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guava plan would require bioweapons worth a drat, which we not only do not have, we have no angle on. they are actually not weapons research, they're planetology research.
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Jun 21, 2018 18:20
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Yep. Wouldn't be that high-risk at all really, but I'd probably just bribe the crap out of the Darloks, and take/destroy as many Sakkra systems as I could while still leaving them in the #1 spot. That'd probably be enough to win the next vote.
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Jun 21, 2018 19:45
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Thotimx posted:Yep. Wouldn't be that high-risk at all really, but I'd probably just bribe the crap out of the Darloks, and take/destroy as many Sakkra systems as I could while still leaving them in the #1 spot. That'd probably be enough to win the next vote. Just continue to play with your food as you devour it all.
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Jun 22, 2018 02:38
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rchandra posted:Just continue to play with your food as you devour it all. I like this plan.
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Jun 22, 2018 14:18
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quote:The warbear had pulson missiles. I'm not sure exactly how that works but I don't have a better guess. The player gets missile upgrades the year after they are acquired, and then has to pay the cost if they want to build more. Clearly that wasn't the case here.
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Jun 22, 2018 22:26
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Episode XIII: 2575 - Lots of videos in this update. I really wasn't planning that, but all of them show something different. A whole lot of stuff happened to end the 26th century.  This screen finally agrees that Nermal is the greatest.  Even with the new ships being built, the developing systems that belonged to the Altair and general population growth have seen our maintenance budget improve(less than 28%, down from about 31% a few years ago).  Nothing to see here. Wouldn't shock me if we didn't research another tech until the end of the century. I expect to continue acquiring some by more aggressive means though.  I'd like to save Altair, but if not I'll just end up retaking it. Either way I'm sending troops and ships there, it'll just take time to get enough to take down those Darlok battleships. Transports are headed to Ursa as well but we don't have much population on that side of the galaxy, so it'll take a few years there. One thing the Altair situation is doing is making me divide the fleet enough to slow down moving on to Sol. Realistically that's about all they can do right now is this kind of delaying tactic.  https://youtu.be/Q_WbJMLDu6k You don't often see the Bulrathi getting it handed to them in ground combat to this degree. It's because of the massive tech difference of course. Lost 29 to their 78, with more arriving in 2578 to finish the job. Meanwhile around half our transports to Altair got past the Darlok blockade, enough to stop their troops easily(their tech is a bit inferior to ours in ground combat) and also basically ensure we'll be able to retain it.  Next year(2577). This is too late in the struggle to matter much, but still kind of amusing that the RNG just won't leave us be to conquer. Essentially this is half of the homeworld's industry. Meanwhile the entire Bulrathi fleet(consisting of about 15 cruisers, four of them colony ships) attacked Nazin and was swatted with minimal losses.  They yielded only two archaic techs. Onward to Sol.  A year later, and our fleet has ended the suffering and destruction on the former Alkari homeworld. https://youtu.be/wPHtvgJCBgs We took some losses, but human defenses were overrun. After this battle I scrapped the old Bobcats(bombers) and Panthers(not seen here) to make room for a second Furball design and also because they are slow enough and we've lost enough of them that I don't think it's worth having them slow us down anymore.  The next year. Three empires genocided, and two remain. ** Industrial Tech 7 ** ECM Jammer IV ** Terraforming +20M ** ECM Jammer III ** ECM Jammer II ** Graviton Beam None of these actually are an improvement. They sure did like their ECM tech though. From here on I don't intend to be very particular. Just smash as many planets as we can as quickly as we can. Darlok, Sakkra, I couldn't care less. The fleets at the bottom of the galaxy so we'll take whatever's close and work our way up. The only significant choices are in terms of how many ships to leave in defensive positions, when to split the fleet between multiple targets and when to concentrate it, that sort of thing. Maintenance costs are at less than 24% and continuing to decline, so our expansion is now out-pacing our ability to feed it with new ships. Darloks have Robotics V, a level ahead of ours, but this is a complete non-concern. If we weren't overwhelmingly dominant at this point that would definitely not be the case.  By 'scout ships', we mean the main Mrrshan fleet of over 50 cruisers that was unopposed when it showed up. I might be able to split into multiple attacks soon, but I'm not confident enough population-supply or the fleet yet to do that. So it's one system at a time for now.  The next year the fleet moved on here. They had 13 bases, and we seem to resist them moderately well. Leopards aren't very effective against their shields, but the torpedoes on the Furballs do just fine in significant numbers. I'm definitely going to want to have concentrated force though as I take out the Darlok systems. Probably not splitting up anytime soon. It'll take a few years to capture this as most of the nearest-available troops have to come from a long distance away. https://youtu.be/FsdcLdFYMhc First encounter with their ground troops. We have higher-tech personal armor and weapons, and got a 2:1 kill ratio here. At least troop needs will now be minimal. Trilithium Crystals were among three captures, extending our range a bit though that's not a need right now.  