Welcome to the Home of Game Strategies and Stories
12 May 06
The Humans are working to map out the Tarka Empire. Fortunately, they withdraw when they find an edge colony. They would learn more, but they risk a war driving into Tarka space. I have to assume their sensors are good and they understand the size of the Empire. They nominally aided me in one battle. Their only ships to see action were destroyers. It looked like they were using ballistic weapons. I've directed research into ballistics to better understand their capabilities.
The Liir tried to gather an assault fleet at Prion II. Though I could only cobble together a fleet of two dreadnoughts and four cruisers, we managed to capture Prion II, destroy 27 ships with only the loss of one cruiser. That would be impressive if 90 percent of the ships destroyed weren't destroyers covering the escape of their cruisers. Still, neither the assault fleet nor Prion II represents a threat any longer. I don't have a fleet to chase after the cruisers since I'm spread thin protecting vulnerable colonies in what had been Liir space.
The Liir did make an impressive effort to retake Argelius. I had cleansed the planet with a small cruiser assault force, but my supply lines were long, and I took several casualties in the conquest including my repair cruiser. I was able to get a couple more cruisers and some colonizers there, but they arrived just before the Liir counter attack fleet was to arrive. I didn't have the ships to defend a brand new colony, so I had to keep the colonizers in orbit and try to keep them alive. It was a game of cat and mouse as I kept my colony ship on the run while trying to intercept the assaulting Liir cruisers with my cruisers. We took heavy damage and lost one colony ship, but thanks to the new repair ship, we were able to destroy four of the seven cruisers and forced the others to retreat. There's now a Tarka colony building on Argelius. Reinforcements are coming. If it survives, it will be a powerful forward base in my pincer movement to crush the remaining Liir.
I think I like the Human strategy. They've started some vulnerable colonies. They're not particularly valuable in terms of resources, but they are well positioned to keep an eye on the movements of the Liir and my fleets. They don't lose much if the colony is destroyed, but they gain valuable intelligence while it exists. They've also done a great job keeping most of their movements outside the range of my sensors. As I mentioned, in our 'joint' battle, they saw more of my capabilities than I saw of theirs. If they have the technology and production to back up their strategy, they will be a worthy opponent. They have a much different feel than the straightforward Liir.
Jason
Read/Post Comments
11 May 06
Well, I didn't expect this. I found out why the Humans didn't want to attack me after finishing the Hivers. They wanted to help finish off the wounded Liir and pluck some of their juicy worlds for themselves. This adds some interesting twists to the strategy. Thanks to our non aggression pact, we can both have ships in the same system. Combined with speedy Human transport, that means that any world I want to take, I have to have colonizers in the reserves of the assault fleet. Otherwise those pesky Humans could jump my claim.
I could just go to war with them, but I've discovered a few more Liir worlds and fleets as my deep scan ships are arriving on the front lines. Perhaps they're not quite dead yet. As near as I can tell, the Liir have some serious problems. Instead of a spherical expansion, they seem to have taken a more linear route across the galaxy. Now their empire has been bisected by me with the Humans pushing along one end.
The Liir are looking for places to expand. I keep finding and destroying their small scout fleets usually consisting of a cruiser and a destroyer. I've taken a few small colonies from the Liir. One of my long range scouts happened upon a completely undefended Liir world. I thought the cruiser might be able to take it out, but it only inflicted minor damage. Eventually, I had to set up a small assault fleet to finish the job.
I'm also getting the feel for the Human empire. Their drive system seems to spread their reach in odd directions. I imagine if I could see these node lines they talk about, I would understand the web connecting their planets, but as it is their expansion makes little sense. It makes mapping their borders difficult and planning an assault that much harder. You might cut off a key artery separating several systems from support or you might just encourage them to take an alternate route.
The thing that concerns me most is the ease with which they are defeating the Liir. I think it's time to check out those spy technologies long ignored. I really need to know the capabilities of the Human fleets.
I wish I had more to report, but new colonies, one sided battles, fighting off meteors from planets, classified encounters with strange aliens, steady research and lots of scout ships reporting in don't bring high drama. Tension is building though. I think I'm closing in on the core Liir systems. The Humans are starting to crowd my borders. You can feel the electricity in the air before the lightning strike, but it hasn't come just yet.
Jason
Read/Post Comments
10 May 06
I wish I had a more interesting story for you today, but I can only tell you what happened. I think things are setting up to be quite interesting again. We'll see.
After winning Mon El and Mintarr, all the known Liir colonies were open to me. Great battles were fought at Musca, Vilani, Mon El II, and Altair II, but the Liir were never able to field more than 20 ships. My losses were minimal while colony after colony fell before the might of the Tarka Dreadnoughts.
