The 10 Impossible Wins Challenge

[Cyneheard]

This will be a long-running series. Playing each of the races on Medium/Impossible/5 races until there’s a victory – there’s a chance that Large is harder than Medium under Kyrub’s patch, but I definitely won’t be finishing that many Large games, since this is at least 10 games and more likely to be 15-20 (although it's possible the reporting will make me play more carefully & your advice is always welcome). No variants, other than the usual exploit list.

First one? Klackons. I think the Klackons are way better than the Psilons, because early game expansion is so important and the Psilons can’t keep up with that.
This will be Klackons -> Psilons -> Meklar, and then we’ll see where it goes from there. Darloks and Mrrshans will definitely be the hardest (mostly because of Diplomatic issues). Silicoids are powerful, but they’re so different that I don’t know when I’ll want to tackle them. Sakkra are also pretty good because of their potent early game. Humans are so good, although the exploit rules limit some of their abuses. Alkari and Bulrathi bonuses are pretty weak, but at least they don’t quite have the atrocious diplomatic issues of the Darloks and Mrrshans.

EDIT: Status:
Klackons: Victory (Tries required: 1). Method: Extermination in 2492.
Psilons: Victory (Tries required: 1). Method: Diplomatic Victory in 2525 (32/52 votes from myself)
Meklar: One defeat.
Humans:
Silicoids:
Sakkra:
Alkari:
Bulrathi:
Darlok:
Mrrshan:

 
Impossible Klackon 01 (I really hope I don’t have to do double digits for any of the races; Mrrshans may be a real challenge).

Starting map:


There’s 3 worlds within range (Purple, red @ 2 parsecs, and red @ 3 parsecs). This looks really good. This NE corner of the map should pretty trivially be ours. That’s 12 stars we could potentially colonize, depending on habitability/existence.
The blue world to the SW is 6 parsecs from Kholdan01 looks like a really important choke point. I’m going to behave as though there is an AI in the yellow stars that are due south – if neither of those two are occupied, then this game just got much easier. Meklar and Silicoids are unfortunate opponents – Meklar because they can be tech powerhouses with only a few worlds, and Silicoids for obvious reasons.
 
So opening turn:
1) Definitely sending the colony ship with a scout escort because The Guardian has a 2% chance of just ending the game if I don’t.
2) Going with the THREE parsec red star – that way I’ll know where to send the Colony Ship if it turns out to be uninhabitable.
3) I really want to be the first person to get to that blue star to the SW. So that’s the second scout’s destination. It’s a 7t mission because of the nebula, and it’s definitely inside the nebula, so holding it is going to be difficult.
4) see three additional high-priority scouting missions: Purple and 2nd red star, and the green one to the south.
5) The Red, White, and Green stars all to the west are each at 7 parsecs from Kholdan. So they won’t be getting scouts for a while.
6) If I’m going to hold at 6 scouts before getting my 3rd colony, I need to start sending the 6th scout out now so I’m making informed decisions. So that means building 4 scouts on turn 1. Klackons can handle this.

2302:
Uxmai is a size-55 poor world.

But we guessed correctly: Anraq is a size 95 Terran


Send Anraq’s scout to the red world to the south, and Uxmai’s to the green world to the east, who will then head to the white world after that. I send 7M to Anraq – I’m going to keep Kholdan at size 40 until there’s enough pop at Anraq for it to end up at 1/3. About the time I do that, I will go above 6 scouts and make a bunch more in anticipation of forward deployment when we get Range 4 or 5. Getting a scout screen deployed as far and fast as possible is the most important early-game action you can do to secure space against MOO AIs – I’ve found that trying to build fleets to contest worlds I can’t just send a colony ship to rarely works (either the AI sends no guns or absolutely way too many of them most of the time). And that trying to pinch pennies by holding out on full scout deployment tends to lead to pound-foolish decisions and/or lost worlds that could have easily been ours.

Scouting reports start coming in (here’s the map at 2306):



2306: Darloks are spotted. Pretty sure that’s only possible if they’re in the yellow star that’s circled. That’s a little unfortunate, I was hoping to have a little more flexibility, but they’re not the Silicoids and they’ve got an Inferno and a Dead world in the way, so I’m not under any direct pressure from them.

