So, I'm starting my first real game after a clumsy attempt in the tutorial. This will be fun.
And possibly FUN!!!, but we'll see.
I choose the Peltians as my starting planet because the "Space Fortress" sounds cool and they seem like they'll be easy enough to get back on my side, or at least somewhat recover from the negative malus at the beginning, esp. if I do the docking platform resolution, which I do.
Alright, so the Evucks want terraforming tech. This won't boost them to space, apparently, so I won't piss off the Peltians too badly, and it gets me to "Favored" status with the Evucks. This will be nice. Meanwhile, I get the Peltians to establish a trade route with the non-spacefaring Thoraxians, and the Skylaxians become spacefaring. With this in mind, my strategy becomes as follows:
1: Poke and prod the Peltians and Skylaxians to form a decent friendship, eventually (hopefully) leading to a Federation. The Skylaxians will be good for getting other races in, (Right now I've got my eyes on the Andors, who are not yet spacefaring but would make a decent addition, and the Evucks, who like me a lot at the moment.
2. Use the growing relationship between the Peltians and the Thoraxians to get the latter into the Federation, which should give me a military force that'll prevent the warlike races from instantly assuming that we're a bunch of weaklings.
3. Deal with everyone else as becomes necessary.
This is more easily said than done. I accidentally screw up by accepting a "smuggle spacefaring tech" mission to the Evucks. I should have read that text more carefully. At this point, the "coward" malus is better than the huge penalties I'd accept by completing the mission, so I withdraw. The Evucks only "like" me now, but that's fine. I can make it up to them later. Unfortunately, the Peltians now "hate" me and I'm in the negatives, albeit small ones, with everyone else, so I've lost a lot of diplomatic ability. A few trade routes, tech shares, and the like, and I am back in business to a degree.
The Burlusts become spacefaring, but I don't really care right now. They can go do their own thing. The Acutians, though, are a problem. They start out weak, so I help them with Armada construction.
That was a mistake.
Some time in, they've got more than double the Armada power of everyone else and are going to war against the Skylaxians. This is bad, since I need the Skys for my plan to work. Thus, intervention becomes necessary. Sorry Master Sun, I couldn't win without fighting. Wouldn't be much of a video game if I could, anyhow. I come to the aid of a Skyxlaxian science outpost, but it gets destroyed anyway, and I learn to appreciate the deadly effect of Monitors. Also, Velociters are annoying, but also kind of fun.
Is this supposed to happen? So many notifications for one outpost down.
Anyway, the political scene currently looks like this:
Once the Thoraxians become Spacefaring, I might be able to get them to make the Fed with the Peltians. Might. If not, Peltian/Andor is a decent possibility. I think that the Skylaxians are busy with their war, but that might also make an alliance appealing to them. We shall see. Another alternative would be to boost relations between the Thoraxians and the Andors, which would create a fearsome Triumverate, since the Pelts have the second most powerful navy and the Andors the third.
An alliance between the robot utopians, the communist farmers, and the vicious hive mind. That would be something, if I could pull it off.
The Acutians are still as powerful as the next two combined. Something needs to be done about that. After my defense, the Skies have begun a limited counter-offensive. Joining them could put the hurt on the enemy and increase their opinion of me. I am in need of tech, so some tech raids will be beneficial too.
