Part 61: Episode VI: 2425 - 2450

Episode VI: 2425-2450




We still trail in production and technology but are competitive. The sheer size of the rocks is the only thing keeping us from unifying the galaxy. They must be stopped, and the sooner the better. The top two fleets in the galaxy are allies of ours, though ours is not yet large enough to handle a major conflict.




They like us ... they really like us!


The clear path forward is to bring war to the Silicoids with our powerful allies. All three partners, Meklar/Bulrathi/Mrrshan, agree immediately. The first two had no hesitation, while our tribute of Duralloy Armor pushed the kitties over the edge.




Our fleet is growing, but it still sucks. We'll do a significant shift from research to shipbuilding, and rely on our stronger friends to distract the spreaders of toxic filth enough to buy us time. Planetary Shields are up almost everywhere, though we are building more bases in some places. The Silicods do have the fusion bomb, anti-missile rockets, repair systems, and good jammers, so they could be quite effective against our defenses.

On the tech front(image missing), even once we reduce investment, we will still be close to some new and vital breakthroughs. Battle Suits will help with any invasions, and a larger ship type with the repulsor beam will probably be built once that comes in. The Silicoids have developed nothing but beam weapons for ship-to-ship combat; the ion cannon and neutron blaster are their latest. Any ship that doesn't have the heavy versions of these would find itself a large paperweight once we can deploy that gear. We also need not concern ourselves overly with their bases; once we get the fusion bomb we will make short work of them, as they have developed not a single missile system above the starting nuclear.

Given our strategic advantadge(their fleets are slower than dirt), we can afford to be a little aggressive. Aquilae is a recently-acquired thorn right in the middle of our territory, and the nearby corvettes were mostly sent there as a bit of a test scenario. Non-Aggression Pact was canceled first, which didn't please the rocks. And they just ran away. Disappointing.

Basically we're hoping more show up here, and we can get a sense for their capabilities. We can't actually invade yet, since this is a radiated world.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Xs-gxxAeU



Ok, that was rather anticlimactic, if quite pleasing. If those ships as a good example of what the Silicoids can do, they're in trouble.

2440: We've got almost 150 destroyers ready, fleet maintenance is over 10%. It has also been discovered that the nearby Silicoid systems have about 25 missile bases each. I'm confident we can handle their ships, but the bases could prove problematic. At the very least we need radiated landings so that we can take out Aquilae, colonize the one unclaimed world, and shift our attention to these fortified systems. Resources are shifted back into research for that effort.

The first thing we got in was not what we wanted, but will still help soon. Battle Suits, with Zortrium Armor up next in the pipeline. Meanwhile Aquilae ceased to be a problem, as the Meklars destroyed it from orbit. That works. The existing ships were redirected elsewhere. The war became official, as the Meklar asked that we make it so and honor our alliance.




And here we go. We can now invade any system we please. Repulsor Beam came as well, though that's not as interesting for the simple reason that most of the ships we've encountered are using long-range beam weapons; they're not particularly impacted.

Personal Absorption Shield was the only further option.




Here, this is a massive list but we went with the Atmospheric Terraforming. Transforming hostile planets into standard ones should really boost our population and growth rates.

The Meklar already had a colony ship inbound to Aquilae, but I thought we might be able to get there faster. Worth a try at least. After a couple of years we ran into a larger Silicoid fleet around one of their planets, and lost a good portion of our ships before ulimately retreating having done limited damage. Their missiles weren't particularly devastating, but they had a few dozen cruisers. We're going to need significant numbers to crack them. Most of our systems don't have as many bases as they do(around 10-12, a little less than half), but they should be more effective ones if we are attacked. So far the combined forces of the galaxy are keeping them too busy to do that.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgAHlRzMZtM



2438 was an eventful year. This is the first time they've attacked one of our colonies. The choice makes sense: it's a nebula systems with no missile bases when they sent the expedition. It's been reinforced since though. It gave us our first chance to get a look at their designs. As ever they are a big fan of the biologicals, but didn't get a chance to use them here.




