OSG-28

[Ianus]

Report part 1.

2440: Wow! Where to begin? The galaxy has descended into chaos.

Wars rage all throughout known space, the ruins of the Bulrathi empire still burn, their ancient home world devoid of life while lesser aliens squabble over the remains. Even our own mighty empire stands as a shadow of what it could be. Half of our worlds still lack factories including rich Mentar. Our fleets flit between the stars without clear purpose or direction. I encounter our primary (read: ONLY) bomber fleet en route to the Darlok UP colony of Volantis under orders to destroy it, but without a colony ship to bring the world, as worthless as it is, under our control. I begin to see some indication of what has caused the galaxy to fall prey to strife and discord, and I fear that I am to blame.
After all, it was I who first voiced the call for war. I who outlined plans to destroy our neighbors and take their territory in spite of pacts of nonaggression and friendly relations. My greed that dared to imagine a galaxy ruled by the tranquil mind of the Psilon collective. Ha! More fool I for allowing my dreams to infest the consideration of the collective and drive us to rash and drastic action before clarity of purpose could be achieved and the interlocking complexities of cause and effect could be understood and mitigated. Not that I was wrong, mind you. My reasoning was sound, just that our execution was imperfect.
Fortunately for the galaxy the might of the mind is without bounds, and that which is imperfect can achieve perfection. It is up to us, we the great and powerful Psilon collective, to right the course of galactic events and check the galaxy’s plunge into anarchy.

First things first. I need to do some housekeeping in within our empire. All worlds that have not yet maxed factories (Paranar, Argus, Gion, Mentar(!!!) and even poor Firma) are set on full factory construction. As it happens Paranar will max factories this turn, and Mentar will only take two turns to max out. I also disagree with the general consensus about building factories on poor and ultra-poor planets. I think that if there isn’t anything else going on it is always worth building factories. For example, Firma can currently build 5 factories per turn, and it is at ~2/3 population. It won’t take THAT long to build many more factories than it already has, and that will make a poor planet better than it would be without those factories. At 72 pop and 62 factories Firma can generate 180RP which is roughly 10% of our total research, and that is with only half of our worlds researching right now. On the other hand, when maxed out at 110 pop and 440 factories Firma will generate ~370 RP, or ~20% of our current research, which is twice as good. If you have the world and the time to develop it, do so say I.
Speaking of research, I notice that we are pouring almost all of our research into Pulson missiles and ignoring everything else including Armored Exoskeletons. Well of course we won’t be able to invade anyone if that is how we treat gropo techs! I equalize tech spending in all fields. We are Psilons, we have the research to spare and Pulsons aren’t THAT vital!
I have stopped building ships and focused on infrastructure, which takes care of our own empire, so now I need to look outward and decide what to do from here. We have 10 transports due at the Silicoid colony on Talas next turn, and I rather doubt that that token Sakkra fleet will be able to stop them. So expect war with the Rocks starting next turn. I don’t care about that, but the Sakkra fleet in orbit most likely means a whole mess of lizards incoming at Talas in the near future.

In for a penny, in for a pound I always say.

And the same at Volantis. It may not be a great worlds, and it only has 60 factories, but I’d rather not have our empire completely surrounded by hot potatoes. We will see how long it takes to do it the old fashioned way.

Here is our current empire screen. I think that I WANT to go to war with the rocks. Just look at our trade deficit! Why did we just sign a massive trade deal with them again?

I do trade old Sedmin Omega-V bombs for Fusion bombs however. While this may seem like a bad deal for us, I MUCH prefer small bombers to medium bombers, and Fusion Bombs are plenty for the shields we are currently facing.

Nobody likes me!
Well I think that that is just about enough fun for one turn. Lets see how things shake out from here.

2441:

The Darloks attack at Paranar and are repulsed without difficulty. Their fleets don’t look very scary.

We skirmish with the Sakkra over Ursa and are victorious. Also whatever bug is going on with the ship display the Contradict does in fact have a functioning Auto Repair on board.

We lose 5 bombers at Volantis and destroy all bases.

Ground combat goes reasonably well.

We actually FAIL to take Talas from the Silicoids, who are unhappy but do not declare war. That is going to be a problem when our 39 additional transports arrive next turn.

