My sub-subtitle is "jmas takes on 4 AIs with multiple ant-arms behind his back". It will all become clear, if you read on.

OK, we don't have four stars within 3 parsecs like in Imperium 10, nor do we have 30 stars within 10 parsecs as in that game, probably at least partly because in this game we're close to a corner of the galaxy. There are two stars in range--a yellow and a neutron star. Yellow stars, according to the strategy guide, have a 100% chance of having a planet and a very high chance of a habitable, while neutron stars have a 5% chance of a habitable (Minimal only), so I send the colship to the yellow.

2302 Scout Omicron (Minimal 30) at the neutron star.

Jackpot!! Not only does the yellow star (Maalor) have a planet with a higher population cap (Minimal 50), but it's Ultra Rich! Given Minimal planets, the guide says that such a planet at a neutron star has a 15% chance of being ultra-rich, while a Minimal at a yellow star has a 1.25% chance--that's a difference of 12 times! I wonder if this map was altered.. I have read that the editing tools aren't very sophisticated, but who knows.. (Addendum: I saw in Sullla's report that the map was not edited).

Well, I don't waste any time settling a colony here..

2303 Move 6 million (6M) to Maalor. I put 9 BC/RP in tech to open construction, planetology, and propulsion.

Construction: RIW 80%--only choice. The Klackons of course are Excellent at Construction, so they pay only 60% of the regular cost.

Planetology: IT+10, Barren, or IER

Propulsion: Range 5, only choice. We're "Poor" in this area, so we pay 125% of the regular cost.

2304 Move 3M to Maalor. Put all available funding at Kholdan into Tech (now focusing on Range 5, specifically; I'm very clear I want that tech), to seed the research so I can reap interest. Scout Artemis, Ocean 65 with Artifacts. I pick up a free tech:



Not quite the massive advantage of pulling IT+20 for free in Imperium 10, but not bad. It's going to take a while to fill up my planets anyway, but I always like planetology techs (especially as the Klackons) because they decrease the price of colony ships, which in this case drops from 570 BC on a model designed at the beginning of the game, to 546; and also, planetology techs increase the productivity of population units (with Klackon population units getting twice as much benefit as other races out of a given increase in planetology tech level). Okay, okay, the effect is modest here since I only get a tech level of 2, but I'll take it anyway.

2305 2M to Maalor, tech funding reduced to either 6 or 7 RP, I don't allocate any money for terraforming yet.

I very much want to be the one to colonize Artemis, and I'm concerned about that yellow star NNE of it. They're so close that maybe if there was an AI up there, it would be colonized already, but I decide to play it safe. Just in case, I design a LR Laser ship and arrange for one to be built in 2 turns (which I then sent up to Artemis).

2306 Scout Primodius, Arid Poor 70 NW of Kholdan, and Anraq, Barren 50 to the N, and Morrig, Dead 50 in the SW.

2308 I decided to seed the Range 5 research again, to (almost) double the interest I'm earning in that field every turn. I see I'll need 6 more scout ships when I get Range 5.

2309 I set Maalor to produce one Scout 2 ship per turn. Scout Berel, Barren 35 ESE of Maalor.

2310 Bump up Maalor to produce two Scout 2s per turn.

2311 5M to Maalor, put ~6 BC towards t-forming at Kholdan.

2312 I set Maalor to produce a LR Laser so I can send it to join its fellow at Artemis.

2313 Send LR Laser on its way.

2315 I decide to start building a colship at Maalor. I think it took just 3 turns to produce and (with RELOC) another 2 to reach Kholdan. I send 5M to Maalor so their productivity can be tripled there working on factories and ships.

2316 1M to Maalor.

2317 Another 1M.

2318 Range 5 pops. Nuclear Engines or IS (IS is much more expensive). I set Maalor to produce 10 scouts to fan out when Artemis is colonized...

2319 ...not noticing that it was set to make Scouts rather than Scout 2s! :mad: I can live with it, though, in conjunction with another matter, it did have some consequences later on. Those 10 scouts go to Artemis; the ones I produced earlier, I send to various systems now in scouting range. Maalor's funding goes to t-forming and IND. I switch to focusing on IER in tech, seeding it with Kholdan's production.

2320 Route Colship to Artemis. Maalor maxes factories! Ultra Riches sure do that fast.

2321 Scout Dunatis (no planets) and Klystron (Dead 20).

2322 2M to Maalor. By now I was boosting Kholdan’s production with the reserve, which Maalor was feeding (at a bonus, being Ultra Rich). Scout Imra (Desert 30).

2323 Set Maalor to build a colship. It can do so in 2 turns now! Scouts reach Orion to the E and Herculis in the W (Terran 125 Fertile!)

2324 Stop factory construction at Kholdan--it's about to send a lot of pop to Artemis. Scout Rotan (no planets). Colonize Artemis.

2325 There are 4 planets we can colonize now–Omicron, Herculis, Imra, and Primodius.

I send 41M to Artemis; I want it to get built up quickly, being an artifacts planet, plus we want to expand further in that direction, toward the center of the galaxy.

2326 Double Artemis’s (small) production with the reserve & send 1M more. Scout the yellow star (Crius) near Artemis; no AI, and it’s a Terran 85. I can hardly believe these large planets!

2327 2M to Artemis.

2328 2M to Artemis. IER now at 20%. Open computers. IER pops.

Computers: ECM 1 or Scanner

Planetology: Now open: IT+20, Controlled Dead, or Spores.

2329 I notice the cost of a colship has not yet decreased with the discovery of IER. Thinking it would not do so, I design a "Cheapcol" class (464 BC vs. 541 BC). Scout Vox, another large Minimal (50)

2330 My earlier colship design drops in price to match the "Cheapcol", but a "Cheapcol" has been built, so now I have another duplicate ship design (besides Scouts and Scout 2s) Argh! I spend the planetary reserve at Artemis and resume pumping it (the reserve) with Maalor while still also building a colship (due in 2 turns).

2331 Pop maxes at Maalor. I send the Cheapcol to Anraq while awaiting 4 scouting reports to see if another habitable will be in range. 3m to Artemis. Build Scout 2s at Artemis for when I colonize Imra. Scout Ukko (Barren 65), and Gion, Jungle 75; we’ll colonize Gion after Crius.

2332 Map:



So far, we have not seen any sign of the other four races in the galaxy, and we’ve scouted 17 systems (if you count Kholdan ), plus found Orion, and now have 5 scouting reports pending. Looks like the other races aren’t “racing” for these planets! Send 31m to Artemis and 1m from Maalor to Kholdan. RIW comes in (and it was only at 5%!) IIT8—only choice. Scout Ryoun (Inferno 35) and Arietis (Toxic Rich 30).

2333 We know of 2 habitables on the frontier to colonize (Crius and Imra). I see that discovering Controlled Dead will open up five planets to us, and we do score points for colonies, plus there are Silicoids in the game, so the hostiles probably won’t be available as long as they would otherwise.

We’re looking really good on territory. I try to think of what could pose a problem for us in this game and come up with these possibilities: 1) facing the Humans in a Council vote; 2) Psilons with a decent amount of land and population, hence opportunity to advance in tech (not like our games in Imperium 10 where they didn’t grab much; in my game, I took their lunch money pretty early ) and 3) suddenly running up against the Bulrathi, who could invade fledgling colonies easily if the AI thinks to do so. Well, I’ll keep an eye out and try to minimize those risks.

With Artemis’s help I dial up to 416 RP in Tech, almost all of it for Controlled Dead. And then: signs of life in the galaxy! A Sili colship arrives at Ukko and retreats. I encounter a Psilon scout somewhere in the east-not sure where now.

Weapons field opens, Hand Lasers over Gatling. Scout Kailis, Jungle 90 (habitable ho!); Neptunus, Toxic 20; and Nyarl, Tundra 65.

2334 A Bul scout is incoming to Nyarl. I send one LR Laser to Ukko since the Silis were there, and the other to Kailis. I design a new LR Laser ship and build one at Artemis, to go to Ukko. A colship (from Maalor) reaches Kholdan and I route it to Anraq to await further instructions; I plan to colonize Kailis, Gion, and Vox, in that order, barring unforeseen events. A Bul colship arrives at Neptunus and retreats. Force fields open; Class 2, of course.

2335 Another colship produced; ships now (briefly) consume 12.4% of my economy. 2 Sili colships arrive at Kailis and retreat. We colonize Crius.

2336 Artemis ships out 32 pop to Crius. We colonize Imra.

2337 Colship at Anraq, plus a scout, routed to Kailis. Colship at Kholdan to go to Artemis to see where to go next. Artemis sends some pop to Imra.