There were two disturbing trends however. The first was it was getting harder to track Liir fleet movements. They could still be detected when in range, but sometimes they would disappear completely or head a strange direction. Were these sensor ghosts or a new kind of jamming? Then victorious battles were ending too suddenly. As soon as the Liir gave up the fight, they disappeared. My commanders were no longer able to hunt down escaping ships.
Soon it became clear. The Liir had developed a cloaking technology and were using it on nearly all new ships. Of course, Tarka scientists had investigated some of the possibilities of this technology early in the war, but the technology ministry had more pressing concerns. That didn't stop our scientists from developing countermeasures though. Clearly every battle fleet would have to include ships with that technology. There would be a cost in firepower, but we couldn't have the enemy fading away on us. It would also be devastating if the dolphins figured out how to fire while cloaked. Our fleets could end up tearing themselves apart trying to hit an unseen enemy. New ship designs were approved and being rushed into production.
With these new ships, we were able to wipe out all known Liir colonies. We took such light damage it was clear that either the Liir were completely broken, or they had withdrawn the bulk of their fleets to defend their core worlds. It was time to send out the scouting fleets in all directions.
Then something strange happened. A small scout fleet appeared around a planet just beyond the borders of the empire. It wasn't a Liir fleet. It had strange circular drives. The recordings of their communications indicated some strange gibberish language. Fortunately, our scientists were able to decipher their tongue with little effort. These creatures called themselves Humans. They wisely withdrew and didn't venture unwelcomed into Tarka space. Since our priority was wiping out the Liir and we had no information on the size or capabilities of these Humans, we offered them a non aggression pact. Of course, they accepted.
Now our scout fleets had two goals, find where the Liir were hiding and determine the threat posed by the Humans. Based on the information we had, it was clear the Humans had been involved in a long war with a race called the Hivers. Shortly after our pact, the Humans declared they had completely eliminated the Hiver threat. Amazingly, they did not immediately declare war on the Empire. They might have their own struggles with the Liir, or they wish to know their enemy better before fighting. Interesting times.
Jason
Read/Post Comments
9 May 06
Interesting feedback. Thanks for the comments and emails. Please keep them coming. I'll let you know when I've reached a decision. Let's get back to our story.
Mintarr has an interesting history. It was the site of one of the first of the Empire's battles with the Liir. It was also the site of the one of the great early victories against the Liir when a small group of cruisers with only tankers as destroyer support defeated a larger cruiser assault fleet. The Liir wanted Mintarr. It was easy to see why. It was a large world rich in resources. Even though it was out of the range Tarka engineers could terraform, it was apparently acceptable to dolphins. The Empire had maintained a garrison to prevent the Liir from snatching it, but they were called away when the Liir simultaneously attacked several vulnerable colonies in the area. Those attacks included the slaughter at Melnitz where 300 million Tarka colonists lost their lives. The Liir paid highly for those attacks, but they did gain Mintarr.
While the first dreadnought assault fleet was busy fighting for and securing Mon El, my nearby colonies were building the second. It was not centrally built like the first. Parts came from all over and assembled at Altair. By the time the fleet was assembled, the Liir had three separate reinforcement fleets closing on Mintarr. It look like they were readying an assault to take back Mon El. They were about to find their assault force assaulted.
Using my new speed advantage, I was able to arrive after the first reinforcement, but before the second and third. That meant I had to fight the Mintarr defense, the remnants of the Mon El fleet and those first reinforcements. Of course, the clock is ticking with those other fleets inbound.
I knew there would be 40 ships waiting for me with another 25 inbound. The best news on arrival was the complete lack of defense platforms. The platforms themselves aren't hard to deal with (well, except the heavy platforms), but when dealing with a hostile fleet they make any move toward the planet extra painful. They all have a combination of short and long range weapons. In mass, they can be quite painful. Unfortunately for the Liir, they were missing from Mintarr.
That meant two things. One, I could charge the planet without additional risk. Two, it meant that fighting near the planet was actually to my benefit. Since I was outnumbered, the planet would block attacks from that side except the planetary missiles themselves. Those would end as soon as the planet was cleansed. Losing the planet would also be a blow the morale of the Liir. My strategy was obvious, keep in formation, but burn for the planet.
The obstacle standing in the way of that was a line of six Liir cruisers with a screen of destroyers in front. Almost as soon as the warp fields collapsed announcing our arrival, long range weapons were firing. Except for the planetary missiles, I still had range on the Liir. Under other circumstances, I might have exploited that, but here, I assigned targets in the center of the enemy lines and ordered engines to full. I had also learned my lesson from earlier battles. This time there were no support ships in the main assault. Each ship had a part to play, but they all involved massive destruction.
