Scenario background: The dust has settled and only those that did what was necessary have survived the Dread Lords. The weak races are but a lingering memory of ineptitude, and some of them have made worthy slaves. Ah, but there are others. Perhaps they are not so soft, but that will make victory all the more delicious (literally!).
GC2: DA (pre patch)
Player: Korath, optimized for conquest; War Party
5 AI players: Drengin, Yor, Korx (evil); Krynn, Thalians (neutral)
3 minor races
Small galaxy, common everything, standard settings
Special – Drengin and Korath at war
Victory conditions: need you ask? Conquest only.
NOTE: AAR originally posted at the Apolyton forum. This is one of a series of AAR scenarios that are intended to be an open exploration of GC2: DA, various races, and situations. .
*~*~*~*
Taking inspiration from korn469 I decided to try the Korath. I’m not much of a warmonger so I decided to use korn’s general strategy: high growth and b-line for basic weaponry techs and weaponry.
Where I differed is that I bought more factories and the lab at the 100% bonus tile on my capital. As of May 2226 I’ve researched through Ion Drive, Universal Translator, Planetary Improvement (to get social and ship bonuses), and am now working on sensor. The last may be a mistake, but I hope to get a few anomalies and also use the survey ship to be a scout. I’ve already gotten wonderfully lucky with anomalies with a 1000bc bonus, and it will only take one or two more to really make a difference.
[URL=http://imageshack.us]
[/URL]
Image 1: Korath in May 2226
I currently have 3 colonies that include my home planet, the PQ4 planet in my home system, and the wonderful PQ18 world SE of my capital in the Jessians system. The other worlds in my territory are heavy gravity or rad, so I’ll have to decide if I want to invest in that research. I think I may have to.
In the meantime I have 2 colony ships at loose ends, so I’m sending them into enemy territory to look for toxic worlds (which I can colonize and they hopefully can’t). If they worlds are not near their capitals I may be able to avoid having them flipped, so we’ll see. At the least I’ll be able to explore the territory.
The good news is that I’ve got the biggest population since I’m keeping morale at 100%. I’m still losing money, but it is already getting better. My home system is now producing a constructor to grab the research anomaly, and I’ll consider doing the same for the influence anomaly in the heart of my territory. That is not too important, but it may help if I get a far-flung toxic world in someone else’s home turf. Another survey vessel will be launched too, although the anomalies will be gone fairly quickly.
The Drengin (per the scenario) are at war, so I’ll have to get some warships in place soon. I like korn’s idea of level 2 weapons, and then spoor ships.
The Yor and the Korx have already spent all their money, so their economies have already tanked. The Thalians and Drengin have increased. Overall my economy is small compared to all the other races, but that is because my tax rate is very low so I can get better growth.
The rush is on. Stay tuned!
February 2227
The Korath now have 5 planets, including a very nice new PQ12 toxic world by the Krynn. The other planets are PQ10 (capital), PQ18 (Jessian), PQ4 (by capital) and a PQ1 to the far right (which was necessary to get the colony to the toxic PQ12).
[URL=http://imageshack.us]
[/URL]
Image 2: galaxy in February 2227
As of right now I have a respectable military (2nd after Drengin), 3 galactic resources (research, eco, and influence), by far the largest population, and an economy that is starting to recover. I’m still significantly in yearly deficit, but my investment in survey ships REALLY paid off with four 1000bc payoffs. This has funded my deficit spending and, hopefully, will be enough to tide me over until my economic base is built up.
Unfortunately, I’m falling behind technologically since the AI is busy trading tech all over the place (see the Documentation of AI Tech Trading thread). I’m not sure what I can do about this since the AI won’t deal with me. Or maybe I’ll have to loosen my standards and give away the farm.
July 2227
Auuhhhg! The Drengin got the last planet in the galaxy – PQ8 rad world – 1 turn before I got there! I even tried to bully him into giving me the colony ship, but no go. Then I tried to use my survey ship to get in his way, and that didn’t work either (he was spd 3 and the survey ship spd 4, so he was able to go around). So now he has 5 planets, just like me. The Yor are in the lead with 8 (and they influenced away a PQ 1 planet I snagged – probably a bad move to colonize that world).
[URL=http://imageshack.us]
[/URL]
Image 3: Galaxy in July 2227
The Drengin called up to ask for peace and I agreed. Early wars are crippling. Plus he hates others much more than me, which I am pleased about. I’m not ready for a war since my economy has not stabilized, spoor ships are a long way away, my ships are slow (Ion Drive), and weaponry is stuck at laser 3. My military is still 2nd after the Drengin, so I’m likely to keep others off my back. I always have one or more planets building a warship to keep up.
