OSG-37 - 1ooming Lizards

[haphazard1]

OK, I have played the rest of my turns. Another summary and the save, with full report to be posted soon.

- The Psilons beat us to two of the worlds in the northeast. They have impulse drives, and are just zipping around the galaxy.
- We did get new colonies this turn set at Escalon, Simius, and Colassa. Initial pop has been sent to them, but it will take a while to reach the northeast.
- Our southern world of Rana was hit by the industrial spill accident and is now radiated. I shipped population off world (to Palladia, I think) which should barely have room for them. The radiation has been cleaned up, but the planet needs some terraforming and reworking.
- The Mrrshan attacked a couple more times at Kulthos. We drove them off once and smashed their fleet the second time, but they are persistent.
- ECM Jammer IV completed, which will help our spying at least. Only option available was Battle Computer VI -- we have been needing a good battle computer upgrade.
- Three other techs are in percentages.

Notes for the next speaker:

- Thrax is building defense bases. Check to make sure it does not build more than desired.
- We ended up with extra col ships due to the Psilons beating us to those worlds. We do not have any place to send them, but they might come in handy at some point. Not sure if the savings on ship maintenace are worth it for scrapping them.
- I have not transferred any money from the reserves this turn.

[haphazard1]

A new speaker takes office to lead the OSG-37. Where do the Sakkra people stand in 2420?

Lizard kind has spread widely through the galaxy, and has contact with all the other races. The Mrrshan have lost their feline minds and declared war upon us -- cats, what can you do, right? There are still some unclaimed systems in the northeastearn sector, and one inferno planet near the Mrrshan:

We will try to claim these systems for our people. But most planets that can be settled have been claimed, and the galactic council has begun to meet at regular intervals. The next such meeting is scheduled for 5 years from now, and will be dangerous for us. The cats will of course vote against us, and they may be able to convince other races that are jealous of our strength and success to also do so. We have trade deals with the other races and relations are generally neutral to positive, but that will not stop the other races from voting against us, particuarly any that are allied with the Mrrshan.

Fortunately, our power and numbers have grown sufficiently strong that none of the other races are significantly more powerful than we are.

But if we get attacked by more than one enemy at a time, things could get very messy. I set our spies against everyone except the Mrrshan to Hide; this is not the time to risk provoking a diplomatic incident. Once the council vote is over, that will change.... Spying against the Mrrshan is increased and set to espionage, as relations can not get worse than open war. And the cats do have some techs we would like to acquire.

A bigger worry, technologically, is the powerful Bulrathi empire.

Lots of good stuff, especially in Planetology; Atmospheric Terraforming and Controlled Radiated would both be incredibly useful and are missing from our own tech tree. But we can not risk war with the bears right before a council meeting. So for now we will try to stay on their good side. The other races also each have some useful tech, especially the Psilons despite their small empire. But the same caution applies.

What do the Mrrshan have coming at us? Their fleet approaches Kulthos:

After reviewing plantary production settings, the clock advances to 2421. The Mrrshan fleet arrives at Kulthos:

OK, nothing too scary here. In fact, they can not penetrate our 7 points of shielding on poor Kulthos' lone missile base. After an exchange of long range missile fire and a couple ships lost on each side, I realize this and withdraw. If the cats come up with a better ship design, especially something with bombs, we could have trouble. But for now Kulthos is safe.

2421

Our long range scouts find another useful world in the northeast: Simius is a size 25 inferno world. I arrange for an additonal colony ship to be built and dispatched. It is a long way to go, even with our better engines, and I worry that other races may reach it first. But we have to try.

The cats have another fleet heading for Kulthos already, but it is more Bobcats and Warcats like those that just retreated. They can not scratch the planet.

2422

Another long range scout report: Phantos is a size 40 dead world. Another colony ship is ordered up.

The Klackon hive leader calls us, and proposes a non-aggression pact. I accept, as we would like positive relations with the bugs.

The Mrrshan have yet another fleet heading for Kulthos. They are presistent, I will give them that. This one contains some new designs we have not seen, that might have better weapons. Some of our rich worlds have been building more Crocodiles and reloc-ing them to Kulthos, so we will have a decent fleet waiting.

