FH - game log of another noob

Press Release: Galaxy Alpha Post-Herald (GAPH)

The Consortium government press secretaries announced today a "populist transitional governing body" has assumed control of all public functions, following a one week news blackout.

Honorable Maxitor von Datum, of the new ruling clan "Datatribe" held a press conference in the Grand Array on the grounds of the old church on PL Ancient Temple. "The First Order has been dissolved. The Second Order has now running the Consortium for the transitional period, which will continue indefinitely."

Members of the First Order were unavailable for comment.

"I will stress that this was not a coup d'etat. Rather it was a realization that a new clan could lead the Consortium more effectively, under the new order of informatic rampancy."

No questions were taken.

End Press Release

Yes folks, another noob has taken a position in FH:Galaxy Alpha! I was given a drop-out position, and plan to submit orders for Turn 3 by tomorrow. I was delighted to read that FH is all about role-playing, not just number crunching. So I looked at my species:

Species name: Consortium
Government name: First Order
Government type: Hierarchal Xenocracy

I decided a coup had taken place. We are now the Second Order, and have aligned the Consortium along the lines of an information-driven meta culture. Our goal is total information awareness. We plan to scan every system in the game, hold audience with every player, and buy and sell information at every opportunity. We will specialize in settling non-standard planet types. And finally we will set up transit standards and an interspecies wormhole transit commerce protocol to ensure the safety of interstellar trade.

I have read about half the rules so far, and will try to post what I can here without giving away too much about my position. First goal - one of the planets in my home system is just barely within my abilities to colonize, and I will set up a mining colony asap. This will be a practice run for settling other tough planets in the turns to come.

Turn 3 - orders verified and sent in to our trusty moderator...

The Second Order has quickly settled in to establish control over the sprout of an interstellar empire. First order of business? Name our first target, of course! We have identified a planet within our home system as being just within our capacity to colonize. It is now called "DataMine". We may end up putting all our offshore hosting facilities there, inside all those caves we're about to scoop out of the precious minerals currently trapped beneath it's hostile crust. Everyone's gotta start somewhere...

Second order of business was to construct two more scouts. Not only do we need more ships to cover the 90-some stars in this cluster, but there is a slight chance that some members of our Interstellar Heroes Scout Brigade will end up being martyred in a hyper jump misfire or other intergalactic incident. So we set up a few more mandatory reporting stations to recruit more lucky pioneers.

Finally, we determined that we need vastly improved manufacturing technology if we are to build transports large enough to ship sustainable colonies. So our scientists are busy working aggressively to bring us up to code. We have beta teams working to shore up a few supporting technologies, such as Gravitics and, er, well, purely defensive military capabilities. Just in case we run into space amoebas or something.

We sent our first scout to the nearest system, and eagerly await the first reports from the frontier!

Hmmm. A Xenocracy is government by foreigners, so you need to explain where you came from.

The Second Order of the Consortium answers to no one. But in your case we'll make an exception. We are a species that craves the unusual, the unique, and the bizarre. We seek out strange new worlds - not to assimilate them, but to learn from them. We are xenophiliacs. Love us.

(At least that was *my* interpretation of Xenocracy...)

So you're xenophilliacs - doesn't that mean you'll have to be put on the attorney general's sect defender list?

[quote='JonO' pid='533' dateline='1301257498']
So you're xenophilliacs - doesn't that mean you'll have to be put on the attorney general's sect defender list?
[/quote]

That's sect *offender* list, to you. Unless your species is into that sort of thing. ;)

Turn 4 has arrived!

G.A.P.H. live report from Ancient Temple space control.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Space Command - Royal Airbase Magenta (SCRAM) has just announced that they have re-established contact with the Space Pioneers scout ship Alpha. No word yet on casualties, but it appears that hyper jump calculations were off by an order of magnitude. The ship and her thousand-man crew re-entered Einsteinian space a full parsec off target.

"According to fleet policy, the ship has more than enough fuel and provisions to last in deep space for many years, but a misfired hyper jump can endanger FTL-capable ships in many ways. A full inspection and refit will likely be necessary when Scout 1 returns to dock.

"Of course, that's not going to happen anytime soon. The ship is slated to try another jump to it's target, the Aberdeen system, as soon as possible.

"The Naval Astrogator's Research College had already begun accelerating it's program on basic gravitics science, but Scout 1 launched from our home system before this research was done. Now the latest computational models have been packaged and transmitted to Scout 1 by SCRAM, which should bring the odds of another mis-jump down significantly.

"Still no word on what planets or other resources might exist in orbit around Aberdeen Prime.

----------------------------

The scout mis-jump was a set-back, but should only end up costing one turn, which will not really matter in the long run since our production capacity is still so pitifully small compared to our needs. Even if we arrived at the next star to find a veritable eden, we are not in a position to take advantage of it.

As a hedge, we laid the hulls for two new scout ships. Three roving beacons ought to be enough for the next ten turns or so.

On the research front, things went remarkably better as we advanced in all six areas of technology! Our aggressive push on Manufacturing technology proceeded as expected -- we are probably two turns out from being able to produce TR-8 class transports. We also brought Gravitics and Military up to moderately respectable levels with relatively small investments. And we picked up a random tic in Mining, Biology, and Life Support, which was rather welcome news indeed. Obviously the ascension of the Second Order has sparked the collective minds of Consortium industry to rise to the task of galactic informational awareness.

We still have a solid reserve (from the economically stagnant years of the First Order), but we're inclined to keep that liquid for the time being. We might need to goose our planetary defenses at some point, or put some extra muscle into building that TR-8, when the time comes.

The order-writing process was fairly easy, especially with the defaults provided in the stud order set appended to the turn results. I know it will get a lot more complicated later in the game, but for right now it just takes a few minutes to encode your turn. (And an hour or so to write posts about it!)

orders for Turn 5 sent out...

The Second Order of the Consortium has doubled down on its investment in the strategic manufacturing sector. If these new technologies blossom in the way it is hoped, it may soon be possible to build the most enormous space transports ever seen in this star cluster -- big enough to hold tens of thousands of colonists and all the equipment necessary to begin the orderly development of DataMine, 3rd planet in our home system.

Scout 1 is re-attempting to reach its target. Now that we have some minimal level of competency at basic astrogation, perhaps they will actually get there.

Scout 2 and Scout 3 are leapfrogging ahead to the next 2 nearest stars. If all goes well, we should have some system data scanned in by next turn. INFORMATION! We hunger...

