Utwig, I took advantage of planets and asteroids to destroy the Meklar fleets pretty cheaply. It was great.
2550:
NowDust is the only world currently being attacked.
I keep Imra on Reserves, and fill in some missing factories. Send some reserves to WeRich and AlwaysOurs – those two worlds get a 2x multiplier, and need to build factories, so spending 1 world’s RP now to get that back with bonuses is worthwhile (and gives us some flexibility if needed with standing up these new worlds).
12 Ajax are heading to NowDust
2551: Ajax destroyed, but lose 1 Glassgun and 31 Vetril (didn’t think through the “Heavy Fusion Beam vs Speed 1 Cloaked Ship” interactions carefully enough. LESSON LEARNED).
2552: Atmospheric Terraforming comes in, and take a look:
With NowDust getting bases up, I consider going clearing Keep Out and stashing our fleet there to hold it. The problem, however, is that the Meklar have a fleet heading there that includes a Huge Nemesis ship that I don’t think we can take out – the Ajax by themselves are fine (they can be kited, especially if there’s asteroids or a planet to leverage), but I need the Meklar to claim the world and abandon it to try to get it ourselves. Playing it safe – if we can hold what we’ve got, we’re fine (ESPECIALLY with Adv Soil on the way – definitely keeping our research on Planetology because that is such a game-breakingly good tech).
2553:
Decide to go for Crypto instead, since the Meklar are heading for it – they’ll invade, take it over, and then we clear it out and claim it for ourselves.
2555: Bomb Crypto. This triggers War with the Meklar, but they’re really only a threat to Crypto-soon-to-be-known-as Reopening. Send over a newly-built CheapCol to claim it next turn.
2556: Claim Reopening without incident. Send some warm bodies over, and prepare to fight.
2557: Minimal casualties at Reopening (that took forever – the Meklar had two cloaked Speed 1 stacks that I had to kite around the asteroids forever to minimize casualties, but they’re all dead and we lost like 8 Vetrils between that fight and the Silicoids (who have gunships with speed)).
The Alkari are at risk of losing Altair, and I don’t want the Meklar to have it, and we don’t really want to try to stand up two worlds at once or make the Alkari truly mad. But Altair only has 2 Ajax sitting in orbit, so I send half the Vetrils to Altair, with the Faradays in case there is a missile base I have to fight through first, to try and keep Altair from falling to the Meklar.
We may decide to go for it ourselves soon (Dolz just fell from the Silicoids to the Alkari as well), but our fleet is pretty modest right now so I don’t want to spread ourselves too thin.
2558:
Altair had 19 bases, decide that’s a much better defense plan for the incoming transports than what we had in mind, send the fleet back.
AlwaysOurs holds to a 19-stack of Ajax at the cost of 1 missile base and 3 Vetrils. Having some Vetrils around to run rings around these Ajax is essential to holding our worlds. Send 4 Vetrils each to Sand Line and Nazin in case the Meklar come calling and we don’t get warning.
This was the first turn there was real population at Reopening, and most of the BCs were spent on terraforming. We are NOT close to getting the shield up (~150BCs have been put into it at this time).
2560:
Reopening may not be possible to hold. There can be 106 Vetrils there next turn, but I don’t have a good read on what the huge ships are made of and how easily they’ll be to kill. Ajax are easy, just don’t get near them.
I have NOT spent reserves this turn outside of Reopening.
Altair sadly fell despite the 19 bases (!?!?!?!). Exis is a recent flip from Alkari to Silicoids, as is Dolz (in the other direction). You’ve got a lot of worlds at 10 bases which is generally when I like to switch to factory production, but YMMV. Those worlds aren’t getting attacked much at the moment, and the Bulrathi aren’t a serious threat to our missile bases.
All three of the recent flips can be targets for expansion. Meklar seem quite vulnerable to this Vetril design – that may be the reason we pull through this, good job guys.
Sand Line has an incoming fleet, but can easily have 35-40 bases and a few ships to take on 1 Huge Annihilator and 1 Ajax, so that shouldn’t be an issue.
Overall, things look really good. We're steadily expanding, tech is catching up, and none of the AIs are a threat to any of our established worlds. Factories are going up where able (which is most of the lacking worlds by now IMO).
