Altarian AAR
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I’ve never played the Altarians before. In GC2: DL there didn’t seem to be anything special about them. In DA the Altarian AI almost always seems to do well economically and by research. The base picks for the Altarians are pretty good: +30% eco, +25% research, +20% morale. I’m not sold on the Super Organizer, since it strikes me as being pretty limited. Perhaps the good racial scores will make up for this.
I decided to try the Altarians configured as researchers. My picks were +30% eco (total +60%), +20% research (+45% total), and +10% diplomacy. My political party is Technologist, which give me another +20% research (total +65%) and the helpful +1 sensor.
The large galaxy setup is common everything, scattered stars, 8 minors, and 7 random AIs. I disabled tech trading since I’ve observed what I call "Group AI Researching" where they trade tech fairly freely between themselves but not the human player. My starting world was good (but not great) with a +300% industry and a morale enhancement tile. Doing Cntl N to get a perfect setup is pretty tedious, so a decent setup (where I’m not sandwiched) is perfectly fine. The random AIs ended up as Korath, Korx, Drengin, Yor, Iconians, Torians, and Arceans – a pretty evil bunch overall, and hostile to the Altarians. The difficulty is Painful.
At the end of the first phase of colonization I had my share of worlds, and was about equal with ~9 with most of the AIs. Two AIs did little, though. The Korath had, for some reason, been set to Fool so they never expanded or developed. The Torians were squeezed into a corner and only got 4 worlds total.
The second phase of extreme colonization was a bit better for the Altarians, and I ended up with a total of 16 worlds to most of the AIs who had less than 12. Of course, I colonized all PQ1 worlds I reasonably could unless they were in the heart of enemy territory and might flip. I never did get barren colonization since the Yor snagged all those worlds. Most of the worlds I did get were aquatic of toxic, and I made Advanced Aquatic and later Toxic a priority to get these planets up to full production.
I did get a few gem planets. One aquatic world that I got 1 turn before the Iconians had a Precursor mine on it. This became my manufacturing capital, and since it is PQ16 it is a very good manufacturing world, too. Another nearby toxic world is one of my was one of my biggest, and is being developed as an economy specialist world. Along the way I only got 2 resources: morale and research. Most of the others were, as usual, snagged by minor races.
Strategically I have a few problems. First, the Yor is my neighbor and they have been hostile to wary since we met. Many of the extreme worlds I got were in his backyard, and this had only increased the AI’s irritation with me. I also have a border with the Korx and Arceans, both of whom are steadfastly neutral to slightly negative. I’ve tried to improve the situation by increasing my diplomatic level and with trade routes, and that has probably helped a little.
Image 1: strategic setup in September 2229
My second and probably most serious strategic problem is that the good races and likely allies (Torians, Iconians) are sandwiched by aggressive evil races (Drengin, Korx). In particular, the Drengin have been very aggressive with multiple declarations of war, resulting in swarms of Dominator class ships. This early in the game they are very difficult to deal with. Worse, the Drengin’s weapons are beam, which means that I have to have 2 types of defense when fighting their mass driver Dominator free-be ships and their main line fighters and frigates. As of September 2229 the Drengin had conquered the Korath and have taken 2 planets from the Torians; one was a PQ19 world – a big loss for the Torians, who now only have 2 worlds. The Drengin have had less luck with the Iconians since any planet they’ve invaded had immediately flipped back to the Iconians, and their invasions haven’t been coordinated enough yet to take the capital. So the Iconian is holding out.
