OSG-27: Lumbering Rocks

[RefSteel]

Forgot a few additional notes last night:

- There's another defenseless Psilon world that we've explored in the north: Volantis. Not that you need to do anything about this; just letting you know.

- There's an Alkari fleet incoming to our core world of Centauri. Yes, that Centauri. Yes, it's a core world again. The birds are coming through the nebula and are slow, so it should have time to get a shield and base up. The Alkari ships are all carrying junk weapons like Hyper-V and lasers, though they're heavily shielded and of course hard to hit.

- We have ten fighters that just arrived at the asteroid field toward the galactic center because after they fended off a couple of lesser Centauri attacks that was as close as they could get to the front by the hand-over turn.

- I believe one of the Rock'n'Rolls is going to reach Drakka next turn, so you'll be able to redeploy it too. (It was forced to retreat because of two independent mistakes I made, and I never redirect retreating ships.)

Report should be posted later today, internet permitting.

[EDIT: Excessively long report added in spoilers here to preserve chronological order in the thread!]

2410: There was a grumbling in the empire: The term of the great Thrawn had ended, and the successor chosen by the Mountain King - far from the young, energetic, warlike leader of Cryslon's dreams - was an old, slow Silicoid pile of gravel and skree. It started its term by grumbling about dangers that would probably never even materialize, designing bitty little ships - little more than pebbles - to meet threats that, while possible, could well turn out to be mere belches of vapor from a rumbling volcano's cone, just as the Silicoid people hoped. Its tired old comments about "safe than sorry" rolled through deaf lithoresonance organs, and the grumbling of the people continued. The gravel heap spent what felt like ages waffling between alternate plans for the empire, and when it was finally ready to make its first serious move, half the Silicoids were expecting it to be just another unimportant murmur.

Then they saw the outcome. The old gravel pile believed strongly in something called "freedom of information" - and it had been talking to the other leaders in the galaxy.

It started slowly: The Sakkra were willing to provide Ion Rifles to Silicoid marines heading into Human - and soon hopefully Psilon - space in exchange for Urridium fuel that would let them explore more of the galaxy. They doubled the effectiveness of Silicoid ECM jammers, helping to protect missile bases and espionage agents alike, for a similarly small improvement to their industrial technology, speeding the construction of their future factories. They even exchanged pointless curiosities - a way to nest outmoded lasers together in a gatling array for dotomite fuel cells already rendered obsolete by Urridium - just for the benefits in miniaturization that would arise from each. But then they mentioned their Alkari allies, and it turned out that bird-brained Alkari scientists were interested in anti-missile rockets, gladly offering their much-older Hyper-V rockets in exchange, perhaps unaware that those rockets would double the effectiveness of Silicoid defensive bases against the known Human fleets and offer hope of their missiles accomplishing anything at all against the more-advanced shielding available around the galaxy. But then the Alkari made a frustrated comment about the power of Psilon technology - and the Silicoid people were not at war with the Psilons; not yet at least.



Zygot liked the idea of repulsor beams; he imagined a day in the distant future when he would deploy them on a grand starfleet that would keep all his enemies at bay. The gravel pile wasn't worried about the distant future; the gravel pile wanted better tools for its cyber-espionage agents and more-efficient ways for its slow-growing people to operate their countless production centers. With Psilon scientists helping them to refit their robotic controls, it would be able to change its colonial policies across the entire empire, preparing for the future instead of struggling to run idle factories. And with Zygot 's longing to explore the deepest reaches of the galaxy - in spite of lacking the engine technology to do so at any significant speed - the gravel pile was able to make arrangements for Silicoid engineers to receive blueprints for Class V deflector arrays in exchange for the formula for their most advanced Reajax fuel cells, throwing in an exchange of older blueprints - outdated Psilon battle computers for suddenly-outdated Silicoid shields - for miniaturization purposes ... and to help Silicoid cyber-agents yet a little bit more with their spying.

In spite of the Psilons' status as "next enemy to be," the gravel pile felt justified, but had to think a long moment before agreeing to the Meklars' offered deal: A Mark-VI battle computer would represent an enormous advance the Silicoid state of the art of computer technology, even approaching Meklar levels of effectiveness in the field, but the only reason it was on the table was the robotic controls just acquired from the Psilons: With only four planets, INT-986 coveted the means of improving them greedily. After a long pause, the gravel pile finally agreed: "Either sharing these controls with them won't make a difference to the fate of the galaxy," it rumbled to itself, "or this will help our robot friends to actually challenge our empire somewhere down the line." Capriciously, it added, "I like it either way!"

The flood of new technology enabled a massive change in Silicoid imperial practice. The Psilon robotic controls alone meant that factory-cities throughout the empire - most notably Quayal, whose exceptionally limited resources had been committed at various times over the past century to the production of over a hundred hugely expensive factories - were fully operational again in spite of the recent outpouring of Silicoid population in the form of combat troops.



