Hithesius calls up again asking for money.  Now at this point I have more than enough credits to cover his tribute, but I also know that until I get weapons of my own, he's going to keep coming back for more.  I'd rather that the credits stayed in my treasury where they might actually be useful, than pay off the Thalans for a few months at best.

However, Hithesius has obviously determined that I'm weak and unable to defend myself.  The very next week, a declaration of war is made.  The Thalans are coming.

I immediately contact the survey ship and tell them to expect trouble:

You can see from the small blue rectangle on the minimap that their current position is quite close to Thalan space.  They haven't got any weapons, so the best that they can do is try to evade any Thalan fighters if they run into them.  That shouldn't be too hard considering that this is one of the fastest ships in the fleet.

Meanwhile, military research is still ongoing:

It's going to take 17 weeks to finish Advanced Hulls?  What... who's dragging their heels?!

Oh yeah, that would be me.  See, back when I completed research on Soil Enhancement, I set spending to 50:50 between social and research.  Now, I do still have some social projects in progress but for the moment I can put those on hold.  This yields a much better estimate of 9 weeks until research is completed.

Still, 9 weeks is a long time, and after this project there's even more to get through.  I don't want to whole galaxy to declare war on me just for not having a military presence, so I get in touch with Emperor Iso the Wise, the leader of the Iconian Refuge:

He's willing to sell me six light fighters for a little under 3000 billion credits, and I have that kind of money to spare.  Having these ships won't be much of a deterrant, but it might be enough to keep the Thalans busy while I'm researching my own weapons.

It's a good thing that I didn't wait until the Thalans were on my doorstep to go looking for an arms dealer:

See, the closest of those fighters won't get to the border of Iconian space for at least a couple of weeks, and after that it could be as long as ten weeks before they arrive at Earth.  Even with the advent of Hyperdrive, it still takes a while to cross the galaxy.

While I'm waiting for my ships to arrive, the Thalans are busy chasing after my other ships:

Great job, Hithesius.  You took out an unarmed freighter manned by civilians!  That must have been a real challenge for the mighty Thalan Empire.

Unfortunately, I can't do much about protecting the freighters until my ships are closer and even then, it's going to take some serious firepower to keep them safe while crossing right through Thalan space.  So I contact the Iconians and make a deal for four more fighters.  It's not much, but if they're interested in selling, I'm interested in buying!

Having now completed research on Advanced Materials, I'm moving on to Technology Progression I:

This is a lengthy project which prepares my space-faring people for the more complex technologies which they need to master.

Some of the AI-controlled empires will also research this before being able to access the rest of the tech tree.  The cost of researching it acts as a sort of gate, so if they do not yet have the necessary research infrastructure to research this, there's very little point in them trying to research the costly technologies beyond it.  Or in other words, 'you must be this smart to go any further'.

The tps for Tech Progression I are drawn from a number of technologies which come immediately afterwards, so it will actually be quicker to research those - when I'm done with this one, that is.  Space Weapons technology is available right after Research Academies, the two of them comprise Core Technologies VI.

Some races such as the Torians have a harder time getting this research done, despite what I have done to streamline their early tech trees, because they don't have much of a research advantage compared to other races.

I'm able to get a detailed scan of a Thalan heavy fighter as it arrives at Banfield II, near the Quendor system:

Although I have a squadron of three Iconian light fighters conveniently available to intercept the lone heavy fighter, I decide not to engage.  This single ship has comparable firepower to my squadron and although numbers might win the day, it's more useful to have this intel and still have my ships if they're needed.

However this single heavy fighter doesn't pass up the opportunity to pursue a pair of my fighters when they pass by the Quendor system.  Because of their agility they're able to get to Quendor II and take up defensive positions in orbit and fend off the one fighter.  They're able to do this because Interstellar Construction is a core technology which I've researched, and allows the construction of the Orbital Command Centre, allowing ships in orbit of one of my colonies to act like a fleet.

In no time at all I have all four of the Iconian fighters that I recently purchased ir orbit of Quendor II to protect it from any further attacks by the Thalans:

Although this is by no means a permanent solution to the Thalan aggression, it will buy me some time to finish my research.  And if my fighter pilots happen to get lucky shooting more thalan fighters into little pieces, so much the better!

