While exploring the galaxy with scouts, I come across an unclaimed military resource tucked away near Altarian and Torian space:

I continue to build up fighters and work on Advanced Logistics.  Medium Scale Building seems like a logical step forward:

I also part with some of my hard-earned credits to buy some surplus heavy fighters from the Drengin:

They're equipped with Stinger missiles (well really just one per fighter) and they're certainly nothing fancy, but they will come in handy to improve my numbers.

In July of 2234, the Thalans uncover an artifact left behind the the Arnor:

Wait, what?  Now you're telling me that they have two of these things in play?  Oh come on, this is ridiculous.  Next you'll be telling me they've found the third box of Orden too.

Obviously, it would be better to deal with them now, before they really do become godlike.

So, I move my transports into position at the edge of the border, covered by my squadrons which now have adequate numbers and logistics, and declare war.

While the assault forces are moving into position, the shipyards are busy working on my new frigate:

It carries almost twice the firepower of the Hornet III heavy fighter, and can take roughly three times more punishment.  I've put this into production and the first will be completed on Earth in a month's time.

The next research goal is Miniaturisation (Basic and Enhanced) which has been available since I finished Technology Progression II.  I doubt that it will have any major effect on the Thalan war (which should be short and sweet) but it may prove useful when I start looking into improved weapons.

As the second and final confrontation with the Thalan Empire unfolds, it's a relatively simple matter to eliminate the defenders and land troops:

The few squadrons that they are able to send to intercept my own ships are not at full logistics strength and although they still do some damage, I definitely have the upper hand:

Before long, I have seized all but one Thalan world, and all these are now under my control:

The one remaining planet, Alenil II, is a bit further away but thanks to Ultradrive it will only take five weeks to get there and finally stop the Thalans before it's too late.

In the meantime, I am discovering more of the galactic resources that I somehow missed:

The Yor haven't yet developed this mining starbase.  I will need to keep an eye on it so that I'm not caught unaware by a suddenly-mighty Yor.

Approaching Alenil II, my fleet is intercepted by the remnants of the Thalan fleet:

Thanks to greater numbers, I'm able to prevail here and eliminate the defences in the planet's orbit.

My scouts finally discover the location of the lost city of Atlantis... I mean, the lost planet of Altaria:

It's always useful to know the location of the home system of the major races so you can send a Terror Star to obliterate it send a freighter to establish a trade route.

In October of 2234, my troop transports descend to the surface of Alenil II to commence the final invasion of the war:

The fighting is intense, but eventually the Thalan ground forces are surrounded and outnumbered.  It's over.

Unfortunately, I am informed that Hithesius escaped before the invasion force arrived, but now that we have pacified the citizenry, it is possible to attempt to reverse the effects of the Precursor devices, or at the very least turn them off.

I would take a moment to congratulate myself on averting disaster and saving the galaxy, but it's still a really violent place and it's only a matter of time before one of the other races notices that I'm carving up a big empire over on the left side of the map, and decides that I need to be stopped.

So who's it going to be?  Lord Vega?  True, he has battleships, but last I checked they were all armed with Sparrow missiles.  He's also not all that hostile towards me.  Lord Kona would be a contender, but even if he does launch an attack, he will be muttering all sorts of curses as I retaliate with the very fighters he sold me earlier this year.

I struggle to find an angle on the tactical level which shows all of my massive empire:

As the year 2234 comes to a close, I have finished those Miniaturisation techs, Space Mining II, and I have moved on to Advanced Space Weapons:

The United Planets (now with one delegate less than last year) meets to discuss limiting trade routes for evil races:

Of course since the Drengin and Yor benefit from trade routes with races they are not at war with while they make war on races like the Korx who are unable to defend themselves, I decide to vote for a limitation of just one trade route.  The measure passes, although besides me only Iso the Wise votes for this strictest limitation.

It's time once again to examine the technological progress of the races, and compare their current technological might with the value from 2230:

1. Terrans: 1690 (+1592)
2. Arcean: 1440 (+1329)
3. LMT Corporate: 1151 (+1002)
4. Yor: 1093 (+927)
5. Iconian: 971 (+ 752)
6. Altarians: 827 (+739)
7. Drengin: 621 (+567)
8. Korx: 264 (+156)
9. Torians: 226 (+188)

So as you can see, it's a big jump into the lead for me.  The Arceans have used their investment in research to steer into a comfortable second place (yet somehow they don't need to research more advanced missiles?!) and the LMT Corporate have secured a steady third with the Yor not far behind.