Only a few Silicoid worlds - certainly not including Quayal - would be directed to expand their factory base in light of the new technology; instead, the gravel heap took advantage of the suddenly-improved situation to fund scientists working toward further breakthroughs in propulsion and planetology, and to begin construction of its prized Lithium-ion fighter fleets. Within a few years, further secrets would come to light that would suggest that some of those efforts might have been mis-spent, but with no way of knowing the future, the gravel-heap was doing the best it could with the information at hand.

In the end, in spite of rumblings to the contrary, the gravel heap followed the great Thrawn's immediate outgoing tactical reccomendations with only three exceptions: Bootis would not send any transports to participate in the attack at Phyco; the millions departing Ukko to make room for millions more about to arrive at their world would travel to Laan instead of making an early - and, the gravel heap felt, premature - suicide assault on Phyco; and the Rock'N'Roll from Drakka would stop at Psilon Tau Cygni on the way to Mentar.

Only three unless you count the ion fighters, of course. The gravel heap seemed obsessed with its little Lithium 3.0s.

2411: At Phyco, the Human Warship and Escort retreated just as Thrawn had predicted, as the Humans had failed to build any further ships there for the planet's own defense. The gravel heap grumbled that they were only concentrating the Human fleet, but some observers reported a note of pleasure in the grumbling: A new excuse for those Lithium-ion ships! Claiming that it did so "In hopes of driving home the lessons about holding their ground and building defensive fleets," but incidentally also following a battle plan laid out by Thrawn, the gravel pile then proceeded to order Phyco bombed from orbit mercilessly.



It would be the only Silicoid victory of the year. At one of the few remaining stars in the galaxy they had yet to explore, their Seismometer and two thirds of their scouting fleet were repelled by a single Human Escort cruiser, leading the gravel heap to reluctantly order the Seismometer recycled for scrap in spite of its claim to the best starship name in Silicoid history - while at radiated Imra, where no work had even yet begun on a planetary shield, Human saboteurs destroyed the only missile base on the planet's surface. This would have been cause for greater concern were there even the slightest danger that the Humans or anyone else might attempt to invade the world in the near future, but as it happened the gravel heap could only marvel at its intelligence agents' incompetence in reporting the saboteurs as of "unknown" race when it should have been perfectly obvious to even a three-century-old child who the culprit must have been.

The old gravel heap responded by ordering a first wave of transports to Sol, the Human home system near the heart of the galaxy ... while continuing its policy off funding Impulse Drive research instead of addressing more-pressing priorities. Just one year into office, the grumpy old pile of pebbles and skree had begun to grow complacent. In fairness to it, the events of the following year seemed to justify a certain amount of complacency.

2412: While a Rock'N'Roll bomber at Tau Cygni encountered no resistance to speak of - the great Thrawn had been correct, and the gravel heap had very possibly been confused by its dreams about an ancient state of the galaxy it called "old 1.3" - another arriving at Willow met with more than two dozen missile bases and a significant little Psilon fleet.



Had the Psilons known how to build any actual space combat weapons - or even had their cruisers been armed with mass drivers, the one beam the Psilons had learned to build that at least could pretend to deserve the name - they could have posed a very real threat to one slow-moving, unsupported Rock'N'Roll, which had so little in the way of space weapons itself, it might as well not have bothered with anything but its bombs after all. Sadly for the Psilons though, this was not the case, and the planet's entire defensive fleet, incapable as their bases of so much as scratching the Rock'N'Roll's paint, went into full retreat.

The Humans meanwhile, taking a cue from the Psilon ship design teams, elected to try to defend Phyco with a brand-new fleet of anti-matter bombers. This worked about as well as could be expected, and most of the colony they were meant to protect was shortly blasted to smithereens, leaving barely more than forty million survivors trying to pick up the pieces. The Silicoid fleet meanwhile would be deployed to watch over Tau Cygni and Willow with transports dispatched toward each, while starting to move in on Mentar - the first serious mistake of the gravel heap's reign, though one for which blind luck would later ensure it didn't have to pay - and, in the case of a single cruiser just arriving at Cryslon from Artemis, to embark on a top-secret mission known only as "Project Lazarus."

At Paranar, meanwhile, starship factories were operating at full capacity to get another fleet of Lithium Ion fighters into space, with orders to relocate to Laan immediately. Laan did have a few missile bases, but the Humans were using death spores - and they had sent nearly their entire fleet!



