Imperium 22 Report
Olorin
Diplo Win 2500
Avg Tech Level 22.3
![[Image: imperium22finaltechscreen.jpg]](http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k186/OlorinStormcrow/imperium22finaltechscreen.jpg)
The Beginning--Expansion Phase.
Like I imagine everyone else, I settled for UP Vulcan as first colony.
Lots of habitables within scouting range.
3 Key factors influence my early expansion.
1. I noticed that with the proper leapfrogging sequence, everything but the Terran to the SW could be reached by R4--IF I got the Stalaz with at least Barren.
2. Sakkra scouts were spotted to the West, the East had no activity, so I figured it West was the priority.
3. Stalaz was UR, so Barren colony would be a big priority.
The big decision was whether to open Planetology or Prop first, and I opted to look for Range, as it would at least open up the Eastern front.
I opened Prop with a few RPs from Vulcan and had a devilish choice between R4 or R5. I went for the cheaper R4 due to the leap-frogging situation, and desire to work on Planetology sooner to find a Colony tech.
At this point Vulcan can put out 15 RP of tech by itself. I have Sol take a turn off factory production to get Prop jump-started, then have Vulcan work on it using the investment returns.
2321--Sakkra visit the SW Terran, I might need to invest in some ships to keep them at bay. Sol is at 128 factories, and can build a Colony in 6y, so production is started. R4 is in %'s now, so I have Vulcan divert some effort to building partial factories.
2324--R4 pops. Ouch, R5 or IS? I probably won't be back to Prop for awhile now, but what if R5 turns out to be crucial? I go with IS (for ladder advancement later) and hope for the best. Time to open Planetology with 4 RP.
Yes! Barren is in the tree, and for only 250 RP. As before, Sol pumps out RP to jump-start the tech, then Vulcan takes over with investment funding.
2328--First Colony ship finally finished. Now the dilemma is whether to send it North or to the larger Esper which is in the back-line, but opens up the fertile 110. I opt for pushing the border north, and build a 6 pack of scouts for exploration.
Barren is already at 3%. If it pops before the next colship rolls off the line, I'll be able to colonize Stalaz next.
2333--Guradas is founded and Barren pops at the same time. Barren colship is 2 turns away. I decide to leave the research in Planet for IER, which is only 700 RP. This time, I only use Sol's spare production with Vulcan's to start the tech, but it's still 69 RP.
2335--Barren ship produced. I build up some fighters at Sol to send to Kronos when Stalaz is colonized to ward off possible Sakkra colonization attempts.
2337--UR Stalaz now colonized. Sol hit 100/146 this turn, so I send 15 from the Homeworld to Stalaz. I also send the 17 Fighters I built in the last two turns out to Kronos (now in range) where Sakkra scouts have been seen.
2339--Scouted Altair. Only 5 parsecs from Guradas, and only 4 from Centauri. I need to pump out some Colships to stop them from cutting me off in the East. I also saw a Darlock scout by a Rich Barren to the North, giving me a good guess as to the location of their homeworld (turns out I was wrong--thought they were further West, not on top of the Alkari).
2342--Next colship sent to Rha to counter Sakkra expansion. With an asteroid belt within 3 of Altair, and the planets on the other side looking over 3 parsecs out, I suspect the Alkaris are currently a 1PE--especially as GNN just listed them last in production.
2348--Rha founded. IER pops. IT+20 next, and I decide to stick with it. Can't think of a more useful tech right now that growing UR Stalaz by 50%. Contact with Sakkra is made. They have the 2 yellows in the corner, and Sssla is 5 parsecs from Rha, so they have R5. I make a note to have Stalaz pump out some more fighters to defend Rha and Kronos. Sol and Kronos jump-start the tech while the next colony is en-route to Esper. I'm not sure I want to colonize Poor Kronos right on the front-line with the Sakkra. They need R6 for the Terran, so if I can blockade Kronos, they'll need to wait for better range tech.
2351--Esper founded. We are first to 6 planets.
2352--Scout reaches Dead planet south of Sakkra, happen to encounter an unarmed Colony. Sakkra yell at us for it. New colship sent to Toranor, working on locking down the East.
2356--First event happens, plague on Sssla. Nice.