Adv Soil and HEF are the next tech focuses I think (especially since Adv Soil is well-seeded) - HEF Fusion Beams should be plenty, but Megabolts without HEF will just die to the Meklar fleets, range 2 is that important against them. The 2 Reserve worlds are mostly if you want to rush reserve spending at Sand Line - it's possible that's unnecessary, and we should be pumping more into research (50% size to all our worlds would be absolutely massive).
(May 25th, 2020, 19:18)Bionic Commando Wrote: Any chance we can get before and after starmaps posted for the turn sets? makes it much easier for onlookers to follow!
Sure thing!
KeepOut was resettled at least twice. Dion is the Blue -> Green flag in the north. Exis is the Green -> Blue flag just below it. Altair is the Green -> Grey. We took Crypto now Reopening during my turnset.
Looks great - and that was a really fast turnaround on those turn sets! I've got it, but it'll take me a bit longer than that to play and report!
Do we know anything about what's on the incoming huge ships, by chance? (Meklar Annihilator and Nemesis designs, plus their Nexus cruisers, and the Bulrathi Rhino...) Of course, I suppose I'll find out....
Roster:
- Ianus (Skipped until we hear from you - I hope all is well!)
- shallow_thought - on deck
- Arnuz
- utwig
- Cyneheard - just played - RefSteel - Playing!
(May 26th, 2020, 02:43)RefSteel Wrote: Looks great - and that was a really fast turnaround on those turn sets! I've got it, but it'll take me a bit longer than that to play and report!
Do we know anything about what's on the incoming huge ships, by chance? (Meklar Annihilator and Nemesis designs, plus their Nexus cruisers, and the Bulrathi Rhino...) Of course, I suppose I'll find out....
Roster:
- Ianus (Skipped until we hear from you - I hope all is well!)
- shallow_thought - on deck
- Arnuz
- utwig
- Cyneheard - just played - RefSteel - Playing!
I think the Annihilator was around during your last set, and you put up a picture. I definitely snapped and posted a shot of the Nemesis during mine (I guess there is a small risk in both cases that they are new designs under the same name): it's slow (2) and low on shields (2), but with 1400 HP (is that an armour II?), Cloaking and Repulsor, 52 Tachyon beams, 12 Hard Beams, a single Heavy Blaster and 10 normal Neutron Blasters. It went down fast to Scatter-Vs.
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
(May 26th, 2020, 02:43)RefSteel Wrote: Looks great - and that was a really fast turnaround on those turn sets! I've got it, but it'll take me a bit longer than that to play and report!
Do we know anything about what's on the incoming huge ships, by chance? (Meklar Annihilator and Nemesis designs, plus their Nexus cruisers, and the Bulrathi Rhino...) Of course, I suppose I'll find out....
Roster:
- Ianus (Skipped until we hear from you - I hope all is well!)
- shallow_thought - on deck
- Arnuz
- utwig
- Cyneheard - just played - RefSteel - Playing!
I think the Annihilator was around during your last set, and you put up a picture. I definitely snapped and posted a shot of the Nemesis during mine (I guess there is a small risk in both cases that they are new designs under the same name): it's slow (2) and low on shields (2), but with 1400 HP (is that an armour II?), Cloaking and Repulsor, 52 Tachyon beams, 12 Hard Beams, a single Heavy Blaster and 10 normal Neutron Blasters. It went down fast to Scatter-Vs.
I didn't see any Huge Meklar ships in the turnset, or Bulrathi, so I can't help you there, sorry.
Nexus cruisers are cloaked speed 1 ships with Tachyons and a couple 2-racks of Stingers. A little more annoying than Ajax but the same basic concept.
Thanks for the ship info! I've now played the turns, but dealing with the pictures will take a while and it's preposterously late already. I'll attach the save in case anyone wants a look at it before I post the report (tomorrow night). Sorry for the delay! Since it needs no pictures though, here's the...
Introduction:
Parent, tell me the story again of the Immaculate Ascension.
Nay, child, you will have me thinking we should never have joined in it, and continued instead as some have done in the Old Ways! I have told you that story twenty times already this year alone, and how many have my coparents told it? Oh, yes, laugh as you choose, but I will not tell the story again tonight!
