Winter is coming: Brace yourselfs

[silencer_pl]

Sorry for the break. The Adventures of Spunty McGee in Calradia has made me use Floris mod . Should continue in this week though.

[silencer_pl]

So the full offensive has begun, and there will be plenty of battles. Most of them not that glorious since AI barely can produce any fleet that can stop me.

 

 

However this will lead to an avalanche of salvage projects. Some of them will be of minor use, and some of them will be very precious.

 

 

Since we've left for the domination let's upgrade those missiles so the colonies can defend much better now.

 

 

And still you can waste time with project you've already discovered.

 

 

So we are destroying other worlds, best to learn some "diplomacy" in the process.

 

 

All the way until I could demand total surrender... Unfortunately all of the races don't feel like it. It's time to increase the size of the boot.

 

During that time, there were of course plenty of salvage projects and you can think of as one project equals to 1-2 planets conquered. Because having a repair ship gives a chance to capture some tech and invading planets increases that chance.

 

 

And this one is so lucky to have. Now I will not have to worry about power if I get all the cool stuff.

 

 

 

And the armour I was lacking.

 

 

During also that time I have encountered Zuul attack with their first Dreadnought... The only impressive thing about it is the ammount of missiles. Tons of it... but in the end it was just few seconds when I've introduced him to Meson Beams and Cutting Beams.

 

 

Enough with the diplomacy for a while. If they want to be crushed, then be it so.

 

 

All that research for this thing.

 

 

Now it will hurt if I ever produce one. Well I will, just need to gather all the fancy stuff.

 

And another part of salvage.

 

 

Just one more try for the politics.

 

 

Still they don't want to quit. Shame....

 

Ok... so definitely weapons upgrade this time.

 

 

The SWS Systems are part of the expansion I think. Don't remember them from before it.

 

Also during the surveys in the Morrigi worlds I've found this Grand Menace.

 

 

The encounter was very brutal. I've lost almost entire fleet and managed only to destroy one of those so called herald moons.

 

 

Definitely need bigger guns.

 

And during some small encounters where after cleaning house the roaches moved in again. Rob is not in the design plans anymore so I can only guess that this model rotates faster.

 

 

 

And for the last in this updates:

 

The poor Hivers thought I will be afraid of those 2 Dreadnoughts. Well this didn't last long

 

https://youtu.be/NOxEcvXfX5s

 

 

And the encounter with the Locusts. The real battleships were destroyed pretty fast but the less combat able survived till the end.

 

https://youtu.be/mX0YG7W_xd4

 

I'll be back for revenge.

 

 

 

[silencer_pl]

Today will be small update, because turn times are quite long now. I have so much to keep track of, that after work there is not much time to have plenty of fun.

 

In theory I've cleansed all alien scums in near vicinity, but like roaches they come back trying to regain systems. I'm applying few more colonization Fleets - that should be 6 or 8 of them currently taking new territory. The majority of today's session was pretty quiet, except when I were finishing the AI decided to show some signs of life. In time to time I've sent them generous offer of surrender but still they decline.

 

So how was the progress today ?

 

First with the last bits of salvage. There is nothing more to get for now.

 

 

The best armour is finally ours and soon my ships will be very very tough. Good thing only those Quark Resonators where stopping point.

 

 

After that I've jumped to psionics again, since there are few techs I would like for the most advanced techs.

 

 

Our research is mostly done in 1-2 turns so I guess the boost is not that great but still since we can...

 

The next destination was Scientific Prolepsis but that didn't go well as planned.

 

 

Another step in advancement is to increase the industry output since soon there will be huge order to complete.

 

 

Unfortunately this was the leading point towards grav beam, a more powerful version of meson beam. I don't think that Morrigi have it sadly. They are the most able to get it I think.

 

And in the meantime another salvage.

 

 

Never used COL's to be honest.

 

After reaching our max capacity in industrial tree, it's time for the final part of the upgrade - weapons.

 

 

Pretty bad start...

 

Well since I will be using BattleRaiders...

 

 

And for the final word. During my expansions I've finally reached Liir Homeworld. The stupid fish didn't even wanted to protect their capital.

 

https://youtu.be/UwnZ4zp0Bj4

 

Still after such a blow they resist to surrender.

[silencer_pl]

Another update. This one with a little more of progress instead of just research though mostly it's only research what's piling up really fast. 1-2 turns per project - I wish I could do more projects per turn.

 

Ok so I gave a diplomacy another chance to improve but failed before even taking first step.

 

 

So be it then.

 

 

I've stopped the guns for a while thinking that I will invade another Liir planets so I'll get a nice salvage and won't have to worry about feasibility.

 

 

During that time I've encountered something fascinating, yet felt very disappointed.

 

https://youtu.be/ogI-s7UDjWE

 

Yep that was a Suul'ka - The Eldest in fact.... I hoped he will smash my ships, but all that tentacle waving was like looking for some Japanese schoolgirl.... His corpse was more interesting than his fight.