2423

A colony ship dispatched by the previous speaker arrives at Escalon, and another world is claimed for lizard-kind. Seed population is dispatched, but will take time to arrive. A slug of reserve cash is transferred to the new colony to help it grow quickly. Most of our reserves have been getting fed into Rayden each turn for artifacts research, along with extra funds for our other newly developing worlds to build factories.

Long range space scanners detect that the Alkari have a colony ship heading to newly-settled Escalon. I send some crocodiles to defend the new system.

2425

The Psilons show up in the Rhilus system with an armed colony ship. We have a colony ship of our own on the way, but our unarmed monitor can not stop the brains' ship with its neutron blaster and ion cannon weaponry. The system is taken by the Psilon.

The high council meets. 34 votes total, how many will go against us and for the Bulrathi?

Bulrathi - 7 for the bears
Klackons - 2 for the bears
Psilons - 4 for the bears
Mrrshan - 3 for the bears, this is not looking good
Alkari - 7 votes abstain
Us - 11 votes abstain

That was way too close for comfort. Hopefully with some new worlds settled and filled with lizards, we will have a few more votes by 2450. We can not count on the Alkari abstaining again.

2427

Improved Industrial Tech 7 completes. This will help the build out of our new worlds quite a bit.

We have a number of choices. I decide to go with Zortrium Armor to advance the tree and strengthen our defense bases and ground combat. Reduced Waste 60% is tempting, and might have been a better choice, but I think the game will be moving towards a more war-focused phase soon.

2428

We colonize Colassa, the inferno world near the Mrrshan. Seed population is dispatched.

The Alkari call us up, and the flight leader explains that they need new systems. They have broken our agreements and withdrawn their ambassador. Good thing this did not happen before the council meeting! I wonder if the cats bribed them to do this?

2429

The latest Mrrshan fleet arrives at Kulthos.

Most of it is the same stuff we saw before and no threat, but those Panthers are dangerous. I focus our missile bases and Crocodiles to destroy them. We lose one Crocodile but smash almost all of the cat fleet. There is already another one on the way, however.

The Alkari colony ship shows up at Escalon. It has a barren base, reserve fuel tanks, and a heavy blast cannon. Fortunately the system is already ours, but we will need to watch our for incoming birds.

We found a new colony at Simius, a size 25 inferno world in the northeast. Seed population is dispatched, but will be a while getting there. GNN reports that we now control 18 systems.

In less happy news, GNN also reports that a major industrial accident at Rana has irradiated the planet. I transport the excess population off the planet to save them from dying, Palladia barely has room with some hasty terraforming spending. Clean up is funded.

2430

A Psilon fleet arrives at Phantos and steals another system from us.

Not only have we lost two new systems to them, but the brains getting new worlds is never good news. They are dangerous opponents, even with a small empire.

ECM Jammer IV completes, improving our computer tech level and spying ability. It will also help our missile bases against enemy missiles, although the AIs seem to be shifting towards beam weapons as tech advances. The only option for the next project is Battle Computer Mark VI, which at least will be a much needed upgrade.

I have been putting a lot of spending into research throughout the turn set, and multiple projects are nearing completion.

When these complete, we will be able to build a new generation of ships with repulsor beam and 2-space weapons that should help us gain space superiority. Our overall position looks pretty good:

Good luck to our next speaker!


RefSteel - UP!
DaveV - on deck
jez9999 - relaxing
haphazard1 - just played

[RefSteel]

Looks like good turns, Haphazard!  And it seems the Psilons are finally starting to make a play now ... though too late.  I'll post when I've had the chance to load the save and look around, with an initial report and pre-flight plan.

[RefSteel]

Okay, GOT IT!

‭The Great Enemy:  Insertion Debrief
‭

I slipped in clean off a light Bulrathi trader.  The engine room grease cub who helped smuggle me in is the only one who knows I was ever bound for the cold-bloods' space, and there's no chance he'll ever betray my secret:  Brauch and I have been fast friends since he first rolled off his mother's ship back on Fierias, and we've grown up together across seven star systems and the hyperspace flights in between.  He's nobody important on his ship or among his people, but he'll help every way he can - just like this - and I trust him to the end of the galaxy.

