Hot posts in thread: The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Playing ISG on 25% research

Sorry for not replying sooner I've been on sabbatical... Well its the second game I played in full at these settings with all the latest updates, and I can say the first game was totally different without quite the same impact and much more peacefull at least for the Humans (it went on for about 400 turns as well).
As to random events not all are good or can even be taken advatage off largely because the funds were not available, some like Adamantium you cant reject when designing a ship either but can be bypassed with Kenetic weapons in anycase, the point is I've never really relied on defensive Tek and ussually aim to improve fire power for a quick kill.
In this game I had researched Helium 3 but failed to take advantage of it quick enough so went into battle with a vanilla fleet initially, but was close.
Hyperdrive was an important find, but if it didn't turn up I think I could have done without it... prioritys would have been different though, but as I was largely playing a passive/agressive game once the Palaceans turned up (who were friendly in the first game), in what was quite a small area of space I think it would it would have been manaegable.

The game is quite different from its origins, the Natural Law DLC radically changed the behaviour of several of the factions in particular the Moltar and Draguul...
The Moltar used to be my go to "Allies" since their quite tough and most of time got picked on by multiple races, so I would send them ships credits and even military aid if it was appropriate... but this is no longer really possible.
The same could be said of the Draguul their particular evolutions can be highly detrimental to them...

The new galaxys in particular the spiral version is a game changer in itself, this was very true for the Draguul in this game, who once the Kaek surrendered to them had nowhere to go without a substantial increase in tek level.

During this game only the Android Evolution was used for Nordheim and very early, it was possible to go for the Achilles defence system maybe even by the Palcean war, but I've never found it necesary though there were some very tough battles in this game.

Anyway glad you enjoyed the AAR

 

Adam is an expert in certain areas, and quite smart, however he has an indie studio, meaning he has multiple roles to play, and in some of those roles he is not an expert. That's normal, overall I'm impressed with what he's done.

Most events were created and implemented at a time when ISG did not have different research settings, and I do not believe that any conditional statements were subsequently created to address the correlation between events/specials and research rates. (I suspect I know why this was overlooked).

let me offer some examples.

Once you encounter a monster, their offspring will start coming at you in a matter of turns. That's no big deal on normal settings, but if you're at 25% research, (or less), and it's early, you may just rage quit. (A Starbase could be 100 or more turns away, heck you may not even have nukes). I've also seen that many times with reduced research, I get Hyperdrive (which happens more often than not), early enough to gain a huge advantage. Same with Adamantium armor, or some other goodies.

So no. Unless I'm wildly mistaken, there is no limit tied into research rates, you have to manually address this when playing, (when and where you can), such as willfully not taking something you normally would, or reloading a previous save to avoid an event that will throw the session out of balance.

 

My experience with random events in various 4X games has usually been bad, just because they are so hard to balance. My most vivid memory was playing a tough game of Space Empires (4, maybe 5) where a single ruin gave me literally all the colonization techs very early on. There was literally no way I could have lost that game and I immediately quit and restarted with ruins off, which is how I play it to this day.

I have not encountered the same thing in ISG yet but I'm guessing that the timing / power of special events is NOT correlated with overall tech progress.. or maybe Adam is smarter than I give him credit for and there is some limit to event specials? Food for thought, what do you think Konstantine? You've played many games at both 100% and 25%, do the same specials show up any later on 25%?

 

If you played the original MoO2, you would notice that those type of things were far rarer, because as you infer, the more you have them, the more "luck" becomes a factor...also not my cup of tea.

They add flavor and color to the game, there's no denying that, so I set mine to few because the lower your research rate, the more impactful they are. I halved it again, now I'm playing at 12% research, just imagine the impact of finding Hyperdrive, (for example) early on...

It's a delicate balance, sometimes there's pressure to add more of everything from players, yet those same players may not be happy with the results when it's done. Luckily we can decide many parameters on our own when starting a session.

 

Really enjoyed this. Thanks Ironside!

I have yet to try a 75/25 but it looks like it makes for really interesting games.. except for random events/specials, it seems the whole game will swing on a bit of early luck (or not). That's not really my cup of tea.

 

The End of the Cerixx War and the Final Galactic Council Vote, Turn 368-371.

Nordheim has previously establised colony's at Vrop where a small Fleet was also based for just such an occasion as War with the Cerixx, this fleet is used to attack the Cerixx systems at Wu, Arbitros and Ankia, succesfully capturing all colony's in those systems.
Many other Cerixx systems and outposts are also attacked and there's a good deal of skirmishing resulting in the almost total destruction of the Cerixx Fleet...



On Turn 371 Norheim demands the Cerixx surrender, it is accepted...

Marshall Tyraak: "Wow, you make a strong case, it seems we really arn't that good at defending ourselves when the laws are not stacked in our favour"

Erik the Truthsayer: "Maybe you should think about getting yourself a better Lawyer"


The Galactic Council Vote Turn 371-2.
This time the vote is decisive and even if the Kaek had not voted for Nordheim they would still have achieved Victory.




The End... or is it!

 

Cerixx Sentinals War Turn 366-367.

Some 15 turns have passed since the end of the Draguul War and 5 more colony's have been added within existing systems, as well as many new additions and upgrades for the fleet, its now possible to fit a Plasma cannon in its basic form to a Frigate due to improvements in miniturisation, Combat Jump is now standard for most new designs.
Missiles are no longer equipped in new or refitted ships.

There are now 10 more Cruisers and a new Titan available and in service

A new vessel the "Dark Star" class cruiser (mostly by refitting max structure captured alien cruisers) is now in general service and Plasma/Wurzite cannons have become standard for the next generation ships, with some exceptions:



The start of the War.

A Cerixx fleet of 3 BSs and 3DSs attack a lone new generation Nordheim DS at Gliudub, the DS retreats after causing some damage:



More to Follow...

 

Empire overview Turn 352.

The Fleet:

Norheim do not necesarily have that many warships as a good deal of the expended SSP is spent on 74 support ships.
There are currently active 8FRs, 10DSs, 20CRs +1 refit, 6 BSs + 4 refit or building and 1 TT, making a total of 50 warships of all types including 8 captured alien Vessels (there were quite a few others but these have been refitted since capture, sometimes the source is reflected in the ship name).

Main Weapons for most ships are the Neutron Beam with occasionally a few Disrupters or Wurzite cannons, some ships are also equipped with Polaris or Nuclear missiles( phasing out) generally the smaller or older vessels.
A few ships have Combat Jump capability.
Essentially most upgrade refts have concentrated on manouverability, improving firepower, point defence, shields and system enhancements, however most of these improvements are still to be implemented fleetwide.

Shield max is tek level V for all ships, this will not change.

The Colonies and Systems:
There are currently 13 systems with 32 colony's and at least another dozen worlds yet to be added within these systems, mostly using planet construction on gas giants and asteroid belts or Terraforming existing worlds not yet colonised.
Many colony's are still developing with mostly only medium sized or smaller planets having reached full development in the older systems, which means there is still much to be done.

Map Turn 352 Galactic Overview:



Technology:
Maximum tek is as follows: Defences 7, Weapons 9, Economics 6, Propulsion 6, Planet Engineering 6 and Construction 8.
Nordheim now has Jump Gates a recent development, as well as Plasma beams and Gauss Coil guns but these are too expensive at present to be considered for any other then the largest ships.

Wonders:
Nordheim has now built all the Galactic Wonders.

Diplomacy:

At the present time diplomatic relations are not particular good largely because of events occuring outside of the Draguul war associated with minor civs that are now in Nordheim space.
However its thought that nordheim is now strong enough to prevail if the situation should deteriorate further.

Diplomacy Turn 352:



Intell Operations:

Operatives have been sent to the Palaceans and Nova to gather intell but this will take sometime.