The gravel pile observed this, and took appropriate action for the momentary situation, but failed to recognize the long-term consequences it would face - in spite of having grumbled about it endlessly just two years previously! Perhaps it was distracted by other strategic considerations, like the state of Meklar technology. The only race in the galaxy with computer networks that could rival the Silicoids' own, and the sole possessors of defensive missiles that were even remotely scary, the machine-beings had also lately devised the gravel-pile's most coveted form of propulsion technology.



Impulse drives would allow Meklar transports to move twice as fast as the rocks', and - to the extent it was fitted on their ships - allow robot fleets to move nearly twice as fast as anyone else's as well. Even a single extra point of maneuverability in combat could be of enormous value for the survivability of a fleet as well, and the Meklar were well-positioned to build by far the swiftest-fighting starships in the galaxy. It was fortunate for the rock-lords that their people and INT-986's remained at peace.

2413: None of the ships in the Humans' local war fleet were capable of penetrating Laan's shields with conventional weapons - but there was nothing conventional about the Escort's pods of death spores, and with the bases still firing mere Hyper-V rockets, they couldn't have stopped the swift-moving, heavily-armored, nimble Escort cruiser before it unloaded its deadly payload and killed millions on the surface.



Fortunately, the Lithium Ions could. A qurater of their fleet was lost to fire from the Warships before they could retreat - forcing the Humans to do the same - but not a single spore would fall upon Laan's arid surface, and all the surviving Lithium fighters would be ready to join in the next stage of the war, where they would be critically needed - and wasted utterly.

Meanwhile, up at Willow, the Psilons continued to demonstrate that nothing in their starfleet was adequate to threaten a Silicoid dreadnought.

[IMG]href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-krLEwbywp70/WhUG537Rd0I/AAAAAAAADmc/fCjwqgu6J7QaVsQXVq6NOcnCkIKaphyoACLcBGAs/s1600/2413f.jpg[/IMG]

Three different bomber design - a fast-moving cruiser with spores and two varieties of slow destroyers - were supported only by little Comet nuclear missile boats, their weaponry more than a century old. The Psilons naturally retreated, and as for the Humans over Phyco, they hadn't even bothered to build another ship. Only one of the Lava Mixers had stayed behind to watch over its skies, but one was enough, and after it bombed away two thirds of the colony's surviving population, the arrival of Silicoid transports meant the end for the human colony on a world the Silicoids had coveted for most of a century.



Phyco's fourteen million humans managed to kill only eight batallions of the better-equipped Silicoid invaders that outnumbered them five and a half to one. The invasion was not so much a rout as a casual stop-over for most of the arrivals on the way to their next target ... and their doom.

It might of course be expected that a war this ruthless would have serious diplomatic repurcussions - particularly with the Psilons, who in spite of losing all their Willow bases the year before to Silicoid attack were still not officially in a state of war with the rocks. Indeed, the very first thing the old gravel heap saw following the conquest of Phyco was Zygot 's face on its holotransmitter...



...complimenting it on its victory. "Ooooh, good job bombing humans!" the brainy Psilon wanted to say. "Do more of that, since we're both at war with them, okay?" Perhaps he had forgotten that the whole reason for his war with Humankind - and perhaps by extension, every other non-Silicoid race in the galaxy - was the Silicoids' request many years in the past that he join in their Human war. Perhaps he imagined that supportive words would persuade the rock pile to forego its planned attacks on Psilon worlds, and wanted to encourage sending Silicoid war fleets after the Humans instead. Perhaps he had a very short memory, and had forgotten the loss of his bases in light of his gleeful opportunity of watching Humans dying. Or perhaps Zygot , like so many other biological lifeforms, was merely an absolute loon.

The gravel heap didn't waste much thought on the matter; it was too busy utterly failing to build more fighters for Laan out of Paranar, in spite of its own stated policy of building lots and lots and lots of the valuable little things, while it marveled at one of its pet projects that it was executing successfully: With the arrival of the top-secret cruiser it had commissioned, Project Lazarus was officially underway.



The great Thrawn rarely made mistakes, but had undoubtedly made one: Underestimating the bile and hatefulness of the Human leaders, he had evacuated Centauri ahead of what he took to be their conquest fleet, only to see the last remnants of the colony's population, together with its colony landing beacons, blasted to dust from space, with no invasion launched, and no new colony established in its place. This would prove a source of frustration for the Great Conqueror, who had hoped to counter-invade and recapture the world shortly. Not wishing to commit resources to long-term projects like factory reconstruction, Thrawn had left the corpse of the Centauri colony as it lay, always finding higher priorities than recolonization, never realizing that - though they could take out the minimal remnants of the post-evacuation Centauri population, leaving no one to rebuild the colony beacons from the surface, the Human fleets lacked the firepower to actually destroy many of Centauri's hardened factories. For years, those factories would remain untouched on the surface, collecting dust, awaiting workers who never came ... until a colony ship out of Artemis, by way of Cryslon, landed at last to rebuild the beacons and rebuild the colony.