Not a chance. https://youtu.be/j3whtbAH3OY 2586. Well, that didn't go so hot. That's a sizable portion of our fleet that just got blown up, and under different circumstances it might have been a very troublesome loss. Still need more firepower to handle larger numbers of bases. The Darloks have acquired Andrium Armor, same as we have, so they now have bases at 125 HP along with shielding of 17(X Planetary, VII Deflector). So they can absorb enough damage to last a while. We can overwhelm them with sheer numbers but it'll take some time to build up that much firepower.  Sakkra defenses appear to be much more fragile. No planetary shields, weaker armor, etc. They probably have better ships, but it seems sensible to switch targets and go after Sauron while we rebuild our numbers and defend our recent acquisitions.  Literally the next year. I was actually surprised by this. They'd put up with the genocide, and we've been attacking their enemy. Still, since I'm planning to attack them anyway I don't really care. Trade income is a fairly minor loss at this point(900 BC when we've got imperial income of 12k).  This leaves the Darloks with just five systems. We'll let them keep those for the time being. ** Neutron Pellet Gun ** Gauss Autocannon  This is a step up. ** Auto Blaster ** Reduced Industrial Waste 40% We were at 60% and not spending much on waste cleanup, but now that sliver is down a third from what it was. https://youtu.be/SzpU_X0QSNE 2589. We beat back a Darlok attack at Dolz the same year. You may recall the Sakkra took Regulus from us some while ago. The fleet isn't in position yet, but I noticed the planet was defenseless and helped myself.  On the other hand, this is coming next year. Nice of them to attack our staging point. I'll just keep our ships around a bit longer and we'll see what their battleships have to offer. https://youtu.be/2n1u8BJGJGA Yeah those fighters are going to be a problem. Only having a couple bases up hurt, but the sheer damage capacity of that many missiles is an issue. Next up I basically had a choice between Scatter Pack X and the Stellar Converter. Despite what happened here we are in the offensive phase of the game, but I don't think the Converter will be as valuable to me as just keeping on with the torpedo ships. Scatter Pack it is to upgrade our defenses against exactly this kind of attack. And getting that Plasma Rifle in assures our ground troops will know no meaningful resistance from here on out.  This won't last long I don't think; not much in orbit and we have ships a year out. Nazin took heavy damage though and will be gone soon if the Sakkra want it to be. Really the problem against those Cyclops swarms are that they are basically the perfect counter to our Furballs. This is one of those games where, even though it's going well, the AI is randomly pressing a lot of the right buttons. In this case they have range to negate our repulsors, we've got no shielding and limited missile defense, and our weapons are too big. Each torpedo can only kill one ship; they're powerful enough to take out a destroyer in a single hit and a cruiser in just a few, but the limitation of the one-size-fits-all approach is clearly seen here. An instructive comparison: ** Proton Torpedo(75 damage, 70 cost, 257 space) ** Tachyon Beam(1-25 damage, 11 cost, 44 space) The Tachyon would be useless against ships, like their Titan, that has the Repulsor Beam. But it's one of the 'streaming' weapons, meaning no damage is ever lost; it just carries over to the next ship. Even assuming only average damage, we'd get about two ships per shot with that, one with the torpedo ... which takes up almost six times the space. 11-12 times the effectiveness, basically. But if I redesign my ships to carry only those, planetary defenses will be impenetrable. I could go with two different ships, limiting the upgrade and multi-group options along with leaving me to try and guess how many of each they will deploy so as to counter(never mind what happens when they introduce a new class) ... not a fan. I can go with a hybrid design, or just stick with what I've got and go after their economy, avoiding their fleets. If I needed to fight a primarily defensive campaign, I'd do hybrid. As big as our empire is though, combined with the need to have a lot of torpedoes to take out the Darlok defenses, I should be able to smash Sakkra worlds quick enough to bring them to their knees. So 'hit em where they ain't' it is. I think this is a really interesting situation though. I'm in a dominant position and yet I still have to react intelligently, and there are a lot of options. Just so happens that the Sakkra/Darlok combination meshes well enough to together to be a pain right now, even with Nermal controlling a little over half the galaxy and the AI not having the capacity to try and just take out a bunch of my systems in a sustained series of alpha strikes to cut me down to size. If they had the propensity to do that, I could still be in serious trouble. I do design a new ship, the Warcat, with a small computer upgrade and extra space given to a Class III Shield. That'll take a significant bite out of their Hyper-whatever missiles. They'll still do serious damage in big numbers, but it should help in any competitive battles. It's clear I'm going to need as many ships as I can get here as soon as I can get them, so I changed the usual even split between research and shipbuilding on most planets to favoring shipbuilding pretty heavily. There's nothing coming in that is nearly as important as just getting the fleet built up and on the attack ASAP.  