In addition to the major push in manufacturing technologies, our scientists are putting some further investment in mining/extraction techniques. Our manufacturing output has outstripped available raw materials on our home planet, so we hope to reduce that gap and improve systemic efficiency. We also put a fair amount into the basic biological sciences. At this stage, advancement is cheap, and we want to position ourselves to exploit random progress by the commercial sector in this area, should it occur. This should take our understanding of the life sciences at least up to the level of our (purely defensive) military engineering establishment.

Finally, we named all the planets in our home system. DataMine is only the first planet on our list. Eventually we hope to have a colony of some kind on each planet. Baby steps.

[quote='ixnay' pid='580' dateline='1301430996']
orders for Turn 5 sent out...

The Second Order of the Consortium has doubled down on its investment in the strategic manufacturing sector. If these new technologies blossom in the way it is hoped, it may soon be possible to build the most enormous space transports ever seen in this star cluster -- big enough to hold tens of thousands of colonists and all the equipment necessary to begin the orderly development of DataMine, 3rd planet in our home system.

Scout 1 is re-attempting to reach its target. Now that we have some minimal level of competency at basic astrogation, perhaps they will actually get there.

Scout 2 and Scout 3 are leapfrogging ahead to the next 2 nearest stars. If all goes well, we should have some system data scanned in by next turn. INFORMATION! We hunger...

In addition to the major push in manufacturing technologies, our scientists are putting some further investment in mining/extraction techniques. Our manufacturing output has outstripped available raw materials on our home planet, so we hope to reduce that gap and improve systemic efficiency. We also put a fair amount into the basic biological sciences. At this stage, advancement is cheap, and we want to position ourselves to exploit random progress by the commercial sector in this area, should it occur. This should take our understanding of the life sciences at least up to the level of our (purely defensive) military engineering establishment.

Finally, we named all the planets in our home system. DataMine is only the first planet on our list. Eventually we hope to have a colony of some kind on each planet. Baby steps.
[/quote]

How long do you have to wait?

Tomorrow :)

FH Galaxy Alpha turns are on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Love the logs btw ixnay. I'm sad that as the GM I can't play in the game my self. Reading your's and Grimfinger's entries give me a little taste of the in game experience.

GAPH press coverage of the recovery of Scout 1

Families of the Space Pioneers of Scout ship Alpha were elated today, when news came of their arrival at the target system. All systems are operational, all crew are present and accounted for, and a detailed scan of the planetary system has revealed 5 planets, including one that is even more hospitable to Consortium life than our own DataMine! It is believed that the 20 cases of champagne tucked aboard Scout 1 will not make it back to the home system, when the ship is due for refit.

Meanwhile, families of the pioneers of Scout Beta have been even happier. The ship arrived in system as per jump plan. Second Order officials credit aggressive research into gravitics propulsion and astrogation systems with the success. This jump was even further than Alpha's, and netted two further news items.

First, that system has 2 planets, which will be quite a treasure trove for our Xenocratic scientists as we try to unlock their secrets and learn how to colonize them.

Second, WE HAVE ENCOUNTERED ALIEN INTELLIGENT LIFE FORMS in that very system! They are flying a TR-1 class scout, basically similar to our designs. Efforts to hail them on common frequencies have not yet been successful, but our Xenobiologists are busy working on possible inter-species communication protocols. The system itself appears to be uninhabited, and given the small size of this ship, we are left to conclude that theirs is a scout ship with a mission similar to ours. Outreach!

Scout Gamma has not yet reported back. Jump signatures indicated a misfire, which was unlikely but not impossible. We ask for your prayers for the Space Pioneer volunteers and their families.

End press

Well, it's been a monumental turn for the Second Order! New life forms! Two systems successfully scanned, at last! Massive investment in research yields results!

Manufacturing technology has reached it's target level of sophistication! Engineers are already scrambling to put this knowledge into practice as we lay the hull for a TR-8 class behemoth. It will take at least 2 turns to fully build and equip it for its first colonial run. During that time we will have precious little funding for research, so our industry on the home world continues to be out of balance -- our Mining sector has not kept up with the breathtaking pace of manufacturing improvements! But we can't let minor inefficiencies distract us from this race for the first colony!

Biology advanced at a brisk pace, but it came at a cost. We have engaged in heavy deficit spending this cycle, to the point where our fluid economic reserves have nearly run dry. There is precious little left in our rainy day fund. Let's hope we complete these first few projects quickly so we can replenish that fund and guard against future need.

We will, of course, reach out to the alien species in sector 12. Who knows, that entity may even be reading this very transmission! We might have to start being more discreet in our press releases.

First Contact! Huzzah!

We have set our plans in motion for the next five year plan.

First, of course, we will attempt to get Scout 3 back on track. It misjumped by a fair distance, so the jump to its target is still risky. But it's too far to traverse by normal space.

Second, we are preparing a message of peace for the alien species discovered in Sector 12. Hopefully they are peaceful as well. In any case, they do not appear to have significant armament, so our scout should be safe.

We have decided to keep Scouts 1 and 2 on station. Our long range plan is to maintain a presence in every system and keep scanners turned on throughout the game, to maximize the flow of vital, delicious information.

We have put out-system colonization on the back-burner momentarily. We wanted to address the gap in our mining capabilities. Hopefully we will bring MI up to the level of MA in one turn. It's taking a big bite, but if it works we will bump our productive output by a significant margin.

We have also discovered that we do not NEED a transport to build a colony in the same system as our home colony! In-system transportation is assumed to be available via local shuttles and freighters, and requires no special arrangements! So we are attempting to populate InfoMine with a starting set of colonists, using the all-powerful "DEVELOP" command. We shall see if it works. If it doesn't, the extra economic output will just drop into our liquid assets pool and we'll apply them elsewhere next turn.

So if all goes well, we will finish this turn with an efficient economic engine, a new in-system colony, a fresh scan of our 3 neighboring systems, and some form of contact from our mysterious visitors.

How long until SUNDAY???

First Contact has been achieved!

We have confirmed contact with an intelligent life form. They have graciously provided secure communication frequencies, and we will begin what will hopefully be a long series of productive exchanges of information, technology, and diplomatic missions.

Space Pioneer scout 3 has arrived safely at her destination! The crew is safe, and the hull is intact, if abit bruised from its rocky passage through hyperspace. The new system is fairly bland - only one planet, and not a very usable one at that - but we are glad to know about it, and long term plans for its orderly development are now being drawn.

Our Mining sector received the bulk of our energies this past turn, and our scientists have reported better-than-expected progress! Our mines are now churning out even more in the way of raw materials than our already-highly-efficient factories can process. We are actually in a position to stockpile raw materials, or turn them over to the commercial sector via "recycling". While this is a happy problem to have, we are still looking into the possibility of bumping up manufacturing once again to bring our economy back into balance.

