Elgarian Rise / Demise (title pending game conclusion)

After Action Report: Elgarian Rise / Demise

(title pending game conclusion)


Hello everyone! I got the game for Christmas and so haven’t managed to build up elite skills yet, but I am a fairly quick study so hopefully this won’t be too awful a game. A couple of the bad decisions I make will be in the interests of the storyline but most won’t. Therefore I’d very much appreciate any comments you can give me on what I’m doing badly, or simply what I could do differently.

This is my first AAR, and I kind of went over-board on the background, sorry about that. With a bit of luck a few of you will enjoy it.

Game settings:


Background of the people of Elgar

Prehistoric and ancient history, while interesting to some, bares very little impact on modern Elgarian society. Using historic-artistic licence therefore I will skip over this part of our people’s past. Suffice it to say that it was barbaric, bloody, brutal and many other words that start with a “B” that generally mean it was bad. In short, days experienced by the very distant ancestors of the Elgarians of modern times were very similar to those of your own Terran ancestors in most respects.

The first point in history where the shaping of our culture as it currently stands truly began was in the year 1914 (By standardised Earth-reckoning), the year of no-tolerance, when the tri-century war of three nations began, three nations with three ideals. To begin however, those committed to certain political or philosophical views were not necessarily abiding in the territory claimed by those they supported, and so the war began with the great migration.

If anything should be valued about our past over your own is the fact that we had generally been smarter. By 1914 when you had only recently come up with the idea of putting guns on motorised vehicles, we had things that to your people of that time would seem science fiction. We had energy-based weapons, stealth aircraft, augmented warrior body-frame armour, nuclear weapons, long-range ballistic missile defence systems, the lot. All of these were thrown at the borders in an attempt to dissuade migration, and I think it is a credit to our people that their belief and conviction did not allow even those deterrents to stop them. By 1954, despite huge numbers of casualties caused on the way, everyone had selected their sides, and had reached the borders of the nation they would fight for.



The most intense fighting to begin with was in the eastern continent. In the north was Twin’s Devotees, aka the church goers, aka the holy crusaders, aka the blinded babes; depending on who you asked. They were lead by the upper echelons of the priesthood, those who prayed to Elgar and his twin sister Alnar. In the south was the Elgarian Enclave, aka the scientists and researches, aka the seekers of light, aka the mad professors. Who given better circumstances would be quite happy to be pacifists.

The two disagreed on the fundamental principles of the universe. Whether the total sum of Elgarian knowledge should be as they always had been: Gifts from the gods, revealed in scattered "Eureka!" moments throughout the globe. Or should be actively sought after and aimed for in laboratories and research centres, the argument for which was the fact that the designs and ability to create such buildings were previous gifts from the gods, and that it would be ungrateful to not use them. In other words, as is all too often the case, it was a religious war.

The war in the east continued for almost a century. Whilst in the west the third and final nation, the late comers one might call them, were living in peace. For them it was a time of preparation, they knew war would eventually come to them so they were getting ready. They were building war ships, war weapons, and war soldiers in order to defend themselves when the time came. What if it didn’t come? They would go to find it, for they were the Elgarian Empire, industrialists and self-proclaimed warmongers. In 2042, they decided they were ready and launched their invasion.



The east was unprepared to meet them at first. The problem was that the fight wasn’t even. Whilst the zeal of the northern devotees was unmatched and terrible, the Elgarian Enclave had much a great technological advantage (they were researchers after all). This meant that the Enclave wasn’t eager to give up certain territories that it had won in order to seal a peace treaty. But after twenty years, in 2062 it did. The east had finally got their act together, quite literally.

I’m sure by now you have realised that the three hundred year war was not actually a single war, rather it was a period of conflict, but there were very few periods of respite, and those who lived through it probably didn’t really notice a change from one to another. Whilst the period of war beginning in 2062 was fought between the vast armies of the west, lead by emperor Walashi O’matu. And the recently united, depleted and fatigued forces of west, lead by a council of Elders. On the other hand the armies of the east who had now called themselves the Elgarian Solidarity were highly advanced, determined and had much more recent and intense experiences of war.

- End of a summery of recent Elgarian history by Antellio Wardel, Historian and diplomat to the Terran Alliance.



You may also think that Antellio has been rambling on a little too much, and you’re probably correct. However, that really is the end. There is not much more to say other than the fact that the superior technology provided by what used to be the Enclave in the hands of seasoned troop won out. After around a hundred and twenty years of fighting the relatively short lived Elgarian Empire surrendered unconditionally to the Elgarian Solidarity in 2184. The next ten were spent quelling what were seen as rebellions from the remnants of the Empire, and those few who still believed (despite the evidence of the value of improved technology) that research was evil.

The now globally united people of Elgar finally could rebuild and repair. Settling on research as their primary method of improvement, repairing damaged or destroyed factories in the west (hey, why not? At least they were good at it!) and rebuilding their fractured economy were secondary, though it is argued they may have gone slightly overboard on the economic front.



In 2222 the current leader of the Elgarian Solidarity; Therin Goldstaff, rose to the head of the so-called high council, the hereditary successor of Rossoros Goldstaff the original leader of the Enclave (Technologists). At the end of 2224 the five year construction project of two space-worthy vessels was complete, although their speed would be limited. Hyperdrive technology was still under development, but close to completion.
Night’s eyes and Life Spark were boldly launched into the Galaxy, with none of the Elgarians knowing as of yet what was out there.

