The 10 Impossible Wins Challenge

[Cyneheard]

Follow Ref’s plan to send a second scout straight north, and build 3 scouts over 2300 for the yellow and white to the east, and green to the south – they’re the ones that need screened from AIs as much as possible. I’ll build more scouts AFTER the first colony is built.

2303: Settle Gienah (size 75 Poor); Maalor is Size 75 normal which is not worth a 7t delay to settling the first world for, especially since this one is much better positioned for scouting outward. Put Gienah’s 1 RP on Propulsion (since it can’t even build Factory #1)

2304: Take Range 5 over Range 4 – it’s cheap enough, and we don’t need a Range tech immediately because of Maalor. Just a sense of the local context:



2306: Sakkra found at Aurora (30 Tundra):



2308: Good news and bad news.
Good news: Bootis (white star to the east of Gienah) is an Artifacts world, with Nuclear Engines. It’s also only 3 parsecs from Gienah.



And Uxmai is a Size 95 terran that’s only 3 parsecs from Bootis.
BUT Uxmai has a Mrrshan scout around it.

2309:
Klackon colony ship chased away from the Tundra world in the nebula.



2325: Range 5 comes in, I go for Sublight there, but switch Gienah to build its 1 factory and start Construction/Planetology. I also finish my first colony ship, and send it to Uxmai.
Before starting the second colony ship, I build a round of Scout 2.0s for all of these worlds.

2326: Only options are IIT 9 and Barren (we’ve seen multiple Tundras, so this is pretty useless)

2328: The Alkari have built 6 worlds.

Since the Klackons and Mrrshans are in the center, and Sakkra to the south, the Alkari are most likely in the single gold to the center south – the far SE corner is pretty far away from stuff and would take a massive string of luck to get to 6 worlds this quickly.

2332 scouting update. Klackons have a filled-with-transports world (37 pop) at Centauri.



2333: Mrrshans (Fierias proper) confirmed at the yellow north of the Nebula.

2334: Settle Bootis. Barren comes in, start Tundra over Death Spores (That works – I do want IT+30 and/or Enhanced Eco, but Tundra is very important).

2335: Kholdan confirmed at the yellow in the nebula.

2337: IIT9 comes in, start Duralloy over IIT8, but move research to the essential Tundra.

2338: Alkari scout detected near the Sakkra homeworld.



2340: Settle Maalor (75 Terran). Draconis (90 Terran) next, then Guradas (60 Poor) next, and hopefully Tundra comes in soon enough after that.

2345: Alkari also seen at Klystron, near Fierias. That’s a little scary that they’re accessing essentially the entire map – they could be a runaway, but they’re one of the less scary runaways at least. Could you imagine if this was the Meklar???



2347: Settle Draconis. Finishing the Guradas ship next turn. Tundra is in percentages.

2351: Settle Guradas. Tundra comes in, take Enhanced Eco over Inferno or Toxic (which would have been Toxic – 1 known Infernos, but 3 Toxic). Switch research to Computers/Force Fields/Weapons.

2352: Start Deep Space (over ECM I), Shields II, and Hand Lasers (over Gatling).

2357: Hand Lasers comes in. Start Hyper-X over Fusion Bomb and Ion Cannon – that’s enough to keep me defended for a while, and I don’t see Ion Cannon wars in the near future.

2358: Settle Proxima in the nebula. Make contact with FOUR AIs from this (that may be a personal record for a single settlement). Boxes are around all of their capitals.
Alkari: Honorable Ecologist. Sign 150 BC deal.
Klackons: Aggressive Industrialist. Sign 150 BC deal.
Darloks: Aggressive Diplomat. Sign 150 BC deal.
Mrrshans: Aggressive Militarist. Sign 125 BC deal.
There’s a BIG short-term economic hit from this, but I’ve built almost all the colony ships I need for a while, and factories are still coming in well enough.



2360: Settle Aurora.

2362?: Discover Antares (60 Poor) SW of Aurora, but in range.

2367: Settle Vox.

2373: Settle Antares, but there’s Alkari headed there too (colony ship, 1 large, 12 smalls), so I settle but don’t bother sending troops or anything there. Also, the Alkari used their Alliance with the Sakkra to send a Colony Ship to Vox – that’s at LEAST Range 9, if not 10.

