Part 126: Alkari Opening

Episode XI: Alkari Opening

Emperor Farseer rules Altair under a Yellow banner. We're back at Medium-size, which suits him just fine.

Starting Save: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3q6g37oqc.../SAVE1.GAM?dl=0

As for whether it's worse than the game just completed Wayne; it's worse in some ways and not as bad in others, so I'm not sure.




Upper-right is our domain, and it looks like there's a decent chance of the others being clustered opposite us. No Psilons for the second game in a row, but we do have Klackons, Humans, and Silicoid to contend with. At least one of those will almost certainly prove problematic. No Mrrshan or Sakkra to contend with which will help diplomatically. I'd call this a decent draw, could better and could be worse.

The dark-space gulf that cuts in from the right side and then up in the middle nearly isolates our quadrant from the rest of the galaxy. That's probably a good thing, but we'll see how it turns out.




This green star is our early colonization target. The blue one below and right is the other choice, but our odds are better here. The red star is the preferred direction towards the middle, but that and the other nearby blue are both four parsecs out.




Again? Really. AGAIN. Let's all wave goodbye to our colony ship. Well I did do this once before. I'm not betting the farm on a repeat.




Oh Wayne .... you like hard starts? How about one where a 10M max colony is the only one within range to settle. Even if you know where it is, this is abysmal. I'm telling you, the MOO RNG loves me. Get one like the Meklar win every once in a while ... and then we get this after the way the two Sakkra games went. Grrr. This is literally the worst possible situation in terms of systems in range for initial colonization; the player will always get one that is habitable. Guardian system and minimum population for the second one. Super-great.

Welp, only need three Recons for the moment. I suppose that's both good and bad.




Honestly I think I'm going to be better off skipping Rha entirely for now and just pushing for more range to get here.




A Bulrathi fighter this close? We have to retreat. And think about fighting already. Six years into the game. I want my mommy.




Beautiful.





Outstanding.




Heh. So we want Controlled Barren Landings like yesterday. And enough range to get to Klystron. That could potentially get us a whopping five systems here, one of which is total drek and none of which are above-average. Assuming the Bulrathi don't kick us to the curb first.

2322 brings us the first tech pull.

** Computers -- Deep Space Scanner
** Construction -- Reduced Waste 80%
** Force Fields -- Class II Deflector Shields
** Planetology -- Controlled Barren or Improved Eco Restoration
** Propulsion -- Deuterium Fuel Cells(Range 5)
** Weapons -- Hyper-V Rockets or Gatling Laser

We're going to need the Barren, so I go with that and it's a very Alkari thing to snag the Gatling Laser. So the plan here is get the fuel cells, followed by reduced waste and barren landings.

I want to cry now. Seriously.