33,607 views 6 replies
Reply #1 Top
You wouldn't believe how many problems I found trying to post that.
It involved editing to see the html code it had inserted and changing my forum tags such as
"SQUARE-BRACKET img SQUARE-BRACKET"
to
"ANGLE-BRACKET img src="imagelink" ANGLE-BRACKET"
and other similar replacements. Any idea why the normal forum tags didn't work for me?
Reply #2 Top
It involved editing to see the html code it had inserted and changing my forum tags such as
"SQUARE-BRACKET img SQUARE-BRACKET"


The bbcodes not properly converting is a known issue, and the webteam is working on it. As you saw though you should be able to put in the regular HTML manually, and that will work fine.
Reply #3 Top
Nothing wrong with going overboard on the background. It adds flavor and helps distinguish "your" universe from everyone else's. This ought to be an entertaining read.
Reply #4 Top
This should be good. Be careful! Some races might think you taste good...
Reply #5 Top
Thanks for the warm welcome. I think I have made a few mistakes already, and got rather unlucky... But who knows this may not be as bad as it seems!

First Steps: 2225, First Quarter

“Noble Elgarians, today we perform a feat that will be remembered for generations to come. A feat unprecedented in the long history of our great nation, that for the first time since the birth of Elgar himself is united.
Month ago we launched forth into space heading to another world. The second planet of our system that has orbited our beloved Elgar-star for millennia has remained unvisited by us, and all our kin, and any other form of life that we know of, since the great birth.

Our ancient ancestors looked up from the surface of Elgar. When they saw above us a beacon above them they didn’t know what it was. They didn’t know that it was a large spherical piece of rock not unlike the one we are now stood on. But they knew that what they saw was important, and they realised that it must be the sister, of their beloved god Elgar.

Brothers and sisters, I was given the duty, no the honour, of transporting us through the sky, of carrying us for months through space to the second planet in our system. Our ancestors may not have known what we do now, about astronomy and about the galaxy. Whatever you believe however, you must agree that landing on Alnar is a major step in the advancement of our people, that our ancestors were correct when they gazed upward and placed importance on this world, and I invite you all to join in the celebration no matter what your opinion is.
Me personally? I believe that tomorrow, we shall touch a Goddess.”

- Speech made by the Captain of Life Spark on the day the colonists landed on Alnar and claimed the world in the name of the Elgarian Solidarity.



The colony ship Life Spark made its way towards Elgar II (aka Alnar). Whilst the Night’s Eyes made it’s way towards the galactic core. Therin Goldstaff was happy at the start of the year. He had completed two major world projects. The first two starships of his people, and reconstruction was going splendidly. The recent boon in the economy had filled his treasury to bursting, and his people were working on a most interesting research project that would let Elgarians gaze more accurately into the night, and locate planetary locations, easing the task of finding new worlds (stellar Cartography).

Some would argue therefore that it would be the perfect time for Therin to take a break, to relax for a while when his nation was finally starting to go right. But it was not in his nature, he disapproved of relaxation and idleness on a fundamental level. Therefore he moved things on. If his people were truly going to explore the galaxy as had always been the original founding dream of the Enclave, and now as leaders of the Solidarity was the goal of them too, then they would need to work hard.



This is what he made them do. Maximum efficiency were the key words from his government, and that is what was achieved (100% industrial spending). However, the people were not unsaticfied, as taxes were set at an all-time low, planetary industry was to be funded from the government treasury reserves for the time being.
That industry was put equally into three global projects:
The factories they had were good and efficient, but they would need to be upgraded if starship production was to be completed in months or weeks rather than years as their first two had been.
At the same time construction on a second colony ship was underway. Where they would be sending it after it was completed Therin did not yet know, but he was optimistic on the chances of Night’s Eyes finding a suitable world for galactic expansion, besides it would take several months yet.
Finally work was being put into research projects. Yes: The ability to better view space, but also new methods of propulsion that can be used to make travel not take unworkable lengths of time, he needed to run a galactic civilisation after all!



Anyway, we’ll get there. But first things first, Stellar Cartography revealed many things to us, not least of which was the layout of planets in our local sectors:
It looks like Night’s eyes was headed in the wrong direction I guess. It would have been much better to have travelled to the upper-left, visiting the system with five planets, but at least there were some planets in the direction we were heading, turning down and right to a second system should defiantly reveal at least one inhabitable world. If all else fails, it wouldn’t be the end of the world (or galaxy) anyway as hyperdrives were now just over the horizon.

Ok... So we were a little slower than you on getting hyperdrives, I will admit it. But at least we weren’t far behind, and we actually developed it ourselves, unlike all those other “great civilisations” that only gained it after you foolishly donated it to them. Somewhat shot yourselves in the foot on that one don’t you think? At least when we develop hyperdrive we do it properly. I don’t know what you were thinking of you’re your original design, we discarded that on the same week of designing!



At last we had hyper drive technology. The starship factories on Elgar could finally begin putting the finishing touches on the colony ship under construction there, now that the design specifications for the engines had been completed. And we would be needing a lot. Due to Night’s eye’s failure in finding ANY inhabitable planets the drastic choice the cut the passenger capacity in half in the interests of streamlining the ship to increase stellar travel speed was made. The first real setback since the Tri-century war.



The golden age of the Elgarians seemed to finally be drawing to a close. They weren’t in deep balgrosian muck yet (a large desert-walking animal similar to your Terran cow), but the light that had been shining in the future was starting to dim. For one, the treasury was depleted. For two, two new species had been discovered your not so glorious selves and the Torians.



I guess that was why universal translators were bumped up to the top of the to-do list for the Solidarity’s research and development governors. But soil improvements couldn’t be left waiting for too long, as planets were starting to reach the limits of terrain utilisation, better soil enhancers would allow much more land to be put to actual use.

Reply #6 Top
I like your writng style, instead of a historical perspective, or "I did this, I did that", you're writing it as a monoluge from one charactar to annother.