2374: Pirates show up at Reticuli (which is not mine – it’s Darlok). Definitely regretting the big trade deals now.

2379: IRC 3 comes in.

2380: Antares falls to the Alkari.

2387: Enhanced Eco comes in. Start Toxic to be faster than Radiated (which picks up just one world), and can’t do IT+40 first.

2394: Toxic is about to come in. Alkari send troops from Antares, and they go past Aurora in one turn – they’ve got ION Engines already.

2395: Toxic comes in, and the Mrrshans declare war. They only have one world, so whatever (and they’re at war with lots of people). I’m working on getting all 5 Toxic ships build (2 from the capital, 1 from each of the other 3 maxed out worlds – Maalor, Draconis, and Uxmai)
Here’s an overview of where things stand now:

Alkari have 9 worlds total - 8 in the south, and 1 in the far northeast. Sakkra have 2. The other 3 AIs combine for 8 - I'm really confused about the SE corner being so wide open at this point, since clearly the Alkari can access it but maybe their Planetology is awful? I'm tempted to get a LR (Huge) Tundra after the Toxic colony ships (and get some combat escorts together - Medium Hyper-Xs aren't my favorite but it's what I've got), to see if I can then grab some of that SE as well.



AI screens:

Alkari tech lead doesn’t feel as impressive as you might think, given that they have ION ENGINES (those transports left Antares TWO turns ago).



Tech Path:
Computers: Deep Space Scanner -> IRC III -> (In progress: Improved Space Scanner)
Construction: IIT9 -> (In progress: Duralloy)
Force Fields: Shields II -> (In Progress: PDS)
Planetology: Controlled Barren -> Controlled Tundra -> Enhanced Eco -> Controlled Toxic -> (In Progress: IT+40)
Propulsion: Range 5 -> Nuclear Engines (Thanks Artifacts!) -> (In Progress: Sublight)
Weapons: Hand Lasers -> Hyper-X -> (In Progress: Neutron Blaster)

Worlds:
Yes, I am building factories in my Poor worlds. Now seems like a pretty good time to do so – things are stable, and I’m investing for the long-term.




So a SE push would end this game very quickly if successful - that would get me to 20ish worlds naturally, and this is the Psilons so that's way more than enough to win. Frankly even turtling up with 15 worlds (albeit 2 poor ones) would probably work, but the easiest worlds to take are the ones you don't have to invade. And with just Neutron Blasters and backfilling for Fusion Bombs, I would be able to clear out something in the 2420-2450ish era.

I think the cost of going for the SE is modest enough to go for it, but filling out the nearby Toxics are the first priority - no reason to overextend and find myself on the back foot because I did too much at once and neglected the economy. I don't see any reason to rush for the Dead to the NE - that doesn't unlock much, just one extra world at most, but clearly the AIs aren't capable of settling the Southeast so I should be able to. Of course, as soon as I write this, the Alkari or Darloks are going to finish like Controlled Radiated and all of a sudden that SE is full.

[Cyneheard]

2398: 4 Toxics complete. Operation Thrax begins – Uxmai will build the LR Tundra (7t), and I’m building some Hyper-X 5-racks out of Draconis and Maalor to leave Uxmai the same turn.

2401: Settle Iranha (30 Rich) and Klystron (30). Trigger an election.

24 votes total, vs. Alkari:
Alkari: 7 for Alkari
Klackons: 3 for Klackons
Darloks: 3 Abstain
Sakkra: 3 for Alkari
Mrrshan: 1 for Alkari
Us: 7 for Abstain. We HAVE to have IT+40 in before the 2425 election, so really by 2415 at the latest. 

2403: Settle Drakka (10). Meet the Sakkra.

2404: Settle Willow (30). Strike a trade deal with the Sakkra.

2405: Finish the LR Tundra, and PDS comes in. Planetary V is in the tree, but I cut Force Field spending for Planetology.

2406: Settle Neptunus (size 10).

2409: Duralloy comes in, start RIW 60%, but also move that spending to Planetology.

