Smokeys War -Playing the Sulak on 25/75 ISG version 1.6.1

This game was played on the same settings as "The good the Bad and the Ugly" 25% reseach and 75% production but with the Vanilla Sulak faction instead.

This is the first time I've played a non Human faction on these settings...

Too add to this no research facilitys will not be built nor will any reseach bonuses be sought, instead the emphasis will be on Culture and Credits, essentially research will rely on cash and population.

No Galactic Council or Alliance and all other Victory Conditions as follows:

 

So on to the game...

Smokey starts in the NW lower spiral arm with a few systems within range, which mostly turn out to be inhabited by monsters, though there are also a numbers of good Planets including many ruins, once the monsters are dealt with these ruins yeald 4 research cores* and the Ion Beam as well as a couple of usefull leaders... *though this is minimal on these settings at +20% -75% = +5% bonus...

As said the emphasis is on Culture and Credits so both of these are exploited to the full, the Economic and Cultural buildings are researched and built and quite a number of new worlds are colonised, Plei followed by Zeerth, Isrips Geemaugr, Lorsitz and Nea, some made possible by Cultural bonuses or events... asteroids are exploited for credits.

Military research is kept to the bare minimum during this intial phase, enough though to provide effective weapons against monsters...
To this end both H3 bonuses are researched for future benefit...

By Turn 168 the Sulak have made contact with the Humans, Draguul, Palaceans and Ceric Sentinals but all is at peace, largely because the Sulak keep using their Serenity ability, fostering good relations and a number of treaties producing some real benefits...

This combined with stealing tech and leaders (by Renegade and Bashfull) and the Cultural/Cash emphasis has brought them into a pre-eminent possition, exept when it comes to miltary strength,

However on turn 169 the Palaceans declare war having the largest fleet by far....
They split their forces which is mostly monsters and succum one one by one to the Sulak defence, which rapidly turns into an offence...

By Turn 177 this is the situation:



However though there is a Sulak fleet hovering over Triobah, they have no bombs or assault ships and this will take a few turns yet to produce...
Eventually the Palaceans will be all but be annihilated as they refuse to surrender untill their very last world at Uccoth, literally the bombers were on the way to annihilate them...

Some typical Sulak ships, the Palceans are similar so only their monsters provide an advantage which was squandered in minor attacks:




Currently the Sulak fleet consists of 3 Cruisers, 12 Destroyers and 6 Frigates... most ships larger then Frigates will eventually have Combat Jump providing a real advantage in manouver.
In addition to this a number of leaders (x7military+1spy) have joined the fleet during the game, and having gained much experience are a significant bonus in combat.. this is likely one of the reason why the Sulak did so well...

 

Previous posts edited for clarity.

Everyone Hates the Sulak... it seems...

It takes some 30 turns for the Sulak to completely dominate the Palaceans mostly because of the lack of suitable ships, but once these start to appear things change rapidly and by turn 200 the Palaceans are Vassals with only one single world left...
Almost immediatly following the war the Cerric Sentinal foolishly attack a Sulak outpost not far from Arbitros, starting a process that will end in their destruction.
Still the Sulak are low on assault ships as it was costly taking the Palacean colonys at Triobah and Wu, but what they now have heads directly for Arbitros with the intention of taking the Cerric homeworld.

Sulak fleet now includes 2 Devastator Bombers with a third in production, 6 Cruisers and 14 Destroyers make up the bulk of the Sulak fleet.
Strength and disposition of the enemy is unknown but seems weeker in strength but again with similar ships, so nothing to dangerous since the Sulak have both H3 enhancements with a large amount of H3 available...



Map Turn 203

 

Yes it seems pretty easy though it did take some time, its on 25% research and 75% production (all) otherwise as Nordhiem, so severe, max aggression etc check the link in the first post, what suprised me to some extent was that money matters more then research, like the Cerric Sentinals you can simply pay for it... it means high taxation and an emphasis on credits which I've not found to be an issue so far...
In past games I've gone for research as a means to an end...

I was was also expecting something Much Bigger on the Horizon...