But you wouldn't really give up our Ascension! Think of it, to never have bedtime stories and see each other only by watching through a screen!
Sometimes I think I wish it, child. Were I not able to escape into the lonely space, I might wish it all the time. But I can, and when I do, I remember what it was, when it was not a story but our final freedom - from the Poisoned and from each other all at once.
Tell me, tell me! Tell me again!
Nay, child; not this night. But I will tell you an older story. It is not a well-known story like the Imperial Custodian's or the dauntless emperor who ruled in every hour when he had thought, and for all the decades of others' rule left behind not only the thoughts of others but all his own - nor yet the fabled emperor, destroyer of Meklar fleets, arisen perhaps from the spirit of a prince who rose to slay a king in distant, ancient times. I tell not of the emperor, thought crazed but cunning-mad, who put his trust in and from time to time perhaps became one "Mr. Bear," his own beloved and imaginary friend, attributing his deep thoughts to this furry, fanged being, nor the Emperor of the Ultron's Many Masks who learned and acted with unrivaled speed. These stories you have heard - unless you shut your ears, for you have asked me often enough to tell them! This is a story that perhaps is new to you: A tale about the heart of the living galaxy.
It won't work, wily parent: I have learned to shapeshift into creatures that don't need to sleep.
I do not fear, dear child, that there will be a need.
Well our question from the get go remains. Will we go quiet into the gentle good night and become hidden part of Meklar deep state or will we be able to counter them. The Meklar ships incoming at the end of the turn are high tech with zyro shields and we have 90 Ventrils. Our Poulson bases are not enough we need to come up with a plan.
It happened long ago, before ever you coalesced, and before I coalesced as well, that our ancestral people did battle over the galactic center with three - or rather all, since the Mrrshans by then had disappeared into the endless night, and the Alkari still fought for a talonhold too though not officially at war - of the surviving alien species in the galaxy.
How long ago?
The year by our reckoning was 2560. I'm sure you can do the arithmetic yourself.
The familiar galactic holomap had to be enhanced for clarity, to distinguish the Meklar colors from our own, but we needed no assistance and none of the horrors of interspecies communication to discern their intent - nor that of the Bulrathi - when their fleets arrived one after the other the following year and tried to ensure that our Reopening would prove premature, and that it would result in millions of deaths among our people.
That sounds very cruel of them, Parent - but was it premature?
Ah - that's a story for another night. But in the meantime, we were developing our power quietly. Darloks who felt ill-defended tried to build up bases and shields, and Darloks eager to make a mark on the galaxy crossed the stars to WeRich and AlwaysOurs or worlds where factories sat idle, while others tried to make their own worlds more prominent instead, with new factory projects of their own or growing research efforts, especially in the field of planetology. Only one new ship was built across all of Darlok space in 2561, and it was an inexpensive, unarmed ion colony lander, built by Darlok pioneers hoping the interstellar wars raging across the galactic core would provide them with an opportunity. It might have been a quiet, peaceful time for a Darlok to grow up, if not for the death fleets the aliens were building - and our own existing fleets.
The Bulrathi would be no more than an afterthought, though their colony ship was armed with more powerful weaponry than anything we could build ourselves in that long-ago time. The Meklar, far more dangerous, managed to wreck some of our ships, but were likewise defeated. Our gunners couldn't even target their cloaked ships with reaction fire, in spite of our advantages in speed, gunnery, and maneuverability, but still our pilots managed to separate their fleet, take on the enemy flight groups one by one, and burn them from the skies.
By using our magic powers, right? The power of patience and waiting! I remember from the story of the heavy fusion destroyers being made, and how they would take advantage of our time-bending abilities, where we can wait and see what the alien ships do before we decide what to do and what to have done simultaneously!
Um ... ahem ... well, you see ... I know it seems like magic, but remember that it only works that way when we react faster than they do, which of course in a fight like this we would, but ... well, calling it magic, you know, isn't very dignified, and since the aliens don't know how to do it...
You seem oddly distressed, Parent! Why can that be?
