Part 31: This Galaxy Blows

This Galaxy Blows

Turns out I hadn't saved at the end of the last session and had to replay a couple turns. Antaran attack on Pund II went basically the same and the Silicoids still moved against Willow. A couple things went different though: I decided to invest in getting a Starbase up there, which I barely had time for, instead of the Missile Base/Radiation Shield combo. Also ...




This came in one year earlier than last time.




Astro Construction.

** Battleoids are the next work in ground combat, with a +10 combat bonus and 3 HP.
** Ground Batteries are a beam-weapon installation for planetary defense. I don't plan on building any immediately, but using them as an option if I need to get something up quickly to help with an Antaran attack.
** Titan Construction allows for stupid-big warships to be built, the next size above Battleships.

This is just a 'clean out the cheapest option' selection.




And here's our notification of hostilities. You will pay for flexing your muscles in this way.

Defending Willow


I was pleasantly surprised with the ease at which we were able to repulse their attack. Less so with myself, I'm still not that comfortable with the space combat and did cool stuff here like unnecessarily and unsuccessfully try to target the first torpedoes we've seen with the PD weapons. Which are, hilariously, still Lasers!

The Silicoids will have to come in force to take down any of our fortified systems. Unfortunately they are poised to do precisely that, with one of their 5-Battleships (and a cruiser for fun) task forces en route. So we'll get that missile base and shield up ASAP and see how much damage we can do.

I've switched our fleet to intercept, but it won't get there in time ...




Things are starting to get real now. The Sakkra have unofficially joined the fray, sending a single destroyer to Willow. Smallish Silicoid task forces are also headed to Tah and Lerion. As you can see our command points have boosted significantly - up from 28 to 36 - but it'll take some time to get battleships operational. So the question here is where to send the fleet? What's the best use of what we have?

I think the answer to that at the moment is defending Tah and Lerion. Assuming that Willow does significant damage to their main force but falls in the effort, we can't get there in time anyway. Can't reach Tah either - a year late - but Lerion can be defended. I'm confident in our ability to defend the core worlds, but not so much in projecting power out to the frontier.




Apparently showing the orbital scaffolding around the Titan, this is the least impressive of the three images for this field actually.




Staying in the Construction field for Advanced Manufacturing.

** Planet Construction - We can now turn an asteroid belt or gas giant into a habitable planet, as has been discussed in the thread. Naturally I'll have to do this just because I can.
** Automated Repair Unit - Repairs 20% of armor/structure and 10% of internals each turn during combat.
** Recyclotron - Recycled materials contribute +1 construction per population, and does not count toward pollution. The way it is worded makes it sound like it doesn't depend on how many workers you have, just how many citizens are on the planet.

This is fairly cheap, and the first one is just plain cool while the other two are definitely going to be useful.




NO. Notably, they do not do as I expected and declare war.




Rather amusingly, the big Silicoid fleet just sits in Willow blockading! Well, I don't want to give them time to second-guess their decision. We're going to keep building defenses there - I can still add a fighter garrison and ground batteries. The Sakkra incoming is a bunch of transports and very little in the way of combat fleets. If the Silicoids fear our defenses this much - I can think of no other reason why they wouldn't just attack - then I can commit my fleet to the undefended systems and hold them off.




Missed this in all the activity, but I wouldn't have been able to do anything about it anyway.




A weird thing to say a turn after we told you to go shove your demand - but you're welcome.




What is this, blow sunshine up our arse day?




Nope. I suggest you shove your demand because, while I wouldn't mind giving it to you, we could care less what you think. Look in the mirror if you want an example of a pathetic empire.

Something completely bizarre happened next. The entirety of the Silicoid combat battle group in Willow - 5 Battleships and a cruiser, not counting the additional Battleship that was incoming - up and disappeared. I think their AI said it was time to scrap some ships. In the long run that may be bad news, as it may mean a new and improved design is on the way. But for now, Willow doesn't have to add any more defenses and can go back to normal building up. We'll incinerate the limited Sakkra force if they are dumb enough to attack.