 


2308:

Dilemma on starting tech. I went with Range 5 but think this was a mistake I should have known better about at the time – while I knew Cygni was 5 parsecs away (Size 65 to the north), I forgot to check whether Hyades (Size 45 to the NE) was 4 or 5 parsecs away from Cygni, and it was 4. So I could’ve started with Range 4 and still gotten every currently known world (and unlocked the most important worlds to the west to scout). Anraq is spending 2 turns on seeding the tech, and then it will start trickle research. I’ve shut off transports at this point.

2309:
Order up a round of 9 scouts so they can make sure I’m pre-deploying scouts for when Range 5 comes in, and can ensure there’s no surprises from a Darlok scout getting somewhere they shouldn’t early. This is also because I’m going to be building colony ships very soon, and it’s not possible to switch from those to Scouts if the need arises.

2310: SUCCESS! Paladia is an Artifacts world, and I’ll happily take IIT9 for free, that’s going to jumpstart production nicely.




Here’s the worldview with the first round of scouting complete:


2312: I start a Colony ship for Uxmai (6t build). I’m trickling in a few factories while finishing it in 6 turns. I want to have 3 colony ships ready to go when Range 5 comes in, but we’ll see how that holds up. I'll probably get to 120-140 factories (especially with the discounts!) and start a Huge Prebuild while research is ongoing. Poor worlds are so much better for the Klackons since we'll be skipping factories here through at a minimum the discovery of Range 5. I do tend to build factories in Poor worlds, but they're not a top priority here.
I’m going to stop here for the moment. That’s enough for one post.

[SpaceOWL]

That's nice, I'll be happy to follow your reports!

But... Why 9 and not 10?
Will one race be left aside? :-)

[Cyneheard]

That's nice, I'll be happy to follow your reports!

But... Why 9 and not 10?
Will one race be left aside? :-)

Someone's bad at counting. I'm going to fix that.

EDIT: I forgot Humans of all things. But I don't actually like playing Humans all that much because they're so good at abusing the AI.

[Cyneheard]

Another set of turns in the books.

2316:
Definitely need to do a better job of checking internal distances early – Uxmai is only 3 parsecs from Hyades and that’s only 3 from Paladia (Artifacts), so I’m just going to finish 3 colony ships straight up (first one finishes in two turns – Klackons are broken). Currently at 110 factories, and I anticipate I’ll trickle to 120-130 by the time the next two colships are finished.

2320: Settle Uxmai. Send pop from both worlds over. 3t to the next ship. Uxmai goes on 100% research (and will remain on that through at least the first run of Planetology techs).

2325: Silicoids get the 6-worlds pop up. That’s a little unfortunate. Means they’re almost certainly in the west – if they were in the far south, it would be really hard for them to get to 6 worlds this quickly with the Darloks also existing.

2327: Settle Hyades. Kholdan sends 13 pop to this size-45 world. 1t to Paladia’s colony ship.

2329: Range 5 comes in. Go with Nuclear over Range 6 – because I could get three worlds without getting any range tech, I’m glad I did Range 5 after all. 5 should be plenty, but 4 would have required getting either 5 or 6 before Nuclear Engines, and that could have been costly. Start Planetology. Anraq was almost fully on research to finish Range 5 optimally, but now at Size 74 with 99 factories I have it start the other colony ship (5t) – I think that’s better than having Kholdan finish both ships (4t and then 5t). (This turns out to have been a very good idea looking back from the far future of 2345 since Kholdan has been on non-stop construction for worlds in its range)



2330: IT+10 is the only option. I have Uxmai build its 1 factory.

2331: Seidon (size 60 poor) discovered – it’s 5 from Yarrow which is where Anraq’s ship is headed, so that’s one more world we’ll have.

2332: Darlok homeworld confirmed. Those are unarmed colony ships. I wonder where their population went recently.


2333: Guardian discovered (red just SW of Nazin), and Imra is a size-80 poor jungle world in the nebula. Kholdan finishes its colony ship, and I’m either going to have it build the LR Colship for Imra or we’re going to find another target for a regular ship. Non-Klackons usually can’t go for a Huge LR ship this early, but I think it’s more than worth it here.