2411: Settle Thrax. IMMEDIATELY get a Comet event at Thrax. Good thing I’ve got a stack of 42 Hyper-Xs that are just 2t away. I’m not going to bother building more ships, but they ought to be enough, I hope.

2412: Improved Scanners comes in, start IRC IV. Find that F8 is blank, which reduces quite a bit of stress given the large number of fleets floating around everywhere.

2413: Sublight comes in, start Fusion over Range 8. Range 8 would be nice, but it’s not essential enough to warrant waiting for decent combat speed. I can now build a LR Toxic on a Large vessel, so I start one for Crypto (the Dead 30 to the NE) – why not? 2 AI fleets are heading for the Barren Proteus just east of Thrax – so much for grabbing that world.

2414: Neutron Blaster comes in. Start Anti-Matter Bomb over Fusion Beam or backfilling Scatter V.

2415: Discover 2 possible worlds past Thrax – a Tundra 50 (Mobas), and an Inferno 30 (Phyco). Klackons grabbed Proteus, but seem to have broken their Darlok alliance so that could get interesting.

2416: IT +40 comes in. Start Atmospheric Terraforming (HUZZAH)! Time to start massive terraforming efforts.

Some unknown date between 2416 and 2422: The comet at Thrax is destroyed.

2422: Settle Crypto in the NE. I look to be in safe veto-proof territory, and I’m at peace with everyone.

2423: Settle Mobas. 18 worlds notification.

2424: Settle Phyco.

2425 ballot:
29 votes total. Alkari get 7 (self), 5 (Klackons), and 3 (Sakkra) for 15. Mrrshans give me 1 vote, Darloks Abstain for 3, and I abstain for 10 (so just barely veto-proof). Very glad I pushed IT+40 exactly as aggressively as I did – without it, I would have been at risk, and trusting the Darlok is never a good place to be.
But we’ll be very comfortable at the next one – all of these worlds have 10-30 pop to grow, and we’ve got a few more to settle, too.

2426: Klystron gets hit with the Rich event.

2427: Omicron in the NE will be world #20, and then I’ll need Radiated to get to 22 worlds, and war to get more than that. Planetary Shield comes in, start Deflect V over Repulsor. That’s also a three-shield upgrade, quite useful.

2433: Omicron settled. Darloks propose a NAP, which I happily accept because I don’t have any meaningful scout screens – Radiated worlds don’t matter. RIW 60% comes in, start Zortium.

2435: Alkari hit Willow – I hadn’t built the shield yet, they had bombs, and I had 0t of warning. Start building some Large Neutron Blaster ships to fight back.

2436: Willow fights off ground troops, and is down to 16 pop between bombs and ground troops. Help is on the way, though. Antimatter Bomb comes in, start Megabolt.

2437: Only having BC I is a huge problem here. Can’t do anything to these Alkari ships, and their weapons are pretty awful (2 heavy lasers – they’re loaded with Fusion Bombs though). I already have troops on the way to reinforce Willow…so a hot war with the Alkari is coming.

Trade RIW 60% and Enhanced Eco (one each) to the:
Alkari for BC III. Klackons for Shield IV. Mrrshans for Merc missiles. I’ve also got Fusion Drives now (start Range 9), so design some new Large Blast 4.0s with these new toys.

2439: Mrrshans declare war. Whatever.

2440: Willow retaken. Alkari declare war as expected. IRC IV comes in, start BC VI over ECM V.
Drakka may be impossible to hold, however. Most of those are bomb- or spore-ships, and I don’t have Shield V up, much less any missiles. Willow doesn't have the ships to take that much on, even if they are lightly armed in the gun/missile department.

[Cyneheard]

This is a short mid-playset update, because you'll see.

2440 Recap:
Oh right, can’t even send the Willow ships to Drakka because they need to kill some incoming transports. Willow is a slightly bigger world, and I know I can save it, so I let Drakka go for now. We’ll be back though.

2441:
Sakkra declare war as well. Also not relevant. Check diplo – Klackons are also allied with the Alkari (so 3 alliances total – only no Darloks, who we have a NAP with). Good thing we’ve got veto power.
Neptunus has a similar Alkari fleet headed for it.

