Galaxy Setup
Victory Conditions: All
Galaxy Size: Large
Habitable Planets: Common
Number of Planets: Occasional
Number of Stars: Common
Star Density: Loose Clusters
Anomalies: Abundant
Technology rate: Normal
Civilization Setup
Race: Custom (Name: Terran Empire, Leader: Empress Sato)
Racial Abilities: Diplomacy +60, Economics +30
Political Party: Populists (Morale +20, Diplomacy +20)
Starting Technologies: New Propulsion Techniques, Hyperdrive, Ion Drive, Xeno Communications, Universal Translator
AI Setup
Number of AIs: 5 (Drengin, Altarian, Arcean, Torian, Yor)
AI Intelligence: Bright
Overall Difficulty: Challenging
Starting Relations: All Unknown
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After Action Report
This is my first game playing against Bright AIs. The overall galaxy setup is the same as my last game, with one exception: the Humans have been removed in favour of the Yor. I made the adjustment for variety, and because I wanted to avoid confusion with my own custom version of the Terran Empire (based on the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In A Mirror, Darkly"), but it was a change that would end up having a much more profound effect on the flavour of the game than I realized.
My race is setup for a Diplomatic victory. As the title of this AAR might indicate, though, the particular brand of diplomacy that I'm planning to practice is not the sort that wins Nobel Peace Prizes.
The galaxy as it stands after the Empire's initial expansion outward from Terra Prime. It was at this point that Empress Sato declared an end to the production of colony ships and an increased focus on social and military development. In her wisdom, the Empress realized that there were no more planets within range to colonize, and it would be a foolish waste of resources to attempt to enhance our life support systems any further at this time.
The arm of the Empire stretches far already, as we have outpaced the rest of the galaxy with an impressive thirteen colonies. The Yor have done well, for mindless machines. The Drengin, Altarians, and Torians expanded well, but were hampered by each other's proximity. The Arceans have barely scratched out homes on three worlds - they look weak, and ripe for annexation. It is said that the Empress is already plotting their doom.
Empress Sato decreed that the first specially designed vessel of the Terran Empire be a fast, long-range scout ship. The Prying Eye was designed with that in mind. Half a dozen would be manufactured over the next few months, with their small crews of out-of-favour officers sent light-years from the Empire and away from their families for years at a time. In the name of "exploration", of course.
The lemmings of the Empire breed well. Our fortune to capture so many high-quality worlds early has allowed us to far outstrip the other races in most key areas, total population among them. The other galactic leaders are reputedly shrewd - though no match for our glorious Empress, of course - but they face in an uphill battle in contesting our dominance of the galaxy.
Weakness is a failing we cannot tolerate. The Mauler Defense Fighter is conceived to show our many lurking enemies that Terra Prime will not surrender its worlds easily. In an era of rapid militarization, the Empire would soon establish a defense fleet that would see three or four of these intimidating vessels in orbit of every Terran colony.
It is to Empress Sato's credit that our military buildup was rapid, and precisely timed to keep the Empire at the head of the galactic arms race. No foreign diplomat dared utter so much as a single rude word anywhere in the Empire during this time, for fear of our bloody reprisal.
Passiveness is no more than a form of weakness. The Spitfire Assault Fighter is our way of culling this flaw, as well, from our culture. Representing the pinnacle of Assault Fighter technology, the Spitfire's twin Stinger IV launchers, mounted to either side of the cockpit, could decimitate smaller craft in a single volley. Assigned in fleets of four, per Empress Sato's orders, the Spitfires would soon prove themselves a match for any ship in the galaxy.
An Empire cannot be run without control, and control cannot be maintained without complete knowledge of the Empire. These ships, codenamed the Hindsight class, were crewed entirely by agents from the Empress' personal spy network. Information about the existence of these ships was not even given to the top Commanders of the Terran military until two years after they entered production. With a sophisticated sensor system that could monitor an entire sector at once, these vessels were scattered throughout Terran territory to provide warning of any foreign or domestic disturbances.
The Spitfire fleet is about to see its first action. The Jessuins, an inferior race, occupy a prize world inside our territory. On Empress Sato's wishes, we are to eliminate these savages so that she may build a private vacation resort on one of their tropical islands.
The Jessuins have but one significant defensive craft. But matched against four Spitfires, its significance is closer to irrelevance. I wonder when this vessel's pilot realized today wasn't likely to be his best day ever?
Probably right about now, actually.
These... machines... think like we do. Greedily, bloodily. The Empress sees no reason why we can't make common cause with the creatures. Her only complaint about them is that they have proven remarkably resistant to her usual tactic of seductive exploitation.
Our great and glorious Empress thinks in broad terms. Not only does she deem the Yor worthy of our allegiance, but this report on the strength of the Drengin has her comtemplating the formation of a galactic axis of evil. The "Good" races of the galaxy would not stand a chance.
The Drengin are, however... distastefully furry.
It is time to begin our next conquest. The people of the Empire grow restive, and only blood will appease them. Or maybe it's just Empress Sato who feels that way. Regardless, we will invade Arcea and teach the amoral savages the true power of a Demonic alignment.
This the largest fleet Terra has assembled to date. Eight Spitfire class Fighters will escort four Advanced Troop Transports, carrying a total of eight thousand soldiers, into Arcean territory. Given the Arcean's lack of territory and industry, we do not expect much resistance.
