This was actually a frustrating game to play. I realized very early on that I had made some fundamental strategic mistakes that made it fairly hopeless to play the rest of the game out. But I did so anyways, eventually ending up genocided by the Silicoids in 2514. Read the full report in the attached PDF below.
(Read the PDF version attached below to have pictures included).
In my first run at this Imperium, I tried using the Meklon Gambit (scrapping the initial colony ship to feed reserves into the homeworld’s factories). That didn’t work out so well. So this time, I decided to prioritize expansion first. I know that this shadow-run is not really representative of typical play because I had already learned much about the map and opponents, but I just wanted to see what sort of difference an alternative strategy would make on this challenging map.
This run, I decided to colonize Yarrow to the north with my starting colony ship. I knew that that would cut off the Psilons to only 3 planets, making them a juicy target later.
I built my planets up until about 2315 and then, at a quite early date, started building my colony ship for my 3rd planet, Proxima (also 3 parsecs away from the capital). I also started on range 4 tech so that I’d be set up to colonize the pivotal fertile size-75 world of Rayden 4 parsecs NE of Proxima.
My plan was timed beautifully. Range 4 came in just a few turns before my 2nd built colony ship was set to arrive from Meklon at Proxima in preparation for moving on to Rayden, and I was able to settle Rayden by about 2330.
At this point, Meklon was still under-built on factories, and I still hadn’t researched IT+10 or Improved Eco Restoration. I decided to tackle IER first, and then go back for IT+10 (the latter is very cheap, but can take a while for it to pop in the percentages, so might delay IER too much if I started on it first) before going on to IT+20. Meanwhile, I shipped population to seed my new frontier planets and continued to build factories.
The Silicoids had just settled Maalor by the time I settled Rayden. Thankfully, the Silicoids had not sent any ships en route to Rayden yet, so I didn’t have to worry about them contesting the planet with a cold-war fleet and incoming transports. The Silicoids did eventually show up with a nasty fleet of medium death spore bombers and heavy laser ships, but I got a little bit of time before I had to fight them off from Rayden because thankfully they sent the fleet to initially try to escort their colony ships trying to colonize the barren worlds of Draconis and Keeta. Unfortunately for the Silicoids, their firepower was not very oriented towards ship-to-ship combat (whereas their death spore ships would have been quite fearsome at this stage against Rayden), so I was able to delay the Silicoids from colonizing the barren worlds for a while with this one “Tornado” design and a few accompanying sacrificial laser fighters that would draw the fire of the enemy heavy laser ships for long enough for my Tornado to whittle them down. And it appeared that, as long as the Silicoids were pre-occupied with trying to settle the remaining worlds, it wouldn’t even occur to the AI to use its fleet to attack my worlds in cold-war mode.
Eventually, though, the Silicoids did show up with enough ship-to-ship weapons to force my Tornado to retreat and allow them to colonize the barren worlds.
Meanwhile, I knew it was just a matter of time before I would have to fend off death spore attacks on my own planets. By 2375, the Silicoids were massing dozens of the medium death spore bombers with 1 death spore each and inertial stabilizers. By 2399, the Silicoids had hundreds of these things flying around. I was furiously building factories, missile bases, and teching/trading up to better weapons to prepare for this threat.
I traded some juicy techs to the AI races to get as much free tech as I could. By giving away juicy techs like IER and IRC3, I was able to get Class II Shields (insurance policy against the hundreds of generic laser fighters the Psilons were building), Battle Computer Mark II, ECM III (actually quite important!), and Hyper-X Missiles, which allowed me to skip the whole 2nd weapon tier and go straight to researching Scatterpack V Missiles, which was really what I needed to deal with the unshielded death spore bombers that the Silicoids were amassing in large numbers. ECM III was also a nice insurance policy because it meant that the Silicoid death spore bombers, which had an attack level of 0, would only be hitting with their death spores 10% of the time versus my bases’ missile defense level of 4.
ECM III also put my computer tech level ahead of that of the Psilons and allowed me to steal some techs from them through espionage, including Ion Cannon (finally a decent beam weapon so I can fight ship-to-ship away from my planets), Range 7 tech (so I can skip over Mentar and directly reach the very northern Psilon planet if I want…although waiting for slow transports to get up there will be a pain), and Reduced Waste 80%.
Around 2385, both the Psilons (peeved by my spying, no doubt) and the Silicoids started cancelling their NAPs I had signed with them and, a few turns later, declared war. The Psilon ships were a joke (ships with slow 5-racks of hyper-V missiles and bare-bones laser fighters from the very start of the game). They had a sizable stack of these that they’d been amassing for about 50 turns, but this stack attacked a planet of mine with 8 scatterpack V missile bases, and I was able to use some ion fighters to lure the fleet to stick around and get destroyed. The Silicoid attacks were a little worse. Some of their hundreds of death spore bombers were able to close with my planet, but thanks to ECM III the dozens that reached the planet were only able to kill about 5 million colonists before getting wiped out.