2338 I’m planning where to send all the colships. There might not be anywhere for them to go up north, but given the star colors up there (yellows and reds), I decide to gamble by sending a 2nd colship to Kailis hoping there’s another habitable nearby. Scout Gienah (no planets).

2339 Just keeping tabs on all the colships traveling between stars…

2340 In 2 turns I should know if another colship will be needed in the north or not. Fund weapons, comps, force fields tech a little more. Bul scout arrives at Ukko and retreats.

There have been power interruptions here in the past, so I'm going to post this message..

Planetology is for wimps!

This report, like the one for RBO 10, will sadly not have any screenshots. At least I managed to play it, and the savegames are of course available. I'll try to attach them to this post.

Since this game uses a scoring system, you have to play it in both senses of the world. I'm only a fair player, but I thought I could have a shot at the 3x75 score doubling. Tech shouldn't be a problem, and neither should the colony field. Diplomacy, however, would be a problem. Trying to maintain at least neutral relations with all the neighbours for both scoring dates would be problematical, at best. I hoped I could do so for the first scoring date, and find a mutual punching bag for the second date, helping me shore up at least one other relation, hopefully two.

To further game the system, I set out to climb the ladder as quickly as possible unless I had good reason not to. Ie, everything else being equal, pick the cheapest tech in each rung, until you begin to approach the scoring date. Also, when very close to the scoring date (especially the first one), try to pick up cheap, by-passed techs. Using pop growth via the Eco slider before the votes was also used.

After 2375, I also changed research strategy. I reduced research into force fields, propulsion and weapons to a few clicks each (with a few extra moving between propulsion and weapons in the beginning picking up critical techs) and spent the rest about equally on computers, construction and planetology. When I spied, I also picked these fields when available.

The game is amoot!

Based on the yellow stars, there was probably one race just south of the central nebula, one in the cluster between the nebulas, one in the lower right cluster and one in the upper right yellow star. One might be found in the yellow to the left, but we didn't find it likely.

Based on this, and the star qualities, we sent our colony ship to the nearby yellow, and the two scouts to the green and blue stars right above us.

In 2302 Maalor was settled, providing us with a world very rich in material. Immediately thereafter, 14 stacks were sent to the new hive complex, and seven Scout2s were built.

Soon afterwards Artemis was explored. It contained numerous remnants from old, and immediately yielded knowlege of Improved Terraforming 20.

In 2312, both Maalor and Kholdan were prepared for higher hive densities, had as many factories as could be mandibled but still plenty of room for new hives. It was decided to open research with 14 RP from Kholdan to construction, planetology and propulsion.

Using our original fuel cells, we could reach two other worlds (one poor). Range 4 would do little good, but range 5 would allow us to reach Artemis (the artifacts world) as well as 2 barren and 1 dead world.

Tech choices were:
RIW 80% (only choice)
IER (IT 10, Barren, Dead, DSpores and Toxic available)
Range 5 (only choice)

The long-term plan for the planetology tree was to research first IER, then Barren, then Toxic. While being somewhat redundant, it would enable us to quickly reach two strategically important worlds. IER together with RIW 80% was also somewhat redundant, but would enable us to act efficiently for a very long time.

In 2313 research was seeded with max research from both Maalor and Kholdan. Maalor then continued building factories as fast as possible, while Kholdan was set to build five factories per turn while continuing to research.

Maalor reaches max factories in 2317 and starts building a colony ship. This is finished in 2319 and sent to Omicron. Maalor is set to build additional stores for two turns, and in 2320 6 more stacks are sent to Maalor from Kholdan, and stores are injected back to Maalor, giving unprecedented production.

In 2322, the secrets of RIW 80% have been found, and the only choice going forward is IIT 8. Maalor builds two new colony ships, and the next year Omicron is settled. To give the new hive complex a good start, ten stacks are sent from Kholdan, and Omicron receives a good helping from the stores. Newly built scouts set out.

In 2326 we hear for the first time of other races in the galaxy, when news reach us that the Silicoids have settled six systems.

In 2327 Kholdan is set to build more Scouts, and we learn the secrets of IER. Next is Barren, followed by Toxic. The following year, we learn Range 5, and given a choice between Nuclear Engines and Inertial Stabiliser, Nuclear is chosen. Primodius, a world poor in minerals, is settled.

15 stacks were sent in 2329 to Primodius from Kholdan, and a colony ship was dispatched to Artemis. Stores were allocated to Maalor and Primodius, and it was decided to open the rest of the research fields.

DSS (ECM1, DSS)
Shield 2
Hand L (Hand L, Gatling L)

Artemis was finally settled in 2332, and 20 stacks were sent there from Kholdan. We also learn Barren, and select Toxic next per the plan. During this time I frequently used overflow from colony ship building at Maalor to build more scouts, and we located Orion.

In 2337 we finally gained contact with another race, when a Psilon colony ship was chased away from Prius. We also learn IIT 8, and the only choice is Battle Suits. The next year we send colony ships to the barren planets of Berel and Anraq, Herculis is settled and we chase away a Bulrathi scout from Nyarl.

Hand Lasers researched in 2339.
NPG (Gatling, NPG, Ion C)

In 2340 we finally locate the Silicoid empire, in their colony on Ryoun. Two years later, Berel is settled. The next year, we spot a Silicoid colony ship at Ukko, and DSS is discovered. BC3 is the only choice forward.

Gion and Anraq are settled in 2345, and research starts on Shield 3 the next year.

Crius is settled in 2347, bringing us into contact with the Psilons and Silicoid. Artemis reaches max, and research reaches new lows. Imra and Ukko are also settled, and we are the first race to reach 12 planets. Nuclear engines are discovered in 2353.

Range 7 (IS, Sublight, Range 7) - we saw contact with the other races as more important than the faster engine, even if the time spent between the stars hurt our stack migrations.

Vox was settled, and we discovered NPGs, Battle Suits and BC3.

Merc M (Gatling, Ion C, Mass D, Merc M, NBlaster) - we had a decent early gun in the NPG, and a missile was needed for planetary defense.

ECM 3 (ECM 1, ECM 3, BC 4) - we chose the cheapest one.

Zortium was the only way forward in Construction.

In 2358 the council was first assembled. Our opponent was the Humans, who received 10 votes (4 from Silicoids and themselves, and 2 from Psilons). The Bulrathis (2 votes) and ourselves abstained (7 votes).

The Psilons contact us and want to trade for 75 BC per year, which we agree to.

We discover Shield 3 and Toxic. Shield 4 is the only choice, and in order to score more points in technology, we go back for IT 10 rather than continue on to IT 40. This also enables us to reassign research from planetology to the other fields.

Paranar is settled in 2364, which brings us contact with the Bulrathi. Somehow, we are second in fleet strength after the Humans. Zortium, Merc M, ECM 3, IT 10, Gatling, Shield 4 and ECM 1 are all discovered in time for the 2375 scoring date. We also reach 18 planets, settling the stars on the lower central part of the galaxy.

We tried to get a many trade deals and non-aggression pacts as possible, but only the Humans were interested in the latter.

The 2375 election gave an unexpected surprise - our opponent was the Silicoid, not the Humans. All other races abstained, and we could barely but safely cast our votes for the Silicoids, giving us a most welcome relations boost.

Scoring for 2375:

18 planets * 3: 54
11 votes * 3: 33

Colony total: 87

Computers 13
Construction 17
Force fields 14
Planetology 18
Propulsion 14
Weapons 15

Research total: 91

Humans relaxed: 12
Silicoids amiable: 14
Psilons neutral: 10
Bulrathis neutral: 10

Diplomacy total: 46

We judged our situation to be most favourable for the next 75 years. We had a solid core, developing worlds in the lower central galaxy, Arietis and Morrig. Maalor and Artemis gave excellent research and injections of stores to the developing worlds.

Research was to be focused on computers, construction and planetology. We had a minor focus on propulsion and weapons, with the goals of fusion drive and fusion beam. We also planned to try to take Orion, which hopefully would give me us a diplomatic boost for the 2450 scoring date and yield several valuable techs. I estimated it would take about 1500 medium boats, armed with fusion beams and equipped with BC 7 or 8 to take the Guardian.

We saw no need for further expansion, in fact feared any further expansion could bring clashes with the other races, especially since the expansion would have to be by violence. Instead, we hoped for continued cordial relations with most of them.

We were researching IRC 4, IIT 5, Rep beam, IT 40, Warp 4 and Fusion Beam.

