Introduction: Okay, so before I get started here’s a bit of general info. I’m starting another AAR because unlike last time, I now know how to take screenshots and upload them, meaning that this one can actually work. As for how I plan to do this, it will be mainly factual but every episode will have a few ‘snippets’ from made up characters. It might be the captain of my flagship, or the President, ect.

As you might expect, I'm playing as the Terrans. I haven’t got any victory conditions turned on, as I want to be flexible with the length of this game; if it turns out to be really good, I don’t want to end it by simply doing some good diplomacy and getting everyone to be my friend. However, I’m a pretty big roleplayer with this sort of thing, so if it comes down to me and some other guys who are all my friends, I likely won’t go and start attacking them to win.

My settings:

Habitable Planets: Abundant

Number of Planets: Abundant

Number of Stars: Abundant

Star Density: Scattered

Anomolies: Abundant

Number of Asteroids: Abundant

Technology Rate: Normal

Number of Minor Races: 8

So, let’s begin!

Episode 1: Early Days

I started off in the bottom corner of the galaxy, which was good: there was nobody very close to me, so I had the chance to do well in the colony rush. Another bit of good news was that Earth was better than usual; I got both a 100% manufacturing tile and a 300% research tile.

While out looking for anomalies, the originally named TAS Enterprise found a nice system with a class 13 planet and an economic resource, causing me to rush buy my first colony ship. (I might not have but the Enterprise had just discovered a +1000 BC anomaly which helped.)

My original colony ship had been scouting the far ‘south’ regions for a suitable planet, but all it found was 2 class 6 ones. However, the Enterprise soon discovered yet another class 13, which I promptly sent the colony ship to claim.

Unfortunately though, neither turned out to be anything special, so I didn’t have a great start for the colony rush.

Soon, the Enterprise made contact with my first alien race: the Akilians.

CAPTAIN’S LOG, 22 APR, 2227

“Today is a tremendous day for all mankind. We have just encountered a small vessel, around 40 metres in length and with 1 occupant. And you wouldn’t believe what that occupant was. Our first contact with an alien species, and seriously, it’s an Oompa Loompa! No joke! Ahem. Anyway, we were hailed by the Oompa Loompa, but, as you might expect, we couldn’t understand a word they were saying. I bet it was a song, though. Anyway, it wasn’t First ‘Contact’ as such, but we do now know that we are not alone in the universe. I have ordered my crew to begin scanning for the interstellar chocolate factory, but, as of yet we haven’t had any luck.”

The second ship I built was a constructor. I was losing money at a steady rate and I wasn’t about to let that economy resource be stolen, no matter how early in the game it was. Its addition didn’t really do a whole lot, but at least it was now mine.

Soon afterwards, I was faced by my first ethical dilemma:

This was an interesting one. I usually roleplay firmly on the side of good, but, seriously, 40% bonus? I don’t know what that does, exactly, but 40% is a big number.

Another stroke of luck for me: my latest colony, Artemis II, had a 300% manufacturing tile and 2 100% happiness ones. So things were looking up on the colonization front.

Thanks to several money-boosting anomalies from the Enterprise and the all important Xeno Entertainment, I decided to rush buy not 1, but 2 colony ships. The Enterprise was discovering some really high PQ planets out there, but most of them were out towards the borders of other races.

During this time, I also met my second race: the Yor. Predictably, they’d gotten a few militaristic techs, but since they were at the other end of the galaxy I figured I didn’t have to worry much about them just yet.

Next were the Korx. These guys were more interesting: right on my border, and they had some pretty nice techs as well.

The one that particularly interested me was trade, a tech which could single-handedly put an end to my colony rush economy problems. I got it for a pretty good price, too:

Now, I could have gotten an economic capital on earth and put an end to my economic troubles right then and there, but I had other ideas. Artemis II had 2 happiness tiles, and if I made that my economy capital, I wouldn’t have to worry about keeping the citizens of earth happy and could simply use it to churn out ships. It wouldn’t provide a fix for the current situation, but I decided to invest in the future. Literally.

Now I got another moral dilemma, and once again it was a really nice one:

Since the evil option wasn’t much better than the neutral one, this time I was happy to go along with my roleplaying instincts.

Next came even more good news. In the newly colonized Devra system, I found 2 things that blew me away: a PQ 18 planet, and yet another Economic resource. I immediately bought a constructor; it got me down to less than 1000BC but the system was close to the Arcean border so couldn’t risk leaving it.

I also made contact with the Snathi, which once again was great. Those guys always have an awesome planet that is totally wasted on them, and with them being evil the roleplayer in me doesn’t mind taking them over. The Enterprise was immediately diverted from its duties to find them.

So, all in all I’d say I was off to a great start. Hopefully I won’t make a fool of myself in front of the GC2 community after all.

Here’s a picture of what things are looking like right now: