I originally played MOO back in the 90s around when it first came out (without the strategy guide). I still have the game manual (which I use for the copy protection system messages) and have the original disks. I finally started playing again sometime last summer when I found a copy online, as I've never gotten the disks to successfully load for a windows computer. I don't think I have a DOSbox, and I can't seem to use printscreen in MOO. Sorry, no screenies.

The last paragraph of the extremely good strategy guide for this game reads "One final, wry not: You don't have to defeat the Guardian of Orion to win the game. However, the victory screen always shows you being escorted to Orion to assume the throne. Now, if you won and the Guardian was left alive, those few ships escorting you would probably not provide enough protection to stop it, don't you think? Imagine if they drew the next screen. It would probably illustrate your incredibly short reign as, while en route to Orion, the Guardian blasts you to bits and the other emperors snicker in glee." Accordingly, I usually play such that I first try to vaniquish the Guardian before I win (or lose) the game. And I did so in this one.

When I first looked at the map I thought something like "hmm... in the center, top 3 in there (Psilons, Klackons, Humans), this might just play a little harder than average." A few minutes later I looked at my opponents again and realized "No... this should make for a cakewalk... and not because it's average." The question that then became interesting was "How many planets can I colonize?" Why? Well, I've got the very best planetology researchers in the game and don't have The Silicoids around. Then I opened up the save and noticed 4 stars within 3 parses and a green star only two parsecs away. With The Sakkra that sounds like a huge, fast diaspora.

I sent my colony ship to the green 2-parsec away star right away. From the first turn on for a while I had Sssla crank out a scout 2 ship while building industry. I decided against early propulsion research since I had so many stars nearby and thought I could catch up in planetology easily, so I set research for construction, but didn't put any RP in there right away. I popped *improved eco restoration* at Arietis as I founded it. I seriously thought "Should I bother finishing??? This game feels won already."

I have to admit a certain uneasiness with the Sakkra. Not that I can't play them, but I usually use the "baton passing technique". For instance, let's say we have Crius, Laan, and Kronos near each other, with Crius at 53 (out of 100), Laan at 20 (out of 50), and Kronos at 2 (out of 70). I'll usually take 3 population points from Crius on that turn and send them to Laan. Then on the next turn I'll send any population above 50 from Crius again to Laan. Once Laan reaches more than size 25, I'll send the extra population points above size 25 (1 if at size 26, 2 at size 27) to Laan for a while... until it reaches the halfway point or thereabouts. This way my empire grows faster. It seems almost necessary to do something like this with The Silicoids, and for most everyone it works out fairly well. It doesn't really feel quite right with The Sakkra somehow, but it might work out better than I think.

Anyways, so I sent some population points to Arietis for a while... 9 on the first turn, 6 on the second turn... and reduced the ecology ratio right away. I had Arietis go for max tech right away and started research as Sssla. I started on improved ind. tech. 9 as I wanted. I sent some scouts to trail some other scouts around this time, so that soon after one scout arrived I could move it around and scout another world quicker, while still leaving a scout there. Arietis had 12 RP by 2304 and 24 by 2305, and then started to scale back construction, since I had interest accumulating, and started on planetology... choosing Dead Environment as my tech. Finally it seemed like I had something a little less favorable.

I scouted the Klackons ultra poor planet in 2305, but didn't formally meet them. In 2307 I spotted a Psilon scout 1 parsec away from a star in the east close by, so of course I sent my next scout there. Arietis had 28 RP at this time. In 2308 I scaled back planetology and construction to start research on propulsion. I reserached range 4. In 2410 I designed a colony ship with 2 lasers on it, costing 502 BC. Sssla hadn't maxed out on industry, but started on colony ships still working a little on industry... the first one took my 5 years. Arietis gave me 38 RP at this point. In 2412 a Klackon colony ship appeared at Lyae. I decided NOT to try and hold it with LR pop guns.

In 2413 or so The Darloks tried to scout Vulcan, I learned improved ind. tec. 9 and started on improved. ind. tech. 8. In 2414 my first built colony ship headed for Beta Ceti. In 2416 I sent 17 pop from Arietis to Sssla. I learned range 4 and started on irriduium fuel cells. I built Beta Ceti. In 2418 I met The Klackons who told me "Resistance is Futile." Indeed buggers. They had 4 colonies and played as Ruthless Diplomats. I put a tick towards a spy and set security to 2%. I formed a 25 BC trade agreement with them and noticed I had outteched them, but trailed in all other categories. Unease relations. I sent 20 pop points from Sssla to Beta Ceti and emphasized propulsion research. The Klackons soon colonized Lyae.

In 2321 I had my next colony ship which went to Mu Delphi. Arietis also finally started building some industry, with Sssla now researching a wee bit. In 2323 I started on weapons research... I got way too paranoid actually on this. In 2324 I founded Mu Delphi and in 2325 met The Psilons... honorable technologists, with only Mentar as their lone world... exactly where I had predicted to myself where it would lie. I formed a 50 BC trade with The Psilons. I finished another colony ship and had Sssla build 9 scout ships the next turn. Then a colony ship.

In 2329 I build Kronos. In 2333 Sssla maxed out on industry. I founded Romulas also and I got the "Sakkra empire has grown in strength... already they control 6 star systems." I met The Humans in 2334... honorable diplomats They had fewer planets, but outproduced us at that point. About this time I also pushed back a Bulrathi colony ship at Yarrow. In 2338 I found the Guardian and scouted Nazin... still no contact with The Darloks. I learned hand lasers and started on hyper-x rockets. In 2345 I met The Bulrathi... Agreesive Expansionists and started on battle computer mark II. In 2350 I got a pirates in Rayden message... a message that lasted the rest of the gaem. I swapped Improved Eco. Restoration with the Klacks for Battle Computer Mark II this turn and started on ECM Jammer Mark II. I also established a 100 BC trade route with The Bulrathis.

In 2352 I learned controlled dead and researched controlled toxic. 2356-improved ind. tech. 8-reduced waste 60%. I soon after learned range 6. In 2366 I founded Maretta and met The Darloks... xenophobic diplomats. Ecm Jammer II-Battle Computer Mark IV. I founded Centauri somewhere around here and had a vote of me vs. The Klackons. I voted The Klackons and still had undecisive results. Controlled toxic-improved terra. +30. In 2376 I had 13 star systems. Hyper-x rockets-merculite missiles. I had designed a few ships around here and built a couple for some defense... something like medium ships with lasers on them I think. I don't recall if I used them at all or not, but if I did they maybe fought one or two defensive battles.

In 2379 The Darloks declared war and The Humans a turn later when I found Vulcan and Nitzer. In 2386 I founded Cygni and in 2387 Paranar. In 2388 The Darloks got 800 BC from a wealthy merchant. In 2391 I noticed I had the power lead, and I sent out my huge LR Toxic colony ship to Tyr. Spica (I think of the Bulrathi) went Fertile this turn. In 2401 I founded Tyr and had 18 star systmes. I ended up not grabbing a barren star system in the north near The Humans I probably could have grabbed. In 2403 The Bulrathis declared war.

In 2413 I noticed a human fleet coming towards Crius. I designed and built a fleet of pop lasers with I think a sub-light engine on it. I got attacked by a huge ship with 24 hyper-Vs on it and Crius only had one missile base at the time. The missile base didn't get attacked, as the human ship fired its rockets at my pop fighters which just weaved around and avoided the slow missiles. I scrapped the pop laser ships the next trun. In 2414 The Klackons declared war. I know I haven't listed every tech choice, but I know I went ind. tech. 6-ind. tech. 5. In 2414 a Klackon stack attacked Sssla which proved absolutely no match for my missile bases.

In 2423 I founded Rigel. In 2425 they all voted for Alexander, except for me. I abstained 13 of the 32 votes to delay any sort of victory for anyone. I 2426 I scrapped the last ships of my *active* fleet. Of course, sometime back I stared pre-building with huge ships... those pre-builds turned in stargates later on. I got my imp. robotic controls IV and researched advanced space scanner. atmospheric terra.-advanced soil enrichment, warp dissipato-impulse drives around here. A little later repulsor beams-class X planetary shields (I think I had class V before this), fusion beam-omega V bomb.

I did get some peace offers here and there from the AIs which I took. Of course they would usually soon redeclare war, so I didn't have, nor try to maintain trade agreements. Occasionally an obsolete stack would waltz up to a planet and then quickly run away once it saw 6 or so missile bases (I had scrapped my entire fleet in 2426 and I didn't really use it much even then). Of course, the number of missile bases on a planet when up over time, and actually I way overbuilt them on some planets, as I stopped micromanaging in this game, as it started to bore me and I didn't see a need to maximize efficiency. improved ind. 5-andrium armor, advanced soil enrichment-complete eco. restoration. advanced space scanner-imp. robotics V, class X planet. shield-cloaking device, omega v-scatter pack VII, and around 2459 I started researching intergalactic star gates.

In 2459 I got a message that Paranar (my ultra rich planet) would go Nova. Even though I tried to pump BCs into it, it still ended up going nova in 2471. It got radiated. Interestingly enough, after terraforming it, Paranar had a max population of 145 and it had a max pop of 110 before. In this case, the nova actually helped. andrium armor-imp. ind. tech. 4, complete eco. restor.-universal antidote, imp. ind. tech. 4-reduced waste 20% (I but a lot of RP into imp. ind. tech. 4 when I started on it, so I got it fairly fast), cloaking device-class XV planet. shield, star gates-high energy focus, improved robot. V-hyperspace comm., scatter pack VII-particle beam, reduced ind. 20% and then improved ind. 2. I got a violent quake on one of my planets at some time.

high energy focus-trilithium crystals in 2484 and I started actually building stargates this turn. universal antidote-improved terra. +100, class XV planetary shield-personal barrier shield., particle beam-hand phasor, hyperspace communications-battle computer mark IX, trilithium crystals-anti-matter drives. In 2500 I had all my stargates (not all on the same turn) up and started pre-building my fleet to destroy the Guardian of Orion. I didn't build a stargate at my artifacts planet, nor my ultra rich planet. Although, I think I built one at my rich planet. Every other planet had a stargate. improved terra. +100-complete terra., hand phasor-neutronium bomb, improved ind. tech 2-admantium armor. In 2505 the star crystal started to come into our galaxy in the northwest near The Humans.

personal barrier shield-class XX planetary shield, battle computer mark IX-X, admantium armor-neutronium armor, complete terra.-imporved terra. +20. In 2516 Human colonists at Stalaz died from the star crystal. anti-matter drive-thorium cells, class XX planetary shield-personal absorption shield, improved terra+ 20-cloning, neutronium bomb-scatter pack X, cloning-advanced eco. restoration, nuetronium armor-armored exoskeleton. In 2525 The Humans destroyed the space/star crystal.

