Imperium One - Off to a Flying Start

[Kylearan]

Hi,

Niggling restrictions do not interest me.

"Niggling restrictions"? In the Imp2 game I played, these restrictions were not "niggling" but created a situation I normally don't have in my games, and which I had to adapt my strategy to, forcing me to abandon my usual path of thinking. I didn't find them "niggling", but creating a unique situation, different from what I had experienced countless times before - in short: They created variancy, which for me equals fun.

But YMMV obviously, and I'm only scum. ;-)

-Kylearan

Edit: Forgot a ;-) behind "scum". And the title is a quote of from a well-known RBer - finally I found an instance where I could quote this. :P

[Ozymandous]

They do not.  Sirian seemed to admit it in the post to which I replied.

Here's what he said:

They may not make sense logically, but I engineered them to alter the gameplay slightly then reengineered the map in a few ways to guarantee that the variant rules would be both important and balanced.

The rules make perfect sense if you look at the SPIRIT of the variant instead of looking at it as a "niggling restriction" you have to follow. As you may have guessed already at RB usually the variant idea is more mainstream and those who stick around for awhile either embrace the idea that the variant IS the game, or they find some where else where they don't have to 'bother' with restrictions.

Am I telling you to leave? No, but I *am* telling you that the idea of a variant is to go with the idea of it, get into the spirit of the limitations and play the game in that light.

Congratulations on your win with your own set of limitations. My question to you is thus: If you could do all that in the game, how could you 'forget' the very simple and minor limits Sirian placed on this game?

See the idea is to play the game, within the stated limitations, and see how you did vs. everyone else. The idea is NOT to throw everything out you don't agree with and play your own version of the game that isn't following what everyone else did. If you want to play in the second method, then go right ahead, but don't be surprised if your efforts aren't considered when people discuss the individual games because you've already invalidated your game because you broke the rules.

Not trying to tell you how to play the game, just telling you that you probably won't be happy with the results if you only play with specific rules in place, instead of all of them, because you can't be bothered to follow the 'niggling' ones.

Oh, one last thing... Not invading or 'protecting' tundra and ocean worlds did change how this game was played for me because I had to make other choices on where and when to settle, invade, etc. The effects weren't as minor as you make them out to be, at least at points, but I think the map could have been edited more to really compound the situation, IMHO.

[barron of ideas]

I am pretty sure I am not nearly as well qualified to address this issue as most, since I am at best a lurker. But since I can't help sticking my oar in, I want to say, from what I have seem, the Realms Beyond motto should be

"Varients R Us".

Almost every epic or succession game they run has some varient or never done it this way before element. If that doen't attract you, or me, or that guy standing behind the tree, then don't play those games with themes you don't want to follow, or if you do, don't post them here for comment, because the comments of the people who do follow the theme (I am trying not to say rules, as its not really rules, its a getting into the spirit of the game thing) are not going to be kind. Or maybe they will be kind, but the kindness you give someone handicapped: deaf who can't hear the music or blind and can't see the colors. Like most groups, the way to join and improve your status, informal as it is, is to conform to group norms. If you don't want to, and don't, well, likely you will be excluded from the group. Following varients is what people here do.

If you were as good as Sirian (I realize this is a hypothetical statement, perhaps you are) you too might need special challenges to make the game fresh some of the time you play it. He shares some of his ideas with the rest of the group, to increase his pleasure, and the pleasure of others. And so do other leaders in the group, it isn't all Sirian all the time.

Let me conclude by suggesting you lead, follow or get out of the way. I am sure you are welcome to participate and enjoy the Realms Beyond environment. If they let me in, they will allow anyone. But if you have negative feelings about the idea of varient games, please control your feelings, because you will hurt the feelings of other members of the group. It is, after all, the observed behavior that defines what this group does.

[Zed-F]

Heh, I don't think we're quite so fanatical as that could come across as. We do have a number of people at RB that don't really much get into the whole variant thing very much, such as Jaffa Tamarin, who nevertheless are valued members of the community. Yes, a lot of us are interested in the principles of variant play from the point of view of "keeping things interesting," but we try not to shun or belittle those that aren't.

One thing we do have a bit of a hard time understanding is people who play a game to a formula, the same way every time, to optimize a particular "best" path to success at the expense of all others. Generally speaking, that's just not our scene. But, there's abig gap between that, and variantism, and lots of room here for folks that fall in between.

[Maniac Marshall]

I know this Imperium is ancient history. But, as I've mentioned a few times, I DID play this one, but I never posted a report because I played it AFTER reporting day because of problems getting the to run on my comp. I did, however, play it unspoiled as I intentionally avoided reading the reports in the hopes I'd figure out how to make this Dos Box thingy work on Win XP, which I did just barely in time to complete Imp 2 by reporting day. When I played it, I DID take notes and a few pictures for 2 reasons. Firstly so that I could privately compare my game to others, and secondly to get into the habit of doing it for future imperia which I did intend to report. I never intended to report the game. But lately, its sort of been sitting there in the back of my mind as "unfinished buissness". So, in order to tidy up that situation, and while waiting for Imp 6/8 to surface, I decided to just go ahead and report the game. It really doesn't even matter if anyone reads it really, its just something that I needed to do. Hopefully somone will enjoy it, but even if it never gets read, I enjoyed writing it .

PREGAME ANALYSIS

Ok, there is really nothing particularly special of note about the layout of potential homeworlds that I can see.

It looks like we got kind of lucky with our opponent draw, with no Psilons or Humans present, though I must say I rather wish the Mrrshans weren't arround.

