OSG 26 - The Bearperor Returns

[Ianus]

Ha! I thought it was weird that 0.4% of our production was being spent on the Races screen, but I didn't see the tick on Espionage. I just didn't look closely enough. I can't wait to see what Ref can do. I expect the to be VERY busy on my next turnset!

[Psillycyber]

A back-of-the-imaginary-envelope calculation suggests that ~200 BC is only worth about a 2-turn delay in colonizing Gienah, even ignoring strategic considerations, so I'll probably just colonize it with the Dead ship already stationed nearby, depending on how the overall timing works out.

It's not Gienah that's awaiting the standard colony ship (already colonized and renamed to Tannenberg), it's Gion. It's a size 30 minimal world in the NE.

2) Take Cryslon. That's the special project I was talking about, that I don't think is actually possible yet, but mayyyyybe....

What do you think it'll take to capture Cryslon? I bet 3 huge bomber ships could do it. With 2 movement, they could close on the planet in 4 turns. With level 2 shields, they would take 2x3x30 damage per turn from nuke missiles and assuming 30 missile bases. That's 180 damage/turn. We'd lose one huge ship for sure. The second, debatable, depending on if we could kill off enough bases in time.

So we'd be looking at about 11,000 BC worth of production if we did it that way. That's about 8 turns of empire-wide production...although if it got us 3 or 4 techs and a maxed homeworld, it would be worth it.

Or...

I wonder...if we had better ship armor and/or sub-light drives, I'd be tempted to just throw 150+ transports at the planet, hope that at least half get through, and watch the fireworks. They can't be fielding anything better than nuke missiles, I'd imagine. That's, what, 4 damage, x 3 missile racks per launcher, x30 bases (estimate) = 360 damage per turn. Even with our current tech, it could be done. Figure 8 turns to get to the planet with our current engines, right? That's 2880 damage that our transports would receive. How many hit points do duralloy transports have? 50 (same as missile bases)? 100? If it is 50, then that's ~58 transports down. Half that if transports have double the hit points. +50% of that if Silicoids have Hyper-V rockets. Double that if the Silicoids have Hyper-X rockets....

If you figure that it takes 20 BC to regrow pop, then that 150 population amounts to 3000 BC. Much cheaper already. Plus, some of the pop regrowth would be "free" pop regrowth.

But, boy would it be slow gathering all the transports from all across the empire at warp-1 and synching them up to land on the same turn....

[RefSteel]

It's not Gienah that's awaiting the standard colony ship (already colonized and renamed to Tannenberg), it's Gion. It's a size 30 minimal world in the NE.

Yup, that's the one I meant; I just got the name wrong. It may not look like much now, but it'll be a solid little contributor to our empire in time, and starting it now will get it there that much sooner.

What do you think it'll take to capture Cryslon?

More than we can spare at the moment, sadly. The calculations you wrote out are broadly similar to my guesstimates, and I'm not planning to throw warp-1 titanium transports at a 30-base homeworld (I have no idea what the attrition rate would be or how many hitpoints they have or anything; I just assume it would be suicidal) and I'm not planning to build bombers that might end up even less efficient than that. If we can take Cryslon it'll be because of a circumstance we don't yet know about; I'll keep my eyes open for something but expect I'll have to just stick to tech.

[Ianus]

Do we yet know what Cryslon is packing? I think it would be worth sending a Nose 2 over to check things out. Also I reread Ref's report and i guess that of their second colony is Inferno then it has to be Cryslon, which actually works out perfectly as the rocks can then be caged in a singe little world and left to lithify without much danger.

[RefSteel]

Okay, GOT IT!

Now, having looked at the save: Using that Dead ship to colonize Gion will save only two turns, and will cost us a turn or two at Celtsi, so I'm going to use a standard base on Gion after all. I think I'll actually be running three colship designs for about four turns though: We can build LR Colships, and I want one for Whynil ASAP. I did mention claiming new worlds was my ~top priority, right?

Do we yet know what Cryslon is packing? I think it would be worth sending a Nose 2 over to check things out. Also I reread Ref's report and i guess that of their second colony is Inferno then it has to be Cryslon, which actually works out perfectly as the rocks can then be caged in a singe little world and left to lithify without much danger.

