Okay, a story then, at least
I was playing as the Altarian Republic, in a medium size galaxy that I shared with the Drengin, the Yor, the Humans, the Arceans, and the Torians.
Our first plan was to colonize as muh of the galaxy as possible. Our homeworld had a secondary planet called Wisp that, while livable, was less than ideal. Our first ship design, then, would be a scout, named Oculus.
And, praise the cosmos, our first scout found an incredible solar system right next to our starting system. It had FOUR livable planets, one of which was Class 12. The Republic had a large reserve of credits set aside for just such an opportunity. It was time to buy some colony ships.
Five turns later, our fleet of newly bought ships was cruising towards the new system,. with one lone colony ship staying behind to set up a colony on Wisp (hey, Class 3 is better than nothing). More scut ships were sent out, to seek further frontiers for our fledgling civilization. Meanwhile, it was time to build up the planets we had managed to grab.
Unfortunately, almost all of our starting 5000 billion credits had been exhausted in our mad rush for planets. Planet development slowed to a crawl, as even the simplest factories would have required 17 weeks to complete.
I had faith in my people, and now it was time to see if they had faith in me. I raised the tax rate, and watched my approval plummet to about 60%. The money started coming in, and we were able to use some of it to speed up the constructions of the first factories... but there was a price. My people were still behind me, but the first seeds of discontent had been sown. I had to show them that their trust in me was not misplaced.
Meanwhile, our scouts found another planet, and I started constructing another colony ship. I had no money this time to hasten its construction, but it was finally ready... and it set off for the new world... but sadly, the Humans beat me to it. This was my first contact with them, and it would be ample foreshadowing for what was to come, much later.
Meanwhile, I found that--luckilly enough--the neighboring cilvilizations were the Humans, the Arceans, and the Torians, all peaceful races. The Yor and the Drengin were located right next to each other, at the other end of the galaxy.
It was the dawn of a time of peace, trade, and cooperation. All of us prospered, and the fruits of our research were shared. Trade route after trade route popped up, and I could finally relent and lower my taxes again. My people were happy. Finally, we made an alignment choice: henceforth, the Altarians would be known as a powerful force for Good.
The Yor and the foul Drengin, however, were not happy. I heard reports of strife around the Drengin-Human border, and the Torians were also concerned.
Evidently, this concern grew strong enough for the United Planets to intervene. A suggestion was made to limit all evil empires to a certain number of trade routes, to limit their capacity to cause harm. The suggestion, in its most draconian form (evil empires limited to 1 trade route) was accepted, over the strenuous objections of the Yor and the Drengin. This would certainly be a severe blow to their treasuries. But would it not antagonize them further? Would the embers of their hatred for us be set ablaze?
The answer came the very next week. Both the Yor and the Drengin declared war. [This was actually very interesting, and the correct choice for the Drenging and Yor AI a this point. Limited to one trade route in a trade-heavy galaxy, they had no chance to keep up with the four Good and Neutral civilizations in the long run. Their only choice was to attack, immediately.]
I was not unduly concerned at this time; after all, the Yor and the Drengin were both far away. But the Torans reported heavy casualties, and begged for my help. I could not let them perish, escpecially since I would then be forced to share a border with the Yor. This was unacceptable.
It was time to research the much-neglected military section of the tech tree. First, however, I looked around for tech trade opportunities. Interestingly, my most important trade partner would prove to be the Snathi, a minor race of sentient squirrels. They had a fairly decent array of techs, and gladly traded them to me in exhange for a few planet improvement technologies.
During my trade attempts, I noticed that nobody had ECM techs to trade, yet their missile techs were fairly advanced. My path to victory over the Drengin and Yor was clear, then; I would make ships which launched missiles, and defended against the same. This would prove to be a highly workable strategy in the long run.
My first significant warships were the Strikers. They had Medium hulls, and were mostly geared towards offense. I send a few fleets inwards towards the Yor empire, and met their fleets advancing towards me in return.
The first battles were largely inconclusive. I had guessed right; the Yor attacked with missile boats, and had no effective defense for my own missiles. My fleets were more effective; but there weren't enough of them. The battles raged around the middle of the galaxy, neither of us making much headway.
