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Thread: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

  1. #1
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    Default [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    "Did it crash?"
    "Nope. You saw it decelerate, didn't you? But it must have been quite a rough landing." He thought about what they have seen for a moment. "That was a rocket engine as far as I can tell, this thing must be from space."

    "What is it?" she asked. Marwen asked this question even though she was well aware that Ted wouldn't be able to answer it. Being farmers on Tau Ceti's most agricultural world for all of their lives hasn't given them much insight into space-faring technology.

    Marwen took a step closer to the half-buried object. "Are you sure it didn't crash? It looks so beaten!"
    "Yeah, looks like something I'd weld together. But I see no holes in it. At least not from here."
    "When did you learn to weld?"
    "I didn't."

    Ted unholstered his gun and moved toward the smouldering heap of metal. "Wait, do you think it might be dangerous?!", Marwen interfered. Ted scowled, somewhat annoyed: "How should I know? That's why I want my gun in my hands!".

    The couple got a bit closer to what seemed to be some sort of makeshift pod. They circled the pod at a distance. "Look, the top is open!", Marwen whispered. An animal, looking like what Marwen thought a rat should look like, crawled out of the pod and looked at them, showing its teeth and squealing. "Ted, we need to call the authorities. If this is not the only rat the whole planet's income might be endangered, especially if a quarantine is enacted! Kill it, than call officer Darless and report the incident. How did these creatures get onto a space ship?!"

    "Just a sec, honey, just a sec…" Ted brought out his communicator and searched the database for a rat. "That is no rat, Darwen. Look. This creature's head is way too big and teeth are not those of rodents."
    "Than what is it?"
    Ted raised his gun; "I have no bloody idea but I as sure as hell am not going to wait to fin…"

    "You will not touch my spawn, food", a voice in Ted's head echoed, unbearably loud.

    "Why don't you shoot it, Ted? It's gonna flee!"
    Ted realized Marwen did not hear the voice. And he could not move his arm.

    Two more creatures crawled out of the pod and all three started to descend. "Shoot, Ted, shoot!" Marwen looked at Ted and saw him turning towards her, bringing the gun to bear. She could see the horror in his eyes. "Ted…" A bullet through her eye stopped the words.

    Ted was screaming, but on the outside nobody would have known. His face was motionless and as blank as a rock. Only his unseeing eyes might hint of the anguish inside him. His body turned back to the pod for him to see creatures approach. First one jumped, biting into the thigh. With a jerk it tore a piece of meat off. Ted was still standing, despite the incredible pain in his leg. He wanted to fall but couldn't.

    Then something else climbed out of the pod. It was unlike the three around him but relation was clear.
    Fairytales his grandmother told him when he was young rushed through his mind. Myths from Earth itself she said. This is what a werewolf should look like. It was not supposed to be real.
    Its eyes seemed to be glowing. Ted knew this stuff of nightmares was controlling his body, ravaging through his mind.

    Two other two younglings tore more flesh from him. Legs gave way and he fell into the dirt.

    "Why…" he thought.
    "Don't ask questions you can't understand an answer to, food. We are the Zuul, the Chosen Ones. Our arrival marks your departure."




    P.S.: Is there a way to embed vids here? EDIT: Ah, got it.
    Last edited by Space Voyager; September 14, 2011 at 07:23 AM.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones



    For people that loathe watching a vid; a game was started on normal difficulty, we as Zuul, colour red. I added all races as diversity is good, 148 stars rift galaxy.

    All enemies got three starting colonies. Zuul start with one more than the rest, but to keep things interesting I lowered our initial colonies setting to 1, which means two, as we are Zuul. Now we will need to catch the rest before they outrun us in research, civilians and trade. Which can easily happen in a 150 star galaxy.

    Our goals? Kill, murder, enslave. In gameplay terms we want to get to cruisers ASAP, especially rend drive with its node canon that can shatter whole fleets.



    What we do is hurt space time. We fold space and build our own node lines. But with current tech level we can only have three node lines from and to every planet. This is not a huge problem in a how to get to each star way but if you wanted an efficient net you need to be a bit careful.

    We use Drill class destroyers to hurt space time continuum.


    And we prepare to drop pods, like the one Ted and Marwen were unlucky enough to meet.


    For now we have not even started to research as we went far into debt.


    Our node bore ships fold space behind them (green line).


    The net spreads with second wave.


    Oh, look whom we meet...


    And we meet it A WHOLE DAMN LOT!


    Crap, 4 out of 6 explored systems hold damn derelicts!!!

    I replayed the setup vid just to see if I didn't accidentally set randoms to some incredible number but I did not... It is just luck. MY luck.

    Starting on research.


