In my really big game it is now turn 45. I am posting a Winzip zip file with turn 45 in Scenario/Mod Archive Space Empires IV Maps and Scenarios. Politics are as follows - turn 20 score/ rank/ percent increase in score per turn 20-30, then turn 30 score/ rank/ percent increase in score per turn 30-45, then current score/ rank, then current/turn 30 number tech levels, then current systems/ planets/ colony ships with turn 30 systems/ planets/ colony ships in parenthesis, then units/ ships/ bases, then wars-w/ no treaty-n/ treaty-t, then my relation with the race. I am at war with the Cue Cappa and Rage by their choice. Although the Cue Cappa are Brotherly, they still refuse my peace offers. I have not tried the Rage. Notice that the winners are still winning and the losers losing. The Krill sent their big fleets from Red into Central and beyond exploring. This has given the Ukra Tal some chances to win, keeping the Krill score down. Since I made peace with the Sallegra they have not lost ships to my minefields, bringing their score up.

Clays(me) ----- (472/02/6)(845/01/7)24xx/01-191/116-30/39/2(30/39/00)-17230/072/288-2w/0n/17t-myself
Sergetti -------- (494/01/4)(719/02/3)11xx/02-085/067-05/49/3(05/34/01)-00988/104/020-2w/3n/07t-TR Warm
Eee ------------- (346/15/5)(595/05/3)0980/03-060/044-14/76/3(11/44/13)-00683/044/000-1w/1n/04t-TR Bro
Amonkrie ----- (386/10/5)(616/04/3)0945/04-073/061-07/63/3(03/50/02)-00628/102/012-0w/4n/01t-TA Murd
Abbidon ------- (418/06/4)(636/03/2)0866/05-060/046-07/49/3(04/40/00)-00612/118/000-1w/0n/02t-TA Murd
Cryslonite ---- (390/08/3)(533/07/3)0823/06-068/062-06/34/4(06/25/01)-00295/100/002-1w/1n/10t-MA Rec

Toltayan ------ (449/03/3)(587/06/2)0733/07-075/055-05/39/0(05/27/00)-00338/073/000-2w/1n/10t-P Bro
Drushocka --- (430/05/1)(488/09/3)0731/08-062/054-06/52/5(06/36/00)-00302/071/006-3w/2n/11t-TA Murd
Pyrochette --- (432/04/1)(479/10/3)0729/09-079/065-05/46/0(05/29/00)-01259/029/009-1w/0n/04t-TR Ami
Sallegra ------- (348/14/2)(428/14/3)0718/10-070/058-06/36/2(05/31/00)-00493/068/004-2w/4n/11t-TA Murd
Piundan ------- (328/18/3)(453/11/3)0709/11-076/060-06/30/0(06/21/02)-01832/085/002-2w/0n/11t-MA Rec

Krill ------------- (375/12/3)(517/08/1)0639/12-061/049-05/23/2(04/20/00)-00081/085/000-2w/0n/15t-MA Murd
Rage ----------- (408/07/1)(453/12/2)0611/13-071/060-09/39/2(09/27/02)-01296/066/007-2w/2n/05t-War Murd
Xi Chung ------ (332/17/3)(439/13/2)0597/14-065/050-08/22/2(07/21/00)-01918/089/000-2w/0n/12t-TR Murd
Toron ----------- (366/13/1)(410/16/2)0559/15-086/069-06/24/0(06/19/00)-01394/038/003-2w/1n/14t-P Bro
Narn ------------ (387/09/1)(422/15/1)0517/16-075/057-10/20/0(11/18/00)-01341/045/002-2w/0n/11t-P Bro
Colonials ----- (264/19/4)(384/18/2)0491/17-081/064-06/25/1(06/16/01)-01907/044/002-2w/1n/14t-TR Bro
Cue Cappa -- (381/11/0)(399/17/1)0480/18-066/050-06/32/1(06/25/02)-00299/039/003-2w/1n/10t-War *Bro*

