Federation AAR

Pushing Economics and Politics

The following is my AAR for a game currently in progress.
Game: Dark Avatar
Difficulty: Challenging
Misc Map Info: Largest Size, Abundant Planets, Abundant Habitable Planets, Rare Anomalies (I like to keep them somewhat unusual), Fast Research, Tech Victory Enabled (But I hope that no one uses it).

My Civilization: The Federation of Planets
Stats: Increased Reproduction (I believe the third tier of that ability), Highest Tier of Research and Economic Production (If I recall correctly), and I might have put stats into social prodution - I forget. My Political Orientation is Economic (cause I love having money to spend). MY important starting techs are Stellar Cartography and that's about it. The others are mostly filler. I selected the option to optimize colonization for my civilization, allowing my access to acquatic worlds earlier.

Goal: Using brute economic force, push through a diplomatic strategy of alliances with any and all civilizations that will accept them. My hope is to avoid large scale warfare completely and avoid any military conflicts as much as possible. I hope to acquire a diplomatic or influence victory. I also want to get by in a game with minimal military strength.

I plan to update the AAR once every year, usually after the United Planets vote.

Let's begin:

Our civilizations originated on "Blue Star," a world named after the first Hyperdrive equiped starship in the fleet. We're small, but the galaxy is large, and we plan to repay our debt to the Terrans for the gift of hyperdrive.
Blue Star is a small world, Type 10, 8 billion people living on it, and a reasonable income. Per the norm we have a construction ship, colony ship, and flagship. The universal translator will be our first technology - though some argue other technologies might be more useful in the long run.


We Begin

Universal translators are soon completed, and we move on to Ion Drives. Around the same time our first planet is colonized: the distant Cheli II, which we rename Blue Star R1 (short for Blue Star Ring 1 - an indication of how close it is to the homeworld).

It's a small world afterall.

Expansion continues basically unabated. Soon we control a third planet around the star Otho. We have completed a mining starbase, and our flagship moves to investigate our first anomaly. Within three weeks of that missions commencement, we complete research on galactic warfare, assuring ourselves of a means to defend our holdings should it become necessary. Even so we aren't remarkably powerful... yet.

The Federation at large

Dogs of War

unremarkable

We discover a minor stash of valuables. Since we're spending more than we're making, every little thing is appreciated. Even so, I can't help but wonder where the economy will be in a few months. Will we ever be able to pay our way to victory? Also, we aren't researching anything because social spending is through the roof. The way the leaders see it, we're better off with developed planets to fuel technological development than we are with high technology and no planets.

Money!

We encounter two civilizations soon after: The relatively aggressive Yor Empire, and the Thalans (who we hope to ally with at the soonest possible convenience).


the Bor... I mean Yor Collective

Thalans

Two weeks later we find this:

Energon Crystals!

And a week later another civilization!

Lentz all be friends

But we're not idling (despite being markedly lower on funds than anyone should want to be). Instead, we manage to reach a class 17 world before the Thalans (who are nearer it). We decide to name this world "Blue Star 2" in honor of its quality, and also because it is distant enough from the homeworld to deserve it's own ring of worlds, much like as Blue Star R1 is to Blue Star.

BLue Star 2

Just as I was hoping for some peace and quiet to mark this period of expansion, a strange sight appears in our space:

Arcean Ship

I can only assume that Arcean Flagship was sucked through a wormhole and deposited somewhere on the other side of the Thalan Empire. No matter though - Stellar Cartography had already revealed to us the extent of the Arcean Empire, seeing one of their ships here is not yet a matter for concern. Militarily, they're only marginally stronger than us, and economically we're beginning to pull out of the rut we'd been in (evidenced by that pesky -57 BC underneath the researching summary).

Or Perhaps I spoke too soon. the development of Blue Star 2 forced us to raise taxes and lower production in order to buy, outright, that starport. Now we're even deeper in deficit than before:

Crap...

Freakin Jessuins - they're always trying to teach kids in private schools... no wait, that's another group. The Jessuins are a minor species and don't conern us (as yet). Perhaps we'll establish trade routes with them?

Jesuits... no, wait...

We've pulled out of debt and the populations growing. Hopefully those xeno trade centers will be up and running soon - guaranteeing us a booming early game economy. Then again, maybe they won't. It's hard to tell at this point with expansion still a matter of profound importance. At least we're keeping pace with the other civilizations...

