jmas's Imperium 12: Robo-toxicity

[jmas]

I just finished my game; I didn't get started for a week or two after the opening date. I won in the Council in 2524 with no demerits. As late as about 2514, even knowing I could probably finish in 11 turns, I wondered if I would finish in time, because I've been having been some pain in my hands after long or sometimes even medium length computer sessions , and with MOO sometimes it's hard to stop, as some of you may know , so I wondered if I would do better to quit playing for a few days. However, I did finish. I'm "typing" with the assistance of IBM ViaVoice but I'm going to just cover the basics right now. I hope to add more later . This was a challenging variant, maybe even more so for me because I've been emphasizing planetology even more recently than I did in the past, after seeing how well it could pay off, for example with advanced soil enrichment. So in this game, I enjoyed figuring out how to overcome the obstacles.

Winning vote :

(Domination victory, not that it matters officially)



stats:



galaxy map:



I destroyed and recolonized Kholdan, Ursa, Altair, and Sol (besides some other planets). Glassed Mentar, but the Psilons managed to recolonize it shortly before the end of the game.


tech screen:



fleet:



I only ever had about eight "All Arounds" and they were destroyed with embarrassing ease by Psilon missiles, so I didn't build any more. The "npg 2.0" refers to the second version of an npg fighter. it moves at warp 5, not warp 2.

I could add more, but it's time for a break.

[jmas]

OK, here's the early part of my game. I'll be going to work soon, so probably won't finish today. Note that I've decided to leave out the "2" at the beginning of the year, so 301 is the year 2301, 400 is 2400 and so on. Also, I have left out some of the details about scouting; those who played the game probably already know them, and those who didn't can get the information from others' reports.

Some of you may have noticed I don't build factories as quickly as other players. Sometimes I think building them a little faster would be better, but I really like tech, and I think I did pretty well with the early tech in this game.

301 Open Construction (IIT9 only choice)

302 Colonize Jinga, open Propulsion (Range 4 only choice)

303 Seed Range 4; we're going to need it.

304 Klackon scout arrives at Berel & retreats. Soon I realize Kholdan is the more distant of the two yellows.

Get scouting reports..

310 Move 1/3 of tech funding to Construction (IIT9)

316 Switch Meklon to colship production

323 Colship produced. Range 4 comes in, choose nuclear engines over IS. Range 6 not available.

324 I see the blue star south of Kakata is 5 parsecs distant, so we won't be able to reach it yet. Open Comps--go for the cheapie, ECM I, so we can see if RC 3 is available.

327 Open weapons--Hyper-V only choice. We colonize Kakata.

330 Colship produced, send to Berel so the Klackons don't get it.

331 IIT9 pops, IIT8 is the only choice.

333 We colonize Berel.

334 Open force fields, Class 2.

338 We pave Paranar and put up a parking lot (colonize it, I mean).

341 A scout of ours reaches Incedius; the Klackons control it; it looks fully developed at 70 million (70m) and 140 factories. We get ECM I, choose RC 3.

343 Population census: Us, Klackons, Humans, Buls, Psilons, Alkari

344 Plague event at Paranar; fortunately its economy is so small that the plague won't take many RP to cure. I do have to tax planets with the slider though, to solve the problem efficiently.

347 We colonize Zhardan. Plague ends. We're 1st to 6 systems.

354 GNN announces Altair becomes Fertile.

355 Get IIT8, choose Reduced Industrial Waste 60%, thank God it's available, so we can reduce our cleanup costs.

356 Now that we have IIT8, I started building factories more aggressively (we have 210 of them right now).

366 Now I have 338 factories, having built 128 in 10 turns. Get Class 2, Personal Deflector next (we don't care much about gropo for this variant , but it was the only option), and get Hyper-V, go for NPG after some deliberation--it's cheap compared to the other options!

376 Get RIW 60% (yay!), reduce cleanup expenses, go for IIT6 (only choice).

382 Get RC 3, Improved Scanner is the only option to advance in the computer tree, so we take it.

383 I have 768 factories and a note that that number reflects a doubling of our factories in the last 15 turns.

386 Get nuclear engines, choose Range 7, which we'll need to get out of this corner.

389 We have level 15 in Construction tech and will be getting IIT6 soon.



394 Get IIT6, go for RIW 40%. The Council meets for the first time. We and the Klackons are nominated. Every one of the AI races has three votes. The Humans and Buls vote for the Klackons, the Psilons and Alkari abstain, as do I with my 5 votes. I have just 25% of the votes, so will have to be cautious about the Council.