The Humans declined an Alliance in 2376, and instead dissolved the NAP. The following years, IIT 5, IRC 4, IT 40 and Warp 4 are all discovered.

Andrium (AES, RIW 40%, Andrium, IIT 4) - cheaper than IIT 4.
ASS (BC 4, BC 5, ASS, BC 6) - critial tech, and cheaper than BC 6.
Atmos (DS, Cloning, Atmos) - hard choice, but I had plenty of hostile planets.
Range 9 (IS, Warp 3, EPulsar, WD, Range 9)

In 2385 we also experienced a relationship drop with all the races, but trade finally showed a surplus.

The Humans declared war against us in 2390, and we tried to make the Silicoids break their alliance with them, but they declined. Andrium is discovered, and IIT 3 is chosen over Tritanium.

ASS is discovered in 2394, and IRC 5 is chosen over BC7. It is cheaper, and boosts production even more. The next year the first real space combat happens, when the Humans attack Crius with fighters. The missile bases and our NPG-armed cruiser fends off the attack easily. Since the Human forces have to go through the nebula, we have plenty of warning before any attack. We also learn Atmos, and select IT50 as the next target.

In 2399 we get a low-level penetration against the Humans, with construction and propulsion as possible alternatives. We get IIT 9. In the election, the Silicoids get 17 votes, while we (18 votes) and the Bulrathis abstain.

We learn several new technologies the following years: repulsor beam, IIT 3, fusion beam, IRC 5 and range 9.

PS10 (Shield 5, PAS, PS10)
IIT2
Fusion rifle (ISP, F Rifle)
BC8 (ECM7, BC8)
IS (IS, ISG, Range 10) - cheap backtrack which will help our Orion force.

In 2406 our relations with the other races take a big hit. They complain that we are poking our stick in their stacks, or they are simply jealous. We increase trade with the Psilons to 275, in order to better relations a little. The next year we learn IT 50, and IT 60 is the only choice. We also get a significant penetration of the Human empire. Our first plan was to hit computers, planetology, propulsion and weapon, in that order, but force fields were available. We select that, and appropriate the knowledge of PS5. This is significant, since we only make a small investment into force fields research.

The Psilons also declare war, while the Humans come begging for peace. We grant them their wish. However, they decline any trade, and the next year the Bulrathi declare war as well. The only other race trading with us now is the Silicods.

IIT 2 is learned, and the only new tech is Adamantium, so we decice to backtrack for RIW 40%, since we will not have access to any better cleanup tech in the construction tree. We also learn IS, and select ISG over Range 10. The next year we manage to infiltrate the Psilons, with choices of computers, fields and weapons. We appropriate ECM2, and blame the Silicoids.

We increase trade with the Silicoids to 1000 in 2415, and learn BC8. After learning IT 60 we have a choice between UA and Bio Terminator, where we choose the former. We also infiltrate a Psilon base, and learn BC 2. After backtracking for RIW 40% we choose Adamantium armour, and the next year, in 2419, both the Humans and the Silicoids declare war. However, the Psilons ask for peace the year after, which we grant. A Silicoid base is infiltrated and we learn Duralloy. We also discover PS 10 and IRC 6. Our next projects are PAS and ECM 9.

In 2426 we infiltrate the Silicoids again, and learn BC 4. Fusion Rifle is discovered, and we choose SP7. The year after a Human base is infiltrated, and we appropriate Tundra and blame the Silicoids. The next year we manage to do the same, and appropriate IT 30. We also infiltrate the Bulrathi, and learn Missile 6. In brighter news, research into Adamantium armour is completed, and we can begin learning Neutronium.

This is also the signal on building up our forces to take Orion. A medium ship is designed, equipped with 3 fusion beams, IS, Warp 4, BC 8, 45 HP and shield 1, and every world but Artemis (artifacts) and Primodius (poor) is building them. We infiltrate the Humans again, and appropriate Radiated and Range 6, blaming the Silicoids. We also manage to infiltrate Silicoid bases, learning ISS and Warp 3. We also learn UA and ECM 9, with the only new options being IT 100 and IRC 7.

The Humans ask for peace in 2435, and we continue to infiltrate Silicoid bases, learning BTA and WD, framing the Humans. We discover ISG, and research HEF next. The Silicoids sue for peace in 2440, and in 2442 we send away our Orion task force. The Guardian is defeated, but the tech haul is quite disappointing: Death Ray, BC 5, AES and ECM 5. We also discover PAS, and the next tech target is Cloak. Orion is founded, and stacks are sent from every planet in the empire in order to stand the planet up quickly.

We manage to infiltrate the Bulrathi again, appropriating Fusion Bomb and framing the Silicoids. Neutronium is discovered, and we go back for IIT 4. We sign peace treaties with everyone else, and also discover SP7, selecting Gauss AC as the next choice. In the 2350 election, we cast 23 votes and have 19 planets, but the election is deadlocked.

Scoring for 2450:

19 planets: 19
23 votes: 23

Colony total (including 87 for 2375): 131

Computers 49
Construction 54
Planetology 43

Research total (including 91 for 2375): 237

Humans restless: 4
Silicoids unease: 8
Psilons wary: 6
Bulrathis tense: 2

Diplomacy total (including 46 for 2375: 66

Sadly, the other races has failed to appreciate our love for peace and prosperity. The only choice is to exterminate them. The order of extermination is decided to be Bulrathis, Humans, Psilons and Silicoid.

We destroy the Bulrathis using the Orion gunships and a fusion bomber - none of the other races have access to planetary shields. The Bulrathi's advantage in ground combat is easily countered by our technological advantages. When taking Ursa, we appropriate ARS, and after discovering the Gauss AC, choosing Plasma Rifle as the next tech target, we design a huge HEF battleship which is used to break the Bulrathis, Humans and Psilons.

Just before the invasion against the Silicoids starts we also manage to bring a new improved battleship design into play. With warp 8 it greatly eases the logistics of destroying the Silicoid empire, even though we due to strategic mistakes send in our ground troops unsupported against Aurora. However, our advantage in ground combat was now so big that even the few survivors manage to conquer the planet.

We exterminate all the races in 2482.

Final score: 131 + 237 + 66 + 100 = 534

Final thoughts.

If getting Controlled Dead in the start of RBO 10 was a huge boost, I don't know what this should be called. The first colony is ultra-rich, and there is a nearby artifacts world which gives Improved Terraforming +20, both planets of a good size. Playing as the Klackons, no less, with plenty of room to expand.

The tech holes were also much less painful than in RBO 10. Planetology lacked both soil enrichment techs, and there were no bombs. But there were terraforming techs, computers, scanners, waste management, engines, fuel cells, armour, missiles and beams. Granted, the planetology choices of 40, 50, 60 were somewhat boring and repetitive, and the early Construction choices made one think of the Mrrshans.

It should be mentioned that one benefit of finding an early artifacts world is that it allows you to plan your tech path in great depth. Instead of having to guess what would be available in the next rung, I saw all the available techs up to toxic.

The game was also noticably easier due to the way the other races were distributed. If the yellow below the nebula had been occupied, my expansion would have been far harder. Instead, both the Psilons and the Bulrathi were stunted, and became blocked in by the Silicoid and myself.

It might be that my very success in colonisation preempted me in the diplomacy game, where I didn't manage to reach 75 points. I consciously chose to yield the worlds north of Arietis to the AIs, since I wanted to avoid tense relations, especially with the Humans. Perhaps I should have let the Psilons, Bulrathi and Silicoid battle it out over the four-star-cluster in the lower central portion of the map. As it was, I found few friends and many dislikes during the second part of the game. What could have helped was also proposing peace as soon as the diplomat reappeared. I might have to replay the second part trying that. But most of all, checking the other reports, I think I was too passive in my wars against the other races. I have a tendency to sit back and build, and let them come to me. This backfired badly in the scoring this time.

Last: feeding back reserves into an ultra-rich planet building reserves should be listed as an exploit.

Play the odds and send the col ship to the yellow straight away, and pays off handsomely. I've rarely seen non-hostile Ultra Riches, and never one in initial range (plus a healthy size 50 to boot!). Round of scout 2's fans out and finds a "nice" tech at the NE artifacts:

OK Sullla, enough is enough (note that this was his tech of choice in the debate after Imperium Ten). From now on I'm going to request you PM me the location of any Artifacts planets so I can avoid scouting them in scored events

Range 5 was the only early Prop choice. That was fine, only world in 4-range was a poor, and the artifacts was 5 away.

