Well, this was a rough one lol. Hopefully I don't come across as too despondent, and mainly hoping none of this winds up spiraling into a deeply-embarrassing loss. Report below:
Ok. Rough goals for this session:
- Stop sleepwalking through the game - don't delay spies, update trade more often, look for NAPs, scout proactively
- get controlled dead
- get stuff that controlled dead lets me get.
- do not encounter any AI in the currently-open east
Trading immediately goes better as I up both AIs from the 25 they initially proposed to 100.
Turn 63 I meet the Sakkra Ssslaura in the west, dislodging their scout adjacent to both the bugs and some very nice worlds:
These would be very nice to get, though unlikely, and ofc Newton is Poor because why wouldn't it be. I don't start on any colony ships at this time though, I still have the ones I built hoping for goodness in the east, and I'm pretty sure that any new ones would be slower than simply finishing nuclear engines and making some 2-speed ships to cross the distance in half the time.
T66 has Elion max out its pop, and the game helpfully switches all spare production to defence, showing it'll take.. 7 years for a missile base, even given that it's at 50/55 pop that's still tragic. Going to use it to push research for better engines + controlled dead and go back for the base after.
A jungle 95 pops up next to Newton on T68, as nuclear engines *still* refuse to pop.. 28%, 36%, 45%, nothing.. Complaining about it triggered a result though, popped up on turn 69. Following propulsion choices are either sublights or range 7, I select range 7 for now, it can still be changed until the turn ends. And sure enough, clicking around a bit shows that range 7 would get me nowhere new, so it's time to do the patented engine -> engine research. 3 years for Mentar to build a Col2, we'll see if it's enough..
Turn 72 ship popped out, 6 turns ETA
II8 finishes on turn 74, and I'm still not used to playing the brains, we get the full 4 choices next tier, battle suits or ii7 or autorepair or reduced industrial 60%. Both ii7 and reduced waste will barely be improvements over ii8/80%, so I set research to auto-repair in the hopes that I'll keep getting my pick of the economic options in the next couple tiers.
Hitting turn 75 with the planets still open and the initial retro-engine colony ships I sent on a whim set to make planetfall before their more advanced friends might arrive (good thing too given the tech taking a while to pop), the bugs are starting to get a bit worrying:
This is simultaneously smart and dumb behaviour from the AI - it'll send these small fleets around constantly, but any time it hits a planet and doesn't like the fight, it'll retreat endlessly. But it'll keep sending ships anyway, so there's constant waves of ships flying about. I've almost never gotten to actually fire a missile base in this game because the AI just won't attack planets with them unless it has overwhelming force.
Aaaand the next turn the AI turns out not to be bluffing:
I also met the lizards having founded Kraepelin that same turn, who sign up for 125 bc/turn of their own accord, but that doesn't make this much better. They only have small "Needle" ships to deal with around the planet currently, which shouldn't be too bad:
My favourite part of this military screen is that they show the ground combat bonus, and also your own if you select yourself, so it's easy to see how the bugs are at +20 to my +0.. maybe battle suits would have been a good idea. At this juncture I have to open up other fields of research, really wanted controlled dead first but it was not to be, class 2 deflectors are too important. I also see that the bugs currently have controlled dead and fusion bombs, so are going to be problematic in multiple dimensions! Since we're at war I let the spies have a go at them, then I throw together a barely-viable laser 2-move laser fighter to try to fight off this threat. Not what I *want* to be doing, but could be worse. Their laser fighters aren't exactly making an impact so far:
But the problem ofc will be the ground invasion and/or potential fusion bombers. I grab Newton and set some researchs: Deep space scanner (no alternatives) class 2 deflectors (obligatory) and hand lasers over hyper-Vs and gatling lasers. I can see a total of 77 bugs on transports heading for Margulis, which isn't exactly encouraging with their advantage, hopefully the new fighters can clean them up. Maxwell starts feeding the new colonies with initial population.
Unfortunately the fighters turn up a turn too late, and we get the expected result:
Hopefully spying will come through with something to close the gap so that a return ground invasion is at least plausible. The turn after, when our ships arrive, the fleet is cleaned up with no losses, so it really was just that single turn of delay. A Rich Dead world shows up in the west, with the bugs likely to try to take it as well. The lizards are just as close, but lack any means to colonise it.
Hand lasers pops turn 82, and I enthusiastically queue up NPGs, with the hopes of making space combat even more of a formality. The problem is that with only 3 developed planets, I just lack the population for a ground invasion, and a base completing the same turn on the planet forces an end to any attempted blockade. I'd need some new tech to be able to deal with this....