399 Another Council meeting; this time the Bulrathi are nominated instead of the Klackons. Klackons 3 votes abstain, Humans 3 votes abstain, Bulrathi 4 votes, Psilons 4 for Buls, Alkari 4 votes abstain, I cast 5 votes for Buls for relations (though we don't have contact with anyone yet).

401 Psilons chase my scout from Stalaz & colonize it.

402 Get NPG, choose Scatter Pack 5.

404 Get Range 7, backtrack for IS. Meet Psilons and Klackons.

406 initiate trade with Psilons at 250 BC/year. In hindsight that may have been more than was ideal. It didn't help relations much but did put a little drag on my economy. Check out the map showing the Psilons' and Klackons' colonies. Some people's games had stunted Psilons -- not here, here they have 10 colonies. As I found out in 2407, Psilons only have range 5, so how did they get to the blue star in the southeast corner (Aurora), even if they had alliances at one time? Maybe they put a reserve tank on a Colship?



The pointer points to Kholdan.



408 Factories finally reach the maximum on one of my colonies--Zhardan is first! initiate trade with Klackons at 150 BC/year. They are allied with the humans.

Our scouts reach, and retreat from, the colonized planets Imra (Psilon), Ursa (Bul), Incedius (again; Klackon); Arietis (Klackon), and Tyr, in the southeast--Bulrathi. Get Improved Scanner, go for BC 5 (which will be our first new battle computer). RC 4 not available. We also get Personal Deflector and go for Class 5 Planetary.

2409 Meklon, Paranar, Jinga all max factories.

To be continued (another day)..

[sargon0]

Nice game from the account so far and the conclusion. I like early tech also and we started along similar lines but the Psilons did not reach the west in my game and claiming the south west left me in an overwhelming position. You also had to contend with votes which never happened and were not even close in mine so extermination was a given.

Plague in 2344! Now thats earlier than the guide says is possible; I believe 2340 is the soonest. Then fertile Altair in 2354 - events thick and fast and against the player, as usual.

Well played and hope you are up for future events.

[jmas]

Thank you Sargon! The plague was probably a lot easier at Paranar than it would have been anywhere else, Thank goodness. The Psilons were definitely my strongest competition in this game, although of course it was possible (at least in theory) to lose any of the Council votes, right up to 2500 as you'll see. I'm glad the humans were never nominated. I do hope to play in future events... I may have to play more in moderation in each session and also perhaps not micromanage as much as I have been.

I have the turns written through 2424, may pop in a couple of screenies, and will try to keep chugging along..

[jmas]

410 A scout of ours reaches, and retreats from, Bulrathi Kailis (65m/130 facts)

416 Get Class 5 Planetary, go for Repulsor Beam.

417 (I think) Get IS, go for Range 8.

418 The Psilons are allied with the Bulrathi. That could be a problem in the Council.. I try designing a small bomber; its attack is 3 levels lower than the Psilons' bomb defense since they have ECM 3, but I build it anyway. From the stats screen I think it's fairly likely that the Psilons will be nominated, and their having the Buls' votes in their pocket could be quite dangerous.

419 I ask the Psilons to break their alliance with the Bulrathi; they decline.

421 The Klackons declare on the Psilons at my request.



It looks like I gave them Range 7 but I'm not sure if it was in tribute or a "quid pro quo" exchange for the DOW. I THINK I gave it as tribute, then asked for the DOW.

422 I'm pretty sure that in 421 the Psilons were still allied to the Bulrathi. One turn later, they're not allied with them anymore, but now they are allied with the Humans! I ask them to break the alliance but they refuse.

I realize here I was in a gray area by RB exploits guidelines. You could say I was double-crossing the Psilons by getting the Klackons to declare on them and then asking them (the Psilons) to break an alliance to their own detriment, but I figured that since I was planning to be at war with them within 10 turns of asking the Klackons to DOW, and I had a legitimate reason to be concerned about a loss in the Council, that it was not actually exploitative (if not exactly a nice thing to do). I sent my little bombers to Stalaz...

