Part 38: Episode IV: 2375 - 2399
Episode IV: 2375-2399
Well, crap on a stick. The galaxy is taking shape, but that's a lot of red. They most recently took that yellow star in the middle nobody would let us look at, Esper, bringing us in contact. Unfortunately it's looking a lot like deja vu all over again vis a vis the last game and our long struggle with them. Current planet counts are Silicoid 15, Psilon 14, Sakkra 11, Klackon 7.
We are shifting tacks a bit here and filling in the 'backwater' systems in the upper right, as we've been cut off elsewhere for the time being. Most of the colonies now have a decent level of population, and what little surplus there is heads that way to balance things out.
Not really looking that good from any perspective except for territory. We should be able to add several more to hit 20+ planets, but it doesn't look like that's going to be enough to challenge the eggheads. Playing from behind again here.
Nobody else would offer more than 225BC either in trade, so we stand pat. Definitely looks like the bugs are our best shot at a friend. Once we seal off the border with them, I may go for a Non-Aggression Pact.
Another near-worthless spheroid to occupy.
Last one in our corner to be explored. We'll eventually snag this, but it's another piece of junk.
2380. This should be a good ship-producer in time.
Another decent one, same year.
A possibility for pushing down the right edge, but it's 6 parsecs away. Not anytime soon.
2383, two years afterwards, was a big year. We've finally got all the Colonizers out and en route that we need. 5 more systems are expected to be settled, starting next year. That would brings us to a total of 23. Sounds like a lot, but it's less than a quarter of the galaxy and honestly a bare minimum, if that. Cryslon is nowhere near anyone's range, so it has switched over to industrial spending to shunt resources into the Planetary Reserve for a while. Better late than never for this, and it should be enough to help get a jump-start. Unfortunately most of the empire is still below the halfway point of industrial buildup.
Industrial Tech 9 and Class II Deflectors come in the next year.
While the default position is to go with the cheapest option available, Duralloy Armor will be most helpful in the event of a surprise invasion.
Here we'll help the ground troops again, only because it's the cheaper option and we just upgraded the other deflectors.
And our next addition.
Lovely. Galos is a Sakkra colony beyond our reach, so we can't do anything about this. It's up to the lizards. As of right now we have a positive +23 BC trade balance.
This basically seals off the map on the Klackon front.
Trade deals with the Sakkra and Klackons are upped from 150 to 275 BC: not quite doubling, but close. Non-Aggression Pacts are also signed with both races. Hopefully these deals will keep them in a favorable frame of mind, esp. when it becomes time to start voting(soon, I'd imagine). As you can see, the Psilons are not in such a friendly mood. I also stopped transferring population from most planets at this point: we've got enough critical mass where it needs to be to feed the last remaining new colonies. The 'citizens' can stay where they are and grow their own worlds now.
This here is the most useless piece of crap I've yet found in this game.
This figures to be an important world, figuring to be our third-largest behind Cryslon and Volantis.
2392: Battle Computer Mk. III and Anti-Missile Rockets come in. ECM Jammer III is the only computers choice.
Weapons was another matter. Bottom three are all from the next tier, and given our decrepit state of tech in general, I went cheap with the Ion Rifle. Only partly by design, we're getting a lot of early ground combat stuff here, which hopefully will help preserve our precious population.
The Sakkra appear to be doing basically nothing. We're at a mere +9 on our trade balance right now. Also, Cryslon has finally 'caught up' with reserve spending: that is, we've building up a balance there instead of sending it all out each turn.
Nuclear engines came in 2395. I wanted more range, but the only option was Sub-light drives(warp 3).
2397, and another lousy inferno world completes the expansion to 23 planets. The others have mostly run out of places to settle. The Psilons are at 15, Sakkra 12, Klackon 9. Our planets are worse on average, but at least we've got a good lead in sheer territory. Until the need for reserve transfers abates, efforts continue to be focused on building up the industrial base, with any surplus going to either tech or missile-base defense, as appropriate.
We were really close though, and a year later I decided it was time to start moving resources away from the transfers. Only three planets still needed them. Boosting research more was one option: there were two planets we could reach with a massive colony ship that included reserve tanks as the other. The proposed ship would move at Warp 2 and would require 7-8 years each. It's also possible that colonizing the two available worlds would open up other possibilities. On the other hand, we could increase tech investment by about 50%(269 BC) over that time-frame.
Usually I side with going for the land-grab, but the research was really tempting. The chance to grab systems that other empires were still ignoring had too strong an allure to ignore though.
Better. Looks like the Sakkra are starting to get things under control now. And with that, the first century of the Silicoid Experience(tm) comes to an end ...