Part 149: Episode XIII: 2550

Episode XIII: 2550 -




A lot of update screens coming here. First, we are basically equal with the Sakkra, maybe a hair ahead now in the overall. Technology and fleet continue to crawl closer to the leaders. Empire size gets more ridiculous all the time. Slowly, but it's coming.




Literally three years ago the Sakkra were basically on the verge of war with us. But they decided they hate the Alkari or the Alkari decided they hate them, or whatever. And by the way, Alkari and Darloks are both at war with Sakkra - yet both voted for them. That's rare, but it's basically a measure I think of the galaxy giving me the middle finger. It's like they're saying 'we know you're going to conquer us and use our blood and entrails as garnish, but don't think it's going to happen without every bad thing we can send your way.'

The state of things is basically that everyone is at war with everyone. That's not completely true, but there are no alliances and everyone has at least three wars. The whole Sakkra/Darlok lovefest has been over for decades now and that was really the only chance for a coherent resistance on the other side of the galaxy. Frankly this is helping us, because as this has developed attacks on our systems have lessened. We still get them, but attention is divided.

Everyone Hates Everyone, with rare exceptions.




I accidentally did a monochrome thing with this, then left it that way for the lulz. The Leopards are gradually taking over the heavy lifting with Panthers more and more on garrison duty. It's a slow process with only a few systems building them, because ...




That's a lot of maintenance money going out. Sakkra trade agreement has been capped at maximum for a long time, which is a rarity. I don't want to re-up because it isn't worth it, given that we could be at war with them at the drop of a hat.




The left side has changed somewhat even as we've slowly reined in Redwing. Both Sakkra and Darlok have benefited a bit at the expense of unclaimed territory or humanity.

** Mrrshan(19)
** Sakkra(8)
** Darlok(7)
** Alkari(4)
** Human(1)
** Bulrathi(1)

When we take Incedius, we will have half of the colonized planets. By ourselves.




This has, overall, been the most micro-heavy run I've played. The transports here are but the latest example. Since the opening there's been very little 'next turn hammering' at all. A fulfilling game in terms of MOO handing us a break for once, but the practical gameplay has been very tedious. The fast start meant lots of pop transfers, then it was getting all the ships out to the blockaded planets every year(you can't use the RELOC lines that I'm doing here with planets you don't control). Now it's the constant population transfers. If it's not a rich/artifact/other side of the galaxy planet, it's sending transports to Incedius every year.

It's working -- down from 27M to 21M over the last few years, and with newer systems like Morrig starting to contribute now the volume is increasing. But doggone it this snowball can't pick up momentum fast enough. I've known I was going to win for over a century, and still it's this grind ... grind ... grind ... grind that just won't stop - at least the way I'm playing it.




ECM isn't that exciting and neither are a couple of other things. Construction(new armor will help in more effective invasions) is really the only one that moves the needle aside from the torpedoes, and those are the two that look to be the latest coming in. There's not a whole lot worth trading for with the other empires anymore.

Adding to the tedium are the repeated dumb battles. I'll wait for a good example of those, but I don't expect to have to wait long.




ECM VI comes in, and I really wanted more Robotics. Didn't get it. Hyperspace Communications instead.




I doubt we hold it, but this is interesting.




Yeah, I don't have the ships to spare to go fight that. Amusingly the other two incoming fleets are just colony ships. Back to the old 'every turn we have it is a turn they don't' idea.


https://youtu.be/t4jXsEetbvo



Here's a good example of the 'dumb/annoying' battles that I often have multiple every year(though thankfully less since the EHE diplomacy was invoked). This is at Ryoun, and after the missiles are gone it's basically just keep them away from the planet and wear them down. It would of course go faster with more ships -- but I need to blockade whatever Alkari planet I'm invading so they don't get transports through, and I've got several systems that need defending as it is, so there's only so many cruisers to go around. Most of the time they aren't even firing on me. Repulse - Repulse - Repulse - Repulse - absorb missile salvo - fire Heavy Fusion Beams - Lather.Rinse.Repeat.

Over. And over. And over. And over. I am enjoying this game, but it's like a backhanded gift having a starting advantage and then being compelled to go through this to complete it safely.




Ion Drives are in, and the High Energy Focus is the only choice. Meanwhile Nazin gets orbital death.




Back up to 20 systems here. More importantly, what's the loot?



Just means I have to kill more of them later. I just want to know what I discovered!




That's a modest improvement. Also ...

** Hard Beam(inferior)

And that's it. I am not amused. Nothing for our troops ... we could have gotten armored exoskeleton or fusion rifle. Let the wanton slaughter continue I guess ...




As we pound Reticuli, the next target. Sure, why not. We'll destroy all your enemies before we come for you. We can't increase trade enough to double it, so I won't bother doing anything more there. We can also see what's at those two remote upper-right worlds, just for the fun of it, by using their systems to refuel.




Starting to snowball here a bit now. Faster engines means more worlds in reasonable travel range, plus each conquest means one more source world in time as well. Here we are already sending most of the fleet on to Willow, even as a couple hundred million more transports(over 100M were already lost in the first wave) descend upon Reticuli. Gutting the economy to this degree means maintenance is above recommended limits(approx. 38%), but we've reached the point where sheer force of numbers is going to accelerate this more and more now.