(also, we get scatter pack 5 and chose Anti-Matter (AM) bomb)...

424 ...and right before the bombers arrive I ask the Psilons again to break with the Humans; they decline. I go ahead and bomb Stalaz in the space battle (in fact I intentionally kept my bombers in the battle longer than I would have otherwise, to try to kill enough population to ensure a DOW, thus making some effort to be an honorable foe), but eventually have to retreat.

Council: The Bulrathi are nominated, not the Psilons, to my surprise. 26 votes; Klackons 3 abstain; Humans 3 abstain; Buls 5; Psis 5 for Buls; Alkari 5 abstain; Us 5 for Buls. I get an atta boy from the Klackons for fighting the Psilons, and a DOW from the Psis.

428 The Psilons move their fleet, leaving Stalaz unprotected!

430 Get BC 5, go for BC 3 which might fit more easily on ships. destroy Stalaz, which I shortly wished I hadn't done because it broke contact with the Psilons; they didn't have the range to harm us, and whereas I thought that they would promptly recolonize the planet, they actually delayed quite a while and other races sent fleets to Stalaz in the meantime. I was worried that I wouldn't get back in contact with the Psilons which would limit my diplomatic options (such as making peace if necessary to avoid a loss in the Council).

436 The Humans are attacking the Klackons.



Get RIW 40%, go for Auto Repair. I think I thought it was cheaper than it actually was.
Get AM Bomb, go for Graviton Beam. Event: Paranar becomes poor.

440 Uh-oh, the Klackons are in alliance with the Bulrathi. I size up the Klackon fleet with the battle scanner.

441 The Klackons agree to break their alliance for 1275 BC. I would have waited until closer to the next vote, but with the Klackons being erratic, I knew they might declare on me at any time and prevent me from asking them.

443 Get Graviton Beam, go for....Anti-Matter torpedoes, only because it will advance us in the tree and we don't care about fusion rifle for gropo.

445 Get Repulsor Beam, go for Class 6 shields which will be our first improvement on "ship" shields since Class 2.

446 GNN announces the Psilons have 12 systems.

447 I see the Psilons are at war with the Bulrathi. I make peace with the Psilons so that I'll get their votes if the Bulrathi are nominated again.

Around here, I sent a fleet to Klackon Incedius, to arrive the turn after the Council, the best time to upset the "apple cart" of diplomacy.

449 Psilons nominated this time: 26 votes again; Klackons 2 abstain; Humans 3 for Psilons; Buls 5 for us; Psis 6; Alkari 5 abstain; Us 5 for Psilons.

450 Take orbit of Incedius and start bombing. Get BC 3, go for BC 6. Here is the map with the Psilons at 12 planets and the pointer pointing to our fleet at Incedius:



451 Steal ECM 2 from Klackons. Humans colonize Zoctan and I meet them for the first time. They are allied to the Alkari and at war with the Klackons and Bulrathi. Our relations are at "Peaceful"; they must be pleased by my attack on the Klackons.

453 Stats screen; the Psilons are fairly strong:



454 Destroy Incedius; recolonize next turn. Finally, we've broken out of the corner! Holding Incedius is a major priority.

457 Get Range 8, go for Impulse ( thank God for another drive tech, especially for transports). I meet the Bulrathi and the Alkari. The Alkari are Xenophobic, though we have good relations, so they must be pleased by my attacks on the Klackons also.

458 Here's a map showing all the races. Take orbit of Kholdan.

[jmas]

459 The Alkari have a big fleet coming to Incedius. I might have been able to hold them off, but I went for the non-fighting method of asking for an alliance; to my surprise they agree. I would have asked for a NAP but I wasn't sure if it would prevent a battle from taking place since their fleet was already en route. This may be my first alliance with Xenophobes.

461 There's a little more traffic in this area of the galaxy than the Meklar corner. Look at this screenie:



463: I'm at Harmony with the Alkari; pretty sure that's a first with xenophobes.

