Part 153: Episode XIV: 2325

** Note: I did some serious save-scumming at this point. Normally I steer totally away from that, but to be frank I didn't really know what to do. This kind of super-early aggression is not at all my cup of tea, and without experimenting with it first things would indeed have gone quite badly. They eventually did on the first couple of attempts. My thinking here was that even if what I came up with isn't the Right Way(tm), a reasonable way as opposed to a massive faceplant would probably be more interesting.

Episode XIV: 2325 -

A scout was sent to Firma to ascertain the updated situation. If reasonable, transports would be sent from Reticuli immediately upon completion of research. Typically what I would do at this point is build most of a Colonizer, intending to synchronize the completion of that with the research. This time though I went all-in on research with whatever Cave could spare, so as to facilitate getting the invasion going ASAP.




Not sure why I always time it so their eyes are closed. Anyway, this came quickly in 2329. Time is of the essence. Nuclear Engines or Irridium Fuel Cells(range 6) next. I think we need the range.




Well, you're about to get some anyway. Closer contact than you want for sure.




They're up to three planets. For now.




As expected.

Firma Operation

With our strength on the battlefield, the first part is easy. Sending half of Reticuli's population(29 M) should be enough to take it with some extra, even if the planet is full to its 50M capacity. The problem lies in holding onto it. It won't take long for the Darloks to blockade the planet, making it hard-to-impossible for any additional transports to get through. Then they'll either bomb it, or send in their own troops to wear us down, or more likely both. To make sure we have a stable base to start out with, I send in 20M more from Cave. This will slow us down in getting Colonizers out there, and arrive two years later, but it's necessary.

Strategically, there are basically two options:

** Steal the planet and then basically work towards bribing them into peace
** Send in ships to fight the Darlok fleet

I would strongly tend towards the first one. But we have one tech finished and won't have any more anytime soon. Combine with the Darloks being Xenophobic Diplomats and generally not liking anyone to begin with, and that option just isn't realistic. My next try was to go with a destroyer armed with nuclear missiles, for hit-and-run tactics to wear down their fleets. It took too many of them to really make a dent though.




Here's where I came out eventually. The Patrol class is your basic laser-armed fighter. Simple as it gets and the 'book' way to handle conflict this early; my testing found it to be the most effective as well. It really just seems to be all about getting a lot of firepower out there. Bigger ships just won't give the same bang for the buck. Not yet anyway. I'll spend a few years building as many of these as possible, most coming from Cave. I want to get close to 50 ASAP, then have more trickle in from Reticuli when I make the belated shift to building Colonizers. No more research for now; we have other priorities.




133 ships. All scouts. What in the name of Orion do you need 133 scouts for ... on a map with just over a third that many stars?!? I need some of what they are smoking. Two dozen more, along with an unarmed colony ship, show up at Vox the next year. They want it too, but they aren't getting it without us putting in our two cents.




Ran into a Silicoid scout here. And then ...


https://youtu.be/uZf0uPeQVRw



Followed by a declaration of war of course. This is horribly bad luck. I usually win this battle with quite a few to spare. We still have those troops from Cave which should take care of business soon, but the RNG for these battles is finnicky and there's a wider variance than their probably should be. Lost 29 compared to their 35, when we've got odds of a kill ratio almost 2:1.

The following year is 2334. In five years, Cave has produced 43 Patrol ships, all headed to Firma. That'll have to be enough. That's five years of further delay in getting Colonizers out, almost a full decade between that and the propulsion research. That's a long time to give the other empires to grab prospective planets, so this invasion bloody better work. Now Cave will begin building ships to transport our population to suitable systems, and Reticuli is out of time to industrialize; it's job is now to take over adding to the Patrol numbers - and soon it will start trickling more population in there as well, assuming our secondary attack goes better than the first one.




Very nice, and right in the middle of the galaxy. Also far enough away that I would think we have no real chance of getting to it.




