Because I was playing on a smaller map, and trying to win an ascension victory, the game went by very quickly. I didn't need to save and come back later to beat the game, so I only wrote one play period.
Play Period
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Event 01
I started near the edge of the map, with 2 sectors with stars nearby. One was in the corner, and the other was at another edge. Once I determined the range of my influence (and determined the cultural pressure pushing against it) I determined that I was the civ closest to those stars.
As such, I started researching a few early military techs to boost my ship production. Once done, I quickly started building colony ships and a few cargo scouts to go find and nab new planets.
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Event 02
I sent one cargo scout to go look at stars and to find colonizable planets, the other was sent to look at each parsec so I would have a complete map of the galaxy (or at least my territory). There I found an ascension crystal.
I decided to go nab the ascension crystal right away so I could make lots of friends. /sarcasm
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Event 03
I had nabbed the few worlds in my nearby systems. A few others would require special colonization techs to get, but those would come later. In addition, I also found 2 more ascension crystals within my territory.
I decided to go nab those too. I am going to be popular! /more sarcasm
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Event 04
Having 3 ascension crystals already, it occurred to me that the other civs might like my collection so much that they will try to steal them from me. I stared building combat ships so I could defend my collection.
I would need more techs before I bothered to design my own ships. I have a certain standard of quality. Until then, I would settle for whatever was designed for me by the AI ship designer.
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Event 05
I found a few more ascension crystals, and a few more special colonization worlds. 2 of them were barren class, something that my super ability would allow me to colonize from the start. They were a class 21, and a class 14. The class 14 was in Drengin territory, but the class 21 was in an uncolonized sector adjacent to my territories.
Nabbing the class 21 barren world would mean that one of the sectors that had one of the unclaimed ascension crystals would become adjacent to my enlarged territory. It was also far from the Korath and Drengin territories (my most likely adversaries), so that crystal would be easy to defend.
The other ascension crystal was in Torian territories not far from my territories, but with in striking distance of the other civs.
I nabbed the remaining 2 and tried to prepare for my rising popularity.
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Event 06
The day came when the Drengin came across the play ground to make it clear to me that they didn't like the fact that I was keeping all the ascension crystals to myself. They started stomping on my sand castles and smashing my toys in fit of rage.
I however was not alone. The Drengin had started bullying the Torians after destroying one my ascension starbases, the one within Torian territory, and took a my barren world within their territory. With the Drengin attention split, I decided to retake my ascension crystal, and tech up for our next fight. This included improving my soldiering.
Drengin however, couldn't have picked a worse time for me (or better time for them) to pick a fight. I started to feel the effects of not having a good economy. I had decided to research some terraforming techs to make better use of the low PQ worlds I got, and to research some special colonization techs to allow me to get more worlds, and to make better use of the ones I already had (including that class 21 barren world).
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Event 07
While the Drengin showed themselves to the brutes of the play ground, the Korath would later prove to be the real threat. After the Drengin weakened the Torians, the Korath attacked the Torians and took many of their worlds. They quickly declared war on the Arceans as well.
I had managed to trade for some research boosting techs from the Torians just mere turns before the Korath had destroyed them. It didn't take them long to beat up the Arceans. They surrendered to the Korath.
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Event 08
The Korath, now the biggest baddest bully on the play ground had more planets than me, and the Drengin had combined. In addition, they too decided to destroy my ascension crystal collection.
Though it sounds like I was doomed, in reality, it was their last chance to do so. They declared war the very turn that the window popped up and said I was 20 turns away from ascension victory. In addition, I was teching up by studying my science homework while they were concerning themselves with the lunch money of the Torians, and Arceans.
While they were attacking me with plastic toy ships (with spring fired plastic projectiles), I was fighting back with advanced toy robots. It’s good to have a hobby.
These ships I designed had structural enhancements, thus providing them with extra hit points. Despite the fact the Korath were fighting with weapons of a different type that my ships were designed to deal with to fight the Drengin, my ships with their extra hit points managed to survive.
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Event 09
Both the Korath and Drengin managed to initially overwhelm me. They managed to destroy 3 of my ascension starbases. Each time they did, the time till ascension victory always seemed to be pushed back to 20 turns.
Their advantage didn't last. I had managed to produce many of my ships I designed. They quickly destroyed most of the enemy ships within my territory. Had things lasted longer, I would have been able to start fighting in their territory.
In addition, one of my worlds wasn't defended through part of the war, so both the Drengin and Korath sent ships to take some of my undefended worlds. However, these worlds were behind worlds that not only could produce ships, but also had some old ships that I hadn't bothered to recycle yet. Since both bullies hadn't bothered to send an escort, I was able to take my time to slaughter their ships knowing that it would take them several turns just to reach my planets with my super ability slowing them down.
I was so successful in repelling my opponents that I even returned to rebuild 2 of 3 ascension starbases that were destroyed.
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Event 10
I graduated from school...
I had ascended to a better place, to a better realm of existence... to university. There I could choose any number of careers, including law, robotics, or computer science. There, I could show them what nerds could do.
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Overview
As I already stated, my original intent was to show the economic problems that the Yor can face in an actual game. Because I went for ascension victory, I was quickly attacked prevent me from focusing on the problems in detail. Because I went for ascension victory instead, I was able to show the difficulties involved in try to win an ascension victory.
