HydroAC

Join Date 05/2003

Arcean Arrival AAR

Arcean Arrival

To continue my quest to experiment with all the races I’ve decided to work on the Arceans. I’ve never played them before (except in passing) so I’ll need to give it some thought to figure out how to best use the race, its Super Ability, and allocate my pick points.

The First Strike special ability clearly says one thing: high offense on ships. I want to be able to kill them at the first strike or it really doesn’t matter. That means that although I may want some defense that it is secondary to an attack. I’ll also have to find the best attack to cost weapon, and balance that against research cost. Early in the game beam is the cheapest to research, and all of the weapons are about the same for size vs level (see the Wiki article). So, since I want to get an early advantage I’ll go for beam since I can plow up the ladder faster and get a better attack rating. Plus, I’ve found that my games never get too far down the tech tree since they are long since decided one way or the other. Either I’m crushed like a bug or I’m rolling over my opponents by middle game.

Now, to pick points. The Arceans have nothing terribly special with a 20% morale bonus (nice), +15% HPs (nice) and 10% soldier with a logistics of 8. My points are going to +2 speed and +10% eco. In particular the +2 speed will be helpful since it means faster colonization and goes along very well with the Super Attack ability – more attacks are good! In many ways I’m pretty boring and generally go for eco and morale picks, and this is no exception.

Overall my strategy is not dissimilar to what I typically do: colony rush, get some early defenders out, and work to stabilize my economy. The Arceans seem to be made to be aggressive so I’ll have to find a target early and wear away at them. The +2 speed means I’ll get more anomalies with my survey ship, so getting to survey tech and pumping out cargo hulls will be a good thing. +2 speed is always a good thing! Also, there is the prospect of ships with no engines that still move speed 3 – weapons heavy and relatively cheap! This also goes for colony ships and constructors – without engines and on a small hull they’re ~40% cheaper.

The rest will depend on where I am and what type of galaxy we have. I’ve set it to random everything just to mix things up. I don’t want anything less than medium but everything else is OK. Tech trading is off since I hate Group AI research, and with it on all the races end up looking and feeling the same.

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January 2226

Random everything can be a real grab bag since it means you can’t cherry pick conditions for your race and its picks. So my first generation had me squished in the corner of a small galaxy. Nope – not what I wanted at all. On the second try I got what looks like a medium or large galaxy with a good number of stars. Then I saw my home planet – a precursor mine and a 300% industrial bonus tile! I don’t think I’ve seen that before and I simply can’t resist. Of course it gives me a huge advantage - so sue me. I only have 10 tiles so they get built out with two factories (which function as 10! Or is that 12?), 3 labs, 2 markets, the home area, spaceport, and after I get the tech a manufacturing capital. The two factories are purchased and the rest are built normally. My taxes are adjusted to keep my morale at 100%, and sliders at 60% military and 20% research and social. My party is Federalists for the additional 20% economy bump.

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Image 1: Arcean Homeworld.

I’m not sure about this galaxy though. I don’t see any planets around the suns! Maybe I got rare planets? If so the colony rush will be over pretty darn fast. I’m sending my colony ship to the northeast to one of the few systems with planets just in case. If there are so few planets then even one or two can be huge. It also means the only real way to expand is to gobble up your neighbors. This setup will force me to be aggressive. Hmph.

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Image 2: Starting Galaxy.

I have a non-engine colony ship designed that can be built very fast. That will be used to colonize Hammer, my size 5 companion world. There is another system with planets to the far southwest and I’ll send a colony ship there. After that I’m likely done building colony ships and will need some constructors, or maybe warships! You’ll notice the galaxy is VERY crowded with 9 races. The Evil contingent is the Korx, Drengin, and Korath. In the Neutral corner are me (Arceans), Terrans, Thalans, and Getz (a super breeder race). And in the Good corner are the Drath and Torians. With so little room it won’t take long before conflict starts. My neighbors are the Terrans, Getz (a breeder custom race that made it in), and Drath.

Although I wonder: with so little room to develop the tech and economy development may be very slow. Since tech trading is off this means that everything I get will be on my own or through conquering my neighbors. Hmmmm.

*~*~*~*

September 2226

The colonization rush was over much faster than I’d thought. It turns out the system to the northeast had nothing, and the one way up to the north between the Korx and Terran had a PQ2 planet that the Korx colonized. Now, I sent my colony ship to the far southwest and got real lucky. There was a single PQ4 world which I immediately snagged. The good news is that it has 4 yellow tiles, so when I finished researching terraforming it will be a PQ 8 world! That means that I will have 3 planets along with the Korx, and everyone else has 2 (except the poor Thalan who has one). Overall it worked out pretty good.

