Terra: Evolutions 1&2

Agreed.

Consider this then Terra Evolutions 2.

The set up was exactly identical to the first session and to be honest, had a more promising start. I found good tolerable worlds nearby at Madanides and Cups early on, but the situation quickly deteriorated. I met both the Kaek and Nova very early in the game and between the two I was boxed in almost instantly. To make matters worse, the Kaek expanded very quickly and as a result got aggressive with me, we went to war.

This was extremely early on and I managed to beat back their attacks enough that they asked for peace sometime later, I accepted. Realizing that I needed to grow but couldn't do so towards the west, I decided to expand to the south, the problem was that the Nova took the excellent world at Miri first. They, (the Nova), were not as powerful as the Kaek so I attacked them in order to gain control of the system I wanted.

Of course while still fighting the Nova my peace treaty with the Kaek expired and they attacked again. The situation was not favorable...and yes, that's an understatement. Were it not for discovering the "Demolisher" at Miri, I'm not sure I could have gotten past this stage. That ship was everywhere, I was shifting it around so much, it must have acquired some hefty air-miles. Granted I accompanied her with as many of my own ships as I could and always sought to preserve her.

During this early stage of the session Demolisher was a potent and advanced force, she aided me in inflicting enough casualties against my foes so that the Kaek asked for peace again, and the Nova accepted my control of Miri.

Great I thought, I now had breathing room to build up my meager forces...guess again. It was the Kaek that built up and expanded, and a short time after our second peace treaty expired, they attacked a third time. We have been at war ever since. The Kaek absolutely dwarf my empire by the way and the potential for things getting worse is there. The Nova are gone, conquered by the Palacean who I also fear may become predatory.

This brings us to now. I have 29 war-ships total, the breakdown is as follows:

4 Battleships, (one of those upgraded, one captured from the Kaek)
5 Cruisers, (none upgraded but includes the Demolisher and one captured from the Kaek)
9 Destroyers (four of them upgraded)
11 Frigates (six of them upgraded).
4 Assault ships (But it's not like I can actually mount an offensive now).

My older ships have lasers and nukes, along with class 2 shields and Tungsten armor. The upgrades have Particle weapons and Polaris missiles with Wurzite armor, (taken from the Kaek) and class 3 shields. These are the forces I'm fighting with. The Kaek have class 7 shields by the way.

This brings me to the here and now. I decided to put most of my worlds on a war-footing, meaning 80% production. In retrospect I should have done this earlier as it wont matter how developed my colonies get if I can't hold them. In the meantime a Kaek force of 3BB, 1CA, and 3DD is headed toward Teaof where I only have one Kaek CA, 1DD, and 2FF holding the system.

This is where my speed is keeping me in the game. I sent 3 of My BBs from Helios to join my forces already there, and on the next turn I will send additional units from Mdanides and Cups as well. Being able to always "get there first with the most", is crucial.

You can take a quick look also at what I've done with my colonies, productions and refits are underway in three worlds. My Homeworld unfortunately is re-building the star-base there as it was destroyed a few turns ago when the Kaek attacked in force.

 

The Battle at Teof went well, I met the bugs with way more ships then they had, destroying two of their Battleships while taking no losses. The rest of the Kaek withdrew, but a larger enemy fleet was already approaching Ragiyama.

Once again I scrambled my units and met the Kaek head-on.


I did well in this battle too, and by timely withdrawals saved some of my ships, but I did lose an upgraded Destroyer and Frigate. The Kaek always target my upgrades first. (Thanks Adam and Keith)

Do you think it matters? No sooner had I defeated the Kaek at Ragiyama when yet another enemy force of 6CA and 8DD was detected on a course towards Teof. Luckily they are two turns away and I should be able to parry this thrust as well.

So my immediate goal is to hold my territory, try and capture a ship or two, and perhaps pull off an offensive of my own. There is also a medium Icy world at Inolla that I wish to colonize. The biome is hostile but I have researched domes, and that ancient shipyard on that planet may come in handy.

Oh yes, I forgot. I have 11 leaders, 7 fleet commanders and 4 colony, (Sierra will appear at Miri soon). The fleet commanders include a few androids and some humans. Pike, Ruiz, and Kataki in particular are critical in my being able to win battles.

 

That's...a very good suggestion. I have a more militant playstyle and seldom use espionage or diplomacy. In this session it's even more pronounced and I've been focusing too much on finding military solutions on account of the relentless pressure my foe is applying. When I return tonight, I will see if any of my leaders have the skills needed for some skullduggery, (and if I can spare them in case they command ships).