Phong --------- (333/16/1)(378/19/0)0359/19-060/048-05/20/2(05/18/00)-00120/029/000-1w/0n/11t-P Bro
Ukra Tal ------ (232/20/0)(243/20/1)0301/20-065/047-06/17/2(05/16/00)-00109/027/000-2w/3n/12t-P Mod

Net change ships/bases :
<=10 Eee +4/0 Toltayan +5/0 Cue Cappa +9/0 Colonials +2/+1 Phong -11/0 Ukra Tal +10/0
<=20 Krill +15/0 Pyrochette +15/+3 Rage +16/+4 Narn +11/0 Toron +18/+1
<=30 Drushocka +26/+6
<=40 Sergetti +32/+5 Piundan +34/0 Xi Chung +36/-6
more Clays +33/+215 Abbidon +44/0 Amonkrie +50/+3 Cryslonite +41/-1 Sallegra +47/+1

Net changes units :
<=100 Xichung -78 Krill +2 Phong +23 Ukra Tal +42 Cryslonite +81 Drushocka +83 Rage +94
<=150 Amonkrie +101 Toltayan +110 Sallegra +106 Toron +119 Cue Cappa +143
<=300 Eee +286 Colonials +263 Pyrochette +248
<=600 Abbidon +374 Piundan +431 Narn +388
more Sergetti +842 Clays +10339 - single warhead small mines except about 900 fighters

Colonizing :
<= 5 Clays none, have all I can handle. Sallegra 5 Krill 3 Xichung 1 Toron 5 Narn 2 (net) Phong 2 Ukra 1
<= 10 Abbidon 9 Cryslonite 9 Piundan 9 Colonials 9 Cue Cappa 7
<= 15 Sergetti 15 Amonkrie 13 Toltayan 12 Rage 12
more Eee 32 ! (Ancient Race) Drushocka 16 Pyrochette 17
All empires see at least 400 colonize with breathe except :
Abbidon 22, Amonkrie 19, Cryslonites 74, Pyrochette 65, Rage 42, Sergetti 66, and Xichung 46

Techs - not really comparable since I have been trading techs every few turns to anybody I can get to trade. Load the posted savegame and notice the trades on this turn. Those AI rubes will give 200/200/200 in resources if they really want a tech or treaty! The trick is to figure out what they want. I am adding more storage for the loot starting now. First I wanted to get my own minerals production up so that I would be one of the best if not the best partner for every AI. All 28 of my sphereworlds are in production.

Treaties - you might be wondering how in the world I can maintain a Lasting relationship with a race who is Murderous ? It is simple. Every turn I keep the AI politics manager busy by doing a swap of organics for minerals as follows - Abbidon 20/17 Amonkrie 20/17 Drushocka 20/19 Krill 20/20 Sallegra 20/19. The Xi Chung will not trade and nothing I can do (such as demand tribute or even demand surrender) gets them to break treaty. I do not want to break it myself so I guess I am stuck with them. They parked fighters in my home system Ike on the Up warp point! I never saw THAT before - it annoys me. Next thing you know they will plant a colony in Ike, which they claim in spite of it being my home system.

