OSG-34: Rollin' with the Rocks

[Guiness]

Guiness, I think something you were trying to say got eaten. I only see a quote of RefSteel's last post.

I commented on a couple of things he said, but they show up as quotes within his quotes - the editor here is aggregrating me a bit

Same as him I was wondering how the mek could have the colony and Annihilator  up around Stalaz, unless they both have reserve tanks? It does seem like they lost a couple vessels due to lack of fuel. You can see an Annihilator at Talas the round before, almost like it morphed into a colony ship!

[RefSteel]

My apologies for the delay: The turns got complicated (and I made a couple of silly mistakes playing late at night) and don't have time to finish my report tonight. I should still manage to post it well within the normal 48 hour window, but probably not until sometime tomorrow afternoon. For now, here's part one of my report, including the time period when I made a key error, but not (yet) describing what it was in detail. I hope it's an enjoyable read!

History of the First Bootis Conflict: 2370-2377

Among the most misunderstood figures in the study of Silicoid imperial history is the Regolithic Erratic Ferrite widely known as "The Steel Secretary," whose ascendancy within the Advisory Henge of OSG-34 coincided closely with the 2370s. Perhaps its name led some astray: Unlike QX-537, no one would have claimed that there was anything erratic about "Steel's" diplomacy; on the contrary, it was so named in typical Silicoid fashion: "Steel" was an outlier, nucleated from the only ferrite structure in its entire formation of regolith. Its nickname is owed to certain contemporary news commentators and sensationalist popular historians, who praised or derided - depending on their political affiliation - the massive military shipbuilding operations conducted at the height of "Steel's" early career, when it served as de-facto chief advisor to the 34th Ornamental Sandstone Guy. A careful look at its career however suggest that the huge military build-up for which it is given responsibility was driven rather by circumstances than by the inclination of any leader or advisor: The ongoing war with the Meklar was heating up rapidly, and at the time of "Steel's" elevation, the entire Silicoid military consisted of two lonely "Pebble" fighters. That number would be doubled by 2371, but that was itself a mere falling pebble to the avalanche to come. "Steel's" rise to power behind the throne came not through military support but through its attention to interstellar diplomacy.



Its first major political coup, in 2370, following long negotiations, was a major diplomatic treaty package with Durash IV of the Humans, encompassing a non-aggression pact, a massive increase in trading rights, and the release to one another's research teams of top-secret blueprints for miniaturized laser weapons: The Humans' "Hand Laser" designs were readily modified for use by Silicoid rocky gripping appendages, and the Silicoids' "Gatling" quad-laser arrays were likewise made available to humanity in exchange. The same year, "Steel" would follow up this first success, after its resulting appointment to the post of Foreign Secretary, with a similar treaty with the Psilon people, whose economy could not support quite so large a trade deal, but who more than made up for the difference with even more - at least for the Silicoids of that time - highly-advanced technology.



In exchange for the same gatling laser designs it had shared with the humans and - reluctantly, but finally - blueprints for nuclear engines, Silicoid defense engineers received plans for double-strenght deflector shields and an ECM system capable of jamming the guidance systems of deadly munitions like the advanced bombs whose secrets the Meklar were already known to possess. Foreign secretary R.E.F. "Steel" would ride this success to a post at the OSG's side, but later admitted regret at raising the trade packages with its carbon-based neighbors so high: "It may make us strong for the future, but the investment was costly, and all through the '70s, we've needed every credit we could scrape."

The foreign secretary's ascendance was cemented in 2371 when the alien technology acquired in trade, in combination with pilot research projects in related fields and the maturation of long-standing industrial research, opened the way to still-greater research projects, even as Silicoid colonists at last found their way to the long-promised world of Darrian Prime. But the troubles that would later define "Steel's" reputation were already in motion, as a Tornado cruiser appeared for the first time on Silicoid scanners, well on its way to the peaceful research centers of Bootis III.



