A Legends induced squeeze (Full Version)

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Jim D Burns -> A Legends induced squeeze (12/14/2011 2:13:51 PM)

I started my most recent game as the Terran Republic deep in the core of an eliptical 15 x 15 1400 star map. Things were going pretty well and within about 12-14 years I was well on my way to outstripping any of the AI powers I had so far run into. I was actually contemplating tossing in the towel on this game and starting anew since I had around 50 colonies and only about one third of the aliens I’ve encountered so far were anywhere near my size clocking in at around 28-30 colonies. That is until the past few years in game.

Recently the Dread Wraiths appeared in game and began raiding the southern one third of my empire. Initially I was able to cause them some damage with my attack fleet which was made up entirely of advanced ships my explorers had managed to find and board, though I never actually won any decisive engagements with them.

Slowly but surely they have managed to destroy most of my advanced ships (2 dead admirals lost in the fighting as well), and I only have one recently repaired capital ship, 2 destroyers and 1 frigate left in the fleet. So their strength has been steadily increasing (I think they build more stuff as they kill your stuff, as it seems they’ve gotten very large now) as they roam from system to system smashing any kind of base or defense fleet I throw in their way. The ships I build simply don’t have the punch to deal with them at this stage due to their huge tech advantage and the fact they now have two different fleets roaming the map.

Needless to say the game has been a lot more interesting and I was happily getting my butt kicked by the pirates when suddenly I get a report of Silvermist destroying one of my merchant ships. No problem I thought, it must be far away on a long trading mission somewhere else in the galaxy.

A quick check shows a huge 1000+ sized silvermist in the Nar Shaddos system a very short distance away from the north edge of my empire. I’m not sure what size they have to be before they split, but I’m sure it’s close to splitting if it hasn’t already as that system used to house a sizable alien planet and bases.

Thankfully it’s not close to the heart of my empire yet, as that would be disastrous since I lack sufficient ships or bases to really have any hope of killing a Silvermist yet. The problem is my guess is none of the other empires can deal with one yet either, so there will soon be a plague of them all over the north edge of my empire as it consumes one low tech system after another.

So a game I was about to throw in the towel on has now become a game I wonder if I can even survive now thanks to all the awesome additions Legends has brought to the table. So a big thank you to Codeforce and Matrix for the continued efforts to make this game better and better.

I posted this in the AAR section as I’ll probably post updates of the developing struggle as it progresses. Below are some screenshots of some of what is happening in game now. Silvermist in the north, Pirates in the south, I have a feeling I’m about to get squeezed into oblivion.


Here are the victory settings I’ve used for the game:
[image]http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/3953/victoryh.jpg[/image]



Below are a couple of the game setup screens to give an idea of what parameters I used for the game:
[image]http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/9618/setup1p.jpg[/image]

[image]http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5834/setup2g.jpg[/image]



This is one of the two big Pirate fleets raiding my colonies. This one is centered on a powerful carrier, I lost three advanced ships simply trying to close with it in my most recent fight. Once my capital ship went down, the rest of the ships fled. I’ve recently attached a newly repaired capital ship to the fleet, but it is weaker than the strongest one they managed to destroy early in the fighting, so I think I’ll hold off attacking again until I can get another 4-8 additional advanced ships to add to the now tiny fleet of just 4 ships left in the fleet.

Once my advanced ships were gone, the fleet destroyed two gas mining stations and a medium star port in this system. This was my strongest system in the south. I have a few bases elsewhere trying to build but gas is all but gone down south and merchants flee all the time so deliveries are slow.
[image]http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/1659/piratefleet.jpg[/image]



A mining ship stumbled upon the pirate home base about 3 months ago. This is all I can see of the system now with no ships present, but at the time there were well over 30 pirate vessels there, including many powerful cruisers and another carrier.
[image]http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6519/piratehome.jpg[/image]



Here’s a map of my empire with some notations added for reference.
http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/3243/mapgz.jpg



This is the best ship I can currently build. I have just put the ability to construct larger ships at the head of my research, but given that I’m playing with very expensive tech, it’ll be a while before I can build anything bigger than this.