464 Recolonize Kholdan.

465 Pirates occur at Human Exis.

466 Bulrathi issue me a threat.

467 Get BC 6, ECM 6 is the only option to advance. RC 5 not available. I choose DSS for a cheap tech level.

469 Open trade at 175 BC/year with Alkari.

470 Steal DSS from Klackon (and frame the Bulrathi), choose ECM 6.

472 Bulrathi issue me a DOW. I was going to ask them to break their alliance with the Klackons but I forgot.

I had to consider the possibilities of either the Bulrathi or the Psilons being nominated in the upcoming Council.

474 Ask the Klackons for peace--refused. Fortunately, the Alkari agree to break their alliance with the Psilons.

Pirates are eliminated.

28 votes: Psilons nominated. Klackons 1 for Psi; Humans 4 abstain; Buls 5 for Psi; Psis 6; Alkari 5 for us; Us 5 abstain.

476 Get Impulse Drive, go for Range 10.

477 Now it's time to fight the Bulrathi. Take orbit of Tyr. Atta boy from Klackons. Psilons want me to break my alliance with the Alkari; I refuse.

478 Destroy Bulrathi Tyr.

479 I offer peace to the Klackons and they accept this time.

480 I recolonize Tyr, counting on my fleet to destroy incoming Bulrathi transports.

481 Psilons steal ISS from me. Get Auto Repair, go for IIT4. Bulrathi transports destroyed.

484 I steal Gatling Laser from the Buls and frame the Humans. The Alkari ask me to declare on the Psilons; I agree, to keep the Alkari as an ally for the time being.

487 Get Anti-Matter torpedoes, go for Auto Blaster.

488 I design my new battle scanner ship for reconnaissance and start thinking about a new bomber design.

489 I destroy Bulrathi Whynil, and I get 1900 B.C. from the merchant event; very helpful to boost the reserve without the 50% waste from having planets fund it. Good choice, merchant! At least I got one helpful event this game! (though I was able to take advantage of another later)

490 Recolonize Whynil.

To be concluded..

[RefSteel]

Thanks for reporting! I'm reading with interest and awaiting the thrilling conclusion! Looks like a very unusual game! I don't think anyone else had such wide-ranging Alkari - up to seven worlds in 2458, including Artifacts Uxmai, it looks like? Looks like the early Fertile event at Altair really made a difference.

On the exploit guidelines ... I think there's a lot of grey area. I've read over the exploits discussion thread several times, and there's a lot of disagreement on the details in there. Personally, I never ask for a DoW with anyone against whom I'm not at war already, but there's a wide gap betwen "I don't" and "no one should." I also don't eat black cherry ice cream, but that doesn't mean it isn't yummy. If you could declare on someone yourself via the audience screen, or if the AI formed alliances less flippantly (even if they're not allied when you request the DoW, they could become so at any moment) and was more willing to break their alliance in peace than to go straight to war with their ally, that would be a different matter. As it stands, my feeling would be, if it seems like a fair use (e.g. your fear of council loss + <10 turns to direct attack) and it's not forbidden by the variant rules, it's probably fine.

[jmas]

Thanks for reporting! I'm reading with interest and awaiting the thrilling conclusion! Looks like a very unusual game! I don't think anyone else had such wide-ranging Alkari - up to seven worlds in 2458, including Artifacts Uxmai, it looks like? Looks like the early Fertile event at Altair really made a difference.

Thank you RefSteel. Yes, seven worlds in 2458, including Artifacts Uxmai, for the Alkari. Maybe that's how they managed a decent tech level, even though they were sustaining a lot of ships (though small ones). I think the AIs in this game were remarkably well balanced--which meant I had to be careful who I beat up on, lest I face a new Council opponent with new dynamics! How the Psilons got to both the SE and SW corners, and what the odds were of them even trying to go so far were, I am not quite sure, but it did give them an edge over the other races. The Klackons weren't _too_ strong, but I won't complain since I had to fight them to get out of the corner, and I was concerned about how our no-planetology economy would match up against their double worker productivity.

Thanks too for weighing in on the "gray area". I also thought there was a lot of disagreement. I think there had been some talk of having another discussion here at RB about exploitative tactics?

[jmas]

Sorry for the delay..

