OSG 29B - The Socially-Awkward Diplomats

[RefSteel]

Nah, don't worry. I considered that briefly three different times and rejected it each time, soundly. Besides, asteroids wouldn't make a difference to transports, would they? The question [EDIT: in my previous post about what the asteroids were there] wasn't an idle one, though I'll make do with the assumption there aren't any if necessary.

[shallow_thought]

Nah, don't worry.  I considered that briefly three different times and rejected it each time, soundly.  Besides, asteroids wouldn't make a difference to transports, would they?  The question [EDIT:  in my previous post about what the asteroids were there] wasn't an idle one, though I'll make do with the assumption there aren't any if necessary.

Sorry, I didn't think to make a note of it when I had the Scanner ship take a peek at the Nexus. I'm not used to exploiting asteroids to any great extent, so it never occurred to me. But there are fortunately autosaves (thanks Kyrub).




I also suspect that we would have trouble holding Cygni against the Meklar ships (I'm assuming that we don't yet have Neutron Blasters), although that's not strictly relevant if we're only talking about wearing down / keeping down bases.

[RefSteel]

Thanks, shallow_thought; that's informative. And yeah, the need to hold off Meklar ships is another of the reasons not to send transports too soon, unescorted. I might know a little more about their fleet soon though at least.

Also, good luck with the trip, Thrawn! I'd better get my turns finished soon in that case - and given my usual trouble uploading pictures, I'll post the save as soon as it's ready, and fill the report in later. Now, let's see what I can do with this thing....

[shallow_thought]

Btw, I'll be going on an intensive work trip next week for two weeks and won't be able to even check the forum. You'll probably need to skip me for the 2470-2480 turn if the game goes on that long. As for the 2420-2430, the latest I'll be able to play in on Monday; RFS-81 and TheArchduke if you won't be able to finish by then would you mind if I do a turn ahead of you this time?

On the same subject, I'm on holiday next week and have no idea what Internet access is going to be like. Best to assume that (unless I send  a timely message saying otherwise) that I won't be available until following weeklend. I was actually kind of expecting this to be irrelevant given the position in the game, but if it comes round to me before Sat 8 Jun (more likely if Thrawn can't squeeze in another turn set), best to skip me.

For what it's worth (and I really hope I'm not being too cocky here), I'd be vaguely in favour of playing on until at least a 50% pop victory (domination?), rather than taking an early diplo win. But if we reach a winning position and I'm not around and the rest of the team can decide whether it would be fun to play on or not.

[RFS-81]

Btw, I'll be going on an intensive work trip next week for two weeks and won't be able to even check the forum. You'll probably need to skip me for the 2470-2480 turn if the game goes on that long. As for the 2420-2430, the latest I'll be able to play in on Monday; RFS-81 and TheArchduke if you won't be able to finish by then would you mind if I do a turn ahead of you this time?

I'll have time to finish my turns on Saturday or Sunday, or this evening if RefSteel finishes today.

[RefSteel]

Here ya' go!

Some brief [Fake Edit: Defined as Not Brief] notes because it's 4:30 [Fake Edit: And now 4:55 apparently] AM and I need to sleep:

- I didn't meet any of my reach goals! Not one! (Secret: I'm still really happy with the way I played the set, and pleased with the way it went in spite of some bad luck at the end.)

- On the other hand, we could have just won if we felt like it. I abstained instead. Also, we have a veto.

- There are a couple of fleets moving across the north: A Bulrathi cruiser that looks like it's heading toward Rha or Cygni and an Alkari fighter that's probably headed for that asteroid field. They're slow, but make sure not to let the bears take orbit.

- There's only a single fighter at each of the hostile worlds south of our empire right now. I think one of them even has nuclear engines still. The Sili colship design currently has a bunch of slow missiles, so I've been able to keep them out anyway, but it would probably be a good idea to put an actual fleet in this area at some point soon.

- Only UR Exis has received reserve spending so far this turn (left over from last turn really). We have some reserves to play with if you want though. Also some enormous prebuilds at Exis and Endoria while we wait for Duralloy to come in.

- There are some transports inbound to Rha - 19 due next turn. We also some more transports in space in that neighborhood.

Okay, okay, I'll elaborate on missing my stretch goals:

1) There are some worlds I intentionally didn't max, and some that just had better things to do. We are pretty close on most worlds though, and obviously maxed on a few. I also have missile bases up at any world that seemed threatened. No planetary shields though. The tech was in the percentates for my entire turn set, and in the 20-30% range for at least 6 turns, but never hit.

