OSG 26 - The Bearperor Returns

[Ianus]

Well said Ref! But you will be disappointed about Sub-Lights as no one has them, not even the Psilons. I also favor playing on as we have achieved our (hypothetical) diplomatic victory by doing very little. I say press on for a Domination victory at least.
As for how to do that, if we could get Repulsor Beams from the Alkari or Sakkra that would give us Heavy Fusion ARS Huges which are my favorite ships. That and swarms of small F-Bombs have won me more games than I can count.
So press on, noble bearperor! And to quote a famous Bulrathi author, "Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!"

[RefSteel]

Well said Ref! But you will be disappointed about Sub-Lights as no one has them, not even the Psilons.

...huh. You're right, too. I just assumed from their fleet positioning as they approached Cryslon that they must be using sublights, but I was obviously wrong. The distances must be shorter than I was estimating by a parsec or two. Wellllll....

I said "Or better," didn't I? By hook or by crook, I can try!

I also favor playing on as we have achieved our (hypothetical) diplomatic victory by doing very little. I say press on for a Domination victory at least.
As for how to do that, if we could get Repulsor Beams from the Alkari or Sakkra that would give us Heavy Fusion ARS Huges which are my favorite ships. That and swarms of small F-Bombs have won me more games than I can count.
So press on, noble bearperor! And to quote a famous Bulrathi author, "Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!"

Hear, hear!

[Waterd]

Wow you really won fast. I had a 5 century game
Here is some notes on what happened in my game, the game was really epic I think.
The events are not in exact chronological order, and memory got fuzzy overtime.

-I expanded almost similarly.
-Erratic psilons, Allied to Sakkra and alkaris declare war on me.
-Alkaris and sakkras soon follow.
-Lucky for me Silicoids were at war with psilons, but Melkar were neutral most of the game.
-Early on I was 2 votes away from losing the game.
-During the War i lost most of the bottom hostile planets to Psilons and alkaris (mostly psilons).
-As soon as I developed Planetary shield V and Merculite missiles, I stopped psilon from taking my planets.
-Alkaris created a 2k Small death spore fleet, which took 3 planets of me, including URSA.
-Silicods and melkars were not really big players during most of the game.
-I had a back and forth trade with psilons in the hostile., which were the key in which i keep my tech up to par. This was key to winning the game.
-I used the tech to bribe the sakkras, and Made an alliance with them.
-I got Pulsar from psilons, and this was very important, i immediately crated 6 models of large ships with pulsars, which i used to completely destroy the alkaris fleets.
-From there on i recovered 2 of the 3 planets glassed with death spores

-I kept in a very long back and forth war with the psilons. The alkaris never could figure out how to deal with my pulsar ships and i guess the used a lot of resources to fight the sakkras. The moment I got pulsars, the rest of the game alkaris where inconsequential.
-Eventually In an invasion to the psilons i get Combat transporters. Here the game ends, the turn inmediatly after i get combat transporters, All my planets started to send transports to all psilons and alkaris planet, in a few decades, i got half the galaxy, and left alkaris with one planet, but psilons got subpsace interdictor. From there on there was a 50 year war, but it was just a matter of time before i got 2/3 of the galaxy and voted myself.

I got 99 in computers, its been a looong time since a game got this long.

[RefSteel]

The conclusion to my previous turnset report is finally added to my part-2 report post above, in separate spoiler tags, for those who want to read it.

Wow you really won fast. I had a 5 century game
Here is some notes on what happened in my game, the game was really epic I think.
The events are not in exact chronological order, and memory got fuzzy overtime.

Hey - we may have been given the option to win, but this game's not over yet! I'm glad you had an epic game, and I hope you enjoyed it! Would you have any interest in joining another succession game when we're done with this one?

(In the meantime, I'm going to try to remain unspoiled until we really finish our game!)

Roster:
Ianus - Just Played
Psillycyber - Playing!
RefSteel - On Deck unless Thrawn steps in.
Thrawn - Up next if and whenever he's no longer swamped out-of-game.

