Upon starting, I check the galaxy map. Not only am I tucked deep into a corner on a huge map, but I also note that the Psilons are among my opponents. (Why do I keep focusing on them so much? Mmph. Stay tuned. Perhaps you will get the chance to find out.)

For the second game in a row, I have only one star within three parsecs. Time to cross my fingers. I send my colony ship immediately. My scouts are sent coreward. One two three turns... Whew. There's a size 85 habitable waiting for me. With the removal of the colony ship's maintenance burder, I can field 40+ BC in production, so time to build my usual 5-pack of Scout 2 ships. There's a white star in the far northeast corner. My new colony is north. EVERYthing else is west or south of my homeworld.

Worse, even after settling the new colony, there are no more stars within three parsecs. I will have to research increased range tech to continue to expand. After scouting, I learn that the white star in the corner has no planet. The rest of these stars nearby have habitable planets, large ones. One was mineral Poor, but oh well. If I have to get stuck in the corner, at least I've been given some decent local terrain. There's a 100 to the southeast, and the rest are all over size 70. That's five good worlds, counting my homeworld, in my first ring. Beyond the first ring lies a sixth good world to the northwest, but I chase away a Darlok scount upon arriving there. (Did we tie, or did he get there first? No idea). This is very bad news. I have a neighbor on top of me, and he may try to cut me off. I could be stuck in this corner with few systems. If there's any race to be playing when you get shortchanged on number of planets, it's the Meklars. Their ability to control two extra factories per population means they can compete with fewer worlds. Unfortunately, they are the worst race in the game with planetology, which not only means slower research in that field, but also more options missing from it. (The stronger you are in a field, the more of its options you'll have available to research). They are the best race in the game at Computers, though. Which also makes them effective spies, and one more reason why they can climb out of the hole if shortchanged on territory.

I had to do some research, so as soon as my factories got near 2x my pop, I plunked 20 BC down into research to learn my options, then I closed off all but propulsion. (+10 Terraforming and Improved Eco Restoration, the two invaluable early techs in the planetology branch, were both unavailable, and there were no barren planets in sight to make use of Controlled Barren). I got both Range 4 and Range 5 available. so my early game felt quite similar to my opening in the first game with the Klackons. I got a rich start but could not begin to spread out without extending range tech first. Range 4 would be good enough, so I went for it. Only need 380 RPs, and I accumulated that alongside my factory construction. Before too long, the tech came in and I swapped research over to the second colony while the first built colony ships. I sent all the first ships toward the Darloks.

After chasing off the Darlok scout, they came back with a colony ship, the original unarmed variety. My Scout 2 chased it away also. I then realized I was in some trouble. The Darkloks wanted that system. They -might- come back with an armed colony ship soon, or they might come back with a single medium ship escort or a couple of fighters. I designed a Laser Ship, medium, right after sending off my first colony ship. (Until I settled one of the stars in that direction, I could only reach the disputed planet with a scout, even after learning more range). I gave my laser ship a Class I shield, Mark I computer (pricey, but I did it), and four lasers. I built two of them after the first colony ship and sent them off to guard this system. While they were still en route, the Darloks returned with THREE colony ships in a stack, but still unarmed, and my scout chased them away too. Then my laser ships arrived, and my next colony ship soon after. Then I sent a colony ship to the poor planet, and that wrapped up the three worlds that were exposed to the Darloks. Next I sent one southeast to grab the other size 100 planet, and there turned out to be a small habitable beyond the nebula, which I would also be able to grab. That would give me seven worlds. My ship going southeast has not yet arrived in the screenshot below. In fact, I've just built a new round of scouts and you can see them fanning out.

Fortunately there was dead space between the Darloks and any chance for them to cut me off to the south, or even to grab systems in that direction. I had done as well as possible with grabbing disputable lands and securing my chances for further expansion.

There were two Dead planets to the south, two Toxic, and another large Poor planet on the eastern rim. In order to expand beyond my initial seven systems, I would have to learn to control Dead or worse environments, or learn very long range. Well, my planetology tree was extremely barren (no pun intended). I got Barren tech, then Dead tech, then Death Spores (which I skipped) and +30 Terraforming. Waiting for +30 with a race Poor in the field was painful, but softened slightly by my high industrial capacity.