2) I only picked up two techs! They were the two I wanted most though, and I was lucky enough on both of them to make up for the aforementioned PSV bad luck - though maybe not for Duralloy, which has been sitting at 40+% for about three turns! Anyway, I did set the next player up to get some techs. Like 6 ... or even more if you count what's about to happen at...

3) Cygni. You should be able to conquer it next turn barring really egregious bad luck. I got poor combat rolls last turn on top of Duralloy's failure to come through, but it'll take worse than that for next turn's wave to fail too, even though it's smaller. I recommend sending even more transports though and growing population on Rha and Collassa to supply them. We should build a base and a shield there. When we conquer it, I mean.

Have fun with this one! The save is attached!

[RefSteel]

Thanks, Thrawn! I'll post a full report [EDIT: Now edited into this post, at the bottom!], but to answer your question in the meantime: Only Hard Beam was available at the next tier. I wouldn't normally go back for Hyper-X when we already have Hyper-V, but with no immediate weapons research options that I actually liked, since we could get the research done almost in our sleep and they'd triple our bases' damage output against Meklar shields (before taking the bonus to hit into account) I decided they were worth the delay in advancing the tree. Of course we might loot Mercs from Cygni next turn, but I didn't want to count on it. Whatever we loot, the next player should shortly be able to build us a much cooler fleet.

Also: When the Meks got ECM5 a couple turns after my update, I was really glad I hadn't tried a large bomber design, but the fleets that kept coming and going at Cygni, together with Duralloy's stubborness, make me really, really, really glad I didn't just send transports in blind. I don't know how many we'd have lost except "too many," and it would have accomplished nothing important except to weaken Rha and Collassa considerably.

Also, ROSTER:

- Thrawn (Hoping for a quick turnaround or a swap so he can play by Monday)
- shallow_thought
- RefSteel (just played!)
- RFS-81 (UP!) (assuming/hoping it's still "this evening" in this timezone)
- TheArchduke (on deck!) (unless the next turns take a while and you're willing to swap with Thrawn)

And editing in the report:

Introduction:

The year is 2390. The outgoing human president sighs softly - very softly - with relief, and glancing at his robotic valet, raises a single eyebrow a quarter centimeter. The valet bows slightly, activating the ship's holographic display of its flight paths and destinations - beginning with Endoria and proceeding out around the galactic rim, with occasional stops at satellite fuel and bases, but never a single landing, with years of peaceful time in orbit and hyperspace. He smiles, silently. Though this will be his first trip to some of the outer colonies, he is intimately familiar with their economies, having recently adjusted certain of their federal directives and subsidies with great care in order to inform his successor by subtle clues of certain facts vital to the future of the human species - without, of course, descending to so gauche a practice as actually talking to the blighter! The robotic tour shuttle's engines softly purred - its designers knew their clientele, none of whom would hold with engines that roared - and conveyed president and valet alike deep into interstellar space: Far, far away - many light-years away - from Lady Agatha and all she represented.

Back on earth, the new president falls backward against the door of his central office, his eyes shut tight, his head upturned, his fingers splayed against the door as if to stop his fall - or as if to ensure that the door stays closed. He breathes deep, then lets the air out in a gust as he fumbles for the lock with one hand. Briefly, he considers hauling one of the room's ornate chairs and desks over to barricade it. The soundproofing being of excellent quality, he cannot actually hear the din of lobbyists, political aides, reporters, and Bulrathi diplomats and traders clamoring for his attention, but he can almost imagine it hammering at the other side of the door, trying to get in. In a small, small voice, he asks aloud, "What have I let myself in for?" Then, having secured the lock, he covers his face, running his fingers all the way up to his hairline, then back down to his chin, and draws another deep breath, struggling to push aside the terror of what the people outside will think of him and his hurried and stumbling apology as he excused himself to get down to the work of reviewing the galaxy.

Thankfully, the work itself has its usual effect on him: Calming, soothing, meditative, allowing him to forget all the strangers, their demands, and the terrible din. He even chuckles to himself at the informative signs his predecessor left him through the command interfaces in the form of improbable build orders and tentative research priorities. "Dunno what he's trying to tell me here," he tells himself cheerfully, "but it looks like I've got my work cut out for me!"

In the corner of the office is a little kitchenette, its refrigerator and pantry fully stocked. The polite and reserved wait staff meant to operate it on the president's behalf are locked out along with everybody else, but the president learned long ago that the surest way to avoid the need to deal with waiters, pizza-delivery drivers, and roommates or family who might otherwise cook for him was to learn to cook for himself. Countless government functionaries around the empire can confirm he's alive and well and on the job, as he keeps using the remote presidential command computer to make little changes - and sometimes not-so-little ones - to practically everything, but it will be days, and maybe weeks, before anyone actually sees his face again.