But our superior economy and research started to pay off. We discovered the secret of Large hulls. It was time for a new design: the Realmship.
Realmships were still geared towards missiles and anti-missile defenses, but the scale... that was what made a difference. The Yor armada could barely touch them. In a few decisive blows, my fleets of Realmships broke the stalemate around the middle of the galaxy, and headed towards the Yor empire, annihilating the combined Yor and Drengin forces on their way.
I had barely stepped over the Yor realm of influence, when they decided to contact me, suing for peace. I declined, with perhaps less regret than would have been fitting. They were, after all, sentient. But they had to be destroyed.
Seeing that my Realmship fleets were more than sufficient for the job, I started constructing Transports... and then I noticed a slight flaw in my plans. My warships did not have enough range to make it to the Yor planets! Rather than upgrade every ship I had, I decided to build an influence starbase in the center of the galaxy, to increase my range. This worked exactly as planned, and there were no further obstacles in my way.
The Yor defenses were no match. A few short months later, the Yor were utterly defeated. They had their final petty revenge, surrendering their remaining planets to the Torians instead of me, but I didn't care. I was victorious!
Emboldened by my success, I continued my assault, turning my invasion fleet towards the Drengin worlds. My highly experienced Realmships cut thhrough their defending fleets like a knife through butter, and they, too, ended up surrendering their remaining few planets to the Torians.
Peace reigned in the galaxy, and I was the Peacemaker! The evil civilizations were no more. This might, perhaps, had been the end of the story...
But... I had grown fond of war. I had a large armada, and was a hair's breadth away from researching Huge hulls. The Torians and the Arceans were confined to relatively small patches of the galaxy (despite the Torians' nice windfall from both the Yor and the Drengin), but the Humans... that was a different story. While I was occupied with the extermination of the Drengin and the Yor, they had spread their influence far and wide. One of my planets was already in their sphere of influence.
I could not let this go on. I knew I had the technology to make them pay. I was hungry for new planets... and hungry for the agonized screams of the vanquished. We were still a Good civilization, in name. But it was time to show the Humans a side of Good they had not considered.
My Huge hull research was finally complete. I named my new ship the Imperator. It would spread the might of the Altarians far and wide.
I was lucky enough to have a 300% industry bonus tile on my Class 12 planet, so I decided to make that a specialized factory planet. This paid off handsomely, as it could manufacture an Imperator in just four weeks. In a short while, two fleets of Imperators were ready. It was time.
I started moving my ships towards the Terran homeworld, and declared war. I saw their pitiful little fleets of Medium ships moving towards my hulking Imperators. I laughed.
And then, I stopped laughing. They were using beam weapons. Impossibly powerful beam weapons. My Imperators were more powerful than a Terran defending ship, but they were so many... had I made a fatal mistake? Had my easy conquest of the Drengin and Yor empires made me overconfident?
While I had concentrated my research on hulls, the Terrans had spend their time researching beam weapon technology. They were very far along. Their ships were incredibly potent. I had no shields researched at all. This would be ugly.
My Imperators fell. I constructed new ones. They also fell. The Terran fleets suffered heavy casualties as well, but their supply of small, agile, powerful ships seemed inexhaustible. Suddenly, my ability to construct an Imperator every four turns didn't seem so fast.
And then, my military starbase fell. And my planetary defenses were torn apart. I heard the agonized screams of the vanquished, oh yes... the screams of Altarian citizens blasted to ashes by superior weaponry.
I started researching shields, but it was too little, too late. The impossibly tiny, impossibly powerful ships of the Terran empire streaked towards my core worlds.
It was over, and I lost. How I had fallen! Once, I had been the hero of the galaxy, the liberator of all Good and Neutral races from the vile clutches of the Yor and Drengin.
And now, the other races cheered, as my empire, the empire of a tyrant, crumbled.
I opened my communication channels to the Terrans. It was over. Time to surrender. And then... I eyed the laser blaster by my throne, carelessly left there by one of my generals.
... A small beam weapon. It would be fittingly ironic.
