Third time's the charm - Mardoc plays the Pirates [SPOILER]

[Mardoc]

Well, I was afraid of this. Sareln's decided to expand to the sea - in a big way.





He was at least polite enough to expand directly out from his land, rather than to try to stake a huge claim - I think, anyway. But I only see 7 more sites that are claimable peacefully, more or less. Claiming two of them next turn, and we'll get a move on for claiming the others, and then we'll come to a stop rather abruptly, I expect.

In better news, we're up to 31 Aquaformers, and our first Sea Boreholes are due in 2. And we've multiple cities in the double digits, size-wise, and we're steadily plugging away toward Cryogenics. Going to have to think about if we're declaring war on anyone, and if so, who it's gonna be. First temptation is Sareln, of course, preferably with overwhelming force T1 of a war. Still time to think about it, though.

[Bigger]

I would think those cities would fall rather easily, no? much easier than invading iskender, anyway.

[Mardoc]

I would think those cities would fall rather easily, no? much easier than invading iskender, anyway.

Yes...today. When I don't really have the army or navy that could finish him off.

The other thing to consider is, I'm pretty sure if I attacked Iskender, Sareln and Maniac would stay out. Not sure what would happen if I attacked Sareln, though. Could easily imagine ending up in a 3v1.

Likely the best solution is actually named Lal or Yang or Miriam, though.


Anyway, played the turn tonight, 31 Aquaformers still isn't enough either. Although I did, on reflection, decide that 17 turns isn't quite as unreasonable as I thought before:
Kelp is 3 worker turns for 1/0/1 (with biodomed) - or 2 worker turns per foodhammer. Mining Platform is 4 worker turns for 0/2/0 - again 2 worker turns per foodhammer. Sea Borehole is 17 worker turns for 0/4/6 - basically 7 foodhammer equivalents - or just over 2 worker turns per foodhammer. I'm really going to appreciate these tiles when they're done, I just should have built the formers before Nanotubes rather than after. And it would have been happier if I'd known it before getting the tech, rather than being surprised.

In other news, we founded two bases, no pictures cause it's close to bedtime. One last spurt of entirely aquaformer and colony pod focus, then we'll be done and switch over to military. Need a lot of drop troopers and Hunters to consider invading anyone.

[Mardoc]

Dammit, I knew I should have spent the time to promote some subs Deep Pressure Hull and Deep Radar, and position them by the approaches. Now I'm going to have to do that, and also sweep my territory. And probably abort the 100% economic development plan, too, to get the units required to do that . The good(ish) news is that we can probably kick Isk back out without requiring war; either the units will leave our borders when revealed, or they'll be HN and we can kill them.

I've been getting nervous about the number of subs I was seeing in Iskender's ports, but I should have realized he wouldn't put his whole force there. That makes the situation potentially much worse. Need some Hunters to clear him out, and more Drop Troopers to keep the cities safe. And to start planning a method to invade his ports and sink ships in port - maybe Planes, maybe Destroyers, in either case backed up with Drop Troopers in transports. 4ish subs in each port, plus some unknown number of subs in my territory already - that's not a defensive force. Iskender's coming, as soon as he sees an opportunity. Although at least subhunting with Str 6 Hunters and Destroyers should be fun :-/

Which is all going to mean - I need to take the time to play the turns carefully from here out. Been doing a lot of 'move the aquaformers and throw stuff into queues' turns - I can do better than that.

Good news is, 34 aquaformers at EOT and another 8 or so in queue will be short compared to what I'd like, but not drastically so. And we only need 3-4 more colony pods after those in production to use up all our neighboring free space, and our happiness caps are in excellent shape. And...with strictly limited new territory claims available, our aquaformer demand won't be growing nearly as quickly as I forecast a few turns back. We still have about a 300 former turn deficit in terms of the boreholes remaining to be built on already worked trenches, and we need at least 4 former turns per population growth, but we can pay that off at a decent clip once we have 40 Aquaformers going. The empire can afford to swap to mostly military production now, and still keep growing on the inertia of our current Aquaformers and remaining room in happiness caps.

The main debate in my mind is how far to swing the pendulum. I want to at least finish the Aquaformers in queue, and I would really like to grab at least one more northern city by the oil/brilliance, and one more southern city by the crystals. And there are some buildings worth putting up, too, if we can find spare hammers - Naval Yards give +1 to each of happy/healthy/trade route/Special Ability to naval units; we've got one built in Dreadnought and that's all so far. Subsea Trunklines give +1 hammer to each Trench, and +1 happy/healthy; worth building in cities with 3+ Trench tiles and we haven't yet built any. For that matter, adding significant cash to cities via boreholes may make things like the research hospital pay better. Yet, we clearly also need more military, a lot of it. Right now we could stop Iskender's current forces (err, assuming no significant kill stacks hidden in our territory), but it would be expensive and we might have to recapture a city or two. Need Hunters for sub duty, transports/drop troopers for strikes on ports, drop troopers for city defense, and something for collateral.

Realistically, this is going to be an ongoing debate. I think top priority is a bunch more drop troopers - keep the cities, and fighting becomes easier. Second priority is some Deep Radar/Deep Pressure Hull Hunters, with hitters coming along, to clear out our own oceans. Last priority is offensive stuff. And if I put about half the empire back on military duty, that's probably enough, combined with the defensive capabilities of Drop Troopers against Iskender's current unit mix of subs, transports, and Invitros.

