Maniac's Imperium 24 - Attempting to Shoot the Moon Part 1.

[Maniac Marshall]

Apologies, but there won't be an in character section this report for reasons that I will explain at the end of the report.

PREGAME ANALYSIS

Since I didn't play the last game for score, I made the decision going into this game that I absolutely WOULD be playing for score this time. Maximal score. I fully intend to shoot the moon. A tall order, perhaps, but, hey, if I could unite the triad, this should be cake right?

Obviously, the one tech that would make this easily possible would be thorium cells. If it turns out that thorium cells are not in the tree, well, then I might have to get a little creative... Surely SOMEONE will have them, and I can either steal them or gropo them right? Failing that, maybe I can use alliances to extend my range. Later in the game, I can let the AI glass a couple of my planets if I have to so that I can free up slots to grab other planets to use as stepping stones. Whatever it takes. Make no mistake, it's shoot the moon or bust this game.

On a practical note, since scout denial won't be in play, there will be no reason to make more scouts. Instead, fighters will have to be made to cover any planets I may want. My strategy is pretty simple, grab 4-5 planets, turtle, and wait for Thorium Cells.

Lets look at the start.



The corner start further complicates things, unfortunately, virtually necessitating thorium cells. It's possible that I could win with 2 or 3 outlying planets with range 10 + reserve tanks, but that won't be easy.

2300 With only one star 3 parsecs away, it's a no brainier where to send the colony ship. If the planet is large, we'll just settle it. If not, we might wait for a range tech... we'll see. As far as where to send the scouts, I send them as far away as possible, which turns out to be the two greens north and northwest of where our second planet will be.

2302 Our colony ship arrives and finds an acceptable place to land.



2303 - Fourteen Million Kitties leave the home world for Vulcan.

2304- Three million more kitties set off for Vulcan.

We find another "acceptable" planet.



2305 - Three million more colonists sent to Vulcan.

The scout continues on to the yellow to the northeast.

The other scout reports in with an unacceptable location.



2306 - One last three million leave Fieras for Vulcan.

The western scout heads south to the green star just below Firma.

2308 - More scouting reports. First, the eastern scout:



Nope, too small. We won't be grabbing that one. What about the western scout?



2309 - The eastern scout heads southeast to the blue star, and the western one heads southeast to the red one.

2311 - More Scouting Reports. The western scout sends in its final report... ever.



The western scout doesn't have very good news either, but at least it's still alive.



2312 - With only two planets still in scouting range, our lone scout heads south to the red star in the corner.

2317 - Our scout reports yet another variation of the '45 theme.



2318 - The scout heads over to the yellow south of Orion, which is the last planet in scouting range.

2322 - With Fieras set to finish it's factories in 3 turns, I send 16 million from Vulcan back to top off it's pop at the same time.

2323 - Uh oh, look at this:



That scout took orbit there on the interturn. Looks like I'd better make sure we get that planet.

I whip up your basic, ultra crappy, zero tech, nothing added, warp 1 point defense laser fighter to guard the planet. I order Vulcan to build a batch (4) of them.

2324 - Arrows dispatched to Vulcan.

Just to be on the safe side, I redesign the colony ship to include a laser. Wouldn't want to be forced to retreat because of being unarmed...

With Fieras about to max out, some of the production is started on the colony ship.

2325 - Fieras Maxes, starts full bore on the colony ship.

The Human scout flees before our Arrows can chase it off.

2526 - I had just about settled on being a 3 planet empire, when the final scout sent back this report.



We're going to grab that planet. If Range 5 is in the tree, we can just try to grab it that way, otherwise, we'll need a long range defense fleet. We'll worry about what that might mean later.

2329 - First Colony Ship dispatched to Phantos. We open research 100% on propulsion, hoping for Range 5's availability...



We're in luck!

2333 - Phantos Colonized. Twenty Five million sent from Vulcan to Phantos.

Range 5 hits. The new choices are Nuclear Engines and Range 6. For the second Imperium in a row, I go for the dreaded Nuclear Engines. Since we've no intention of settling anywhere else for a long while, range 6
is almost pointless, whereas Warp 2 might be important for defense fleets. Our empire is so small, and every planet is important in the early going.