The gravel heap was so pleased with this coup, it utterly failed to notice its catastrophic errors on the actual battle front.

2414: The arrival of both Rock'N'Rolls simultaneously at Mentar - when the gravel pile had originally intended to delay sending even one until it knew whether the local nebula was close enough to the system to affect the dreanaughts' shields - could have been a complete fiasco, but for the moment, the luck of the gravel pile held. Mentar wan't quite close enough to experience nebula interference; the shields held, and the planetary bases fell. The Silicoids would not bomb the planet - nor any other Psilon world - thanks to the gravel heap's orders to preserve as much Psilon infrastructure and technology as possible intact ... but the Silicoid fleet was not only above Psilon worlds.



Human infrastructure and technology were of precious little interest to the gravel heap in comparison with Silicoid lives, and the vast majority of Sol's remaining population - along with most of its surviving factories - was blown to bits by the Lithium fighters and Lava Mixer battleship in orbit before - in another fatal error, like its failure to order more Lithium fighters built from Paranar the year before - it sent the Lava Mixer on, prematurely, toward Alkari space, with the other Lava Mixer arriving behind it, to replace the ship it should have reinforced.

Perhaps it was distracted by diplomatic shenanigans: Although its policy of continuing to bomb Human worlds may still have met with Psilon approval, the destruction of all 44 of Mentar's missile bases had seriously changed Zygot 's tune.



Visibly upset by the Silicoids' willingness to tear his empire apart as well as his enemies', the Psilon emperor somehow still couldn't see the writing on the war, stopping short of declaring war or even breaking contact while the gravel heap filed his complaint in the nearest active volcanic vent. Strader would turned up immediately thereafter, begging for peace, and had his request duly filed in the same location as Zygot 's complaint.

Diplomatic non-events such as these could hardly have provided a serious distraction, but the gravel heap - who was not only capable of reading the writing on the wall, but a co-author of that very writing - elected to launch a diplomatic offensive of its own just in advance of its planned invasion at Sol. It arranged for Silicoid engineers to learn outdated shield technology from their Alkari counterparts in exchange for secret Death Spore designs to which the entire Silicoid empire would shortly be immune, and equally-outdated industrial technology from the Psilons in exchange for anti-missile rockets, gaining just a little extra miniaturization for its fleets. And then it asked after Meklar inventions, and was astonished to learn what they had available for trade!



Meklar Scatter Pack rockets, though by no means the most advanced weapon system, were by far the most powerful missiles in the galaxy, and with them, Silicoid missile bases would finally have teeth. The improvement in Meklar industrial technology that Silicoid engineers provided in exchange seemed to the gravel pile a very small price to pay. The distraction provided by all this trading though may have been a heavy price indeed.

2415: The gravel heap was aware of the danger posed by the Human fleet; it had speculated during the first year of its reign about the risk that nothing in its own starfleet could stop the ships then at Sol from taking the skies over Phyco and shooting down transports en masse. Yet with five years of easy success around the galaxy, it seemed to have forgotten its own warnings, leaving a barely-adequate force in the Sol system when that same fleet, barely diminished in the battle at Laan - two Warships and fifteen Dreadnought cruisers, supported by a colony ship - completed its retreat and returned to Sol just ahead of dozens of Silicoid transports.



Thanks to a cloud of nearly 200 Lithium-ion fighters, the battle was probably winnable anyway - but victory would require a well-executed tactical plan, and the local Silicoid admiral was sloppy. Instead of focusing on the Warships to take at least one down before the Lithium 3s could be destroyed, it concentrated mainly on the dreadnoughts which, though more dangerous to the Lithiums collectively, were much less of a threat in the battle than the Warships. Between this mistake and its subsequent failure to control the battle effectively with the Lava Mixer's autorepair and repulsor beam, the admiral failed to destroy a single Warship, taking out only about half the Dreadnought cruisers instead, and with the twin Warships' heavy ion fire easily outpacing autorepair systems that could have handled just one easily, the Lava Mixer had no time to wear down the Human fleet with its paired heavy blast cannons before its hull threatened to go critical and it was force to retreat. Though all the minor skirmishers in Psilon space were successful, that single battle's outcome for the Silicoids was devastating.



Had a second Lava Mixer still been present in the system, perhaps - especially with the small additional firepower it could bring to bear early on - the Human admiral would have been frightened into retreat. Certainly a few dozen more Lithium-ion fighters would have made a tremendous difference in the outcome of the fight. But with victory within the Humans' grasp thanks to a series of grim mistakes, their fleet held to the last, protecting their homeworld, firing on helpless Silicoid transports and killing millions upon millions of the rock people who arrived in the course of the year. The failure of the Sol invasion would cost the Silicoids trillions of credits, to say nothing of all the irreplaceable lives of their people who died in space, and would delay the effective invasion of Willow considerably - but it preserved Humankind as a species.

