Year 2231, Part 2The war was interrupted with the news that a planet had been destroyed by a comet:
Since it was a low quality world that the Alliance had never even seen, High Command paid it no mind.
Some armchair general came up with the bright idea to cram lots of soldiers into smaller quarters, an idea which caught on with ship designers:
Advanced troop transports. Double the soldiers in a little less space. Almost a third more expensive, however.
The advanced transport modules led to the creation of the Comp112 Mk2, a transport which could carry 2 billion soldiers. Though much more expensive than the original, fewer would be needed to pacify worlds which would hopefully save money in the long run.
Mindful of the council's recommendation to train the troops well, a number of technologies for the defense of planets were introduced:
Planetary Defense. Soldiering +10, and allows the creation of three new improvements:
- Orbital Fleet Manager: One-per-planet. Allows ships in orbit to defend as a fleet, rather than one at a time.
- Planetary Defense: Increases the skill of soldiers when defending invasions.
- Omega Defense System: Super Project. Increases the effective hit points of ships in orbit of the planet this is built on.
Near the Southern Rim of the galaxy, the world of Marshall I was captured, though losses were heavy:
Records of a new technology were uncovered in the ruins:
Beam Weapon Research. Leads to lasers and other kinds of beam weapons.
After a few failed invasions of other Krynn worlds, military scientists unveiled a technique to turn a planet's own oceans against them:
Tidal Disruption. Can wipe out most of a planet's improvements, but gives a decent combat bonus and leaves planet quality untouched.
Without warning,
MAX POWER! was struck with an epiphany. The Terrans had the best diplomatic skills in the galaxy. Why not convince some
fools brave friends to help attack the Krynn? Negotiations began immediately, though many races were either too scared to attack the Krynn or on friendly terms with them. The Yor had no such inhibitions however, and readily agreed to go to war:
Reasoning that he could potentially kill two birds with one stone,
MAX POWER! managed to get the Drath (slowly growing more powerful) to declare war on the Seeker Swarm (who had that blasted ascension starbase):
Midway through October, the worst week of the year occurred. First came the devastating news that the planet of Amcor III had been captured by the enemy.
Though the brave citizens had fought to the last, they could not stand against the storm of transports and eventually succumbed. Though details were sketchy, some theorized that the Krynn had used mass drivers to gain a ruthless advantage.
Riots spread over the surface of Earth in response to the news. Though mad with rage over the loss,
MAX POWER! resisted the urge to terminate the rioters with extreme force, instead
allowing the rioters to burn themselves out. High Command realized that the Alliance couldn't afford to lose either massive amounts of money or massive amounts of citizens, so a middle ground was reached.
Almost forgotten amongst the news of riots and dead civilians, High Command received the shocking notice that one of the mighty Armok cruisers had finally fallen. Battered and bloody, the ship was defeated after being attacked by a large fighter fleet. The entire crew was posthumously given medals of valor for fighting against long odds.
The Alliance response was swift. With cries of "Remember Amcor!", soldiers poured onto the surface of Zalr I, capturing it with relatively few casualties:
A study on the use of armor for starships was uncovered and translated.
Armor Theory. Leads to various armor defenses, which could prove useful someday.
Almost simultaneously, Osiris III was captured as well, suffering far fewer casualties:
Computers found in the rubble of the Krynn command center yielded a much more impressive technology:
Anti-matter power plants. Puts fusion plants to shame.
declared the "Amcor Campaign" a complete success.
In what could be considered a terrible blow, news came in that the Krynn had mastered the ancient art of Tir-Quan training:
Our soldiers would once again be the inferior forces in battle.
In response, spies were placed on several Krynn worlds, mostly as a distraction but also to disrupt the war effort. Agents managed to tap into Krynn communication networks, increasing
S.P.Y.'s knowledge of their consortium.
After skipping a step, Alliance scientists managed to put together a functional medium-sized starship:
Medium-Scale Building. Nice for worlds that would take forever to build an Armok
As the year drew to a close, Armok production finally hit full swing. Mighty cruisers departed starports all over the empire, bringing the fight to the enemy. One brave crew managed to destroy several invasion fleets and their escorts, using their point defense and superior speed to overtake them one after another.
Realising that a middle ground had to be reached between Phoenixes (which were slowly being worn down in their garrison duties) and Armoks (which took a long time even for major worlds to produce), starship engineers made use of the new medium hull size and produced the Near-Range Dart Launcher:
For the first time in years, a world was simply colonized, rather than conquered. Marshall I had a habitable neighbor, Marshall II. A leftover Basque in a nearby system was diverted, and...
The planet not only had a major manufacturing bonus area, but a perfectly preserved precursor
university (massive 700% bonus to research). Unsure how to utilize the planet, the governor began work on a trade center while waiting for orders from Colonial Affairs.
Another comet hit and destroyed a planet, sparking a massive Extranet conspiracy that advanced aliens were deliberately killing planets for fun. High Command, having no idea where this world was or if there was even life on it, made a note of it and continued waging war:
The Thalan empire announced that they had finally defeated a minor race known as the Jessuins.
MAX POWER! merely shrugged, as the Alliance had never made contact with that race.
An advanced version of the Stinger was developed, which fired missiles with on-board radar:
Stinger III. Slightly smaller.
The UP met again, with an interesting proposal. A race would be contracted to build a massive arena for an intergalactic sporting event, which would be sure to generate massive profits for the race in question:
The votes were cast...
And the Krynn came out on top, despite no one else voting for them. Interestingly, the Yor had voted for the Alliance to have the honor. Perhaps a friendly shout-out?
With the new year only hours away, the Thalan leader demanded tribute from the Alliance:
Their request was, of course, denied. Hithisius was outraged, but then...
Nice to know that we've got our own strengths.
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LONG-ASS turn this time. We've really been neglecting to use our diplomatic prowess, as shown by our ability to get the races to fight each other. Military power is nice, but if we can get future enemies to weaken each other we can win in the long run.
The Krynn, despite losing several large fleets, clearly still have a lot of manufacturing power. I've been blowing up transports, freighters, and colony ships left and right, not to mention fleets of as many as five heavy fighters. Also, occasionally I'll come across a transport with missile weapons. They die easily enough, but it's a strategy I've never seen AI use before.
The Armoks are doing awesome, despite the loss of one partway through this update. The problem comes from having them fight to many ships in to short a timespan. I've started retreating them to planets after every few kills in order to get repaired, though the process is slow.
For some reason, the Phoenixes have also become quite awesome. Using them to attack transport fleets frees up the cruisers to attack battlefleets and planets.
Boatmurdered, surprisingly, is still hanging in there. The single Phoenix defending the world managed to take out a small fighter fleet and survive, keeping the world safe from invasion. Now that an Armok is also defending the place, Boatmurdered seems to be secure.
Also discuss: Marshall II. Holy Crap. The only reason I sent that Basque over is because a fighter fleet intercepted and destroyed a Krynn colony ship heading for the same planet. I figured that I'd better take it instead. What will we do with it?
I have not been able to find any Krynn starbases. Rest assured that as soon as one is located, it will be destroyed with extreme prejudice. Sending scouting fleets, however, is risky.