    And at least something that feels like home. Not sure Asimov would like Zuul on his much revered world though.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    The dancers.


    We design a lasers only ship just for stripping the derelicts.


    State of the empire.


    Finally we establish a peachy colony.


    Then we start with the derelicts.




    Frankly stripping the derelicts is a boring job, targeting weapons' turrets and dancing out of their line of sight. This is one of the least loved parts of the game for me, micromanagement in its full bloom. Skill my arse. Here is a two stage disarming if anyone wants to see it. Trust me, if you watched 30 seconds you have seen it all. The only difference is that towards the end you usually need to get a bit dirty as you take on the least visible turrets - some I have not even noticed until then...

    There is a lot of annoying zooming in and out, necessary for targeting and moving at the same time in RT.





    We find first asteroid monitor. As Zuul we get a bonus at stripping down everything in the game so we start the research immediately. Bonus is otherwise also seen as Zuul being the only race to have a chance of salvaging a technology even when they (we) have no salvage and repair ship in the system.




    Next research.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    State of the empire.


    We still have two completely separate parts of our node network. I'll have to join them than build some network-dedicated bore ships to maintain the node lines. Otherwise the first ones will soon begin to falter.

    Busted another one.


    Just for the beauty of the pic.


    We meet our first foe.


    What?! Didn't we just destroy the derelict here?!


    Ahhhh, it is not a derelict...

    A system can hold more than one random.
    This one held a derelict as well as a colony trap. For the first time so early in the game and no PD have I seen a colony destroyer escape.

    Next research.


    And another!


    I'd love to keep them alive a bit longer and use them later when their contribution would be far bigger but having them in the middle of the network is far too annoying.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    More derelicts.


    At least some are disarmed.


    And we meet an enemy we can not survive through at the moment.








    State of the empire. Our web has increased a lot, though we still lag behind other empires. We started with a third of their power after all.


    Another Swarm infection found, another piece of expensive equipment lost. The Zuul inside were expendable.


    We are closing the network rings and starting a standard node drilling duty. A bore ship is sent to do a couple of circles.


    An enemy colony is found.


    We start looking at Zuul-only slave gathering ships we have in our design arsenal. We might just send them off when a CnC ship is available. We won't wait for PD or the blasphemous rebels might grow too much.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    Oh man, what NOW? I rechecked the random encounters numbers, it really was on normal...


    Another one of these.


    If you look at the photo a bit closer you will see planetary missiles fired from the monitor.


    Luckily bore ships are insanely tough and both our ships make it to asteroid shadow.


    Zuul are crap at research and we have the least rich tech tree, but we sure are able to make a breakthrough more often than others!


    State of the empire, with current state of randoms. I forgot an existing derelict but I'll change the game reality to suit this pic rather than take another screenshot.


    Finally, CnC ship to lead our packs.


    Keep fingers crossed for a PD link!


    You win some and you lose some. Than you lose some more. And you bury yourself in research.


    And as there is never enough losing...


    When I saw it coming I knew I can not defend the colony. I could try but would only throw away some scrapheap challenge winners. He who defends everything... is not Zuul. Errrr, defends nothing.

    Funny I was just saying it is not that bad. Tell that to the 28k+ Zuul on the planet.


    A small patch four our wounds.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    Didn't I tell? We were able to research PD, so Swarm seems a bit less of a threat.


    Preparations are made to go for some bug mining.


    After we have been reminded of VN, all our colonies got a 5 DE defending force.

    I tried to send a defence fleet to a new colony as well but I forgot that the Swarm infested more than one system.


    Obviously I sent 5 ships to their fiery death.


    They actually held pretty good with their lasers but in the end they were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers.

    A bigger picture for state of the empire this time. Needless to say, we are not happy to see Tarkan scouts trickling in from the other side of the rift.


    We are speeding for cruisers as our destroyers are really weak.


    Infestation at Sphinx is cleared. This one was too much in the way to leave it there ATM. Also I wanted to film the encounter but when the nest was destroyed no queen or larva was found. It seems as we'll have more chances to find one to show you.


    Our Swarm Reapers performed admirably. The Swarm is no longer a serious threat.

    From Swarm we turn to School. Of fish.


    Derelict Claws are battered from last derelict. Our nearby colony is still in it's infancy and doesn't have enough infrastructure to have the industrial output necessary for ship repair. We can not afford to wait for it to grow. We must expand and losses are acceptable.

    While war ships engage the fish defenders our Wraith Abductors dive into the atmosphere for some canning action!


    Full of fish, Abductors speed away while our attacking forces dwindle.


    Battle was a draw and we lost more ships than the fish. Draw...


    Not for millions of killed and canned fish it wasn't. Our remaining forces are pulled back to our growing colony. It will undoubtedly make good use of slaves we bring.