Temporarily.

2416: The year that followed the fiasco was a quiet one by comparison, as the Human fleet set out from Sol in a spiteful attempt to attack defenseless Mentar before they all were slain, and the Silicoids spewed comforting lava over their wounds and government propoganda focused away from the front itself and onto the development of new technology.



The long-awaited antidote to death spores was almost at hand, and the gravel heap insisted on continuing the push it had been making throughout its reign toward the swiftest engines ever discovered - thus far only by the Meklar - by anyone in the galaxy. In spite of the three-layered tactical failure at Sol, the war was progressing well for the Silicoids, and it might have gone even better had the gravel heap found something more intelligent to do with the Rock'N'Roll that had just scouted the Psilon world of Volantis than send it down to Mentar again, where the arrival of the Human fleet two years later would force it to uselessly retreat.

2417: In the same year the Lava Mixer that left Sol a year too soon dismantled the missile bases at the Alkari artifacts world of Berel, the first and questionable fruits were borne by the gravel heap's personal vanity project known as "Roughly a trillion credits wastedspent from Drakka on ships not called Lithium 3s."



It was not, one must admit, a very catchy name. Nordia had the potential to be a jewel of a world, and the gravel heap did what it could in spite of an already-visible incoming Sakkra cruiser to ensure that the place would eventually live up to the dream, but the likelihood that the colony would ever live up to the opportunity cost of building it so far from the Silicoid core was probably negligible even when the long-range colony ship needed to claim it was built. The best that could be said in its defense is unfortunately that the second prong of the same vanity project was even worse.

In the meantime, the Lava Mixer's orbital bombardment of the Berel colony helped the Alkari to see the writing on the wall far better than Zygot did.



Just the same, the Alkari war declaration merely confirmed what by then was the de-facto reality.

2418: In addition to trivial and predictable military success - and the Rock'N'Roll forced to retreat from Mentar upon arrival, in the face of the main Human fleet - the Silicoid people also managed to achieve a real victory:



The new bio-toxin antidote devised by their planetologists would render them forever immune to the horrible Death Spores they had seen aboard Human and Psilon starships ... and learned to build themselves, though they never actually did so ... and whose blueprints they traded to the Alkari for a little help with shield options and miniaturization. The new advance was not only valuable in its own right but an important gateway technology: It suggested new and improved means of crystalization that could someday amount to rock-cloning techniques. At the same time, the next and most pointless stage of the gravel heap's vanity project came to what an exceptionally generous observer might reluctantly agree to call fruition.



Collassa would probably never have any significant value to the Silicoids, and might well be destroyed by alien aggression long before it paid anything back to the empire at all, never mind the full cost of its colony ship, but at least it was another rich world that - to the gravel heap - looked pretty.

There was more important news that year though, naturally.



With the arrival of a new fleet of Silicoid transports while the Human war fleet was off on a spite mission at Mentar, Sol fell to the Silicoids once and for all, and with it...



...the Humans were no more, and the Silicoids had come to dominate the galaxy. It is true that among 70 factories, the Silicoids failed to recover the last remaining Human technology that remained unknown to them, but as Ianus would later suggest, this might merely be the result of the complete irrelevance of any technique for reducing factory waste to a race whose greatest trouble with factory waste products is that they tend to be more appetizing than really filling. In all events, the drought wouldn't continue forever.

2419: The Sol fiasco of 2415 may have delayed the invasion of Willow, but couldn't push it beyond the period of the old gravel heap's reign. A total of eighty Silicoid batallions would ultimately fight for control of the world's 271 factories, and when they ultimately emerged victorious, their spoils were unerwhelming in number, but the best the Psilons had to offer in weapon and shield technology.



It's possible that Zygot still couldn't see the writing on the wall even at this late hour, but he certainly could feel the same writing being tattooed into the flesh of his empire. As a helpless measure, too little, too late, he finally declared war.

2420: After waiting patiently over Berel for a small group of Silicoid transports to arrive, and for the Alkari population to grow back above the numbers that it had killed in its single bombing run a few years before, the Lava Mixer in Berel orbit went in for a second and lasst bombing run there.



Its captain had miscalculated badly, failing to realize that birds taking shelter in homes and bunkers and factories are not as vulnerable as birds out in the open, as all the survivors of Berel necessarily were following the irradiation or destruction by fusion bombs of all their planet's cities. The entire colony was destroyed, entirely unintentionally, resulting in yet more deaths of Silicoid transports in space ... and, of course, less importantly, some 31 million Alkari. Fortunately for the old gravel heap, its battle plan worked a lot better at the Psilon world of Tau Cygni.



