Realms Beyond Orion Imperia 1
Off to a Flying Start
I played MOO quite a bit in the days it came out. I was never one to really ‘attack’ a game at its hardest levels but played quite a bit at the average difficulties. Analysis rarely came into effect. I just went out there and did it. I won some, I lost some.
It is now 10 years later. Things have changed. I don’t quite have the time to ‘play’ as I used to. However, the time I do have to play tends to be a bit more intense. I research and analyze a lot more than I used to. So for a medium, average, Alkari map, I’m really not expecting a problem. I can generally win Average maps with little ‘real’ effort put into it (I generally don’t touch the tech sliders much on average) The only thing I have to watch is losing the vote early, which has cost me a few games before. The fact that I say this up front already sets the AI against me. ;)
I have a natural enemy with the Mrrshans. Good enough. At least I won’t have to worry about deciding on an enemy. I’m told Mrrshans have a bad tendency to get into fights so I don’t have to worry too much about THEM getting out of control. As to the others, the only thing I’d like to note is that I don’t have to worry about the Psilons. ;) Taking a look back at Sirian’s site, I find the Alkari at Excellent at Propulsion and poor at force fields. Come to find out, this had very little to do with my game plan. I don’t think I ever took this into account during the game.
Ok, let’s take a look at the teaser map.
We know races start on a yellow Terran star. So let’s take a look at the yellow stars in the galaxy. Note the lack of ANY yellow stars in my inner circle. Under the assumption that Empires do not start on TOP of each other, I’ve circled potential starting locations of the other empires. If one empire gets that lone yellow star in the far, far SW corner, heh, well, they’re screwed. If I don’t have an opponent immediately N of me (in which case I’m in pretty good shape), the most likely first contact will be coming from the NW from that group of two yellows. Let’s take a look at the stars directly around me: (within scouting range).
Blue – 3 south
Green – 4 south
Green – 4 north
Green – 3 north
Red – 4 NW
Red – 5 west
Purple – 5 NE
From the MOO descriptions, I get the following: Green stars have a large range of planetary types, red stars often hold poor planets, white stars hold hostile planets, blue and purple stars are often mineral rich. Ok, so we’ll concentrate on the green and yellow stars and hope for the best.
I redesign my scout, and off we go:
Colony up to the green, scouts off to explore north and south. Altair is set up to start factory production. Kailis is scouted a 45 minimal. To settle, or not to settle, I’ll wait till next turn to make sure there wasn’t anything better down south. Well, the southern planet was a 40 desert colony. The 45 wins. 15 million are transferred from Altair to Kailis. I continue my exploration. A few years in, I build a few more scouts to mark my territory.
After the fact, I note that even if the southern colony would have been better, I needed to move north to increase my range. Anyway, all my scouts are in position, and if I can hold it, I am in extremely good shape. My potential planet listing includes:
That’s a Solid starting base. In addition, Primodius and Mobas are towards the back, so it will take some time for other empires to get the range to snag these planets. I will have a solid pop base along with a solid industrial base. In addition, many of these will be able to be snagged without any additional range tech which will speed my initial expansion even more. The real test will be to see if I can hold out long enough to catch up in tech. If so, things will get ugly for the rest of the galaxy really quick.
I get to the point where my factories are being maxed with my pop. I go ahead and move ahead with colony ship production. It takes 5 turns. My first one heads out to Bootis (the most likely to be snagged by another civ). Sure enough, I colonize the planet and make contact with the Silicoids.(Aggressive Expansionists). It’s a good thing I went ahead and colonized at Bootis. The silicoids have 4 colonies at the moment and are ahead of me in the power graph, mainly because of my lack in a fleet. (Year 2334) I go ahead and get in with a 75 trade agreement.
The Mrrshans get the first population milestone:
A runaway Mrrshan? Not from what I hear… I continue my initial expansion. Year 2340. Here is my map. Five colonies. I’m splitting my research three ways: propulsion (range 5), construction (factory 80% waste), and planetology (+10 terr).
Years go by as planets build and begin maxing out . Terraforming is the first tech to come through. My next choices are dead enviro and death spores. I’m guessing that means I’m missing Barren, Improved eco, Tundra, and Terraforming +20. Wow. Seeing as dead enviro doesn’t do anything for me, I switch settings to go for propulsion and construction.