Seeing as how things have been going so well with the Iconians, I decided that it might be in our best interests to collaborate a little more in the future, say with working on new technologies.  I submit to them a research treaty:

Negotiations go quite well here, in part because I am so diplomatic, and perhaps because I'm actually producing more research than them right now, so it's a better deal for them at the moment.  I'm able to sweeten the deal in my favour by asking for another shipment of fighters!

It's time for another random event!

This time around it's a big funky wormhole.  I don't think I will get much benefit from it, since my colonies are just about nearing their population caps, but the other races will probably see some gains, and since more population in the galaxy means more tourists, I can say with some certainty that there will be some increase in tourism income this year.

Oh yeah, and N-1 calls to express his concerns about the growing dominance of the Thalan Empire:

When the evil sentient robots are saying they are scared, I guess it's time to be worried!

Having completed Tech Progression I, it's now possible to design new more powerful research structures (Research Academies).  I've also unlocked some other useful (optional) technologies:

However of course, it's not very useful having Advanced Factories if I can't yet build any ships with them.  Enhanced Logistics would be handy when I start to go on the offensive but again, only when I have some good ships.  Extreme Entertainment is something to look into at some point because a morale bonus is always nice, and there's a Trade Good worth having too.  Advanced Diplomacy would give me a bonus in negotiations and allow me to spread my influence further, so it's definitely on my list of things to research too.

Of course I shouldn't neglect the technologies that I left behind either.  Xeno Industrial Theory unlocks three improvements, two of which will be handy, and there's Space Mining, can't say no to some more output from the asteroid mines.

It's just that I really need some guns.  Big honking space guns.

The next UP meeting is about... hey wait didn't we do this like two years ago?

Why is it, when I vote for something, everyone else does something completely different?  It's more like the Disunited Planets if you ask me.

Now, I still have a lot of credits by the time I finish up Research Academies, and I put them to good use:

I buy three of those, for an immediate 25% boost to my research efforts on those particular planets.  It beats a long and slow building process, which I would need to divert funding away from research to do.

Meanwhile the Thalans have some problems:

And this is why you don't just let anyone run a galactic prison.  Now I have to watch out for a hijacked Thalan ship?  Oh that's just great.

An economic boom immediately follows.  Normally you would think that stocks would be down considering there's an alien spaceship out there under the control of the galaxy's most violent prisoners.

The funky wormhole closes down, so reproductive rates across the galaxy are reportedly returning to normal.  Except among the Torians of course.

So I'm finally faced with a choice of weapons technologies to pursue:

I haven't tried missile weapons for some time.  Additionally, the Iconians have developed mass driver type weapons, while of course the Thalans have been working on beam weapons, so I would hate to be unoriginal and go for the same as those two.

I've been attempting to escort my freighters along the trade route:

Unfortunately, as I already mentioned, the Thalan heavy fighters are a match for a squadron of three Iconian light fighters, and at the end of the engagement I only have one left.  Reinforcements will take five weeks to arrive.  I can only hope that Hithesius is reluctant to leave his nearby outpost undefended, because there's another heavy fighter stationed there.

As it turns out, there's another two heavy fighters lurking nearby, but they don't have a chance to take out the freighter.  Because I have lost the starbase that I built to extend my range, the freighter reports that it's out of range and immediately starts over at Earth.  Great.

There's nothing I can do about that now.  I've already demonstrated I don't have the firepower to keep destroying Thalan heavy fighters, and if I try to extend the range, the starbase will probably be destroyed again.  But I can deny the Thalans the satisfaction of blowing up my freighters, if I shut down the trade route.

I am however able to lure the Thalans into an ambush at Quendor II:

It's not much of a victory, but I just need to delay them long enough to perfect missile weapons.

The economic boom is over quite quickly, and another attack by the Thalan fighters has destroyed the mining starbase near Quendor.  But I'm able to repel them at the planet itself with no losses.

Finally, I finish researching Stinger.  It's a bulky missile weapon platform, but it will get the job done.  However I am concerned about the firepower, which is a little bit less than the Thalan heavy fighter.  This is the design that I'm looking to produce right now, to improve my defence:

It is quite a bit better than the Iconian light fighter.  It also costs a little more in maintenance.