Before this... sometime when I scrapped my fleet... I stopped micromanaging all that much. I still would use the equals button to throw BC into my ultra rich planet (which I had on max reserved industry through much of the game), and my artifact planet, and some other planets. But, I set most of my planetary spending at a certain ratio and set it there. Consequently, I wayy over-built missile bases on some worlds. thorium cells-hyper drives, personal abs. shield-lightning shield, advanced eco.-improved terra+50, battle computer X-battle computer V, armored exoskeleton-reduced ind. 40%, scatter pack X-stellar converts, improved terra +50-improved terra +80, advanced damage control researched around here, battle computer mark V-battle computer VI, hyper drives-sub-space interdictor. In 2537 I finally designed 5 identical classes of small ships. They each had a mark IV battle computer, a particle beam, and a high energy focus device. The basic, slow retro engine on these babies. Their mission? Destroy the Guardian of Orion. Of course, I usually prefer a sub-space teleporter on these things. I started building them in 2537 also and focused them all to Gion... which lay 3 parsecs away from Orion.

I produced some 2000+ small ships the first turn I built them (due partially to pre-building). From having no fleet whatsoever I jumped ahead of The Bulrathi, The Darloks, and The Psilons in a single turn in terms of fleet strength. I also egded near The Humans on that turn. The game had gone so well and I really have gotten so used to having sub-space teleporters as opposed to a high energy focus beams on similar ships, this only played on average, and I hadn't played in a few months really all amounted to that I got a bit cocky and sent these ships out to Orion immediately... due in 3 turns at Orion, which lay 3 parsecs away from Gion. The next turn I designed a medium standard colony base with a hyper-thrust engine on it and built one. adv. damage control-adv. construction 1, imp. terra. 80-bio. terminator. In 2541 I encountered the Guardian of Orion. After moving closer to it for a couple of turns my first successful shot took off 1946 damage. I ended up taking over 3000 damage off the Guardian, but I didn't defeat it and lost all those ships, as I said, I got cocky.

In 2543 I had the fleet strength lead and sent out some 3500+ ships to Orion... they all had the same design as before. stellar conveter-mauler device. In 2546 I encountered the Guardian again.... it took 1053 damage from a stack of 192 ships, then 2493 from a larger stack (it immediately got fired on after it fired, so I couldn't see how many ships it had), 2415 from another stack, and the rest from another stack. I sent my colony ship to Orion after that and got a message about an amoeba coming into the galaxy. It lay near gion. I colonized Orion and sent population points there. I designed small, fast ships with neturonium bombs with reserach going from hyperthrust engines-inetrial stabilizer. In 2550 I won elections 43-14 over Alexander of The Humans. 39 of those votes came from the Sakkra, 4 from The Bulrathi. I couldn't have voted myself in earlier or won elections earlier. Still, 39/57 means I have over 2/3 of the population points of the galaxy, so that counts as a "conquest victory" according to the nomeclature here, right? Well... read on.

As I said before I didn't have *any* active fleet from 2426 until 2537... well over a century. I didn't take any planets from the AI before or after then. So, how many planets did I conquer? That's right, 0. Conquest victory... huh?

Finally another Imperium and I can play it. Quite happy I load up the game. We are in the center of the galaxy, I scout the yellow star with my colony ship/1st scout and the red star with my 2nd scout.

The yellow stars is Romulas, 80 pop jungle. Colonized.

Arietis host artifacts, I only get Fuel Cells 4, what a disappointment, anything else would have been better.

2327 I colonize Arietis, I wish I would have looked southwest earlier. I make contact with the Klackons who settled 5 planets to the southwest quick and early.

2334 Beta Ceti is colonized. Our immeadite neighbours are Xenophobic Darloks and Ruthless Klackons. Thankfully the difficulty is medium.

Mu Delphi is colonized soon later, the Psilons make contact and the Darloks have 6 planets.

Initial expansion:


I try to make a bid for the southern terran and the eastern minimal planet which means getting some LR Laser ships out, which I haven´t build so far.

2354

Yarrow is colonized and we contact the Bulrathis. I update my range at this time, recognizing that no good engine is in sight in the propulsion tree. Always annyoing.

News come up, we are 3rd in production. 2360 also sees a first LR Las in preparation for our Dead Enviroment, which I immeaditly pursue after IT +20. Perhaps a mistake? I still think I was quick enough to get quite some planets.

Hyper-X Rockets come in and I decide to ignore all the small choices for merculite rockets, as being in the middle rockets will be crucial. A good defence is even more important in such a position. The tech tree hurts even more as there is no low tier Robotics Controls in sight.

Centauri to the south is colonized and most now habitable (thanks to dead enviroment) planets in the south are ready to be colonized and watched over by a laser frigate. Those 5 planets added to our 7 would mean a quick end to this game, so production of many colony ships commences..

At Vulcan I am shortly worried as the Humans are smart enough to equip their colony ship with a laser, chasing me away, although they can´t colonize the dead planet due to lacking tech.


2381 My reckless expansion soon brings us into contact with the humans and voting starts with Morfane the Darkloks taking a nice share of the votes and us getting none.

Stats and map:

So here we go, my first try ever at a MOO imperium.....n00b alert

I have only a small amount of time so I'll put a very summarized report hoping to get the time to have a much more detailed one in later today or tomorrow (depending on how I come out an hospital visit I have to do)

A little BG here, I am a long itme MOO fan (as well as CIV series and RRTycoon, and many others) but I am definitely NOT a good player...I can take my games at hard...sometimes I win, and I can manage an Average Medium...or at least I think SO.

Well, let's get started...every one should have seen this



4 stars in range, the Yellow at 3, red 3 and green at 2...white I don't care.
Well, let's get to the non-obvious path..I chose the green star for my colship and bound the scouts to the others.

WOW, I draw the good one this time, and Ariteis is an artifacts planet....err..well maybe not the best of the techs I got.



but will help nontheless.....even thou seeing the other reports...I MAY get a bit envious of those scatter-V or Deuterium....whatever, my Liz did a good job finding ANYTHING at all.
(y'know, we don't pack those scouts with the sharpest tools in the box... )

Anyway I get my share and have a second colony, sent pop form sssla and I follow the usual path of maxing the HW while colony carries research (opened all fileds on turn 9), in this case it's an artifact world so it's all but logical.

Here's what I got around 2308-2310 or so....



I found Ants...and a bit later I fend off some Brains scout on the East at Mu Delphi and Beta Ceti in the following years...I'm close to two of the 3 big boys out there (as per Sirian's classification of the strong races).

Things go on with me churning off colships to the East even thou I have to skip the big jungle globe in the north (Romulas) just to get those two habitable off brains Hands.
In the meantime I chase bears off Yarrow, a Minimal 30 N of what I found to be Mentar, the only possible location for Psilons.
Given my scout reports, Psi are stranded with OPE, but they also COULD be having a nice breeze in the SE corner.

Made contact with Ants on turn 23, NOT due to my range research so....they got (at least) Hydro cells....



wow, friendly ants, I'm sure we'll dofine as long as you keep come under our feets..I mean , paws, I mean whatever e have as grappling edges

I woudl ike to keep Lyae the big terran close to their borders (too close), so I fent off a gazillion Klakon Colships, even with scout escorts....but at in turn 24 I encointer their medsize Milssileboat.



Okay, I CAN outrun those volleys, and such I do, obliging the ants to hold off.

Here's the first blooper in my game, I should have gone for Controlled Dead
just after getting ImpEco, I THEN could either desing an LR colship in a large desing OR get Trax and Then Lyae....it Ends up that I get Terraforming+20 due to a misclick. To my great dismay I did play the following turns CONVINCED that I could get to Lyae in a matter of some turn and devoted some LR fighter ships to cover the planet, subtracitng resources to the colships thet sholu dhave gotten Romulas and Yarrow, not mentioning I delayed Range4 research.

In the mean time I got both Mu delphi and Beta Ceti, I scout the eastern planet on the southern cluster and find one more reason to get Lyae...it woudl definitely cut off the ant and stick them in the corner giving me room to get Centauri (the big Ocean in the southern cluster) and spread S from there.

More to come in a bit....

First off, I'd like to give a hearty "Thank You!" to Sullla for putting in the time and energy to re-start the Imperia. I'm looking forward to lots of great gaming and discussion.

Ok, so let's see what we have here. Psilon, Klackon, and Human, probably the three hardest AI races. There's always a real danger of a diplomatic loss with both the Psilons and Humans in the mix (if they show up as their normal selves, that is). Darlok's to foment suspicion, and the bad starting relations with the Bulrathi can't be ignored. What has me intrigued, however, is the map. Very unlikely that the yellow next to us is a homeworld. Odds are that there are 3 homeworlds up N, one isloated in the E, and one close by in the SW. The SW is going to be the interesting part, I think, especially if there are two races there. Could bring early war from lack of space for the AI to expand into. Also lots of potential for big AI's if the homeworlds aren't evenly distributed.

The Sakkra are a pretty one-dimensional race. They expand very fast, but that's their only benefit. Being successful with them often hinges on getting big and shutting everybody else down quickly. So that's going to be my plan; expand fast and hard, box the AI in as much as I can, and hopefully coast to an early victory. That shouldn't be too hard here on Average difficulty, especially if I can land a diplomatic or domination win.

So let's get playing, shall we? First, the ever-critical decision of where to send the initial ships. There are four (!) planets in range to start. Normally, I would gamble and send my col ship to a likely target. However, in this case I'm going to send the scouts out first. If that green to the SW is habitable, I want to grab it ASAP, as there is likely an AI or two down there. If not, it's going to be a long haul back to either the red or the yellow. The green is only two turns away, so I think that delaying the first colony by an assured two turns is better than risking more if the green isn't habitable. So scouts go to the yellow and green. I'm also going to do something rare and build scouts from the get-go (usually only do that on small maps.) I think expanding in the right direction is going to be key to this game, and I need to know the lay of the land to see what avenues are open, plus set up scout blockades wherever I can. First batch of three goes to the red's in the SW, and to my E. Second batch went to the green in the SE, and the Whites/Green to the W and N.