The GNN droid took notice of the 12th Silicoid colony, to which the people of Regulus would soon be tumbling in an avalanche of eagerness for its mineral riches, but the Advisory Henge was taking notice of the Meklar fleets. While their computer scientists pursued battle computers thrice as efficient as their current models - able to skip past already-obsolete theories about an intermediate model thanks to revelations from Psilon ECM technology - their construction and forcefield engineers - the latter again with the help of Psilon technology - both sought means of reducing casualties in ground combat with the Meklar, suspecting that it would be needed. The battle suits envisioned by the former could be designed somewhat faster than yet another incremental improvement to factory construction technology - the only other means of truly advancing the state of the art in the field - while the personal shields on which the latter began work would likewise be a quicker design than more-powerful shields which could only have been built into ships and military installations, and which would have ceased to function in nebulae like those around Zoctan and Thrax. And at Thrax itself and even Bootis - due to desperation and the impossible logistics of the Silicoids' far-flung, mostly-impoverished, nebula-impeded empire - the emergency ship-building projects that would consume the Silicoids of the 2370s had begun.

The following year, with the first batch of fighters from Thrax already en route to Bootis - too late, due to nebula-interference delays - the foreign secretary made a desperate bid to negotiate peace with the QX-537 of the Meklar...



...in the first, greatest, and most complete diplomatic failure of its tenure at the head of the SIlicoid Advisory Henge. "Turned me down flat as a slab of shale," it was heard to admit privately. It was fortunate for the Silicoids that the Meklars' erratically-shifting alliances, which at the time of this request, included the Psilons, didn't draw anyone else into war against them.

Two years later, with transports carrying 45 million Meklar soldiers already en route to a more-distant world - one of two whose orbits the Meklar had taken in the late '60s without a fight - the Tornado would reach Bootis.



The fighters from Thrax were still on their way, having never managed to make up for the delays in the nebula, so Bootis was left with only the ships it had been able to build itself: Twenty-three Pebble fighters against a titanium-armored cruiser with unknown weaponry that was soon found to move as swiftly as the Pebbles - and thanks to superior weapons computer systems, to react even faster than they. The lead Silicoid pilot was wary of taking unnecessary risks, but the Meklar arsenal was known to include fusion bombs, and if the Tornado was mounting those, it would be critical to take it out as quickly as possible. The Pebbles therefore closed rapidly to attack position, noted as they approached that the enemy mounted no heavy beams, and closed to firing range - only to be cut to pieces by the ship's true armament: A battery of "gatling" multi-laser turrets, developed by the Meklar even before their fusion bombs. Nearly half of the fleet was lost before they could fire, and the remainder had no hope of victory. They retreated immediately, and still lost all but four of their number before they could reach hyperspace, calling a desperate warning to their fellow rocks as their tattered remnants escaped.

In a final attempt to save the situation diplomatically, Foreign Secretary "Steel" failed utterly to convince its Psilon friends to withdraw their support from the devastatingly powerful "Emperor Saurak of the Sakkra" whom the Silicoids had yet to meet, but who was due to make another bid to take control of the galaxy in the High Council election at year's end, but at least it was not so complete a failure as had faced it two years previously: Critically, the Psilons at least were no longer allied to the Meklar, for reasons of their own or QX-537's, by the time it approached their diplomats; and the human people, who likewise had never met the Sakkra, continued to demonstrate their friendship tangibly.



In a continuation of the technology-sharing agreement that had helped catapult R.E.F. toward the inner circle of Silicoid power in the galaxy, Human computer scientists demonstrated means of extending the Silicoids' scanner range in space, dramatically increasing the early warrning they would receive of strategic threats, though the destinations of enemy starfleets would still be a matter of guesswork at best. In exchange, Silicoid industrial engineers taught their human counterparts means of building factories both faster and more cheaply, though it would be up to the humans to figure out how to incorporate scrubbers or any other measures to mitigate industrial waste. The trade was a valuable one, revealing new incoming Meklar threats as well as a handful of destroyer-class ships on missions of exploration for the enigmatic Bulrathi, still lacking the range for regular communication with the Silicoids, but already highly active all across the galaxy.

It was well for the Silicoids that something was going right for them diplomatically. At year's end, the fateful High Council vote would be cast to select an absolute ruler for the whole of the galaxy.