Oops, I reported that we had 5 votes in the 2474 Council, we actually had seven votes.

In 490 I also stole RIW 80% from the Psilons and agreed to declare on the Klackons at the Alkaris' request.

Hereabouts I was weighing possible ship designs. Eventually scrapped my 2 expensive Repulsor Larges and went with the NPG 2.0 and the Psi Bomber I designed in 2495.

I don't recall exactly what year, but the Alkaris broke the alliance with me, and the first indication I had was the battles that occurred at several planets where they had ships. But the only sizeable fleet they had was at Incedius, which by now had missile bases, so the Alkari were forced to retreat everywhere. But, because of the order of events in a turn, (i.e. they took their turn when they still had ships in orbit), they send transports to Incedius, which in addition to the bases, has ships protecting it. Worse luck for them--we're going to get some target practice with those " clay pigeons ".

495 I design the Psi Bomber ship ( visible in my fleet in my summary above) thinking that I would only use it against the Psilons since they have Pulson missiles and other races don't, but I soon started using it against everybody. this was one of few times that I used a "double-hulled" ship ( titanium II armor), which I did because I felt it necessary to make it so that each ship would take more than one Pulson to destroy.

Get ECM 6, go for BC 2 for tech level.

497 Alkari transports destroyed.

Around here, I figured I could try to make up with the Bulrathi and take a diplomatic win, but I thought I'd played well so far and deserved to cap it off with a more decisive victory, especially since the Psilons still had the edge in the stats on me in tech, planets, Total Power, and possibly even production.

499 I send a fleet to Psilon Aurora. We get what I think is our only tech steal above the first five levels: Class 4 shields, from the Psilons.

28 votes again: Psilons nominated. Klackons 1 for Psi; Humans 4 for us; Buls 4 for Psi; Psis 6; Alkari 5 for us; Us 8 abstain.

500 I bomb out the bases at Aurora, taking significant losses in the process, but can't defeat all the Psilon ships.

Get BC 2, go for BC 8, but it's all about fleet building now.

502 Destroyed Bulrathi Kailis. Get an attaboy from the Psilons .

504 Psilons offer peace-- declined.

Here I was thinking in earnest about how to win by 2524. (In fact I was hoping to notch a Conquest victory if possible). I started considering attacking Human and Alkari worlds and sent some battle scanner ships around to see where the good planets were ( I was somewhat annoyed not to have the advanced space scanner).

I saw that I could save about 117 BC / turn by scrapping my old NPG fighters, which only move at warp 2, but I also saw that they could still be useful in the southeast "theater."

I took the orbit of Mentar, losing about three-quarters of the bombers I sent (ouch!), and started bombing, getting an attaboy from the Bulrathi. The Psilons offered me peace, and when I declined, they offered to throw in Fusion Beam. I was tempted, but had no intention of honoring a peace treaty, so refused.

I routed more bombers to Mentar and managed to destroy it over the next few turns (might have been 2510 when it was finally destroyed since I got an attaboy from the Bulrathi then).

508 I ask the humans to declare on the Psilons in case I need the Humans' votes in the Council, and they agree. I see that I've taken the lead on Total Power in the stats for the first time.

Around this time, the Psilons sent away and their ships from Aurora and I was able to take the orbit and start bombing.

509 Industrial accident at Kholdan, which had 130 pop. I only spent enough on Eco to clean up the waste, and the next turn, the population maximum had been permanently reduced by half to 65 --ouch! The strategy guide says that the damage to a planet is not permanent. I'm pretty sure that's not true based on past experience, but does anyone know if spending more on Eco on the turn the accident occurs will mean less permanent damage?

I was counting on every Council vote I could get, so the bar had already been raised for Conquest.

510 Destroy Ursa. Defend Kailis from 2 Bul Huges with Death Spores and Repulsor Beams--first design I'd seen of theirs with Repulsors. Luckily the Huges kept moving next to my NPG 2.0s, and, after one was destroyed and the other reached the planet, the surviving ship totally ignored the NPGs, when it could have pushed them away one more time and never been hit by them again. I might have even lost the colony to the tactical sporing. instead, I destroyed the remaining huge.

