It's lonely here! (First post!)

[Hunpecked]

Speaking of intel, I started counter-intel at a low level maybe a dozen turns ago (racial intel set at 45%). When the Narn (intel at 100%) began running intel projects on me, I immediately ramped up counter-intel, but it was almost too late: the 3rd & 4th Narn projects got through (Fuel Leak and Order Snafu). Counter-intel has foiled the last two tries, so I may be out of the woods, unless the other AIs gang up on me.

From my earlier games I got the impression that intel is another feature that works in the human player's favor. Toward the end of one game I was capturing enemy ships left and right; I was particularly proud of my little armada of Talisman-equipped former Narn ships. For this game I set my empire's cunning to minimum and decided to play counter-intel almost exclusively.

[Hunpecked]

Bad news on turn 69. The Aquilaeian fleet went for my outpost colony this time. The defending LCs were old, untrained, and only partly upgraded (in particular, none had Stealth/Scattering armor). Worse, they deployed around the planet and its moon; skirting the moon to get at the enemy they joined the action one or two at a time and were predictably crushed by the concentrated AI fleet. In retrospect I would have been smarter to retreat and hope the weapons platforms could take out a couple of enemy ships.

It cost them over half their fleet, but the Aquilaeians now own the moon (the planet was glassed--again). BTW, this was the first time (in my limited play against the AI) that I've seen an AI empire TAKE a world instead of glassing it.

Meanwhile the Narn got two more projects past my counter-intel; I REALLY have to build more intel facilities! On the bright side the Narn continue to hurl their ships against my captured Talisman satellites...Narnburger, anyone?

[Xrati]

Time to re-group and counter attack! You can bet that the Aquilaeian has another fleet sitting behind that one.

To me Intel just adds time to my turn and the returns of it just are not worth it. AND when all the rest of the races join in, they will defeat your counter measures. The AI never goes after other AI so you become the prime target for intel attacks.

[Hunpecked]

With regard to the Aquilaeians, I'm hoping to use my victorious cruiser fleet to re-re-capture the disputed system; the cruisers can defeat any Aquilaeian fleet I've seen so far.

As for Intel, I have no immediate plans for offensive projects; it's all I can do to hold off enemy operations. Fortunately the Narn with their research aptitude seem to be the only ones who've developed Intel so far. If I can capture some of their Intel facilities it'll be a big swing in my favor, and may be enough to defeat any Intel attacks from the other AIs.

[Hunpecked]

Update: It's Turn 82 and the balance seems to be tipping my way (for now) against the five-AI TDM team.

Pyrochette: To the west of my south-center home system, the Pyrochette have relentlessly tried to sterilize and recolonize the system I took from them 20-odd turns ago. After being down to one planet in the system, I've taken three more they had recolonized; two- and three-cruiser fleets keep dashing themselves to death against my WP, Sat, and fleet defenses. In my experience the Pyros are the weakest of my five opponents, so this is my lowest priority front for resources.

Aquilaeian: They've been very aggressive all along my northern border. They captured a spaceyard planet in one frontier system, and it took several turns to throw them out (I inadvertently glassed the planet when my fleet "sought after" enemy ships that moved over it). In the long-disputed Ikrod system they've colonized several worlds to my one. Nevertheless, I just wiped out 15 CR/LC in Ikrod and captured a nearby Aquilaeian system with three mining worlds (finally alleviating my perennial minerals crunch). I've started ferrying captured civilians to my methane worlds.

Tessellate: They were a minor presence to the northeast until a few turns ago, when they showed up in force. In three turns, three CR/LC fleets popped through two warp points into my frontier system. Fortunately most of the CRs were armed only with anti-planet weapons (napalm); though outnumbered, I easily greased 60+ ships for the loss of 11 Sats and 1 LC (rammed).

United Flora: They started out hemmed in by the Narn to the east and my territory to the west, so when I took their home system and two others it put them on the ropes. They're not gone, but I expect only token resistance.

Narn: I pushed east past the UF and took the Narn home system. They counterattacked, glassing one of their former worlds, before I could drive them out. Capturing their second system has gotten me several ships crippled, but considering they have PPB V, the Talisman, and at least one BC, resistance has been light. The most recent Narn prisoners have been Angry, so I suspect Narn morale, production, and construction are in the toilet. If so, this is the time to strike; I've given this front first priority.

It's too soon to gloat, since hordes of Talisman-wielding Tessellate may show up at any time. That I've survived this long is due to the AIs' poor offensive coordination, "creative" shipbuilding programs (fleets of planet killers helpless against ships/sats), and inability to deal with my PPBs (most AI ships still mount 1-2 ordinary shield generators instead of extra armor). Win or lose, though, this is definitely the most fun I've had against the AI so far.