2359--Toranor founded. New colship to Centauri. Stalaz takes over Colship building and Sol to research. IT20 in %'s. Strange that the Sakkra haven't gone to the Minimal 4 parsecs N of Sssla. They are still a 2PE.
--IT20 pops. I opt for better cleanup next (Dead was tempting due to several potential colonies--but they were a stretch). I switch to Constr now. RW80 is up.
Part 2, Race Relations
2366--Alkaris and I both reach Centauri at the same time. But they brought 70+ fighters. I have to hope that I beat them to Kakata to open up Tau Cygni and Incedius. Vectoring in my garrison from Guradas, but 24 fighters aren't much.
2369--I'm first to Kakata.
2371--Sakkra finally cure their plague. I finally colonized Kronos, and have ships enroute to Laan and Maalor. Alkaris are 1 turn ahead of my 24 fighters with 19 fighters and a colony coming to Kakata. My fighters would probably lose to the Alkari bonuses anyway. I NAP them. Tau Cygni and Incedius are out of their current range if they don't conquer Kakata, and I've already got colships enroute--thanks to the wonderful UR Stalaz helping with the ship-building.
2373--Scratch that, the Alkaris aren't respecting the NAP. My 24 fighters lost to their 19 + armed colony ship.
Sakkra also bring Gatling colony to Kronos, and just managed to defeat my garrison. I should be okay there--I've got 90 fighters coming to counter (25 was almost enough).
For the Alkaris, I've got enough pop to deal with their transports, and replacements pop already on the way. Longer term, I design a Large with Battle Scanner, CPU1, Shield1, and 21 Lasers. I've got three being built, but it will be 12 turns before they arrive (hopefully with comp+scanner, they can actually hit the Alkari fighters).
2376--Survived Alkari Marines. Thankfully their troop base is Centauri, so the waves are small. Kronos orbit has been retaken, but half of Sssla is in transports. I don't have the pop to hold the colony, but I do have more on the way. Also, Sol got irradiated this turn, so I evacuated a big chunk of pop towards Kronos.
RW80 came in, Computers opened up with ECM1 as only option. I'll go 2-3 advances in comps to boost spying, then switch to weapons.
--Wow, didn't think 64 fighters could take down 44 out of 50 transports. Kronos is secure for now, but has too much pop on the way. Time to shift some pop toward Laan and Maalor.
2387--Brush wars have been doused. ECM2 popped, ISS next. Poor Denubius settled, opens up Barren Rich near map center, Colship sent. More worlds are maxing out, which should help get the tech out faster. Sakkra and Alkari still amiable. Upped trade agreements and traded the Sakkras FF2 for ECM2. Now I'll be in the 2nd tier when opening FF tech.
2398--ISS finally pops. I choose RC4 next. Tough decision whether to switch to weapons or wait for RC4. I decide to forge ahead for factories.
2402--Maalor is trying to go Nova. I steal DSS from Sakkra.
2406--Maalor saved. We now have nuke engines thanks to Birds.
--RC4 pops. Choose BC6 and switch to weps (Gatling lasers and anti-missile rockets are currently deadliest weapons in galaxy). I wait 1 turn before turning up refit to start tech. Shouldn't have bothered, Hand Lasers is sole choice. Even putting everyone but UP Vulcan on refit, 99% chance of hitting. Next up, Fusion Bomb.
Steal RC3 and PDS from Sakkra--they catch me, and then DOW next turn.
2415: Sakkras get serious about war and send a fleet to Laan. Crashing up bases and building Nuclear missile boats. Sakkras have death spores, otherwise bases would be almost immune to attack right now.
2419: Not enough firepower to stop the Spores. Laan is lost, but enough missile boats survived to nix the colony ships that arrived next turn. All border worlds are pumping out bases, and I'm working on large stacks of MBs. Fusion bombs pop and I go for Mass Drivers next.
2433--Sakkras ask for peace, but have transports coming to spored out Kronos. Alkaris have destroyed some ships, but H Lasers don't have enough punch to threaten bases. Mass Drivers pop, but no missiles in sight. I choose AM Bombs to advance the tree, but switch to untouched FF, choose PS5.
2434--Darlocks end our non-war.
2448--Alkaris finally give up on conquering Vulcan and end war. Repulsor beams pop, select FF6, but switch to Planet for clean-up tech.