The Torians have remained dead last.  The Drengin have improved their placing, now ahead of the Korx by a considerable margin, but they're still quite primitive compared to the guys at the top of the leaderboard.

The timeline for the past year shows steady investment in research from many of the major races:

The Drengin, like the Thalans, seem to have difficulty financing their empire, possibly as a result of spies still affecting their economic output, or because they do not have enough economic structures to support their expenses.  The loss of research output in the middle of the year and towards the end means that they are developing only slightly faster overall than the Altarians or Iconians.  It's something to monitor in the coming year, anyway.

As the year begins, a blight starts to spread across several of my worlds:

I see no reason why not to spare as many of my people from this pink ooze, and 25bc is a small price to pay.

The Iconian colony on Patrokolos III, which has long been sympathetic to teh Terran Alliance, finally secedes from the Iconian empire and signs up:

It will probably make a good colony when I finally have the technology to make use of it (when am I doing that again?).

Meanwhile I've noticed that the Yor have been increasing output at this mining starbase:

There are no defences there so it's possible that some enemy of the Yor will take care of it.

I have completed research of Advanced Space Weapons and now have a choice (again) between the three weapon types:

Which is nice, actually.  It gives both the human and AI players the opportunity to switch weapon types if they notice that another race is developing defences against their preferred weapon type, without needing to go all the way through the basic weapons technologies first.

I know that the Iconians have been researching missile defences.  So far they're the only race I know of to look into defences, and they don't seem to have any frigates to make proper use of them.

I decide to go for Pulse Cannons because the research cost to get to Pulse Cannons III seems to be lower than what I would need to get to Particle Beams III or Harpoon III.

The Arceans destroy one of the minor races:

If the major races keep swallowing up the minor races like this, things could get ugly.  Aside from the fact that it lands them a nice juicy second civ capital, minor races usually have very nice homeworlds with an abundance of tiles to develop on.

I decide to snag this morale resource while it's still free:

While I'm researching Pulse Cannons, I'm presented with another of those interesting ethical choices:

Well, I have lots of credits and where my citizens' lives are concerned, I'm willing to do what it takes to protect them.  Even if it's from themselves.

Meanwhile, I'm giving many of my shipyards a rest:

The reasoning is simple.  There's no point in producing a lot of fighters and frigates that are going to need to be upgraded anyway.  My current fleet is large enough to comfortably handle any of the other races, and once my old ships are refitted with Pulse Cannons, that comfort level will increase.

Meanwhile, my foreign advisor informs me that the LMT Corporate has banded together with the Iconians, Torians and Altarians:

This will make it significantly more difficult for the Drengin, Arceans or Yor to pick off those races one by one.  It's bad news for the Korx, who haven't been included in this alliance.

The Altarians claim the distant military resource that I've been keeping an eye on:

They also control this military resource, although it is undeveloped at this time:

With the completion of Pulse Cannons research, my engineers revise the Hornet fighter design:

Fitted with a pair of new pulse cannons, the Hornet IV has a reinforced hull so it can take a little bit more punishment in a fight.

The Raptor frigate receives an updated weapon loadout:

The Raptor II isn't any tougher than the original, but it does have a significant edge in firepower.

After consulting recent intelligence reports, I've chosen to pursue the Planetary Bombardment tech:

Although I will undoubtedly draw criticism for developing a strategy of bombarding a planet until everything on the surface is finely-strewn rubble, it's an effective method of softening up the enemy for a ground assault, and until a better option is on the table I don't see that I have much choice.

Meanwhile, the massive pile of credits I have been holding onto sees some use:

The Altarians don't manage to hold on to that military resource for very long:

As the Yor declare war on the Altarians, I'm presented with the option to join in on the side of the Altarians:

Now as always the Yor have signed a treaty with the Drengin.  Because honestly, nobody else really feels like being in the same room as a bunch of evil robots.  There's no alliance between them, but I think there soon will be if I relentlessly pummel the Yor into space dust.  Assuming I can actually do that pummelling, I mean.  Those missile-armed defenders of theirs look quite fierce.

However, I wouldn't to be fighting them alone.  And let's not forget, the Yor supported the Drengin in subjugating the galaxy in the last game.  If they are beaten, then the Drengin will have lost one potential ally.