For the second time, the vote was inconclusive, with the next election this time put off until the year 2400, by which time it was reasonable to suppose that the coalitions and power dynamics in the galaxy might have changed enough to warrant another try. The Bulrathi - almost a complete unknown to the Silicoids at that time - equal in voting power with the Silicoids and their Human friends, and voting as the Humans did to elect no High Master at all, and though the Psilons and Meklar supported Saurak's bid as expected, both were surprisingly short on voting power: The Psilons' failure to terraform and fully populate their homeworld seemed inexplicable at the time, while the Meklar vote was likely suppressed in part by the sheer number of their people - more than eighty million soldiers known to be bound for Silicoid space alone - aboard hyperspace transports, out of contact and therefore incapable of contributing their votes. Even with the massive Sakkra voting power - some 40% greater than that of the next-most-populous race - there was no danger of its achieving a victory without stronger allies, and so the Silicoid foreign secretary was able to see Psilon Emperor Zygot's wisdom in refusing to break his Sakkra alliance. Like Zygot, the Silicoids ultimately cast their votes in Saurak's favor, as a diplomatic gesture, to indicate their willingness in principle to accept any leadership if the conditions were correct. And so they were: The conditions were simply that, like the Ornamental Sandstone Guy, Saurak must be willing to be a figurehead for a galaxy actually ruled by the likes - and preferably the members - of the Silicoid Advisory Henge.

It was two years later, in 2377, just as an Annihilator arrived to join the Tornado in the skies of Bootis III, that the planet finally managed to assemble its first defensive base.



A small fighter fleet stood ready to support the base as well in case the Annihilator was carrying fusion bombs, but when it was found to be another Gatling boat, the fighters immediately retreated, followed swiftly by the Meklar fleet: Thanks to its Psilon shield technology, the new missile base at Bootis was completely immune to the enemy cruisers' beams. Unfortunately for the people of Bootis - and more unfortunately still for certain other Silicoids, due to an error in judgment by an inattentive fleet dispatcher two years before - Meklar transports were already on their way....

[RFS-81]

I like the Gatling Laser for Shields deal: You traded a weapon for a defense against that weapon. Smooth

[RefSteel]

2377-2380: The Fall of R.E.F. "Steel"

With the threat of the Meklar looming large throughout the 2370s, there was a growing perception among the Silicoid people that a strong military leader was needed. In light of its success as foreign secretary in acquiring defensive technology therefore, "Steel" had therefore had its official role changed to secretary of defense in 2375, not long after the success of the stalemate High Council elections. This purely nominal change in titles would have far-reaching consequences however: Though it remained the most influential member of the Silicoid Advisory Henge, and continued to direct all of Silicoid imperial policy, in its role as secretary of defense, "Steel" never again involved itself in diplomacy with the other races of the galaxy, and without an experienced secretary of defense to rely upon, with the complicated logistics of the office transition drawing much of its attention, it failed to think through some of the critical orders being assigned to the fleet. The devastating consequences would lead to its resignation some five years later, when there could no longer be any doubt of their imminence. From its private papers, "Steel" itself appears to have realized its mistake some years before its retirement, but held out hope until the last that it would not be as bad as it seemed, while most other Silicoids remained unaware of the danger entirely.

In the same year that the Meklar fleet was finally evicted from the Bootis system, Silicoid scientists achieved an important discovery that could only contribute to "Steel's" undeserved reputation for military ruthlessness.



In truth however, the newly-appointed secretary of defense made it clear that the "death spores" its scientists had developed must never be deployed for any reason, preserved only for study on how to better reverse their effects and those of weapons like them, as the Silicoids looked to further advance their terraforming abilities. Meanwhile, as it preceded a GNN report on the technological development of the galaxy, it made the galactic news all the more sobering: Even with their latest discovery, the Silicoids were about as backward - especially in comparison with their Meklar enemies - as a collection of flint knives and axes among laser drills and auto-welders in a museum of industry. The mighty Sakkra empire had not - as yet - eclipsed the lonely Psilons, still less the Meklar, as the true leaders of galactic technology, but they remained far ahead of Human and especially Bulrathi technology, all of whom had left the Silicoids far behind. Both as foreign secretary and as de-facto head of research (and everything else) in the Silicoid empire, "Steel" had tried to make a start at recovering from this deficit, but its efforts had been severely hampered by the Meklar attack on Bootis, and by the effort to build up a defensive starfleet, most of which - due in part to a dispatcher's error in judgment and "Steel's" failure of oversight, and in part to that very deficit in technology - would end up accomplishing virtually nothing.