They're playing this game pretty aggressively now. Meanwhile an invasion at Regulus costs us 10 million to repel 49M invaders. We've knocked out defenses at Bootis, and the fleet moves on to Seidon, with any new ships joining them as quickly as they can. I'm not even waiting for the transports to get there -- this is a blitzkrieg campaign. We'll lose some troops, even a system here or there probably, but there's no way they're going to defend in the long run. https://youtu.be/cwZjQX4Trww Seidon. A pretty good example of how Sakkra bases aren't enough to stop us.  No more bombing here, and they keep throwing their troops into the grinder. They'll take it soon, but temporarily. Troops are en route to Bootis and about to leave to Seidon. Lost enough ships there to pause but only for a bit, and then we'll keep pushing onwards. The numbers are most definitely not in Sauron's favor. https://youtu.be/JxiMvDN9oNk 120 destroyers and our transports were due to arrive at Bootis the same year anyway, so sending the fleet there gave us a chance to oppose them and secure the system. With our first strike taking out over half of their Spectres, it was an easy victory. Now that we've switched targets, the Darloks inform us that 'Together our empires can fight the evil Sakkra' or something really close to that. But the next year, Nazin finally fell. Back and forth it goes. The main question then was; what will Sauron do with his ships now?  They outnumbered us 2:1, and we lost a whole 18 million. This will give us a nice staging point near the galactic centre from which to conduct future operations. ** Fusion Bomb ** Reduced Industrial Waste 20% ** Advanced Damage Control ** Class IV Deflectors ** Intergalactic Star Gates A pretty nice haul. Waste is now even lower, ADC means we can go to the floating battlestation strat now if I feel like it, and Stargates are nice though I actually don't think I'll build them. I don't think it's worth the delay in just getting the ships out there right now.  I played around with a battleship-sized design but decided it wasn't worth it. This is what I came up with instead. Computing and shields take a step back from the Warcat, but it has a fourth torpedo in the payload, and the inertial stabilizer/anti-missile rockets combo should help defensive capabilities. I don't think I've ever used the rockets in a situation this late in the game, but they're good enough to be effective against the low-tech Sakkra salvos.  2596. In true MOO-AI fashion, the Sakkra fleet returns home. Abandoning Nazin so I can just take it over again. Meanwhile you can see our fleet orbiting Jinga here; we took significant losses from the 40 bases there but there's more ships joining the fray all the time and it's the next step at chopping down the lizard tree.  By the time we get this robotics boost it'll be too late to matter; it almost is now. We might even be finished before then.  Perhaps I should thank them for taking over Nazin, abandoning it, and then leaving these blueprints there. It was the only one, but I'll take another 20M per system. Of course it means even more micro at all planets. 30 of them now. I know I say this every time, but it REALLY gets old in these galactic-conquest finishes, which is why I don't do many of them.  After we slaughter 120 million Sakkra and take the Jinga system in 2598. The 'just win' button is readily available; just bribe the Darloks into peace and win the next Council vote in two years. But after conquering the majority of the galaxy we might as well have Nermal finish the job. 10 systems to go; five for each enemy. The Neutronium Bomb was a nice pickup that we have no intention of using, along with a few outdated weapons systems.  As the century comes to an end, we seize orbit of Ukko(green start, top middle) and the Sakkra fleet smashes Seidon. Then the High Council, all three of us, meets again. ** Sakkra(8) ** Darloks(5) - Sauron. Really? Go suck an egg. We have 28. Enough to win it by ourselves. Ahh, screw it ... what do we really gain by finishing this conquest? Answer; really just more annoyance on my part in terms of bashing my way through the final 10 planets, and ever-increasing amounts of micromanagement. I think I'm good.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvOdn52vjbo Video included just so people can do terrible things to the image of the shadowy Mrrshan Empress if you choose.
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Jun 23, 2018 00:46
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Congrats on the victory!
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Jun 23, 2018 06:20
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It is only appropriate that Nermal does not genocide the Galaxy; if there are only kittens, who will pet the kittens and open the cans of wet food?
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Jun 23, 2018 06:40
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I must say, simply strolling into the council and declaring that you're the empress and everyone may adore you now is an extremely cat way to secure the victory.
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Jun 23, 2018 16:53
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Yeah, it's for the better you chose this victory instead of grinding it out.
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Jun 23, 2018 17:32
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Empress Nermal, could you demonstrate how you rose to victory over the galaxy? https://i.imgur.com/YM2snlz.mp4 Uh... okay. Hey, supreme admiral? https://i.imgur.com/LABtukm.mp4 Uh... chief scientist and minister of state? https://i.imgur.com/2Q9Nl9C.gifv Interpretive dance appears to be the order of the day.