I click Yes and wait for the galaxy to start exploding.

Having completed Planetary Bombardment research, I decide to pursue a long-neglected technology:

In the modded tech trees, Advanced Colonisation unlocks the first level of colonisation techs, which Expert Colonisation unlocks the second level.  This helps to alleviate the problem with AI civs spending lots of time researching the follow-on techs when they only need the first level in order to planet a flag on the planet.

The Yor launch an offensive against Arcturus, a planet I liberated from the Thalans:

Although my defenders are defeated, they manage to inflict heavy damage on their attackers.

My first target for invasion is Markus II, a Yor colony located in what used to be a Thalan-held system.  After swatting aside the lone Yor defender with my pulse cannons, I make use of mass drivers to smash most of the ground forces into submission, and send in the troops:

It's not a bad planet.  And, although the quality of the planet is reduced by 9% during the attack, the planet quality rating does not decrease.  Not yet anyway.

One of my fleets destroys a key objective, the Yor mining starbase on that military resource:

Woosh.  Those Drengin missiles are good for something after all!

Now that I've completed my research into Advanced Colonisation, it's time to select which environment I want to be able to make use of:

Although as I said, I will not be able to research the next stage until later, it's better than the current situation, in which I cannot build anything using Social or Military funding.  Since I am at war with the Yor, and the Yor can colonise barren worlds, it seems a good idea to choose that one, as I may have to invade more barren worlds.

Meanwhile a disturbing report has indicated that the Arceans have finally restarted their stalled missile weapons research :

Of course it will take time for the Arceans to refit their ships to use the Stinger missile, but the implication is clear.  They could effectively double the firepower of all of their squadrons, which have slightly more logistical strength than mine.

The United Planet convene to discuss the exploitation of nation populations:

What complaints?  All I see here is N-1 making some baseless accusations because for a change I actually didn't let his band of miscreants run about invading who they please.

As the vote is called and counted, it seems that the rest of the delegates agree, and the proposal fails.

As the war progresses, I'm able to capture a particularly valuable Yor planet:

With the loss of this colony, research efforts by the Yor will go more slowly.  When I get this place up and running, it will provide a boost to my own efforts.

I continue to enjoy success against the Yor squadrons, but I'm losing frigates:

Not that I can't afford to replace them, but when they're suddenly lost in combat, it reduces firepower by a significant amount.

To get around this, I'm thinking of creating a light fighter design that will act as a screen for the heavier ships.  It will be cheap and easily manufactured.

Having completed the Barren World Colonisation research, I'm able to use several worlds which up until now were rather useless:

I've chosen to pursue Radioactive World Colonisation because I have four or five colonies with that environment type.

I have directed one of my fleets to the heart of Yor space.  It comprises a squadron of frigates and fighters, and four troop transports.  It's objective is to strike a crippling blow at the Yor homeworld, Iconia.  However the mission will take some time to execute because while in Yor space, speed will be reduced to 3 parsecs a week.  It may in fact be intercepted and destroyed before it gets there.  If it does succeed though, this speed restriction will not be effective any more because the sector will likely fall under my influence.

What a great AAR; I look forward to each installment.  

Loving it.  A couple questions:

1) Have you ever observed the AI switching weapons mid-game?  The opportunity to do so is pretty cool, but I'd be a little surprised if the AI didn't just keep on plugging away at the same weapon type regardless of circumstances.  I've noticed that the AI has trouble using weapons that are traded to them, because they don't seem to have ship designs available that use other weapons.

2) What alignment is the LMT Corporate?  It's pretty amazing that they scored alliances with all 3 good races.  Do they have awesome diplo or what?

I can't say that I have seen them switch mid-game, but generally this is because either their military strength doesn't dip low enough for them to research new weapons, or it's low enough but their research infrastructure has been diminished by war.  Without enough research going on, they're never going to reach the choice.

The LMT guys are neutral.  They do have the Terran tech tree, but other than that they have no diplomacy advantage.  I think it's more of a 'banding together against the big boys' thing which is going on there.

Not to spoil things too much for later, but they have made a fourth alliance.

I really like this idea, makes a lot of sense.

It takes so long to get to Iconia that I'm able to finish research on Radioactive World colonisation:

Habitat Improvement will let me make use of more tiles on all my colonies, and since I now have a lot of colonies, it makes a lot of sense to research it.