The Federation cira 1 Year

The United Planets vote. We vote against armed transports since those would require more costly components and take us space that could be relegated to additional troop modules. Plus, armed transports could - in theory - break through planetary defense fleets. On the other hand, we're well aware that keeping transports cheap will merely encourage the enemy to invade.

United Planets

For those of you interested, we won the vote with a little help from the Yor Collective. This plays into our fears, as the Yor have a penchant for aggressive expansion.

New Year

And the new year dawns. The Yor grasp the covetted third place spot with superior research to us. The Thalans and Arceans both pull far ahead - giving us cause to worry. Without espionage to reveal the inner working of their Empire's to us, we are unable to guess what magnitude of military power they could leverage against us. On the other hand, the economy is growing and approval is relatively stable. Plus, Xeno trade centers are almost done. With the increased revenues from those centers, perhaps we can improve our factories and construct a rudimentary military? One thing is certain though: We must continue to expand or we will die.
23,488 views 3 replies
Reply #1 Top
Very nice start, i look forward to reading more.

The Nights Dawn Metaverse Empire
Reply #2 Top
And Expand we did. Not without difficulty though. The first world we colonized for the new year turned out to have some impressive natural beauty. According to our ethics, we elected to preserve it as a national park:



Shortly thereafter we encountered the Altarian Resistance. Knowing that they shared similar ethics to us, I hoped for a profitable alliance in the future. For the time being though, we would be unable to lend each other any assistance, as the gulf of space between us was simply far to great for our current level of technology. However, according to the quarterly report, they'd be a valuable ally.





The Drath Legion appears. We are indifferent to them at that time. But in the future, competition with them over planets might prove painful.



I must say, I'm disappointed with the progress of our expansion. Granted, research to galactic stock exchanges is consuming most of our spending, since the payoff will be considerable, but I can't help but shake that feeling that we need more planets, and we need them quickly. With the position of the Alterians and others - all militarily superior to us, we need to expand to stay competitive.



We encounter a Paulos constructor:



However, our strict policy of noninterference will keep us from invading their high quality worlds. Besides, if we aren't friendly nobody will trust us.



Guess I spoke too soon. Since the Alterians declared war, I decided to begin some heavy duty military research. A fleet might become necessary. However, what bothers me the most is who has decided to pay or influence them to go to war with me? I suspect the Thalans, since our borders buck against each other, but it could be the Yor or even the Arceans. It has to be somebody who we've made contact with, and this limits the culprits. Also, part of me suspects one of the other Empires might be paying the Alterians to go to war in the hopes that the Alterians destroy themselves through over engagement.



Minor wars start here and there.

Military research begins. The Federation won't be caught completely unprepared, so long as we can help it.



Galactic Stock Exchanges start paying off. And it'll only get better as the population increases.



And it appears as if I'm right in my belief about the Alterians. They're being manipulated, but by who?





And the population continues to increase, meaning more money for me. Hopefully I'll be able to keep us from deficit spending at this point. I hope the Alterians don't research a technology that would allow them to traverse the void of space between us quickly either. I need to form alliances in the meantime, just in case.



Alliances and Governments. Nice.



And the Thalans colonize a low quality planet in my space. I'll have to build diplomatic structures if I want to drive them out the easy way. I don't want to go to war with them, but their presence here speaks ill of their intent. I strongly suspect they're manipulating the Alterians, but I can't be certain. Time to rush build colony ships and grab every planet I can. Otherwise I'll get bottled in as I am now, and that would be horrible.



Things end with a lost vote in the United Planets. I'd really hoped to charge money for starbases. Oh well. And we're still the weakest (appearing) civilization - with the exception of the Drath Legion. Time to change that.







Reply #3 Top
I'm not sure if your roleplaying ignorance as to who is manipulating the Altarians. If you are roleplaying, then ignore my next paragraph a few spaces down. If not, and you dont want me to burst your bubble, ignore said paragraph.




Its the Drath and their Super Manipulator ability. Makes it cheaper for them to convice other people to go to war with another civ. You can tell its the Drath because of the "a power with a great deal of persuasion encouraged us to do so" sentance. So even if the Drath are last in the galaxy, it sounds like they are convincing other civs (especially the Altarians) to go to war with each other to keep them too busy to attack the Drath. So dont go blaming those poor Thalans!