2334:
Silicoid scout detected at Antares. This is a Size-90 world, so Kholdan is going to send a ship there first, and then try to get Imra. Paladia is settled, and Anraq finishes its ship. I opened Construction, and took RIW 80% over IIT8 – it’s a little slow, but IIT8 just isn’t that important since we have 9 already, and we’re not getting any other waste reduction for a while.


Here’s the state of production:
Darloks must be a 2PE, maybe they’ve got a third world. Not thrilled with this, but it’s not terribly concerning this early.



2336: Gorra is a 60 poor to the west of Antares, so we’ll be building 2 ships from Kholdan before the LR one. Anraq is going to slip some scouts in once it finishes its last colony ship.

2337: Meklar scout at Imra. This isn’t a huge deal yet, but could mean there’s a time limit for getting Imra and/or we’ll have to send a fleet there once it’s settled.


2338: IT+10 discovered. I start Dead over IT+20 – there’s 4 worlds that unlocks.
Cygni settled.
Some quiet turns, terraforming, moving pop around, and now the only construction project underway is the LR ship for Imra out of Kholdan.

2345: Silicoid contact. Antares settled. They’re at 10 worlds, and clearly have some room to grow. I’m debating whether or not it’s worth building some laser fighters for the barren world out of Anraq, but I suspect they’ll be very obsolete by the time we’d contest it. This seemed like the right time to stop the session.

[SpaceOWL]

Are you really making a Huge colony ship to settle a poor planet inside a nebula? How can you hold that planet?

Apart than that, very nice start, with 8 planets + 1 artifacts, and at least 2 more after discovering Controlled Dead.

[Cyneheard]

Are you really making a Huge colony ship to settle a poor planet inside a nebula? How can you hold that planet?

Apart than that, very nice start, with 8 planets + 1 artifacts, and at least 2 more after discovering Controlled Dead.

As the Klackons? Sure did. I'm not sure I'd have done that with any other race, but the Klackons get much better use out of a Poor world than anyone else and this wasn't a map where I needed early weapons by any stretch.

Actually turns out that Imra isn't in the Nebula after all - I'm confused too by that. But Neptunus to the immediate SE (the Inferno UR) is. 

[Cyneheard]

2346: Anraq finishes its factories. I switch Uxmai to factory construction – the world will be productive eventually and I’d rather start that now. Open up Weapons research and start Controlled Dead as well.

2347: Start Gatling Lasers as the only option. That’s unfortunate. Expensive and the least useful of the lot. Switch Uxmai back to research because I need to push that a little more.
Realize that I’m NOT playing OSG-35 and can use the Diplo screen. Sign a 175BC trade deal with the Silicoids – they should be peaceful for long enough for it to help, and it’s better diplo credit than just doing 25BC (right?).

2349: RIW 80% comes in. Uxmai can go back to factory construction. 4t until the LR Colship is complete.

2351: Settle Gorra. Discover two more terran worlds to the west.
Uxmai goes BACK to research. Anraq needs to be building colony ships.



2352: Unescorted Alkari colony ships get to Imra, kick them back. Kholdan is about to finish its LR ship this very turn.
This is exactly why I rarely bother with building defenses to hold unsettled worlds – I’ll get this world in 8 turns without spending extra BCs that may not have been enough to hold it in any event (and would delay getting one of these worlds), because how large of an Alkari fleet could I afford to defeat?

2353: Meklar send a single 2-rack medium to Kakata (90 poor) – scouts hide behind an asteroid in the corner and take 0 damage, and Silicoids send an unescorted colony ship to Ryoun (95) in the far north.
Toranor discovered in the far SE corner (85, poor) – but it’s 7 parsecs from the Darloks, so I have plenty of time to get a LR ship down there.

2354: Alkari send a Large combat vessel (that doesn’t seem to have missiles) to Kakata – there’s no way I was ever contesting that at a world I didn’t know about in time, when I would need LR ships to even get there. Anraq’s colony ship is therefore going to Ryoun in the far north, since I’m more likely to still be able to get that, than trying to get Kakata the moment I get Imra (due in 2360, unless the Nebula messes up the ETA).
Anraq starts a LR ship for Toranor. I’m still having Kholdan finish its Colony Ship for Kakata, just in case it’s available (and there’s an unknown world west of Ryoun, just in case we get lucky and it’s an option).
We currently have 10 worlds. Toranor should be a lock. We could get anywhere from 1-4 more worlds to the west, and 2-4 worlds (likely 3 – I doubt we hold the Barren near the Silicoids) when Dead comes in. So there’s no reason to do crazy gambits here, just make sure to settle what I can get, defend what has been claimed, and move forward from there.