Just as my second colony maxed its factories, a huge disaster struck me at a critical early juncture. Plague hit my second colony, and it was going to cost a massive whopper, more than FIVE THOUSAND BC to research a cure, with my colony able to pull in less than 200 BC in research after paying the burdensome cleanup costs of all that industry. (Plus, many factories sat idle, as population shrank).

For a couple of turns, I put money into the treasury from Meklon, but that costing me 2 for 1, so I stopped, and switched Meklon to full research. I had to use the poor planet (just west of my plagued colony) to send colonists TO the diseased world to repopulate enough to keep research going at a decent clip. Here you see me about halfway done after about ten turns of plague.

If these research points had gone to tech instead of down the tubes, I could have had a level 10 tech operational. That could have been the Dead Environment tech I needed, or a waste cleanup tech: Reduced Waste 60%. (Second game in a row, I missed out on both first-gen waste cleanup upgrades). Or I could have had Industrial Tech 7 and shaved a bunch off my factory construction costs (which, believe me, is a very big deal to the factory-happy cyborgs. These guys are such ruthless capitalists, they attach metal and circuitry to their bodies to make themselves more productive).

The Darloks grabbed a fourth planet, but that was it. Not good news. If one AI gets boxed in or dealt bad terrain, it means somebody else will jump in to fill the gap. I could be facing a runaway AI here. And um, as much as I don't want to think about it, the Psilons are out there somewhere. Here's praying that the Sakkra, also present in this game, get a good start and pull one of their "spread like the plague" games where they carry out their typical expansionist strategy with grand efficiency. I'd much rather face a runaway Sakkra, if you get my drift.

Then again, what are the odds of going up against a runaway Psilon in only my second game back? It's not like that happens all the time. In fact, it's pretty rare. Unless boxed in by the terrain or drawing some seriously bad luck in their tech trees, all AI's can spread out on Impossible. Even the Mrrshans can accumulate a bunch of stars. As long as the Psilons don't own like half the galaxy, they're beatable. And it's not like I want to prop up these here Darloks by giving them any of MY systems. If they don't get any stronger than this, I may decide to annex their territory sooner rather than later. That will be much easier to do if they remain small and weak. Be a while before we come to that fork in the road, though.

After researching Dead Environment at accelerated rate (half my research going there), I grabbed a large Rich dead planet on my southeast frontier, even as my scouts in that direction found two Human colonies just beyond the dead planet. Arrgh. I was already cut off coreward. If I was going to get any more territory, it would have to be spreading south along the map edge, or else THROUGH an AI.

Worse, I still had only Range 4 while additional worlds were five or even six parsecs from my colonies. I checked and found that I could now fit a reserve fuel tank on a large colony ship, so I built some LR Colony ships. The urgency was so great to beat the humans to these worlds, that I built my two Colony D ships at fully mature Meklon, and used immature colonies to build two pairs of LR Colony ships. (Two from each planet). So I got six colony ships out in short order. In the shot below, my LR Colony ships arrive and grab several systems (including a second Rich planet, this one a Minimal environment, thus not even hostile). As soon as I settled near the Humans, I met them and the Bulrathi on the same turn.

Yeowch. The Humans are also stunted? Oh that's not good. The Bulrathi are a strong size, but that leaves half the galaxy to be carved up between the Psilons and Sakkra. Could... get... ugly...

Worse, these Bulrathi are Erratic.

Great. Just my luck to draw an Erratic superpower Bulrathi in the same game as a runaway Psilon. Sometimes when it rains, it pours.

OK, there are two critical pieces of information in this news. The bad news is that the Psilons are even larger than the Bulrathi, and we've already seen how massive they are. Ah, but the worse news is the Sakkra. They're EVEN SMALLER THAN THE HUMANS. The Psilons have free reign on half the galaxy?

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps. They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps. I have read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps. His day is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat. He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgement seat. Be swift my soul to answer Him. Be jubilant my feet. Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me. As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free. While God is marching on.

Glory glory, Hallelujah. Glory glory, Hallelujah. Glory glory, Hallelujah. His truth is marching on.

| Onward to Glory |

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