Here's that 2nd planet soon after, building a colony ship for the other habitable in starting range (for those who didn't play it was a size 30 minimal, very nice to have a 2nd habitable in range):

This is absurd, its 2313! In fact on this turn I reversed the standard opening. I stripped Kholdan down to 50 pop and filled up Maalor as it would be a faster col ship pump. Turned Kholdan onto full research (had more than enough factories for 50 pop), I had been tricking credits into range5 for a while. I got lucky and range 5 popped in 2318 - chances went 1%-8%-17% and got it on that turn. Same turn Maalor maxes out and it could build 3 col ships in 4 turns (!) (only did two as I couldn't use more), one is ordered immediately for the artifacts world. Select Nuke Engines. Open Planetology:

Take Barren as there are two Barren worlds, one next to the artifacts and another east. Construction gave RW80 as only choice, nice to have at bug-discounted prices but not a top priority due to the artifacts bonanza. I generously overfund research and finish Barren and IT+10 by 2326, then start on Dead. 2 colonies founded that turn (Artemis artifacts and Primodius Poor):

Gosh, what a favorable opening (I've screwed up slightly here being slow to send a scout SE of the cursor/NE of the Dead but compared to most games I've done a good job of managing scouts; the planet at the cursor is Orion). Barren and Dead are the perfect tech choices as there are two of each in range, and having +10 was great too. Of course I have a big advantage with the Improved Eco pop, and a massive one if it was not in the normal bridge. By this time I figure the central yellow is vacant (no ships seen at all yet) and I'll have free run on a lot of the galaxy. Colony ships going every which way soon. Also, that western Terran at the yellow is a size 125 Fertile.

Other tech things - take the cheap ECM1 and Hand Laser options, transitioning to BC3 (only choice) and NPG (cheaper than the other Ion Cannon option). Interestingly, Humans are ranked ahead of me in production sometime in the 2330's despite my roaring start (and no sign of them yet). Controlled Dead comes in 2341 (again I got lucky, went 4%-11%-pop!)

Map a few turns later in 2346:

Ships are crawling to the SE Dead and Arid (I can now fit reserve tanks on a Large colship) but I decided to suspend the rest of the building as I was close to Nuke Engines (which just came in, chose Sublights - not all that useful, but Range 7 didn't seem important) and the the distances are long enough that they will come out roughly the same in the end. I design a medium warp two to safeguard the hostiles near the Silicoids as well as Ukko, the barren closest to them. Already got lucky as I've retreated unarmed colony ships there just after founding. Have chased Psilon and Bulrathi scouts in the east.

The downside of this ridiculous start is that I am really short on colonists to send to all of these worlds. I've been keeping Kholdan near half-full the whole time and still have a lot of outposts with only the initial colonists. Good news is that Poor planet is at its bell curve peak so I can start using it to seed worlds as well.

I have 29 turns until scoring benchmark. I definitely want Toxic before then (need to finish +20 first, that may have been a mistake) to get the 3pts per additional planet. In other techs - will probably ignore Prop and spend on areas I'm behind in to get lvl2 techs like IIT8, whatever tier-2 force field I have, NPG, maybe BC3. I should be in contact with all races by then, we'll see what happens.

Ideally I would like one AI to be at war with two or more others - then I can attack them, gaining at least as many diplo points as losing as well as getting tech and planets. But it seems unlikely that this will happen before the score deadline. Also, I was hoping I don't trigger the "we hate you cause you're big" before 2375.

Keep grabbing worlds, IT+20 in (finally) in 2355.

Map of 2357:

Next turn the rocks settle another planet bringing the first vote. I have a blocking 6 of 17, but enough vote for the Humans that I can't. A shame, that would've been great for relations.

Finish NPG in 2361, choose Merculites over mass driver and neutron blaster. Almost everything going to Toxic now. My absurd luck continues as I get Toxic in 2362 - it wasn't even in percentages when I checked I dont think! Must have had some pop growth nudge it to 1% and hit gold. Unfortunately, I've been splurging on different types of colony designs and have to wait a turn for another founding before being able to design a toxic ship.

I continue to retreat Silicoid ships (for some reason they've never used armed or escorted ones, I have some 4laser mediums but not much that would withstand a determined attack). However, I lose a Barren to the Humans at the north edge a turn before my ship can get there. In 2365 I see a human colony ship inbound to a new settlement of mine:

It didn't retreat when my scout was chased, so I believe it's armed and I don't have any warships in the area. I don't think I can fend off an invasion so I try threatening them, they cave (and give range 4). It seems like this was a mistake as their ship continues past that world - sorry, couldn't tell without a scanner upgrade. One point could be deducted from my tech score if desired.
Sublights pop in 2368 and I go for Fusion engines (hey, I missed all these in the last Imperium! Energy Pulsar and Warp Dissipator don't seem at all useful; I will be able to crush the AI's at will). At this point all toxic ships are outbound and I should have all those settled by the scoring mark.

2369 - Pop BC3 and FF3 (the latter at 1%, jesus christ this is some crazy tech luck). Go for deep space scanner (an extra tech point that's cheap) and FF4 (no choice). Neptunus is settled, at last granting me formal contact with the only-Mentar psilons. They are at Unease and all three other races are Relaxed. I also get the "half-the-galaxy" notification; I keep dreading the "you're too big" relations tank but it hasn't happened yet - based on pop instead of # of planets maybe? Sign all but unwilling braniacs to NAPs as no planets are still in jeopardy. The homeworld is maxed in 2371 or so.

More good luck with popping Battle Suits and Deep Space Scanner in 2372, set course for ECMIII (over BC4) and Zortium. I was worrying that I might not get one in just through poor RNG luck; I probably can't finish any other tech in 3 turns (despite a 3000BC/yr research clip) so I max the eco slider on my numerous half-full worlds to grow pop for the Colonist division.

The last available Toxic planet is settled in 2474 and it's an unmitigated disaster as I finally trigger size warnings from Humans and Bulrathis. Relations with all races drop - Humans and Silicoids from Amiable to Neutral, Bears Relaxed->Neutral, Brains Unease->Wary. Rocks do bounce back a bit for the scoring turn:

This is 38 points. Would have been 48 if I could have just maintained the relations from a few turns ago, argh! Geez, I'd have to hold this even until 2450 to get the 75 points.
Now for the Colonist news


That's 26 planets total, so I have (26+14)*3 = 120 points. Great news, hitting 150 in that category is assured assuming I don't suffer big losses. Techs:

Good for 70 points.

Before the game I looked at the map and saw a green star in the northeast 5 parsecs away. I thought that as the key to expansion, and we're the Klackons. This didn't look good! I sent both scouts northeast and my colony ship to the yellow star. I set Kholdan to a secout 2 in year, *only* 2 new factories, and put 14 RP into research. I used all those research points towards propulsion. On *this* map I figured I'd want better range tech as soon as I could get it. I started research on deuterium fuel cells.

2302-Founded Maalor that minimal ultra rich.

2303-3.1 factories, 23 RP, scout 2 in 1 year at Kholdan

2304-3 ind. 31 RP at Kholdan I scout Artemis and with my "pointy-stick" research I pop nuclear engines!

2313-Maalor maxes out on factories and I start funneling reserves back into Maalor, which I then funnel into Kholdan

2319-design a 3 laser colony ship and start producing them at Kholdan. Propulsion research still at maximum.

2320-scale back propulsion and start in on planetology-improved eco restoration. I forgot about the barren planet.

2322-Founded Omicron

2327-deutirum fuel cells-sub-light drives. I started construction research-reduced waste 80%. I founded Primodius

2330-imporved eco-controlled barren. I now can produce 2 turn colony ships at Kholdan via funnelling reserves.

2332-Founded Artemis

2335-Met the Guardian, controlled barren-controlled dead. I designed a barren 3 laser colony ship.

2336-Vox founded. I get the 6 star system message.

2337-Herculis founded.

2338-Anraq founded. I notice Ukka as a Silicoid colony.

2342-Scouted Kailis, a Silicoid colony. I realize around here I probably should have built scouts with nuclear engines on them, but I didn't do that in *this* game. We meet the Silicoids... aggressive technologists, whom we've basically wasted in all categories.

2343-Imra founded. I designed medium ships with a mark I computer, a heavy laser, nuclear engines, and a manuervability of 2, calling it a "silc block."

2345-design LR megium, with nuclear engines, man. 2, a laster, computer mark 1.

2346-red. ind. waste 80%-imp. ind. 8

2347-Gion founded. The Silicoids declare war on me.

2348-Founded Berel. I get a 12 planet message.