The last Psilon tech about which its people particularly cared was recovered from the ruins of some 57 factory-cities, meaning that in spite of the mistakes it had made, and in spite of failing to do so as well as it hoped, or as quickly, the old gravel heap had actually accomplished its main goals for its reign ... just in time to be replaced by a livelier Silicoid leader. The map may not have told the whole story of the old gravel heap's fiascos, but as it said itself of Collassa...



...it sure looked pretty!

[RefSteel]

...internet permitting.

...yeah. I kind of knew this might happen though, or I wouldn't have included that caveat. On the plus side, my phone can still get limited internet, so I can post this! I can probably/hopefully post a report with pictures and everything tomorrow, although I guess I'd better not guarantee anything at this point. Ianus, if you want a more detailed dry report before you start playing, I can try to put something together sooner than that. I'm sorry about creating yet another delay!

Spoiler for venting personal frustration unrelated to the slightly-annoying internet issues:

So. It's been a rough 2017 so far. Good thing there aren't any big socio-political and/or job-related things going on that make it reasonably likely to get worse! Oh, wait.

Apart from the internet snafu, which is honestly really minor, and could be worked around if needed, I spent part of today finding out how to fix a mistake my employee "benefits" department made relating to my dental coverage, because I guess eliminating my health coverage wasn't enough? (Did I mention I got that sorted out by other means? I did. Still looking for another employer though.) Paraphrase of the statement of the payroll department supervisor with whom I spoke today: "Yes, they made a mistake and did not list your premium amount correctly in spite of the fact that there have been no changes to it in the past thirteen years. Oh, and the letter we sent you that prompted you to make this call also listed an incorrect amount. It's this other figure. No, there is no way to resolve this through payroll or benefits or over the phone. You have to fix the mistakes of two different departments by sending us a separate check for this other amount to avoid losing coverage."

Good thing job hunting is so much fun, takes so little time, and will resolve the problem soon and quickly!

...

[Ianus]

Wow Ref that is rough rough rough! How are they not fixing the mistake that THEY made again?

Don't sweat the report! I like reading them, and every little bit helps make sense of the complicated mess I found upon opening the save this afternoon. I was reminded of the beginning of Saving Private Ryan where the gate on the landing craft comes down and all hell breaks loose. Things were a bit quieter the last time I played. But I spent like 10 minutes just cycling through planets and I think I have a sense of what is going on. I'll try to play tonight or tomorrow.

A couple of questions. I assume that as the rocks we can still espionage planetology tech even though we can't use it right? For example the only techs that the Humans have that we don't are Controlled Environments and Waste Reduction. Will we still get spy hits or will nothing happen. I'm switching to sabotage anyway but I was curious. Same for ground combat? And given that Impulse Drives are coming (not on my turn set but eventually) shall we continue to do Maneuverability = Engine Class - 3 or do we want to stick with Maneuver 1 for the whole game? It had been a good hole to work around so far. Thoughts?

[RefSteel]

I believe we can still steal and pointy-stick non-Sili techs, yes ... although I don't remember now if I've ever tried it with kyrub's patch. Which race did you mean by the Humans, though? Because if there are any Humans left in the galaxy, it means I uploaded the wrong save....

(Since it's such a severe mess though, I'm assuming it's the right save. I tried to leave our stuff as neat as I could, but I couldn't do anything about the AIs!)

Good question about Impulse Drives. I'd been assuming we could slowly start using decent combat speed in the later game, and I think I'd still rather go that way, but sticking to Maneuver 1 the whole game would be an interesting challenge. Either way, I'm pretty sure this is going to be your last turn set of the SG, Ianus. You'll have a vote in 5 turns, then Thrawn will get another at the end of his set if we don't kill everyone first, and if we're still playing after that, I expect to at least be positioned to end it. We'll see though! If nothing else, the Meklar may still have a surprise or two up their biomechanical sleeves!

[EDIT: On the not-game-related question, they aren't fixing their mistake because they have wealth and power and I'm just a lowly employee. They may ask themselves: What am I going to do about it? I mean, go work for someone else, obviously, and I've been working on that anyway, necessarily, since the health benefits evaporated without warning. From the perspective of my coworkers and direct supervisors, I'm a really capable and reliable employee, but from the perspective of the Payroll and Employee Detriments department, I'm just a collection of numbers on a balance sheet.]

[Ianus]

Hmm weird, I could have sworn that there were Humans listed the last time I checked the save. Well good riddance then. 

I wonder if the patch fixes it because we don't have ANY non-Silicoid techs. Maybe that's why you didn't pull many techs from the brains earlier? The calculation could award you techs from factories and then remove any that aren't valid for the rocks before displaying them? Dunno.