I currently have 180 of these empire wide and no other types as I scrapped all my escorts and frigates due to the fact the pirates were all but one-shotting them. These destroyers can manage to kill about one pirate for the cost of 2 – 4 of these if there aren’t a lot of pirate ships. But the two big fleets I’ve seen simply put out too much firepower, these guys can’t even kill half a shield before they all die.
[image]http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/2697/destroyer.jpg[/image]



This is the recently repaired capital ship. Unfortunately it was way down south and all but out of fuel, so I’m hoping it gets a chance to refuel before it gets jumped in the system it is heading for.
[image]http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/9223/capitalship.jpg[/image]


Jim



Grotius -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/14/2011 2:38:44 PM)

Hey Jim, great to see you in this forum. Fun AAR! Glad to see you finding fun in a game that is not a certain win. I just finished an AAR of a game I had like that. I had a disastrous early start, was just about ready to give up, but passed a morale check and played on. I'm very glad I did. It was a terrific gaming experience.

Legends tells a great story, what with the characters, the events, the story arcs, the living galaxy. I really think the DW series has come into its own with this expansion.



Jim D Burns -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/14/2011 2:44:55 PM)

Hi Grotius,

Your AAR is what inspired me to post this. I enjoyed every minute of it, thanks for taking the time. I hope this one can come close to being as much fun, but with the threat of Silvermist so close and the fact it’ll probably duplicate many times over very soon, I think I’m doomed.

I think in the future if I do old starts, I’ll do tech level 1 or 2, things happen fast in an old start and starting tech simply can’t deal with some of it.

I recently allied with the Kadians and Securans, so I’ve done some tech trading the past 5 or 6 months, before that I was fighting with Naxos (or is it Maxos?) blasters still lol.

Jim



Grotius -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/14/2011 2:48:33 PM)

Oh, glad you enjoyed my AAR! I was kinda hoping it would inspire people to "hang in there" even after bad starts.

I don't think I ever saw Silvermist in my game, and I had all the event options "on". Maybe it showed up and I was just too oblivious to notice? Sounds like it was hard for you not to notice, lol.

Anyway, I'm delighted that you're posting this. More, please!



Nedrear -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/14/2011 3:07:32 PM)

I can't say I will continue reading this AAR... your pictures are way to big for my 1024x768 window mode.



Keston -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/14/2011 3:44:00 PM)

Not just the pictures, but the text width when zoomed out enough to fit on screen is so tiny that it is like reading the back of a used car sales agreement - about half the size of the text I like to read. Apologies for any typos since I can make out the words by shape but can't distinguish all the letters on this screen.

But I do find it interesting.



feelotraveller -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/14/2011 3:48:42 PM)

I am another potential reader you have lost since everything is about 2 screens wide. [:(]



Jim D Burns -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/15/2011 7:08:49 AM)

Sorry about the image size guys, the best I can do is post the map as a link instead of imbedding it on the page. Hope that helps.

Jim



Jim D Burns -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/15/2011 7:38:36 AM)

So after a bit of thought, the plan I come up with is to do a quick re-design of my unused Frigate hull and create an Ion equipped vessel with as many engines as I can afford to put on her. While not heavily armed for normal combat, 2 phasers should give it sufficient firepower for use vs. normal non-elite pirates.

I queue up 24 ships which will pretty much zero out my current net of about 35k income, so I’ll hold off building anymore unless massive waves of Silvermist begin descending. Here’s a shot of the new design:
[image]http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/5271/ionfrigate.jpg[/image]



I’ve ordered the fleet to assemble a bit south of the sighting at the Roorea Prime system. Once fully assembled and fueled I’ll send it north to either engage any active Silvermist contacts or to base out of the closest system to the recent sighting.
[image]http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/3284/mapgb.jpg[/image]

Jim



Jim D Burns -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/15/2011 8:42:39 AM)

Ugh! Sometimes the auto-upgrade feature in game can really get annoying. Here we see two of the 4 ships in my advanced fleet have been scheduled to retrofit to a lower tech build due to a recent tech upgrade that prompted me to reply yes to upgrading my ships and bases. Had I known this could happen I would have been able to prevent this, but alas I discovered this too late.