Scouting the Green planet reveals... a size 35 artifacts world! I drew Ion Cannon as my free tech. Interesting, this will likely mean a LOT of variation in reports, depending on what's obtained at this world. Early range/planetology tech can have a dramatic effect, akin to a free settler from a hut in Civ. Built another two rounds of scouts while the col ship travelled, then sent 15 from Sssla to speed up the development of Arietis.

2307 saw me with enough information to open the technology tree. I'd discovered that the Klackon's are to my SW, and have claimed the Ultra Poor at Argus. Glad I got Arietis first! I'll bet that anybody who went North or East and lost this world had a rough time. I'm going to need some early popguns for defense there. I don't see a burning need for Range 5. I can expand in several directions without it. The only thing it would help is reaching the cluster in the SE, but that's a blue and unlikely to be immediately useful (scout arrives in 2 turns), or perhaps to that yellow past the barren in the SW, but that's likely to already be claimed anyway. I'm actually hoping that Controlled Barren is in the tree, as I'd like another world down there to counter the Bugs besides a size 35 artifact. I also noted a Psilon scout incoming to Beta Ceti. That means their homeworld is to the SE, and they are isolated. The difficulty of this map just rose a couple notches. Although I didn't meet a scout at Mu Delphi, it's a good bet that they've explored it. Here are my initial tech choices:

RW80% over IIT9 Early waste clean-up is very important, and I'm not likely to be going Improved Eco unless it's the only choice...
... which it is
And of course, Range 4.

Well, that was a bit disappointing, especially when I found out that the blue to the SE is another size 50 barren. I decided that the best thing to do was concentrate on getting Beta Ceti/Mu Delphi then Romulas, and developing Sssla and Arietis. Then I could make a push for some of those farther planets. I just hoped that the bugs don't get Controlled Barren, or I'd be cut-off down there. After discovering the two size 80 Terrans at Lyae and Centauri, I decided to trickle-research Range 4 first to see if Range 6 was available.

The Klackons showed up with their first unmanned col ship at Lyae in 2314. While I was loathe to give up the planet, I felt that an LR blockade might cost me territory to the East, and the isolated Psilons seemed like the bigger threat. I'd stymie them as much as possible, but conceded that the bugs would probably get Lyae. I started Beta Ceti's col ship in 2318, launching it 6 years later to found the colony in 2327.

I caught a break in 2319 when Range 5 popped at 5%, revealing Range 6! As soon as Romulas, Beta Ceti, and Mu Delphi were colonized, I'd be researching that at full-steam. Started minimal trade with the Ruthless Diplomatic Bugs, and some more trickle-research on Range 6. By the way, Sullla, I'm trickle-researching based on my head calculations, not the spreadsheet, for this one

I completed Mu Delphi's col ship in 2331, and paused to send 25 pop to Beta Ceti (for both worlds to the east) and build a few more scouts. My next col ship would actually be going to Yarrow, past the Nebula, as it would be in range once Mu Delphi was colonized, which happened in 2336 (2335 on the colonization screen; technically, the founding happens at the end of the last turn.) Met the Honorable Technologist (eep!) Psilons, who were surprisingly running an OPE (One Planet Empire) Wow, must be some bad territory over there. Minimal trade established with the Brains. BTW, at this point I was already up to Relaxed with the Klackons. Never overlook early trade; diplomatically, it can really save your bacon, and give you breathing room to develop.

2340 sees me in pretty good shape. My third col ship has just completed, bound for Yarrow in 7 turns. Sssla has 98 pop, 185 factories, and will be maxed by the time my col ship for Romulas completes in 6 turns. Range 6 is ~1/3 done, and Arietis will max in two turns, whereby I can go full-bore on that tech. The bugs STILL haven't taken Lyae from me, but I'm under no illusions that I can land the planet. However, my next col ship completed in 2346, with Range 6 at 2% and Lyae is still available. So I made the decision to delay Romulas yet again, and try for the planet. I could always use the ship at Centauri if it came to that.

Yarrow was colonized in 2347, putting me in contact with the Aggressive Expansionist Bulrathi. Relations with the Bears at Neutral at the start? Guess I remembered that wrong. Of course, minimal trade was established. I saw a Darlok scout a long time ago at Crius (beat them there by one turn). Now the only question is whether the Humans are crammed in with them in the NE, or at the yellow binary to the N. I sent colonists from Beta Ceti to Yarrow instead of Mu Delphi; I wanted that world up and running ASAP, lest the Psilons get some less-than-Honorable thoughts.

I got lucky again when Range 6 hit on the second turn in percentages. Now I can turn my research to some much-needed clean-up techs. I threw all of the research into Improved Eco, to stop the cash hemmorage sooner, and hopefully reveal Controlled Tundra or Dead to secure those Barren worlds.

Fortune favors the bold. I founded Lyae and Romulas simultaneoulsy in 2353, putting me first at 7 planets. These Average AI are slackers; no way Lyae would be open on Impossible, or even Hard I'll bet. I sent half of Beta Ceti's population to Lyae, killing that planet's growth curve to try and hold on to my prize. Improved Eco was at 18%, and would fall the next turn, revealing Controlled Dead :D I love it when a plan comes together!

Col ships for Centauri and Kronos completed in 2354 and 2357, respectively. With no military on hand, and boxed-in rivals, I decided it was high time for some ship construction. At this point, I was hoping for an early diplomatic victory. Relations were at Relaxed with most of my neighbors, and though I had a good chunk of territory, it didn't seem to be pissing anybody off. So I just needed a few cardboard cutouts. Having those Ion cannons was nice, but without Construction tech, I was limited in how I could employ them. I ultimately opted for a plain Ion fighter, instead of a medium with Class I shields/computer and 3 Ion's and a laser. Disposable guns seemed the way to go. My first batch of 21 actually went to Trax, as I saw a Klackon col ship, escorted by a single medium. Controlled Dead was full, so I thought that if I could hold the planet for a few more turns, I could well and truly box the bugs in. However, I arrived a turn too late, so the bugs got Trax. Oh well, relations were at Amiable, so I wasn't too worried.

Colonized Centauri and Kronos in 2360 (didn't plan on these double-foundings, honest!) and met the Humans. Oops, mis-called where they were. That means the Shifters are up North. I sent 20 from Sssla to Centauri. I hated to do that to a fully-developed world, but I didn't have population to spare elsewhere. Controlled Dead completed in 2360-something, and I chose +30 over Toxic. I felt the boost was more than I could get from additional hostile worlds right now. Besides, I'm shooting for the early victory here, and 30 more pop at each of my many worlds would go a long way towards securing that. Klackons came calling the same turn, looking for a NAP. I thought long and hard on that one. Did they have the range to reach the second Barren in the SE? If so, then I wouldn't be able to stop them. OTOH, it would boost relations. I ultimately rejected it for the time being. Once the SE was secure, then we'd talk.

I paused to build a base at Arietis after Controlled Dead, and built colony ships out of Sssla and Mu Delphi. I counted 8 worlds that I could reach, so that would keep those planets busy for some time. I never did get any fighters built for Mu Delphi, and was a little nervous about my paper military (not even sturdy enough to be called cardboard!), but hey, this is only Average, right? Everybody is feeling pretty friendly, due to steadily increasing trade.

I opened the other tech fields with Beta Ceti while my core was busy, and found a tough choice on weapons. I knew I wanted a missile, but debated on Hyper-X vs Merculite's. The Merculite's are stronger, and advance the tree. However, the Hyper-X can be had for almost 1/3 the cost, and if things DID go south with another race, I'd have defenses a lot sooner. I ultimately went with the Hyper-X's.

The first elections happened in 2380, me vs the Humans. Everybody abstained but myself and the Darlok's, who both voted for the Apes. I have 6/22 votes, and the Humans are isolated from the bulk of the galaxy, so unless everybody gets trigger fingers at once in the next 20 years, I've still got a pretty good shot at things. All of the abstinations were a little troubling, but hey, everybody seemed to love those trade agreements, and I figured I could woo enough friends in 20 turns.

An industrial accident made Willow glow in the dark in 2386; not too bad a loss. Here's my situation that year:





I've managed to execute my plan to box in all of the AI's to the edges of the map. The Psilons beat me to the Poor to their S, but I secured every other world in the core that I could. I have Hyper-X bases at the core worlds on all fronts, and +30 should pop in the next 5 or so turns. I just founded Gion in the E last turn, sending a col ship to scout the planet. There's another heading for the red to its N, though that would turn out to be an empty system. The Humans are stubbornly guarding the red between Darlok and Bulrathi space, and I'm belatedly sending some scouts to the far W, which I never had a chance at. On the graphs, everybody's about even in tech and production, though now that the colonization effort is complete for now, I'm about to open up leads there too.

The Bugs came calling for a NAP again in 2387, and this time I accepted. That seemed the final key in securing the Diplo win in 2400. By now, that was my goal, to try and pull a diplomatic coup, and take the game in only 100 turns, with no shots fired anywhere in the galaxy. One big huge love fest :hippie:

The AI, it seemed, read my mind, and decided to pursue an alternate course. The Klackons dissolved the NAP the turn after asking for it Unwilling to settle for their little cubby-holes, the Darlok's came for Maretta in 2391 with 58 smalls, and the Humans came for Crius 3 years later. I had spent so much to expanding that I didn't have any military on hand to repulse them, and the planets were taken away from me. The Klackons made plays for Arietis and Sssla, but were easily repulsed. The Darlok's upped the stakes and declared war in 2393. Not wanting to be left out, the Psilons attacked Gion in 2398, "honorably" declaring war the previous turn. The invasion failed by 6 troops, but the planet was toast anyway. I broke down and turned the Humans on the Darloks when the Psilons declared, to escape a dogpile, but my grand plans to bring peace and love the the galaxy were dashed.