Also, Klackons are headed to Tah, so a war announcement from them is quite likely. They can fight the rocks for it. We don't have much industry stockpiled there, so ...




Yeah, this is expensive. Most of our bankroll. On the other hand, this is also why I keep at least a thousand in reserve, and we'll quickly reconstitute the lost funding. It'll save me the trouble of recapturing it later. Those bloody cats better freaking appreciate this investment. They're getting a Starbase ahead of time, which based on what we've seen will have no trouble eliminating all of the incoming while the fleet awaits the attack in Lerion. Also, this incident convinces me to up the savings to 2k. Never know when I might need it.




Another surprise attack. We didn't have much left there after the Antarans hit it. I don't know why I couldn't see this fleet - it was the big group previously mentioned that I thought they'd scrapped. At the same time, the Silicoid battleship was knocked out by our expensive starbase at Tah II, and the official word of war with the bugs - worded exactly the same as the rocks did, conspiratorial asshats - was delivered. They had a cruiser and two frigates, but it was a much tougher fight. They are more advanced of course, and that was particularly true of their beam defense which comes in at better-than-Antaran levels of +142. They took down the Starbase's shields, but we still won the day with missiles doing most of the damage for us. And two Klackon ship officers at least were among the dead. A fine day's work, and I'm told the Mrrshan citizens on the planet celebrated heartily.

Oh, and we're at war with the Sakkra as well. They just didn't announce it, but they are blockading
Willow.




This galaxy sucks. We sign a NAP with the Meklar and demand that they declare war on the Sakkra. The reply that our 'suggestion is found acceptable'. It wasn't a suggestion, servant! Umm, I mean good. It's strange - after seeing our latest toys in action, I'm pretty confident here despite having almost literally everyone we know united against us. Biggest concern is the Council, because right now they would be close to having enough to elect Sauron out of spite.




Umm ... huh? How are we producing pollution when there's nobody here?? And why do we have housing with no citizens? Why wasn't the planet destroyed?

The Lerion engagement told us that it would take our mass drivers a while to wear down the defenses of a Silicoid Fury-class battleship. They didn't wait around for that to happen, retreating at the first opportunity.




I don't even want to know how expensive that framework alone is. FWIW, it costs less than a battleship - 800 Industry - to do this. That's either obscenely cheap or my frame of reference on how stupid-powerful these starships are is way off. I was thinking a few thousand.




We'll take the leap to Cybertronics now.

** Autolab - As mentioned, 30 RP with no need for labor.
** Cybertronic Computer - +100 beam attack, the next upgrade in that line of things.
** Structural Analyzer - Doubles the damage of anything that penetrates the shields of a target. Seems like that'd be very useful against the Antarans, effectively halving the usefulness of their Damper Fields.

And the Pund situation was resolved.


LOL. So the bombardment itself didn't do the job, just their cursed bioweapons. How very Silicoid of them. This is a new one for me.




The main Silicoid fleet is just hanging out at Pund. I think that's because Willow is too well-defended and they don't know what else to do, as they can't reach any of our other systems. I think of counterattacking, but we need a battleship group to make that work. Our Interdictors are too fragile to take on their main force. But there's no reason we can't still wipe out some of them. We'll reach Carcosa before their retreating battleship down here due to our superior warp engines.




The other two planets are a gas giant and a large Tundra Poor. Plenty of room for more TechnoGeeks to live.




We've got a significant edge in ground combat here. The conquered population is Klackon, not Silicoid - the Mrrshan had it, Klackons destroyed and re-colonized, then Silicoids invaded, now us. Carcosa IV hasn't been a fun place to live.

We've begun to hit back, and that big Silicoid fleet has dissipated, splitting up in to several smaller ones and retreating into their territory. I think that serves our purposes, and despite everyone hating us they don't seem to really be able to do anything about it. I'm taking that as an invitation to begin to attack more aggressively, particularly once we get some bigger ships out there. In less than half a year battleships will begin rolling ... well, flying ... off the assembly line at the shipyards.