Their fleet had been on manual with attack anywhere orders and no home base assigned. Luckily I spotted the other destroyer which was on its way to get refitted as well, so I managed to save it, but these two are locked into the refit process, nothing I could do could change their orders now.
[image]local://upfiles/5815/00E1E39910D7402AAA7DF0C82629CE0D.jpg[/image]


It’s only been about a year in game and my just completed Ion armed fleet is headed into port to upgrade, once that’s done I’ll send it to my northern perimeter. So far no Silvermist has appeared in the northern territories of my empire yet. But the original system it was sighted in has been re-colonized by the AI twice and destroyed both times, so it is obviously still there.

Jim





Jim D Burns -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/15/2011 9:24:40 AM)

I figured while I was out of the game I’d give a quick overview of the diplomatic situation. I’ve decided to aggressively attempt to form alliances with any race that has any level of ‘dependable’ listed as a racial trait. The only high valued resource I have is Zentabia fluid, which I have traded with all dependable races I’ve met as soon as contact was made.

Once relations reach the level of a trade agreement, I immediately grant them mining and fuel rights to help foster continued good relations with them. Even with a chaotic game, I’ve still managed to sign two defensive alliances and 6 trade agreements using this system.

Those races listed as unreliable will eventually be subjugated or conquered, though I will sign trade agreements with them if they offer them, I will not trade any strategic resources or tech with them.
[image]http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/1053/diplomacyq.jpg[/image]


I’ve managed to get an additional two ambassadors to add to the one I started the game with. While none of them are remarkable yet, one has reached the low 50s in his diplomatic skill. I am keeping an eye on my newest ambassador Loras Jaksun.

As you can see from the below screenshot, he is a miserable diplomat, but he may well turn out to be a very nice counter-intelligence asset to send to any race that is currently trying to send spies into my empire. Right now his traits are undeveloped, but I’m hoping he gets a lot of nice intelligence traits as the game progresses.
[image]http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/2096/leadersp.jpg[/image]


Here is the current summary page. As you can see even though I only built 24 frigates to add maintenance of 32k to my existing fleet, income has gone negative 50-60k recently. I can only assume it has something to do with commodity price drops or something. Thankfully Resort and trade income is enough to counter the recent hit to the economy.
[image]http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/3025/summary.jpg[/image]

Jim



Jim D Burns -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/15/2011 10:53:34 AM)

A little over a year after the first sighting, and my first colony is about to go down to a Silvermist attack. This Silvermist is size 640. This Silvermist must have seen recent combat as its health is listed as 787 out of 1137. My Ion fleet is still in refit yards, I need to get it headed north ASAP before a more valuable colony gets hit.

It’s heartening to know the local area AI fleets have managed to take a sizable chunk out of the Silvermist’s health. With all the recent tech trading going on, I think our ships are becoming effective enough to hopefully stop this menace before it grows out of control.

Atalgoy is a recently colonized world, and it appears it’s been consumed before due to its quality being 84 out of a max of 87, so I guess it once belonged to someone else. In the below screenshot, Atalgoy’s system is on the right edge of the screenshot, and the system with the pink ring around it on the bottom left edge is where the first Silvermist sighting occurred, so it has spread a pretty good ways away.

[image]local://upfiles/5815/448BAAAC7E6E48EFA54F7638B0B30DE2.jpg[/image]

Jim



feelotraveller -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/15/2011 12:32:18 PM)

That works just fine. [:)] Thanks Jim. Guess I have to go back and slog through the first few posts to repay your dedication now...



feelotraveller -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/15/2011 12:54:36 PM)

Oh dear, you do have some nano-tech problems. (Hope they ate the mad scientist who invented them first. [;)] )

You can probably snag Ikkuro and Wekkarus into trade agreements. The latter although slightly untrustworthy tend to stick to themselves quite a lot, are a long way away from you and seem to have some Mortalen problems anyways. Just a thought.

Stock up on the Ion Cannons you're gonna need heaps. [;)]



Jim D Burns -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/15/2011 1:18:13 PM)

4 years after the first sighting of Silvermist and my second colony is about to go down. This is the original system where the mist was first sighted. A few seconds after this attack, a colony ship of mine arrived to re-colonize Atalgoy and was attacked by 3 Silvermist’s in that system, so that is 4 known mists now.
[image]http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/6662/2ndmist.jpg[/image]


I also recently built my first wonder, the Rusan Tech institute was built on my capitol world. So that’s a nice fat 100% boost to research.
[image]http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4476/firstwonder.jpg[/image]


There has been a ton of tech trading going on recently, and soon after that, I completed research on size 500 ships, thus opening up Cruiser construction. I immediately edited the default cruiser taking out the troop module and designed a max size 500 cruiser with lots of mixed firepower. I wasn’t sure what the pirate ships were good at countering, so I mixed things up in the hopes we can finally put some hurt on their ships.
[image]http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/1336/firstca.jpg[/image]


I have added 21 of these cruisers to my Attack fleet along with a newly repaired advanced cruiser. All 24 ships just refueled along the edge of the area the pirates have been raiding and are about 3-5 months away from my first attempt at hitting the pirate home system down south.

Carriers just came online, but I didn’t want to wait to build a bunch of those before heading south to try and deal with the pirate menace. These guys have kept me from building anything in the south one third of my empire and I want some payback. [sm=00000106.gif]

To top off matters, the insectoid races have formed a coalition alliance and just attacked my allies the Securans, so I answered the call to join in the fray. The Sluken Consciousness, Gizurean Conformity and the Great Yenkurr Hive (Boskara’s) are all at war with the Terran Republic, Securan Paradise and Quameno Territory (Kiadians). The Dhayut Sovereignty is not yet fully allied with all the insectoid races only being allied with the Gizureans right now, so as yet are only at war with the Securans.

The military power levels of the races are:

Terran Republic: 44074
Securan Paradise: 5928
Quameno Territory: 22456

Sluken Consciousness: 25101
Gizurean Conformity: 8918
Great Yenkurr Hive: 6969
Dhayut Sovereignty: 9188

We have a definite advantage in military power, but more than half of my power comes from all the recent cruisers I’ve built, and most/all of those may die soon while fighting the pirates. The main risk to me is the fact I have no real military presence in the south. Both the Great Yenkurr Hive and the Dhayut Sovereignty are in the southwest portion of the map, so all I have to resist them with down there is my ground troops.

My colony of Varunat Prime 1 is the southernmost colony in my empire far south of the area I’ve been battling the pirates in. It has one measly 8100 strength Shandar protector ground unit and a small Monitoring Station for defense (built this to defend a mining station early in game before I could colonize volcanic planets). The small space port is still missing 58 units, so I doubt it’ll get completed before an attack comes.

Varunat Prime 1 is my source of Zentabia fluid, which has been of such a help in establishing all my treaties with the dependable races. I fully expect to lose this colony very early in the war.
[image]http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/3609/zentabia.jpg[/image]


Anyway looks like the next few years are going to be busy.

Jim



Ares106 -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/15/2011 5:05:46 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns


To top off matters, the insectoid races have formed a coalition alliance and just attacked my allies the Securans, so I answered the call to join in the fray. The Sluken Consciousness, Gizurean Conformity and the Great Yenkurr Hive (Boskara’s) are all at war with the Terran Republic, Securan Paradise and Quameno Territory (Kiadians). The Dhayut Sovereignty is not yet fully allied with all the insectoid races only being allied with the Gizureans right now, so as yet are only at war with the Securans.

We have a definite advantage in military power, but more than half of my power comes from all the recent cruisers I’ve built, and most/all of those may die soon while fighting the pirates. The main risk to me is the fact I have no real military presence in the south. Both the Great Yenkurr Hive and the Dhayut Sovereignty are in the southwest portion of the map, so all I have to resist them with down there is my ground troops.

My colony of Varunat Prime 1 is the southernmost colony in my empire far south of the area I’ve been battling the pirates in. It has one measly 8100 strength Shandar protector ground unit and a small Monitoring Station for defense (built this to defend a mining station early in game before I could colonize volcanic planets). The small space port is still missing 58 units, so I doubt it’ll get completed before an attack comes.

