Imperium One - Off to a Flying Start

[The Black Cursor]

TBC's Quick Summary

I started by colonizing Kailis, maxing pop on Altair then spreading out -- Bootis and north, then the south. I did grab the poor planet in the SE along with the rest of the worlds down there. By this time, I had contact with the Silicoids and the Meklar. I sent cardboard cutouts (laser fighters) to the border worlds, guarded my non-agression-pacts carefully and started standing up bases, it was not enough.

Both the Silicoids and the Meklar started their cold-war efforts and the Meklar quickly escalated that to hot-war. I lost the poor planet to the Meklar and the Artifacts world to the Silicoids before the first election. At election time, I was in second place and only my abstaining saved the vote. The wars continued. I was building ships and bases as fast as I could, incluidng large and small missile boats. A lot of harassing was done with these but I was unable to make much headway.

I did manage to reclaim the Artifacts world only to have the Klackon show up with a stack-of-doom (they were allied with the Silicoids) and take the planet away. Contact with the Mrrshan happened shortly thereafter and I was at the short end of the dogpile. With all this fighting, my tech was suffering so I turned to spying and gained a few techs to keep me in the game.

The second election was similar to the first results, so the band played on. I was holding my own and maintaining my borders, and was finally able to end hostilities with the Meklar (they kept the poor world). This left me time to focus on the Silicoids/Klackon/Mrrshans. This is also where I let emotion affect judgement a little -- I just HAD to go after the cursed kitties. Never mind that they were the furthest away, and not the weakest, I played the Birdie/Kitty blood-feud for all its worth!

I built planet-busting swarms (i.e. Sirian's glass fleet), and went after the Kitties. Well I started to see results when the third election came up, and I didn't see the obvious -- the Silicoid/Klackon/Mrrshan alliance was strong and my actions didn't make things any better for MY popularity. So they all voted for the Silicoids and that was all she wrote --- grrrr!

Looking at the game, I made a number of errors -- expanding too much and thinking I could retain border worlds such as the SE poor planet, not coming up with ship designs to counter the ships being thrown at me (placing my hopes in "standard" designs and numbers), not doing enough spying when hot-war was joined, and overextending supply lines in a trumped-up vendetta.

However, I did enjoy this game and if I have the time, I'd probably replay it and pay more attention to details. This did NOT play like the three previous (yawner) Average solo games I played prior, and I did NOT expect to be dogpiled -- since I did not expect the dogpile (and hadn't seen it), I didn't acquit myself well. Looking forward to future Imperiums, nonetheless.

So, rocks and kitties -- will it be best two of three?

Be seeing you...

---> TBC (Those Bothersome Cats)

[Drasca]

Yes, been quite a while, but its all very good playing alongside and watching from the sidelines when the gaming is good.

As for the mechanical bent, all that flew right by me in the "zoning out" "just one more turn" addiction mode. I had more numbers, and more important data, but... uh. Somehow lost it ^_^ *Drasca sits on big fat notebook crunch of numbers and extraneous details that take away from storytelling*

It is very ironic. Actualy, the real reason they were happy is likely because their "great expanse" i.e. the hostile worlds they can take, but I never bothered researching planetology, building high tech colony ships and actually COLONIZING... since they still had a "frontier" for their expansionist manifest destiny to move into, so they didn't move into *me* for their manifest destiny. Just empty irradiated worlds I griped about not having the tech to take. I'm still not sure why they didn't attack. I never ever expect the Silicoid to stay friends--especially with that personality and knee deep into my territory (or they might consider it their territory). At least I had no fleet to threaten them with :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I had virtually no fleet throughout the game. Eventually my scouts and buzz bombers were so ... so... disgustingly underwhelmingly pathetic I just scrapped everything that wasn't already used up. Exactly no fleet. Looking back, I still had tech level 1 and 2's at turn 2370?!?! Sheesh, I've been really tech neglectful, but I stole, traded and looted what tech I really needed :war:

I actually lucked out on the Diplomatic vote. Msshrans and Sakkra were pissed off by someone else, and probably the silicoids :D since they were off my back. I was just begging them to try something with me. I had plenty of missle bases to fend them off with... and they never got used really. Only hot potatoes were ever lost, and those were to the Meklars. They just hated my enemies plenty more than than they even knew about. I was just a whole lot less ugly. All that Alkaran preening helped give my coat a nice shine compared to the ugly Silicoid rockface and dirty oil-slicker Meklar. Is that a face you'd like to vote for? No. Vote for Drasca the Alkaran leader! Best looking bird around!