2442: Drakka and Neptunus both destroyed. Alkari have Controlled Toxic so they can go for resettling, we’ll see if that happens. I have a limited desire to go for the spud worlds while trying to defend everything else – I need basically everyone at 10 bases because the Alkari have an absurd amount of speed and range.

2443: Thrax gets an Alkari welcoming present that it can’t touch. Drakka settled by the Alkari.

2444: Thrax destroyed. Neptunus settled by the Alkari.

2445: Well this is bizarre. I just need to keep Willow alive, I guess.



I can’t. Those ships don’t die fast enough. I killed TWO Wareagles before time ran out, and the rest of the fleet just barely wiped out Willow’s 68 population – the Wareagles never dropped a bomb on Willow.
Atmospheric comes in, start Controlled Radiated. Any world that doesn’t have its Shield V up is skipping Atmospheric for now, though. Just trying to “hide” those worlds a bit from the AI.

Has anyone seen an AI go so bomb-centric and completely ignore actual weapons of any kind?

[SpaceOWL]

2442: Drakka and Neptunus both destroyed. Alkari have Controlled Toxic so they can go for resettling, we’ll see if that happens. I have a limited desire to go for the spud worlds while trying to defend everything else – I need basically everyone at 10 bases because the Alkari have an absurd amount of speed and range.

Has anyone seen an AI go so bomb-centric and completely ignore actual weapons of any kind?

That's not usual, but it's very very dangerous - fast, long range, Alkari-high-defense glassing squads.

If I was in your shoes I think I would be doing this:
1) create not a line of defense but a BAND - maybe this means ALL your big enough planets;
2) choose one Bird world to invade and steal tech (if necessary - what else they have in the tree?); 
3) glass back every other Alkari world you have range to reach - gotta push them back! and 
4) research repulsors and make large (if they have no guns, huge hulls would be too big) bird-killing ships in the backline to break out of the stalemate.

(man it's awful to reply using the phone - it keeps messing up all the words!  )

[Cyneheard]

This is getting intense and difficult. I think once BC VI and Megabolts come in, I should be able to get fleets that start chewing through these Alkari ships, but when will that happen and at what cost?

2446: Deflector V comes in, start Planetary X. Send a new colony ship to Willow (who’s going to take some work to get back – max pop is currently 13 because of the bioweapons).

2447: Resettle Willow. Another Alkari fleet showed up, they ran off since their bombs are useless in space. But this could get tedious – the Alkari can guarantee any world spud status if it can’t stop the initial wave.

2450: Bootis is simply wiped out by the Alkari. They just showed up, tore through the 10 bases, and that was it. There goes the forward Rich world - that's brutal. I'd have needed like 40-50 bases to have survived here, I think - and that might not have been enough. These ships are tough as nails.

Voting came in – our 12/31 votes was enough for a veto, but everyone else voted for the Alkari. That's another risk.

2452: Sakkra have a death-spore heavy fleet and destroy Willow. I at least wipe them out (losing 2 Blast 4s, and the 22ish Hyper-Xs that were around doing so).

2454: Re-invade Bootis and take it back.
Plauge at PsiCap…that’s unfortunate timing.

2455: Re-settle Willow.

2457: Iranha destroyed and resettled by Alkari immediately.
Willow destroyed by Alkari, then the Klackons win the battle against our ships for the world, settle the world, and then our troops that were already en route come back and re-take Willow during the exact same turn.
This is a very bumpy ride – these Alkari ships are absolutely impossible to kill, and while they have no anti-ship capabilities, it’s impossible to build enough to keep them from destroying whatever worlds they want to.

[SpaceOWL]

I must say, I've never seen ships so high in defense before... the small bombers have speed 5 and defense 13!!

Well, to me, top priority right now is to defend your economic core, your maxed-out worlds. If you lose economic power or the council veto, you're toast.

As the enemy has ridiculous long range and speed, you can't just build tons of bases... You've seen it doesn't work. You need to keep them away from your core.

The only way I see is to keep glassing anything in the center of the board - and I wouldn't even bother sending any colony ships now - and maybe some of the Alkari outer worlds, to deny them the range to reach your core worlds. Maybe you will need bombers with reserve fuel tanks for this...

Then you stall as long as you need to come up with a design that can actually hold your position, and then you resume expanding.

