I settled into my defensive perimeter and executed a series of forays against the Draguul, every time they set up an outpost or colony near me, I destroyed it. I also made certain to destroy their outpost at Ichac located in human space and to destroy their colony at Epleuls, This latter strike was intended solely to weaken them by depriving them of population and support. Hyperdrive tech was also completed, this was great news. While it is only marginally faster than the Anti-matter drive I was using, it bestows tremendous benefits when moving through nebulae. This development now allowed me to better concentrate my forces as I knew I could react to threats much quicker than in the past. The battles that transpired during this phase of the game netted me more kills without losses. I was now constantly at war for close to 200 turns… think about that a moment, and compare it to many 4X games where wars are one battle affairs. In a sense, my session has stopped being a 4X and turned into a war game, I’m enjoying it tremendously.
I want to fast forward a bit. The Sulak had been eliminated by the Kaek, and the Moltar and Nova are now the frontrunners. My war with the Lizards is less intense as I now want them to remain a credible threat, as long as they didn’t come too close to my borders I leave them alone. I built up my fleet to near capacity, you can see the new numbers now, but there is a qualifier. Of the 10 Cruisers I have available, 6 have bomb racks and 4 are configured as Battlecruisers, meaning the bomb racks have been removed and the space allocated to additional weaponry. My Frigates will be retired as they just aren’t viable anymore, but that will come about when I am ready for new designs. The fleet is deployed in four task forces of roughly equal strength, and each force can be supported by another within one turn if the need arises. Each task force is also commanded by a leader for extra punch. All of the fleet leaders have leveled up multiple times and are quite effective, I have included their location on the map. So what is my next move? The Humans. Nothing personal, but I want to keep my territory coherent, their possessions therefore make for excellent targets. However there is one slight problem which is causing me to wait. I want to research some additional tech so I can design my V class ships, (that doesn’t stand for 5, it stands for Victory). The research treaty I have with the humans is providing me with about 20% of my effort, therefore they are safe for a while longer. Of course, my colonies are growing nicely and I have more non-terrans in my empire than I do my own race. I also hired Sierra when she came looking for work and sent her to Zarnazelun, now I would love to pick up another fleet commander for extra flexibility, I hope one comes calling soon.
I spent numerous turns smacking around the mischievous lizards, destroying more of their ships including another titan as they kept rebuilding outposts close to my border…silly lizards. Now I am finally ready to turn on the humans and add them to my growing galactic empire. I chose three targets for my first strike; these are Briri, Lenus, and Trent. I am beyond confident now and not worried in the slightest that I am still fighting the Draguul as I open an entire new front. Now as to my ships, I completed the Victory class designs for all hull types and then realized that there was no way I was going to put myself through the agony of attempting to refit my fleet, it wasn’t worth the effort. The new designs only had moderately more firepower than my older units but they were considerably better armored and shielded. I decided then that I would just keep two designs in the field. As I really wasn’t hurting for ships, I began construction of units that needed some time before they were ready, no worries, by the time I intend to use them, I expect to be at war with almost everyone at once. I also decided to scrap another house rule I play under, which is no Titans for me. I began research on the particular hull type and have something really nasty in mind. It will take a while to have the tech I want to design my titan, but there is something I want to illustrate with them. Keep in mind, I have fought numerous battles, destroyed a vast number of ships, (including several titans)… and have lost exactly one Frigate throughout the entire game.
The sheer number of human ships I faced surprised me, though they weren’t as robust as what the lizards had thrown against me. Within a few turns I fought several sharp battles with my new enemies and destroyed close to a dozen ships, including a Titan and two Battleships. I destroyed the colony at Lenus, captured the outposts at Trent and Clebbaof, captured the colony at Briri and bombed the colony at Clebbaof in order to weaken its defenses prior to invasion. The Humans counterattacked where they could, but with well over forty ships at my disposal I was able to contain them and beat them back. I’m now considering the need to create a fifth fleet as my territory will expand greatly soon. (I’ve marked the area I wish to conquer as my immediate goal). I will most probably take a ship or two from each existing fleet, combine them, and then add some new constructions so as to create this new force, it will aid me greatly in covering my ever increasing domains. Oh, as an interesting side note, while I am still last in all categories such as population, research, production, etc. my fleet is now by a good margin.
