Part 15: Episode II: Klackons, 1st Attempt, Opening
Episode II: Klackons, 1st Attempt, OpeningHomeworld: Kholdan
Color Theme: Red
Emperor: Ixitixl
We've got three of the same enemies as last time: Humans, Silicoids, Sakkra. The first two there figure to most likely be the top competition. Perhaps humanity won't be locked out of things as much. Bulrathi and Mrrshan replace Darlok and Alkari this time around. That's pretty much a wash, another decent draw. No Psilons or even Meklars.
It looks like we've got a shot at controlling the upper right of the galaxy. That yellow star directly above us either won't be a homeworld, or it won't matter given how far it is away from anything else. The yellow star to the right of us is the only one within our 3-parsec range, so once again there's no choice where to colonize. Looks like the closest competition is likely to come from those two yellow stars roughly in the middle, with probably multiple empires crowding together in the lower right. That's fine with me. The green and red stars directly below us are the ones I want to secure with scouts first.
A couple of features to note here. One, medium galaxies are interesting, and larges to a somewhat lesser extent, because there are clumps of stars in places and then open spaces that form natural 'borders', especially early in the game. There's a real organic feel to the terrain. Secondly, note the purple splotches; those are nebulas. Shields of all kinds don't work in nebulas, and travel is limited to 1 parsec/year regardless of engine tech. It's rare that a strategically important system like +Kronos or Arietis in the Psilon game will be in a nebula, but if it happens things can get very interesting as the usual combat balance gets thrown off.
Ok a couple things to notice here. Last time our starting production was 51 BC; it's 72 now. That's a 40% boost due to the worker bonus. Time to see that savage growth curve in action! With the diplomatic weaknesses and no other real strengths, we've got to make the most of it. Also, it was pointed out that you can accelerate a bit the first few years by actually not cleaning up all of the waste at first. After some experimentation, I discovered you can gain an extra factory three years in, and a little more as Klackons, by doing this. The key is to only leave enough not cleaned up to basically keep your population at half of the maximum. After those first 2-3 years, that means you'll want it all cleaned, so it's just a bit of an extra jump-start. Every little bit helps though; normally we'd get only 4.3 factories here instead of 5, and of course it's less than 4 for other races.
Kind of depressing to see ships move off slowly after having Warp 4 Fusion Drives at the end of the last game. But we're back to square one.
As hoped for with a yellow star, we've got quite a good second planet. This is much better than the 35-max Tyr we had to deal with last game. Of course it won't extend our range much either, but two good planets can form a strong core.
Now it's time to draw the circle or sphere of influence. We need six more scouts to cover everything for the moment; less if that yellow star above us is uninhabited, but we can't bank on that. Kholdan will be cleaning up the rest of the remaining waste this year, and also can easily handle that many Recons. Naturally I've gotten rid of all the starting designs here per usual.
The red and white stars above and to the right of our starting colonies are both now within range, three parsecs out. So we will be able to expand further if either is livable. Here's hoping.
Middling planet at best, but our first picket is in place with no sign yet of competition. The Recons fan out, and colonist transfers to Primodius begin.
Another 'meh' planet, but more importantly an unoccupied one.
Unsurprising, as white stars are often hostile environs. It's all down to the red one now to determine our path.
Good planet here, and pointing directly to the middle of the galaxy to extend our range. It'll be a while until we can reach it though. Too early to tell, but Escalon could well become a future battleground.
2309 brings us news both good and bad. It's habitable ... but crappy. As an ultra poor planet will take forever to build up. Population incubator and research center eventually. Might be a bridge to that other nearby red star though ... worth colonizing in any case, but definitely could have been better.
So we do have this quadrant to ourselves for now ... and a potential second homeworld-quality planet! That would be very nice indeed.
That's about as crappy as it gets, and settles things. We'll get a colony ship out ASAP to Endoria, Ultra-Poor or no, and then it'll be on to research for range with nothing else available to colonize.
Our final Recon reaches it's destination, which is also hostile for good measure. It is 2312, and transfers to Primodius have completed.
This is the following year. Factory production blossoms so much beyond population growth for Klackons that Kholdan is already starting to build the colony ship with the excess not needed in industry. Could just grow more population as well, but I think it's probably better to get the ship out there a bit sooner.
2319. The colonizer was almost finished for this year, but needs a hair more work. Primodius has just reached the population midpoint; there wasn't even time to send any colonists back, what with how much the process is accelerated here. Time to see what our initial tech choices are. The big question to asks is whether we want range 4 or 5. The three planets we could get to are all towards the middle of the galaxy where we'd like to expand anyway; two including the best(Escalon) are range 4. No reason to go for the more expensive option here, but of course we may well not have a choice.
No ECM Jammer this time. The Deep Space Scanner is cheaper and definitely a more immediate benefit than the computer.
Gotta go with the Reduced Industrial Waste here. Force Fields was Class II Shields as always, and Barren landings was the only Planetology option -- no terraforming or eco restoration is not good for us. Had both choices in Propulsion though strangely enough, so Hydrogen Fuel Cells(range 4) is happily gobbled. Weapons gave three options(Hand Lasers, Hyper-V Rockets, Gatling Lasers). We snag the Hand Lasers this time to get things moving.
It's the usual drill here; dump all research effort into propulsion, stop building factories on the second colony(Primodius) to research as fast as possible, etc.
And then ...
It's 2322, mind. SEVEN planets already. We'll have three soon. If they don't stop soon, this could get ugly.