Scenario 2 AAR: Korath

[Hydro]

Scenario 2 Korath

Taking inspiration from korn469 I decided to try Scenario 2. I’m not much of a warmonger so I decided to use korn’s general strategy: high growth and b-line for basic weaponry techs and weaponry.

Where I differed is that I bought more factories and the lab at the 100% bonus tile on my capital. As of May 2226 I’ve researched through Ion Drive, Universal Translator, Planetary Improvement (to get social and ship bonuses), and am now working on sensor. The last may be a mistake, but I hope to get a few anomalies and also use the survey ship to be a scout. I’ve already gotten wonderfully lucky with anomalies with a 1000bc bonus, and it will only take one or two more to really make a difference.


Image 1: Korath in May 2226

I currently have 3 colonies that include my home planet, the PQ4 planet in my home system, and the wonderful PQ18 world SE of my capital in the Jessians system. The other worlds in my territory are heavy gravity or rad, so I’ll have to decide if I want to invest in that research. I think I may have to.

In the meantime I have 2 colony ships at loose ends, so I’m sending them into enemy territory to look for toxic worlds (which I can colonize and they hopefully can’t). If they worlds are not near their capitals I may be able to avoid having them flipped, so we’ll see. At the least I’ll be able to explore the territory.

The good news is that I’ve got the biggest population since I’m keeping morale at 100%. I’m still losing money, but it is already getting better. My home system is now producing a constructor to grab the research anomaly, and I’ll consider doing the same for the influence anomaly in the heart of my territory. That is not too important, but it may help if I get a far-flung toxic world in someone else’s home turf. Another survey vessel will be launched too, although the anomalies will be gone fairly quickly.

The Drengin (per the scenario) are at war, so I’ll have to get some warships in place soon. I like korn’s idea of level 2 weapons, and then spoor ships.

The Yor and the Korx have already spent all their money, so their economies have already tanked. The Thalians and Drengin have increased. Overall my economy is small compared to all the other races, but that is because my tax rate is very low so I can get better growth.

The rush is on. Stay tuned!

[Hydro]

February 2227

The Korath now have 5 planets, including a very nice new PQ12 toxic world by the Krynn. The other planets are PQ10 (capital), PQ18 (Jessian), PQ4 (by capital) and a PQ1 to the far right (which was necessary to get the colony to the toxic PQ12).


Image 2: galaxy in February 2227

As of right now I have a respectable military (2nd after Drengin), 3 galactic resources (research, eco, and influence), by far the largest population, and an economy that is starting to recover. I’m still significantly in yearly deficit, but my investment in survey ships REALLY paid off with four 1000bc payoffs. This has funded my deficit spending and, hopefully, will be enough to tide me over until my economic base is built up.

Unfortunately, I’m falling behind technologically since the AI is busy trading tech all over the place (see the Documentation of AI Tech Trading thread). I’m not sure what I can do about this since the AI won’t deal with me. Or maybe I’ll have to loosen my standards and give away the farm.


July 2227

Auuhhhg! The Drengin got the last planet in the galaxy – PQ8 rad world – 1 turn before I got there! I even tried to bully him into giving me the colony ship, but no go. Then I tried to use my survey ship to get in his way, and that didn’t work either (he was spd 3 and the survey ship spd 4, so he was able to go around). So now he has 5 planets, just like me. The Yor are in the lead with 8 (and they influenced away a PQ 1 planet I snagged – probably a bad move to colonize that world).


Image 3: Galaxy in July 2227

The Drengin called up to ask for peace and I agreed. Early wars are crippling. Plus he hates others much more than me, which I am pleased. I’m not ready for a war since my economy has not stabilized, spoor ships are a long way away, my ships are slow (Ion Drive), and weaponry is stuck at laser 3. My military is 2nd after the Drengin, so I’m likely to keep others off my back. I always have one or more planets building a warship to keep up.

I also tried my luck at tech trading, with the objective of getting what I can. I got Soil Improvement and Xeno Industrial Theory, which most of the AIs don’t have. I had a lower diplomatic rating than most of the AIs since they inter-traded Trade, Master Trade etc from the Korx – I was left out since they would not exchange or let me buy any of those techs. I have a better rating than the Drengin.

