Part 57: The Only Good Meklar Is An Enslaved Meklar

The Only Good Meklar Is An Enslaved Meklar




Ok so somebody explain this to me. I can colonize planets in Ursa, which has a Bulrathi combat fleet and they still have their homeworld there. I have a NAP with them. But I can't colonize in Oba (Darlok fleet and planet, NAP) or Zin (Trilarian fleet and planet, NAP). At this point, barring something really weird I'm calling this a bug.

Also, you can see the situation almost 200 turns into the game as I transition out of the land-grab mode finally; basically, it's generalized chaos.




We might have half the galaxy's population, and we're still growing.




Looks like it was authored by Picasso, but basically we're middle of the pack. If you don't like the answer here, wait a few turns; it'll probably change.




Keeping up surprisingly well here. It's ye olde hockey stick graph, except for the miserable Silicoids. We're still behind, but competitive. That'll do for now.




Gnolams would seem to be our most dangerous foe by far, and I expect to lose some expendable territory to them. I won't be sending any colonist transports out that way. Otherwhise, I'm happy with the state of our agreements. Until it changes on the next day ending in 'Y', Meklar-Bulrathi, Alkari-Darlok, and Gnolam-Silicoid are the current conflicts. Trilarians at present are at peace with everyone. There are no alliances, which basically forces this state of EHE (Everyone Hates Everyone).




You can see what our friendship with the fish-folk is worth ... Meklar (2) vote for Morfane as well. The Darloks have 6, second to our 15. Veto bloc! We have just enough for that, and just few enough that we can vote Morfane as well. Probably for the last time.




Randomly I'm suddenly allowed to colonize in the Zin system. Trilarians are still here. No clue why. A third Natives planet will make supplying the empire with food even more trivial - I literally only had one citizen farming above the optimal, but now that's back down to zero. Meanwhile, the Meklar destroyed the outpost in the Achir system that we weren't using anymore - allowed us to get to Arkab back in the day - and had no need of.




I gave a shot at tech trades just for fun and got this - I hope we will be needing it soon.




Morfane was willing to part with this, which will limit pollution to make our more productive industrial worlds better.




This was not a suprise. Zin could follow, though at least there's a chance the Trilarians stationed there might intervene. Meanwhile the Bulrathi assclowns thank us 'for prompt payment' of their tribute.




Guess not. Now we're forced to grow extra food on our own.




Gnolams aren't screwing around. So far though they're only knocking out frontier systems; they haven't attacked anything fortified. Yet.




*Yawn*




After hanging out here for 20-30 turns, we're allowed to colonize with nothing having changed. Why?? I'm sure the Gnolams will come smash these as well, but whatevs.




Not a huge deal, but still grrrr ...

SD 3520.0 - Riwand II is the latest and largest to get smashed by the Gnolams, and you know other races are going to pick up some of these pieces. But we'll worry about that later. It's time for something else ...

MeklonBattle (6:38)


That was ... strange. The Meklar have shielding and better ship protection, but our weaponry was superior. Their repeated raid attempts came up a little short, and eventually the lone surviving ship was forced to retreat. I think it's time to invade.




Not exactly a surprise either.




The next turn, this comes in along with a similar battle at the Meklar homeworld. They still have a battleship, but both planets are vulnerable to troop assault.




I think we're going to want faster movement for multiple purposes soon.




That's new. Meanwhile, it seems worth it to me to spend the time pausing our military buildup to put Autolabs pretty much everywhere. We are also making some progress on other planets - a few working on Terraforming - but who knows how many of them we actually hang onto.




It'll take a lot more troops to conquer their homeworld, and we suffered 50% casualties here. Nonetheless, the first Meklar planet has fallen to our troops. It'll take a bit to get enough transports ready to grab their homeworld. After that, the meddlesome and continually rampaging Gnolams must face our wrath. We've already begun that process as well, with one battleship placed in the center of the galaxy for protective purposes if need be, and more will eventually follow.