Tech is... a huge effort in this game, more than usual with these settings. While I like and use warp interdictors, I would need to research the field before them first. (My hyperdrive is via event). I estimate 50 + turns before they could be researched and some turns to actually build them. Seeing as they would protect my colonies but not my outposts...I don't think the effort is warranted at this time. I'm working on Battlestations at the moment as additional colony defense. While not ideal, I can at least gain the benefits quickly.

I also have something in mind, we'll see if it works tonight. Up until now we've fought many battles, and the Kaek Always initiate the actual attack, (meaning that the AI calculates it can win the specific battle). Once they take some losses though, they withdraw, (and rightfully so). This means that while I've won the battles, I haven't crushed them in any single one.

That Kaek fleet headed to Teof, I'm going to use my special ability and prevent them from fleeing the system. At worse I will destroy those 14 ships and lose a few myself, at best I will capture some intact. Perhaps a clear-cut victory will trigger another peace offering from them and buy me some breathing room, we'll see. They've lost 5 Battleships in the last few turns, if I can add those 6CA and 8DD to their casualty total, it means they will have lost (in tonnage), a force that almost equals my entire fleet, in a very short time.

 

I checked the diplomacy screen as soon as I returned to the game, there's good news and not so good news.

The good news is that the Palacean, (my greatest worry other than the Kaek), are pleased with our relations, I should be safe from them. The not so good news is that the Kaek are also at war with the Moltar, (who seem to be quite hostile). Why is this not so good? Because it partially explains why the Kaek haven't sent a steam-roller my way, I can only conclude that some of their forces are kept away from me to guard against the Lava-heads. I'm hoping they don't decide to end their little spat anytime soon.


I then checked my leaders and their skills.... Out of 11 leaders total, none of them have anything but the most basic skill in intelligence operations. I decided not to risk any spy missions at this time but will try and level some of them up so they can do so in the future.

At Teof I waited until the Kaek fleet was one turn away from arriving and sprung containment on the system, there would be no withdrawal (for the Kaek) in this battle. Here are the results.


One small problem, the tallies shown are wrong. I noticed it in another battle where I captured enemy ships, it seems when I do so, my losses are not displayed correctly. I actually lost an advanced Destroyer during this fight. (I don't know if the boys fixed this or are aware of it, but I'm sure someone else will report it if not). The Kaek fight much the way I do, massive volleys of missile fire. They concentrated on my (advanced) Battleship first, but I was able to pull it out of the battle before it got destroyed, the Kaek had no such luxury here and the fight went very well...for me.

Of course those mischievous bugs are mounting another attack, this time at Miri. There are 3BB and 1CA headed there and will arrive next turn. I'm hoping I can destroy at least one of those Battleships and further shift the balance of forces between myself and the Kaek. Keep in mind, their overall fleet still dwarfs my own, but I did make a small dent in the disparity between us.

 

Victory at Teof was followed by another at Miri. I pulled Simone’s fleet from Bu and joined her forces with Ruiz and his command. The results were better than I expected.



However, by leaving Bu unguarded, the Kaek attacked that system next. Once again the invaders were met by Gaelen and Simone who proceeded to defeat them a second time.



In a short time span, I had destroyed more enemy ships than I had in my entire Fleet, captured four ships (1BB, 2CA, 1DD), while losing only a DD and a FF. Considering that there was no way I could compete with the industrial capacity of the Kaek, the captured ships were extremely valuable to my efforts.

Now those Kaek ships are far better shielded than my own, but their offensive lay-out is not to my liking, as a result I will be refitting them as well. (The bonus here is that they refit much faster than my old designs). One on one, those Kaek ships can defeat my 1st generation ships, (of which a considerable number are still in play), but the opposite holds true with my upgraded vessels.

I checked the standings once again to see if the last few battles had any effect on the Kaek and was very pleased to see this…



Obviously their decline in fleet power may also be on account of the Moltar, but that doesn’t matter.

The final shot below depicts the situation on turn 367, there are a couple of things to note.

First I colonized the world at Inolla, (which I mistakenly identified as an Ice world in a previous post). I don’t really expect much from Inolla as by the time it gets productive this war should be decided. That said, there is an ancient shipyard there and I picked up quite a few SSP by colonizing the planet.

I also finished research on Battlestations and am now working on enhanced targeting algorithms. That’s another tech that will bring quick and tangible results.

Now notice the Kaek system Bri. I want to attack this system and go on the offensive, but a huge Kaek fleet is currently present there. I’m patient though, sooner or later the opportunity will come and I will take the war to the bugs.

Finally, I’ve left the panel open depicting my forces. The fleet has grown, and if you add in the ships under construction/refit, you come up with an increase of 20% for my forces. Not bad.

