Part 32: Klackon Krush

Klackon Krush




Profitability is not what it once was. The Klackons have two different designs of battleships that I've seen, but they have nothing heading our way. Yet. For now, I think I want to hold the line in Carcosa until we have bigger and better ships in place. I don't think I'm quite ready to be more aggressive.




With the Silicoids shrinking back from the idea of attacking our fortified positions, and nobody else doing more than just making random noise, the Klackons appear to be the only real threat. But I want to do more than just stop them - I'd like to invade every last rock they inhabit, putting them all to work in our manufacturing centers. The bugs are the most prodigious race in the galaxy at making things, and I'd like to take advantage of that. If we defeat them, nobody has a chance of stopping us.

Well, nobody that calls the Orion Galaxy home, at any rate.




I had to try, though this makes sense. We'll have to wait to assimilate our new servants in Carcosa.

SD 3524.5 - The Klackons sent a battlegroup to Tah. Those Mrrshans just can't catch a break. Our fleet intercepted to try and hold them off ...




Looks a lot like a starbase, but there's only so many ways to draw things I suppose.




We don't really need anything in this field, except that with the way things are going I think relocating ships around the galaxy quickly is going to become more important. The bugs chose to blockade Tah rather than confront us. Some cats will starve, but that's better than being glassed.




None of them have been built yet, so I didn't add a new 'mark' number here or anything. The improved Silencer battleship design adds a Structural Analyzer and a couple more heavy-mount mass drivers, while getting rid of the graviton beam. The whole point of it was to do more damage against unshielded vessels, and I think this should do that better. I'm still conflicted over whether I want, for example, the engines/stabilizer combo or if I should switch one out for shield capacitors. In the end I just said screw it and left it as is.

And for those clamoring for it, I naturally added Autolabs to the build queues of all developed worlds. That's a shockingly small minority, not much over a third of the total empire these days.

SD 3524.6 - Next turn. First two battleships are 'finally' finished. Thanks to our jump gates, it'll only take three turns to get them to the front. Then we'll start to see what's what.

Battle of Carcosa IV (10:32)

I'm going to start putting the length of the video here in the title, because as has been discussed some of these are really long. Esp. with only a vaguely competent personage in command :P.

The Klackon Battleships finally agreed to fight here. It wasn't a good day for either side, but a better one for us. Their fast Pulson missiles did a lot of damage and I never got a good handle on how far away to be. I decided to close the distance so that our standard mounts could participate in the fight. Either way, we lost a few cruisers but held them off - and we'll be replacing them with bigger ships soon anyway.




Here's our first 'homemade planet'. There was no fanfare when it was finished, and it'll need work. I built this to facilitate a massive Klackon-breeding campaign and also just to see what it was like. The existing population incubators in Alaozar and Mentar will also be used. On all of them I'm going to build every production-enhancing building I have - funded from the outside of course - and Cloning Centers eventually, and have them send as many Klackons as possible throughout the empire.

Right now, we have only one assimilated, en route to Alaozar. The second we'll get in a few turns. This initiative will take some time, but of course there are plenty of other Klackon worlds out there for us to 'liberate'. Also noteworthy is that the Autolabs have us up over 1k research every turn now.




Look! Another candlestick, only new and improved!! The bomb and torpedoes are also cool-looking.




Electromagnetic Refraction just to get it out of the way.

** Personal Shield works as you might expect, +20 combat to all ground troops.
** Stealth Field. Aka the 'Darlok Device'. Fleets cannot be detected on the galactic map.
** Stealth Suit. Personalized cloaking or whatnot, adding +10 to spy rolls. Our agents have done well for quite some time, but we can always use the help.




Soon we were close to having enough battleships for a full fleet. So I designed this next. The Obscenity-class, our first Titan warship, is just meant to do everything; show up and obliterate whatever it has to. Planetary defenses, opposing ships, whatever is required. It will only be built on our large Rich/Ultra planets, and even then it will take significant effort. But we've got the time, and I doubt even the Antarans will easily fancy their chances against them.




The Klackons have a destroyer, a cruiser, and every single planet has the Starbase/Missile Base/Fighter Garrison combo. They won't be easy to crack - but at least they don't have battlestations or any big ships around. It might not be wise to attack just yet. But I'm gonna try anyway. I select Tatiana II, one of the terran planets ...

Battle of Tatiana II(21:00)

Yeah I know. If you think the length is horrifying, wait till you watch the action *rimshot*. In other words - Warning: this battle is both stupid, and stupid-long. Think of your brain cells and don't watch all of it, just enough to get the flavor.

Ok so we have a problem; our mass drivers are ineffective against their latest missiles. Everything else is kind of ok - we lost a few cruisers but again so what. Fighters aren't too much of a problem, reinforced starbase can take a pounding but we can eventually get through that.

Since they are equipping ECCM mods as well, I don't think going back to ECM Jammer is the answer. I could try Anti-Missile Rockets, but they are useless against Fighters.

Not really knowing what to do, I'll cut off this update a bit early and whine to the thread about it. AP Mass Drivers? Continuous Graviton Beams? Clearly I need something that packs more of a punch against these missiles, which are both harder to hit and more resistant to damage. Just pack on more AF Mass Drivers seems pretty useless, cause I fired a LOT of them and I think only one or two missiles were taken down. Trying to engage them at closer range more consistently would clearly help hit them more, but obviously I need more than that in this situation. I could always just go conquer someone else first until I get Technology XYZ, but I think I should have a better option given that I'm more advanced than they are.

There has to be a better solution, but I admit I don't know what it is.