A minor offensive saw me push closer to the Palacean core worlds, and the colony at Mantar came under my control. My Fleet had also grown significantly, and now consisted of 16 Frigates, 10 Destroyers, 9 Cruisers and 3 Battleships, (38 war ships total). These ships had both good targeting systems and strong evasion…not to mention every single one had Adamantium armor. I had the fleet deployed well now, several small task forces spread out, and some larger fleets. These units were for the most part able to be supported by one or more nearby flotillas if need be, as such I was able to fend off both major and minor counterstrikes with ease. The Palacean and Kaek though rarely stayed in any engagement long enough, and they suffered few casualties over this time period as a result. I suffered none. Had it not been for my judicious use of the containment ability, I fear I would have done little damage to the enemy fleets. Finally, my first Titan was under construction, (a splendid beast that was designed to be able and take on multiple ships at once if need be), but the completion time was daunting. Luckily I had a nice reserve of Credits available and I will rush the construction at some point so as to get it on-line sooner. Strategically, the Empire continued its steady growth, and with the numerous Palacean colonists added into the overall population, my growth penalty became less of a factor. Perhaps then, I can win this one without laying the galaxy to waste, it would be nice to get a diplomatic win for a change. In any case, warp interdictors were now being researched, once available and on my colonies, they would allow me considerably more freedom of action should things get really messy.
I get your point True. Funny thing is that I picked up Stellaris myself along with some DLCs, and found so much to like in that game... but it sits and collects dust on account of two things I can't get over. One is the Starlanes, and the other is the way wars are treated. Nothing like smashing an enemy, bombing his homeworld, and getting nothing out of it. Fantastic concept, some excellent ideas, spoiled by the player being put in a straight jacket. Perhaps I'll fire it up again one of these days myself, but I'm still not craving it enough.
Yeah I had a couple of issues as well. The two I recall now are the way they made warring a no no. The other bug-a-boo was not being able to take out minor races. These may have changed, but not sure I am willing to spent the time needed to learn all I need to know, not to mention having to buy 10 or 11 dlc's.
I continued to skirmish with my enemies and held a strong defensive line. Eventually, I squandered almost my entire hard earned surplus of Credits so I could complete my Titan early. I realized that I had to expand the industrial base on my Homeworld even further if I wanted to get more of these ships in the field, and set up another asteroid mine (directed towards Earth), this time at Cups. Warp interdictor technology had been researched and I now turned my attention to Advanced targeting beams. Considering I heavily favor kinetics now, and that my enemies have excellent evasion, this technology is a must. In the next turn the Titan will come on line, it’s just one ship, but I intend to use it as a spearhead to conquer the Kaek outright. After that, I plan to hit the Palacean and perhaps irrevocably damage them. The map was now filling up, and a quick glance showed the Sulak and Moltar were very powerful, both stood in the way of my supremacy but I was at a loss how to deal with these races. The Moltar in particular were extremely fond of me and had already offered an alliance which I had to turn down. The Nova and Cerixx had both been reduced to minor powers and I expected both to collapse soon. It looks as if that diplomatic victory is a pipe dream now… no rest for the weary.
A few more systems, would be useful. It would not take much to have a runaway race on your hands. It makes it harder, when the largest races is not close to you. When they start to damage a neighbor, you can't take much advantage of it by grabbing a few planets. They would be hard to defend.
I don't think I can runaway as regards being able to contest the galactic vote. As you say, the main powers are not really near me, just their more far flung and less important colonies. At least the military is quite potent, I may have to rely on it yet again for the win.