Fuel cells (range 5) come in. Time to switch back to colony ship production. Research sunk 100% into construction to get waste % down and increase production. Stars being explored to the far south. It doesn’t look like there’s ANYBODY down south. There is also another yellow down there. I’m going to move a colony to a poor planet (just as a foothold) and then explore down there. I may have the ENTIRE eastern portion of the map! Colony ships are on their way. I debated whether or not I wanted to colonize south or north first. I decided to go north. I beat the silicoids to the system by 1 turn. Whew! I’m sure this will be contested although I have signed a NAP with them….
The silicoid colony ship chases off my scout and heads north. I move some troops to the newly founded colony. A colony ship colonizes at Simius in the south where I meet the Meklars (from the west) This most likely means the east is clear for colonizing. Sweeeeet. Another colony ship colinizes Primodius to the north. This sets off the elections:
The Alkari and the Mrrshans. Coinicdence that they are natural enemies?
Everyone abstains except the Mrrshans and myself. The Mrrshans had 5 votes, I had 4.
The far southeast corner of the galaxy holds a gem. A terran 105 fertile. I snag it. The next phase of the game looks to be getting my colonies up and running. I’m behind both the Silicoids and Meklars in total power.
Another vote. Me and the Silicoids this time:
Everyone abstains except for me, the Silicoids and the Mrrshans. Wait a second. The Mrrshans voted for ME!. Let’s check the race screen. Nothing. But the report is a few years old. Looks like the Silicoids moved in on the Mrrshans. Ok, here’s my map at this time.
My next few years are basically a matter of building up my planets. Relations are good with the silicoids, and neutral with the Mecklars. I can’t seem to get ANYTHING with them. They won’t accept trade and are barely amenable to relations at all. My next planetology tech comes in, and it seems I’m missing the next level of cleanup cost reduction. Blast. I pump up construction a bit to see if I can pull in the 60% waste reduction tech.
Mrrshans pull in the tech event. I note that there is still nobody in the NE corner of the map (the lone star up there). I’m assuming that’s either a dead star or Orion seeing as the Silicoids have visited. My construction tech comes in, and I’m missing 60% waste as well. Shoot, this could get ugly. I figure it’s time to start putting missle bases up, so each planet has a few clicks, getting myself ready for the inevitable.
Robotic Controls III comes in. Planets set to get this going. (+75%) Planets finish that up in pretty good time. Missle bases slowly coming up around my systems.
Another vote. The Silicoids have made friends with the Mrrshans and Klackons. Between the 3, they receive 50% of the vote. I see the Silicoids coming at one of my rich systems that I’d hoped to hold. There was no way I was going to hold it. The scout retreats. The colonizing of this planets sets off….
I gave gattling lasers to the Mecklars (Xeno Technologists) in order to improve relations. It didn’t work. They left the table. A few years later I tried again they accept…because they remember the gift of gattling lasers. Ok, now that was pretty cool. Maybe I can get some relations going with them now. The Silicoids are filling in all the holes I haven’t been able to get to yet, including the Rich and Ultra Rich systems at Laan and Mobas. These are right in the thick of my holdings.
Primodius gets the super-nova event. Time to get some research going for Primodius! Using Altair to spit money into reserves, I’m able to pull out of the event with 1 year remaining. Whew. The Silicoids are really getting out of control here. If they continue, I could be in some serious hurt here (losing by the vote). It’s time to get some wars started. This will be especially bad if the other races vote for the Silicoids. They have easily over half the planets, so I won’t be able to get voted in as victor easily. My hope is that I have close to a third of the population to block the vote. It will be close.
It’s amazing how much your heart can beat in a game when you’re actually reporting it. The next vote came up (Year 2425). Mecklars abstained. Silicoids: 11 votes. Sakkra 3 votes for Sili. Bugs: 2 votes for Sili. Mrrshans abstain. I have 8 votes, I abstain. I live through another vote. I need just a little bit more pop to block the vote. I’m not quite there yet.