Yeah, I guessed Phyco was an inferno strictly based on the graphics on the combat screen (and I could be wrong; I just can't think of anything else that candy-striped planet could be). It's not a bad size for an inferno, but small enough to make a nice zoo as long as it's not rich or anything. As for Cryslon ... I mean, I was planning to send something down for a fly-by, but there's nothing they could really have short of "inexplicably only a dozen bases" or maybe "less population than Phyco" that would convince me to attack it with our current technology.

[Waterd]

I don´t know if i can comment since I´m not playing (and honestly i downloaded the first save and played a game on the map)
But I will say I don´t understand how you can be in a happy position, you people are spread thin, and have nearby an erratic psilon, which by itself its not dangerous, but they are allied with alkaris and sakkra.
Any turn, psilon go random war, sakkras and alkaris join behind and you are in a semi final war, with a thin spread empire, with no combat technology.....
Wait there is more, now you are at war with 4 guys, but you are second in pop, so as soon as election pops up, you lost.

I know everything looks fine, but erratic psilon allied wtih the 2 strongest races in your sight, its a thicking bomb in my eyes, and you are so calm about it!

[Ianus]

That is all true Waterd, but all is not lost! As with any good STRATEGY game there are counters to each of the dangers you mention. Psilons have alliances? Work to break them! We are spread thin? Expand, consolidate and fortify! We lack technology? Get some any way we can! Sure we are in danger, but what is life without a little spice? Besides we aren't spread THAT thin...
I will be interested to hear how your game went once ours is completed, even just a couple of sentences.

[vmxa]

Lurker:

That's the spirit.

[RefSteel]

I don´t know if i can comment since I´m not playing (and honestly i downloaded the first save and played a game on the map)

I hope it was a fun game! Also, thanks for refraining from making the kinds of comments that could contain spoilers.

But I will say I don´t understand how you can be in a happy position, you people are spread thin, and have nearby an erratic psilon

Can't speak for everyone else, but I'm happy about our position because we're spread thin and technologically backward with danger around every corner! Right now, the Alkari look like they're running away with the game, and Tachaon (as you mentioned) could make things really interesting for somebody in a hurry. I'm kind of looking forward to it.

In any case, we're doing what we can to catch up, we're confident in our abilities to outwit the AI, and if the dice fall in such a way that no amount of wit can save our Bulrathi, then hey, we'll lose the game, but it'll still have been a fun ride!

[RefSteel]

[EDIT: Report spoilered for length below. It's too late at night for me to condense it to a turn-by-turn what-I-did report, but if folks want to see that, I can also provide it. Sorry for coming in a few hours late! The save is attached.]

2370: Though cynics suggested that his popularity was boosted by the sheer luck of having a name resembling that of Bearperor Rref I, known throughout Bulrathi space as the patron of Korrarg Rrargree, the legendary Father of Planetology, in fact the sixth Bearperor of the Interstellar Era would be remembered not for the reasons he was elected - but for what he actually did. Finding an empire hungry for work, with limited factory infrastructure and skyrocketing unemployment rates, Bearperor Grrrref made a token effort almost as soon as he took office to appease his blue-collar constituents, via trade with Emperor Tyranid of the Sakkra people.



As Bulrathi engineers taught their cold-blooded counterparts the secrets of nuclear engine design, they received complete blueprints in exchange for a more efficient factory design that would - slightly - speed the construction of new factory cities ... so long as the Bearperor ordered any of the things built at all. Of course he did to an extent - both the rich third moon of Tannenberg 5 and the new mining colony at Fnarglo 4 even received major shipments of equipment from the imperial reserve to help the process along - but many other worlds saw their factory build orders quietly canceled in favor of supporting the Bearperor's research priorities, while nearly every Bulrathi on Keeta was put to work at the starbase assembling a new colony ship with enormous external fuel tanks to carry it far along the galactic rim. The new Bearperor did not entirely neglect defense - with Silicoid transports due at Primodius in short order, all the Honeybee II fighters that could possibly arrive in time were dispatched to help intercept them - but there was certainly some grumbling in military circles when he scrapped the old Nose destroyer for bureaucratic reasons associated with production of the new colony ship. With computer and weapon labs reporting breakthrough odds of just nine and ten percent, many in the empire were questioning their Bearperor's decisions already - especially when he canceled all new transports bound for Bjorno.

