Imperium One - Off to a Flying Start

[Bam-Bam]

Whew--lot's of reading to do in this thread! Add my report to the pile. Time pop open a beverage and read all the other reports. I hope you enjoy my interesting ride!

[Charis]

Ouch! :o

That DOES sting!! From what I gather, this one was a very distinct cut
above your 'average' average! A tough break, following some minor problems,
and that silly old fat lady started to sing. Take heart though!
There will probably a lot to read and learn from this report, and be happy that
you've found a game that will give you a long term challenge, but is one definitely
within your grasp to learn and do well and conquer! :war:

Stick with it! See you in Imperium Two! :laugh:
Charis

[Sirian]

Quick Comments. (Well, quick by my usual standard).

* Excellent analysis about the projected location of the Silicoid homeworld. I not only didn't cover that point, I didn't even do the analysis! Although I've done and explained similar thinking in some of my reports.

* Bootis. Yikes. I should count my blessings about Incedius.

* Primodius. Holy Cow! What's next? The Crystal is going to eat Altair?

* You can hear the music? I'm jealous. Still playing soundless here, though I may yet fix that.

* Ssssss-TRAGEDY!

* Yep. Definitely harder than your average average.

* Good show pulling it out. It was shocking to see a red flag at Kailis, but I'll recover.


- Sirian

[Sirian]

That was a fun read. :wub:

Oh my goodness, Kailis! I thought 8 spores per ship was going nuts. But 28?!? Not sure I've ever seen that before. They only needed one. I almost lost Kailis, too, and I was a bit more paranoid.

A good lesson for Imperial players, though. Here you and I both are jam-packing defenses and cowering away from an AI who really wasn't building the kind of defenses we're used to facing. It's rather comical, we were scared off by cardboard cutouts, but folks won't be laughing when the Impossible AI's are dropping the sledgehammer on them. Then the lights will go on upstairs and they'll say, "Aha. Now I get it."

But then to lose Kailis again. Wow. Eighty large bombers? What a SoD! That was indeed impressive for an Average AI.

Zed had a really nice land grab. I'm still trying to figure how he got all the way to that poor planet in the north. Was there something I overlooked? Or did something go differently for his Silicoid? Looking at some variances among AI performances, like your OPE Klackon and my weaker Mrrshan, the swings on AI results have nothing on Civ3, but are a bit higher than I would have expected. (I'm also still trying to figure out how Smegged's Psilons ran away so badly in that "challenge" game he posted).

It was good to see you defend Simius. A lot of folks tried and failed.

Unless something unusual turns up by the end of tomorrow to change my mind, I've got the schedule for the next half-dozen Imperia figured out. We'll have Impossible games for Four and Six, so something to look forward to. I'm glad you played this one, and even gladder you had a good time with it. Thanks.


- Sirian

[Sirian]

Tough game. Couple of tough breaks there.

Build more bases. Especially for higher difficulty. Keep an eye out for incoming bogeys. Remember that the AI won't even attack unless it believes it has a winning fleet. Well, it's not brilliant, but it's no dummy. Take it seriously and pack on as many more bases at target worlds as you can while they are still incoming. Use reserves, even, in those cases. Anything to save your planet.

You may have built too many ships. I'm sure that sounds odd, but you seemed to be using ships as defense, mostly. Bases generally defend better, pound for pound. They upgrade. Ships do not. Did you ever try hitting the enemy with your fleets? At his core worlds, I mean. Also, the Alkari especially do well with small and medium gunships. See Zed's report for more info about that, and maxing that advantage.

Overall you seemed to be holding your own. As you say, you had turned a corner in the war and your loss was of a diplomatic nature, not a military one. That's something, considering the various setbacks you faced. "Close but no cigar." Those kinds of losses can be frustrating, but also make for the sweetest wins, if you can make it through.

I don't know if you remember RBE DSG2? :unsure: Sometimes you have to be both lucky and good. :war:


- Sirian

[Sirian]

Good show. I thought at least one player would win by 2475AD. You had it but passed it up to pursue higher victory conditions.

The average AI did a good job against all of us, I think. Out of reports I've read so far, only Zed cruised without losing a major colony somewhere along the way.

Looking at your fleet... lot of speed 1 ships in there. I'm a speed junkie, so that looks a little odd, but clearly it worked fine, as your Condors were stomping as soon you had built some. Also, why the shield and cloak on your glass makers? You could have built a lot more of them if you went with a sleek small design.

