How will any future session live up to this one? I find myself asking that question as I’ve never had a playthrough similar to this one. The contest is tight, I am on the offensive and making progress, yet at the same time the AIs continue their relentless attacks and pressure. My drive to gut the Nova brought good early results, and I destroyed Nova prime. At the same time Katatki also continued sweeping the aliens from his theater, but he did get into a nasty scrape at Ezron which cost me two more Destroyers. It appears that the Moltar are just as much a threat as the Nova, and they now have the number one fleet. The action in other fronts also continued apace with a flurry of battles occurring every turn. As a result, I have slowed down considerably the number of turns played within specific time frames as there is just so much going on. Still, visible progress has been made and it would appear that my strategy is working so far…yet the contest is far from over.
Every alien colony I raze, and every orbital base I destroy, means less available SSPs to my enemies. I am now starting to see the effects of this on them, though it is only slight at the moment. I’ve cleared additional areas of the galaxy but I am constrained now by my own SSP cap. If I only had about 60 more points right now, I would be blitzing the Aliens instead of slowly wearing them down. That is not to say that this is entirely a bad thing as I am taking advantage of my star gates to send some of my older designs for refit. More than half of my ships are the ++ design, it is hundreds of turns old. Since then I introduced the V class, and after that the X class of ships. By sending some key units for upgrade, I should fare even better in the coming battles. I paused here and considered my next moves, and I really want to strike at and destroy Termi. But there is a warp interdictor there, meaning it would be a risky move. The rewards however would be tremendous, because if Termi falls, then Kataki and his fleet would be free to roll up the Nova on their flank while Constantine’s forces have them pinned in the center. Stay tuned…
Termi fell to Kataki’s juggernaut and the aliens occupying the system were annihilated. This now puts me in a position to redeploy and reset my forces for the next phase of the war. The only problem is that I haven’t quite decided what that phase will be. There are two good options in front of me now. Either begin the destruction of the Nova, or focus on the Moltar and Draguul. Doing both at the same time is not an attractive options for two reasons. First I would be stretching out my military, something I rarely do. And second, I have no subordinates here, the thought of conducting two large scale offensive campaigns while also reacting to the numerous Alien raids is a bit much. It would be too easy to make a mistake. For now I will study the strategic situation some more, and once I’m satisfied as to the best course of action, I will resume the destruction of the Aliens. Oh, before I forget. @Adam Solo Note that Termi is destroyed yet the Icon indicating the presence of a warp interdictor is still present on the map. A minor flaw no doubt, and possibly when I load the save it won't be there, but it's bad optics.
I kept up the pressure against the Aliens, destroying additional colonies and making sure to stop them from resurrecting them afterwards. The Draguul, who must have been building up forces, showed up with four Titans and several escorts at Ziabbif at some point. I met them there with Tamara’s entire fleet and managed to destroy three of their Titans and some of the escorts at the cost of two of my Destroyers. I’ve now lost seven ships total in this session, 2 Frigates and 5 Destroyers. The Aliens have lost over 300 ships so far, with at least 10% of those being Titans. I am more than pleased by this ratio of casualties. The strategic damage I have inflicted against my enemies is clearly visible now, and you can see a large part of the map has now been cleared of their presence.
I’m not big on “running up the score”, nor am I inclined to play through another couple of hundred turns just to see the victory screen. If the Aliens were unable to stop me when they were in a significantly stronger position, (and I was far weaker), how are they supposed to stop me now? They can’t, for all intents and purposes this session is over. My fleet and population are both number one now and another Titan is being constructed. Should I want to, I can rush construction of a few Battlestations and gain more SSPs, not to mention I will have Star Fortresses soon. That means I could significantly increase my fleet and really put the screws to the aliens…but why bother? In a matter of a few turns, I have broken the Nova power. The Kaek , Humans, and Draguul are insignificant, the Moltar a nuisance…but that was when I was distracted by the Nova. As things stand now, I can focus my attention on the Lava heads and bring them to ruin. But again, why bother? The only thing I will say, is that with these settings, and the start I rolled, I don’t think I should have won. I may analyze that at a later time and discuss where I think the game was won or lost. (Basically that would be at the ship design table) Still, it was epic and quite a lot of fun.