I also tried my luck at tech trading, with the objective of getting what I can. I got Soil Improvement and Xeno Industrial Theory, which most of the AIs don’t have. I had a lower diplomatic rating than most of the AIs since they inter-traded Trade, Master Trade etc from the Korx – I was left out since they would not exchange or let me buy any of those techs. I have a better rating than the Drengin.
Drengin – Diplo Relations, Missile Defense, 70 BC
Yor – chaff, 70 BC
Korx – 190 BC
Krynn – 41 BC
Thalian – xeno medicine, 98 BC
Jessians – 59 BC
Dark Yor – smart chaff, 117 BC
The idea is to make sure everyone gets the tech since they will trade it around. So overall I got a few useful tech and 645bc.
Here is the list of AI trades in the time from Feb 2227 to July 2227. As you can see, the AI tech trading has been brisk. What is particularly galling is that when I offered Toxic to the AI’s for other extreme colony tech they said to get lost, even if I had a better diplo rating. Note that the AI is freely exchanging extreme colonization techs. Also, when I offered some of the AIs (such as the Dark Yor) tech they gave me a tiny amount of BCs, while the Drengin that have a terrible diplo rating made out very well, thank-you-very-much. So overall my opinion is that something is very wrong, and in future games I’m turning off tech trading.
• Year: 2227. Yor Collective traded Barren World Colonization to the Drengin Empire in exchange for Heavy Gravity Colonization
• Year: 2227. Thalan Empire traded Universal Translator to the Paulos in exchange for Starship Defenses
• Year: 2227. Drengin Empire traded Sensors to the Dark Yor in exchange for Smart Chaff
• Year: 2227. Thalan Empire traded Xeno Economics to the Jessuins in exchange for Deflectors
• Year: 2227. Thalan Empire traded Deflectors to the Krynn Consulate in exchange for Chaff
• Year: 2227. Thalan Empire traded Xeno Medicine to the Krynn Consulate in exchange for Trade
• Year: 2227. Thalan Empire traded Research Centers to the Dominion of Korx in exchange for Advanced Trade
• Year: 2227. Thalan Empire traded Xeno Economics to the Dark Yor in exchange for Armor Theory
• Year: 2227. Drengin Empire traded Xeno Factory Construction to the Dark Yor in exchange for Advanced Trade
My economy is still declining at a rate of 80bc a turn. I’ve maxed out the eco resources that I snagged from the Drengin. A few constructors are headed for my research starbase, and I’m going to set up an eco starbase that will cover my capital, PQ4 world (now improving due to Soil Improvement), and my PQ18 in Jessians.
The Yor are catching up in population due to their larger number of planets, so I’ve built a farm and multimedia center at Jessian. My population-based eco expansion is going to plateau, so other means are going to be required. So now I’m frantically building markets where I can to increase my economy, and researching Advanced Trade to get better that Advanced Trade Centers.
As for tech, I was distracted going for extreme colonization techs, and as I said above I just missed the boat. Unfortunately when I use spoor ships it won’t be useful at all, so I wasted 10 turns of research. Hmph.
December 2228
The turns move along pretty quickly on a small map. I ended up getting the Diplomatic Translator, which I was hoping for to increase the AI’s perception of me so I can avoid warfare – until I am ready, of course. A side benefit is that my tech trading seems to be a little easier. I knuckled down and let go of a number of good techs (enhanced miniaturization, fusion, extreme colonization, interstellar government) so that I could get the following techs:
Korx: Banking
Krynn: xeno factory
Thalian: research academy, a Research Treaty (!!!), 50bc
Dark Yor: ECM2, 20 BC
Jessians: 30 bc
This will keep my planets developing, and give my research a good boost. I was also able to exchange Research and Economic treaties with the Yor, who are the largest race on the map. I was willing to do this since they liked me (military power, evil, diplo translator) and the Thalians, Korx, and Krynn are his neighbors. In short, I can afford to build up the Yor economically and via research since it tears down both of our neighbors.
Economically I’m out of danger. I’m pulling in 285bc/turn at 100% production and have over 6000bc in the bank, and that will only increase as I build more banks. My PQ18 Jessian planet is now an economic capital that is maxed out and filled with trade facilities. I have increased my tax rate so that morale is ~80%, but I’m no longer growing so that doesn’t really matter. Lots of the AIs have sent freighters to my (large pop) worlds, and I have a number out, too.
