market

donkey

So it begins, here at soon-to-be glorious Meklotron, machine-world capital of the Meklar.



The first thing I do is queue up 3 scouts to be built on the first turn.

There was only one planet within 3 parsecs range, so I sent the colony ship there. Thankfully, it is habitable!



It is just going to be these two worlds for quite a while...despite the fact that, if only we could just research range 4 tech, we could grab so many juicy jungle worlds right beyond our borders....

But sadly, we Meklar matrixlords have not figured out how to research anything other than our own cybernetic circuits. However, it is rumored that there is a planet with the ruins of an ancient superintelligence, technologically far advanced beyond us, somewhere out there in the galaxy. If only we could investigate these ruins...then perhaps we robots could...learn...to...love...things other than computer tech.

It is also rumored that there exist other intelligent races out there in the galaxy. Perhaps we could steal, er, I mean, perpetually borrow some of their research...

Nevertheless, we research what we can, getting busy with research on ECM1 in 2304. Ten years later, with an initial investment of ~30 RP and a trickle of research, ECM1 is in and we start on...ECM2.



Don't worry, we are definitely interested in Improved Robotics Controls III, but our planets are nowhere close to finishing our first round of factory construction, and we would not like to pay the increased factory construction cost this early. (Although now INT-766, our science advisor, that the Meklar always pay a base rate of 10 BC per factory (then modified by Improved Industrial construction tech level as usual)...so, if that is true, then that was a bit of a waste. Oh well...it will be more trade-bait later on.

As we work on factory construction and ECM2, the GNN news droid (a traitor to the machine intelligence race, by the way, but that's another story...) interrupts our peaceful buildering to give us alarming news: a race known as the Silicoids already has colonized 6 planets as of 2329!



In better news, by 2331 (after an initial investment of 1 turn, then a trickle of interest-boosted research while our planets built factories, then back to factory building after getting it solidly in the percentages), ECM2 was finished, and we were on to...ECM3.



Yes, yes, I know this is getting repetitive, but I'm actually happy to be able to pick the ECM techs. They are the cheapest ones at each level, and they will let us leap up the tech ladder the fastest. I am holding off on going back to IRC3 just yet until I see if IRC4 is available at the next level...



...and it is not. So, it's back to IRC3, which we will thankfully be able to finish very quickly now that our planets are maxed out on their first round of factories.

We do finish IRC3 by 2360 (less quickly than I was hoping, but once our scientists got to about a 25% chance of breakthrough I dialed back the research spending and put it into the reserves so that we might speed factory construction and research at the next level. It took a few more turns after that for the tech to pop). Onto ECM4!



In 2368, we meet those famed Silicoids and exchange galactic map information.



Yikes! After some spying, we also get a look at their techs the turn after:



We also meet a bird race known as the Alkari in 2369:



Three planets...much more manageable.

That Alkari colonization also triggered the (very early) first council vote in 2369:



Already we are having some close calls with the Silicoids almost having enough votes.

The turn after, I got a look at the Alkari techs:



We naturally started trying to hack into both the Alkari and Silicoid matrix networks, aiming for propulsion tech so that we might colonize (or at least snipe right after colonization) some of the neighboring jungle worlds.

Just 4 years later we were already on schedule for another council vote.



This time, the vote was more evenly-divided, and I was able to vote for the Silicoids and get some diplo cred with them (hi friendly neighborino! ).

That next year (2375), we finished with ECM4 to move onto...ECM5. Getting bored yet, folks?



But: to liven up the mood in the Meklar technology headquarters, our spies were also able to snag this from the Silicoids this turn:



Thankfully, the Silicoids did not protest. They just kept trucking right along. We heard from the GNN news droid again in 2378...



Our spies got a very important tech from the Alkari in 2379:



We met the Psilons in 2382:



And the following year, we got a spy report:



Sadly, I don't think we will be stealing many techs from the Psilons in this game any time soon with that computer tech of theirs.

In other news: the Alkari had the gall to snipe our neighboring jungle worlds, so transports were queued up now that we had range 5 tech, and the capture of poor, size-85 Primodius in year 2385 was a success!



And a few turns later our laser fleet made quick work of the Alkari reinforcements.



Sadly, neighboring Tau Cygni, which was also briefly colonized by the Alkari, was sniped by the Silicoids before we could get to it (12 transports of ours were shot down by a Silicoid cruiser that appeared just before the arrival of our transports, and then the Silicoids sent ground troops before we could get our laser fleet up there to intervene). And I am NOT going to war with the Silicoids just yet over 1 little planet. Maybe I will wait until the Silicoids have built up some factories on there (but before they get any missile bases), and in the meantime my planets need more work before they can support another invasion.

Several years went by, and our spying against the Alkari and Silicoids was having no further luck. There were some techs floating around out there that I needed BADLY, so in 2388 I pulled the trigger on these trades, trading away our lower-level ECM junk:





A few years later (2392), we were finally able to infiltrate the Alkari computer networks again:



In 2396, ECM5 finished, and now I have a tech that I am actually looking forward to researching for reasons other than just speeding us up the computer tech ladder:



Here are the Meklar planets as of year 2400:



Primodius is getting its factory construction boosted by reserve spending each turn.

The map as of 2400:



The 2400 council vote was once again evenly split, allowing me to vote for the Silicoids and boost our relations with them up to calm.

In 2401, the Alkari suddenly wanted peace.



Great! Because, just that same turn, the Psilons declared war on me.

I traded some slightly higher-level ECM junk for this stuff...





...so that I can go after the neighboring Psilon worlds.

In 2409 we met the Darloks:



I brokered to them some of the same ECM junk that I had already traded to others in order to snag this insurance policy:



...Which is good because the Psilons started sending fleets against our machine-capital of Meklotron. Just a trickle at first:



But then in slightly larger groups of 4 or 5. The class V planetary shields will make us quite impervious to such attacks.

Meanwhile, we captured the ultra-poor size-110 terran planet in the bottom-right corner from the Psilons:



Their incoming transport reinforcements will be easily shot down by our laser fighters.

So, here's where we are as of 2410:





(The Silicoids have sublight drives and inertial stabilizer, which I'd LOOOOVE to steal. That's the only reason why I'm spying on them too while still trying to make friends with them. They don't seem to mind any of my spying so far....)





My techs as of 2410:

Computers:

• ECM1 (researched)
  
• ECM2 (researched)
  
• IRC3 (researched)
  
• ECM3 (researched)
  
• ECM4 (researched)
  
• ECM5 (researched)
  
• Working on IRC5 (researching)
  

Construction:

• Reduced Waste 80% (traded)
  
• IIR8 (traded)
  

Force fields:

• Class II deflectors (traded)
  
• Class V planetary (traded)
  

Planetology:

• IT+10 (stolen)
  
• IER (traded)
  

Propulsion:

• Range 5 (stolen)
  
• Nuclear Engines (traded)
  
• Range 6 (traded)
  

Weapons:

• Hand lasers (stolen)
  
• Hyper-X rockets (traded)
  

The success with spying is noticeably less than with the Darloks. I'm really hoping that it gets better after I finish IRC5. My computer tech level should be about 28 after that. So far, I've gotten more techs from trading ECM junk than from spying.