There are 2 stars within 3 parsect range. With neither off the 2 offering major strategical advantages for settling first as far as I can see, and with the Green star much more likely to have a good planet than the Blue one, I opt to send the colship to the green star right away.

THE GAME

2300 - I send the colship to the green star, one scout to the red star in the nebula, and the other to the nw purple star as these are the only 5 parsect out stars and there are no 6 parsect out stars.

2303 - The colship finds size 45 Arid Kalis and settles. I send 13 million from the Homeworld to get it started. I whip up a Scout II Design and set Altair to making those. Looks like we'll need 6 for now.

2304 - Scouts fan out to all in range stars except the blue one 3 parsect out, which still needs a scout constructed for it.

2305 - Scouts find Size 35 ULTRA RICH toxic Mobas at the purple star! Lets hope we get this. The other scout finds Asteroids at Arieties, the Nebula system.

2308 - Scouts find size 95 Terran Bootis just 3 parsects out at the green star in the North, Size 25 Rich Inferno Laan near the nebula, size 75 Jungle Maalor at the southern 4 parsect green, and size 40 Desert Quayle at the 3 parsect blue. What do you know, it had a good planet afterall. I debate over sending some fighters to Bootis, but decide against it until/unless I see signs of life.

2311 - Scouts find Size 100 Terran Primordius!!! Wow, there are some REALLY good planets near the homeworld folks.

2312 - We chase a Silicoid scout off size 60 Ocean Primordius.... I don't like it that the Silicoids are so close. They'll threaten my Hostile rich planets...

2321 - With Altair about to max out factories, I send 8 million back from Kailis to top off its pop.

2323 - With just 2 factories to go, I redesign the Colship and throw most of the production over to making the colship.

2324 - Altair maxes both pop and factories. Full blast colship building begins.

2328 - The first Settler heads for Bootis.

2329 - GNN Reports the rocks allready have 6 planets.... what else is new

2333 - Bootis Settled. We meet the Agressive Silicoids allready?! Wow, they allready have range 4/5 and a beavy of Yellow (probably large/non hostile) stars.



This is BAD. They are going to be SERIOUS competition methinks. I open a 75BC/year trade agreement. This is one of the few opponents not predisposed to dislike me. Lets keep it that way. The 2nd Colship heads for Quayali. To start off Bootis, I send 21 Million from Kailis and 9 million from the homeworld.

2335 - Quayali is settled. The silicoids allready have 2 MORE planets. With the few leftover production points from The 3rd colship. I open research on propulsion.

2336 - Range 5 is the only option. Kalis sends 45 million to Quayali... I forgot to last turn . The 3rd Settler heads for Maalor.

2340 - Range 5 hits, the only option is neuclear engines.... It Sucks not to get stabilizer with Alkiri... Maalor is settled. Scouts find Meklars living at Poor Simius, a blue star to the south. And, we get contact with the Xenophobic Meklars who have 5 planets. The Silicoids are now up to NINE planets Wow. Look at this. I'm almost boxed in allready!!!



This is just Average? Wow. I could lose this. To start off Maalor, I send 13 million from Bootis, 6 million from Kailis, and 4 million from Altair. I try to start trade with the Meklars, but they refuse. Altair goes back to a Colship to grab the Ocean planet.

2341 - We chase the Rocks off the ocean planet :eeek: Scouts find size 15 Inferno Paladia in the south.

2343 - Scouts Find size 40 Inferno Proteus in the South, as well as size 35 Desert Drakka.

2345 - Scouts arive at Helos a couple turns behind the Silicoids... Nice Artifacts planet I didn't get . A settler heads for Incedius.

2347 - We chase the Mrrshans off asteroids at Rhilus, and chase a Meklar colship off Paladia.

2348 - Holy Cow. Scouts find size 105 Terran Fertile Omicron at bottom right. We NEED to get this planet somehow. A Settler heads for Primordius. I decide to do something I rarely do. I make fighters to try to defend Laan, the Rich inferno planet in the nebula. On this level with the Alkiri, we might just be able to get that planet.

2349 - I run the Rocks off the Ocean planet again, and the Meklars off the corner planet.

2351 - I finally open research on all fields. Lets see what we get.

2352 - We take BC II over Scanner, Reduced 80% (only choice), Class II (only choice), Improved +10, and hand lasers over gats.

2353 - We finally settle Incedius, the Ocean planet. We send 18 mil from Bootis to start it off.

2354 - We chase the Rocks off Primordius and Incedius :eeek:

2355 - Primordius is settled. Holy Crap, we are allready VOTING?! I'm not even nominated. It's the Rocks vs the Borgs. Meklar 4 votes themselves, Silicoids 4 votes themselves, Sakkra 1 vote abstain, Klackons 2 votes abstain, Kitties 4 votes abstain (big Kitties? ) Me, 3 votes Abstain. I'm FOURTH in pop at the first vote. I send 30 million from Bootis to Primordius.

2356 - Terra +10 and Hand Lasers Hit. We Choose Controlled Dead over Spores, and IC over Hyper-X rockets. I terraform pretty much everywhere.

2359 - Scouts find Size 40 Rich Inferno Jinga... OK, new plan. Be silicoid wanabees. I pour everything but a single click of research in the other fields into Planetology. I'm hoping to grab Controlled Dead, then either Inferno or Toxic. We NEED these planets.

2360 - I chase the Rocks off Jinga!

2365 - I chase the Rocks off Incedius again.

2370 - Controlled Dead hits. We have to go for Toxic, as Inferno isn't available.

2371 - The Meklars and Silicods now have armed Colships :eeek: The Meklar grab the small desert planet. It looks like they are going to beat me to that corner system. On the other hand, my fighters easily defend Laan. I hurriedly make fighters for Jinga's defense.