Of course we will have to deal with the 70 lizards that are also due to arrive next turn. I wonder in what order that combat will resolve?
This Bulrathi fleet is due at Argus next turn, but I believe that our 5 bases there can handle things.
Nothing else to report for this turn. I route one of our colony ships from Toranor to Ursa. It remains to be seen if we can actually hold that world, but it will be worth a try. Otherwise I’m just maxing worlds and trying to plan for the future.

Now this is more like it! I’m going to build a couple thousand of these and see how our enemies like it!

2442:

Here is the Bulrathi fleet at Argus. The Rhino is the only dangerous design so I blow it up. The rest of the fleet executes a retrograde maneuver.

The Silicoids send the dumbest ship design I have seen in a while to Talas where it accomplishes absolutely nothing except expending all of its missiles and blowing up some asteroids, and then retreating.
Everyone sends colony ships to Ursa where I drive them away.

We get a spy infiltration agains the bears, but it must be low level as Planetology isn’t an option. I select Force Fields and get Class IV deflectors and a frame. I choose the Silicoids.

Yes please!

I decline to bomb anything. Lets invade instead!

Victory on Talas!

Twice! After pulverizing some rocks my troops immediately dig some hasty fortifications and repel the invading lizards with the help of the orbiting fleet. More colonists are incoming next year.

Combat is a near thing at Volantis. Next year will bring victory!

This is 100% pure, weapons grade Bolognium!
Not much else going on this turn. I start building F-Bombs at Mentar after it maxes factories, and I work to defend our new colonies. I could get peace with the Sakkra if I wanted to, but I want to try to take Sssla away from them first. To that end I reroute my bombers from Volantis up to Sssla, ETA 3 turns. I’ll send some support ships down from Talas when the time comes, ETA from there 1 turn.

In political news the Silicoids are at war with EVERYONE, so as long as I can get some peaces before the election we should be just fine. Hopefully conquering the Sakkra home world won’t interfere with that too much.

[Ianus]

Report part 2

2443:

The Sakkra show up at Toranor with three medium ships armed with nuclear missiles. I’m not sure what the were planning to do here, but its not going to work.

The Sakkra try again at Ursa, and it goes about like before.

I chase a Silicoid colony ship away from Talas.

Go away!


I defend our new worlds.

And claim a new one. Granted it is Ultra Poor, but…

THAT is why you invade enemy colonies! Well the first two, anyway.

Has anyone noticed that there are THREE home worlds in a line across the exact center of the galaxy? What a weird game! Can I control all three of them by the end of my turns? Probably not but it is fun to think about!

Oh, and we are also first in Total Power. Game over, man! Game over!

2444: I repel a bunch of Darlok spore ships from Volantis with no casualties (except a bunch of spore ships) and things look pretty peaceful right now.

2445:

The bears are back with more spore ships, but I have been building more bases so no problem there.

My bombers are able to close on Sssla and destroy all bases without taking casualties. Time for another invasion force!

The Darloks try again to get Volantis back, but can’t manage it.

That should make peace an easier proposition.

And I’d BETTER sign peace with them in four turns or we are going to be in serious trouble! I’ll just bet that there are spores somewhere in that stack!

2446:

Same deal at Chryslon. I elect not to bomb it out because I want to be sure that the rocks will be our opponents come election time.

And I BELIEVE that PEACE is POSSIBLE! HALLELUJAH!

2447: Nothing to report, other than that I plan to raze Antares next turn and replace it with our last colony ship. And that troops begin landing at Sssla next turn.

2448:

Oh you shouldn’t have. No really!

I guess that I won’t be razing and replacing that colony.

Invasion it is!

The first round of ground combat is a miserable failure at Sssla. I can do better than that!

The Bulrathi are ready to be friends though!

[Ianus]

Report part 3

2449: The penultimate turn!

Well that didn’t work!

That did though!

2450:

Nuts!

Now for the important stuff!

Yes…

Yay!

Yay!

Boo!

Yay!

Boo!

And…

Woohoo!!!!!

The end!
While it feels a bit abrupt, I personally don’t want to play this out much farther.  We are in a dominant position and given time and effort we will be able to grind our way across the galaxy, but what is the fun in that?
Who wants to play again?
Oh and the 2449 save is attached in case anyone wants it.

[Mardoc]

Wow, that was fast!  I'd thought you were just aiming for a veto block, not an outright victory!

I'd certainly throw my hat in the ring for OSG-29 if you'll have me.  I've got the GoG version with kyrub's patch added in.  I can't seem to load the saves you have attached here, though, when I tested.  Tried renaming the file SAVE6.GAM and copying it to the MOO folder, and it just doesn't show up in the load game screen.  Did you end up playing without the patch? Am I missing some other step?

