So, I'm in the middle of a game on TOA that has been one of the most interesting I've had in some time, especially in the way my allies and enemies have been repeatedly shaken up, unlike a normal game where diplomatic relations are frequently static overall. It's not over yet, but it will be soon, so this is technically not an After Action Report.
There isn't really going to be any story here, as that tends to make writing these things take much longer and would probably get it abandoned like my other AARs have more or less been.
Settings
This game was actually the one I described in this post - the idea was to have twelve "major" races by creating minor race versions of the Thalan and Yor - which I deemed the civilizations that would make the most sense to have under the restrictions of being a minor race - and playing with the other major races. Six non-colonizing minors rounded it out.
This was begun before I did any real tech tree modding, though things worked out surprisingly even anyway.
Other settings included
Immense galaxy
Tight clusters for stars (combined with a range penalty mod, this resulted in a longer game then normal)
Common everything for planet/star settings
Mega events on
Tech trading, but no tech brokering
Super Abilities off (I was a bit tired of Super Diplomat making for easy alliance wins)
All victory conditions enabled
Part 1: The early expansion
I found my Terrans starting near the left-most corner of the galaxy. Earth was a relatively mundane planet, but did possess a 300% manufacturing bonus tile, which proved a mixed blessing - while it enabled me to turn out colony ships quickly, it also took a hefty toll on my economy. Not helping matters was the loss of my survey ship - imaginatively named the TAS Enterprise - to a wormhole that sent it halfway across the galaxy.
The economic woes caused me to expand relatively slowly. During this time, I encountered the Iconians, to my left in the very corner, and the Korx to the right, as well as the Scottlingas and Carinoids. The Enterprise also encountered the Drengin on its way back to known space.
I set up trade routes to the Korx and the minors, which, combined with the construction of an economic capital on Earth, helped me solve the economic issues. In early 2228, my region of space looked something like this:
Expansion continued for some time after this - I discovered an economic resource in the void "north" of Earth that further helped solve the economic crisis, and expanded into the Carinoids' home cluster (located to the south on the minimap), though all the remaining non-extreme planets in this cluster were claimed by the Iconians.
Overall, the colony rush wasn't a huge success for the Terrans, though my planets certainly represented a triumph of quality over quantity - Quatrale I (located near the center of the screenshot above) had two 300% research tiles and became my technological capital, while the unclaimed second world in the Carinoids' home system was a PQ 20 wonderworld.
An early random event. The Scottlingas had this happen to them several times, which would have an important effect later on.
By the beginning of 2229, the galaxy had begun arming for war. It didn't take long for the Drengin to get up to their usual tricks, with one of the most astonishing demands for tribute I have ever seen:
Needless to say, I denied their request...
But it was a problem I would have to deal with. Also hostile were the Iconians, thanks to some overlapping borders they weren't happy about. Only the Korx (with almost no military) were friendly.
I started building fighters myself, but also tried an unorthodox strategy to deal with the Drengin: I exchanged research treaties with them. The AI (almost) never attacks its treaty partners for fear of the diplomatic hit that comes with it, and since the Drengin research was surprisingly good, I figured this would be the simplest way to fend them off. It did prevent a war, but the diplomatic penalty worked both ways - which would later return to haunt me.
My stats in mid-2229.
All other events, however, were abruptly halted by the Great Spy Infestation of June 2229.
I immediately removed all my foreign agents and used them to nullify some of the spies, but it would take a long time to finally rid myself of them. In the meantime, with my economy badly hit (again), I slowed down both expansion and shipbuilding, devoting much of my income to getting more spies.
Part 2 coming soon.
Yup liking this alot-your factual AARs are almost as exciting as some of the fiction I read on here mr
KUTGW!!
Oh, good, somebody's reading this thing. ("KUTGW"?)
Continuing...
