Game Report: The Rise and Fall of the Arcean Empire
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In case it's of interest to anyone, here's the little story of my fourth game overall, the first that's made it through to the metaverse.
(This is only my second post here, so greetings to all, too.)
---
Having just given up a game early with all AIs on bright difficulty -- the Altarians were out for my blood, and my prospects were looking very bleak -- I decided to start a new one on normal. Since I had been playing in small universes, playing a gigantic game and going for the tech victory seemed like a fun strategy. (It was enough fun to keep me up way past my bedtime for a few nights, as it turned out.) I picked the Federalist party, and took bonuses in economics, research, and military production; although I wasn't out for war, the stars were set for tight clusters and the military bonus seemed like it would be good for helping me build plenty of starbases.
I found myself in a star cluster about three quarters of the way down the map and one quarter from the left. My cluster was of middling size, so I set about colonizing it while my survey ship and scouts headed for the two smaller clusters in range -- one many sectors upward on the map, the other in the bottom-left corner region. The former turned out to be occupied by the Yor (charming folk, as always), while the latter was free for me to claim. By the time my starting cluster was well established, I discovered the Torians, to the left of the Yor, and the Arceans, to the right. I had to share two planets of my cluster with a minor race, but they were friendly and, I thought, would be my first line of defense against the Yor.
As it turned out, a wet paper bag would have worked just as well and been all that I needed. The Yor had the worst starting position; theirs was the smallest cluster, and, trapped between the Torians and the Arceans, they rapidly stagnated. I decided to focus my efforts on developing my secondary cluster, leaving affairs in those sectors to look after themselves. I was playing along with a good alignment, and had hoped to find the Altarians, but no luck; it wasn't until many turns later that I finally found them in a large cluster up from the Arcean center. I'd thought the Torians would be friendly, but their alignment ended up as Neutral, though I'd set them as the standard Chaotic Good. So were the Yor, and the Arceans. While still pondering this, I finally encountered the Drengin, who had expanded dramatically through the largest star cluster, some distance up from the Yor. Not only were they as evil as usual, the charts said they had at least as much military power as the rest of us combined. I immediately decided that they were Public Enemy Number One; although they were too far away to attack me, and the other races stood in between, it looked as if they would gobble up the others and then descend upon me. Since the Arceans were centrally located, I decided they would be my best shield, and set up all but one of my trade routes with them while beginning a destabilization campaign against the Drengin.
This campaign worked very well, because that was as strong as the Drengin ever got. It worked a bit too well.
The Arceans, bolstered mainly by my trade (or so I thought), fought the Drengin. They also ran a destabilization campaign of their own, and soon the Drengin were torn by rebellion, never to recover their supremacy. The Arceans didn't stop there, though; they also destroyed the Yor. I watched this new development with some concern, which was redoubled as they engaged the Torians, and then the minor race that still had two systems in my cluster. I began paying Arcean rebels, too; this may have helped check their expansion in the opposite direction, but didn't stop their progress in my sectors at all. Soon they'd taken those two systems -- a useless effort, I thought, because I had so much cultural influence there, even to the extent of a Party Palace on the starbase in that very sector. Still, I sensed trouble, and switched all my systems building Constructors over to Antimatter Missiles.
With the Drengin in decay, the Arceans had become the strongest military power in the galaxy. The rise on the graph was startling, but I wasn't worried. They were at war with everyone, and I was their trading partner. Even if they dared to open another front, my missiles would be waiting, I thought.
They did dare: they demanded my starbase. I said no. They didn't take that well (they declared war), so I took their two planets myself, missiling the dreadnoughts off them first.
Everything seemed fine, as my cluster was wrapped up tighter than ever, and my missile stockpiles were too big to fit on one planet, with more on the way.
Then they started attacking, and I noticed two important facts:
1) Their dreadnoughts were extremely powerful. Checking the stats screen, I saw that their attack, defense, and hit point ratings were around +170%, as compared to around +70% for me and the other races. Their economic rating was about that high, too.
2) Fleets of these dreadnoughts were swarming all over the Torians, the Drengin, and me.
The situation was pretty dire. I had enough money to buy peace, but that would just condemn the other races to eventual destruction. Belatedly I realized the importance of sensor drones in a gigantic universe, and set about doing some reconnaissance. I finally found the Altarians, up from the Arceans, only to discover that the Arceans had allied with them! Together the two races had been slowly conquering the Drengin. So, the race I had thought might save me turned out to be the final blow against me.
Or not. I found something else, while I was looking around:
A pair of Arcean starbases situated on almost adjacent military resources, exploiting them for a combined bonus of 70% or more.
