Part 69: Episode VI: 2625 - 2650

Episode VI: 2625-2650




Things still break down into four major powers and two small ones. Wish there was something I could do to get the Meklar off the sidelines.




We'll still take the Bulrathi and Silicoid money, but perhaps not for much longer. Checked into a trade upgrade with the Meklar, but we wouldn't have been able to increase that much.




** Silicoids(17)
** Humans(17) -- We were leading until that sneak attack. Probably got just big enough to tick them off.
** Bulrathi(10) -- Down from their peak, but still definitely a threat. Their ships have proven relatively easy to counter.
** Alkari(6)
** Mrrshan(3) -- Barely hanging on.




Our situation in the center here. Given what's transpired, I've deemed Guradas, Rana, and Primodius to all be expendable. I'd love to take Altair and Obaca back but that's not in the cards right now. All ships are going to focus on the defense of Jinga and Fierias, both of whom have bases but not very many. They need to build up to their allotments so we can be reasonably fortified, then the fleet will be free to strike out elsewhere. I can't afford to lose those two systems, which makes everything else a luxury. In the lower-left is Phyco, where the comet threatens. All new ships will head there, which means they won't be coming to aid here until that crisis is over.




The current fleet here. The combined maintenance number is presently at 31.2%, right roughly where it's been. We used to have 35 of the top ship and 49 of the third one, designs from when we had minimal shielding on them. Soon we won't have any of those left. It's going to take about 30 cruisers in one location to take down the Silicoid capital ships; at least 20. As you can see that doesn't leave a lot of room for error here.




More help is on the way though. New drives and even more importantly, the Particle Beam which will have significantly increased damage, will be done soon. Three others are well underway; the main one of military value will be the Advanced Damage Control, though that won't be coming in for a while. When it does, we'll be able to make the switch to our own capships effectively. That's a longer-term solution to our problem with the traitorous space rocks. Holding on till we get there is another matter.




We fought well but the numbers(55 to 10) were overwhelming. Combat tech is fairly even, slightly in our favor, which is good to know for future battles.




Not good, but it could be something worse. Rana comes under bombardment, but we intercept all of the Silicoid transports headed for Jinga. The Bulrathi and Silicoids are fighting over Altair, which is just fine with me -- the longer they do that, the longer neither of them benefit from having it.

2628 brings bad news(Alkaris capture Rana, although if I had to pick, I'd take them having it over the others) and good news.




At that rate it should be gone in one more year, and then we can send ships back up to the Jinga/Fierias 'front' once more.




Our one remaining staunch ally is proving they can do something useful; maintaining watch over Primodius, they have thus far fended off all attempts on that system. The comet is indeed destroyed the following year; unfortunately it's a fairly long 4-year journey from Phyco to Jinga to make those ships useful again. Expenses dictate that we scrap the oldest of our ship designs at the same time.

In 2631, the buildup at Fierias is finished and work at Jinga is accelerating. I don't see anywhere vulnerable enough to strike yet though; we must seek the right opportunity. the Silicoids have a number of dreadnoughts floating around, sometimes as much as 12-15 of them in a single force. We'd be very hard-pressed to confront that many at once. At Altair, the Bulrathi control the planet, Alkari and Silicoid fleets are in orbit, and the Meklar are incoming. What a convergence ... I'll just sit here on the sidelines, twiddle my thumbs, and see who wins.




AntiMatter Drives are in. Here we're going for Combat Transporters, which make ground invasions of even heavily fortified systems viable. Haven't used those in this LP yet(maybe ever, now that I think on it). Each transport has a 50% chance to get it's troops to the surface before being attacked by bases or ships.




Here we go. Against the shielding we've seen on the big Silicoid designs, these should do just about exactly twice as much damage as a Hard Beam. They also take up 66% more space right now, so overall effectiveness won't be all that much higher yet. Multiple tempting options next, but I go with the Neutronium Bomb. If we need to, let's have an option to just go in instead of waiting for others to clear the path for us.




This will probably be our last cruiser-sized design.




Same year here, 2634. We've got front-row seats to a knock-down, drag-out fight for the middle of the galaxy. Ursa, the Bulrathi homeworld, was just destroyed. So was Guradas, by the other side. Most significantly though, the Meklar and Bulrathi are allied and at war with the Silicoids. I think it's time we joined them. Bribing the bears with -- hold the laughter please -- the earth-shattering Gatling Laser -- is enough to make them sign a Non-Aggression Pact. We'll have to wait for an Alliance for a bit. What we really need to seal this is a Silicoid target to attack, but there are none that look inviting. That fleet over Ursa is too strong for us I think.

The next year, the war is official as a result of a Meklar request. Also, Ursa is left open with only a token Alkari fleet. That'll change, but let's get there and announce ourselves first. Maybe the Silicoids will be too busy elsewhere to return. The latest division in the ever-shifting fortunes of the galaxy is Silicoids/Alkaris/Mrrshan against Humans/Bulrathi/Meklar. No question ours is the overall stronger trio. Question is how long it will last. If it's too successful, we could well just end up facing off against the Bulrathi as our Council opponent.




