In dire trouble

[giddion]

I often have a couple of games in progress, generally because I like the early game a bit more than the late game, due to fleet and system managemnet.

I started a small map 32x32 on Crazy difficulty...


This has been tough, yet a lot of fun. Defend and retreat has been a major tactic. Politics have been challenging, but now it is crippling my economy at a time when I need more ships, due to losses within the fleet.
I am still making a small profit of about +30, when under normal circumstances it is around 300-400, or 600-700 when the politics line up.



It is currently 4.9AE and I have 4 active ships, 2x Templar and 2x Assualt Fighters. They are all 50% or more damaged and low on water, even now that I have retreated into green space. This is due to needing to advance and take out world killers, which puts them at the centre of a swarm. I have managed to stop all World Killers, barring the first that was able to invade once, but this was a couple of turns before I could launch an assault fighter.

With 6x enemy missle vessals and 3x Mass Drivers still in my space, I am struggling without any economy. I am playing cat and mouse, using the planets as cover from the missile ships.

I am currently working on a couple of new policies to hopefully break the tension between the factions and help to recover some fragment of my economy, and rebuild some new fighters.


But only time will tell... I dont have the other political knowledge to break the other issues.


All 3 of my political problems appeared within a span of 2 turns, and from what was a stable political environment with treaties and an alliance in place.

So, where did it all go horribly wrong...

I was burried in battles, at a time I also was expanding into 3 new systems, over a period of 6-7 turns.
Could this have been the mistake?
Should I have waited until I had surpressed the immeadiate threat before colonising?
(well at least not colonised 3 new worlds during this time, mybe only 1 of the systems, the most combat strategic?? or the most economically strategic??)


I would be interested in the thoughts of others.


This part should probably be placed into "Wish List", but I'd like to get a feel from others first...
I wonder if a new political option availbale within the early tech web, for "Martial Law" may help me. Effectivly suspending all, possitive and negative, political influences for a set number of turns. Once active, you need to wait out the time.
As with all drastic measures, if this is inacted more than once within a set timeframe, there should be potential backlash, like increased chance of worlds turning over to the independants.
But in these highly confrontational situations in small maps, this may not be a bad thing.

[odomi]

Major factors affecting income:

Negatively
1. Bad Politics
2. Low Morale = higher maintenance
3. Ship maintenance

Solution:
1. build as evenly as possible between all factions. always expand with 3 systems (one for each faction)

2. always get ahead with hab units and spice count. I use +2house buffer rule if the next building is 10+ turns.

3. Build strike fighters with high evasion. damage = higher maintenance
level 3, fast reactor 4 or 5, panther autocannon.


Deficiency
1. Untapped Mines
2. Low Trade points
3. Factory potential

solution
1. build mine1 early up to 1/3 of max.
example: if starting colony have 18 max mine, get up to 6x mine1
Once mine2 tech is complete upgrade all mine. in the example above, you will have 12mines tapped. build orbital mine +2
total 14 mines. build more mine1 to max.
Demolish mine1 one at a time as you upgrade to mine3.

2. build things with +TP and +pop

3. Always go 1 factory above population. but never fall behind on housing.

other than thulun and cadar, always subsidize level1 buildings until you have 4 population.


Tech Route
Concentrate heavily on economy side up to Exchange 1, factory 2 and orbital mine.

On that particular map, xenos are hyper active on expansion. you don't have to out pace the xenos on expansion, but send your templars and fighters on their territory and catch any colony ships before they colonize.

[giddion]

odomi
Your comments are aligned, pretty much, with what I have done. Obviously not all is possible due to a variety of different random circumstanaces, including qorld quality and mining capability and the ability to have the income to build the required infrastructure whilst fighting a major war, defending against world killers.

As I have said, my economy as a whole is solid, but the recent triple whammy in politics has crippled me. All 3 diplomatic events occured within a couple of turns. The first sign was a trade alliance that reduced to trade treaty. But then BAM!!! it all went to S#!T in a handshake.

I understand how to fix it, but this is all time, something I am struggling with at the moment. I cannot destroy any of the (4) ships I have as I need them to protect my worlds. So I have no mechanism to reduce my maintenance.
I am also in a pickle as I do not have all of the political/diplomatic techs to break the current trouble, and for the one that I can, it is only time to get it to complete.

If the political situation improves in the next few turns I will be fine, but I fear that it may take much longer, which could lead to loss of worlds in the process.


odomi I do not agree with the statment "build as evenly as possible between all factions. always expand with 3 systems (one for each faction)" as it is very much dependant on available worlds, economy and combat situation. Generally this is what I do, and is what I have done in this game, but that obviously didn't help me here, it may have actaully hurt me, due to unfortunate coincidence.

EDIT:
BTW, here is a snapshot of my Tech Web. I went for Colony module 2 before expanding into my last 3 worlds (from 6-9). I have 2 technologies currently getting researched, this was because, at the time, I was about to explore an anomaly and I wanted to ensure I would get full benefit of RP if that was found. Anyway, they both will be complete in 3 turns, giving me access to palace 2 and better reactors for my next round of fighters, which I really need a couple of very soon.