[Ianus]

2420-2430
The short version:
Psilons and Alkari are extinct, and we are poised to crush the Sakkra too.  The Meklar are more intimidating, but shouldn’t be impossible to break with enough effort.  We control roughly 2/3 of the galaxy, and as soon as Cloning tech comes in and gets applied we will be so far beyond anyone else that the next council vote will be a joke.
Detailed report follows:

2420
Things have gotten a lot more complicated since the last time I was in charge.  The humans are extinct, and we own all of their planets.  Our tech is super advanced (how did you do that Ref?) and we lead in Total Power which means that this game is pretty well over.  All that remains is actually finishing it.  We are in hot war with the Psilons and are in the process of rolling over their planets.  We are also at war with the Alkari, although with three scattered worlds they are less than threatening.

For my first act as leader I call up old Hissa and demand that he honor our Non-Aggression Pact.  He sees the error of his ways (probably due to what we are currently doing to the Psilons) and offers me a pile of cash to not do the same to him.  And of course he then goes off to sulk for a while. I’m almost sorry I didn’t trade him Anti-Matter Bombs for Neutron Pellet Gun first, almost. At least Nordia is safe!
I cycle through our planets and stop most of them from building shields. Instead I put most of them onto more factories.  I hate unproductive worlds.  As long as the lizards and the mechs behave themselves we won’t have any problems.  Before I end the turn I happen to notice Mentar sitting there with more than 400 factories on it.  As much as I hate playing with population as a rock I just can’t bring myself to destroy all of those factories, so instead I route a bunch of troop transports to take it over.  And away we go!

2421
I blow up a whole bunch of Psilon ships with minimal losses.

Trade isn’t doing very much right now.  Where is Keeta anyway?  Oh THERE it is, a little radiated world at the edge of the galaxy.  Maybe I will do something about that if I find the time.

2422
I blow up the Psilon colony of Volantis and kill about half of the population of Mentar.

The Meklar can read the writing on the wall.

And when we lead the Psilons on tech you know what is going to happen.

2423
Some inconclusive space battles, including one where a single Stonewall holds off the entire Alkari navy.  

How sad.  I also blow up a whole bunch of Psilon transports.

My marines are better!  I capture Improved Industrial 6 and ECM3 from 411 factories.  Clearly we CANNOT acquire unusable techs as the rocks.

2424
More space battles.

2425
I manage to get a sabotage hit against the Alkari.

Here are their planets.  I blow up a base on Proxima to get a full scout report on it.

I colonize Volantis and control the galaxy.

And here comes the council vote!


Why doesn’t anyone like me?

I abstain and the game goes on.
But what am I going to do now?  The Psilons will be dead next year and everyone else loves me, even the Alkari who I am technically at war with.  I suppose I will spend the next five years stuffing some turkeys.  Most planets are maxing factories so we will be ready for a strong war effort against the lizards and maybe the machines too.

2426

I colonize some planets and get rid of the brains.

That clears up the map quite nicely.  Next I need to do something about all of these white specks flapping around.
The Alkari are only firing Hyper V rockets, but unfortunately they outmatch our shields by ONE point of damage.  Hopefully our Huge bombers can weather the storm.  As I saw by using the sabotage exploit Altair has 39 bases while Denubius has 61(!!!!).  I will send everything I have against them!

2427
Well Proxima with its 8 bases didn’t fare so well.  I destroy all of its factories and almost all of its population.  It will be destroyed next turn, when we will also have major battles at Altair and Denubius.

I spend some time looking around for the next target of aggression.  The Meklar seem like they will be really tough nuts to crack.  They have Scatter Pack V rockets and 14 points of shielding, plus Zortium Armor and some other toys.  I’m not confident that we will make much progress against their worlds, although once we get Impulse engines our ships will be able to move twice as fast in combat!  The Sakkra on the other hand are still firing Nuclear missiles, and have 15 points of shielding.  So that settles that.  It will be the lizards to the edge of extinction, and then we just need to consolidate our population (Cloning is at 3% this year) for the next council vote.
But first I contact the Meklar and trade them Bio-Toxin Antidote for ECM4 because why not.  They won’t trade their Zortium Armor.  The Sakkra will trade Fusion Beam for either IRC4 or Warp Dissipator.  Warp Dissipator seems like a REALLY REALLY REALLY bad idea given our maneuverability restrictions, but we can always capture more factories, so I make that trade.  Again they won’t offer Zortium.  Invasion it is then!  I can fit 70 Anti-Matter Bombs on a Huge which is an improvement over the 41 on our Rock N Roll design, but I wait to start building new ships until our new engines (and armor) come in.  Onward!

2428
I lose a Rock N Roll at Denubius but gain control of both it and Altair.  

My spies, motivated by the success of my naval commanders, steal Zortium Armor from the Meklar and NPGs from the Sakkra.  Nice!