Drengin – Diplo Relations, Missile Defense, 70 BC
Yor – chaff, 70 BC
Korx – 190 BC
Krynn – 41 BC
Thalian – xeno medicine, 98 BC
Jessians – 59 BC
Dark Yor – smart chaff, 117 BC

The idea is to make sure everyone gets the tech since they will trade it around. So overall I got a few useful tech and 645bc.

Here is the list of AI trades in the time from Feb 2227 to July 2227. As you can see, the AI tech trading has been brisk. What is particularly galling is that when I offered Toxic to the AI’s for other extreme colony tech they said to get lost, even if I had a better diplo rating. Note that the AI is freely exchanging extreme colonization techs. Also, when I offered some of the AIs (such as the Dark Yor) tech they gave me a tiny amount of BCs, while the Drengin that have a terrible diplo rating made out very well, thank-you-very-much. So overall my opinion is that something is very wrong, and in future games I’m turning off tech trading.

• Year: 2227. Yor Collective traded Barren World Colonization to the Drengin Empire in exchange for Heavy Gravity Colonization
• Year: 2227. Thalan Empire traded Universal Translator to the Paulos in exchange for Starship Defenses
• Year: 2227. Drengin Empire traded Sensors to the Dark Yor in exchange for Smart Chaff
• Year: 2227. Thalan Empire traded Xeno Economics to the Jessuins in exchange for Deflectors
• Year: 2227. Thalan Empire traded Deflectors to the Krynn Consulate in exchange for Chaff
• Year: 2227. Thalan Empire traded Xeno Medicine to the Krynn Consulate in exchange for Trade
• Year: 2227. Thalan Empire traded Research Centers to the Dominion of Korx in exchange for Advanced Trade
• Year: 2227. Thalan Empire traded Xeno Economics to the Dark Yor in exchange for Armor Theory
• Year: 2227. Drengin Empire traded Xeno Factory Construction to the Dark Yor in exchange for Advanced Trade

My economy is still declining at a rate of 80bc a turn. I’ve maxed out the eco resources that I snagged from the Drengin. A few constructors are headed for my research starbase, and I’m going to set up an eco starbase that will cover my capital, PQ4 world (now improving due to Soil Improvement), and my PQ18 in Jessians.

The Yor are catching up in population due to their larger number of planets, so I’ve built a farm and multimedia center at Jessian. My population-based eco expansion is going to plateau, so other means are going to be required. So now I’m frantically building markets where I can to increase my economy, and researching Advanced Trade to get better that Advanced Trade Centers.

As for tech, I was distracted going for extreme colonization techs, and as I said above I just missed the boat. Unfortunately when I use spoor ships it won’t be useful at all, so I wasted 10 turns of research. Hmph.


December 2228

The turns move along pretty quickly on a small map. I ended up getting the Diplomatic Translator, which I was hoping for to increase the AI’s perception of me so I can avoid warfare – until I am ready, of course. A side benefit is that my tech trading seems to be a little easier. I knuckled down and let go of a number of good techs (enhanced miniaturization, fusion, extreme colonization, interstellar government) so that I could get the following techs:

Korx: Banking
Krynn: xeno factory
Thalian: research academy, a Research Treaty (!!!), 50bc
Dark Yor: ECM2, 20 BC
Jessians: 30 bc

This will keep my planets developing, and give my research a good boost. I was also able to exchange Research and Economic treaties with the Yor, who are the largest race on the map. I was willing to do this since they liked me (military power, evil, diplo translator) and the Thalians, Korx, and Krynn are his neighbors. In short, I can afford to build up the Yor economically and via research since it tears down both of our neighbors.

Economically I’m out of danger. I’m pulling in 285bc/turn at 100% production and have over 6000bc in the bank, and that will only increase as I build more banks. My PQ18 Jessian planet is now an economic capital that is maxed out and filled with trade facilities. I have increased my tax rate so that morale is ~80%, but I’m no longer growing so that doesn’t really matter. Lots of the AIs have sent freighters to my (large pop) worlds, and I have a number out, too.

Originally only me and the Drengin has any military to speak of. Now the other races are really ramping up. I neglected my military a bit so I could get a few key infrastructure techs and get my spoor ships (3 have been constructed, all spd 4). Now I’m b-lining through plasma (right now researching Plasma II) to get my attack rating up. The other races are researching missiles, so I’ll probably need to fit ECM in there (I got ECM2 from the Dark Yor, so I’m not defenseless). My military rating is now down to ~110%.

