Megafrost Imperium 28: Out of practice, out of luck, out of time

[Megafrost]

The Bulrathi had one of the fastest openings I'd ever seen and managed to take BOTH planets at range 4 before I could get any long range laser ships there. Sakkra managed to grab a planet at range 5 before I could fit fuel tanks on a large colony ship, and in a desperate move to salvage my bad start, I traded them death spores for dead colonies. Then the Bulrathi, erratic as they were, declared war on me. The Sakkra, being pacifistic, had allied with every race in the game and honored their alliance to the Bulrathi. And being militarist, they had huge fleets. With death spores on them. They wiped out my two beginning planets and the one planet that I had managed to colonize south of Sol. I had managed to colonize 4 other planets, but they had no developed infrastructure and 2 were mineral poor.

I absolutely believe I can turn this into a winning game if I play it out. The computer does not like to finish me off and I'm at no risk of losing an election. But I just don't have the time.

Retired: Year 2425

Score:
+10 for reporting

[RefSteel]

Wow - I usually find the AI Bulrathi very strong for a "weak race" in my games, but this sounds extreme! I'd have loved to see the game played out, whether you wound up defeated or managed to pull out an incredible come-from-behind win, but I understand the time crunch. (I finished my game on time, as well as most of the report, but I'm still not quite finished writing it - instead of "I'll just play one...more...turn" I'm having a case of "I'll just build one...more...composite...image from my screenshots!" I'm hoping to post later tonight though.)

[TheArchduke]

Yeah, the Bears were a menance for me as well. They never used death spores though and I managed to secure a peace before they would have reduced me to 3 planets.

Sounds like a tough situation. I would love to check it out. Care to upload it?

[Megafrost]

Here's my save game if you want to check it out. Note that it's in slot 5.

Yeah, this was a very rough game. The sheer speed of the Bulrathi caught me way off guard. They brought armed escort to Collassa way earlier than I expected (especially considering I had estimated the range from them at 6 parsecs, not 5), and only 3 or 4 turns later they were already bringing another colony ship with armed escort to Berel. Nowhere near enough time to respond.

I could have recovered from that, but I spent way too much time trying to prioritize planet-grabbing and not enough on defense (and the Sakkra punished me for it).