Group AAR #2: Fight for the Future

[ete]

Ah, the cloning vats.. Arguably the most powerful SP in the game. I wonder which base it's being built at.

And Satellites are something you can finally pour your industrial might into without much in the way of diminishing returns.

[Flux]

Think you'll want to be part of the next, which will probably start in january?

I'll read it if the roleplaying is any good.
But I don't see myself being dedicated enough to it. So no.

[ete]

Alright.

I'm going to be away between christmas and new year, I'll be back to play on the 1st or 2nd probably.

[Mart]

Technocrats are attacking Bree
Bree declared vendetta against Satori
And in Democratic/Planned/Wealth again. These additional minerals and energy are needed.

MY 2254
Creche calls:

And we have a conversation, though not much is exchanged.


Infiltrated Satori. Ever since lost Governorship and they were not pacted, there was
no view into what she was up to. Finally, Free Drone intelligence regains that ability.

And the probe cruiser returns to a base


Shortly talking to Bree

But nothing significant is achieved.
Anyway...
She is shortly after probed:
Retroviral Engineering
Mind/Machine Interface
And declares vendetta for persistent meddling.

[ete]

That was a quick SP build. Must've used most of the rest of the crawlers to rush.

[Mart]

Technocrats have a lot of crawlers. I think, it is enough for several SPs.
And in that, AI is very good in using them to rush-build SPs.

[Mart]

MY 2255
Time to take that annoying Bree base.

They want truce, but Free Drones are in no way going to pay for it!

And Technocrats are using their large research rate

and completed:


MY 2257




Receiving Superstring Theory from Planetary Datalinks!
Unexpected, but apparently, after Creche researched this tech, they traded it to some
third faction.

MY 2258
And Centauri Genetics from research.



MY 2259
Monopole Magnets from AA

MY 2260


MY 2261
Let us start solving Bree problem.
Demanding military withdrawal...


Again...


Tough case. It looks like these hard-heads will not get provoked.

Ok then. Let's do some exchange before Free Drones proceed:


Orders issued...

[Mart]

MY 2262


MY 2263
The most important base of Bree, due to its Secret Project




MY 2264
The only way Bree can continue as a faction is to be submissively pacted to Free Drones





Disaproval of our policies leads to vendetta


MY 2265
Bree does not yield and do not want to become Free Drone satellite faction.
So...

[Mart]

And the save file.

Diplomacy:
Technology exchange only tech for a tech.
And everything else, what AI agrees on, maybe apart from base trading.
AI is set to build and be peaceful, so it should make technology race... if it's a race at all

[ete]

Looking at my teching rate and techs to go.. it's cutting it fine whether I'll be able to get transcend tech before the end of my turn even with some optimization, and if I don't you're almost certain to win since my AI will make VoP allowing you to transcend. I've got options, but none of them seem great.. will play over the next few days.

[ete]

MY 2265

First council meeting after awakening

Federov: Simulations show that at our current rate of technological progress we should attain the ability to merge ourselves with Planet between MY 2282 and MY 2286. As you are all aware, this would be disastrous since the governance systems we have in place would likely start the Voice of Planet in a disorganized way, releasing the ability to transcend to other factions, at which point the Drones would jump in and transcend before us. In the days since my awakening I've reviewed various proposals for avoiding that scenario.

Techno-race

First, we could dedicate ourselves to technological development. We would need to research the Threshold of Transcendance before MY 2278 to assure rapid completion of the necessary projects, but with sufficient focus on development this should have a high chance of success. However, we will not be able to know until near that time whether we are teching fast enough, and if we are even a year late there will be nothing we can do.

Supported by R&D, Federov

Supreme Conversion

Our covert ops agencies have identified a key construct in possession of the drones, taken from the Bree, called the Empath Guild. If we send a team in to steal the base containing it our votes will double and theirs will halve, allowing us to make a serious bid for supreme leader. However, even with this project we do not have quite enough population to win outright. In order of most to least morally acceptable our options would be: massively boost our own population, steal a significant number of other bases from the drones, or cause huge casualties among the drones. Demanding bases from our other allies would also be possible, but would not give us enough to win on it's own.

Supported by Core Intelligence Team, Department of Politics

Hostile Takeover

With modern 'Chop&Drop' technology and a tactical combat advantage, attacking the drones would likely prove effective despite their numerical advantage. However, we may not win decisively enough within 15 years to prevent them from ascending during my next sleep. I am also hesitant to break our friendship given that we still have other viable options on the table, but it is important to consider.

Supported by General Harrison and several other top military officials.

Preemptive all-out Nuclear Bombardment

Perhaps the choice which gives us the highest chance of success, an all-out nuclear bombardment would rob the drones of their industrial might in order to neutralize their ability to concentrate the resources needed to transcend. Singularity Planet Busters have a large enough area of effect that few of them would be needed to annihilate the Drone heartlands, giving us a much easier time taking over the rest with more conventional troops. It would need large amounts of resources, which would cripple our ability to research fast enough to transcend first, and would be a humanitarian disaster of almost unimaginable proportions. Our allies would likely turn their backs on us.

Supported by no major parties at present

[Mart]

Free Drone diplomatic meeting highlights
Free Drones have no objection to exchanging technologies with Technocrats, thus allowing achievement of Transcendence Treshold before 2280.

=========
We can exchange techs by scenario editor in case AI does not want to do it, but Domai may be quite cooperative. I set AI to play peacefully.
Tech victory belongs to Technocrats for their superior research and getting it by sneaking Ascent from AI does not feel right...
And some great war with singularity planet busters is probably not the best future

======
Empath Guild is also like +50% votes, not +100%.
If it was +100%, I would have called Governor elections, but I had not enough votes cause of that.

[ete]

The decision is taken. We will stick to our primary nature and research. If the drones had given us provocation we would likely have chosen a more hostile plan, but as-is we'll stick to peaceful development, with the option of covert action on the table, but not military or nuclear.

I may do AU alternate branches for other plans later if there's interest, but the primary branch will be an attempt at transcendence.

[ete]

Building towards the Will to Power and the Telepathic Matrix, to calm the drones.

Many bases would have rioted this turn if not for excessive investment in Psych and switching to Police State.

[ete]

MY 2265

Almost 2000 credits spent on rushing key facilities, sea formers, and crawlers. Gifted Advanced Spaceflight to the Creche to allow them to direct their research towards something I've not already got. Massive restructuring of work roles to avoid riots.

MY 2266




The Will To Power would put us one tech away from the wonderful Telepathic Matrix project (which would allow a significant amount of energy from Psych to research), but Transcendi are amazing specialists, and SOAC gives a free tech anyway.




Finally in space again!

Almost all military units directed to Singularity's Seed for reprocessing into research staff and equipment, including the air force.

New crawlers manning mines across the empire.

Formers prioritizing MagTube network, with new mines a secondary goal. Sea formers switching mines to tidal harnesses.

Hybrid Forest rushed at Singularity's Seed using several units and 360 credits.