2451--EER pops, I go for Soil Enrichment for pop growth (so many good choices--but the hostile planets have mostly been grabbed by Sakkra and Darlock).
2454--Soil pops, AER to move the tree
2463--AER pops, Toxic chosen. Most worlds finishing remax after Soil. Switch to Prop for some engines. IS at 8% on turn 1.
2465--IS pops, I go for R7 instead of sublights (I need better than R4)
2468--R7, go for Fusion drive
2471--Fusions, select R9, switch to Construction
2474--Auto Repair pops, II6 next.
I trade the Sakkras my Mass Driver for Scatter5s
Part 3--Diplomacy
Up until now, votes have featured me vs. the Darlocks. I have about 1/2 the vote, so now worries beyond angering the Darlocks by voting for myself.
2475--Another vote. This time Sakkras are in with 7, Darlocks are allied and add 7 to Sakkra. Alkaris abstain their 2 and I vote myself 14. Sakkras also have the tech lead. Time to prepare for some pointy stick research projects. I design an Auto-Repair Huge with Repulsor and start pre-build. I'd love to research an armor before building any.
If I could get the Darlocks on my side of a vote, this thing could be over. Of course, I've got to make sure I don't knock the Sakkra pop down too far, or it will be the Darlocks in the #2 spot.
2479--II6 pops. No luck on armor. I switch to FF6 instead as the Alkaris declare out of the blue again. They've added Fusion Bombs to their Lasers and Hand Lasers, but I think my repulsor ships will make it hard for them to deploy their bombs in the face of Scatter5 equipped bases.
2482--I meet the Alkari main fleet with 8 MB's and two Huge Repulsor ships (Auto-repair, shield 2, with scanner, some mass drivers, scatter5s, and fusion bombs). Alkaris only had a couple of larges with bombs, the rest can't touch the bases. They almost manage to take down one of my Huge ships with their Heavy Lasers, but AR gives me just enough time to whittle down their stacks.
2484--I use my 2 Repulsor ships to take the orbit over Centauri. Alkaris are going back to a 1PE. At least this way, I know that the Centauris will vote for me!
FF6 also popped, so I redesign the Repulsor ships. I choose FF7 to advance, but switch back to Planetology for a quick Toxic environment. Setting up for taking a Rich world or two from the Sakkras.
2486--Centauri is mine, along with FF3 and Sub-lights. Alkari now have no tech to steal. Last two turns I got all fields espionage from Sakkras--took ECM4 and IIT9 (I'm spying again because with them as the new #2, I am preparing for a war anyway).
2487--Toxic pops. I go for Antidote to counter the Sakkras Spores and Doom Virus. Their best missiles are nuclear and scatter5s, so my new Huge design with FF6 will be immune to their bases. They have up to FF5, so I may have some trouble taking down their bio-ships without fleet support.
2490--Steal Duralloy from Sakkra, blame Darlocks. I've got 10 years til next vote to try to swing Darlocks my way. Alkaris don't accept peace proposal. I break NAP with Sakkra. Dial up Darlocks. They agree to join a war against Lizards! Also get larger Trade Agreement and NAP. Will try for Alliance before the vote.
I send my 2 FF6 Huges to take Aquilae, and have border worlds build some Larges with Duralloy, FF6, and Mass Drivers.
2491--Take Aquilae orbit, and send transports. Antidote pops, I choose Doom Virus for the advance, and switch to AM Bombs as Weapons is level 14 vs. 20 for next lowest fields.
2492--Take Aquilae, find ECM3, RW60.
2495--Had another Steal from Sakkra, Radiated. AM Bombs popped. Omega Bomb or AM Torps. Go for Torps.
2499--Alkaris want ECM4 to make peace, sorry. Hot war with Sakkra isn't producing dividends with Darlock relations, mostly because I'm waiting for 3 incoming Sakkra fleet that are traveling with slow Colships. I tried bombing out one of their worlds, but need a dedicated bomber design to penetrate their shielding.
2500--Diplomatic Victory!
32 Votes total. Sakkra (8) + Alkari (1) vs. Darlock (7) + Me (16) = 23/32
Looking at the 2499 save, my tech levels are 23, 21, 25, 28, 20, 17. The total is 134. Average level of 22.3.