2372 - The Meklars grab the corner system .

2375 - Vote time again. It's me vs the Rocks. Meklars 4 votes Abstain, Rocks 6 Votes themselves, Lizards 2 votes abstain, Bugs 2 votes abstain, Kitties 5 votes abstain, me 6 votes the Rocks. I get the cyborgs and rocks to go for a 300 BC/year trade package.

2376 - I Blow up more Rocks at Laan.

2379 - I adjust the tech sliders, trying to get neuclear engines the same time as Toxic.

2380 -



Yeah, right, as if...

2382 - My 35 fighters toast annother Colship at Laan.

2384 - Controlled Toxic Finally hits. We deabate about going back for + 30, but smoke some weed and go ahead for Radiated and hope to get Atmospheric after it. I design a "placeholder" toxic colship. Neuclear Engines are at 20%. I set Bootis, Altair and Maalor to making these colships. And yes, I'm playing defenseles at the moment....

2386 - Neuclear Engines hit, we go for Sub-Light Drives. Hopefully range 5 will be sufficient till we can trade for range 6+. GNN reports we are dead last in tech .

2387 - BC II and Reduced 80% hit. We go for robotics III and Duralloy.

2388 - We blow up a colship AND a large laser toting escort at Laan. We aren't going to get it settled too much before "too late" it appears. Settlers head for Jinga and Laan!! I finally decide to start building some bases at Bootis...

2389 - Class II deflectors hit, we can only go for class III. Sometimes it sucks to be the Alkiri. A Colship heads for Proteus. We settle at Laan! The rocks are sending annother colship at it. We can't NAP yet for 3 more turns. Not until we settle Jinga. I send 21 million from Kalis to Laan, and tell Kalis to grow em back.

2390 - A Colship heads for Mobas.

2391 - Proteus is settled. I send 35 million from Maalor to fill it up.

2392 - Jinga is settled - I send 35 million from Primordius to fill it up and have primordius grow pop. We blow up annother colship at Laan.

2393 - We complete the last colship for Paladia... only to realize Paladia is 6 parsects out. Wow, what on my part . I try to trade for range 6, but no one is offering it. Oh well, I'll probably still get it anyway. A couple construction techs and I can make a LR settler. I send 30 million from Primordius to Mobas.

2396 - We find the hated Kitties living at Seidon, a planet near the other nebula. Now that there is no reason not to, I sign the Rocks to a NAP.

2400 - Robotics III hits. We go for Mark IV. Over Jammer III. Vote time again. Meklars 5 votes abstain, Silicoids 9 votes themselves, Sakkras 3 votes the Silicoids, Klackons 2 votes abstain, Kitties 5 votes the Silicoids, me 8 votes abstain.

Lets look at the 100 Year situation...






Well, how did I do? Compared to most of the best players, not so good because I didn't get either the Artifacts planet or the "prize in the corner" I don't think I did anything wrong as regards the Artifacts planet. It was settled in my game before it was in most other players games, and was settled before I ever had the range to scout it. The "prize in the corner couldn't be settled by me the "normal" way either. My meklars allready had 5 planets, including the poor planet that eveyone used as a steping stone, when I made first contact. That long before (m)any other players Meklar branched out. However, what I SHOULD have done was either crash construction tech to miniaturize reserve tanks, or just built a HUGE colony ship for that planet, as it was that important. I made many of the same choices as Sirian, though not necessarily in the same order, and ceartianally didn't get his results.

(to be continued)

[Maniac Marshall]

2401 - Scouts Find size 50 Tundra Crypto in the south, as yet uninhabited. When Construction hits in a second, I'll have the ability to make a LR colship for this sucker. The lightbulb is almost full, but I decide to crash fund it anyway. Now its at 2%. I scrap that 2P Colship.

2402 - I get lucky as Drualloy hits at 2% . Several good choices show up. Improved 7, Battle Suits, and what I opt for, Auto Repair. Not only will the Tanks fit with a Dead Base now, but also a Toxic one, so I make Settlers for both Crypto and that little inferno planet.

2403 - Ion Cannon hits.... GRRRRR. Neither Mercs or Scatter V is in our tree?? This is distinctly Ungood. Instead of going forward for Neutron Blasters or Ion Rifles, I backtrack for Hyper-X rockets. I can't wait 2(+?) more levels for a missile.

2404 - Sub light drives hit. Instead of getting the good choice of warp 4, we get Energy Pulsar (usually worthless) and Range 8. We go for Range 8. For once, Range 8 might be useful anyhow. I redesign the Colships to have warp 3 engines.

2405 - Both colships complete and head out. I start on Robotics III factories now that I have all the tech I need urgently.

2408 - Paladia settled. Argh look at this.



On the plus side however:



I send 12 mil from Maalor to Paladia.

2409 - Crypto is settled. This gets us contact with the Pacifistic Sakkras, who have only 2 Planets. Their homeworld is the Yellow nearest Crypto, and their other planet is the red almost due south of it.



I didn't expect that there would be 5 stars in scouting range that might still be uninhabited. I design a scout 3 to take a look at 4 of these. A scout 2 can check the 5th, the purple 4 parsects from crypto. I sign the Sakkras up to max trade of
100BC/year.