Arrgg… I forgot that the humans have armistice, they just used it on me and stopped me in my tracks. My campaign against them was still successful and I managed to take five systems from them. Some of their colonies I invaded, others I bombed into oblivion and resettled, (especially at Bilet where one of the worlds there rebelled successfully). The Draguul of course continued to pester me and I fought a few engagements with them as well. By the time all was said and done, I had destroyed another dozen ships, including 2 more titans… I did lose another Frigate though. Speaking of titans, my design is complete and under construction. I don’t want to give anything away, but I designed this as a space control ship. This ship will be able to fight entire fleets on its own, and I hope to show why my design will be effective doing that when the technologically superior AI titans cant. The only problem though is that construction time is very long, so I diverted all my asteroid mines to my Homeworld in an effort to finish it quickly. I also expect the infrastructure and population to max out there soon, meaning that I will switch to 100% production and reduce the completion time further. As long as the Herakles is ready when the armistice with the humans expires, I will be happy. I’ve included an update on my fleet strength, it is second to none now, and quite capable of taking on anything I task it with. In the meantime the Nova and Moltar continue to battle it out in the council election. These two races are the number one and two, should either of them win before I can steal the victory, I will refuse to accept the result and fight on.
Herakles was completed early, though I did spend over thirteen thousand BC to rush construction. I have already deployed that ship to Trent and am preparing to renew the war against the humans of Sol. Having learned my lesson from our last engagement, I intended to blitz their colonies before they could impose another armistice on me. The strategic situation has altered further in my favor. I now have warp interdictors under construction in the majority of my systems, and am researching Tachyon drive. The combination of these two techs will allow me to greatly expand my operations against the aliens and bring that much closer the unification of the galaxy under my benign rule. I finally scrapped all my Frigates as well, I will no longer design or produce this class of ship. To be fair, they were actually still effective, but it just got out of hand as my fleet had grown cumbersome. Besides, I will mass produce my latest class of Destroyer and use those in the role that Frigates held previously. ” Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war…” P.S. 435 turns, no end in sight, and two very powerful factions that could pose a challenge... not bad, not bad at all.
Conquest has its price, and in this case it was my trade treaties with the Nova and Moltar respectively. As a result, I am running a considerable deficit now. I took the human worlds I had targeted easy enough, but the humans of Sol are allied with the Moltar and Nova and now relations with those two races have suffered greatly. I must consider stopping the production of my warp interdictors and resume ship construction as it is probable that the war may expand and escalate with new races involved. Quite exciting right now, this is why I play.
Complications arose and I was now back on the defensive, the vile Nova had entered the war! This was not ideal, if anything I would have preferred fighting the Moltar as it means I could conquer more worlds. The Nova are too far from my lines and I have no intention of scattering my forces by attacking them directly at this stage. I am now dealing with multiple counterattacks every turn, (eight on this turn alone), but there are some qualifiers. The Nova are attacking but it is with skirmishers, light units. I have faced and killed many Frigates and Destroyers along with a Cruiser. The heaviest unit I have encountered from them is the Punisher, but unfortunately it managed to escape before I could destroy it. The Draguul on the other hand launched some ferocious strikes against me and I have destroyed multiple units, including three more Battleships, it seems they have managed to reconstitute their fleet. As for the humans of Sol, they are quiet at the moment and I presume they don’t have much of a fleet after my initial strikes against them. At least the Moltar decided that they missed the revenue from our trade treaty and asked for one anew, I accepted. (It probably helped that I voted for them in the recent election). My fleet continues to grow and my 6th Battleship is operational while my 2nd Titan, (Agamemnon), is under construction. Speaking about Titans, these ships are extremely OP… but you wouldn’t think that from the way I have been defeating them. The problem isn’t the ships themselves, but rather how they are outfitted. On defense they are laid out well as the choices the AI has to make are few, (mostly involving shields and armor). On offense however there are so many choices, some of which are not that obvious, that the AI has a harder time designing a potent ship. I on the other hand have no such problem and my own Titan is devastatingly effective.