Part 2: Allying with the aliens
Following the Great Spy Infestation, my space looked something like this - as you can see, not much had changed. The Korx, Iconians, and I all shared the "Carinoids Cluster" to the south. I had also begun exploring into Korx space (the gray area due east on the minimap).
I had barely noticed this event starting, but its ending made a difference in my ongoing border dispute with the Iconians.
The Scottlingas fighter was fairly advanced, product of those tech thefts, which would continue to occur for some time.
By way of contrast, the Iconian fighter was puny.
As one means of dealing with the economic issues caused by the Spy Infestation, I began developing small-hull survey ships and setting them to automated mode. This let them pick up a fair amount of bcs from anomalies, though one was lost to a wormhole that sent it (once more) into Drengin space.
Gradually, I beat back the spies. In the interests of helping my population grow, tax rates were kept just high enough so I was making a small surplus.
Wonders...
and general rankings during this time. Notice that the Scottlingas have the third-largest known military. The Torians had begun their attempt at ascension now - a threat that would last throughout the game.
At the beginning of December, first contact was made with the Torian Confederation.
The Torians were the most powerful race in the galaxy - and they would only grow stronger.
The UP meets. The tax was more expensive then I hoped for, but it did let me fine the pesky Iconian influence starbase near the Scottlingas system.
(cont.)
Due to the size of these screenshots, I'll be splitting this part into several posts. Anyone who knows how to do thumbnails with Photobucket, please let me know - it would be a big help.
KUTGW is keep up the good work my friend and yeah loving this
Yeh im lovin it to..keep it going.
Part 2 (continued)
Galactic rankings as the new year began, as the media saw them anyway:
By this point. Carinoids II was my only planet that had not been mostly developed. I made use of the extra space to begin construction of some wonders and trade goods, but I needed to continue colonizing if the Terrans were to stay in the game.
This trade with the Torians came in handy for that.
Currently, all I knew of the Torians was this starbase...
...but espionage had made it clear they were the game leaders. I didn't have much concerns about the ramifications of my trade, though - the AI never uses fleet modules, and Interstellar Governments would not do much to affect my diplomatic edge. The only problem was that there weren't many aquatic worlds around.
The galaxy's military leaders flex their muscle. These are the "minor-Yor" mentioned in the introduction.
April saw first contact with another alien race when my surveyor that had been transported to Drengin space encountered an Altarian scout. The Altarians proved to be a widespread civilization, though their core worlds turned out to be near the Korx.
A mega event occurs, more or less spelling the final end of all economic problems.
(Note to readers - sorry this isn't very long, but I've been rather busy. Besides, I think the screenshots compensate some.)
Why the 'final end'? Surely this is only a temporary mega event?
Apparently not - or at least I was never informed when it ended.
I have returned!
Part 3: The outbreak of war
Not too surprisingly, it was the Torians that started the game's first war, attacking the minor-Yor.
The Drengin weren't far behind, starting the first of at least three wars they would fight with the Altarians - who still had no military at all.
This was going to be a problem, as I was working hard on building relations with the Altarians. My choice of technology to trade them was no coincidence - the Altarians needed to build up fast if I was to ally with them, as otherwise they'd be a frequent victim of aggressive powers like the Drengin and Torians.
As the wars broke out, galactic trade was also on the rise. Most major races had multiple trading partners now:
My own trade routes:
The Iconian Crisis
As one of the above screenshots shows, my relations with the Iconians had now degraded to "Hostile". There were a few major causes for the problem - they had attempted to extort money from me, and influence issues at the Scottlingas system continued. By now, I had decided to try and outright annex the Iconian planets there with an influence starbase, but it was clear that the overall situation could only end in war. I didn't want to fire the first shot, so I took steps to try and provoke the Iconians into war:
The fact that the Iconians are listed here as being more powerful then I was is entirely due to numbers: while they did have a larger fleet, it consisted of highly primitive ships. My fighter, the Phoenix Class visible in several screenshots, was not all that more advanced, but it was easily a match for the Iconians, and as a significantly faster ship would have an additional edge over their pitifully slow ships.