Wars - a galaxy in flames!
Abbidon vs Narn (Psychic vs Religious) has dropped the pace of Abbidon expansion northwards dramatically, but they are moving east from their far SW corner towards the Cue Cappa. I expect that will open up a third front in the Cue Cappa struggle (Psychic vs Psychic) since they both now claim Aqua and the CC are partners with Narn.
Amonkrie soon vs Colonials and Eee (no contact yet) as they push westwards out of their far SE corner.
Colonials vs Drushocka - explorers in conflict, territory does not overlap.
Col vs Toron - as usual caused by home systems within range two. The Col have stealth armor cloaked LC with PPB V...
Cryslonite vs Toltayan - homes in range two.
Cue Cappa vs Clays - I settled a sphereworld in his home system Ein. OTOH I settled sphereworlds in home systems of other races who are brotherly partners. The CC are a puzzle to me. I have tried to make peace several times but they always refuse.
CC vs Drushocka happens this turn declared by CC. Due to Dru (Murd) vs Col (P Bro) war ? Territories do not yet overlap, but soon.
Drushocka vs Col and CC see above, vs Phong apparently just declared - Dru want Iou ? The Dru have poor relations with lots of folks.
Eee vs Sallegra - they are pushing colonies into S territory. It will be a long and bloody conflict. Eee are getting along well with Colonials. But Drushocka are going to have yet another war soon - territory conflict.
Krill vs Ukra Tal - 3 Ukra homes in Red glassed, but still homes in range two. I demanded using demanding tone to both of them to make peace with the other for several turns, but the war rages on. The Ukra no longer love me. Oh well, who needs a loser anyway ? This turn the Ukra give Red to the Krill. Maybe that will help.
Krill vs Xi Chung - just explorers in conflict at Central. The Krill seem murderous to everybody they meet. It is natural that they have a mutual dislike to the Murderous Xichung.
Narn vs Abbidon see above, vs Sergetti - they just recently glassed the Narn home in Yak, so territory no longer overlaps. Relations are murderous so the war will rage on.
Phong vs Xi Chung just ended with a NA pact due to my repeated demanding tone demands to both of them to make peace. But the Dru just declared war on P, so no rest for the weak....
Piundan vs Sergetti - homes in range two, vs Sallegra - explorers in conflict at Central.
Pyrochette vs Toron - their expansion west claiming Lenoltris, which will also soon open another front for the hard pressed Col.
Rage vs Clays - they really HATE my colony in their home system Fun. They also claim Fezzran, which I planted.
Rage vs Ukra Tal - the Ukra seem Brotherly, but the Om/Oft homes in range two guarantees war.
Sallegra vs Eee and Piundan see above.
Sergetti vs Narn and Piundan see above.
Toltayan vs Cryslonite and Xichung is homes in range two.
Toron vs Colonials and Pyrochette see above.
Ukra Tal vs Krill and Rage see above.
Xichung vs Krill and Toltayan see above.

You might be interested in a production and trade analysis, ranked by total minerals. First is the turn 30 rank/ current rank, then current rank by total score, then number trade partners, then trade partners increase since turn 30, then values (in thousands). Order is minerals, organics, radioactives with each giving production/ trade/ total/ current balance rate/ stockpile. I left the total off organics and radioactives to shorten the line. Last is research giving production and total with trade included. The Cue Cappa and Toron research rate is almost up to mine, but I am way ahead on points due to trading tech, so it is not a problem. It should be obvious that TRADE is very important. Notice that the miserable rank 20 Ukra Tal are right up there with rank 2 Sergetti due to trade....

Clays(me) --- 01/01 - 01/17/3 - 457/590/1047/000/1756 - 14/95/56/1107 - 19/141/42/1445 - 065/281

Toron ---------- 02/02 - 15/14/3 - 210/475/685/542/520 - 21/70/89/500 - 26/86/94/520 - 109/276
Krill ------------ 04/03 - 12/15/5 - 156/508/665/052/540 - 14/66/78/500 - 18/98/103/520 - 095/233
Piundan ------ 09/04 - 11/11/5 - 252/302/555/387/736 - 17/29/43/338 - 25/40/46/339 - 062/117
Colonials ---- 12/05 - 17/14/8 - 187/367/554/447/740 - 16/43/58/530 - 25/77/89/530 - 059/141
Cue Cappa - 03/06 - 18/10/1 - 158/355/514/459/660 - 18/54/72/500 - 25/76/97/540 - 102/269
Eee ----------- 11/07 - 03/04/1 - 376/101/478/366/1100 - 50/51/53/560 - 179/71/178/780 - 107/125
Toltayan ----- 16/08 - 07/10/8 - 212/244/457/294/700 - 26/22/45/385 - 49/28/59/415 - 111/151