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Jun 23, 2018 17:39
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Congratulatons on the victory! I like to think that the player race is a bunch of descendents of The Cat from Red Dwarf.
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Jun 24, 2018 03:37
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Decoy Badger posted:Congratulatons on the victory! I like to think that the player race is a bunch of descendents of The Cat from Red Dwarf. Nah, Cat is a descendent from one of the games where the Mrrshan lost and their leader was banished from the known galaxy. After all, MoO is only a few paltry centuries from now, while Red Dwarf is set millions of years in the future. (I went and looked up a Red Dwarf timeline. It is impressively stupid)
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Jun 24, 2018 04:06
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Congrats on getting the cat to stay in the hat.
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Jun 24, 2018 04:16
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I know this is supposed to be cute (and it is), but seeing kittens scratch and bite without fur to protect them has got me all 
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Jun 24, 2018 04:52
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CommissarMega posted:I know this is supposed to be cute (and it is), but seeing kittens scratch and bite without fur to protect them has got me all Kittens (and cats) don't scratch or bite that hard - and when they do, the other cat basically calls them an rear end in a top hat and gets them to back off. Humans tend to get scratched and bitten by cats because we ignore a cat that emphatically doesn't want to be bothered right now, don't teach them in a way a cat would understand how rough is too rough when playing, or both.
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Jun 24, 2018 05:04
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Just wanted to chime in on another GG to Thot and props for all the amazing cat GIFs.  And while it's a little late now, I missed this from like a week ago:PurpleXVI posted:Does the Mrrshan combat advantage stay relevant into the endgame conflicts? Or is it so minor compared to tech advantages that it doesn't really matter? It's a very strong edge given how simplistic combat is in MOO1. We all know how great it is at +0 TL (you swing at 90% instead of 50%), but take a typical midgame scenario, when (if you don't get an amazing start like Thot did and take 1/3rd of the galaxy peacefully  ) you have to build a fleet and go after a neighbor to expand, say around 2450 when your economic techs have kicked in and you're not at such a lopsided disadvantage. You'll probably have Battle Computer 5 or so with maybe fusion beams and a decent missile on offense, while the typical AI has sublight to impulse drives and Inertial Stabilizer (since they prize it so highly in value, everybody will trade for it if they can). Most AIs will field destroyers or cruisers, meaning a defense bonus of 4-7. If you were using your best computer and Battle Scanner, you'd still be right around 50%, and that would take up a lot of space that you'd prefer to load up with more guns (or shields or Repulsor Beams or whatnot if you're that sort). But if you're the Mrrshan, you're back to 90% like before. Or-- and here's the real kicker-- you can just not bother with a computer, and still be at 40%-50% chance to hit. Now imagine that if you're still doing research or building factories or whatnot, some planets might only be able to contribute by rallying fighters to the frontlines. Mrrshan fighters can just show up with a decent gun (Neutron Pellets especially, they're not ineffective until ships have class 9+ shields) and be a threat, and that means they'll draw fire and maybe save your more expensive ships or bombers. Now take it a step further: remember those missile boat fighters Thot went up against in one of his last videos? Stinger missiles get +3 to hit, Mrrshan get +4, all of a sudden you can get flying missile bases that actually put up respectable numbers against ships with Jammers (or planets, if you can hit a breakpoint such as Pulson destroyers against planets that still only have Planetary Shield 5s). And Mrrshan will actually have those techs, thanks to the 40% discount on Weapon research. Mrrshan are in the bottom half because they have no economic bonuses, and that's fair enough. But they're in the bottom 3 thanks to having horrible diplomacy modifiers and being penalized in Construction (the field that makes all your ships better and tends to be hard to trade for), not because of their racial traits. Their bonus and research edge are actually really good. Conventional wisdom is that the Alkari defensive bonus is better since it's always relevant and useful, and that's true, but you really haven't lived until you've had a few big Mrrshan ships with High Energy Focus (and remember, that +4 counts toward winning initiative, too) destroy an entire armada before it can get in range.
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Jun 24, 2018 05:48
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also the nutsack wrinkles on naked cats are spare skin folds that specifically provide some protection that is lost by not having fur, so
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Jun 24, 2018 08:12
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Please never let your cat play Dark Souls 3 again. I have to admit Cythereal's collection of cat gifs gave the Mrrshan game a unique flavour. Thanks and hail to the feline overlords.
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Jun 24, 2018 08:27
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CommissarMega posted:I know this is supposed to be cute (and it is), but seeing kittens scratch and bite without fur to protect them has got me all Despite being assholes, cats are far smarter than that. My own cat likes my shoulders; if I'm wearing clothes she'll have no problem using her claws to improve her grip and balance, but if I'm shirtless the claws stay in.