Alright, this is my kind of party. The Lava-heads just declared war, this means I am now fighting everyone except the poor Kaek. As the AI has forced my hand, I will now switch strategy. My intent now is to occupy as few worlds as possible while destroying everything else and weakening the combined AIs that way. Tachyon Drive is now only two turns away, this will aid my offensive and defensive operations tremendously. Here is my Titan in action against two technologically superior Battleships, they didn’t stand a chance. And here is the Galaxy arrayed against me. Truly an epic session .
Chaos, utter chaos. I struck out at numerous exposed systems, destroying colonies and outposts alike while the combined alien forces continued their own counterattacks. The Moltar ships I encountered featured class IX shields and Adamantium armor, but I was still able to bring them down easily enough. Agamemnon was now near completion, and once it comes on line I will start striking directly at the Moltar core worlds. I reason that I must destroy their industrial base so as to reduce them to an insignificant threat. I will then establish a few forward bases, and attack the Nova as well who are currently outside my logistical range. I continue to suffer no losses, even though the number and quality of ships I’ve destroyed is significant.
This game could use either an Antares type event that allows for a quick ending, or the ability to build a death star type weapon and start taking planets out quickly. I pushed into Moltar territory and attacked Cle. I had to clear out the Star Fortress and ships in orbit, and then spend a few turns bombing the shield down. Considering that I have enough firepower to destroy a well developed colony in a single turn, (when it isn’t shielded), this does not seem appealing. I will have to use hundreds of turns reducing enemy worlds. After Kle, I put Leeku itself under siege. Of course, I continued to chase away and swat down counterattacks as well as destroying the outposts and colonies that the AIs set up on ruined worlds, it’s like their need to expand completely ignores the fact that they are trying to settle in hostile territory they cannot hold. The Lizards tried to relieve Leeku, how nice… The war continues and the fleet is growing, no new losses for me.
The aliens have infuriated me. I had destroyed the Galactic Industrial Conglomerate that was on Kle prior to invasion and had started building it on my Homeworld... but the Moltar managed to rebuild it at Madinela before I could complete construction. I then razed Madinela and started constructing it again, only for the Humans to beat me to it as they built it at Gazaya. All those turns wasted mean that I could have had Athena already built, instead I am still four turns away from completing my third Titan. Lesson learned. My devastating campaign continued and the Aliens kept up fierce counterattacks. We fought many more battles and I destroyed a large number of ships including four more Titans. Yet for all my efforts, my fleet is now ranked third, they are still out-producing me. To make matters worse, the Nova have been gifting a lot of ships to my enemies, it is as if they have become the arsenal that is keeping the Draguul and Moltar from collapsing. (I actually like this, smart move from the AI). The plan now is to continue devastating the Moltar while waiting for Athena to be built. Once she is ready, I will send her along with several more units to Kataki who is stationed at Blet. Then with his combined force, I will treat the Humans to the same type of campaign I am using against the Moltar. In preparation, I have already destroyed their colony at Chuxuter as a harbinger of what they can expect in the near future In other news, I have 25 colonies and that many outposts in my empire… yet I am dwarfed by the Nova alone, much less the combined Alien nations. At least I have yet another generation of ships being designed, slightly more firepower, much better shielding.