As soon as I select our tech choice, the GNN Robot shows up with this news...



Psilons? Already? That's a bit disturbing, but hopefully nothing to worry about. Maybe they're boxed in now? We'll see soon enough...

Fieras Makes a batch of Arrows (14) before returning to Colony Ship Making. I send the scout southwest to the green star.

2334 - The Arrows are sent to Quayal. Fieras returns to Colony ship making.

2337 - And, just as I'm settled on having four planets and saving the fifth for a potential stepping stone...



Holy Cow, I think I've located our fifth planet. I hope so anyhow.

2339 - Colony Ship dispatched to Quayal.

Vulcan is about to max out, and opens research evenly across all fields.

Computer Choices: Jammer I over Deep Space Scanner
Construction: Improved 9 over Reduced 80%
Force Fields: Can you guess?
Planetology: Terraforming +10 over Controlled Barren and Improved Ecco
Weapons: Hyper-V over Gatling Laser (No HL *sniff*)

2340 - Uh, Hi...



2341 - Great, as you could see from the greeting screen shot, we have erratic Psilons in this galaxy. Large ones too. Here's a look at the Psilon Empire.



There is no sense in making a major trade deal. He could go nuts and declare war at any point, so I dial him up and do this:



2342 - We've only just met the Psilons, when another neighbor drops by to announce his presence.



Well, this is better news! At least they are not psycho.

2343 - Here;s a new look at the map.



Wow, I thought the Psilons were big for this point in the game!

I dial up our new friend and initiate trade.



The Humans, being much more reliable, convinces me to go for the maximal trade this time.

During the inter turn, Quayle is colonized!

2344 - Half the Fighters from Quayal are sent on to Antares to head off any colony ships.

The final colony ship is dispatched to Antares. Thirty One Million colonists are sent from Fieras to Quayal.

2346 - Terraforming +10 hits. The new choices are Terraforming +20, Controlled Dead, and Death Spores. We select Improved Ecco instead.

It turns out we colonized Quayal none too soon, look at this.



The Bulrathi have not armed their colony ships yet, so we're safe.

2347 - Speaking of none too soon, I'm succeeding by the narrowest of margins! My arrows have arrived at Antares just this turn, and not a moment too soon!



AND



Again, neither the Bulrathi nor the Psilons have armed colony ships yet, so our Arrow fighters defend the planets safely.

2349 - Jammer I hits, new choices are Jammer II, Robotics III, and BC III. We select Robotics III.

2350 - For the second report in a row, there is no 50 year in rundown, but, really, you've just recently seen the galaxy maps, and, if you've been paying attention reading along, there isn't much need for one, as there isn't much to report anyhow. Besides, there is another reason...

2351 - To my amazement, we colonize Antares.

2352 - I send 28 million colonists to Antares from Fieras.

The Bulrathi get the games first event.



2353 - Hyper-V Rockets hit. The only new choice is Fusion Bomb. We select it.

2357 - Improved 9 hits. The only new choice is Improved 8, which we select.

2358 - Class II Deflectors hit. The new choices are Personal Deflector, and class III. We go for Personal.

2360 - With everywhere I intend to settle settled, I dial up my friends and ask for peaceful co-existence.





So, now it's time to sit back, hope the Psilon time bomb keeps ticking but doesn't explode, research Thorium Cells, and in due time, glass the galaxy.

2363 - Improved Ecco Hits, we select Terraforming +20.

2364 - Nuclear Engines Hit. The new choice is Sub-Light Drives, which we select.

We're Voting. The nominees are Strader and Myself, even though I'm a bit short on planet count...

Humans 6 votes themselves.
Darloks 3 votes the Humans.
Psilons 4 votes abstain.
Sakkras 1 vote abstain.
Bulrathi 4 votes the Humans.
Me 5 votes myself.

2372 - Fusion bombs hit. The only new choice is Ion Rifle, so we select it. Boy, no beams and only Hyper-V Rockets? I sure hope we don't get into a war anytime soon with this craptastic weapons tree.

And then, something happens that changes the fate of the galaxy forever...