One of his advisors threw a fit (another merely threw 70 kilograms of industrial equipment across the room) and warned him, "Those were on their way to Fnarglo!"

"No, they weren't," the Bearperor answered. These are on their way to Fnarglo!" He waved his paw at the new wave of transports, built to carry no less than 35 million Bulrathi directly to the new star from Ursa.

His advisor sputtered. "But, but that's too many! Factories here will sit idle!"

"For a year or two," the Bearperor agreed, sanguinely. "Porridge is sending enough population to fill up Tannenberg as well when the terraforming project finishes there shortly."

"And what about Bjorno?"

"It'll send transports too when it has anybody to send," Grrrref answered with a grim smile. "We can back-fill it from Keeta or Porridge someplace eventually. Bjorno is secondary."

He still hadn't told all however: With a careful diplomatic dance earlier in the year, asking after exchange possibilities, he had confirmed that everyone else in the Bulrathi corner of space still lacked - and desired - the technology to colonize dead worlds.



When he had Tachaon on the line, Grrrref - trying hard not to laugh out loud at the Psilon's opinion that Controlled Dead Environment modules would be a fair exchange for their Gatling Lasers - had also asked if they would agree to suspend their alliance with the Alkari. Tachaon had said no ... but Tachaon was crazy, and perhaps the new Bearperor had planted a seed.

2371: Tachaon was explaining things to his thick-headed advisors - at least they seemed thick-headed to him; they never seemed to understand his perfectly lucid ravings. "As if I would cancel my alliance with the Alkari! Ha! The Alkari are our friends! They love us like their brothers! And they're pretty singing birdies! No matter what that stupid bear says, I'll never cancel my alliance with them!"

In slight confusion, one of his advisors asked, "You mean Bearperor Grrrref? But you haven't spoken since last year! Why are you still even talking about..."

"Never ever," Tachaon went on, oblivious. "Why they're such great friends, I'll bet they'll give us some more planets! They have plenty, and we still haven't made up for the two the Sakkra took away! Our buddies will give us lots of planets! I just know it! Ha! That'll show those Bulrathi! I'll go ask Redwing right away!"

"Um," said another advisor, hopelessly.

"Hey, Redwing, best buddy!" Tachaon fairly sang to the holodisplay. "You're totally giving us some of your planets, right?"

"What are you on about now?" Redwing asked wearily. "Why do you keep calling with these ridiculous ideas? Why would we do that?"

Tachaon beamed. "Because we're allies! We're allies and bestest friends!"

Redwing nodded, more wearily still. "Yes, we are, Tachaon, and that is why we are going to accept the status quo and not try any foolish..."

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!" Tachaon answered, vocalizing each exclamation mark separately. "You're mean! Okay, that's it! We're not friends anymore! I don't want to be your ally! Go away!"

And with that, the number of Alkari alliances dropped to zero - for the moment at least.

Bulrathi diplomats observed the change with interest, as ignorant of the reasons as everyone in the galaxy always is of Tachaon's reasons for doing anything, but the rest of the empire mostly carried on more or less as before, with a few million more bears leaving Porridge to reinforce Primodius after the upcoming battle there, and Bjorno beginning the process of depleting its recently-arrived population in favor of building up Fnarglo's as rapidly as possible. Researchers estimated the likelihood of an ECM or paw-laser breakthrough at 17 and 21 percent, but many pundits, recalling ghosts of the RPL, scoffed that the real chance was closer to the Silicoids' chance at Primodius: Essentially 0%.



2372: Apparently beating overall odds greater than ten to one against them to land two different technologies within the first two years of Grrrref's reign was not enough for the Bulrathi weapons technicians and computer scientists. Having done so, they felt the need to also introduce the kinds of new projects that would make any Bearperor's mouth water. That Grrref would start projects in robotics controls for Bulrathi factories and neutron pellet accelerators for their starfleet went without saying, with a major investment made in labs and support infrastructure for the latter immediately, but in case those options weren't good enough on their own, the science department put alternate projects for an advanced battle computer, new rockets, and high-yield fusion bombs on the table in case the Bulrathi should need any of them later. Bearperor Grrrref was awed. "If the science teams keep turning out results like this," he mused, "I may have a chance at that ridiculous goal I set myself at the start of my term after all!"