To quickly summarize then, I’ve fought fairly well at the tactical and operational level, managing to partially redress the disparity of forces between myself and my foe. Unfortunately I remain on the strategic defensive.

 

Reckless and over-confident, I should have known better.

I spotted a strong Kaek fleet, (3BB, 7CA, and 5DD), headed towards Teof and moved to intercept with a significantly inferior force, (reasoning that my upgraded ships would make short work of the bugs). My own force comprised 1BB, 2CA, 4DD, and 5FF. Instead of an easy victory I got a pitched battle and took significant casualties.

The Kaek lost 3BB, 7CA, and 2DD, (with another captured). My own losses were 1CA, 2DD, 2FF.

This action resulted in the Kaek system at Bri, (3 colonies), being left lightly defended and I assembled what forces I could to attack. The first battle there saw my forces destroy a Kaek battle-station after which I indiscriminately bombarded the huge barren planet that was the target of my strike. (With only four assault ships available, I knew I couldn’t take it intact so I opted for destruction).

The Kaek in turn took advantage of my committing forces to Bri and sent a massive fleet to attack Ragiyama. I scrambled forces from numerous locations, (including Bri), to meet them. (However I did send a single Battleship recently refitted at Helios to maintain the blockade at Bri).

The two battles that followed occurred on the same turn. First a Kaek force of 3CA and 2DD moved to relieve Bri. My lone Battleship at that system destroyed one enemy Cruiser but was then forced to withdraw. The Kaek lifted the blockade.


At Ragiyama my forces attained a convincing victory, but once again, I suffered losses.



After that I re-deployed my forces while also sending a detachment to re-establish the Blockade at Bri, I managed to destroy another Kaek Cruiser there.

My over-all situation is altered now, for the first time since this war begun, I am on the offensive.

 

This one is going to be a bit longer, (the weekend means more time to play).

I continued blockading and attacking Bri, destroying 3DD and the remaining enemy Battle-stations there. Before long, I had destroyed 2 of the colonies at that system and captured the third.

With Bri securely in my possession I offered peace to the Kaek and they accepted. That made me curious so I took a quick look at the rankings.



OK I thought, their fleet is shattered and they need the respite. I was certain that the peace wouldn’t last long, but I also needed some time to consolidate my positions and finish refitting my ships.



It turned out the peace between my Terrans and the Kaek lasted a bit longer than I expected and this afforded me the opportunity to do a few things. I colonized a huge barren world at Bri that had been leveled by my forces earlier on. I also picked up Hansen when he came looking for work and sent him off to govern that system.

My focus then shifted to conducting enough research to design 3rd generation ships. I already had Class VII shields (thanks to the Kaek), so I could focus on weapons tech exclusively. Still, this took a very long time to accomplish and I concentrated on maintaining the peace.

Eventually the Bugs must have recovered and sent a massive fleet (7BB plus numerous CA and DD) towards Teof. I didn’t want the war to resume so I scrambled about half of my entire fleet and arrived at that system before they did. I guess the AI then re-calculated its chance of success and chose not to attack.

Exactly one turn later, the Moltar attacked the Kaek and the bugs withdrew from Teof, peace between us was preserved.

During the galactic votes that occurred in this time-frame I kept voting for the Palacean, (the Moltar were the other candidate). This allowed the relations between myself and the Lobsters to reach a favorable level and they accepted a research treaty. (That was a nice boost to my sluggish scientific endeavors).

As the galaxy continued to do its own thing with me taking the role of an observer, I reached the thresholds required to design the next generation of warships. In fact, I also had time to upgrade my entire fleet!

If you look at my colonies now, you’ll see Titans are being constructed. You can ignore the time to completion by the way as I didn’t accumulate such a cash surplus for nothing.

Finally note that I’m sending additional units to Teof. There are assault ships in that detachment, I am now ready to be the aggressor and resume the war against the Kaek. But it isn’t about them really, it’s about the Moltar and Palacean. Sooner or later we will clash. (The Moltar for their part show a fleet many times larger than everyone else combined).

Things are about to get hot.

 

For now Silas, but there's a darkening storm on the horizon.

As you divined, I took advantage of the Kaek being pressured from two sides and attempted to take any systems bordering my empire, the goal being to gain strategic depth most of all.

My initial foray into Kaek space is slow, but productive, they are now past the point of offering serious resistance. Then to my delight, some comic relief kicked in and relieved some of the tension I felt. The Sulak who are down to their last system and very far away from me, declared war.

Research on warp interdictors is almost complete by the way.



About that darkening storm on the horizon...

 

And that would be a very good guess.