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Image 3: Galaxy Setup in September 2226

I’ve fiddled with my sliders to finish off my infrastructure and alternatively military construction. I was able to snag a morale resource north of me and the Terran got the other one. My companion world Hammer had a 300% manufacturing bonus tile, so that along with a spaceport and 2 labs will finish it off. It became a PQ6 world with my first level of terraforming and I’m building a farm – I need lots of people if I’m going to invade my neighbors. My home planet built a market to help with income on our terraformed sector.

Keeping morale at 100% means my tax rate is ~20%. This is not sustainable, so I’m going to have to invest in my morale resource and morale tech. I’m building cheapo no engine constructors (speed 3 due to my +2 speed bonus), which is OK since the resource is pretty close. More morale means more taxes. My 5 survey ships are busy running around at speed 4 (for my flagship) or 5 and are snagging a respectable lode of anomalies, cash, and goodies. Right now I’m running a -192bc/turn deficit – the huge manufacturing at my capital and the 300% industrial bonus on Hammer have a big effect. I can keep this up for a while since I have over 5000bc in the bank, but I’ll need to get a few eco techs to stabilize my economy as my higher population kicks in. And I also need some diplo techs and maybe some trade/freighters to keep my neighbors off my back. In particular I want the Getz to leave me alone. Maybe the fact he is by the Thalan and Drengin may keep him occupied! Ha!

I’ve researched through laser 2 but haven’t built any military yet. My neighbors haven’t built any military so I don’t feel any great pressure. I’d rather spend my production on constructors to augment my morale resource, which I plan on maxing out and giving basic defenses, which work very well in the early game. I’ve notice the Drengin and Korath have **gasp!** started building a military already. Imagine that!

My plan is blast through laser 5, the first level of logistics, and form a fleet to take out the Terran morale resource. I’ll have a trio of constructors to secure it, and then if he wants peace I’ll give it to him. This will bump my morale as I prepare to take out the Drath. I’ll get a bunch of ground combat, a spy or two to see what I’m in for, and then a fleet of transports. That will take quite a bit of time since that is a lot of population for just three worlds without devastating my population. I may need to cruise around and take out resources to keep myself busy.

aars

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Fate

Join Date 05/2006

Very nice so far, your playing as my favorite race so I'm hooked, keep it up HydroAC !

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This is my favorite race too. Too bad my laptop doesnt have a lot of RAM cuz this game keeps crashing so I have temporarily given up playing this game. Its sad since I really wanna play.

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July 2227

I declared war on the Terran ~March 2227 to make sure I could paste his starbase around the morale resource before he could give it offense. My little attack 2 destroyers wouldn’t stand a chance against an 8-1-1 starbase with 42 HPs. So, his starbase died and I spent the next few turns cranking out cheap constructors and maxing (+19%) both my moral starbase and my liberated morale starbase. I’m positioning to also take out his influence starbase not because I need it but because I can. I’ll need to upgrade my destroyer to have some additional range, but it will be worth it. I have a single DD roving around destroying Terran mines, pasting Terran scouts and miners, and generally putting the fear of an Old Warrior Race in the uppity monkeys. What is strange is that even with all my predations the Terrans still haven’t fielded any military units. Well, if he’s going to make it easy then far be it from me to turn down the opportunity.

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Image 4: Galaxy in July 2227

The good news is that my economy has finally turned around. I’m pulling in 24bc/turn, which is due to my 49% tax rate (keeping morale at 89% overall and 100% at smaller population planets). The higher tax rate is due to the 2 maxed morale resources, so these are huge overall. The difference has been made by trade routes, four of which pull in 50bc/turn. I’ve set them up with the Torians, Getz, and two with the Thalian. My immediate neighbors the Terrans and Drath get nothing.

Another factor in my economy is my relatively large population, the growth rate for which has been goosed by high morale. My capital has a max of between 14-16B of course, and my two other worlds have build a single farm (max pop 9B) to ensure they are not denuded when I build transports. I’ve also built economic structures through advanced markets and am now researching banks. It turns out that keeping my industrial production at extraordinary levels takes quite a bit of economy, as one might expect. My sliders are 31/0/69 for military/social/research. My only infrastructure that is building is at my little PQ6 planet to the right of the Drath, and that one is on Focus for social.