However, at least according to the media, the war wasn't around the corner just yet.
Random events and wonders during this time included:
Albireo I was a low-PQ planet, so this wasn't as much of a help as it might have been, but it was still quite nice.
The Korx had, fittingly enough, wasted little time in establishing themselves as the economic giant of the galaxy. At this point they were ranked even higher then the Torians in that area.
Carinoids II continued to be the home for my various wonders and trade goods.
This wave of xenophobia cooled relations with the Iconians some by pushing our influence back from each others' border. It's not hard to understand why this might have happened "in-game" - wars continued to erupt:
The Torian-Korx war was the first I know of to involve actual combat - several invasions occurred. While the Korx still had no fleet at all, their soldiering skill was superior to that of the Torians, and they conquered several outlying Torian planets in their space.
It wasn't all war in the galaxy, though, as the Drengin and Altarians made peace after just two months, apparently without a shot being fired on either side.
Game's hotting up then?
Actually, things cooled down around this point.
Part 4: Allying with the aliens, redux
With the end of the Drengin-Altarian war, the only race engaged in wars of aggression was now the Torians. Still, tensions remained high between the Alliance and its Drengin and Iconian rivals, so I figured the time was right to start seeking some allies. The Torians were too powerful to realistically court, so that left the Altarians and Korx, both of whom were still largely lacking a military.
In order to both toughen them up and strengthen our relations, I gifted them my second-best laser technologies.
This bumped the Korx, at least, to "close", though it would take a few weeks before I could contact them again to formalize the alliance.
In addition to foreign relations, this offers a good picture of where everyone was in terms of overall power. The Altarians and Korx did have the potential for strong economies, but they hadn't yet reached it.
The overall turn of the galaxy towards more peaceful times was fittingly marked by the end of the ongoing xenophobia event:
The Altarians finally built a few warships. The Korx still had none, but they did have transports, and they continued to launch ground attacks against the Torians - so far, the war remained inconclusive.
Other notable events around this time included:
The Terran government formally became an Interstellar Republic.
A group of anti-Torian powers made an unsuccessful attempt to punish them in the United Planets. Even if the Drengin influence hadn't been so bad, it's unlikely the motion would have passed, but it was worth a shot.
As 2231 began, the Torians continued to flex their muscle. I felt no sympathy for the Iconians, but it was worth keeping an eye on.
The Korx finally built their first warship...
Now that neither of them were totally defenseless, I felt it was time to propose an alliance to the Altarians and Korx.
I offered them quite a few technologies as part of the deal. A weak ally would run the risk of drawing me into their wars, so I wanted to make sure both of them could defend themselves.
Next: galactic war breaks out, I make first contact with the Krynn, and the Iconian crisis heats up.
Nice writeup -- looking forward to more.
Part 5: Let slip the squids of war!
As 2231 continued, relations with the Iconians steadily worsened. I'm honestly not quite certain why things remained so hostile, but by this point I had abandoned all hope of a diplomatic solution. The Iconian military was slightly weaker then mine, meaning that it was unlikely they'd fire the first shot, but as my civilization was now leaning Good, I was reluctant to start anything either.
In retrospect, given the relatively small territory the Iconians controlled, a peaceful solution might have been possible after all - trying to culturally convert them. But while their planets in the Scottlingas system had been threatening to defect for a while, the effort need to convert most of their other worlds would be massive, and I didn't feel like it was worth it.
Before the Iconian war began, though, first contact occurred with another major race. While I'd had occasional reports on the activities of the Krynn, at this point I still had no actual knowledge of them. On February 22nd, however, the TAS Enterprise, still surveying out along the borders of known space, ran into a Krynn constructor.
Though larger and more advanced then my Terrans, the Krynn were immediately friendly, and, despite their treaty with the Iconians, were not a major concern in my region of space.