Suddenly, the Arcean invincibility was explained. However, these bases weren't far from my territory, and they seemed to have no escorts. I'd just finished my first Overlord, and had started producing constructors again, so it seemed like I had the chance for a single attack that might change the outcome of the game.
Setting out were four Antimatter Missiles, one Overlord, and a few constructors; while they traveled the seven or so sectors to their destination, I tried to fight off the continuing waves of dreadnoughts with my failing missile supply. Finally they arrived, but weren't alone: there was a Dreadnought waiting, and thanks to the bonuses, I wouldn't be able to destroy both it and the starbase. (Only two missiles were in the vicinity.) Luckily, though the Dreadnought was strong, it was slow; I let it approach, then ran the Overlord around it. My ship smashed the strongest starbase, taking heavy damage in the process; the antimatter missiles got the other, and the Overlord spotted an undeveloped tech base that it destroyed easily.
At this point, the Arceans had made one disastrous mistake: they'd entrusted the key to their victories to a single Dreadnought. Having done that, they made another: they let me buy peace from them for 4000-odd BC.
That was the end of the game, basically. My constructors seized all three resources, and I used the respite to build up the starbases for my own use. Within a few turns, our positions were reversed; my military ratings soared while theirs collapsed. The Torian dreadnaughts were no longer outclassed, and slowly pushed the Arceans out of their cluster. I used the respite to locate two more Arcean starbases, then, two more Overlords and plenty of constructors in hand, declared war, destroyed the bases, and replaced them with my own. From that it was a short step to conquering the old Yorian cluster. For a while I sent an Overlord into the Arcean homeland, destroying anything and everything (and the occasional Altarian ally), but conquest wasn't needed anymore. My cultural influence and technology were far beyond everyone else's; playing my good-guy role again, I set the entire galaxy at peace for a while -- call it the "Pax Terra". From then on, it was just a question of awaiting transcendence and the tech victory.
Everyone's on the lookout for game imbalances, and this game certainly showed me the importance of military resources. Once I had three of them fully developed, I think I could've destroyed every ship in this Gigantic galaxy with one Overlord -- getting an additional 189% to each of Attack, Defense, and Hit Points, beyond what you get from tech -- is a frightening thing. On the other hand, it made for one very interesting game, so I've got nothing bad to say about it this time.
~SDC~
(This is only my second post here, so greetings to all, too.)
---
Having just given up a game early with all AIs on bright difficulty -- the Altarians were out for my blood, and my prospects were looking very bleak -- I decided to start a new one on normal. Since I had been playing in small universes, playing a gigantic game and going for the tech victory seemed like a fun strategy. (It was enough fun to keep me up way past my bedtime for a few nights, as it turned out.) I picked the Federalist party, and took bonuses in economics, research, and military production; although I wasn't out for war, the stars were set for tight clusters and the military bonus seemed like it would be good for helping me build plenty of starbases.
I found myself in a star cluster about three quarters of the way down the map and one quarter from the left. My cluster was of middling size, so I set about colonizing it while my survey ship and scouts headed for the two smaller clusters in range -- one many sectors upward on the map, the other in the bottom-left corner region. The former turned out to be occupied by the Yor (charming folk, as always), while the latter was free for me to claim. By the time my starting cluster was well established, I discovered the Torians, to the left of the Yor, and the Arceans, to the right. I had to share two planets of my cluster with a minor race, but they were friendly and, I thought, would be my first line of defense against the Yor.
As it turned out, a wet paper bag would have worked just as well and been all that I needed. The Yor had the worst starting position; theirs was the smallest cluster, and, trapped between the Torians and the Arceans, they rapidly stagnated. I decided to focus my efforts on developing my secondary cluster, leaving affairs in those sectors to look after themselves. I was playing along with a good alignment, and had hoped to find the Altarians, but no luck; it wasn't until many turns later that I finally found them in a large cluster up from the Arcean center. I'd thought the Torians would be friendly, but their alignment ended up as Neutral, though I'd set them as the standard Chaotic Good. So were the Yor, and the Arceans. While still pondering this, I finally encountered the Drengin, who had expanded dramatically through the largest star cluster, some distance up from the Yor. Not only were they as evil as usual, the charts said they had at least as much military power as the rest of us combined. I immediately decided that they were Public Enemy Number One; although they were too far away to attack me, and the other races stood in between, it looked as if they would gobble up the others and then descend upon me. Since the Arceans were centrally located, I decided they would be my best shield, and set up all but one of my trade routes with them while beginning a destabilization campaign against the Drengin.