Ideally, I want to get the last of the peaceful cities founded in the next 5-10 turns, and the last of our Aquaformers built by then as well. That'll leave us ready for 100% military by the time Cryogenics arrives.

Y'know...Sareln may have actually done us a favor - by convincingly blocking us from all but a last few bites at peaceful expansion, he's eliminated most of my temptation to neglect the military I'll need to survive against Iskender

[HidingKneel]

Looks like things are heating up.

Did I see right that that sub of Iskender's is a 7-mover? Yikes. Why are you not terrified of those? Are they somehow limited in the type of damage they can inflict?

Maniac helping you out is very good news: he's likely burned any bridges he might have had with Iskender, and maybe dragged Sareln along with him. They might stay out of the upcoming war, but it seems unlikely that they'll take Iskender's side.

[Mardoc]

Looks like things are heating up.

Did I see right that that sub of Iskender's is a 7-mover? Yikes. Why are you not terrified of those? Are they somehow limited in the type of damage they can inflict?

Well, I lost 22 improvements last turn, so I'm pretty nervous. Unless things change, Iskender will remove all our improvements, and then swamp us with superior production. But Drop Troopers are Str 13.5 in cities with perimeter defenses, while subs are only Str 4, so for the moment Iskender can only take cities if he's willing to burn a lot of hammers. And although he's got a bunch of subs, I don't think he has enough for significant inroads.

To clear the subs out I will have Str 6 Hunters with bunkers and safe bases...in a couple turns, because I slacked off military production trying to get Aquaformers built. So...if Iskender has nothing more up his sleeve, we should be able to clear him out given time. Only managed to kill 2 subs last turn, but things ought to improve once we get significant Hunters on the board.

Maniac helping you out is very good news: he's likely burned any bridges he might have had with Iskender, and maybe dragged Sareln along with him. They might stay out of the upcoming war, but it seems unlikely that they'll take Iskender's side.

Yes! We might live after all. Trying to talk him into committing more than that - I'm 100% serious when I say that if I don't stop Iskender, he'll kill those two little ones next - going after me is a sign that he thinks he can straight win from here. Otherwise he'd be assimilating more AI's first. Which is the main reason I offered Morgania - need their help badly if I'm to have a prayer at actually dismantling Iskender rather than merely maybe surviving. Afraid they'll think I'm stronger than I am, though.

[Bigger]

I just caught up on the planetary council thread.. I wasn't sure what was going on .

well, good luck.. time to go all out on military, I think. sad that a land power has a better navy than you :P

[Mardoc]

I just caught up on the planetary council thread.. I wasn't sure what was going on .

well, good luck.. time to go all out on military, I think. sad that a land power has a better navy than you :P

Yeah, it is. But if I hadn't spent on Drop Troopers, there's a good chance I'd already be reporting lost cities. And he's had a dramatic hammer advantage for a while.

Here's hoping that we live long enough for 100% military production to matter. And that we can get enough boats in the water to save some of our hammer producing improvements .

[HidingKneel]

Well, I lost 22 improvements last turn, so I'm pretty nervous. Unless things change, Iskender will remove all our improvements, and then swamp us with superior production. But Drop Troopers are Str 13.5 in cities with perimeter defenses, while subs are only Str 4, so for the moment Iskender can only take cities if he's willing to burn a lot of hammers. And although he's got a bunch of subs, I don't think he has enough for significant inroads.

Ouch...

Can he use his subs to kill our aquaformers?

[Mardoc]

Well, I lost 22 improvements last turn, so I'm pretty nervous. Unless things change, Iskender will remove all our improvements, and then swamp us with superior production. But Drop Troopers are Str 13.5 in cities with perimeter defenses, while subs are only Str 4, so for the moment Iskender can only take cities if he's willing to burn a lot of hammers. And although he's got a bunch of subs, I don't think he has enough for significant inroads.

Ouch...

Can he use his subs to kill our aquaformers?

IF I understand correctly, no, aquaformers are also invisible inside friendly territory and can't be revealed by any means short of him actually taking cities. Given that one of his subs ended up on the same tile as an Aquaformer, I think that's a correct understanding

Mardoc, Iskender,

The Consciousness wants dearly to stay out of this war, but after much consideration (and a good night's rest), views that goal as impossible. I was hoping for more time before the game-ending moves started, to try and claw something back from my big mistake in the early/mid game, but such is the life.

Reasoning in the thread for the post-game naturally.

I will aid Mardoc in his attempts to resist Iskender's pillage-party / invasion.

-Sareln-

Thank you, Sareln. I'm convinced you made the right choice - now it's merely time to see if a 3v1 can actually pull this off, or if Iskender's too far ahead already.

This is a message from Colonel Corazon Santiago of the Spartan Federation to all humans on Chiron:

It is now clear that the majority of human population on Chiron have been infected.

These things, mindworms, have been killing colonists for over a hundred years. Now they have found a way to infect humans and to use their psionic abilities to control the minds of some of the leaders of the largest colonist factions.

The findings at Fallingwater have revealed that the infected subjects worship the planet's native life in hopes of being assimilated by it. Such individuals no longer follow the basic human instinct that is preservation of Homo Sapiens. For all intents and purposes such entities are no longer human and shall be treated by the Spartans as native life.

For over a century we have fought for the survival of the human race. We will continue doing so, no matter the cost.

If you are out there and you are still human: know that you are not alone.

Thank you, Iskender. I needed that perspective.

It's only a game. It's only a game.

I may feel hard done by, but it's only a game.