[Psillycyber]

Wow, that is a great report, Ref! I'm glad you uploaded the later parts too. That part 3 was a hoot to read!

[Psillycyber]

OSG 26 - Part 11 - 2420 to 2430

Psillycyber had finally gotten his retirement. He had travelled the icy wastes of Fozzie and even gone into dangerous unclaimed territory on the outer rim to explore the fabled megavolcanoes of Nyarl. (His travel agent was very much against this, noting that the Bulrathi race did not even know how to breathe or construct resistant materials in such environments. "We can't have a former Head of State taking such risks!" the travel agent protested. "How do you know you won't get swept up into a magmacane and hurled into the vast lava-filled Crimsonia Ocean?!")

Psillycyber scoffed at such naysaying. "I'm no Bearperor anymore. You can stop kow-towing to me like my fur don't shed. Just give me, I don't know...a nuclear engine jetpack and personal deflector shield to get down to the surface, and let me have my fun!"

And fun it was, such as when he got to traverse the lava-strewn slopes of Mount Smokey (named after the renowned children's television show Park Ranger from the forests of Keeta. The volcano itself was quite safe and dormant).

But at the end of the day, Psillycyber had a nagging thought. "You know...what I really miss is...some good ol' pewpewpew action. I never did get to follow-through on my life's ambition of sticking those bird-brains in the gizzard a time or two. Certainly would have been a fun challenge trying to hit those inertially-stabilized fighters of theirs...maybe they'll send a scouting party down on this planet here, so that I can at least get a little hand laser target practice on those birdies."

Just then Psillycyber's videophone buzzed an alert. "Attention Your Grizzliest Psillycyber!" the Bulrathi captain called out. "We have been tracking an unidentified radar signature in your sector for some time. At first our navigators identified it as a scouting squadron of some sort. But our improved space scanners have had a closer look, and it turns out to be a full Alkari colony fleet. You need to get outta there before they land and take you prisoner! Oh, and also, on a totally unrelated note....you are kiiiiiiiiiiind of needed to.....um.....lead the Bulrathi Empire once again. I swear it wasn't my idea, sir! I told them you had retired. But they just insisted that, with the new election coming around, they wanted the seasoned diplomat who was responsible for surviving the first two galactic elections with the Bulrathi Empire unscathed."

Psillycyber grinned. "It's no trouble at all, captain. This retired life has grown a bit stale. I'm ready to take up the throne again. I mean...
How many planets must a bear go and scout, before you can call him a bear?
How many nebulas must a bear sail about, before he can know all that's there?
How many times must we orbit in doubt, before our fleet can go on a tear?
The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind.
The answer is blowin' in the wind."

"Wow, I never knew you to be so...philosophical, Your Grizzliest Psillycyber." the captain stammered.

"Yeah, this retirement has given me a lot of time to think. And what I've realized is that, my life's work really was not complete without getting a chance...a sweet, sweet chance....at mauling those pathetic bird brains and their fancy Reajax fuel cell fleets. "Oh, look at me, I'm a fancy bird, with fancy feathers and fancy propulsion tech." No, everyday when I turn on the Galactic News Network, I have to hear more and more about how the Alkari are leading in this, and how the Alkari are leading in that. No more! I have heard enough from that vapid yellow droid. Mark my words! Ere my career in governing is over, that droid will learn to say the name Bulrathi, and he will learn to say it well, and FIRST IN LINE before all others! Only then will I be truly content to retire."

"That's all very well and good, Your Grizzliest, but first we need to get you off that infernal planet before the Alkari fleet shows up!"

"It's "inferno" planet."

"What?"

"You said, "infernal." It's pronounced "IN-FER-NO." My dear cub scout, I think you need to review your planetology pre-school lessons."

"No, I meant, "infernal," as in, wicked, god-forsaken...you know."

"Yeah, okay, whatever Mr. Imakeupsillysoundingwordsington. Just get me off this planet, ummkay?"

Hours later, as Psillycyber climbed aboard the emergency scout ship sent to retrieve him, he started writing his first notes in his logbook.