Comically, I get attaboys from the humans, the Psilons, _and_ the Bulrathi, whose homeworld I just destroyed.

511 Recolonize Ursa. Ask the Alkari to declare on the Psilons; they want 2100 B.C.; I refuse to pay.

513 Recolonize Gion ( after destroying the Bulrathi colony earlier); Destroy Altair. Looks like by this time I had recolonized Aurora too.

Here I had to consider who would be nominated in the next council, taking into account the order of the computer players, i.e. who would be nominated in preference to whom given equal numbers of votes. I figured the best opponent for me would be the Psilons, since everybody but the Alkari were at war with them. Which meant that I should beat up on the Humans and Alkaris first, to reduce their populations, THEN the Psilons.

514 Destroy Sol and Herculis.

516 Sign peace with the Buls (their offer).

517 Get Class 6 shields, finally, with our much-reduced tech budget. Around this time, destroy Human Maretta and Alkari Denubius.

518 Recolonize Maretta.

519 I ask the Alkaris for peace and they refuse. They also refused in 522 and 524.

2521 Colonize Denubius and briefly control 18 systems, until the Psilons destroy the fledgling colony.

522 The Psilons retreat Repulsor Larges from Argus that might have beaten my attacking fleet! I destroy Psilon Argus and Alkari Guradas. Around here I destroy Psilon Draconis as well.

By the end of 524, I could have bombed or destroyed Vega and Uxmai as well, but didn't want to disrupt the Council votes any further.

I moved a ton of population to Sol and Altair and took advantage of Altair's Fertility, but couldn't quite fill them up.

Council vote (screenie above): 25 votes this time (3 fewer than in 2499): Psilons nominated. Klackons 1 for us; Humans 2 for us; Buls 2 abstain ; Psis 4; Alkari 2 for Psis; Us 14 for selves.

The Bulrathi were no longer at war with the Psilons. Note to self: double-check diplomacy before Council vote next time. We had just enough votes to win the election.

In 2499 we Meklars had 8 of 28, or about 28.5% of the total votes; here we had 14 votes, 56% of the total. In 2499 we had 2 more votes than the Psilons, here we had 10 more.

I knew I could have glassed more planets, but was being very careful about keeping the Psilons as the other nominee; and then I wanted to make sure I could get enough supporting votes to beat them!

I'm glad the space monsters didn't show up; that could have been a real pain and maybe kept me from winning "on time"!

The AIs in this game--the Alkari and I think the Psilons also--built small, Nuclear or Hyper-V missile ships that would just sit in combat, not even fire their missiles (which were admittedly at a significant disadvantage against my ship defense) and be blown to pieces. Post-game, I tried fighting the Alkari fleet at Incedius in the mid-2400s instead of forging an alliance, and won easily, though it could have been harder if they'd hit me with their missiles (I only saw one ship group--the less numerous group with the inferior battle comp--fire its missiles during one of the times I played the battle). in fairness to the AI, I should perhaps mention that I once accidentally retreated my fighting ships while meaning to retreat scanner ships and (possibly?) bombers, so maybe their tactic wasn't completely useless!

I found it interesting that in this game I was the warmonger. I started the early wars with the Psilons and the Klackons (and the later wars with everyone else); the erratic Klackons never declared on me of their own accord; in fact the only unprovoked DOW I recall receiving was from the Bulrathi on one occasion.

By the way, I just checked on our available planetology tech and it was mighty fine: IT+10, +20, Enhanced Eco, IT+40, Inferno, Atmos, +50, Advanced Soil (as far as I could see by 2549, by which time, having mostly just clicked "Next Turn", I had 21 Council votes). Given these options: do I detect a :neenernee from Sullla to us? Nah, he wouldn't bother to edit the list.....right???

I'm going to quit writing for now. If I find that have a screenie to add, I will add it another day.

I welcome comments/feedback; please be aware I plan to leave later today for a couple days so replies may be delayed.

[jmas]

Say, RefSteel, in my post-official game terraforming, I noticed that after getting IT+40 and some planets being terraformed.. I received threats from FOUR races in the same turn (2545). So maybe total pop can trigger threats, or else it is as you suggested, production (of which employed, planetology-tech-level empowered Meklar colonists have plenty)!