I was thrilled when the Drengin recently went to war with the Krynn. That will keep him tied up rather nicely while I concentrate on the Jessians and Dark Yor. I may have to engineer a war between the Yor, Thalians, and Korx to keep them occupied. That may take some work since the Yor are pretty neutral, although the Thalians don’t like the Yor. The Korx like everyone.


Image 4: Minor Races, December 2228

I don’t really know how the spoor ships work. Do I have to colonize the world after it is eradicated? Or do I simply take over its population? I’ll have a colony ship in place just in case. It will be a shame if it is eradicated and all the improvements are lost.

When the 2 minor races are taken care of the Drengin are next. Hopefully the war will still be on, and if not I’ll have to see if I can incite one!

Overall it takes a lot longer to get critical mass on a small map with only a few planets. But I can’t afford to dawdle since the other races are ramping up.

Unfortunately I can’t review the tech trades since I accidentally had the file open, and apparently it can’t update when the file is accessed in Word. Oops.

[Hydro]

August 2229

Back in June 2229 there was an outbreak of pirates, and my research resource starbase went down. Luckily a Korx fleet came in and pasted the remaining pirates that my starbase didn’t kill. I have a constructor on the way and with a bit of luck will be able to re-secure the research resource; I did take a large research hit, though. The other event was xenophobia – a reduction in influence. Well, that’s just too bad. I don’t care too much about influence (except in a general way). The Korx, who finished the Restaurant of Eternity, are probably annoyed, though.

I’ve spent the time since conquering the Jessians and Dark Yor upgrading my ships, which is costly but very helpful. I have lots of cash, so I can splurge. Plus, this gets them to speed 3 or 4, which is so much better than spd 1 for my frigates (tiny hull) or 2 (destroyers). I’ve also built a number of destroyers and my first cruiser (medium hull). My economy is still doing very well, with a rather big surplus (300/turn). My trade income, surprisingly, is ~350/turn.

So, in August 2229 my fleets were in position and I attacked the Drengin. Three of his five planets went down, including his capital. Now he has two planets left, the PQ6 or so planet in the Kora system and an aquatic world off in the far corner of the map. I was able to take care of his fleets at the planets but did lose ships. What was annoying is that he spawned 5 Dominator fleets at his capital. I was able to take out 4 fleets, but lost 2 tiny hull frigates. More destroyers and the cruiser are on the way for reinforcements.


Image 6: Drengin capital captured August 2229

The problem is that there are lots of slow Dominator fleets moving toward the Krynn, with whom the Drengin are also at war. Even worse, 4 parsecs from the former Drengin capital there is a rather formidable formation of Drengin ships and a transport. I had a colony ship in place to put people on the other two Drengin worlds, but through a rather bad oversight neglected to do so at the former Drengin capital so it has no people on it. Two colony ships with 1B people will arrive next week, assuming I don’t lose the undefended and unpopulated planet to the transport. I had planned to take my fleets that are optimized to fight Drengin (PD vs his missiles, Plasma III with his ships with no shields) but I had to take care of the Dominator fleets instead. Many of my ships are damaged.

I got a number of useless techs when I conquered the 3 Drengin planets: heavy gravity colonization, aquatic colonization, and a missile tech. They do raise my overall tech score, so it’s not all bad. By comparison, I got Master Trade and Advanced Deflector when I took out the Jessians and Dark Yor, which was great since I already had freighters ready to take advantage of the opportunity. Another bonus is that the Dark Yor had an economic resource, which I snagged with a constructor the turn after it was free.

My overall lesson is that the Korath spoor ships are absolutely awesome. They are cheap, you don’t have to pull population to die as soldiers, and they are a sure thing (at least so far). The Drengin are the galaxy’s biggest power, so I may be in for a nasty fight. I’ll likely be burning through my 11,000 of stockpiled BCs pretty fast.

Second, being able to instantly terraform each planet to toxic is a HUGE benefit. I won’t have to waste time with any extreme colonization tech since they are all conveniently converted for me during my attack. Moreover, if someone takes it back and doesn’t have Toxic they are totally hosed since the planet will not be productive.