I made a point of killing off all the mosters in the area to prevent the Palacean from getting them and this happened just before the war when they were friendly, so likely had some impact as well...

I'm seriously considering trying something different in settings but I dont think this will be research as its just not that important it seems, if your enemy has a higher tech level you can always steal/trade what you want, but you cant do this with culture or cash...

Happy New Year

 

Konstantine Thanks for yor input, I'm going to cover some of the "Behind the Scenes"...

Military, is more then just ships, although the Sulak didn't have that many there are a good number of proficiant leaders with significant bonuses, H3 enhancement was researched prior to the Palaceans attack on turn 169, these ships in small groups were capable of dealing with monsters.
And as previously said the Palaceans squandered their monsters in minor attacks albeit on many targets, these attacks were destroyed and the war rapidly moved into Palacean space, where they had a large number of outposts, over the war these quickly became Sulak realestate...
At no time were the core Sulak planets under threat...

This had a huge knockon effect, from turn 177 to 203 the Credit flow increased from 1269 BC to 3164 which meant the Sulak were able to "Buy Tek" very quickly, although its the case that had the asteroid belts produced research instead of BCs it would have been greater, but no research exploitations was one of the restrictions placed on the Sulak as well as no buildings or other research enhancements.

Despite this during this time the Sulak were able to research all terraforming teks including Planet Construction, this means a rapid increase in Sulak future Colonies...

Tek Turn 203: most level one are available.




Miltary tek was simply stolen as was a good deal of other tek, at the same time this caused a few disagreements amongst the known factions particularly Draguul and Human... who really hate each other now

So whilst the factions were warring the Sulak busily prepared for their future empire, several events helped this on its way including the Execution of a well Known Pirate...

Diplomacy, Many deals were struck this was helped by diplomatic bonuses despite that no one liked the Sulak, the occasional greased palm helped to move things along...

Diplomacy Turn 203: there were trade deals with all factions prior to the wars with the Palaceans anb Cerric Sentinels.




Special Operations, needless to say the Sulak are rather good an Espionage and they made full use of it stealing Tek and pesuading leaders to join the cause, currently there are 3 operatives all expert in multiple tasks.

Leaders by Turn 203 the Sulak have 10 ship and 12 Colony leaders including 2 diplomats from minor civs, some offered, some were stolen and some captured during the Palcean war, they provide significant bonuses in combat, construction, labor and planet buillding...

Culture Turn 203: Culture is Random.



Next: the End...

 

Konstantine, I will address that in a follow up game attached to this thread, unfortunatly I can't change the title which now should be :

"Smokeys War - Playing the Sulak in ISG 1.6.1"

Silas, Thanks for the comments I will address as much relevant detail as is feasible in an analysis of the game, for some more incite into what made it possible.
What I would say is that I've played with random culture for so long I dont recall what the standard is and in previous games Culture took a back seat in favour of research...

This game is one of four with different factions exploring this different avenue to Victory... more on that later...

 

The End...

By Turn 227 contact has been made with both the Moltar and Nova, the Moltar are trapped by their location and cannot at the the moment expand out of it as long as the Sulak colonise Azun, which will act a border guard effectively preventing the Moltars expansion further...

The Nova are peacefull and will prove to be a mine of new tek for Sulak spy's to steal...

The Empire now consists of 27 Colony's with a potential of a further 15 should all celestial body's in current systems be turned into planets and colonised.

The Fleet has not greatly expanded but now consists of 1xBS +1 Building, 11xCR, 15xDS and 8xFR, up untill now Gladus and Plei have acted as main ship construction colony's, most ship costruction overall has been directed towards civilian ships...

The Empire is now producing 6700BC+ each turn with 60% diverted for research, so now is x2 what it had available 24 turns ago... Culture output has increased by 50% in the same time...

Galactic Overview Turn 227:




Turn 241: With the Colonisation of Azun contact is made with the Kaek via a wormhole, War is now on with the Moltar who will eventually be destroyed despite their large fleet and good ship leaders, the Moltar hate the Sulak so much that they fall on their swords rather then surrender...