Originally only me and the Drengin has any military to speak of. Now the other races are really ramping up. I neglected my military a bit so I could get a few key infrastructure techs and get my spoor ships (3 have been constructed, all spd 4). Now I’m b-lining through plasma (right now researching Plasma II) to get my attack rating up. The other races are researching missiles, so I’ll probably need to fit ECM in there (I got ECM2 from the Dark Yor, so I’m not defenseless). My military rating is now down to ~110%.
I was thrilled when the Drengin recently went to war with the Krynn. That will keep him tied up rather nicely while I concentrate on the Jessians and Dark Yor. I may have to engineer a war between the Yor, Thalians, and Korx to keep them occupied. That may take some work since the Yor are pretty neutral, although the Thalians don’t like the Yor. The Korx like everyone.
[URL=http://imageshack.us]
[/URL]
Image 4: Minor Races, December 2228
I don’t really know how the spoor ships work. Do I have to colonize the world after it is eradicated? Or do I simply take over its population? I’ll have a colony ship in place just in case. It will be a shame if it is eradicated and all the improvements are lost.
When the 2 minor races are taken care of the Drengin are next. Hopefully the war will still be on, and if not I’ll have to see if I can incite one!
Overall it takes a lot longer to get critical mass on a small map with only a few planets. But I can’t afford to dawdle since the other races are ramping up.
Unfortunately I can’t review the tech trades since I accidentally had the file open, and apparently it can’t update when the file is accessed in Word. Oops.
*~*~*~*
August 2229
Back in June 2229 there was an outbreak of pirates, and my research resource starbase went down. Luckily a Korx fleet came in and pasted the remaining pirates that my armed starbase didn’t kill. I have a constructor on the way and with a bit of luck will be able to re-secure the research resource; I did take a large research hit, though. The other event was xenophobia – a reduction in influence. Well, that’s just too bad. I don’t care too much about influence (except in a general way). The Korx, who finished the Restaurant of Eternity, are probably annoyed, though.
I’ve spent the time since conquering the Jessians and Dark Yor upgrading my ships, which is costly but very helpful. I have lots of cash, so I can splurge. Plus, this gets them to speed 3 or 4, which is so much better than spd 1 for my frigates (tiny hull) or 2 (destroyers). I’ve also built a number of destroyers and my first cruiser (medium hull). My economy is still doing very well, with a rather big surplus (300/turn). My trade income, surprisingly, is ~350/turn.
So, in August 2229 my fleets were in position and I attacked the Drengin. Three of his five planets went down, including his capital. Now he has two planets left, the PQ6 or so planet in the Kora system and an aquatic world off in the far corner of the map. I was able to take care of his fleets at the planets but did lose ships. What was annoying is that he spawned 5 Dominator fleets (~14 ships) at his capital. I was able to take out 4 fleets, but lost 2 tiny hull frigates. More destroyers and the cruiser are on the way for reinforcements.
[URL=http://imageshack.us]
[/URL]
Image 6: Drengin capital captured August 2229
The problem is that there are lots of slow Dominator fleets moving toward the Krynn, with whom the Drengin are also at war. Even worse, 4 parsecs from the former Drengin capital there is a rather formidable formation of Drengin ships and a transport. I had a colony ship in place to put people on the other two Drengin worlds, but through a rather bad oversight neglected to do so at the former Drengin capital so it has no people on it. Two colony ships with 1B people will arrive next week, assuming I don’t lose the undefended and unpopulated planet to the transport. I had planned to take my fleets that are optimized to fight Drengin (PD vs his missiles, Plasma III with his ships with no shields) but I had to take care of the Dominator fleets instead. Many of my ships are damaged.
I got a number of useless techs when I conquered the 3 Drengin planets: heavy gravity colonization, aquatic colonization, and a missile tech. They do raise my overall tech score, so it’s not all bad. By comparison, I got Master Trade and Advanced Deflector when I took out the Jessians and Dark Yor, which was great since I already had freighters ready to take advantage of the opportunity. Another bonus is that the Dark Yor had an economic resource, which I snagged with a constructor the turn after it was free (imagine the coincidence – a Korath constructor was 1 parsec away when the race was eradicated!).
My overall lesson is that the Korath spoor ships are absolutely awesome. They are cheap, you don’t have to pull population to die as soldiers, and they are a sure thing (at least so far). The Drengin are the galaxy’s biggest power, so I may be in for a nasty fight. I’ll likely be burning through my 11,000 of stockpiled BCs pretty fast.
