Turn 40Our invasion fleet arrives in the Zakdorn system. They have a defense of 1 orbital battery in space and a ground combat rating of 210. Each of our troop transports have a ground combat strength of 48, so given that the orbital battery is active, we will lose one troop transport, leaving us with an invasion strength of 4x48 = 192, less than the Zakdorn.
To overcome the deficit, we also order Captain Pisskop to provide orbital bombardment support, hopefully making up for the numerical disparity.
Turn 41[imghttps://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-eUx4X-undj0/U5Sk_It3qdI/AAAAAAAAAo0/SLjbeCYDvc4/s800/BOTF_074.png[/img]http://
The invasion goes as planned - we lose one troop transport to the orbital defenses and one is lost as troops are needed to maintain order. We also do a minimum of damage – only 3 million killed and no structures destroyed – which is good as we’ll spend less time rebuilding.
The Zakdorn system is quite a prize – they apparently have level 4 farms, factories and power plants already. In conjunction to the Zakdorn special building (granting increased experience for ships built there), the system will become one of our primary shipyards.
Their morale is ‘disgruntled’, which is typical of an enslaved race. This gives penalties to industry, but we’ll live with that.
In the meantime, Captain Pisskop will escort the remaining 3 troop transports to build an outpost to the east, allowing us to reach the galactic core.
Turn 42The next turn, we get this – our first random event of the game, and it seems karma just punched us in the face. We lose some industry, some intel centers, and we also lose the dilithium refinery and shipyard, stranding our ships in deep space. We prioritize rebuilding the shipyard first, because its loss literally paralyzes the empire.
Turn 43The Federation offers a non-aggression treaty, which we will accept. It would be mad to reject it, given that all our ships are stranded, we have no warships, and no defenses to speak of.
Turn 44Basically, the treaty means that both sides cannot enter space claimed (or disputed) by the other, and it gives us a view of Federation territory so we know where to avoid.
The picture of Federation space reveals a lot to us. Firstly, it confirms that they are in the galactic north. Our eventual borders will likely be the neutron star between (offscreen) Kurl and the Tama system, since the Federation are already nudging the Tamarians into joining and we have no interest in colonizing the Sarpeidon or Ariannus systems.
Secondly, we know that the Federation has three systems, none of which are minor races and one of which is Sol, their home system. We can be reasonably sure Sol is the yellow star in sector H-2 that I’ve highlighted, and that their colonies are likely to be the red giant in the north and maybe the orange star to the west.
Finally, the blue star northeast of Tama is probably another minor race. Even if you control systems adjacent to a minor race, the minor race’s sector is not under your influence and cannot be claimed as territory.
In other news, we rebuild the shipyard in Romulus with credits, allowing the outpost construction fleet to proceed.
Turn 45Shocking news on the Federation front – their territorial claims have expanded to cover this red giant in the galactic core. As a quick check of the intel screen reveals, the Federation still only has 3 systems, which means they probably built an outpost there.
Turn 46The fleet reaches the designated sector and commences the building of the outpost with Captain Pisskop watching over them; we continue terraforming in Arkaria.
Turn 47We get a breakthrough in weapons tech, allowing us to build cruisers at last. Unfortunately, Romulus is still rebuilding from the earthquake, but we’ll be building them as quickly as possible to reach military parity with the Federation.
Turn 48The outpost is constructed, and Captain Pisskop is ordered to continue exploring the galactic core.
Also, we commence building of our first cruiser in Romulus. It’ll take 12 turns to finish, but the Empire must be protected.
Turns 49-50We continue terraforming in Arkaria. The last volcanic planet is taking a lot of time to terraform.
Turn 51Captain Pisskop makes first contact with the Cardassians. They are an empire just like us, and this means they are invariably in competition with Romulus.
Our first contact snapshot reveals that the Union is not as far advanced as the Federation. They have only two systems to our three, and we’re catching up to them scientifically and economically. Of particular note is their military rating - 0%! Even our single scout and an outpost rate 10%, so it would appear the Cardassians have literally no military to speak of. So much for being militaristic, I guess.
Since we entered Cardassian space instead of the other way around, we can see part of the Cardassian’s territory, which may or may not be all of it. Of note is the Klabnia system, with an excess of barren planets.
A look at the galactic diplomacy matrix doesn’t reveal much about the Cardassian mystery. They are not at war with anyone, so that eliminates the possibility that their military has been utterly defeated. Also, the Malcorians seem to be drifting into the Cardassian orbit, by dint of their proximity.
The Federation apparently is in a state of war with the “Ferengi”, whom the Cardassians also know. I would hazard a guess that the Ferengi are in the galactic east, which leaves the Klingons to the south.
Turn 52Captain Pisskop makes an incredible discovery! These “Mintakans” are so similar to us that it cannot be mere chance; they must be related to us somehow. Presumably, they also fled Vulcan during the rise of Surak the Logical, although it seems something was lost in the relocation. We must take them under our wing.
