Imperium Ten: Megafrost's rain of missiles

[Megafrost]

---
As is customary for all my openings, the first thing I do is to open up a map of the galaxy.



Well, this ought to be interesting. This galaxy has all three of the top-tier races, which could be challenging. Thankfully, there are no Mrrshan or *shudder* Alkari here. Relations with those two races are bad enough that we'd be at war almost immediately, and I find the Alkari difficult to fight due to their defense bonus. I have 4 planets within colony range. I'll play the odds and send my colony ship to the yellow, but I want the other three explored in case the yellow is not so good. I send scouts to the white and red, build single scout (redesigned to be cheaper) at Sssla and send the one there to the green so that all four will be explored on the same turn.

Sending the colony straight to the yellow works to my favor:



Definitely an excellent planet for my second one. I colonize it immediately before getting my other scout's reports:



The artifacts world nets me the following technology:



Wow! I got one hell of a find here. Scatter Packs are third-generation weapon technology. They're especially powerful at this point because of the lack of shielding, and the extra miniaturization is sure to help any fighter ships I build at this point.

In the meantime, Sssla transports 15 (of 65) population to Romulas and starts building E Scouts (my name for the cheaper scout design). My scout at Beta Ceti chases off a Psilon scout, which makes me suspect they are in the lower right corner. I get the following picture of the galaxy:



Not surprisingly, the Klackons have grabbed the non-hostile system in the lower left. Lucky for me, it is ultra poor and that means it is a good place to hit the Klackons if they get uppity. There seems to be a fair amount of hostile systems here, but Sakkra aren't a bad race to be in a hostile universe.

In the meantime, Sssla maxes production in 2322 and starts churning out colony ships, while Romulas opens up the planetology and propulsion research fields. My only options are Improved Eco and Range 4. Improved Eco is a good technology, but I'm disappointed at the lack of Terraforming +10.

I grab Arietis in 2328, which brings me in contact with the Klackons.



They are Ruthless Diplomats. Odd combination, if you ask me. They've already grabbed all 5 planets in their corner of the galaxy. I'd normally call them up and ask for trade relations, but being ruthless and our relationship being at unease, I really don't think it's worth slowing down my economy for that.

I grab Beta Ceti in 2333 and finish building a colony ship bound for Mu Delphi in 2334. If any other non-hostile planets are within range, the other races probably have them already. It's about time to start building ships so I can defend my planets. And if I'm going to be making ships, why not make use of that weapon technology I already have?



It's not like I have any bases yet, and the sooner I start using this technology the better.

Improved Eco and Range 4 pop in 2338. At this point I dedicate about half my research spending into planetology and divert the rest equally across every field, opening up the other four fields.



My first priority is to get more planets. I can't spread anywhere else until I get Dead planets, so that is my pick in the planetology tree. No choices in Propulsion, Computers and Shields. Under construction, I pick IIT9 over RW80, as it is cheaper and I already have some waste reduction tech.

Thanks to my find at the artifacts world, I have a HUGE weapon tree to pick from. With my limited research capability, however, I decided that the more expensive techs wouldn't be worth it at this point. I chose hand lasers. Cheapest opportunity to save a planet, right?

My scouts find that Mentar is exactly where I predicted it would be. What I did not predict was their underwhelming defense force: 3 colony ships, 1 scout and 1 missile base. I am so used to impossible that I was expecting wayyyy more. Whatever the case, somebody is probably going to be a run-away empire to make up for the Psilons' pitiful situation.



I had stopped making colony ships, but then I noticed there were 2 habitables in range that had not been claimed yet. Oops. I put Sssla back on colony ships. As dead planet research approached double-digit percentages, I increased propulsion spending at the expense of planetology. There were a lot of unclaimed planets south of me, and I needed range 6 to make a grab at them. I was hoping I could get there before the Klackons could.

Speaking of Klackons, my 25 years of minimal spying have finally gotten me what I wanted:



I usually always have at least 0.4% on spying on any AI race I meet. I consider it vital to keep up-to-date information on a race's technology so that if a threat suddenly pops up, I can respond to it before I discover they've outfitted it on their ships.

I'm guessing the propulsion-challenged bugs did not draw range 6 tech, which is good for me because by the time they get something better than that, I'll have all those planets already. They've got controlled barren though, and that means they could go for Trax. I've got 6 or so SCATVs there, so it's not like I'm totally unprepared.

Besides, even if I lose that planet, I'm still in the lead.