The timeline report works OK. Great for the details. More commentary about your strategy, choices, thoughts, and emotions as you played would help flesh out the experience, though, to bring us along more closely, open a wider window into what your game was really like for you. Good use of screens, though. For only posting four pics, you chose wisely on making the most of what they imparted.

Looking at all those empty stars... that's a lot of glass!


- Sirian

[Sirian]

I didn't realize the level of reporting

Yeah. We're AAR junkies. Half the fun is writing about what happened. Humor helps. Triumphs and tragedies are always interesting, too. The other half of the fun is reading what everyone else experienced and then comparing, contrasting, and conversing. Playing is fun, but even great games can grow old. Having people to share and interact with adds another dimension to the game.

Victories are weighted according to the Scoring for each event. That will differ. This was an unscored event, meaning there are no weightings and everyone who reports will be listed alphabetically on the results page for this event, so that's a time to set your own measurements or play without measuring. Other games will be scored (or not) and scoring measurements will vary. The goals will always be articulated. So check each event as it is announced, and if you have any requests or suggestions, those are always welcome. (We may or may not grant requests, and it may take time even if we do, as I try to balance the schedule to a variety of interests, but you can always ask).

Although you didn't put a lot into your report, and thus we can't really share in its details, there's always next time, and you can check out the various reports of others and see what you like about them, in deciding how to shape your own reports. Go with reporting on what mattered to you and you won't go wrong.


- Sirian

[Sirian]

Tough loss. Patroclus also suffered an early diplomatic loss. This situation was ripe for it, and you won't be facing that all the time.

What could you have done? Perhaps if the Silicoids had a couple fewer planets, they wouldn't have had enough to win. I suffered one close vote where I nearly lost, and several other players reported some very close votes, too. In fact, I think at least two or three had 25/38 situations, less than a single vote away from a loss. Perhaps if you had dedicated more to defending Laan, you'd have stopped the Silicoids from getting it and the U-rich. Stopping them from taking the artifact planet was also doable, and some players even got as far north as Ajax. Sometimes the margins are going to be close and a vote here or there can make or break you.

I don't see as you did anything wrong. No blunders, no gaffes. Just a little short of what you needed to hang in there. Check out all the close calls in others' reports and take heart. You did OK.


- Sirian

[Sirian]

I'm not sure what happened, either. That was a bit quick on the first vote.

One thing you may have done wrong was to let the Meklar into orbit over your colony. They don't send transports blind. However, any ships in orbit will trigger an invasion. That's how the AI fights its brush wars. You can't let it reach your systems. You have to guard them. Any system not guarded well enough to chase away their probes, scouts, and escorted colony ships, is flashing a bold neon sign proclaiming "INVADE ME". That's why keeping at least a scout in orbit over every star is a common tactic for advanced players. It will chase off unarmed AI ships, and alert you to any incoming bogeys so you know that you either need to send your own armed ships, or cede the planet (and not send your transports). Brush wars can get sticky. You have to be careful. War in general can get sticky. Too many enemies at once and you can lose the vote.

Don't feel bad. I've lost games this way, too. You kind of have to make the errors in order to realize what not to do, to develop strategy that saves you from ending up in that position. How much of your plight this time was avoidable error vs bad breaks I can't say. I can say there's another Imperium starting soon, so there's always the next time to try again.


- Sirian

[Kylearan]

There are two stars in range 3: A green and a blue one. I send the colony ship to the green, one of the scouts to the blue and the other scout to a green star northwest of the green one our colony ship is heading to. The green star in range in M45 Kailis, the blue D40 Quayal. Kailis is colonized and gets 10 pop sent to from Altair.

Scout 2s are produced and sent out, and the Silicoids are met at Incedius.



With some migration from Kailis, Altair is maxed in factories and population in 2324AD and starts to pump colony ships. Settling T95 Bootis northwest of Kailis gets me in contact with the aggressive expansionist Silicoids, and I sign a trade agreement of 75BC. I decide to try to scout their three systems even if that may annoy them, but I want to know what's on my doorstep!

Next up with colonization is D40 Quayal and J75 Maalor south of Altair. No more systems are in immediate range, so I micromanage Altair on the last turn of production so that some RPs show me the initial tech tree. Not many choices to make! I choose the Deep Space Scanner over Battle Computers II because it's cheap and I want to hop to a better computer later, and I choose Hand Lasers over the Gatling Laser for similar reasons: I hope to go for a better weapon, and like gropo techs very much. The rest of the options are Reduced Industrial Waste 80%, Class II Shields, Improved Terraforming +10 and Deuterium Fuel Cells (Range 5).

