First AAR - Altarian Resistance
from 
GalCiv2 Forums
GalCiv2 Forums
Greetings fellow travellers!
This will be my first AAR (not yet completed). It covers the first 5 years of the Altarian Resistance. Sorry, there are no screenshots to accompany this post. If someone were to assist my miniscule skills with a pointer on how to capture them, future posts will be more eye candy laden.....
Well, to start with, here is the setup for the sandbox:
Huge Galaxy Size
All Victory Conditions available
Checked Blind Exploration, Mega Events, and Super Abilities
(I always like for things to be challenging, yet managable. Not having Blind Exploration checked gives you an unrealistic advantage, namely knowing where everyone is before you start exploring. I always like a little more "realism" when I play. And I think that people that turn off Mega Events don't have enough strategic flexability, but that is just MY opinion.)
Habitable Planets, # Planets and # Stars all set to Common.
Star Density set to Tight Clusters (I like having "regions" in my games.
Anomolies and Asteroids both set to Abundant.
Tech Rate set to Normal.
# Minor Races set to random.
As the title of the AAR suggests, I play my current favorite race, the Altarian Resistance.
In addition to the standard abilities, I gave them the following abilities:
+20% Planet Quality
Creativity
Luck
Federalists
No great modifications to the typical Altarian's. And I do like juicy planets.
I like a crowded Galaxy, so I set the difficulty at Challenging with nine opponents (All at "bright" intelligence) The shmoes in my galaxy are:
1. Krynn 2. Drath
3. Terrans 4. Arceans
5. Torians 6. Yor
7. Korx 8. Drengins
9. Iconians
Year One (2226): Exporation and Colonization
We start on the pristine world of Altaria. Right off the bat, I don't see much to be excited about. I only get a 100% Research and 100% Food bonus tile, and there is no way I'm putting a farm on my homeworld. Oh well. I set up the homeworld as a Jack of All Trades world with 4 Industry, 4 Research, 2 Entertainmentt, and 1 Trade improvement. Thanks to my PQ bonus, I've got another tile available (PQ14), so I keep it open for something else down the line.
I go ahead and set my Production rate to 100% and my Tax Rate to 37% (Which still keeps my people at a frisky 100% Approval). I know that I'll end up having to adjust them by year's end due to deficit spending, but we need the good start.
After setting my economic policy, I go ahead and rush build a lab and scout on Altaria. I like to get a jump on my tech production (even though it does tend to drive my economy into the tank faster) and I'll use the scout to start exploring systems (I don't set her to Auto Explore until I have a searched all of the systems in range.
I start off my research to go after Xeno Labs to give me more of an initial tech boost. I like to follow a Tech strategy of alternating between weapon and non weapon techs while I go along. This usually ensures that I can keep up with the jones' and field adequate military power to keep the wolves at bay. (Of course, circumstances always dictate priorities, as I find out later).
Finally, I take a look at the galaxy at large (this is of course where I would have wanted a screen shot, but oh well).
The galaxy appears to be situated in three primary clusters. The cluster with homeworld in it is the smallest of the three and looks about big enough for another race to be lurking within (I'll send Colony 1 that way to try and estabish my border as far forward as possible).
To the SouthEast of my cluster is a much larger one. It will probably have three other races by the size of it, and won't factor in to my initial rush.
Below both of these clusters is a long skinny cluster that nearly runs the bredth of the galaxy. That one will probably have two or three races.
Finally, the North and East corners of the galaxy have reasonable sized clusters, so I'd expect the other two races to be in what I like to call the "Loser Seats".
With all of this done, I set my Flagship to go a probin' and my miner to start setting up bases in my homeworld's fields and end the first turn (Whew).
Remember what I said about circumstances dictating research priorities? Well example one rears it's ugly head in the first two months.
In Feb, I uncover the Aquarii system in the same sector as Altaris. There are three worlds orbiting Aquarii, one rather weak looking class 3 standard and two beautiful class 12 aquatic. Hmm.... It's looking like I may have to start thinking about a run at Aquatic World Colonization rather early. I hope that the Iconians are not my neighbors or they'll snatch these gems up PDQ. Then, I uncover the Florin and Weber systems just north of Altaria. Floris isn't anything special, with a single class 10. But Weber has another class 12 aquatic to go along with a class 7 standard in orbit. I don't typically like to research an Extreme Colonization Tech so early, but 3 Class 12 worlds within a sector of each other is a bit too tempting. It may cripple my researching, but I can't risk that the Iconians are close enough to take these. I set my scientists to quickly learn how to swim alot and move on.
End of March I meet a Drath scoutship. It's location appears to indicate that they share my cluster with me. Hopefully they forget the whole nearly wiping them out when they lived on the same world thing and we can all get along....