By 2379, though a Meklar colony ship arriving at Regulus was successfully turned away by the local fleet, that same fleet was out of position to accomplish anything meaningful except to delay the launch of Meklar transports by a single year: The next Meklar colony ship bound for Regulus, already nearly there, was escorted by a Nexus cruiser which would turn out in 2380 - in spite of a brief moment of hope when it fired on the fighters there with a heavy laser - to mount gatling lasers and a double-layered deflector shield, rendering the laser fighters all but helpless against it, and forcing them to retreat. This waste of resources was bad enough, but it paled in comparison with the fleet that had been sent to interdict the enormous flotilla of Meklar transports bound for Talas: With those transports no more than two years shy of their destination, the fighter fleet was still a full year's flight away ... from Stalaz, where it had inexplicably been sent instead. Though "Steel" would order them redeployed immediately in 2380, the order would not be executed during its tenure on the Silcoid Advisory Henge; and even if followed through, everyone in the Silicoid empire could see that their arrival at Talas would come too late to matter. By early 2380, amid jeers - well-deserved, but for the wrong reasons - from peace-loving sandstones and cries of foul from grossly-misinformed volcanic warmongers, Regolithic Erratic Ferrite "Steel" was run out of the Silicoid Advisory Henge to retire in shame and such anonymity as it could find.



The starships for which it was unjustly famous were pretty much a mess. The only ones actually built were far, far too many of the Pebbles which were practically obsolete before its stint as foreign secretary began. The Crumble 2.0 destroyer, designed to carry a battle scanner to poor worlds that couldn't afford to build a missile base, never actually saw use during "Steel's" tenure, perhaps in part because it mounted a heavy laser and battle computer as an expensive and useless token defense. Its name is a clear indication that its designer was aware of its shortcomings, but lacking the resources to build a scanner ship in any case, didn't bother to improve on it. The Sandstone2 cruiser design was just as bad, trying to use heavy lasers to stave off obsolescence in the absence of any real weaponry. Any ship-based answer to the Meklar gatling cruisers would have been better off - which is not to say well off - with gatlings of its own. As for the Limestone 2 long-range destroyers, those were designed only in case it was thought useful to dispatch some kind of defenses toward Helos and Jinga prior to establishing colonies. Any and all of the unbuilt ship designs (with the possible exception of the Limestones) could certainly be scrapped and improved upon, and "Steel" itself was heard to remark on more than one occasion that "they definitely should be."



The Meklar were sending more fleets up to Bootis, where almost thirty of their transports would arrive - to be intercepted by actually-usefully-positioned fighters and the planet's missile base - by the following year, when the transports bound for Talas were certain to turn it into a Meklar colony, and more would surely be dispatched to Regulus, though there remained a small chance that the machine ships might bomb it down to the bedrock before their troops could arrive. There were a few hopeful signs for the Silicoids as well, but even they came with a certain amount of complexity: Two Moraine long-range colony ships had been completed over the past two years, with one already on its way to claim Helos ahead of a slow Psilon colony ship that was on its way up there. Yet if the Psilon ship reached the orbit of the colony-to-be without being turned away, and the Human-Psilon alliance was still in effect (or if the Psilon colship somehow managed to remain in orbit in spite of having no source of fuel whatever, like the Meklar one that enabled the invasion of Talas a decade before) there was every reason to believe that Psilon transports would be sent across the galaxy in complete disdain of their non-aggression pact. A second Moraine, which "Steel" had ordered to Jinga from Zoctan, subject to its successor's veto, might - or might not - also face conflict with Meklar explorers, perhaps including the very colony ship that had called in the Talas transports in contravention of all known laws of physics. The Silicoids knew the Meklar should not be able to survive upon, nor to send transports to, an inferno world like Jinga - but given what the Impossible Colship had done in the past, nothing seemed certain anymore.

Yet even amidst these uncertainties and the scandal and shame of "Steel's" departure from their Advisory Henge, the Silicoids had cause for hope in their galaxy.