However, this might be hampered by our colonial aspirations! First, we now have a colony! We have laid the foundation on DataMine - our in-system planet that is just barely habitable. The equipment and colonists have all been deployed. All that is left is to "install" the mines and factories and we can begin producing "things". Of course, for the forseeable future, the DataMine colony will focus directly on developing itself. The fact that we face a deadly battle against the planet's harsh surface conditions every day means that most of our productive capacity will remain tied up with mere survival. But over time that will change.

Secondly, we now have the capacity to build a TR-8 class star freighter. Yes, you read that right. Not just the technical ability, but the economic capacity. We can potentially build the largest freighter ever conceived AND stock it full with colonists and equipment. We already have a system/planet in mind. We have not yet decided whether to build this all in one turn, or spread it over multiple turns in order to continue developing our economy. But the fact that our first out-system colony is merely a few turns away is exciting news indeed!

The lights came on to a disaster area that was once the hallowed situation room, the central command post of the Second Order of the Consortium. Party streamers lay strewn across the three bodies of government - Dewey, Lester, and Earnestine. They were the clerks that had, up until the party started, handled most of the daily business of running the hyper-efficient socio-economic empire known as the Consortium. Thanks to their ceaseless labors, the planet enjoyed some of the most impressive economic growth statistics in the galaxy.

Until the party started.

After the launch of the colony on InfoMine, it was decided that it was high time to celebrate the birth of a new interstellar empire. Meticulous planning went into every detail. Except for one. All three of these super-clerks were invited to join the festivities at the same time.

In true Consortium style, they became quickly inebriated, and to put it simply - all government functions came to a halt. Automated robotic systems continued to run, so the mines produced ore, the factories produced goods, and the, er, party supplies continued to be refilled. For five years.

The only thing that stopped the party was a short in the BeerTender 3000 software control panel. As sobriety crept slowly back into the brains of our three bodies of government, the scope of the damage dawned on them. "NoOOoooooooOOooOOOooOoooo!!!!"

* * *
Yes, I missed a turn. Sorry, oh benevolent moderator! Sorry, game-log fans! And sorry to the game designer, for having slagged the rules. Turns out, letting an empire go rogue in this game is actually fairly harmless under standard rules. Your economic output just gets dumped into Economic Units, which can be used as production next turn. There are some issues and restrictions, but by and large this has not doomed me to game hell just yet. It probably would later in the game, if there are evil invaders flying about. But not yet.

I got a turn in just in time early Sunday morning, without using full production, so I have a bunch piled up this turn.

On the PLUS side, my scientists have once against showed their excellence by propelling manufacturing tech ahead faster than expected. So now they will have to redouble their efforts to bring Mining tech up to snuff.

We finished our giant TR8 class freighter and loaded it with colonists and equipment for that nearby system. We will send it out next turn and see how it goes.

InfoMine, our in-system colony, is advancing slowly. It is a viable colony, though still greatly hampered by the harsh environment. One point I should make - letting my empire go "rogue" another turn WOULD have been problematic, because the default order set that was going to run would have dumped all homeworld production into developing InfoMine. Not a disaster, but definitely not the biggest bang for my interstellar credit.

On the MINUS side, we lost Scout 3. All the scouts went rogue (ie: followed their default jump orders, rather than stay on-station), and one of them has vanished into the aether. The other 2 have discovered new systems, though none with habitable planets. It will take a few turns to get our scouting program back in order and re-establish info dominance in our sector of the galaxy.

I have a day to think about things. Right now I am leaning towards a tech surge. Perhaps more Manufacturing/Mining, perhaps some Life Support to improve off-world performance. I should probably beef up some defense forces. We made contact with another species, but I have not yet fired off an email. Stupid real life has been keeping me busy! Perhaps a diplomatic surge is in order this turn as well...

* * *

"Sir, we've lost contact with Space Pioneers #3."

"Yes, I know that already you impudent fool. Why do you come to me with this again? Please, enlighten me before I assign you to KP duty for the rest of the cycle."

"Sir! Please, anything but that! It's just that, well, there was something else in the data. We ran a gravitics test pattern around the failed jump-target. We found the expected hyper-haloes, but there was something else as well."

"Out with it, dishwasher boy!"

"There was an anomaly in the background radiation. Something we haven't seen before. It was hard to translate, but we think it was an image - meant for us to find and decipher."

"Oh? And what would that be, kitchen help?"

"A finger. A grim finger. At least that's the way I would describe it. Here, take a look."

"Hmm, well, it *is* grim..."

"Our best guess is that this is a message - a warning from a starfaring species we have not yet encountered. They are out there, sir, and they are definitely evil. Or at least ill-tempered."

"Can we send them a reply? A response in the local background radiation?"

"Not yet, sir. Not without risking another Space Pioneer."

"Hmm, pity. I thought we might share with them an image of our famous Consortium 'moon'. Ah well, we'll handle that another day. Now off to the mess hall, boy, and fetch me some coffee!"

Our tireless work continues. We have re-assumed control over our fleets and planetary sectors. Our scouts are holding station for the moment, in their remote systems. Our giant colonization freighter is taking off for the nearest barely-habitable world (newly named OfflineCache). And our scientists have embarked on the most ambitious program of economic development ever. We are combining the resources from last years "party" with this years bounty to produce a technological surge to make Edison proud. With luck, our mining and manufacturing sectors will at last achieve parity at a much higher plateau, and thus provide a firm foundation for the trials ahead.

Our in-system colony is getting a small shot-in-the-arm. We can only develop it at a certain speed, so we are proceeding at that pace. We could, of course, send more from the home planet -- quite easily in fact -- but our priority at the moment is still the development of economic capacity. The colony can wait.

But for how long? How long until that invisible presence plaguing our star cluster moves into Consortium territory? We have dispatched a diplomatic team to establish friendly relations with our nearest neighbor, but we have yet to detect the malevolent presence our psychics have sensed, lurking in the interstellar shadows...

G.A.P.H EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM ALERT

THIS IS NOT A TEST!

At approximately 3:14am universal time today, a heretofore unknown alien species has entered the home system of the Consortium. No contact has yet been established with the vessel. It appears to be a small scout ship, but our planetary defense forces will consider it armed and extremely dangerous until we have more information.

There is no link at this time between this alien vessel and the previously reported rumors of an "evil" presence on the other side of the star cluster. That "grim finger" presence is not, repeat NOT, confirmed to be tied to this invading space fleet. Not yet, anyway.