2349-I find Sol. controlled dead-controlled toxic.

2351-I have fleet superiority over the Silicoids. I designed an LR barren colony ship, unfortunately with only a retro engine on it.

2352-I fend off 2 human pop gun ships at Neptunus, defeating 1, while the other scurries away.

2353-I designed a dead base colony ship with 3 lasers (and a nuclear engine, as my colony ships, other than the LR colony ship have had).

2357-sub-light drives-intertial stabilizer. With that I equalized research spending, starting on ecm jammer mark I, class II deflector shields, and hand lasers. I founded Klystron.

2358-Morrig founded. ecm jammer-deep space scanner. hand lasers-gatling laser. imp. ind. tech 8-battle suits, class II deflector shield-class III deflector shield. I founded Paranar and the high council met. Klackons vs. Humans. I abstain 6 votes, and Lasitus get 6 votes. We meet the Bulrathi, aggressive ecologists, and formed a 135 BC trade route with them.

2359-controlled toxic-improved terra +10. deep space scanner-battle computer mark III.

2366-I founded Bootis, met the Humans-honorable industrailists, I founded Nyarl, I met the Psilons-honorable industrailists, I desiged a toxic base colony ship with a sub-light engine and no guns.

2367-battle with a Silicoid colony ship at Neptunus, 5 heavy laser ships v.s. their ship, we win losing 2 ships. Improved terra +10-improved terra +20. The Humans declare war.

2370-I defeat a Silicoid colony ship at Neptunus with 7 of my medium defen ships, not losing any ships this time. Gatling laser-ion cannon.

2371-I sent 25 pop points to indave Kailis... here went nothing. I tried to invade this planet to boost my planet total at 2375. I would NOT have done such a risky manuever in any sort of normal game. The Silicoids offered peace on the next inter-turn, which I rejected since I already had part of my invasion force sent towards their world. They even tried to bribe me with 250 BC, and I still rejected them.

2372-Found Neptunus. I bomb Kailis. I get the 18 star system message. I send out 19 pop poins from Bootis to attack Kailis. I throw almost all my research into construction. I scrap the dead base design. I design an LR dead base desing, but don't build anything. I put almost everything into research (I still did industrial cleanup). I transfer some last minute population points. I lose a battle to the Humans at Bootis. I also lose at Kailis to the Silicoids. I discover Battle Suits-Zortium Armor.

2374-I throw my RP into propulsion. I don't throw my reserves into Maalot this turn, instead throwing it elsewhere for growth. I get the Psilions to declare against the Silicoids, giving them reduced industrial waste 80% in the deal. My newly constructed missile base at Bootis loses to the Humans. I defeat another Silicoid colony ship at Neptunus. I found Arietic. 44 of 44 my troops land at Kailis and I lose all of them. The vote goes 2 for Klackons, 6 for Lasitus with me abstaining 8 votes.
Computers-level 5
Construction-level 11
Force fields-level 4
Planeteology-level 17
Propulsion-level 12
Weapons-level 6 That's 55 points.
19 planets for 57 points (surprised Sulla? imo... *that's* that power of popping nuclear engines).
I had two races at neutral for 20 points.

Some point around here I decided just to mop things up quickly and not play for the 2450 score date.

2375-defeat Human colony ship at Bootis and founded Incedius.

2376-defeat another Silicoid colony ship at Neptunus. I stole imp. ind. tech. 9 from the Silicoids. I faced 35 Human pop points at Bootis and win with 15 pop points remaining. Since I forgot to turn events off when reloading the save, the Silicoid ambassador tries to assisinate Zygot.

2378-ion cannon-merculite missiles. I founded Laan.

2379-defeat another colony ship at Neptunus, I stole range 4 from the Apes. class III deflector shields-class IV, battle computer III-IV. improved terra+20-improved terra+40, inertial stabilizer-fusion drive, design medium ships with a battle computer mark 1, sub-light drives, class II move, heavy ion cannons, with a battle scanner and build some.

2382-defeat another Silicoid ship at Neptunus. founded Jinga. Got the "controls nearly a majority of the galaxy" essage. I scraped my remaining scout ships. Soon after I defeated another Silicoid colony ship and one with heavy lasers at Neptunus which *now* has a missile base. merculite missiles-stinger missiles

2387-landed 72 pop points at Ryoun vs. 44 Silicoid. 28 of my troops survive and I get the personal deflector shield from the invasion.

2388-zortium armor-improved ind. tec. 5

2389-design a large ship with a mark III computer, a mark III shield, zortium armor, a sub-light engine, class II manuervability, 2 merculite missiles, 2 heavy ion cannons, and an inertial stabilizer. I start building some.

2394-face 3 large warships at Ryoun sporting 6 or 8 heavy lasers and a nuke or so, I have 11 or so 10 medium ships, a missile base, I lose some the medium ion cannon ships, but win quite handily. At Ukko I take out a Silicoid colony ship and only 1 Silicoid missile base before retreating.

2395-class IV deflector shields-class V. I destroy a Silicoid colony ship and another missile base at Ukko. I stupidly lose 3 ion medium ships to the Psilons at Rha... not using my mobility well.

2396-After dispensing of an 8 heavy laste ship at the Human colony of Ajax, I invade Ukko with some 43 pop points vs. 35 Human pop points and with with 34 pop points remaining. The Bulrathi offer to increase trade and I accept the deal.

2397-I encouter a 37 heavy laser, 4 nuke, 19 laster huge ship somewhere and decided to retreat (but come back to Ukko the next turn) after lobbing some missiles at it. Bootis rebels.... whoops I still have events on. I take out a missile base at Denubius. Improved terra +40-atmospheric terraforming.

2398-I take out another missile base at Denubius. steal irridum fuel cells from the Apes. Battle computer IV-ip. robotics IV. Land 108 troops at Ukko and I have 35 left after fighting. I fight a 50 turn battle at Ajax vs. some 200+ small laser ships which I wear down gradually. I take out 2 missile bases at Denubius. I retake Bootis with 61 troops vs. 25.

2400-It's me vs. Sedimin. 9 votes to Sedimin from the Apes and the Rocks. The Psilons and the Bulrathi give me 6 votes. I cast 15 votes for myself and take a 21-9 domination victory. All too easy of a game. Popping nuclear engines+a sizable ultra rich planet for your second planet=hall of fame potential game. Oh wait... we don't have one of those.

If the only part you're interested in is my score, scroll to the bottom. My ending score, snapshots and save game files will be down there.

---
My game starts with an analysis of the scoring system, even before downloading the save file. Is 150 points in each role even possible? That is a good question.

Under the Colonist category, 3 points for each vote and each planet in 2375, 1 point for each in 2450. Assuming that I do equal scoring in both, I'd need about 19 planets by 2375 and about 100 pop per. Yeowch! This seems to suggest to me that I should spread out as quickly as possible while heavily emphasizing planetology tech. It also seems pretty unlikely that this can be accomplished with Silicoids as one of our opponents (although one could get lucky).

If Researcher adds up your total tech level at 2375, this suggests to me going as high as you possibly can, assuming your techs pop before 2375. Because of the scaling costs of research, it is better to spread across each field equally. After 2375, only the three best are added, which suggests focusing on three or so fields. Construction and planetology are obvious choices, to play to the Klackons' construction strength while also grabbing vital planetology technologies for the Colonist role. I'm not yet sure what the ideal third field is, but it isn't propulsion.

As for the Diplomat role, well, the sooner I meet each race the better, so again focus on rapid expansion. Then I have to be nice to all my neighbors. If I'm trying to be friendly with everybody, I'd need to have "Peaceful" relations with everybody, both in 2375 and 2450 to get the full 150. But AIs are aggressive and I seriously doubt I can maintain those kind of relations. It might be easier for one AI to get dogpiled, and while I bomb out their planets (and plant flags on them for the Colonist role) I forge alliances with the other races. Being at Unity/Harmony with 3 races could also get me the 150 I need.

My initial strategy should be thus: Spread as quickly as I can and meet all the AIs, while trying to research at the same time. With this in mind, I download the save game and open up the map:



Green circle is colony range, yellow and red circles are scouting range (yellow before colonization, red estimated after colonization). I've also made my guess at where each AI is going to start. I send my colony ship to the yellow star, and one scout to the purple star in case both systems defy probability. My second scout will go to the northern most white star to blockade it in case an AI starts at the nearby yellow star. The green star will also be under threat, however, so I'm going to build 1 scout this turn and send it there. If I'm going to have any chance at getting 150 Colonist points, I can't give up any of these planets.

