Turn 88Not much happened, we're still waiting on word from the Ktarians. A straw poll of the Federation Council indicates that we should begin harassing the Romulan fleets and systems once our treaty expires. We won't declare war, but if they declare war on us we'll be happy to destroy them. [Out of universe here, I will be leaving the poll up and we may change policy as the results change.]
Turn 89Some people seem to have all the luck.
The maximum population is now 120. We can either have 1 farm running or throw on an additional plasma reactor to operate private farms to feed our population. 120 is the maximum we could possibly feed without having legitimate farms in the system.
Also this removes the only barren planet we had left in Malurian. Interestingly, the wind turbines are still available for construction. I'll try it and see if we can get some free energy in spite of no longer having the prerequisites.
Also the Ktarians accepted our offer of affiliation.
Oh yes. By the way, here's a look at your system Jarod Cain.
I was going to have the Sandhusky investigate the white star where we saw alien ships a while ago. But I don't want to risk the ship when there's so much to explore now. We'll have it boldy go for now, and check back later.
In related news, it looks like the Ferengi took Rochani. They're getting mighty dangerous.
Turn 90The Ferengi sent us another war pact against the Romulans. We'll just ignore it.
In Sol we completed the Federation Council. Unfortunately operating it takes a ton of energy, so before we build another colony ship I'd like to upgrade our databank and plasma reactors. I'm also going to purchase the rest of our type 2 factory upgrade in Mintaka. I'd like to get to shipbuilding a little faster there and there's still the level 3 upgrade to go.
Turn 91The USS ShirKahr A makes our 6th destroyer thus far. What's concerning is the fact that the Romulans now have 6 destroyers of their own. If we get into a fight I think we'll need the fleets of both admirals Haspen and Sirus to come out on top.
I've decided to delay the level 3 factory upgrade in Mintaka in favor of doubling our destroyer production. We cannot afford to fall behind with both the Ferengi and Romulans eyeing our systems.
Turn 92A glass of water for a drowning man...
Or a kick in the teeth...
At least things are staying interesting...
We lost a plasma reactor in Malurian, no great loss there. The Ferengi already hated us, so this isn't a huge setback either. Finally it's interesting the Talarians would react that way to the Ferengi. Their war won't have any practical benefits either way unless the Ferengi send ships to their system. But the Talarians
will thank us for destroying any Ferengi ships.
Turn 93The Romulans terminated our non-aggression treaty.
Again. This time in synch with the expiration of our treaty with the Ferengi. I think it's time to offer the Ferengi another, I'd rather not fight two empires at once.
I'm taking the Guarding and Protector off of intercept duty. I don't want them engaging the Romulan fleet without the support of Haspen's destroyer fleet. Admiral Haspen, you should come up with a cool name for it.
Oh, and the Sandhusky saw this on the edge of the galaxy:
Here's hoping it attacks the Romulans for us, their space does lie between it and our own.
Turn 94Yeah, about that non-aggression we were offering the Ferengi?
Whatever, they hate us anyway. If they accept the treaty it will probably be because they think our military is bigger than theirs, not because they like us.
Also the Ferengi and Romulans signed a non-aggression pact with one another.
In terms of production, we had an active turn. Sol finished the plasma reactor upgrade, Malurian completed the mass replicator upgrade, Betazed completed the Counseling Academy, and Mintaka finished the first of its destroyers: the USS Saratoga A. I'm sending it to join Haspen's fleet in Trill.
Since we don't actually have 3 dilithium refineries, I can't set Sol to ship production without halting production elsewhere. And since Trill needs the ships built on-side and Mintaka is so much larger, I'm going to continue development in Sol. We're going to need more plasma reactors for future buildings, and we still need to construct a few energy-consuming ones that we've had available for some time. When we have the dilithium we may begin ship construction there again.
Malurian will see if we can get those wind turbines active, then build a dilithium refinery. If the turbines work, we can power both the refinery and trade center for free. In Betazed we'll upgrade our farms, while keeping the universities staffed, and we'll scrap a few spare plasma reactors to make a later upgrade cheaper. Mintaka will keep building destroyers.
Turn 95I am so glad the Talarians like us.
The Saskia finished terraforming the two smaller worlds in Benecia. I'm ordering it to colonize the system now and we'll get around to terraforming the remaining planet later.
The Trill completed building the USS Reliant A. Only one more destroyer is required to complete Haspen's battle fleet. It's being built in Trill for now, the next destroyers built will go to a new fleet.
There's a Ferengi scout in orbit of the Selay system. It hasn't crossed the border into our space yet, and the relationship between the two is unchanged. I'll keep an eye on it but it doesn't seem to be hurting anything. I'm going to try another non-aggression treaty.
Turn 96Our first first-contact in a long time goes to the as-yet-unclaimed Sandhusky.
Also this happened:
The last image has a look at Benecia's planetary system
The Zakdorn have a friendship treaty with the Ferengi, though we can't tell if they've been trading. Also bribes to this species will be expensive. We can buy our way to an affiliation quite quickly and scoop them up before the Ferengi can, but it will cost us about 10,000 credits to pull off. Funny thing is, with our economy as good as it is, we could do it if we wanted. [Look at the income number in the first picture.]
The Ferengi ship moved on to Zadar. An uncolonized system in the midst of our territory, technically we haven't claimed the system. So the Ferengi are still respecting our borders. Even so, their presence worries me. I'm offering the Selay an affiliation treaty to secure our relationship.
The Romulans still have 6 destroyers, and those mystery ships haven't moved. If we do end up fighting them I'd like to keep those mystery ships out of it. If they're as powerful as the Protector and Guardian they would most definitely swing the battle out of our favor.
For RealsTensions continue to mount between us and the Romulans. With no scanner data of Ferengi territory we can't know how powerful they are. But if they're anywhere near the Romulans we can't get these fleets built fast enough.
I'm not going to consider moving out of Trill to raid the Romulans until we've gotten 9 ships in admiral Haspen's fleet, but that's only 3 turns off. Then raiding will begin. As I said, the poll will remain up and we'll change policy if the results change too much.
Please give me feedback about the Zakdorn. We can literally buy an affiliation treaty with them with 3 massive bribes. It's almost worth it just to deny the Ferengi another system. Also their racial building allows us to train our crews and build ships with minimally trained crews. Not to mention the fact that their enormous system will make a perfect shipyard.
If we decide to buy them off I'll do it in an "addendum" post like I did once before. Basically that's because I do the write-up for each "turn" before I actually execute it in terms of the game. So technically I can still make changes to Turn 96 in anticipation of turn 97, such as sending the Zakdorn the first bribe.
By the way. Hello Azzuro! I'm glad you're enjoying the LP and you'll get the next colony ship as soon we we can build it.