Taking Kailis is a great step... IF we can hold it. If you do choose to strike there strike hard and commit to securing it. While that world might be the juicier fruit it is very exposed and rather distant. Would our forces be better spent taking Jinga and Yarrow from the Meklar? They would be easier to hold and net us two big worlds. Would probably be worth checking what techs we are going up against in either case too. That also nets us more time to build up force to strike into the center of the galaxy. I think that Scatter Pack V was the better defensive choice we do need a good gun (Fusion please) right away, along with general tech upgrades to continue to expand.
Anyway, if it were me I would take back “our” worlds from the Meklar. Maybe we could invade them if we promise to burn the bodies first?
Does your variant rule prohibit blowing up the Guardian of Orion and looting Orion for technology?
It doesn't violate the letter of the rules; it doesn't seem to violate the spirit of the rules even, since it requires no actual close contact with other beings; and it will be your only way of getting technology other than research.
(April 25th, 2020, 14:24)Dark Savant Wrote: Does your variant rule prohibit blowing up the Guardian of Orion and looting Orion for technology?
It doesn't violate the letter of the rules; it doesn't seem to violate the spirit of the rules even, since it requires no actual close contact with other beings; and it will be your only way of getting technology other than research.
Ship-to-ship combat and not contacting sentient beings on the ground? Yeah, it's fine, but not likely to be all that helpful because usually by the time you get to Orion you've already won (especially on Possible difficulty).
2410
put Imra on half production, half research as we will need reserves for Keep Out
put Nazin on building 17 mask 2.0 and relocating to Keep out
put Gion and Shelter on reserve to feed to Keep Out
send Tarantula from About Time to Waters Edge
About TIme builds Tarantula
Waters Edge builds base
2411
feed 65 reserves to Keep Out
send Tarantula to Kailis
2412
Battle with Mrrshans at waters edge, we rout them with 3 bases surviving
Feed reserves to Keep out, 2 turns to complete base with pollution
Fleet about to arrive to Kailis
Scrap Needle Design and build Sanitizer-V
Laser there to be able to move after firing and to defeat small ships and bombers
Have About time build 5 Sanitzrm, Nazin 1 and relocate to Keep Out
2413
Battle of Kailis
I don't think 30 fighters and 3 cruisers are enough to take out Alkari fighters
When Tarantula fired at 81 Pelicans it didn't do any damage, so I decide to retreat
I feed 70 reserves to Keep Out which is due to complete base in next turn right before battle with Alkari. Gion and Shelter can go back to research
2414
Alkari don't do battle at Keep Out
2415
Alkari colony of Proxima becomes poor
Build missing factories at Waters Edge
2416
Nothing
2417
Spot Meklar fleet with 17 cruisers and 1 Huge heading in direction of Nazin or possibly Sand Line
Move fleet from Keep Out (slower fighters separately) to Nazin, start building bases there and relocate from About Time and Gion
2418
Discover Duralloy, pick reduced 60% as only choice
Spot Bulrathi and Mrrshan Fleets heading to Waters Edge
2419
Battle at Waters Edge with Mrrshans
Bomber and Scout retreat, planet targets Cheetah (their bomber), ships go forward to engage Warcat
We take no casualties with Mrrshans
I loose 3 Masks 2.0 to Bulrathi
The Meklar are heading for Nazin
I scrap 2 LZR Cruisers for 250BC and feed them to Nazin so it can build 2 bases per turn, I set Gion, Shelter and Waters Edge on reserve as we need bases badly
2420
Situation at Nazin
We have 4 bases, building 2/turn
Meklar fleet is 2 turns away.
We have 23 missile boats and 64 fighters in orbit with couple more missiles-V coming
Nice work getting us through the elections, shallow_thought! (Even if, like in my set, that was mostly down to the bears rather than us!) And I loved the playful ending to your report!
It's good to see we managed to defend everything, all of you; we're not out of the woods yet!
Great overview pictures, utwig! And an exciting and thorough report!
Also, since it was mentioned in utwig's pre-set post (sorry I didn't get to see it in time) I'm going to talk a bit about ship design here, but I'll spoil it for length:
(April 25th, 2020, 07:11)utwig Wrote: There are some strange ship designs. Must have been influenced by supply chain shock and scramble purchasing due to pandemic.