So i have access to Mines 2 and Factory 2 already and have performed several upgrades on many of my core worlds (original 6 worlds).
I have $178 in the treasury and an income of +$5 last turn. definetly not a good place to be. 

[odomi]

Ok, Cory would probably scorn me for this, but...
spam treaties!

buy multiple trade sanctions until embargo ends. It's free if treasury is negative.
The other 2 just have to wait it out.
I think is worth reaching for privateer treaty.

I'm not an expert on politics, but aiming to gain more knowledge next time around.

Also, regarding tech advancement, ship tech should be delayed a bit more just to be able to keep up with economy and bad politics dice roll.

From my Crazy game, I did not go past cruiser tech until I got hab3. 1 or 2 cruiser with strike fighters and the templars should be good enough to hold down fort.

[giddion]

Things started to look better, I got a number of mine upgrades completed, which has increased my income to ~80 per turn.
I was unable to break the embargo with sanctions, I have initiated another.

But things are getting bad. A world killer made it into my world and caused some damage to a new colinised planet, Zeno colony ships have colonised right next door to 2 of my installations at the border, and I am taking huge damage trying to supress the world killers.

Currently surrounded and taking a beating, I am likely loose 1-2 ships as I retreat to another world. I have little or no options here.

[Cory Trese]

I wouldn't scorn you odomi I'd just strongly caution other users they will probably not like the results they get.

If you are loosing on one front, try to break out on another front and take worlds quickly elsewhere.

You may need to rethink the center point of your Empire to win. Be flexible!

[giddion]

doesnt feel like an empire at the moment, it feels more like an occupation, where I'm the one being occupied.

All of the advice is no different to what I would do if I could.

The fact is my fleet is tiny, and the faction tension has destroyed my economy.

I have little choices. I could abandon this world to the Xeno invasion, but currently I am defending it against the world killers.
If I move my fleet to the other side of the map, I may be able to draw them across, this may allow my ships to repair and some economy to improve, but it may just give the Xeno what they need to get a world killer in to finish off my colony.

I am choosing to stand, I am VERY slowly recoverring my economy even under such difficult diplomatic conditions.


Cory Trese
What about the "Martial Law" suggestion I made in my first post?
Is this something you may consider, should I start a new post unders wish list?

[giddion]

So I pulled my forces back, loosing one of the Temlar's in the process. All ships are have half their hull gone and no water.
I was hoping to be able to repair and refuel slightly before another World Killer arrived, but this was not going to happen.



This is literally 4 turns after the last World Killer was here. Now there is another knocking at the door. As this is a new world, I dont have the defenses up, so it takes damage easily. I think I am going to loose this world, as I do not believe that I will be able to get there in time, through the Xeno armada, without water and under 50% hull.

So it is with great regret, that I will leave this world to its immenent destruction... The people will be mourned.

[giddion]

and they just keep coming.... I am fleeing and they are in pursuit, whilst bombarding my planet.

this is goign to be hard. I finaly have the cash to build a new fighter but at best this will arrive in 11 turns. How many worlds can I loose in this time?

[giddion]

I treid to evacuate.... ARGH!!

[giddion]

Can it get any worse?   Ummm...  yes!

World killers, colony ships, fleets of missile ships and mass drivers...

This game may be over soon, I may have to surrender, I will stay until my new fighter is built, that will be the moment I will know.

[giddion]

Only getting worse... I have lost some population at the current World Killer location, the world has defenses 28/14, but still I lost pop, and no damage to the World Killer. Why dont I have any planetary weaponry to fire back?





anyway... next turn my first new fighter will appear at that location. I am trying to move my fleet over their, hoping to assist and to repair/refuel along the way.

[tenbsmith]

I may never play on Crazy and appreciate you ppsting this play through.

[odomi]

giddion

at least you can say it was on Crazy.

I failed on Hard, same map.
Those Xenos in that map are quite difficult.
Probably because of proximity to your base.

But that was before I learned a more efficient path of progression.
Yes, expanding from 6 to 9 might be the turning point of this game. The rapid expansion of Xeno, triggers panic in your side and tried to keep pace.
I did win on Crazy though, same map.
I jumped them early and denied them of expansion.

Battle tactics require a balance of aggression and defense. If you go way too far either end, could be catastrophic.
Never let Xeno vessels out number you. Not particularly in actual number, I would say 3:1 3 xeno:1 of yours. 2 templar defenders, explorer, 2 strike fighters and 1 cruiser should be good enough to keep them in check.

One thing that made me lose a few times, was when I forget to do a new research or build something before ending my turn. a simple waste of turn like that specially on early game can make you fall behind, and it gets worse on higher difficulty.

[odomi]

Jul 22, 2015 2:03:21 GMT -5 giddion said:

Only getting worse... I have lost some population at the current World Killer location, the world has defenses 28/14, but still I lost pop, and no damage to the World Killer. Why dont I have any planetary weaponry to fire back?





anyway... next turn my first new fighter will appear at that location. I am trying to move my fleet over their, hoping to assist and to repair/refuel along the way.

Hey Cory, what about that question about defenses?

I think even if you have full defense, it's effectiveness is less than 20%

Funny how 1WK can kill all your colonies while it takes about 7-8 transport to kill 1 xeno colony. But we have an advantage on fire power.