    I admit it is so nice to see breakthroughs that I don't even mind sucking at research in general.


    We go for CnC. Numbers and cheapness are our main advantages.


    Note that we have boarding researched. No, I didn't forget to post about researching it, it is a Zuul speciality. We got it for free. Our CnC and support cruisers all have pods, so a Zuul repair cruiser is not as innocent a target it would otherwise seem.

    Slaves are brought to Adhara!


    Slave manager? How cool er... Zuul is that?!


    We are back at Kreelar. Our former colony.


    This time we leave the bugs alive in an attempt to grow them.


    A mistake. We can not colonize a world while Silicoids infest the system. Well tough luck. Honey does not come as cheap as we have hoped.

    That does not mean we are giving up as far as growing the Swarm is concerned. If we already have a colony and it is infested we can keep them. We'll see about the hazard that brings.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    You know, I'd wait a bit, roasting you in the fires of dramatic silence, but... I'm just unable not to play. And if I play, I take screenshots and if I take screenshots I edit them and when I already edit them I might as well post as this is the least work in the process.

    Crap, I have no spine.

    A nice addition of slave data on colony info sheet.


    Our frontline DEs get a Zuul only toy, grappling missile!


    And our slave business gets upgrades as well!


    The star-like symbol means that this ship is carrying extra something.


    Sadly we clear the Silicoid infestation and luckily form a colony.


    Research...


    ...is here to be used and abused. Pods you can see in the weapon loadout are boarding pods. Two can be enough to take out an enemy cruiser if it is not guarded by heavy PD. Zuul boarding pods are toughest of them all.


    Another infestation is cleared. We can not afford to wait with the expansion, or we might as well surrender.


    This time we were ready.


    We didn't destroy the mothership though, we wouldn't want their retribution at this time.

    I see I have been bragging about our scientists a bit too much. We have gone for a medium turret weapon at last, I don't like to rely on missiles only.


    Our scavenger has released the slave disc. It didn't bring any slaves though as the battle ended before its return.


    Liir colony was left in ruins as you will see in an overview. Next wave should be last as our cruiser sized CnC, Bishop, is built and waiting for the return of what is left of this wave.


    Overview. Go HD and full screen if you want to read messages... Anyway, I did not build nodelines carefully enough. This lead to our backyard not optimally interconnected, now I must favour building nodelines that lead into expansion.
    Our research will go for fusion and next iteration of node building as we will be able to have four nodelines from and to each colony. This will help immensely. AND it will bring us new drilling ships armed with node cannon, being a big threat to any enemy. They are expensive but well worth the price.
    You may also notice how little of the map is scouted... Zuul are slow to scout because they need to build nodelines, unlike Humans that simply zip through the existing ones. We were also stopped by Swarm on most of this half of the rift. and Liir on the rest. Swarm is no longer a problem and Liir... prepare frying pans. Fish incoming. BTW, Liir are not actually fish, they are mammals. So they are telekinetic dolphins, that would be the closest Earthly description.

    Last edited by Space Voyager; September 19, 2011 at 03:26 AM.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    We equip a lot of green on our new cruisers.


    Grappling missiles make for some nice effects, like enemy cruisers losing their bearing with heavy combat lasers. Really nice seeing them tossed around.

    HOLD HER STEADY, I'll finish her off!


    Obviously we researched plasma cannon and we speed on with a tech that will enable us to repair ships and weld new pods, slave discs...


    We find another one of Liir Asteroid Monitors.


    It is over such a peachy planet that we will try to destroy it. Green lasers give us an option to stay just out of range of this AM and PD destroys its planetary missiles. I have no idea how long this will take us, we might decide to leg it until a more efficient weapon (read: node cannon) is available.


    As we made way to a planet we had marked as a nice world for colonizing (the one in the centre, with an exclamation mark), we find an already existing Liir colony. And we are sorry we have no fish cans with us.


    A new technology is put into action.


    As I already wrote, all support ships have boarding pods. I have been nastily surprised in the past when you are mopping up last remains of a Zuul fleet and suddenly support ships start dropping into the fight... and take over a ship or two. Not a nice surprise.

    Let's toughen ships up.


    Despite this being a very nice potential colony, we leave the Silicoids be. I hope they move elsewhere soon though.


    And we go for a final push at Bronson Alpha. Now or never.


    Victory! We take slaves and, after colonizing the worlds ourselves, dump them back to help build the colony.


    With Scavengers, cruisers with slave discs, slaving has become an entirely different ballgame.


    Yep, that is a lot of slaves.


    As promised, we take a look at the numbers.