Also at the end of March, I find the Unukalhai system to my SW and it has a class 17 word around it! Too bad it's as inviting as a desert. Well, since I'm going for Aquatic, I can add Barren as well if it doesn't get snatched up by the Yor.
In April, my 1st new Colony Ship is completed. I load it up and head out to Florin III, the best non extreme world I've uncovered so far.
In June, I colonize my first two worlds. Florin III becomes a class 12 thanks to my PQ bonus and sports a 100% approval and 100% influence tile (blah). Also, my initial colony ship sets down on Gladstone V near the Drath border, where I find my first Moral dilemna, an alien starchip orbits the planet with some sweet tech. However, my righteous explorers know to live and let live with them and we leave them at peace. Gladstone V is only a class 7, but it sports a 100% manufacturing bonus tile, so it becomes a specialist building world. It will also be where I start putting together my military. I typically refrain from building warships until I have a second starport to use. By then, I usually can sport some nice weapon tech on my ships (this time, however, I'm going for the Colonization techs so my first ships will probably be somewhat anemic).
In July I run into the Korx south of Altaria. I also site an influence resource. I go to Altaria to put out a constructor to claim the resource. The Korx appear to be somewhere in the long cluster below me, but I ran into their Flagship, so I can't rule out a wormhole.
In August, I colonize Weber II, a PQ 8 world. I also get my next moral dilemna in the underwater cities of Weber II. Once again, I leave well enough alone and ignore the tech benefits of the domes.
In October, I find that the Drath are definately on my SW border in the same cluster. Also this month, I colonize Aquarii IV (PQ 3) and Wisp (PQ 3). In orbit around Wisp, I find those aliens again with their snazzy starship. Once again, I leave them alone (but it was alot harder this time with them offering a 10% starship bonus but I am resolved to play my alignment to the hilt). Also in October, I claim that influence starbase for myself.
November and December go by rather uneventfully, with Gladstone V completing it's starport, I design my first ship. I designate it as a DD(M) V1b (Alt). I like a naming convention that informs me about the ship. The first part tells me the size and weaponry of the ship. It goes FF (Tiny), DD (Small), CA (Medium), BB (Large) and DN (Huge). The weapon designations are M for missile, G for projectile and B for beam. The second part is the version number. The last letter just sets it apart from other similar craft so I don't overwrite any ships. The final part shows what race it is used for (first 3 letters of the race's name). As I expected, my run at the Extreme Colony techs has left me with little to work with, and I can only give her 1 pt of missile damage and a sensor array.
2226 ends with the UP vote, and it is decided that we will arm transports with 5 points of weaponry.
Year Two (2227): Hail, hail the gang's all here....
Year 2 begins with my Flagship uncovering a military resource to my northeast in empty space. Once again, I pop out a constructor to go and claim it for my empire. Also, January sees the sucessful completion of Aquatic World Colonization. I am smacking my lips for the three jewels that lie in wait for me.
I meet the Drengin in February. The meeting is in the form of a scout ship from the north. The only thing north of me is a small cluster of world isolated in the north corner of the galaxy. I chortle for a moment at their suck ass positioning until I realize that the only way for them to expand would be through..... me. Uh Oh.
In March, my evil neighbor's continue to reveal themselves as I run into a Yor scoutship. Not good. The Yor are ALWAYS aggressive to me and with them in the neighborhood, I can't lose that class 17 barren world at Unukalhai. Looks like I'm going to have to go for barren colonization immediately. sigh.
Also in March, I get two of the three aquatic worlds in my sphere of influence. Aquarii V is a class 14 with 2 100% manufacturing bonus tiles and a 100% approval bonus tile. Aquarii I has a moral dilemna with a Precursor Workshop that could boost the production of the planet. However it sucks the life from workers, so I say no thanks. (This good alignment is starting to be a pain). Aquarii I has a sweet 300% bonus maufacturing tile and a 100% bonus approval tile. I just found my manufacturing capital world!
Things roll on into mid May, when I colonize the last Aquatic world in my sphere at Weber II. It is another class 14, but no bonus tiles. So, I manage to grab all 3 Aquatic worlds. Most excellent for my future, but for the present I have a problem.
I have finally reached the crashing point on my economy. My approvar rating has slid on it's own down to a good 87%, but at 100% production, I am running a weekly deficit of -131bc/week and I have drained my treasury to 49bc in the bank. I'm going to have to limp along until my population can support 100% production again. It will hurt, especially given I am going for Barren world colonization, but I have to tank my production down to 50% and my tax rate up to 57%, which gives me a corresponding drop in approval to 52%. I get in the green, but it is going to cripple me soon. I hope that my economy will rebound quickly. It's May 22, 2227. We shall see what happens next.