Every game session plays out differently, and this one was no exception. Late in the game, when I thought all the leaders were taken, M.A.S.C. showed up looking for work. I reasoned that his former employer wasn’t able to hold him, so I hired him and sent him off to Acriu for the time being. Even stranger, the event fired which allowed me to capture Ozkar and his ship. I uncharacteristically decided to slap a uniform on him, give him back command of his own ship, and then shipped him off to to the far reaches of my Empire, (Plei)… as far away from Pike as possible in other words. I attacked Doradus as well, the last system controlled by the Kaek. The bugs had two colonies in that system. One was on a Large terran world, and the other on an ultra-rich, huge Ice planet with heavy gravity. Bothe planets were protected by Battlestations as well as the remnants of the Kaek fleet. The system also contained a Palacean outpost on a large asteroid belt and I struck there first, hoping to lure the Kaek into attacking me so I wouldn’t have to face the Battlestations while their fleet was intact. They did not take the bait. On the following turn I struck at the Terran world, and while the Kaek managed to stun my Titan twice during the battle and penetrated its shields, they could not overcome my fleet. The result was a disaster for them and I destroyed the colony with the expectation of resettling it with my humans. I followed that up by destroying the Battlesation around the icy world, and invading it outright after a brief bombardment, The Kaek were now eliminated. The problem now was Quō vādis? I had expanded the empire tremendously, but with the exception of my military, I was not able to outpace the lead powers. A diplomatic victory would be preferable but seems unlikely, and there lies another problem. The Moltar and the Sulak are in the lead, they are the two powers that contest the galactic vote. The Palacean, while still powerful are falling behind and we have been at war a long time, they will not support me. After that only the Draguul are of any significance. If I attack either the Moltar or Sulak, then they too will have bad relations with my empire, meaning that if I surpass them to contest the vote, they will most likely vote for my opponent. That is a dangerous risk. It seems that in the end I will have no choice but to attack both front-runners at the same time and try to blitz them. In other words, I think I have to fight my way to victory.
The next vote saw the Sulak almost win, this was worrying, I just couldn’t keep up with either of the frontrunners, (though I was sure I could defeat both in war). The Moltar had double my number of votes allotted to them, and the Sulak two and a half time as much. More and more I see I have to conquer my way to victory once again. I continued growing the fleet, which now numbered 46 warships total, (16FF,15DD,11CA, 3BB, and a single Titan). and hired another colony leader when Toka showed up out of a job. This was nice, I had ten leaders total now, but what I really would like is another Fleet commander, perhaps one will become available soon. My limited offensive continued and I eventually captured the Palacean capital. This put a hurt on the lobsters but they’re still holding on to the remnant of their empire with tenacity. I could have struck harder, but I was also attempting to reinforce my 8 separate fleets that were scattered throughout the Empire. My reasoning and overall strategy was now two fold. First I wanted to hold my gains and ensure no-one could launch a successful sneak attack against me. With only a few of my worlds protected by warp interdictors (thus far), it was imperative that I keep my fleets well positioned. In addition, by keeping the fleet dispersed but strong, it would make my inevitable all-out assault on my next target that much more likely to succeed.
I prepared my forces and by turn 350 was ready to attack the Sulak and Moltar both… at the last second however, I recalled my fleets. The Galaxy had split into three factions now. There was the Moltar who were at war with everyone of consequence save me, and the Sulak/Draguul Alliance at war with the Moltar. The third faction was me of course, basically neutral even though I was still at war with the Palacean, who no longer posed a serious threat to me. My reasoning for pulling back was that once I took such a path, there would be no going back, it would be war till the very end. I decided to wait and re-organize. I scrapped all my Frigates and replaced them with Destroyers. I added more Titans to my fleet and now had four of them available, I also built many assault ships. At the same time, I continued to develop my colonies and added many more warp Interdictors to safeguard my systems. Finally the moment arrived for me to take a side. The Moltar had been knocked out of their number two spot, and the Draguul had taken their place, though not crippled yet, it was clear that the poor lava-heads were losing the war. Well, it’s time then to come to the aid of my Moltar brothers like the proverbial Cavalry coming to the rescue. I have prepared a first strike that will target both the Draguul and the Sulak. The map below displays my initial targets. If I’m lucky, I can get into the number two spot quickly and have the Moltar vote for me. The trick now is to ensure that the vote is between myself and someone other than them. If this doesn't work, then I switch to plan B... I will destroy everything in my path. Oh, the Cerixx have fallen.
Simple but effective I do too, though sometimes I designate them TT or TN. I guess I should standardize, DN it is is then. P.S. I've got to get the text together... but it isn't going as well as I thought...
Oh oh. Lots of scenarios, where things could get rough. Dog pile comes to mind. Raids, while the fleets are far from home. Bad rng in combat and so forth. Then there is the vote.