On turn 360 the agent investigating the Palaceans reports back providing a huge amount of intell:



From this its clear that much of what was previously suspected is true regarding Tek etc, a mission is sent the influence Dexana (-4 opinion), the only Palacean leader who can be influenced, and this will eventually be succesfull.

The Sulak Empire is finally absorbed by the Palaceans...

This thing all things devours;
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats mountain down.

On turn 363 the intell mission to Nova bears fruit:



From this its clear that most Nova worlds have been terraformed and that the Palaceans did not aquire their high tech weapons from them, but possibly from the Moltar or Sulak (by War) or by finding ancient Tek elsewhere, since none of the Weapon/Defence teks of 7/8/9 that they have were actively researched.

More to Follow...

 

Draguul War (continued)

The End of the Draguul, turn 345-352:

The Draguul are on borrowed time, Fleso system is captured with Drid and Brabsi destroyed, leaving only Lau, Benja and the newly discovered Tatlairs soon to follow suit... The khan makes no attempt at surrender... And thus ends the Draguul Empire.

Meanwhile the Kaek look on in apparant disinterest...

Map Turn 352:





"We do not seek war, but if a fight is want you want then we'll happily oblige" Erik the Truthsayer to Khan Sla.

"Khan Sla was a fool who sacrificed his people on the Alter of his own Ambition" Erik the Truthsayer.


End Note: It hadn't occured at the time that Nordheim could have demanded the Surrender of the Draguul, maybe Erik didn't think it was such a good idea (the Khan was furious after all) but as it would have meant the surrender of the Kaek as well this may have shortened the game somewhat.... but I guess we'll never know.

 

The Draguul War (Continued)

Turn 341:
The outpost at Oyaksee has been retaken and the bulk of the Fleet has moved on to Peu where it is currently capturing the Draguul colony's there, a second fleet in the meantime was despatched to Wi and from there its now poised to attack Benja in the heart of Draguul space

Map turn 341 Draguul space:




The Galactic Council Vote turn 341-2:

Norheim are now candidates but the vote is indecisive with only the CS siding with the Nova, even if all factions voted for Nova it wouldnt be enough for a decisive vote without the Palaceans, good news for Nordheim!



Turn 344:

The First fleet after capturing the Draguul colony's at Peu moved on to Sliux where they destroyed the enemy colony's, and are currently en route to investigate the system of Termi.
The Second Fleet at Benja has reduced the colony's in readyness for an assault, but were attacked by most of the remaining Draguul fleet, the battle was short and resulted in the Draguul loosing most of their fleet with their Piranha flagship being captured.

Its decided that the assault at Benja will be called off for the time being and the Second Fleet heads for Fleso to join the Odin (acting independantly) to investigate the colony's there.
Some raiding by the few remaining Draguul ships is also taking place but this is easily dealt with.

The More emmediate threat is now the Kaek (who are subjects of Draguul) as they have several fleets in the region...

Map turn 344:

 

Phase IV: The Draguul War, The Beginning of the End.

Turn 338:

Little is known of the Draguul and up to now they've taken little part, although Nordheim had negotiated a trade deal with them which proved to be short lived, for some reason despite the friendly Dip position they have attacked an outpost at Oyaksee declaring war.

A spy is despatched to the Draguul to investigate but this will take sometime, in the meantime since negotiations are not possible at present, a Fleet is despatched from Valhalla, this includes a newelly commisioned Titan the "Odin" (the first) equipped with Combat jump capability and the latest weapons etc.
The "Odin" will be supported by a small fleet of ex Moltar Bomber Cruisers, the "Palaceans Curse" (now refitted) a Command cruiser and a dozen or so assault ships, intially they'll head for Gidurn and then on to Oyaksee.

Map Turn 338:

 

By Turn 318:
Our Spy is now providing usefull intel on the Moltar...

Kle system is ready to fall and Nordheim is blockading Ke in preperation for the planned capture of the system, with most of the bomber and assault fleet currently on its way from Kle, there is little opposition from the Moltar with mostly a few DSs, FRs and a few CRs but these are swiftly intercepted and dealt with...