Varunat Prime 1 is my source of Zentabia fluid, which has been of such a help in establishing all my treaties with the dependable races. I fully expect to lose this colony very early in the war.




Very cool almost reminds me of the roman empire, you thought you won the game, then a million problems arise and your technological and military power is too stretched to handle everything.

since you also enabled the ROTS story line, it should not be long before the space Mongols invade.





Erik Rutins -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/15/2011 5:20:27 PM)

A great read so far Jim, looking forward to further updates!

Regards,

- Erik



Jim D Burns -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/15/2011 5:53:53 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ares106
Very cool almost reminds me of the roman empire, you thought you won the game, then a million problems arise and your technological and military power is too stretched to handle everything.


LOL, yes it is becoming more and more hectic in game. The feeling of "easy win" has been replaced by desperate concern.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ares106
since you also enabled the ROTS story line, it should not be long before the space Mongols invade.


Aargh! You've jinxed me for sure. If you say it, it will happen. I can see it now, they'll appear, ally with the bugs and proceed to smash into me before I can even manage to successfully deal with any of my current threats.

Jim



Jim D Burns -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/15/2011 7:37:12 PM)

At Nar Shaddos the system I first spotted Silvermist in, my Ion equipped fleet of frigates encounters a small silvermist. One of my recently built cruisers had just engaged the mist prior to the arrival of the frigates and had caused about 25% damage to the mist before fleeing.

The frigates were not in an ideal spot for the engagement, I tried to consolidate them together, but the mist attacked before they could all converge, and three frigates who were unsupported by the rest of the fleet were quickly consumed. The main body of the fleet then arrived and was able to destroy the mist with only one of the remaining ships suffering some damage.

Were this a full sized (size 600-800) mist with no previous health damage, I estimate I would have probably lost about 8 – 10 ships. Not ideal but workable none the less. Once repairs are completed the fleet will continue jumping through all the empty systems up north and hunt for the rest of the silvermist swarms.
[image]http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/4893/silvermistu.jpg[/image]


A short time later, my main Attack fleet arrived in the pirate home system and I was amazed to see only two small ships stationed on defense. The only thing I can think of is the Free Shandar Utopia which has systems a short distance to the west of the pirate base must have been sending in fleets to clear the system of pirate ships.
[image]http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5319/initialassault.jpg[/image]


Regardless of what has happened to the 30+ ships I observed there a few years back, I quickly order an attack. The bases went down quick and 4 of my ships suffer heavy damage, but none are destroyed. I’ve ordered the cruisers to guard the Arlease colony in the Mortalu system where a large space port has been ordered to be constructed. This is the system the Pirate carrier fleet shown in my first post was in, so I suspect any remaining pirate vessels will show up there to try and kill the space port.

As reward for the destruction of the pirate bases I receive the following:
[image]http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/3918/win1g.jpg[/image]

[image]http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/6057/win2u.jpg[/image]

[image]http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/9041/win3s.jpg[/image]


Shortly thereafter one of my destroyers investigates a pulsing blue ring on the map and finds this:
[image]http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/9527/storylv.jpg[/image]


Suddenly I’m feeling a lot better. But while I was distracted by all these events, I didn’t pay close attention to my allies. They have all signed peace agreements with the bugs, leaving me the sole power at war with them. And when I go to the summary screen to change governments, I see this:
[image]http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/3025/summary.jpg[/image]

It would actually be kind of fun if my empire suddenly erupts into civil war and splits in two due to the massive war weariness. I’m not even sure if this can happen, but it’d definitely be exciting if it does. Man this game just keeps throwing unexpected stuff my way, lol.

Jim



martok -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/15/2011 8:15:12 PM)

Your AAR is a blast to read, Jim.  Thanks for taking the time & effort to post it! 


Congrats on completing the destruction of the pirates (and the subsequent rewards derived)! 


Also:  Wow!  Between all the star maps, the WOTA government, the treasure, and (especially) all the tech advances, that's gotta be the biggest haul I've yet seen from an abandoned base.  That's just crazy, although it seems like it couldn't have come at a better time for you! 






RaffleSnaffle -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/16/2011 4:49:07 AM)

Lovin' this! Super fast paced action action action AAR FTW!