The fatal error, of course, was my lack of military. I had bent everything in my empire to expanding as rapidly as possible. That's actually a good thing, but I pursued it way too long. 50-odd Ion fighters is simply not enough to deter boxed-in AI's. Make no mistake, the AI in MOO is playing to WIN. Unlike CIV, where your opponents may be content to settle for a smaller empire, the AI in MOO reacts violently to being cornered. I had hoped that Average difficulty would soften some of that behavior, but that clearly wasn't the case. Once all of the peaceful opportunities for expansion are past, the AI WILL resort to armed conflict of some sort to continue to grow. Flags are NOT enough to prove ownership; guns are the only authority the AI understands. And I'm not talking cardboard cutouts, I'm talking a bona fide military.

Predictably, the 2400 elections were a far cry from what I had hoped for: the Bulrathi and Klackons both abstained while everybody else voted for the Humans, who got 10/28. I had 11/28, which might have been enough if everybody had stayed friendly with me .

And here we go.
[url="http://www.sumcbabydaze.org/games/imp10/imp10.htm"]
Brack's Game.[/url]

"Pre-ramble": I'm feeling a little frustrated with images right now.. Mine appear to be thumbnail-size whether I use the RB site or ImageShack. Maybe they really are that size? but then why are other people's images larger? I know my version of DosBox is not the most current, maybe that's the difference. Well, I don't want to keep wrangling with images, I want to get posting! So please bear with me for a report that uses just a few (but illustrative, I think) images..

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"Sakks Fifth Avenue"
or
"Sakkra in the Sack"

I spend a little while looking at the map. Maybe I'm just really used to playing on small maps, but I am struck by the number of stars within fairly short range of Sssla. There are 30 stars within 10 parsecs. The number of stars within five parsecs (9 stars) is more in line with other recent games of mine. But within our initial range we have no less than four stars, all of different colors: yellow, red, green, and white. I decide to scout them all before moving my colony ship.

Looking for where AIs might be, I also observe the cluster of yellow stars to the southwest and the yellow star east of Sssla.

Seeing how much scouting we're going to have to do, I design the Scout 2 on the first turn and arrange for one to be built each turn.

2301 Scout Arietis (artifact planet, Desert 35). What luck: we get IT + 20, a lovely tech to have in the early game (especially for free), not only for terraforming planets but also making colony ships much cheaper, plus the fact that it's a level 8 tech means I will be able to see the planetology options up to level 15 when I open the field.

2302 Scout Romulas (Jungle 80-nice size!)

2303: Scout Beta Ceti (Desert 45)

2304 Scout Antares (no planets)

2305 Decide to colonize Arietis before Romulas, in case there is an AI in the southwest. I see a Psilon scout coming to Beta Ceti.

2307 Colonize Arietis. Send 2 million population (2M) from Sssla. Scout Kronos (desert 40), Mu Delphi (Arid 65), and Trax (Barren 50).

2308 Send another 2M to Arietis. I probably kept this trickle going but didn’t write it down. Our scout reaches Klackon-controlled Argus and is chased away. Scout Vulcan (Dead 25).

2309 Scout Crius (Tundra 20) and Simius (Barren 50).

2310 We encounter a Darlok scout in the north. We scout Proteus (Minimal 50), where there is a Klackon colony, and Lyae (Terran 85).

2312 I put funding into tech to open planetology and propulsion. I decide to again defer colonizing Romulas, this time in favor of Beta Ceti , due to the proximity of the Psilons to Beta Ceti. A Klackon fighter chases my scout from Lyae. (The fighter later left and I was able to send a scout back). In planetology, I choose Controlled Dead environment over Improved Eco Restoration. In propulsion, range 4 is the only option; and for once, we don't even need a range greater than three yet! A Klackon scout arrives at and retreats from Kronos.

2313 We colonize Beta Ceti.

2314 Send 3M to Beta Ceti. I think I kept a trickle going over the next few turns.

2316 Scout Centauri (Terran 80 in south). Ooh, we want that one.

2317 6M to Beta Ceti. We reach Maretta (Barren 35 at 6 parsecs)
and encounter a Bulrathi scout. At this point, I thought the Buls could be in the North or the Northeast (of course, it turned out they were in the Northeast). A Klackon colship and scout arrive at Lyae but apparently have no weapons, since they retreat.

2318 Colship produced, RELOC to Beta Ceti so we can try to snag Mu Delphi, on the Psilons ' doorstep! Scout Cygni (Inferno 10).

2319 Open Construction, choose IIT9 over RW 80%. Scout Rigel--Radiated 30 @ 6 parsecs.

2320 Route colship to Mu Delphi.

2321 Send 3M to Beta Ceti. Scout Willow--Tundra 20 @ 6 parsecs. Meet the Klackons (Ruthless Diplomat); they have four planets.

2322 Colonize Mu Delphi. Klacks show up with armed escorts and colonize Lyae.

2324 Klacks refuse a trade agreement.

2325 Colonize Romulas--we were finally out of other non-hostile worlds to colonize! Scout Yarrow and chase off Psilon scout there. We also chase off a Psilon colship from Paranar (UR Toxic at 5 parsecs); the ship didn’t have a toxic base.
2328 I notice we can’t reach Kronos yet because it’s 4 parsecs away. Divert funding to tech and reopen propulsion. Klacks again refuse a trade agreement.

2329 We chase away a Darlok scout at Vulcan.

2331 Chase away Klack scouts arriving at Simius.

2334 Klacks again refuse a trade agreement. Range 4 pops, go to Range 6. We meet the Psilons (Honorable Technologist); they are a one-planet empire! I look at the planets and stats screens and see that even though we fast-breeding Sakkras have 283 pop on our 5 planets, the Klacks (who also have 5 planets now) have a longer population bar! Don’t know how they pulled that off.

2335 I see I have just 75 factories at Sssla due to churning out colships. I initiate trade with the Psilons at 75 BC/year. A scout of mine reaches Orion in the east. A Psilon scout comes to Cygni.
2337 Klacks finally accept a trade agreement of 100 BC/year. They refuse to exchange tech. We encounter their scouts at Nitzer (Tundra 20).

2338 I open force fields & weapons. Choose Hyper-V over Hand Lasers (for now), and of course, Class II shields. I don’t see in my notes when I got Hyper-V, but I know I chose Hyper-X next. I was very keen to get some respectable tech for missile bases to protect Arietis from the Klackons.

2339 Encounter Bulrathi ships at Rayden (no planets). Colonize Kronos and trigger GNN message—we’re first to 6 colonies. Meet Humans (Honorable Diplomat); they control, besides Sol, Thrax, Quayal and Stalaz. They must have range 5 since we don’t and we’re 5 parsecs from Sol.

2340 I see the Humans are in alliance with the Darloks.

2341 Produce another colship, start Sssla on building more factories, open Computers. (BC II—only choice as I recall).

Here I was thinking that I would have to develop range tech to colonize the Barren planets and use one of them (Simius) as a stepping stone to Terran Centauri (not seeing that Range 6 would actually put me within reach of Centauri without any stepping stones). Only later I realized, Controlled Dead and Construction tech could make it possible to put reserve tanks on a colship with a standard base.

Chase Psilon scout from Gion, Dead 35; scout Exis, Arid Poor 55.

2345 Get Controlled Dead, choose Improved Eco.

2347 Colonize Yarrow, meet Bulrathi (Aggressive Expansionist).

2348 The Buls have Ursa, Hyboria, and Gienah. I initiate trade with them at 25 BC/year. I see that we can colonize Maretta now.

Here I saw that Range 6 would make it possible to get to Centauri, but still did not yet realize it would be easier to get RIW 80% and put reserve tanks on a colship.

2354 Scout Klystron (no planets) and Spica (Desert 35)

2355 Sssla now has 132 factories—still a ways to go. Finally I see the RIW 80% option for LR colships. We have close to 500 population. RIW 80% pops, Duralloy next. Colonize Trax.

2359 Buls come calling, want 100BC/year trade; I accept.

2362 BC II and Improved Eco pop. Go for ECM II and, after some debating, Controlled Toxic (to get Ultra Rich Paranar) over IT + 30.

2363 Increase trade with Klacks to 200 BC/year (at their request, I think). Class II shields pop, Class III next.

2364 Colonize Maretta and Centauri (woot!) . Meet Darloks (Xeno Diplomat).

2368 I see that we have taken a slight lead in Production. Buls destroy my scout at Spica and colonize the planet.

2370 A planet of mine (Beta Ceti) maxes factories (gasp!).

2372 Scout Rhilus (Toxic 20), Colonize Simius, Sssla finally maxes factories, “a few” turns after Sullla did it . Both of our approaches seem to have worked, though I was concerned for a while about how long it would take to get factories built and decrease missile base build times.

I see in my notes from these years that I was paying a lot of attention to how much max pop we could have on our planets (and therefore how many Council votes we would get once the first vote came up, since I saw that 2/3 of the galaxy would soon be colonized).

2373 Psilons show up to colonize Exis. The Buls declare on me for no readily apparent reason.

2375 Get Hyper-X, choose Hand Lasers for gropo. Scout Dolz (Desert 50). The Psilons declare on me, also for no readily apparent reason (maybe because they’ve decided they need to expand at my expense and are Honorable, therefore they declare before attacking?); I don’t think they could have had contact with the Buls.
I don’t recall the exact sequence of events after the Psilon DOW; I think they attacked Mu Delphi with most of their ships and my missile bases destroyed them all. Anyway, somehow I noticed that the Psilons were in such a weak position that I could attack their homeworld even though I didn’t have much tech myself (notably, no improved engines or bombs).

2376 Get ECM II, choose BC IV. The (Ruthless) Klackons offer me a nonaggression pact! I accept.

Somewhere around here I designed a medium ship to take on the Psilons. This is from the battle in 2389 so it's not my whole fleet (just most of it )



This is an unusual ship for me, having missiles, beams, and bombs. Somehow the math just worked out that way. Also, I can hardly remember the last time I designed a ship for offense with a combat speed (and warp speed) of 1. I started all the worlds near the Psilons building these and sending them to Mu Delphi.

2377 Get Controlled Toxic & Hand Lasers. I choose IT+30 and NPG next.

2378 Get Duralloy, choose IIT7.

2380 Scout Galos (no planets) and Tyr (Rich Toxic 25)

2385 Get NPG, go for Merculites.

2386 Colonize Paranar, the Ultra Rich. GNN says I’m first to 12 colonies. The Council meets; in my desire to have Paranar in my empire, I had momentarily forgotten how close we were to having 2/3 of the galaxy colonized. I hold my breath…

Alexander of the Humans gets ALL the AI votes (3 Bul, 2 Dar, 5 Human, 4 Klack, 2 Psi = 16 votes). I have 9 votes—just enough for a veto. Whew!