But they were a threat to several minor races. Until now, the minors had been largely ignored except by the Drengin and Torians throwing their weight around, but over a period of two weeks, multiple wars broke out.
While I had never even encountered most of these races, the Iconian attack on my feeble trading partners the Carinoids provided the roleplayer in me the pretext that I had been looking for to start the inevitable conflict. Combined with the fact that I had finally (danged tech inflation!) developed second-generation weapons in the form of Particle Beams I, and the time had arrived to strike.
I wasn't going to go it alone, though. My allies were out - the Altarians were too well-disposed towards the Iconians and too far away, and the Korx were too militarily weak and still fighting the Torians. But there was another potential player right in the thick of things:
All those techs they had stolen had given the Scottlingas one heck of a military. Combine that with their missile weapons - unique among those races I had met - and dislike of the Iconians, and they seemed like the perfect partner to join the war.
Which left only the formalities.
Nice to see one of the political parties living up to its name - despite forming the primary opposition, about half of the War Party still voted in favor of my declaration of war. I could have just opened fire on the Iconians at the Scottlingas System, but I'm playing the good guy here, remember?
War was beginning
My war aims were relatively simple. Though I had gained a slight edge over them, I was in no position to push for the complete conquest of the Iconians. My goals were therefore threefold:
I also wanted to save the Carinoids if I could, as they were ostensibly why I had declared war to begin with, but it wasn't really a priority.
One immediate setback occurred, however, thanks to a UP law I had all but forgotten about:
It didn't hurt that much, but one of my fleets was kicked out of Iconian space.
The Scottlingas, being a minor, were not affected, though, and the action was quick to start.
Though they took several casualties, the Scottlingas fighter swarm cleared the Iconian defenders from their home system.
My ships fought their first encounter on this turn as well
Not exactly what one might call a thrilling space battle.
I also made some more diplomatic maneuvers, ending the Torian-Korx war...
In retrospect, this was a mistake, as had the Torians chosen to restart the war I would have either been dragged into it or, more likely, be forced to sever my alliance with the Korx. Luckily, they apparently felt they had enough on their plate conquering the Akilians and Yor.
...and selling my soul to the Korx in exchange for saving 35 weeks of research on a technology vital to the war effort:
Question to my readers, such as they are: I took quite a few space battle screenshots (for both myself and AI-AI battles I watched, actually, though the former are much more visually interesting) during this war. On the one hand, I'd like to show them, but on the other, I still don't know how to post thumbnails, so they'd take up a lot of space. How do you feel about it?
Post away -- it'd be fun to see!
This has been a great read thus far, hope to see it continue. Having been playing a lot of Civilization V recently, this AAR really helps me appreciate how much more diplomatic manoeuvring you do in Gal Civ 2.
What difficulty is this game on?
Tough.
Part 6: The Iconian War continues
A few notable events occurred as I resumed the game here. The Krynn declared war on the still-unknown Korath Clan:
The Torians sent me some friendly greetings:
And an ethical event occurred. Even if I hadn't been planning to go Good, it was the preferable choice to the neutral option (if not, of course, the evil one).
Meanwhile, the Battle of Scottlingas II raged on...
While the Scottlingas fought on their front, my own forces had begun to engage the enemy in earnest. Task Force 34 took on defenders of one of the Iconian colonies in the Carinoids Cluster in my first actual fleet battle.
The results were less then satisfying. While the Iconians were defeated, in terms of raw damage inflicted, the battle was very nearly a draw. And these were fourth-generation ships of mine - the most advanced yet. It was not exactly promising for the future of the war.
Meanwhile, Task Force 27 went on a raid straight into the heart of Iconian space, targeting their trade routes...
...and annihilating an economy starbase near the Iconian homeworld itself.
As Task Force 34 pulled back to the nearest friendly colony, it was also able to destroy some soft targets, bushwhacking an Iconian constructor that had foolishly attempted to travel through my space.
