OSG-34: Rollin' with the Rocks

[Guiness]

They're coming - company came by and interrupted me! Darn those carbon based life forms and their impulsive behavior!

[Guiness]

Hello All,

First, an apology for going well over the turn time limit. Work, week-end, visitors, all that real life stuff aligned to slow me down. Well, with no more delay here is the report!

2410
I return from my hiatus to find the empire in good shape - our own brand of intelligent life is thriving!
Some minor adjustments. Relocated 20m rockbound souls to Keeta and 5m to Helos to keep planets below their max pop. Eying T30 I increase tech spending on planetology to get max interest return.
I am shocked to see the venerable Pebble fighter still in use and make a mental note to build no more of them!

I also eye up the Mechlar tech, those gearheads have some nice toys, so two ticks are added to spying and focus is switched to espionage. Weapons are nice, but I'd like more range and they have Dotomite crystals.
   

Decide it's time to poke the mech and see what the chances of reclaiming Talas are. 90M robots down there, a ground war would be costly...

Design a new bomber, the Rockfall 4
   

Notice Trax, has not been explored. It's in range to a Pyrus is sent from Jinga.

2411
All fighting ships in range are sent to Talas, 3 turns out

2412 was a busy year

Espionage pays off! Range 7 engines stolen from the mech. This means 2 more planets are in reach so a new scout is commissioned.
 
   


The Bulrathi are now also within range and send a diplomat.

   

Oh goody, erratic. We needed another of those

Continued...

[Guiness]

2412 continued


Erratic or not, I'll trade with them. And spy on them...let's find out what they've got!
   

Improved Space Scanner is developed. Improved Robotic Control is available, and I don't see a lot of missile boats in our future so I take it over Battle Computers.

   

Trax is explored. Jinga starts construction of a colony ship.
   

A new scout is designed to take advantage of the new increased range.

2413
Vessels coming from Thrax were delayed and will miss the meetup at Talas. That was the bulk of the force, so hold off a turn before sending the Rockfalls

   



2414
A Mechlar huge appears at Talas! Get out...well, stick around for a round to see what happens. The Ajax retreats immediately. There are several of them, so not a colony ship, maybe a bomber? Keep an eye on them.

Spying report on Bulrathi comes in. A lot of computer tech for the Bears.
   

2415
The Mechlar send a diplomat with warm greetings: "Expand further and we will be forced to eliminate you". It warms the heart

[Guiness]

2416
Settle Trax. Give it an appropriate new name

   


2417
Sakkra find a cure for their plague. Great, more lizards.

Explore one of the planets newly in reach, Centauri. Radiated, Hostile, 20 pop. Our kind of place!

   

2418
Fusion drives are discovered. Range 8 and 9 are offered, not really interested in range beyond 7 so take inertial stabilizers.

   


Mechlar vessels are  inbound at the new colony on Silli Folly!

2419

The other planet in the South Central area, Tau Cygni is explored, no habitable planets.

Mechlar colony convoy inbound to Centauri  

   

2420
Sakra send us a diplomat. Get some spies over there!

   


I feel like things are heating up with the Mechlar NOW. They were stockpiling ships at Talas, but withdrew them. Have fun dealing with that Ref!

[RefSteel]

Okay, GOT IT!

My schedule is terrible this week, so it may take me the full 48 hours to fit it in; sorry for continuing the slow pace! There seems to be a lot to do here.

First things I'll correct: It looks like all our planets have more population than their factories can employ, and nearly all are spending on pop growth(!) when they should be building factories or researching. Rich Jinga is doing research when it's still short on factories, and Artifacts Bootis hasn't been maxed out either! I'm also planning on modernize our entire starfleet, where by "modernize" I mean "possibly build some real ships after scrapping." The ships we have now did good work when we needed them many turns ago (except arguably for the laser fighters on which I shouldn't have wasted resources) but at this stage, they belong in a museum!

While I'm working on the turns: Bionic Commando and RFS-81 were discussing the idea of going on the offensive, against the Psilons since they're relatively small or the Meklar since they seem to be in a de-facto state of cold war with us anyway, could make the war official with an erratic declaration at any moment, and control worlds they took from us! This sounds like a good plan to me, but not one I expect to implement during my turns; I'll see what I can do about starting to get things better set up for the next player to take a stab at it though! (I don't expect to get as far as actually building an offensive fleet.) We're really behind in some key areas for an attack (and in general for that matter...) so I'll have to try to turn that around. Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts about the upcoming turns - or if you'd like me to highlight or describe anything specifically, like population growth and terraforming micro and strategy!