The Northern Fleet is now at Leeku where it has devasted the colony there, this will continue on to the Moltar Colonys of Zrops, Oyeet, Brialders and Uigawa to do the same there, bombing raiding and capturing any Tek or resident Colony Leaders where possible...

The Palaceans are massing several large fleets at Toaltef and Binvithea as well their ongoing attack on Hokt system, in total there are at least 44 ships, including monsters and ASs comprising these fleets... one eye is cautiosly kept on them but its not thought thay are any immediate threat to Nordheim...

The Nova have a fairly decent fleet but are not producing bombers or ASs, so take no real part in the War... and since the Dip status with Nova is congenial they are not thought to be any threat, though a 3rd fleet is being prepared at Valhalla as a reserve and to reinforce the Nordheim defence there....

Moltar Space turn 318:




Turn 329:

The last Moltar colony was destroyed a few turns earlier (unfortunatly not saved) and Nordheim have moved on and are primarily concentrating on exploration, planet development and constuction.

The diplomatic situation is OK but this can rapidly change...

Tek has improved greatly with the capture of much from Moltar but also trading with Nova, currently Nordheim are No1 overall.

Map turn 329:



To follow the Draguul war and the Galactic Council vote...

 

The Moltar War turn 314.

Essentially the Nordheim ships are the same as those previously described, with the exception that Flak cannon Tek has become availalble via trade with Nova, this and reinforcing of destroyers will take a while to enter service but will have little if any effect on the war.

The Moltar Fleet .
There is at least 1 heavy BS and 3 heavy CRs supported by a small numbers of DSs and FRs in Moltar space, its not known how many are building but they are capable ship builders and completion times seem short.
What is known is that the Moltar have Disrupter and level VII shield Tek and overall are at a much higher Tek level then Nordheim, Disrupters are fitted to almost everything with the exception of some bomber cruisers, though the short range of their disrupters and lack of missiles in many ships is likely to be a significant disadvatage in combat.

Typical Moltar CR and BS:



In anycase their now at war with 3 factions, this is effectively a land grab and war of annhilation, its important though for Nordheim that they come out on top and to this end Kle and Ke are targeted for invasion as these will quickly provides 7 more worlds for the Empire, whilst the Northern fleet near Uruk will deal with the systems there for the most part...

Map turn 316 Moltar space.



By turn 316 the Ezron Assault fleet has captured Kle IV the rest will follow quickly.

The Northern fleet Having attacked Demia, Zrops and the Moltar capital at Leeku is now on its way to Marsell, during the previous turns three Moltar Bombers CRs have been captured and are now part of this fleet, the fleets bomb capacity is now 15, turning it from a nuisance to a colony killer, it continues on its voyage of destruction.

The Moltar Battleship approaching Ivig will also be captured, theres almost nothing left to fight or capture...

Its the considered opinion amongst the Nordheim Captains that this is Not an Honourable war...


To follow: The End of the Moltar

 

The First Galactic Council meeting and the Moltar War.

To understand why the Nordheim decide to declare war on the Moltar its necesary to look at the diplomatic and overall situation a bit closer...

For the First time in a game at this stage that I can recall, The Galactic Council candidates do not include the player faction so this is unknown territory...

The Nova.
Were the Main Candidate, have good relations with many factions and appear to be actively developing this, during the vote the Ceric Sentinals supported them aginst Moltar, this vote was inconclusive.
But the addition of the Draguul along with the Kaek vote (subjects of Draguul) in Novas favour and the uncertainty of future relations with the Palaceans, could radically alter the vote at the next Galactic Council (29 turns).

Now bear in mind that the surrender pact with the Palaceans will run out before this, and relations with them could take a hit including not supporting them with their request of declaring war on the Moltar, but not limited to this alone as the event settings for the game are on many...
Added to this should they break away, they would add their votes to the Novas or vise-versa as they are allies, this along with any supporting votes would likely ensure victory at the Council in a mear 29 turns...