No particular preferences, other than bumping up the difficulty and variety a bit by picking a different race.

[Ianus]

It may be that the save is there but unless you already had a title added to the save6 spot the game won't add any text to the save title. See if you can select save6 anyway.
As for the abrupt end I'm certainly open to our next player opening the save and continuing to play if we would like to continue. I leave that up to the team. I just set a goal of not losing the vote...

[haphazard1]

Great work navigating us through the chaos, Ianus.

The galaxy did get a bit crazy. Fleets going every which way, invasions and counter-invasions. Quite the learning experience, at least for me. I would be interested in another game, if there is interest. Still lots more to learn.

I am still unsure about building factories on poor worlds. I takes such a long time to max out such a world, that often it does not get to the point of paying back before the game ends. Leaving such a world un-industrialized and just getting what value you can from it (pop, navigational reach, and a bit of research) often seems like a better bet.

I do think we should have maxed our better worlds sooner after getting improved robotic controls tech. Mentar especially could have done so in just a couple turns, as you noted. It is the builder impulse on my part, but I dislike not getting those factories as soon as possible. If competing needs are going to delay the new factories, better to research a different tech so factory costs do not increase until you are ready for a round of factory building.

Any suggestions for the next game? Maybe still stick with a strong race, for those of us who are new to impossible? We could give the bugs a try and their production focus, see how that goes, or the humans and try a more diplomatic approach?

[Mardoc]

It may be that the save is there but unless you already had a title added to the save6 spot the game won't add any text to the save title. See if you can select save6 anyway.

That is the *weirdest* bug.  Couldn't load save6 anyway (or at least couldn't figure out how) - but I saved a test game into the slot, then copied over your save into save6.gam, and then it worked.

[haphazard1]

The save slots can be a little finicky. Glad you were able to get it working, Mardoc.

[RefSteel]

Great job bringing us home, Ianus - and I loved your report and intro! It's funny to say we have the game won when we haven't even achieved a veto, but ... I actually agree with you there. If haphazard and RFS-81 want to keep playing, I'll be happy to play my next set, but I'm just as happy to start up a new game too.

That was especially great work taking the battle to the aliens! I 100% agree that the problem with Talas wasn't the risk of Silicoid war, but the absence of a Psilon colony! And even if we had terrible tech luck at Volantis, it would have been a total waste to burn down the 60 factories the 'loks had so patiently built for us with the Ultra-Poor penalties! Fortunately of course, our tech luck there was spectacular instead, and the chance of that happening is - as you pointed out - another excellent reason to invade instead of bombing.

On Poor world factories, you chose the wrong time to make your case, I think: Any factories built on Firma in the last 10 turns of the game might as well be collectible plastic figurines for all they contributed to the empire. Of course, you couldn't have known at the time that you'd end up winning the election! Still, Firma would have been a great place to clone Psilons for populating (and conquering) our new and better worlds. Factories are great, but if I can't think of something to research (or somewhere to send force-grown population) with a better effective rate of return than poor-world facs will give, I usually want to rethink my strategy. You said that it wouldn't take that long to build more factories there, but ... it takes forever! Not figuratively forever; if you're researching well, you might literally never max out your poor world even if you're building nothing there but factories as you keep getting better RC tech and finally win the game!

Factories on rich worlds are of course a different story. I understand why they were delayed here - there was a sense that the need for new ships was constantly urgent - but I'm confident enough in our then-existent star fleets that I would still have built the facs much sooner than we actually did.

More importantly, it's been terrific to play with all of you! I'm definitely looking forward to the next game!

[haphazard1]

Count me as a vote for a new game. The status graph Ianus posted shows that we had reached total power parity/superiority with the AI races; that is generally a pretty good sign that you have reached a winning position. And with us being the Psilons in that position...I think we can consider that game over.

Factories on poor planets...well, there are a lot of factors to consider. Such as is the planet safe from attack, due to range/position or fleet superiority? If so, it may be worth trying to develop it. But if not, then building factories on a world that will be very hard/impossible to defend just gives your enemies a chance to invade and steal tech...as we did to the Darlok's poor world. Another factor is expected time left until the end of the game, and whether there is a decent chance for development to pay off. More urgent needs for population also have to be considered.