Next year. We got seriously lucky here as both this and the ECM Jammer came in; both were less than 20% chance individually. I'm getting a little annoyed with our lack of Robotics advancements; only Computer option is more ECM. However, we will take Complete Terraforming(a further 20M, the final one in the series) and say thank you very much.

And we colonize the homeworld of our ally. Weird things can happen in scrambled situations like this. Even better, it turns out the Silicoids just killed everyone from orbit -- the factories are still intact. We just 'acquired' 840 of them. For free.




I think this is the second time at least this has happened this game, but first time I can prove it. The 32k ship bug strikes ... in our favor, as it's our allies the Meklar. Not this one, but they've got ships moving to the right, going after Silicoid targets. I'd like very much for them to gain territory as well.




With the arrival of Class XV Deflector Shields, we have reached the 'cleanup' stage of our top research field. We've got to back and get the stuff we missed. Personal Barrier Shields, to aid our ground troops, will be next.




2639. More good news here. The Meklar are sending a task force with a colony ship to Altair. They may have it with our blessings. The green star below Ursa is Guradas, and cybernetic fleets control it's orbit. I'll spare no ships to guard it -- I want to keep the fleet mostly at Ursa for now -- but we'll dispatch a colony ship there to add that back into the fold. There's also a small group of Meklars coming to Ursa as well. That can't hurt either.


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


We've obviously reached the point where missile bases are mostly irrelevant. It's about ship-to-ship combat now. I won't be building above 50 bases now, to reserve funding for other things. Widescale base eliminations are conducted for that purpose. They didn't damage our bases here -- but they didn't have to. We're never going to blow them up fast enough to counter biological weapons on that scale.

This leaves us in a situation where we have only defensive weapons systems in an offensive environment. That's not a good situation, and we may well do quite poorly in the long-term if it continues. Our best anti-planet system is the Fusion Bomb, which can't get through the best planetary shields. We manage to trade with the Bulrathi for the Anti-Matter Bomb, which does 10-40 damage. Now we're in business. Also got Adamantium Armor, somewhat better than what we have, from the Meklar. Still waiting on one more thing to come in from our research before we embark on a new design.




2645. This fleet is headed for Fierias. I split our ships between two systems, Ursa and Exis. Both of them can get there in time, and we'll add whatever bases we can just for the fun of it in the meantime. Either they lose a substantial portion of their fleet, or we lose a key system. Or they retreat, but that seems unlikely.




On the in-between turn, we finish the current task I was waiting on. Neutronium Armor will be next. ADC allows the strategy to be unfolded that the Silicoids are currently using against us. I call it the 'Floating Fortress'. Let's see what we can do with it.




I actually went down a level in engines, armor, shields to preserve some space for weapons. Damage Control and the Zyro Shield take up a lot. As always, we'll want to adjust things as tech continues to advance and minaturiazation happens. Their ships have more HP at 2400, but it's the same basic idea. With 30% regeneration each turn, that means to make any progress at all you've got to do more 720 damage. That's not a small amount, particularly through the shielding that's on this. The bill of nearly 5k means it'll take a while. Not that long though. We'll still get 1-2 a year just with our four rich systems on the case. Once we have critical mass of these, we'll see what's what.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3U0sY8aJds



Turned on Auto partway through there once it was obviously the colony wouldn't survive. Most of those were still Hard Beam ships, would have done better with superior weapons, but it's going to be really hard to stop a fleet with that many biologicals who can take that much damage from laying waste to our systems.

The way to do it instead? Burn theirs down first!!

Our ship maintenance is now virtually nil. It reads 0.0%. That was everything we had. We need lots of Dreadstars and we need them now. The larger planets will switch to shipbuilding, aiding the rich ones in pumping them out. We're largely at the Silicoids' mercy for the moment however.




2648: Weird news item. Pirates in the Altair system ... what makes it weird is that there is absolutely nothing there. The planet is uninhabited, so there's nothing to disrupt.

We also get our first four Dreadstars going, each of which costs almost 1% in maintenance. Looks like we'll be able to build about 30 of them, or close to that.




The dozenth High Council meets ... and how many more? Granid is now significantly below veto power again, though he's +3 this cycle. Add in the small races though and he's still got plenty to not lose.

** Meklar(7) -- Johann III
** Bulrathi(17) -- Johan III. Both the same population as they had last time, but of course the main difference is they swung our way.
** Alkari(7) -- Granid
** Mrrshan(2) -- Granid. Looks like they are all but gone.
** Humans(20) -- Just +1 after all the gaining and losing is said and done. That makes the total vote 44-31 in our favor. That's the best we've been able to do in about 150 years, but still six votes shy of the finish line.