Part 18: Turn 166

TURN 166


An update on the relationships that various political entities share. Our empire is the lone troublemaker at war with the rest of them. Our dominance of the Minor Races can clearly be seen, with a lot of them "subjugated". But at least we weren't the ones guilty of literally wiping the Federation off the chart.


We know from our intel report that the Ferengi and Cardassians do control some Minor Races. But the other empires collectively control only one Minor Race that we've made contact with: the Mintakans. They're the ones who lived next door to the Federation. Contrary to our expectation, they were not enslaved by the Ferengi--they were bribed. The Mintakans may have bolted from the Feds when things went sour. Duly noted.


An overview of some of our colonies. Their industry numbers are coming up, and the order of the day in most places is upgrading the factories. We've made phoenix facilities everywhere we could have, so we can only raise our intel power by building intel centers. We'll need industry to do that.


On the southwestern front--a front that has been moving northward at a glacial pace--we've collected enough Destroyers to make a two-pronged attack on all of these Outposts. First a wing of Battle Cruisers will hit the Cardassian Outpost at Ledonia, and the Destroyers will kill the Ferengi ship at Mintaka.


TURN 167. The Outpost would be no match for even one of our Battle Cruisers.


The Destroyers are happy to kill the Ferengi Troop Transport. The Destroyers were built as cannon fodder for Orbital Batteries in future invasions, but they're having fun now.


Next we'll change things up and have the Destroyers attack Cardassians while the Battle Cruisers attack Ferengi.


These are the kinds of intel reports we really like to see. A Romulan saboteur has dismantled 4 Orbital Batteries on a Cardassian system. Unfortunately it was on Altec, a system we've yet to explore. If it had been a closer location, this attack could have smoothed the way for a quick invasion.


We've received less news of Cardassian sabotage against us. This means the Cardies have probably shifted some of their intel power toward internal security. If they're playing defense, we need less defense of our own. So we shift toward 80% sabotage. We'll keep pushing them until we need almost no internal security of our own.


Acamar's Outpost will be upgraded to a Starbase. But since so many ships were available, we sent some to attack Arvada. Why waste a turn, right? They've got a couple Batteries, but we've got Destroyers more than willing to kamikaze them. A handful of cloaked Destroyers will watch over them.


TURN 168. The Battle Cruiser squad in the southwest hits the Ferengi Outpost...


...while the Destroyers kill the Cardassian one. When it comes to blood-letting, it's important each squad gets to experience all the diversity that the galaxy has to offer.


2 Destroyers are happy to sacrifice their lives against Arvada's Batteries. The system is easily taken.


Another Cardassian Scout has been stolen by our agents, who fly it safely back to Romulan space. They really need to lock those things. This intelligence report indicates the location that the ship was stolen from, rather than where it was parked. Sector c1 appears again, adding more evidence that it's the site of Cardassia itself. Perhaps someday our southwestern fleet will be able to reach it, but that's a long way off.


TURN 169. But the southwestern fleet is growing. Ships are rolling off the assembly line and mustering at Thalos. Sol is an exquisitely tempting target just two sectors away.


TURN 170. In the east, our ships are heading north toward Acamar. The Klingons have a group of Battle Cruisers in the area, but our ships simply ignore them. If they get ambushed, they can use their cloak turn to run away.


Yet another Starbase has been constructed, on Arvada. Sigma Iotia will be attacked next. But it's such a small system that we have no intention of taking it.


TURN 171. Instead, a group of 9 Battle Cruisers and 3 Destroyers will simply bomb it out of existence. This will save us the trouble of micromanaging another fledling system. It has no Batteries, so no sacrifice is needed.


TURN 172. Our attack foce is off to a good start, destroying half of the structures and killing 40% of the population.


TURN 173. A group of 6 Klingon Destroyers has slipped through our supply lines, failing to intercept any targets. Instead, they end up at our old Volon Starbase, which is not defended by any ships.


The Klingons feel they have numbers on their side, so they struggle to fire at the Starbase and get within range.


Before they can get within range, though, 4 of them are popped by photon torpedoes. The Volon Starbase operators are getting quite good at this. They finish off the other 2 before they can do any damage.


Bombardment of Simga Iotia is not interrupted by any heroic Klingons. Nearly all of their structures are gone. Roughly 2/3 of their original population lies dead.


It's not as if the Klingons have no ships. Their fleet would not be capable of destroying ours, but it could at least do some harm. But the Klingons are on the defensive now. The Klingon leadership insists protecting their homeworld of Qo'nos is the only priority. The cowards protect themselves while their colonies die.


TURN 174. The 3 Battle Cruisers are unsuccessful in disrupting our supply lines, so they decide to attack the Benzar Starbase. If the Ferengi offered them support, they didn't deliver.


Our Warbirds are pleased. If they're stuck on defense, at least it's a place that gets some action. Our stolen Cardassian Strike Cruiser also makes an appearance in this battle.


We also have a few Destroyers there, and it looks like they get to land the killing blow.


Sigma Iotia is on its last legs. One structure left and two population points.


Kataan is a typical Romulan colony. It was settled early on, has built up its industry, and is now ready to start building intel centers. These centers need to be manned. For now, the population will work on building and upgrading the intel centers. When the intel centers are advanced enough, the population will shift from building the centers to manning them. Thanks to our recent victories, Kataan's morale is now loyal, the second-highest level.


TURN 175. Sigma Iotia is now uninhabited, as it should be. The Klingons never lifted a finger to try and save them.


We have so many ships being built that we need a traffic coordinator. We're now shifting all of the traffic in the eastern empire to move west to the Benzar Starbase, which is at the Ferengi border. It's also south of Klingon space, so it could support attacks against the main body of the Klingon empire.


The Klingons are in full turtle mode, putting everything into a defense fleet at Qo'nos. Our Sigma Iotia siege fleet will meet up with warships from the Acamar fleet just inside Klingon territory.


TURN 176. The main Klingon systems are all massively populated. We're going to need an incredible number of Troop Transports if we want to conquer them all. Fortunately, Acamar can produce Transports at a rate of one per turn! The Acamarian Clan Hall has improved their morale considerably. Even though they've been our hated enemy for a long time, their morale is merely "apathetic", one level below "content".


Our warships include 11 Battle Cruisers and 17 Destroyers. They aim to smash the Klingon fleet before our Troop Transports start rolling out from Arvada/Acamar. Qo'nos is in range of this fleet. But in case they decide to run away, we're also sending 2 Battle Cruisers and 8 Destroyers to Omicron Ceti to cut them off.

The Klingons are poised to defend their homeworld at all costs. We want one decisive battle. If the Klingons live up to their warrior reputation, they'll give it to us.