Gelatinous Cube -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/16/2011 5:06:20 AM)

I notice you changed the picture sizes! Much better! I am very much enjoying this AAR. Keep it up!



Jim D Burns -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/16/2011 9:34:16 AM)

With high war weariness in my empire, I look over my planets and discover the least happy planet I own is still at +7 happiness, so I guess my worries about a civil war are unfounded. At least for now, I guess its possible discontent shall continue to grow.
[image]http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/7339/7happiness.jpg[/image]


A few months later I’m pleasantly surprised to learn another wonder has been built on my home planet. This is the 2nd one I’ve managed to complete, though I had no idea it had even been queued up for construction.
[image]http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/3028/2ndwonder.jpg[/image]


I swear this game is out to get me lol. Things had been sailing along quietly for the first time in a long time. In fact over a year had passed without any major fighting going on, so I decided to reorganize my fleets.

I had just re-designed most of the current designs for my military vessels and sent everything to the yards for a refit. About a month after this, I was busy re-designating my fleet structure and clicked through a pop-up message by accident.

I go into the message log to see what it was and see this:
[image]http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/7453/wherearethey.jpg[/image]


I have no idea where they are and hope they had been spotted in some far off corner of the map. Unfortunately for me, their first appearance is at a space station sitting in open space that had been located at a pulsing ring by my explorers early in the game.

They make quick work of the station which is just a short hop north of my Zentabia fluid colony of Varunat Prime 1.
[image]http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/3007/firstattack.jpg[/image]



A short time later the pirate fleet arrives at Varunat Prime 1 and the attack begins. There is a large capital ship, a carrier and three cruisers in this fleet, it is going to be a very tough job to destroy it, but tech levels have increased significantly since the first phantom pirates appeared in game, so I should be able to deal with them eventually.
[image]http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/5629/varunatprime1.jpg[/image]



Unfortunately the price I pay for choosing to refit my ships at this particular moment is rather high. If the pirates do get to build additional ships based on what they destroy, they are going to probably field a whole new fleet after this haul. Everything in this system was destroyed in a matter of seconds..
[image]http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/1417/thecost.jpg[/image]


The latest summary screen shows war weariness has gone to rampant. I have no idea how bad it can get, but I refuse to pay money to end the war. Once the current refits are completed I’ll head west and start squishing a few bugs.

The 20 listed carriers have been redesigned into very large carriers. I’ve redesigned them so each one has 12 fighter bays aboard. I’ll create 4 different fleets, each one centered around 5 carriers. That’ll be 240 fighters from the carriers plus whatever fighters the cruiser escorts add to the mix. There should be some epic battles soon.
[image]http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9767/summaryok.jpg[/image]

Jim



Gelatinous Cube -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/16/2011 9:41:13 AM)

Very nice! Those pirates can be nasty, but there are massive benefits to be had from destroying their base. I once destroyed three in two years, and was rewarded with nearly all the phaser tech.



Jim D Burns -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/16/2011 3:59:19 PM)

As the game was chugging along, I double clicked a message and went to a reported attack and saw the largest Ardilus I’ve yet seen in game. Unfortunately I was unable to press print screen fast enough before it jumped away from the gas giant planet it was hovering over to appear here near my merchant ship. The thing was almost as large as the gas giant planet it started near, and as you can see here it is larger than a normal sized planet.

This attack occurred over one year ago in game. The thing is still around and attacks any merchants that enter the system. Though its health is never 100% that I’ve seen, it is usually between 40%-70%. So my guess is the rodents simply can’t kill it fast enough before it forces their military ships to flee.
[image]http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/7824/ardilus.jpg[/image]


The new phantom Pirates must be causing some serious pain in the galaxy besides what they’ve done to me. These two events happened within a month of each other. While the Savage Claws only had 4 ships and their base, the Urd Trase had 16 ships and their base.