    At turn 79 it is not yet a colony but it has a lot of infrastructure left. At turn 80 it is a colony. Infrastructure jump is from the colonizers. At turn 81 slaves are on the planet, as you can see both from the shackles below the planet's name and from the green number of slaves.
    I don't think any infrastructure was added due to the fact that slaves were transferred to the colony in itself. The infrastructure jump from 85,83 to 89,07 is the result of slaves adding to industrial output and it is already calculated from the turn you dump them on the colony, not from next turn on. Additional infrastructure corresponds to projected change for next turn.
    Also take a look at how fast we will be terraforming the planet!

    Additional armour is added to all warship designs. Before we head for the long road to fusion, we need to do something on the informational front. First we will deprive the information from our enemies, then we head for a much better intelligence gathering of our own.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    I finally noticed that lack of drill ships (Drill) and accompanying tankers (Tar Pit) is halting our advance.
    They were mostly lost on Swarms but now we must get a move on!

    The most perplexing matter is that Liir are ranked as first and I haven't seen much of their might.
    This is becoming a worry, I'd rather know what they are up to.
    Sensors are planned for immediate research.

    Finally we meet somebody else but Liir and Tarka. Not that I wanted to,
    I was pretty happy that I'm only fighting Liir (and Tarka scouts) as they are our main enemy.


    THIS is worrying.


    Why? Well, if there are Liir defence structures, it is a Liir colony. Considering that there is
    a functioning gate in place with 64 Hiver fortress-like ships, there would be no Liir defences
    were they not in cahoots. This is why it is great to have a Hiver ally, he can help you
    protect your colonies very effectively with teleporting whole fleets from one end of the
    galaxy to the other. This is also why it is bad having a Hiver enemy helping your other enemies.
    And we have nothing but enemies.

    It would be easier if we could endanger Hivers directly. If there is a thing they do more
    willingly than help others (read: guard gates at others' colonies), it is helping themselves
    (read: guard their own colonies and gates above them). So if we could manage attacking
    them at least nominally they would not help Liir as eagerly.

    We'll see about that, naturally. We have yet to find bug nesting places.
    On the side note, I hear some bugs are quite tasty roasted.

    Attack went ideally. Ok, we lost some ships but results are very good nevertheless.


    Liir colony is in ruins, all but a few survivors. Yet it is best not to finish it off or Hivers might set a colony of their own...
    61 Hiver ships and a still functioning gate. We leg it. What is left of our fleet.

    As said.


    Days of destroyers are over. We are dully notified at Thundara.


    Trying to destroy a Liir Asteroid Monitor with laser armed destroyers has proved to be quite possible.
    It took us four turns, so AM also served its purpose in delaying our advance.


    Yeah well, what can you do. Bronson Alpha needed fresh supply more urgently.


    We have hidden ourselves from the inquiring eyes of the enemy.


    But we desperately need eyes of our own.


    Liir decide to show their might and wrath.


    If those are destroyers, I am a pumpkin. There is just no way to prepare a force strong enough to
    take their fleet head on. So we go ZUUL!


    Armed with missiles to overload their point defence and emitters, we build boarding cruisers.
    Medea and both neighbouring colonies are set to overharvest to build as many ships as possible
    in as little time as possible. Both colony defence fleets are sent to help Medea as well.


    Liir showed up with plasma projectors We pretend we're not scared and go for boarding action,
    which is what is going on to the ship in upper right corner. In the middle you see a sensors'
    screen, with two Isolation class Liir cruisers painted green.


    Those nine ships we lost were destroyers and if I'm correct, ships taken over count as our losses as well.
    So statistics doesn't tell the whole story (does it ever?). What was important was that Liir spent most time
    fighting their own ships instead of wrecking our colony.

    Next turn, new bloodshed. Just the way Zuul love it.

    Liir field biological weaponry. Which is a waste of their time, Zuul are immune to all bioweapons
    except the ones that affect infrastructure instead of creatures. They can not have gotten that
    far in research. Above turn result you can see Liir cruiser that was taken over, which is indicated
    by stripes being red (our empire's colour) instead of orange like on bio cruiser.


    In third turn the fight is over. Our colony was not even touched!


    And now we have an army to use. Which we WILL.

    Close by Hivers come from Liir colony, hoping to set up a gate. We take their ships for a stroll.


    New Liir colonies are found. Some survive our visit, others not so much.


    I declare an end to Swarm growing.


    Why? While our fleet was present in a Swarm (Silicoids) occupied system a battle was triggered EVERY
    turn, which is more that I'm willing to stand. PERHAPS it would be different if Swarm came to a colony
    of ours but I can only take a limited amount of hassle. AND they were seated over a planet that is almost
    ideally suited for our colonization. Also they didn't reproduce every 5 turns as was supposed to happen.