2412 - This could be trouble.... A kitty colship is headed... Where? I THINK to Crypto! Crypto doesn't even have its people yet, so it can't defend itself. Whats worse, I can't yet fit an Ion Cannon Warp 3 and Drualloy on a small unless I go with maneuver 1.Solution? I trade the Sakkra Duralloy for Anti Missile Rockets to miniturize. While I'm at it, I also trade them BC II for Jammer I to boost cpu tech level, and Trade them Robotics III or Improved Ecco. While this isn't a trade I'd do all the time, they only have 2 planets, so this helps me way more than it helps them. I try to trade with the Meklar, but they want too much allways. I trade AMR onto the Silicoids for Improved 9. UGH, this didn't miniaturize things at all. I design a warp 3 Ion cannon Fighter with maneuver 3 and no goodies and Reloc it to Crypto from the nearest planet.

2413 -



Scouts find size 30 Dead Phyco at the purple star. A colship is ordered up for it. And yep, that Kitty Colship is headed for Crypto. I may or may not be able to stop it.

2414 - Transports arrive at Crypto 1 turn ahead of the kitties. I fund Crypto to double production. It can create 6 of those laser fighters to go with 5 of the IC fighters that will arrive next turn. There are several more comming... 1 turn too late.

2415 - Kitties are found infesting Vega, the northern blue star on the left side of the map.

Well, here we go. It's 7 warp 1 laser fighters and 5 warp 3 IC fighters against a Colship... Hopefully it isn't toting Gats... It isn't. It's toting a Neutron Blaster, which isn't as big a threat vs my fighters luckily. We lose only 1 fighter from each stack. Crypto is saved!



The southern blue star, Trax, is Asteroidal. Annother Kitty colship is sighted, headed for OUR new dead planet. I send the IC fighters and pray.

2416 - Kitties are found living at Gion, the red planet near the Yellow "twins". The western yellow twin is discovered to be the home of the evil empire. My rich planets are feeding my new planets to stand them up. The "core" is building bases/doing research. I want to get about 10 bases up everywhere, then I can think about going on the offensive w/o fear.

2418 - The Kitty colship runs from out aprox. 30 IC fighters I up trade with the Silicoids from 300/yr to 775/yr. I do the same with the Meklars.

2421 - Phyco is settled. I send 25 million from Maalor to get it started.

2422 - Class III deflectors hit. We go for Class V Planetary shields of course. With so many good techs missing, at least we DID get this one. Hmm, the Sakkra are going to do some brush waring WAY over at Paladia? We'll have some Falcon's waiting on them.

2423 - Hyper-X Rockets hit.... wow, 2423 and I just now got Hyper-X rockets . We go for Ion Rifle over Neutron Blasters. This is a tossup. Either way we only improve an existing tech 1 level, so I went for the cheapest tech. Also, since we are the birds, we want to build fighters, and Blasters take forever to fit properly on a fighter.

2425 - We chase the Lizards off Paladia easily. Our 19 IC fighters take no losses vs 3 Gat toting mediums.

Election time. Meklars 6 votes abstain, Silicoids 10 votes themselves, Sakkras 3 votes the Rocks, Bugs 2 votes the Rocks, Kitties 5 votes the Rocks, Me 9 votes abstain... OK THAT was close. If the Meklar vote for the Silicoids I'm in a final war! The Sakkra go relaxed, so I nap with them. I also pick up Scanner off of them for Neuclear Engines.

2428 - Auto Repair hits. I think about going back for Battle Suits, but decide to grab improved 6.

2430 -



Wow, thats our planetary shield research That could be very costly. On the other hand, it was less mature than 3 other fields poised to hit, so if we stay out of war for a while it will be better than it could have been for us.

2431 - Controlled Radiated and Range 8 both hit. I decide to reverse a previous weed and go back for +30 since some of the planets near the Meklar are safe from them only because they are hostile. Wow, Range 9 is the only way forward. Man, we are the Alkiri right? Our propulsion tree SUCKS. We get contact with the Hated, Ruthless Kitties. In a move that will be if the Kitties declare war almost immediately, I sign them to a maximal trade package of 375/year, then notice they aren't ruthless, they are Xenophobic? Yeah, they'll declare. I'll never improve a xenophobic up far enough fast enough. Lets look at the map.



The Klackons must be in the northwest and can only have 4 stars max, and that would mean they would either have to have the star in the Southwest (unlikely), or it would have to be Orion down there. Most likely they have just 2 or maybe 3 planets (they do have only 2 votes the the Sakkra's 3 so 2 wouldn't be a surprise). I've got scout III's headed to the Corner yellow and the blue star, so we'll know more soon.

2432 - BCIV and Ion rifle hit. We go for Robotics IV and Anti-Matter bombs over Graviton or Fusion Beams. Man, where are the missiles???

2438 - In big shocker, the Cats declare war. Wow, they have Alliances with the Rocks and Borgs now? That won't do. I dial up the Rocks, and he requires me to buy his help



... Yeah, ok.



The Meklars, however, refuse to play ball. I set spying on the Kitties to 4% of budget. Gyahh. I forgot all about what my scouts found a few turns back, which is Asteroids at the blue planet (meaning the Klackons have only 2 planets) and a Barren Planet in the Corner, size 45, which I intend to settle. The Sakkra have a ship in orbit there now, but being Pacifists, I can probably thereaten them off of it.

2439 - Wow, we get a steal off the kitties on turn 1, all fields available. Not knowing what they have yet, we go for computers and get BC III. Wow, look at all those goodies in weapons and planetology!



With Planetary shields about to hit, I hold off on designing ships. Maybe I'll be able to steal those Mercs off the Cats.

2440 - We get annother steal, but propulsion is not available, so we grab force fields for the gropo tech.