Nordheim would then be forced to concede or fight all the other factions...

So because of this its thought better to foster relations with the Palaceans hopefully preventing them from rejecting Nordheim as overlords...





The Nordheim Fleet.
On paper the Nordheim now have the largest Fleet, but in reality more then half are non combat as there is more SSP spent on Support ships then warships, these include 5 BSs and 16 CRs of various types 6 DSs and 5 FRs.
The DSs and FRs are not particularly strong and for the first time in any game its thought best to reinforce the structure of DSs to medium to give them a better chance in their main role of protecting outposts and systems, FR primary role is one of escort for civilian vessels allowing them to escape should they be attacked.

Baldor III DS turn 313.



The Moltar War: finally to Follow...

 

"My own goals didn't allow developing worlds and my 50% pop growth hurt as well."

A tough choice, I guess thats means its conquer or die... reflected I suppose in the second variation.

At the moment in the AAR there is a strong possibility that Nordheim could end up fighting the entire galaxy, because the Galactic Council convened for the first time on turn 313 (Nova and Moltar) and Nordheim was just a sideshow.
So this made the Surrender of the Palaceans as No1 so much more important, as in the closing days of the war they allied with Nova...
And if the surrender had been refused or never offered, depending on how much damage Nordheim could do in the intervening period to the Palaceans would have likely determined the outcome of the game, at the time I didn't know any of this so could not have prevented it.

This is the main reason why Nordheim declares war on the Moltar at the Palaceans request on turn 313...

 

These are some good thoughts.

My own goals didn't allow developing worlds and my 50% pop growth hurt as well.

Well that's the thing, the worlds around me are suitable for the AI, hostile to me. In this case I got a bit lucky as having the Draguul as one neighbor also gave me some tolerable. Though I did eliminate a minor faction just to set up Chith I.

More likely it will cancel out. However I wouldn't mind if the AI does not share this rule with the player on higher settings.

Here by the way
The first two shots are the save point.
In the first iteration of the session I was peaceful and the Draguul got swallowed by the Palacean...which I couldn't hold off. All the while I was also at war with the Cerixx, but they were more a nuisance.
In the second, I rolled the Draguul and became unstoppable, I stopped once I realized I could take everyone on at once and win with my massive fleet, which dwarfed the AIs combined.






Now it seems that I may finally get to play the latest version, this game was a while ago.

 

I think were on the same page here, generally its better to capture developed alien worlds with good populations, the goals of Nordheim are slightly different in that smaller or poorer systems are not considered worthwhile though beggers can't be choosers, and if the infracture is not capable of being built up to level 6 civ-eng (or unknown) its usually leveled leaving only the pop.
The civil engineering of the other systems plus support ships and a good pop, will mean that captured worlds can be rebuilt ultra fast...

Quality of the local systems: depends on what your goals are, Norheims goal is to create new worlds, so a system with a tiny small poor deadlocked planet but with several basic asteroid belts/gas giants will do fine, the more junk the merrier and you only need one or two to create quite a number of excellent worlds, once you have the tek...
Nordheim is currently at this level in the AAR which means they can look for systems that are basically space junk...

Its my thought that the higher settings have more of an effect when you play other non-human/sol-based civs, because you always start with a system capable of six good worlds...

Better systems for the AI is a double edged sword its cuts both ways, if you capture these systems you have all their benefits where if the local systems around the player are poor they are no great loss, or gain for the AI...
But again this may depend on what faction your playing.

It does take a while to intergrate the pops and I dont see any reason why there shouldn't be a negative applied at higher difficulty levels...
But suspect this may effect the AI more then it will the player, effectively cancelling it out or even giving the player an advantage of sorts... but this is speculation on my part though...

A thought did occur to me, and that is there could be a new skill/mission for Intelligence operatives, "Foment Rebellion" this would have more effect on alien popped worlds under the targeted factions control, reducing assimilation progressively and finally creating a rebellion...