I think Repulsor beams could be useful here. I never really used too much of it, but maybe with two different repulsor ships, one above and the other below the planet, you can back away their fleet and prevent them to bomb the planet...

[Cyneheard]

2442: Drakka and Neptunus both destroyed. Alkari have Controlled Toxic so they can go for resettling, we’ll see if that happens. I have a limited desire to go for the spud worlds while trying to defend everything else – I need basically everyone at 10 bases because the Alkari have an absurd amount of speed and range.

Has anyone seen an AI go so bomb-centric and completely ignore actual weapons of any kind?

That's not usual, but it's very very dangerous - fast, long range, Alkari-high-defense glassing squads.

If I was in your shoes I think I would be doing this:
1) create not a line of defense but a BAND - maybe this means ALL your big enough planets;
2) choose one Bird world to invade and steal tech (if necessary - what else they have in the tree?); 
3) glass back every other Alkari world you have range to reach - gotta push them back! and 
4) research repulsors and make large (if they have no guns, huge hulls would be too big) bird-killing ships in the backline to break out of the stalemate.

(man it's awful to reply using the phone - it keeps messing up all the words!  )

Sorry, missed this. The situation was weird because the Alkari were only hitting that one set of worlds - my one core between PsiCap and the Kholdan nebula, even though they had range on basically everything I had. And the other AIs were so anemic this game. Bootis (Artifacts), Willow (stuck in Minimal Hostile for basically forever during this), and Iranha (Rich) were the only things they went after, besides Thrax that I conceded immediately (for a lot of this, I could no longer reach Thrax because I had Range 5, and it was 7 away from anything! I'd grabbed it with an LR ship way back when, and then settled way past it).

They had functionally no guns, so I could have used Large Repulsors to defend them (I'd have needed 3 different types and just formed a Maginot line). But Megabolts + BC VI was enough to start shooting them down, and came in before I could have finished Planetary X + Repulsors (if I even had Repulsors in the tree) - getting to +10 to hit was more than enough, especially with just how bad those ships were at ship-to-ship combat. This also meant that I had a fast tech solution - building ships everywhere wasn't nearly as useful as pushing the tech through. A counter-attack would not have been an option, however, because even if I built the Antimatter bombers to chew through the missile bases (which I had the tech for), I couldn't force the Alkari ships that had guns to retreat, and without Bolts/BC VI, I couldn't realistically kill those ships either - and having my ships out of position for 4 turns would have been too much and risked losing the spuds to even the Klackons or Sakkra.

The Alkari started getting pulled in too many directions for their own good - I basically had those 3 spud worlds for 20 years, and the one lost world. Psilon economic advantage wins out in the long-term anyway.

I'll post the report for the rest of this one tomorrow.

[Cyneheard]

2461: Retake Iranha. It has 221 factories but only 4 pop – so we grab a bunch of techs, including Ion Drives and Range 8, from the Alkari.

2462: Willow destroyed again, this time by Sakkra having hundreds of Ion fighters.

2463: BC VI and Megabolt come in. Design this ship as the most BC-efficient way of getting Megabolts into play (and Huge ships would take too long for even Rich Klystron to build). I could fit 1 Bolt on a Medium, but that was 1/7th cost for 1/8th the firepower and would have no shields (just 6 Maneuver) – not an improvement at all. Shields aren’t especially essential against the Alkari, but I don’t want to be a paper tiger against the rest of my enemies. Sakkra have hundreds of Ion fighters floating around, so this doesn’t worry about those, but no shields definitely would.



2464: And PsiCap is now Plague-Free. That was costly. I’m really hoping to end this war with the Alkari, that will let me just be.

2465: Willow resettled again. Just 1 Bolt cruiser more than doubled my damage to Alkari ships (I had like 12 Neutron Blaster Large vessels on BC III in the same fight), although it’s going to take more like 10-20 of them to get through the Alkari in a reasonable length of time. Still, this is a game-changer because I can now whittle down these massive stacks.
At some point around here, Controlled Radiated comes in and I start Bio-Toxin Antidote. There’s a TON of Death Spores floating around, and with Planetary X also coming in soon, I should be quite safe from Fusion Bombs and Death Spores, aka “what I seem to be facing infinite amounts of”

2467: Trade Fusion Drives to the Sakkra for peace. Trade Range 8 to the Mrrshans for peace. Trade Controlled Radiated to the Alkari for peace.

