Author Topic: The Art of War  (Read 7197 times)

Offline Coppermantis

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The Art of War
« on: April 22, 2014, 02:38:47 am »
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:
Quote
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.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2014, 02:47:42 am by Coppermantis »
I can already tell this is going to be a roller coaster ride of disappointment.

Offline tylertoo

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Re: The Art of War
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2014, 09:44:53 am »
Nice job.  Looking forward to more.

Offline Coppermantis

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Re: The Art of War
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2014, 10:27:25 pm »
I dueled a Burlust Warlord to get some influence with them. I've heard complaints about these battles and have now discovered why. They're more than easy to kite; all I have to do is keep clicking in one direction and autofire. Heck, I even had to slow down so that I didn't get too far ahead for my shots. So I win that and am now "Favored" with the Burlusts. Good, I guess. They're not in my plans for initally forming the Fed, but they might be useful.


This was pretty much the whole battle.


Meanwhile, I realize why the Acutians stopped pursuing the Skies. They're after the Andors now. Not if I have anything to say about it.

...

So, why is Spreadshot the max DPS against everything? Shields, no shields...it doesn't matter. I've never had reason to use minigun or Mass Driver.

...

Oh boy, now the Acutians are after the Skies again. And, for some reason, if I help, I lose a lot of influence with the Peltians for "opposing them in war," even though they aren't at war (according to the relation chart, at least.)

As such, I embark on a dispatch to improve race relations. More than halfway through, though, I get a message from the Thoraxians asking me to give them Terraforming specs. I do this, and get +80 influence, bringing me to "favored." This is good.



Once the Thoraxians become Spacefaring, we'll see about getting them into a federation with one of my other target races. Come to think of it, it's odd that they can have a trade route with the Peltians before becoming spacefaring. Hmm.

...

Good, so the Peltians are no longer involved at the Sky homeworld. I can fight the Acutians as I please, now. Also, the Thoraxians became spacefaring, which is good too. Let's see what I can do.

Meanwhile, we put the Acutians down hard. Their total space power is now a meager 347, making the Peltians the dominant power in the solar system. If I can improve relations with them, we might be able to pull off this Federation thing.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2014, 10:42:47 pm by Coppermantis »
I can already tell this is going to be a roller coaster ride of disappointment.

Offline Coppermantis

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Re: The Art of War
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2014, 11:22:37 pm »
The political scene has become...complex. A little.


All this basically does is rule out the Boarines, Burlusts, and the Evucks. For now; I'd rather not have to deal with warring races at the moment.

Instead, I form the Federation with the Peltians and the Andors. A good start, considering their powerful, powerful armadas. Presently running missions to get enough credit to push the Thoraxians in, since they have great/decent relations with the Pelts and Andors, thanks to my actions.

...

And, after getting 30k credit from doing an AFA Cleanup mission, I've got what I need to pull in the Hive Queen. Woohaa.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2014, 11:53:48 pm by Coppermantis »
I can already tell this is going to be a roller coaster ride of disappointment.

Offline Coppermantis

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Re: The Art of War
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2014, 02:30:36 am »
After a lot of war, the Boarines are gone completely and...well, something happened while I was doing a dispatch. I wasn't paying attention, and genocide happened. Outside of the total elimination of the Boarines.

Here's the Peltian fleet before:




And then, when I start paying attention again, I notice that all those little fleets are gone. All of them.



Wtf.

They just lost 250 Armadas worth of ships, in what looks like a single battle, where it looks like the Acutians fought hard to acquire...the remains of my homeworld. Great, let's see how that works out for them. Still, to throw away such a colossal force, that's some WH40K stuff right there. But the others didn't even lose anything, so that must have been utter ineptitude on the Peltians' part. Whadda you expect from space owls, I guess?



Acutian population tanked a while back, too. Possibly related to casualties during their assault on the Boarines. The latter's population zeroes out at the same time, so that is a plausible hypothesis.

...

Anyone else think that the combat sim on the Solar Map looks like Eufloria?
I can already tell this is going to be a roller coaster ride of disappointment.