2442 - Meklars declare war on both me and the Rocks. The Sakkra declare war on the Rocks. The Lizards are allied to the Meklar? That wont do. I dial up the lizards and request that they turn on the evil 'borgs. All they need is 425BC? Thats the best 425BC I've spent in a while. I start spying on the Meklar, also at 4%, until I see what they've got.

2443 - Planetary Shields and Terra + 30 Hit. Lets get those planets improved, then we'll steamroller the Uni. the new choices we go for are Repulsors and Atmospheric.

Holy cow, the Meklars are so far up the Tech tree in computers, I don't think they are worth trying to steal off of.



I'll try to gropo them to death I guess.

2444 - Centauri is settled. I hold off sending anyone till Planetary shields finish at Maalor. The Klackons are now at war with Rocks and Lizards. If the Rocks and Lizards would just make peace, we'd have a good old fasioned 2 sided war.

2446 - I send 40 mil from Maalor to Centauri.

2448 - The cyborgs try at Maalor. It's mostly one big Hyper-X toting fleet. Most of that fleet can't penetrate my shields, just the Colony ship with Neutron Blasters can actually . They run. We get an "all fields they know" theft from the Kitties. We pick up stablizer for now. To avoid lifting Tundra Environment from the kitties, we pick it up from the Sakkra for Ion Cannon.



2450 - We get to steal something off the Kitties. We go for Planetology hoping for Soil Enrichment, and get it . Election time. Meklars 7 votes the Rocks (Isn't it silly that the AI votes for the AI when at war with both candidates?), Silicoids 13 Votes themselves, Lizards 3 votes me, Bugs 3 votes me, Kitties 5 votes the Rocks, me 11 votes abstain.

Status report: Mostly not worth pictures. Fleetwise, I have a hadnful of warp 1 laser fighters, warp 3 IC fighters, and half a dozzen scout III. The Universe map is unchanged since the last picture with the exception of my owning the planet in the lower left corner. There isn't much of interest to see on the planets screen either. Here is how I stack up vs my opponents



So how did I do in the last 50 years? I think pretty well. I'm kind of behind Zed in tech, but thats to be expected since I didn't get either the Artifacts planet, or the prize in the corner. Also, I suspect I built rather more bases than most people had done by this point by having at least 10 everywhere at an early date. Oddly enough, though I didn't get the 2 goodies, I ended up peacefully getting 3 other planets on the bottom left that basically no one else got to: Tundra Crypto, Dead Phyco, and the bottom left corner Barren Centauri. I've deffinately pulled myself into a position to win. I've pretty much completely secured my core against any AI threat. The Silicoids might be slightly threatening,but my defenses should be tenable. I'm closing in on the time that I'll be ready to start busting heads.

(To be continued)

[Maniac Marshall]

2451 - Annother theft from the Kitties all fields available. We take The Enhanced Ecco Restore, meaning we'll just steal lots of weapons from here on out. Improved 6 hits. We Go for Reduced 40% over Improved 5.

2453 - Range 9 hits. The new choices are Stargates and Ion Drives. Star Gates rock on Huge Maps, but they arent as useful on Medium ones, and we could use the Zippy engines for transports if nothing else, so we select those.

2456 - Robotics IV hits. We go for BC VI. We start refiting everywhere. Man, the last several turns have been nothing but growing pop and factories . The Meklars are about to lose at Phyco.

2457 - At Phyco, We trade 15 fighters for 10 mediums and 3 Larges because we want to, not because we had to. Anti-Matter bomb hits. We can choose Fusion Beams or Megabolt Cannon. We select the Fusion beams so we can get an upgrade to our 2 space arsenel. Making Factorues *yawn*

2459 - Factories will complete next turn almost everywhere. I play one more turn before calling it a night and going to war in the morning. zzzzzz

2460 - ok I really can't put off ship building any longer. The question is what to build. Usually I like to build missile boats first, especially when I'm working on an Engine or Stabilizer tech. The problem there is twofold. First, I don't have a good missile design. It takes a medium just to tote arround Hyper-X's still, and I usually don't like toting anything short of Mercs arround anyway. My opponents shield tech is so bad, fusion bombers could level their planets. The problem is, I don't have fusion bombs . I do have Auto Repair, so I could build Huges. The problem there is my shield tech is so low I really can't see building huges till that improves. I could build fighters, but again, those would really benefit from the engine tech I'm researching.... In the end, I settle on a sort of compromise design that I think will work mainly because we are the Alkiri.



It's not a great design, but what it is is flexible. It will be useable for a while to come as a secondary fighter and/or bomber if nothing else. With this design, I intend to take over the Meklar empire. After that, we'll see. All planets except the conrenr planet and the 2 smallest planets start making these babys. Those 2 keep research afloat.

2463 - We steal the inefficient Mass Driver off the Kitties.

2464 - The Sakkra disolve our NAP ....

2465 - The Sakkra declare war... They have no alliances, they just went off the deep end on their own. It's time to test our little design. I order up an invasion of poor Simius. Thats 139 of our little design vs 4 bases. I'm confident enough to order up an invasion from Maalor.

2466 - Great, the Silicoids desolve our nap. I hope I don't get dogpiled. They are also now allied with the Klackons...

2467 - The Meklars actually have a design that can threaten planets now. Its a dread with Energy Pulsar, Heavy Blast Cannons, and AUTO REPAIR... It takes out 4 bases at Crypto before time runs out. I order up an invasion of Drakka.

2468 - It's 62 vs 34 at Simius. We win with 17 survivors. From the Wreckage we pull Improved 7.