Wishlist...
I would like to see the ability to relocate a population to another world entirely, a planetary construction fleet capable of building worlds in a system that has no worlds only gas giants/asteroid belts...
A "Genesis Device"(Terraform a populated world) and a planet Buster reducing the world to an asteroid belt, but this is probably taking it too far... as I can imagine what the AI would do with such a thing. Lol

 

Phase III The building of an Empire.

Following the outbreak of peace the Norheimer's buckle down to their real task of terraforming and planet construction, the object here is initially to develope the current systems to their maximum potential.
Terraforming as necesary but ultimately rebuilding all barren worlds, gas giants and asteroid belts into new worlds ready for colonisation is the goal, at the present time there are 11 such bodies suitable for development.
In the meantime more support and outpost ships are built, and ships of the Fleet are sent on five year missions to discover stange new worlds and Alien civilisations...

Turn 313.
All Alien Civilisations have now been identified with many new worlds discovered as well as needed resources, the newly discovered system at Wi has been colonised and is currently being developed, all other systems in Nordheim control are now almost complete, though some new planets are still to be colonised and populations remain low.
In total Norheim now has 14 colonised worlds in 6 systems with six more worlds to follow...

Map turn 313 the galaxy overview.



System Development.
Valhalla system is now almost complete with the exception of Vanaheim (Venus) which still needs atmospheric terraforming tek not yet researched, this is a typical goal for all systems under Nordheim control.
Default planet construction for Nordheim appears to be a Medium Ice world, Rich/ultra Rich, level 2 Eco, though smaller and larger worlds can occur randomly with the current resources.
Less then 3 antimatter is not worthwhile for planet construction as it doesn't produce ideal planets, which then require terra forming, so its a good idea to make sure enough is available before you start.

Valhalla sytem turn 313.


Colony development notes:
The main goal with a new colony is to build Civil Engineering 6, any excess infratructure is used for aeorspace/planetary engineering as appropriate, this is because Civil Eng 6 provides a large bonus for developing the worlds of other systems as well, and this is accumulative (though divided bettween all the worlds of the Empire) greatly aiding in new world development in other systems.

Numbers of support ships are also built to aid in construction on the new colony's, each system has at least one but will eventually have 3-5 with more in important systems like Valhalla, there appears to be no upper limit for this though support ships will supply a max of 100 production per ship as well as planatery engineering bonuses, this does however depend on your infranstructure levels and bonuses.

Technology current status turn 313.
Many of these teks were captured from the Palaceans or have been traded with the Nova, only hyperdrive and disrupter tek is missing from this view.



Diplomacy overview turn 313.




The Palaceans have been havng some trouble with Moltar and are again involved in a war with the Sulak, despite the fact that "allies" are aiding them or least fighting the same enemies, they ask Nordheim to declare war and after due consideration and an attempt to contact the Moltar (which is not responding to any diplomacy what so ever) the "Council of Elders" decides to declare war on the Moltar.

More detail Intel is needed on the Moltar, so to this end a spy is sent to investigate, but this will take a few turns yet...

Warships in Moltar space are ordered to engage in privateering activitys much like they did in the Palacean War, attacking outposts, intercepting enemy vessels, bombing colony's, destroying or capturing ships as appropriate...
The "Fleet" consists of 2 BSs, 3CRs and a survey vessel at present in the vicinity of Uruk, including the Ex Palacean cruiser "The Palaceans Tail"...

In the meantime an assault fleet is being prepared at Ezron...

The Local Situation Moltar space turn 313.



Next: The Moltar War, you really should talk to your neighbours!...

 

What happened to you reminds me of the last game I played, I was going to do a post about that but I may as well say a few words here instead.

Note that I play on emperor, meaning crap worlds for me near by, excellent worlds for the ai.

So I played a session and saved at what I consider an inflection point. I continued the game playing mostly in a peaceful manner. Eventually I was overwhelmed, much like my last AAR.