However, we have ALSO detected one of the Tilkata scouts has penetrated all the way through to our home system as well. The Tilkatians have been friendly, so far, and there is no indication that they are in contact with this new invading species. But we are still racing to learn more about both alien species.

Citizens are advised to stock up on toilet paper.

* * *

Gaaaaah! Invaders! In our HOME SYSTEM!!! We will race to establish communication, of course, but this is highly alarming. Especially now that the Tilkatians have discovered our home system as well. It was inevitable, and not necessarily bad, but we find it highly curious that WE - the masters of information - have not yet detected anyone ELSE's home systems.

Maybe it is time to goose our nascent Space Pioneer forces. And it is DEFINITELY time to pop up some more impenetrable planetary defenses.

Which ties in to our other main story from this turn. We now have the ability to construct star bases. Turns out our scientists have, once again, boosted our technological capabilities far beyond what was planned! And once again, our Manufacturing sector has pulled ahead of our Mining sector, so there will be some rebalancing to do next turn. But this is a happy problem to have.

Research will most likely have to be put on the back-burner in light of these highly disturbing events. We don't need another transport, either -- the one we have is sufficient for now, since we have not yet discovered another easily-colonized world. So we will be building at least a couple of ships this turn to bolster the Space Pioneers and recover some situational awareness. We got caught with our pants down, and it better not happen again!

The InfoMine colony is doing well enough, with its base economic output up 20% over last turn. Still very small, but encouraging.

Our giant colonizer arrived at the neighboring system safely, thanks to our earlier push into Gravitics. We will have boots on the ground in that system asap. Now that security is an emerging issue, we will need to lay plans for defense of that colony. It will be too small to build its own defense base for quite some time, and we do not yet have the technology to build remote base modules. At some point we are going to have to start a (purely defensive) military-class star fleet.

The Game Is On.

quick pre-turn update. STOP.

Orders sent in. New colony in nearby system set up, colonizer ship sent back home. STOP.

Alien intruders warned. Allies contacted. STOP.

Purely defensive military tech bumped. First military ships constructed for defensive of 2 systems. Planetary defenses of home world expanded. STOP.

Those invaders had better STOP.

{grin}

G.A.P.H. news update ---

The Minister of Science and Technology has been sacked. Actually, he has chosen to retire early, to spend more time with his family. No, actually he has been sacked.

After many cycles of outstanding performance, our technological efforts have fallen flat this cycle, and at the worst possible time. In spite of a large investment of planetary output, our mining capabilities have not improved at all in the last 5 years. Our economy is still out of balance. Worse, a hefty emergency injection of cash into the defense technology sector failed to hit the target! We are still able to build ships scarcely larger than a picket boat.

Also, our Minister of Manufacturing has been sacked. We attempted to build 2 powerful new warships to begin holding a defensive perimeter around our 2 systems, but for some reason the factory orders were bungled. Our shipyards sat idle, and our workers left with nothing to do but play bridge and sip tea.

Oh, and our Minister of Colonization has been sacked. Our out-system colony is up and running, but it is badly out of balance -- our mining sector on that planet is less than half the strength it should have been to keep the local factories humming.

The secretary of state has also been sacked, due to the utter lack of progress in establishing diplomatic ties with our 2 neighboring species. The president is quoted as saying "My ping pong table could do a better job of contacting those space bugs than you!"

Finally, the human resources administrator of the Second Order has been sacked, for having failed to sack all of the aforementioned government executives BEFORE they had caused such extensive damage to our nascent interstellar empire.

No word yet on whether a Third Order is in the works...

End of G.A.P.H.

AAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our empire had been growing by leaps and bounds until now! Success upon success had propelled us ahead of schedule - and ahead of our competitors - into the milky void. But now our luck has turned.

We still have a day to think about it, but our first order of business will probably be to build those two Corvettes. Haven't figured out what went wrong with the orders, yet. Luckily, the only aliens buzzing around are tiny scouts. We might need to appropriate the Colonizer to ferry some planetary defense base equipment over to the out-system colony.

We will also need to redouble our efforts to boost military tech and bring mining up to par. Now that I read the materials, I see that I don't need military tech to build larger warships -- I need manufacturing tech. Which I have in abundance. But still, I can't afford to fall behind. Turns out I could build Frigates, but armed with pea-shooters. I did bump the home planet defenses, but InfoMine is still naked as a jaybird.

Economic development will probably have to go on the back-burner until we get basic system security in place and establish some sort of understanding with the space creeps flitting about.

[quote='ixnay' pid='991' dateline='1303164200']
Economic development will probably have to go on the back-burner until we get basic system security in place and establish some sort of understanding with the space creeps flitting about.
[/quote]

Not to mention the space flits creeping about. :-/

quick update -

I was running extremely late - 15 minutes past the deadline so I sent an email to the moderator begging for a slight delay. I then pounded out a quick order set. It did not cover everything I wanted to do, but it was better than letting a turn go by.

I loaded up the Colonizer with a fresh load of Mining equipment for the out-system colony. I held the Scouts in place (again.) I build a couple of military ships for peacekeeping duty (and gave the planetary defenses a bump). And against my earlier inclination, I chose to keep investing in technology. We shall see where things stand.

At this point, I am vulnerable if the horrid invader thingies decide to attack, but all I have seen so far is lightly armed scout craft. They might be able to scratch my colonies, but not the home world. And whatever they do, I am about to outgun them in my 2 systems.

Purely defensive, of course.

Assisant: "Leader Rukh, a moment please..."

Rukh: "Yes, what is it?"

Assistant: "It seems our Communications Division, which monitors traffic and communications, is picking up some... 'interesting' signals, Leader Rukh. It seems we are not alone...
"Comm states they are picking up 'bleeder' FTL signals from at least two other intelligent species, and information on a possible third based on the contents of these apparent messages."

Leader Rukh: "Very interesting. Tell me more. Is there anything 'useful' in these messages, or is it just random static."

Assistant: "Even better, Leader Rukh. It appears that at least one foolish species has somehow included galactic coordinates. And even better than that, they apparently state the location of another species' home system.
"And to add to that, one of the more 'prominent' groups of messages appears to be from a, shall we say, 'interesting' individual. [Hands Leader Rukh a datasheet.] As you can see, this individual seems to be rather on the 'unbalanced' side of life."

Leader Rukh: "Excellent news! Issue the technicians involved an appropriate award, and send in the general staff. We have a target."

Assistant: "Ah, Leader Rukh, just so you are aware, Sir. The location of this apparent home system is out of our current range. It would take our ships many Jumps to reach safely..."

