SE4x - death machines 003
Through the fourth Econ phase
On the fourth turn the colony ships move out and the old and new miners head for more minerals. One CO heads to the right hoping the scout there finds something. And they do, somewhat. Three sets of minerals.
By the end of movement we haven’t uncovered new worlds, but have run into asteroids and minerals, and begun to recover some. There will be two new colonies this econ phase. There are two colony ships in the black hoping something shows up soon - and something should. The remaining ten “home” systems include another five colonies and a black hole, unfortunately placing them further out than I’d like. We also can only count one mineral resource this phase because the second one got dropped off at a colony-to-be that won’t “grow” until after minerals are counted. With the carryover I still have 24 CPs.
Two colony ships and a scout it is.
Some more movement, and suddenly we uncover planets - and a scout survives a brush with a black hole that forces the following colony ship, hoping for a world to settle, to divert to an asteroid field.
And the third movement turn results in another black hole - rolling a one and I’m safe.
The third econ phase the exploration and investment in miners pays off. between the 25 points for the colonies and three mineral resource tiles brought in to active colonies, we have some real resources in play. Even with 4CPs in maintenance costs, there are 38 CPs in play. Of the remaining home tiles I believe two are still potential colonies. We’re going to need at least two more colony ships, and that doesn’t include the deep space tiles. It also doesn’t help how far out so many of the worlds are.
Two COs, One SY on Bajor, and a SY on Kronos run 28 CP, and I went ahead and purchased ship size 2, using up all of the available CPs. I cannot build the colony ships at the new shipyards.
Fingers crossed as we end the third econ phase. Deep space tiles are much more dangerous - and potentially lucrative. If I want to take advantage of Hoth or any future deep space worlds I need terraforming - but it’s an open question if I’ll have the time to build them up to more than easy targets.
Sadly, three scouts exploring deep space were lost to the dangers, or more precisely, the “Danger” tile, of deep space over the next movement turns, so while I now have 32 CPs of colony points and 15 mineral points, I also have only 1 maintenance CP in costs, and need to replace the scouts somehow if I think it’s worth penetrating the deeper space tiles. The “danger” tiles certainly make the exploration technology look worth while. I’m not sure how long my scout will last, much less if it will find any 10-spot mineral deposits or even barren planets before it dies. We’re going to have several new colonies spinning up, and more on Econ five for a total of eight, but I’ve got a colony ship wandering around without a home that can’t colonize my known barren planet, nor any others discovered. That’s 8 CP wasted.
The first two death machines have attack B9 and B10 respectively - meaning that anything going up against them will need to be a battlecruiser or better, or a lot of numbers on their side. The third one will be in initiative group A along with starbases, dreadnaughts, and battleships. Tactics will matter if I can clear tactics level 2 to equal the DM, just to get an opportunity to hit before being destroyed. Getting in the first shots, hitting with those first shots, and surviving the counterfire will all be important, and if the ships cannot get into the right system, none of the above matters either. Each death machine is basically the equal of five improved dreadnaughts or battleships.
In short we need to put research into Ship Size to get to hull size 5, ship yards and Ship Yards capability to build the ships where needed, the Move to move them in response to a DM, the Tactics to shoot first, and Attack tech for rolls to make sure we hit. Defense to survive counterfire is also a must because the first shot will not take it down.
I’m not sure we can afford all of the above, much less all of the above and build ships. Just the minimum of hull size and tactics to put things on an even-ish footing is 85cp. Bases are 12 CP, With Battleships and Dreadnaughts running 20 and 24 CP. I think it’s time to heavily invest in shipyards and hull tech for an Econ Phase or two - we have four after this one, as you can only build one SY per system per econ phase. It’s too early to purchase unupgraded warships.
So three shipyards this round on the far worlds and investment in hull tech, leaving 12 CP I cannot spend effectively, so I’ll carry that over.
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