Adding the two minor races and the Drengin capital (assuming I keep it!) has massively added to my research and production ability. The Korath are definitely on the upswing. Here are the numbers of planets controlled by each race:

Korath – 11
Yor – 7 (including a PQ26 world)
Korx – 4
Krynn - 4
Thalia – 3
Drengin - 2

Another rather odd occurrence is that all the other races absolutely LOVE ME. They are all close, and if I gave them Alliance tech they’d probably ally with me. So the Korath could win a diplomatic victory! Isn’t that a hoot! The galaxy allies with me, and then I liquidate them! HA!

[tetley]

I think you should have beelined for Spore ships and took out the Thalans and the Korx before they had a chance.

[Hydro]

You may be right.

My thought is to take out my biggest threat, as defined by military power and proximity. The nasty Drengin is far too close for comfort and had a planet in my back 40, and their capital is so close. A worst case scenario is I’m off beating up the Thalians and Korx and then the Drengin declare war – and get hordes of Dominator ships swarming my home territory. At this time in the game the freebee Dominator ships are a threat.

The Thalians would have been easy since they only have 2 planets (or they did until they took over the Yor’s PQ26 planet), and they are close. Proximity is very important with early slow ships. The best I’m able to do is spd 4 now (I was able to get Impulse 2 by trade), and ~ 20 turns ago it was spd 2. At distance reinforcements take way so long, which would be a factor against the Korx.

Another item I neglected to mention is that a Council vote prohibited First Strikes by instantly removing belligerents that declare war to their own territory. This didn’t affect me against the Jessians or Dark Yor, and luckily when I took out them my influence spiked such that it was literally at the doorstep of the Drengin capital. This meant I could first strike 3 of the 5 Drengin planets without penalty, and I did get a notice when I declared war that my ships had been moved (even if they didn’t have to).

I was struggling to get my economy in line, and at that time I could get no economic or industry techs from the AI. I’m very reluctant to go to war when my economy is in deficit. Also, at that time spoor technology was going to take almost 20 turns, which is forever.

One opportunity I missed was the time I wasted researching rad extreme colonization. With the Korath I think it is better to ignore all extreme colonization since you have full Toxic (though Advanced Toxic, which is better than either the Yor or Iconians since colonies are instantly productive!). Invading instantly converts the colony type, too, which is huge. I could have saved ~10 years of research if I had realized that.

Maybe I’m too timid? I can see the advantage of a very early spoor ship rush, and then taking out a passel of undefended colonies. Early AI colonies (particularly if they don’t have advanced terraforming yet for that environment) have no development, so they are a huge drain on the economy.

So, I guess balancing internal development with an early rush is the question. Maybe I can replay with earlier saves and see what happens!

Hydro

[tetley]

I think you probably could have Spore rushed the Korx and Thalans' home worlds before any UP votes came up. And that's all you have to do: take out their home worlds. That basically puts them out of commission. Then the Drengin would have been picking on them instead.

20 turns to research Spore?? Did you have any luck exploring the Civilization Graveyard anomalies? That's what I do: switch to Spore right before exploring those with my survey ships. Then Advanced Toxic. If I get a crappy start with both planets and anomalies, I resort to building labs.

[Hydro]

Wow, so you go for Spoor immediately? I agree that if you take out the capital early the race is toast, and they won’t be likely to recover.

Also, my Korath had Advanced Toxic to start. That is HUGE, since no other race had the advantage of having 2 planet types that will be fully productive. The Yor have barren, but since they don't have advanced they aren't productive for a long time. Likewise for the Iconians with Aquatic and Toxic.

So, the idea with the rush is to send in the spoor launcher with a colony ship behind, zap the planet, and then plant your colonists, right? The colony ship isn't expended, so it can be used for other purposes.

Here is what the Spoor Rush might look like:
• Xeno Research (research bump)
• Propulsion to Ion (to get spd 4 spoor ships and spd3 colony ships)
• B-line to Spoor to take out their capital

Or forget propulsion and just go for spoor ships?

Hydro

[Hydro]

January 2230

The last Drengin world fell last month, and my colony ship immediately filled it with good Korath. Now that my racial enemies and biggest competitors are gone I’ll set about my bigger goal – exterminating the rest of the races in the galaxy.