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Jun 24, 2018 10:43
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I look forward to the bear videos on the next run.
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Jun 24, 2018 22:13
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50 people have watched the Mrrshan victory cinematic. You all need to get a life or two. Erm, I mean, thanks for continuing to watch and support this thread. Yeah, that's what I meant to say. AngryDiplomat posted:simply strolling into the council and declaring that you're the empress and everyone may adore you now is an extremely cat way to secure the victory. Didn't think about it this way, but I definitely approve. Wayne posted:props for all the amazing cat GIFs. Yep, must agree with this. Esp. since this game needed some help. There was really some interesting stuff that happened but overall it was a bit of a yawner, what with the first example of the 'Easy Button' that is basically what finding an artifact planet right away turns out to be much of the time. Also, thanks to everyone else for the comments that I'm too lazy to individually mention.
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Jun 24, 2018 22:22
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What's Next? We're starting to approach the end, though who knows how long the final games will take. I'm looking good to finish with a winning record though, and I'm happy about that; 8-5 at the moment. We've got two more races to go and then the final 'bonus/challenge' run. Bulrathi Preview We'll be going with Smurch here, and Cave for the homeworld. Medium Galaxy again. ** Combat -- A huge +25 addition to all combat rolls, meaning that all other things being equal the bears enjoy a 3:1 kill ratio. ** Diplomacy -- Pretty average. Neutral with most, though there is distrust with the Mrrshan so you could put it just a hair below here. ** Economy -- Nuthin'. ** Research -- Good at Construction and Weapons, Poor in Computing. Overall that probably ends up being just about average or the slightest bit above, due to computers being more important than the other fields. Outlook This is a race that isn't terrible at anything, yet they suck. With the majority of the galaxy having economic bonuses, and then the Alkari/Mrrshan having the next-best thing with excellent fleet combat, I now find myself taking on a race that can do neither. Ground combat can be rendered mostly irrelevant by a superior fleet, so it's really the fact that there just isn't much to hang our hat on. The Bulrathi are best-equipped to do planetary invasions early, and IMO overall the best race with which to be aggressive almost immediately. Given the opportunity, I may well attack before the 50-year-mark. If we find ourselves boxed-in, we'll probably look to just send some troops out and take territory from the neighbors. This can be effective in the right circumstances due to the fact that early-game firepower is not adequate to stopping transports effectively. Of course early conflicts can be a very two-edged sword, but if we can't get a strong colonization push early it's a lot better than getting strangled for the rest of the game by races that are stronger economically.
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Jun 24, 2018 22:28
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Episode XIV: Opening Once again we end up with none of the top enemies. It's really been a good stretch of games for that -- I forget how many since we faced the Psilons now. This is frankly nearly a perfect set of foes. An early Silicoid explosion seems the top threat; Sakkras could also start fast of course and the Meklar are always capable of being a pain. Either I'll lose to someone besides the Psilons or Humans for the first time in this LP, or I'll win a third in a row for the first time. I also wonder how many are stuck together in that cluster of potential homeworlds on the right side of the map.  Here's a new type of start; the Ring. You can see that effect better on the previous galaxy map; a circle of planets surrounding Cave and one other one. This comes up every once in a while. There's no need to speculate on where we'll head first. That green star to the right is the only option. It's also already obvious that after that we'll need better propulsion research. I can already tell it's going to be a pain right off the bat without even touching a single setting.  It's no artifact system, but it's nice. Immediately we spot a Darlok scout, apparently en route. Now I could basically care less if this is a quick attack by them; we'd only lose maybe 6-8 million troops to any attack they could send this early in the game. Definitely looks like they are off to our right though, and we may indeed have to fight our way out. The Recon count is exceptionally high for a Medium galaxy; we need 11 more of them, almost twice the usual number. That's probably a good thing, even though it'll slow us down a bit, taking over two years to build.   2306. Our first batch of Recons along with the first million transports from our Cave got here at exactly the same time. That meant they didn't even get to scout it and try to attack. First skirmish to bearkind.  Same year. This is very much a potential super-early target, depending on what the scouting and range research turns up. Took about a year longer than usual, but the Recon Rush is in full swing and transports leave annually for Reticuli.   This does not happen often. 2309 here. Scouting an enemy homeworld. They had 49 fighters here. All of them were scouts though. So now we have hard intelligence on their location. 69M population, while Cave stays at 50M due to the outgoing colonists. 95 factories to our 54. Jerks.   This isn't looking encouraging.  At the edge of our scouting range, but the best thing we've found so far.  Another lovely ball of drek.  Those aren't too bad either. Nothing great, but a few decent/fairly good options.  Almost homeworld-quality. Best thing we've seen so far, and the last of the first wave in 2312. We chased away Darlok scouts here. We've seen nothing but scouts for them.  