| Meklar Corner |
| Disputed Territory |
As I learn of the runaway Psilon, more than a hundred turns have passed.
That plague event put a serious crimp in my growth curve. Nevertheless, I have a competitive number of systems, as you can see above. Doing half-decent on tech at this point. (The tech bars always look like that on Impossible. Get used to it). The stunning thing is that my production is competitive, too. Praise the Meklars. I love their industrial bonus. The odd thing is, I have a losing record with the Meklars. Only race in the stronger half for whom that is true. Somehow, some way, I tend to draw tougher opponents and situations when I play them. I can't explain why. I've got a winning record (on Impossible) with every race except the Meklars, Bulrathi and Mrrshans. Go figure. (My record with the Darloks is barely over fifty percent, but that's another story).
Anyway... on with the game. I have some great news. Most of the stars in the unclaimed region between my space and the Bulrathis are within my grasp. There are a whole pack of Dead planets. I've not seen so many Dead planets in one region in a long time. I already have two settled, and there are five more down there, plus another toxic (three total), one radiated, plus a major artifacts planet.
The problem with expansion on a huge map is reaction time. The AI's will often get to faster warp engines, and if they park a ship in orbit over one of your colonies, they WILL send troops to invade. They will send the maximum possible. They will crush you, and they will take the planet from you. The only way to fend them off is to bring warships with you as you expand out beyond the second ring.
So I built myself a Hyper-X missile boat. Warp Two, one 5-rack of Hyper-X and whatever goodies I could squeeze in with it. I dedicated my three largest planets (the ones that would build the colony ships) to churning these missile boats. I built two or three per planet, seven or eight total each turn, for about eight turns. I got over fifty missile boats, and these were built ahead of my final round of colony ships. As it would turn out, I would only have to build Colony D2's after that, as I had one LR Colony left over from the first run, which would be used on the Artifacts planet. OK, so my boats are flying south at top speed. I managed to get them into position at only one colony before the Psilon long range scouts arrives.
Why yes, yes the Psilons have flown all the way across the galaxy, and they are zooming. Looks like Warp Four at least, maybe Warp Five. The difference between their zipping fleets and my plodding ones is painfully obvious during the movement phase. Anyway... a 6-pack of my boats meets their lone medium scout at one system. (Not the one shown above), and my squad wins. Barely. Could have taken him five on one, but four on one would have been a tossup. And if my ships had not had combat speed of two, I'd have LOST even six to one.
Nevertheless, the Psilons have a glass jaw. Killing even one of their ships will get their attention, make them think twice. They don't like to take risks, usually. Unfortunately, the toxic planet shown above had only a Scout 2 in orbit, so they scouted it, and they scouted every other planet south of it. Still, if I had put my colony ships out front, ahead of the missile boats, there would now be three or four psilon scouts parked over my fledgling colonies, with massive fleets of Psilon transports racing across the galaxy at warp four or five to poach the entire region out from under me.
If they're going to beat you, make them earn it. Not even the Psilons can reach this far this early. They got over here because of an alliance with the Humans or the Bulrathi. Probably a short term alliance. (The erratic Bulrathi are as apt to turn on the Psilons as they are to turn on us). They sent only scouts. If those scouts fail to report back, they'll take that into account and be more skittish.
I ran into one problem. I still had only Range 4 tech, yet the Artifacts world was five parsecs away. I had to send the colony ship ahead of the missile boats in that case, and it meant three turns of vulnerability before the boats could catch up and guard the new colony. Well, wouldn't you know, I would barely beat a Bulrathi armed colony ship to the planet. Like, beat it by one turn. Not a single turn to spare, for what would probably be the most important planet in my empire, the only artifacts world within my grasp, and a very large one at that.
Look closely. My two southernmost planets are Dead planets I managed to secure. South of that are two more Dead worlds the Bulrathi would get to first. (Boy was this close. If not for that stupid Plague event, I would have had those as well, I believe). Just northwest of the dead planets is a third system on my southern border. That is the artifacts planet. See that yellow dot nearby? (As I said, you have to look closely). Those are 28 Bulrathi transports. We're talking BULRATHI transports. Those bastids might be able to wipe me out at three to one or better odds in MY favor. If more than a few get through, I'm going to lose the planet after all.
I had no choice but to gather as many boats as possible in that system. I think got about thirty there in time.
As that fight is about to break out, one of my scouts finds Orion in the region.
Right on the border between Meklar and Bulrathi space. At least it's not next to Mentar.
Whew, talk about a close call.
Looks like I built just enough boats to get the job done. I managed to secure three, perhaps four systems I would otherwise have lost. Score one for paranoid xenophobia.
Now let's return to the galaxy map I showed above and pray to the patron saint of lost causes.
The cursor is pointing to the Inferno planet the Psilons just poached from under the noses of the Darloks, which brought them into contact with me. I kid you not: I have never seen a bleaker situation. This is at least as bad as I've ever seen the Psilons, if not the worst ever. I am in for a serious asskicking. I count 22 purple flags, and they are not done expanding. In fact, the bastards are colonizing new systems so quickly, a turn or two later, we're already holding the first vote.
Eep! I'm in second place and I don't have a friend in the galaxy?!?Could... get... ugly...
| The Horror | Past Glory |