And with that, my ships are off. Let the games begin! Three turns later, I get to see what is in colony range.



As Sirian would put it, sometimes it's better to be both lucky and good! The two systems have defied probability, but not in the way I was expecting! A habitable at Omicron and an ultra rich at Maalor. This could totally change the way I pull off my opening.

Usually I like to max out my home world so that I can start churning out colony ships, one every few turns. But this is different. My second planet is ultra rich, which means not only will I be able to stand it up more quickly, but by my calculations it will build one colony ship every two turns once it is maxed out. Therefore, I'm going to do something totally different: I'll send out a whopping 17 colonists from Kholdan, knocking it down to 30 pop so I can make this new planet my primary one. If I'm going to get enough planets, I need to make some bold moves.

The new colony only brings one red star into scouting range. Oh well. I build three scouts and send them out. My two scouts sent north in the first two turns scout their planets. The green star turns out to be an artifacts world that has not yet been scouted. It seems strange to me that in a scoring game, Sullla would leave this huge die roll in there. Maybe he figured the AI would always scout it before the players did? Or maybe it's a reward for those of us who scout aggressively and early. Whatever the case, I scouted it in the year 2306 and got the following technology:



Look familiar to anybody? This is the same tech I pulled from the artifacts in the previous game.

Good news is that the red star Primodius is habitable but poor. The bad news is that without better fuel cells it won't pull any more planets into range. It's vital to me that I start researching better technology so I can spread to more planets. In 2308 I have Kholdan put one click into research and open up planetology and propulsion.



A good draw in planetology, and also a really tough decision! Improved Terraforming would be cheap and easy to get for a very nice benefit, Improved Eco is one of the best economic techs out there and oh so expensive! But I've seen a barren planet already... I almost wish that I'd drawn only one option and had no choice at all. I decided that controlled barren wouldn't open up very many worlds to me and that I should see what's in the next tier before I go for controlled planet technology. Terraforming would be more beneficial to my ultra rich world as with its small size it won't have a lot of factories for polluting, plus its cheapness would allow me to see the next tier very quickly. I chose Terraforming, but I'm sure that all three choices were viable.

No choice in propulsion, but thankfully I drew range 5. Most of the out-of-range habitables are 5 parsecs away.

As Kholdan picks up the research, Maalor maxes factories in 2314. I have it build a colony ship (in three turns) as I ship population from my homeworld to bring the ultra rich planet to full capacity. In 2317 Terraforming pops, revealing that only controlled tundra is missing from the second tier. I've seen two barren and one dead planet so far. I haven't seen any rival AI scouts at the stars I've blockaded, which I hope means I have time. I select controlled dead to open as many worlds as possible.

If I'm going to have any shot at getting enough tech points, I can't afford to leave the other fields behind. It's time to start spreading out my research.



Construction and Force Fields are no-brainers. The computer field represents a tough choice for me. I may want the cheap ECM so that I can move onto the next tier sooner and pick out the highest tech that I can reasonably obtain before 2375...but deep space scanner is so much more useful. I decided that I'd probably have enough time to get deep space scanner and a second tier tech. I chose Deep Space Scanner.

Once again my missile pull has given me a huge weapons tree. This one gave me the ever-so-useful hand lasers, as well as all my favorite beam weapons and even stinger missiles should my scat packs fail. No bombs though, which means that it'll be harder to gain favor with an AI by glassing its enemies. I will have to think about how to deal with that when it happens. But for now, I'm going for the cheapest and arguably most useful tech on the list: Hand Lasers.

I settle Omicron in 2322, obtain range 5 in 2325 (choosing nuclear engines over inertial stabilizer), and settle Primodius in 2326. In 2327 colony ships are ordered to travel to Herculis and Artemis. I haven't scouted any other habitables yet (although that's likely to change soon), so I think it's about time that I started building armed ships to protect my border planets. I throw together a ship design: Medium, shield 1, 6 lasers. Ordinarily I would've gone with small ships, but the two designs had roughly the same bc-per-laser cost, with the medium ship being tougher and able to stand up to more confrontations. I'm guessing the missile tech helped a lot with miniaturization.

My scouts meet hostile forces for the first time.



I haven't seen hair nor hide of the other races. This could be good or bad. I could spread like the plague, thus insuring the success of both Colonist and Researcher roles, but a huge empire would have a difficult time making friends.

On the same turn, Hand Laser pops. Stinger missiles sure are tempting, especially considering that no events will be disrupting my research this time, but Refsteel is right. I'd go a very long time without an upgrade, and besides, there's no way that will pop before the landmark 2375 date. In fact, given my current researching capabilities, the only ones I really stand a chance of getting (for now) are gatling laser and NPG. I choose NPG.

After settling Artemis in 2332 and Herculis in 2335, I get a GNN report.



Of course, this means that I'm settling planets more quickly than even the Silicoids. What could cause me to settle planets more quickly than they do? I'm sure that even the ultra rich planet wouldn't have been enough. Silicoids can spread faster than locusts. Maybe I should look at the galaxy map again.



The yellow star in the middle is surprisingly not a home world. This means that one or possibly both of those clusters of 3 yellows have at least two AIs. The silicoids could be having a rough time if they got into fierce competition with an early neighbor.

In 2338 scouts arrive at Ukko, the purple star in the northeast, where a Psilon scout was waiting (and soon running). On the same turn RW80 pops, leaving IIT8 as my only option. The next turn I get a GNN report revealing that I am #1 in fleet strength, with apes #2, rocks #3 and brains #4. I've got a whopping 15.5% of my income going into ship maintenance. Oops. But I can't afford to stop building ships right now, since I have lots and lots of planets to grab.

DSS and Class 2 shields pop in 2341, revealing BC3 and Class 3 shields for advancement. I considered going back for ECM in the computer tree, but I decided that BC3 would do more for my score if I got it, would be more useful in general, and that I *might* be able to obtain it before 2375. I'd definitely need more than just Kholdan on research to get it though, so I would have Maalor start funneling into industry and channel that extra industry into extra research on other worlds. Of course, I still needed it for making colony ships, but given how far away any new habitable planets would be, it would probably be quicker to wait until at least nuclear engines popped.

Being the type of person who loves having intelligence reports, this GNN report is right up my alley.



Bulrathi are probably their regular ecological selves and managed to get a decent grab of land. Fine with me, I'd rather campaign against bears than apes. However, the real kicker is that the Silicoids out-populate the Psilons. The Psilons must have been cut off from early expansion. I ran into some of their scouts in the lower part of the galaxy, so they are almost certainly in that cluster of yellows to the right. They must have had a bad start, and so somebody is going to fill in the gap left by the Psilons. Right now, looks like that someone is me.

At long last, I have finally managed to find a planet that is already inhabited.



The planet had 2 missile bases, which almost certainly means that the rocks have had it for a while. Maybe Cryslon is the yellow star to the right of it. Take note of the human ships in the upper left. That's a stack of 4 mediums travelling from the right-most of those three yellows to the middle one. Sol is around there somewhere. My scout on the eastern-most yellow confirms that one as the homeworld (and promptly flees from the 9 missile bases there).

Nuclear engine pops, leaving me with a tough choice. Sub-light drives and range 7 are options for advancement, but with my poor propulsion-researching capabilities, they are mighty expensive. I could go back for inertial stabilizer, or I could go for sub-light which would be more useful. I decide to go for the gamble. Sub-light drives it is. They'll serve me better than stabilizer will when I get it. I'm not looking at full-fledged war anytime soon. I'm not even in contact with any races yet! (2349) Playing it safe is not going to get me the 150 points in each field that I need for quad-score.

NPG pops in 2351. I doubt I have time to get anything above Scatter Pack V Rockets, which means I have to choose between ion cannon and gatling laser. I may have time to get both, but there's also a little doubt in my mind that I'd be able to get ion cannon in time. I choose gatling laser, as NPG will be good enough for me.

Scouts confirm that the lone yellow star in the northeast is Cryslon in 2352.

In 2353 Controlled Dead pops, presenting only Controlled Toxic as an option for advancement. With its high cost, however, I don't stand a chance of pulling it in before 2375. Instead I opt to go back for the things I've missed. Since I already have Terraforming +10, I choose Improved Eco over Terraforming +20. On the same interturn, I settle my 11th planet, Kailis, and establish contact with the rocks and the apes.



*huge jaw drop*

The humans have only three planets? The ROCKS HAVE ONLY TWO?!!? And with my recent discovery of controlled dead, my lead on number of planets is only going to get bigger. I've also established that both the brains and the brawns are in the lower right, and I've already blockaded several worlds near that. I could very easily grab enough planets to trigger the "preparing to merge" message.



