OSG-33 The Beautiful Brains

[haphazard1]

Looks good, Dark Savant! More worlds, more tech, and contact with the bears.

The Sakkra have all that pop and now IRC4. That is going to be a problem, but maybe we can get IRC5 from our own tree? Or at least IRC3 via trade? We may have to go to war just for the tech possibilities. Fusion beams and Zortrium ARS will be a powerful combo.

[Dark Savant]

That puts Ianus up again, even though he just played. Unless there's someone else with time and interest to jump in, that is.  

Atmosphering Terraforming will probably get us IRC III from the Sakkra, if we are willing to give that up (another reason I didn't want to get Controlled Radiated for trade purposes).  The lizards only have Controlled Tundra, so they probably don't have many hostile planets ... we stole a couple of Dead systems from under their noses.

None of the Mrrshans, Sakkra, or Silicoids have any planetary shields, either.

I didn't try to scout any, but we're at the point where the best way to do so is to try to reach Advanced Space Scanner.

[haphazard1]

We have turned this latest block of tirnsets around quite rapidly. With his new job starting, Ianus may need some time to be able to play. No real rush, especially since he last played so recently.

[Ianus]

I should have time to play this evening. Let's keep our new momentum going! Also it's exciting how rapidly we are advancing in the game. Now we just need to hit someone! Did anyone recently notice the alliance situation among our neighbors? Things seem pretty peaceful overall but we should try to pick on someone without too many friends to avoid everyone jumping on us at once. First we need some ships though...

[Ianus]

This was a really quiet decade.  No conflicts apart from the Wet Firecracker War that took place at Trax.  Our tech is poised at the Class V Cusp and if we can get Repulsor Beams from the Bulrathi or Sakkra we will be ready to conquer the universe.  Report and save are attached.

Roster
Ianus (just played)
haphazard1 (UP)
Dark Savant (on deck)

[Dark Savant]

Nice turns.  

I only had three long-range scouts at Trax because before we planted our flag there, we needed Reserve Fuel Tanks to get there (and I wasn't in a hurry to build more fighters with terrible beam weapons).

I'd personally have researched Range 8 over Fusion Drives, since Impulse Drives (>80% chance of availability) are the next inflection point in engines.  That's really only doable as the Psilons.  I can't blame you for wanting max engines, though. 

One thing of note, we finally have Rich planets (plural, even!) pouring resources into the planetary reserve.

We might want to push Computers research hard, through (with luck) Advanced Space Scanner to (with luck) Improved Robotic Controls V.  The odds of getting both should be >60%.  (I should really write that program to show the probability a given tech is in your tree ...)  We also want better Improved Industrial Tech before IRC V.

This is one of the more peaceful games I've seen in quite a long time, and that's with two Ruthless and one Xenophobic AIs, and the Mrrshan-Sakkra combination.

[haphazard1]

More good turns, Ianus. Continued peace favors us for now, as we develop our newer worlds and fill some key tech holes.

OK, I have the save, and should be able to play sometime Wednesday evening. If we can finish the techs that are already in percentages, we will get a big boost in our computer tech which will help spying. And we could think about building some Zortrium ARS huges, which even without repulsor beams should be able to take on most of what we are likely to face. Actually building them with only default factory controls may take a while, though.

We could use a ton of tech. Better clean up tech would be useful, as would IIT so that we could be prepared for desperately-needed better factory contols. Better terraforming, better range, better weapons, better gropo...there is not much that we do NOT need.

The lizards are looking scary. IRC4 with all that pop? Omega-V bombs?

The alliances among the AIs will have to be watched carefully. We do not want to trigger a bunch of war declarations against us and lose a council vote.

[shallow_thought]

I'd personally have researched Range 8 over Fusion Drives, since Impulse Drives (>80% chance of availability) are the next inflection point in engines.  That's really only doable as the Psilons.  I can't blame you for wanting max engines, though. 

Could you explain what you mean by inflection point here? IIRC fusion drives allow an extra point of tactical speed (3) over nuclear/sub-lights (2), so I'd have called them the inflection point myself. Just curious.

[Dark Savant]

I'd personally have researched Range 8 over Fusion Drives, since Impulse Drives (>80% chance of availability) are the next inflection point in engines.  That's really only doable as the Psilons.  I can't blame you for wanting max engines, though. 

Could you explain what you mean by inflection point here? IIRC fusion drives allow an extra point of tactical speed (3) over nuclear/sub-lights (2), so I'd have called them the inflection point myself. Just curious.

Impulse drives double the speed of transports you send to a planet that you don't have air superiority over. That halves the damage they take from defenders, so they can make it actually practical to send ground pounders to a planet without destroying all its defenses first.

[shallow_thought]

Impulse drives double the speed of transports you send to a planet that you don't have air superiority over.  That halves the damage they take from defenders, so they can make it actually practical to send ground pounders to a planet without destroying all its defenses first.

Thanks. I'd not considered that as much of a mainstream tactic, at least not without the late-game tech (combat transporters?) that makes it easy. Always good to add another technique to the available options.