Part 9: Turn 66

TURN 66


The Klingons have grown bolder, building an Outpost on Arvada, in the northeastern salient. This shows their intention to develop further in the very region I want to push them out of. On Myrmidon, I have Battle Cruisers gathering for the Acamar invasion fleet. They're just idling right now, so I'll dispatch them to attack the Arvada Outpost and then return.


TURN 67. The Ferengi claim the dying Federation is a threat to me, and encourage me to declare war. In exchange, they will, too. What they failed to mention is that they're already in a war with the Feds. When the Feds are dead, the Ferengi will surely be targeting us, so we ignore their sneaky proposal.


TURN 68. Our four Battle Cruisers arrive at the Klingon Outpost on Arvada, decloak, and easily destroy it before it can even return fire. The Klingons will not be devoting their resources to more Outposts in the area any time soon.


We have achieved level 9 in computer science. We switch all of our scientists to work on the weapons field. Once we get level 9 weapons science, we will be able to invent the Battle Cruiser II. For now, we're building as many Battle Cruisers as we can, since they'll all be automatically upgraded to Battle Cruiser IIs once the technology is discovered.


TURN 69. The Ferengi attempt to manipulate us yet again. The Ferengi are of course affiliates of the Klingons, so they don't really want us to attack, do they? Romulan diplomats disregard this an attempt to concern troll us.


In the southwest, the Ferengi enslave Secarus, the latest Federation system to fall. The Feds only have two systems left. Our border with the Federation is now officially a border with the Ferengi.


TURN 70. We're not sure, but we think the Tamarians have offered us a friendship proposal. Either that or they want to go swimming.


We're puzzled by the latest message, which indicates the Nausicaans are bombing their own system, which is part of our empire. We know they're not attempting a revolution, since they were one of the races that joined our empire willingly.


Now we understand--it's a bug. It's the Ktarians who are doing the bombing. They previously declared a war against us to impress their Klingon allies, and are now actually doing something. They sent their raider ships over to Nausicaa and are bombing it. Even though it's near Romulus, we have no ships in the area to deal with them. This adds to the concerns that our empire is overextended.


TURN 71. The Klingons condemn us for sending spies into their midst. They may have little respect for cowards, but I guess they're okay with hypocrisy.


The Klingons demand we cede the two disputed sectors next to Acamar. We refuse, even though those sectors are empty. Why don't these Klingons just declare war against us if they hate us so much? They're supposed to be warriors and they send the Ktarians to do their dirty work?


A Battle Cruiser has just been constructed on Romulus. We send it to Nausicaa to uproot the impudent Ktarians.


TURN 72. One of the people in our empire has gone "off message" and soured our relationship with the Feds. We don't actually care about said relationship, but we do care about discipline. He is executed. This is obviously the work of Klingon saboteurs. Or Ferengi. Whatever.


The Ktarians continue their mostly ineffectual bombing of Nausicaa. This won't continue for long, as our Battle Cruiser is nearly there.


Now the Ferengi are demanding that we cede a disputed territory. It's just an empty sector of space between Draylon and the Federation system they just took, but we refuse on principle.


A Cardassian Scout has been sighted just west of our empire. The Cardassians are obviously in the northwest quadrant of the galaxy, but this Scout is using their alliance with the Ferengi to extend his reach toward us. He does not make first contact. On Miridian, a Federation Destroyer takes refuge at one of our Starbases. It's unlikely he will have an empire to return to before long. West of that, the Chodak Juggernaut is just sitting in orbit of Takara. It is not doing any harm, but it is preventing us from building a Starbase there.


TURN 73. Our Battle Cruiser arrives at Nausicaa to deal with the Ktarian raiders, but they're already gone. Instead, we meet 2 Klingon Destroyers, which we easily dispatch. Good enough for me.


Having blown up the Klingon ships, the Battle Cruiser will now fly to Ktaria and deal with those pesky Ktarian Raiders.


Only one free Troop Transport is floating around in the southwest, but it will now get to work upgrading our Draylon Outpost into a Starbase. This is important, since Draylon is a border system now. But working alone, the Troop Transport will take quite awhile to complete the upgrade.


TURN 74. Our Battle Cruiser arrives on Ktaria and finds the Klingons are affiliates of the Ktarians now.


We have a choice whether to focus on the 3 Ktarian Raiders or the 2 Klingon Destroyers that happened to be in the area. The Destroyers are a greater threat, and we hate the Klingons more, so we'll target the Klingon ships during our free turn.


We decloak and attack both of the Klingon Destroyers. It's close, but we don't quite destroy either of them. Now to see what we can destroy before they run away.


The 5 enemy ships are in complete disarray but the Ktarians manage to escape. The Klingons are not so lucky, and lose both Destroyers.


A freak comic strike occurs, doing incredible damage in Dytallix B, a random colony in the far northeast.


Every single person on Dytallix B was killed by the comet, rendering the system uninhabited and officially unclaimed. We'll have to find a Colony Ship somewhere and re-colonize the system before the Klingons ninja it.


Here is the diplomatic relationship screen. Of the major empires, they're all at peace with each other except for the Federation, which is at war with the Cardassian-Ferengi alliance. We note with some interest that the Ferengi and Klingons have been conducting diplomacy with several Minor Races in the no-man's land of the center of the galaxy: The Benzites are now part of the Ferengi empire; the Bolians have a friendship treaty with them. The Klingons are affiliated with both the Betazoids and the Ktarians.


...and of course, we've either subjugated or gained membership treaties from lots of Minor Races.


TURN 75. The Federation and Ferengi keep trying to put us in the middle of their fight. As with the Ferengi's proposed war pact, this would not benefit us since the Feds are already at war. We would prefer the Federation to hold out as long as possible, and we have an affiliation treaty with them, but we decline the offer to join the war against the Ferengi. We're just too focused on the Klingons and don't want to give the Ferengi an excuse to complicate matters in the southwest.


The Ferengi are making use of their affiliation with the Klingon empire to send ships near our border, in Klingon space. They've gathered a disturbing number of Troop Transports nearby.


TURN 76. Speaking of Troop Transports, we have a fair number of our own. Our invasion force on Myrmidon is ready to set course for Acamar. We know Acamar has a maximum number of 6 Orbital Batteries and a population of 305. We have 6 Battle Cruisers and 2 Destroyers; these should be able to handle the Orbital Batteries. Our 12 Troop Transports should have no problem with the 305 population. Destroyers and Battle Cruisers can move faster than the Transports, so we take pains to have them all move together.


Meanwhile, we note with disgust that the Klingons have persuaded the Ktarians to join their empire. The Klingons now have a base of operations only three sectors away from Romulus.


TURN 77. A Klingon Destroyer blunders into our invasion force, en route to Acamar.


Our warships decloak and send a dizzying array of firepower toward the Klingon. For his part, the Klingon Destroyer attempts to destroy at least one of our Transport ships.


We easily kill the Destroyer, but he does manage to pop one Troop Transport ship. Good thing we brought extras.


The Ktarians no longer want war with us. Technically our war does end, since they're under the Klingon banner now. We're not at war with the Klingons.


...or are we?


A view of the galaxy during our last turn at peace with the Klingon empire.


TURN 78. It begins.