With the Silicoids so near, I research propulsion at max rate, and get the new cells after four turns already. Meanwhile, GNN reports that the Silicoids have six systems.

Altair pumps colony ships again while Kailis sends pop points to new colonies. It has enough factories for the moment and continues my research efforts, still at max propulsion (nuclear engines) - I want faster colony ships and faster transports. After that, research is spread more even.

My scouts find A60 artifact Helos in the north, already scouted by someone else (Silis most probably)! I want to have that. While a colony ship heads to Incedius, I meet the Meklar down south at poor S35 Simius.



Simius is a strategically important system, as it opens up the way to the south, but colonizing and holding it could become a pain because it's mineral poor and small. After settling Incedius and Helos, I decide to send my next colony ship there.

Meanwhile, the Silicoids decide they want to have Incedius.



I immediately reinforce the planet with population from Bootis, then remember that you can threaten other races to attack which, if successful, will withdraw their fleets - so I try that. Not only do they retreat, but they even give me some BCs!



While settling more, Improved Terraforming +10 comes in, and I choose Controlled Dead Environment next over Death Spores. It won't open up any planets now, but it's cheaper than Death Spores and I usually avoid using bioweapons.

With colonizing Simius, I get in contact with the xenophobic technologist Meklars. I trade for 150BC (max value) to improve relations. My next colony ships all go to the south. I hope I don't overextend, but there's a juicy fertile T105 planet called Omikron in the southeastern corner I really would like to have...

Hand Lasers come in, and Hyper-X rockets are chosen next, to get my future missile bases some punch. On the same turn, 27 Million colonists on Bootis decide to rebel against me! Argh. Quelling the rebellion is quite a setback for my population management.

The first election comes in 2376AD, and it's Silicoids vs. me. All races abstain, so I can safely vote for the Silicoids to improve relations even further. Three turns later, my land-grab is complete.



This map is really interesting! I'm boxed in between a runaway AI (the Silicoids) and a xenophobic race which is very hard to make friends with. Both have contact to other races, especially the Silis, so I cannot prevent those from voting for the Silicoids. That means I must do something against them quick! But first, I must catch up tech-wise. I use my planetary reserve to stand up Helos, my artifact planet, faster. I also invest some money into spies.

Even worse, the Silicoids have armed colony ships now and are driving away my scouts from hostile systems. The grow...and grow...In 2399AD, I have Hyper X-rockets, Battle Computers Mk III, Class III Shields and sub-light drives, so it is time to design a new ship. I lack any non-missile weapon tech, so a missile boat it is.



Not a very impressive design, and very fragile, but the best I could come up with. It's very fast compared to the Silicoids, though, as they are still flying around with retro engines.

My first wave of 54 Hy-Xs went towards Ajax, a poor planet I needed to open up the way to Cryslon. I could have attacked Gorra first instead, but Ajax had only 1 base instead of 10 - let's have more ships before trying to tackle a system like this!



The Silis were gathering a small fleet at Ajax to await me. I lost one ship, destroying their base and one of their ships, the other six retreated. Didn't expect this to work so well!

I did not bomb the planet but sent ground troops instead. It was my 142 against their 105 - and I had hand lasers and they had nothing. New tech found: Improved Industrial Tech 7, Inertial Stabilizer, Bio Toxin Antidote(!, Improved Terraforming +30(!. Nice! To free up my back, I asked the Meklars about a non-aggression pact - but they declined. Damn xenophobics! They had very bad luck in this game, by the way: One of their systems had become poor, and now Meklon went supernova, reducing the system to radiated size 20.

But back to the Silicoid front. Gorra was next - I lost 16 ships and destroyed 11 bases. While waiting for ground troops to arrive, The Silis tried to retaliate at Kailis, but my fast ships had no problems intercepting them. And then, the next election came. And those Meklar bastards voted for the Silicoids! I was very lucky that the Mrrshans and the Sakkras abstained, otherwise I would have lost at this point (21 of 31 votes for the Silis). Good thing I had decided to attack the Silis! So now I had 25 more turns to reduce them in size, make new contacts and befriend these. Problem was that I missed a bomb tech to destroy and colonies I couldn't attack with ground troops, and the Silicoids had only few habitable systems in range. Additionally, they had Class IV Shields now, and fights became more difficult. They also discovered Ion Rifles before my ground troops arrived, but I took Gorra anyway, learning Death spores, ECM Jammer Mark III, Dynamite Crystals (Range 7), Battle Computers Mark IV and Class IV shields.