I immediately sent all the pirates to the scrapyards to see what tech advantage I could glean from the ships.
[image]http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/1913/savageclawraiders.jpg[/image]

[image]http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/2089/urdtraseraiders.jpg[/image]


When war first broke out, I sent the two spies I started the game with on low risk one year long missions to steal territory maps so their stats would get revealed. Unfortunately one of them died and I am now paying the price for only having one spy left to put on counter-intelligence missions.
[image]http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/9220/basedestroyed.jpg[/image]

[image]http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/1243/sabotage2.jpg[/image]


As you can see, Esari Kalan is nothing to write home about in the intelligence business. I just wish I could get more spies, but although I’ve gotten lots of other leader types, no spies have appeared at all.
[image]http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/9020/esarikalan.jpg[/image]


Before all my ships could finish upgrading, chaos erupts in the galaxy and I find myself at war with even more empires. Thankfully war weariness seems to have topped out at rampant and I haven’t suffered any rebellions as yet.
[image]http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/956/chaosnk.jpg[/image]


It appears the phantom pirates have run out of targets. This large fleet centered on a carrier took up residence in the Paakri system (the system just west of my Zentabia fluid system) and hasn’t moved out in quite some time.
[image]http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/6576/piratecamp.jpg[/image]


All the above occurred over about 2 years of game time. Yet still my fleets have not completely finished the upgrades I have been waiting on. I can only assume the lack of any shipyards in the southern part of my empire is what has caused this massive backlog delay.

Taking advantage of the fact I had little or no military presence left near my Zentabia fluid planet, the Sluken’s invade and capture the place. I had tried to build up a land army, but as you can see they brought plenty of troops to get the job done.
[image]http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/3291/bugsattack.jpg[/image]


All is not lost however, as my long awaited upgrades are finally nearing completion. Here you see my newly organized Southern Fleet. It’s fully operational and fueling for the trip south to deal with the Pirate menace.

There are three more fleets identical to this one (Northern, Western and Eastern), but they all have a few ships still waiting to finish upgrades. Once they are done I’ll be able to deal out some serious pain to my enemies.
[image]http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/6442/southernfleet.jpg[/image]


My assault fleet isn’t quite ready even now, but should hopefully be ready to follow up behind the Southern Fleet once it has cleared out major military resistance from the south.
[image]http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/5369/assaultfleet.jpg[/image]

Jim



Whydmer -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/16/2011 5:19:43 PM)

[X(] Holy Cr@p! your assault fleet dwarfs mine.  In fact all your fleets do but this one by a mile or two. (Great AAR btw)



Gelatinous Cube -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/16/2011 5:32:46 PM)

Indeed! Anyone reading this who has also read mine must surely note that your Empire is MASSIVE. This is how I like to play my games, but the idea of trying to do an AAR of such a big map was too daunting. I am impressed! You can get bet I'm taking some notes, as offensive strategy is my weakest part of the war game.



Jim D Burns -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/16/2011 8:03:45 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Whydmer

[X(] Holy Cr@p! your assault fleet dwarfs mine.  In fact all your fleets do but this one by a mile or two. (Great AAR btw)



I designed the huge assault fleet due to the size of the map. I wanted staying power so the fleet could stay on campaign for quite a while before the need to return to re-embark more ground troops was necessary. I’ll have supply ships following the fleets to keep them in fuel, so ground troops were the only limiting factor for campaign length I could see.

I’ve found on a map this size (15 x 15 sectors) it can literally take well over a year to go back to home territory and get back out to the fight. So my thinking is if I bring enough troops with the fleet and make the fleet large enough that lost ships will be rare, I can stay on campaign for quite a while.

The need to leave some troops behind on conquered planets to defend them will be mitigated by the fact the troops will become stronger and stronger the more they fight. So hopefully I’ll only need one or two return trips for the entire war.

Jim



Tophat1815 -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/18/2011 12:15:43 AM)

Well I have had no issue with your post sizing and frankly even if i had this one is so good its worth jumping through hoops to read! Great AAR Jim! 



Jim D Burns -> RE: A Legends induced squeeze (12/18/2011 1:17:11 AM)

Not long after the capture of my Zentabia Fluid planet, the Sluken fleet arrives at the Paakri system and begins to land troops on Paakri 1. Initially only a few troops are landed, but more and more troop transports warp into system until it is obviously too many to resist. The planet falls about 3-6 months after this screenshot:
[image]http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/5188/toomany.jpg[/image]


The Sluken fleet then leaves and is seen no more and at first I’m a bit mystified as there is a second less populous planet in the system they did not invade. But my puzzlement gets its answer a few months later.