Well it happened, I’m now fighting everyone at once, the Kaek have declared war. There were a number of espionage missions that were undertaken against them that I was framed for, as a result, relations deteriorated and they are attacking. I am not so much worried about the military threat they pose, I lament instead the lucrative trade treaty that is no more. This treachery came on the heels of a massive attack by the Nova at Umia and Razistea, I destroyed 14 more ships in those two battles alone but it seems the aliens have no shortage of them. Now I have a plan. I am researching Jump Gates. Once these come on-line, I will be able to defend all my systems with a single central fleet. When that happens, I will go on a rampage with the other three fleets and have greater freedom of action.
500 turns…wow, just wow. I’ve never had a session go this long before, it’s proving to be quite informative. First, while there is some slowdown in turn processing at this point, it isn’t anything serious and is after all to be expected. I have also noticed that events, which I set to normal, have stopped firing a long time ago. Granted, I am no longer colonizing anything so I can understand part of the reason why, but there are no galactic events either. But let me get back to action. The Kaek are paying the price for their treachery and I have hit them hard, destroying many of their colonies and essentially reducing them to a minor power. The humans of Sol have also been devastated, though to be honest the destruction of Gazaya was accidental. I had intended to take this world, and turn it into a forward base, (similar to Kle), but I underestimated the destructive firepower of my bombs and leveled the colony instead. Oh well, I will either rebuild it or wait until the aliens do and then occupy it. My campaign against the Moltar is a bit harder as they are much tougher and keep rebuilding destroyed colonies while also attempting counterattacks. However, I am slowly wearing them down as well. As for the Draguul, they too are basically a minor power now. This leaves the Nova, a very serious threat that is not only actively attacking my systems, but also gifting many ships to other aliens. They are unfortunately too far from me at the present and have grown into a superpower. I estimate that they alone hold a third of the Galaxy under their direct control. My fleet now numbers over 50 warships and is still growing, but it is also dealing with multiple tasks. This turn alone saw another seven battles take place and I am in a position where I cannot afford a single mistake against what is proving to be a formidable resistance from the AIs I can safely say that I’m glad I am documenting this particular session, it has pleasantly surprised me
I played the next several turns flawlessly. My immediate concerns was to stop the Nova from massing a large enough force to threaten me. As such I conducted many raids of my own while also responding to alien attempts to do the same. Over this period of the game I destroyed over 20 ships, including five Nova Titans and one Kaek. However, one Nova Titan that was gifted to the Humans managed to escape and I also suffered the loss of a Destroyer. The effect on fleet rankings from these actions is indicated below. Strategically I have managed to keep the aliens off balance, and weaken them greatly. I have also established my new forward base at Gazaya which put more of the Galaxy under threat from my fleet. I can accept defeat, even though I have not been defeated. Or I can continue the game for a few hundred turns more until I am either beaten militarily or I destroy the alien factions completely. The threat of fighting all of them at once if I refuse the vote is irrelevant, as I am already at war with all of them anyway. Decisions decisions…
I could not very well concede defeat under the circumstances so I resumed my offensives. I struck multiple targets over the next two turns, even going as far as to strike and defeat a Nova task force at Zlet. Apart from destroying additional alien vessels, I also managed to capture an intact Titan from the Moltar. This is huge. I have three Titans active, one under construction, and now with the captured ship as well, I will have five of these vessels to cause havoc with. Strategically I will complete Jump gates on the next turn and erect them as soon as possible, I am hoping this will save me about a hundred turns of warfare as I will be able to concentrate forces and react much more efficiently to threats. I am also going to add some more asteroid mines to my Homeword and increase the production capacity there. The only negative news was “Guru”, he demanded the dismissal of Mickey and I declined, I dismissed him instead and am now sending Sierra to govern Thagua in his place.