Summary of number of worlds and research in September 2229
Altairian – 23 worlds, 293 research
Arcean – 10 worlds, 180 research
Iconian – 9 worlds, 96 research
Korx – 11 worlds, 280 research
Drengin – 13 worlds, 93 research
Yor 11 worlds, 128 research
Toria 2 worlds, 4 research
Militarily I’ve made a point of having at least a military rating of 100 so I am not seen as weak. I can’t keep up with the Drengin’s hordes of Dominator ships, but at a minimum I want enough to dissuade the Yor from deciding I’d be a nice addition to his Evil Empire. To that end I’ve researched through Plasma III, armor level 3 to offset his mass drivers, medium (cruiser) hulls, and 2 levels of miniaturization. I got to Warp 1 to get the speed bump, which lets my support ships go spd 10 or so and cruisers spd 4 or 5. At this time my fleets are configured to fight the Yor, just in case. I’ve gifted a few early small hulls (destroyers) to the Iconians and Torians, and made the mistake of doing so to the Korath – who were eliminated the next turn and the ships went pirate. Oops. It was a good thing my resource starbases were outfitted with weapons, and they handily took out the old DDs. I just gifted 2 older cruisers to each of the Iconians and Torians. Hopefully they’ll put them to good use.
Image 2: military standing in September 2229
I also made the decision to conquer nearby minor races to get access to their good planets, prevent them from falling to the Evil races (who are gobbling other minors up like candy), and get the big bump in influence. As of September 2229 I’ve conquered 3 races (see Image 1), which has massively expanded my influence. Already 4 or so Yor and Arceans planets have flipped, along with numerous mining bases. Two of the minor planets had impressive research installations, and my research ability has spiked considerably. A nice side benefit is that I’ve gotten a lot more tourism income due to the expanded influence, and also due to a Special Event – tourism increase. Overall I turned the economic corner about a year ago and now have a very nice surplus at 100% production. My industry is doing very well, too, and much of that is due to my home planet and my manufacturing capital that is situated between the Yor and Korx (which will turn out to be very handy, I’ll bet). The other races have good economies, but they are barely keeping up with other needs and their treasuries are small.
A side benefit of conquering the minors is that I picked up an impressive number of galactic resources: 3 morale, 2 combat, 1 research, and 1 economic. That means I have 9 of the total ~16 resources in the galaxy, which is great! None are developed more than just claiming them, but long term they will be incredibly useful. If nothing else, declaring war to capture these resources and get the influence bump has made it more than worth it. I’ll have to defend these with basic weapons, which works in the early game – which is when it really counts.
Image 3: relative industrial output, September 2229
Image 4: relative economies in September 2229
Image 5: relative treasuries, September 2229
So far I’ve been able to build a number of special projects: micro repair bots, Restaurant of Eternity, Xanthium Hull Plating Diplomatic Translators, and Tir-Quan Training. In particular, the influence bump from the Restaurant of Eternity will be useful in flipping planets, and Diplomatic Translator for keeping the AI off my back. The Tir-Quan Training made invading the AI pretty easy, and will make it harder for an AI to invade me unless it is a concerted effort.
My strategy now is to keep relations with the Yor steady, but be prepared for him to go to war with me. I already have a bad reputation with the Arceans due to my wars with the minor races, so I need to be careful. Now that I’ve blanketing his territory with my influence I may be able to flip a few of his planets, which weakens him long term. I’ve noticed the Yor’s military is decreasing, perhaps due to economic problems. If my military is bigger than his then I’m pleased.
A real option is to get the Arceans involved. They hate the Yor, and perhaps with a nice bribe (I have 17,000 bc in the bank) I can get them to declare war. Their military isn’t too far behind the Yor, and they aren’t at war with anyone. Plus the Arcean has a bunch of planets in Yor territory – an obvious source of friction.
I also need to do something to help the Iconians and Torians. My manufacturing is increasing nicely, so I should be able to feed them some ships. They will need to be outfitted to kill Drengin and Korx. In fact, I can arrange to have ships in good places to do damage to the Korx, and perhaps the Drengin. To make this work I’ll need to research more defense to counter Drengin beam, and I’ll have to pay more attention to what the Korx’s main weapon is (I think it is also beam). Luckily defense tech is relatively cheap to research and place on ships.
Another idea is to gift them money. Right now the Torians have no cash in their treasury, and the Iconians are similarly tapped out. I’d bet that one of the factors that leads to surrender is economics, so this should help.