In retaliation someone blows up a missile base.  Oh no!
I colonize some more planets, and bomb the Alkari, destroying Proxima.

Denubius is a HECK of a planet!  Do we get any benefit from Fertile worlds?  I can’t remember.

Ariel REALLY wants peace, but as I have mentioned before I have a strong dislike for the Alkari.
The Sakkra just got Megabolt Cannon, for what that is worth.  I was really hoping to eliminate the birds before handing over the save, but I don’t think that I have enough bombers to pull it off.  Too bad!  We can now fit 99 Anti-Matter Bombs on a dreadnought. Very nice indeed!

2429
Hmm, maybe I will be able to smoke that turkey after all.  It will all depend on next turn.  I have been neglecting infrastructure pretty badly during these turns, but once cloning comes in (22%) we will be in excellent shape!  Impulse drives are also at 13%, so it won’t be long now!

2450

YES!!!  And so ends my genocidal spree!

Notes for the incoming emperor:

-Sadly no techs were discovered this turn, but both are at 20% or higher so it won’t be long.  Once Cloning is discovered grow population just about everywhere, and we will be rocking and rolling at high speed!
-As I said above we are perfectly capable of destroying the Sakkra in very short order.  Just be sure that if you want to eliminate them that you have a plan for the Meklar, or this game could drag on for a bit.  Or maybe not given the bloodthirsty nature of our group, but the Meklar are still at least a little intimidating.
-Most of our fleet is scattered around what used to be Alkari space playing defense against now vanished Alkari fleets.  I leave it to you to consolidate and regroup for the Sakkra offensive.
-We can certainly design very powerful ships, but wait until our new engines are discovered to get the most bang for your BC.
-I wound up two colony ships short, so build a couple for Volantis and Incedius over in Alkari space.  Longrocks are due at Denubius and Altair next turn.

[TheArchduke]

I am next and up to end this, probably.

[RefSteel]

Great set, Ianus! And much, much more timely than mine!

Our tech is super advanced (how did you do that Ref?)

There were some old MoO players on this forum who considered any use of the Audience button an exploit, and this game is kind of a demonstration of (some of) the reasons, even though we refrained from extreme stuff like spectator wars: All the free stuff you got from threats, the advantage (diplomatically and in slowing the Psilons down) that we gained when Thrawn persuaded Zygot to join our Human war ... and the ten different techs I acquired via trade in my set, including eight on the inherited turn.

Some of them were tough calls to be sure, like giving the Psilons Repulsors just before we planned to invade them, but RC4 was well worth it, especially when - in another tough call - I agreed to help the already-potent Meklar economy by trading it for BC6! Ion Rifle (from the Sakkra, for Range 8) and then Scatter Packs mid-way through my set for II7 to the Meks were also key trades, but even the obsolete-junk swaps I pulled off helped with miniaturization (and maybe helping to ensure the few conquest techs I did get were pretty good ones.)

I'm working until 9 again tonight, so my report may not go up until the game is over, but I will post it eventually!

I am next and up to end this, probably.

Sweet! Can't wait to see how you handle the Meks! With the sheer size of our production base though, I know it can be done. Have fun with this one!

[TheArchduke]

We are entering the finish, good job everyone. Not an easy variant but we pulled it off.



Lets finish this.

2430

Adapting a lot of stuff. I design the Anti Matter Bomb Monster and call it Rockthrower.

2431

No need to rush, I consolidate further, build more stuff.

2432

I delay my production of the new ship till Impulse Drives. Building Lava Mixers instead.

2433

3rd Planet colonized. Cloning enables to get some pop going.

2434

Yes, we actually STEAL Impulse Drives before the damn thing pops for no investment at all in espionage. Wow.

   

2435

Construction and Forcefields are next for better troops.

2436

After catching a bit of breath I engage our friends in the north once more. Glassing a planet.

2437

Are you kidding me??? Another espionage hit against the Robots.

SOIL Enrichment. Jackpot. We have one heck of a spy with 0.8% investment.

2438

I glass another planet.

Yeah I shouldn´t have paused, my apologies, maybe I am a builder at heart.

2439

Going on.

Tao has 50 bases and I loose a HUge to those 50 Scatter Pack Bases. Those are nasty. We need the Rockthrowers or even better there.

2440

Yeah this is pretty much mopup. We are loosing Nordia, but the Sakkras are dead in 3-4 turns, The Meklars can protect their main planets until we have more Rockthrowers or even better.

[RefSteel]

Looks good, TheArchduke! I'll leave it up to Thrawn whether he wants to finish this with bombers, with the 2425 election, or by leaving the clean-up to me.

Also: I've finally posted my report for my previous set, edited into spoiler tags in my second notes-for-my-successor post, to which these words are a link!