Second, being able to instantly terraform each planet to toxic is a HUGE benefit. (NOTE – pre patch the Korath got Toxic and Advanced Toxic; I’ve been advised this is no longer tru). I won’t have to waste time with any extreme colonization tech since they are all conveniently converted for me during my attack. Moreover, if someone takes it back and doesn’t have Toxic they are totally hosed since the planet will not be productive.
Adding the two minor races and the Drengin capital (assuming I keep it!) has massively added to my research and production ability. The Korath are definitely on the upswing. Here are the numbers of planets controlled by each race:
Korath – 11
Yor – 7 (including a PQ26 world)
Korx – 4
Krynn - 4
Thalia – 3
Drengin - 2
Another rather odd occurrence is that all the other races absolutely LOVE ME. They are all close, and if I gave them Alliance tech they’d probably ally with me. So the Korath could win a diplomatic victory! Isn’t that a hoot! The galaxy allies with me, and then I liquidate them! HA! Too bad diplomatic victory is disabled.
January 2230
The last Drengin world fell last month, and my colony ship immediately filled it with good Korath. Now that my racial enemies and biggest competitors are gone I’ll set about my bigger goal – exterminating the rest of the races in the galaxy.
But I decided to use…unusual…means. I am now an ally to the Korx, Yor, and Thalians. The Krynn were merely friendly, so now they have a target on their hides. I’ll position my warships and spoor ships just outside their territory, declare war, and hopefully wipe them out in one or two turns.
[URL=http://imageshack.us]
[/URL]
Image 7: Galaxy in January 2230
In the meantime my worlds are cranking out military ships and the occasional constructor to grab the few new liberated galactic resources – influence, combat, and research. These had been controlled by the Drengin or Krynn. The Drengin were nice enough to eliminate the Krynn resource starbases in their wars, and when the Drengin finally fell all their resources are open for the taking – and take I will.
*~*~*~*
April 2230
The Krynn fell in two weeks in February 2230 and their worlds were quickly populated by loyal Korath. Populations are still low, but improving. The Korath Empire received much technological booty from the conquest of the 4 Krynn worlds, most of it useless extreme colonization technology. But still, their worlds are now our worlds.
Next to fall in April 2230 were the Thalians. Again it took two weeks, but all three of their worlds were taken with no loss – including a PQ26 world the Thalians had conqured from the Yor. As with the Krynn, many of their remaining ships went rogue, but they were summarily dealt with by the Korath fleets.
Unfortunately, the loss of significant trade with these two empires, military buildup, and the low populations on the newly acquired worlds has plunged the Korth Empire into deficit - ~260bc/turn. Therefore, we have reduced taxes to increase growth rate and completed the research for a Federation – and the tax benefits of it. We are also enhancing the economic galactic resource we harvested from the Dark Yor. Previously it had been neglected, but now planets that are relatively far from the front are devoting resources to constructors to enhance the overall economic performance of the Empire. Additionally, newly conquered planets have stock exchanges queued to enhance their long-term economic health.
At this time the Korath Empire has 20 plants, the Yor 7, and the Korx 4. It is merely a matter of time before the weight of numbers and superior technology ends the contest for supremacy. The Yor are a tempting target.
[URL=http://imageshack.us]
[/URL]
Image 8: Galaxy map April 2230, possible attack on the Yor
However, the Korx are weaker and more exposed. And the Korath Empire has a research and economic treaty with the Yor, and that will not be surrendered to conquest until the Korx are eliminated. They are relatively weak, so the conquest should not take long.
In the meantime new spoor ships will be constructed and weapons technology enhanced. The Yor have a formidable medium hulled cruiser that has firepower that is superior to the best Korath cruisers. Our cruisers are, however, faster and our technological superiority will soon tell – as will our numbers. Surplus population will be transported to the new planets – all to enhance the economic and military power of the Korath!
September 2230
Absorbing the Thalians and Krynn sucked the wind out of my wind out of my economic sails. For a while I was hemorrhaging 500 bc a turn, and I had to push stock markets and a b-line to a democracy to get my economic house in order. Fortunately I had 10,000 in the bank, but that was leaking away fast. The primary problems were that the Krynn and Thalian worlds had very little population, and I was building transports and using old colony ships to ferry population there as fast as I could. Population means taxes, so removing surplus population from my home worlds was key.
Another key was the ‘korn 100’, which is what I call the strategy of bumping morale to 100% by lowering taxes at lower population worlds to double their growth. This REALLY is effective if you’re able to pull it off for a while, say 10 turns or so. For some reason the Thalian and Krynn worlds had lots of manufacturing, which means that they are even more of an economic burden – but great once the economic house is in order again.