Reticuli fell the next year(although I'd moved too many ships out, so many Mrrshan died taking out the reinforcements. Hadn't accounted for that). The toys acquired:

** Deep Space Scanner(boo)
** Improved Industrial Tech 4(ok, a 25% cost savings)
** Hyper-V Rockets(*sigh*)
** Warp Dissipator(everything but what I want)
** Merculite Missiles(two generations worse than our Hercular)

STILL neither invasion tech falls to us. Incredible. And the Humans sign a peace deal. All of this in 2559. The Alkari still have nine techs left that we can steal, according to spy reports.




Cheaters! But even this will not save you.




A wise plan. All offers of surrender will be accepted.




Well Doom Virus is here(who cares). And we barely spend anything on ecology as it is. I'd much rather have terraforming but when you don't have any option, you take what's there.




Nobody ever got Radiated Landings, so this is empty forever.




We now control the orbits of all remaining Alkari resistance. They had high-30s numbers of bases and took out about 15 or so of our best Leopard-class cruisers, but we had enough numbers to finish the job. Now it's just a matter of powering through the final two invasions(Willow first, then here).




2563. Lots of cool toys at the bottom of this list of course. But we just got Proton Torpedoes which should end any prospect of our ships being stopped by planetary defenses. Now I'd like to do the same thing for our ground troops, so I'm going with the Plasma Rifle.

We also tell the Darloks and Alkari to shove it as they ask us to break the Sakkra alliance.




The basically irrelevant Cloaking Device is in. A new planetary shield should essentially make our planets impervious.




Sauron once again doesn't keep his end of the bargain. Shocking.




After Altair's defenses were defeated, I started sending newly-produced ships on to Nazin here. It looks like we've secured it for now at least, so that's another big planet in our empire and I'll start investing in it.




Nearly destroyed the planet accidentally during a space battle, but Willow falls in 2565. Here's our first toy, which is a modest improvement. Also:

** Ion Cannon(obsolete)
** Reduced Industrial Waste 80%(obsolete)
** Dotomite Crystals(Range 7, also obsolete)
** Fusion Rifle(finally!)
** Controlled Barren Environment(obsolete)

Invading Altair and all future ones as well should be accelerated here. We still won't be on equal terms but it will be a lot closer.




*Yawn*




Meanwhile, that's a crapton of ships coming for our smallest, weakest planet. Want it that bad lizards, you can freaking have it. This is what you broke the Alliance for? Seriously? 50M max, and that's after 40M of terraforming.




Took out the colony ships in the attack, but little else. They have mostly lowish-tech missiles and tachyon beams, so when we get the new planetary shield we'll not be vulnerable to this no matter how many they send. As it is, it was sheer volume of ordnance. Meanwhile, the first transports reached Altair, where the exchange rate is now about 2:1.




Empress Nermal scratches one name of the to-exterminate list two years later.

** Automated Repair System(don't think we'll use this)
** Armored Exoskeleton(upgrade on our battle suits, the other missing combat tech)
** Controlled Tundra Environment

Everything else we'd already stolen. Now it's time to move on to the next enemy. Humans and Bulrathi seem the logical targets, with only one lucrative system each. Wiping them out will make everyone hate us, but the Darloks already hate us and the Sakkra are close to that point, so who really gives a darn. The lizards can keep Regulus for the time being. After that, the Sakkras have the better fleet but basically non-existent planetary defenses(no planetary shields at all). Both they and the Darlok field Pulson missiles, which aren't too nasty, but the shapeshifters have Class X Planetary shields. I'd rather have our torpedo ships ready, on which I'm waiting for one more tech to finish, before taking those on.

So, in order of conquest, the plan is to take Ursa and Sol, then hit the Sakkras, and finally the Darloks. Domestically, the population in most systems should be able to start to recover now, at least to a degree. An economic explosion should begin which should steadily fuel an accelerating blobbing snowball here. The biggest tactical question is how many cruisers to leave in orbit over developing worlds that don't have a sizable number of missile bases up yet. More would be safer but also leave us more vulnerable to counter-attacks. Based on what I've seen, about six seems right to repel most incursions.




There's what I've been waiting for. Been in prototype for probably 20 years, but most of it with relatively modest investment and we do suck at Construction. This puts our armor tech a level above anyone else's, boosts our ground forces more, but also finishes up what I wanted for the last major ship upgrade I intend to design. Industrial Tech 3, which we probably won't ever complete, is up next.




Faster and tougher than the Leopard, and armed with new proton torpedoes, it'll take down anything it runs into in sufficient numbers. About the only thing I might want to change here is just a redesign to cram more stuff on as we acquire more technology by aggressive means and get more space available. It's also a lot more expensive, but so what.


https://youtu.be/omU6UkjAWuA



In 2574, the Darloks unveil the King Cobra, first real threat to our fleets I've seen in a while. Combination of Ion Stream Projector and the heavy beams is quite effective. We need a significant concentration of ships to take them down. Altair was building it's shield, but it wasn't finished yet. I could take them down ... with the fleet that's on the other side of the galaxy, bearing down on the Bulrathi homeworld. So this is a bit of a situation and we may lose Altair.




Oh, do shut up.


https://youtu.be/oqt5Q6fI6Vc



We reach Ursa the next year. They, uh, didn't put up much of a fight. Hyper-X missiles. In the late 26th century. More bombardment at Altair, as I re-reroute newly-built ships there as quickly as possible. I don't know if they'll make it in time. And then the latest, irrelevant, Council vote:

** Humans(2) - Sauron
** Sakkra(9)
** Darloks(5) - Sauron
** Bulrathi(1) - Sauron

We have 18 of 35 votes. Abstain again just to keep the Sakkra from getting too mad. Yet.