Well hello there! Getting some NPGs in advance would be nice, but there's so many techs that the odds are poor, other categories are no better though - computing has DSS BC2 and ECM1 (so thoroughly inconsistent) and the other categories are uninspiring. If only I'd rolled high enough for personal deflector shields (though at least the game tells me I didn't by not showing it as an option). I roll the dice on Weapons, and..
I guess it's just that easy! Now that I can actually shoot the bases I design a new ship to do so and send it forth, first picking merc missiles over ion rifle/mass driver/neutron blaster, since it would be the biggest improvement over my current capabilities. Then controlled dead comes through, and I have a hard choice between controlled toxic (just as many toxic worlds as dead ones), +30 terraforming from +0, or enhanced eco restoration, I grab toxic for now to try and colonise as much as I can now and worry about holding it later. The problem now is simply a matter of build queues - Mentar can only make one thing at a time, Elion is poor, and while maxwell is maxed it's also artifacts so I'd rather not do shipbuilding with it. For now I have it make Neutrinos (I tend to use the game's auto-generated names for non-colony ships, in this case it felt fitting)
Deep space scanner pops on turn 86, I grab robotic controls III over BC3 next because the new rich worlds will be able to mass the factories quickly and I desperately need more per-planet production to keep up. Then I get class 2 deflectors into personal deflectors (no choice) on turn 88. By this time the bugs had built 75 of their small laser fighters alongside a smattering of other designs and parked them on top of Margulis, so the prospect of dislodging them looks ever-more dicey. Still, I'm determined to try, and switch Mentar to also help with Neutrinos. This also happens:
Confirming one of the cat's neighbours and also one of the remaining species, glad they're nowhere near me. Turn 93 is the last turn ships are launched for Margulis to participate in the fighting:
Old speed-1 fighters, nuclear-power laser fighters (Electrons), and the new Neutrinos all set up to participate, if the fighters die then at least I'll get the ship maintenance back.
Turn 96, moment of truth:
I'll pretend that I brought the colony ship on purpose instead of it being a misclick. It's a decent fight, I get to the base and deal some damage, but ultimately, the neutrinos fall, and the remainder have to retreat. Guess I'll need to give up on this planet for now, the enemy designs aren't actually impressive (NPGs and missiles aren't *nothing* but I'm not really outmatched at all) but with the production disadvantage there's not much I can do.
Colonisation of the dead worlds in the background is going great though. Well, mostly - I lose the rich dead world in the west to the bugs, but they *were* right on top of it, so it's not surprising. Still this gives me an awful idea - I throw half the population of my nearby colonies into transports, and see if they can knock off the 2mil on the planet. There don't seem to be any ships guarding it after all. And on turn 99 I get its twin in the east, the rich world of Teller is secured. An overview:
Turn 100 arrives, and.. well, I *could* stop now, but there's no reason I have to. Just 4 turns from an invasion that would mean at least *something* good happens in this war... And looking at tech, not only is it not worth spying with this degree of computer disadvantage, but I also have absolutely no chance of cracking bases.
So this capture will be the last offensive move in this war, on my part at least, for a while. The capital finishes the last colony ship of this wave the following turn, and starts sending population to the various new colonies, as a report comes in that the missile base Elion spent 5 years building was immediately sabotaged, because having to spend another 5 years on it was just too fun. Maybe I need some internal spy defences, though really what I need is just time... the Ssslaura have some hyper-Vs or teraforming +10 tech available for trade, at the cost of deep space scanner, but that's the only trade open and it's certainly not going to fix the computer differential that's the real problem here.
Anyways, turn 103 comes, enemy ships arrive exactly as my transports and theirs do, claim space superiority since my force over there was fairly token (just the fighters I used to push back opposing colony ships), and then just 6 of my own transports land vs the now 33 enemies after their transports show up. Exactly what I needed, I really don't want to have to give up on a rich world here but I see no way to make any headway here. And Maxwell gets its missile base blown up *again*, so I'm having to leave it stuck building more as an *artifacts* world... oh well. Played until turn 105 to get back to a round number, leaving me here:
Honestly the position isn't *bad*, I have a large number of colonies that are well on the way to becoming successful. They just all need time, that's all, and I'm not sure how much of that I can get. Also the bears have popped up with scouts in the west, will see when/if they wind up in range. As with a lot of ROTP games, I just need to know when to cut my losses and give up on planets, and the hope is that I'll not need to give up on any more. At this rate I'm almost considering counter-espionage spending just to have *some* way to keep bases alive.. Ah well. Need to not let the pressure get to me.
Ok. Rough goals for this session:
- Stop sleepwalking through the game - don't delay spies, update trade more often, look for NAPs, scout proactively
- get controlled dead
- get stuff that controlled dead lets me get.