The Iconians strike back
During the early weeks of the war, the iniative had been wholly with myself and the Scottlingas. But as things heated up, the Iconians' own mobile forces began to go into action. Their immediate focus was the Scottlingas system, where battles raged on. A two-ship force attempted to reinforce Scottlingas II was ambushed and destroyed by the Scottlingas...
...but a heavier formation wreaked havoc on the local starbases. Luckily, Scottlingas defenses eliminated them before any of mine were lost.
Furthermore, the Scottlingas might have been technologically advanced, but they were still a minor race, with the manufacturing capabilities of only a single planet (and one, according to my spies, that was mostly filled with research structures). The constant attempts to clear out the Iconian defenders from their system were starting to really hurt their fleet.
To be clear, the war was not going particularly badly. Overall, I was still very much on the offensive. But things weren't going quite as well as well as I planned, and steps were needed to turn things around. Objective one was to end the war of attrition in the Scottlingas system. While I had hoped to convince it to defect, Scottlingas II needed to fall as soon as possible, and as soon as the latest defender was eliminated...
Note the armor effect - the Scottlingas had begun using defenses to a greater extent then most of the major races.
...the army was sent in. Unfortunately, things did not go quite according to plan:
Despite the attack's failure, though, unexpected good news arrived as the Korx, completely out of the blue, joined the war on my side.
And, at least according to the media, the war was going all our way:
Some other notable events during this time:
The galaxy continues to slide back from its brief period of peace as the Drengin go after another minor race.
The Terran senate votes - the results were pretty much as expected.
And, in one of the most pathetic displays of AI feebleness I'd seen in some time, barely two months after the war began, the Korath give up the ghost. I still had never seen any trace of them.
And then there were nine. Or eleven, if one counts the "minor-Thalan" and "minor-Yor".
Great stuff!
Part 6, continued
The war continued into the summer of 2231, with battles mostly going the way of my alliance.
The Iconians launched a suicidal attack on one of my starbases, with predictable results.
Task Force 21 destroyed another Iconian defender at the Carinoids Cluster colonies.
The Scottlingas bushwhacked the Iconian flagship as it unwisely headed through the war zone.
And in the most significant success so far, the weakened Iconians on Scottlingas II were finished off by a second transport. The Terran Army had won its first major victory. Unfortunately, the alien nature of Iconian technology resulted in most of the planet's structures being destroyed, leaving me forced to rebuild. But it was nonetheless a significant victory.
But as the war raged on, a new danger was starting to emerge, out beyond the local region of space where all this had been happening. From my first contact with them years ago, I had known that the Torians were among the game's leaders. But now, they were emerging as a genuine superpower. Their chief rivals from early on, the Drengin, had gone into decline, victims of an economy completely unable to support their oversized military (which itself was no longer near an equal of that of the Torians). The Krynn - the other powerful civilization I had found - were playing a definite second fiddle to the Torians. I still knew nothing of the Drath and Arceans, but I seriously doubted that they would be anywhere near as strong. In short, the Torians had emerged as the most powerful race in the galaxy - and now they were starting to take an interest in some of my neighbors:
Also worth nothing in that screenshot: the time until ascension victory counter. Normally, the AI makes a pretty half-hearted effort about ascension victories, but the Torians meant it, and they were doing a pretty good job of getting there.
Even the Krynn were worried.
Meanwhile, the Iconian War was starting to witness some of its largest actions yet.
The First Battle of Kievi II
The Iconian colony of Kievi II was the first heavy target inside Iconian space proper that I had gone after. Although I could come close, my ships' range was not yet quite good enough to reach New Iconia itself: to get there, I would need either extensive research for a range enhancement, starbases - potentially vulnerable to attack - or a foothold on one of their planets proper. I still was in no position to try and outright conquer the Iconians, but simply being able to strike at their homeworld would be helpful. With my raiders of Task Force 27 already nearby, I picked Kievi II for attack. But first, there was the matter of the Iconian defenders.