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Image 5: Arcean Population in July 2227

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Image 6: Industrial Production

I’ve already produced my first transport. I’ve stripped it of engines so I can fit 1.5B troops on it since with my +2 speed it still moves speed 3. That’s OK since my war ships don’t move any faster. I’ll need to keep these producing while my population maxes out at my three planets. A fleet of 5 of these will get me 4.5B, and this will hardly be appropriate for an assault on a capital with 16B, and useless assaults is very expensive with so little in the way of population. Therefore I’ll need to both vastly improve my ground combat, get advanced combat modules for my transports, goose my ground combat stats, and get a better logistics – if I can. Alternatively I could use harsh methods to take out the Terrans and/or Drath, but this can wreck the planet’s valuable infrastructure. Researching all of these techs could take a LONG time, during which I won’t be able to research anything else. Considering that I may have to research more military techs if my neighbors actually field a military. Keeping a military in the field could be a problem, too.

I have no plans to take out Mars or the companion world in the Drath system. Ground combat is simply too expensive with so little population. Instead I’m just going to influence into my empire. The capitals are a problem, though and in the end I may have to use very aggressive ground combat options. The longer I let my enemies grow the worse off I am.

Any advice from those that have played the Arceans and this type of map before?

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March 2228

Any delusions I might have had that a closely packed galaxy with few planets would lead to slow development and the slow development of wars has been summarily eliminated: war is erupting all over the galaxy. There is of course my war of aggression against the Terrans. In the last six months everyone has at least one war going on, and the Arceans are lucky to have five. I got a call from the Drengin, Korx, and Torians that I was a warmonger and had to be eliminated in December 2227. This month the Drath declared war against me. That suits me just fine since they’re next on my plate. I strongly suspect the Drath Super Manipulator skills and the Terran’s diplomacy skills have a lot to do with the wars that have erupted all over the galaxy. Others by the Drengin and Korath are due to sheer bloody mindedness and a very high military potential.

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Image 7: War in March 2228

My war against the Terrans is one of attrition. He builds scats of 1 pt fighters and I destroy them. It seems both of his worlds are busy cranking them out. In return I have 6 destroyers that form into a fleet to eliminate them, with the weakest ones staying out of the fight so they can repair. One of my old survey ships is there to make sure we can see the Bad Guys coming. In the process our experience has increased significantly and my tough little 9HP fighters are now up to 12HP fighters. I haven’t taken any losses and have destroyed at least a dozen little fighters, but my fortunes may change if he gets off the pot and builds some ships with some punch.

The good news is that I now have 7 transports loaded with between 1500 and 2500 troops each. I’m now researching the second level of logistics so I can get them in fleets of three. My soldiering is +47%, and that need to be higher. But who to take out? The clear answer to me is the Drath. The Super Manipulator ability is a royal pain, and they have a tiny military. Plus, they are in the corner so whatever I secure won’t have to be subject to the ravages of hostile aliens. In contrast, if I went after the Terrans I’d likely be in range of the Korx and Torians, so by keeping the Terrans weak and in between I have created a firewall. Of course they are next after I take out after the Drath. The plan is to build a group of 5 destroyers to escort the transports in and then eliminate the Drath homeworld. I’m not quite sure how my groups of troops will do but I’m going to give it a go. Getting to the next level of logistics is out of the question so I will have to use harsh invasion tactics.

The one possible problem is my military standing. The galaxy is arming for war far and wide and the Arceans are solidly in the middle of the pack in military strenght. Right now I have researched up to level 5 laser, so my small hull destroyers are 4-0-0. This is a match for most of my opponents, but the Torians have ~6 pt missile destroyers. Right now I need to stay away from them while I eliminate the Drath, reinforce the Terran front, and get ready to take the Terrans out.

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Image 8: Military Standing in March 2228

Economically I’m holding my own. Losing a few trade routes between the Torians and Korx was a blow, but I have a few banks and new trade routes. If they go down then I may have to raise taxes. But in the meantime I have 5000 in the bank so I have options. Fortunately my population continues to be much larger than my neighbors since I have more planets and have up to 9B population on each. I could raise taxes without too much pain, but not now. I need the growth to for ground troops.

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Image 9: Economy

Anther pesky problem is spies. I have two now and I neglected to invest in them. One is on my military capital it just has to go. Oops.

So I’ve put my eggs in taking out the Drath. With their capital in my hands and after the anticipated revolt of the small companion world I’ll have a significant production, research, and economic advantage. I’ll have to hold the line against the Terrans and hope my invasion goes as planned.

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Small suggestion: You might want to use a different algorithm to scale your images. With cubic interpolation they would be a lot more readable.

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You're right that the images are grainy.

Any suggestions on another imager? I'm using ImageShack now.