Here's a possibility that's setting up for us. If we get Hydrogen Fuel Cells(range 4), there are only two possibilities within range. One is invading Firma, the red D the cursor points at here. A Darlok planet, and we need it to get to Vox, best system we've yet seen - the yellow terran directly below it. The other is Volantis, large poor planet, the green terran above our territory. If we get Deuterium for better range, all that gives us in addition in Anraq(70M Steppe to the left). Right now this is setting up to play very much to the Bulrathi way of going about things. This start seems to be strongly encouraging me to attack the Darloks immediately, and largely because it's so contrary to my typical playstyle I really want to do it. Colonizers are expensive this early in the game. If I can get another planet with a fairly minimal amount of initial population investment, I think it's a net win -- and it's hard to imagine a more inviting scenario. But we must act quickly before they build up the system. Nonetheless, I still must max out Cave and get the range required before I can even consider this. A quiet period through 2325, and then we found out what we had: ** Computers: Deep Space Scanner ** Construction: Improved Industrial Tech 9 ** Planetology: Controlled Barren Environment ** Force Fields: Class II Deflectors ** Propulsion: Hydrogen Fuel Cells ** Weapons: Hyper-V Rockets Not a single solitary choice to be made. And also Hydrogen. So I made my choice: the Firma Plan it was. Or to put it another way -- "colonization by alternate means".
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Jun 28, 2018 00:37
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Awww yeah!
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Jun 28, 2018 00:51
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An early Darlok invasion could be rad, give you a tech leg up if you snag some good stuff from them, a planet leg up, and set them back. Wouldn't it most likely need some planetary combat tech to have a good chance of being pulled off, though?
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Jun 28, 2018 04:36
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PurpleXVI posted:An early Darlok invasion could be rad, give you a tech leg up if you snag some good stuff from them, a planet leg up, and set them back. Wouldn't it most likely need some planetary combat tech to have a good chance of being pulled off, though? The Bulrathi are planetary combat tech. The real question AFAICT is if the invasion will cost so much population as to not be worth what is gained.
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Jun 28, 2018 04:54
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It's almost certainly worth it, not only to get access to a terran planet but also to knock back the Darloks - and maybe even set up for an early total genocide of the jerks, to avoid the AI flooding us later with Darlok spies and sabotage every freaking turn.
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Jun 28, 2018 06:47
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While I’m sometimes too aggressive, an early invasion looks like the only option. If Thot doesn’t get those Darlock worlds he’s going to be terribly boxed in.
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Jun 28, 2018 07:19
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With the Bulrathi's ground combat bonus, early invasions sound like a good idea.
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Jun 28, 2018 08:03
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kaosdrachen posted:With the Bulrathi's ground combat bonus, early invasions sound like a good idea. Keep in mind that the Bulrathi have no economic bonuses, and that while Bulrathi troops are amazing, assuming you can wipe out the Darloks quickly, you've still killed the majority of your homeworld's population and now you have two barely built up colonies while everyone else has been busy building up their homeworlds.
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Jun 28, 2018 08:17
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The flip side being that he would have 3 good planets very early on, and I imagine it's easier to come back from a slow start like that than it is to be fenced in by Darlocks.
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Jun 28, 2018 12:00
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Randalor posted:The flip side being that he would have 3 good planets very early on, and I imagine it's easier to come back from a slow start like that than it is to be fenced in by Darlocks. Plus you can play in a galaxy that doesn't have any Darloks in it. Always a good thing.
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Jun 28, 2018 15:27
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kaosdrachen posted:Plus you can play in a galaxy that doesn't have any Darloks in it. Always a good thing. Having a designated punching bag can be useful for currying favor with the other races. And as long as they're kept small, it hardly matters if they steal techs. The worst thing they can do with them is trade them to other, more relevant races, which they'll have trouble doing if everyone hates them. EDIT: vvv oh yeah, I forgot about the framing mechanic. Okay, annihilate 'em. TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Jun 28, 2018 |
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Jun 28, 2018 15:40
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kaosdrachen posted:Plus you can play in a galaxy that doesn't have any Darloks in it. Always a good thing. Yup. TooMuchAbstraction posted:Having a designated punching bag can be useful for currying favor with the other races. And as long as they're kept small, it hardly matters if they steal techs. The worst thing they can do with them is trade them to other, more relevant races, which they'll have trouble doing if everyone hates them. No. The worst thing they can do is steal techs from your trading partners and frame you for it, leading to a war.