Down at Dunatis, meanwhile, some of the arriving colonists were putting on the play of A Winter's Tale as written by the Bear of Avon, William Shakesclaw, including the beloved scene in Bohemia which features the immortal stage direction "Exit, pursued by a bear." Inevitably, when the time came to name their new home star...



...Bohemia was reborn.

Celebrations ensued both on the planet's surface and in the capital of Ursa, but they turned out to be short-lived. Down at Primodius, though less than half the Silicoid transports got through the orbital fighter screen, they turned out to be the luckiest Silicoids in the known galaxy.



All ten batallions of invaders were killed, naturally, but they managed to take out almost equal numbers of Bulrathi as General Durfus Grrbler completely muffed the defense, panicking when he saw the ememy's personal deflector shields to the extent of ordering his troops abandon their entrenched defensive positions, cast aside their hand lasers, and charge head-long at the enemy to tear them apart with their bare paws. To be sure, the Bulrathi warriors were even up to this challenge, and in spite of the General, upon realizing his mistake, giving further conflicting orders that caused milling and confusion in the charging ranks, the ground troops did finally manage to tear all the Silicoids apart. With nine million Bulrathi dead because of the General's mistakes - more than twice the expected casualties - the Bearperor himself called down to Primodius to demote the bumbling officer.

The Orderly who received the holotransmission nodded soberly. "If you think his conduct was egregious enough to demote him post-humously, Mr. Commander-in-Chief, I will convey your decision."

This gave the Bearperor pause. "Then he died in combat?"

"Toward the end of the fighting, sir, yes sir," the Orderly responded, his face carefully expressionless. The Bearperor frowned. In spite of the General's lunatic orders, last Grrrref had heard, Durfus himself had never left his hardened command bunker. Eyes directly forward, not focused on the Bearperor, the Orderly went on, "Possibly a stray shot, sir."

Grrrref was nonplussed. "A stray shot from a Silicoid slug-thrower killed the General in command when the battle was already won?"

"No, sir, not a slug-thrower, sir." The Orderly stood stiff, at attention, still avoiding the eyes of his Commander-in-Chief. "Friendly fire, sir."

"Ah," the Bearperor answered. "Ah, I see, then. Carry on."

There were other military considerations as well, with the Sakkra Juggernaut and Colony Ship crossing Bulrathi space toward Gion and Celtsi, the former due to arrive at the same time as the new colony ship. Fortunately, Grrrref had a plan in place for dealing with both effectively. Unfortunately, it didn't matter: No plan he could have put in motion would have stopped the Alkari fleet, still out of sensor range, about to beat Sakkra and Bulrathi alike to Gion.



2373: Grrrref sighed and shook his head, watching his fighters retreat. "I suppose if I had kept the Nose out there, we could have seen what their ships were armed with, but we're going to have bigger problems than that if we need to fight any of those designs before they go obsolete. We certainly couldn't have stopped them here with the fleets I had to work with - and honestly, the birds should have had this planet ages ago; I'm surprised it took them this long!" The Bearperor knew of what he spoke: Five Sparrowhawks could take all ten Honeybee IIs in the region without help, and such reinforcements as could have been made available, with or without the nose, would have no chance against the three cruisers: A Wareagle supported by twin armed colony ships.

The starfleet's next battle went more smoothly: A single Bulrathi Scout managed to evade the slow-moving missiles of a Sakkra Hydra destroyer thanks to a lizard pilot so timid in the face of the unarmed Scout that he refused to fly close enough to actually hit his target, while his gunnery sergeant blithely kept launching missiles from beyond their maximum fuel range anyway. The Scout pilot was at first bewildered, but soon realized why the Hydra's crew had shown such apparent incompetence: It gave them a chance to retreat and return to Sakkra space instead of hanging around their remote outpost in the empty, desolate Hyboria asteroid field.

So, shaking his head at the reports from the frontiers and the miniscule chance that field mechanics engineers were reporting of a breakthrough in shield technology, Grrrref reluctantly ordered the basic colony ship en route to Gion scrapped for parts, as it no longer had a mission, was never likely to again, and might interfere with the upcoming conflict between the Sakkra and Alkari at that star. With another Silicoid Shark on its way to Primodius from Cryslon and a long-range Bulrathi colony ship just arriving at its Sanders waypoint en route to Whynil, at least the Bearperor had work to do to distract him from the mess that the Alkari border had become.