For those occasions that I may need to engage the Thalans away from the orbit of a planet, I'm researching Basic Logistics so that I can put three of these bad boys in a fleet, which will be a fair fight against two Thalan heavies.  I set my spending to 52:48 between Military and Research, which will allow me to complete my research in six weeks, and the first batch of these new ships will be ready to enter service in eight weeks time.

I'm presented with another intriguing ethical choice:

The Terran Alliance is at war with an alien race which has attacked without provocation and this man is threatening to undermine morale.  If there have been sacrifices, they have have been made with good reason and to ensure the survival of my people.  I will make an example of this man, but I don't need to kill him to do so.  If he is publicly discgraced, nobody will listen to him.  Problem solved.

Meanwhile, the Yor decide that they want in on the action as well:

Nice!  The sentient evil robots want to make war on my worst enemy.  I can just about imagine all the hamsters of my world dancing joyfully.

The Thalans have been doing their best to take out my other mining starbase, but I'm fairly sure I will get a constructor out to repair it before they do.  Meanwhile, I may be able to restart mining of that morale resource near Quendor, if someone doesn't snatch it.

The United Planets meets to finally discuss the matter of protecting freighters:

I'm a little surpirsed that it passed.  Now all I have to do is re-establish my trade routes, rrgh.

It's now the start of the sixth year and although there are no signs of a clear winner at present, the Yor and Thalans currently have the greatest research capacity of all the races.

Nice.

So, couple of questions - does everyone have weapons by the point? And have you met those minors yet?

I was thinking about the minors. Are they modded minors?

Aside from a few minor changes to the tech tree, the minors are just the same.  I have plans to create a stripped-down souped-up tech tree specifically for them.  However it's still the case that even with a modded personality, you need to quick-save and reload at the start of the game for them to go off colonising.  It's something that I think I would forget to do at the start of a new game.

I've met the Jessuins so far.  The other minor race must be over on the other side of the galaxy where I can't reach them right now.  Bloody Thalans.

The military power graph indicates that the Arceans have the greatest military power:

The others are of course the Thalans and Yor, and trailing behind are the Terrans (me), Iconians and Korx.

The Drengin are working on Mass Driver Theory and when they do start building fighters it's almost certain that they will become a dominant military power.

The Altarians, Torians and LMT Corporate are a bit further behind.  In the colony grab, the Altarians only got 7 planets, so I'm not sure how well they're going to do this game.

I'm aware of the extreme hypocrisy it takes to ask this question, but is this going to be continued?

Yeah.  I needed to take a break to get some other things done, that's all.

So having finished research of Basic Logistics, I moved on to the first of the Space Mining techs.  There's only one level available to me anyway at this stage, but the extra industrial input is definitely welcome.

Speaking of industry, I'm looking into Xeno Factory Construction:

Now it would be a bit quicker to research Xeno Industrial Theory, and I would be able to build a Manufacturing Capital and a United Builders Factory (which is a Super Project which effectively gives you an early Manufacturing Centre).

However, it would be a shame to get a bunch of Xeno Factories built and then have to upgrade them to Advanced Factories anyway.  Why not get some Advanced Factories running as soon as I'm able (seeing as how I have money to burn here!) and give myself the industrial capacity to really crank some fighter squadrons, hmm?

Given that I don't have that sort of industrial capacity yet, Enhanced Logistics has to wait for a bit.  Speaking of Logistics, I don't actually know how many ships the Thalans can squeeze into a fleet at the moment.  Better get some Espionage spending going.

You see here that Manufacturing Centres is not available right after Xeno Factory Construction.  I would need to complete Technology Progression II to unlock that technology.  This means that I need to work with what improvements I can research in a reasonable time.

I'm currently striking a balance between research and shipbuilding:

If my agents indicate that the Thalans already have Enhanced Logistics, then I will need to spend more on research in order to even the odds.  If on the other hand I find that they have not yet mastered that technology, I could increase funding for manufacturing, especially once I have built factories, and repel their fighters without much fear of being swarmed by superior numbers.

A new problem emerges:

How fortunate for me that I'm in control of a morale resource then!  I do not need to lower taxes at present, but overall approval has lowered to 62%.  The other major powers are similarly affected.  I'm betting on a Precursor artefact leaching the happiness from the various people, since those arcaheologists are always unearthing things and activating them by accident.