Leader Rukh: "Hmm. You make an excellent point. However, I would be most pleased if you would include such information in your briefings in the future. It would make planning much easier, no?
"We will need to continue monitoring these frequencies. Any leader this potentially unbalanced needs to be watched closely.
"In the meantime, any word from our fleet?"

Assistant: "Yes, Leader Rukh, I will endeavor to include all appropriate information in the future. And no, Leader Rukh. We have not yet heard from our fleet at this time, but we are expecting news at any moment.
"I will inform you soonest, when we receive word."

Leader Rukh: "Excellent. Have Comm continue to monitor these frequencies and forward any more information they can determine.
"Have they no knowledge of operational security, or is it a ploy to get others to reveal similar information? Either way, they are fools, revealing their hand in such a manner. Our task is made somewhat easier."

Assistant: "Yes, Leader Rukh, the orders will be issued promptly."

G.A.P.H. coverage of State of the Consortium Speech, 2517.92

...And now, my fellow Consorts, we come to the topic of the so-called "alien invasion" of our home system. Many of our countrymen have taken to the press to criticize our handling of interstellar relations, particularly with regard to the "hostile" alien scout vessel detected just outside the outermost planet of our beloved home. The most common complaint was that the action we were taking was not nearly aggressive enough, and that soon we'd all be enslaved by these phantom oppressors.

This in spite of our immediate campaign to construct 2 large and enormously expensive war ships. I myself find them hideously overpriced and utterly unnecessary, but in an effort to quell the ranks of the critics on the extreme right, I signed the papers and ultimately my wife was the one to break champagne over their over-budget bows. Aggressive enough, I should think.

And that particular alien vessel -- a tiny little capsule really, barely capable of supporting a dozen life forms -- departed our system as quickly and mysteriously as it came. In fact, some of our most prominent political officers in the Gravitics University have evidence that this capsule was entirely robotic, and could possibly be nothing more than a remnant of some ancient civilization, long since gone from our star cluster. It stayed for barely a week -- FIVE YEARS AGO. Nothing else has happened since.

In fact, even the vaguely friendly Tilkatians have sent their diplomatic friendship mission on to other uncharted systems, secure in the knowledge that they have found true friends, here in Consortium space.

My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from the outer orbits to our beloved Ancient Temple peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.

* * *

10 Economic units to whoever gets the reference first.

We finally fixed our naval production line, and have 2 large warships ready for action. One will provide high cover for the home system, and one for OfflineCache. Either one is enough to blow away any transport/scout that should fall within its sight lines many times over.

Mining technology has finally been brought up to match Manufacturing and we are in economic synch again. Production is therefore up, but our disposable income has gone down considerably -- warship maintenance is EXPENSIVE!

Clearly we are going to need to redouble our efforts to beef up the economy. If we need to float an Escort for every system we control, we're going to need a lot more cash. Or we need to set up a few more transport behemoths and move large quantities of planetary-defense materiel to the out-systems.

More tough choices. And now, with the looming presence of aliens lingering just beyond sight, every choice becomes a whole range of other missed opportunities. The game is on indeed...

Too easy. NC's catchphrase is the giveaway.

Quick update (without the narrative)

I missed my turn due to poor planning over the holiday weekend. RATS! I did learn one interesting thing about the game - if you don't submit a turn, a set of default orders will be run on your behalf. If you want "nothing" to happen on a turn, you had better send in a turn specifying exactly that.

I had my 2 surviving scout ships head off to new systems (which is probably good), and one of them found a colony of another player. But my home colony processed a default order that basically dumped all available energy into developing our in-system colony - a huge investment into a less-than-productive planet. So we now have a huge presence there, but because of the oppressive climate we are still producing only marginal output there.

That teaches me to wait til the last minute! What's that, you say? Today is Tuesday and I still have not submitted orders which are due in the morning? Aaaarrrgh!!!

Time management. A simple element of turn-based gaming that somehow eludes me. I will draft up a narrative later tonight...

Orders sent! Narrative coming later. A slight change in direction...

Orders sent! News blackout continues, hopefully to be broken tomorrow...

Okay, wait! I kept trying to post an update yesterday, but my kids were challenging and my wife was occupied. Now I know there's an update waiting in my inbox, but I want to write an update BEFORE reading it, to preserve the thread. So I connect here, and notice Grim's got a new post up. The instant I see the word "combat" I avert my eyes and click "back" on the browser! Before all else, here's my update for LAST turn, uncontaminated by today's new information...

* * *

"Cookie, that was a fabulous captain's brunch. I'm going to put you in for a citation. Maybe 'baking above and beyond the call of duty' or something like that. Anway, I'll take my coffee in the situation room. Please have the Comms Officer join me there right away."

"Aye Aye, captain!"

* * *

"You sent for me, Skipper?"

"Yes, sparky, I did. I have a big job for you today. We have a new species to contact -- the 'neohumans' out in sector 12. They are scouting out a Tilkatian outpost. Not a threat yet, but we want to keep tabs on them. Seems like our corner of space is getting rather crowded."

The captain took a long sip from his "World's Best Boss" coffee mug.

"You know, we still have not re-established communication with the Tilkatians. They seemed like such a promising species. We haven't heard from them in years. Now with the 'other ones', we might have to deal with a new possibility. They may have turned to 'the Dark Side'." The captain chuckled at his pun.

"Now I don't want to scare you. But you know how we had to fire so many of the top brass a few years back, when they were caught asleep at the wheel? Well that's not gonna happen to me. I may be just a lowly scout captain, but I am going to get my jobs DONE. Even better than done. You remember that liaison officer I had here last week?"

Sparky nodded, gulping.

"Spook. Worked for one of those agencies. Anyway, he's on loan to me from a buddy back at the home planet. We had him, er, 'alter' the communication systems used by Darkseid. Set up a virus that pretty much took down his command/control structure for a short time. Hah. Man I woulda liked to see his tentacled face when he tried to order up some 'methane. earl gray. hot'."

He took another sip.

"Now here's the thing, sparky. You and I are gonna gin up the old interstellar radio, here, and fire off some messages to everyone we know. That battewagon that Darkseid sent to our colony is not gonna go unnoticed. Our boys in that escort ship are gonna deal with that particular incursion, but we -- you and I -- are gonna kick off a diplomatic offensive. He is not going to get away with his little war. I know I'm going against the wave, here, what with our home planet overrun by hippies. But I would rather be fired for being too aggressive than hung by an alien for being too timid. Are you getting me, sparky?"

The junior officer gulped again and nodded.