I did pull off espionage the final turn against the Sakkra, yielding Dead colonies, which would have added +1 to Planetolgy, for an average of 22.5.
Part 4--Commentary
I was able to waltz to a fairly easy diplo win in this game. Mainly because I was able to out-expand the AI's. The Alkari's I understood--they had no habitables within 3 parsecs, which always hurts. Then the Darlocks cut them off from above, and they only got Centauri before I close the door to the South.
The Sakkra were odd. They had range tech pretty early. They also forged ahead and got Toxic and Radiated pretty quickly. Yet they took forever to colonize even Whynil (4 parsecs, habitable). Sure, I scout blockaded on my border, and had some fighters too (though they never even sent Colony ships). That shouldn't have stopped them moving North, or picking up the Dead planet right next door once they got the tech. My only explanation is that the Plague event on their homeworld really knocked them for a loop. I even pulled my scouts off Whynil and the Dead planet after I scouted them because I didn't feel right trying for a total blockade.
I had Rha early, and then I took Kronos right at the time the Plague ended, followed shortly by Laan and Maalor. That didn't leave them much choice but to go through Whynil.
The Darlocks were almost a non-entity for me. They expanded slowly as they dealt with plenty of hostile environments at first. They had the most planets of the AIs, but the Sakkras superior terraforming and better base pops on their planets let them take over the pop lead. For me, the Darlocks were a trade partner, a block to my further expansion, and eventually the votes I needed to secure victory. We never fired a shot at each other.
As for the variant rule.
Probably the biggest decision point was whether to get Range or Barren first. I got both fairly quickly, I think my decision to have Sol devote a turn to starting out a new tech really helped (I kept up that philosophy for awhile--when I'd get a terraforming or RC tech, I'd tech for a turn before starting planets on the new terraforming or factories).
I also traded for a couple techs. One was FF2 because I knew it would then let me start FF in tier 2. The other was Scatter5s, which really solidified my defensive position. Though overall, the lack of any decent weaponry in the Galaxy for most of the game allowed me to focus on expansion and tech.
The other way I boosted my tech score was spying. My liberal spying after the expansion phase got me into some trouble with the Sakkras and their Spores. I lost Laan over it. I returned to spying off and on during the game--whenever I was at war, or thinking of starting one, I'd turn on spying. Computers first whenever possible to up my chances of stealing next time. It also really helped that I stuck with Computers on my first run of that Tech up to RC4. It gave me a lead in computer tech level over the AIs that helped Espionage.
My final strategy was to try and keep from changing tech focus too often. I wanted to run with one field for several discoveries before switching. I also placed a pretty high value on picking techs that would advance the field, rather than getting multiple techs at the same level (though I did some of that, especially in Planetology).
I probably could have done better with the tech levels. For one, instead of going for AM Torps as my last project, which had just made %'s in 2500, I could have opted for a tour of all the skipped over low level techs for the last 5 years. With my RP level, I could probably have popped 1 low-level tech each turn, each worth +1 tech level.
I could have also gotten another major boost had I planned out my campaign vs. the Sakkra better. I figured I had to leave my Huge ships at Aquilae to defend it until it was stood up, but the Sakkra counter-attack was moving so slowly, I could have gone on to conquer 1 or 2 more worlds by 2500--and with the Sakkra factory controls, taking a developed world would almost certainly net 5 techs.
Overall, the 1 tech field at a time rule definitely slowed down research. I had the production lead for quite awhile, but didn't take the tech lead from the Sakkras until near the end of the game. Had this been at Impossible level, I don't know if I would have been able to win this easily, or maybe not at all.
Extended Play
For fun, I decided to play on past my diplo win. By 2525, I had conquered Altair for the big planet, and more than enough Sakkra worlds to take every tech they owned. They had up to Adv. Cloning in Plantology, boosting my level to 51. At the 2525 vote, I had over 2/3rd majority by myself, and could take the Conquest win.
Tech levels were 34,22,28,51,22,31 = 188/6 = 32.3
I've got the tech now to fit AM Bombs on viable small, fast bombers, so I could easily switch every planet over to bomber production and glass the galaxy in short order. So even if I opted for an extermination win, there wouldn't be any tech gains to speak of, besides perhaps stealing the last few bits of tech off the Darlocks.
