Part 45: What Do I Even Do Here …

What Do I Even Do Here …




And so it begins. Again. Both name suggestions seemed worthy, so I consulted the oracle of Random.org. In its infinite indifference it decreed that we would play as Klingons, naturally from the planet Kronos and under the rule of Kahless (the Unforgettable).




My immediate reaction after the last game was 'where's the rest of the galaxy?' This is it my friends. There's no zooming in or out.




Our starting fleet has a scout and two Tachi class cruisers. Apparently we rely heavily on Fusion Beams, and while we have the ability to MIRV our nukes, we don't ... because we are morons.

Crap We Know




Basics here, plus the Pulse Rifle helps for ground combat, and Xeno Psychology probably won't be of much use to a race like us who'd rather shoot than waste time in idle chit-chat.




Hydroponic Farms. GrumbleGrumble. But it could be a lot worse. First two key factory techs, research lab, and cloning center. Armor Barracks is another fail, but there's more good than bad here.




Clearly our early choices are Fusion Beams or MIRV Nuclear Missiles.




Hard to find much fault here. We've got an advanced computer, fuel cells won't help much but whatevs, an advanced drive, and inertial stabilizer might come in handy.

Let's see how that compares to our neighbors ...




I think we're going to have to decide who to treat with hostile intent and who not to pretty much immediately.

Meklar - 911-C4S is an Erratic Ecologist, so we better plan on fighting the Meklar. They have Tachyon Comms, Soil Enrichment, and Fighter Garrisons. No Automated Factory as they went for the Reinforced Hull and Heavy Armor. Better fuel cells and Scout Labs, Mass Drivers for the ships, but their computers and ground combat weapons aren't as good. Still, their ships could be pretty strong with the mass drivers and defensive capabilities.

Darlok - Mysvaleer, I hate you already. They could start spying on us almost immediately and there'd be nothing we could do about it. Whatever we have, they're gonna have. Aggressive Militarists. Neural Scanners and ADC already. Grrr. Neither of the factory techs though, but they have Battlestations, Missile Bases, and Spaceports already. Mass Drivers and Merculite Missiles for their armaments, and augmented engines.

Alkari - Voreet Zry is a Pacifist Militarist. A lolwutnow? The Alkari invested in Powered Armor for their ground troops, Tachyon Comms, and Soil Enrichment which so far everyone has but us. And even planetary supercomputers, so their ahead in research infrastructure. Also biospheres, missile bases, and spaceports ... but nothing on the production side. Fusion Beams and gyro destablizers? Ok. First one to have Class I Shields and/or Security Stations to repel boarders. Their defensive bonus + shields will make them potentially a tough foe to take down early.

Trilarian - Aqualius is an Erratic Expansionist. I don't like having multiple erratics around. Tach Comms again, no factory stuff again, but loaded up on the planetary defenses with battlestations, missile bases, and fighter garrisons. Fusion Beams and gyro, shields, security stations, and warp dissipator.

Silicoid - Sedimin is a Xenophobic Industrialist. I don't like the sound of that. Went Neural Scanner like he's a Darlok, and the first to get Dauntless Guidance System. Also first other race to get both production buildings - but none in research. Apparently he plans to just steal it all. Fighter Garrison and Biospheres. Because Silicoids, he went Death Spores but also all the way to Pulson Missiles, leaning hard into the missile option. Has Fusion Beams as well. Shields and Tachyon Scanners, which will further improve that shield focus. If they can work their espionage magic and get some things stolen, look out. Missile ships in the hands of Sedimin could be scary.

Human - Alexander the Erratic, an Industrialist. For pete's sake. There will be no peace in this galaxy. Neural scanner, tachyon comms, fighter garrison, biosphere, first two factory techs and research labs. They're on strong economic footing. Fusion beam and gyro, shields and leaning hard into engines, already at third-tier Ion drive.

Sakkra - Ragazor, Ruthless Industrialist. Neural scanner, survival pods, more tachyon comms. Both factory concepts and research labs, fighter garrison and biosphere. Fusion beams, death spores, gyro. Shields and third-tier fuel cells with iridium.

This is a very hostile galaxy. Only the Alkari hold out on any real hope of lasting peace.










Our homeworld. Those are some weird-looking Klingons. They need some meat on their bones. Our second planet is about the same except of course Rich with less stuff built.




Ok, time to make some decisions. I tried sending my cruisers to one of the nearby worlds just for the lolz, but they weren't a match for a battlestation. Did pretty well though. Clearly for both RP and strategic reasons I need to make something of the military advantage, but I think I need to do other things first and hope against hope my rivals don't strengthen themselves too much in the meantime. Here it seems to best to improve our combat survivability with the Class III Shields/Capacitor combo. Shields first.




Of the four planets in the galaxy we haven't explored ... yep, that's a thing ... this is one of the two we can reach. Odds of it being Orion are high, but whatever. It's just a scout. The 'nice' thing about this run is that we don't have to worry about any pretense of diplomacy. The only question is when to go to war. I'm most concerned about the Darloks and Silicoids, and having the shape-shifters about means I'm not even going to try for technological superiority. Just hammer our neighbors with the our superior combat abilities, or die trying.

Our Hydroponic Farms allow us to use 'only' just over a third of the populace on farming. I want to keep that, even if I'd rather have had Biospheres in the long run. But the Armor Barracks is going away, I don't want to pay for that. I also send 2M from our second planet to the homeworld. That'll maximize growth on Kronos II while giving us more production capacity. It does take people off the rich planet but I don't think that's the biggest priority at the moment.




Job #1 is getting the infrastructure up and running. After that I'll worry about gradual research, refitting our fleet and building new ships, and spies. Right now though, we have one scientist on Kronos II, and that's just for the purpose of limiting pollution. ETA on the shields? 482 turns.




It's Meet the Victims ... err, Neighbors ... time.




Just in case we didn't hate them enough on principle, the Darloks have the affrontery to thus insult Kahless.




There's one in every galaxy ...




These fun folks have a chime-dominated greeting jingle.




But how do you really feel about it?







It will be an honor to mercilessly slaughter such a worthy race!

And thus ends the first turn. All advice on the present situation will be considered. I thought about doing some blockading but it seemed too early for that - it seemed best to have the economy, such as it is, ready for a conflict before instigating one.