I don't know if the Liir were surprised when my ships didn't slow down upon engaging theirs. I'm pretty sure they were surprised at how quickly their cruisers were torn apart with the combined firepower unleashed when my cruisers and dreadnoughts had all of their weapons in range. Soon the middle three enemy cruisers were burning hulks and my fleet poured though the gaps. I could see reinforcements burning in, but I paid them no mind. There was now nothing between me and Mintarr.
I launched the assault shuttles and unleashed the barrage ships upon the planet. The assault ships formed a loose screen around the barragers. Even I was a bit surprised by the amount of fury unleashed on the surface of the planet. One explosion would barely die down before the next lit up. All the while, great beams were cutting into the heart of Mintarr. I checked the scans of the planet and found its strength falling fast.
Once again, my blitzkrieg tactics had disorganized the defense. Reinforcements were streaming in on multiple vectors, but they were doing a poor job coordinating their attacks. Right as I was about to start worrying about time, I saw the planet go dark. Now the Liir had to decide how hard they wanted to fight over a dead planet. They fought valiantly before both sides were force to regroup, but they had lost three times as many ships as I had and the planet.
With the planet secured, I wasn't as worried about those reinforcements coming. I was able to perform some repairs and rebalanced the fleet for ship to ship combat. The next wave of battles was a joke. After the first six Liir cruisers were burning, they lost their will to fight. They started burning for deep space and escape. With most of their weapons facing away from me, many more Liir ships were vaporized before they flickered out of the system.
What they probably hadn't counted on was that I had a couple of small pursuit fleets ready to chase them. These fleets would not escape so easily. It was almost ugly. Each time they would only last one charge before trying to flee. Each time they would lose more ships. The only Liir fleet to escape the battle of Mintarr was the third reinforcement fleet that turned around in deep space before arriving. They plotted a course to points unknown and disappeared off my scans.
One advantage of the Liir colonization of Mintarr was they terraformed it to within the range our engineers could start their work. The colonists arrived shortly after the repair fleet, but shortly before the pursuit fleets returned. There no longer remained a large Liir fleet anywhere within the range of my scans. The war was starting to turn.
Jason
Read/Post Comments
8 May 06
I feel kind of bad now. I had intended these previews and stories to build up to the launch of Sword of the Stars on June 1st. That was the projected North American release date. Now Kerberos has let it be known that the publisher, Lighthouse Interactive will have a worldwide launch. That means to expect the release some time in August.
That changes things a bit. I'll still finish up the current story. We'll get back to that tomorrow. I'm not sure about further stories though. Some people have kept very close track of every word said about this project. I admire them for that. If I were to keep writing stories in the style I wrote that one, I'm sure they'd glean more and more about the game. I know Martin has expressed his concern that there be plenty of surprises left when you actually start playing the game. I certainly don't want to take the fun of exploration away from you.
I have some options. I could just finish the current story, play a bit more for balance and write up some final preview thoughts. Then I would be done with the game until release. Or I could finish the story, play more and write up a few interesting battles, do the final preview and be done. If I did that, I might have to start running the stories by Kerberos to make sure I wasn't giving too much away. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with that. Or, I could finish this story, and continue writing up one for each race but being even more vague with regard to specific technologies and then do the final preview. Again, I might have to do the 'run by' thing. I'm not sure.
I welcome your thoughts and feedback. I'll also check with Kerberos and see what their wishes are. I know it's easy to say give me more now, but I don't want to ruin anyone's fun. I also don't want to waste time writing stuff so vague it's boring.
While I'm taking a breather from the story, I have to comment on some of the gaming news out there. I was convinced that Sony knew the importance of price point with the PS3. They have so much riding on it and blu ray. I can't believe they've gone and announced prices of $499 and $599. It also looks like the $499 version will feel just as stripped as the $299 version of the 360.
I can't count the hours of fun my PS2 has given me. I was sure the PS3 was the only launch console I'd get. Now I'm already thinking about getting a Wii and waiting for a price drop (or two) on the PS3. Who wants to pay that kind of premium to wade through launch games? If they're doing this to their defenders and fans, I'm not sure who will be buying the projected 4 million PS3's. Maybe Japan will carry them. I didn't think anything could be worse than the Xbox 360 MTV special. This is.
On the plus side, they listened when people hated the boomerang controller. Maybe they'll listen again. Or perhaps they'll listen to the deafening silence when the preorders open up. What's the minimum price of a premium bundle for the PS3 (you know they'll do the evil bundling again)? It's probably $1000. Count me out. Microsoft (and perhaps Nintendo) just got a huge, huge win.
Jason
Read/Post Comments
© Talk Strategy 2004-2006