Part 20: The End of the Beginning

The End of the Beginning




Our first citizen transfer to Alaozar is initiated the next turn. It'll take a bit to get there though. I have a feeling faster engines will be more important than usual in this game for a while. Don't think I can afford to switch off the current industrial focus though to get better ones. We'll just have to deal with the delays. Meanwhile, we're using 14 of 15 freighters - definitely a good idea that another set is getting built.




Quercia is left of our territory. Not much to see in the actual 'battle', as the Space Hydra quickly incinerates our scout.




This system is a gold mine. Literally.




And in more ways than one. Only one planet, but it's a heck of a planet. Gravity will be a minor problem, but one that can eventually be solved.




The only yellow star in range, I prioritized this one and we got there at the same time. Other planet is Small-Radiated-Abundant. Above and to the right, it points roughly towards the center of the galaxy and could be useful for that reason. This ocean planet calls out for an eventual outpost I think, but I'm getting greedy if I expect that to actually happen.




Our one remaining scout is now definitely overworked, and has two more red stars to visit. I'll probably invest in another one before too long.




This was a fairly close call to me, but I pulled the trigger and hired Captain Kher. The kicker to me is the trade agreement bonus. Having someone who can both benefit a fleet and accomplish a diplomatic, financial bonus for us at the same time seemed worth it. It can't be too long until until we meet other races, so it seemed a good time to make the investment. I thought of assigning him to our Scout, but decided he was too valuable to risk him in that way.




Lots of stuff happened on SD 3507.3. Along with the promotion here for Director Crassis, we also got our Pods in. The next step gets us armor barracks, fighter garrison, and spaceport. That last one is the first important planetary income booster. Also, a third citizen arrived on Alaozar II. Had to put him in farming in order to not slow down production on the homeworld, but we'd made enough progress to efficiently rush-purchase the automated factory there. So that planet is starting to step up.




Observe the crap. Meanwhile we've scouted about a fifth of the galaxy now. There are eight other races in it. Somewhere. Cause we haven't found them yet.




The wormhole is the only thing worth seeing here. Also, our second Colony Ship is finished and heads to that big tundra planet in Sagan. I thought to send Kher with it, speeding the journey. Until I was informed that


Oh fine then.




This isn't even the best planet in the system. We also have:

** Tiny Tundra Abundant LG
** Large Tundra Poor




I'm having a hard time keeping up with where all of this stuff is ... and I'm the one playing the game. So here's a map of what we've discovered. Only Lomar - on the right edge - isn't shown. You do usually get more time in Huge galaxies ... but not this much time. The land-grab phase looks like it's going to last even longer than I thought. Exactly a quarter - 18 of 72 - of the systems have been scouted. And ... crickets.




Which is why I decided to do this. Normally I'd be concerned with getting a barracks up, and I'll definitely want some form of space defense here eventually, but with the total lack of any threat just yet I might as well push towards getting another incubator planet rolling.




Farming is possible, but not a real good idea at just 1.1 per farmer. Dealing with working in a high-gravity environment will suck half the productivity of the industrial sector. But this is a long-term project, and Sagan should eventually be a relative powerhouse. And the tundra landscape is downright cool, amirite?

We had a citizen ready and waiting to come here. That's a 5-turn journey from Mentar.




My first scout of a brown star in this LP. I am not exactly impressed.




SD 3508.9 - Normally I would go a bit further than this, but I decided to get a bit of feedback before proceeding. I'll give it 24-48 hours before I play any more. Here's the map. Main thing here is that we're about to finish the last scout - that red one in the lower-left - that we can reach.




Here's how the economy looks.




And here's the list of outstanding targets. As you can see, there's still some good ones out there. A few considerations:

** We are about to finish the colony ship for Bogina, at which point I'll be working on building that up ASAP to get the second nice planet in there and later the smaller rich ones that the system also has. All population transfers will pretty much go there.

** Sagan has a third citizen inbound, after which I figure to let it grow naturally and slowly. I need better technology to really make it useful.

** Speaking of which, I've just started leaning back into research. It'd be nice to get a Biosphere up on Mentar and Vela, and before all that much longer others.

** Vela and Alaozar should be able to handle the food requirements for the foreseeable future.

** Anything sizable we want to build still has to happen on the homeworld, so capacity remains quite limited. Vela and Alaozar are Poor, so they are total non-options for that.

Options

So I've got several things that occur to me.

** Outposts would be nice on Unuk or Pund, the latter of which would extend our range. Perhaps Lerion as well? If so, I'd probably couple this with building another scout.

** Spies. mydad suggested those, but last game I didn't have any enemy spy activity for quite a while after I met them. Based on that, I'm not sure I need any yet.

** Keep Colonizing. Enoch and Unuk for sure are worth it.

** Time to Militarize. The Space Hydra is guarding considerable riches. Perhaps we should build an initial fleet of MIRV-Destroyers/Frigates and go after that. It also has the benefit of preparing ahead of time for any rival hostilities, and for the fact that the Antarans tend to show up around turn 130 - another 40 turns from now so we have time. We'll want to be ready by then, but will our current tech have any effect on them?

** Other Ideas?. Anything and everything else that occurs to you.

I don't promise to take a pure vote and act based on that, but let's just say I'll take under very strong advisement. At this point, feel free to discuss anything related to defending against the Antaran raids. I don't think I would botch this beautiful beginning on my own - at this point I've got enough plusses that I'd hope to be able to compete against whatever comes my way - but I am curious how others/more experienced players would recommend transitioning into the midgame from here.