Controlled Radiated to the Alkari scares me the most.

I was likely going to lose Bootis to the Alkari, and was not keen on a firefight with the Sakkra over Willow. Mrrshans are "because I can", and Range 8 doesn't make their OPE any scarier than it was before. Now I can started some Rad 6.0s and grab those last few worlds (which are scout-screened, so the peace treaty should protect me from the Alkari).

2468: Settle Yarrow (Rad 10).

2469: Planetary X comes in, start Shield VII.

2470: Settle Hyboria (Rad 30). Range 9 comes in, start HEF.

2475: Voting.
34 votes:
Alkari get 8 from themselves, 4 from the Klackons, and 1 from the Mrrshans.
I get 2 from the Darloks and 3 from the Sakkra.
I abstain with 16.
Voting is not a threat.

2478: Steal Inertial Stabilizer from the Mrrshans (framing the Alkari), and still get a Mrrshan war declared on me. Whatever.

2480: Steal Adv Eco (Alkari) and IT +20 (Klackons). Trying to get Soil out of the Alkari.
Iranha attacked by an Alkari fleet. I go from 15 missile bases to 2, but they survive the bombing runs by just waiting it out. They’ve got a HEF Megabolt/Fusion Bomb hybrid (so my own Bolts are outgunned a bit), but the missile bases now deal actual damage to them. As long as I can get 20 bases in each front-line world, I should be fine. And they lost a good chunk of their bombs.

2482: Got back up to 15 bases at Iranha (had moved the fleet to Willow since it’s still recovering – was down at size 10 and I couldn’t get Atmospheric Terraforming to stick for the longest time) – and the Alkari struck again. But because ECM VI had come in the interim, I only lost 3 bases and wiped out most of their fleet. The Wareagles had been the primary target – they were 20 in 2480, and were 11 in 2482, and now they’re all dead.



2484: Alkari return again. I lose 2 bases, and wipe out the last of their non-fighters from that fleet, and like 30 of the fighters. They and the Sakkra officially declare war.

2487: I had picked up Scatter VII through my own research, and a few random ones through stealing, and wipe out the Alkari bombers at Bootis without losing a single base. For some reason, Scatter VII destroys small craft, even Alkari ones at Speed 5.

2492: HEF comes in, I start building Huge HEF Bolt ships at Iranha and Klystron. I’ll start churning out bombers in a second as well, and then start going on the offensive. Probably clearing out the small fry, and saving the Alkari (save maybe for their lone NE world) for the end.

2500 vote is inconclusive by 1 – I needed 29/43 and only got 28. Thanks Mrrshans.


2502: Steal Soil from the Alkari.

2503: Get IRC V.

2506: Alkari declare war again. So be it.

2509: Klackons only have 7 points of shielding, and Hyper-V rockets. They’re so, so, so very dead. Although I’m going to need Fusion Rifle from them if I’m going to conquer them efficiently. That’s going to require another 2t to get some more troops in play.



2511: Take Centauri. Don’t get Fusion Rifle, but I do get IRC 4, which is a huge improvement.

2517: Get Planetary XV from the Klackons when I took Kronos. Also got IT + 60.

2518: Get Kholdan. It comes with Industrial Waste Elimination and Fusion Rifle.

2521: Grab Fierias. Mrrshans eliminated.



2524: Take Thrax and Proteus (leaving the Klackons with 1 world). Somehow they’ve picked up Adv Soil!?!?!? Well that’s convenient. I’m hopefully going to win on the interturn so it won’t do anything, but if I don’t, that’s amazing. At some point in the past couple turns, I signed treaties with the Sakkra and Darloks - they seemed to like my bombing campaigns.

2525: Victory. That peace was essential, as 32/52 wasn’t enough by itself.



Two down, eight to go. That Alkari mid-game glassing fleet was a challenge, but good AI management (and a little luck when they had 4M pop at Iranha but still had its factories) and Psilon research turned the tide. The AI generally struggles with consolidating gains against a human (especially since they LOVE to yank their fleets the moment they take a world), but the Alkari were especially ill-suited to trying to protect their missile base-less worlds.