Compared to earlier encounters, it was a fairly decisive victory - several of my ships were understrength, yet the Iconians were still beaten fairly decisively. Unfortunately, I had to pull out the survivors of Task Force 27 for repairs, giving the Iconians a chance to rebuild their defenses, so from a strategic standpoint, it was something of a failure. This would not be the last clash at the Kievi system.
In the meantime, though, some action did occur near New Iconia, as Task Force 21, which had been traveling steadily "up" into Iconian space, took on their most heavily developed economy starbase.
I don't know how much losing this starbase really set them back, but given the weak Iconian manufacturing, I'd be willing to bet it was quite a bit. Their economy had also noticeably started to suffer since the war began. I had also begun the process of moving in on the Carinoids Cluster colonies, though the first invasion at Sidal III was repulsed.
But the Iconians struck back again, launching yet another campaign into Scottlingas space. They destroyed a Scottlingas squadron at the uninhabited Cobra system, then took out the nearby influence starbase.
Luckily, this evidently did enough damage to thwart their counterattack - the Iconian fleet retreated into the fog of war and was never seen again. And it was a good thing, too - because things were about to get ugly on the diplomatic front.
The Drengin Crisis
As noted above, the Drengin were down - but they were by no means out. On September 22nd, they initiated a second war against the Altarians, which plunged me into a rather serious problem.
The Altarians were my ally, and a steady one at that. But I still had that blasted research treaty with the Drengin. The game doesn't distinguish between coming to your ally's defense and a normal war of aggression - if I honored my alliance, then I would be considered the one to have broken the treaty, and it would mean a big diplomacy hit. There was no real option: I had to break off my alliance.
But that didn't mean that I had to let the Altarians fend for themselves either:
As the Torians were unleashed on the Drengin, the Korx finally did something in the Iconian War, finishing off the defenders of Sidal III. I was glad enough that they had finally joined in that I didn't really begrudge them getting the planet.
By October, the tide seemed to be turning. Things looked bleak for the Iconians.
But being the enemy of my enemy did not make the Torians my friend... and they were even less friendly towards my ally. Trouble seemed to lie ahead.
Some other events during this time:
The minor-Yor finally make their presence known (I had heard from the Thalan a few times - despite never actually meeting them - but these guys had been wholly silent).
Perhaps for good reason.
The Akilians meet their fate, becoming the first minor race eliminated. Another sign of Torian power.
Next: Things get worse for the Drengin, the Iconian War reaches its climax, and a mega event throws everything else aside.
By the way, I know the AAR forums aren't very busy lately, but I'd really appreciate it if anyone who is reading this would provide some feedback.
Part 7: End of the war
The beginning of October 2231 saw another major clash with the Iconians at their southern colonies - specifically, the heavily defended world of Banfield II.
The victory by my newest fleet left the planet open to invasion, and Terran troops quickly landed.
The invasion was a success, although it did (once again) destroy most of the Iconian infrastructure. This was not a major issue, however - the Iconians had been virtually driven out of the Carinoids Cluster altogether, leaving me free to build up their former colonies at my leisure.
Meanwhile, I continued to take measures to cripple the Drengin without striking at them directly, by bribing the other giant of the game, the Krynn, to declare war. I still had no idea where the Krynn were, but my best guess put them close enough to the Drengin to do some damage.
Amusingly, the Drengin promptly showed up to ask me for help.
Under other circumstances, I might have said yes: making the Drengin more favorably disposed would go even further towards permanently removing them as a threat. But I was still peeved over having to sever my alliance with the Altarians, so I had no qualms about leaving them to suffer the consequences.
And in the last major bit of news this month, my first medium-size capital ship came online.