‭Thanks to him, I'm established here, safe and sound, in a cozy bolt-hole at the interstellar market on Kronos II, with access to the transport hub and all the major sectors of the cold-bloods' colony.  I can slip through the gaps and holes in their violent and merciless civilization, crossing their rooftops, slipping through their alleys, taking to their sewers when necessary, taking every advantage of the huge ventilation ducts they need to run the endless climate controls they need to keep their cold-blooded bodies working with cruel efficiency.  I prowl the night while the enemy sleeps, finding every crack in their infrastructure wide enough for a lithe cat like me, and finding my way through to learn everything about them.  The enemy's secrets are in reach; I need only extend my claws.

Encrypted report:  Initial Observations

To all appearances here in the Kronos system, the transfer of power to their so-called Twelfth Speaker has been disappointingly smooth.  My successful insertion, timed with the ceremonies at Sssssla, owes more to Brauch's help and the training I've received than to any disruption in Sakkra society, for there is virtually none here that I have been able to perceive.  The same cannot be said for the rest of Sakkra space:  Listening in on the hissing conversations they hold in their native tongue - every word and every sound an implied threat of violence, no matter how well they have learned to pronounce Galactic Standard when they're momentarily in control of their emotions - I have learned of sweeping changes all across Sakkra society as they prepare to make unprovoked war against us, proving our wisdom in pre-emptively declaring war and sending a constant stream of unanswered attack fleets against the terrible soldier breeding ground that is their Kulthos colony.  If only we could have harmed the colony itself instead of just trading ships in space!  I hope we can come up with a better strategy to use against them soon, because the Sakkra are growing ever more dangerous.


(High price tag for a tiny miniaturization and espionage benefit, but I want every advantage we can get there, and with their tiny, backward empire, I'm not afraid of the bugs.)

The new so-called Speaker's term began with a flurry of diplomacy, starting with the Klackon hive queen.  The Sakkra appeared to gain nothing from the exchange - rumors that their governments would begin subsidizing a small trade operation came to nothing, no doubt because Kikitik refused to cooperate - but I noticed shortly afterward that their computer security ratcheted up a little in complexity, and further investigation suggested that their shipyards' continued policy of never building anything that mounted jammer technology included an intermediate class of ECM on their blacklist, twice as powerful as their oldest version and half as strong as their new state of the art.  The insects got so much more from the deal, with dotomite crystals nearly doubling their ships' effective range, it's hard to believe their pride would permit them to accept such virtual charity, but perhaps they are used to swallowing their pride, feeble as they have become:  The true powers in the galaxy could swat them easily.



The Sakkra fleet is on the move as well, and I'd have reported on it earlier if it seemed likely to affect us directly.  They seem focused on exploration instead however, and on their newer colonies.  There is only one star, excluding Orion itself and defended colonies, that the Sakkra have yet to visit with a fleet, and one of their long-range scanning ships is being dispatched to rectify that error before its ship class becomes completely obsolete, even as millions of Denubiusians set out on transports for toxic Hyades II, to ruthlessly exploit its mineral wealth for their deadly military.  More changes would follow after I captured this image, as Crocodile cruisers were dispatched all over Sakkra space:  Not to threatening locations for the present at least, but away from Kulthos generally, setting out to take the place of unarmed fleets that at the time were orbiting various star systems in their space and beyond:  By year's end, according to convincing evidence I have uncovered, every one of the unarmed Sakkra ship designs will be decommissioned, with the lone exception of the Monitor 3X.  Lest you think the departure of so many Crocodiles represents an opportunity however, I fear I must disillusion you:  The Sakkra weren't finished with their deceptive, underhanded diplomatic activities.


(This actually means Bulrathi long-range colony ships will be able to reach Rayden, but I'm not expecting them to try, we can build defenses there if we must, and this now becomes our state-of-the-art battle computer; I wasn't willing to wait for the Mark VI we've barely started researching.)

Their second trade this year of dotomite cells for computer technology was much easier to discover than the jammer they got from the Klackons:  I could actually see the filthy, brutish Sakkra engineers installing the new Mark-III computers at their missile defense facilities.  It will make their bases at Kulthos a little more dangerous as well, but that's the least of our fleets' worries:  The Sakkra have been pouring their diplomatic poisons into Dynalon's ears besides.