Unfortunately, it seems like another empire has beat us to it again – the Cardassians already have an affiliation treaty with them, and so we cannot offer them any treaties. We’ll just have to wish them luck against the Ferengi.
Also, southeast of Mintaka, we spot this – an enemy outpost. All the useless pointy bits on it tells us that it’s Klingon – it looks like the Cardassians are going to make an unpleasant first contact.
Turn 53Diplomatic messages pending? What could that be…
…oh. Apparently the Mintakans are still fighting a war that was over countless centuries ago. Well, we’re still happy to accept them nonetheless.
In other news, we’ve discovered the Cardassian home system. It boasts an incredible 6 habitable planets, with a total of 400 million population, the largest we’ve seen so far. Their ground combat strength of 858 makes them almost immune to conventional invasion – although they are helpless against orbital bombardment.
Northeast of Cardassia, we see 4 unknown ships and an unknown outpost, which our on-staff
psychics analysts tell us are the Ferengi. Things must be bad for the Cardassians, pressed on all sides.
Turn 54Predictably, we stumble into the Ferengi. We probably won’t have to worry about them, given they’re on the other side of the galaxy.
But the other side of the galaxy isn’t that far away, it appears. It was not Captain Pisskop who made first contact, but a Ferengi fleet entering the Mintaka system. Worryingly, the fleet consists of three light raiders and a troop transport, suggesting it is not just a battle fleet, but an
invasion fleet. Of course – the Mintakans were at war with the Ferengi! It seems that the Mintakans are every bit as cunning as us Romulans – they manipulated us into letting them join, giving them diplomatic immunity from Ferengi invasion.
If the Ferengi still wish to invade Mintaka, they will have to declare war on us first. Only time will tell if they hate the Mintakans enough to do that. Captain Pisskop is ordered back to Mintaka post-haste – if things go south, he can at least take out the troop transport and prevent invasion. He’s pretty much finished surveying the Cardassians, though. The Cardassian colony on Adelphous isn’t much to look at.
Mintaka itself is much more advanced than they would have us believe. They are on par with Romulus in terms of technology. Their system boasts all the special planets (P, J and O-class), meaning they will have free food and energy. More infuriatingly, they’re just one square out of our ships’ medium range, meaning we cannot immediately move to start construction of an outpost to protect them.
Turn 55Diplomacy abounds. The Cardassians are butthurt about the Mintakans joining us, and the Ferengi aren’t even offering us money to fight their wars. We’ll ignore both of them.
In more Mintakan news, one of their power plants produces 24 energy. A shipyard requires 25 energy. Dammit Mintakans!
Turn 56The Federation tries to swing us to join the war on their side. Is this what being a Cardassian is like?
We FINALLY finish terraforming in Arkaria. Now to do it all over again, this time in Zakdorn.
Turn 57We also finish the shipyard in Mintaka, allowing our troop transports to proceed. Note how our treasury reserves have fallen – we spent most of that on the wind turbines and shipyard in Mintaka.
In other news, the Klingon outpost under construction (southeast of Mintaka) has vanished. Perhaps the Ferengi chased them off. The Federation sent a scout to poke around the Cardassian Union, and in the north, they’ve absorbed the Tamarians, pushing their borders to the Sarpeidon system in the top of the picture.
Turn 58The Ferengi and Klingons have signed a non-aggression pact, which is bad for us. It means the Klingons can only go north or northwest, and either way they run into us.
The Federation demand money, which is par for the course, but their attitude has dropped to “uncooperative”. Luckily, we’ve still got 10 or so turns of the non-aggression treaty left.
The colony ship reached Zakdorn and started terraforming; the troop transports reached Mintaka and are building an outpost.
Turn 59Oh dear. Peace between our enemies is always bad, and the size of the Ferengi demand indicates that they have a roaring economy.
The Ferengi also appear to be making progress in their war against the Federation – note that this area was Federation-controlled back on turn 57.
Turn 60We get a breakthrough in construction technology. This gives us better factories and upgrades our outposts to level 2 (better in all aspects, but longer to build). The bunker network is a cheap structure that gives us bonuses to ground combat in defense, but it likely won’t see much use.
It looks like the outpost in Mintaka, which was scheduled to finish this turn, was also upgraded to an Outpost II free of charge. We’ve also launched our first dedicated warship – a
R’derex-class cruiser.
Captain Mal Devious will command the RNS Shikra A on its maiden voyage, to defend the Mintaka system. In some ways, this is the end of an era – Romulus can no longer isolate itself from the rest of the galaxy. We must take the initiative to defend ourselves, and prove ourselves equal to the enemy in combat.
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Topic: Let's Play Star Trek: Birth of the Federation! (Read 31994 times)