Full Report:

Unbeknownst to the new president, rather than tanking in the aftermath of his stuttered apology and disappearance into his central office, his popularity starts to soar as soon as word reaches the colonies of his new changes in policy. After a decade of strict controls on emigration visas, seven million are issued overnight to humans on overcrowded worlds seeking the peace and serenity of frozen Artemis VIII, where life in isloation can still be truly achieved. At the same time, long-hoarded funds are released from the imperial treasury to build up the Artemis colony itself, the sooner to support its new population - but not at Artemis alone. All across human space, computerized orders are rolling in for the construction of new laboratories, with subsidies pouring in from the federal treasury to all the great universities of Uxmai and the Earth, and every available scientist dispatched to oversee them: Of course the computer and materials engineering labs remain fully staffed, and some token work continues to be done on propulsion and planetology, but the towering force field budget that the outgoing president had proposed is reduced to the merest trickle while nearly the full wisdom and knowledge of humankind, from Uxmai to Tyr to Rha and every developed planet in between - even including Endoria, temporarily neglecting its neutronium mines for the purpose, though Exis naturally continues to churn out ship parts and the makings of heavy industry - is bent upon one task: The development of focused, weaponized neutron beams.



With all the humans' ancient rocket-powered ships already being cannibalized for parts, having - in the new president's judgment at least - outlived their usefulness, the partly-depleted treasury is already being bolstered, while the resources that long were needed to maintain the old fleets in space are now available for other projects - such as learning more about the terrors of Meklar technology, presently all-but unknown to humankind, with the latest reports a full decade out of date. Infiltration missions will take months to embed their spies and send any form of information back to Sol, but the new president is prepared to wait - even before he definitely commits to any of the new starship designs he envisions.

So the final human administration of the 24th century begins.




The year is 2391. A single Silicoid Colony Ship sweeps majestically through the dull red light of Crypto, where the entire extant human starfleet waits. With no scanner aboard the human ships, their pilots know only that it is advancing - slowly, by the standards of their own agile fightercraft - and so cannot tell how deadly its weapons may be, or whether their ancient lasers can even penetrate its shields. Still, confidence is high among the human pilots, in the comfort of their individual fightercraft, with the fathomless depths of interplanetary space between them and the nearest sentient being, knowing the Silicoids are prepared to fight, so that there will be no need to figure out the right thing to say: They can simply move in and fire.



Not knowing what to expect, the human fleet approaches cautiously, and when the Silicoid cruiser launches a volley of missiles, half the pilots cheer or burst out in laughter - naturally each alone, with their transmitters set firmly in the off position as always, lest anything they say or do prove cause for embarrassment - as the whole fleet maneuvers as one, as if in a ballet, spinning on their maneuvering thrusters and engaging the full power of their engines to lead a merry chase across the emptiness of space until the missiles' fuel cells all expire and the Silicoid mothership, its payload expended, turns ponderously on its axis and accelerates away, back the way it came toward Silicoid space. Crypto, for the moment at least, remains an unblemished wilderness - unblemished, that is, apart from the hard radiation that blankets its entire surface.

At the same time, back on Sol - and at every other star within four parsecs of Artemis - millions of new colonists, their visas lately approved, are setting out for the icy world of Artemis VIII, in even greater numbers than last year. And though groundbreaking on new weapons labs has temporarily ended across human space, the existing lab projects are still in full swing, and new propulsion laboratories are finally under construction as well here and there across the empire even as most of its people turn toward other priorities.



Apart from other research projects - and espionage in pursuit of the research of other races - nearly every human colony is still hard at work building factories, and many are still near enough to potentially-hostile territory that they feel the need to protect themselves with the aid of missile defense grids. The Hyper-V rockets the humans are fielding may not be good for much against Meklar fleets, but a single base will be enough to protect a planet's surface against any number of laser fighters, discourage enemy incursion. The urgency of building these might be debated - after all, they could be constructed at any time - but it must be understood that the President of All Humankind is barely capable of thinking straight, never mind actually speaking coherently, in the presence of his governors and aides. Through the central command interface in his favorite office, he can order work to begin on planetary defenses, but due to certain limitations in the interface's decades-old programming, which offers him no way to specify whether he wants those defenses to come in the form of bases or, in the not-too-distant future, a planetary shield. With scientists already reporting a chance of a breakthrough in shield technology, he thinks it prudent to get a few bases up while there's no ambiguity.