"Good boy. Now run along back to your little radio kit and stand by for my word. We're going to make you earn your pay today..."

* * *

Had to fire off another fast order-set this turn! How does a half-week go by so quickly? Clearly I'm going to have to master this if I can ever contemplate a faster-turnaround game.

We found Darkseid's escort-class ship in our colony system, but luckily had dispatched one of OUR two escorts in that direction. Just In Time. Since this looked, smelled, and tasted like an act of war, we set up an aggressive defense perimeter, but still held off on an independent attack. Perhaps next turn.

We held off on doubling down with new naval expenditures. Maintenance is high, and we want to keep some progress going on economic development. So we took the easy quick route - Mining research. It occurs to me, that we will need a second freighter. Our one big one is shuttling colonists and equipment back and forth, but we need more cargo capacity to send out some planetary defense pods and perhaps even some starbase modules. We shall see.

Now, I'm off to read the results that came in yesterday, and find out what ole Grim has posted.

To the other players in this game, if you are reading, PLEASE HEED GRIM'S CALL TO ACTION! Post your stuff here! Make this more of a role-playing experience! It multiplies everyone's enjoyment tenfold! I can't tell you how much I am anticipating reading Grim's post, just a few moments away! And I have been delighted to read the post in this thread from that other distant alien, though I suspect he is neither Tilkatian nor NeoHuman. Just write some stuff -- it's fun and we can all laugh about it at game's end!

The Phoney War is in full swing, it seems!

Our invincible fleet presence has successfully deterred a preemptive strike from the foul Darkseid, out in our colony system. We considered launching a deep space attack, but the beloved Game Manual is rather vague about how combat works. Specifically, you can do a deep space attack in which you attempt to chase down your target "except around planets", OR you can defend specific planets. We chose the latter. Does this mean that you can EITHER attack OR defend? Or can you cover both? We may try some other stuff in the upcoming turns.

We also enjoyed a better-than-expected bump in Mining technology, after this turns huge investment. It is probably better to keep Mining at least as high as Manufacturing, because you can always stockpile excess raw materials, or sell them as scrap. A random tick in Manufacturing tech was also welcome news.

We tried to set up some half-decent planetary defenses for our in-system colony, but got the message that not enough colonists were available. This is another odd thing about this game. You need a colonist to run each Mining unit and each Manufacturing unit, so if you have 25 of each, you'd need 50 colonists. THEN, apparently, you need EXTRA colonists to run planetary defenses. So if I want a basic minimum of 100 PD units, on top of my 25 Mines and 25 Manufacturings, does that mean I need 100+25+25=150 colonists? Apparently, that colony has 14 "available colonists". How many "unavailable" ones do I have? What are they occupied with? How did I get 14 to be available? The turn results are unfortunately very brief on these points, and the rules are vague.

In other news, we got a friendly message from the latest interstellar species, the NeoHumans. Perhaps they all look like Keanu Reeves.

And, we found the home system of the Tilkatians! This thanks to me letting my remaining 2 scouts go on their automated Jump routes. If at some point we can neutralize the threat of the insidious Darkseid, we can resume the higher purpose for our species - informational supremacy. We will eventually want a scout ship in every system and ultimately that kewl gravity-scope technology. But, of course, we need lots and lots of money to get there.

Finally, our other scout discovered a system with a VERY good colonization profile - meaning it is by far the most similar to our own home planet. I will not reveal the location, but I do think it will make an excellent backup homeworld, and we will begin laying plans for a massive annexation effort soon.

In an instant, the sky turned white hot, brilliant. Then, an instant later, all that is left is cold. dark. empty space.

Half the Consortium navy has been vaporized.

All residents of the Consortium out-system colony have been put on danger-pay.

More, later.

<static>
...the damn shields up, you idiot! put them up NOW!"

"They ARE up, Captain! We've been at battle stations for over an hour, with the flux capacitors at 113%! Except now they're all offline. All of them."

"Nevermind them, then! Divert all power to plasma beams! We've still got a few of those pumping! Just make sure we HIT the buggers!"

"... Charge complete, sir. But the targeting computer is not getting a lock. 'Granny' is too far away!"

"Then how in hell are THEY hitting US?? Nevermind, you idiot! Turn fire control over to me! I'm going to widen the beam and try to 'use the force' or whatever. Now where's my cowboy hat? If we're gonna go down, I'm gonna need that hat..."

<static>

"That's the feed, my fellow council members. That's all we got from the black box recovered from the wreckage of the AntiVirus."

The room fell into a stunned silence for a moment.

The Communications Minister spoke first. "Perhaps they were trying to communicate? Perhaps they use energy beams as a form of greeting?"

The Chair jumped out of his seat, turned around, and picked up, well, the chair he was sitting on. It was heavier than he thought, and bounced once on the conference table, but it did land more or less on the bridge of the minister's nose, causing a fair amount of bleeding. "GREETING?!?! You can't be SERIOUS! I have HAD it with you hippies! Those mutant freaks were FIRING at us! We fired at THEM! This is a WAR, gentlemen! WAR! A HOT MESS of a WAR! The question is, what are we going to DO about it?"

The Science Minister cleared his throat. "I think we need to analyze the situation, just to make sure we understand how we got to this point. Let's be logical, let's be focused, and let's make sure we advance towards a new common goal -- nuking those green bastards back to glass."

This was met with general approval, and the meeting kicked into high gear...

* * *

So, here are the factoids that must be filtered in to our planning:

1. Darkseid invaded our system. He visited the system with a scout ship, then left, then returned with an escort-class warship. There is no other way to interpret such an action, other than war. He even had his ship there an extra turn, during which we did not fire. If this had been a mistake, he would have left promptly. But there can be no mistake.

2. On around turn 9, we sent Darkseid a message, alerting him to the fact that we laid claim to this system. We also sent him a communication frequency with which to reply if he wished to talk privately. There was never any reply.

3. Last turn we warned him to leave the system immediately, and placed our fleet on high alert, though we did not fire a shot.

4. This turn, we engaged, seeing this invasion for what it was.

5. Our ship was the same size -- Escort class.

6. We fired twice and missed. Granny Goodness fired twice and hit. End of combat. We have not put an especially high investment into military tech, but our Life Support tech is fairly strong. Or so we thought. Life Support is what powers shields, and I had thought our shields would be enough to win the day in an evenly matched battle. Clearly I was wrong.