    If they survive somewhere I'd love to give it another try but right now... I need that colony much more than bees.
    Last edited by Space Voyager; September 20, 2011 at 02:28 AM.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    Our biggest fleet finds a Liir colony. GOOD, a large portion of our budget is spent for military upkeep so
    we must use it to excuse the cost. Any similarity with real life is (probably not) coincidental.


    Our losses are mostly destroyers. After the battle a node bore ship is sent on to a nearby colony
    that will hopefully be next in our conquest. Next turn we will bring out Scavengers and go for some fishing.


    We find eyes. Our Pitch Dark destroyers are updated with deep scan command sections. Our research steps on a long road to fusion. There await new space hurting technologies, saviour both in strategic and battle environment.


    We are also building three Illuminati class cruisers, a deeps scan/extended range/fission cruisers.
    Zuul deep scan cruisers have a very long range, so those will serve us as strategic eyes on the
    frontline and at the edge of the rift.

    Even before they are built, our colonies' eyes reveal more than we knew before.


    Before the research on fusion actually begun I decided we need to take a shortish detour to help in
    colony growing. And back to fusion.


    Fighting at Niishini continues. I'm a bit surprised at the lack of Liir activity to protect such a great planet.
    I've seen them help less important colonies much more. It is true that I do not see their trade sectors
    so who knows ho much revenue Niishini is bringing. Slaves are taken in huge numbers.


    A quick overview.


    Niishini fighting is bringing other goods as well, not just slaves.


    If you remember, we sent a lone Drill to make way to a neighbouring Liir colony in advance.
    It finds a nice target that demands attention.


    Niishini falters.


    Founding a colony here will be a nice little test, too. There are 750+ million civvies on the planet
    and we have 300 million fish in our tanks as well. I'm not sure what happens to the civvies. But
    we'll find our soon enough.

    Meanwhile we destroy the second Liir Asteroid Monitor. Ehm, previously destroyed one was NOT
    the one over a peachy world, this one was... :blush: No matter, as long as we destroy them both.


    Our Illuminati class cruisers reach frontlines. Level of Liir-Hiver cooperation is disturbing. Hivers
    have gates all over and their empires are completely intertwined. We'll have to do some disentanglement.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    Funny, of 750+ million Liir civvies, less than 5 million remain alive. Our spawn was hungry? At least the ones caught in
    the nets are still around, building our colony.


    We send a deep scan cruiser, Illuminati class, across the rift. I hope fusion and new drive techs will arrive sooner than this
    cruiser gets to the other side but I want to have a forward warning system if Tarka decide to come take a look.


    We start an attack on the first Hiver colony!


    If you look closely, there is a small green smudge just in front of our colony. Funny, I missed it. Results seen above our
    colony really come from our colony. It was destroyed.

    At least our fishermen fare better. Destroyed trade ships yield money!


    Tarka are moving awfully fast, they have fusion!


    Just a view at our Illuminati class cruiser. All about external fuel tanks and antennae.


    After getting to 50% we go cheap and hope slaves are brainwashed into a breakthrough.


    Oh Suul'ka, grant us a breakthrough! We'd REALLY appreciate it and we give you all of Liir slaves for it!


    A special project brings VERY nice research option! Marked for research directly after fusion!


    Born on the wings of Expert Systems I might have over-invested into special projects (white piece of pie) a little.


    Currently there is little to show really though we continue our advance. It is focused on worlds without Hiver gates.
    So far. We must take what we can with as little effort as possible.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    Liir have fusion and this Tar Pit class (tanker) destroyer finds out the hard way.


    We gather new special projects but dare not start them. We've overburdened our finances with them already.


    This. THIIIIIIISSSSS!!! Thank Suul'ka! Rejoice, murder, pillage!


    As promised. This will benefit all our future endeavours.


    An overdue overview. HD available, so don't complain you can't read them notes!





    Near Niishini we catch Liir-Hiver alliance off guard! Only one Hiver cruiser is guarding the gate.
    And removing the gate is our primary concern, after that it will be easy to deal with Liir colony.


    But... I failed to find the damn gate. Sooooooo, next turn is not just as nice as the first one. We board some
    Hiver cruisers but they prove to be a tougher nut to crack than Liir ones. Blasphemous rebels spray us with
    fusion projector and the damn gate just wouldn't blow up! At least we found it and in the end it is destroyed
    with little time to spare.


    What left me gasping for air was that when our CnC cruiser was destroyed, a new one just wouldn't appear.
    After frantic searching I realize there is no replacement. Hivers kept at least one alive, so hanging around
    would not be of much use.

    Our forces are divided into three groups. A drill-jammer-tanker combo starts drilling toward Liir homeworld
    for future use, Scavengers stick around and try to damage Liir colony as much as possible, and the majority
    of our forces turn back to Niishini where fresh, fusion driven forces are being built.