---

Roster:
- RefSteel (PLAYING!)
- RFS-81 (on deck!)
- Ianus
- Bionic Commando
- Guiness (just played)

[Guiness]

Okay, GOT IT!

My schedule is terrible this week, so it may take me the full 48 hours to fit it in; sorry for continuing the slow pace!  There seems to be a lot to do here.

First things I'll correct:  It looks like all our planets have more population than their factories can employ, and nearly all are spending on pop growth(!) when they should be building factories or researching.  Rich Jinga is doing research when it's still short on factories, and Artifacts Bootis hasn't been maxed out either!  I'm also planning on modernize our entire starfleet, where by "modernize" I mean "possibly build some real ships after scrapping."  The ships we have now did good work when we needed them many turns ago (except arguably for the laser fighters on which I shouldn't have wasted resources) but at this stage, they belong in a museum!

Oops, the population was an oversight. A discovery I didn't mention achieving was Terraforming +30. I selected +25% and didn't go back to increase industry so all the planets were at max factories are now short

[Bionic Commando]

Nice job Guiness! I think you did a good job bringing us up to speed.

Looking at it, we're going to end up in conflict with the Meklar (thanks Erratic). Guiness did a good thing getting in front and performing espionage on them. Unless they get Planetary V, we should be able to invade them perhaps with some gropo help. At this point, keeping the Humans and Psilons close is likely in our best interest. Victory likely comes through maintaining an alliance with Humans and Psilons; maintaining peace with the Sakkra; and conquering Meklar then Bularthi.

[Shaddam IV]

I've been playing this game on and off since I had to load it in DOS, I made an account just to say I love these threads. And that people are still into this 25-year-old game that I always thought had so much replay value.

[RefSteel]

Welcome, Shaddam IV! I'm glad to hear you enjoy following along with these! If you ever have an inclination to join a game as well, we'd love to have you; either way, it's great to know the games are appreciated by lurkers!

Oops, the population was an oversight. A discovery I didn't mention achieving was Terraforming +30. I selected +25% and didn't go back to increase industry so all the planets were at max factories are now short :mischief:

Heh - I suspected that might have been what happened. I never use the "+25%" option since I like looking over each planet in the empire each turn anyway, partly just to maintain familiarity with their status and capabilities, but the terraforming one is especially tricky because - unlike the other kinds of tech that present that option - you never get a warning when the new project is complete. In any case, the production it cost us won't be nearly as important as the way we handle [spoilers redacted in advance]!

In terms of high-level strategic stuff, I'm inclined to agree with Bionic Commando about our targets; in particular, reclaiming the three worlds (one rich and small, two poor without full bases) that the Meklar stole from us could turn the tide of the galaxy in our favor if we can hold them.

I'm nearly done with my turns but won't have an opportunity to finish playing and post my report for several hours at least. I'll try to get the turns up tonight, but no guarantees....

[RefSteel]

Here we go!

The rise to power-behind-the-throne of the so-called "Singing Stone" in the early 25th centuy led to massive upheavals all across Silicoid space - a cacophany of noise and labor - as if to repudiate the new chief advisor's nickname. By 2420, virtualy all nucleation subsidies had been axed in favor of further factory development, and the last of them, at little Gion, were gone by the following year, when the auditors discovered the local governor's scheme to slip a few more subsidies in for personal friends and campaign contributors by extending and misappropriations the planet's terraforming budget. The governor was sacked without ceremony, tried, and sentenced to exile for embezzlement and dereliction of duty. In the meantime, millions of the unemployed Silicoids living on Stalaz and Whynil were issued official transport passes to Bootis and Jinga, respectively, where factory-building projects were receiving an even higher priority than throughout the rest of the empire, to alleviate the then-current unemployment crisis. The political and industrial coalitions built by the new administration had virtually ended the crisis by the time the transports arrived, except at the eternally-impoverished worlds of Whynil and (to a lesser extent) Guradas, thanks in part to another aspect of the upheaval accompanying the "Singing Stone's" rise.