So much for the Darkseid situation. Now we ALSO have quite a surprise on our hands, with the unexpected visit of a Tilkatian colony ship! This is not actually threatening, but it would seem either risky for them to move a big fleet into our system unannounced, or presumptuous on their part that they go ahead and pick through the planets in our system without so much as a 'by your leave'. Still, the Tilkatians HAVE communicated friendly intentions with us in the past, and this is not a military incursion, and we basically welcome the integration of the star cluster. But still.

So we are left with how to respond to this horrible defeat. While we dare not telegraph our plans through the aether again, I will pose the following questions, to log our options:

1. How can we defend OfflineCache, our small colony in that system? With AntiVirus gone, we have no defenses and he's got an Escort class warship without so much as a dent in the fender.

2. Will we be able to extract SystemBus before she meets a similar fate?

3. How can we reach out to the other species? What level of cooperation can we hope to achieve? Information gathering? The location of Seidian systems? Economic support? Tech swaps? Fleet maneuvers?

4. How best to remedy our apparent deep deficit in military tech?

5. How, indeed, to deal with our tech deficit in general? I got a message from the NeoHumans suggesting that our Gravitics tech was unusually primitive, and that some other species he had been communicating with had very high levels of certain other tech! We are way behind. I am beginning to suspect that even in our most developed area - the economy - we are only just keeping our head above water. We may be playing with some experienced FH hacks, and might just get clobbered soon, even if Darkseid gets taken down.

It is probably not helping to keep a public game log going, but this is what makes it all fun for me and I can't imagine cutting back. I very VERY much like reading everyone's related threads. Cheers to the new posters, and a special invitation to the mysterious Tilkatians, who seem to be on EVERYONE's radar. And a tip of the bloody captains hat to Grim, who has succeeded in giving me the first Finger...

Desperate times call for desperate measures. We shall see what ashes we are going to reform our empire out of soon. Very soon...

Loving your reports.

G.A.P.H. Emergency Alert!

All citizens are advised, our home system is under attack. This is not a test. This is an actual emergency. If this had been an actual test, you would have heard a long annoying beep coming from your screen. Instead, we broadcast this footage from the bridge of the giant colonizer ship, SystemBus:

[cut to scene on starship bridge, flames and broken computer equipment everywhere, smoke pouring out of the elevator doors, captain's face bloody and fearful.] "AAAACK!!! GAAAAAHH!"

Those were the last words of the captain of SystemBus, an unarmed ship destroyed in an instant by the overwhelming firepower of the Darkseid fleet. That same fleet was thought to be targeting our defenseless out-system colony (OfflineCache), but instead it has jumped straight to our home system.

Our shipyards have just completed rushing out the largest warship we've ever built, the new FF frigate "Shockwave". It is being launched just as our military scientists have pushed out a series of equipment upgrades and weapon system enhancements. "Shockwave" joins our Escort class "FireWall" to form up a last ditch defense of our beloved home. In spite of the loss of ES Antivirus last year, the Consortium navy is now more powerful than ever. But most among the Consortium elite now believe that we are still many years behind Darkseid in critical technologies.

The Seidian ship "Granny Goodness" not only vaporized both "AntiVirus" and "SystemBus", but also attacked and savagely boarded the Tilkatian ship "Colony Prime", reaping untold material wealth while ejecting all surviving Tilkatians out into the vacuum of space. That same ship is now in our home system and has been joined by the enormous "Mantis", a hideous malevolent frigate-class behemoth bristling with the latest Seidian military tech.

While Consortium forces are now matched up with the invaders in terms of ship sizes, we are still far behind them in military capabilities. We advise all citizens that these Seidian ships will be every bit as savage and bloodthirsty as they were in our out-system colony. They are apparently bent on the destruction and pillage of all other life forms.

Please join us all in sending prayers to the desperate crew of our two brave warships. They will need all the help they can get.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

* * *

Okay! We are dead. We have a violent invader jumping us in our home system. We scrambled to up our military tech and build a frigate, only to find that THEY have a NEW frigate on our doorstep along with their unscathed escort. A one-on-one match is clearly in their favor. We are doomed.

For the benefit of other species, who might be listening. HEED THESE WARNINGS:

1. Darkseid does not respond to communication, and will apparently attack anything that moves.

2. Darkseid is undefeated in multiple combats, suggesting superior military tech.

3. Darkseid has fielded a frigate, so his Manufacturing tech is at least 20.

4. Darkseid has played us all for fools with his pretense at being hapless and confused by this game. He has projected large amounts of force-concentration and demonstrated high tech levels. He also mastered the art of "hijacking" the Tilkatian colonizer. He knows very well how to play this game, and is very comfortable with setting up his orders.

5. Darkseid has executed the classic "rush strategy" -- amass forces early and clobber the nearest neighbor fast. Any deficiencies in economic development can be more than made up for in the pillaging of entire homeworlds. His hijacking of a mere transport netted over 700 economic units. I have played this strategy many times in other games. The only way to stop him is to take advantage of his over-extension now, before he can consolidate power.

6. Darkseid has been playing us all like a fiddle, masterfully. Is he new at FH? I don't know. But he is certainly an experienced PBM gamer, and I have a strong suspicion that his game log was designed at least in part to lull his competitors into a false sense of security. And it worked. Bastard.

Orders are due tomorrow morning! What will the future hold? How will the other species react? What will the now-bloodied Tilkatians do? Have the friendly NeoHumans seen the threat? What do we make of this mysterious "Mold" gathering at the edge of our dim interstellar awareness? Time will tell...

We take a moment now to drop out of character...

* * *

Hahahahahahaha! Darkseid's logic is as tortured as the now-deceased crew of the Tilkatian colonizer were, no doubt, just prior to their demise!

This little colony we had was an insignificant little presence in a nothing-burger star system. Had Darkseid come in with his own colonizer and demanded a planet, I would have made no strenuous objection. I will even go so far as to say that if he had returned with a warship with at least a small colonizer-type freighter to lend at least a stamp of legitimacy to establishing a military presence there, I would have been unable to justify a deep-space attack.

But he had an escort-class warship, present at my colony, with no stated reason for being there and no communication of any kind for that matter. It is only through an accident of my own poor planning that I had my own escort there at the same time. Otherwise, that colony would be toast now.

I recognize that his attack had strategic merit, but there is no way to claim the moral high ground here. Darkseid is a dangerous presence and an unpredictable wildcard in this star cluster. Even apart from this little imbroglio, he must be held to close scrutiny for pretending lo these many turns to be unable to master the intricacies of FH arcana, barely able to scratch out some research orders. PHTHTHTT!! He *hijacked* a ship -- something I haven't even read the rules on yet!

Tread carefully, my FH friends. Keep your eye on this one...