2420:
Note to self: fire Mr. Imakeupsillysoundingwordington or whatever his name is. We can't have people in our government who don't understand basic planetology categories. It's a wonder that Bearperor Ianus made so much progress towards Controlled Radiated Environments during his tenure, with the kind of garbage that they are apparently teaching kids in planetology school these days. My hat is off to him!

Otherwise, I have found upon reading the dossiers of my esteemed predecessors Bearperor RefSteel and Bearperor Ianus that there is not much to attend to right away. We seem to be sitting in a fairly comfortable position, economically and diplomatically at least. Militarily, we are weak, but fortunate that everyone still seems to love us. Oh, except for those pathetic Silicoids. But who cares about them, amIrite? Oh wait, the Alkari are allied to them. Well, dergnammit...I guess I'll have to tread carefully with those rocks for the time being. At least we are building up their former capital of Cryslon nicely.

After looking over our demographics, I considered sending pop from Primodius to Shardik, but the journey would take so bloody long that I decided to just let Shardik grow on its own from its current 5 / 50 million. It's not an essential planet. Sorry, Shardikians.

Also, I did start Tannenberg and Fnarglo on military ship building. For now, I will be putting the spending into the huge Mama Bear 2 design that Ianus had drawn up. But I might re-design before production is complete.

2421:
During the interturn, we stole mass drivers from the Psilons.



They didn't seem to care, those erratic oddballs, as they were still peaceful afterwards.

We also stole...GET READY FOR IT:



inertial stabilizers from the Silicoids. BOO YAH!

2422:
Another day, another techrape of the poor Silicoids. This time, ECM Jammer Mark III.



Hey, we'll take what we can get! Every little bit of computer tech helps!

This year Construction and Planetology were at 32% and 25%, respectively, so I decided to dial-down the research by plowing production at many planets on our southern and eastern borders into class V planetary shields.

2423:
Our spies in the Sakkra skunkworks at Galos hit the jackpot.



Repulsor beams, baby! Those hundreds of Alkari fighters (assuming they don't have heavy 2-range weapons on them) are about to become pathetically obsolete. Unfortunately, the Sakkras' attitude towards us dropped down to amiable. Due to this techsteal.

Also, the Alkari settled Willow and drove our scout away with a couple of foxbats. Darn.

2424:
Everyone hated the Alkari so much, that they were willing to give us the Galactic Imperium on a silver platter.



But I said NO! My business—our business with the Alkari is not yet finished. Trampling their bird brains under the combined weight of all of the other races in the galaxy would be...so anti-climactic, and it would feel a bit undeserved. I mean, we have had outstanding diplo luck so far, with the convenient dogpile on the Silicoids, avoiding things like the assassination event, and even the erratic Psilons playing nice. I still feel like we need to show the galaxy what a bunch of bears can really do, and for that, I'd like to grind the Alkari into the dust—methodically, and on our own. Soon!

2425:
Controlled Radiated and Factory Construction 6 still haven't popped. Both at 32% now.

Also, the Psilons cancelled their non-aggression pact with us and dropped to relaxed status.



Meh...whatever...TRY-LONS! HARHARHAR!!!

2426:
We snagged gatling lasers from the Sakkra (was hoping for Merculite missiles).



Tyranid was NOT happy. We dropped to neutral status with the Sakkra.

I really wanted to get my hands on those Merculites somehow, so I traded Enhanced Eco Restoration to the Meklar:



...thus filling a tech hole in our tree and enabling us to respond to hypothetical class-VI shield Alkari ships with our missile bases. I thought it was a bargain considering Enhanced Eco is already known by the Sakkras and since the Meklar are not a threat in this game.

2427:
The Silicoids launched an attack on Cryslon.



We easily destroyed all of the Silicoid Mako cruisers.

Also, Improved Industrial Tech 6 finally came in!



Sadly, Improved Industrial 5 was the only choice for moving forward.

In other news, a wealthy merchant donated 1200 BC to the Psilon cause.



Hey, at least it wasn't the Sakkra or Alkari....