    A turn later reveals a surprise Liir have been building for us.


    Finally, an upgrade in network durability and denseness is approaching.


    Meh, and two pics just because they look nice.
    Gate-on-a-string


    Zuul art


    Liir invasion hits Niishini. Because of their fondness to projectors and heavy combat lasers I design a new
    strategy. I build more destroyers to swarm them, reduce the projector's effectiveness (due to small targets),
    spend their HCL's alpha strike on low budget targets and for our Claws (those that survive) to make a mess of
    their line with grappling missiles. Otherwise our boarding cruisers are beginning to have troubles getting through.
    Worked quite well. Number of losses is still high, we fight with DEs and fission ships, Liir come with state of the
    art fusion tech.


    What was most problematic was that Liir are very fond of destroying enemies' engine. So a lot of our ships were
    floating away while only a few were left in the final brawl. All our ships with red health indicators have their engine
    sections destroyed and - unless they are in the middle of it - won't be returning to battle.


    Quickly another of our fleets takes the opportunity to destroy a Liir colony before Hiver gate arrives.


    Next turn is already much more relaxing.


    Two of special projects bring results. None of them particularly exciting but at least our budget is saved
    from extra expenses.


    Research update.


    NODE CANNON. Nuff said.


    Check the armour on that thing. And the price...

    What we thought would be a surprise attack on Liir homeworld turned out as not worth the trouble right now.


    Both this fleet and the one that was guarding Niishini are joined at a Liir colony in between, Tuumen.
    Gate was successfully removed in our previous attack so basically this is a mop-up. Scavengers from both
    fleets are full and await unloading.


    We go for mining. Only because I forget to research at least the most basic torpedo to get assault command
    section. Next in line.


    Orange - Liir, green - Hivers, blue - Tarka, red...

  14. #14
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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    Our Illuminati class cruiser travelling through the rift is stopped. It already sees across it and there are Tarka
    and Human colonies present. If there will be movement to our side we will see it from this spot - and our cruiser
    is far enough not to attract attention. We hope.


    Research was - again - diverted at the last second to disruptor. Having a torpedo tech and HCLs opens up a lot
    of different sections.


    Researching disruptor opened two useful techs, of which disruptor whip could still be useful for a limited time
    but EM Pulsar is always welcome as a disruptor upgrade. Our research is back on mining but there are a lot of
    weapon techs we will need to get. Perhaps fusion cannon to upgrade the existing plasma and we will need a nice
    big turret weapon.

    We break our slave record!


    And we go for another push at Liir homeworld.


    Or so it is supposed to look like. Our plan is to send our fusion cruisers on to Hiver worlds beyond. Our Drills
    have already drilled holes in space-time continuum so that the path is opened.

    Our three contending designs:






    We'll probably go for Iron Maiden because of its agility but it lacks a lot of armour compared to the other two...

    Other than using our boarding pods we try to stay out of trouble. Not entirely possible but we try. BTW, Liir have learned their lesson well. They went HEAVILY into beams and our boarding pods have huge problems getting through. Beams don't target normal missiles so the missiles won't overburden them. They do target boarding pods though and our whole compliment of boarding cruisers takes two of enemy's. We should have gone for Hiver cruisers.


    Next turn we divide our forces into fission and fusion ships. Fusion ships make way to Biishi but it still takes them two turns. What a difference a turn makes... We go for maximum colony destruction and gate removal. Sadly it was not enough. The colony will soon be back on track and will build its own gate. This was a lost cause.


    Only one Scavenger class cruiser survives and we try to take it back home with 50 million slaves in its holds.

    At Moshu (Liir HW) things don't turn out all peachy either so we leg it there as well.


    But we get a chance to test our new node cannon. On a Liir destroyer, poor thing. MWAAAHAAAHHAA!


    We need a serious weapon upgrade.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    Iron Maidens do nicely. Below you see a Hiver cruiser captain, driving under influence. Result of our disruptor
    torpedoes.


    Mining. No huge explanation needed. Resources from useless worlds go to colonies, as simple as that. We
    armed the ship with lasers only because it should stay away from large threats and lasers hit smaller targets
    much easier. Ah, who am I kidding, it is cheap as dirt.


    Our lone Scavenger class cruiser, the only remaining ship from Biishi, survives to see another slaving run!


    Research update. Leviathan's hide SOUNDS like an armour tech and that would be most welcome. Jewels
    etc. special project ended to reveal a tech we will not research. More money down the drain. We are in a
    desperate need for a large weapon and HFC is available. We go there!