The battles! The battles I was speaking of! With fighting for our people's lives and heavy fusion beams scorching space and everything! Very distressing, you know, child! Yet distressing though they were, our ancestors came away victorious - not only over Reopening! In 2462, we took the battle to the enemy - though, it must be acknowledged, by no means the greatest of our enemies - and were punished for destroying the Silicoids' toxic Exis colony by a disproportionate reprisal.
The unspeakable rocky monsters tried to open communications channels and talk in our direction!
Far crueler than the Meklar then! Do you mean to say that they were trying to convince us of things we didn't ask them to instead of telling storeis we requested?
Indeed they were! Had we achieved our Immaculate Ascension, this would have posed nor danger to us, and therefore been permitted or even welcome - but long before the possibility of the Ascension had even been conceived, their words were a greater threat to us than even Meklar fleets. Of course there could be no peace after this unforgiveable act of terrorism.
Was that because the Silicoids were weak and we weren't afraid of them?
Clever child, you seem to see things clearly. The Bulrathi, by contrast, had our deepest respect - and do you know what "our deepest respect" means?
I don't, Parent, but if I had to guess, I would say, "Ships that react faster than ours with lots and lots of powerful, long-range beams!"
I begin to suspect you have heard this story before after all. Yes, with 36 Disruptors, the Rhino would have done enormous damage to our heavy fusion fleet, and the two Handwash 6s our people built as an early gesture at upgrading the Vetril design with ion engines could do nothing to help defend RocksStink2 except to draw pulson missile fire. Fortunately for the people of that world, the Rhino battleship was so slow that their thirteen Pulson missile bases had plenty of time to blast it into atoms before it reached firing range.
It is good to hear of killing so many terrible aliens who were smelly and ugly and mean! But you have told me of only three races! What of the Alkari?
The bird people of Altair are an interesting subject - as is the reason they have not yet appeared in the story. You see, officially we were not at war, but this did not prevent us from clashing with them over many worlds where neither Darloks nor Alkari lived. At this time in history, they were extremely weak, for reasons that will become apparent if you consider that by this time they were no longer actually the bird people of Altair! In fact, well before 2563...
...they were the bird people of a far-flung four-planet empire that did not include Altair. When we bombed their original homeworld down to the bedrock, the colony we destroyed belonged to the Meklar, and the Alkari, to all appearances were extremely pleased! Of course, to get that far, we did have to chase away one of their own attack fleets, but it wouldn't have been very effective even if we'd left it to do what it could.
Enough of their Sky Hawk nuclear bombers could still have hurt our bases though, couldn't they? And their Falcons had teleporters and Megabolts! Our ships couldn't escape those, could they? Wouldn't they have been very scary?
They certainly would ... if they had the Meklar or Bulrathi production base - but in numbers like these, the birds were frightening precisely nobody. In fact though, that might have been said of all the aliens. By this time, there were Darloks beginning to evolve a plan for rapid, deadly strikes that would allow them to overtake even the deadly Meklar and begin to truly take over the galaxy! The folly of the time though, and the tragedy of this story, is that the Darloks on the whole ignored these brilliant plans, merely consolidating the gains they had already made, and stretching themselves to try to hold the center of the galaxy.
It couldn't have been that much of a tragedy. The plan was still ready to roll out later on, wasn't it?
Yes, yes, yes, but a story sounds more dramatic when I use words like "tragedy." Besides, we might have saved many, many Darloks death and misery if we had been less conservative with our plans and executed these attacks as quickly as might be. As it was, in 2564...
...our technological development still lagged behind not only the Meklar and Bulrathi, but even the hapless Alkari at whose four-planet empire I was poking fun so recently. In trying to catch up, we were ignoring the fact that we could make much more headway against them by smashing their laboratories! In the meantime, of course, consolidation and research only bred more consolidation. By 2565...
...the promise of Advanced Soil Enrichment had been achieved, allowing us to create gaian paradises using nanotechnology that would someday enable our people to completely restore ecosystems damaged by industrial development almost instantaneously, and practically for free.
Weren't we already really at cleaning up our waste though? I guess the new development would cut the cost to a quarter of what it used to be, but isn't three quarters of a very small amount still really small?
Well, it's something at least, and nothing else would have moved our research forward, but it's not like we tried very hard to speed the project up after it was chosen. There were other things on Darlok minds in the second half of the 2560s.
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