Terra: Evolutions 1&2

They're back! Now with Evolutions out, (which has really shaken up the ISG Universe), I decided to bring my Terrans out of storage and see how they hold up in this new environment.

As it’s been a long time, let me quickly re-introduce my custom race, which will be taking the place of the stock humans in this session.


As you can see, these guys are highly efficient and are good at many things, the only drawback, (and it’s a huge one), is that they will be few in numbers throughout the session. That population growth penalty in conjunction with my settings, is just asking for trouble. It’s a strategic drawback that is meant to be addressed by tactical finesse. In other words, this is the hard way to victory, (or defeat).

Speaking of settings let’s quickly have a look at them.




Ouch, this isn’t for the faint of heart. These settings, even on a huge map only, mean a very long game…or a very quick defeat. Pay particular attention to the X2 spacing of star systems, this makes drive tech and range far more critical factors than normal. The 25% tech rate really stretches out the early game, and the starting tech advantage held by the AIs increases in significance.

The reduced production rate isn’t much of a factor but needed to be included for balance. Few specials, monsters and minor civilizations are also for balance purposes, otherwise the session can unwind quickly.


My start is shown here, a decent placement with a few systems nearby, hopefully I’ll be able to find some real-estate early. I set out my Frigates to do preliminary fly-by surveys of the systems in range. I also adjusted my Homeworld to 40% production and began construction of an outpost ship. Right now I’m in no rush to build anything, I just want to hoard cash.



I’m also adding a shot of the research I’m pursuing, note the queue. I may alter this if needed, but this often works for me. The Econ cap is usually researched by the time I hire my first colony leader and set them on my HW. That leader than asks for…(you guessed it)…an econ cap. (Putting down one of those on my HW early is great for generating cash while also fulfilling a leader desire).



That's it then, let's see where this goes.

 

My early exploration efforts didn’t yield much, (no surprise for these settings), and I only found a small desert world worthy of colonization. At least I did pick up the delightful redhead and assigned her to my Homeworld. Early on, her best asset is that she accelerates cultural progress tremendously.

By turn 36 shown below, I already had a new colony up and running while my outpost ship is only 10 turns away. Don’t be fooled by the number of turns-to-completion being shown in the screenshot, notice I have an infrastructure pick. I used that to speed up ship construction while also setting the rate to 80%. This will help me finish the current project quickly as Red has requested an Econ cap, and I want that up and running fast.

I also found ruins at Xeala (which would yield a nice amount of credits), and two sources of Helium 3. I took militarized fusion as a result.


Thirteen turns later I already had an outpost at Xeela up and running and the Econ cap was complete. With additional systems now in range, I set out and explored them as well, discovering a medium sized desert world at Marsell as well as additional ruins. I’ve started construction on a colony ship specifically for that system.

You can note the impact of setting the research rate very low in this second shot. Asteroid mining, (the 4th research in my initial queue), still needs a few turns to complete. At least my treasury is thriving for this stage of the game, and that will allow me greater freedom with any events that may come up or any leaders looking for work.



Speaking of leaders, I have three right now and will probably pick up more, take a look at what’s already available to me.


Finally, I want to show you my cultural picks so far. I’ve skipped the free colony ship for increased star-map speed, and plan on taking my next pick in wealth. Once I do that, I won’t have to worry about the treasury for a long time. My sixth pick will go into Evolutions, and that means I should have a plethora of leaders available throughout the game, (what between the natural occurring ones and the Androids).

 

The ruins at Marsell yielded Wan Ironshed who quickly joined my merry band of leaders. A short while after that I encountered the Moltar, which was no surprise considering the types of planets that were in my vicinity.

The Moltar of course demanded tribute very quickly, I bit my tongue and accepted as there was no way I could fight a war just yet.




I spent the following turns eating through some of my budgetary surplus as I picked up more leaders for my small empire. I now had six of them and they were costing me a combined 35BC per turn, a considerable sum for this stage of the game.



At least by this time I had expanded a bit more and added another starting Frigate to my fleet, (done so I could assign a leader). I also began construction of my first Destroyer, (it had a couple of heavy lasers and two standard nuclear missile batteries). I was still too weak at this stage of the game to cause any trouble, so I kept a low profile.

 

Things are getting busy now.

First I encountered the Draguul on turn 87, they too demanded tribute, but this time I declined. My treasury was now running a deficit and I wasn’t feeling charitable.