They were nearly the equals of their Meklar enemies in production and in overall imperial strength, and controlled by far the greatest number of colonies of any race in the galaxy - even if Talas and Regulus had to be presumed lost, and without counting two or three new potential colonies-to-be. (The third, the terran world Keeta, was already in reach for Moraines, and even an older and slightly-less-expensive Colony 2 could claim it when once the Silicoids built a fuel base at Helos.) Even their execrable technology was improving, in spite of a budget that rarely or never lived up to "Steel's" hopes, with Hyper-X rockets on the verge of a breakthrough and several other projects slowly maturing, notably in computers and propulsion. And where fleets for the most part had failed, it was just possible - six years having passed since the latest attempts to accomplish anything at all by those means - that someone would be able to succeed through "Steel's" earliest and truest claim to fame and success for its people: Diplomacy.



QX-537 had managed once again to acquire alliances with the Psilons and Bulrathi, but the Human and Psilon people had grown into strong friendship and trade with the Silicoids, and even the insane machine-lord of the Meklar itself might have been ready to come to the peace table ... for all "Steel" or anyone else, including QX-537 on any given day, could possibly know.

The rocks had a rough road ahead of them still - one that the first "chief advisor" of their interstellar era might well have called "interesting" - but they would have the opportunity yet, if they could sieze it, to surpass even the enormously powerful Sakkra empire as the dominant force in the galaxy.

My notes-for-the-next-advisor are contained in my report, but the main ones are:

- Please don't build the miserable ships I designed but never built - not even the ones in the build queues now at Cryslon and Zoctan. Almost anything would be better than the "Crumble" or the "Sandstone." Except more laser fighters. We have way too many laser fighters, most of them sadly out of position, already.

- The Meklar cruisers are mostly all based on Gats. Which sadly enough are still our best weapon for now (though Hyper-X missiles are in the percentages).

- We have a long-range colship en route to Helos. A slower Psilon colship is heading there too, from further away. Note Keeta can also be colonized by an LR ship (or, once we have Helos, by a regular colship).

- I've sent another LR colship ("Moraine 2") toward Jinga from Zoctan (can still be vetoed) and it's possible the Impossible Meklar Colship (tha one that was hanging out at Talas with no alliances out of even LR range from all Meklar worlds for several turns, calling 45 transports up to join it) is heading there too, though in theory they can't colonize or invade it anyway.

- Sorry for taking longer than I expected - have fun with it; these are exciting times! And the save is attached!

---

Roster:
- RefSteel (just played)
- RFS-81 (UP NOW!)
- Ianus (on deck!)
- Bionic Commando
- Guiness

[Guiness]

Interesting to read your first report, and try to see where you feel you made a mistake. Personally I would't have increased trade with the humans - I always feel the bonus they get is too much. But maybe that was necessary to get them to agree to the trade.

Does voting for Saurak accomplish anything game mechanic-wise?

On second reading, I'm not sure what it is Steel did wrong, if it was inattentiveness to something, or an actual error.

And I see the final report is up - let's see what's up!

edit: I see said the blind man - Steel's misuse of a protractor caused a miscalculation of the transports destination. I heard Steel could be thick that way said the deaf-mute. Now let's got find a rock with no legs to give it a good kick in the pants!

[Cyneheard]

Does voting for Saurak accomplish anything game mechanic-wise?

Yes - it's good for some diplo-credit with the Sakkra. Really nice if you need to negotiate a peace with the #2 power immediately following a council vote.

[Guiness]

I'll add a thought to RefSteel's notes - what about offering the Meklar a tribute to call of the war? If they're going to capture Talas they'll probably pillage it anyways, so why not give it to them first in an effort to have them call of hostilities?

[haphazard1]

It is good to see a MoO SG running. Interesting galaxy you have for this one, with all those poor worlds at the start plus psilons and humans. Following with interest.

[RFS-81]

Got it!

I had a look at the save. There's a Psilon colony ship in our space, heading to Helos in our backline. That's some incredible range, even considering their human allies. It's crazy how much tech Psilons get even with a 1-planet empire. Now, there's no way that they reach it before us, but allowing them to get a fleet into orbit can still be a problem. IIRC, with a NAP, AIs won't send any ships to your colonies, but if they somehow end up with a ship on one of your colonies anyway, they still try to invade. And there's no telling what kind of gropo toys they field. So I think some token amount of Pebble fighters should follow our colship there.