Psilon industrial technology would only improve Silicoid factor construction rates by a little over 14%, while early estimates suggested that Silicoid terraforming techniques would increase the Psilons' total living space by more than a third. To the "Singing Stone," the trade was still worth making though: The rocks had little fear of a two-planet Psilon empire, no matter how large those planets might grow, and needed economic help wherever they could find it. The new factory technology would be especially important in light of the terraforming research lately prioritized by the previous administration - and especially the project then in study to double the effective factory-operating power of each Silicoid citizen. It would by no means be the only uneven exchange to which the "Singing Stone" reluctantly agreed. Trading a neutron blaster design to those same Psilons for the advanced deflector shield on which Silicoid field engineers had been working was probably a thoughtless mistake - flimsily excused on the theory that the Psilons were likely to find their own way to something as good or better with or without Silicoid assistance - and the same might be said of several other trades: Dotomite Crystals and Personal Deflector Shields might be of real strategic value to the Humans if they ever turned against their rocky friends, yet those very technologies were traded away for outdated Ion Cannons and Duralloy Armor, just so the Silicoid engineers could design cruisers with actual armor or fighters capable of carrying real beams. When the "Singing Stone" then turned around and shared the secrets of just-acquired Psilon shields and Human ion cannons with the Bulrathi merely to double Silicoid electronic counter-measure jamming capabilities and learn about a battle computer design that was already obsolete, the Advisor Henge acted quickly to convince OSG-34 to deny the "Singing Stone" further access to diplomatic channels with other leaders - not quite in time to prevent negotiations with the Sakkra people.



Fortunately, a non-aggression pact with the lizards who had virtually taken over the galaxy was a much more politically acceptable decision, while 105 billion credits in annual trade - the minimum that would have any meaning for the two most populous and widespread races in the galaxy - was sure to improve relations and hopefully mature in time to provide some actual benefit to typical rocks on the street.

The following year, in early 2421, a Meklar colony ship escorted by four other cruisers would arrive at the aptly-named world of Silli Folly, half-heartedly defended by a collection of unarmed shield ships, creaky old laser fighters, and a single heavily-shielded destroyer-class ship that had been the only thing ill-prepared Jinga could get down to the planet in time from a flat-footed start. The outdated trash mostly fled after trying and failing to accomplish anything, and though the new Continental Drift destroyer (named for the speed with which it could do any actual damage to anything) was completely immune to anything the Meklar ships could throw at it behind its shiny new Psilon shield, the colony was just too small, too ill-supported, and too new. Reporting on the incident, a Silicoid Starfleet orderly asked members of the Advisory Henge, "Did you know those Ajax cruisers are fusion bombers?"



Observing the Drift's holorecordings of the blast craters where the Silli Folly colony had stood, the orderly said brightly, "You do now!"

The next year was mostly quiet, apart from the completion of the Formation at Jinga which would be dispatched immediately to the site of Silli Folly, the waste of the previous colony ship there having apparently been deemed insufficient. The overly-optimistic crew colonized the planet in 2423, even changing its highly accurate name to one that was much less apt, reflecting only its toxic nature and their attempt to lay a rocky claim ... when they discovered that the Meklar had another fleet en route to colonize it for themselves. The escort sent for that colony ship en route to Cinnabar - formerly known as Silli Folly, formerly known as Trax - was even more robust than the previous Meklar fleet.



They were coming in very slowly, from a long way off, but that didn't seem very likely to make a lot of difference in the end.

It was against the backdrop of these troubling events that the diplomatic drama of the next two years played out: In 2424, the members of the Silicoid Advisory Henge found reason to soften their stance on the "Singing Stone's" diplomacy, when the outdated computer tech its generous negotiations had acquired from the Bulrathi helped the Silicoids to win still greater fruits of those same ursine scientists' research.



True, a Mass Driver was not the greatest prize that could be hoped for, as the spy's uncomfortable, shame-faceted look suggested, but a free weapon is a free weapon, and there might be more where it came from. It thus began to appear to more and more of the Pillars of the Advisory Henge that - as one Polonium said of the "Singing Stone's" tech trading, in words recorded by Wolframite Slate Spur, "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't."

Before long, the "Singing Stone" was given back the keys to the holographic audience chamber, only to create doubt anew when - mere moments later - it received a holocall from Durash IV and accepted the human emperor's proposal of an extended trade package worth no less than 500 billion credits per year. The discontented murmurs that followed were calmed later that year when it managed to hold an entire conversation with the Psilon ambassador without giving up a single example of Silicoid technology, and persuaded the Mentar brain trust to end their alliance with the powerful Sakkra people - but the murmurs soon started right back up again:



After failing to convince the Meklar to break their Sakkra alliance, the "Singing Stone" turned right back around and gave Saurak the mass driver blueprints whose theft had so impressed the Henge in the first place, the moment Saurak demanded them as the price for breaking off with QX-537's band of murderous cyberpsychotic freaks. Just the same, the alliance had been broken, leaving the Sakkra with none to their name, just in time for the upcoming High Council vote. So it was that in 2425...