Heh. Well, the main shortcoming of the ships shown in the picture accompanying that quote is ... that we still don't have any real ship-to-ship weapon tech. But apart from that, their main shortcoming is that the two latest Cruiser designs lack Battle Scanners. The player who designed them might not know/remember this, so: In addition to reading enemy ship stats, a Battle Scanner provides the same bonus as increasing the ship's Battle Computer level by 1 and provides an additional +3 initiative bonus on top of that. Pretty much every large ship ever built should have a Battle Scanner ... unless it has a Colony Base! In this case, it would allow 7 Heavy Lasers to do more damage than the 8 the Tarantula actually carries (and might even leave room for a laser or something too; I didn't check) - as utwig saw first-hand when the Tarantulas failed to hit nimble Alkari ships! - and would give better results for the Viper in every possible situation as long as 12 Fusion Bombs would still fit. (It might well have been a good idea to shield the Vipers too, even at the cost of more bombs, but that depends on what the enemy is using to defend. Alternatively, replacing the Viper with a Medium with no shield and no battle scanner and of course fewer bombs per ship might have been a better call, again depending on what we're up against.)
I think Arnuz explained about the Needle in his report (and according to our Exploit rules, it is okay for a weaponless ship to stay in a fight as long as it's actually participating by absorbing fire or dodging enemy ships; the closest thing we have to a rule against it is (debatable anyway and) about "baiting" ships that can't hurt a planet's bases into a suicide attack against a lone scout in orbit. But as I think Arnuz also mentioned after building it, the Needle isn't really a useful design anyway. It's not really much more survivable than a Mask, so we might as well just have another gun in space.
Then there's the Sanitizer: I think I see the idea behind them: Trying to make a 5-rack of Hyper-V rockets pretend it's a ship-to-ship weapon since we really don't have anything that qualifies ... but even so, I find it hard to believe we couldn't do better with a Heavy Laser design or one with 2-rack missiles (the latter definitely without a shield, and probably with Maneuver 2 instead of 3). You can generally fit a pair of 2-racks where you could fit a single 5, especially if you're freeing up space by leaving off defenses that you don't need because the ship doesn't stick around long enough to get shot. And it's incredibly rare for 5 total missiles fired over 5 turns to be better than 4 that do all their damage up front (in the first two turns) when it matters most - and can get out before taking hits. If 2-racks of missiles aren't enough, you're almost always going to be better off with beams (even if it's a lame beam like a heavy laser) that can fire again and again and again than with that one extra missile.
In any case, good luck with this one, Cyneheard! You may need it - there's a good chance we could lose to the vote half-way through your set!
Roster
- Ianus
- shallow_thought
- Arnuz
- utwig - just played! - Cyneheard - UP!
- RefSteel - on deck!
(April 24th, 2020, 14:19)SpaceOWL Wrote: I have a question to all you playing: how long did you take to play your set of turns?
Welcome, SpaceOWL! When I'm playing in an SG, I often spend a long time for my ten turns - this time, two hours or more in total even though it was pretty early - because of interrupting play to take pictures, familiarizing myself with the empire as the turns begin, taking notes for the report, and generally just being slow to play, preferring to linger over each turn. Even I play much more quickly than that when I'm not reporting a game in depth though! In general, my pace is probably not the best basis for comparison.
I agree on battle scanners. Sometimes in late game when I have huge ships I omit battle scanner for some other speciality that is more useful in situation. (Huge planet defender with auto repair, repulsor and warp dissipator).
5 rack vs 2 rack: 2 rack are better for the offence while 5 rack are better for defence. Fire at enemy approaching planet and then retreat. They are OK for offence if opponent doesn't have lots of advanced missile bases. You are also able to fire 5 times which can sometimes have some tactical advantage.
The reason I put lasers is that you can come close to enemy ship, fire and then have the ability to move back. If enemy fleet closes range and you have no lasers, you have to retreat first, then fire which gives enemy better chance to dodge missiles. Or you have to fire and then stay in spot where enemy will fry you with beam weapons. If you have lasers, you can fire from forward position and then move back.
Putting 2x 2 rack would probably be better. Duralloy is discovered and next player has an empty fleet spot, so he can design new ships. I was wondering whether to design new ship but I decided to keep producing existing cheaper design for the couple of turns.
EDIT:
I like sucession game format so we can compare notes and learn new things. 2x2-rack was something I didn't have in my arsenal.
Yeah I dumbed with the scanners. To be fair to myself, I didn't think that we'd stand a chance against a birds fleet, and a ship accompanying the bombers was more of an afterthought. The idea was to hope to catch the planet undefended, with all the fleets they were sending it wasn't completely crazy. Keeping the planet was impossible, but keeping it uncolonized would have at least reduced our enemies by one.
Good job with holding the line at Keep Out! Now it really has an appropriate name