We also settled the two radiated worlds that year, Maretta here and also Aquilae, the red one to the right if you recall. The Bulrathi actually beat us there with a colony ship -- but it apparently didn't have radiated tech so it didn't do them any good. We have a rich system in between that is still building ships -- it'll divide what it produces between the two until they are ready to get their own bases going. These systems should help us get closer in population to the rocks.




Another thrust a year later, and we didn't have many ships in place. Missile bases did the job, but they aren't overwhelming against them as expected and they got off some death spores. We definitely need to be cautious a bit. Also, the saboteurs have begun to strike, so security is beefed up a bit(the usual +10%, 5% of empire production required).

We're more or less in a standoff at the moment. The Silicoids are getting more aggressive, but we'll be able to beat them once we mobilize more I think. Still waiting on the bombs.




The next cycle it came in; 2440. We also got the Energy Pulsar, but as the Silicoids are fielding mostly cruiser-class ships, that's not as exciting and we're going to pass on it. Reajax II Fuel Cells(range 9) were the only forward-moving propulsion tech. In weapons we have the choice between Graviton and Hard Beams. The latter is much better: like the pellet gun it halves enemy shields, but does a lot more damage(8-12 as compared to our current 2-5 each). Graviton is a 'streaming' weapon, which are better against small ships.

I decided to wait just a bit longer for our next design, as we still had something important in the prototype phase. I need to increase shipbulding regardless though: larger attacks are coming. A 50-50 split between the two concerns for the moment.

A steady stream of enemy ships is en route to Jinga, and I think we are going to temporarily lose the system eventually.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYUTUJg81EI



Or right now. What I didn't consider fully is the breaking of contact with the Alkari, Bulrathi, and Mrrshan. That makes retaking it rather more important. Our current ships and bases aren't nearly as effective in a nebula, which didn't help, but I also got a little too secure here.

We just lost over a thousand BC a year in trade income because of that miscalculation, and have no way to influence whether or not they decide to terminate hostilities with the rocks. Costly.




This is what I was waiting on, doubling our current battle computer level. The Silicoids are still better at VI, but this closes the gap. Much as I would have liked to go for some jamming tech finally, Robotics IV popped up so that was the choice.

Nothing else is even halfway finished right now. It's definitely time to do a couple of new designs and close the fleet-size gap, with relatively minimal research effort for a while here. Defending what we have is goal #1; retaking the Jinga system #2.




Here's our latest fleet specs, having finally gotten rid of the Recons that are no longer serving any purpose, and added a cruiser-sized bomber ship. We have no ECM to give it, which is a significant flaw, but thankfully the lack of advanced missile tech by the rocks makes that relatively ok. I took a look at our anti-ship designs as well. It seems the cruiser size is a bit more cost-effective, though it's close(slightly less firepower but slightly more survivability given the same amount of BC invested). More importantly, they'll allow us to put battle scanners on without taking up too much room, improving our accuracy. I leave the quite unoriginal name Escort there, but they wanted to use 'Warship' for the bombers. That was a bit too generic for my taste. I've left those without shielding simply because we don't have any that are good enough to make a significant difference against the heavy ion cannons the enemy is packing. Better to just have more weapons and blow them up before they can do the same to us. I did shield the bombers though; I always give them every ounce of protection available given their mission.

Those will come later though. We got to kick the Silicoids out of Jinga before going back on the attack, so the Escorts are top priority.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW6uEXMKJ5Q



This short combat at Helos is a good example of what's been happening in this period. Our bases are not impregnable, but they are holding the line. Attrition is keeping us from making a whole lot of progress in building up the fleet though. It's coming, but it's slow.




We've got our first hit in a sabotage campaign. We haven't been struck ourselves in a while, and are hopeful of hitting back this way. Took out only three bases here. It's something.




The next Council vote, and the rocks gain 2 of 4 votes. Once again they have just enough for a veto. Meklar(4), Bulrathi(5), Alkari(5), and Mrrshan(6) all come our way. For the second straight Council, we fall just short(we get 8 votes here).




One vote shy. Again. If I lose this game I am going to be quite upset.