You’re in your late teens, not known as a fighter per say, but like all young men your age you’ve had a few scrapes and have a reputation for a mean right that can stun or knockdown guys bigger than you. One day you get into it with some fellow and you manage to land the first shot. You nail him straight in the jaw with everything you have, your whole body behind the punch, a perfect blow. His head jerks back a bit… then he looks straight at you and grins. Here is what happened. I executed a massive first strike and even added the system at Draphab to the targets shown in my last post. I ran into problems straight away. It wasn’t any military defeat mind you, I actually took all my targets and destroyed about a dozen vessels without losing any of my own. The sole exception was the system at Gazaya, where the colonies there were protected by powerful shields. As a result, I’ve yet to secure the location. Instantly I was hit by a large wave of counter-strikes. The ships I had left behind as a reserve were barely adequate to fend these off. That is when I realized my mistake. I had kept the map zoomed in for too long, once I zoomed out to see the strategic situation, I was stunned. The Sulak controlled a third of the Galaxy and my allies the Moltar were collapsing faster than I anticipated. A quick look at the race statistics showed I had now dropped to the number two spot in fleet strength, and the casualties I had dealt my enemies were insignificant. I was instantly thrown into a desperate defense. My entire fleet, some 60 odd ships was barely able to hold the front line and protect my core worlds at the same time. Survival is now my immediate goal. To that end, my entire focus is to defend against the enemy strikes while building up the fleet further. A serial production run of four Battleships is underway at Earth and several Destroyers are under construction in other systems. I also intend to use my cash reserves to speed up production as much as possible, both for the construction of ships, and additional interdictors wherever they are lacking. I am hoping that by engaging in attrition, I can slowly diminish the disparity of forces between myself and the Sulak/Draguul. If I can achieve this, I will also stay opportunistic and seek to destroy entire worlds where feasible, conquering only those that are of absolute strategic value. I already have too much to defend and must revert to the strategy I used in my last AAR, I can only hope that the Moltar last a while longer so I don’t face the full force of the Aliens alone. For the here and now, there are seven incoming strikes to deal with, consisting of dozens of ships. In addition my front line forces are pinned in place by massive enemy fleets operating in their respective areas, so no help will come from there, I have to study the situation very carefully now before making my moves and processing the turn.
This is why I dislike going after anyone not adjacent. Too easy to get stretched out to a breaking point. Too hard to defend any new land taken and still protect the home front. It can be done, but is risky, unless you are a superpower.
I agree and follow the same guidelines as you. The AI on the other hand will spread anywhere it can, even in the midst of a war it attempts to colonize near my space. In this game though, my enemies border me, the problem is that I tried to grow my way to victory and captured worlds rather than destroying some and keeping others as launching bases. Now have to defend all of them lest my enemies pick up some of my techs by capturing them. The AIs have awesome logistical range, so they are able to strike deep inside my empire, only my extremely tough ships and Tachyon drive are giving me hope. I've got to hold for a while and build up, I can't let their numbers overwhelm me. Hoping to play a few turns tonight and update the AAR accordingly
Stalemate! Time and time again, I defeated the raids against my territory, and managed to kill some ships as well. Unfortunately, two enemy Titans escaped, but at least I destroyed about a dozen vessels, mostly Cruisers and Battleships. I managed to conduct a few raids of my own, destroying the colonies at Kau and Ostara, while sending the colony at Thaams back to the stone-age. Finally, I also secured the entire colony at Gazaya. The Sulak now had star fortresses guarding their systems, these things were tough, but I managed to destroy three of them so far. As I suspected, my greatest asset was Tachyon drive and the ever increasing number of interdictors guarding my systems. The combination of these two techs, allowed my outnumbered forces to cover a lot more ground than they normally could. As a result, I was outnumbered in the strategic sense of the word, but not at the tactical, meaning I always showed up to fights with equal or greater forces than my assailants and suffered no losses of my own. I rushed mostly Battlestations and interdictors, and sparingly at that, as I was now running a smaller surplus every turn than in the recent past. I reasoned that soon, with my ever increasing maintenance costs, I may start running a deficit, so I was careful with my credits. A quick look at the power rankings showed that I had made some overall progress, (I was now 3rd), but was not yet out of danger. My drive to increase the size of the fleet continues, and I will rush a few ships at some point, but nothing drastic, I have decided to settle for a slow but steady construction program. Survival is still my primary objective, but it is now looking a bit more achievable. Medium term, I need to finish researching the current tech so I can design even more advanced ships and then put them into play. I have plenty of SSP to spare at the moment, and won’t even think about starting to upgrade ships until my command limits are maxed out.