Also, our awesome improved space scanners picked up a Sakkra fleet incoming at Cryslon...which I seem to have lost the picture for. Well, here you can see it coming in along with a Psilon fleet several turns later...



I am not worried about the Psilon fleet at all. Those designs have ion and heavy ion cannons on them. They cannot get through our shields. As for the Sakkra fleet, fortunately, the Sakkra fleet is crawling at warp-1 (unlike the Psilon fleet), but the Sakkra do have a new ship type, the huge "Colossus" dreadnought design, with it. I had an expotition2 on its way to Endoria to check out that new Colossus design, but unfortunately the Sakkra departed before I could check it out. Still, I think we can build a fair number of missile bases on Cryslon before that fleet gets there in 6 turns. (Defense is king on this map with no engine tech to speak of among anyone, I say.)

Did I mention that I redesigned the Mama Bear 2 after that Construction tech came in? Oh yes, now our shipyards at Tannenberg and Fnarglo are building the new-and-improved, badder-and-meaner Papa Bear 2.



Don't anger the Papa Bear. This thing has 40 heavy ion cannons on it, auto repair, a repulsor beam, and all the latest shields and battle computers. I am going to relocate the first one off the assembly lines at Tannenberg to Cryslon just in time for a friendly meet and greet that Sakkra fleet.

Now that we are officially in a cold war with the Sakkra, I am also more than a bit worried about our far-flung outposts such as Shardik. Shardik is still far too unproductive to build a planetary shield. I sent 30 NPGs there as a token defense. The other planets in that SW sector I put towards building planetary shields and bases, with extra funds from the reserve to rush these shields along.

Also, a couple of other odd things I have noticed: the Alkari settled Nyarl a couple of years ago. And then this Sakkra colony ship showed up there.



I'm guessing that the colony ship had death spores on it, because it appears that the Sakkra wiped that Alkari colony out. I sure wouldn't want to repeat my trip to Mount Smokey there anytime soon!

And then the Sakkra colony ship couldn't colonize there because the Sakkra don't have controlled inferno yet. Quite a boon for us! Doubly so because it appears that the Alkari death fleet that was en route to Pollus ran out of fuel there, their crews running out of food and other supplies and abandoning ship through their emergency escape pods to try to get back to their own worlds. It didn't help that Alkari also lost their alliance with the Silicoids. I am sure that the Alkari did not scrap those designs because I still see some of those designs around some of their other planets. Tough luck, birdies!

2428:
We got warnings from the Sakkra and Alkari about our expansion.





It seems the opponents are finally starting to realize that we are coming to dominate this galaxy. Probably too late for them.

Note that we still have our non-aggression pact with the Alkari, though.

The Alkari are also back in their alliance with the Silicoids. (Wow, it would have paid for them to maintain that alliance a little longer, eh?) When controlled radiated pops, we will want to think carefully about what we want to do with the Silicoids.

The Alkari have also obtained improved robotic controls V.



We are nearing completion on Robotic Controls IV ourselves.



Also note that the Alkari appear to be assembling a new death fleet near Fnarglo.



All of our planets in that sector are building missile bases as a precaution.

In domestic news, I've sent some transports from 100AcreWood to Bruno, from Vulcan to Fozzie, and from Porridge to Irving to top up the populations of those latter hostile planets. The ones from Irving might want to be forwarded to the rich world of Beorn when the time comes (in 10 turns...ugh! So slow!)

2429:
Our expotition ship scouted Endoria.



It had about what you'd expect. Whenever we get around to it, the Sakkra will be a tough nut to crack! But a little bit easier than before because....

We stole their neutron blaster designs!



Hehehe. This led our engineers to redesign the Papa Bear 2 into the Care Bear 2, now fitted with 24 heavy blast cannons. Two of those should roll off the assembly lines next year, one each in Tannenberg and Fnarglo. The Tannenberg one will be destined for Cryslon to help with the defense there.



For only $19.95 (the cost of treating our spies at Mentar to lunch), we got ECM Jammer Mark II from the Psilons as well.