To be continued....
This will be my first AAR (not yet completed). It covers the first 5 years of the Altarian Resistance. Sorry, there are no screenshots to accompany this post. If someone were to assist my miniscule skills with a pointer on how to capture them, future posts will be more eye candy laden.....
Well, to start with, here is the setup for the sandbox:
Huge Galaxy Size
All Victory Conditions available
Checked Blind Exploration, Mega Events, and Super Abilities
(I always like for things to be challenging, yet managable. Not having Blind Exploration checked gives you an unrealistic advantage, namely knowing where everyone is before you start exploring. I always like a little more "realism" when I play. And I think that people that turn off Mega Events don't have enough strategic flexability, but that is just MY opinion.)
Habitable Planets, # Planets and # Stars all set to Common.
Star Density set to Tight Clusters (I like having "regions" in my games.
Anomolies and Asteroids both set to Abundant.
Tech Rate set to Normal.
# Minor Races set to random.
As the title of the AAR suggests, I play my current favorite race, the Altarian Resistance.
In addition to the standard abilities, I gave them the following abilities:
+20% Planet Quality
Creativity
Luck
Federalists
No great modifications to the typical Altarian's. And I do like juicy planets.
I like a crowded Galaxy, so I set the difficulty at Challenging with nine opponents (All at "bright" intelligence) The shmoes in my galaxy are:
1. Krynn 2. Drath
3. Terrans 4. Arceans
5. Torians 6. Yor
7. Korx 8. Drengins
9. Iconians
Year One (2226): Exporation and Colonization
We start on the pristine world of Altaria. Right off the bat, I don't see much to be excited about. I only get a 100% Research and 100% Food bonus tile, and there is no way I'm putting a farm on my homeworld. Oh well. I set up the homeworld as a Jack of All Trades world with 4 Industry, 4 Research, 2 Entertainmentt, and 1 Trade improvement. Thanks to my PQ bonus, I've got another tile available (PQ14), so I keep it open for something else down the line.
I go ahead and set my Production rate to 100% and my Tax Rate to 37% (Which still keeps my people at a frisky 100% Approval). I know that I'll end up having to adjust them by year's end due to deficit spending, but we need the good start.
After setting my economic policy, I go ahead and rush build a lab and scout on Altaria. I like to get a jump on my tech production (even though it does tend to drive my economy into the tank faster) and I'll use the scout to start exploring systems (I don't set her to Auto Explore until I have a searched all of the systems in range.
I start off my research to go after Xeno Labs to give me more of an initial tech boost. I like to follow a Tech strategy of alternating between weapon and non weapon techs while I go along. This usually ensures that I can keep up with the jones' and field adequate military power to keep the wolves at bay. (Of course, circumstances always dictate priorities, as I find out later).
Finally, I take a look at the galaxy at large (this is of course where I would have wanted a screen shot, but oh well).
The galaxy appears to be situated in three primary clusters. The cluster with homeworld in it is the smallest of the three and looks about big enough for another race to be lurking within (I'll send Colony 1 that way to try and estabish my border as far forward as possible).
To the SouthEast of my cluster is a much larger one. It will probably have three other races by the size of it, and won't factor in to my initial rush.
Below both of these clusters is a long skinny cluster that nearly runs the bredth of the galaxy. That one will probably have two or three races.
Finally, the North and East corners of the galaxy have reasonable sized clusters, so I'd expect the other two races to be in what I like to call the "Loser Seats".
With all of this done, I set my Flagship to go a probin' and my miner to start setting up bases in my homeworld's fields and end the first turn (Whew).
Remember what I said about circumstances dictating research priorities? Well example one rears it's ugly head in the first two months.
In Feb, I uncover the Aquarii system in the same sector as Altaris. There are three worlds orbiting Aquarii, one rather weak looking class 3 standard and two beautiful class 12 aquatic. Hmm.... It's looking like I may have to start thinking about a run at Aquatic World Colonization rather early. I hope that the Iconians are not my neighbors or they'll snatch these gems up PDQ. Then, I uncover the Florin and Weber systems just north of Altaria. Floris isn't anything special, with a single class 10. But Weber has another class 12 aquatic to go along with a class 7 standard in orbit. I don't typically like to research an Extreme Colonization Tech so early, but 3 Class 12 worlds within a sector of each other is a bit too tempting. It may cripple my researching, but I can't risk that the Iconians are close enough to take these. I set my scientists to quickly learn how to swim alot and move on.
End of March I meet a Drath scoutship. It's location appears to indicate that they share my cluster with me. Hopefully they forget the whole nearly wiping them out when they lived on the same world thing and we can all get along....