2359: Imra settled. Spot a Silicoid fleet – looks like it’s headed for Mu Delphi (45 Barren). That’s going to be impossible to beat, and I’m ok with that. Sign a 375BC deal with the Meklar.



2362: Meklar send an armed colony ship to Kakata and grab it. That means I wasted one regular Colony Ship, but that’s not that big of a deal. This also lets me convert to a Large LR ship for Toranor. They’re currently allied with the Alkari.
I decide on Toxic over the other two – it only unlocks 2 worlds, but they’re Ultra Rich (Inferno) and Rich (Toxic), so that seems worth it. Set research to be even across all 6 fields – we’re going to be progressing quickly enough through the tree, and I need to unlock Computers and Force Fields. Research production is about to shoot up, too. It's one less thing to micromanage - sure, there's a cost, and I need to be in that habit in more difficult games.




 


2365: Settle Nordia, but the Meklar show up with an armed colship to Draconis (near Nazin) – it may have been possible to grab Draconis, but I think it would’ve been tough to fight a large gunship, even with only a few guns, with LR Mediums which were my only option.


Vote for Silicoids to get them to 15/23 (we had 7 votes).

2366: Deep Space Scanner comes in, start IRC 3.

2369: Settle Ryoun (95 Terran, near Silicoids).

2370: Settle Denubius (backline Size 30 Barren).

2371: Alkari get all the way out to Toranor and take it. Oh well. They’re on a 3PE, so the Darloks are probably just 1 world (note that Orion is over there too – I doubt the Darloks got the purple). I’m going to start some Nuclear NPG fighters once NPG comes in the next couple of turns, and leave some stacks over a few worlds.
Mrrshans are not in good shape either. So there’s only two real AIs – Meklar and Silicoid, as I guessed back in 2300. Realize I need to defend Neptunus, so I crash some Nuclear Laser fighters first, though, out of Anraq.



2372: NPG comes in, start Neutron Blaster.

2373: Meklar grab Neptunus, the Inferno UR. I’m sending some NPG fighters to bomb it out – a hot war with the Meklar is worth keeping this world clear, and they don’t have any ships there. Silicoids are sending an escorted colony ship up to Ryoun, NPG fighters are heading there as well and if they’re not there in time, will be more than sufficient to clear out the Silicoid fleet. That nebula really messes with timing.

2375: Vote was 6 Silicoid votes for themselves, 12 abstentions, and our 9 votes for the Silicoids. Silicoids got to Ryoun first – turns out they have Death Spores on their Colony Ship. NPGs are 1 turn too slow.

2376: Clear out Neptunus completely (NPGs bomb it successfully - that should have been a sign this was Nebula world), and the 1 Medium + Colony Ship above Ryoun; some Death Spores hit but the NPGs take no ship casualties. 25 Silicoid troops are incoming, but there will be at least 49 NPG fighters (who will then decamp for Rigel to the west the moment the transports are destroyed), or possibly 63. The Nebula messes up projections on how long stuff takes to get anywhere.

2378: IRC 3 comes in, only option is ECM III.

2379: PDS comes in, start Planetary V (yay!). Gorra gets a plague, so be it. So now we're at 14 worlds, hoping to grab 3 more over the next set of turns (2 with Toxic, and the Barren to the far NW - that one has to be just out of range of the Silicoids).

[Cyneheard]

2380: Shoot down all the Silicoid transports. Over 1k research points to cure the plague at Gorra – who’s currently only making 78. Antares has sent 20 transports to help keep them full, but it’s still a 10t setback there.

2381: Well that’s what I get for making the Meklar mad. This shows up at Imra – can’t take it on without ~200 NPGs. Imra has shields after all, that’s surprising. Clear some Meklar Colony Ships at Neptunus, but they do take out 14 NPGs.