But I decided to use…unusual…means. I am now an ally to the Korx, Yor, and Thalians. The Krynn were merely friendly, so now they have a target on their hides. I’ll position my warships and spoor ships just outside their territory, declare war, and hopefully wipe them out in one or two turns. Then the galaxy will unit behind my leadership, and I’ll lead all the other races to their liquidation. Such are the benefits of an alliance with the Korath! I’ll do nothing to dissuade them from their rather odd delusion until it is much too late.


Image 7: Galaxy in January 2230

In the meantime my worlds are cranking out military ships and the occasional constructor to grab the few new liberated galactic resources – influence, combat, and research. These had been controlled by the Drengin or Krynn. The Drengin were nice enough to eliminate the Krynn resource starbases in their wars, and when the Drengin finally fell all their resources are open for the taking – and take I will.

[Hydro]

April 2230

The Krynn fell in two weeks in February 2230 and their worlds were quickly populated by loyal Korath. Populations are still low, but improving. The Korath Empire received much technological booty from the conquest of the 4 Krynn worlds, most of it useless extreme colonization technology. But still, their worlds are now our worlds.

Next to fall in April 2230 were the Thalians. Again it took two weeks, but all three of their worlds were taken with no loss – including a PQ26 world. As with the Krynn, many of their remaining ships went rogue, but they were summarily dealt with by the Korath fleets.

Unfortunately, the loss of significant trade with these two empires, military buildup, and the low populations on the newly acquired worlds has plunged the Korth Empire into deficit - ~260bc/turn. Therefore, we have reduced taxes to increase growth rate and completed the research for a Federation – and the tax benefits of it. We are also enhancing the economic galactic resource we harvested from the Dark Yor. Previously it had been neglected, but now planets that are relatively far are devoting resource to constructors to enhance the overall economic performance of the Empire. Additionally, newly conquered planets have stock exchanges queued to enhance their long-term economic health.

At this time the Korath Empire has 20 plants, the Yor 7, and the Korx 4. It is merely a matter of time before the weight of numbers and superior technology ends the contest for supremacy. The Yor are a tempting target.


Image 8: Galaxy map April 2230, possible attack on the Yor

However, the Korx are weaker and more exposed. And the Korath Empire has a research and economic treaty with the Yor, and that will not be surrendered to conquest until the Korx are eliminated. They are relatively weak, so the conquest should not take long.

In the meantime new spoor ships will be constructed and weapons technology enhanced. The Yor have a formidable medium hulled cruiser that has firepower that is superior to the best Korath cruisers. Our cruisers are, however, faster and our technological superiority will soon tell – as will our numbers. Surplus population will be transported to the new planets – all to enhance the economic and military power of the Korath!

[tetley]

I almost always get the Ion Drive, just because it's cheap. I usually get Impulse, too, depending on the size map. But if it's taking you 20 turns to research Spore, probably not. Generally I don't regard speed in spore ships as important--speed 2 and 3's are fine. Life support, though--that's important. You're going straight for their homeworlds.

I also research Space weapons and get a basic cargo hull with 1 particle beam, to take out any mickey-mouse stuff orbiting the planets.

P.S. They nerfed Spore just a hair in 1.50X. Korath get Toxic Reductor, but they don't get Advanced Toxic anymore.

[Hydro]

Hmmm. Well, I have 1.5068 (or whatever is latest) and all my newly colonized toxic worlds are green. Advanced Toxic shows up on my tech, too. I wonder if it is because I created the scenario before the patch? Not having Advanced Toxic would make a huge difference!

10-4 on propulsion. I generally get at least that far so my colony ships can move at a decent speed.

For weapons, betting Laser 1 or 2 isn't that far beyond Space Weapons. But with the Spoor Rush, every turn is vital...

Hydro

[tetley]

Not having Advanced Toxic would make a huge difference!

Nah, I don't think so. Yellow planets only suffer from 50% reduction in paid military/social production (they still make the same amount of money). Early in the game, I don't need the production--I need the money.