- do not encounter any AI in the currently-open east
Trading immediately goes better as I up both AIs from the 25 they initially proposed to 100.
Turn 63 I meet the Sakkra Ssslaura in the west, dislodging their scout adjacent to both the bugs and some very nice worlds:
These would be very nice to get, though unlikely, and ofc Newton is Poor because why wouldn't it be. I don't start on any colony ships at this time though, I still have the ones I built hoping for goodness in the east, and I'm pretty sure that any new ones would be slower than simply finishing nuclear engines and making some 2-speed ships to cross the distance in half the time.
T66 has Elion max out its pop, and the game helpfully switches all spare production to defence, showing it'll take.. 7 years for a missile base, even given that it's at 50/55 pop that's still tragic. Going to use it to push research for better engines + controlled dead and go back for the base after.
A jungle 95 pops up next to Newton on T68, as nuclear engines *still* refuse to pop.. 28%, 36%, 45%, nothing.. Complaining about it triggered a result though, popped up on turn 69. Following propulsion choices are either sublights or range 7, I select range 7 for now, it can still be changed until the turn ends. And sure enough, clicking around a bit shows that range 7 would get me nowhere new, so it's time to do the patented engine -> engine research. 3 years for Mentar to build a Col2, we'll see if it's enough..
Turn 72 ship popped out, 6 turns ETA
II8 finishes on turn 74, and I'm still not used to playing the brains, we get the full 4 choices next tier, battle suits or ii7 or autorepair or reduced industrial 60%. Both ii7 and reduced waste will barely be improvements over ii8/80%, so I set research to auto-repair in the hopes that I'll keep getting my pick of the economic options in the next couple tiers.
Hitting turn 75 with the planets still open and the initial retro-engine colony ships I sent on a whim set to make planetfall before their more advanced friends might arrive (good thing too given the tech taking a while to pop), the bugs are starting to get a bit worrying:
This is simultaneously smart and dumb behaviour from the AI - it'll send these small fleets around constantly, but any time it hits a planet and doesn't like the fight, it'll retreat endlessly. But it'll keep sending ships anyway, so there's constant waves of ships flying about. I've almost never gotten to actually fire a missile base in this game because the AI just won't attack planets with them unless it has overwhelming force.
Aaaand the next turn the AI turns out not to be bluffing:
I also met the lizards having founded Kraepelin that same turn, who sign up for 125 bc/turn of their own accord, but that doesn't make this much better. They only have small "Needle" ships to deal with around the planet currently, which shouldn't be too bad:
My favourite part of this military screen is that they show the ground combat bonus, and also your own if you select yourself, so it's easy to see how the bugs are at +20 to my +0.. maybe battle suits would have been a good idea. At this juncture I have to open up other fields of research, really wanted controlled dead first but it was not to be, class 2 deflectors are too important. I also see that the bugs currently have controlled dead and fusion bombs, so are going to be problematic in multiple dimensions! Since we're at war I let the spies have a go at them, then I throw together a barely-viable laser 2-move laser fighter to try to fight off this threat. Not what I *want* to be doing, but could be worse. Their laser fighters aren't exactly making an impact so far:
But the problem ofc will be the ground invasion and/or potential fusion bombers. I grab Newton and set some researchs: Deep space scanner (no alternatives) class 2 deflectors (obligatory) and hand lasers over hyper-Vs and gatling lasers. I can see a total of 77 bugs on transports heading for Margulis, which isn't exactly encouraging with their advantage, hopefully the new fighters can clean them up. Maxwell starts feeding the new colonies with initial population.
Unfortunately the fighters turn up a turn too late, and we get the expected result:
Hopefully spying will come through with something to close the gap so that a return ground invasion is at least plausible. The turn after, when our ships arrive, the fleet is cleaned up with no losses, so it really was just that single turn of delay. A Rich Dead world shows up in the west, with the bugs likely to try to take it as well. The lizards are just as close, but lack any means to colonise it.
Hand lasers pops turn 82, and I enthusiastically queue up NPGs, with the hopes of making space combat even more of a formality. The problem is that with only 3 developed planets, I just lack the population for a ground invasion, and a base completing the same turn on the planet forces an end to any attempted blockade. I'd need some new tech to be able to deal with this....
Well hello there! Getting some NPGs in advance would be nice, but there's so many techs that the odds are poor, other categories are no better though - computing has DSS BC2 and ECM1 (so thoroughly inconsistent) and the other categories are uninspiring. If only I'd rolled high enough for personal deflector shields (though at least the game tells me I didn't by not showing it as an option). I roll the dice on Weapons, and..