Hydro

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October 2229

My gamble to take out the Drath paid off. My squadron of 5 destroyers easily removed all of the Drath defenders and my fleet of three transports with 5.5B troops barely took his capital using information warfare in September 2228. My ground combat was 72% so I had a big advantage there even if I was terribly outnumbered. When the dust settled I had ~700M troops left, so it was a near thing. I had another 4 transports waiting just in case. The companion world started to go into revolt, and I helped it along by building an embassy at the Drath capital. After 10 turns it still hadn’t flipped so I sent transports and finished the Drath. A few mining platforms flipped in the meantime, but those that went with the Drath will have to be rebuilt.

The reason I was impatient was that there were enemy fleets from the Torians, Korx and of course the Terrans at my Terran front. The Terrans themselves kept sending single or pairs of fighters at me. My fleets were of 3 to 5 ships (small hulls) and I lost one ship – not quite sure how that could happen when I have first strike, my fleet had an attack of 20, and the enemy had an attack from 1 to 4. Oh, well. The good news is that a few of my destroyers now have 23 and 19 HPs! That’s the same as a cruiser, so those are tough little destroyers. I’ll upgrade those puppies when I get the chance!

Another reason to take out the Drath is that all the extra manufacturing and research zapped my modest economic surplus, and my bankroll was diminished by the cost of information warfare (800 BC). So I needed to get the warships sent to the Terran front and get the planets up and running. Key to this were the extra transports which meant I had to use the 6B population from my transports after the assault to help the Drath planets grow.

After the Drath assault we had a High Research event, doubling (as far as I can tell) research of all races. This helped me immensely since I’d just absorbed the Drath and their considerable research potential. My rate went from the bottom third of the pack to the top in short order. My spending has been maintained at 60% research since the start to make sure I didn’t fall behind.

My research during this period before and after the Drath attack was focused on getting to plasma 3, a few levels of miniaturization, the extra ground combat techs (which was key, it turned out, in taking out the Drath), additional trade, Republic (for the eco boost), and ethos. I choose neutral for the morale boost and terraforming. Then I went for terraforming and was pleased when I had a bunch of extra tiles to build on! My little PQ4 planet in Leto is now a PQ16, and the Drath companion world is PQ13! Most of my planets built stock markets with the extra tiles, and now I had the luxury of considering a few of the special buildings. I selected to Harmony Crystals for the ever-important moral bump, and also Aphrodisiac and Tir-Quan, which are building.

A combat and research galactic resources were freed up with the Drath were conquered, and my constructors were ready to claim them. I’ll need to send more constructors, but my shipyards have been at capacity feeding ships to the front. I was able to keep the Terran at bay pretty easily, but then a Torian showed up with a fleet of 7 tiny hulls that had an attack of 60 (!!). My brave fleet of very experienced small hulls with a combat strength of ~20 stepped up the plate and went to battle. My only advantage is that I had over 90 HPs in my fleet of 5 ships vs his 35. I won, but not before 3 of my 5 ships were dead. That wasn’t the end since there was ANOTHER Torian fleet right behind that one! So I called in my reserves of damaged destroyers, formed a fleet, and plunged in. This time only one ship died, but I was plumb out of reserves and most of my ships were damaged. A few more Arcean ships were on the way to reinforce the Terran front but it would only take one more such attack before my Terran front collapsed.

About this time the Korx called up and asked for a truce. Sure! Absolutely! The Terrans were fielding cruisers (medium hulls) which my fleets of destroyers were able to take out since they attacked by themselves – not a good move. But I always seemed to take some damage and it was wearing me down pretty fast. My response was a dash for medium hulls and my first rolled off the production line to help reinforce the front. I decided to put some ECM (level 2) for a total of 4 and later 6 points of defense, which at this point in the game is quite a bit. This contradicts my idea of Big Attack to help my First Strike ability, but with the larger hulls I get less firepower overall so I wanted some additional survivability. Plus, if I’m going to assault the Terran planets to try to destroy defending cruisers with a huge planetary defense bonus I’m going to need survivability.

So I assembled a fleet of 4 heavy transports (2500B troops each), two cruisers, and headed up to take on the Terran. The Korx kept giving me 4 rather high attack destroyers to aid in my war with the Drengin (who is very far away from me), which I gratefully accepted. The destroyers did a nice job in filling in for my losses against the nasty Torian. I attacked Earth in August 2229 with 7500B troops in a fleet of 3 heavy transports and won easily. My cruiser-lead assault took no damage pasting the defending cruisers and I’d guess much of this is my armor and the fact I attacked in a fleet (with high attack factor) and therefore eliminated the defenders quickly. After taking Earth I waited for Mars to start to rebel but realized it wouldn’t since the Terran had lots of economic starbases its remaining influence was too high. So I sent over 2 transports and took out Mars. That was the end of the Terran.