The year is 2392. In the Simius system, Alkari fleets continue to hunt the pirate menace that has cost the humans alone tens of billions of credits since its depradations began. In spite of the sensationalist, crisis-loving coverage by GNN and other news media however, the Alkari patrols have proven highly effective, and the pirates' efforts are clearly suffering. Then too, it must be observed that the billions of credits the humans lose to pirates every year are nearly insignificant on the scale of an interstellar civilization like theirs: The estimated losses at present amount to less than one half of one percent of the overall human economy. As a last wave of transports prepares to converge on Artemis, lured by the promise of isolated habitation domes dotting its pristine snowfields, humankind turns its thoughts outward - though not, of course, any words! - upon the other peoples of the galaxy.



Most of the aliens have progressed little in the past decade - or little in ways that the human president especially cares about at least - and though the Mrrshans are a bit of a mystery to him, out of contact far off beyond Celtsi, awaiting the discovery of advanced fuel cells to re-establish what the president hopes will be silent but friendly diplomatic relations, his main concerns are the Meklar cybernetic elite and the Silicoid rock things. While the droids rapidly tear through the boundaries of modern technology, the Silicoids seek worlds on which no other lifeform has found a way to live ... and threaten thereby to build up forward military bases and combat ship factory-worlds all around the human home star. Their technological advantage is slight but definite for the present, with the sole exceptions of weapons technology and - naturally, since they need learn so little about any world in order to exploit it - planetology. The humans, for their part - while also defending the lifeless star systems in the heart of their space as best they can - aim to close the technological gap, or to take the lead for themselves, and rapidly.



With the completion of missile defenses at the most-threatened human worlds, their force field testing facilities - run by skeleton crews for the first two years of the current administration - are finally being authorized to resume normal staffing levels, while even greater preparations than last year's are underway to study the possibility of turning warp propulsion drives into deadly weapons. So as reports roll in and the human president surveys the progress his scientists have made, he sighs with quiet pleasure. "And to think," he tells himself blissfully, "I've managed to go two whole years without having to talk to another galactic leader."




The year is 2393. In the office of the President of All Humankind, the holodisplay lights dim and fade. Slowly, the president himself crawls out from under his desk, where - just moments ago - he dove with all due pomp and ceremony. "Eep," he yelps intelligently. "What if that was even worse than answering - or trying to answer and stumbling over the words and..." He swallows and reaches for the still-lit spheres that control the playback for diplomatic recordings. So firmly had he been focused on his blind and helpless panic at the thought that INT-986 wanted to speak with him that he had not managed to actually process what the alien was saying. Watching the whole recording over, from the Meklar ruler's confusion about the difference between stars and galaxies to the gibberish about terrorism at the end, the president finally collapses into his chair and heaves a huge sigh - of deep and heart-felt relief. "No chance I made things any worse diving under the desk then," he told himself cheerfully. Plus, wait ... wait! He double-checks just to be sure. "They've pulled back their ambassador! Now that we're at war again, I don't have to talk to any of them!" With a huge grin, he returns to managing his colonies and starfleet once again.



That starfleet, by coincidence, features a brand-new scanner ship created expressly to examine Meklar worlds and possibly fleets at a great distance from human space, and without the inconvenience of needing to actually ask any questions: The Wondering 3. Assembled on Collassa, it immediately receives orders to set out for Anraq and see if anything more of the Meklar fleet can be seen there: At their nearest star to Cygni. The journey will take three years, but the president knows there should be time: The Wondering is not his only source of information on the Meklar.



The progress of Meklar technology is for the most part terrifying, but there are important exceptions: Their planetological progress thus far has fallen short even of the Silicoids', and though they've beaten humankind to the development of an energy pulsar, combining it with an inertial control device for faster combat maneuverability and powering the whole thing with dotomite crystals for highly-efficient energy storage, Meklar propulsion scientists have thus far failed to turn up any means of improving on the interstellar speed allowed by their very earliest rocket engines. And in other fields, the humans are beginning to make up for lost time, catching up as quickly as they can ... and seeking out ways of doing so even more swiftly.




