My recent campaign is almost at a finish. I subverted a rouge Altarian world and brought it under my rule. The beggining was tough and I was trapped in a pocket of space with little planets(though everything was at abundant). Through the overtaxation and repression of the populace I was able, however, to extend myself to a modest 20-30 planets by the end of the first phase of colonization. To my east lay the Korx to my North(squezed into a corner) the Terran, to my north west the Coldradian Empire(one of my own creations, a very agressive AI), and to my south the Drath and the Drenging. I was in the almost middle of the map, and quite regeretted it.
Because of the path I had to take in active colonization my military developed very slowly. However my altarian setup alowd me to stay ahead in research and at least 3/4 in economy. I felt nervous though, the Terran had build up a large force and had colonized several 20+ planets near their homeworld. Not only that, but their long distance colony ships landed behind me to the south, almost trapping me in a sphere of their influence. Wars started near the end of the first year and the populace was in panic. No wars against us were declared, but huge fleets of Korx, Coldrdian, and Drengin ships moved through our territories.
Pressed for action by the newly elected Democractic Senate, I began an agressive miltary program. The first ship was a meek, but sturdy Patroler design. It carried the finest in our weapons and hyperdrive technology. It only had 1 laser damage, but it moved 3 pc, making it quite quick at the time period. These were soon stationed across my quite vast area of space. I continued to research up the laser tech tree, and then the worst happened.
The Terran had risen to be the major force of the galaxy. While the other empires battled for superiority they sat in their corner and build huge fleets and economy that doulbe everyone elses. Once they saw me as an easy threat to take out, they declared war. Now things got realy ugly. My territories were ravaged by at least 10 terran fleets at a time, I was just about to order for evacuation. But I relised, that for all the Terran millitary migh, their fleets were wimpy beyond reason. And thanks to the millitary crystal my slaves mined from our vast collection of resources my meek army had at least a 50% bonus, helping keep my planets safe.
It soon got annoying though, having all these terran ships everywhere, so I ordered a new design to help avenge... um... all the space that the terran took up that could be put to such better use under my rule. The ship design was called the Redeemer. It began at 4 laser damage, and 3 speed, but it became the most mainstreamed and powerful design ever to come out of my foundries and spaceports. Several were built, and the cleaning began. In under a year I had my territory mostly liberated, with a few scattered Terran ships remaining. In this time the Redeemer went through two revisions, makign it have an attack raiting of 9 and defense raiting of 2(missle).
This is when the first Terran worlds began to fall. I took at least a dozne of their fringe world's in under two months or less. These worlds were mostly extreme enviornments, but were 12+ class worlds, so they becaim my prized possisions. However a sally into the Terran Corner was repelled every time. Though my fleets were more powerful the Terran outnumbered me 3:1. How they managed to produce that many ships were beyond my logicians and engineers, but the war didn't wait for answers to such questions. Instead I desided to make the Redeemer have one last refit, to end the war once and for all.
The Redeemer MD-2 came out to the lines early spring of '29. It carried an array of the latest phase weaponry boosting it to an attack of 17 and a defense of 14. This made the ship practically invulnerable, and with our new discovery of Micro Repair bots these ships survived dozens of battles. In less then half a year I took another dozen Terran worlds, and the first call for peace came from their side. I said no, I wanted Earth, and their two 20+ class worlds. So the war still goes on. Will I win? Probably, but the game did look very bleak at times.