By turn 100 my deficit had increased further, but at least I was constructing a second Destroyer for my tiny fleet.


Now you may be wondering what happened that made my large per turn surplus turn into deficit so quickly, so I’ll show you. (They say a picture is worth 1000 words right?)



Yep, 8 leaders total costing 46BC per turn, (on top of building maintenance) was the culprit. No matter, I eventually set up trade treaties with both my neighbors and things stabilized a bit…but not for long.

More leaders showed up looking for work. It got to the point where I scrapped my Survey ship for cash, (eventually rebuilding a new one), just so I could hire them.



Even still, I couldn’t hire Sophia Santini when she showed up as I had nowhere to send her. But ten leaders is already more than enough when additional characters are guaranteed by my evolution pick. I continued apace, researching and exploring the space around me. At some point I received a message that the Moltar had broken all treaties with everyone due to some evolution of their species.

By this time I had enough tech to design my basic series of ships. These were designs featuring tungsten armor, class 2 shields, heavy autofire lasers and fast, eccm, mirv Nuclear missiles. The frigates for example had just the missiles and point defense weapons, a Cruiser in comparison had 4 of the heavy lasers and 2 missile batteries. Basic, but for this stage of the game, these ships were adequate.

Now before continuing, I want to talk about leaders a bit. I dislike the greedy and envious traits, I understand why they were included, but as a player you hate to see one of your leaders that you’ve carefully nurtured, become a pain in the ass all of a sudden. What to do?

Well, this kind of works for me. Colony leaders are pretty much out of my control, the only thing I can say is that you need to avoid acquiring leaders that have very similar traits, it’s almost guaranteed that one of them will become envious in such a case. Ship leaders…do not keep them in the same fleet, even if they don’t have the lone wolf trait. It may be my imagination, but it seems the envious trait is far less likely to fire if these guys and gals aren’t hanging out together. Greedy unfortunately is harder to control, but try and make sure that they don’t level up too quickly as that also seems to play a role.

Where was I? Oh yes, the Moltar. For some unknown reason they attacked me at Diph, an empty system where one of my Frigates was located just so I could station a leader away from the rest. A cruiser of theirs showed up and my Frigate withdrew. I got angry, so I sent some of my own ships to smack down the miscreants.

Now look at this shot



This is right after their attack on me, and you can see my own fleet trying to intercept. You can also see I have a leader ready to level up, that’s Vuzz my explorer, he reached expert level on this. Which lead to…



That’s a great ship for this stage of the game, but by no means invulnerable. A single Cruiser of my own would lose against it, but my Cruiser with a few smaller escorts would destroy it. So while it’s great to get this ship, (and I love how the textual description reads), I will still need to protect it and not do anything rash.

 

I counter attacked the Moltar and captured their outpost at Zrers which expanded my logistical range. I then destroyed their outpost at Gorilia as it was too far flung for me to hold. Fighting a war with 12 ships total, (8FF, 2DD, 2CA), some of which still aren’t refitted, is not ideal.

Wan and Kxuta, my colony leaders at Umia and Marsell respectively, are now busy constructing the items they requested. Wan also asked for a ridiculous sized defense fleet for his system, meaning that in the middle of my war, most of my forces are baby-sitting Umia. (Thanks Wan…you twit).

At my Homeworld I’m close to completing a colony ship, after which I’ll pump out a few warships. I’m also surveying a minor civilization that I detected at Creninav, (that’s another war-ship pulled away from the front so Vuzz can study some rocks and be protected).

Meanwhile I’ve hit another cultural milestone and another leader will now become available, bringing up my total to 11, I’ll probably go for a colony governor this time as I already have 7 leaders in space, most of them commanding single ship fleets.

 

Synergy, this game is teeming with it, we can all agree on that, yet in this session it’s synergy that’s hurting me (or rather the lack thereof).

Specifically have any of you noticed that I still have an uncommitted freighter fleet? That’s because so many turns into the game I’ve yet to find any asteroid belt larger than small. That means no asteroid mines, (they aren’t worth it on anything less than a medium belt). That in turn means lower production on my HW, which means fewer warships, over-all colonies, outposts and buildings. Normally even at these settings I’m more developed than what you see here. It kind of sucks, but hey, that’s the cards I was dealt. Anyway, back to the game.