Each turn now is time consuming. I look at the map to see if there are any threats I must respond to, while also carefully checking enemy systems to see the type of forces in orbit. I then have to decide where to attack, how many ships to leave behind in case of a potential counterattack, etc. This stage of the game is not for the faint of heart or anyone looking for some casual fun. So I processed a few more turns and fought several more intense battles with the aliens, coming away the winner in all save one instance. In that particular case, I chose to withdraw rather than face odds I was certain would have led to severe losses. Throughout this delicate balancing act, I managed to capture another Titan, this time from the Nova. Having two alien vessels of this type now allowed me to study them more closely. They are quite well defended, but their offensive capabilities leave tremendous room for improvement. This explains the lopsided losses I’ve experienced this session. The war continues…
Bwahahahaha. I was framed in another espionage mission and now my relations with some faction or another got worse. Worse? How could it be any worse? I’ve been fighting everyone for ages and they absolutely hate me anyway… Now back to serious matters. I’m almost done refitting the Moltar Titan to my standards now, it’s been renamed Belisarius. Jump gates are also operational but they do not cover Systems with only ouposts, I should have read the description carefully as this doesn’t help anywhere near as much as I would have liked. Oh well, live and learn, after all it’s not like I’ve ever played a session to this stage anyway. I continued to engage the aliens at every opportune moment, and this resulted in devastating losses for them by turn 516. The highlight of my offensive was when I caught a Nova Fleet napping at Weacef and almost annihilated it, had that lone Titan not escaped, this would have been my perfect battle With the current losses suffered by the Aliens my fleet is now number one again… but let us not kid ourselves, their industrial capacity allows them to make up losses quickly. The road ahead is long, and a single mistake could see all that I have accomplished come to ruin, but I am enjoying myself tremendously.
I continued executing large scale “sweep and clear” missions against the aliens and had excellent results. Not only was I able to destroy more enemy colonies and outposts, the real prize was what happened to the Nova fleet. I shattered them! After the battle at Weacef, I managed to isolate and destroy several Nova Titans, as a result, my fleet strength now shows as three times more powerful than their own. At the same time, another captured alien Titan is undergoing refit, and I have one partially completed which I will resume construction on when the refit is done. This will give me a fleet of some 60 ships with six of them being Titans. The only foreseeable drawback now is my rapidly diminishing pool of SSPs. The plan now is a bit more risky. If I leave the Nova alone, they will make up their losses very quickly. My intention then is to strike at Salvo and capture the system. This will allow me to bring several Nova colonies in range for destruction, including their Homeworld. I must act quickly then. Luckily I have an entire fleet ready to be deployed at Chith for this mission and I am amassing a reserve force at Dronicus to secure my own holdings. I need to launch this operation before the opportunity passes, the Nova need to feel what “real” war against my empire entails
Salvo fell, and it is now my newest forward base. I wasted no time playing with my new toy as I used the logistical range provided by this system to destroy two additional colonies at Gluastra. The strategy and operational doctrine I’m using against the aliens is more sophisticated than anything they can handle, they are reeling as a result. I have my fleet split into four very potent task forces and a separate general reserve of ships. Each task force is based on one system acting as a forward base. (Salvo, Kle, Gazaya, and Pertinax). A portion of each task force then stays to garrison its respective system, while the rest is constantly seeking targets to engage and assets to destroy. While the offensive elements of the task forces are isolated when conducting a strike, I can safely withdraw if I feel they have engaged something they cannot handle. The garrisons left behind are not isolated, as I can send aid to them via jump gate quickly. The AI races for their part are conducting very good raids and counterattacks, but their defensive operations are a bit less potent, possibly due to my speed and swarm of attacks. But it is at the tactical level where I am successful, I am winning all the battles, and were it not for the industrial capacity of the aliens this session would be over. Instead I see that the Moltar have reconstituted their entire fleet during the time I was focusing on the Nova. I have cleared more systems in the south-west portion of the map as well, and I am having good success here. I hope to sweep the entire area and then move clockwise so as to add extra pressure on the Nova. Eventually, the clockwise move will continue till I have either vanquished the aliens or fallen to their superior numbers, we shall see. For the here and now, I have decided to strike Nova Prime itself!