This is the first of two failed attempts to use intelligence operations to grab control of my planet. I say failed in that the planet remains in my hands still, both operations were successful in increasing my unrest level. The second attempt saw unhappiness drop to -14 and I thought it was sure to succeed, but unhappiness recovered before any rebel units appeared. If this keeps up though, eventually I’ll lose the planet.
[image]http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/2148/rebelsr.jpg[/image]


Early in game my explorers discovered a Desolation Moon project. It has been so long ago I had completely forgotten about it. I spotted the name on map while scrolling past recently and zoomed in to have a look and was pleasantly surprised. Looks like I’ll have a death star soon to add to my fleet.
[image]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9752/desolationmoon.jpg[/image]


My explorers found a few very well positioned supply depots deep in the heart of enemy space. Here you see the first base is already claimed and its scanners reveal that quite a few enemy fleets are in the area. The next supply base is near the Sciibu system and my ship can be seen moving in to take control of it. It will extend scanner range deep into enemy territory. All the advanced ships around the two supply bases are sent into the scrap yard and stripped for tech.
[image]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5295/supplybases.jpg[/image]


As I type this, the date in game is 2800.07.12 and my big fleets have yet to venture into enemy space. I had them all on auto control and assumed the AI would move them to the assembly systems I had assigned as their home bases. But they were all still patrolling around the same gas mines they were at 2 years ago, so I have recently taken manual control and ordered them into position.

The four supply fleets (one will go with each fleet) which were ordered manually long ago are all already in position and mining gas in the assembly systems, so once the battle fleets arrive they should be able to top off fuel and head into combat with minimal delay.
[image]http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/7413/supplyfleet.jpg[/image]


As for the Silvermist’s reported on originally about 12 years ago game time. I am still constantly getting reports of attacks in the same systems north/northeast of my empire and many of the systems have 3 or 4 mists in them when I check. Even so, they do not seem to be spreading anywhere beyond the area they were first reported in.

I haven’t had time to finish cleaning them out, but I did manage to clean them out of the systems in and around the system they were first sighted in. As you can see from the below map, I know own Nar Shaddos and several of the area systems around it and haven’t had any trouble with Silvermist’s returning to the area yet.
[image]http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/8113/silvermistmap.jpg[/image]


I am pretty disappointed in the behavior of the Silvermist’s, or I should say lack of activity. Had they continued to spread back when techs were low, they could have easily consumed a huge chunk of my empire. But their self restricted behavior in only haunting a few systems has allowed me to survive without taking any serious damage from them other than the loss of the occasional colony ship or destroyer.

If this behavior is intentionally coded into the game to limit their effect, I’d ask that an option be added to the starting parameters menus so players can choose to have them be totally free ranging, with the ability to consume the entire map if not stopped somehow.

Below is a large screenshot of all the current victory levels. My military value skyrocketed once all my existing large space ports refitted with the Super Laser’s with their firepower ratings of 30,000! I wish there was a way to exclude the effect of those super lasers on your military rating so you could get a better idea of how the different empires fleet strengths compared. Perhaps a new line/tab for base power and the old one just covers ship power?

Until very recently, the Combined Atuuk Alliance had a larger population than I did, but it has constantly been declaring war on my allies of late, so has lost some territory to them over the last few years.

What amazes me is how far ahead I’ve grown in total colonies. It’s as if the AI powers have stopped colonizing or something. My empire has grown larger over the past 12 years, but for the most part all the new colonies except a few are due to exotic planets I already controlled being colonized by new races that have grown populations within my empire large enough to start building colony ships for me.

Do AI powers prohibit non-core races from building colony ships for them? Because it appears they have all pretty much remained the same size as they were when I started this AAR, and I haven’t touched colony handling, it’s totally AI controlled for me, yet I’ve grown by almost 30 colonies during the same time frame.
[image]http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/5416/victoryconditions.jpg[/image]


Jim



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