20M vs. 16M this time; we did about as well as expected overall in this combat. We've done the easy part in taking the system. The hard part is holding it while still expanding elsewhere.




Super. I don't think we can survive this attack. We'll have a handful of Patrols when they show up in orbit next year, but I don't think they'll be able to take down more than a couple of these. I don't see any choice but to send out another transport group from Cave. We can't afford to lose here.

I settle on 17M, taking our homeworld down to three-quarters at 75M. More will start coming from Reticuli soon. Idea is that we'll probably lose it next year, but then retake it. Without the bad luck in the first combat we'd have been able to absorb this, which was the general plan ... but again all of this stuff is risky and can go either way. I'm able to clone an extra 2M population with maximum effort. Maybe, just maybe, that will be enough.




Directly above our territory. Third encounter with the Silicoids, but first system of theirs that we've found. They certainly seem to be throwing their weight around in the up and rightward directions.




Another bad-luck combat. Our Patrols reduced them to 28M, which should have been just enough. Instead, it wasn't close. Grrr. 2336, and it'll be a few years until we can get it back. All I can do is keep building up the blockade.


https://youtu.be/tRwChpmv3rg



First field action for the Patrol. 2 fighters lost in exchange for 5 destroyers is an excellent trade. At least we're keeping the pressure on, even if it's not going exactly as planned. The stakes are high. Every year 2-3M more transports leave Reticuli, along with a couple more Patrols. If we lose control of Firma orbit, those transports will become so much space debris.




Casualties were 8M on our side, 13M on theirs. Still not particularly good fortune but it was enough and there's more troops coming. Now we'll see if we can hold it. We're in real trouble if we can't. After chilling in orbit for a year, our next Colonizer can now depart for Vox. It's taken long enough; it's now 2341.




Well at least there's this. We're still not able to do any research on our own; it would have taken us quite a while to get to terraforming. And the Darloks have even gotten started on Firma(up from 50 to 52M max). that's awful nice of them. Another 20M Darloks arrive the very next year ...

And what's with that get-up? Green camo gear and those pretentious shades??




But now the game is different. At the same time, a single Venom destroyer chases away our Recon at Vox. It's time we diverted some of the fleet, such as it is, to safeguard that.




Another rival heard from. A bare scout, and this is revealed to be Rotan(Inferno, 25M max). Whoopedy-doo.




Finally we get going on research. This is actually coming from Firma, which needs a bit more population to grow into it's current factories before it can do anything else useful. Reticuli will take over at a token level once that's been achieved.




Hello there. Have a nice tasty bear-sized snack.




Chased away a Darlok scout here in 2345. They also arrived in force at Vox, but we were waiting. And when I say in force, I mean 162 scouts(why. just why??), 4 unarmed colony ships, and 2 destroyers. Two. We blew one of them up, and the other retreated. So far so good.




Muahahahaha! 2348. It's been a long time coming but it looks real nice.




Gee, I wonder who that could be. Sore losers.







The Bulrathi Empire, GY 2349. Things are finally rounding into shape. 30BC a year isn't much, but it's what Reticuli can afford to put into tech while still trickling out Patrols. Volantis gives us the range to hit two more worlds. That still won't be enough, but it is a start. The defense of Vox and Firma is holding for now; I'm keeping a sharp eye on any Darlok ship movements. Right now for example they've got 7 destroyers headed for Vox, and I rerouted some of our ships there to meet them. They'll run into over 40 patrol fighters by the time they arrive, which should be enough to repel them. Their fleet is much bigger than ours, but fortunately it's mostly scouts and colony ships still. That's not going to be the case forever, but I just need the Patrols to hold down the forts until we can get missile bases up on the frontier here. I think we've fairly well neutered the Darloks, as they are stuck at two systems; Nazin and Jinga to the right of it. There's 14 missile bases on the homeworld, and Jinga is out of our range, so there will be no further incursions anytime soon.

There are still many competing needs that Smurch must balance, but for now we're starting to grow and we've etched out a bit of a bigger region of space for ourselves.