Part 114: Episode X: 2650 - 2675

Episode X: 2650-2675

At this point I'll be shocked if this doesn't become the longest game of the LP, at least to date. Sure doesn't look like it's going to be over in 50 years time.




The small size of the Meklar fleet jumps out at me the most here. That's important for the plan I have in mind.




Another 20M is coming per planet via terraforming, a modest but still useful boost to the economy. And also cheaper factories which is virtually irrelevant at this stage, but the ability to cram more crap on ships that will come with it should help. Nothing else anytime soon. This is another factor in favor of doing something active -- it'll be another dry spell in terms of research.




Not a great deal has changed here.

** Silicoids -- 26(+1)
** Bulrathi -- 16(--)
** Mrrshan -- 9(-1)
** Sakkra -- 8(-1). We once got as high as I think 11 and developed worlds were up to 8, now at 7, which is still one more than we had last cycle. But make no mistake, losing Altair stings(rougly 15% of imperial production was lost).
** Meklar -- 3(--) They are in trouble.
** Alkari -- 1(--)

If you look at the Bulrathi territory, you can see that the stuff we have in the middle largely cuts them off from the main fighting. That partially explains their inactivity, but not completely. They could do some things along the bottom of the map against Silicoid systems that are within their range, and I really wish they would. Some of them, perhaps even most of them, might be planet types that the bears don't have, but I can't imagine it's all of them. Still they sit on their hands.




So now to the details of the situation at hand, and the new objective. The Bulrathi getting off their arse and helping us take back Altair would be really freaking nice. More to the point, their inactivity is a primary reason why we lost it in the first place IMO. So long as there were a few systems being squabbled over, the Silicoids were happy to throw their weight around there and I was happy to let them do it. But I can't confront them directly, they are just too powerful even with their lack of anti-planet weaponry(and no biologicals that I've seen!). For whatever reason they fixated on Altair once they needed to find something else to do with their fleets. I'm hoping their gaze shifts elsewhere.

Having said that, their ineffectiveness against our planets(which should be helped by the recent deflector shields) gives me a reason to keep scaling up bases past the 50 limit. So I'm going to do that for defensive reasons until they are truly rendered irrelevant. And since that hasn't happened yet, it might not, at least with regard to the Silicoids. I'll get Altair back if I can. And the Guava Plan is still out there as a possibility, but I have no biological weapons at my disposal either yet.

The main goal at this point is to drive to Orion, but we lack the range to get there. The Silicoids are unlikely to just target us and go rampaging through our systems, the AI doesn't seem to work that way, but they are likely to take an interest in some systems like the newly-rich Rigel if we just let things be. Some type of action is required. The reduced Meklar fleet and the fact that my ships have proven effective against all of their current designs(even the Nemesis, their capship), and their general weakness suggest them as a target. Whynil, shown here on the right with Rana our staging point on the left, has a couple of important attributes in this. It has no missile bases -- the Meklar have poured everything into their ships recently and until 10-15 years ago it was a battleground -- and it is Poor, which makes it less likely to be targeted by the Silicoids. And it would also give us the range to reach Orion.

So then the plan is this; keep fomenting chaos at every opportunity to keep the Silicoids busy, build bases, try to get Altair if I can, but above all strike Whynil with everything I have, and NOW. This needs to be an invasion, not a bombardment. Two reasons:

** Always a good idea to steal tech where we can
** If Whynil is unoccupied for even a single year, the Silicoids probably send a fleet there. They've been ignoring it, and if we just capture it there's a reasonably good chance they keep doing so. Which is exactly what I want them to do.

First Whynil, then we worry about Orion. Succeed there, and at a minimum we'll have a lot better ships to combat the Silicoids and Mrrshan with. In terms of the invasion itself, the Meklar have Tritanium Armor(one step above our Andrium) and Personal Barrier Shields(better than our Absorption ones) but no advanced weapons for their troops. So I expect a poor, but not catastrophic, exchange rate in the fighting. They have over 100M troops there so I'll need something on the order of 300M to take it. This will not be cheap. Many Sakkra will die, but they will die in the service of an absolutely vital objective. And what more could any loyal citizen of Sauron ask for?

The bulk of the fleet would arrive in a year with more coming later. Troop transports from four different planets would get there a year or two later. Unlike the Alkari conflict centuries ago, this will be decided quickly. That's much to our benefit; we don't want the Meklar to have time to rebuild. The best Sakkra minds were in agreement; the odds of success were very high.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pewP4T1-Dbo



The space battle at Whynil was quick and decisive. The Bulrathi made no move towards Altair and it looked like the Silicoids were set to claim it, so this strike was made all the more important.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qj4T0qQ7e0



The first wave of the two to hit Whynil met with both less and more resistance than expected. Only 70M Meklar were there, with 50 of them taken out by our invaders. We lost 129M. Costly, but expected -- and the second, larger wave should overwhelm them.




As the last of the transports arrived the next year and a couple of Meklar destroyers were chased away, the latest Terraforming came in. We might as well finish things off the with Complete Terraforming. Additionally, the Silicoid ships vanished from Altair. It appears that they scrapped some of their ships -- and at a perfect time for us. We might not keep it. We probably won't, but we did get it back for the moment.




2653 is the year of our first successful ground invasion. Another 56 million lost taking out 23 million defenders, and it leaves us with a sizable population. 175M is the max here so this quite a good amount.




Any further Silicoid attacks against our fortified planets will now run into more significant resistance. Scatter Pack VII missiles were also discovered but I don't think they will be used at all.

Now comes the hard part. Orion is 10 parsecs out, just within range. Almost all combat ships will be relocated to Whynil. We should be able to more than double our fleet size, and we're going to need to -- as quickly as possible. Terraforming and building the new shields will come first though. There is a great deal to do, and it must be done with all possible haste. Meanwhile, the Bulrathi are nearly frozen in time for all I can tell.