    Well damn, from hunter to hunted. We've stopped our advance for a few turns to get fusion cannon before
    building fusion ships, and this is the result... We manage to get outdated ships to both worlds and accompany
    them with some of the latest build, mostly Iron Maidens.


    And Radiant Bore! Single strike, half of the first wave gone. Takes time to recharge though. One strike per
    two waves is mostly what we can manage. Having the ship in the fight is very useful in other ways as well, it
    soaks up a LOT of punishment that would be killing our ships.


    This seemingly useless picture does have a meaning! It shows how spread out our network is even among
    hostile worlds. A drill-jammer-tanker combo made it possible for our ships to survive most visits to hostile
    colonies and continue with hurting space. This network is crucial for quick strikes that are planned.


    Ah... so there are natural nodelines between the rift parts... Damn, the whole rift in two turns!


    This is the Human "entry point", our colony. Marked for large defence upgrade. If this is breached, these
    chattering apes may wreak havoc.


    Damn. Thundara is toast. Not yet, but there is no escape. Regis will pay for the insolence, we send ships from
    Syrma and Okara to destroy the Hiver gate defences, the rest should be easy.


    We must start building small cruiser strike teams and go deep into enemy territory, spreading death and
    destruction. Now that our network is spread among enemy worlds our fleets can travel FAST so our tactics is
    much like that of Humans. Fusion ships also travel 6 LYs per turn so there are a lot of connections short enough
    to travel in a single turn, thus prevent Hivers to reinforce their defence.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    Humans have fusion as well. Good. We welcome them.


    First expedition across the abyss.


    GAH, how did this happen?! A single Liir destroyer busts our colony. I only had a Pitch Black DE guarding it,
    which was a blunder. I thought all colonies had guards sufficient to repel Von Newmann.


    If you look at the climate hazard and resources on this colony you will realize that this was one of the last
    colonies to be colonized. It is expensive but in the long run it will pay out. It was on constant maximum
    overharvest, naturally. A few hundreds of resources lost won't be missed as dearly as a fully running
    colony much faster would be.

    Hivers mistake our decoy for an attack fleet and transfer a lot of ships to defend the colony.


    Quite some research was done. Heavy fusion cannons are researched ahead of schedule. We make our
    ships a bit cheaper with advanced robotics, than speed on to make more use of EMP weapons. A special
    project ended in between. It was not an armour tech as I had hoped but deflectors can come in handy.


    Sometimes Hiver AI has problems. This is their colony on which we destroyed gates loooong ago. It is fully
    running and all, but somehow they forgot all about gates. We take advantage.


    Mainstream ships are updated. With heavy fusion cannons. No more grappling missiles as heavy cannons
    need range to dish out most damage and if the target comes close we will greet them with a huge number
    of medium mounted fusion cannons in strafe section.


    Our homeworld is enriched by Creators of Dust. Zuul have the best resources mined/resources gained ratio BTW.


    Over the rift. They left us a phenomenal future colony. Our CH is much different from everybody else's...


    Immediate neighbourhood reveals a heavily defended planet.


    A picturesque update.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    After Biishi we destroy the second Hiver world in the background. That will teach them to help Liir...


    Than the hit the fan.

    Fffff...


    FFFFFF...


    FFFUUUUUUUUUU...


    Ah, .


    If I save two of these four colonies, I'll consider it luck. Frankly I am very pleasantly surprised by these
    attacks, previously I thought the Liir AI to be next to dead in this game. Now they are doing what I should be
    doing - quick cruiser strikes on multiple targets.

    Research to barely existing.


    Money out the window, into ships.


    Somehow Liir are managing to get all these ships built, they must have closed down their research as
    well. We MUST cut down their income. Full force on their homeworld.


    Radiant bore cruisers offer me some comfort in these troubled times. EAT THAT, FISH!!!


    In one of these fights I used the node cannon on a threesome - two fish cruisers and one mine, which was
    as good as dead. Liir cruisers have already shot its engines off and one of the two, a fusion projector ship,
    just opened its spray of fusion fire upon our ship. In this instant node cannon struck and cleared the
    scenery. I thought everything was destroyed...


    But no! Our ship was flung to a nearby colony where it was repaired! Only Zuul and Human ships can
    survive node cannon, because what it does is it flings everything in its area of effect into nodespace.
    Zuul and Human ships are able to survive the environment but no guarantees. This time the ship
    crew can count itself reborn.

    Our new Illuminati cruiser travelled across the rift to our new colony. As I thought, Tarka and Human space
    shows that they must get along just fine. I'm not sure what happened to Morrigi but they are still alive
    somewhere.


    Some nice views on our Radiant Bores making enemies dance.






    Zuul humour:
    "What's the easiest way to wipe your arse?"
    "With a node cannon!"