Then I got a real break – an economic boom started in August! Well, I know what to do: increase taxes until my morale is ~75% and then watch the cash roll in! I went from a deficit to a massive surplus. I switched all ship production to war hulls, spoor ships, and a few constructors and lined up to take out the Korx. The boom lasted only about 6 turns, but that was enough. I had a bankroll of 10,000 bc again, and was still generating a small surplus.
I declared war in September 2230, and that turn took out one world while my fleets moved in. Unfortunately the Korx worlds have a large influence zone, and with the Council rule moving warships out of influence areas at the declaration of war it took me 2 turns to position and then take the Korx capital and the other planet nearby. The turn after that I eliminated the last Korx world, so in a total of 3 turns the Korx was gone.
My fleets were pretty beat up since all the Korx fleets attacked from space, so I’ll need to repair at planets – and position outside Yor space.
[URL=http://imageshack.us]
[/URL]
Image 9: the galaxy in September 2230, and the Korath battle plan
The one problem is that the Yor ships have better firepower than mine do, likely due to Yor miniaturization. Yor military power is about equal to mine, so I’ll have to strike hard and fast. I should be able to take out 5 of his 7 planets in one strike. We’ll see!
January 2231
The Korath declared war on the Yor in November 2330 and immediately took 4 planets, including a PQ29 world (there was a random event that doubled the PQ of this world early in the game). All did not go as planned on the 5th world, where all of the Korath cruisers were destroyed during the attack. A squadron of destroyers (small hulls) guarded our spoor and colony ships until reinforcements could arrive. Four separate fleets made their way to the Yor capital to slug it out with his fleets there, which were more powerful than the Korath ships (individually, that is).
Side note – the 3 parsec a turn speed limitation in Yor Isolationist space only applies if your ships start in Yor space. What works very well is to position outside and then bolt inside to get as far as you can before you’re stuck in molasses. In a small galaxy this isn’t very hard. Plus, I have to start outside of enemy space due to the No First Strike Council resolution early in the game.
Then we got a surprise: the Dread Lords returned in mid November 2230! I was not in the least intimidated when I realized their newly colonized planet was near a Korath world in former Krynn space that was finishing a spoor ship. Two turns later the Dread Lords were eliminated - so much for their vaunted return to the galaxy. When our citizens landed on the newly cleansed planet there was no development, nothing. But at least a threat was eliminated, and another planet for the Korath.
In December we finally had enough forces to eliminate the defenders at the Yor planet that beat off our first attack. The small host of damaged ships went into orbit to repair, and the remainder made a b-line for the Yor capital. A sly Yor transport retook a lightly defended world, but we retook it two turns later. This was a mistake, but since all my cruisers died I had to consolidate my fleets to ensure the two Yor fleets in the area didn’t destroy all Korath military power – that would have been very unfortunate. Reinforcements were streaming in at a massive 6 parsecs a turn.
Our first attack on the Yor capital was repelled. His cruisers just managed to destroy the attacking cruisers. We had slightly better defense and they had better offense – a relative match. Still, after 4 Korath cruisers were destroyed I realized I needed twice the high-firepower ships the Yor had to ensure the planet was taken. The Yor now had only 2 planets, so all Korath forces were converging.
The capital fell in late December 2230, and the last planet in Iconia fell two weeks after that. There was another short economic boom, which ended – plunging the Korath economy to -1200bc/turn. The loss of the Yor economic treaty and trade hurt, but it didn’t matter since I had a huge bankroll and no one will care what my deficit is once everyone is eliminated.
Lessons learned with the Korath:
• The game would have been harder post patch since I didn’t get advanced toxic colonization.
• I should have been more aggressive. An early spoor rush might have taken out the capitals of one or more neighbors, which would have been a huge boon.
• I should have ignored all extreme colonization tech and let the AI colonize worlds for me, and then spent that research time on weapons or spoor tech.
• Although spoor ships are a sure thing, I still have to move people around. I need transports, or at least colony ships.
• At the end of the game I was negative 1200bc/turn. I had a bank of 20,000bc and I knew the game was ending soon so I didn’t care. I would have been royally stewed if the game had gone longer. This was likely due to the fact that the race had no economic racial bonuses, and that most of the plants I took over were heavily skewed to manufacturing. I needed a better economic base.
Still, it was fun to see how the Korath work. They can be very dangerous, and now I understand how they eliminated other races in previous DA games. Spoor ships are very powerful.