A wise man once said, if you can achieve tech parity with the AI on the harder difficulties, you have already won. How about having a massive tech lead before finishing the land grab phase? If I was only playing to win, this game would be over already.

This is a double-edged sword, however. My empire is going to be so huge that my diplomatic relations are going to suffer a lot for this. I need to do everything I can to win these AIs to my side, and given the variant rules for this imperium, the only way I'll be able to do that is...



Establish trade. Maximum trade for maximum relations. Ordinarily I would use spies to gather intelligence reports, but since I need as many brownie points as possible, I'm not even going to do that. Caught spies lower relations.

Rich and ultra rich planets are good. But I think artifacts worlds are way better. I'm getting LOTS of research points from Arietis and it's not even at full factories yet. And if one artifacts world is good...



TWO is even better. This one is unclaimed, so I'm going to plant a flag and hold it if I can. I make a colony ship design with extended fuel tanks, build one at Maalor and immediately send it towards the planet. Of course, being an island in enemy territory means I may not be able to defend it, but it's worth a shot. After all, given how many planets I have, I can easily afford to lose a few.



Improved eco pops in 2362. On the same turn Herculis maxes factories and pop, the two combined nearly doubling my research output. Two turns later class 3 shields pop, leaving only class 4 as an option for advancement. However, I cannot get class 4 before 2375. Only 3 tech fields count for score in 2450. Therefore, I'm redistributing my research allocation.



I'm cutting off force fields entirely. I want to finish that propulsion project as quickly as I can, then I'm going to cut that off too.

Unfortunately for me, the Silicoids are feeling massive pressure to expand and declare their intentions to do so.



Yeah. You do that. Why you haven't expanded past two systems is beyond me, your colony ships are probably armed and would easily scare away my scout blockades. On inferno planets no less. I won't be grabbing those anytime soon.

After colonizing a few more worlds, I establish contact with the Psilons and the Bulrathi, giving me the following picture of the galaxy:



The Psilons colonized that second world only this turn. They got seriously stunted, even more so than the Silicoids did. In the past few turns the humans grabbed the two barrens near their home system, establishing themselves as my most powerful neigbors at a measly 5 worlds. Compared to my...



Every single one of my AI opponents has been stunted somehow, or maybe they were just too dumb to expand. And when one race is stunted, another comes in to fill the gap. It isn't long before the first elections are held.



Rival nominees vote for themselves, Silicoids vote against their enemies. Everyone else abstains. The main thing to note is that I already have a blocking vote and most of my planets are nowhere near full capacity. 2374 marks itself as a critical date. By that turn, all of my current research projects have finished. I managed to grab ion cannon, gatling laser, sub-light drives, battle computer 3, ecm 1, improved eco, controlled barren and terraforming +20. All fields are at 0 rp, so I have no qualms about stopping all research for now to bring my planets to full capacity. Furthermore...



I'm already at the domination threshold. About the only thing I can really do at this point is to try to get on better terms with my neighbors and hold on to what I have. The Silicoids are willing to talk, but not about peace. Oh well. 2375 passes and I take snapshots for my score (shown at the bottom).

Because I've been spreading so quickly, I don't have anywhere near the forces to defend everything. I planted a flag on some worlds north of Silicoid space, and the war-mongering rocks managed to gain orbital superiority over one. 6 of my laser ships arrived a few turns later to drive them off, but they've already sent their troops.



Aurora has only 4 population, but it's not beyond saving. I have a huge tech lead over the Silicoids. They may or may not have the tech to compete with my battle suits and hand lasers. I have 6 laser ships hovering over the planet. What's more, their ships are only travelling at warp 1. My transports go 2 parsecs per turn, which means...



There may be a bigger army than they were expecting. Poor researching capabilites and poor population growth make rocks terrible ground fighters. I better make sure this situation doesn't get any worse though. The apes and the rocks are allies. It also occurs to me that the Psilons definitely have enough range to reach Silicoid worlds. I dial both up and ask them to declare war.



Since I don't expect any diplomatic points from the Silicoids for a long time, I'm figuring it would be better to just bomb their worlds and get better relations with these other two races. Probably best not to do that just yet, however. If I bomb them too quickly, I could wipe them out and have my allies suddenly change targets.

Silicoid transports land on Aurora.



I lose 4 in the fighting. That's a 3:1 kill ratio and I outnumbered them. They can't invade this planet.

However, my other neighbors are getting unhappy with me because of my huge empire, so I decide to lay some smackdown on the rocks.



Complaints quickly cease. Silicoids have pissed off the Bulrathi as well, meaning easy relations boosts for me. In order to insure that I will always have Silicoid worlds to bomb, I have to leave these glass worlds for them to colonize. I will not be planting my own flag on any of these worlds.

Over the next few turns, nearly all the planets I've grabbed max out and I research some techs in the construction, planetology and weapon trees.



The construction tree gives me options for the very first time. Every other tier has had only one tech. Since my worlds are nearly already maxed and I'm not researching computers, improved industry doesn't seem very useful to me. Armored exoskeleton seems a little redundant when I already have battle suits, so I go for reduced waste. In planetology I had grabbed everything from the first two tiers except for death spores, and then selected controlled toxic to continue. I'm glad not to have drawn controlled radiated. This galaxy doesn't have a single radiated planet anywhere. Unfortunately there's no soil enrichment. I chose the weapon tree over the computer tree because I already had a third-tier weapon tech and would be able to go straight to fourth-tier tech. I initially went for stinger missiles to advance the tree and give my missile bases more punch in case they needed it. I still want to advance the tree, so I go for the fifth-tier weapon tech that I'm most likely to use: fusion rifle.

I'm pretty much done grabbing uncontested land now.



Can you imagine trying to fight out of a hole like that if you were one of the AI players? I've been leading the tech graph for the entire game and the only reason I'm not ending it now is because I'm going for score. Humans declare war on me in 2396 for no reason, which is really annoying, but the game isn't over yet. In the meantime, if I'm going to be at war anyways, I may as well get some benefits out of it.



Easy victory. Of course, I get only a single cheap construction tech from it. Every bit helps, right? This was the same year as the 2400 election.



In 25 years, I've more than doubled my voting power. With the support of the Bulrathis, I could've cashed in on the victory right here.

I try to take out the human world of Sol, but they've been capitalizing on their excellent force field technology and my lack of bombing technology. A stack of 400 of my bombers dealt only 50 damage in one volley, and they had 20 missile bases. So instead I have to settle for bombing the two barren worlds they have. I'm still running on nuclear bombs here, about the only way to up my punch is to start building ships with stinger missiles. From here to the end of the game, I built them non-stop. In no time at all, the 2425 elections roll around.



Bulrathi replace the Humans as my opponents and have unanimous support. I, however, have passed the conquest threshold.

Unfortunately, my diplomatic situation is getting a whole lot worse.



The pile-up is getting really annoying. It's time to change tactics. Bears are still at war with humans and silicoids. If I make peace with the two of them and then have the Psilons declare war, I could get some brownie points by glassing a few bear worlds.

Surprisingly, all 3 of them are up for it (although the Humans wanted 875 bc payment, which I gladly payed). A few short turns later, the Silicoids are begging for a non-aggression pact, which I sign. The next 20 or so turns are spent bombing the bears every once in a while, bringing up my relations with the other three races. 5 years before the election, the apes and rocks both ask for alliances. It's a risky move, since they are still at war with the brains. But on the other hand, it would allow the possibility for harmony relationships. I've been stuck at peaceful for a while. I signed their alliances, and then signed one with the Psilons.

My techs have still been coming in. One turn before the election, I obtained this noteworthy prize:



That's right, I've managed to grab the highest technology in the construction tree. With such a huge empire, my tech levels have sky-rocketed. The 2450 elections roll around. No more techs pop in-between turns and I had no new planets to get between turns. The humans had complained about my relationship with the psilons and thus our own were reduced to neutral, but relations all around were good enough that I could at least get the 75 points for the Diplomat rule. Furthermore, my memory told me that diplomatic complaints could happen after the elections and that it was possible I could lose diplomatic points if I went further.

So I decided to end the game right there.



Probably the easiest victory I've ever obtained. Could've been my earliest too, but I wouldn't get many points for that.

My strategy this game was way different from my normal one. I like maxing out the homeworld immediately, but the awesome second world made me max that one out first. Kholdan didn't max out until after 2375, as I was using it a lot to seed new worlds and focus on early research.

