Part 120: Episode X: 2750 - 2775(II)

Nope. We may be attacking your enemy, but ... uh ... you won't like who's next on the hit list. The next year we captured Fierias and smashed defenses at Cygni, which is unfortunately a poor planet. But better than nothing.




Now our bases have the best missiles they can have, with this and the Scatter Pack Xs. Which actually probably won't matter in the slightest. But it's still nice to have. We also got the Mauler Device(20-100 damage beam weapon), which is what you use for endgame stuff when you don't have the Death Ray, and several more lower-level captures.




The entire galaxy is within our grasp. Irrelevantly, this means re-establishing contact with the Alkari for the first time in centuries. Hilariously, our last intel report on them is 298 years old. That's not something you see everyday. And the Bulrathi came to Crius .. but retreated! They didn't have any BioTerminators with them. An interesting development. I think they would have smashed our bases with ease, but more importantly they didn't think so.

Cygni fell as well, completing the Mrrshan conquest as that leaves them with only Misha. Three more techs were captured, a couple of them good but none that we'll be using. The Mrrshan have some transports and ships floating around that I need to clean up, but then it'll be time to start looking at Silicoid targets.




I couldn't agree more. That'll save me the resources of chasing your ships around. Go back to Misha, live long and prosper.




Didn't take long, given all the industry that we captured when taking it. Back to 11 developed systems.




It is 2757, and time to light the powder keg. Going after the Silicoids means helping Smurch, their sworn enemy, get stronger. It means the final conflict is here, and there is no turning back from this point. But I don't see any purpose in further delays. Fierias will complete its Planetary Shield this turn, which should make us safe from the Silicoids. And that's all we can ask for.

I've decided it's best to burn down worlds that the Bulrathi can't reach. One of the few things we have that they don't is unlimited range. The two red flags in the upper-right corner are Klystron and Gienah. I'll start there, then move down the extreme right-side border. This will at least limit the amount of worlds we free up for potential Bulrathi interference and control.

At the same time, I scrap the remaining Dragon Is ... there are only three of them. I want a new updated Colonizer -- I'm still at Impulse engines on those -- to seize any possibilities that come up. Soon we'll have the new torpedoes and get another updated version going, but not until then. I even get the Bulrathi to agree to another(even if momentary) Alliance. There's no reason to delay.


https://youtu.be/0CoEIFJqmBw



Klystron first. A test foray here to see how our ships hold up. And it's pretty clear they don't. We lack the firepower to take down a fortified planet. An epic crapton of bombs will be required to crack them.




Don't worry, there never was a future for us. The Bulrathi want us to declare war on the Mrrshan, so peace there is over, while Fierias becomes our 12th developed system to come online.

As for proceeding further in the war, shipbuilding is halted briefly so I can get the torpedoes in and do another round of design. I need to know specifics before deciding on the next approach.




Not what I'm looking for, but a big increase(+20) to our combat rolls that will make us a lot more competitive there when the time comes. The last of the important Construction advances, so I can divert even more spending elsewhere.

Granid says: "We shall make an example of you blah blah blah others that resist the might of the Silicoid Empire".

In other words, we are now at war. I was hoping that would wait but honestly it's a small matter. 2761 brings the Plasma Torpedoes; Plasma Rifles for the ground troops are next.

Bombing the Space Rocks

The main question is do we still need bombers. The answer to that is: can I fit on enough Plasma Torpedoes to make Neutronium Bombs obsolete? And right now that's a big NO. The torpedoes would do an estimated 75 damage against planetary targets, 36% more than the bombs -- which take up just over a 7th of the space. So I need to keep on with the process of having a dedicated bomber, I just need a LOT bigger payload.




The advances we've made have allowed enough miniaturization to do just that. I went a different route with this. It'll be hard to hit until it fires due to the Cloaking Device, maximum armor/engines/shields/ECM, and then the stabilizer instead of the more advanced nullifier because it has enough speed to reach the planet in a single turn, so more manueverability would be redundant.

First time I've ever had to use a second weapon slot for the same weapon, but this has five and a half times the payload of our last edition. 106 bombs at a time instead of 19. I'm still going to want as many as I can get.