Spies have started showing up, including two at my manufacturing capital, which has crippled its production. More espionage spending is in order.
March 2230
I was able to persuade the Arceans to attack the Yor for a mere 3000 bc, and it was worth every penny. Now both are engaged and not likely to get in my way. More of the Yor fleets in my influence zone (which was formerly Yor territory) are being attacked by Arceans, which is a good thing. The military rating of both have been pretty steady.
I’ve also been gifting ships and cash to the Iconians and Torians. I’ve had scouts near the action and even my old cruisers do very well against the Drengin units. I have a few more squadrons heading to the Iconians, and hopefully they’ll help turn the tide. The Iconians have lost a few planets so I need to hurry.
To get a base in the middle of the map I conquered the Snathi. This significantly increased my influence in Arcean territory, and allows longer range action against the Drengin – who are likely to be my main enemy.
In not unexpected news, the Torians surrendered to the Drengin. Apparently my help wasn’t enough, and they were horribly outnumbered. I was disappointed that they didn’t surrender to me or the Iconians, though. Their message said they hoped for mercy from the Drengin. Please.
Image 6: galaxy in March 2230
This taught me that I need to get to the Good projects ASAP, such as the one that increases the chance of surrender. The other benefits of Good aren’t that great, but I’ll go there anyway.
In other tech, I’ve made it half way through phaser, armor level 3, half way through shield 3, miniaturization level 3.
For ships, I now have two flavors: armor for those near the Yor and shield for those for the Drengin (and maybe the Korx). The Drengin ships do have one module of 4-armor to deal with his annoying Dominator class freebee ships. Conveniently, there are two hull types so I can easily keep them separated.
My next target is the Paulos, who are right by the Drengin. The Drengin declared war on them so I need to hurry. I had to research two more levels of supply to get there, but that’s OK. It only took a turn.
Spies are coming fast and furious and I’m mostly getting them nullified. I haven’t had any left over to put in other’s territory, though. The AI is pretty good about targeting items that matter – manufacturing capitals, high-value bonus tiles, etc.
So overall, the front will be moving to the Drengin. Eventually I’ll get the Arceans to declare war and then I’ll be in the thick of things. Hopefully by then my ships will be able to take on long odds and still win. We’ll see.
August 2230
It looks like my help wasn’t enough for the Iconians, who surrendered to the Drengin in August 2230. This massively increases the Drengin strength and they are at rough parity with my empire in terms of number of planets and economy. What is sad is that I invested all the time to research the Good techs, and now there are no Good races left. I’m building the Good projects, but that probably won’t help me much now. And it looks like my Super Organizer ability will be totally worthless since I will have no ‘good’ races to organize.
Arceans – 9 planets, 296 research
Korx – 11 planets, 348 research
Drengin – 24 planets, 311 research
Yor – 10 planets, 142 research
Altarians – 29 planets, 429 research
The only small bright spot is that I conquered the Scottlians the month or two prior, and my influence is now huge in the area. One idea is to blast through the influence techs to augment this advantage. It is tempting, but I’ve already flipped the planets I’m likely to flip – now I may be in more straightforward methods: invasion. Notice my fleet right outside of a planet the Drengin took from a minor race.
Image 7: galaxy in August 2230
Fortunately, my military strength is now much larger than the Drengin. My medium hull cruisers have good offense and defense, whereas the Drengin is dominated by the Dominator hulls, which are dead meat against one of my fleets. His other hulls are formidable with firepower similar to mine, but he has no defense. For ships that are 28/0/0 attack and 12/0/0 (without modification) vs 25/0/0 0/0/0 the outcome is not in doubt.
So now I am back on finishing the offense tech (phaser), will continue to strengthen the galactic resources I have (where they are safe), and continue to build ships to fight the Drengin and some to fight the Yor. The Korx is friendly, but that could change, too.