The Psilons were a juicy target with only Class IV shields and almost no ground combat tech, so I amassed about 400 nuke bombers (with nuclear bombs, nuclear engines, and ECM II for added missile defense) plus some ion fighters, and attacked Gion. I lost about 80 nuke bombers but easily took out Gion’s 18 hyper-X missile bases. The trickle of laser fighter and Hyper-V missile boat reinforcements from the Psilons over the next few turns were easy to dispatch as well with my ion fighters. In 2397, transports arrived and traded about 1 for 1 with the Psilon defenders, overwhelming them through sheer numbers. 44 million surviving Meklar troops captured about 100 factories, ECM I (meh), and Class III shields (not bad—in fact, I’m up to Class III shields without having put a single credit into researching shield tech all game).
My big problem, though, was the 2399 council vote. I was up against the Silicoids, and I was at war with the Silicoids and the Psilons. Also, the Psilons and the Darloks were allied with the Silicoids. (It seems that the AI love-fest among all of these computer-inclined races was a common problem for players in this Imperium!) All three opponents were going to vote for the Silicoids. And the Darlok ambassador had recently gotten into a huff with me and cancelled our NAP, so I couldn't even talk to them. And I certainly didn’t have a veto block all on my own, even with 5 planets to my name.
So I threw a hail mary. I called up the Psilons, tributed them some trash (Improved construction 9, Deep Space Scanner, nuclear engines, and hand lasers (actually, that pained me to tribute hand lasers away because I’m pretty sure I’m not done with the Psilons yet). I did get them to end the war against me, but they staunchly refused two requests to cancel their alliance with the Silicoids. I thought I was done for.
Then, the 2399 council vote rolled around, and the Psilons abstained! Apparently on that very turn, after I clicked “next turn,” the Psilons decided to cancel their alliance with the Silicoids all on their own. I live to see another day!
So, I’m in the year 2400 with my defenses somewhat stabilized, 5 planets to my name, technological progress in a pretty good position, and 25 more turns to live.
Right after the council vote I traded IRC3 to the Psilons for IT+30. I really don’t mind if the Psilons build some more factories for me. I’m sure I’ll be conquering those factories eventually before they can really get much out of them, although I’m undecided as to whether to go directly after them with more nuke bombers or whether to research anti-matter bombs. Right now I’m leaning towards pressing my advantage while I can with more nuke bombers. On the other hand, if I teched up to anti-matter bombs and maybe Mk4 Battle Computers, I could design some mean medium bombers that would have much higher damage, hit%, and maybe even evade (if I throw ECM III on them and grab inertial stabilizer somehow…) Right now my nuke bombers are only hitting 20% of the time versus the ECM II on the Psilon planets, and the Psilons now have class V shields (although not class V planetaries), so even when my bombers hit, they are only doing ~2 damage per ship. 1 medium anti-matter bomber with better attack level could probably do the damage of 10 or 20 nukers combined.
In the meantime, IT+30 will give my planets much more production—both from raw population and from 50 more factories on each planet. And I’ll be very very close to getting a veto block. If I could grab just one or two more planets, I’d be set. Although it will be difficult to hold planets as long as I’m at war with the Silicoids and having to fend off big fleets of death spore ships from new planets that don't have lots of scatterpack bases built up yet. Maybe I should build up for the next 25 turns and hope that either the Psilons or Darloks will be peaceful and un-allied with the Silicoids come 2424…AND THEN revisit either the Psilons or Darloks with anti-matter bomb ships and better ship-to-ship superiority.
In the meantime, I can also probably grab at least 1 of the barren worlds from the Silicoids, at least temporarily (and maybe get some good tech captures). They only have 3 scatterpack V missile bases at Keeta. (Rich Draconis is, unfortunately, probably hopeless to attack right now with 13 scatterpack V missile bases).
I’m also betting that, as soon as I can call up the Darlok diplomat again, I can trade for Personal Deflector Shield, which I’ll need if I’m going to try to invade others at this point….
This is shaping up to be a wild and woolly game! If I can just hang on for another election or two, I think I have a shot!
Imperium 43 Shadow Report (2nd try) – Psillycyber – 2400 to finish
(See the attached PDF file for pictures)
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The first decade of the new century was a time of technological progress and peace between our Meklar Empire and the Psilons and Darloks…but it was a time of much bloodshed for the former Psilon colony of Gion that we had just recently taken over. As soon as the Silicoids caught word of our capture of the world, they sent their biggest deathfleet over to claim it. True, the fleet was crawling at warp 1 and wouldn’t arrive for 6 turns, which was enough time with reserve spending to give the new colony at Gion 9 scatterpack V missile bases.
But this was the Silicoids’ biggest death spore fleet yet. Not only did they have 120 medium spore bombers, but their larges also packed several death spores each, and with much better attack level for delivering them to the planet’s surface past our ECM jammers.
I decided to target some of the large cruisers first. They had better attack level for delivering their spores, and they also had heavy ion weaponry that could damage my bases outright. In hindsight, targeting the large cruisers first was probably a mistake. I neglected to notice that the medium spore bombers actually had Battle Computers Mk. II on them, so when 90 of them managed to close with the planet, their first volley killed about 30 million colonists rather than the 10 or so that I’d anticipated. A couple rounds later, and Gion was toast. The missile base crews fought on valiantly, even has they hacked up pieces of lung that looked like a moldy kitchen cabinet, until all of the Silicoid ships had either been destroyed or retreated.