Turn 190 and yet another ship leader showed up looking for work, this one is from a minor civilization and I don’t want to pass him,(it?), up. The problem is it’s already quite crowded in my fleet, so I’ll wait till he’s ready to leave before signing him up.

I repulsed a Moltar raid at Helios easily enough, and haven’t made any forays of my own. Basically I’m just holding the line for the time being, but to be honest, I didn’t want this war anyway. (What can I say, I'm getting old and my war-mongering ways are suffering)

The treasury is running with a deficit but my cash reserves are holding out (partial thanks goes to Vuzz, who found lots of BCs exploring). Soon though, both Wan and Kxuta will have their requested buildings. While this is good from one perspective, it will increase the per-turn deficit further.

I’m also detecting approaching ships from the north belonging to a race I’ve yet to meet, and I’m three turns away from fully surveying the minor civilization at Creninav.



Let me also take the opportunity to show what my tech looks like, see the shot below. All the basic techs needed for defense have been researched. Drive tech would be pretty paltry if it weren’t for my +2 speed via cultural pick, but as things stand, I think I can hold my domain quite nicely.

 

Exactly one turn later the Moltar offered peace and I accepted. It was a strange war anyway, it started over nothing, had little action, and ended for no reason at all. At least I got a system out of it and will be jealously guarding it.

My survey of the minor civilization concluded, so I now introduce you to…



My research on improved logistics also concluded shortly after, bringing additional systems within range. I sent Vuzz out do some more exploration and he encountered another minor civilization at Mada along with some ruins. This civilization was already fully surveyed by another faction so I would not get to select its bonus. However, as it was in neutral space, I would still benefit from its presence.



The initial search of the ruins yielded some useless information on some star system I could care a less about, however the secondary search…well that yielded another fine ship for my small fleet.

 

I remember a time back in pre-alpha days, when there were only 14 leaders total in the game. Now I have 14 leaders just to myself, (at a cost of 128BC per turn), and only three of them are androids. Of course it should be understood that I expended some effort in keeping their overall cost at a manageable level this far into the session.



Apart from the individual you see in the shot, I also have Constantine, Yang, and my explorer Vuzz. Since the introduction of Evolutions, this number of leaders is not atypical.

I finished research on the Galactic industrial conglomerate and will switch over my Homeworld’s production to that building as I want to ensure no-one else beats me to this wonder. At the same time I’ve set my research queue with the goal being to design second generation warships. Once the research shown is complete, I will select a category in the fifth weapons field. Doing so will allow me to miniaturize both the particle accelerators and Polaris missiles to the minimum degree required for my tastes. My designs will then switch to kinetics, (both for main guns and PD weapons). Immediately afterwards I will research enhanced targeting algorithms as the kinetics suffer too much without this tech.



But that is a long ways off. For the here and now, I’ll survey some more systems and continue to build up. In the meantime, the Draguul have attacked the Moltar and taken one of their systems, I’ll need to keep an eye on the Lizards, though for the time being we are on good terms.

 

With the “little” war over, I reverted to expanding and developing my underwhelming empire. I even managed to find a medium asteroid belt and directed its output to my Homeworld. Still, this session is very stingy when it comes to belts and strategic resources, (I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a play-through when I had such scant availability of these things).

It was then on turn 262 when I finally made contact with another faction, this time it was the Sulak to my north. Luckily there appeared to be a considerable buffer zone between us as my fleet was still tiny for this stage of the game and I could not afford friction with them.



My leader total was now grown to fifteen, with ten ship leaders and five colony governors. This was also when Dexana showed up looking for work. She had the envious trait and was looking at a per-turn cost of 110BC. In contrast, all 15 of my leaders had a combined cost of 155BC, which just confirmed my suspicion that the AI factions don’t manage heroes well. I turned her down of course.

Fifteen turns later I encountered everyone, except for the Cerrix who were eliminated on the same turn. (That faction does poorly in most of my games but I was still not too thrilled to see a contestant removed before the first galactic vote). That vote by the way, was between the Sulak and Kaek.



So where do I rate in the grand scheme of things?

Dead last. As I indicated at the beginning of the session, my overall settings, even with only a 20% production/research bonus to the AI in comparison to my own rates, mean that the initial advantage held by the AI cannot be overcome easily.

 

The rankings didn’t worry me much, with the slight exception of not wanting to see the possibility of winning by vote disappear; and so I shrugged off every tribute demand that came my way.

