Result:
Score: 1 (I didn't particularly try to maximize the score, but just recorded it anyway.)
Lost in the 2375 election.
I'm not even mad, this was one of the strangest games I played. Also, there were some weedy moves on my part.
First, let's have a look at the map.
![[Image: map_start.png]](http://max-fillinger.net/personal/screenshots/moo_imp43/map_start.png)
The yellow star in the center is 6 parsecs away, so there can't be any AI starting there - good! I sent the colony ship to the red star and the scout to the green ones. They all arrived simultaneously. The red star was Proxima with a minimal 30 pop planet. The green star above Meklon, Yarrow, had a pop 45 ocean planet. I moved the colony ship there. In retrospect, I think this was a bad decision. I think it would have been better to get a second colony started immediately. Finally, the third star had a barren planet.
![[Image: col_yarrow.png]](http://max-fillinger.net/personal/screenshots/moo_imp43/col_yarrow.png)
(+1 point
)
The blue star in the bottom left corner had no planet, and the other blue near Meklon turned out to be Orion. I made contact with the Psilons on turn 9 - it's a small galaxy! I didn't even have enough production to get a trade deal going! Scouting towards the center revealed some nice planets:
![[Image: rayden.png]](http://max-fillinger.net/personal/screenshots/moo_imp43/rayden.png)
![[Image: draconis.png]](http://max-fillinger.net/personal/screenshots/moo_imp43/draconis.png)
I did open up Planetology a couple of turns in the game and was pleasantly surprised that both T10 and ER3 were in my tree. I researched both of those before building a colony ship. I don't know if I started too late or if I should have seeded more, but that ended up getting pretty late. I founded my next colony in 2341:
![[Image: proxima.png]](http://max-fillinger.net/personal/screenshots/moo_imp43/proxima.png)
(+1 point )
This still didn't get Rayden in colony range, so I started researching Range-4 fuel cells next. However, the Darloks chased away my scout from Rayden and founded a colony there first. The first council vote soon followed (in the early 40s, but I forgot to record the exact date), putting me against the Darlok Emperor Ssithra. I could safely vote for him, so I did that, although relations were still rather tense - not unusual with the shapeshifters, but...well, read on. Around the same time, GNN announced that the Silicoids had 6 planets, and of course, once they'd start filling them up, they clearly would take my place as a candidate. Clearly, there'd be no point in trying to play nice with the Darloks - I needed Rayden! But for now, all I could do was wait and build some fighters, not only to prepare for an attack, but also to keep nosy Darlok fleets away from my planets.
The fuel cell research finished around 2350, just in time for the next election. This time, it was Silicoid Emperor Crystous against the Darlok Emperor. I decided to vote for the Silicoids, since I was going to attack the Darloks anyway. Emperor Ssithra was not happy about that!
![[Image: darlok_war.png]](http://max-fillinger.net/personal/screenshots/moo_imp43/darlok_war.png)
Bring it on! I soon researched Hand Lasers, and since the Darloks didn't have any gropo tech at all, I conquered Rayden easily (-1 point) which put me in contact with the Silicoids. Their empire was as close to a regular crystal lattice as this galaxy would allow.
![[Image: silicoid_empire.png]](http://max-fillinger.net/personal/screenshots/moo_imp43/silicoid_empire.png)
They quite liked me because of my votes, and because Silicoids and Meklars have natural good relations. After all, a CPU is just a rock that you trick into thinking by putting lightning into it, so we're basically the same! But they were also allies with the Darloks. In fact...
![[Image: darlok_allies.png]](http://max-fillinger.net/personal/screenshots/moo_imp43/darlok_allies.png)
...the diplomatic situation was a galactic love fest with free hugs for everybody (except me
) with the Darlok Emperor, of all people, at the center, undoubtedly in alternating disguises as a big-brained woman and a talking gemstone. The Psilons soon joined into another alliance with the Silicoids. Of course, this means that as soon as I'd become a candidate again, it's game over. But looking at the size of the Darlok empire, this should take a while, and in the meantime, the alliance will fall apart due to the Silicoids and Darloks voting against each other. At least, that was what I thought.
![[Image: darlok_empire_2350.png]](http://max-fillinger.net/personal/screenshots/moo_imp43/darlok_empire_2350.png)
(a screenshot of the Darlok empire from 2350 when they still had Rayden - not actually that big)
I tried to sign peace with the Darloks, but they weren't interested. At least, I could sign a NAP with the Psilons. (The Darloks dragged them into the war soon after anyway.) A NAP with the Silicoids would of course be unwise, since there's a rich barren planet I've been guarding. Unfortunately, the earliest hostile environment tech in my tree was for Inferno.