2387 Psilons show up at Dolz with most of their remaining fleet, to colonize it.

2389 Divert research to IT+30 so we can increase our pop and Council votes.

Claim orbit over Mentar:



I believe my ships are behind the box showing info on Mentar. I lost a few of my 22 Spirit mediums but got rid of those bases (the ships were easy). The Psilons' Nuclear missiles couldn't hold me off.

The Buls offer peace (I don’t think they even had enough range to reach me); I accept. The Darloks declare on me.

2390 Send lots of troops—at warp 1 (doh!) to Mentar. Get IT+30, go for Radiated (only choice I think?) The Humans declare on me. I destroy a Psilon Large bomber & colony ship at Mu Delphi. Get Class III shields, Class V Planetary is the only choice.

2391 The Psis managed to build a Large ship at Mentar; we destroy it. They offer peace; we have 146 transports on the way. Declined!

2393 All the Psilons’ remaining ships reach Mentar, having returned from Dolz. We destroy them all.

2394 First landing on Mentar, 42 Sakkras vs. 86 Psilons. 35 Psis survive.

2395 70 more troops land on Mentar and capture it with 204 factories. We get IT+10, ECM I, Nuclear engines (yay!), Range 5, Ion cannon, and fusion bomb. Pretty good haul!

2396 Repel Darloks from Maretta.

2397 Colonize Vulcan.

2399 Get IIT7; Choose IIT6 (the only option in the next tier). The Psilons had sent transports in a desperate-looking effort to retake Mentar, but all the transports were destroyed. Earthquake hits the Darloks at Nyarl. Council: The Humans have 6 votes now, but we picked up a vote at the Psilons’ expense and added another 2 votes with our terraforming and colonizing. The Bulrathi abstain with their 3 votes this time, so Alexander has 13 votes, I have 12.

2400 I lost a save from 2403 because it was in the “Continue Game” slot (7) and I loaded an earlier save to look at something and the game saved the just-loaded game to slot 7. I play over from 2400 as close to my original play as possible. Colonize Gion. Send troops toward Psilon Dolz.

2401 Colonize Willow.

2402 My revenue from trading with the Klackons has reached a respectable 132 BC/year out of 200; I increase the agreement to 275 and revenue falls to 27, a drop of 105 BC/year. Ouch! Discover Radiated, choose Advanced Eco.

2403 Get BC IV, go for RC IV.

2405 Get Merculites, choose Fusion Beam. Land at Dolz and capture it with 1 factory, no tech from that for some reason. Now the Psilons only have mineral-poor Exis.

Not sure when I started doing it, but sometime after finishing development on Paranar, I started pumping the reserve and doubling production at Arietis to take advantage of Artifacts.

2406 Repel weak Human and Darlok attacks in the northwest. They kept sending the same fleets over and over and retreating every time, so I stopped making note of it.

2407 Class V Planetary pops, Repulsor Beam next. Psis offer peace, I accept.

2408 Range 7 pops, Energy Pulsar next.

2412 I am amused to see the Psilons ranked 5th in tech. I was 1st by this time.

2414 IIT6 pops, choose Exoskeleton.

Here's a map from around this time. The Klackons picked up a couple of worlds north of their core.



2416 Advanced Eco pops, Advanced Soil Enrichment next. Buckle your seatbelts, Sakkra economists! I started thinking maybe I could win by 2425 if I got Soil very fast and added all the pop, but then realized that I couldn’t use it on my many Hostile planets yet.

2420 Humans offer peace. Decline, we’ll attack them sooner or later (turned out to be later).

2424 Advanced Soil Enrichment pops, IT+50 next. In the Council, the AIs all vote for Alexander, but out of all of them, only the Klackons have acquired another vote since 2399, so the AIs have 17, while I have 14.

2426 Fusion Beam pops, choose Omega-V bomb.

2427 Energy Pulsar pops, finally there is a drive tech in our tree: Impulse, which of course I go for, we’ll want that before going on offense again.

2430 We get IT+50, Atmospheric T-forming next.

2433 We get Repulsor Beam, go for Personal Absorption.

2435 I see we are up to 51% on Atmospheric, then it pops, go for Complete Eco, I think it was the only choice to move forward.

2438 Psilons colonize Nitzer. Klackon spies destroy 5 factories at Arietis—guess they’re not all peace and love after all (unless they were really Darlok spies). Darloks offer peace-decline.

2440 Having completed all my Atmospheric T-forming, Advanced Soil Enrichment, and IT+50, and built all the factories the increased pop allows us (to take advantage of the cheap cost), I finally get RC IV. It will allow us to get 4550 more factories, but that will cost 54600 BC! We start chipping away at it; I never did quite finish everywhere. I choose Advanced Scanner next and dial up spying on all the other races. The Humans and Klacks have some techs I don’t, but nothing huge; I will be mindful of the Human Scatter Pack Vs and Klack Stinger Missiles though.

2442 Impulse Drives pop, go for Trilithium, not that we need it.

2443 Exoskeleton pops, choose Andrium armor over IIT4.

2445 Personal Absorption pops, choose Cloaking Device.

2447 Omega-V pops, choose Scatter Pack VII. Psilons threaten me—ha!
I think it was right after getting Omega-V that I designed a new bomber: medium, combat speed 3, BC 4, Missile Defense 8, Duralloy, Shield 2, 1 Omega-V. I also built the “Hornet” beam ship: medium, Defense 6, BC 4, combat speed 3, Duralloy, 3 Fusion Beams.

2448 GNN announces impending comet at Klackon Kailis.

2449 Steal RC III from the Buls. Darn, would’ve been nice to steal that earlier and build some factories for 9 BC each instead of 12.
In the Council, the AIs have the same total number of votes (17) between them, but the Klackons abstain with their 5. I have 23 votes (having added 9!) out of 40.

2450 Advanced Scanner pops, RC V next; the only new choice. We won’t be getting it soon (or, as it turned out, ever), since we’re paying enough to build factories as it is.
Complete Eco pops, IT+80 next.
With the scanner I notice the Dars and Buls have no terraforming (poor guys), and see that the Klackons have two Ultra Poor planets—Jinga and Argus.

2453 Having amassed Hornets and bombers, I send them to Sol to do battle.



Our bombers (with the green wingtips) have a missile defense 3 higher than the Humans’ bases' attack level, but our beam ships (the yellow ships--Hornets) have a defense only 1 higher. The AI adopted the reasonable tactic of firing its missiles at the Hornets. I had to keep them in battle or I wouldn’t have had anything to fight the Human ships with. Fortunately my bombers were able to take out the bases in short order, and the Hornets could then take out the ships.
The Humans offer peace; fat chance ; decline.

2455 Klackons stop the Comet event. I capture Sol with 210 factories and get Inertial Stabilizer, Scatter Pack V, BC III. Here I was thinking that Mr. Popularity, Alexander, might not be nominated anymore, but little did I realize (more later).
Sometime around here I designed my “Beam II” ship (“Beam I” being the Hornet), a medium with Beam/Missile Defense of 8/10, BC 4, Duralloy, Combat speed 4, and 2 Fusion Beams.

2457 Just to be a _polite_ warmonger , I break my NAP with the Klackons. They colonize Cygni.

2458 The Klackons have about 40 larges and about 100 mediums at Kailis in the north by the Human worlds; I decide to see how my Hornets at Sol fare against them. I also attack Lyae.

2459 After defeating the Klackon ships and bases at Lyae, I withdraw, wanting to beat their big fleet before capturing planets. Unfortunately, even with a beam defense of 6 vs. the attack level of 3 on the large Klackon ships at Kailis, my unshielded Hornets get blown away by the massive number of Gatling lasers they’re fielding (9 on each large, 360 total!). I get IT+80, IT+100 next. Dolz rebels.

2460 I design the medium “Beam III” to take on that Klackon fleet: Defense 8, BC 4, Duralloy, Combat speed 4, Shield of 3 (very important), Fusion Beam & Ion Cannon. Get Andrium, Trilithium, and Scatter Pack VII, choose RIW 20%, High Energy Focus of course, and go back for Graviton Beam, with an eye on taking on the Klackon ships (the Dars also have lots of little guys).

2461 The big Klack fleet is moving to Jinga with an ETA of several turns; I prepare to meet them there and also decide to capture Lyae in the meantime. Steal ECM III from Buls, capture Lyae with 297 factories and “acquire” sub-light drive, Spores, Stingers, Ion Rifle, Personal Deflector. Recapture Dolz from rebels.

2462 Defeat a Klackon fleet at Kronos. Sabotage a Human missile base at Thrax and frame the Darloks. Get Graviton Beam & choose Auto Blaster.

2463 I design a missile boat with a Scatter Pack VII, but end up not building any. I design another medium class of ship with defenses of 8, BC V, Andrium armor, Combat speed 4, Shield 1, 2 Graviton Beams, 1 Omega-V, and 1 Fusion Bomb. Seeing that I’ve created a fighter/bomber that should far outclass any ships or bases the AIs have, I give it the name “Doom”. I did build this one (263 of them by 2474), and thought of bombing all the AI planets with it, but thought it might take until 2475 (or almost) anyway and possibly require running after AI colony ships desperately trying to re-found colonies…and it just didn’t sound like something I would enjoy, seeing as I knew the AIs wouldn’t stand a chance.

I took the orbit of Thrax with my older ships.

2464 Send troops to Thrax. I had send some bombers to the Klackon systems Kailis and Crius thinking I would bomb them. I did defeat the bases, losing 2 bombers at Kailis and 9 at Crius. I bombed the colonies once but then decided not to bomb anymore and withdrew the next turn. My troops arrived at Thrax and captured it with 215 factories, picking up Class V shields for me. Somewhere around here I also destroyed the bases at Kholdan but then withdrew, waiting for the showdown with the big Klackon fleet.

Continued..

---
As is customary for all my openings, the first thing I do is to open up a map of the galaxy.