I guess it's just that easy! Now that I can actually shoot the bases I design a new ship to do so and send it forth, first picking merc missiles over ion rifle/mass driver/neutron blaster, since it would be the biggest improvement over my current capabilities. Then controlled dead comes through, and I have a hard choice between controlled toxic (just as many toxic worlds as dead ones), +30 terraforming from +0, or enhanced eco restoration, I grab toxic for now to try and colonise as much as I can now and worry about holding it later. The problem now is simply a matter of build queues - Mentar can only make one thing at a time, Elion is poor, and while maxwell is maxed it's also artifacts so I'd rather not do shipbuilding with it. For now I have it make Neutrinos (I tend to use the game's auto-generated names for non-colony ships, in this case it felt fitting)
Deep space scanner pops on turn 86, I grab robotic controls III over BC3 next because the new rich worlds will be able to mass the factories quickly and I desperately need more per-planet production to keep up. Then I get class 2 deflectors into personal deflectors (no choice) on turn 88. By this time the bugs had built 75 of their small laser fighters alongside a smattering of other designs and parked them on top of Margulis, so the prospect of dislodging them looks ever-more dicey. Still, I'm determined to try, and switch Mentar to also help with Neutrinos. This also happens:
Confirming one of the cat's neighbours and also one of the remaining species, glad they're nowhere near me. Turn 93 is the last turn ships are launched for Margulis to participate in the fighting:
Old speed-1 fighters, nuclear-power laser fighters (Electrons), and the new Neutrinos all set up to participate, if the fighters die then at least I'll get the ship maintenance back.
Turn 96, moment of truth:
I'll pretend that I brought the colony ship on purpose instead of it being a misclick. It's a decent fight, I get to the base and deal some damage, but ultimately, the neutrinos fall, and the remainder have to retreat. Guess I'll need to give up on this planet for now, the enemy designs aren't actually impressive (NPGs and missiles aren't *nothing* but I'm not really outmatched at all) but with the production disadvantage there's not much I can do.
Colonisation of the dead worlds in the background is going great though. Well, mostly - I lose the rich dead world in the west to the bugs, but they *were* right on top of it, so it's not surprising. Still this gives me an awful idea - I throw half the population of my nearby colonies into transports, and see if they can knock off the 2mil on the planet. There don't seem to be any ships guarding it after all. And on turn 99 I get its twin in the east, the rich world of Teller is secured. An overview:
Turn 100 arrives, and.. well, I *could* stop now, but there's no reason I have to. Just 4 turns from an invasion that would mean at least *something* good happens in this war... And looking at tech, not only is it not worth spying with this degree of computer disadvantage, but I also have absolutely no chance of cracking bases.
So this capture will be the last offensive move in this war, on my part at least, for a while. The capital finishes the last colony ship of this wave the following turn, and starts sending population to the various new colonies, as a report comes in that the missile base Elion spent 5 years building was immediately sabotaged, because having to spend another 5 years on it was just too fun. Maybe I need some internal spy defences, though really what I need is just time... the Ssslaura have some hyper-Vs or teraforming +10 tech available for trade, at the cost of deep space scanner, but that's the only trade open and it's certainly not going to fix the computer differential that's the real problem here.
Anyways, turn 103 comes, enemy ships arrive exactly as my transports and theirs do, claim space superiority since my force over there was fairly token (just the fighters I used to push back opposing colony ships), and then just 6 of my own transports land vs the now 33 enemies after their transports show up. Exactly what I needed, I really don't want to have to give up on a rich world here but I see no way to make any headway here. And Maxwell gets its missile base blown up *again*, so I'm having to leave it stuck building more as an *artifacts* world... oh well. Played until turn 105 to get back to a round number, leaving me here:
Honestly the position isn't *bad*, I have a large number of colonies that are well on the way to becoming successful. They just all need time, that's all, and I'm not sure how much of that I can get. Also the bears have popped up with scouts in the west, will see when/if they wind up in range. As with a lot of ROTP games, I just need to know when to cut my losses and give up on planets, and the hope is that I'll not need to give up on any more. At this rate I'm almost considering counter-espionage spending just to have *some* way to keep bases alive.. Ah well. Need to not let the pressure get to me.
Surprise! Turns out I'm a girl!
Your empire has grown nicely; given time for those newer worlds to develop things should look pretty good. Not being able to keep your missile bases intact from sabotage is a major pain. 
Hopefully you can prevent any rivals taking planets from you.
I wonder just how much the cats (presumably it is them) are spending on spying against you?
All the under-developed colonies have left you over-stretched, but if you can somehow find enough time to consolidate everything with IRC3.... Those large ships the cats are running around with are nasty.