    In an attack on the Liir HW I was just getting ready to leave elsewhere where I would be able to do
    more damage, when I thought I saw something weird happen...

    As usually, both Liir and Hiver cruisers sped towards our forces and - as our main weapon is heavy
    fusion cannon, we strafed Liir HW in an opposite direction, our side weapons doing damage to
    the planet, strafe sections spraying their satellites and our HFCs shooting at enemy ships in the
    distance.

    Then I glimpsed something that made my heart miss a beat.

    I thought that Hiver ships are firing their missiles from a bit too far. Our forces should still be out of
    their range. Liir ships just caught with ours when they were forced to turn around. Yes, the scene
    leaves little doubt.


    This... is so cool it calls for a celebration. A video update incoming! And all three of you who watch
    them , remember to go HD!

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones


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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    I'm sure the developers would say that AIs simply have their own agendas and so forth, but this definitely
    was a mistake on AI part. Liir as hitters and Hivers as defenders are a TOUGH nut to crack and if they
    acted a bit more intelligent when my node boring fleets wove a web through their backyard it would
    be a lot harder still. Seriously, if AIs kept a deep scan destroyer at all their planets and used it at least
    in a straightforward way to send it out immediately to find the enemy, it would make the game
    much harder.

    Whether this Hiver-Liir war makes things interesting or contrary is a matter of discussion, but it sure did
    make the game a whole lot easier for the time being.

    Fate of the Liir HW is sealed. With bee wax. Reinforcements are incoming but their numbers are far too few.


    At Barak Kor things take an even better way. We didn't even need our finest, we managed to destroy
    their last CnC ship! This way only two of their cruisers appeared and we were able to save the colony!
    Not even one of their otherwise good attacks succeeded. Barak Kor did spend quite some of its
    resources in maximum overharvest though.


    Our Creator of Dust class cruisers continue their arduous work. So this is where our slaves are going!


    On the other side of the rift Tarka must be dismayed by our movement.


    Research update. Our less CH favourable colonies could use some kick, so we research Atmo adaptation.
    Then we go for Advanced CnC. Finally, it is a pain to control the fights with constant sensors/battle view flickering.


    Now that the fight has settled down, we go for our own jab at Moshu, former Liir HW. Who said we're gonna
    leave it to the bugs? The force we sent was a small strike team, only sent to destroy the gate. Hiver
    AI forgets to leave extra gates at their front line planets. Gate was removed and three of the cruisers
    lived to tell about it.


    A few turns later in the game, Hivers already have a colony but the gate is still missing. We better move fast!


    And the fight is over. Quite some losses on both sides, but for a size 10 planet with almost full infrastructure...
    Their incoming forces will be waited for.


    One of the special projects that dragged forever brings GOOD results, and they are immediately worked on!


    Slowly we devour the known universe and seek for masters.

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    Default Re: [SotS] The Chosen Ones

    Former Liir HW is OURS! Additional size 10 colony never hurt anyone.


    Liir field disruptor cruisers - their disruptor shield stops all our energy weaponry. Nice try but too
    late and the AI is not really capable of holding a line. We go for enveloping action and they falter.


    To reduce the number of pics the results of two battles are joined.


    Liir were severely beaten at Soror, they lost 19 ships and we lost 3. The colony is not destroyed but
    a one turn surprise jump to Hiver lightly defended world is a temptation I can not resist. So we
    jumped, caught Hivers with their pants down BUT I didn't manage to really do the best I could so
    our losses were much higher than needed or expected. Also the fact that Hivers have heavy planetary
    missiles and fusion warheads didn't help much. Most of those came through our point defence
    and when it strikes, it STRIKES. The gate did go down so we can call the mission at least partly
    successful but the truth is that we have a bunch of crippled ships stranded there, unable to be repaired
    or refuelled... There is a rescue operation in the works naturally, I hope it arrives on time.

    Since we already got to the other side of the rift at Tarka HW, we might as well drill a nodeline
    and take it!


    Aaaahhh, a lot of additional armour for our ships. All warship designs are updated. Next research goes
    into informational direction, having those is always good. Soon we'll go for dreadnoughts.


    A design I'm toying with... Zuul assault section has assault shuttle mounted so these ships would be
    pretty effective against colonies as well, but my heart tells me we should gather slaves rather than
    kill off population... Most likely it will not see production.


    Interesting...


    So, Tarka HW is a non-developed colony, far from size 10?! It seems as though Tarka have seen
    heavy fighting on this side of the rift as well, and recently! This explains why they did not put up
    more of a fight. I'd be surprised if this was not the work of the Humans. Though our feathery slaves
    are still out there somewhere. Well, they are not yet slaves technically speaking. Technically.

    We see more of the other side.

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