I’m positioning my fleets to take out four or more of the Drengin worlds in one strike, and get a few good fleets to do what I can to winnow down his military power. I just hope the Korx and Yor leave me alone or it could all fall apart.
I decided to try the Altarians configured as researchers. My picks were +30% eco (total +60%), +20% research (+45% total), and +10% diplomacy. My political party is Technologist, which give me another +20% research (total +65%) and the helpful +1 sensor.
The large galaxy setup is common everything, scattered stars, 8 minors, and 7 random AIs. I disabled tech trading since I’ve observed what I call "Group AI Researching" where they trade tech fairly freely between themselves but not the human player. My starting world was good (but not great) with a +300% industry and a morale enhancement tile. Doing Cntl N to get a perfect setup is pretty tedious, so a decent setup (where I’m not sandwiched) is perfectly fine. The random AIs ended up as Korath, Korx, Drengin, Yor, Iconians, Torians, and Arceans – a pretty evil bunch overall, and hostile to the Altarians. The difficulty is Painful.
At the end of the first phase of colonization I had my share of worlds, and was about equal with ~9 with most of the AIs. Two AIs did little, though. The Korath had, for some reason, been set to Fool so they never expanded or developed. The Torians were squeezed into a corner and only got 4 worlds total.
The second phase of extreme colonization was a bit better for the Altarians, and I ended up with a total of 16 worlds to most of the AIs who had less than 12. Of course, I colonized all PQ1 worlds I reasonably could unless they were in the heart of enemy territory and might flip. I never did get barren colonization since the Yor snagged all those worlds. Most of the worlds I did get were aquatic of toxic, and I made Advanced Aquatic and later Toxic a priority to get these planets up to full production.
I did get a few gem planets. One aquatic world that I got 1 turn before the Iconians had a Precursor mine on it. This became my manufacturing capital, and since it is PQ16 it is a very good manufacturing world, too. Another nearby toxic world is one of my was one of my biggest, and is being developed as an economy specialist world. Along the way I only got 2 resources: morale and research. Most of the others were, as usual, snagged by minor races.
Strategically I have a few problems. First, the Yor is my neighbor and they have been hostile to wary since we met. Many of the extreme worlds I got were in his backyard, and this had only increased the AI’s irritation with me. I also have a border with the Korx and Arceans, both of whom are steadfastly neutral to slightly negative. I’ve tried to improve the situation by increasing my diplomatic level and with trade routes, and that has probably helped a little.
Image 1: strategic setup in September 2229
My second and probably most serious strategic problem is that the good races and likely allies (Torians, Iconians) are sandwiched by aggressive evil races (Drengin, Korx). In particular, the Drengin have been very aggressive with multiple declarations of war, resulting in swarms of Dominator class ships. This early in the game they are very difficult to deal with. Worse, the Drengin’s weapons are beam, which means that I have to have 2 types of defense when fighting their mass driver Dominator free-be ships and their main line fighters and frigates. As of September 2229 the Drengin had conquered the Korath and have taken 2 planets from the Torians; one was a PQ19 world – a big loss for the Torians, who now only have 2 worlds. The Drengin have had less luck with the Iconians since any planet they’ve invaded had immediately flipped back to the Iconians, and their invasions haven’t been coordinated enough yet to take the capital. So the Iconian is holding out.
Summary of number of worlds and research in September 2229
Altairian – 23 worlds, 293 research
Arcean – 10 worlds, 180 research
Iconian – 9 worlds, 96 research
Korx – 11 worlds, 280 research
Drengin – 13 worlds, 93 research
Yor 11 worlds, 128 research
Toria 2 worlds, 4 research
Militarily I’ve made a point of having at least a military rating of 100 so I am not seen as weak. I can’t keep up with the Drengin’s hordes of Dominator ships, but at a minimum I want enough to dissuade the Yor from deciding I’d be a nice addition to his Evil Empire. To that end I’ve researched through Plasma III, armor level 3 to offset his mass drivers, medium (cruiser) hulls, and 2 levels of miniaturization. I got to Warp 1 to get the speed bump, which lets my support ships go spd 10 or so and cruisers spd 4 or 5. At this time my fleets are configured to fight the Yor, just in case. I’ve gifted a few early small hulls (destroyers) to the Iconians and Torians, and made the mistake of doing so to the Korath – who were eliminated the next turn and the ships went pirate. Oops. It was a good thing my resource starbases were outfitted with weapons, and they handily took out the old DDs. I just gifted 2 older cruisers to each of the Iconians and Torians. Hopefully they’ll put them to good use.