This campaign worked very well, because that was as strong as the Drengin ever got. It worked a bit too well.
The Arceans, bolstered mainly by my trade (or so I thought), fought the Drengin. They also ran a destabilization campaign of their own, and soon the Drengin were torn by rebellion, never to recover their supremacy. The Arceans didn't stop there, though; they also destroyed the Yor. I watched this new development with some concern, which was redoubled as they engaged the Torians, and then the minor race that still had two systems in my cluster. I began paying Arcean rebels, too; this may have helped check their expansion in the opposite direction, but didn't stop their progress in my sectors at all. Soon they'd taken those two systems -- a useless effort, I thought, because I had so much cultural influence there, even to the extent of a Party Palace on the starbase in that very sector. Still, I sensed trouble, and switched all my systems building Constructors over to Antimatter Missiles.
With the Drengin in decay, the Arceans had become the strongest military power in the galaxy. The rise on the graph was startling, but I wasn't worried. They were at war with everyone, and I was their trading partner. Even if they dared to open another front, my missiles would be waiting, I thought.
They did dare: they demanded my starbase. I said no. They didn't take that well (they declared war), so I took their two planets myself, missiling the dreadnoughts off them first.
Everything seemed fine, as my cluster was wrapped up tighter than ever, and my missile stockpiles were too big to fit on one planet, with more on the way.
Then they started attacking, and I noticed two important facts:
1) Their dreadnoughts were extremely powerful. Checking the stats screen, I saw that their attack, defense, and hit point ratings were around +170%, as compared to around +70% for me and the other races. Their economic rating was about that high, too.
2) Fleets of these dreadnoughts were swarming all over the Torians, the Drengin, and me.
The situation was pretty dire. I had enough money to buy peace, but that would just condemn the other races to eventual destruction. Belatedly I realized the importance of sensor drones in a gigantic universe, and set about doing some reconnaissance. I finally found the Altarians, up from the Arceans, only to discover that the Arceans had allied with them! Together the two races had been slowly conquering the Drengin. So, the race I had thought might save me turned out to be the final blow against me.
Or not. I found something else, while I was looking around:
A pair of Arcean starbases situated on almost adjacent military resources, exploiting them for a combined bonus of 70% or more.
Suddenly, the Arcean invincibility was explained. However, these bases weren't far from my territory, and they seemed to have no escorts. I'd just finished my first Overlord, and had started producing constructors again, so it seemed like I had the chance for a single attack that might change the outcome of the game.
Setting out were four Antimatter Missiles, one Overlord, and a few constructors; while they traveled the seven or so sectors to their destination, I tried to fight off the continuing waves of dreadnoughts with my failing missile supply. Finally they arrived, but weren't alone: there was a Dreadnought waiting, and thanks to the bonuses, I wouldn't be able to destroy both it and the starbase. (Only two missiles were in the vicinity.) Luckily, though the Dreadnought was strong, it was slow; I let it approach, then ran the Overlord around it. My ship smashed the strongest starbase, taking heavy damage in the process; the antimatter missiles got the other, and the Overlord spotted an undeveloped tech base that it destroyed easily.
At this point, the Arceans had made one disastrous mistake: they'd entrusted the key to their victories to a single Dreadnought. Having done that, they made another: they let me buy peace from them for 4000-odd BC.
That was the end of the game, basically. My constructors seized all three resources, and I used the respite to build up the starbases for my own use. Within a few turns, our positions were reversed; my military ratings soared while theirs collapsed. The Torian dreadnaughts were no longer outclassed, and slowly pushed the Arceans out of their cluster. I used the respite to locate two more Arcean starbases, then, two more Overlords and plenty of constructors in hand, declared war, destroyed the bases, and replaced them with my own. From that it was a short step to conquering the old Yorian cluster. For a while I sent an Overlord into the Arcean homeland, destroying anything and everything (and the occasional Altarian ally), but conquest wasn't needed anymore. My cultural influence and technology were far beyond everyone else's; playing my good-guy role again, I set the entire galaxy at peace for a while -- call it the "Pax Terra". From then on, it was just a question of awaiting transcendence and the tech victory.
Everyone's on the lookout for game imbalances, and this game certainly showed me the importance of military resources. Once I had three of them fully developed, I think I could've destroyed every ship in this Gigantic galaxy with one Overlord -- getting an additional 189% to each of Attack, Defense, and Hit Points, beyond what you get from tech -- is a frightening thing. On the other hand, it made for one very interesting game, so I've got nothing bad to say about it this time.
~SDC~