[Hunpecked]

I learned a nice little lesson from the AI this weekend. Wouldn't you know, it happened when I thought *I* was being the clever one.

I had a fleet of LC/CR, a supply ship, repair ship, and troop transport (13 ships total) ready to jump into an Aquilaeian system. The previous turn I had executed a successful random "crew insurrection" Intel project, and by good luck (hah!) captured a cloaked (!) CR on the far side of the very warp point my fleet was about to transit. (I knew the Acks had Stealth armor and I had previously detected the occasional cloaked ship infiltrating my systems).

My new allies reported that the far side of the warp point was guarded only by 2 LC and 6 Sats. Haha! I had caught the poor dumb Acks napping! Gloating, I ordered my Ack CR to uncloak and engage its former comrades, and sent my fleet through the warp point. Victory would soon be mine! Muahahahaha!

In retrospect, of course I should have asked myself two questions:

(1) Why was my Ack CR cloaked when I captured it?
(2) Wasn't it an incredible coincidence that, out of the entire Aquilaeian Empire, my random Intel project captured a ship in exactly the right place?

Well, I'm sure the Space Empires veterans reading this will know what happened next. The warp point was actually guarded by an additional BC and 22 CR, all cloaked. This fleet must have been a substantial part of the Ack navy, making a random crew insurrection more likely to strike it. Watching the turn's combat replays, I saw my liberated CR vaporized and figured my incoming fleet was doomed.

Fortunately my crews paid only a small price for their commander's stupidity. Both fleet and individual ships were generally trained to the max, all combat ships had ECM, Stealth/Scattering armor, and shields, and they were armed with deadly PPBs. After the initial close range volley, ships on both sides scattered and continued the battle at medium and long range. In the end the Aquilaeian fleet was annihilated, at the cost of two ships crippled and two lightly damaged, mostly in the first combat turn.

Taking the lesson to heart, I designed and crash-built a fast scout class with Hyper Optics and Stealth Armor. These ships will infiltrate enemy systems (only the Pyrochette have shown up with cloak detectors so far), or accompany my fleets into enemy territory. I've been slow to appreciate the potential of stealth technology in a game without mines, but I plan to make up for lost time.

[Hunpecked]

Well, I didn't make any progress over the holidays (too many relatives, too many feasts), but now that things are back to abnormal, I'm resuming my interrupted game.

It's turn 104 now, and the previous turn witnessed the biggest battle I've seen so far. As I mentioned last time, I've sent cloaked scouts into most of the enemy-controlled border systems. One of them spotted a fleet of 97 Tessellate ships (mostly CR) apparently headed for the Resshrak system, which I had recently captured. With two turns' warning, I gathered four fleets from neighboring stars, stripped most of the planets in the system, and fortified the most valuable planet (it has several captured Tessellate shrines) with 3 medium weapons platforms, four captured small missile sats, and 8 medium PPB sats.

On the third turn, the enemy fleet did indeed attack the expected target. On the replay, the enemy fleet packed into the northeast corner of the tactical map; my sats were to their west, and my fleets (40 LC, CR, & BC, 1 BB) were deployed around the planet. Despite my defensive efforts, my ships were still outnumbered about 2 to 1.

Unfortunately for the Tessellate, they had learned nothing from previous encounters; their fleet consisted almost entirely of napalm-armed planet killers. They were tough and heavily armored, to be sure, but they had no way of hurting my ships other than ramming. Worse, they inexplicably passed up nearly all their (rare) ramming opportunities. Even then they might have scorched the planet with sheer numbers, but for some reason the main body headed south, passing east of the planet, apparently just to ram my lone repair space station.

With the station gone, the six survivors finally turned to my world, but they were vaporized instantly. The combat ships were gone by turn eight; the don't-get-hurt ships lasted until turn 20. For the loss of 97 ships, the Tessellate destroyed one space station and inflicted negligible damage on one supply ship.

I'm at a loss to explain the poor performance of the Tessellate in the game so far. I can only speculate that the expensive tech option has hit them harder than the other AIs. Perhaps they'll rally later.

On the western front, I've located the Pyrochette home world; in a few turns I should have enough troops assembled to take it. To the northwest the Aquilaeians are fielding fleets of 20 to 30 battlecruisers each, but I'm capturing 1-2 per turn via Intel and slowly capturing more worlds. The Tessellate to the northeast are weakened after their disaster in Resshrack.

To the east, in Zanthris, two Narn worlds are still holding out, guarded by 60 and 71 sats, respectively. Assuming Talisman sats, PPBs, and a few weapons platforms, it would probably cost me several ships each to take them out by direct attack. Instead, I'm going to try launching large numbers of my own sats over these worlds and see if they can do the job.

The victory condition in this game is a 300% lead over the second place empire. With the Acks and Tessies still pretty much intact, it looks like the game will go on for some time.