Omicron was a big return in denying Meklars southern supremecy, and keeping a foothold down there was nice. . . but honestly I could've avoided brushwars in the south completely. Maybe. I'm not quite sure what you mean by "as important as I expected it to be" because my memory is a little fuzzy on your rather large report.

I wasn't able to claim as much territory... but apparently that turned out to be a good thing B)

[Sirian]

A good variant! If there's ever a time to go without bases, playing the Alkari is the time to try it. That could get rough on higher difficulty, but perhaps we'll visit that concept officially, down the road.

Report was strong on imagery even without the pictures. Nice work. Your language indicates that you can now take screens? Will we see some with your next report?

I'd say more, but I'm kind of tuckered out after reading all these reports and commenting. Your unique choice to play a variant here deserves more commentary than I have juice to give to it. I really enjoyed the report, though. I'm sure a lot of players will find the comparison to standard play insightful.


- Sirian

[Sirian]

Those bothersome cats!

Well... roleplaying the racial tensions to the max. That was probably more fun than standard "self-interest" strategy. Early cold war action can get tense. Investing into a system, and especially its defense, and losing the fight, is much worse off than to have ceded it early. Fortune favors the bold, but it's only bold if you win. Or something like that. If there weren't tradeoffs, and if it was too easy to manage, we wouldn't keep coming back for more.

You might have come out OK if you had played it straight up. But I don't imagine you regret taking a less traveled road. Unscored games are an especially good time to try something offbeat.

I had more fun feeling indignant about having botched the 2525AD vote than anything else. :o This game surprised a bunch of folks in one way or another.


- Sirian

[Drasca]

You certainly made the Alkari into bloody raiders :war: Victory!

[Sirian]

You imprinted your own style on your report and I found it very effective. Fonts, colors, smilies, personal touches, all enhancements. No drag. Good stuff. The italicized comments are especially good.

I wait until my games are done to write reports. Sometimes I don't even take any notes. This does come at some cost in lost or misplaced details. Occasionally I misremember something. Now and then, something useful I wanted to say while playing simply gets forgotten. The gains are a big picture view of the report throughout, and threads that tie it all together. Perhaps I'll vary this routine, for variance sake, and write a report as I go, one of these times. That should be novel.

Oh, and hey, procrastination on writing reports? I resemble that remark! Though not too much this time. I actually had it finished with a couple of hours to spare before opening the report thread. :P A far cry from the early Epics when I had my reports done weeks in advance. We don't always mellow with age. Sometimes we just get older.

I'd comment about details, but I'm gassed on commenting. I've tried to hit everybody with some personal attention. That is surely a standard I can't maintain for all events, though.


- Sirian

[Drasca]

Forget that! Gimme your report! I like it as is. Plenty of... everything. Now I understand why there was no advice on specific structure of the reports (and if there was, I missed it )

I especially like the Plan A) B) C), color coded text, and decision making breaks. The neon light tabs are cool too. Forgive me, I'm making this post as I'm reading your report, and eating hot wings to boot. I love the dramatic pause for stepping back on strategy onto color coded flash-back notes.

Har har har, I lost all three without giving them a Non-aggression pact. Got Jinga though! (ok, there are likelymore than three, but of the three you've mentioned int he Race for Mobas!.

I like the style you have. Keep it up!

[Charis]

:laugh:

BTW, I just went to threaded view to see why no one has commented on report and see...

it's not there!! :o

Darn it!! I actually finished it late Mon night instead of Tues to avoid being last minute. I think it's still Tuesday somewhere in the world, so I'll post my result here: I had fun, but lost. :P
More detailed report to follow tonight when I'm on the computer with the report.

Good grief, even in reporting I pull a:
Charis

[Smegged]

I figured that a picture is worth a thousand words in many cases. And in most cases, reading the pictures wasn't necessary, only getting a general picture of what was happening was.

It also seems that I had the easiest game here. I built at least as many missile bases as you and Jaxom, but possibly at a slower rate. I also had quite a large fleet the whole game, to stave off attacks and to run my own harrassment whenever possible (I love ion fighters). The first winning vote came about 15 seconds after the point at which I had realised that I had won the game. I thought to myself "you know, I recon I've got this in the bag from here", clicked next turn, and lo and behold, the opportunity was mine. But it was those damn cats! I had to get em for poisoning the others against me. It's all the cats fault damnit!

-Smegged

[Sirian]

I had fun, but lost.

Had fun? Most excellent. That be the crucial element.

Good grief, even in reporting I pull a: 

Now that's just classic.

I tried to think of something good to add to that, but nope. I'm speechless. :P

Looking forward to your full report.


- Sirian