About Talas, should we just try to evacuate as many pop as possible, let our fighters shoot down some transports and then immediately try to take it back?

Regarding Meklar fleets, we should be fine until they actually design something with Fusion Bombs. Gatling Lasers will do nothing against missile bases. I'm wondering if we should design some 2-rack missile boats once we get Hyper-X, to defend planets that can't afford bases, or shoot down bombers.

[RefSteel]

Personally I would't have increased trade with the humans - I always feel the bonus they get is too much. But maybe that was necessary to get them to agree to the trade.

A trade agreement takes time to improve relations, so it definitely wasn't needed for the tech trade.  I never worry about an AI benefiting more from trade than I do though - even if I could make a deal where one AI gets 300BC per year and I get 150BC per year, I'd take it in a heartbeat, even ignoring the fact that it puts us both ahead relative to the other AIs:  With superior tactics and strategy, I can do more with those 150 billion credits than the AI can with 300 or even more!  That said, I do think it was a mistake for me to extend our trade agreements for the reason mentioned in the report:  I knew we were at war and way behind in research, and I knew I'd need all the resources I could gather right away.  Big trade agreements are investments in the future (and specifically in your relationship with the race in question) but cost resources in the present.  And with the prevalence of AI cheese alliances and the Meklar war, I couldn't be sure the trade agreements would ever mature before one of our "friends" honored a random alliance and declared war against us.

Steel's misuse of a protractor caused a miscalculation of the transports destination.

To clarify my mistake: Misinterpreting the transports' real destination (since we lack Improved Scanners) isn't all that surprising at that range of course; the error in judgment was relocating all those fighters to Stalaz from Cryslon no matter where I thought the 'sports were going!  Talas was closer both to Cryslon and to the incoming 'sports, and our ships move twice as fast as their transports do, so if I'd sent the fleet to Talas and found the 'sports were bound for Stalaz, there would have been no problem:  The transports would take longer to get there, and our ships would barely have gone out of their way.  They would also have been closer to Bootis and available sooner in case they were needed to help interdict an enemy fleet. But by sending them to Stalaz, I left myself open for my misjudgment of the 'sport destination to cost us a planet. (Arguably, I also built way too many obsolete fighters in general, but if any of the Mek designs had used F-Bombs instead of Gats, and I'd deployed them more intelligently, I'd have been glad I did....)

I'll add a thought to RefSteel's notes - what about offering the Meklar a tribute to call of the war? If they're going to capture Talas they'll probably pillage it anyways, so why not give it to them first in an effort to have them call of hostilities?

The Meklar can't pillage anything from Talas except the planet itself: It has no factories! (And surely not even Regulus, even if they don't bomb again; it has ... I think three?)

So I think some token amount of Pebble fighters should follow our colship there.

It's out of range for our fighters, but you can probably get some there in time at least by using reloc from Cryslon right aftrer the colony is founded. Whether a token number of fighters will be able to hold off an armed Psilon colship at this stage of the game, I don't know....

About Talas, should we just try to evacuate as many pop as possible, let our fighters shoot down some transports and then immediately try to take it back?

Taking it back immediately will not be easy. When we're defending, they'll kill two of us for every one of them we take out; when we attack, we'll be killing one for every three we lose (on average)! I'd be inclined to bomb the place out rather than try to invade, unless I can bombard them enough to face a very small number of troops on the ground. (And it might be worth letting them keep it so they can build factories for us and we'll have a chance to invade when our gropo techs come in and when we might get tech from their factories - that would certainly make things more exciting in the meantime!

Regarding Meklar fleets, we should be fine until they actually design something with Fusion Bombs. Gatling Lasers will do nothing against missile bases. I'm wondering if we should design some 2-rack missile boats once we get Hyper-X, to defend planets that can't afford bases, or shoot down bombers.

Yeah, probably a good idea, if executed better than I handled our laser fleets!

It is good to see a MoO SG running. :nod: Interesting galaxy you have for this one, with all those poor worlds at the start plus psilons and humans. Following with interest.

Thanks for dropping by! Lurker comments are always appreciated!