Image 2: military standing in September 2229
I also made the decision to conquer nearby minor races to get access to their good planets, prevent them from falling to the Evil races (who are gobbling other minors up like candy), and get the big bump in influence. As of September 2229 I’ve conquered 3 races (see Image 1), which has massively expanded my influence. Already 4 or so Yor and Arceans planets have flipped, along with numerous mining bases. Two of the minor planets had impressive research installations, and my research ability has spiked considerably. A nice side benefit is that I’ve gotten a lot more tourism income due to the expanded influence, and also due to a Special Event – tourism increase. Overall I turned the economic corner about a year ago and now have a very nice surplus at 100% production. My industry is doing very well, too, and much of that is due to my home planet and my manufacturing capital that is situated between the Yor and Korx (which will turn out to be very handy, I’ll bet). The other races have good economies, but they are barely keeping up with other needs and their treasuries are small.
A side benefit of conquering the minors is that I picked up an impressive number of galactic resources: 3 morale, 2 combat, 1 research, and 1 economic. That means I have 9 of the total ~16 resources in the galaxy, which is great! None are developed more than just claiming them, but long term they will be incredibly useful. If nothing else, declaring war to capture these resources and get the influence bump has made it more than worth it. I’ll have to defend these with basic weapons, which works in the early game – which is when it really counts.
Image 3: relative industrial output, September 2229
Image 4: relative economies in September 2229
Image 5: relative treasuries, September 2229
So far I’ve been able to build a number of special projects: micro repair bots, Restaurant of Eternity, Xanthium Hull Plating Diplomatic Translators, and Tir-Quan Training. In particular, the influence bump from the Restaurant of Eternity will be useful in flipping planets, and Diplomatic Translator for keeping the AI off my back. The Tir-Quan Training made invading the AI pretty easy, and will make it harder for an AI to invade me unless it is a concerted effort.
My strategy now is to keep relations with the Yor steady, but be prepared for him to go to war with me. I already have a bad reputation with the Arceans due to my wars with the minor races, so I need to be careful. Now that I’ve blanketing his territory with my influence I may be able to flip a few of his planets, which weakens him long term. I’ve noticed the Yor’s military is decreasing, perhaps due to economic problems. If my military is bigger than his then I’m pleased.
A real option is to get the Arceans involved. They hate the Yor, and perhaps with a nice bribe (I have 17,000 bc in the bank) I can get them to declare war. Their military isn’t too far behind the Yor, and they aren’t at war with anyone. Plus the Arcean has a bunch of planets in Yor territory – an obvious source of friction.
I also need to do something to help the Iconians and Torians. My manufacturing is increasing nicely, so I should be able to feed them some ships. They will need to be outfitted to kill Drengin and Korx. In fact, I can arrange to have ships in good places to do damage to the Korx, and perhaps the Drengin. To make this work I’ll need to research more defense to counter Drengin beam, and I’ll have to pay more attention to what the Korx’s main weapon is (I think it is also beam). Luckily defense tech is relatively cheap to research and place on ships.
Another idea is to gift them money. Right now the Torians have no cash in their treasury, and the Iconians are similarly tapped out. I’d bet that one of the factors that leads to surrender is economics, so this should help.
Spies have started showing up, including two at my manufacturing capital, which has crippled its production. More espionage spending is in order.