Galactic Overview Turn 241:





The Defiant Moltar:




By Turn 257 the Sulak are producing 26000 BC and nearly 10000 Culture per turn and with the completion of the Final Galactic Wonder have achieved a decisive Victory:





Galactic Overview Turn 257:



The Game would continue untill Turn 306 by which time the rest of the Victory conditions were completed with the capture or subjugation of the remaining Homeworlds...


Next the Analysis...

 

Analysis of turn 177 and what has gone before:

This is really the turning point of the game a nexus point, it is possible to get the Palaceans to make peace and even a trade deal (with a bribe) in the same turn, but the victory conditions require total conquest and since they refused to surrender it was best to take Triobah by force, although this would take some time as no assault ships were available and the Palacean Pop was pretty large...
There were other advantages as well to continued war as other Palacean colonys and all the outposted sytems would also become part of the Sulak empire in the course of time...
So there was no real advantage to peace at this time, so the war continued.

TEK: the Sulak have aquired 50 technologies including Hyperdrive and the Ion Discharger (though only one ship is equipped with it), of the other 48 teks 20 were aquired by other means, starting teks, but mostly by theft. a few from battle with the Palaceans and 3 from culture, and it would continue to climb..

As can be seen here the Sulak have far surpassed the factions currently identified, though the Nova who havn't yet been discovered were No1 by far at least untill turn 230 or so and had been since early in the game as a result of Evolution:



Reseaching "Research" seems to have no advantage in the short term because of the massive -75% on research points, and this means valuable time spent on research for little reward, despite their advantages this of course is also a problem for the Non player factions, if not more so...
It seems better to keep researching the next tek level as this will lower the lesser teks research cost, and of course steal as much as you can.


CULTURE: Every Colony has a Cultural Exchange Complex built as soon as possible and this resulted in a quick growth in Cultural levels, but as can be seen from this turn and turn 203 not much has changed so there is a limit, so expanding the empire to include more colonys with CECs and more population is very important for continued growth...



Just what a difference it makes bettween the factions can be seen here, its likely the only faction who could compete with this were the Moltar No2 (not yet dicovered) but they were very much limited in their expansion as a result of being at the end of the SE spiral arm:





THE VICTORY CONDITIONS: During this and the follow up games that I played testing this, it became apparant that the Galatic Council Vote is the most important Victory condition for the AI, as such should allways be included as the primary Victory Condition.
It was never the case that despite changing settings the AI was ever capable of completing any of the other conditions even when they had superior advantages and lowered conditions, except on one occasion where the Draguul may have been able to achieve a Domination Victory when set to 5 Homeworlds by Surrender/Conquest.

But more on that later...

Game 2: Smokeys War on Impossible...

 

Smokey's War on Impossible...

There is only one Victory condition, control 5 Homeworlds for a Domination Victory...

As before to add to this no research facilitys will be built nor will any reseach bonuses be sought, instead the emphasis will be on Culture and Credits, essentially research will rely on cash and population, unless unavoidable...
ie capturing or obtaining teK that results in a colony leader asking for a building with research bonuses in their system, this only applys to the Technical capital and Galactic Museum, other technology may be captured as its unavoidable but Super computers must not be built, nor should asteroid belts be used for research, cultural research bonuses should be avoided if there is another choice...

Culture is Random.

Setting are as follows Sulak 50% Research 75% Production, everyone else 50% Research 100% Production, this was cos I didn't feel the AI could cope with very low research percentages and didnt want the game to go beyond around 300 turns...

The Sulak are the vanilla game variety...

 

This game I think was much more interesting then the first one was for a number of reasons , one was the location that the Sulak found themselves in, under ideal circumstances its better to be a bit out of the way towards the edge of the galaxy where theres no possibility of being mobbed by multiple aggressors and where you can find a little peace at least for a time to set your empire on the right path...

But this was not to be, as the Sulak, a somewhat secretive race, found themselves rather closer to the center of the galaxy then they would like to be...



Sulak Space Turn 40:

By now the Sulak have inhabited three Systems, only one of which has more then a single world Iforas, but at least one tiny planet has a minor civilisation so will be less usefull, there are also 3 monsters inhabiting systems close by with the subsequent problems they pose...
Gladus and the other colonys are now building CECs and these should be completed in a few turns which will more then double Culture. Research on the Space Elevator and Star base will follow and should be completed in about 12 turns, but will take some time to build the bases to get rid of the current Monster problems...