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Jun 28, 2018 16:05
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Neophyte posted:Awww yeah! Nice pic. And the answer is no, we won't be ready. Dirk the Average posted:you've still killed the majority of your homeworld's population and now you have two barely built up colonies while everyone else has been busy building up their homeworlds. We're not going that early. As of the end of the last update Cave is at about 90M, 40-some for Reticuli. I don't have to drain the homeworld severely to do this. I don't think I would ever adopt such an approach. my dad posted:The worst thing they can do is steal techs from your trading partners and frame you for it, leading to a war. In my experience, this isn't nearly worth the early genocide penalty. Plus by the time we'd get there, Nazin's defenses will assuredly be significant. That's not really on the table.
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Jun 29, 2018 02:05
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my dad posted:No. The worst thing they can do is steal techs from your trading partners and frame you for it, leading to a war. you know goddamn well that those bastards will turn the entire galaxy against you given half a chance. but that said, a genocide penalty early is a guarantee to plunge yourself into a hellwar, so 
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Jun 29, 2018 07:52
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** Note: I did some serious save-scumming at this point. Normally I steer totally away from that, but to be frank I didn't really know what to do. This kind of super-early aggression is not at all my cup of tea, and without experimenting with it first things would indeed have gone quite badly. They eventually did on the first couple of attempts. My thinking here was that even if what I came up with isn't the Right Way(tm), a reasonable way as opposed to a massive faceplant would probably be more interesting. Episode XIV: 2325 - A scout was sent to Firma to ascertain the updated situation. If reasonable, transports would be sent from Reticuli immediately upon completion of research. Typically what I would do at this point is build most of a Colonizer, intending to synchronize the completion of that with the research. This time though I went all-in on research with whatever Cave could spare, so as to facilitate getting the invasion going ASAP.  Not sure why I always time it so their eyes are closed. Anyway, this came quickly in 2329. Time is of the essence. Nuclear Engines or Irridium Fuel Cells(range 6) next. I think we need the range.  Well, you're about to get some anyway. Closer contact than you want for sure.  They're up to three planets. For now.  As expected. Firma Operation With our strength on the battlefield, the first part is easy. Sending half of Reticuli's population(29 M) should be enough to take it with some extra, even if the planet is full to its 50M capacity. The problem lies in holding onto it. It won't take long for the Darloks to blockade the planet, making it hard-to-impossible for any additional transports to get through. Then they'll either bomb it, or send in their own troops to wear us down, or more likely both. To make sure we have a stable base to start out with, I send in 20M more from Cave. This will slow us down in getting Colonizers out there, and arrive two years later, but it's necessary. Strategically, there are basically two options: ** Steal the planet and then basically work towards bribing them into peace ** Send in ships to fight the Darlok fleet I would strongly tend towards the first one. But we have one tech finished and won't have any more anytime soon. Combine with the Darloks being Xenophobic Diplomats and generally not liking anyone to begin with, and that option just isn't realistic. My next try was to go with a destroyer armed with nuclear missiles, for hit-and-run tactics to wear down their fleets. It took too many of them to really make a dent though.  Here's where I came out eventually. The Patrol class is your basic laser-armed fighter. Simple as it gets and the 'book' way to handle conflict this early; my testing found it to be the most effective as well. It really just seems to be all about getting a lot of firepower out there. Bigger ships just won't give the same bang for the buck. Not yet anyway. I'll spend a few years building as many of these as possible, most coming from Cave. I want to get close to 50 ASAP, then have more trickle in from Reticuli when I make the belated shift to building Colonizers. No more research for now; we have other priorities.  133 ships. All scouts. What in the name of Orion do you need 133 scouts for ... on a map with just over a third that many stars?!? I need some of what they are smoking. Two dozen more, along with an unarmed colony ship, show up at Vox the next year. They want it too, but they aren't getting it without us putting in our two cents.  Ran into a Silicoid scout here. And then ... https://youtu.be/uZf0uPeQVRw Followed by a declaration of war of course. This is horribly bad luck. I usually win this battle with quite a few to spare. We still have those troops from Cave which should take care of business soon, but the RNG for these battles is finnicky and there's a wider variance than their probably should be. Lost 29 compared to their 35, when we've got odds of a kill ratio almost 2:1. The following year is 2334. In five years, Cave has produced 43 Patrol ships, all headed to Firma. That'll have to be enough. That's five years of further delay in getting Colonizers out, almost a full decade between that and the propulsion research. That's a long time to give the other empires to grab prospective planets, so this invasion bloody better work. Now Cave will begin building ships to transport our population to suitable systems, and Reticuli is out of time to industrialize; it's job is now to take over adding to the Patrol numbers - and soon it will start trickling more population in there as well, assuming our secondary attack goes better than the first one.  