Olorin
Diplo Win 2500
Avg Tech Level 22.3
The Beginning--Expansion Phase.
Like I imagine everyone else, I settled for UP Vulcan as first colony.
Lots of habitables within scouting range.
3 Key factors influence my early expansion.
1. I noticed that with the proper leapfrogging sequence, everything but the Terran to the SW could be reached by R4--IF I got the Stalaz with at least Barren.
2. Sakkra scouts were spotted to the West, the East had no activity, so I figured it West was the priority.
3. Stalaz was UR, so Barren colony would be a big priority.
The big decision was whether to open Planetology or Prop first, and I opted to look for Range, as it would at least open up the Eastern front.
I opened Prop with a few RPs from Vulcan and had a devilish choice between R4 or R5. I went for the cheaper R4 due to the leap-frogging situation, and desire to work on Planetology sooner to find a Colony tech.
At this point Vulcan can put out 15 RP of tech by itself. I have Sol take a turn off factory production to get Prop jump-started, then have Vulcan work on it using the investment returns.
2321--Sakkra visit the SW Terran, I might need to invest in some ships to keep them at bay. Sol is at 128 factories, and can build a Colony in 6y, so production is started. R4 is in %'s now, so I have Vulcan divert some effort to building partial factories.
2324--R4 pops. Ouch, R5 or IS? I probably won't be back to Prop for awhile now, but what if R5 turns out to be crucial? I go with IS (for ladder advancement later) and hope for the best. Time to open Planetology with 4 RP.
Yes! Barren is in the tree, and for only 250 RP. As before, Sol pumps out RP to jump-start the tech, then Vulcan takes over with investment funding.
2328--First Colony ship finally finished. Now the dilemma is whether to send it North or to the larger Esper which is in the back-line, but opens up the fertile 110. I opt for pushing the border north, and build a 6 pack of scouts for exploration.
Barren is already at 3%. If it pops before the next colship rolls off the line, I'll be able to colonize Stalaz next.
2333--Guradas is founded and Barren pops at the same time. Barren colship is 2 turns away. I decide to leave the research in Planet for IER, which is only 700 RP. This time, I only use Sol's spare production with Vulcan's to start the tech, but it's still 69 RP.
2335--Barren ship produced. I build up some fighters at Sol to send to Kronos when Stalaz is colonized to ward off possible Sakkra colonization attempts.
2337--UR Stalaz now colonized. Sol hit 100/146 this turn, so I send 15 from the Homeworld to Stalaz. I also send the 17 Fighters I built in the last two turns out to Kronos (now in range) where Sakkra scouts have been seen.
2339--Scouted Altair. Only 5 parsecs from Guradas, and only 4 from Centauri. I need to pump out some Colships to stop them from cutting me off in the East. I also saw a Darlock scout by a Rich Barren to the North, giving me a good guess as to the location of their homeworld (turns out I was wrong--thought they were further West, not on top of the Alkari).
2342--Next colship sent to Rha to counter Sakkra expansion. With an asteroid belt within 3 of Altair, and the planets on the other side looking over 3 parsecs out, I suspect the Alkaris are currently a 1PE--especially as GNN just listed them last in production.
2348--Rha founded. IER pops. IT+20 next, and I decide to stick with it. Can't think of a more useful tech right now that growing UR Stalaz by 50%. Contact with Sakkra is made. They have the 2 yellows in the corner, and Sssla is 5 parsecs from Rha, so they have R5. I make a note to have Stalaz pump out some more fighters to defend Rha and Kronos. Sol and Kronos jump-start the tech while the next colony is en-route to Esper. I'm not sure I want to colonize Poor Kronos right on the front-line with the Sakkra. They need R6 for the Terran, so if I can blockade Kronos, they'll need to wait for better range tech.
2351--Esper founded. We are first to 6 planets.
2352--Scout reaches Dead planet south of Sakkra, happen to encounter an unarmed Colony. Sakkra yell at us for it. New colship sent to Toranor, working on locking down the East.
2356--First event happens, plague on Sssla. Nice.
2359--Toranor founded. New colship to Centauri. Stalaz takes over Colship building and Sol to research. IT20 in %'s. Strange that the Sakkra haven't gone to the Minimal 4 parsecs N of Sssla. They are still a 2PE.