Once I consolidated my hold on Pertinax, I moved on and besieged Chaloth. The Kaek were unable to mount a relief effort and that system fell as well. The next logical choice was Nion and I moved my forces there and destroyed the Battlestation protecting the Kaek colony. But there was also a large asteroid belt in the system, and the Moltar controlled it.

It was here that I decided to attack the Lava-heads, it wasn’t planned really, just opportunistic as I saw a single Titan of theirs defending the belt. I already had strong forces in-system, including one of my two Titans, but I elected to send the other one as well just in case.

Look at this and notice what my chances of winning the battle were. (Auto resolve gave the Moltar the win, with both my Titans destroyed)

I was puzzled by this, but it also made me cautious, here is how the battle unfolded.

The initiative was mine and all my units were outside of direct fire range. I fired a salvo of missiles…(some 35 MIRV Polaris total) and held position, I elected not to launch my birds, (Fighters and Bombers of which I had 5 squadrons total).

The Moltar Titan moved to close, (drawing my fast missiles closer), and fired its weapons at Palinarus. My Titan suffered massive damage (including to some of its weapons systems). There was no way it would survive a second shot, luckily it wasn’t disabled.

With the turn over, my missiles slammed into the Moltar Titan, and caused significant damage in turn. Realizing the enemy Titan was hurt I moved in, disabled all my missiles and fired Kinetics at the beast. A lot of them missed, but I scored enough hits to disable her. After that it was a matter of a few boarding attempts before I captured her.

When the game turn ended I considered conceding the contest.

The Moltar have outpaced me in every category, their ships are damn good and I estimate that they have well over 1000 SSP in use. For me to fight them then, I would be re-creating the contest against the Kaek but on a grander scale against a more capable foe. (That foe also doesn’t have a speed disadvantage, so I have to play much better than I did against the bugs).

But I won’t concede just yet, not without a fight. Granted, in order to win, many things have to happen.

First and foremost I need some operational mistakes from the Moltar, if they play well at that level, I’m done for. I also need them to fall for some traps so I can isolate some of their units. My forces must also be deployed in such a way that I can conduct attacks of opportunity, destroying any outposts or colonies that are left un-defended.

I can’t rush anymore ships as my cash reserve is drained, but I will pause construction of all but one titan, and switch remaining production to other units. Research will also be stopped and switched to Duralloy plating for obvious reasons .Finally, I need to capture as many Moltar ships intact as I can. (The problem with capturing ships is I’m running low on free SSPs, that too will need to be dealt with).

One small advantage I hold is that the Moltar are also at war with the Palacean, but to be honest, I don’t know how long the Lobsters will hold.

Now about that Moltar Titan, it’s like the Death-star. No, not a MoO2 Death-star, but the one from StarWars. That ship is an offensive marvel, capable of destroying anything I have in a single shot, (including my Titans under the right conditions). It’s heavily armored and shielded…but has no defenses against missiles and Fighters/bombers. I’m thrilled I captured it, but it’s only a single ship.



Here goes nothing.

 

After attacking the Moltar asteroid belt at Nion, I knew their reaction would be swift. The question then was how to shape that reaction to my advantage.

I reasoned that the Moltar response would be instant, before they actually re-deployed their forces for a more coherent offensive. My objective then was to influence their decision on which targets they chose to attack. I maintained strong forces in some systems, (including Nion where I captured the Kaek colony there before reaching peace with the bugs), and left others completely unguarded. The Moltar took the bait.

They chose five targets total, and four of these would be hit on the same turn. They attacked with light,(for them), forces and I was able to counter.

At Helios and Draiphab I chased away their forces, but at Cups and Miri I captured the attacking Battleship and Titan (respectively).

I noticed at Miri that the Moltar ships had Neutronium armor coating, meaning that the ships I captured from them were not as useful to me. However, they weren’t entirely without value. The captured Moltar ships were more advanced than anything I had, this means that in battle, they will be targeted first. Their weapons can also be helpful in taking down shields quickly.

My intention now is to sprinkle them into my own forces and create some fleets with punch and durability. I don’t know if I can survive, as I think the Moltar advantages are too great to overcome, (regardless how skillfully I play now), but at least this was a promising start.

 

I don't think they have that ability, if they do, they aren't using it. Keep in mind that while they have a considerable head start in known techs and their Homeworld is more developed at the start. (more population, higher infrastructure level), resulting in a higher research rate, plus a 20% bonus to research rate on top of that, they are not capable of researching everything they want because their actual research rate is 30%.

What I have noticed with these rates is the priorities the AI has in researching items means they have to make sacrifices with other technologies.
This is what happens to me (as the player) as well. My own rate is 25%, Under those parameters you cannot research everything you want, you have to pick and choose.