Hand lasers and IIT9 pop. In the second tier of Construction tech, both IIT8 and Duralloy are available. I choose Duralloy for the advancement of the tree and increase in hull size, but I'll have range 6 way before I can fit extended tanks on a colony ship. In the weapons department, I choose Fusion Beam. Beam weapons are my favorite because they're not limited by ammunition, and I much prefer the ones that I can heavy mount for a 2-space range weapon.

Next turn, controlled dead pops, allowing me access to Terraforming +30 and controlled Toxic. Toxic is very tempting, since there is an ultra rich toxic right next to Mentar, but I haven't gotten any terraforming tech yet and I need the economy boost. I don't want to divert from the controlled technology for too long, however, so I go back for Terraforming +20.

Sssla starts churning out colony ships with dead environments on board. Meanwhile, scouts have found the apes.



Klackons have already tried and failed to claim Trax, and my first dead colony is on the way there. The bugs won't be expanding any time soon. My worst fear at this point is a human rival in the elections, so I want the humans to have as little voting power as possible. My next few colony ships will settle near the human border, starting with Crius.

In the meantime, Yarrow is settled in the northeast, bringing me contact with the Bulrathi.



Aggressive expansionists with only three planets to their name. Nothing to worry about.

Beta Ceti has finished factory construction, and Arietis has done that and has a missile base now. Those two planets take over research while Romulas begins constructing first some scat ships, and then colony ships. I have so many planets to spread to right now, that Sssla needs help.

Klackons make another attempt to grab Trax. This time, they believe they have a winning force.



Their colony ship is armed with missiles. I manage to take it down with 2 volleys of missiles, but have nothing left to take on their laser fighter. I retreat, but they cannot colonize it just yet. I throw together my own laser fighter design so I can stand some longer battles. Small, one laser, class I shields.

Class II shields pop, and I choose class III as my only option.

Klackons make one last attempt for Trax, and sadly they have a winning force this time.



I had sent my SCATs back since I figured sending them back to the same system after running out of ammo may have been against the rules, but it doesn't matter. They would not have made a difference in this fight. I'm forced to surrender Trax to the Klacks (hey that rhymes!).

Lesson to be learned here: Scatter pack missiles are awesome...when missile bases use them. There's a reason I prefer lasers over missiles in ship-to-ship combat. Oh well. While all my ships have been flying around, I find that I'd sent my scats back to Trax.



Decision time. I certainly do not like the Klackons for poaching this planet from me, but maybe I should leave it alone so that we stay at peace. On the other hand, they look like my biggest rivals and I'd sure love to stunt their growth as much as possible. And the verdict is...

Nuke 'em. If they try to attack my planets in return, my missile bases will tear them apart. In fact, I'd absolutely welcome a war with them. Of course, missiles are horrible weapons for glassing a planet and all I destroy is 2 factories. They don't seem too mad about this, and don't declare war on me just yet. I haven't upped my spying expenditures beyond the minimal 0.4% yet, but I set spying to espionage to hope for a lucky tech grab.

Range 6 pops, leaving only range 7 as an option. I meet the honorable diplomatic humans. They have only 4 planets, further confirming that my rivals are in fact the Klackons. Shortly thereafter, I meet the Xenophobic Diplomatic Darloks, who have only 3 planets. That's nothing to me.



BC2 pops, leaving only ECM2 and BC3 as options. I choose BC3 to advance the tree with technology I actually see myself using. I usually never equip ECM, even on a huge, since I don't perceive it as having much benefit when I could instead put more weapons on the thing.

I grab my 14th planet and in the year 2380 we're having our first election.



The four lesser races all abstain, and Klackons vote for themselves. I'd normally vote for the Klackons just to be nice, but I figure that if we're at war, they'll be less likely to go for the unclaimed planets and more likely to strike at my heavily-armed and defended planets. I vote for myself just to mock them. Again, I'd welcome a war with the Klackons.

Improved Terraforming +20 finally pops. I select Controlled Toxic and start upgrading my planets. Klackons have researched class 4 shields and fusion bombs, and that means I need more missile bases at my planets nearest to them (Arietis and Sssla), especially considering that they are building up along my border.



After building enough bases, they think twice and send their ships elsewhere.

I've finally got enough an economy big enough that I'm willing to up my spying expenditures. 2.4% espionage spending on the Klackons, 0.4% espionage on every other race. When I do active spying I always aim for a total spying expenditure of 4.0% with at least 0.4% on each race. That's usually enough for me to steal a good amount of tech from my opponents and keep up-to-date on their technology without crippling my economy.

Duralloy Armor pops.



I'm already researching fusion beam, and I know the Klackons have repulsor beam technology. Automated Repair on top of both of these would allow me to make my ideal huge design, so I'm going for that. Class 3 shields pop, leaving planetary shields as my only option.

