war with the cats, and three invasions was enough to bring them from hate/discord to relaxed! Very interesting.

It was all for naught, though. After +80 came in, and I was finished terraforming former Mrrshan worlds, I was pretty big, and that proved to be way too big a drag on relations. They plummeted steadily, and we were back at war before the 2525 election. That contest saw me take 33/50, with one from the cats, one shy of winning.

The relations drag had affected the Silicoid too, causing them to declare shortly before the election. With a new round of tech coming in, it was time to go after the rocks. They were fielding a fleet of large and huge missile platforms, loaded with Stingers and Merculites. I didn't have planetary shields yet, but I did have Pulson missiles. Their first target was naturally Ryoun, it having the least number of missile bases on the frontier. By the way, that's a way that you can protect good planets in your territory. Make sure one little dust ball close to your opponents has less defenses than those planets you care about. The AI will likely attack there first. Note that this does NOT work for Rich/Ultra Rich/Artifacts worlds; the AI is smart enough to heavily prioritize those. But in this case, it kept the first blow from falling on Firma or Phantos. Rana had WAY too many bases for the AI to consider attacking.

Ryoun was able to withstand the opening attack with the loss of some bases. That gave me time to assemble a new fleet. I felt that the best counter to the Silicoid missile platforms was missile boats of my own. Mine were medium Pulson boats, more expendable and faster than their Silicoid counter parts. I also designed a new ARS with heavier shields and armor, and a few more guns.

About a decade later I had enough ships to make a play for a Silicoid world. The fleet that they had managed to assemble at Tau Cygni didn't scare me; apparently, they had too many irons in the fire already fighting the Sakkra, Meklar, and Darlok. My first target was Celtsi, and I was able to blow up all of the missile bases there via espionage, and thus won easily. A few turns later I picked up Rha, and Class V Planetary's, permantently eliminating the Silicoid threat.

All this time I had been spying on the Meklar, hoping for a hit that would allow me to scout a world. Around 2540 I finally got that hit, and proceeded to invade Vulcan, easily nabbing the large artifacts world from the Bord. I had also been building a secondary fleet to try to take and hold Klystron, which I did somewhere between 2535 and 2540. That turned out to be a useless mission, as years of bombing and sporing had left the planet devastated, and it sat at 10 pop for a very long time. I took one more Silicoid planet, Crius, before the 2550 election. I didn't want to push them down too far, as I wanted them as my opponents. Turns out, it didn't matter:



The Siliocid, Meklar, and Darlok had 12 votes between them. The Sakkra and Mrrshan threw their collective 3 votes behind my 48, giving me a decisive majority.

As I said before, a fun game concept to try once. I don't think that it really revolutionizes the gameplay that much, as the answer is simply to wait until you have enough of a technological edge on your enemies. I might still be up for trying this on Impossible, with the relaxed restriction of eliminating bombs, missiles, and spores from attacking planets. Some thinning of missile bases would probably be necessary there.

dathon

[RefSteel]

I'm glad you were able to finish this one after all! It looks like, as you surmised you could when you decided to continue, you were able to wrap it up quickly too; well done!

Typically, the quickest way to raise relations via enemy-of-my-enemy tactics is through bombing. It seems that you have to inflict quite a bit of damage to worlds to get that diplomacy boost. I've never noticed it coming from invasions, only bombings. Here, however, I was ONLY invading, and still getting good diplomacy boosts with other AI's!

I had a bit of this experience too, and wonder what causes it. I had previously assumed we get diplo bonuses for invading enemy worlds, but counter-balancing penalties for acquiring those worlds and therefore gaining power. Now I'm not so sure. What was it about this game that made the difference? Were we destroying more enemy ships than usual in the course of our wars (seems a little unlikely) - I discovered in Imperium 13 that blowing up fleets is good for enemy-of-my-enemy too - or does invading right through missile bases help relations more than a normal invasion (e.g. maybe taking out bases from the combat screen doesn't boost relations due to a bug, but taking out a world that had bases intact provides a bonus for taking them out)? This might bear investigating.

I agree that the variant doesn't revolutionize gameplay too much; my goal was mainly to provide opportunities to adapt to a few new situations - and for wars at times and tech levels when most "normal" games would either be in peaceful infrastructure mode or already over (i.e. exploring deeper into the tech tree without playing in a huge galaxy or delaying an already-thoroughly-proven victory). I like your idea of someday playing this variant on Impossible, but allowing some planet-attack possibilities - perhaps as the Sakkra, and maybe with "clean bombers" only. (Noble Soldiers: We can strike their missile bases, but only if we don't risk civillian casualties; everyone must have the opportunity for a "fair" fight for their lives, on the ground!) Maybe we'll revisit something like this in the future.

In any case, thanks for another great, informative report! I'm glad you enjoyed this one in the end!

[kjn]

I had a bit of this experience too, and wonder what causes it. I had previously assumed we get diplo bonuses for invading enemy worlds, but counter-balancing penalties for acquiring those worlds and therefore gaining power. Now I'm not so sure. What was it about this game that made the difference? Were we destroying more enemy ships than usual in the course of our wars (seems a little unlikely) - I discovered in Imperium 13 that blowing up fleets is good for enemy-of-my-enemy too - or does invading right through missile bases help relations more than a normal invasion (e.g. maybe taking out bases from the combat screen doesn't boost relations due to a bug, but taking out a world that had bases intact provides a bonus for taking them out)? This might bear investigating.

One possibility is that it's the loss of population that triggers enemy-of-my-enemy boosts, no matter the source (maybe not for bioweapons).

[sargon0]

My thoughts on enemy-of-my-enemy boosts:

Bombing is probably easier because it is quicker to move to the next target.
Invading should be individually as good for MB's and pop destroyed. Factories captured may not be as good as factories destroyed - unclear.
Bio-weapons count as good destruction so could be great but depends if combined with universal outrage or replaced by it - unclear.

Oh, and well played Dathon, nice report with great diplo explanations again.