2374: While continuing his policy of focusing on research and colonization, Bearperor Grrrref also worked to modernize the Bulrathi starfleet and build up the factory bases of potentially-vulnerable border worlds. With the Whynil colony ship already en route, he even authorized 25 transports from Sanders up to the Hefalump colony, whence many colonists would be departing for Whynil before the transports were due to arrive behind them. Some of Grrrref's policies were certainly open to question, but with no serious challenger to the incumbent arising, there was little question that Grrrref would retain the office of Bearperor for a full two terms.

2375: Though he won the Bulrathi election handily as expected, Grrrref was much more relieved that he didn't have to face one for the rule of the galaxy. The Psilon and Alkari peoples had restored their alliance for reasons best known to Tachaon's closest advisor - his pet sea anemone - and though field mechanics engineers were more confident of a breakthrough than ever, more than doubling the 10% they had reported the year before ... in the end, they still weren't terribly confident.

2376: When the Shark arrived at Primodius, it was met by a single Scout, a handful of old Honeybee fighters, and sixteen of the later-model Honeybee IIs. The Bearperor had no intention of giving the Silicoids another chance to get lucky on the ground.



Of course the outcome of the battle was not in doubt. The old-model Honeybees all perished in defense of the world, but the newer fighters came through the battle completely unscathed and unimpressed. Bits and pieces of the Shark, most of them microscopic, the largest about the size of a Bulrathi pinky claw, joined the asteroid fields around Primodius, burned up in the Bulrathi world's atmosphere, or fell into the star as the victorious Bulrathi fleet soared through the planet's skies.

Not long thereafter, the Field Mechanics labs reported another victory as well: The successful development of Class 2 Deflector shields, with plans in train (the only ones available) to improve them to Class 3s.

It would be the last victory of Emperor Grrrref's time in office.



The galactic news report that ranked the Bulrathi second in population not only exposed the myth that Meklar votes would counter-balance the Alkari, but tore they myth into tiny shreds and rendered it down into sawdust. The Meklar were next-to-last in population, exceeding only the Silicoids. On the one hand, it meant there would be plenty of time before a galactic vote could be held; on the other hand, it meant the Bulrathi would have no meaningful support in their attempt to unseat the Alkari from their high perch. Grrrref's request that the Psilons break off their alliance with the birds was brushed off because, as Tachaon put it, "I only listen to proposals on alternate Tuesdays this week," and when the Mad Psilon dropped both of his alliances on his own initiative the following year, his decision was concurrent with the Sakkra renewing theirs with the birdies.

There were exceptions to all the bad news: The Bulrathi not only colonized Whynil 3 but immediately sent a huge raft of transports over from Hefalump as Sector Governor Smokey, always concerned about the environment, noticing that the colony had whole oceans of water at its disposal, trumpeted the many ways that it "can prevent forest fires!"



In tribute to him, the colonists had named their colony Onlyou.

By then however, the Bulrathi Scout at Celtsi had been chased away by a Sakkra colonyship armed with both missile pods and beams - and two Silicoid colony ships were bound for Primodius from Phyco. Grrrref's conversations with his advisors suggest that he considered sending a more robust fleet to meet them - but never did, reluctant to build fighters that were about to go out of date just to prevent possibly-armed colony ships from possibly taking orbit and allowing inept Silicoid ground troops to possibly invade. What he didn't know was that the colony ships would indeed be armed with banks of several ion cannons each. When they arrived in 2379, they burned nearly half of the Bulrathi fighter defense force in the system, forcing the rest to retreat. Firing on the planet's surface, they destroyed a total of ten factories and two million Bulrathi over the last two years of Grrrref's administration, with two more colony ships of the same design and an unknown number of transports inbound from Phyco. Still insisting that his ground troops would take care of any problem that arose, not wanting to send a starfleet until he could design one that wouldn't immediately go obsolete, Grrrref left the Primodians to their fate, focusing mostly on research and exploration.



The research part didn't go so well - though perhaps about as well as it could have, given the circumstances in which the Grrrref administration began. By 2380, Bulrathi scientists were reporting chances of breakthroughs in three new technologies and steady progress on two more ... but the actual breakthroughs would have to wait for the next Bearperor's administration.