And the latest Dragon, complete with Plasma Torpedoes. I'll want to close the distance with ship targets on this guy. I've decided that I'd rather have the Nullifier than ADC. The sheer volume of ships involved now seems to make repair a relatively unimportant concept. Avoiding damage in the first place seems a higher priority.

I've had more than I need in the reserve for a while now, following my general rule-of-thumb of having enough to equal my annual planet production for the empire. No compelling thing to spend on it though. I think I've found one. I don't think I'm going to have a higher priority than jumpstarting these new ships. The existing Dragons(variants II and III) are dispersed to developing systems that don't have planetary shields yet, in an attempt to make them a bit more defensible while the new workhorses are constructed. Right now just over a third of our holdings are in that category, seven systems. That's enough to make a big difference if we hold on to them.




I didn't think we were that close to getting these. Came the very next year. So naturally I re-did the designs with improved shielding. The Dragon is down to 18 torpedo launchers now: the Colossus carries 'only' 94 bombs.

Personal shields for ground troops can still be improved, but I'm going with the Lightning Shield next, the best anti-missile system.

Then the toteboard started to fill up. 2763, the next year, Denubius and Cygni joined the ranks of developed worlds(14 now). The Silicoids flailed impotently at Iranha, then retreated. The next year, they could have taken Kulthos ... but gave up in the face of a Dragon trio. That was really important because it's nearing readiness. Keeta and Romulas were finished, both of them planets built from the ground up before the Mrrshan campaign. That made 16.

Unfortunately Granid's forces came back and took down Kulthos, but the loss of one growing system can't dampen my enthusiasm about the fact that our shipbuilding capacity is about to increase by at least half as the other systems come on-line.




On the other hand, it's difficult even to imagine worse news than this. It's hard to see exactly what they got, but it does appear that the Neutronium Bomb is among the discoveries. Which means we don't have much time of safety. We've got to start taking their systems as soon as possible. Their next fleet upgrade might well render them able to take down ours.


https://youtu.be/j1zYga9NQQw



This is at Meklon, a current battleground. Standing up to the Silicoids for the first time. Their ships are still better than ours, but not by as much as they once were. I definitely need practice with this kind of super-late-game tech.




Our collection of gear for the troops is almost complete. Weapons tech itself is, which leaves Force Fields as the only remaining important field, receiving nearly all the funding now . '




17 systems, as time ticks slowly by. It's 2771, and we are neck-and-neck with the Silicoids for that second nominating position. A race I'd rather lose, but appear to be winning. As I consider this more, I realize that I really can't afford to go Final War yet. And that may well happen in four years time if I don't take action. We don't have enough for a veto bloc. I decide to pursue a temporary Silicoid peace. A deal is soon reached after the usual -- some mostly-expendable tech bribes. How long it lasts remains to be seen.




The timing of the truce might at least be used to our advantadge. The Silicoids have yet to deploy their bomb, so my fortified worlds are safe. This is the 'Meklon Triangle', a trio of contested worlds lately. I happen to control them all at the moment, but don't usually. The rocks won't attack for a while after signing a treaty, so I'll invest in maximum buildup efforts of these three; Kulthos, Meklon, and Omicron. Perhaps I can hold some of them permanently.




This makes it a good idea to redesign the bombers again. The Lightning Shield will destroy 59% of all incoming Zeon Missiles, giving us a considerable survivability increase. I'll may put it on the Dragons as well, eventually. This will replace the Cloaking Device, and a marginal increase of 94 to 97 bombs is achieved on the Colossus 4.




475 years into the game and I'm nominated for the very first time. That's patience for you.




Since they hate Smurch and we made peace, the rocks support us. Surprisingly, so do the Alkari.




Still in veto territory with two to spare, although they haven't done great in fighting the Silicoids lately which I'm just fine with.

Mrrshans hate us, so they vote Smurch ... and we have a whopping 43 votes! That I didn't expect, I'm in veto bloc territory myself. All I need to do is maintain this level or increase it, and we can't lose the diplomatic way. I abstain, not wanting to upset our ally of convenience.