Aki the Lab Rat

[bvanevery]

Tired of slow research and inefficiency from my last series of games as Yang.  Maybe it's easier to grow a winning empire with Aki Zeta5 after all?  Let's see if I miss my +2 Support or not.  Huge map, average settings, random opponents.

I start on a really small island, the kind where there's only room for 3 cities but you shove an entire civilization into it.  I'm not given a ship; in fact, I'm started at dead center of this small island.  It looked like good land at the time so I put my HQ there.  There's a more substantial land mass to the northeast.  I wanted to start with a Discover, Conquer focus but begrudgingly switch to Explore only.  I hope that Aki researches fast enough to get some boats and get out of here.  Lamely I get Nonlinear Mathematics but soon I've got it turned around and get the tech I need.

Zhakarov turns out to be my immediate next door neighbor.  He's also ranked the strongest faction in the game.  Of course I have that "lame" Nonlinear Mathematics so I do have the option to invade him.  I can even take his techs by conquest.  On the other hand I badly need to expand and Zhakarov is not a natural enemy.  Many previous games say that the Aliens are the ones who have to be crushed to win the game quickly, not the humans.  Marr is in the game and he's almost as strong as Zhakarov, not sure whether H'minee is in.  So I figure heck, let's sign a Treaty.  If it doesn't work out, it'll be pretty trivial to invade Zhakarov later.  A faction that starts right next to you, is pretty much "free lunch" later if you want it.

Surprisingly, in further negotiation he trades Planetary Networks for my Doctrine:Flexibility.  I pick up Secrets of the Human Brain in exchange for Nonlinear Mathematics.  I didn't stiff him with Doctrine:Mobility because I wasn't sure if that would sour further negotiations.  It was of no consequence as I traded that for Ethical Calculus.  He at least has Progenitor Psych that I do not, big whoop.  He was feeling Magnanimous at that point but he cut off communication, so I didn't get a Pact out of him.

So now what?  Well, I've gone Planned.  That thermal bubbly water thing is off his western shore, just north of me, so maybe I'll stick a sea base on it and claim it.  I need to figure out where I want my capitol to be.  I don't want it where I started, in fact I want to abandon that base completely.  My starting island is too small and my 5 coastal cities will access the interior of the island just fine when I'm done.

I got 1 Artifact popping pods on my island, and 1 I fished out of the water.  Hopefully I can get some Secret Projects built that way, but one thing I sorely lack is minerals.

[bvanevery]

I quit.  That wasn't any fun at all.

I used a 3rd Artifact to complete The Weather Paradigm.  I never even had the remotest chance to build anything else, despite having the techs long before other factions.

I spent a lot of time elevating the land around my tiny island to make it bigger.  I did not have the minerals to build more than 2 sea colonies, so I made some land colonists from my capitol.  Eventually I did deplete my capitol down and build a new one nearby.  I settled a large island to the south of me and began working on a land bridge to it.  I was about halfway done when I quit.

I met all the human factions, either by exploration or getting frequencies from pods or trading for comm frequencies.  Cha Dawn of course soon hated me.  Lal became my ally.  Svensgaard eventually went to war with me and that's why I quit.  I had put a lot of effort into getting 2 sea bases around The Geothermal Shallows.  He showed up with impact skimships.  At first it looked like he'd sail on by, but then he decided to summarily execute my untrained Trance Synthmetal Garrison.  I never got close to getting Doctrine:Loyalty, nor seemingly did anyone else, so no Command Nexus to beef troops up.  No minerals to make ships to oppose him either.  I had artillery available but that wouldn't stop those sea bases from being taken.

Aki's slow growth was really crippling in this marginal environment.  Going Planned and building Children's Creches and Recycling Tanks didn't seem to help much.  I was dinky.  When Zhakarov finally called an election, I only had 12 votes!  Population wise I was the dinkiest faction in the game.

The Caretakers and the Usurpers were both in the game.  I have no idea where they were, nor did anyone else.  So, I couldn't just go steal proper armor from them, or trade with them.  Nor could I go kill them.  This contributed to feelings of extreme lameness.

Maybe I should have invaded Zhakarov.  Letting him finish The Virtual World as he did, and then invading him, seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea too though.  Maybe I should have allied with him against Svensgaard when he wanted to.  I didn't at the time, I wanted to avoid having to fight the Pirates.  Then by the time I was in a war with them, Zhakarov was at peace with them and didn't want an alliance.

This all just kind of sucked.  I think that was close to a worst case start for Aki.