Another interesting ethical choice:

While I have no doubt that we could probably lock up juveniles until the war is over to deter others from doing the same, I have doubts about the actual influence these young people actually have.  I'll happily leave it to teachers and parents to show them just how misguided they really are.  If they fail in this responsibility, then the Thalans have already won without needing to fire one more shot.

The mining starbase near to Ivey III is successfully repaired:

Because it's much further away from Thalan space than the mining starbase at Quendor, it's not as tempting a target for them, but I should still keep an eye out for trouble.

Preliminary findings relayed from informants inside the Thalan empire confirm that the Thalans have not researched any logistics technologies:

However the bad news is that they are already working on more powerful beam weapon technology and will be finished four weeks before I can build new factories.  This means I can expect their heavy fighters to be better armed than the M3 V3, so I cannot match their firepower even with one extra heavy fighter per squadron than them.  Better weapons technology would be a great help, but even going flat-out it will take at least ten weeks to research better Stinger missiles.

So for now, I should be patient and build up my defensive strength.

It comes as no huge surprise when the Drengin announce that they are joining the war too:

Against the Thalans?  Not us Terrans?  Well all right then.  The more the merrier!

This means, in case you weren't counting, that the Thalans are now at war with four races.  I'm half-expecting the Jessuins to join in the dogpile at this point, if they have any military at all.

Another ethical choice follows:

Since we have a healthy number of credits in the treasury at the moment, I see no reason to risk the lives of productive, tax-paying miners.  But if we can send some droids in and get some of these precious minerals out, it could help the war effort in some small way.

The Drengin also consider the Altarian Resistance to be easy pickings:

However in declaring war on the Altarians they have also provoked the other goodly races, namely the Iconians and Torians.

The Drengin have already been building fighters armed with space cannons, but they have also had a considerable influx of military might in the form of Super Dominator corvettes:

Thanks to the mod, they're not actually all that super, being armed with a single railgun instead of two.  Of course in large numbers during the early game they can be a bit of a pain.  I almost feel sorry for the Thalans.

I've learned that the other minor race is the Scottlingas.  But only because the Drengin delcared war on them.

Obviously, they have by now acquired a significant number of corvettes for their campaign of destruction.  Here's what it does to the miltary rankings:

No huge surprise there then!

However, the meteoric rise of the Drengin military might means that they're likely to call up and try to extort credits from me.  Refusing to cave in to extortion is what started the war with the Thalans.

I have recalled my intelligence agents and deployed them to spy on the Drengin, since I need to know what to expect if relations turn sour.  I'm sticking to my research plan (Xeno Factory Construction -> Enhanced Logistics -> Xeno Industrial Theory) since apart from the Thalans, everyone seems to be in a fairly low-tech weapons situation.

Oh, it's yet another ethical choice:

Wild animals die painful deaths out in the wild too.  Should we put a stop to that, and watch entire ecosystems fall apart?

Unless we're talking about widespread species endangerment, I think we have better things to do than pass silly laws that will waste money when we try and enforce them.

Meanwhile, the galaxy is becoming an increasingly violent place.  The Arceans have signed a peace treaty with the Thalans, while the Yor have decided to engage in hostilities with the Torians:

Incidentally, now that the Thalans are badly outnumbered, they won't consider signing a peace treaty with me unless I agree to fight the Drengin, or I pay them a couple of thousand bcs.

Do the Drengin have invasion technology yet?

If so, the Altarians and Torians (and by extension everyone else) could be in a lot of trouble.

Your mod is very intriguing.  I like how you set up the Core Technologies and Technology Progressions to make a stepwise ascent up the tech ladder.  Ima have to go DL it and peruse the TechTrees.

The one annoyance as I've mentioned is that with so many branches from one tech, it's more difficult to scroll to one tech in particular.  If I could limit the branching a bit, it would be longer and a little thinner, but a bit more readable.

Great AAR; thanks.  

At this point it is not possible to say whether the Drengin have invasion technology.  However it's certain that they will look into it, because they have that as part of a core technology group; so if nothing else, if they finish researching all the low level stuff they'll have no other option.