2382: And somehow the Nemesis disappears in the inter-turn. Well that’s convenient. But there’s a new Meklar fleet – 1 Huge Annihilator, and 1 Medium Intruder (which have been useless in combat), that appears to be headed for Imra. I’m sending NPGs from Kholdan, Anraq and Antares, and it’s rebuilding bases, so there should be a decent fleet there in time.

2391: The Annihilator looks like it was passing past Imra. Sublight comes in, go back and get Inertial Stabilizer before deciding on Fusion vs Range 8.

2392: Toxic comes in. Take Soil Enrichment over Radiated – that’s well worth delaying one back-line world for.
A few more turns, just moving along – reporting is going to go down at this point I think because this game is in cruise control and it’s just a matter of getting weapons that can attack our opponents.
-         Grab the two worlds that Toxic opened up.
-         Meet the Darloks. Trade for Hyper X (you can have RIW 60% in your 1-planet empire, that’s fine).

2398: Planetary V comes in, start Repulsor Beam. Meklar are heading for Simius, and I can’t get a defense fleet over there in time. Need to consider how best to clear out this world.
Couldn’t sustain the Imperium-level of reporting, sorry. This game was such a lock I just wanted it over with.

2425 Overview:



Stinger Missiles came in, started Omega-Vs over Megabolts. Backfilling Range 8 after Fusion Drives before getting Impulse – can’t live on Range 5 forever and we should be going on the offensive soon. I’ve started some 2-rack Stinger missile boats to see if we can get some easy worlds (Darloks are in terrible shape so they should be easy). IRC IV and Soil came in, so research is booming. We have Atmospheric Terraforming, getting that after Radiated.

2427: Radiated came in.

2428: Stole IT+60 (only had +10 before!) from the Meklar. This game is over, I just need to actually win it.

2450: Darloks are dead. Alkari are dying. I’ll invade the Meklar next, but I was nice when they offered peace while the Alkari declared war and moved them down the target list. Omega-V Huge bombers, and now Auto-Blasting Huge ships, on top of the 200 Stinger 2-rack boats that led the charge. Atmospheric Terraforming is in, working on Adv Soil. Everyone hated me, so I couldn’t win this time.



2474: This should be over in 2475, I hope. The Meklar never got a single missile, so while they had decent shields, the Omega V bombers were immune to their counter-attacks and could just chew through their bases at leisure.







2475: Was just short. 38/58 votes for myself. Oh well. I guess we’ll be exterminating the Ais over these 25 turns.

2492: Extermination Victory. Mu Deplhi was the last world I sent a fleet to (it had the advantage of already being explored – that saved a turn as I could invade it the same turn I took control of the skies). I also used Hyperspace Communication (grabbed from the Meklar pretty late) where I’d send troops on a 3-4t journey to an existing world, and then redirect them to a newly available world while in transit. That’s how I went from the 2474 map to winning in 18t – while taking over every single world and building them up as though I were playing a longer game.
Silicoids and Meklar never discovered any missile techs whatsoever. For how advanced their tech was, this was not expected.

FIRST VICTORY.

Klackons are overpowered, and this was a very friendly map.

[Cyneheard]

Decided to run the Psilons next. Meklar, Humans and Silicoids in some order will follow, and then the second half of The Challenge will be the harder ones.

Here's the opener:



Absolutely building scouts ASAP for these eastern worlds - I need to blind the AIs as much as possible, and know what's going on. This map is very dependent on where the AIs are and how friendly the neighborhood is for settlement. No Silicoids, Meklar or Humans is good. These AIs are liable to hate one another.

I think I have to go for the SE red world (that isn't delayed by the nebula) instead of going north, right? The Nebula looks like it should get in the way, but the game is saying 3t which sounds like a lie.

[RefSteel]

Thanks for posting these, Cyneheard! They look like fun! I basically never build Huge LR colships myself: Even as Klackons, I'd rather take advantage of their Construction excellence to get the miniaturization for a colony base on an LR Large. That does demand a little cooperation from the tech tree though....

On the Psilon game, I agree that the southern red star looks more promising, but I'd probably send a scout out to each (with the colship accomanying the southern one) just to be sure (and hoping the northern scouting report comes in first, as it's likely to do but not guaranteed).