Well, this ought to be interesting. This galaxy has all three of the top-tier races, which could be challenging. Thankfully, there are no Mrrshan or *shudder* Alkari here. Relations with those two races are bad enough that we'd be at war almost immediately, and I find the Alkari difficult to fight due to their defense bonus. I have 4 planets within colony range. I'll play the odds and send my colony ship to the yellow, but I want the other three explored in case the yellow is not so good. I send scouts to the white and red, build single scout (redesigned to be cheaper) at Sssla and send the one there to the green so that all four will be explored on the same turn.

Sending the colony straight to the yellow works to my favor:



Definitely an excellent planet for my second one. I colonize it immediately before getting my other scout's reports:



The artifacts world nets me the following technology:



Wow! I got one hell of a find here. Scatter Packs are third-generation weapon technology. They're especially powerful at this point because of the lack of shielding, and the extra miniaturization is sure to help any fighter ships I build at this point.

In the meantime, Sssla transports 15 (of 65) population to Romulas and starts building E Scouts (my name for the cheaper scout design). My scout at Beta Ceti chases off a Psilon scout, which makes me suspect they are in the lower right corner. I get the following picture of the galaxy:



Not surprisingly, the Klackons have grabbed the non-hostile system in the lower left. Lucky for me, it is ultra poor and that means it is a good place to hit the Klackons if they get uppity. There seems to be a fair amount of hostile systems here, but Sakkra aren't a bad race to be in a hostile universe.

In the meantime, Sssla maxes production in 2322 and starts churning out colony ships, while Romulas opens up the planetology and propulsion research fields. My only options are Improved Eco and Range 4. Improved Eco is a good technology, but I'm disappointed at the lack of Terraforming +10.

I grab Arietis in 2328, which brings me in contact with the Klackons.



They are Ruthless Diplomats. Odd combination, if you ask me. They've already grabbed all 5 planets in their corner of the galaxy. I'd normally call them up and ask for trade relations, but being ruthless and our relationship being at unease, I really don't think it's worth slowing down my economy for that.

I grab Beta Ceti in 2333 and finish building a colony ship bound for Mu Delphi in 2334. If any other non-hostile planets are within range, the other races probably have them already. It's about time to start building ships so I can defend my planets. And if I'm going to be making ships, why not make use of that weapon technology I already have?



It's not like I have any bases yet, and the sooner I start using this technology the better.

Improved Eco and Range 4 pop in 2338. At this point I dedicate about half my research spending into planetology and divert the rest equally across every field, opening up the other four fields.



My first priority is to get more planets. I can't spread anywhere else until I get Dead planets, so that is my pick in the planetology tree. No choices in Propulsion, Computers and Shields. Under construction, I pick IIT9 over RW80, as it is cheaper and I already have some waste reduction tech.

Thanks to my find at the artifacts world, I have a HUGE weapon tree to pick from. With my limited research capability, however, I decided that the more expensive techs wouldn't be worth it at this point. I chose hand lasers. Cheapest opportunity to save a planet, right?

My scouts find that Mentar is exactly where I predicted it would be. What I did not predict was their underwhelming defense force: 3 colony ships, 1 scout and 1 missile base. I am so used to impossible that I was expecting wayyyy more. Whatever the case, somebody is probably going to be a run-away empire to make up for the Psilons' pitiful situation.



I had stopped making colony ships, but then I noticed there were 2 habitables in range that had not been claimed yet. Oops. I put Sssla back on colony ships. As dead planet research approached double-digit percentages, I increased propulsion spending at the expense of planetology. There were a lot of unclaimed planets south of me, and I needed range 6 to make a grab at them. I was hoping I could get there before the Klackons could.

Speaking of Klackons, my 25 years of minimal spying have finally gotten me what I wanted:



I usually always have at least 0.4% on spying on any AI race I meet. I consider it vital to keep up-to-date information on a race's technology so that if a threat suddenly pops up, I can respond to it before I discover they've outfitted it on their ships.

I'm guessing the propulsion-challenged bugs did not draw range 6 tech, which is good for me because by the time they get something better than that, I'll have all those planets already. They've got controlled barren though, and that means they could go for Trax. I've got 6 or so SCATVs there, so it's not like I'm totally unprepared.

Besides, even if I lose that planet, I'm still in the lead.



Hand lasers and IIT9 pop. In the second tier of Construction tech, both IIT8 and Duralloy are available. I choose Duralloy for the advancement of the tree and increase in hull size, but I'll have range 6 way before I can fit extended tanks on a colony ship. In the weapons department, I choose Fusion Beam. Beam weapons are my favorite because they're not limited by ammunition, and I much prefer the ones that I can heavy mount for a 2-space range weapon.

Next turn, controlled dead pops, allowing me access to Terraforming +30 and controlled Toxic. Toxic is very tempting, since there is an ultra rich toxic right next to Mentar, but I haven't gotten any terraforming tech yet and I need the economy boost. I don't want to divert from the controlled technology for too long, however, so I go back for Terraforming +20.

Sssla starts churning out colony ships with dead environments on board. Meanwhile, scouts have found the apes.



Klackons have already tried and failed to claim Trax, and my first dead colony is on the way there. The bugs won't be expanding any time soon. My worst fear at this point is a human rival in the elections, so I want the humans to have as little voting power as possible. My next few colony ships will settle near the human border, starting with Crius.

In the meantime, Yarrow is settled in the northeast, bringing me contact with the Bulrathi.



Aggressive expansionists with only three planets to their name. Nothing to worry about.

Beta Ceti has finished factory construction, and Arietis has done that and has a missile base now. Those two planets take over research while Romulas begins constructing first some scat ships, and then colony ships. I have so many planets to spread to right now, that Sssla needs help.

Klackons make another attempt to grab Trax. This time, they believe they have a winning force.



Their colony ship is armed with missiles. I manage to take it down with 2 volleys of missiles, but have nothing left to take on their laser fighter. I retreat, but they cannot colonize it just yet. I throw together my own laser fighter design so I can stand some longer battles. Small, one laser, class I shields.

Class II shields pop, and I choose class III as my only option.

Klackons make one last attempt for Trax, and sadly they have a winning force this time.



I had sent my SCATs back since I figured sending them back to the same system after running out of ammo may have been against the rules, but it doesn't matter. They would not have made a difference in this fight. I'm forced to surrender Trax to the Klacks (hey that rhymes!).

Lesson to be learned here: Scatter pack missiles are awesome...when missile bases use them. There's a reason I prefer lasers over missiles in ship-to-ship combat. Oh well. While all my ships have been flying around, I find that I'd sent my scats back to Trax.



Decision time. I certainly do not like the Klackons for poaching this planet from me, but maybe I should leave it alone so that we stay at peace. On the other hand, they look like my biggest rivals and I'd sure love to stunt their growth as much as possible. And the verdict is...

Nuke 'em. If they try to attack my planets in return, my missile bases will tear them apart. In fact, I'd absolutely welcome a war with them. Of course, missiles are horrible weapons for glassing a planet and all I destroy is 2 factories. They don't seem too mad about this, and don't declare war on me just yet. I haven't upped my spying expenditures beyond the minimal 0.4% yet, but I set spying to espionage to hope for a lucky tech grab.

Range 6 pops, leaving only range 7 as an option. I meet the honorable diplomatic humans. They have only 4 planets, further confirming that my rivals are in fact the Klackons. Shortly thereafter, I meet the Xenophobic Diplomatic Darloks, who have only 3 planets. That's nothing to me.



BC2 pops, leaving only ECM2 and BC3 as options. I choose BC3 to advance the tree with technology I actually see myself using. I usually never equip ECM, even on a huge, since I don't perceive it as having much benefit when I could instead put more weapons on the thing.

I grab my 14th planet and in the year 2380 we're having our first election.



The four lesser races all abstain, and Klackons vote for themselves. I'd normally vote for the Klackons just to be nice, but I figure that if we're at war, they'll be less likely to go for the unclaimed planets and more likely to strike at my heavily-armed and defended planets. I vote for myself just to mock them. Again, I'd welcome a war with the Klackons.

Improved Terraforming +20 finally pops. I select Controlled Toxic and start upgrading my planets. Klackons have researched class 4 shields and fusion bombs, and that means I need more missile bases at my planets nearest to them (Arietis and Sssla), especially considering that they are building up along my border.



After building enough bases, they think twice and send their ships elsewhere.

I've finally got enough an economy big enough that I'm willing to up my spying expenditures. 2.4% espionage spending on the Klackons, 0.4% espionage on every other race. When I do active spying I always aim for a total spying expenditure of 4.0% with at least 0.4% on each race. That's usually enough for me to steal a good amount of tech from my opponents and keep up-to-date on their technology without crippling my economy.

Duralloy Armor pops.



I'm already researching fusion beam, and I know the Klackons have repulsor beam technology. Automated Repair on top of both of these would allow me to make my ideal huge design, so I'm going for that. Class 3 shields pop, leaving planetary shields as my only option.

And then THE VIRUS ATTACKS!



Wow, what horribly bad luck. I've been researching fusion beams for probably 50 years or so, and I lose it all just like that. Oh well, nothing to do but pick up and start over. This just means the Klackons get to live for a little longer.

On the year of the election, spies penetrate Klackon labs. Every field is available except Force Fields (the one I'd want most), so I hit their next best field, propulsion (oddly enough), and get Range 5. Oh well, that just means I won't steal it next time. BC3 pops, leaving me with ECM2 and BC4 as my only options. BC4 it is.

As for the election...



My opponent and I still don't have any support, but I have enough voting power to block a win. Looks like I'm not going to be getting support any time soon, and that means I need to start taking planets from the other empires. I'm not quite ready to take the offensive yet, but I can at least start building up a force for taking down planets with. Klackons and humans have been going pretty nuts on Force Field technology, but thankfully neither has researched planetary shields, which means this design is viable:



My only bombs, and the best computer available. I could stick Duralloy armor on this thing, but the 2 BC savings is worth more to me than the extra hitpoint that will hardly make a difference.

A few of my neighbors are getting unhappy.



I won't be taking the offensive against the Bulrathi anytime soon, since my ships have been gathering at the opposite corner of my empire and I haven't had any engine upgrades yet. But I'm increasing defense expenditure at my worlds nearest to these two empires.

Range 7 pops, and for options I have... Energy Pulsar and Warp Dissipator. This hole in my propulsion tree is starting to get on my nerves, and is another reason why the Klackons are my prime target -- they have sub-light drives. I choose energy pulsar because it is cheaper.