Drushocka -- 10/09 - 08/11/3 - 205/228/433/296/740 - 29/24/50/580 - 38/32/59/660 - 107/154
Sergetti ------ 07/10 - 02/07/3 - 222/207/430/195/555 - 83/15/88/580 - 121/20/105/658 - 103/135
Narn ---------- 08/11 - 16/11/8 - 162/260/423/362/500 - 20/24/42/500 - 47/29/69/520 - 094/149
Sallegra ------ 05/12 - 10/11/5 - 208/214/422/281/720 - 62/65/85/540 - 38/27/42/500 - 102/156
Ukra Tal ----- 13/13 - 20/12/6 - 090/331/422/370/500 - 24/41/43/560 - 14/50/60/500 - 053/151
Pyrochette -- 06/14 - 09/04/2 - 314/107/421/318/740 - 22/07/20/530 - 85/08/58/560 - 111/126

Phong -------- 20/15 - 19/11/7 - 120/287/408/331/499 - 14/35/48/500 - 25/36/52/520 - 074/155
Cryslonite -- 15/16 - 06/10/6 - 159/230/390/187/708 - 61/23/80/560 - 25/28/30/463 - 107/164
Xi Chung ---- 17/17 - 14/12/8 - 112/265/377/266/561 - 29/35/28/199 - 13/35/41/500 - 057/128

Amonkrie --- 14/18 - 04/01/0 - 227/065/292/071/770 - 24/02/20/409 - 35/02/23/500 - 112/112
Abbidon ----- 19/19 - 05/02/1 - 165/073/239/044/608 - 35/02/33/620 - 59/03/45/600 - 104/104
Rage --------- 18/20 - 13/05/1 - 161/077/238/118/770 - 13/12/20/500 - 39/11/21/438 - 101/128

I timed my build schedule to be in balance on minerals this turn - hit it just right. Half my 14x39 colony base yards are built. Population has been distributed from the homeworlds to the sphereworlds proportionate to the number of sphereworlds they will colonize. That is not quite finished, still needs some moved from Ike and Central into Hen. The remote sphereworld colonies have their proportionate share too. Production of mines is almost complete for 200 per colony including those not yet planted, but the mines need to be shifted into the nexus systems proportionate to the colonies each plants. About 900 fighters with small PPB3 have been produced to encourage my partners to research phased shields so I can trade for it. Unfortunately they do not seem to have noticed, so I will have to research them myself. I am inclined to use small rocket pods on the fighters. Even though they are one shot, most fighters will be slaughtered before they could do the damage of a RP using beams. The closest I ever came to losing one of my dreadnoughts was when attacked by 75 such large fighters using RP3. Only my legendary experience, 7 PD V, and shield regenerators saved me. It takes five shots that hit for a small anti-proton beam iii (and four shots for a small incinerator iii) to do the same damage. Calculate 2500 shields and 2500 armor for each base ship plus another 3000 to destroy components. Then for one of them I need 8000 points/100 per hit = 80 hits. So I will build 400 for each place to be defended, stored in two carriers for warp points, in cargo facilities 3 for homeworlds, or in the regular cargo storage for sphereworld colonies. The fighters cost 2-4 times as much to build as the baseships they destroy, but moving a baseship just (7+5)x3x1/(1/4) = 144 sectors costs as much in maintenance as the fighters, not including idle time for fleet assembly, and assuming the chance of using emergency propulsion pods. Hmm. That's not so bad - five to eight systems out and back, which is within range of Central to anywhere on the map. The problem is in getting a fleet of baseships from Central to multiple threatened warp points in time to do any good. Maintenance costs for idle fleets on standby are prohibitive, and mothball/unmothball costs both time and money - not good. For warp points the first line of defense is mines, replenished by doing a temporary refit to minelayers on space yard space stations, or unmothballing a minelayer size 2500 Starbase if built. The second line is two cloaked carriers with 400 fighters. The third line is seven size 2500 Starbase attack bases mothballed until sensor sats in nearby systems detect an approaching fleet too big for the carriers to handle. The final resort is unmothball and move a fleet of baseships from Central to the problem system. They probably could not save the warp point bases, but they could destroy the invading fleet before it did too much harm to colonies.