The Sakkra made some big threats of retaliation, but so far they are all bark, no bite. And the crazy Psilons were apparently too tongue-tied to offer any diplomatic protest. Or maybe they were distracted by the shapes in the pretty clouds of Mentar. Who knows....

2430:
Our spies at Galos used the cute kitty technique. "Plz Sakkra i Can Has deth spors?" And somehow, despite being lizards with a great distaste for cats, it worked.



They complained but AGAIN did not declare war.



C'mon, lizard-brains! Stand up for yourselves for a change! (Actually, I take that back. They do have some scary fleets zipping around, including that new Colossus design, and some of our far-flung worlds are still setting up their planetary shields).

We also FINALLY finished our research on controlled radiated, at something like 42% odds. Good grief!



I picked atmospheric terraforming as the next tech and diverted much of our research focus to that.

Also, the Meklar wanted to increase our trade agreement to 150 BC per year. Sure, why not? They are our best friends at the moment.

Finally, here are some figures showing the state of our empire:









Notes for the next Bearperor:
1. I made a radiated base design and got production of one going at 100AcreWood for the neighboring ultra-rich stars. You might consider rushing those with funds from the reserve.
2. It's up to you as far as what you want to do about the Silicoids. We could also take over Pollus from the Alkari pretty easily if we wanted, but I'd almost rather let them keep it for a bit and build some factories there first. It is in a nebula, so whoever has it will have a hell of a time defending it. Plus, you know...war with the Alkari and all. Although we might be getting close to the point where we could deal with them....
3. The two planets I am most worried about losing to the Sakkra are Irving and Shardik. Irving should almost have its planetary shield finished. Shardik is a long, long way away. I kind of didn't want to build any more factories there until we see what happens with the Sakkra because, in the event of war, that planet is a sitting duck, and I don't want them getting a bunch of factories and tech from us if they capture it.
4. We have a Care Bear 2 sitting at Fnarglo. I almost like the idea of keeping it in that neighborhood to play zone defense in case the new Alkari death fleet nearby tries to get frisky with any of those neighboring planets of ours. But you might have other ideas for it. It could be used on the offense too, to escort bombers and protect new conquests. Thanks to being able to put heavy neutron blast cannons on it at the last second, it turned into a really good design whose shelf-life could last us until the end of the game as a mobile planetary defense station, at least.

So, I believe RefSteel is UP!
Followed by Ianus ON DECK,
Unless Thrawn(?) wants to get a piece of the lizards and bird-brains before it is too late.

Good luck, fellow Bearperors! Go get 'em!

[Ianus]

Nice turns! We are in an incredibly strong position now! And great job going for Mercs! That didn't even occur to me but will be great for dealing with shielding. Now all that is left to do is scrap our venerable Cubscouts and start building bombers.
"It is a nice year for war. Farewell, Emperor [insert name of emperor here]"
I think that the Sakkra are a good choice for war. Still powerful with lots of good techs but totally doable with our current technology.

[RefSteel]

Sweet - well played, and I loved your report! (Also, thanks for the compliment on mine.) I've checked the save (not in any depth) but I'll wait to officially "get" it until I can actually play late tonight, in case Thrawn gets back and wants to step in.

Getting engines during my turn set indeed looks next-door to impossible unless we get unimaginably lucky, but I'll do what I can to get a little closer at least.

[RefSteel]

Nice turns! We are in an incredibly strong position now! And great job going for Mercs! That didn't even occur to me but will be great for dealing with shielding. Now all that is left to do is scrap our venerable Cubscouts and start building bombers.
"It is a nice year for war. Farewell, Emperor [insert name of emperor here]"
I think that the Sakkra are a good choice for war. Still powerful with lots of good techs but totally doable with our current technology.

Wait, did I say, "Get us closer"? I think I meant to say, "Tilt the odds in our favor by way of the pointy stick!"

[Psillycyber]

Hey, at least we have inertial stabilizers, so our bombers should be able to close on planets within 3 turns if we can fit those stabilizers on them.

It's kinda funny that our ships can move faster on the battle screen than they can on the galaxy map.