The year is 2394. At the border world of Cygni, the Meklar people have completed the planet's first missile defense system, with the potential for many more to come. As a Nexus cruiser orbits, awaiting orders from INT-986 - or from a series of translation algorithms attempting to interpret words and commands from the beautiful, wavering pattern of geomagnetic interference that INT-986 had recently appointed to the role of deputy emperor - the human president back on Sol looks on with growing alarm. He had observed the Meklar development of advanced ECM two years before, but had not concerned himself with it at first. It is only now though, in planning how to respond to their newly-completed missile base, and in observing the numerous factories already completed across its surface, that he comes to the startling discovery that the new Meklar counter-measures have rendered his original plan for dealing with their bases obsolete. Groaning softly, he asks himself, "And by the time I can be ready to deal with this, what new horrors will await our fleets?" He sighs, thankful that no one can hear him and that no omniscient narrator is describing his every action in this time of struggles to various curious readers on an online forum of any kind. "Back to the drawing board, I guess," he mutters. "But first, I need some sleep."

Already four years into his administration, the human president has naturally had a comfortable bed installed in his command room, just in case - in case - he might want to spend the night there without going out to meet the Galactic News Network press corps, demanding constituents, or inquisitive diplomats from other species. A night or two nights or three thousand, six hundred, and fifty three.

Well rested, in the morning, he considers and rejects several plans, each more hare-brained than the last, before finally checking to see if he can learn anything useful from his advisors - without, of course, going through the terrible trauma of actually speaking to them. He begins by reviewing a pair of ship designs described by the Grand Admiral of the fleet - himself a former president - and murmurs, "That huge ship has possibilities. It won't lose traction too soon either, especially if I support it with a secondary fleet. I'd really like to wait for new technology so we can improve on it, but that could take..." He checks the latest visual report from his research advisor to be sure.



"Oh," he says, and slowly grins. "Oh dear. I seem to have underestimated our scientists again. I think I can wait a little while to see if some of these critical technologies will be ready."

It will be a gamble, certainly - but any attempt to conquer Cygni would be some kind of gamble, given the state of Meklar technology and the size of their hidden fleet. This gamble, as it happens, is the kind that the president likes to make. He isn't expecting it to pay off right away of course, but stranger things have happened in the galaxy.




The year is 2395. The second second administration of the latest human president is just beginning. Toward the end of his administration, he may bemoan his scientists' lack of progress in developing key technologies - but if he does, it will only be due to recency bias. Just at present, they're coming through for him in spades. Not only are battle computers at least three times as powerful as the best previously known to humankind ready to deploy on human ships, but the only application his scientists can think of for the recent breakthroughs in computer science is the very one the president covets most of all the previously-imagined possibilities. The floodgates of the treasury are opened once again, contributing hundreds of billions of credits toward the literally trillions in funding authorized around human space for computer research labs alone, without reducing the staffing budgets at any of the existing labs in other fields.

"There are many techs we want," he tells himself, as if preparing a speech he would never have the audacity to actually make into a microphone, still less before a live audience. "But there are some techs that we..." He hesitates, stumbling over the word even before a completely imaginary and wildly appreciative crowd. "Well, need is too strong a word I guess," he admits to himself soberly. "But I mean, some techs we really, really, really want a lot!"




The year is 2396. In spite of designing several possible combat ships to make use of the new battle computers, the humans have yet to build a single one: They are waiting for word from the reconaissance ships they've sent forward, because Cygni doesn't seem to be building any new missile bases. Instead, it's building fleets.

There are other reasons besides: With the defensive base count on Cygni still at one and factories still going up, the president is telling himself - over and over again, to calm himself whenever a new hacker manages to send a question in to his isolation command room - that a dreadnought plan will remain viable even if started a little late. And he has every reason to believe that advanced duralloy materials will be available soon to protect such a starship from attack and reduce the size of its bulkheads so that more weapons and equipment will fit on board, with upcoming force field advancements reducing the space required for the ship's planned shield generators as well, making the whole plan even better in several ways.



Thanks to his strategically-timed uses of treasury funding in earlier years to ensure the annual science budget would be put to the best possible use, the human scientists are making tremendous progress in every field, and Cygni or no Cygni, the President of All Humankind spends every day admiring his scientists' latest work, deeply pleased.

Yet Cygni does exist, and lies close to human space, with a pardon-the-pun Devastating-looking combat fleet in orbit. So with the Wondering scanner ship out of position, having failed to discover any Meklar ships at its destination star, the human president decided to gather what intelligence he could about the enormous new Meklar dreadnought at the earliest opportunity, not only placing production orders for another Wondering destroyer, but sending a single Shy 3.0 fighter up to Cygni immediately.




