Part 37: Episode IV: 2361 - 2374
Episode IV: 2361-2374
Continuing our treck across towards the left side of the galaxy.
Right by one of them that they stole out from under us ...
And a key prime piece of real estate on the right.
Good to know that we are the biggest kid on the block, at least so far.
Shockingly polite ...
Upper left, as I figured. They are Pacifistic Ecologists, which suits me fine. A 150BC trade deal is struck, and the Klackons re-up to 150 as well.
Lizards are definitely the most powerful enemy so far. When you have the early lead in population as Silicoids though, you're doing something right. I still really like where we are at this stage. Production's not too bad, and the tech will come. Eventually.
Right on the Sakkra border are two key systems that I want. Ajax here is a decent artifact planet. Firma, the blue star at the top middle of the screen, is smaller but ultra-rich. One colony ship is already headed here, and the second one will be underway in a couple of years. However, it takes over a decade to get out this far, and anything can happen in that timeframe. For the first time I consider throwing out some combat ships, laser fighters or whatever, but that's really not something that is worth it I don't think. Huge galaxies really argue against that approach IMO. Better to just keep spamming the colony ships: no one world is worth the effort. Smaller galaxies are different as each system is worth more, relatively speaking.
I've known this was coming for a while. I've been slowly expanding down the right side but we don't have the range to reach Xudax yet. Another weaponized colony ship, and we had to surrender another system to the bugs.
This is the other nebula system, a stepping-stone to give us the range to reach Firma. A highly crappy planet on it's own merits though.
Well, snap. We're still several years away with the colonizer for this. The Sakkra did the same colony ship weaponization routine, and we were forced back again.
2369, and our ship is still about four years away. This time they had escorts too. So I lose both systems I was hoping to get. Much closer to their homeworld than mine, but I want to be as greedy as possible, and now that ship will have to waste time eventually redirecting somewhere else.
2372: Deep Space Scanner comes in, and Battle Computer MK III is the only available choice. It's easy to pick from a selection of one, but also rather boring. Also ..
Our first new colony in a while, but we have four other ships out there and another one that just got built. They're in the pipeline, but the distances are vast. This helps secure the lower right area.
A few 'border' worlds have become developed enough that I'm starting to work on a bit of initial defense in the form of missile bases.
This is dead center of the galaxy, circa 2373. Things have not gone our way here. You can see Ajax, and our colony ship just made it there, retreating and re-routing to Tyr. However it looks like the Sakkra are going to make it there first. We'd have it by now if I chose that planet as the initial target. The red ship at the bottom is a Psilon colony ship, so they are out there lurking about as well. We've repeatedly tried to scout the yellow star in that vicinity, but been chased off by both bugs and lizards several times. The red star at the bottom, right of center is a Toxic world that I think we're going to get, but that may be all here.
3-4 empires intersect here, and it looks we're the ones being crowded out more than anyone else.
I hate being right: the Sakkra took Tyr the next year. We did at least get Hand Lasers, and a new choice:
Hyper-Vs are part of the first tier. I was hoping for Hyper-Xs here but didn't get them. Anti-Missile Rockets are by far the cheapest option to keep the ladder moving.
Just in time to close this chapter, it's our good ole buddies, the Psilons. They are 'Honorable' Industrialists(really?) and allied with Klackons and Bulrathi. They also agree to an immediate 225BC trade deal.