Part 179: Episode XVII: 2500
Episode XVII: 2400 -For the second quarter-century in a row, I go into this intending it to be the final update. Does MOO have any more surprises in store for me?
Our fleet's about half as big as the Klackons, technology has nearly caught them, production is still competitive though the Silicoids are rising. More and more evidence that the Bulrathi(and probably Alkari as well) have fallen off the pace.
It's be really nice to turn all our systems Gaia and max them out, aside from further terraforming gains yet to come. Right now though the industrial buildup continues.
The plan remains simple; go for Orion, meet and befriend the Alkari, bribe everyone who isn't an insect before the next Council, cackle evilly on the throne. Emperor Gmork aims to become High Master Gmork, and he's getting a bit impatient about it. Of course in the meantime we'll continue working on constantly expanding and modernizing the fleet, because if that fails, Darlok ships will darken the skies of enemy planets.
Several years ago, missile base maintenance was over 11%. We haven't scrapped any. That's a good measure of the scale of the economic expansion that is underway(mostly finished). Trade deals with the Silicoids and Klackons are boosted to 4350 -- 2k was the previous high.
Same song, new verse.
Two years, two more frame jobs, and we're nearly done with the buildup. Time to put over a billion to work building torpedo cruisers. With Arietis contributing 2-3 of them by itself annually, it shouldn't take long ... but particularly with our lagging missile tech at the moment, it is reasonable to see to boosting our base numbers first.
Boring ...
More miniaturization is the big gain here. A warning from the Bears, and we'll target Industrial Waste Elimination next in our research. Fusion Beam and a much worse version of the same tech we just stole from them fixed the damage.
Had a few years of quiet before this in 2512. The fleet is nearly ready.
Same time, from the Klackons. This saves us a few years of time basically researching it. And now we'll grow some more. Complete Eco Restoration to go with the coming waste elimination is basically redundant, but it's the only forward option. After that, Bio Terminator is in the next tier ...
2513, the next year, the fleet deaprts for Orion.
Facing the Guardian ... for the last time
As seen here again, the Guardian does much better in close-quarters fighting. I was happy to sacrifice the older cruisers to it's rapacity. That makes sense to make it virtually impervious to low-level assaults barring absurd numbers, but it also means that it's particularly vulnerable to torpedoes or HEF-powered beam weapons. Missiles, due to limited ammo, wouldn't fare nearly as well.
Yeah, yeah, yeah ... gimme the Orion loot already.
There we go. And a few more planets are scanned ... before we see the toys. That's backwards.
That sword flashes black, then white, then black again in pattern. These guys don't look nice either. Also ...
** Black Hole Generator
** Hellfire Torpedoes
** Advanced Damage Control
LOL. You DARE insult the glorious rulers of the fabled Orion?? You will pay. Err, not really. Actually, we're going to be-friend and bribe the crap out of you. But only because it suits our interests. It's a good thing we have a lot of tech, because they are Xenophobic Technologists. We'll have to really open the piggybank. A trade deal for a mere 5575 BC starts things off on the right foot.
Just because we can. Death Ray and BHG for maximum evil. Game came up with the class name, but I think it's highly appropriate. I don't actually expect to ever fight a battle with these, but ...
Espionage was halted for the next decade to allow relations to improve as much as they would naturally. It also occurred to me that it was probably better to secure Happy Thoughts(tm) now, so the Bribery Tour commenced. A scandalous, bordering on criminal giveaway commenced. When it was over, we had an Alliance with four of our five rivals. THe only holdout were the Humans, ironically.
We just waited a few years, and threw more crap at them. Their diplomatic reports they couldn't refuse those he gave us the secrets of Anti-Missile Rockets. You could knock me over with a feather.
The year before the vote. There is no question it will be the Klackons opposing us again, so to make sure the Ultimate Love-In is uninterrupted, I need to break up any alliances they have. The Silicoids were the only one. They simply said, in true Princess Bride fashion ...
As you wish.
And then, if we could have the drumroll please ...
Voting, and ...
It is over!! For this game, it was really quite charmed. Missed out of the chance at a gut-punch Final War, great starting planets except for the first colony, hitting the planetology trifecta, and so on. Some thing like early propulsion tech went against me but there were about three good things for every bad one.
10-7 is the final record, completing my original goal of winning at least as many as I lose. There's only one of the losses that I think I have should have won, and at least a couple wins(Humans and Sakkra stand out) that I should have lost. Luck plays a significant role as has been noted, but the fun games are the ones where things are somewhat, but not too horribly, on the bad-luck side of things. The ones that are winnable, but require you to pull out all the stops.
There's nothing I know about Master of Orion that I haven't shared, a lot of it multiple times over. Thanks for sharing the journey! Next up: the poll, and the bonus challenge game. I demand that somebody kick my arse.