Yellow planets also still produce 100% research. No research penalty. That means all those planets you just spored can help research Advanced Toxic for you. And, on abundant anomalies I often can get half of Advanced Toxic researched for me with the survey ships. It's those Civilization Graveyard anomalies. I use those to help survey-research Spore Weapons, and then after I've already got Spore, I use any leftover anomalies to help research Advanced Toxic. (if there are STILL any left over after that, I do Star Federation next)

[Hydro]

September 2230

Absorbing the Thalians and Krynn sucked the wind out of my wind out of my economic sails. For a while I has hemorrhaging 500 bc a turn, and I had to push stock markets and a b-line to a democracy to get my economic house in order. Fortunately I had 10,000 in the bank, but that was leaking away fast. The primary problems were that the Krynn and Thalian worlds had very little population, and I was building transports and using old colony ships to ferry population there as fast as I could. Population means taxes, so removing surplus population from my home worlds was key.

Another key was the ‘korn 100’, which is what I call the strategy of bumping morale to 100% by lowering taxes at lower population worlds to double their growth. This REALLY is effective if you’re able to pull it off for a while, say 10 turns or so. For some reason the Thalian and Krynn worlds had lots of manufacturing, which means that they are even more of an economic burden – but great once the economic house is in order again.

Then I got a real break – an economic boom started in August! Well, I know what to do: increase taxes until my morale is ~75% and then watch the cash roll in! I went from a deficit to a massive surplus. I switched all ship production to war hulls, spoor ships, and a few constructors and lined up to take out the Korx. The boom lasted only about 6 turns, but that was enough. I had a bankroll of 10,000 bc again, and was still generating a small surplus.

I declared war in September 2230, and that turn took out one world while my fleets moved in. Unfortunately the Korx worlds have a large influence zone, and with the Council rule moving warships out of influence areas at the declaration of war it took me 2 turns to position and then take the Korx capital and the other planet nearby. The turn after that I eliminated the last Korx world, so in a total of 3 turns the Korx was gone.

My fleets were pretty beat up since all the Korx fleets attacked from space, so I’ll need to repair at planets – and position outside Yor space.


Image 9: the galaxy in September 2230, and the Korath battle plan

The one problem is that the Yor ships have better firepower than mine do, likely due to Yor miniaturization. Yor military power is about equal to mine, so I’ll have to strike hard and fast. I should be able to take out 5 of his 7 planets in one strike. We’ll see!

[Hydro]

January 2231

The Korath declared war on the Yor in November 2330 and immediately took 4 planets, including a PQ29 world. All did not go as planned on the 5th world, where all of our cruisers were destroyed during the attack. A squadron of destroyers (small hulls) guarded our spoor spoor and colony ships until reinforcements could arrive. Four separate fleets made their way to the Yor capital to slug it out with his fleets there, which were more powerful than the Korath ships (individually, that is).

Then we got a surprise: the Dread Lords returned in mid November 2230! I was not in the least intimidated when I realized their newly colonized planet was near a Korath world that was finishing a spoor ship. Two turns later the Dread Lords were eliminated - so much for their vaunted return to the galaxy. When our citizens landed on the newly cleansed planet there was no development, nothing. But at least a threat was eliminated.

In December we finally had enough forces to eliminate the defenders at the planet that beat off our first attack. The small host of damaged ships went into orbit to repair, and the remainder made a b-line for the Yor capital.

Our first attack on the Yor capital was repelled. His cruisers just managed to destroy the attacking cruisers. We had slightly better defense and they had better offense – a relative match. Still, after 4 Korath cruisers were destroyed I realized I needed twice the high-firepower ships the Yor had to ensure the planet was taken. The Yor now had only 2 planets, so all Korath forces were converging.

The capital fell in late December 2230, and the last planet in Iconia fell two weeks after that.

Lessons learned with the Korath:
• The game would have been harder post patch since I didn’t get advanced toxic colonization.
• I should have been more aggressive. An early spoor rush might have taken out the capitals of one or more neighbors, which would have been a huge boon.
• I should have ignored all extreme colonization tech and let the AI colonize worlds for me, and then spent that research time on weapons or spoor tech.
• Although spoor ships are a sure thing, I still have to move people around.
• At the end of the game I was negative 1200bc/turn. I had a bank of 20,000bc and I knew the game was ending soon so I didn’t care. I would have been royally stewed if the game had gone longer. This was likely due to the fact that the race had no economic racial bonuses, and that most of the plants I took over were heavily skewed to manufacturing. I needed a better economic base.

Still, it was fun to see how the Korath work. They can be very dangerous, and now I understand how they eliminated other races in previous DA games. Spoor ships are very dangerous.