The end of the Iconian War
By the end of October, all of my primary war aims had been achieved. The Iconian colonies in the Carinoids Cluster had all fallen, either to myself or the Korx. The Scottlingas system was totally under my influence. The Iconian military had been severely weakened. I had even more-or-less saved the Carinoids by leaving the Iconians without the range to reach them. Furthermore, I now had other problems to deal with. The Torians continued to eclipse everyone else in power, and were coming closer then any AI I'd ever seen to winning an ascension victory. And while the Korx were my ally, they had begun to rapidly out-expand me: while I had focused on military techs, they had gotten just about every form of extreme colonization possible, and were now colonizing into my space.
It seemed like time to sue for peace.
However, the Iconians were clearly weakened, and I wanted to exploit that as much as possible. The "total victory" option was still off the table, but I intended to take as many of their planets as I could before it slowed me down too much, and this led to a costly defeat. Still intending on taking Kievi II, I sent Task Force 21 to clear out the defenders that had reestablished themselves in orbit.
Unfortunately, I had grossly underestimated the strength of the new Iconian ships. Task Force 21 was utterly destroyed.
The Iconians took the opportunity to launch another counterstrike against the Scottlingas system. A kamikaze fleet appeared from out of the fog of war and destroyed the defender on the Scottlingas homeworld before being wiped out. Foolishly, the Scottlingas failed to rebuild it, and an invasion fleet appeared from the same fog-of-war patch. Luckily, Task Force 16 was in the area - though a light fleet, it was enough to deal with the Iconian escorts.
The invasion was thwarted.
And then came the galactic plague.
The plague was the final blow to any plans I had to continue the war. Thanks to the TA "tech inflation", it was taking a very long time to research the military techs I was using to stay ahead of the Iconians. I now had to drop those in favor of researching a cure for the plague, which meant it was time to talk peace.
The Scottlingas remained at war - I wasn't going to offer the Iconians any concessions just to end that conflict, and the Scottlingas themselves weren't interested. I did make sure to get the Korx out of it, though - apart from anything else, I didn't want them to profit from the declining Iconians any further, ally or not.
A look at local space after the war. The Iconians have been pushed completely out of the Carinoids Cluster. The Korx, meanwhile, have begun expanding into my space with their new extreme colonization techs. To the "north", a series of military starbases are under construction as part of a plan for the TAS Enterprise to explore Torian space, still almost entirely a mystery.
The galaxy as a whole. Only about a quarter has been explored, and two major races, two "major minors", and three other minor races are still out there, waiting to make contact. Luckily, I now had the time for exploration.
2231 concluded with the meeting of the United Planets. Boosting the speed of constructors is always something I'm in favor of, and luckily the vote went in our favor (although had I known, I'd have rather voted with the Krynn and Iconians).
Although mentioning it chronologically would have upset the flow of things somewhat, this was a notable and disturbing event, given that I still planned to re-ally with the Altarians. Clearly, I would have to keep an eye on the Krynn.
Wonderful stuff -- I look forward to every installment.
This is a great read! Can't wait to see more developing.
I'm really enjoying this AAR. I love learning how other folks go about enjoying the game. Thanks qrtxian.
Thanks, everyone!
Part 8: I'm running out of pithy titles
As 2232 dawned, most of the galaxy remained focused on finding a cure to the ongoing Galactic Plague. The key word here, of course, being most.
Way to keep your priorities straight there, Eidden.
The Altarians, meanwhile, already had the cure.
I considered the possibility of a trade, but I knew that if I managed to research it on my own, I'd be able to trade it to various races in exchange for some decent rewards. With tech brokering off, that wouldn't be a possibility if I got it from someone else.
As the race for the cure continued, other events took place:
The Federalist Party, riding high on low taxes and more-or-less victory in the Iconian War, swept the Terran elections.
The Carinoids also underwent an election, with good news for them...
...but were subsequently attacked by the Korx.
With the development of medium-scale capital ships (even poorly-armed ones), the Korx continued to become more powerful, and they were starting to flex their muscles. They'd come a long way since their early days as defenseless traders. The nature of the alliance was shifting...