Four leaders have joined the empire "Bashfull" an espionage specialist is currently Governor of Gladus (for experience) but his role will be head honcho of the SIA later on, also Blossom, Dorlani and Yang...




Total empire income is 126BC per turn with 50% currently being spent on research.
Several civ ship projects are ongoing due to bonuses from culture...

 

Turn 50:

Not much has changed on the map though Culture is now at 114 points a turn, a new outpost ship has been built as well as aquiring a Survey ship via Culture, this took only 9 turns not the 21 it seemed it might take in turn 40 and this is entirely due to concentrating on culture rather then research bonuses...

Two new leaders are in the process of joining the Empire, "Chili" and "Scholar" who is currently on her way to govern Aberon and will boost research a bit.

Research is also about to be completed on the Star Base and additional infrastructor is being built on Gladus, Iforas is concentrating on pop and Aberon building the Space Elevator...

Turn 71 The Draguul are discovered:
This is really the situation you dont want to find yourself in, an aggresive faction like the Draguul only respect strength.... Warships are the one thing the Sulak dont have as the Fleet still consists of only two puny Frigates, though the Star Base at gladus has been built and there is a new ship about to be completed...
Still at this stage its possible to make a trade deal with them and use the Sulak Serenity ability to keep the situation calm but once this runs out expect fireworks!
There is also what appears to be a Moltar ship travelling down a wormhole from the east...

However it could be worse... it could be the Palaceans!

The Minor Civ at Iforas has been identified on turn 67 as the Arkulla +2 Logistical Range -25% Survey Ship Construction cost.

Two new leaders have joined the Empire depleting cash reserves, Santini who is now on her way to govern Gladus and Dexana an excellent spy on a mission to steal tek from the Draguul, Bashfull has now left Gladus and is on a mission to influence Draguul leaders...

Research is concentrating on Support Ships to boost production... with research its important to go to the next level as this will reduce lesser tek costs, unfortunatly this is not what the Sulak did instead researching the Core Mine which takes way to long to research and build at this stage...
Potentially the first error of the game, still in tek the Sulak have surpassed the Draguul by an order of magnitude.

Culture has increased and is now at 6 bonuses with a 7th soon to follow.

Overview Turn 71:




Turn 85: Finances have stabilized, ancient ruins have been found on 3 systems as well as another minor civ but it seems likely this system has a monster...
Much needed reinforcements "The Condor" DS and Ion Discharger has been found on Thutania, though the latter is not usefull at present and will require battle pod Tek.

Currently research is aimed at Advanced Colonisation as the Sulak need worlds and Population to combat the Draguul, other tek is in the process of being stolen from them but is a slow process, who although still just 2nd have have made some quite rapid advances.

The fleet now consists of 1DS and 4X weak FRs armed mostly with missiles, and is still not strong enough to chance taking out the monsters, the Draguul have many more ships and will be more experienced crews...

And time is running out for the Sulak...

On the bright side... well their Not the Palaceans...

Overview Turn 85:




Next: To be or not to be...

 

Turn 100: The Human Federation has been discovered largely because they moved into Sulak space and settled a system close to the Draguul at Glea, Both the Draguul and Humans have greater production but the Sulak is catching up and have recently colonised Plei +2 pop.
In theory the Sulak are No1 but this is an illusion created by their superior cultural level, in almost every way they are weaker then their opponents, with the fleet being the weakest by far and this will need to be rectified.
But for the immediate future civ eng/research projects and support ships rather then warships at the top of the list.

The Draguul are growing stronger and have a fleet easily capable of defeating the Sulak, with any luck the Humans at Glea will distract them, plans are already afoot to cause problems via espionage and it wont take much as the Humans are already annoyed with the Draguul...

Overview Turn 100:



More to follow...

 

Turn 105: The Nova have recently been contacted via a wormhole at Alem, but as they have only a small fleet are not considered a threat but plans are laid to send a colony ship to Alem as soon as possible...