In the meantime I’d stationed my old survey ships as pickets between me and the Getz. My freighters have sensors on them so the trade routes were lit up. I noticed some Drengin movement and an influence base between me and the Getz. There can only be one reason for that – he’s sending attack fleets. Sure enough I spotted a few transports trying to sneak up on my capital system. A fleet of old destroyers from the Drath front were nearby and took them out. As I fiddled with the placement of my survey ships I saw more Drengin fleets on the way, which ranged from a single transport with a Dominator escort to a full fleet with an attack factor of 50. Yikes! I only had two cruisers in the area at the time, and they had the wrong armor against his missiles. Still I waded in and won. The little armor and my first strike did a good job weakening him, and my larger ships made me more survivable even with my lower overall firepower (0-50-0 and 50 HPs for the Drengin vs 24-0-0 and 46HP for me).

With all the extra support for my now rather large fleet and improvements at my 7 planets I’m in economic trouble again so I’m going to concentrate on getting my yearly budget to surplus and a bankroll. My next target is the Torians. They unwisely asked for a truce, with I gave them. The very next turn they declared war. Nasty brutes! They are close to my Terran fleet and remaining transports so they’re on the list.

Diplomatically I’m doing better too. The Thalans and Getz are close, and with my increasing military (now ranked #1) the Korath are even friendly. The Terrans and Drath had economic and research treaties with the Thalians and Getz, and after the Terrans and Drath were eliminated these treaties were freed up. I asked for and got them. I traded my eco for research and research for research, and that has goosed my research rate too. Also, with the Super Manipulator Drath and Super Diplomat Terrans gone I have a chance of not being ganged up on, either.

The other races are all involved in wars with each other (Thalians-Getz; Drengin-Korath) or me (Torians and Drengin), so I’m not too worried about grand coalitions forming against me. The idea is to pick off my enemies one by one. As long as the Getz and Thalans stay friendly I’ll be happy to let them be my friend. Everyone else will be spoo for my toast.

One strange thing has happened in this game. Except at the beginning I’ve kept my sliders at 35-0-65 military-social-research. When I have to build social I Focus and then turn it off when I’m done. Maybe this is because I’m lazy, but it has worked pretty well.

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Any suggestions on another imager? I'm using ImageShack now.

I'm using GIMP for all my imaging needs: http://www.gimp.org

Everyone else will be spoo for my toast.

Spoo as in B5?

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Raknor - I'll look into GIMP! Thanks for the tip!

And yes, spoo refers to B5, one of my favorite SF shows of all time.

*~*~*~*

February 2231

The Torian’s capital fell in July 2230. I made the mistake of giving their companion world time to rebel, but instead they surrendered to the Korx. Of course once the planet was controlled by the Korx the planet went into revolt again, but I should have paid better attention. The companion world had a Progenitor Library, a 100% research bonus, and a 300% research bonus! Now I know how the Torian was able to build Industrial Sectors at their capital and such high combat rating ships. What I should have done is snoop with a spy, see the research goodies, and take the planet right away. The only benefit is that some of the mining stations defected before the Torian was eliminated. I also picked up a research and combat galactic resource from the Torian.

In January 2231 I took the Korx capital and companion world and the Torian world that surrendered to them. My fleets are moving toward their last world, and I’m going to give it some time since there are a lot of mining stations that could defect to me. I didn’t have any particular problem smashing the Korx defenses and I don’t anticipate problems at their last world either.

I will have a problem with the Drengin, however. I had a fleet of 3 cruisers protecting my shipping lanes from the Drengin and a new Drengin fleet showed up – with an attack factor of 126! YIKES! My cruiser fleet (3 medium hulls) had an attack in low 50s so I’d be dead meat. I switched my research to logistics, re-did my cruiser to strip off armor for weapons, and off I went. My new fleet of 5 cruisers has an attack of 83 and defense of 30 point defense and 30 armor. As far as I can see it will be an even match since I also have more HPs in my fleet. At least I can defend my forward base so I can eventually take on the Drengin.

My economy took a hit again when I took the Korx capital. This time I have 7000 bc in the bank, and I’m researching Federation to get another economy bump as well as more trade routes. After that I’m going to continue researching phasers and more advanced life support so I can take the war to the Drengin, who are on the other side of the map.

At this point I have 11 planets vs each of the AIs who have either two (Getz, Korath, and Drengin) or 1 (Thalian and Korx). Even if I have a huge loss I can easily replace it, so all I’m really doing is shoving ships around the map. I’ll take out the Drengin and Korath (I don’t like the idea of a Korath spoor ship eliminating the Thalian, for instance) and then consider the game done since eventually I’ll get an Alliance with the Getz and Thalian.

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