The Jessuins had but one defensive ship. The Arceans have bettered this by an order of magnitude, with one defensive fleet. It's too bad - for them - that the Empress dispatched two offensive fleets with our invasion force. Working in the Arceans' favour, though, is an enhanced military starbase that they have nearby. It gives their ships an aura of legitimacy - one that we will be only too happy to dispel.
As it turns out, that aura burns when you get too close. The Arceans inflict enough damage to destory one of our Spitfires - the first ship that we have lost since the Empress led our people out into the stars. The Empress herself spoke over the pilot's funeral pyre, back on Terra Prime, praising his glorious sacrifice, yet warning all our other troops not to follow his example. Our ships must be crewed by those who know only how to conquer, not how to be conquered.
The battle itself was a closer thing than we would have liked. Two other Spitfires were lost to the Arceans, but we were ultimately, inevitably, victorious. Our last Spitfire set off an explosion in the final Arcean vessel's cockpit, causing it to belch flame. That's not the sort of thing that usually ends well.
Predictably, it didn't end well this time, either, for the Arcean.
With the Arcean's only major defense force defeated, we had an open path to their home system. The orbital defenses of their second colony, Hammer II, were pitiful and easily disposed of. The ground assault was equally one sided, and with our troops poised for an invasion of Arcea itself, their ambassador threw himself at the Empress' feet:
She had his head cut off anyway, of course, but accepted his people's surrender. The Arcean way of life had been extinguished. Their people were now a subject race of the Terran Empire.
"One cannot rest on one's laurels, however bloodsoaked they may be". So sayeth the Empress, and our scientists heeded her words. The Vengeance Assault Cruiser is the galaxy's first capital ship. It has three Harpoon missile launchers and the toughest hull of any ship in the fleet. We project it will see it's first action against either the Altarians, or the Torians.
These vessels never saw service in the Terran Starforce, nor were they intended to. In a cunning plan, Empress Sato ordered these ships constructed for one purpose only: sale. Fleets of these vessels were sold, and some outright given, to the Yor and Drengin, to curry political favour with their nations.
The ship was, however, designed never to be a threat to us, should relations with either race turn sour. Offensively underpowered, in order to make room for some armour, the ship doesn't have the damage potential to hurt our larger vessels - and with its defensive focused on Armour, it has no protection against Terran missile barrages.
Even as a galactic arms dealer, the Empress is wise.
The Drengin are sufficiently impressed with us that they are willing to enter into an Alliance. To prepare our people for the news, an ad campaign is launched Empire-wide depicting the Drengin as the new Imperial Poodle.
As negotiations with the Drengin are ongoing, a war has been raging between the three evil races and the only remaining Good civilization, the Torians (the Altarians having collapsed against a dual onslaught from the Yor and Drengin some time ago, ultimately surrendering their worlds to the Yor).
The toll on Toria's braintrust has obviously been heavy, as whomever is commanding their troops at this point is supremely incompetent. This train of troop transports, passing through contested space, is completely unprotected and quickly slaughtered.
It would not be long before the Torians, like the Altarians before them, would abandon their resistance and offer themselves up the mercy of the Yor, such as it is.
The galaxy knows peace again. It is a peace bought with blood, and earned through death, but it is a peace nonetheless. The Terran-Drengin Alliance is poised to attack the Yor on two flanks, should they ultimately prove intractable to the Empress' grand plan for a galactic alliance.
The Yor have grown powerful, granted, through their assimilation of the Altarian and Torian sectors, but they still cannot match our military might. In order to maintain our supremacy, the Debilitator War Cruiser is designed. It is the only large-scale warship in known space, and it utilizes the nastiest weapon system in the galaxy: Psionic Missiles. A speciality of the "Evil Genius" school of military research, the Psionic missile does less damage to the target ship itself than it does to the crew aboard her, as waves of telepathic agony ripple out from the warhead upon detonation.
The Yor chose wisely, and never had to face the might of our Debilitator fleet. Shortly after the first run entered service, the machine empire, outclassed militarily, in awe of pure cultural sadism, and dependent on our economy to the tune of over 500 bc per month, decided to end matters by adding their digital thumbprint to the Alliance.
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In all, I thought this was a good game. As is (sometimes too) often the case in GalCiv, though, random circumstances seemed to have a lot to do with the outcome. My ability to outproduce my opponents during the game had a lot to do with my isolated start location that still had a lot of good planets. Likewise, the Yor's ability to keep up with me, especially towards the end of the game, had a lot to do having both the good AIs surrender to them.
The AI's inability to escort troop transports persists on this level, though, which is disheartening. The design of those transports is also a problem: each was carrying just 1,000 troops. The AI is still pretty incompetent at launching planetary invasions, in other words.
I'm going to play at least one more game on Bright before I try to face the AI on the even footing of Intelligent (financially, we're already even, the only thing missing {according to the manual} are some of the AI's abilities to counter player tactics); I'll be looking to see if a different set of starting conditions produce a different outcome.
- Ash
), and then every other tile gets the improvement related to the planet's focus. Obvious exceptions are made for worlds that are going to build Trade Goods/Super Projects/Galactic Achievements.