And then THE VIRUS ATTACKS!



Wow, what horribly bad luck. I've been researching fusion beams for probably 50 years or so, and I lose it all just like that. Oh well, nothing to do but pick up and start over. This just means the Klackons get to live for a little longer.

On the year of the election, spies penetrate Klackon labs. Every field is available except Force Fields (the one I'd want most), so I hit their next best field, propulsion (oddly enough), and get Range 5. Oh well, that just means I won't steal it next time. BC3 pops, leaving me with ECM2 and BC4 as my only options. BC4 it is.

As for the election...



My opponent and I still don't have any support, but I have enough voting power to block a win. Looks like I'm not going to be getting support any time soon, and that means I need to start taking planets from the other empires. I'm not quite ready to take the offensive yet, but I can at least start building up a force for taking down planets with. Klackons and humans have been going pretty nuts on Force Field technology, but thankfully neither has researched planetary shields, which means this design is viable:



My only bombs, and the best computer available. I could stick Duralloy armor on this thing, but the 2 BC savings is worth more to me than the extra hitpoint that will hardly make a difference.

A few of my neighbors are getting unhappy.



I won't be taking the offensive against the Bulrathi anytime soon, since my ships have been gathering at the opposite corner of my empire and I haven't had any engine upgrades yet. But I'm increasing defense expenditure at my worlds nearest to these two empires.

Range 7 pops, and for options I have... Energy Pulsar and Warp Dissipator. This hole in my propulsion tree is starting to get on my nerves, and is another reason why the Klackons are my prime target -- they have sub-light drives. I choose energy pulsar because it is cheaper.

Controlled Toxic pops. The next tier of planetology tech offers only Controlled Radiated, so I take that. There's a radiated planet on the Klackon border that I'll want. In the meantime, Simius and Centauri start building a colony ship each to go to Cygni and Paranar, while my forces that I've been building up strike at the Klackons! Their own forces meet me at Trax and we have a deadly showdown.



Yeowch! Those are some heavy forces. With my pathetic ship speeds, my bombers are unable to close in on the planet before getting torn to pieces, and the rest of my ships fare no better. Most of my ships gets torn to pieces. It's clear to me that if I'm going to make any progress, I need better engines and better weapons (in particular, a bomb upgrade). The bugs haven't gotten too mad at me for testing their defenses and are willing to trade nuclear engines.



I give them range 7, perceiving that as the one that benefits them the least. It will only pull two unclaimed planets into reach (the Humans will grab those real soon). The rest will be my planets, which are already fortified. At this point, the only thing to do is to build up my forces so I can give it another shot (using new designs with those engines).

Spies hit the Psilons, and I go for computer for the increase in spying capabilities, netting me Deep Space Scanner. Scanners are my favorite technology in the computer tree for just one reason: I highly value information! The more information I have, the easier it is for me to respond to threats.

The same turn I get very good news:



Doubling the number of ships that come out of my biggest industrial planet? Score! This piece of news is accompanied by the Darlok's complaining about me building up forces on their border. Silly Darloks! I'm building up on the *Klackon* border!

Automated Repair pops. IITs 8, 7 & 6 are options, as well as RW80 and RW60. I choose IIT6, because I want the cheapest factories for when I eventually grab improved robotics.

The 2425 elections roll around.



The bugs have the Bulrathis on their side, but until I win, nobody wins. I try again to strike at Trax, but it is obvious that the Klackon ships completely outclass mine. Rather than to try the same thing over and over and hope for different results, I instead do what I should've done in the first place: Target the weaker opponents. I send my ships to Mentar, as the Psilons have lots of technology but little to defend it with.

I've turned a blind eye to my opponents though, and the Bulrathi take advantage by striking at Yarrow. They manage to take out my missile bases, but lose most of their ships in the fight.

Planetary shield pops, and repulsor beam is my only option.

The Klackons and Psilons are attacking me too, it seems.



The Psilon ships are easily torn apart, but the Klackons manage to destroy all the missile bases on Sssla, losing only their excalibers. I must've seriously underestimated them. But we're not at war, all they're doing is testing my defenses. I call them and threaten them, telling them to back off.



They appear to be satisfied with having bombed my factories. I rebuild the damage done to Sssla and add a planetary shield on top of that. The ships that I sent over to Psilon space finally arrive at Mentar.



The missile bases destroy about 90 of my bombers before they take it out. The Dark Stars are simply torn apart by my missile ships. 6 short turns later, I invade their planet and manage to obtain Improved Robotics Control, Battle Computer 4, Fusion Bomb, Personal Deflector Shield, Controlled Inferno and Reduced Waste 80%. It's amazing how much technology the Psilons have even though they are a one-planet empire.

