At the turn of the century, I discover still more impetus to continue the game to completion: Though Aurora, the rich world in the far south, is still available, the Psilons control both Tyr and Kailis, and have missile bases up at each! My suspicions are only confirmed in 2406, when I colonize Aurora and - before I even confirm that this gives me contact with the Brains - receive a GNN 12-planet expansion report, not about me this time, believe me! Moments later, I would confirm the report for myself:
Houston, we have Runaway Psilons! Looks like this is going to get interesting!
I did a lot of spying on the Klackons in this period, with a lot more success than in my original game: In addition to early success with ECM 1 and RW80, I snagged Inertial Stabilizer and Fusion Bomb on successive turns - 2420 and 2421 - just as my first war fleet was making its way to Kholdan! The bugs and brains had been trading Arietis back and forth, and with the Klackons briefly back in charge of the place, I hoped to snag Kholdan and Incedius (its combat screen demographics, combined with spying reports on the bugs' lack of terraforming tech, confirmed that the latter was habitable, so I wasn't just relying on prior knowledge). Things didn't work out quite as I expected, but I adapted my plans to the changing situation, and was rewarded with this message in 2426:
Having bombed the at-war-with-everyone-due-to-erraticness Klackons heavily, and allowed the brains to finish the job for me, I managed to sneak in my colony ship at Incedius after all, achieving contact and immediate Peaceful relations with the bears and birdies. I signed them both up for alliances and maximum trade agreements; I had a smaller trade package with the Psilons, but no other treaty, as I knew I would have to stop them before they took over the galaxy. This therefore is how things looked in 2430:
Notice that while I'm up to 9 worlds, the Bulrathi have the same 5 as in my previous game, and the birds have just 2 (including the far south yellow star of Gion!?). The Humans are obviously stunted this time, as the Brains' holdings are now up to 15! I'm in no position to take on Zygot ... but I'd better get ready, soon!
The following year, the Alkari broke our alliance, an unwise choice if ever I saw one. Why? Well, the year after that, I finished work on Impulse Drives! Also, Paranar went Fertile, just a decade later than it did in my original game. The pRNG is clearly insane.
Making full use of my alliances, I had already built huge numbers of warp 2 scouts and sent them out across the galaxy. As soon as their reports came back, I sent warp 5 LR ships out to colonize all the habitable worlds the AI had inexplicably neglected ... starting with Artifacts Uxmai in 2445! As it happened, that was the turn after the birds reacted to a series of ill-planned attacks on Altair (I tried to rush it, and lost a couple of fleets, taking various ships and bases with me) by declaring war on me. By the following year:
I ... uh ... no longer had contact with the birdies. Altair was no more, and Gion was just out of range.
Colonizing Altair put me in touch with the Humans, who started at Affable - they were running an OPE, and probably had been at war with the Birds, the Bugs, or both, as even Sol appeared to be strangling under the maintenance costs of their fleet. It strikes me now that Uxmai and the like may not have been "neglected" by the AI so much as "long-established Human colonies recently bombed out of existence by somebody." Lasitus agreed to an alliance, but could barely manage 25 BC of trade.
All this brought us to the council election of 2450 (the first was back in 2427). I was pleased to see that I had a veto (though with my allies, I didn't really need one anyway) and less pleased - but in no way surprised - to see that my election opponents were still the Psilons, with an even more solid veto of their own. Still, that was okay with me. I knew I'd have to take them on, and I figured I'd be ready as soon as I could stand up my reach colonies of Guradas and Artifacts Uxmai, plus the keystone world of Altair at the center of the galaxy - bringing in another set of research projects while I did so. Ready to get started down that path, I click through the "no winner" election screen, and see...
Uh-oh. Emperor Zygot has other plans, it seems! We're now at war with the most powerful race in the galaxy! The Psilons lead us in every single category - fleet strength, population, tech, planets, production, total power, everything! I've got a couple allies, and yes, I bring them in on my side, but they'll be distractions at best; the only powers in this galaxy are Zygot and me! Worse still, according to my spies, the Psilons have neglected nothing in their tech trees! AIs will often work merrily along, grabbing whatever tech looks interesting, failing to notice that they have insufficient range or controlled-environment or battle computer tech or something ... but not Zygot - not this time! By 2453, he had almost caught up with me even in Computers (where the Meklar are excellent, and which I'd been emphasizing from an early year, for spying and the vain hope of RC better than 3) with Mark 5 battle computers to my mark 6s, and identical robotic controls and ECM technologies. They've got Zortium Armor to my Titanium (no early armor in my tree), 9 layers of shields at their bases to my 7, range 9 to my 7, and Stinger Missiles and Scatter Pack 7(!) while my bases can't throw anything at their ships that does more than 6 damage apiece! (No missiles in our tree but Hyper- and Scatter-V, until something insane like ... Zeons, I believe.) They've got a real gun (Ion Cannon) and a real bomb (Fusion) and are barely behind in engines, with Fusion Engines to my Impulse. And then there's planetology: Terra+40, Soil, Controlled Toxic, Advanced Eco ... you name it, they've got it in spades, while I have literally nothing. There are only two areas where I hold a clear advantage over Zygot: tactics and strategy!
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Next: Cry Havoc!