In moo1 you could hope for the AI to go at each other as some leader traits tended to make them short term allies. Otherwise, it is hard to keep up your fleet numbers at their pace, due to their having more planets in total. They would make and then break and remake alliance. You have to bust planets, but also annex one now and then. Not that easy, when they have more resources. I cannot see the full list, but at a glance it does not seem you have a lot of good Terran planets.
No, I have very few Terran planets, and most of them were colonized late, meaning they aren't very productive. The settings I used ensured that I had mostly hostile worlds nearby, with a few tolerable thrown in. The AIs on the other hand had mostly ideal (for them). My nearest neighbours then, ensured that there would be few Terran worlds. Then I have the Sulak, with a high population growth rate, as well as a bonus to industry as my main threat. My own custom race, restricted to bad biomes and suffering a 50% population growth penalty, cannot outproduce them or outgrow them. The Dragull and Sulak are allied, and this doesn't look like it will end, if anything, the remnants of the Palacean will join. The Moltar have asked me to ally with them, we are fighting the same enemies after all, but I see little reason to do so. Besides, at this point it would be a formality more or less.
Over the next dozen+ turns I kept fending off the enemy while engaging in destructive hit and run attacks of my own. I managed to destroy dozens of enemy ships total including a few Titans, I even captured one which is slated for refit as soon as I finish the current Battleship being constructed at Earth. For their part, the Aliens still haven't managed to destroy a single ship of my mine and it looks as it may get even worse for them now. I just finished my tech research and initiated the next ship designs I will be producing. I will also be re-introducing Frigates now because they are fast to produce, and because of this Not only does this ship pack a good punch, it has superb attack and defense values, and can also act as an escort to break up enemy missile salvos. My heavier ships include 4-5 such missile racks with a corresponding increase in damage. Of course they also carry direct fire weapons. I believe the tide will soon turn against the Aliens. As to the current time frame, I've set up interdictors on almost all my systems with colonies and expanded further while reducing the enemy presence on my borders, I've even destroyed the Draguul homeworld, though my most lethal enemy, (the Sulak) has not been damaged significantly. Oh yes, I forgot, Pike is on leave again... where does that boy keep disappearing to?
Hmm, I think the Aliens are missing a great opportunity, one that will soon be gone. Let me explain. Being drastically behind in production is worrisome, but as long as I continue to avoid casualties and slowly destroy enemy colonies, it is nothing that I will not overcome. Being drastically behind in technology, is actually less worrisome because I know what it means. The Alien factions research a broader range of technologies, while I focus more on military applications. That means that where it counts, (in space), I can go toe to toe with my more “advanced” enemies. Couple that with my better ship designs, and my tactical doctrines (which are actually based on historical examples and precedent), and I win fights easily. Operationally I also hold the advantage, and I find that it is not difficult to outmaneuver my enemies under normal circumstances. Now that I have the speed, range and delaying effects of Interdictors, I am able to concentrate my overall smaller forces into larger fleets and wreck havoc (or defend when needed) too easily. The greatest chance for my enemies will soon slip away, and it is this. Take that fleet, which dwarfs my own, and attack! I mean real attacks, not the raids I parry without much effort. But it looks like it will not be. That shot was five turns ago and since then... I keep wrecking systems and deftly hitting the enemy where he isn't, always secure in the knowledge that I can fall back quickly if needed. I destroyed outposts, colonies, star-fortresses and numerous ships. I even captured yet another Titan intact. With Pike still on vacation I am running tight on SSPs, but soon he will return. Eventually I intend to have a fleet of 100 mixed ships, designed in a way so that they are mutually supportive, and where the sum is greater than the parts. Perhaps I will wind up losing in the council, and an alien faction will be declared the winner, we will see. I am now third in votes and should be second by the next election, but even if I were to lose that vote, I have no reason to accept it. I think this game is won already, but I intend to play it a while longer, just to remove any doubt.