Also at the end of March, I find the Unukalhai system to my SW and it has a class 17 word around it! Too bad it's as inviting as a desert. Well, since I'm going for Aquatic, I can add Barren as well if it doesn't get snatched up by the Yor.
In April, my 1st new Colony Ship is completed. I load it up and head out to Florin III, the best non extreme world I've uncovered so far.
In June, I colonize my first two worlds. Florin III becomes a class 12 thanks to my PQ bonus and sports a 100% approval and 100% influence tile (blah). Also, my initial colony ship sets down on Gladstone V near the Drath border, where I find my first Moral dilemna, an alien starchip orbits the planet with some sweet tech. However, my righteous explorers know to live and let live with them and we leave them at peace. Gladstone V is only a class 7, but it sports a 100% manufacturing bonus tile, so it becomes a specialist building world. It will also be where I start putting together my military. I typically refrain from building warships until I have a second starport to use. By then, I usually can sport some nice weapon tech on my ships (this time, however, I'm going for the Colonization techs so my first ships will probably be somewhat anemic).
In July I run into the Korx south of Altaria. I also site an influence resource. I go to Altaria to put out a constructor to claim the resource. The Korx appear to be somewhere in the long cluster below me, but I ran into their Flagship, so I can't rule out a wormhole.
In August, I colonize Weber II, a PQ 8 world. I also get my next moral dilemna in the underwater cities of Weber II. Once again, I leave well enough alone and ignore the tech benefits of the domes.
In October, I find that the Drath are definately on my SW border in the same cluster. Also this month, I colonize Aquarii IV (PQ 3) and Wisp (PQ 3). In orbit around Wisp, I find those aliens again with their snazzy starship. Once again, I leave them alone (but it was alot harder this time with them offering a 10% starship bonus but I am resolved to play my alignment to the hilt). Also in October, I claim that influence starbase for myself.
November and December go by rather uneventfully, with Gladstone V completing it's starport, I design my first ship. I designate it as a DD(M) V1b (Alt). I like a naming convention that informs me about the ship. The first part tells me the size and weaponry of the ship. It goes FF (Tiny), DD (Small), CA (Medium), BB (Large) and DN (Huge). The weapon designations are M for missile, G for projectile and B for beam. The second part is the version number. The last letter just sets it apart from other similar craft so I don't overwrite any ships. The final part shows what race it is used for (first 3 letters of the race's name). As I expected, my run at the Extreme Colony techs has left me with little to work with, and I can only give her 1 pt of missile damage and a sensor array.
2226 ends with the UP vote, and it is decided that we will arm transports with 5 points of weaponry.
Year Two (2227): Hail, hail the gang's all here....
Year 2 begins with my Flagship uncovering a military resource to my northeast in empty space. Once again, I pop out a constructor to go and claim it for my empire. Also, January sees the sucessful completion of Aquatic World Colonization. I am smacking my lips for the three jewels that lie in wait for me.
I meet the Drengin in February. The meeting is in the form of a scout ship from the north. The only thing north of me is a small cluster of world isolated in the north corner of the galaxy. I chortle for a moment at their suck ass positioning until I realize that the only way for them to expand would be through..... me. Uh Oh.
In March, my evil neighbor's continue to reveal themselves as I run into a Yor scoutship. Not good. The Yor are ALWAYS aggressive to me and with them in the neighborhood, I can't lose that class 17 barren world at Unukalhai. Looks like I'm going to have to go for barren colonization immediately. sigh.
Also in March, I get two of the three aquatic worlds in my sphere of influence. Aquarii V is a class 14 with 2 100% manufacturing bonus tiles and a 100% approval bonus tile. Aquarii I has a moral dilemna with a Precursor Workshop that could boost the production of the planet. However it sucks the life from workers, so I say no thanks. (This good alignment is starting to be a pain). Aquarii I has a sweet 300% bonus maufacturing tile and a 100% bonus approval tile. I just found my manufacturing capital world!
Things roll on into mid May, when I colonize the last Aquatic world in my sphere at Weber II. It is another class 14, but no bonus tiles. So, I manage to grab all 3 Aquatic worlds. Most excellent for my future, but for the present I have a problem.
I have finally reached the crashing point on my economy. My approvar rating has slid on it's own down to a good 87%, but at 100% production, I am running a weekly deficit of -131bc/week and I have drained my treasury to 49bc in the bank. I'm going to have to limp along until my population can support 100% production again. It will hurt, especially given I am going for Barren world colonization, but I have to tank my production down to 50% and my tax rate up to 57%, which gives me a corresponding drop in approval to 52%. I get in the green, but it is going to cripple me soon. I hope that my economy will rebound quickly. It's May 22, 2227. We shall see what happens next.
To be continued....