I'm sorry, they *were* a one-planet empire.



Klackons are trying to attack me and Darloks are spying on me. I've threatened both and gotten cheap useless techs from them, but the Klackons are still intent on coming at me, forcing me to slow down factory construction on my systems in order to build up more missile bases.

Since I'm already at war with the Bulrathi, and my ships are closest to Bulrathi space, I figure they'll be my next target. I send my ships to Ursa. Their defenses prove to be no match for my fleet.



I'm going to glass and plant flags rather than invade. The Bulrathi advantage in ground combat makes invading their worlds too hard to be worth it.

The Humans replace the Klackons as my election opponents in 2450.



They have unanimous support, but I have 48% of the total vote, and still growing.

After nearly 100 years, I've finally, FINALLY gotten this key piece of technology:



I can't fit it on a small ship just yet, so I'm not quite ready to use it.

After a while, repulsor beams pop. I'm finally ready to throw together a huge design.



I'm building these up on the Klackon border, while my force of scatter pack missile ships run over the Bulrathi worlds. After grabbing and holding Ursa, I destroy the rest of the bear worlds and plant flags on them, pushing me over the Domination threshold and toppling another empire.



I notice a Klackon stack of doom heading towards my planets. I have no idea where they're going, but I threaten the Klackons (since their ships threaten me) and they give me another cheap tech and back off. However, the Darloks declare war on me. Just as well. My force is right there anyways, so nothing to do but press on and attack. ONWARD TO GLORY!



They just can't stand up to my stack approaching 200 missile ships. I've managed to get three ships of my new huge design, so I send them to Trax to test them.



The stack of 93 mediums retreats (probably carrying death spores), and my ships manage to destroy nearly everything else with no casualties. The design is good to go! As I still have no support in the election, the game goes on.



I haven't received even one vote of support the entire game. The only way I'm going to have my victory is to cross the Conquest threshold. I figure the best way to do that is by taking and holding planets, and since these other races are not Bulrathi, it will be a lot easier to invade their worlds.



Grabbing these two planets puts almost the entire galaxy within my reach. Only two human worlds are outside my grasp. I coordinate an invasion of the human world Quayal, leaving every system within reach. At this point, I'm no longer invading worlds and instead just glassing them. With every world in reach, it's much quicker and easier to glass worlds rather than invade. Making this task much easier, I've just researched impulse drives and am now building hordes of zippy little bombers.

Another one bites the dust.



I suddenly realize that I've been bombing planets so quickly, that I'll get an extermination victory before the next election rolls around. My original plan was to bomb everything until the bugs and apes had only one planet each, but there's no reason to stick to that plan. I glass the last Klackon world, and then take out the last 3 or so Human planets.



As Sirian once put it, mommy forgot to teach us to share. I've achieved an extermination victory by 2492.

Here's how the galaxy looked the turn before I ended it all.



An interesting game, to be sure. Just because I can win on Impossible doesn't mean that Average can't challenge me! I wasn't in danger of losing at any point, but my diplomatic unfriendliness and the lack of good weaponry and engines early on really slowed me down. I should've been targeting the weaker opponents from the beginning. Oh well, you live and learn. I wonder who else got extermination victories? More than that, I wonder how the free tech from the artifacts world influenced everyone's game.

I'll tell you what the tech did for me. Though occasionally my bases got bombed out, not once did any of my flags disappear or change color. My planets were easy to hold.
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[dathon]

Nicely done, Megafrost

I've found the exact same thing with missile ships. They are best used as raiders, escorts, and poor-man's bombers or missile bases in some situations. Looks like you discovered the problem with slow bombers as well; unless you have a LOT of them, they're not going to reach the planet.

You did put the scatter's to good early use, and overall a pretty good game.

dathon

[haphazard1]

Nice game, Megafrost!

Scatter pack V from the artifact world -- wow. That was not in the Sakkra tree, and would have been very nice to have.

Thanks for the detailed report. I especially liked your thoughts on spying, as I am a MOO noob and really was not sure how much spying spending is worthwhile. I had total spying spending up to nearly 10% at a couple points, which was probably too much, but it did pay off with numerous penetrations. Also, how much do you tend to spend on security?

[dathon]

I hope Megafrost answers these too, but I just saw this as I was posting, and wanted to offer my $0.02

I never use security spending. I've never found enemy spying to be damaging enough to warrant it. You can take the money and improve your computer tech level, which gives you spy protection along with the other benefits of the techs themselves.