Silicoids: Sili 11, Sakkra 3, Klack 2
Me: 0
Abstain: Mrrshans, Mecklars, Me (didn’t want to hurt relations)
Next few years is spent completing research and putting up bases. I didn’t have a fleet to speak of yet, so I really couldn’t challenge anybody.
The next vote:
Pretty much the same, except the Mrrshans voted for the Silicoids as well. They had just shy of 2/3 of the vote. The Mecklars were my friends. Or so I thought. They came along and wiped out a colony of mine at Simius. Oh, wait, that’s a poor planet that was begging to be beat anyway. I was taking pop out of that planet every few years to help fill in pop at my other colonies. I let them have it. It would give more population to the Mecklars for the next vote.
The Silicoids continued unabated. They take the planet that the Mecklars had just taken. I spend the next 20 years or so putting up defenses and getting ready for the upcoming war. Research was being spent 100%. I needed to catch up a bit. A few key techs started coming in such as industrial waste 40%.
It was time for me to build my fleet, or the first phase anyway. I went to design my fleet and it hit me pretty quick. I don’t have even the 2nd level of shield upgrades. So I go to the Mecklars and trade them Duralloy for repulsor beam. Yes, it was a one sided trade, but they were my allies (I hoped), and repulsor beam couldn’t hurt me THAT bad could it?
Prototype design of my attack ship:
It’s not the best ship, but should get the job done. I nearly always put a bomb or two on most of my ship designs. I have found myself in to many situations where my main attack weapon won't penetrate planetary defenses and end up losing the battle to missle bases when I really shouldn't have. I would rather have an all purpose attack ship than a specialized bomber. Bombs are generally smaller than your typical weapon so I just fill in the extra space with bombs. If it doesn't fit, I'll move down to the lower bombs. Anyway, production of this attack ship commences.
During production, Kalias gets a radical shift in the climate, increasing it to a fertile. It's nice, but would have been nicer a bit earlier in the game. ;) Having amassed a nice little fleet of my ships, it was time to see what they could do. I couldn’t do this alone though. So I dialed up my good friends the Mecklars.
Would they go to war with me against the rocks? They would! This would boost my relations in the voting booths with them as well. Let’s see what we could do against the Silicoids. This was going to hurt though, the Silicoids had a huge trade agreement with me. But if I didn’t do it, my game was over. They were out of control.
The Silicoids did not have any planetary shields on their bases, so that would help my cause. Let’s see what we could do.
First off, let’s reclaim property in my neighborhood. Off to Mobas, a toxic ultra rich system. Might as well hit them where it hurts. No losses, their 10 bases destroyed. Oh, this was going to get ugly for the Silicoids if they didn't adapt quickly. Let’s see if we can invade? Troops incoming.
My 155 vs thier 85. We win with 86 or so left. A 1-1 approximately. The spoils?
Impulse drive, Energy pulsar, Fusion drives, Tech 9, Tech 5
Not bad. Time to stand up defences. The war was on! About the same time, planetary X shields came through. Put em up, FAST!! Next vote came around.
For silicoids: Sili 16, Klackons 3
Me: Meklar 4, Sakkra 3, Mrrshans 5? Me 9
I had slightly over ½ the votes this time. Much better. The Mrrshans like me again. They must REALLY hate the Silicoids.
The Silicoids decide to go head on and take out Altair with 26 of their main attack ship. I had 17 bases on the planet. They didn’t take a single base. Oh, things were getting uglier and uglier for the Silicoids. Shortly thereafter, my Plantary Shields X went up. Someone framed me against the Mecklars, but I’m hoping the continued war against the Silicoids will bring my relations back up. Then, I was framed again. They really don’t like me do they. I wonder who it is. I only have contact with the Silicoids and the Mecklars, and the Mecklars are my friends. Hmmmm…..
My newly found colony at Mobas is stood up. Defenses up, time to move on. In the meantime, I’ve had a secondary fleet starting to get ready. Unforunately, I had a problem. Upon assaulting my next target, I find that they have repulsor beams. These prevent me from moving within firing range. Hmmm…time for a redesign. Or just a slight one. I just change from the ion (firing range 1), to the Hvy Ion (firing range 2). The only difference between the two is the weapon. These start coming out in mass production. It doesn’t take long.