March 2230
I was able to persuade the Arceans to attack the Yor for a mere 3000 bc, and it was worth every penny. Now both are engaged and not likely to get in my way. More of the Yor fleets in my influence zone (which was formerly Yor territory) are being attacked by Arceans, which is a good thing. The military rating of both have been pretty steady.
I’ve also been gifting ships and cash to the Iconians and Torians. I’ve had scouts near the action and even my old cruisers do very well against the Drengin units. I have a few more squadrons heading to the Iconians, and hopefully they’ll help turn the tide. The Iconians have lost a few planets so I need to hurry.
To get a base in the middle of the map I conquered the Snathi. This significantly increased my influence in Arcean territory, and allows longer range action against the Drengin – who are likely to be my main enemy.
In not unexpected news, the Torians surrendered to the Drengin. Apparently my help wasn’t enough, and they were horribly outnumbered. I was disappointed that they didn’t surrender to me or the Iconians, though. Their message said they hoped for mercy from the Drengin. Please.
Image 6: galaxy in March 2230
This taught me that I need to get to the Good projects ASAP, such as the one that increases the chance of surrender. The other benefits of Good aren’t that great, but I’ll go there anyway.
In other tech, I’ve made it half way through phaser, armor level 3, half way through shield 3, miniaturization level 3.
For ships, I now have two flavors: armor for those near the Yor and shield for those for the Drengin (and maybe the Korx). The Drengin ships do have one module of 4-armor to deal with his annoying Dominator class freebee ships. Conveniently, there are two hull types so I can easily keep them separated.
My next target is the Paulos, who are right by the Drengin. The Drengin declared war on them so I need to hurry. I had to research two more levels of supply to get there, but that’s OK. It only took a turn.
Spies are coming fast and furious and I’m mostly getting them nullified. I haven’t had any left over to put in other’s territory, though. The AI is pretty good about targeting items that matter – manufacturing capitals, high-value bonus tiles, etc.
So overall, the front will be moving to the Drengin. Eventually I’ll get the Arceans to declare war and then I’ll be in the thick of things. Hopefully by then my ships will be able to take on long odds and still win. We’ll see.
August 2230
It looks like my help wasn’t enough for the Iconians, who surrendered to the Drengin in August 2230. This massively increases the Drengin strength and they are at rough parity with my empire in terms of number of planets and economy. What is sad is that I invested all the time to research the Good techs, and now there are no Good races left. I’m building the Good projects, but that probably won’t help me much now. And it looks like my Super Organizer ability will be totally worthless since I will have no ‘good’ races to organize.
Arceans – 9 planets, 296 research
Korx – 11 planets, 348 research
Drengin – 24 planets, 311 research
Yor – 10 planets, 142 research
Altarians – 29 planets, 429 research
The only small bright spot is that I conquered the Scottlians the month or two prior, and my influence is now huge in the area. One idea is to blast through the influence techs to augment this advantage. It is tempting, but I’ve already flipped the planets I’m likely to flip – now I may be in more straightforward methods: invasion. Notice my fleet right outside of a planet the Drengin took from a minor race.
Image 7: galaxy in August 2230
Fortunately, my military strength is now much larger than the Drengin. My medium hull cruisers have good offense and defense, whereas the Drengin is dominated by the Dominator hulls, which are dead meat against one of my fleets. His other hulls are formidable with firepower similar to mine, but he has no defense. For ships that are 28/0/0 attack and 12/0/0 (without modification) vs 25/0/0 0/0/0 the outcome is not in doubt.
So now I am back on finishing the offense tech (phaser), will continue to strengthen the galactic resources I have (where they are safe), and continue to build ships to fight the Drengin and some to fight the Yor. The Korx is friendly, but that could change, too.
I’m positioning my fleets to take out four or more of the Drengin worlds in one strike, and get a few good fleets to do what I can to winnow down his military power. I just hope the Korx and Yor leave me alone or it could all fall apart.