Controlled Toxic pops. The next tier of planetology tech offers only Controlled Radiated, so I take that. There's a radiated planet on the Klackon border that I'll want. In the meantime, Simius and Centauri start building a colony ship each to go to Cygni and Paranar, while my forces that I've been building up strike at the Klackons! Their own forces meet me at Trax and we have a deadly showdown.



Yeowch! Those are some heavy forces. With my pathetic ship speeds, my bombers are unable to close in on the planet before getting torn to pieces, and the rest of my ships fare no better. Most of my ships gets torn to pieces. It's clear to me that if I'm going to make any progress, I need better engines and better weapons (in particular, a bomb upgrade). The bugs haven't gotten too mad at me for testing their defenses and are willing to trade nuclear engines.



I give them range 7, perceiving that as the one that benefits them the least. It will only pull two unclaimed planets into reach (the Humans will grab those real soon). The rest will be my planets, which are already fortified. At this point, the only thing to do is to build up my forces so I can give it another shot (using new designs with those engines).

Spies hit the Psilons, and I go for computer for the increase in spying capabilities, netting me Deep Space Scanner. Scanners are my favorite technology in the computer tree for just one reason: I highly value information! The more information I have, the easier it is for me to respond to threats.

The same turn I get very good news:



Doubling the number of ships that come out of my biggest industrial planet? Score! This piece of news is accompanied by the Darlok's complaining about me building up forces on their border. Silly Darloks! I'm building up on the *Klackon* border!

Automated Repair pops. IITs 8, 7 & 6 are options, as well as RW80 and RW60. I choose IIT6, because I want the cheapest factories for when I eventually grab improved robotics.

The 2425 elections roll around.



The bugs have the Bulrathis on their side, but until I win, nobody wins. I try again to strike at Trax, but it is obvious that the Klackon ships completely outclass mine. Rather than to try the same thing over and over and hope for different results, I instead do what I should've done in the first place: Target the weaker opponents. I send my ships to Mentar, as the Psilons have lots of technology but little to defend it with.

I've turned a blind eye to my opponents though, and the Bulrathi take advantage by striking at Yarrow. They manage to take out my missile bases, but lose most of their ships in the fight.

Planetary shield pops, and repulsor beam is my only option.

The Klackons and Psilons are attacking me too, it seems.



The Psilon ships are easily torn apart, but the Klackons manage to destroy all the missile bases on Sssla, losing only their excalibers. I must've seriously underestimated them. But we're not at war, all they're doing is testing my defenses. I call them and threaten them, telling them to back off.



They appear to be satisfied with having bombed my factories. I rebuild the damage done to Sssla and add a planetary shield on top of that. The ships that I sent over to Psilon space finally arrive at Mentar.



The missile bases destroy about 90 of my bombers before they take it out. The Dark Stars are simply torn apart by my missile ships. 6 short turns later, I invade their planet and manage to obtain Improved Robotics Control, Battle Computer 4, Fusion Bomb, Personal Deflector Shield, Controlled Inferno and Reduced Waste 80%. It's amazing how much technology the Psilons have even though they are a one-planet empire.

I'm sorry, they *were* a one-planet empire.



Klackons are trying to attack me and Darloks are spying on me. I've threatened both and gotten cheap useless techs from them, but the Klackons are still intent on coming at me, forcing me to slow down factory construction on my systems in order to build up more missile bases.

Since I'm already at war with the Bulrathi, and my ships are closest to Bulrathi space, I figure they'll be my next target. I send my ships to Ursa. Their defenses prove to be no match for my fleet.



I'm going to glass and plant flags rather than invade. The Bulrathi advantage in ground combat makes invading their worlds too hard to be worth it.

The Humans replace the Klackons as my election opponents in 2450.



They have unanimous support, but I have 48% of the total vote, and still growing.

After nearly 100 years, I've finally, FINALLY gotten this key piece of technology:



I can't fit it on a small ship just yet, so I'm not quite ready to use it.

After a while, repulsor beams pop. I'm finally ready to throw together a huge design.



I'm building these up on the Klackon border, while my force of scatter pack missile ships run over the Bulrathi worlds. After grabbing and holding Ursa, I destroy the rest of the bear worlds and plant flags on them, pushing me over the Domination threshold and toppling another empire.



I notice a Klackon stack of doom heading towards my planets. I have no idea where they're going, but I threaten the Klackons (since their ships threaten me) and they give me another cheap tech and back off. However, the Darloks declare war on me. Just as well. My force is right there anyways, so nothing to do but press on and attack. ONWARD TO GLORY!



They just can't stand up to my stack approaching 200 missile ships. I've managed to get three ships of my new huge design, so I send them to Trax to test them.



The stack of 93 mediums retreats (probably carrying death spores), and my ships manage to destroy nearly everything else with no casualties. The design is good to go! As I still have no support in the election, the game goes on.



I haven't received even one vote of support the entire game. The only way I'm going to have my victory is to cross the Conquest threshold. I figure the best way to do that is by taking and holding planets, and since these other races are not Bulrathi, it will be a lot easier to invade their worlds.



Grabbing these two planets puts almost the entire galaxy within my reach. Only two human worlds are outside my grasp. I coordinate an invasion of the human world Quayal, leaving every system within reach. At this point, I'm no longer invading worlds and instead just glassing them. With every world in reach, it's much quicker and easier to glass worlds rather than invade. Making this task much easier, I've just researched impulse drives and am now building hordes of zippy little bombers.

Another one bites the dust.



I suddenly realize that I've been bombing planets so quickly, that I'll get an extermination victory before the next election rolls around. My original plan was to bomb everything until the bugs and apes had only one planet each, but there's no reason to stick to that plan. I glass the last Klackon world, and then take out the last 3 or so Human planets.



As Sirian once put it, mommy forgot to teach us to share. I've achieved an extermination victory by 2492.

Here's how the galaxy looked the turn before I ended it all.



An interesting game, to be sure. Just because I can win on Impossible doesn't mean that Average can't challenge me! I wasn't in danger of losing at any point, but my diplomatic unfriendliness and the lack of good weaponry and engines early on really slowed me down. I should've been targeting the weaker opponents from the beginning. Oh well, you live and learn. I wonder who else got extermination victories? More than that, I wonder how the free tech from the artifacts world influenced everyone's game.

I'll tell you what the tech did for me. Though occasionally my bases got bombed out, not once did any of my flags disappear or change color. My planets were easy to hold.
---

[EDIT: Due to Imageshack problems with many of the images for this report, I have moved the whole thing over to its own page on my Meklon Gambit site. The in-report pictures there are smaller, but you can click on any of them to see the full-sized versions if you wish.]



Memoirs of a Sakkra Emperor

Introduction:
I was born to the throne of Sssla, first-hatched child of Emperor Reptilius Basiliscus Ophidian the Ninth, but I was no imperial child. In my youth, I ran wild, always sneaking away into the swamps and mountains around the capital with my friends from the lower castes. No high-born warriors we! My best friend was an outcast, Draco Sstarshine, the son of a mere scientist, with the added humiliation of a speech impediment. An outcast - but the lizard who first told me of the wonders of the stars! Draco and I would spend hours together on the mountaintops when my minders thought me asleep, pulling stars and planets close with his father's telescopes, dreaming of a time when we might visit them ourselves. I defended him against all shame, and ensured he and his father had time for their studies with all the little influence I could muster as a child, and he rewarded me well: With still greater stories, and still greater views of the stars! It is Draco who gave me my pet-name, for with his flawed pronunciation, the diminutive of my name became "Ref." So when I ascended the throne at last, in the year 2276 of the Ophidian line, I became Emperor Reptilius Basiliscus Ophidian the Tenth in official ceremony, naturally shortened to RBO-10 in political briefings ... and just stayed Ref, in private, to Draco and my other once-outcast buddies, now the chief advisors of the emperor of Sssla! Sometimes I long for those innocent days. If only we could have always remained at peace!

2300: To the Stars!
My first Centennial celebration was a tremendous success in spite of the mistrust in which I was held by the military aristocracy. All the commoners hated my predecessor's draconian solutions to the chronic danger of overpopulation, and at the height of our celebrations, I proposed my solution: To just let them breed like crazy, and find more room among the stars!



Here you can see our initial plan of exploration and colonization. The green star just to the southwest was tempting, being closest, but the yellow star was nearer to the heart of the galaxy, would expand our scout's range further when we built our colony supply depot there, and - sharing our own star's color - seemed most likely to harbor a planet like our homeworld. Moreover, it lay close to the eastern red star, which according to Draco's calculations was also likely to hold a hospitable world in case our hope for the yellow star failed. We therefore sent our prototype Colony Ship northeast while our prototype Scouts moved to the flanking red and white stars; meanwhile, Sssla's factories would start turning out the cheaper assembly-line model Newscouts, to speed our exploration. That way, when the first one off the line was sent to the nearby green star, we would be able to explore all four stellar systems within three parsecs of Sssla in the year...

2303: Birth of an Interstellar Empire



The yellow star, dubbed Romulas, harbored a beautiful world, covered with lush, verdant jungle, with plenty of space for 80 million lizards to breed. We colonized it at once, and 4 million Sakkra departed to begin their new lives there. Far more were clamoring to go, but I had other plans for them, especially since we had spent most of our time and energy building Newscouts in lieu of infrastructure in the first few years of the interstellar age (notice the five ships still in transit toward the distant reaches of the galaxy and the new fleet at Sssla, which consists of two more Newscouts waiting to receive their orders; we would also build two more by the following year). Knowing that they would breed at an immoderate rate anyway, I would only send 3 million more over the course of the next few years - one transport in 2305, two in 2306 - and that would be it for many years. I wanted more colony ships, as soon as I could get them, especially in light of the other scouting reports we received! Though the white star unsurprisingly had no habitable planets - just the Antares asteroid belt - the red star was Beta Ceti, a warm desert world with room for 45 million lizards. And the green star ... the green star was Arietis.

Once the homeworld of an ancient and powerful people, Arietis Prime held only crumbling ruins and desert sands. According to the records found there, the planet's people were known as the Arietans, bitter enemies of the "Guardians of Orion" - as our chief historian put it so eloquently, "whatever that's supposed to mean!" The Arietans were a space-faring people who had developed technology far in advance of our own, but our engineers and scientists found to their deep regret that the powerful, unknown forces that destroyed Arietan civilization did a very thorough job of the thing, aided still more by the passing centuries. Away teams managed to recover little of immediate value except plans for a military rocket barely more advanced than our own nuclear missiles (whose use I had banned in 2283), tentatively named the Hyper-V on the basis of patchy records found in the ruins.