With no further expectation of competing with the Psilons for other worlds - having lost the races for Rhilus and Phantos already - the so-called Twelfth Speaker signed a pact with them, promising mutual non aggression in perpetuity.  As we know all too well, the Sakkra did so with cynical, calculated insincerity, knowing they would provoke the Psilons to break the pact as in the past they have provoked us and the Bulrathi into breaking ours repeatedly, by continuing their filthy reptillian existence on so many worlds around the galaxy!  And then, once the pact was signed, the Sakkra executed an even more dastardly plot.



With the new class-IV shields they learned to build from the Psilons, their missile bases behind planetary shields are completely immune to every weapon we mount on every ship in our entire fleet, but that wasn't enough forthem; it wasn't enough that, with the same stroke, they doubled the strength of the shields they could build on their war ships.  They had to teach their most-advanced materials-engineering technology in exchange, rendering factory construction cheaper across the Psilon Luminocracy.  No doubt the Psilons are applauding now, pleased with the lying lizards' generosity - failing to realize that factory construction on isolated, ill-protected colonies like those at Rhilus and Phantos could play directly into the hands of the Sakkra military if - or rather when - they choose to take those factories by force.  And of course, as we all know all too well, the Sakkra control more than enough worlds already!


(Taken before I applied reserve spending anywhere or scrapped any of our ships - and I did lots of both!  I also reduced spy spending somewhat after taking this (having increased it massively beforehand) but I considered it important to be sure we'd have a spy in place - if possible, at least - with every other race in the galaxy.  Also not shown:  The shipyards at Laan and Thrax, which before I ended turn would both start work on a new placeholder design.  Other planets may well be joining them soon.  I'm pretty sure we can just grow into a peaceful veto from here, but - not coincidentally - I think it's about time we start preparing to take the war to the enemy!)

The Sakkra empire is growing out of control, and getting stronger every day.  I can keep tabs on them from here, and if I'm needed nearer to the front, I can try to stow away aboard a ship and get there, but if we don't do something fast - something more than sending yet more fleets to Kulthos, now completely ineffectually - I fear I'll only be providing a running commentary on their conquest of the galaxy.

[jez9999]

(High price tag for a tiny miniaturization and espionage benefit, but I want every advantage we can get there, and with their tiny, backward empire, I'm not afraid of the bugs.)

Our computer tech level was already something like 17, so why does trading for the level 7 tech get us an espionage or miniaturization benefit?

[haphazard1]

Nice intro and set up, RefSteel. Always entertaining to read.

jez9999, every additional tech we learn in a field adds 1 to our tech level in that field even if it is an obsolete, tier 1 tech. So getting old, cheap techs (by trade, espionage, conquest, or even researching them ourselves) does provide some benefit. It is not a very large benefit, but it is helpful for miniaturization on our ships. And for computers, it helps our spying (both offensively and defensively).

I probably should have checked for trading opportunities like this. This is an area of the game I tend to forget, and don't do enough with.

[jez9999]

Nice intro and set up, RefSteel. Always entertaining to read.

jez9999, every additional tech we learn in a field adds 1 to our tech level in that field even if it is an obsolete, tier 1 tech. So getting old, cheap techs (by trade, espionage, conquest, or even researching them ourselves) does provide some benefit. It is not a very large benefit, but it is helpful for miniaturization on our ships. And for computers, it helps our spying (both offensively and defensively).

I probably should have checked for trading opportunities like this. This is an area of the game I tend to forget, and don't do enough with.

So when the manual states "your computer tech level", is this calculated as "number of computer techs you have" then? Instead of "maximum level of any computer tech you have"?

[haphazard1]

I believe your tech level in any field is:

(the tech level of the best tech you know in that field) + 1 for each other tech you know in that field

I think that is correct. Hopefully someone can correct me if I am wrong.

[DaveV]

According to the OSG, it's 80% of the highest level tech, +1 for every tech discovered (starting techs don't count), +1.

It's been a busy weekend, but good set, haphazard, and good start, Ref.

[haphazard1]

Interesting info. Thanks, DaveV. I have never actually read the OSG. Hmmm, the final +1 makes certain you start at level 1. Progress by advancing the best tech is a bit less than I realized.

I wish we had been able to get those two worlds the Psilons grabbed, but they are moving around the galaxy so fast and started closer than we did.