...the keys to the audience holochamber were taken away from the "Singing Stone" permanently. True, there would be no High Master - at least not for another quarter-century - since the Silicoids themselves were numerous enough in combination with either of the Humans or Bulrathi, both of whom abstained in protest like RBO-34 itself, to hold of Saurak's election bid. True, as the Psilons had just demonstrated, carbon-based lifeforms could not be counted upon to withhold their votes from one another, even without an alliance in place, and even when they would be voting against Lithians to whom they professed the closest of friendships: Removing two races from the guaranteed Sakkra voting bloc at least had created more opportunities for a powerful carbon-based leader to help stop Saurak from taking over the galaxy. Just the same, since each of the leaders with whom the Silicoids hadn't even spoken had separately rendered their last-minute diplomacy moot, and since the "Singing Stone's" attempts to drive a wedge between Saurak and the galaxy's two other races had been about as effective for the purpose of denying him their votes as sitting around at home humming popular show tunes, there was a growing opinion within the Silicoid Advisory Henge that the "Singing Stone" had no idea what it was doing, and in addition to having its diplomatic privileges revoked, should probably be sacked outright as soon as it reasonably could be.

The political backers of this sentiment - rival power brokers in the Henge, naturally - had nearly developed a majority when they were stymied in 2427 by a series of sudden boosts to the "Singing Stone's" popularity.



The development of Hard Beam technology, significantly pushing forward the Silicoid state of the art, came directly on the heels of another technological breakthrough: Agents at the Human world of Reticuli, disguised as artistically-arranged boulders at an advanced propulsion laboratory, had managed to copy all the files needed to produce one of the humans' numerous and powerful advances in that field. To their great misfortune (a theme for their spies) the result was something on which laboratory Silicoid had already been working, but the project had not been far along, and the spies' work saved trillions of credits of research spending and years of waiting for stabilized starships. Some of the "Singing Stone's" rivals tried to insist that its obsession with alien technology was unhealthy, but especially after Hard Beam research was unveiled, with no projects beginning to explore the possibilities of Reajax fuel cells and an Omega-V bomb to ensure no base could ever be defended against falling rocks, their insistence didn't get them anywhere - especially when 2428 saw the development of Zortium armor as well, with plans to devise Armored Exoskeletons unveiled so that rocks of the distant future might better be able to invade enemy worlds on the ground. The availability of still more industrial technology may have tempted the Silicoid researchers briefly, but ultimately seemed secondary in importance to the idea of winning fights.

As they learned - and as they expected - the idea was going to be all they'd get for a little while. The first battle of 2429 for example - if battle is the word I mean - was held at Darrian, where the rocks' lone Palantir scanning ship had a chance to get a look at a major Meklar fleet:



With nearly three hundred gatling laser arrays divided between ten powerful starships, the Meklar could bring a lot of sheer firepower to bear against anything that lacked even heavier shielding - while nearly 200 fusion bomb racks would ensure that even planetary bases couldn't stand up to them for long. The fleet's only weakness - short of a very well-shielded starfleet with tremendous firepower - was the absence of shields on the Ajax bombers; all the Meklar ships mounted stabilizers on top of everything else, so there was no realistic way even to blockade them. When a fleet built even more heavily around bombers arrived at Cinnabar later the same year, including a pair of Nexus cruisers, whose heavy lasers and stabilizers would have allowed it to hunt down and kill even well-shielded ships, the Silicoids were forced to retreat, and the outcome was predictable.



QX-537 being QX-537, it was only after Meklar ships had twice destroyed a Silicoid colony at the same world - twice renamed - in the course of less than ten years that it officially acknowledged the two races were again at war. And, just as typically of the Meklar leader's ... unique logic circuitry, the official reason it gave for plunging its people and the Silicoids back into the furnace of war...



...was that it had gotten bored. In light of this new development, it seemed critical for the Silicoids to make further diplomatic overtures, but no one in the Henge wanted the "Singing Stone" getting its gripping appendages on the keys to the holochamber anymore. Fortunately, even an Ornamental Sandstone Guy needed no direction to figure out what needed to be done, and so OSG-34 handled the appeal itself: Durash IV of the Humans, happy to oblige, and perhaps recognizing the danger from the deranged machine next door, agreed to the OSG's request and canceled his alliance with the Meklar immediately.