Exploration was another story altogether. In addition to distant toxic and radiated ultra-rich worlds, the Bearperor learned that Meklon lay at the yellow star on the far side of the galaxy, beyond the Sakkra core, without ever encountering a Meklar planet or fleet, and in addition to toxic and radiated worlds even richer in mineral resources than Tannenberg and Fnarglo, discovered - in 2380, just as his reign was ending - the Ursa-like world of Aquilae 4, already in range for a colony ship with reserve fuel tanks, and due to come in range of any colony ship at all with the next propulsion breakthrough, at the yellow star along the galactic rim, out beyond Onlyou.



There were great possibilities for the future, but enormous dangers as well - both immediate and potential - and Bearperor Grrrref envied the next Bearperor-elect who would get to play them out ... while Grrrref himself received a send-off in the press roughly equivalent to being run out of town on a rail.

[EDIT 2: Dry, detailed report added in spoilers (for length again) below.

Looking at the save: Our empire is still so under-developed and our research on current projects still lagging far enough behind that my reach goals for the turn set aren't really even on the cards. By a similar token, I keep espionage down to a click or two (sometimes even none to squeeze the last drop of production out of the empire) in favor of other priorities. Obviously I was being over-optimistic there. So let's have at this!

2370: Trade nuclear engines to Sakkra for II9. Psilons won't cancel their bird alliance and want Dead for Gats, Birds want Dead or IER for DSS, both can jump in a creek. Feed reserves to the rich worlds. Cancel new transports to Bjorno, and instead send 35 directly from Ursa to Fnarglo. Scrap the Nose 1.0 in favor of a new LR colony design, to be built at Keeta and rerouted to Sanders. Set Hefalump to finish terraforming. Set Sanders, Dither, Griswold, and Porridge to maximize research. Porridge sends 9 transports to Tannenberg, which I set to complete its terraforming as the 'sports arrive. Adjust tech a bit to seed planetology a little more. (Still not enough.) Computers and weapons at 9 & 10%. Dispatch 5 more Honeybee IIs to Primodius from Porridge to help intercept transports.

2371: Porridge sends 12M to reinforce Primodius. Bjorno sends 8M to Fnarglo. Alkari now have no Alliances! Dispatch Honeybee IIs from Porridge to replace Honeybee 1s and Scouts in the southeast since they can't get to Primodius in time to stop the transports. ECM at 21%. Hand Lasers at 17%.

2372: Both techs hit! RC3 and NPG are both in our tree, and now selected! (BC3, Hyper-X, and Fusion Bombs are available as well). Dunatis colonized and renamed Bohemia, for the scene in Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale" that features the wonderful stage direction, "Exit, pursued by a bear." Silicoids land 10 of 22 transports on Primodius, get incredibly lucky, and take 9 bears with them, leaving 11 of us. New colships complete. Reserves sent to get Bohemia started. Bjorno sends another 4M to Fnarglo. Keeta backfills 35M to Bjorno. Porridge sends another 10M to Primodius. A Sakkra Juggernaut and Colony Ship appear to be headed for Gion and Celtsi, respectively. I devise a plan for dealing with them, then dispatch some more of the southwest Honeybee IIs to take over sentry duties.

2373: Unfortunately, I have no plan for dealing with the Alkari cruiser, backed by 5 Sparrowhawks and two armed Colony Ships, that just arrived at Gion. The Wareagle cruiser is carrying a few missiles, but my ten little Honeybee IIs don't stick around to find out any other details. Now-pointless colship scrapped en route to Gion, replaced by the Cubscout 2, now in production in small numbers around the edges of the empire. Meanwhile, at another star we were trying to scout, a Sakkra Hydra destroyer launches 5 missiles (from out of range!) and retreats from ... the Hyboria asteroid field. Long-range colony ship dispatched to Whynil. Bjorno sends another 3M to Fnarglo, while Keeta sends 22M to Bohemia. Another Shark is inbound to Primodius from Cryslon; such fighters as can arrive in time move to intercept. Forcefields at 1%.

2374: Sanders sends 25M to Hefalump to arrive after the colonization of Whynil. Bjorno sends 1M to Fnarglo (the most it can send right now). Main Silicoid Sector Fleet sent back to Primodius. Force Fields research is at 10%.

2375: Psilons are allied to Alkari again. Another 1M sent from Bjorno to Fnarglo. Force Fields up to 21%.