Move over to Laan, a toxic rich planet in my neighborhood. It seems the planet was infested with living rocks. We can't allow this, now can we? In come the invasion forces. No problems here. I make contact with the Mrrshans.
Spoils of war: ECM IV, Tech cost 4, Bio Antidote, Range 7
This fleet will stand here while another fleet continues on. The war continues to have good effects on relations. The Silicoids were at war with the Meklar, Mrrshans, and myself. I am now Neutral with those two. (I was at tense with both at one point, one because of natural instincts, the other because of being framed). I look at trading techs again. The Meklar are willing to part with Enhanced Eco for some advanced drives. I never received any of this line of techs so I snagged this. More money in my pocket for stuff that kills things.
Done. My economy improves even more. Things are beginning to look up. Let’s take a look at the power graphs.
This doesn’t quite tell the whole story. The Silicoids are in a hole and going down pretty fast. They are in a 3 way war with me, the Mecklar and the Mrrshans. They still have the largest population, but they are spread really thin. I need to take as much as I can while I can before they can catch up and get some fleets out there that can stop me. So back to business. I send my secondary fleet to attack one of their planets. I sent too little or they upgraded, because I got shot down....and badly.
Next vote:
Me: Meklars (4), Sakkra (2), Mrrshans (5), Me (11): 22 total
Silicoids: Sili (12)
Abstain: Klackons (3)
22/37 – 60% of the vote. I think I'm getting close to that 'winning position'.
They bring a nice little fleet back to my homeworld. I manage to fend them off, but it was pretty close. Time to move up my defense efforts on all my worlds. I had generally run around 15-20 bases on my worlds, I more than doubled that by end game. During the process, they pull in another fleet at Bootis. They manage to take down the shields. I get a fleet up there and scare off the attackers, but not before the bomb they populace and factories. Bases are being built like wildfire. If the rocks want a planet, it’s going to take everything they have, and it's going to hurt! That's the plan anyway. I also switched 100% over to weapons to pull in pulson missles. Time to put some more bite in my bases.
The Silicoids have come to me a few times in order to get me to agree to peace. No dice my friend. No dice. Note the map from 2539. No wonder they want peace. The Mrrshans are all over them from the backside.
The ameoabe has entered the galaxy. Year 2540. From the west. For once, it doesn’t land right in the middle of my area. The Mrrshans will have to deal with it this time. The Silicoids have come back at me at Primodius. I need new missles, BAD!! I’m so close too. They overwhelmed the bases and brought in the infantry. They captured the planet pretty easily. And with it, they get the following message:
Not a good sign. But then the good news. Puslon missles are out of development. A few turns too late, but the likelihood of me losing another planet any time soon has diminished. Time to go back, retake, and rebuild the planet. Planet retaken, but it wasn’t exactly easy. They have a ton of gropo techs I don’t have. Vote next year. Let’s see whap happens. I don’t quite get it, 22-12. Silicoids voted for themselves, the Klackons abstained.
Time to move up in fleet weaponry. Move to the Heavy fusion. Heavy fusion lasers and anti-matter bombs. That should just about clear up my rock problems. Put them into effect immediately! All worlds, ok, maybe half the worlds.. This is it. Time to clean up this game.
While building up my fleet, the Mrrshans are getting obliterated from behind by the Ameoba. Not good. They are helping my cause! Time to do some damage on the Silicoids before the vote. Also,before the vote, I go ahead and ally with the Mecklars. They’ve been my only true ally the whole game. Might as well keep it that way. The vote goes 20-17 (13 from Sili, 4 from Klackons) I was able to obliteate a Sili colony before the vote. Time to continue. Five turns later, 3 colonies dead. My production line keeps churning them out. I only have 4 in action at the moment. Another Silicoid colony falls. I’m just razing colonies. It takes so long to bring a colony up, I don’t have time to bring them up. I’ll let the other races fight amongst themselves. If I don't like the vicotr, I can always come back and raze it again later. Althought they didn't show it, the Mecklars enjoyed the fruits of my labor.