2469 - Wow, those dreads are a serious threat. Two of them kill my entire stack at Simius because I got a bad last shot that barely didn't kill the 2nd dread, allowing it to pulsar away like 130 or so of my ships. They then glass the planet . Oh well. Even if I can't hold the planets, and I'm going to try to, I'm wiping out their production, so I'll win in the end.

2471 - We invade Drakka and win. From the wreckage we pull. Battle Comp Mark IX, and Range 4. The kitties show up wanting peace. That sounds good to me with an election just arround the corner, I accept. I order up an invasion of Omicron, the planet in the lower right corner.

2472 - We get a successful steal off the kitties, choose weapons, get Neutron Blasters, then get caught . I turn the spies off till after the election.

2473 - I could design a fleet to deal with the Meklar's Anihilator, but I decide its easier just to genocide them and move on. The Meklar glass Drakka. I have troops on the way to the corner system. It's the last system I plan to invade. I order up a glassing of Meklon.

2474 - Actually.... You know what? The fighter/bombers CAN trash that design when there are enough of em in a stack I discover. Whereas 100 are hopeless vs multiple of that design, it seems that 250 in a stack do just fine with minimal losses, especially when the design brings friends. If I manouver so that annother meklar design sits next to it in battle, they won't use the pulsar :weed:. I just need enough to overcome the auto repair and things are fine and dandy. Never mind glassing them afterall. I'll just invade like originally planed. We own the airspace at Meklon now and I change my plan again. Meklon and Proteus destroyed to wipe out their production level. The Meklar are on their way to resettle the poor planet. I think I'll leave them in a zoo there.

2475 - Election time. Meklars 2 votes the Rocks, Rocks 14 votes themselves, Lizards 2 votes the rocks, Bugs 3 votes me, Kitties 5 votes me, Me 13 votes abstain. Looks like I'll never win this vote wise. Eventually I'll have to go after the Rocks who have veto power.

2476 - We take the Corner system from the Meklars.

2477 - We gain control at Rigel and order up an invasion.

2478 - We recapture Drakka and pull Range 7 from the wreckage.

2480 - The Sakkras want peace. I oblige. I'm trying to whittle down those Anihilators. Once those are gone, The Meklars are mine.

2481 - We gain orbit at Maretta, the last developed Meklar Colony. We Invade rigel with ground troops and win. This causes GNN to suspect we will soon control the galaxy. We pull Gats, Class IV Deflectors, Energy Pulsar, and Jammer III from the wreckage.

2482 - We recapture Phantos. We set up an invasion of Maretta. The Meklars appear to have only 4 of those big nasty ships left, and no production base to make any more now.

2483 - Bah. Our Sakra "pals" have resettled Meklon. Oh well, we'll get the rest of the Meklar planets. The Silicoids come to me with an offer I should refuse...



and suddenly I decide to smoke that weed as I'm in a waring mood. I have a new plan. It's called war till I can vote myself King. I open spying on the Kitties and Lizards at 4% each. They are enemies of my rock friends, so they are my enemy too.

2487 - We invate Maretta and succeede with 14 survivors. Simultaneously, we reinvade Simius. The last Meklar colonists in the Universe make their last stand.





From the Wreckage we pull - Death Spores, Jammer V, Terraforming +40, and Class V deflectors. The Silicoids show up. I bet they ask us to declare on the Kitties. Nope, they ask us to declare on the Lizards. Thats fine. Anything I can do to help my friend of undying allegience. The fleet is in the neighborhood, so they were next anyway. With Terraforming hitting, and with PLENTY of fleet to eliminate the Sakkra, I switch everywhere to terraforming, then I'll do some more research methinks. This design should even work fine vs the Kitties as far as I can see.

2488 - We Invade and Capture Meklon. It only had 7 million so far. That triggers this message.



2489 - Repulsors hit. The choices are Class X Planetary and Personal Absorption. My planets are basically invulnerable as it is, so we go for gropo.

2491 - I order up a run on Sssla.

2493 - Sssla is overun. We lose a whole 19 ships to their scatter packs :zzz:. I send an Invasion force from Maalor. We get a steal success off the Kitties. I choose weapons and come out with Fusion Bombs. I've been using Maalor to send population to all the newly acquired planets.

2496 - We run over the 1 base at the Sakkra's 2nd planet. It must be a poor planet. We get a theft opportunity vs the Sakkra. The Sakkra have only 3 techs on us, 2 in weapons, and the other being range 6. I go for weapons hoping for scatter packs but get hard beams . Fusion Beams hit. The new weapon choices are graviton beam and megabolt cannon. Megabolt is a no brainer. Wow, that planet isn't just poor, its a size 105 Ultra Poor. Geez, poor Sakkras. The Mrrshans show up. What the heck could they want? The Mrrshans come to ME wanting to trade 300BC. Well, relations ARE up to high neutral. I tell em no way. We cooridnate a 2 pronged Invasion of Dunatis from Centauri and Phyco.

2497 - We get a steal success off the Kitties with both fields they know open. We grab Weapons knowing we'll ger Mercs . The Kitties catch us stealing. Oh well.

2498 - We get annother theft off the Kitties. They only know 2 construction techs. We get Reduced 60% and blame the Silicoids over the Sakkra. The Kitties complain we are too big. I shut off funding for spying on the Kitties. They only know Improved 8 over us, and we allready have Improved 7 so It's not worth wasting money on at the moment.

2499 - The residual spies steal Improved 8 anyway. We tell the spies to hide. We again blame the Silicoids. Ion Drives hit. Yea for new, zippy transports. We go for the coveted High Energy Foccus. Seventy-seven of our marines arrive to take Dunatis. They Face 83 defenders. We take the planet with 10 million survivors. We are only up tech in weapons, where its Ion Rifle vs Nothing (thrown rocks?)

