Imperium 22 - RefSteel: Human Being?

[RefSteel]

Right; here goes! It's closing day for Imperium 22 - One-Track Mind (unless I'm looking at the date cross-eyed or something) and my report is posted in the usual place. There are a few plot/character elements in my story that really should have been expanded more, in my self-critical opinion, but I've been in a big time crunch lately (real-life things) and so will have to let it stand; for the missing class discussions and so forth, as with so much else in classic Orion itself, just use your imagination! (Still one of the reasons I love this game.)

I enjoyed this one quite a lot; thanks very much to KnTenshi for sponsoring the game!

[Olorin]

I've got my report ready to go, just wondering where I should post it (I don't have my own website to host it). Do I post it in this thread or somewhere else?

[KnTenshi]

You post your report in a new thread. You don't have to have a website, RefSteel is just special like that. XP

Ok, 25 planets in the first century? That's it, next game I play - I'm duck-taping extra fuel cells to my colony ships in the first year! Though I do wish you had played longer just to see the supposed Xenophobic Darloks ally with two empires twice it's size - and not steal from them.

Oh and your final score is, in fact, 34.

[sargon0]

Nicely played RefSteel.

Great effort getting the UR colonised and max'd as soon as possible. I hit Barren in 2319 also but I went for a more balanced (not necessarily better) approach. The early UR with IT+20 was key to rapid expansion. Range choice varied because I never trust Range 4 to last. It was good here for a long time but Range 5 did bring Volantis in range when Stalaz colonised and artifacts Neptunus in range when Rha colonised getting me a free tech, as my game played. Both of us had 'preparing to merge' and first vote in late 70's but I was lucky to be supported and gain immediate victory. I was confident of an ally vote else I would have targeted a planet to go for conquest.

As I said to KnTenshi, nice idea and scoring (maybe should be self-researched only to emphasize variant) but no more tech restrictions for a while please, after last 2 imperia! My personal preference, of course, feel free to use any good looking ideas.

[Olorin]

Great game Ref!

I like the narrative style.


Looking at the differences in my game, I didn't get Stalaz up as fast, and I realize now how big a mistake it was to produce colships out of Sol before maxxing factories. While it might make sense to get an earlier start on a colship if you only need one, given the amount of expansion available in this game it was a foolish move.

Also wise strategy with your tech trades. Some of which I normally shy away from (I almost never trade away clean-up, factory control, or terraforming techs due to their large economic benefits), but you picked up some key techs in exchange, like Dead colonies, while keeping the AIs too small to be a threat, even with better economies.

[RefSteel]

RefSteel is just special like that. XP

Heh - I just found it easier to post my reports via outside webspace, mostly because I tend to use a zillion pictures (I literally take hundreds of screenshots for each Imperium report and choose the ones to resize/crop/combine) ... and with my dialup connection, I like the way I've been able to get Blogger to handle my several-pictures-to-a-post multi-post reports.

Ok, 25 planets in the first century? That's it, next game I play - I'm duck-taping extra fuel cells to my colony ships in the first year!

Actually, I'm pretty sure I never built a reserve-tank Colship all game! I just prioritized Stalaz really heavily (really heavily) and got it up to speed rapidly with a combination of max transports, taxes and scout scrapping, and T+20, followed by massive reserve-fed ship spending from that incredible world! Uh ... and technically, it was 26 planets in the first century....

Range 5 did bring Volantis in range when Stalaz colonised and artifacts Neptunus in range when Rha colonised getting me a free tech, as my game played.

Yeah; grabbing that tech from Neptunus was a major coup on your part; well played! If it had given you advanced terraforming or something instead of RC3, your empire would soon have been really scary! (I mean, scarier than it was already!)

no more tech restrictions for a while please, after last 2 imperia! My personal preference, of course, feel free to use any good looking ideas.

Indeed; if you count Imperium 20, with no Weapons research allowed, it's the last 3 Imperia! As you say, we'll see what ideas come in for future Imperia, but at least there won't be any tech restrictions for Imperium 23!

I didn't get Stalaz up as fast, and I realize now how big a mistake it was to produce colships out of Sol before maxxing factories. While it might make sense to get an earlier start on a colship if you only need one, given the amount of expansion available in this game it was a foolish move.

Oddly enough, I did start colship production at Sol long before maxing factories ... precisely for the reason you stated. I only needed one colony ship: For Stalaz! After that first Apollo 1.0 rolled off the docks, the UR (and later other rich or distant, threatened worlds) took over ship production; Sol never built another colony ship for me.

Also wise strategy with your tech trades. Some of which I normally shy away from (I almost never trade away clean-up, factory control, or terraforming techs due to their large economic benefits), but you picked up some key techs in exchange, like Dead colonies, while keeping the AIs too small to be a threat, even with better economies.

True - I almost never trade away techs like those. In this case though, with Stalaz churning out colony ships like crazy and no AIs that posed a meaningful threat, I didn't care what I was giving away - only about what I'd get.