--IT20 pops. I opt for better cleanup next (Dead was tempting due to several potential colonies--but they were a stretch). I switch to Constr now. RW80 is up.
Part 2, Race Relations
2366--Alkaris and I both reach Centauri at the same time. But they brought 70+ fighters. I have to hope that I beat them to Kakata to open up Tau Cygni and Incedius. Vectoring in my garrison from Guradas, but 24 fighters aren't much.
2369--I'm first to Kakata.
2371--Sakkra finally cure their plague. I finally colonized Kronos, and have ships enroute to Laan and Maalor. Alkaris are 1 turn ahead of my 24 fighters with 19 fighters and a colony coming to Kakata. My fighters would probably lose to the Alkari bonuses anyway. I NAP them. Tau Cygni and Incedius are out of their current range if they don't conquer Kakata, and I've already got colships enroute--thanks to the wonderful UR Stalaz helping with the ship-building.
2373--Scratch that, the Alkaris aren't respecting the NAP. My 24 fighters lost to their 19 + armed colony ship.
Sakkra also bring Gatling colony to Kronos, and just managed to defeat my garrison. I should be okay there--I've got 90 fighters coming to counter (25 was almost enough).
For the Alkaris, I've got enough pop to deal with their transports, and replacements pop already on the way. Longer term, I design a Large with Battle Scanner, CPU1, Shield1, and 21 Lasers. I've got three being built, but it will be 12 turns before they arrive (hopefully with comp+scanner, they can actually hit the Alkari fighters).
2376--Survived Alkari Marines. Thankfully their troop base is Centauri, so the waves are small. Kronos orbit has been retaken, but half of Sssla is in transports. I don't have the pop to hold the colony, but I do have more on the way. Also, Sol got irradiated this turn, so I evacuated a big chunk of pop towards Kronos.
RW80 came in, Computers opened up with ECM1 as only option. I'll go 2-3 advances in comps to boost spying, then switch to weapons.
--Wow, didn't think 64 fighters could take down 44 out of 50 transports. Kronos is secure for now, but has too much pop on the way. Time to shift some pop toward Laan and Maalor.
2387--Brush wars have been doused. ECM2 popped, ISS next. Poor Denubius settled, opens up Barren Rich near map center, Colship sent. More worlds are maxing out, which should help get the tech out faster. Sakkra and Alkari still amiable. Upped trade agreements and traded the Sakkras FF2 for ECM2. Now I'll be in the 2nd tier when opening FF tech.
2398--ISS finally pops. I choose RC4 next. Tough decision whether to switch to weapons or wait for RC4. I decide to forge ahead for factories.
2402--Maalor is trying to go Nova. I steal DSS from Sakkra.
2406--Maalor saved. We now have nuke engines thanks to Birds.
--RC4 pops. Choose BC6 and switch to weps (Gatling lasers and anti-missile rockets are currently deadliest weapons in galaxy). I wait 1 turn before turning up refit to start tech. Shouldn't have bothered, Hand Lasers is sole choice. Even putting everyone but UP Vulcan on refit, 99% chance of hitting. Next up, Fusion Bomb.
Steal RC3 and PDS from Sakkra--they catch me, and then DOW next turn.
2415: Sakkras get serious about war and send a fleet to Laan. Crashing up bases and building Nuclear missile boats. Sakkras have death spores, otherwise bases would be almost immune to attack right now.
2419: Not enough firepower to stop the Spores. Laan is lost, but enough missile boats survived to nix the colony ships that arrived next turn. All border worlds are pumping out bases, and I'm working on large stacks of MBs. Fusion bombs pop and I go for Mass Drivers next.
2433--Sakkras ask for peace, but have transports coming to spored out Kronos. Alkaris have destroyed some ships, but H Lasers don't have enough punch to threaten bases. Mass Drivers pop, but no missiles in sight. I choose AM Bombs to advance the tree, but switch to untouched FF, choose PS5.
2434--Darlocks end our non-war.
2448--Alkaris finally give up on conquering Vulcan and end war. Repulsor beams pop, select FF6, but switch to Planet for clean-up tech.