Disappointment in this feeble discovery was quickly drowned however. Though the fallout of the ancient war with the Guardians left Arietis a mere desert, capable of supporting no more than 35 million Sakkra, enough remained of the ancient cities that I hoped we could someday learn to match and even exceed the Arietans' knowledge. We just needed a long-term research colony to delve deeper into the place's secrets (this was my mantra in the early years, I'm afraid). I was almost sorry we hadn't sent our prototype Colony Ship there at once ... but it's hard to argue with our beautiful jungle world at the heart of the galaxy (especially with Sakkra commoners breeding like ... like ... well, like commoner Sakkra, if you've any notion of what that means)!
Perhaps more important still was the fact of the Arietans' existence! From what our away teams could gather, they were not saurian in nature, but fur-covered marine mammals (small wonder that they died when their world was turned to a desert!) bearing a slight superficial resemblance to certain types of otters that live in Sssla's seas. (There was also the question of the Guardians, but surely they couldn't be important! After all, they'd lived centuries ago, and we'd never heard from them!) For the first time, we came to understand that we were not alone in the galaxy. My military advisors at once began to clamor for war ships built around the new Hyper-V rockets. Ridiculous notions, frankly. We had yet to meet another living species, and I believed that when we did meet others, we could learn together from all our neighbors in the vast galaxy we shared, forever at peace! Look, I was young, okay?

continued below...

me, but OOC Wrote:The die roll at Arietis will have a huge effect on the game. Any planetology or construction tech would provide a huge boost - especially coming as it does on the second or third turn of the game - as would any propulsion tech other than Stabilizer (especially an engine, considering our propulsion tree). Even semi-advanced weapon, shield, or computer techs could provide significant benefits. The draw I got had little or no impact on my game, but it wasn't the worst possible outcome by any means. I've seen Artifacts worlds yield Robotic Controls 3 ... and if you had to pay 15 BC per factory starting from turn 2 or 3 ... well, I'll bet it made things challenging!

Just a word of warning... this report has a quite a few pictures. Slow internet connections be fairly warned. Also, I may have gone a bit overboard with the description... what can I say, I was excited by my first RB report Anyway, I hope it doesn't bore you all to tears.

I haven't played this game in several months, but I decided to try my first ever RB game after lurking Realms Beyond for a long time. I'm quite confident that I can win on average difficulty with an average race on an average map... though I imagine that's what Sullla was going for when he set the map's parameters.

Let's get right into it.

I like starting next to a yellow star, especially with a fast growing race like the lizards. I send my colony ship up to the yellow star (I'm always tempted to say north, but the nerd in me protests). I scrap the crappy initial designs and design Scout 2s, then order up a set of them. I send my first scouts to the red star to the right and the green star at the 7 o'clock position. Hopefully they aren't mineral poor. I suspect that the white star is uninhabitable, though if it's a good planet I'll park a scout over it.



My scout arrives at the green star... and it's an Artifacts planet = D

Great draw. Size 35, unfortunately, but you can never have enough Artifacts. Sadly, I only pulled ECM Jammer 1, but every little bit helps, right?

I also scrap the Scout 2 design, since I completely forgot to build them last turn in all the excitement >_> So Scout3's for all! Such is the danger of writing what you do before you, you know, do it.

My colony ship arrives at the yellow star, and found Romulas, a size 80 Jungle. Very nice. A little on the smallish side for a jungle, but it's not mineral poor so I'm happy to have it.



The red star turns out to be Beta Ceti, a size 45 desert. Decent size for a desert world. I fan my scouts out and start sending colonists to Romulas.

The white star turns out to be empty space. How sad. The red star to the right of Beta Ceti turns out to be a nice size 65 arid by the name of Mu Delphi. Again, not a priority, but nice anyway. The red star below the artifacts planet is a barren size 50 world. Not bad for a barren planet, but I suspect I'll lose out to one of the AI players (there's three yellow stars in the bottom left, so there has to be at least one computer. Hopefully there are two and they'll slug it out for a while down there.

The green star by Romulus turns out to be a size 40 desert called Kronos. Not bad, but not great.

And we make first contact with the Psilons over Mu Delphi D:



Very ominous. The Psilons have the whole bottom right to themselves. Fortunately it doesn't look to fertile, since they're surrounded by purple and red stars. But you never want to take chances with the brains... Anyway, the Psilon scout retreats.

Also, a scout discovers that the white star above Romulas is a size 25 Dead. That's somewhat reassuring, since there's now a buffer zone of uninhabitables. Still, I would prefer some prospective colonies up there.

The red star by my artifacts is an Ultra Poor Jungle size 80. But wait! It's already taken by a yellow flag... meet the Klackons. Hopefully there's someone else next to them... I don't want to have the mighty Klackons on my left and the mightier Psilons on my right. Very ominous.



I put a few clicks into a colony ship out of Sssla. I need to get to that artifacts planet ASAP.

Another hostile planet ends my exploration above Romulas. Not promising... Not promising at all.



The Darloks say hello at the Tundra planet. Their scout promptly books it.

Apparently some research just got initiated because I get to choose new techs to go after. I opted for Battle Computers II, Range 4, and Hand Lasers.

Sssla maxes and begins construction in earnest. The colony ship is due in 2 turns. Once produced, it heads for Arietas.



...charmed to meet you.



It turns out they were alone, and they've already colonized their whole corner. Wonderful. It looks like their only course of expansion is through me.

I can't help but imagine Sullla laughing and saying "Just as planned" right now.

The Klackons are headed towards my world. I build a handful of crappy medium cruisers wielding a single heavy laser. It's a stopgap at best, but I'll take what I can get. Colonists get sent to Arietas as Sssla resumes work on its colony ship.



Those Klackons think they can take my planet, eh?

I dump research into hand lasers (which incidentally allows me to select Reduced Waste 80% and Class II deflectors as my next techs). Hopefully the Klackons will be lacking the hand lasers and I'll be able to drive them off. Hand lasers come through the next turn (I select the neutron pellet gun next).



The Klackons can't quite take Arietas. Close battle, but the lizards came through. Yes, it is worth it to research hand lasers = D

My colony ship finishes a few turns later and heads towards Beta Ceti, with plans to jump to Mu Delphi next.



Range 4 comes in shortly after. The next range available is 6, so I'm forced to take that.

Class II shields come in shortly after. I'm forced to pick Class III. Also, my colony ship completes shortly after. I can't expand onto any more planets for now, so I funnel my spending into research instead.

Reduced Industrial Waste 80% comes in. Always nice to pick these up, as my planetary costs get cut by 20%. I pick Improved Industrial Tech 9 after.



How cordial.

Shortly after I realize that I'm an idiot. I haven't done anything with the Klackons yet! I'm such a bad neighbor...

To rectify this, I sign the Klackons to a max deal (125) and the Psilons to a max deal (75).



For some reason the brains are suddenly much less intimidating >_>

It turns out the Klackons are Ruthless Diplomats, while the Psilons are honorable technologists. Who saw that coming? I also put one click into spying on each.

I'm always amused by the spying mechanism in this game. Especially for a race like the Bulrathi. You'd think they'd just bribe guys on the inside, but the cloak and dagger look of the spies suggests otherwise. Can you imagine a giant space Bear trying to blend into a human world and look nonchalant?



Kronos is founded. We get the first size warning (Strange. I thought the Klackons would get it.)



Those apes are always so suave. I immediately sign them to a max deal (what can I say, they're charismatic) and start spying. The Humans are honorable diplomats (no surprise) and occupy the top left corner of space, where I thought the Darloks were.



Incidentally, that blue ship is flying toward Kronos. I whip up a ship at Romulus and send it to drive off that Frigate. Hopefully the apes won't have any delusions of grandeur.

Eco Restoration comes in the next turn to cut my costs further. Nice. I choose Terraforming +20 over Controlled Dead on the grounds that terraforming will pop sooner and will help my smaller border colonies. My crappy frigate once again comes through in protecting a fledgling colony. But damn do I need some new ships. That design isn't going to hold up much longer.

Also, we encounter the Bulrathi for the first time.



Battle computer II and Improved Industrial Tech 9 come in shortly after. I opt for Battle Computer III and Durralloy Armor next.

Uh oh, looks like the humans are looking for trouble.



Hopefully my I can hold them off.



Ain't no thang.

The Darloks get hit with the mineral depletion event on their home world. Excellent. Unfortunately, I missed the pic.

NPG comes in. I follow it up with Hyper Vs to replace the nukes I'm working with now.

Terraforming +20 comes in and I set about terraforming my colonies. I select Controlled Dead to restart colonization. Also, I'm noticing a good sized fleet congregating on my border with the Klackons. Very ominous. Of course, when I went to take a picture they scattered.



The Darloks drive off my scout and plop a colony on a tundra planet between me and the apes. Frankly, I'm not too upset.

Man this tech tree has slim pickings. I finish Hyper Vs and move on to Ion Rifles. I'm still looking for a decent beam weapon.

The Bulrathis pull the fertile event on one of their colonies. I finish research on Range 6 and get... Range 7. Awesome. I need to boost my ship's speed, and soon. I check around, but the only thing anyone will trade me is Range 5.



What a relief! I'll build these bad boys and no one will be able to attack me for a while. Excellent. I'm very happy these were in my tree.



I finally stop mucking around and colonize Yarrow. Hopefully this will put me in contact with the Bears.



Yep, there they are.



And there's their empire.

I suspect they lack the range to get to Yarrow, but I'm going to send some ships over there, just to be safe. They're still crawling along at 1 parsec, though. I put together a new ship for the occasion (and I just realized I can't spell occasion. I have no idea if that's right or wrong.)



Behold my glorious fleet!

Ugh. I need some speed and some weapons. Soonish.

Also, Controlled Dead comes in.



All aboard the E Col I! Totally unintentional, I swear.



Ruh roh. It's never good to take part in the first election, and to go against the Humans compounds the danger. This is not good.



Turns out my fears were unwarranted. Everyone but the Brains abstained (those traitorous jerks voted for the Humans!), allowing me to vote for Alexander and improve relations. Love it when that happens.

You can find out more here.