10% seems a little high to me. You can actually diminish your chances by sending too many spies. Each spy, if caught, has a chance of revealing all the others. The optimal mix depends on a lot of things, the most important being relative computer tech levels, but I've found the optimum to be 2-4 spies. The MOO guide has a table for it, but I've never bothered to try and memorize it.

Generally, I spend my first click towards espionage around the 2350-2375 time frame, putting him in hiding (recon only), just to see what I'm up against. I don't feel it's worth it earlier; it's limited what the AI can have early on, and you'll rarely be fighting them too heavily before then anyway.

I've actually lost a couple games to wars I wasn't ready for, started by spying. If you get involved in hot war too early, before you have relations with everybody, you can find yourself under a dogpile and out the door by council loss. Because of this, I usually limit espionage to those I'm already at war with, or situations where I need a tech badly enough to justify the risk of war.

In a related note, it's been posted before, but you can't steal a tech higher than your computer tech level. Well, actually now that I've said that, I can't remember if it's your computer tech level, or highest tech level, but I'm pretty sure it's computer level. So if all you've got is BCII, you can't steal ANY tech higher than level 5, so stealing doesn't get profitable until around 2375-2400.

dathon

[Doug.Lefelhocz]

Sssla went rich. At least with the extremely rare Ultra Rich Terran planet you have to send colonists there, bulid factories from scratch, and don't start developing it on turn 1. I do like random events on in my solo games, but I definitely see why we almost surely want them off for here.

[Megafrost]

I don't spend anything on security spending. Like Dathon says, the AI doesn't do enough damage. On the off chance that they actually are doing a lot of damage (destroying all your missile bases/factories), they probably have a huge computer tech lead or a bigger economy (or both). As for the random events, well, I think the computer virus had a much bigger impact on me than the rich homeworld did. I hated that virus, it set my weapons back quite far. If I had those fusion beams sooner, I could've torn those Klackon ships apart.

Looking at everyone else's reports, I noticed that everyone was getting really good terraforming technology. Something I believe I neglected. Focusing on terraforming technology may have been an easy way to get a win on this map. Then again, winning peacefully would've been too boring, me thinks. I prefer to beat my foes the old-fashioned way: BRUTALLY!

[RefSteel]

Nice game! AND a great report! (I can see you have the same screen-cap/image-resizing issues that I do, and I empathize, believe me!)

I think it's interesting that you, Sullla, and I (maybe others, but I'm still working my way through the reports) all pulled weapons technology from the ART world ... and all nonetheless went back for Hand Lasers as our first self-researched tech in the field. Curiously, I think I'd also have still have gone with NPGs second had I drawn Scatter-Vs instead of just the Hyper variety; Fusion Beam is expensive, and I wouldn't want my ships to fly around for that long with only lasers. The relatively cheap neutron pellet guns are as good against Class V Deflectors as are lasers against Class IIs, and don't take up much space. In fact, (though partly because of the fleets I was facing) I think I could have shaved a turn or two off my finish if I'd designed my final Komodo cruiser design with a slew of Neutron Pellet Guns instead of a handful of Fusion Beams!

[Megafrost]

The three of us also went for extermination victories, although I finished mine last. I agree, I should've gone for NPGs. I would've been able to make a decent fighter ship if I had, plus the virus would not have set me back so far. Live and learn, right? I like having 2-space beam weapons a little too much for my own good.

[timoteob]

dathon, Megafrost,

I am shocked that you never use security spending. I always do, but to be honest with you I never really analyzed the situation. It is sort of a knee jerk reaction with me; I get into a war and up goes the security spending. I agree with you that the damage to missile bases and factories is minor and can be ignored. However, I worry about stolen tech as you are almost never notified when one of your opponents steals something from you. They could walk away with some game changing technologies. I think we have all been in a situation where poaching a key tech at the right time has turned a game around for you. There is also the threat of rebellions. Having one can really throw a wrench in the works. I had one in my Imperium Ten game and I will never know if it was random or the Darloks caused it. I took me 4 turns to crush it and slowed my advance.

Well you have certainly given me something to think about. Maybe for Imperium 11 I will go without it and see how it goes. Thanks for making me challenge my assumptions!

Timoteob

[Megafrost]

I'm not worried about losing technology. It can be annoying, sure, but if they need my technology in order to compete with me, then I've already won. The AI needs a huge technology advantage to militarily beat a player that knows what they're doing. An AI playing catch-up will not be much of a threat.

Most of my thinking is based on the Impossible difficulty. The AIs there research computers like crazy, and that usually means security spending is not going to help much.