[Cyneheard]

Since this might impact my starting scouting decisions - can AI spawn at a 7-parsecs distance from the human player? I know 6 is impossible and 8 is possible.

Here's the Meklar opener (color codes correspond with their distance from Mek Cap 01):



I'm thinking send the colony ship to the red to the east, second scout due south to that red (so I know which world to go for if I miss), and start getting scouts out ASAP because I could have AIs trying to settle these worlds very very soon. There's either 9 or 10 yellows (depending on the 7-parsec rule).

This is my first game with Humans - that's a potential wild card because Humans as the opponents are super dangerous. It's more likely the Klackons or the Silicoids get the fast start, but there's some horribly-laced yellow stars so there could be multiple non-contending AIs.

[Cyneheard]

Meklar.
ROBOTS ONLINE.

Depending on where the AIs are and, if they’re near, how they settle their openers, this could be a cakewalk or a little hairy. Very important to try and keep the AIs from moving towards me, and that’s a serious risk with nearby yellows that have 3-parsec jumps towards me.

So, opening turn:
Colony ship + Scout to the red to the east, second scout to the south – if I guess wrong, I want to not guess wrong twice. Absolutely building 3 scouts on turn 1.

2303: Well then. The red to the east is the Guardian. Vulcan to the south is a Size 50, so I send the Colony Ship that way.



2305:
Settle Vulcan. Paladia to the NE (range 5, have to keep that in mind) is a Size 45 Artifacts – comes with Battle Suits. Crypto is Size 80 at the green to the north.



2307: Silicoids are in the north. Discover 4 new colonizable worlds – but they’re all poor or ultra poor. And we’re MEKLAR, so that’s extra punishing. That could make things extra interesting.



2308: Alkari send a fighter to Kulthos, the NE Poor world (size 85). I order up a LR Fighter (with 4 lasers, thanks Battle Suits) from the Mek Cap to defend that.

2310: Send the LR Fighter to Kulthos. Open up research in Propulsion – and it’s only Range 4, which doesn’t help solve my contested worlds. I need 5 to get to Kulthos and Paladia.

2321: Blow up a single Alkari fighter at Kulthos. I’m not sure if it can hold long enough for me to get through Range 4 AND Range 6, though. Or what kind of fleet would be sufficient. Start my first colony ship (at 124 factories).

2330: Settle Crypto. Almost done with Range 4.

2333: Range 4 comes in. Start Range 6 (only choice). That’s a break, although 3240 RP is a massive amount.

2338: Settle Toranor (105 Fertile UP). Meet the Humans. Sign a 50BC deal.


2339: Alkari should up with a Large vessel at Kulthos. Make contact (they’re Range 5).
So I sign a 50BC deal with the Alkari as well. Then I decide to take a huge risk – trade them Battle Suits for Range 5 tech. Switch research to mostly Planetology, start factory construction in Vulcan, and hold the colony ship for a turn to send it to Paladia (the Artifacts world). This will either be a brilliant decision or a terrible one (by giving the Alkari 2 rungs on the Construction ladder). I THINK this is the correct decision, but it’s definitely high-risk – if Battle Suits was more helpful as a tech (and not just tech level), I’d have been a little more skeptical of this. Them being at 4 worlds, and not the lead, helped a bit too.



2340: Choose IT+10 over Barren (no Barren worlds in sight).

2342: Alkari settle Paladia – they just sent the same fleet over. I don’t want to know how many ships I’d have needed to have won the first fight, but it’s probably “at least the two colony ships I’ve built, and even then would they have gotten there in time?”.

2345: Well never mind. The turn my colony ship would have arrived at Paladia, the Klackons show up with 57 small fighters escorting a colony ship of their own. Congratulations on your war with the Alkari.

2351: Found Talas (60 Poor to the north). I’m 1t away from getting to Kailis, but that also goes for the Humans with these 5 Gunboats. I have 1 LR Fighter in the mix (more small fighters with a Shield I are on the way from Vulcan, but will get here too late for this fight). The 2nd LR Ftr is heading for the toxic to the east, that may end up being a costly mistake.