Before I get in range of Iconia, a Yor fleet intercepts:

You can see here that the light fighter did its job, drawing fire away from the frigate.  Too bad I only had one ready to go along.

All does not go as planned at Iconia on my first attempt:

The moral of this story kids is, never underestimate evil robots.

However while I'm trudging back to meet up with the next wave of transports, I decide to mop up a Yor fleet:

It's a decisive victory in what will be a long and drawn-out war.

Wow - looking at that map, the Arceans are a monster. Whatever you did to their tech tree seems to have done a lot of good.

As far as AI switching weapons goes, I've seen it occasionally. One DA game, the Krynn junked their second-tier missiles in favor of researching mass drivers. And the Korx and Altarians in my AAR have both done it - the Korx are bouncing back and forth between beams and mass drivers, while the Altarians will eventually switch to mass drivers outright (I haven't gotten that far yet in the AAR, though).

I think that it's more to do with the speed buff, since in v5A (that's the version of the AAR) I hadn't really begun to work on the Arcean tech tree.  The Arceans in this game also picked Industrialist and I think they picked max military production as well, so they're sitting at +100% military production ability.

The Yor claim this military resource and attempt to develop it:

However, they won't be likely to hang onto it for very long unless they keep enemy fleets away from it.

A look at the state of relations in the galaxy:

You can see that the LMT Corporate have managed to cultivate an unlikely alliance with the Drengin Empire.  You know how the AI tends to honour its alliances when the human player declares war, so this will make it a little more difficult to go after the Drengin.

The Yor make another run at the mining starbase near the Hadrian system:

Fortunately, I had a squadron of Hornet fighters guarding it, and they inflict significant damage.

I'd note that, since the LMT Corporate is "close" with you as well, if you sign an alliance they'll remain neutral in any war with the Drengin.

Do the Torians and Korx have a military yet?

In light of the LMT Corporate's alliance with the Drengin, I start researching better weapons.

I dispatch a newly-minted fleet to cover the damaged mining starbase (below):

It will take 11 weeks to get there.  That's how far out this place is.

I lay claim to Alshain II, which is near to an asteroid belt and the starbase which was just attacked:

It's not a bad place, and its location makes up for the lack of cool bonus tiles.  Of course I will need to wait a bit for all the asteroid mines to switch loyalty and start sending resources.  It will be useful so that I can reinforce the defences here without needing to wait three months for another squadron to get here.

Well the Korx are getting there, they've researched Missile Weapon Theory (how very original) so I'm expecting the other races may get a shock when they start arming up, because although the Korx haven't been doing a good job of keeping up in the arms race, they have managed to retain many planets and they have surprisingly strong influence.

The Torians are limping along, currently working on Interstellar Construction.  Their empire is also surprisingly quite intact, although I think they must be down a few worlds by now.

Alliances is one of the techs I have not got around to researching yet.  Even if I had, I can see that the LMT is going for a diplomatic victory.  Which is another way of saying that they'll happily stand around with their arms crossed while the Drengin nibble on their allies.

Even as I make my next attack run on Iconia, N-1 calls up desperately begging for peace:

Aw, are the evil robots waving the white flag already?  Finding it too hard to fight on a real enemy instead of those peaceful Altarians?  Well don't worry, there will be peace soon enough, when my forces take your homeworld and inflict an Aero-style interface on your operating system.

Unfortunately, as you can see below, I'm not able to make good on my promise:

I guess the Yor must really despise Aero, their forces are motivated enough to repel my invasion.

The United Planets meet again, this time to discuss whether or not to put weapons on transports:

Unfortunately, any time a transport is armed up, it becomes a big ol' target during fleet engagements.  A fleet of transports becomes a fleet of big ol' targets.  So it's obvious where my vote lies.

Luckily two of the other delegates actually have some experience with transports and vote against the proposal.

When Iconia changes hands, much of the Yor influence in the nearby sectors is lost:

Research of improved weapons technology is still ongoing.

The lack of speed restriction makes it very easy to reach the other nearby Yor colonies, and very little resistance is met.  This one looks as though it could be useful after a bit of terraforming.

This captured colony is already quite habitable and has a Research Academy already present that may be of some use.  However, beneath the ruins of a smoking Yor research matrix, the ground troops find a Precursor Library!  Immediately, I begin construction of a Research Academy to study the valuable information left behind.