I went back to the save, and this time attacked my neighbors (the Draguul). I mean I really attacked, I didn't let up at all and conquered their territory, all of it. Now while I did damage the conquered colonies, I took them without killing off the Draguul population. Being that this was at "Emperor" setting, those worlds were rich and super-rich, mostly ideal (for the Draguul). Between the tech I picked up from my invasions, and these new productive worlds, I became unstoppable.

That leads me to think that perhaps on the higher difficulty levels, conquered population should incur a permanent malus, even after the chance of rebellion wears off. This is similar to what Birth of the Federation did way back, or the hearts of Iron series, where a conquered territory only offers partial production (unless it's a core). It would extend the game a bit, and make "rushes" less viable. The player then would have a more balanced choice to make. Do I keep the original pops, and gain quicker but permanently reduced benefits, or do I exterminate and re-colonize?

Just a thought.

 

The Palacean Surrender and the Aftermath...

Perhaps the biggest surprise of any game I've played and certainly the biggest surprise of my experience with ISG.... Lol
The surrender of such a powerfull faction, which is No1 in the game, to the bottom of the League, is truly a David and Goliath ending to the war...
However this cannot be entirely ascribed to Nordheim, the fact that the belligerent nature of the Palaceans resulted in multi wars back to back with apparantly the Sulak and Moltar surely had a major impact, likely making it very difficult for them to concentrate on any single opponent...
A happy circumstance for the galaxy and in particular the Nordheim.

Its left the Nordheim with a huge boost in research, culture, income etc... and the Largest fleet of any faction by far...
From now on the Nordheim will be ascendant as a result of this, but also because technologically they've reached the point where terraforming is taking place and world building will soon be possible...

The Effects of Tek on the war.
Fairly early in the game Nordheim obtained the Ion discharger, Adamantium and Hyperdrive, of these Hyperdrive was in my opinion the most important, because without it it would not have been possible to counter many of the moves being made by the Palaceans...

The Ion Discharger (disables most ships for 2 turns) like most of the specials is less usefull because of its high space requirement, and didn't really come into its own untill level VIII Disrupter tek was captured from the Palaceans.
This had the effect of increasing miniaturisation of ships weapons allowing enough space for the HV upgrade to be fitted increasing effective range.

Notes on Adamantium.
Adamantium the strongest armour in the game, I dont often find this so it was lucky to be sure, but then I dont use its full effect that is the reinforcing of the ship structure, if the Cruisers at Valhalla early on had max structure this would have made them almost invulnerable, normally I dont strengthen ships at all mostly because I dont find it necesary, but this is a personal choice and unlike the other specials you cant choose not to use Adamantium once its found...
I would prefer to choose armour from the available Tek but that isnt possible in the game, as a result have no idea how much space this uses on the ships.
It should also be considered that Wurtzite canons are only level VI Tek (Palacean had Level IX) and these can penetrate armour making Adamantium ineffective, they may already have had these at the time but this is unknown.

However if Adamantium hadn't turned up Nordheim would have certainly researched Tritanium and H3 shield enhancement sooner, although researching these would have had a knock on effect in terraforming and probably the navigation archive later.

If the Palaceans had Adamantium they would probably have been unbeatable by Nordheim, as it was they strengthened their ships to maxiumum making them much stronger then Nordheim ships of the same class even with Adamantium ...
The main advantage the Palaceans had in weapon tek they squandered on poor design for the most part and this had the effect of levelling the playing field despite their other advantages...

Captured Enemy Ships.
The Best Palacean Cruiser design captured during the War (one of 2) these would join the fleet for some time to come, other captured ships would be refitted as current Nordheim designs as they were greatly inferior to this.
It should be noted that Nuclear missiles could have been replaced by Polaris at no additional cost, making this ship almost as powerfull as the Orca at Valhalla...



The Sting Palacean Destroyer (above) captured during the last days of the war for intel purposes, proved the Palaceans had level IX weapons tech available.
Shortly afterwards better scanner Tek was captured at Cups, making it possibly to scan enemy vessels in advance of combat.

More to follow...