I didn't spend any points on spying the whole game. Usually I have spies up at all times even when my opponents don't have anything. I love spies! Perhaps the main reason that the darloks are my favorite race to play. But doing everything to get on my neighbors' good side meant that I had to drop the idea of spying.

I also love invading and taking worlds from my opponents (making Bulrathi my second favorite race to play), but as much as I hated the rocks and apes for declaring war on me for no reason, I needed to keep them alive. When I'm at war, I usually do everything I can to hurt my opponents and strengthen myself. I held back. As my previous imperium shows, I like to hit early and hard. I'm aggressive.

RefSteel is right, NPGs are awesome weapons. I'm not used to using them (preferring 2-space range weapons), but this game I had a stack of around 300 smalls with NPGs and they pretty much tore apart any enemy ships that they got in combat with. The only weapon I used that was higher tech was the stinger missile, and that was because I needed something better than nuclear bombs for destroying bases.

I did notice some interesting things about the tech tree as I was going up. First of all, the weapons tree had no bombs what-so-ever. I was stuck with nuclear. The construction tree was missing ship special goodies. The planetology tree had atmospheric terraforming, but it didn't have either of the soil enrichment technologies. I wonder what would've happened to my game if I had gone up the computer tree instead of the weapon tree. My thought is that I probably would've gotten improved robotics and been able to research more quickly, but that my ability to glass AI worlds would've suffered as a result. I think I made the right choice, as the Diplomat score was the one I was most worried about and most wanted to score high on.

Good game all! I can't wait to see how everyone else did.
---

2375 snapshot:



2449 snapshot:



Colonist
3 points for each planet under my control in 2375 - 23 planets - 69 points
3 points for each vote I cast in the 2375 election - 11 votes - 33 points
1 point for each planet under my control in 2450 - 28 planets - 28 points
1 point for each vote I cast in the 2450 election - 33 votes - 33 points
165 points

Researcher
1 point for tech level in each of the six fields in 2375: 11 + 11 + 10 + 12 + 12 + 13 = 69 points
1 point for tech level in my three best fields in 2449: 51 + 39 + 46 = 136 points
205 points

Diplomat
2375:
Humans at Amiable: 14 points
Silicoids at Discord: 0 points
Psilons at Neutral: 10 points
Bulrathi at Neutral: 10 points
2449:
Humans at Neutral: 10 points
Silicoids at Harmony: 30 points
Psilons at Harmony: 30 points
Bulrathi at Hate: 0 points
104 points

163 colonist points
205 researcher points
104 diplomat points
100 points for conquest victory in 2450
x2 for at least 75 points in each of the three roles

Final score: 1144 points

Epic 21 is supposed to open today, but we're waiting on one more file from darrelljs and Ruff_Hi to get it working properly. For the moment, you can check out the temporary setup page here:

http://www.erudita.com/darrell/Epic21/epic21.html

Gris and I will repost the same info/files on the official RB server shortly. We should have it straightened out in a day or two.

http://www.garath.net/Sullla/MOO/imperium11-1.html

Did anyone get the "Rise of the Triad" reference? Please tell me someone knows where that came from.

Imperium Eleven is now open for reporting. Please post your reports in the Tournament Discussion subforum. (I see there's one there already, actually...)

I believe it is now reporting day, and I'm going to be offline for a couple days, so here goes:

Pre-game thoughts: the magic number for a medium map is 12 planets. If I have room to expand, I'd like to get the twelve best planets available, and grow them as fast as I can, while keeping the AIs friendly.
2300: Send the colony ship to Maalor, one scout to Omicron, the other scout to Anraq.
2302: Scout2 built: send it to Artemis.
2303: Settle Maalor. Wow - Ultra Rich. This game will be a micromanagement nightmare, but what a boost! Omicron is a pretty bad planet, but may be needed as a stepping stone to better worlds. Send new Scout2 to Berel. Send three colonists to Maalor. Crank up Ecology spending on Kholdan to get +1 Pop.
2304: Two Scout2s built: send to Primodius and Morrig. Three more colonists to Maalor.
2307: A nice free tech:

2305-2314: Keep sending colonists to Maalor.
2316: Maalor hits max factories; plow the overflow from the reserve back into Maalor.
2317: Start heavy-duty micromanagement: use the = button to double Maalor's production, put the rest into Kholdan.

For the rest of the game, I used the magic of positive feedback to double Maalor's production (except when I forgot), building a colony ship every 4 turns during the expansion phase, and putting the extra into Artemis for extra research. Anything beyond that went into the neediest developing planet.
2355: Contact with Silicoids. They have 9 planets, alliances with Psilons and Bulrathi. They agree to 25 BC trade.
2362: Humans take Kailis (their colony ship barely killed 3 long range NPG mediums), with my colony ship 6 turns away . They agree to 45 BC trade, NAP. They have 5 planets, no alliances. I scrap the enroute colony ship.
2368: High council meets: me vs. Silicoids. Everyone abstains, so I can vote for the rocks :D. Relations improve to Amiable. They sign NAP.
2372: Colony on Nyarl gives contacts with Psilons (1 planet) and Bulrathi (5 planets). Both agree to minimum trade.
[img][/img]
2374: Humans agree to break alliance with Silicoids; Silicoids demand Battle Computer III to break alliance with Psilons, I refuse.
2375: High council meets: me vs. Bulrathi. Everyone abstains, I vote for the Bulrathi, relations improve to Amiable. Bulrathi agree to NAP. Scoring:

Colonist = 9 votes + 12 planets = 63

Researcher = 76

Diplomat = 52
During phase 2, I built missile bases and a virtual fleet over all my planets (1 click into a Huge design). When crises arose, it was easy enough to pump reserve money into the threatened world and produce defenses while the attackers were enroute.
2384: IT9 stolen from Silicoids; Psilons threaten me for being too powerful.
2390: Psilons give an attaboy for trade.
2398: Psilons threaten me for being too big.
2399: Bulrathi refuse to break alliance with Silicoids or Psilons.
2400: ECM 2 stolen from Humans.

That was way too close.
2401: Duralloy Armor stolen from Silicoids.
2402: Controlled Barren stolen from Humans.
2303: Neither Silicoids nor Bulrathis will break alliance with the other for free.
2404: Anti-Missile Rockets stolen from Silicoids, Humans framed.
2407: Personal Deflector Shield stolen from Silicoids, they complain and drop to Restless (switch spies to Hide). Bulrathi want computer tech to break alliance with Silicoids.
2410: Controlled Tundra stolen from Humans.
2412: Another threat from the Psilons.
2413: Battle Computer 2 stolen from Psilons, Silicoids framed.
2416: Planetary Shield 5 stolen from Humans; Robotic Controls 3 stolen from Psilons, Silicoids framed. Silicoids issue a threat.
2422: Psilons declare war.
2423: Range 4 stolen from Humans; Humans declare war.
2424: Bulrathi refuse to break alliance with Silicoids.
2425: High council: me vs. Silicoids; they fail 21/35. Scanners detect an incoming Human fleet.
2428: Battle at Crius. Humans are destroyed in two planetary missile volleys.

2432: Battle at Vox. Two Human stacks destroyed, two retreat.
2433: Death Spores stolen from Psilons, Silicoids framed.
2436: I attack Bootis, clearing the Human fleet. Hyper-V Rockets stolen from Psilons, Silicoids framed. Silicoids issue a threat.

2440: Psilons attack Nyarl, retreat with one Nova left.

2441: Inertial Stabilizer stolen from Psilons.
2442: My attack on Kailis destroys a few ships and missile bases. Humans agree to peace and minimum trade. Psilons agree to peace (for 2000 BC ), won't trade.
2449: Bulrathi agree to break alliance with Silicoids for 1600 BC.
2450: High council: me vs. Silicoids:


Colonist = 16 votes + 12 planets = 28

Researcher = 120 (I emphasized the economic techs).

Diplomat = 36


With a huge tech lead, the mop-up should be no problem. By 2474, I've beaten down the AIs a bit:

And, in fact, I did just enough to elect myself in 2475:

Domination win in 2475. So, total score:
Colonist = 63+28 = 91
Researcher = 76+120 = 196
Diplomat = 52+36 = 88
Victory = 100
Total = 485x2 = 950
Post-game analysis: I needed a lot more diplomat and colonist points to unite the triad. I think I did pretty well for the first 75 years (although I should have emphasized Planetology research more), but I needed to get three of the AIs to declare on the fourth during the second 75 years. Then I could have eaten that guy's empire and made his enemies happy.