The game went on for a couple of turns while I was fighting off Darloks and Psilons. Some time later, I glanced at the status screen again...
![[Image: uhoh.png]](http://max-fillinger.net/personal/screenshots/moo_imp43/uhoh.png)
I tried to get the Silicoids to break their alliance (we were at amiable relations), but no luck. And I didn't think of sending out transports to decrease my population again, so the game ended two turns later. I might continue in a shadow report later, and just fling a bunch of transports around. In any case, this was not one of those cases were you lose the election to a dice roll. It was completely determined by alliance cheese.
Score: 1 (I didn't particularly try to maximize the score, but just recorded it anyway.)
Lost in the 2375 election.
I'm not even mad, this was one of the strangest games I played. Also, there were some weedy moves on my part.
First, let's have a look at the map.
The yellow star in the center is 6 parsecs away, so there can't be any AI starting there - good! I sent the colony ship to the red star and the scout to the green ones. They all arrived simultaneously. The red star was Proxima with a minimal 30 pop planet. The green star above Meklon, Yarrow, had a pop 45 ocean planet. I moved the colony ship there. In retrospect, I think this was a bad decision. I think it would have been better to get a second colony started immediately. Finally, the third star had a barren planet.
(+1 point
)The blue star in the bottom left corner had no planet, and the other blue near Meklon turned out to be Orion. I made contact with the Psilons on turn 9 - it's a small galaxy! I didn't even have enough production to get a trade deal going! Scouting towards the center revealed some nice planets:
I did open up Planetology a couple of turns in the game and was pleasantly surprised that both T10 and ER3 were in my tree. I researched both of those before building a colony ship. I don't know if I started too late or if I should have seeded more, but that ended up getting pretty late. I founded my next colony in 2341:
(+1 point
)This still didn't get Rayden in colony range, so I started researching Range-4 fuel cells next. However, the Darloks chased away my scout from Rayden and founded a colony there first. The first council vote soon followed (in the early 40s, but I forgot to record the exact date), putting me against the Darlok Emperor Ssithra. I could safely vote for him, so I did that, although relations were still rather tense - not unusual with the shapeshifters, but...well, read on. Around the same time, GNN announced that the Silicoids had 6 planets, and of course, once they'd start filling them up, they clearly would take my place as a candidate. Clearly, there'd be no point in trying to play nice with the Darloks - I needed Rayden! But for now, all I could do was wait and build some fighters, not only to prepare for an attack, but also to keep nosy Darlok fleets away from my planets.
The fuel cell research finished around 2350, just in time for the next election. This time, it was Silicoid Emperor Crystous against the Darlok Emperor. I decided to vote for the Silicoids, since I was going to attack the Darloks anyway. Emperor Ssithra was not happy about that!
Bring it on! I soon researched Hand Lasers, and since the Darloks didn't have any gropo tech at all, I conquered Rayden easily (-1 point) which put me in contact with the Silicoids. Their empire was as close to a regular crystal lattice as this galaxy would allow.
They quite liked me because of my votes, and because Silicoids and Meklars have natural good relations. After all, a CPU is just a rock that you trick into thinking by putting lightning into it, so we're basically the same! But they were also allies with the Darloks. In fact...
...the diplomatic situation was a galactic love fest with free hugs for everybody (except me
) with the Darlok Emperor, of all people, at the center, undoubtedly in alternating disguises as a big-brained woman and a talking gemstone. The Psilons soon joined into another alliance with the Silicoids. Of course, this means that as soon as I'd become a candidate again, it's game over. But looking at the size of the Darlok empire, this should take a while, and in the meantime, the alliance will fall apart due to the Silicoids and Darloks voting against each other. At least, that was what I thought.(a screenshot of the Darlok empire from 2350 when they still had Rayden - not actually that big)
I tried to sign peace with the Darloks, but they weren't interested. At least, I could sign a NAP with the Psilons. (The Darloks dragged them into the war soon after anyway.) A NAP with the Silicoids would of course be unwise, since there's a rich barren planet I've been guarding. Unfortunately, the earliest hostile environment tech in my tree was for Inferno.
The game went on for a couple of turns while I was fighting off Darloks and Psilons. Some time later, I glanced at the status screen again...
I tried to get the Silicoids to break their alliance (we were at amiable relations), but no luck. And I didn't think of sending out transports to decrease my population again, so the game ended two turns later. I might continue in a shadow report later, and just fling a bunch of transports around. In any case, this was not one of those cases were you lose the election to a dice roll. It was completely determined by alliance cheese.