The end of the plague
Research on the cure was completed on February 1st, two weeks ahead of schedule.
I now faced the decision of whether or not to give it to other races. I decided to give it to the Krynn outright: as one of the galaxy's leading non-Torian powers, I knew that they would be a good race to have on my side, and this could boost relations.
I sold the cure to the nearby minor races, though I didn't get much for it.
Both the Korx and Torians had beaten me to the cure, which made this subsequent message from the latter extremely strange. I had no compunctions about accepting his offer, of course - entirely apart from their superior position in the current game, the Torians had tried to cheat me this way before, so it seemed a fitting comeuppance.
My last trade was the one I thought the most about. On the one hand, I didn't want to help out the Iconians. On the other, I really wanted their Diplomatic Translators. Ultimately, it came down to roleplaying my alignment - as a Good Guy, I wasn't going to deliberately let even my enemies fall victim to a plague, at least not while there was something to get in return.
As the plague came to an end, life in the galaxy returned to normal - in other words, an increasingly nasty set of wars. The Drengin, hard-pressed by the Torian-Krynn coalition, came to me for aid once again. This time, I accepted - I still wasn't feeling friendly towards them, but they were no longer a serious threat, and somebody had to stop the Torian menace.
The Korx continued their minor wars with a brief attack on the Scottlingas. The Scottlingas were important enough to me that I negotiated an ending towards this one quickly, though.
March also saw a major diplomatic victory as I succeeded in reestablishing my alliance with the Altarians, and got a new technology in the bargain.
The tech thieves of the Scottlingas struck again before the month was out. This made an important difference to their ongoing war with the Iconians - in addition to everything else they gained, the Scottlingas now had Planetary Invasion technology for the first time.
Though I was feeling pretty satisfied with my position right now, the media didn't share that rosy view. This wasn't a serious problem - it was hard to do as much research when most of the previous year had been occupied with a major war.
These are the voyages...
At the end of 2231, I had assigned my survey ship, the TAS Enterprise, to explore into Torian space, building a series of starbases to give it enough support. I still knew very little of the galaxy beyond my local corner, and it was time to make contact with some of the other races out there.
The Enterprise reached the Torian border around February, but it wasn't until two months later that it made first contact with a new civilization.
The Drath, overall, were not an impressive civilization, though they were at least superior to the pathetic Korath (by now, I had achieved a high level of intelligence on the Krynn, which let me learn that there had only ever been three Korath planets). They were small and technologically backwards, though they had at least managed to get Plague Cure on their own.
But they did have one significant advantage - battleships. Although I couldn't get them to part with Large Scale Building for love or money, I did manage to get the lead-up tech.
Trading diplomatic techs like this hurt, but I didn't want to give them weapons or colonization tech, and there wasn't much else to trade.
Back in known space, the Korx, after several months of idleness, had begun their attack on the Carinoids, destroying the various unarmed ships and starbases in the system. I wasn't happy, but there wasn't much to do about it either.
Note the Drengin-colored Korx ship in the upper right. The Korx had begun supporting their fellow evil race against the coalition forces.
The Korx fleet still wasn't incredibly impressive - compare their latest frigate to this older Torian design - but it was more then enough for the Carinoids.
Back in Torian space, the Enterprise continued to explore, and ran straight into a battle between the Torians and Yor - I had met my first "major-minor".
To call the Yor unimpressive would be a severe understatement, but in their defense, they'd been at war with the Torians for over two years. I had a feeling they wouldn't last much longer, so I quickly soaked them for cash.
And in final news for this period, the Altarians and I built several wonders.
Final outlook in summer 2232, including diplomatic relations...
As you can see, the Altarians and Drengin have once again made peace.
Local...
...and galactic boundaries...
...And some overall stats.
Next: the end of the Drengin?
Am I hallucinating, or does it look like you're in some difficulty here, trailing in economy and population?
I hate running against incomplete AARs (though at least this one is still updating)... The SUSPENSE!!!
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