Meanwhile, popular sentiment was turning against the "Singing Stone" once more: Whether or not there was anything more it could have done, it had lately lost a battle and a colony. Its longed-for robotic controls project had stalled in spite of steadily-climbing chances of success, lately climbing above 50% per year according to the Silicoid science teams. Even its vaunted - and inevitably disappointing - espionage agents had turned up nothing in two years but a series of unmarked graves, with their failure only emphasized in early 2430...



...when a Meklar agent passed through their security net so easily that it not only managed to blow up a Stalaz missile base completely unseen, but left no trace behind whatever, leaving bumbling Silicoid agents to wonder aloud what kind of saboteur it could possibly have been. In spite of the "Singing Stone's" emphasis on research-by-various-means throughout its tenure of influence over the OSG, the Meklar were still light-years ahead, and threatening to pull ahead still further.



The limitations of the already-dangerous Meklar fleet - all the more dangerous at a nebula world like Thrax or Zoctan, where shielding would do nothing agains their gats - were on the point of expiration. Anti-matter torpedoes supported by ion stream projectors would be extremely unpleasant for the Silicoids to face if ever combined intelligently on a Meklar fleet, whether or not fusion bombs and gatling lasers continued to figure heavily. And as for the fleet that already existed - in fact the same one the Palantir had scanned and fled at Darrian - it was already on its way to wreak as much havoc as it possibly could.



Even its five-year ETA had a heavy accent on the "E" since it was due to pass through the edges of a nebula, which might delay it - or be incorrectly taken into account in the estimate, thereby appearing to speed it - through at least the first two or three years en route, rendering it difficult to accurately plan the best response.

The Silicoid fleet, by contrast...



...for all intents and purposes didn't exist. With the lone exception of Jinga, all the relocation orders targeting Bootis were nominal and recent, with no actual production yet committed to a single ship from any normal colony, and a total of five starships actually in space: The unarmed Palantir scanner and a handful of Calcium ion fighters that were already obsolete. Everything else was either a tentative suggestion to future military advisors or a placeholder for better designs to come - along with one more suggestion in the ship design queue for an ion cruiser that might be able to deal with all the known Meklar designs if it prioritized them correctly, particularly with help from missile bases. The hyper-X racks at Bootis would do good damage to Ajax bombers by themselves, and if they could be upgraded to merculite bases via trade, they would have even better teeth...

...but all of that was for others to decide. Sacked and disgraced, the "Singing Stone" left the Advisory Henge and the entire political scene in much the same way it had come upon them years before, apparently oblivious to the controversy surrounding it, humming "Pie Staburadzes" to itself. Word in certain quarters of the Henge was, "There may be method to't, but this is madness!"

We survived another election! We're still pretty far behind, but still with a chance, especially if we find a way to take and hold "our" worlds (the three currently in Meklar servo clamps) and maybe find a way to claim and hold Cinnabar (AKA Silli Folly) at some point. Notes for the next player:

- Meks are at war with us and are newly allied to the bears.
- There's a Meklar fleet including a big stack of shieldless stabilized fusion bombers due to attack Bootis in "five years" (with the nebula, this might mean 4 or 6...)
- I set a lot of reloc orders but no acual ship builds, except at Jinga, which has been on a prebuild for several years.
- RC4 is being rather stubborn, but when it completes, we'll have a bunch of unemployed population free to invade Meklon worlds if we can take control of their skies.
- The ship you'll see if you open the design screen (not yet given a slot) is a bit unusual, intentionally leaving armor off a cruiser; it's my suggestion specifically for fighting current Meklar fleets, but of course you'll decide what to put in and on our actual fleets for yourself! Also, beware: Their weapons technicians have come up with some new and more-dangerous toys.
- Those Meklar Ajax cruisers have over 20 Fusion Bombs apiece! Shields won't stop them. The reason for building bases (and ships that can deal with the zillions of enemy gatling lasers but still fire a lot of guns) is to kill them before they reach the planet. Some of the other Mek ships have F-bombs too (see report) but nowhere near as many.
- I probably forgot something important. For instance, I have all our spies set to espionage. I figured our friends like us enough to absorb a few indiscretions, and the rest are our enemies anyway. Plus there are a bunch of techs I wanted.
- I left you up-to-date spying reports, though several spies died on me this turn, and a few hundred BC in the treasury.

The save is attached!

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Roster:
- RefSteel (just played)
- RFS-81 (UP NOW!)
- Ianus (on deck!)
- Bionic Commando
- Guiness