Very nice, and right in the middle of the galaxy. Also far enough away that I would think we have no real chance of getting to it.  20M vs. 16M this time; we did about as well as expected overall in this combat. We've done the easy part in taking the system. The hard part is holding it while still expanding elsewhere.  Super. I don't think we can survive this attack. We'll have a handful of Patrols when they show up in orbit next year, but I don't think they'll be able to take down more than a couple of these. I don't see any choice but to send out another transport group from Cave. We can't afford to lose here. I settle on 17M, taking our homeworld down to three-quarters at 75M. More will start coming from Reticuli soon. Idea is that we'll probably lose it next year, but then retake it. Without the bad luck in the first combat we'd have been able to absorb this, which was the general plan ... but again all of this stuff is risky and can go either way. I'm able to clone an extra 2M population with maximum effort. Maybe, just maybe, that will be enough.  Directly above our territory. Third encounter with the Silicoids, but first system of theirs that we've found. They certainly seem to be throwing their weight around in the up and rightward directions.  Another bad-luck combat. Our Patrols reduced them to 28M, which should have been just enough. Instead, it wasn't close. Grrr. 2336, and it'll be a few years until we can get it back. All I can do is keep building up the blockade. https://youtu.be/tRwChpmv3rg First field action for the Patrol. 2 fighters lost in exchange for 5 destroyers is an excellent trade. At least we're keeping the pressure on, even if it's not going exactly as planned. The stakes are high. Every year 2-3M more transports leave Reticuli, along with a couple more Patrols. If we lose control of Firma orbit, those transports will become so much space debris.  Casualties were 8M on our side, 13M on theirs. Still not particularly good fortune but it was enough and there's more troops coming. Now we'll see if we can hold it. We're in real trouble if we can't. After chilling in orbit for a year, our next Colonizer can now depart for Vox. It's taken long enough; it's now 2341.  Well at least there's this. We're still not able to do any research on our own; it would have taken us quite a while to get to terraforming. And the Darloks have even gotten started on Firma(up from 50 to 52M max). that's awful nice of them. Another 20M Darloks arrive the very next year ... And what's with that get-up? Green camo gear and those pretentious shades??  But now the game is different. At the same time, a single Venom destroyer chases away our Recon at Vox. It's time we diverted some of the fleet, such as it is, to safeguard that.  Another rival heard from. A bare scout, and this is revealed to be Rotan(Inferno, 25M max). Whoopedy-doo.  Finally we get going on research. This is actually coming from Firma, which needs a bit more population to grow into it's current factories before it can do anything else useful. Reticuli will take over at a token level once that's been achieved.  Hello there. Have a nice tasty bear-sized snack.  Chased away a Darlok scout here in 2345. They also arrived in force at Vox, but we were waiting. And when I say in force, I mean 162 scouts(why. just why??), 4 unarmed colony ships, and 2 destroyers. Two. We blew one of them up, and the other retreated. So far so good.  Muahahahaha! 2348. It's been a long time coming but it looks real nice.  Gee, I wonder who that could be. Sore losers.   The Bulrathi Empire, GY 2349. Things are finally rounding into shape. 30BC a year isn't much, but it's what Reticuli can afford to put into tech while still trickling out Patrols. Volantis gives us the range to hit two more worlds. That still won't be enough, but it is a start. The defense of Vox and Firma is holding for now; I'm keeping a sharp eye on any Darlok ship movements. Right now for example they've got 7 destroyers headed for Vox, and I rerouted some of our ships there to meet them. They'll run into over 40 patrol fighters by the time they arrive, which should be enough to repel them. Their fleet is much bigger than ours, but fortunately it's mostly scouts and colony ships still. That's not going to be the case forever, but I just need the Patrols to hold down the forts until we can get missile bases up on the frontier here. I think we've fairly well neutered the Darloks, as they are stuck at two systems; Nazin and Jinga to the right of it. There's 14 missile bases on the homeworld, and Jinga is out of our range, so there will be no further incursions anytime soon. There are still many competing needs that Smurch must balance, but for now we're starting to grow and we've etched out a bit of a bigger region of space for ourselves.
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Jun 30, 2018 02:02
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Something about the way the silly tactical sunglasses miss with the giant bear snout just makes the whole thing completely hilarious. Maybe their ground combat bonus is that all other species are blinded by the glare of the sun!
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Jun 30, 2018 03:50
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ManxomeBromide posted:Something about the way the silly tactical sunglasses miss with the giant bear snout just makes the whole thing completely hilarious. Maybe their ground combat bonus is that all other species are blinded by the glare of the sun! I don’t know if I would assume that the bear soldier who announces the looted technologies dresses like all the other bear soldiers. In fact, I bet those tactical sunglasses were looted from another species and never intended to fit a Bulrathi face at all.
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Jun 30, 2018 04:09
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