2451--EER pops, I go for Soil Enrichment for pop growth (so many good choices--but the hostile planets have mostly been grabbed by Sakkra and Darlock).
2454--Soil pops, AER to move the tree
2463--AER pops, Toxic chosen. Most worlds finishing remax after Soil. Switch to Prop for some engines. IS at 8% on turn 1.
2465--IS pops, I go for R7 instead of sublights (I need better than R4)
2468--R7, go for Fusion drive
2471--Fusions, select R9, switch to Construction
2474--Auto Repair pops, II6 next.
I trade the Sakkras my Mass Driver for Scatter5s
Part 3--Diplomacy
Up until now, votes have featured me vs. the Darlocks. I have about 1/2 the vote, so now worries beyond angering the Darlocks by voting for myself.
2475--Another vote. This time Sakkras are in with 7, Darlocks are allied and add 7 to Sakkra. Alkaris abstain their 2 and I vote myself 14. Sakkras also have the tech lead. Time to prepare for some pointy stick research projects. I design an Auto-Repair Huge with Repulsor and start pre-build. I'd love to research an armor before building any.
If I could get the Darlocks on my side of a vote, this thing could be over. Of course, I've got to make sure I don't knock the Sakkra pop down too far, or it will be the Darlocks in the #2 spot.
2479--II6 pops. No luck on armor. I switch to FF6 instead as the Alkaris declare out of the blue again. They've added Fusion Bombs to their Lasers and Hand Lasers, but I think my repulsor ships will make it hard for them to deploy their bombs in the face of Scatter5 equipped bases.
2482--I meet the Alkari main fleet with 8 MB's and two Huge Repulsor ships (Auto-repair, shield 2, with scanner, some mass drivers, scatter5s, and fusion bombs). Alkaris only had a couple of larges with bombs, the rest can't touch the bases. They almost manage to take down one of my Huge ships with their Heavy Lasers, but AR gives me just enough time to whittle down their stacks.
2484--I use my 2 Repulsor ships to take the orbit over Centauri. Alkaris are going back to a 1PE. At least this way, I know that the Centauris will vote for me!
FF6 also popped, so I redesign the Repulsor ships. I choose FF7 to advance, but switch back to Planetology for a quick Toxic environment. Setting up for taking a Rich world or two from the Sakkras.
2486--Centauri is mine, along with FF3 and Sub-lights. Alkari now have no tech to steal. Last two turns I got all fields espionage from Sakkras--took ECM4 and IIT9 (I'm spying again because with them as the new #2, I am preparing for a war anyway).
2487--Toxic pops. I go for Antidote to counter the Sakkras Spores and Doom Virus. Their best missiles are nuclear and scatter5s, so my new Huge design with FF6 will be immune to their bases. They have up to FF5, so I may have some trouble taking down their bio-ships without fleet support.
2490--Steal Duralloy from Sakkra, blame Darlocks. I've got 10 years til next vote to try to swing Darlocks my way. Alkaris don't accept peace proposal. I break NAP with Sakkra. Dial up Darlocks. They agree to join a war against Lizards! Also get larger Trade Agreement and NAP. Will try for Alliance before the vote.
I send my 2 FF6 Huges to take Aquilae, and have border worlds build some Larges with Duralloy, FF6, and Mass Drivers.
2491--Take Aquilae orbit, and send transports. Antidote pops, I choose Doom Virus for the advance, and switch to AM Bombs as Weapons is level 14 vs. 20 for next lowest fields.
2492--Take Aquilae, find ECM3, RW60.
2495--Had another Steal from Sakkra, Radiated. AM Bombs popped. Omega Bomb or AM Torps. Go for Torps.
2499--Alkaris want ECM4 to make peace, sorry. Hot war with Sakkra isn't producing dividends with Darlock relations, mostly because I'm waiting for 3 incoming Sakkra fleet that are traveling with slow Colships. I tried bombing out one of their worlds, but need a dedicated bomber design to penetrate their shielding.
2500--Diplomatic Victory!
32 Votes total. Sakkra (8) + Alkari (1) vs. Darlock (7) + Me (16) = 23/32
Looking at the 2499 save, my tech levels are 23, 21, 25, 28, 20, 17. The total is 134. Average level of 22.3.