The year is 2397. A lone human fighter appears in the skies above the Cygni colony, maneuvering to come at the planet as if from straight out of the red giant itself. The brave pilot has no hope of doing any damage, and is prepared to risk destruction merely to gather information, for she knows that one doesn't always need a scanner to learn about an enemy fleet. From the holocam transmissions she sends home continuously, it is plain to see that the Devastator is fitted with the machine peoples' Inertial Stabilization Devices, and that Merculite Missiles comprise its primary ship-to-ship weaponry. The human pilot stays as long as she can in case the enemy ships choose an attack pattern that would give other information information away, then cuts in her automatic warp retreat mechanism, just in time to evade the incoming missiles and come home safely.

It almost works - but the warp actuators pull the ship in the wrong direction, almost directly into the missiles' path instead of away, and the heroic pilot goes down with her ship in a blaze of fire an instant before she would have escaped into hyperspace. Her family mourns her passing separately and privately: The last thing they need in the aftermath of their loss is a bunch of other people coming up to them and saying things, and worst of all, asking them to tell stories about the deceased!



There are other reasons for humankind to mourn as well: The Meklar have managed to acquire robotic controls even more advanced than the ones they use naturally, probably via espionage against their Silicoid enemies, increasing the potency of their already-powerful economy - and worst of all, have managed in just five years to increase the efficacy of their electronic counter-measures against bombs and missiles still more, improving upon the state of the art in computer science across the galaxy. Very few of the bombs carried in by any ship the humans could design would have a chance of getting through. Grimly, the president told himself, "All the more reason we need to deploy better starships. Good thing we're all but certain to get duralloy finished soon!"



"If only it didn't break down and begin a catastrophic chain-reaction of radioactive decay when it's exposed to radio waves, it would be good to go already!" He frowns slightly, but shrugs and goes on, "Anyway, I'm sure there won't be any problems figuring it out soon! And the best part is, we'll eventually be able to get neutron blasters into play to defend Cygni from their reprisals after we conquer it! That'll take a good deal longer though, obviously."

An interesting fact about presidents is that they rarely know what they're talking about, apparently.




The year is 2398. The continuing failure of materials engineers and field mechanics specialists to advance the state of the art in their fields is all but forgotten in the wild jubilation attending the new Neutron Blaster beams. Suddenly, humankind - previously struggling along without a single weapon that posed a serious threat to Meklar behind their shields and Jammer stations - had access to real firepower, for both offense and defense. Real firepower ... and attendant miniaturization. With no attractive options to advance the state of the art, human weapons engineers are taking a quick detour for a simple improvement to their existing missile systems, but their starship engineers are getting to work immediately: Meklar ECM may be able to fool human battle computers and targeting computers effectively, but now that a fighter-class starship with sublight engines and high maneuverability can carry a fusion bomb into battle, it's possible to build so many that no targeting is needed: "Inertial guidance" - also known as "no guidance system whatever and just hoping they land in the right general area" - would be good enough to land a good 5% of the bombs on and around Cygni missile bases, and with the Meklar still stalled at a single base, now with precious little time to build more, 5% will be more than enough. Rha has been building up spaceship parts of late in case Meklar activity in the area demanded a more-immediate response than would be possible from Exis, and the human president's jaw dropped when he saw how many of the new Sorry 3.1 bombers the place could assemble from those parts alone. "Guess I don't know the strength of my own economy," he admitted. "Yeah, okay, that should be plenty."

(Earlier in the year, "Unknown" Meklar spies destroyed four factories at Endoria. Even this chronicler nearly forgot it had happened it was sunch an unimportant event.)




The year is 2399. The human empire is electrified by the excitement of the moment. With their only battles to date defensive skirmishes at Tyr and Phantos, and a couple of minor incidents - another just this year - of Silicoid colony ships firing their limited payloads of missiles and fleeing from stars like Crypto, nearly every human being from Uxmai out to Tyr is bubbling over with hope for their very first real invasion: Over 100 combat transports are already in space along with most of the old Shy 2.0 fighters, and almost the entire human starfleet is about to head out to meet the first wave at Cygni: 135 Sorry bombers, one of the Wondering scanner ships, and a cloud of Shy 3.0s in case they find they can contribute to the fight. Eagerly, the head of the Human Intelligence and Scouting Service checks her readouts on the Meklar, and finding they've discovered nothing new but toxic colony bases, she silently sends an all-clear. And so the fleet heads out, joining the rest of humanity in stoically ignoring the continuing failures of their field mechanics theorists and materials engineers.