My fleet manages to destroy a comet. Meanwhile, the west side of the galaxy is STILL being terrozined by the Ameoba. They are up to 5 dead colonies over there from the Ameoba. The Ameoba finally left. I found an artifact system of the Silicoids. The missle bases have been taking down my numbers (from 7), but I’ve put a serious hurt on their population and defense bases. I think I’m going to try to stand up that arts planet.
Next vote: 21-15 me. Silicoids (10) and Klackons (5) versus everyone else. I don’t even have RELATIONS with the Klakons yet.
The colony ship arrives at Helos (the artifact planet), and my outdated ships guard the system while my top of the line ships move back and forth destroying the Siliocids who continually try to claim the liberated planets surrounding Helos (Jinga and Ajax). I also receive a rebellion. 67 million strong. That's more than just a slight rebellion. Blast! I send a three pronged attack to retake the planet. As far as the rocks go, I decide to continue the purge and move in to take out the Silicoid homeworld. The Sakkra declare war on me shortly thereafter? Blast! Can’t I get a break here?
Ok, so the next vote comes up: Me versus…the Meklars? I’m doing too good of a job on the Silicoids I see.
Meklars: mek (7), Sil (7), Sak (1)
Me: Klackons (4), Mrr (2) Me (11)
17-15 me.
Time to start standing up my colonies I take over. It looks like I'll be doing this the hard way.
Next target? The Silicoid home planet. Air superiority gained. Land superiority? Yeah right. I brought 85 to thier 50. I lost the entire lot. They lost 10. Hmmm....how about this? I bomb the planet and start over. It sounds much, MUCH less painful. I bombed the survivors and got a colony ship on the way. I don’t know how many colony ships I fended off from this place, but it was quite a few as every civ in existence saw a 'new' opporunity in the Silicoid homeworld. Colony ships didn't put up much of a fight against my SoD but I cringed as I took them out, relations going bad all over the place. My colony ship landed and I made contact with the Klackons. I finally make peace with the Silicoids but had to break my treaty with the Meklars to do so (being xenophobic, I take a big hit on relations).
I am officially top of the power graph. About time. The Siliocids are back at 2nd on the population graph. Vote in five years. Could this be the year?
Things definitely didn't look good for the Silicoids in the woven web of destruction on the western side of the galaxy. They were at war with the Klackons, Mecklars, and Sakkras. Those were 3 votes I could expect. This really hurts the Silicoids as the Klackons had been allying with them all game. A vote for me from Klackons would give it to me. I had lost contact with the Mrrshans and I had sporatic contact with the Sakkra on some hot potatoe over on that side.
So here’s the vote:
For the Silicoids: Silicoids: 11, Sakkra: 1
For Me: Meklars: 9, Klackons 7, Mrrshans 1, Me: 13
I go ahead and take the out with a winning of 30-12 in the council. I believe you call this a diplomatic victory in year 2650. Yes, the Mrrshans voted for me and yes, it is possible for birds and cats to be friends...as long as they don't have contact. It was actually surprising that the Mrrshans voted for me even though they weren't at war with the Silicoids.
A view of the map before victory. You have to love how the Klackons (Ruthless Expansionists) and Mecklars moved in on Mrrshan territory after the Ameoba event.
Planet listing:
Power Graph
Ok, so now that I've won, I have to make the notes of the stupid moves I made. These were just a few micro managing things I forgot about that would have saved me a good deal of heartache. For instance, if you look at my treasury, I'm showing 24K extra in reserves. TWENTY-FOUR THOUSAND!! I forgot to take Altair off reserves when I was hit with the Nova event and was also using the slider to pull money into reserves from all planets. I think I did that accidentally and didn't notice it till late game. Seeing how much that can be with just a little reserves, this was a nice little handicap I unknowingly gave myself. Assuming this is still a 2-1, I missed out on nearly 45 thousand production points. There was also a planet that I forgot to take off missle bases from mid game. When I discovered the mistake, the planet was a sitting arsenal. I wish I could have spread them around, but alas, I had to disband them (I'm not even going to say how many I disbanded).
It has been two weeks since I played the game. I have read through at least five game write-ups and watched the SG. I have come to the following conclusion: My game play needs some serious work. I did put a few things I'd learned into practice, but I still have a long way to go. That's ok, there's always the next Imperia!