2500 - Time for the vote. Silicoids 16 votes themselves, Sakkras 1 vote the rocks, Klackons 3 votes the rocks, The kitties 6 votes for me? Really? They aren't at war with the rocks and really don't like me. wasup with that? Me, 22 votes abstain. Note that our Silicoid pals have veto power at the moment with exactly 1/3 of the vote. I hope to win without attacking them. We'll see. The Sakkras dial up to ask for peace. Uhhh its kinda late Lizard Man. I can't recall the 'sports that are going to land on your homeworld next turn even if I wanted to. Actually, they ask us to turn our backs on the rocks... yeah, right, as if. The Kitties complain about our size again. I decide to do some hide spying vs the Rocks, just to see what they've got.

Time for the millenial update.





It's not very often that I only have one ship design, but in this case that one design was fully capable of taking on anything its come up against, even that very well designed Meklar dread as long as it had like 200 in the stack. You'll note that I've FINALLY taken the lead in all categories. It's not often I lead the uni in fleet strength either. You'll note that lone purple flag will be yellow as soon as I click next turn.

I never really thought I was in a position to lose this baring an election defeat, but I'm clearly in a position to win now. I definately over estimated the AI's defenses, and could have started slaging planets immediately uppon getting Anti-Matter bombs, but then, I'm usually not in any hurry to get a game over until its a runaway situation for me. It's tempting to just go for extermination at this point, but that would mean drawing the game out because of those planetary shields the Silicoids have, and honestly, I WOULD just like to get it over with at this point.

(To be concluded)

[Maniac Marshall]

2501 - BCVI hits. We go for Hyperspace Comm, planing to then get Jammer VII before moving on to BCX. The final conflict with the Sakkra on Sssla is at hand.



We get pretty kind rolls. There are 86 survivors as we wipe the Sakkra from existance.



From the wreckage, we pull scatter packs, meaning we never did get range 6 off them before they expired. Oh well. Wow do the Rocks have lots of goodies.



I suspect not spying on them after I got Mark IX off the Meklars was on my part. Oh well, they ARE my buddies of undying allegience right? You'll note they have planetary shield X, so Fusion bombers and Merc's will be completely useless if I go to war with them. Also note they have Anti-Matter Bombs, so my own planets won't be safe. What I figure I'll try to do is this. I'll take out the Kitties, leave the Bugs alone, Terraform like a fiend, and vote myself emperor.

The Kitties have 6 Planets. I have 3 fleets of My Fighter/Bomber Design, which should be good enough to take one planet each and hold them after the fact. But first, lets do some trading. I ship the Rocks Ion Drives for Planetary shield X. I ship them soil enrichment, which is useless to them, for Terra +60. I then grab Hyperspace Comm for Range 9. Since they allready had Range 10 there is no downside really. We then go for Jammer VII, which should be the highest Jammer I ever research. I send the fleet to Retculi, Vega, and Fieras.

2502 - Atmospheric comes in. We go for Advanced Soil Enrichment over Terra +80, Complete Eco, or Bio Terminator. I start Atmospheric/Terraforming Virtually everywhere.

2504 - Wow, are the Kitties pathetic or what. We stroll into orbit of their 3 planets with virtually no resistance. So much so, I decide we can afford to split the fleet in 6 while we invade the 3 planets we allready orbit. I send 53 mil from Sssla to Retculi, 53 million from Crypto and 55 Million from Rigel to Fieras, and 75 million from Maretta to Vega. The Kitties haven't declared war yet . When they do, I'll get our Rock buddies to "help".

2505 - Wow, we glass Gion from the battle screen in only 1 shot =/. We overun the defenses at Xudax with ease. The kitties shielding is so pathetic our Ion cannons actually do some planetary damage. It looks like we'll need a colship. The kitties still haven't declared war . Cool, we can make as standard base speed 6 colship of MEDIUM design now . We make it at
Crypto. I cue up an invasion of Xudax from Rigel and Maretta.

2506 - It's 108 of ours vs 109 of theirs at Fieras. We win with 28 Survivors. Its Duralloy Armor/Deflector/Ion Rifle us vs Titanium Armor/Deflector/HL them. It's 75 vs 43 at Vega where 41 troopers survive. We get no tech because, umm, the kitties dont have any. It's 53 vs 61 at Retculi. It's close here, but we do win with 9 million surviving. We finally meet the Klacokons who think we should submit to them . The Kitties finally decide to declare war . We dial up the Klackons and form a maximal trade agreement for 275BC. We trade them Anti-Missile Rockets for Neutron Pelet Guns, Stabilizer for Jammer II to boost spying if it becomes needed, and Reduced waste 60% for Range 6 just to do some tree filling out. I decide to plant a spy, just to see what else they've got. I then Dial up my Silicoid friend and demand help against the evil kitties. I jack our trade agreement from 775/yr to 2075/yr simply because I can. I trade them the useless to them Atmospheric for Zortium Armor.

2507 - We gain orbit at the Kitties last colony, which turns out to be an Ultra Rich in that nebula! The Klackons declare war. Ho hum. I'm not afraid of you bug man. Bring it on. The bugs have only one advanced tech on us, reduced waste 40%, which is imminent for a breakthrough. They have only 2 other techs on us period. I'm not sure I have enough troops headed for Xudax to take it, so I dial up the Rocks to try to trade for Absorption shield even though its ready to pop. Hmm not there now. How about Neuclear engines for Hyper-V Rockets =/.

