RBSotS1 SG12

[purplemarmot]

Ivra, I've played games probably the same way regarding difficulty, but my favorite SG so far was SG3a (the Liir vs. the 5 hiver team) partly because of the difficulty.

Oops, that would be SG3b, not a (I stumbled to the 'b' one first so remembered it as 'a'). I now notice Abyss was part of that one. Thanks for the fun TAR, Abyss.

[ZedF]

Oh right, definitely forgot about purplemarmot, I was just going off the first page list

Edited.

[ZedF]

I hadn't thought of this in the beginning, but since the Morrigi are in the game...

Is that really so? I always assumed colony traps were always in the game if random events are on. I didn't know that it required Morrigi to be in the game. And I cannot say either way looking back at my games as I normally play with random event on and one AI of each race...

I'm not sure whether colony/mining traps require Morrigi to be in the game either. I tend to doubt it but it's possible.

[Summoner]

Ivra, I've played games probably the same way regarding difficulty, but my favorite SG so far was SG3a (the Liir vs. the 5 hiver team) partly because of the difficulty. I tried my own with similar settings and struggled the first two games with those settings, but it challenged me to learn and get better. My third game with those settings was huge success as I focused on expansion and ship building instead of research (like I'm want to do). Also the challenge and tactics to win a war against 5 teamed hivers was a lot of fun. As long as the difficulty encourages me to become a better player, I'm willing to play this through, even if we eventually lose.

Nice to see I am not completely alone. Sometimes I get the feeling that nobody enjoys an easy game...

Barring a nasty setup, I no longer find Sots's hard setting to be a major challenge. My win rate (or get to the point where I've got an overwhelming edge rate anyway) for a standard setup at hard is around 80-90%; and the occasional loss is generally obvious within an evening or two starting.

[purplemarmot]

I'll try to get my turns in tonight or tomorrow morning. It's still early in the game (strange saying that at turn 60) and turns don't take too long.

Spent a few minutes poking around, looking at:
1. Technology! Holy cow does research take long at 50/50 setting... here's to many early breakthroughs! Battle computers takes 32 turns at max (75% of total income with about 1/8 already researched). I guess I won't have to worry about starting the next tech on my turn.
2. Ship design:
a. For 30 seconds or so I wondered why none of the designs were using hammerhead design sections... until I realized they only give one more small mount and just over 200 armor for 2000 in cost. At 50/50 (and maybe not with normal econ), it seems an easy tradeoff to make as I don't think the increase in durability more than makes up for cost.
b. Wonder what value ER ships have for Zuul, other than consuming less fuel from tankers than other ships...
3. Starting position: the sadorandomizer did have fun with us this game.


Have a few questions:
1. I've seen comments about pushing to the center of the galaxy and see bypassed arms of the galaxy. More stars in the center, but possibly more conflict and nervous about leaving enemies to our back. With limited resources, I don't think we'll be able to expand quickly if we pursue expanding in both directions. What is the teams thoughts about this?
2. There is a note on Sera about a Swarm Hive. Despite playing the game for years, I find myself realizing I have a startling little amount of experience with Swarms. It is safe to ignore this for a while? What is the best way to tackle swarm hives? How many ships would be required to defeat a swarm hive?
3. Wonder about how to effectively use the list tags in the message forum. Anyone know?

[purplemarmot]

Notes: Looking at fleet maintenance, see it over 25%, look through the map, surprised at how few ships we have. Design an Assault shuttle ship. Without CnC can be messy to use though. See that all other races as hazard ratings to the left of us 200 (Hiver) - 575 (Tarka) or so. Looks like Morrigi (Akhilleos the Swift) is waiting in wait for 2 rip fleets in 2 turns

Turn 60

Colonize Procyon (but having just read the warnings about colony traps, decide to "reproduce" with only one Reproducer - send other ships 1 STL turn away. Remove 'n' note, as well as the 'OH' note on Pylos as the colonize is almost done with infrastructure (and already had overharvest turned to minimum). Send Rip 4 back to Cargg to send on, now that Ivra cleared the derelict (IBT 48 and 49). Presumably, the silicoid queen disrupted the next 10 turns or so at Procyon so rip fleet couldn't be sent back to Cargg until now. Need to scrounge up some escorts for it. Design an Assault shuttle ship: The Boxing Gloves (used to pound the big punching bags of planets).

Queue some replacements for escorts stripped from ships at Procyon and Talok for Rip 4 at: Talok (2 Candle, 2 Pebble)
Build more Reproducers for Procyon at: (Volans already producing more Reproducers)
Build more Pebbles at Shamballa (HW)
Send fleet "Pylos or Bust" back to Pylos for repairs
See the note about Akrotiri needing defense fleet, forward on fleet at Gotham on to Akrotiri, click End turn

IBT: Guess what?!

Colony trap at Procyon. Special thanks to Abyss for the prescient warning.

Turn 61

Move Procyon ships back to Procyon. Curiosly, it takes 2 turns to return from a distance it only took 1 turn to get out to. Queue more Reproducers. Is there something I don't know about Zuul STL drives?