By now I had reached the point where my next series of upgraded designs were available and started to produce a few more ships. I also decided to expand somewhat by military means, and resumed the war against the Moltar by sending a small fleet to attack and occupy Munaganto.



No sooner had I taken my intended target when the Draguul and Nova piled on the hapless Lava-heads. I was left without additional targets as a result. And here I paused to consider my options and possible actions.

Logistics favored an attack on the Draguul…but there was a problem. The Lizards were my closest friends, and I don’t turn on friends, (unless of course they provide cause to do so). The Sulak were another possible target, but they were at the edge of my range, which presented a set of drawbacks.

I decided to stand down instead. My goal now is to build new warships to the maximum extent allowed by my SSP, and then refit my older ships. I would also offer a research treaty to the Draguul and strengthen our bonds further. The Draguul for their part were fighting the Palacean, so I intend to keep strong forces on the border and aid my Lizard friends if things get too tough for them. As for the Sulak…their time would come sooner or later.

 

All quiet on the Galactic front.. at least for me that is.
My Draguul friends surrendered to the Lobsters, and I'm not happy about that. At the same time the Sulak are expanding in what I consider my sphere of influence.
So be it.
Look at the map, I'm assembling ten different fleets and it's slow going. Some of these will be more potent than others, some marked for offense and others for defense. My intent is to strike the Sulak and coordinate my first attack to hit at least five of their systems in a single turn. Let's see how they deal with that.

Soon.

Oh, I have 16 leaders now...

 

But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

Or in plain terms, the best laid plans of mice and men...or in this case me.

It took forever to refit my fleet but it's finally done. It also took quite an effort to position the right leaders with the right forces, in the right places. That is almost done. I'm still looking to build more warships however and thought I was a few turns away from initiating a war with the Sulak. Then this happened.


See those two surrender flags? Both the Nova and Kaek (who were running for a galactic vote victory), surrendered to the Palacean. That means it's quite possible the Lobsters win the vote which is only a few turns away. (And they still control the Draguul as a vassal).

Phooking great. My forces are in the wrong position for any conflict with the Palacean but I can't afford to let this go. Like it or not, I will attack the Lobsters now (and leave the Sulak be). I can only hope that not too many of their vassals join in.

 

I had my fleet split up into ten task forces, four of these were positioned to the North. I pulled one of them away and sent it to where I thought the action would be as I attacked the Palacean at the only place I could, Ilnolla.


Guess what happened after that?
Nothing, absolutely nothing. The Palacean never counter-attacked, the other factions cheerfully made war on one another and ignored me, it was as if I didn't exist. It's strange, I have another session going where both my neighbors attacked me before turn 90 and I've been fighting ever since, here it's completely different. As I said in another post, you never know what you're going to get with ISG.

I accepted peace sometime later and decided to see if there is a way for me to win this without resorting to a galaxy wide war, we'll see, In the meantime, I have 19 leaders total now, 14 of which are biological. The Moltar eventually collapsed and of the six races left, I'm number 5...but with the number one fleet, perhaps that's why the other factions are avoiding me. It is strange though that with only 100 SSP worth of ships, I have the largest fleet in the galaxy.

The vote now is between the Sulak and Palacean, but I don't know how long that will be the case, take a look at the Galaxy as it stands right now and you'll see who the clear number one is. That said, I've expanded nicely myself.

 

I got bored. I attacked the Sulak.

I sent out some ships and hit them at Gorillia and Iforas, here's what happened.

At Gorrillia I took their tiny colony first and then their asteroid base un-opposed, then they counterattacked. Their ships had class VII shields and Wurzite armor, mine class III and Tritanium. But of course I had a leader and they did not. The second BB barely escaped.


At Iforas I wasn't able to destroy the colony I found there (I mistakingly thought it was an outpost) as none of my ships has bomb racks, no matter I swung by Doradus and destroyed the base there instead.

The Sulak attempted some raids after that, going as far as hitting Tatlairs. The Raiders were all small ships, none of them survived. Though their evolution bonus was in play and they also had full neutronium armor, I was quite prepared to counter those things.

Now there's more bad news for the Sulak. My ships are old 2nd generation designs, 3rd generation is being produced now...and they are far better armed and shielded. It's just the opening rounds but as I said, I'm bored. I intend to crush them and free my Draguul friends from their yoke (The Draguul had surrendered to them previously).