2508 - The Kitties actually fight my smallest fleet at Fieras. They have 25 Larges, 2 Colships, 80 Fighters, and 450 Fighters. We do lose about 150 Ships, but only the 2 Colships get away. Wow. Absorption Shield Pops just in time. The only option is cloaking device. We settle at Gion. It's 101 vs 160 at Xudax. We DO win, probably thanks to those shiny new shields, and 19 Brave Alkiri Marines survive.

2509 - The nebula "bug" stops transports a milimeter from the last Kitty planet, so they get one more turn of life.

2510 - Reduced waste 40% hits. We hop back for a quickie grab of battle suits. The final battle vs the kitties is at hand.



There are 46 survivors.



I start thinking about making a fleet to take Orion, but I still want a little more tech to make a fusion beam fighter, then I decide it simply isn't worth the effort. I start looking arround for planets to fill up kittie land. I should have the pop to vote myself in in 15 turns if I fill up the new acquisitions. I plan to just fight defensively vs the Klackons, otherwise I'd have to kill my Silicoid buddies of undying allegience (which wouldn't be easy). I hold off one turn on filling up Kittyland to let a couple sending planets max out.

2511 - I send 70mil from Maalor to Seidon. That will fill it up. Gion is allready "full". I send 70 mil from Crypto to Xudax,
75 mil from Maretta to Retculi, 62 million from Rigel to Fieras, and 57 mil from Phyco to Vega. I order the pop to be regrown. The Bugs "fleet" is about to arrive at Gion.

2512 - The bugs run after I waste half their Large ships.

2513 - Megabolt Cannon Hits. There are 2 good missile choices available. Scatter Pack VII is awsome for bases, while Pulson missiles can be fantastic on ships, even making good "bombers" at the Silicoids current Shielding level. I go for the defensive choice, just in case.

2514 - We get a swipe from the Bugs. They have 3 techs. Battle Suits is already at 20% so we skip that, Propulsion for Fusion Drives isnt an option, so we take Improved Terra 20%. Siedon has now maxed its pop. Vega and Retculi can grow themselves full in 3-4 turns tops. Gion is still terraforming its way up so im bleeding pop over from Fieras one turn away. Fieras and Xudax could still use annother pop infusion to max out though, so I send 70 million from Crypto to Xudax, and 57 million from Rigel to Fieras. Barring anything unforseen (like the rocks declaring war) I should just be able to press next turn about 10x and put this game to bed. I decide to upgrade my shields all over my core though, just in case.

2415 - Battle Suits hit, we go go for Andrium Armor.

2518 - All planets have now reached their population max. It should be enough to easily vote myself in. Im feeding reserves to my new/poor planets for the heck of it. Eveywhere else is simply doing research.

2520 - Cloaking Device, Advanced Soil, and High Energy Foccus hit. We go for Zyro Shield (only choice), Terra +80 0ver several other things, and SS Teleportor (only choice). We start Gaiaing everywhere.

2521 - Almost everywhere Gias out to max pop. Most of the former Kitty worlds didn't quite max, but will next turn. Dunatis, the former Sakkra Ultra Poor didn't quite either, but will before the vote happens.

2522 - Pop maxes out in the remaining places.

2525 - Time for the vote. Silicoids 16 votes themselves, Klackons 3 votes the Silicoids, me 49 votes myself. Final Score



POSTSCRIPT

From the final save we see the following.



It felt odd to win the game with only 3 war ship designs the whole game, especially when only one of them was ever intended to be an offensive ship. The only shipsI ever had were the warp 1 laser fighter which mainly just sat at Laan, the warp 3 IC fighter, which mainly just protected a few planets in the south for a brief period of time, and the ONLY REAL warship, the compromise Fighter/Bomber design which was WAY more effective than I'd have predicted. The only ship that gave it problems was that Meklar one with Energy Pulsar, and then only when it attacked alone, because otherwise I could fix it where they wouldn't use it for fear of hitting their own ships :rolleyes:.



There is nothing to really say about the map I suppose. No sense taking a picture of my planets or ending tech levels I think, so we'll just take a peek at the final racial comparisons.



We are comfortably ahead in every area except fleet strength, where we've fallen behind the Silicoids mainly because we haven't built any ships in ages. All in all, it was a fun game. Thanks for a great start to the Imperia.

-Maniac

[Therlun]

hii @all

maniac i like this report much better then yours to imperium 7.
sometimes less pictures are more

i just recently found the realms beyond orion, and did not yet play an imperium game.
but i wrote some moo1 aar's already (except one they are in german though...) and will participate in the comming imperiums.
(6 next as i read)

i also have a very interesting savegame for a possible imperium game, but i guess its to early to submit one when i dont have an report on one myself.

so long,
Therlun

[Maniac Marshall]

Thanks for your input.

I probably did have too many pictures for imperium 7, especially at the end. It probably wasn't necessary to show all those planets geting glassed. Maybe I should have croped the pictures diffrently or resized them as well, though it was hard and long enough doing what I did without that X_X.

Going back to this report after playing the other imperia, there WERE about 10x durring my write up when I was shocked that I didn't take a picture. The biggest one was not geting a shot of that meklar dread design.

My gf did all the croping for my other reports, but wasn't available to do that for 7, so, having never done that before except for a few mostly full sized screenies for Civ, I did the best hack job of it that I could.

I went into my game 7 planing to capture all the tech thefts to sort of emphasize how much stealing I was doing and probably just got carried away with it. I guarantee I won't be posting a 300 picture report again any time soon.

Finally, I'll give you my unofficial welcome aboard to the Relams Beyond community. I look forward to reading your imp 6/8 report, and I hope you enjoy your stay .

-Maniac