Part 155: Episode XV: Opening
Wayne hit the nail on the head about the main challenges I think. But we roll on.Episode XV: Opening
Default names this time: Grunk is our emperor, Ursa our homeworld. By the way, nominations are still open for Darlok names, should anyone care. Blue ship theming again, until we win.
Yep. Psilons, Klackons, and Silicoids. Just because I deserve it doesn't mean I have to like it. Tough draw obviously. And we start on the right side, rather than in a corner. Looks like we might have somebody blowing up in the upper-left. I hope that belongs to the Alkari or Mrrshan. If not, well ... perhaps this is a good time for that first back-to-back defeat.
Three planets in range. We haven't seen a lot of that. Red directly above, along with the purple and green one. As is my custom, I go with the one most likely to be a decent option, green -- even though it takes me away from the centre where I'd most like to expand. With any luck we'll at least get a third system, maybe even more, before having to get propulsion tech rolling.
At least I didn't send the colony ship there. I'd like Orion to be close in a Psilon game ... but not THIS close.
Heh. So much for getting more than one planet. What's that, you thought you were going to catch a break? No sirree.
I deserve this after all the other bad news. Leaves us with two red stars 4 parsecs away(the two bracketing the Guardian system). Everything else is 5 or more. The thing is that there are lots of galaxies(seriously) in which you can get 3-4 systems before researching. I just never seem to get any of them lately. Thanks a whole heap, MOO. I only need six Recons, about half of the initial complement last time. That's not good.
Next system we reached. Looks like Fierias is upper/middle, which makes it even more likely that a titan has that upper-left to themselves. Super-great. Just a scout. Ajax(35M desert). So a subpar planet, but it's at least something within range of Hydrogen in case we're stuck with that.
And it's the only one. Really hope we get the option for Deuterium..
Oooh. Are we first?? No, we are not. 5 parsecs out.
Looks like this was the first Mrrshan colony. Only 5M population right now. It also means they are just six parsecs from our homeworld. That doesn't fill me with joy.
An isolated system that will likely take a while for anyone to get.
Last one. Not many hostile systems around us, which means they'll get grabbed up quick. And we need range tech to get to them. Every year will count.
Been a while since we faced a big bug empire. Took them a whole 16 years to do this. I'll just point out that it's totally impossible for the player(under any circumstances I know of) to even have three that early. Took us over 50 years(and we were the first) in the last try to get to six. Ah well. Alkari showed up at Keeta soon afterwards with a scout. So we've got Mrrshan up/left, Alkari down/left, and probably Klackons spreading throughout that upper-left quadrant. If so, that leaves Psilons and Silicoids in the lower/left. Maybe they can fight each other.
2319: Third Mrrshan sighting already at Ajax. This time with a pair of colony ships. The first tech pull comes five years later, pretty much right on schedule.
** Computers: Mk II Battle Computer
** Construction: Reduced Waste 80%
** Force Fields: Class II Deflectors
** Planetology: Improved Eco Restoration
** Propulsion: Hydrogen Fuel Cells
** Weapons: Hand Lasers/Hyper-V Rockets
Sigh. Well I go with the Hand Lasers, and at least we have some better stuff to rush. But it appears our hand is forced; Hydrogen and then go get Ajax. If we have an early conflict in this one, looks like it'll be the Mrrshan. And they aren't a good race to get into an early fight with.