Getting crushed

[haphazard1]

Played a medium galaxy, 5 opponents game as the Sakkra. Had some tough luck at the start, with the second world being quite small (size 35) and the only other reachable world being ultra poor. But there was a nice ocean world available with range 4 and it was in my tree, so I started the usual build up of the home world and got some propulsion research going.

The first bad sign was GNN announcing the Silicoids had 6 planets while my colony ship was still on the way to the ultra poor planet that would become my third world. The next bad sign was the Psilons grabbing a world near by a trio of habitable worlds that I had scouted but had no realistic hope of reaching (range 7 needed or a long range colony ship). Their new colony brought the Psilons into contact with me, and I learned the brains had double my planets and three times my pop...even before they grabbed that trio of worlds.

Psilons AND Silicoids with twice my planet count, which included a small planet and an ultra poor? I was not feeling optimistic...and sure enough, the game turned out to be quite short. Psilon council victory in 2400 against the Silicoids, voted for by races I had never met (Humans, Meklar) that hated the rocks and had allied with the brains.

Oh well. Some galaxies are just not friendly. Another try as the lizards, or maybe a different race next? Hmmmm....

Share your tales of bad, unfriendly MOO galaxies. We can at least know we aren't the only ones having a tough time.

[utwig]

I usually play on small impossible as Meklars and if I start with poor 2nd or 3d world and not enough room to expand, game is usually lost

[haphazard1]

A small second world certainly makes a game more difficult. Ultra poor third world was another set back. Having either the rocks or the brains grabbing a lot of planets early probably would have doomed me at that point. Both of them getting large early? The early loss by council vote was not a surprise.

[SpaceOWL]

Wanna see me being crushed? Have a look:

   

   

The Bears scouted Neptunus in 2306 WITH A FIGHTER!!!
When my scout got to Ursa in 2309 THEY HAD 2 CLAWS already!!!

Then I just gave up the game... but before quitting I used ALT-GALAXY to look around. Look at my expansion possibilities to the south:

   

That was certainly the worst map I have ever rolled.

[haphazard1]

Very bad map, SpaceOwl. Silicoids with no expansion options other than going through the bears? Ouch.

Even if you could get space superiority over Stalaz and Neptunus, trying to hold them against bear transport waves would be brutal. Maybe you could keep bombing them out until you could take control, but the cost in pop to fight the bears would be horrible for the rocks. And while you were doing that, the other races are probably expanding like mad.

Thanks for sharing, SpaceOwl. I feel a little better about my bad games and getting crushed, knowing I am not alone.

[SpaceOWL]

BUT WAIT! There's more:
- the 3 colships in the screenshot were also armed with lasers!
- Bulrathi's leader is Agressive (and militarist IIRC)
- the Meklar are alone in the SW corner with many habitable planets and will definitely run away with the game

Definitely the perfect storm.

I think the best move here would be to rush for DS2 and a missile base in the colony (size 70 arid).
For that I would practically empty out Cryslon and sent most of the pop to the planet on the front.
And then hold the line and pray to find Fusion Bombs on the tech three...