2352: Not a problem. The 5 Gunboats go down after getting just 1 hit in total (all 4 lasers hit for 4 kills in one turn, some lucky rolls there). Kailis founded.

2354: Well this could be interesting:


2355: Klackons take Paladia and make contact. I do NOT try to sign a trade deal with them, as they’re very likely to turn around and lose Paladia immediately, and then I’d be “dishonorable” for breaking the treaty. They are not Sedimin (I guess that’s the Silicoids?). Darlok must be in one of the two corners of the map.



2356: Ugh. This could be an issue.


2357: IT+10 comes in, start IT+20 over Death Spores. Darloks confirmed in NE corner.

2358: The 30 daggers one-shot 5 Ftrs, so I retreat the single LR Ftr. Mek Cap scraps its plans for a Colony Ship to build a stack of 36 fighters. Hopefully I can get everything over there before the AI gets transports to Kailis. Zhardan (40 Desert) founded.

2361: End producing fighters, and switch Mek Cap back to the last 2 Colony Ships.
Decide Paladia is secure enough for the Klackons to risk signing a 100BC Trade Deal.
Just to give you a sense of how anemic factory construction has been:



2367: Fight for Kailis. End up with 61 Ftrs and 1 LR Ftr, and destroy all 30 daggers. Klackon transports due in next turn.



2368: 0 Klackon transports survive to land.

2371: Mek Cap can finally get to factory construction. All colony ships created.

2373: Found Whynil (80 Ocean).

2375: Range 6 comes in, start Sublight (only option). Equalize research. Vote for Klacons with our 5 votes, getting them to 13/27 (they had 8).

2376: Start ECM I (only choice), Shield II, and Hand Lasers (over Hyper-V)

2378: Alkari colony ships appear out of nowhere. Really confused where they might be headed.



2379: Found Tauri (70 Arid). The colony ships are headed for Tauri ?!?!?! (leveraging their Humans alliance for sure) and Escalon (Radiated). Look how far that is from Iranha!



2380: They can’t settle Escalon, but Tauri is a problem.

2382: The Human alliance with the Alkari disappeared. I have no idea if that means there are still troops headed that way – I think not, because the Colony Ship is no longer there. There’s some fighters headed down that way, I guess they’ll just stay there for a turn or two then head to Toranor/Kailis.
Whynil rebels (17 mil) – send 18 from Crypto and 10 from Mek Cap to take it back.
Got ECM and Hand Lasers, started IRC III and Ion Cannon (over backfilling Hyper-V or Bombs).

2383: Humans have a small fleet headed for Kailis. I decide to form a NAP instead of worrying about how bad of a fight it would be, and up the trade deal to 275BC.

2385: Oh right. That doesn’t actually prevent an en route fleet from attacking. I lose 4 Ftrs to their missiles, since I didn’t know what kind of ships they were, and they retreat.

2386: Crypto is irradiated. Clean up the mess, send the now-excess population away, and I guess it’s done with its factories at least.

2389: Klackons get a plague at Zoctan. Let someone else have the bad events! Mek Cap finally finishes its factories.

2390: Shield II to PDS over Shield III.

2391: RIW 80% to Zortium (skipping IIT 9, 8, and 6).

2393: Klackons grab Aurora (Toxic 25) as their 12th world. Puts them really on my doorstep. So they’re at 12 worlds, the Alkari are at 6, the Humans are at 7, and it looks like 3 Darlok and 3 Silicoid. I have 9 worlds of my own, and should easily get both Dead worlds. The NW Tundra may be difficult. That Inferno will be Klackon before too long, if no one else can get it first. 11 worlds as Meklar should be fine, although the large number of P/UP worlds definitely slows down my development. I’ve not started factory production at the UP world, but have at the poor ones (as my fully developed worlds take on the research burden).

So strategic good news: The Klackons may be the most powerful AI, but it’s going to take a lot for them to directly threaten me – I doubt they’ll keep huge fleets on my doorstep, and then my worlds won’t be their convenient targets either.
Strategic bad news: They are pretty big, and the Humans will easily stay friendly with them. So diplomacy could be a struggle. I was hoping the Silicoids could have been the expansive party this game, but it appears that too many of the worlds were directly habitable so they got shut out by their slow growth.