The Meklar Empire mourned the loss of Gion, but not all hope was lost. The original conquest had still been worth it for snagging two techs, for setting the Psilons back, and now for crippling the Silicoids’ largest deathfleet. Now the Silicoid reinforcements came against the other Meklar planets in a trickle, and were no problem at all for these established planets to dispatch.
There were other bright spots on the horizon. After taking out Keeta’s 3 missile bases with ease, the Meklar decided to go after a more ambitious target: the other nearby barren world, rich Draconis, with 18 missile bases. These were scatterpack V missile bases, so we were going to lose a lot of nuke bombers. Alongside researching controlled inferno environment, our planets built more nukers until we had over 600 of them. We lost about 400 of them in the course of clearing the way for our transports to take Draconis in year 2412, but the sacrifice was worth it:
A few turns later (2414), we followed up with invading Keeta (we had already gained air superiority some time ago, but were simply waiting for controlled inferno to pop. And once it did pop, capturing Draconis was deemed the higher priority).
These were most of the Silicoid state-of-the-art techs. Just like that, we were nearly at tech-parity and planet-parity with them. These captures, and our luck with getting techs from them, single-handedly locked in our chances of winning this game.
The most important pick-ups were Battle Computers Mk. IV for clearing the way to go straight to researching Improved Robotics IV(I hadn’t even invested any research into BC4 yet), repulsor beams for blocking spore bombers and preventing future Gions from happening, and hard beams for increasing our weapon tech level. The decreased costs for building our missile bases after this point were noticeable. Whereas it had taken 6 turns to get 9 bases up on Gion with reserve spending, now I could build 2 or 3 per turn at most of my planets.
Oh, and inertial stabilizer was very, very nice. Especially when paired with fusion drives, which I got from the Alkari shortly later in exchange for repulsor beams. Now I just needed anti-matter bombs, ECM V, and automated repair, and I could build some awesome and indestructible dreadnought bombers.
Before I could acquire these new toys, however, I had to face one more council vote without a veto:
I was still friends with the Psilons and Darloks for the time being, and the Psilons were no longer getting along with the Silicoids. Actually, a funny thing happened. There were both Psilon and Silicoid fleets over Gion after it got death-spored out, as I was pre-occupied elsewhere and could not afford to contest it. The Psilons were the first to re-colonize it. However, a few turns later they cancelled their alliance with the Silicoids. Sure enough, the suddenly not-peaceful Silicoid fleet prevailed, and the Silicoids sent some ungodly number (65 million, I think) to invade little Gion with 10 million Psilon troops (still capped by all of the eco-damage from the death sporing). The Silicoids then captured it from the Psilons. The planet became a bit of a hot potato for a few turns until it got bombed out completely again. This time, I had a fleet and a colony ship on hand to swoop in under the non-aggression pact that I had with the Psilons and colonize it right out from under them!
I had also, in the meantime, traded with the Darloks for Improved Industrial 8, so re-building Gion from scratch the 2nd time actually went pretty quickly, especially when helped along by copious reserve spending and protected from further death spore shenanigans by repulsor beam ships.
Shortly after the 2424 election, my offensive research trifecta of ECM V, auto repair, and anti-matter bombs finished. Here is the fleet I assembled. The huge auto-repair bombers were invincible even against 30+ enemy missile bases. The only question was: whom to attack?
I was getting very close to a veto on the council vote, at which point diplomatic concerns would be minimal. So I decided to prey upon one of my only consistent partner this game, the Darloks (the irony!) They were the weakest in weapons, shield, and ground combat technology, and even capturing just one or two planets from them would make me safe from losing the council vote.
Here’s what I hauled in from the capture of Exis in 2443:
And from ultra-poor Artemis in 2445:
Lyae fell a few years later, just before the 2449 council vote.
When the 2449 election rolled around, I was safe:
The election itself:
The only snafu I ran into from this point on in the game was the fact that the Psilons and Silicoids were starting to show up with strong ships that had class VII shields, so my missile bases were doing minimal damage to them. Upgrading to Stinger missiles ASAP was a priority! I also looked forward to bio-toxin antidote, to finally put behind me the need to station those cumbersome repulsor ships everywhere. And class V planetary shields were an increasingly useful backfill tech to pursue as enemy ships started showing up with megabolt cannons.
Other than that, the rest of the game was a mopping-up exercise.
The above was the map just before victory. I captured the Psilon planets but decided to glass the Silicoid ones to save time. This being the shadow-run of the game, I wasn’t particularly playing for the victory points of this variant’s challenge. I just wanted to see if any type of victory at all was possible. If I had been playing for victory points, I would have started glassing and re-colonizing planets after the 2449 election.
My fleet at the end of the game:
In the end, I’m glad I went back and game this map a second try. Even with prior knowledge of the map, this game ended up being a nail-biter, especially between 2375 and 2425.