[Maniac Marshall]

Anyone who can tell me what that quote in the title is from wins my everlasting respect. Here's a hint. It's somehow related to the show that the title of Imperium Seven was corrupted from.

2374 - The Psilons and Humans are now at war. It was just declared on this very turn. I'm sure of it, because I've been watching the psilons like a hawk wondering who they'd eventually go psycho on. There are no other wars detected at the moment... I click next turn...

Vote time:
Humans 6 votes themselves.
Darloks 3 votes me. The Psions must have drawn them in against the Humans?
Psilons 5 votes me of course.
Sakkras 1 vote me. Hmm, also must be at war with the Humans.
Bulrathi 4 votes me... Uhh, oh mega crap.
Me, forced by rule, 5 votes myself...



Umm... You gotta be kidding me right? You know how the rng loves me in the Imperia? It gives me Controlled Dead, Range 6, and Industrial 8 off arti planets, and just gernerally goes way, WAY out of it's way to do everything it can to help me win as fast as possible? Well, it did it again, only this time, it's a BAD thing

I let the game sit this way for several days while pondering if I should accept the council's vote, or go to final war. (The rule's say you have to vote for yourself, they do NOT say you have to accept your diplomatic victory!) After about a week, I finally decide that, in the spirit of the rules, I really have no choice but to accept that I have "won". Besides that, I doubted I could win anyway. Sure, I've got fusion bobms, but I have no beam to speak of, and no missile either, which is not a good combination.

So, here's the final fleet.



The final map as I knew it.



The Final Status Screen.



The Planets Screen.



And The Final Tech Collage.



When making this report, I tried to think of a good, in character approach to my "Sudden Victory", but I just couldn't get past the "I won, causing me to lose." feeling, and I couldn't think of any way to make an entertaining report out of that.

This is now my second Imperium with the Kitties (Imperium 2), and I've won twice without ever firing a shot!

So, what, if anything, could I have done differently? Well, I suppose I could have played colonist shuffle to make sure I wasn't nominated, but, really, that's kind of silly, plus, I had no real reason to believe I'd get elected. I suppose I could have settled less planets or crappier planets, but again, that's a little silly. Plus, I was expecting to have to compete with runaway Psilons. Runaway Psilons can beat me even on hard. In the end, I needed everyone but the 1 vote Sakkra's to vote for me, and amazingly, they did. In fact, it took SEVERAL TRIES reloading from continue before I won the vote again when I reloaded the game to get my "victory" screen shots!

Anyway, I was curious, so, I loaded up a second try to the game. I took some screenies and decided, if the shadow succeeded, I'd present it as a second report. Well... here is the cliff notes version of that one: This time I only got 4 planets, the Psilons beat me to one of them. I sat around and researched like whoa, keeping up with the Humans, but falling behind the Psilons. The Psilons got off to a runaway position this time. Here is one pic that I took:



Note, they would get BIGGER as they continued grabbing stuff in the top left corner!

Eventually, they declared war, something that would be repeated several times, and I brought the Humans in against them. The Psilons never had any real chance to crack my bases, in fact, for a while, the Humans were winning the war against them! However, they picked a stupid time to make peace, right as they had a ship design advantage, and, eventually, runaway Psilons couldn't be stopped. They exterminated the Sakkra and Bulrathi eventually, and started retaking their lost planets from the Humans.

As it turned out, Thorium Cells were NOT in the tree... I tried to get it off Orion as well, but, no, that was not to be either. I thought about still trying to play it out, though I doubted I could beat the Psilons at this point, with so few planets and so little margin for error against their vastly superior technology. I made a battle scanner scout to look at some of their ship designs, but somehow forgot to take a scree nshot. Dreads with craploads of Mauler devices, oracle interface, and tech nullifiiers!

With only four planets, I didn't see how I could win against that. I know "hopeless" games can sometimes be won (see Factoid's MUST READ Imperium Four Report!), but, I had other irons in the MoO fire, and as this was just a shadow with little hope of eventual victory, I capitulated.

Oh well, as I said for my last report, every game can't be a uniting of the triad experience...

