The Let's Play Archive

Master of Orion

by Thotimx

Part 123: Episode X: Multi-Part Conclusion. Sauron Presents: Maximum Evil Overkill

Episode X: Multi-Part Conclusion

SAURON PRESENTS: MAXIMUM EVIL OVERKILL

Because anything worth doing, is worth overdoing to an absurd degree. The great Emperor Sauron is furious with Smurch's refusal to recognize our superiority. He did everything possible to end this age in a peaceful resolution, but the impossibly stubborn Bulrathi potentate would not acquiesce. Sauron's rage is infinite, kindled against all bearkind. He has pledged to wipe them from the face of the galaxy in this most cruel and brutal way he can imagine.




We have no need of Status updates anymore. This is between us and ugly. The sea of green stands ready to overwhelm all opposition. 21 Bulrathi planets, not 20 -- I miscounted before.




This is the fleet. 299 Dragon V-class capital ships. This should be more than sufficient for the task, and while we can build somewhat better ones now(meaning more weaponry crammed on) that won't be necessary. We will proceed as follows:

FIRST PHASE

There are several steps leading up to our first major actions against Smurch.

I. Five ships were be sent to Darrian, to destroy the last Silicoid colony from orbit. Granid's remaining charges are getting off easy in being obliterated in this way.




This stupidly ended up taking longer than expected. First, it didn't give me a bombardment option with the Dragon Vs. I'm not sure why -- I've been able to do it(ineffectually) with only laser-armed ships before. So then I sent in a single Colossus, but by then the Silicods managed to scrape together a fleet that, while I destroyed most of them, defeated the handful of ships I sent. So I then had to send in the obsolete ones(Colossus and Dragon IVs) to finish the job. That happened in 2832.

II. All planet spending was siphoned into research as much as possible. The tech tree must be completely maxed out for reasons of absurdity to be later demonstrated. Also just because. The only exceptions to this are Rich/Ultra Rich planets; they'll fund their output into the reserve, where it will be used to accelerate research at Orion and artifact planets.




The approach here will be to distribute research evenly between all the fields that are not yet finished. So far there are still five of them, but Weapons is close and Computers not that far off. This stupid amount of research should make reasonably short work of even this herculean task.

Second Phase

III. The remaining ships were recalled via the Stargate network to Proteus, the best and most central staging location. This should take only a couple of years.




There are more Bulrathi above and left, below and right of course, but this is the best location for dispursement.

IV. After the fleet was assembled, Smurch was delivered a notarized notice that the Alliance with the Sakkra has been terminated with immediate effect. This will be signed with the blood of his ambassador, with accompanying small boxes containing said official's atomized personal effects and mutilated portions of his body parts.

Smurch's words were 'The words of your broken treaties will be inscribed upon your tombstone'. Which is a fairly good insult for the time of course, but that's not what will actually transpire.

V. Immediately afterwards, the entirety of the Imperial Sakkra Fleet was divided into task forces of 14 Dragon Vs apiece, a smattering of the older designs going along with each for the ride. Each task force was sent forth to a different Bulrathi world in a massive, simultaneous attack the likes of which the galaxy has never seen. The bears are strong enough to withstand a couple of these I am sure, but most will succeed in obliterating defenses. The great majority of the Bulrathi Empire will be at our mercy.

I ran into a small problem here as well: I had to divide the fleet into multiple locations in order to get the control over the numbers that was needed. I forgot that you can only send ships in increments equal to 10% of number that are at any one location. So dividing to 21 planets from a single place is not possible. With two though, it can be done. Nearby Lyae would suffice just fine. The ships departed in 2835, and would hit their first targets in 2836.

Final War Commences


https://youtu.be/-Olq7zxJ4Ig



Naturally such an operation requires video confirmation. This is fairly long as there are a lot of mostly repetitive battles. By my count we lost once and held orbit ready to bombard 11 Bulrathi systems at the end of the first year of the campaign.

"Of course you know this means war" is rather an understatement now. It is time to move onto the next phase, but it is worth noting as well that Weapons research is finished. Four more fields to complete. Perhaps the most astonishing thing here is the sheer number of capital ships. One of the systems literally had a thousand of them ... and they retreated :P.