For some players this is not appealing, but for myself, it makes every technology far more important than it would be otherwise. You can't just breeze through the tree thinking you'll get to everything eventually.

 

“A war is not lost until you consider it lost".
Erich von Manstein

Well, I'm sure that Erich would agree that this war is lost.

I defeated additional Moltar raids, I swept into their territory and destroyed Battlestations at Merth and Rohini while boming the colonies to near extinction. I deprived the Lava-heads of a dozen ships (including 2BB) without losing any of my own. I even accepted an alliance with the Palacean and gifted them a Titan, (Lucifer), when they asked for aid.

But it's all for naught.

See that Moltar fleet trapped at Ubeithes, it will be free in two turns. That's over 100 ships with 25 Titans included...I have four. There are also an additional five Moltar Titans on the map that I can see. I can't beat these odds.

In retrospect I lost this war a long time ago, perhaps had I been super aggressive from the start and engaged the Lava-heads before they snow-balled things might have been different, but the Kaek tied me down. In doing so, they allowed the Moltar to get to a stage where I can't compete. My allies are pretty much useless. Even though they control quite a large section of the map, the Palacean have a fleet that is smaller than my own.

I concede this one, oh well it was fun while it lasted.

 

Errr... you're not going to believe this.

I played a few more turns out of morbid curiosity. I beat the Moltar attack at Cups and destroyed a Titan and Cruiser there while the rest of their ships escaped. Then my containment of Ubetheis ended. The Moltar dispersed their fleet to parts unknown, leaving the entire front largely undefended.

I pounced on Ubeithes and destroyed the Moltar outpost there. and what did the Moltar do? They offered me peace? WTH? These guys should be steam-rolling me. I checked the diplomacy screen and they also made peace with the Lobsters.

For the life of me I can't understand why. I need to ponder this.

 

Well neither was I @SilasOfBorg


I thought about some organic reasons why this could be, here's what I came up with.

I considered that maybe the Moltar had enough votes to win, and in the next voting session I would be faced with either accepting, or fighting both the Lava-heads and my current allies. I discounted that theory as I don't think the AI would do something like that. Sure enough, when the vote came a few turns later, they did not have enough for the win.

I also considered that they may be having financial issues. I never had an Empire as large as theirs in any game I've played because after a point, (if I'm fighting my way to victory), I raze most enemy colonies rather than occupy them, and I stop building new ones myself. The few that I do occupy are for strategic reasons and act as forward bases. Due to the way the colony maintenance scales, and looking at the map, I estimate the Moltar are paying over 5K BC per turn just for colony maintenance, that does not include the cost of buildings and leaders. Again I tend to discount this possibility as they should be able to cover the costs by having some worlds produce trade goods.

The next possibility is that they took losses without inflicting any in return and asked for a breather. This is something I see the AI do consistently, but there is a qualifier. Usually the AI will need to lose enough ships to fall behind me in Fleet ranking (as happened with the Kaek). The Moltar lost perhaps 5% of their forces fighting me and still have an overwhelming advantage. So I'm ruling this out as well.

Finally I wondered if they went considerably over their SSP limits, but if this were the case, their ships would not be able to fight as well as they are. (and they are fighting exceptionally well).

So I'm at a loss, but I did accept the peace and will report tonight on what is going on, (the rumors of my defeat appear to be exaggerated). I'll resume the game because it is possible that this was just some random isolated event, we'll see what the Moltar do once the peace treaty expires.

As for the Devs, if this is something they wish to look into, I have a hard save available, and it is very possible that it's as you say an integer overflow/underflow (maybe in regards with relations between us or the overall Moltar aggression level). If they need the save, they know where to find me.

 

For lack of a better term, I think the AI suffered from a brain fart, possibly more than one.

I destroyed the last Kaek world at Ubeithes and resettled it (heavy G is not kind to the Kaek). I also set down two outposts at Zrair so no one else could use the system, then I waited. The Galactic vote occurred and as I reported earlier, it was inconclusive.

Eventually the Moltar peace treaties with the Palacean and myself expired, the Moltar declared war on the lobsters...but not me. I pounced.


Within scant turns, I completely destroyed the Moltar presence in multiple systems, destroyed three Star Fortresses and some outposts. (Seeing as the Moltar used the interregnum between our two wars to upgrade their Battlestations to Fortresses, I wondered if the pause in hostilities was an account of SSP shortage).

The Moltar did not defend well at all, here's how things stand after the initial stages of my blitz.


I'm curious now, they still have an overwhelming edge in ship numbers, and they have advanced tech, under these conditions they should mount a successful defense...