Before blitz I plan on colonizing (invading if necessary) all 51-28=23 sphereworlds. I have identified 17 homespace warp points plus all ten of Central to be defended. My homespace will include 29 systems with 9 sphereworlds, 138 atmosphere none, and a total of 762 planets. That is a bit more than twice my fair share of 254/20 systems and 7175/20 planets, but I am greedy. I will not try to control the warp points of the other 23 systems I have already planted. It would be too great an expense for too little gain. If I can hit and run back to the sphereworld to demolish a ship/fleet I will of course. So I need my base yards to build 400x (39+23+17) =31600 fighters at two per yard per turn. I also need them to build 14x39-288 =258 more yards at five turns per yard. That is a total of 15800+1290 =17090 yard turns. About 100 of the 258 yards have already started. If I do nothing but minerals on the sphereworlds, then I can start 20 yards per turn beginning in 5 turns, resulting in the Last yard being built on turn 45+5+8+5 =turn 63. In the meantime I will have built fighters (more than)2x190x5 + 2x(370+ 350+ 330+ 310+ 290+ 310+ 330+ 350+ 390+ 430+ 470+ 510) = 1900+ 8880 leaving 20820/2x546=19 more turns till turn 82 building fighters. Building a 35k point base takes 18 turns till turn 100, but first I want to build 23 fleets to take the other sphereworlds about 12 turns delay for that. I also want to colonize/ abandon every ruins world to prevent the AI getting tech. So I can blitz on turn 82+12+3+18 + another set of fleets 12 = turn 127 - right on schedule! My pop is 128 billion now. At 4% per turn compounded 83 turns it hits 3318 billion/51 =65 billion per sphereworld, which has cap of 64 billion. So that is right on schedule too! I get minerals production of 1000 x (1.5 increasing to 1.7 with one value improvement plant 3) x1.9 x 39 x maybe 70 x 1.3 after robotoids = 11463k. This does not include anything I can produce on the 23 not yet taken. Maintenance on 80 x 14 x 1.3k yard bases plus maybe 3500k for fleets plus 80 x 7 x 5k for defense bases leaves 11463-8156 =3307k to run yards minus 80x14x2 for base yards minus 62x4k for colonies leaves 820k for running new planets - 410 of them.So by the time the second colony ship builds, the first should be near planting. By the time the second plants, the first should have built a couple of minerals to breakeven. Its all profit from there on out.

One more back of the envelope and I will quit this grand strategy lesson. The Sergetti are at 11xx k points growing at 3%. On turn 63 when my Last yards build and I am about to be Mega Evil 5000k what is her score ? About 1872. Cryslonite 823->1400. Who would surrender who achieves a rate of 3% ? Max score now would be 5000/(10x1.7) = 294 nobody at 3%. But the bottom nine are not at that rate. So if I see a chance to get almost everybody to surrender on turn 63 then I will take it, leaving just a few to keep under control while I colonize every planet in the quadrant. That should not take long. If I can NOT get them to surrender then I will avoid MEE by staying a modest surplus in minerals and scrapping the spaceport while building more minerals anyway. I will mothball yards (6 points score each) over the colonies if necessary, but it would delay the blitz.The yards on the warp points get highest priority - they never stop or morthball. To do that I am starting space yard battle cruisers with cloaks for the warp points already. When the transport BC are done shifting cargo they retrofit to yards and help out. As soon as I get the tech, everybody get a value improvement plant of course. If they stack I will do several on each of the sphereworlds. I have to check that out.


PS - I am still able to do three turns per day on average. So this game should only Last another month or so.....

[This message has been edited by LCC (edited 10 June 2001).]