Sponsor: RefSteel
Opening Date: Monday, April 26, 2010
Duration: Four Weeks
Map Generation: Random (Unedited except to delay events)

Race: Bulrathi
Difficulty: Hard
Galaxy Size: Medium
Opponents: Five
Color: Blue
Events: Delayed to 2380

Scenario: When Sullla started Imperium 10 after a long hiatus for the Imperia, he wrote, "You may also be wondering why this game is Imperium Ten, when there's no Imperium Nine... Well, there was never an Imperium Six either, and I wanted to start on a nice round number. Perhaps eventually we'll go back and fill in those missing gaps. We got around to Epic Fifteen after a lengthy delay, after all!"

Well, we're about to fill one of those gaps, and find out why it wasn't filled.

Except, wait. RefSteel's sponsoring this Imperium, and it has an out-of-character scenario write-up?! You've got to be kidding me!

Take Two:

The people of Ursa Prime have always been dedicated sportsmen, cheering on their favorite teams - but one team's following grew so strong and so popular that it swept the entire world, until every living Bulrathi was rooting for the charismatic Kodiak City Hibers. They were such a capable team with such a storied history as underdogs that just about everyone became a card carrying member of the so-called "Hiber Nation!" They...

...

...okay, okay, fine.

Take three:

In the year 2300, the warp interdictor field generated from Orion finally came down, permitting the peoples of the galaxy to enter hyperspace and cross the stars at long last. Celebrations were held as colony ships and scouts soared through the sky to populate the galaxy with sentient beings.

The Bulrathi slept through it.

Twenty years later, they finally woke up, got a handle on what they'd missed, and started trying to catch up. It's time to lead Hiber Nation to the stars - where the long delay has made them the underdogs once more!

Variant Rules: None per se (apart from avoiding the usual exploits) - this variant is based entirely on responding to game situation in the starting save. Meaning, n case you didn't notice Ursa's unusual statistics in the first teaser image above, and didn't read the "Scenario" section...

...that we're starting out in the year 2320. After rolling up the map, I hit enter twenty times without touching the scouts, the colony ship, the sliders, or anything else. So you've got a more developed (and more populated) homeworld than usual to play with, the usual ships with which you'd start the game, still no second colony ... and five other races that are already twenty years ahead in exploration, research, and expansion!

Notes: All events are on for this imperium, but the save file has been edited so that they will not occur until 2380 has passed (60 turns into the game as you receive it).

Closing Date: Monday, May 24, 2010. Reports due by the end of Tuesday, May 25, your local time.

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