Mini update again. I've decided to do half-year turns while the war continues. I just spent two hours playing, and only got to June -_-;
Year 2232, Part 1The year kicked off with a bit of trading with the Yor:
Scientists had no idea what this "scatter blaster" was, but hoped that it was a strong laser weapon.
Turns out it's a weak level one mass driver weapon. Oh well, at least the Yor like us a little better.
A Phoenix pilot was assigned an important mission: Destroy the Krynn's military resource mining base!
Though the mission was successful, the pilot was sadly killed returning to base.
By using a mix of chemicals and fertilizer, agricultural scientists discovered a way to make some types of soil habitable:
Soil Enhancement. Those yellow tiles you may have seen on planets can be made workable.
The influence starbase in the middle of Krynn territory continued to resist attackers. It's crew were battle-hardened and fearless:
Scientists declared the invention of the most powerful sensors known to any race:
Sensors Mark IV. Unlocks the Eyes of the Universe galactic achievement and Ultimate Surveillance Scanners for starbases.
Some more trading was done with the Arceans:
((I have no idea what advanced fire control does
))
The Snathi, whom the Alliance had barely spoken to, eagerly traded advanced Fleet Warp Bubbles for troop carrier technology:
((Fleet Warp Bubbles are a type of ship mod, which boost the speed rating of every ship in a given fleet. Best used on purpose-built boosting ships))
More advanced forms of ECM were perfected:
ECM II. Slightly smaller ECM.
Remember Pelagon III, the world I captured but never got a pic of? Here it is in all it's glory:
As you can see, it's highly flexible.
Multiple Terran agents were eliminated in a single week. Espionage experts are baffled:
Two worlds were conquered midway through March. The first was Aldra I, a minor world with a small population:
By capturing this world, the Alliance had, for the first time, conquered an entire star system:
A very strange technology was discovered on Aldra I:
Krynniac Conversion. Apparently a starbase mod. Never had this tech before, so it's a mystery to me.
The second world conquered was a huge morale booster for the public: Amcor III:
Sadly, casualties were high due to a mis-communication that dropped several battalions in heavy crossfire.
Starbase engineers began theorizing a number of ways to improve:
Advanced Starbase Construction. Leads to Starbase Fortification (new weapons and defenses) and "Terror Stars".
Propaganda intercepted from Krynn high command revealed that the mechanical Dark Yor had finally been defeated:
The crew of Influence Base 300, cultural legends and badasses, finally perished to a large Krynn fleet:
As record holders for number of kills, the crew were formally recognized and a candlelight vigil was held at the Earth's capital.
"Never again!" cried starbase engineers, unveiling a number of new starbase-specific technologies:
Starbase Fortification. Unlocks a number of weapons and defenses for bases.
A new mining base was built on the hotly-contested military resource, and guns were added right away:
The first NRDL scored it's first kills over the skies of Russom I
The green crew took down two Krynn escorts with only minimal damage.
GODDAMMITA single fleet of Krynn fighters managed to take down the new mining base, just a week before an additional constructor could add powerful point defense guns and without losing a single ship. The constructor retreated to Pelagon III.
In the Harper system, a brand-new Armok Mk II ran into a massive war group of Krynn fighters:
Missile tubes blazing, the crew managed to destroy most of the ships before seeking refuge at Harper IV.
((BTW: Most of the Krynn fleets I fight are like these ones. And they're EVERYWHERE.))
The rather unspectacular world of Russom I was captured after a short but intense battle:
A rather simple technology was discovered on the planet:
General Life Support. Kinda funny, since we don't even bother with life support 99% of the time
The NRDL which cleared the skies was given the honor of defending the new colony.
Despite the earlier loss of so many agents, the Alliance's knowledge of the Krynn Consortium grew and grew:
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Aaand that's the picture as of June 1st.
A few things that I forgot to/didn't see the need to screenshot:
Our Ascension starbase was destroyed near the end of the update. The only ships in the area were a couple of Phoenixes, who went down in no time flat.
Our budget is on a razor's edge. I built a bunch of trade centers on different worlds, and that has stabilized things a bit. Still, every ship in service is another hit to our weekly expenses. I also managed to get us a little more pocket money by selling techs to our friends and "borrowing" from the Snathi and Iconians.
We are now close with the Arceans and the Drath, of all things. We are warm with the Yor and Iconians. Most everyone else is either cool or at war (Krynn).
Since someone asked, I looked at the victory progress for each of the races. No, it doesn't seem like anyone is trying for a technological victory. However, races like the Krynn are about 30% of the way to a conquest victory. This should change as we take more worlds from them.