IBT:
-Encounter at Cargg (2 ER vs 1 Ruins of Muur - Morrigi, looks like an ER, explodes like an ER (or Tanker)) - victorious but damage to ERs
-Encounter at Argos (Unknown Menace - had a 7 ship Morrigi fleet here last turn, Rip fleet), Swarm Hive - damaged with glowing bits, presumably from Morrigi, but unable to kill it with rip fleet, lose fleet. Planet looks like a dust ball
-Encounter at Mitrou (Rip x fleet - Akhilleos the Swift colony with 15 DE and 3 Sats) - Attempt to flee, Lose Pyro, 2 Pebbles and a rip escape. Mitrou is a size 5 colony with 500,000,000 imperials and 1.09 million civilians (screen 16)


Turn 62
Order colonization of Procyon, Queue more reproducers for Gotham or Procyon
Move ships at Pylos on to Akrotiri, build Garrison for Pylos at Pylos

IBT: Nothing

Turn 63
Ugh. 14 ship Defenders of Muur fleet inbound to Cargg where Rip Fleet is headed without enough escort for 14 ship fleet.

IBT: Nothing

Turn 64
Queue more Reproducers, waiting for combat ships to move on

IBT: Nothing (not sure I'm liking this...)

Turn 65
Queue more combat fleets at Pylos, Reproducers at Talok and Volans

IBT: Rip fleet at Muur fleet arrive at Cargg. Appear in battle on far side of planet from node point, lose fleet while only killing 1 Muur fleet. Muur appears to be CNC:


Turn 66
Queue more combat ships, Reproducers

IBT:
Fleet of colonizers, Tankers, and Pebblers moving to Akrotiri encounter a brand new Tarka colony at Keo'Va, a planet between us and Akrotiri. Hivers using CnC Some ships retreat, but set a STL course to Pylos (69 turns)


Turn 67
Damaged Rip fleet that escaped Mitrou reaches Akrotiri Not enough fuel to rip to somewhere else, and until Keo'Va can be dealt with, limited chance to reinforce. Also there are other ships in route to Akrotiri through Keo'Va that will be lost. We have exactly one very damaged rip bore. Turn down research to get money to build Ripper.

IBT: Nothing

Turn 68
10 Morrigi ships inbound to Akrotiri in 1 turn. Move ships using STL away from Akrotiri. Perhaps we can rescue them, most likely they will be intercepted. (Edit: Nope )

IBT: More ships lost at Akrotiri, 6 Pebbles, 1 Candle that were inroute to Akrotiri as reinforcement

Turn 69
Build Ripper at Pylos. Keo'Va, a Tarka colony, appears to have been decolonized by Hivers as there is a gate there now with no Tarka colony.

IBT: Damaged rip fleet using STL intercepted in normal space by Morrigi.

Turn 70
Queued some ships at Pylos, but rest of turn is not played.

Save:

RBSotS1-SG12 T070.sav

Comments:
This definitely appears to be a real challenge. I've got confirmation that Hivers and Liir are using CnC. We appear to be hemmed in by Morrigi and Hivers, with the number 1 Liir behind the Hivers with us in the path. I was constantly building ships (pebbles, candles, and reproducers), but couldn't seem to get an assault fleet going. I perhaps focused a little too much on reproducers and colonizing Procyon and preparing for Gotham, but really, I'm not sure what I could have done if I'd gone on the attack against CnC. Our own CnC is still 30-40 turns away at current income.

[ZedF]

I believe that puts Abyss up, if he can take the game...

[BlueTemplar]

Hi, inspired by the Endless Space challenges, I wanted to start a similar game for SotS, but then I read this thread and got quite interested in this game.
Would you mind if I started a solo parallel game of this one (from turn 1)? I'll try to play as if I didn't knew what the planets looked like and where the randoms are located...

BTW, congratulations ZedF : It's OVER NINE, NO - TEN THOUSAND!!!

[Abyss]

I will get to this tonight. Been busy today, phone interview, resumes to send out, etc.

[ZedF]

Thanks Blue. It shouldn't be a problem to start a solo game using the same save, but it'd be preferable if you don't advertise the results of your game until the TAR team here has finished their run at it. After they are done, you can feel free to post your results if you wish.

[Abyss]

Someone can take my turn if needed, I've just been busy dealing with some job interview requirements and have been preparing for that as of late.

[ZedF]

No prob Abyss. Sounds like a skip is in order, which puts Summoner up.

[Summoner]

I perhaps focused a little too much on reproducers and colonizing Procyon and preparing for Gotham,

Gotham is CH630; even with OH can we develop it into anything useful in a reasonable amount of time?

[ZedF]

If you drop enough population on a planet, Zuul can usually get it terraformed pretty quickly with OH regardless of the starting hazard.

[purplemarmot]

If you drop enough population on a planet, Zuul can usually get it terraformed pretty quickly with OH regardless of the starting hazard.

It seemed that way from my testing and what I saw with Procyon in just 8 turns. Gotham may be 630, but we don't have a lot of choices on this map, and it's only 50 for Tarka and 130 for the Liir.