 

Ok carrying on with the boring stuff...

 

 

But suddenly a miracle.

 

 

About god damn time you've decided to do this. But as good as it sounds well I won't receive all the research I was behind. Well at least I am closer to finishing this.

 

And this is how many worlds he had. Pretty not much which I don't get it why.

 

 

Allright before I will construct the Leviathans I will need few more side techs for additional things.

 

 

Unfortunately this blocked me to the path of having no to build a prototype.

 

Well it's back to the guns.

 

 

Encouraged by the description, after discovering I found that this was a trap.

 

 

It might give boost to speed, but it also takes away few gun ports. And I am believer the more guns you have the more deadly you are.

 

Also the scouting of the left overs on the right side, the scanners picked a sign of the Von Neumann Homewrold.

 

 

But there is no node jump visible for me and probably there isn't one, so it will be a long haul to get there. And I do intend to fight both VN Homeworld and Locusts before the end of this game.

 

And a few turns later after the Liir, Hivers also decided to call it quits.

 

 

Again so little systems....

 

 

Oh well just few more techs and I will have the ultimate fighting force.

 

 

And that was the last tech needed to begin project Doomsday.

 

 

And the pinnacle of the fleet.

 

 

So in few turns I should have few of those. I have 300 millions of credits in the stash while constructing one of those is just merely 8 millions.

 

With the fleet being prepared in the shipyards. I can enhance some of my guns furthermore.

 

 

 

Soon the universe will be mine.

 

And here is small battle plan.

 

[Space Voyager]

Crap, the Suul'ka was brain-dead. Eh, well, the AI...

 

Can't wait to see those LVs in action! https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/Smiley/xtreme.gif

[Veki]

Can't wait to see those leviathan class ships in action.

[silencer_pl]

It's almost close to the end, the Tarkas and Zuul are constantly refusing to give up. They know they can't win but still... sigh....

 

Ok before some Leviathan action I've took my time to check what the new tree of cybernetics fully give. Here are some few of the decent one, and there wasn't a lot of tech here.

 

 

I've also by some strange twisted luck got Xombie plague. And I am surprised myself that I've got it since I rolled 19% feasibility. And normally that score is always a failure.

 

 

Though I don't know why use bio weapons it's always better to use shuttles or bomb the place because you can colonize the planets in next turn.

 

 

And so the encounters and leviathans. This was my test build to see how it would do. 3 Leviathans with battleriders.

 

https://youtu.be/EFpvQZrd60Q

https://youtu.be/uLVIzPqw-WM

 

The von neumann encounter was pretty chaotic and I've lost one leviathan because it was captured by I don't know what and I remember from the forums that this shouldn't be possible. Maybe you can correct me SV since you are stalking those sections.

 

Anyway during the Locusts there was an asteroid monitor too, which I also showed how "properly" you disable it.

 

 

And a result vs Van Neumann.

 

 

To be honest I hoped for something grander like it was in prime.

[Space Voyager]

I don't know if VN anomaly is supposed to be possible or not, but I can tell you this happened to me in SotS1, too, which suggests it may be deliberate under some circumstances.

[silencer_pl]

Alright this is it. The grand finale. After plenty of turns preparations for my fleets to be able to invade both Zuul and Tarka planets I begun with the invasion on the Zuul systems.

 

https://youtu.be/QCNWT5_zhYk

 

Right after this battle the Zuul decided to call it quits.

 

 

And strangely they had plenty of cash.

 

 

Their forces were puny.

 

Next stop was the "alliance" with the Morrigi.

 

 

Then it was only Takas, who are stubborn like mules.

 

In the meantime I managed to find yet another independents. The "pedo" bears.

 

 

Which agreed to be incorporated into our empire without any problems.

 

 

After dozen more turns I was finally able to launch major offensive on the Tarkas.

 

https://youtu.be/-AsJmKvHuhI

 

 

Even after destruction of their Homeworld they were so stubborn, so a complete genocide had to be done.

 

 

So that concludes with this episode of Lords of Winter.

 

I'll probably return to you playing as Hivers since in last 2 games they were the most crippled of them all. I'll probably reduce the number of AIs too and give them other starting advantages since like I saw they're expansion limits only to few systems. Well except Tarka which dominated with land grab this time.

[Space Voyager]

Congratulations!

 

Pray tell, compared to SotS1, is AI capable of mounting a resistance at all?

[silencer_pl]

Probably if you give him max support meaning Hard, starting world 9, starting tech 10 1million of creds then maybe...

 

Well the beginnings are always advantageous for AI, but this game has 100% or more complexity than prime.

 

We will see in my next game. I'm ramping up the difficulty.

[Veki]

Job well done, Silencer.

 

We will see in my next game. I'm ramping up the difficulty.