I did pull off espionage the final turn against the Sakkra, yielding Dead colonies, which would have added +1 to Planetolgy, for an average of 22.5.
Part 4--Commentary
I was able to waltz to a fairly easy diplo win in this game. Mainly because I was able to out-expand the AI's. The Alkari's I understood--they had no habitables within 3 parsecs, which always hurts. Then the Darlocks cut them off from above, and they only got Centauri before I close the door to the South.
The Sakkra were odd. They had range tech pretty early. They also forged ahead and got Toxic and Radiated pretty quickly. Yet they took forever to colonize even Whynil (4 parsecs, habitable). Sure, I scout blockaded on my border, and had some fighters too (though they never even sent Colony ships). That shouldn't have stopped them moving North, or picking up the Dead planet right next door once they got the tech. My only explanation is that the Plague event on their homeworld really knocked them for a loop. I even pulled my scouts off Whynil and the Dead planet after I scouted them because I didn't feel right trying for a total blockade.
I had Rha early, and then I took Kronos right at the time the Plague ended, followed shortly by Laan and Maalor. That didn't leave them much choice but to go through Whynil.
The Darlocks were almost a non-entity for me. They expanded slowly as they dealt with plenty of hostile environments at first. They had the most planets of the AIs, but the Sakkras superior terraforming and better base pops on their planets let them take over the pop lead. For me, the Darlocks were a trade partner, a block to my further expansion, and eventually the votes I needed to secure victory. We never fired a shot at each other.
As for the variant rule.
Probably the biggest decision point was whether to get Range or Barren first. I got both fairly quickly, I think my decision to have Sol devote a turn to starting out a new tech really helped (I kept up that philosophy for awhile--when I'd get a terraforming or RC tech, I'd tech for a turn before starting planets on the new terraforming or factories).
I also traded for a couple techs. One was FF2 because I knew it would then let me start FF in tier 2. The other was Scatter5s, which really solidified my defensive position. Though overall, the lack of any decent weaponry in the Galaxy for most of the game allowed me to focus on expansion and tech.
The other way I boosted my tech score was spying. My liberal spying after the expansion phase got me into some trouble with the Sakkras and their Spores. I lost Laan over it. I returned to spying off and on during the game--whenever I was at war, or thinking of starting one, I'd turn on spying. Computers first whenever possible to up my chances of stealing next time. It also really helped that I stuck with Computers on my first run of that Tech up to RC4. It gave me a lead in computer tech level over the AIs that helped Espionage.
My final strategy was to try and keep from changing tech focus too often. I wanted to run with one field for several discoveries before switching. I also placed a pretty high value on picking techs that would advance the field, rather than getting multiple techs at the same level (though I did some of that, especially in Planetology).
I probably could have done better with the tech levels. For one, instead of going for AM Torps as my last project, which had just made %'s in 2500, I could have opted for a tour of all the skipped over low level techs for the last 5 years. With my RP level, I could probably have popped 1 low-level tech each turn, each worth +1 tech level.
I could have also gotten another major boost had I planned out my campaign vs. the Sakkra better. I figured I had to leave my Huge ships at Aquilae to defend it until it was stood up, but the Sakkra counter-attack was moving so slowly, I could have gone on to conquer 1 or 2 more worlds by 2500--and with the Sakkra factory controls, taking a developed world would almost certainly net 5 techs.
Overall, the 1 tech field at a time rule definitely slowed down research. I had the production lead for quite awhile, but didn't take the tech lead from the Sakkras until near the end of the game. Had this been at Impossible level, I don't know if I would have been able to win this easily, or maybe not at all.
Extended Play
For fun, I decided to play on past my diplo win. By 2525, I had conquered Altair for the big planet, and more than enough Sakkra worlds to take every tech they owned. They had up to Adv. Cloning in Plantology, boosting my level to 51. At the 2525 vote, I had over 2/3rd majority by myself, and could take the Conquest win.
Tech levels were 34,22,28,51,22,31 = 188/6 = 32.3
I've got the tech now to fit AM Bombs on viable small, fast bombers, so I could easily switch every planet over to bomber production and glass the galaxy in short order. So even if I opted for an extermination win, there wouldn't be any tech gains to speak of, besides perhaps stealing the last few bits of tech off the Darlocks.