The next year, though they retreated, a bare colony ship of the Silicoids arrived at Altair. And blew up two of my cruisers. The thing has Plasma Torpedoes I think, and better armor than my best combat ships. Egads.




In 2655, Industrial Tech 3 arrives. The Reduced Waste would be useful but only marginally given how miniscule eco spending is at this stage. Armored Exoskeleton for cheap or the more expensive Powered Armor would be quite useful for invasions. But I think Advanced Damage Control is the clear top choice here. That'll allow us to eventually go into 'floating battlestation' mode, which is pretty much going to be required at some point I think if we want to seriously fight back against Silicoid or Bulrathi megafleets.

And Altair was blown up from orbit, which I knew was coming. Stupid Bulrathi. You could have stopped this, but you're just too stinking lazy.




This ship is named for it's purpose; to slay the Guardian. It has worse shields(who cares against a Death Ray) and computing than it's predecessors, but a half-dozen torpedo launchers for a 50% increased payload. We need an epic crapton of them to take down this beast. And it's also nearly 20% cheaper, assisting with that whole project. I have two older ship designs in enough numbers that they will come along; I intend three different versions of this one to give that technological terror lots of targets to deal with.

Terraforming is done, so it's on to the planetary shields now and mass-production of these in probably a couple years. Orion or Bust. Meanwhile, the Silicoids have destroyed Meklon. If the Meklar are eliminated, we're the most likely next target. Everything is on the line right now, and despite all that has happened the Sakkra people remain very much at the galaxy's mercy.

I've become convinced that I've run into an AI bug with the Bulrathi. They build ships and send them to a central location, but that's it. Often you'll see empires do ridiculous stuff, but it's usually in moving their ships all over the place stupidly. That's not the case here. They aren't moving them AT ALL. EVER. FOR DECADES. They just sit there.




If I do manage to pull this game completely out of my arse, and it's now a legit though very much long-shot possibility, Iranha will be a big reason why. For at least 60-70 years the Silicoid and Mrrshan, erstwhile allies, have been squabbling over it. We've seen this before -- every once in a while there will be a system, not even that important, that the AIs just keep fighting over for whatever reasons. And now the Mrrshan have destroyed it again. Which means the Silicoids have to retaliate. Which means more ships not attacking me or gaining them more territory. Also, we hilariously have managed to slip Colonizers into both Meklon and Altair. That'll buy us even more time, and we need a lot of it still.




This cost us ... the Repulsor Beam. A bargain. We also increased their range with Trilithium Crystals in exchange for ECM III, a bargain for them. But the point was to jar them out of their inactivity and prod them into doing something. Which it probably won't do, but it was worth a shot and does provide some minor benefit to us.




Well, I think this is the first time we've gotten inside Granid's network. Computing it is, and it's crap; Battle Computer Mk. III. Then the Mrrshan pop up to say hello, and demand we break our alliance with the Bulrathi. I refuse, but I'm half tempted to do it since they aren't doing ANYTHING.




Yes!!!! Look at that beautiful fleet! Never mind the impossibility of having negative ships, or that they are probably going to take the artifact planet Crius since I've run out of Colonizers due to the chaos that has erupted once more. What's important here is that the Bulrathi have awakened -- another fleet of theirs in en route to Meklon which might just allow us to permanently seize that.

Welcome back, Bulrathi. I hope you enjoyed your hibernation. Now Get.To.Freaking.Work, there is much to be done. I think the range tech trade did it. It's a good a working theory as anything.

Shipbuilding is now underway in earnest. I expect it to take a couple of decades, but that will depend greatly on how things unfold elsewhere. Rigel pumps out four cruisers annually these days, making it very well-suited to make corrections wherever an imbalance in the various designs crops up.




Poor Rayden. Nobody's concerned themselves with you in almost a century. In that time you managed to get almost 300 factories built. And now they're gone again. Ultra-poor population center(biggest max population in my empire actually) but that's literally the only thing it was good for. Council votes.




The Bulrathi have a long memory. They signed an alliance with the Meklar, and I couldn't have the cybernetics turning them against us. A bribe of 2.5k was required to get them to break it.

2663: The Silicoids, disturbed by their mortal enemy being awakened, up the ante and offer Advanced Cloning if we will but call off our alliance. You know the answer.

In 2671, just as I was thinking I'm probably going to be ready by the end of the decade, the Mrrshan struck Whynil, the rally point for the fleet. It's like they read my mind or something ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1KOm3rFCsI



A lot of ships, but it looked to me like the fusion beams on the Cheetahs were the only major threat so I targeted them first. That many missiles from the new-variant Wolverines hurt, but we clearly won. Knocked our buildup down some though.

A couple of years later they hit us again, with similar results. We can't just abandon Whynil, it's the only planet in range of Orion. So it's now becoming a contest of whether we can outlast the Mrrshan -- unless I can bribe them into peace with us. They're at war with the Silicoids these days ...




It took four tech bribes, but three of them were utter crap stuff. A big trade deal of 2150 BC followed. Very nice. This should help the galaxy against the rocks. Of course it also means I have to stop spying on them, but that's the breaks.




Galactic total stays the same, but Granid's power has significantly diminished.




The bears are still in second for now, but definitely gaining. And both are in veto position.

We have 14, another new high which puts us just 1 vote shy of the Mrrshan. Smurch leads 66-40. If things keep swinging his way I won't be able to vote for him much longer. The long-term situation looks rather dire at this point for Granid.




Heh. The die has been cast on this whole situation a very long time ago. These words accomplish nothing.