The situation on the map is here



The Rankings here. I've moved up slightly but my fleet has fallen to number two. I am not worried in the slightest.

 

Hmm, I attacked out of boredom and then realized I didn't actually have a plan.

Looking at yesterday's map I decided to go with the obvious and nothing fancy. Eliminate the Sulak positions to my east so as to reduce their abilities to conduct operations from there, and then attack them in the north. The main difference is that I was going for destruction in the former and occupation in the latter.

So I did just that. I killed a Battlestation at KLE, and then destroyed the colony and two outposts there. I also destroyed their colony at Iforas. Resistance was minimal and I destroyed a Cruiser and Destroyer during this time.

My own operation are hampered by drive tech. I have fusion drive and +2 speed, meaning an effective speed of 5. With a X2 star spread, it makes it difficult for my units to support one another. I'm researching Anti-matter drive now and when it's complete, I'll have an effective speed of 7 which will makes things considerably easier for me.

Another vote occurred and the Sulak alone have over 300 votes to cast, I have a little over 100. It's going to be a while before I can alter that and get myself in the running. The Palacean are second in the running and have less than 200 votes to cast.

 

With over 50 ships at my disposal, separated in 10 different commands, I was able to both attack at will and defend myself against the constant Sulak raids easily. There were no major battles mind you, just raids. Still, I destroyed about a dozen ships in the next few turns and managed to take control of Truac.

In the middle of this the Sulak offered peace, which I declined. But now with many of my objectives achieved, I offered them peace myself. I expected them to decline my overtures as our relations were now beyond horrid (razing colonies and outposts will do that), but to my surprise they accepted. If I didn't know any better, I would be thinking the AI factions are purposely trying to avoid being at war with me.

So now once again I'm at a crossroads, what to do next? Geography favors that I take into my possession Iforas, Azuno, Wodzu, Marz, and Sofiella. These are Draguul systems and Ihave nothing against the Lizards in this session, quite the opposite. However it's becoming clear that they are unable to defend themselves, they are last in power and probably will be conquered at some point by one of the other factions. Would it not be better then to take them into my empire instead and assimilate them?

My goal is the win obviously, but just for once, I want to get it via vote.

Edit

Almost forgot, I have 20 leaders now...

 

I couldn't bring myself to do it. I decided I wouldn't attack my Lizard friends after all, (I must be getting sentimental in my old age).

Instead I decided to just sit back and observe while building up the fleet and Empire.

Now I have what I consider a potent fleet, with still some slight room for expansion, and a very large state that is becoming more developed as the game progresses.
The Sulak, Nova and Palacean are probably the only powers that could contest me right now, but I doubt that any one of them would fare well one-on-one with my Terrans. I'm in a wait and see mode, another election will be coming up soon and I want to see what will happen.

P.S. I now have my fleet in 11 separate commands.

 

That's a very viable approach @SilasOfBorg and it may have helped me in this case. Obviously this many turns in, most of space near my territory has been explored, but I may have found the larger asteroid belts quicker had I done as you suggest.

The thing is this session is atypical, I wish I had used another for the AAR. What I mean is that I don't feel threatened at all in this one.

Look at this instead


It's a session I'm playing concurrently with the AAR. Ignore the colonies that show nothing being built as they finished re-fitting some ships.

Let me tell you about this one. I ran into the Kaek and Nova (now defeated) early. The Kaek expanded rapidly and declared war. I've been fighting for about 200 turns and barely holding on. They (the Kaek) have an inexhaustible supply of ships and only my drive tech is allowing me to hang on. (I have hyperdrive +2 for a speed of 8). This allows me to juggle forces around and parry the Kaek attacks...barely.

The Kaek for their part have destroyed my star-bases and dozens of ships. Yes, I've destroyed more of theirs and even captured a few, but I don't know if I can survive much less win. You can also see that the Asteroid situation is horrible in this session, though I doubt I could hold more territory even if I find suitable belts.

Most of my ships are still 1st generation as I'm having to choose between upgrading and producing new units to make up for my constant losses.

This is ISG at it's finest for me. I'm left wondering if I should just switch sessions in this AAR and report on this one instead. I don't feel as if the original session is doing justice to the game, or showing what it is capable of doing.

What do you think, would it be wacky to just jump into the middle of a different Universe? Should I do it or just stay with what I started?