Part 127: Episode XI: 2322 - 2350
Episode XI: 2322-2350So in between playing sessions I put some thought into this latest 'screw-you' from the MOO RNG.
2322 as I proceed. The light blue line is basically a cutoff of our upper-right quadrant, which is our sphere of influence(eventually). The green letters are points of interest.
** A -- This looks like the only entry from outside our quadrant due to the dark-space gaps. That obviously won't be true forever, I'm just talking early-game. Therefore this red star is a vital chokepoint and we need to get as close to it as possible and blockade here.
** B -- Seems that this must be Ursa, Bulrathi homeworld. They're going to have to push upwards towards us.
** C -- Klystron, our target to be colonized first.
After Klystron, I think some early shipbuilding is justified to hold the Bulrathi to minimal expansion. If we can do that and keep them from pushing upwards, then grab whatever we can get in a leftward direction, that seems to be the best course of action. It's a tightrope to walk and easier said than done, but that's the goal.
Translating that into action, we're going to get Range 5 soon, so I wanted to get enough Recons out there to be ready to go wherever that will take us after getting to Kryslon. Practically speaking, I think we can get them to our entire quadrant, and the two stars closest to the 'Chokepoint A' system. Ignoring Ursa for obvious reasons, that means 10-12 Recons. It just so happens that we had enough spending in the Ship slider already to build 11. Well then. The rest went into needed industry and research on the range.
Building them now is thinking ahead ... and it will slow everything down a bit, but not that much. They're just Recons. Maintenance should be only around 1% per year. I either build the Recons now or after the Colonizer ... and that'll be too late to stake our claim to the territory I think. It definitely would mean a delay a getting to many systems and in the situation we're in I don't think that delay can be countenanced. Then it was a case of trying to match the research to the construction of the Colonizer, so that both would hopefully happen about the same time. I was right about the cost ... 0.8% and falling for the maintenance.
I go with Nuclear Engines here. We may well want the Inertial Stabilizers and it's good that we have the choice. I think 5 parsecs is enough range; if we had four I'd consider Irridum, but more speed will help in everything we need to do, getting ships moved around more swiftly and also improving their combat capabilities. And of course it is the cheapest option.
At the same time. Coming soon to a High Council near you, our homosapien overlords. It's 2331, with the Colonizer set to be finished next year. There is now only one planet, down near Ursa, that we cannot reach within the boundaries of what I consider to be our 'quadrant'. Recons are headed out to several destinations, including the 'Chokepoint A' system. Before the end of the decade we'll have a much better sense of just how screwed we are.
Some research efforts will continue, the most paramount being getting Controlled Barren Environment so we can settle the only two other decent systems nearby. In the meantime, while it's not my usual play, it seems a better idea to get a small detachment ready to handle any Bulrathi conflicts, as opposed to building a colonizer that could only go to the marginally useful ball of rock Rha.
We can't put a reserve tank and any kind of weapon on a fighter-class ship, and we need those if we are to aggressively contest the systems between our territory and Ursa. Which is exactly what I intend to do, as well as posting advance guards near Chokepoint A to potentially delay whoever is out that way, if practical. This also means reserving half the space and about 15% of the cost of a combat ship for the bonus fuel. But is there really a choice? I don't think there is a good one. Altair can build one of these annually, while still reserving about half of its disposable income for researching Barren landings, and the Heavy Laser gives it a bit more punch and future-proofing in case the other races come out with shielded vessels soon.
The lower-most blue star in the quadrant is Trax, already a developed Bulrathi system. This though would work nicely as a research world and population incubator, as much as I'm not in the mood for poor planets beggars can't be choosers. We could leapfrog from Klystron(Colonizer en route, the red star) to Talas(Barren, yellow), and then here.
Barren is the name of the game around here. Unless the Bulrathi have moved down across dark space(doubtful), they have at most three systems; Ursa, Trax, and that red star that is still out of our reach for the moment. If I could hold them to those somehow, the Alkari could become at least the primary regional force.
'Chokepoint A', thy name is Spica. It's as good as any planet we've found so far even, though that's not saying much. Obviously a priority to secure this. Hopefully we can afford more later, but a Falcon is sent here immediately.
And we finally get a new colony, in 2336. This just barely brings Spica into range, at 5 parsecs away. Which presents me with a choice. Do I build a ship to go here immediately, or secure the Barrens to block the Bulrathi in? I think I want one more ship on the Bulrathi front first, then I'll snag this, then back to our quadrant, and so forth. It's a tough call though and I could go either way on it. Spica definitely has to be a vital priority.
We can forget about this planet for a while.
This one too, though Toranor does make it important to look for any opportunity to get Inferno or better.
Barren landings could have come in a couple years sooner but waited until 2338. I'll stick right here in planetology and get Improved Eco, a badly-needed economic boost. Tundra Landings won't help us so it's definitely going to be Terraforming after that. I can only afford a small investment in it though -- if reducing waste spending wasn't vital, I wouldn't be giving it any. I've got to get more colonizers out there.
The Klackons are just a short step past Spica. This is Dolz(population 75, 86 factories). They're going to come for Spica soon ... and I can't afford to dawdle. My hold on the Bulrathi situation and growth curve will have to be sacrificed, but it's worth the effort. I decide to go to Spica first instead. I just don't think we can afford to lose the system, and it will take several years to get there. Even the Falcon is still five years out ...
Our last Recon arrives for now. So this is the early battle; holding back the Bulrathi in our quadrant, and trying to establish the Spica chokepoint. In 2344, the Falcon arrives in Spica with no new activity noted. A Colonizer is en route, and two of three potential Bulrathi expansion systems in our quadrant have a Falcon picket as well; the third has one on the way. We could probably afford the maintenance on a second one for each system, but it's dead-certain we can't afford the time it would take to build them. Altair is now devoted to a modest amount of research with most effort going to the colonizer-building effort.
We reach Spica in 2350. As good a way to end our first half-century of struggle as any. Of the four systems we can settle on the right, there is a Colonizer on the way to one, and a second one being built. No further activity from the Bulrathi has been seen. I'm pretty surprised that we've been able to do this much, to be honest. It's a sad state of affairs when you can say 'so far, so good' about a situation which involves just getting your third colony at the 50-year mark, but that's the way things look here.