The year is 2400. The lame-duck President of All Humanity is prepared at long last to retire and give way to his successor - but first he must oversee a few final, eventful moments in his people's history. Three Nexus cruisers orbit Cygni, prepared to lend their power to its - still - single missile base, but in spite of the absence of any asteroids of any use to the humans, the fight is won before it begins. The Nexus ships carry only death spores and thirty missiles apiece, and though the latter naturally do some damage, they're easy enough for the fighters to handle, absorb, or evade once the bombers have dealt with the enemy base. Eventually, as they must, the cruisers retreat, and the space around Cygni is safe for the human transports coming in.



Unfortunately for them, they would need a little luck to take the planet this year - and the Meklar get a lot of luck instead. The planet's population and production are cut to less than a third of what it had been though, ensuring an easy conquest in the coming year - or, of course, years since the pRNG appears to hate humans at this time in history, perhaps making up for the tremendous help it gave them with quick battle computers and neutron blaster technology.

So with the Meklar hated across nearly all of the galaxy, and humankind representing more than a third of the galactic population on their own, even without including their transports still in space, the President of All Humanity is given an opportunity, in the last moments of his administration, to ascend to a still-greater role as High Master of the New Republic, leader of the entire galaxy.



Naturally, he declines - or at least, he is interpretted to have declined after a long moment's silence while he sits in a fetal position under his desk, out of sight of the holotransmitter, whimpering, imagining all the noisy, obtrusive aliens pestering him about their problems in the galaxy.



Just the same, humankind is approaching a dominant position in the galaxy, especially with the coming conquest of Cygni.



Their fertile worlds, flush with life, industry, and numerous quiet retreats where people thankfully don't have to actually talk to anybody, are only poised to grow stronger with their new technology.

The president is dreaming longingly of just such a retreat already.

[RFS-81]

Done! I probably should have built more ships than I did, but I'm not sure what designs are good. I designed a huge ship full of fusion beams and built one of those. Another one should be half-finished, so if you don't like it, you can convert it to something else. Also, somehow a Pleasenotme placeholder ship got built, even though the colony did not spend anything on ships.

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2400: Seems like I'm re-elected again. Studying the notes that my predecessor left, it seems that many of the aliens were practically begging us to lead some kind of federation to keep the galaxy save from the Meklar threat. He refused, understandably. Just imagine, you'd probably have to talk to people all the time!

In our war against the Meklar, we successfully baited them into settling a frontier colony which we will soon take over in the hope of reverse-engineering their technology. My Xenoscience advisor wrote in his report that only a cybernetic race could copy their factory controls to the fullest extent, but they still have plenty of advanced technology that we can adapt. By the way, I was shocked to learn that Meklars have wireless communication devices embedded into their bodies! How horrible!

Following my predecessor's recommendations, I send twenty transports from Rha and Collassa each to Cygni. 37 transports are going to arrive next year and I'm confident that they can take the planet, but having some more will allow us to build missile bases quickly and defend the planet.

2401: The Meklars built two more missile bases in the interturn, and we lost a few more bombers. I decided not to drop any more bombs to keep their factories intact, but maybe I should have, because they defeated all our troops. More are incoming the next turn, and the turn after. I send some more transports from Collassa and Rha. Still no luck with techs! Energy Pulsar is now in the percentages, too. (By the way, how useful is that one?)

2402: Our bombers destroy a new missile base, we're now down to 91. Class V Planetary Shield is discovered! Our next options are DS4 and DS5. I decide to rush ahead to DS5. Also, we finally capture Cygni, with 228 factories! Techs found: Death Spores, Fusion Beam, Range-4, DS4 and DS5. Wow!

So now I've got to make a new choice for FF technology. PS10 or DS6? I go with the planetary shield. Once we have this, our bases will have a total shield of 15 points!

I now have 4 technologies in the percentages! This is getting ridiculous! With nothing better to do, I start seeding our new Force Field tech.

I start building shields on Cygni, soon to be followed by bases. There seems to be a fleet of three Nexus ships incoming. I allocate some reserves to Cygni, hoping that I can get bases online in time. I send the Wondering 3 to Anrao because I'm wondering how many ships and bases they have over there. To keep our local radiated planets free from talking rocks, I build a couple of Shy 3.0s at Sol.

2403: Endoria somehow completes a Pleasenotme, despite having 0% production allocated to ships. Umm... is there such a thing as fractional growth for ships? I'll attach the last two auto-saves, in case someone wants to poke around. I send the ship to Cygni. Also, I notice that apparently, you actually do need to refit alien factories: The panel on Cygni has been displaying REFIT for two turns now. The Meklar fleet has disappeared from the map, so it was either moving away from Cygni, or scrapped.