I'm looking forward to what I think will be a grandly fun Imperium 25 (Twenty-Five, just like Christmas... hmmm...)

[RefSteel]

First of all, congratulations on your victory! You scored almost as highly as me! (We may even have been equal; we'll see!)

I'm sorry to hear that the pRNG got in the way of that first attempt at a moon shot; it would have been fun to see if you could manage it! (I'd have been tempted to play the shadow from the final save for that one since it sounds like the election win was against the odds...) The truth is though, I don't know if it's possible to win with a 5-PE on this map! I almost didn't add the "shooting the moon" option, and honestly didn't know at the time (indeed, I still don't know for sure) whether it was merely an insane challenge or a complete red herring. Certainly it was highly subject to pRNG madness - if nothing else, Mineral Depletion and Industrial Accident at a couple of the player's five worlds could destroy an already-challenging game.

Settling fewer planets might not have been an altogether silly move when attempting to shoot the moon, actually - it would be a calculated risk, as much for strategic positioning as anything. Saving a slot or two for a rich or artifacts planet (or enemy homeworld!) in the right location might be worthwhile even if you're not worried about the vote ... and it might have been interesting to try four planets plus Orion! (That probably wouldn't be the strongest move though. In fact, it sounds like that's what you did in the shadow game, though more because you were forced into it by the Brains than for any other reason.)

In any case, I hope it was fun while it lasted, and I'm looking forward to Imperium 25!

Oh, and: "To lose is to win, and he who wins shall lose." Rather than saying where the quote is from, I will provide others with another clue: I observe that two of the quotes in Maniac's signature are from "the Doctor."

[Maniac Marshall]

I don't think shooting the moon was possible on this map because of the fact you were forced to vote for yourself, unless someone's game played out much, much differently. It didn't seem like Thorium Cells were in anyone's tree, and by the time I'd figured that out, the Pilons were unstopable. I couldn't do much to slow them down either, or I'd have won the vote again!

As far as only settling 3-4 planets... I'd have fallen too far behind in tech.

It's definitely possible to win a 5cc on this size of a map, but not this map, and not with these restrictions. If someone accomplishes it, it'll take incredible luck, but even so I'll be suitably impressed.

As to your quote, yes, you're on the right track... Do you know the answer, or did you just pick up on the general direction from my earlier hint?

Oh, and as for score, I never got 6 planets, so I lose unless you werent in the top bunch for that!

[RefSteel]

As to your quote, yes, you're on the right track... Do you know the answer, or did you just pick up on the general direction from my earlier hint?

To answer obliquely: Clearly, from your previous in-character report, you are well aware that immortality is a curse, not a blessing. And if you had written an in-character report about this one as "he who wins" (who therefore "shall lose") ... I guess you could write a sequel from that character's perspective some day, but not until next time we play as the Silicoids!

As for the game itself: You may well be right that shooting the moon was impossible (as I warned it might be). Lacking Thorium (and the vote-for-yourself requirement) probably rules it out, as you say. Given the situation, that was probably too big of a red herring to leave in (even or especially without knowing if it was a red herring). I don't think I'll include something quite that crazy next time I sponsor an Imperium!

[Horist]

You and I had the same thought on getting unlimited range for the shooting the moon victory. Wow the Humans were huge in your game! In mine, they took forever to colonize to 2 N most planets. I can't believe you were in the election...tough break.

[Maniac Marshall]

Well, I'll live with it. Everything went right for me in Imperium 11 when I succeeded at pulling off a challenge that no one else could and, frankly, should have been impossible. I guess this is my payback.

With a central start, Thorium Cells wouldn't have been required. Range 9-10 + reserve tanks probably would have been sufficient, but on this map, stuck in the corner...

I still can't believe your replay game had Psilons that let the universe live almost 600 years. Mine had more than half the universe under control years before that and weren't showing any signs of stopping.

[sargon0]

Unfortunately it was thematic to force you to vote for yourself in this game variant which is hazardous to plans, particulalry when trying for the impossible (or at least the highly improbable). It would have been fun if it lasted longer but congrats on your victory and 10 points!

[Horist]

It helped the Psilons were one of the weakest races in my game. I did after all glass their homeworld.