I decided to halt my offense now. I terraformed and refitted my systems and tried to catch up in tech. The problem were the Silicoid hostile systems spread all over the place, which put nearly every of my planets into their reach and made my empire hard to defend. But they concentrated their attacks on Gorra, mostly with Death Spores which I was immune to, and missile boats of their own, which I managed to destroy without much problems.

Then, out of the blue, the Meklar declared hot war. On the same turn, the Silicoids asked for peace, and I decided to shift targets, and accepted. I had no current report on the Meklar and knew nothing about their ship types, so began to spy on them again and sent nearly all of my ships south. I also sped up my research in force fields, to finally get Planetary Shields V.

The military situation against the Meklar was similar to the Silicoids: They lacked fast engines and planetary shields. Nice! My tech tree lacked both Scatter-Pack and Stinger missiles though, so my next ship design (still focusing on missiles) only had a better computer, an inertial stabilizer and better armor.

Next election came: 13:18. Good. So I next sent 70 of my old ships to one of the Meklar systems to test their strength. I lost twenty ships before I had to retreat because my ammo ran out, but I also had destroyed 9 out of their 10 bases and finished the job next turn. It was a T90 system. But before my ground troops arrived, their fleet with some huge designs arrived, and I had to retreat after losing about half of my ships. But somehow their fleet vanished before my new designs and my ground troops arrived?!? They had better personal armor while I had better weapons, and I took the planet, getting ECM Jammer Mk I, Enhanced Eco Restoration, Hydrogen Fuel Cells and Armored Exoskeleton(!. This finally gave me a new contact, the Sakkras! They were...pacifistic militarists?!? Er, what? That's a silly combination...

I moved on to Meklon, destroying their bases but lacking the tech to take the planet. Then I took Rigel and removed the resistance at Crypton, getting me in contact with the Mrrshans. And then, the Silicoids declared war again and I had a two-front war on my hands now.



On the same turn, my spies managed to steal Herculite Missiles from them, so a new design was in order as my old ships had more and more problems killing anything. The new design had the new missiles and Class III shields, everything else remained the same.

Next election came: 13:18 again.

I captured rich Laan from the Silicoids, getting the Megabolt Cannon from it - finally a good non-missile ship weapon! I designed a large ship to accompany my missile boats.



What I had overlooked with this design was that half of the Silicoid ships (the Meklars were no longer a threat) had repulsor beams - but combined arms were the answer to that. My missile boats killed the repulsor beam designs, and my fast MBolt ships were able to kill the rest before they had a chance to fight back.

Despite my attempts to befriend my new contacts, both the Sakkras and the Mrrshans declared war on me. Hey, am I in overtime and hadn't noticed or what? According to GNN, I had 18 systems now. I captured Cryslon next which got me in contact with the last race, the Klackons, who would declare war on me too soon thereafter. The game was basically over now, although the next election was undecisive again with 16:20 votes.

I captured more and more systems and really thought it *had* to be over now! But no, the next election in 2525AD was 28:15 and not enough to win, again. Argh!



While in general I agree that the game is good at recognizing when someone has won, this time it did a poor job on this. But okay, if they don't want to vote for me, they *all* must die! I designed another ultra-fast missile boat with Scatter-Pack VII missiles and a good bomb, and now conquered two systems per turn. I never destroyed any colony but conquered them *all* with ground troops! My new design could move in, fire at the bases and move back, destroying all bases before their missiles were able to hit me.

In 2537AD, the Silicoids were no more.

In 2538AD, both the Klackons and the Sakkras had lost their last system.

The Meklars left the game one turn later, in 2539AD.

And finally, the last Mrrshan system was under control in 2542AD. I controlled the whole galaxy before the next election had come in. Ha!

This had been a very fun game with a very interesting map layout! The inability to make friends in the early game led to an all-out war scenario later, but despite being behind in tech, fast medium missile boats are enough to conquer enemy planets, at least on average difficulty. The majority of my tech, and especially important techs like Biotoxin Antidote, Hercultie Missiles, Megabolt Cannon and others came from pointy stick research. In the end, my own research got me other important techs like Scatter-Pack VII missiles and Cloning, and I was at about TL38 when the game ended.

Thanks go to Sirian for organizing this tournament!

-Kylearan