Shattered Hopes - Nova Storm War

[bearclaw]

Now THIS sounds like a fun game. Excellent report!

[douglas]

Turn 2416.7, seven years and one month after the Irideans unleashed their massive wave of star destruction, Emperor Douglas of the Irideans concedes defeat after the vast majority of his navy was annihilated by a nebula destroyer. With the destruction of the 138 ships of Alpha Fleet, which were on their way back to defend Iridean space through a newly opened warp point, the Iridean navy no longer has the force necessary to stop the rampaging Atlantean fleet.

This was a very fun and incredibly close game. There are so many things that could have made it go the other way, but I managed to miss all of them. If I had waited just one more turn to launch my massive raid, or sent only small forces, Glyn's attack force would have met total destruction at the hands of about 160 combat ships of generally superior quality the instant it entered my space. One nebula creator on sentry/create nebula orders would also have prevented his attack from achieving much. Leaving a guard on the warp point while Alpha Fleet cleared out the system it was attacking would have caught the nebula destroyer before it could go off, and Alpha Fleet would have caught up to and destroyed by far the biggest chunk of Glyn's fleet this turn.

The fact that Glyn was even able to stand up to me at all was due entirely to the limit of 300 ships per empire in this game, and the maximum of 12 intelligence projects in the queue. I had the resources to support around 2000 ships, while some of the intel reports I got indicate that Glyn was nearing the limits of his budget. When he finally got enough counter-intel to block the full 11 projects per turn (keeping one for my own defense), I still had a LOT more intelligence facilities to be built, but it would have been literally impossible to use those extra points.

[DeKaye]

Great game guys. I am just thrilled to have survived. I encourage others to continue in games they have little hope in winning, because you never know how the game will turn out. I am going to share a little of my story.


Being young and naive, the new Yor!rek ruler inherited an empire that was going broke fast. The last ruler, AI, had over extended it's resources, created inefficient ships, and left the empire wide open to enemy advances. Luckily, Fuzzie, the Empire's new ruler took quick action and started regaining financial stability. A couple years later, new treaties were formed. Things were looking hopeful. Then disaster struck. The Yor!rek people no longer existed. No planets, no people. Fuzzie was devastated and honestly a bit upset about the turn of events, but she got over it as the survival instinct kicked in. The Yor!rek people did not even know if anyone else existed after the attack. Our hopes were very bleak. Later it was learned that the Irrideans had masterfully executed their plan "Nova Storm".
Through grace of the God they worshipped, the Yor!rek Emperor had been attending a celebration of an opening of a museum on a very ancient ship yard base. One of the three bases had little function, but it was decided it would make a great museum. In the end, all that was left of the Yor!rek people were three ship yard bases. They did have some resources in storage.
After much prayer, fasting, and worship, the Yor!rek ruler came up with a plan on how to continue their existence. They started making mining satellites and built a satellite carrier. Luckily, they had the technology to capture the sun's rays for energy. After many turns of preparation, the new satellite carrier set off to find rich deposits of resources in the vast debris left by the attack of the Irrideans. Our hopes were to build our resources so we could build empty colony ships and invading ships so we could re establish our people. Just as our ship reached the warp point to leave the system, they were destroyed. An unknown empire had placed mines at the warp point. Devastation! We lost hope. Our resources were about gone.
More fasting, praying, and worshiping. The Yor!rek emperor made a very difficult choice, she scrapped two of the three ship yards. This provided enough resources to build a supply ship, a satellite carrier, a mine sweeper, and mining satellites. After much praying and many years later, the small fleet was once again ready to take is voyage to the unknown. The Yor!rek people had no idea what was going on outside of their nebula. They couldn't even tell if ships were going through the nebula!

They cautiously sent the Mine sweeper out first to clear the way. The path was clear. It appeared the mines were left long time ago by a race that was long gone. Off went the small fleet named "Hope". Our excitement built as we entered the next system. Argh, the system was empty. Can we hold on? Are there enough resources? We must continue on.
Again, after much prayer and fasting, we finally launched our satellites and made it back to the base. We were eking out our existence in this way, when we were surprised to find a lone ship in one of the systems we were launching satellites in - the Alanteans (unknownst to us, we were very blessed by our God in that they were friendly and didn't decide to obliviate us).
Very gratefully the Alanteans formed a partnership with us. Together we came up with a plan to help establish the Yor!rek's existence. The rest of our story is pretty much stated in the previous posts. The Yor!rek people wished they could have been of more help to the Alanteans. The Yor!rek people congratulate the Alanteans in their great victory!

Fuzzie

[Glyn]

Director Glyn of the Atlantean Empire truly relaxes for what maybe the first time in more than seven years. Alone in his office, he sips a strong drink and watches the wall vid of yet another Galactic news special report with some news person stating the news of Emperor Douglas of the Irideans conceding defeat is being greeted with euphoric celebration through out the remains of the Atlantean Empire. “Remains!” Glyn echoes, as he looks around at his makeshift office that doesn’t even compare to the lest of the director’s offices on the three now smoldering Atlantean home worlds.

Raising his glass, “To our partner and ally Fuzzie of Yor!rek's well done and may the new peace out live us all!” Glyn drinks to the toast.

Then raising his glass again, “To Douglas of the Irideans, if he hadn’t blown up half the galaxy, the Atlantean’s would never have had a chance at rising to the top. Well Played!” Glyn drinks the rest and smashes the glass.


My thanks to both Fuzzie and Douglas for such an excellent game of SEIV.

[inigma]

So defeat is conceeded by the Irideans?

Ok, what happened next? Genocide of the Irideans? A new peace? A partnership effort to heal the galaxy of black holes?

Is it possible to close a black hole, create new stars, and build ringworlds, spheres, and planets?

[Glyn]

No Genocide, Atlantean Empire has always tried to capture populations, so I would expect the long term goals would be to have a shared partnership of ruling the Shattered Hope galaxy between the Yor!reks and Atlanteans. The black holes would be closed and replaced with ring-worlds or sphere-worlds. The Systems which suns went nova would be rebuilt and resettled.

BTW, in the final month of combat the Irideans lost 17 worlds and the Atlanteans lost 5. Two of the three Iridean fleets attacking the Atlanteans were destroyed. A nebula weapon ship took out the Iridean Alpha fleet of 141 ships as it glassed the last planet in the system it was attacking. The second fleet of 9 ships was stopped as it came through a warp point by a stack of 100 large satellites which included one captured talisman equipped satellite. One Iridean fleet of 11 ships was left attacking Atlantean space. Atlanteans had several fleets with about 130 ships total in Iridean space which had about 40 warships to defend with.

The Atlanteans were still positive on resources (about half were from remote mining ships) and only 3 rioting planets. Both empires had about 50 planets left.