2404: I get a look at Anrao. They have nine bases, and two Tornado ships (you can find the stats in the screenshot of my last turn). We FINALLY have Duralloy Armor, and also Hyper-X rockets. The only available Construction tech is ARS, for Weapon tech, I go with Hard Beam.
   
I design a new huge ship with plenty of heavy fusion beams. I'm not entirely sure if waiting for the ARS would have been better, but I don't think I'm going to make the game much more interesting by screwing up here.

2405: Cygni finished the planetary shield and I start putting up bases next. I start seeding the ARS. Athmosperic Terraforming is in the low percentages.

2406: Energy Pulsar finishes, and we have Warp Dissipator in the tree!
   
I've been investing a little bit of Eco-spending on Cygni in parallel to defense, so it's fertile now. I send some transports from Collassa and Rha. I'd like to start terraforming now, but I notice an incoming Meklar fleet, so I build some more reserve-boosted missile bases. [Quasi-EDIT: Totally forgot to adjust the spending ratios...]

2407: The Sillicoid show up at one of the radiated planets. I lose one Shy2.0, but the Shy3.0s easily outrun all the missiles and it retreats. The Alkari declare war!
   
They have range-7, so I don't think I can build up bases on every world in their reach. The closest colony, Tyr, already has 3 bases. I'll build a few on the second-closes, Paladia.

2408: Improved Space Scanner and Atmospheric Terraforming researched! I choose RC4 and Advanced Soil Enrichment next.
       
I immediately start seeding RC4. One of my new huge ships finishes and moves to the Alkari frontier. I begin Athmospheric Terraforming at Exis.

2409: A first wave of Meklar ships hits Cygni. There's one more incoming, and 20 transports. That's...optimistic. Two of their designs carry Death Spores, but there are not many of them. (See the screenshots in my next post for stats) I wipe out the fleet without the spore ships coming anywhere near the planet, but lose all the small fighters. Their next wave is much weaker, only two spore ships, and one colony ship. The Alkari are sending a laughably small fleet to Artemis. Oh, and I just noticed that Artemis needs Atmospheric Terraforming, too! I think my huge ship "Shutup" will be able to hold them off. I start seeding our next Planetology tech.

2410: Exis finishes atmospheric terraforming, goes on to Soil Enrichment. The second wave of Meklar ships is going to hit next turn, but nothing to worry about, as I said.

[RFS-81]

Here are screenshots of the fleet attacking Cygni. This might be a handy reference for the various Meklar designs. Or it might not, if they get scrap-happy again.
       

The save is attached. Also the saves when the Pleasenotme appeared.

Notes for the next player: Check if my "Shutup" design suits your needs. If not, there's a lot of built-up ship production at Endoria and Exis that you can convert to something else. Artemis and Cygni are under attack, but it doesn't look very dangerous to me.

[RefSteel]

"Quick" thoughts without checking the save:

- Apparently my end-of-set ill luck lasted into your set too. Good thing our plans were ~RNG-proof!

- I should have said something about that possibility with prebuilt placeholders: When you get new technology, the miniaturization does apply to existing designs (generally on the following interturn). This means that a prebuild that's close to completion can finish (as you saw) without any additional spending when the cost of the ship drrops below the number of BC already invested in shipbuilding. For this reason, I redesign my prebuilds whenever new tech comes in. Fortunately, because I know I'm not infallible, I generally also design placeholders that I wouldn't be too sad about completing if I do get one accidentally. The PleasNotMe is nowhere near our state of the art, but it can be effective anyway.

- What tech(s) were newly available in propulsion? It might not have been clear from the discussion above, but Pulsar and Dissipator are at the same level in the tech tree; when I mentioned I thought Dissipators were really good, I thought I said it was just a note for future reference for other games, and that I didn't think I'd go back for them (that is, wouldn't pick them next when they wouldn't advance the tree) but I suspect I didn't make that clear enough. If I read corrrectly that we're teching WDs now, that's okay - they're certainly good to have - but I think we would probably have been better off pushing forward for better engines in this case. (Perhaps with Range 9 first if possible, as Thrawn suggested, though there's a bird-in-the-hand issue there if Impulse is in our tree.)

- Especially with the game so well in hand now, you played your set much better than I was able to in perhaps the most important respect: Passing the save on to the next player quickly! Great job finishing the conquest of Cygni as well of course, plus holding off the aliens and developing our empire and technology!

ROSTER:

- Thrawn (On Deck!)
- shallow_thought
- RefSteel
- RFS-81 (just played!)
- TheArchduke (UP!) (unless you're expecting to be busy enough through the weekend that you'd rather swap with Thrawn)

Save, from RFS-81's post above