2376: Silis attack Primodius. We lose all five of our Honeybee 1s, but none of the IIs, and destroy the Shark. Then Class 2 Deflectors hits! Class 3 is the only option. And then GNN reports: If the Council forms, we'll be nominated. Alkari > Bulrathi > Sakkra > Psilon > Meklar > Silicoid probably means the Meks are running about a 2PE, so we have a little while before there'll be a Council Vote, but when there is ... well, let's hope the birds don't have too many allies. I ask the Psilons to break their current alliance, but they refuse; they still only want to trade Gats for Dead, which I refuse. 25M to Porridge from Keeta, backfilling 6M sent to top off Primodius. Bjorno sends 1M to Fnarglo one last time.

2377: Sakkra colship arrives at Celtsi. It's armed with missiles, which I dodge, but it turns out to have beams as well, so my scout retreats. No colony is present after we retreat though, so apparently the lizards don't have Tundra tech. In better news, we colonize Whynil, and Smokey the Bear names it Onlyou (can prevent forest fires) thanks to its vast oceans of, y'know, water. We also scout Xudax, a tiny inferno at the map's easternmost red star. Meanwhile, Tachaon has dropped both of his alliances, but the lizards and birds have allied once again. All perfectly logical, I'm sure. Two Silicoid colships are headed for Primodius now. Hefalump sends half its population to Onlyou to get it started. Cubscouts fan out from Onlyou.

2378: We explore Rotan, a toxic 35 west of the Silis, and get a spy report on the Alkari, switching espionage to the rocks.

2379: Coids attack Primodius with two armed colships. They carry muliple Ion Cannons each and force our remnant of 9 fighters to retreat. We explore Tyr, an ultra-rich Toxic 25, at the neutron star southwest of the galactic center. The Coid colships bomb Primodius, killing 1M and 5 facs, plus 6M on transports in space that were trying to land. They're also sending yet another colship there. I deal with this troubling situation by basically ignoring them. Construction is at 8%.

2380: Aquilae discovered at the far northwest yellow star: Terran 100! Rana discovered at the blue star just southeast of that: U-R Radiated 30! Incedius discovered at the red star just southeast of that: ... Inferno 15. So they can't all be gems. Primodius gets bombed some more. GNN reports that the Meklar are out-teching the Psilons, but otherwise everything's about as you expect. (We're last, just behind the Silicoids, and the Alkari easily beat out the Sakkra for first.) Yet another colship and probably 20-something transports (the colship is cleverly masking their numbers) are bound to Primodius from Phyco. And I hand over the turn!

(The next morning, I realize, upon reading comments by my teammates, that though I took a screenshot of the Alkari spy report and totally meant to include it in my report, I forgot to actually do so.) (Er, sorry.)

Roster:
Ianus - Now Playing!
Psillycyber - On Deck!
RefSteel - Just Played
Thrawn - Still Hibernating ... for now!]

Notes:
- 2 Silicoid colships armed with several ion cannons each (basic, not heavy) are orbiting Primodius. Two more such colships (one due next year, one the year after) are en route, along with probably twenty-odd transports (also due in 2). I didn't handle Primodius well: I should either have taken its defense more seriously or refrained from building factories there (since they're highly vulnerable to orbital bombardment) or both; sorry about that.
- We have 9 retreating Honeybee II fighters due to arrive at Porridge next year. If we use this kind of fighter for the purpose, we'll need about ten times this many to take out all four colships. That's one of the reasons I didn't bother building an adequate defense for Primodius.
- We just discovered Aquilae, a terran 100 6 parsecs from our nearest colony and nowhere near any other race in the galaxy!
- When Range 6 hits (now in the percentages) we'll be able to colonize Denubius and Celtsi too (there's a dead colship already waiting at Griswold)!
- 27 of our transports will reach Onlyou in two turns. I didn't leave any others in space.
- Several of our worlds are currently building research in spite of having "unemployed" population (i.e. more than half the number of factories on the world). I did this intentionally (only this turn and in just a couple of cases last turn too) to maximize use of our research investment, but you may wish to change it (certainly they should get to work on factories again when they have the opportunity!) so I figured I should let you know!
- I didn't accomplish either of my stretch goals or really even get close, but I kind of knew it wouldn't be possible as soon as I looked at the save. Still had fun building up the empire though!
- Good luck! I can't wait to see what the empire looks like when I see it again!