Otherwise things are ominously quite...


Overview Turn 105:




Turn 109-120+: The First Draguul War... "It needs but one foe to breed a war, and those without swords can still die upon them"

Whilst the Sulak fleet is exploring west of Aberon, the Draguuls treacherously break their treatys and attack the asteroid belt at Uipra.. what follows is a long war of skirmishing, strike and counterstrike as the Draguuls have no assault ships yet...
However the Sulak have obtained Hyperdrive tek and the Draguul have underestimated the Lillipution Sulak Fleet which after a quick upgrade of the handfull of Frigates (the Sulak have 3 starbases close by) led by Yang aboard "The Condor", intercept and drive back the redoubtable Draguul fleet in desperate battles of annihilation....

OverviewTurn 120:




The Draguul eventually accept a peace treaty and slink back to Lau to plan their next moves...


Next: The Second Draguul War...

 

The first Draguul war was difficult enough and I thought when it started that this might be the beginning of the end... for the Sulak, simply because the Sulak Fleet was so small, but having good leaders and superior speed turned the tide, and though not without loss all the leaders survived.

But before I go into the Second Draguul war I'm going to give some background on whats happening behind the scenes as ISG is much more then simply building ships and combat...

Colony Infrastructure:

Normally I go for Civil engineering 6 as this has a direct effect on constuction on ALL other colonys, as you can see this isnt the case with Gladus which because of its starting infrastructure as the Sulak Homeworld (3 Aerospace) is best built as a Fleet Base with the full 6 Aerospace Engineering infrastructure perks, this is because this will give a bonus to ship building in all other colonys.
That said its only average for resources and will itself only be a fairly average ship building base, unless its gets other bonuses ie production from Building, asteroid belts and support ships...
Failing that as in this case its best to build all 3 of a particular infrastructure type, "Ultimate Civil Planners" (no building maintainance cost) and "Master Ship Builder" (+40% ship Construction), the Colony is more usefull for CIvilian ship building and this is primarily what its used for, its also at this stage used to build the entire military fleet but it will only produce low quality crews (good ship leaders will offset this), which do effect combat however these crews will get better with experience.
Later in the game I prefer to have Military ship building done on Rich worlds with all 6 Aerospace perks/infastructure :



All other Colonys at present are in the process of building Civil Engineering 6, this is a slow business but once completed will increase construction on new colonys by an order of magnitude...


To be Continued...

 

"Gaining Hyperdrive on these settings is a huge plus by the way."

It was quite fortunate that hyperdrive tek turned up before the war, as it did give an advantage in intercepting aggresive movements by the Draguul and really allowed the Sulak to pick and choose what to counter next.
The Condor for once with its battery of missiles was probarbly the most powerful ship on either side... but as expected the Draguul had 4star crews and better defences making up for their reliance on Tungsten guns, battles frequently ended up in melee where the PD weapons of the Sulak were the only thing left to fight with...
The Draguul fought to the death... and truth be told they love it!

The Illusion of Strength...

Its easy to be fooled by the ranking status particularly when it comes to fleets, as this seems to include All ships and in the Sulaks case this includes 4 support ships recently built, which accounts for the apparant rise in fleet strength, but in points value the Civilian ships of the Sulak fleet outnumber the military by 3 to 1, which means the Sulak are heavily outnumbered by the Draguul likely by a similar proportion so its a good thing that they didn't combine this fleet for a mass attack...

Fleet Strength Turn 109, the steep rise seems to be support ships not military:



In any case the Sulak have exactly 6 points worth of warships...

Espionage:

Ever since the Draguul appeared followed by the Feds and Nova, Bashfull and Dexana have been working to undermine them...
New tek has been stolen and leaders influenced as well as framing them or the other factions whenever possible, anything to cause disharmony and draw the attention away from the Sulak...
Since most of the stolen teks is military it means the Sulak can concentrate on researching other things...

The Ultimate Goal...
Well the road too it at least, the plan is to terraform and build new worlds and this is a way off yet, so the Sulak plod on in there endeavours and brace themselves fot the next War...

More to follow...