;-)

Greetings after a long absence, fans of the Consortium!

I would like to mirror Darkseid's end-of-game post. This was a fun game while it lasted, mainly because of the chatter here on this forum.

The game itself is very simple -- perhaps needlessly so. It had a generic feel, and there was nothing to differentiate the players to add flavor. Yes, each player had their own biological profile that would guide them to colonize certain planets over others, but this never came into play in our short game.

There is some level of detail in certain technologies and capabilities, but not nearly enough. There are 6 technology tracks, and each indexes a handful of possible game-altering effects. Why only 6 tracks? And why so few actual impacts on gameplay? For that matter, technological advancement seemed to come very rapidly, leading to a hesitance to commit economic resources until the next turns research results.

And about those economic resources -- each planet/colony can mine a single kind of raw material, transform it into a single kind of generic "finished product", and then assemble that into a bare minimum number of colony fixtures (mines and factories), ships, and bases. Why go to the trouble of setting each race up with their own biological profile when we all end up using the same generic mining and manufacturing techs?

And finally, ships. You can pick from a handful of ship sizes, with a small choice of weapons/shields/cargo to put in the holds. Seems overly simplistic.

But I am a recovering empyrean challenge player. There is something to be said for simplicity if it improves playability. Look at the grandfather of all PBM for instance -- that old boardgame Diplomacy. Could not be simpler, yet always fun to play.

I wasn't overwhelmed with playability here, but it wasn't bad. The GM was very helpful, the rules were reasonably clear, and the process for submitting orders was pretty clean. The turn results needed work, and some flavor could be added. But overall it was a fairly acceptable old-school PBM game, serving as an able platform for some awesome role-playing. In that sense, Far Horizons excelled.

I was immediately entertained by Darkseid's thread and endeavored to join him. I was totally elated when other players dipped their toes in the water! I found myself drafting posts (and riposts) quite enthusiastically, and took great delight in each and every one of Darkseid's machinations. Clearly, he handed me my shirt in this game, but it was great fun all the same!

I ended up with my homeworld, one in-system colony, and one out-system. The colonies sucked up a fair amount of my resources -- not out of necessity, but because I wanted to see how fast I could grow them. Still, that distraction left me unprepared for Darkseid's invasion. I went for the basic builder strategy, hoping to do lots of communicating and outreach and amp-up the role-playing, particularly since this game had no stated "victory conditions".

Darkseid went for the early-rush and ended up with very positive results. He crippled my navy, established space superiority, and was in a good position to put his fleet to the test against my planetary defenses. Moreover, he took in some incredible plunder from that Tilkatian ship -- nice return on his military investment!

Were we to play this game again, I would put a little more focus on systematic scouting, naval development, etc, and a little less on early colonization.

at game-end:
Tech Levels:
Mining = 26
Manufacturing = 24
Military = 14
Gravitics = 7
Life Support = 18
Biology = 9

production capacity on my homeworld was 1689, 298 at the in-system colony, and 34 at the out-system place.

I had an Escort and a Frigate at the homeworld, and a single big freighter. I believe Darkseid and I were evenly matched for our home-system battle, but now that we see his much-more-advanced military tech, perhaps I was toast. And perhaps that explains why my ships didn't put a scratch on him in our earlier battles.

I had thought his tech might be falling behind, since my economy might be bigger, but that was evidently wrong! His production tech and biology were on par with mine, and his military and gravitics were well in advance of me. I was ahead only in life support. But even so, if I had turned all my life-support research over toward military, I doubt I would have outpaced him. Again, it is evident that my investment in colonization sucked resources away from military preparedness.

And in that sense, this was a good game. We make choices with our limited resources and limited knowledge, and suffer the opportunity costs.

To the game-master, I thank you. It was lots of fun. I was disappointed that you dropped off, but that's sadly a fact-of-life in PBM. Were you to show up here again and offer up a new round, I would gladly sign up.

To the players at large, good game. I was really enjoying the emerging sense of role-play. Good space opera stuff, that.

And to Darkseid, beware. We will meet again, in some other universe, some alternate dimension. And I will not so easily be caught with my pants down. Next time, I will keep my pants up high enough TO RULE THE GALAXY! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

At the point that I made the decision to go to war with you, I began investing more in military tech. You, on the other hand, opted to continue colonizing and developing your colonies. Since we all started out even, for the most part, I theorized that the military tech would give me an initial advantage in our conflict, but that you would probably gain an economic advantage, as the conflict proceeded. Thus, the initial turns of combat could prove decisive.

Once our two empires were at war, I theorized that it was you who would be forced to adapt, more so than myself. Far better to let the other guy adjust his strategy, than to adjust my own, was my line of thinking.

The unknown, of course, can be a powerful tool to use against enemy players in some PBM games. The advantage of learning your home world location, combined with the fact that you had no clue where my home world was, was a powerful advantage. I could send my starships to your colony world and to your home world, and even if I lost my entire fleet, your ability to then launch retaliatory measures against my empire was effectively zilch. The Far Horizon of space cloaked and protected my empire.

Not knowing how to colonize other planets was a disadvantage to me, but one that I turned to my own advantage, since that lack of knowledge effectively foreclosed that option to me. Thus, your enemy's lack of knowledge of the game's mechanics worked more to your disadvantage than to your enemy. There's more than a little irony in that, I think.

In war, there are perceptions and there are realities. To the player whose homeworld is under attack early on, and who has no clue where the other guy's home world is, in order to at least offer the prospect of retaliation as an option, perceptions can quickly and easily become reality.

You telling the entire universe that half the Consortium navy had been vaporized probably didn't help your cause. If I kill one ship, and that constitutes half of your fleet, then it doesn't take a lot of skill in mathematics to deduce how many starships that your empire has left at its disposal.

Your biggest failure in our relatively short-lived conflict, from my perspective as your enemy, lay in the area of how you chose to communicate with your enemy. Your forum postings were humorous, at times, but you made no real use of communications to gain reprieve from Darkseid's fury. The message that you sent to Darkseid was that your species was arrogant, boastful, inconsistent, and fearful. That's not to say that it was never entertaining. Rather, your method of communicating facilitated me giving priority to the role playing aspect over all else. If one knows that Darkseid is the enemy, what message does one truly think is wise to send to an entity of that nature?

Winning was never an issue, concern, nor priority of mine. The slow pace of traditional Play By Mail games is one factor that helps to ensure that players of such games tend to seek out conflict, early on. It makes such games more fun and entertaining.

Reading your post, I just remembered one other aspect of my strategy that I forgot to mention. I chose to put a lot into Life Support tech, because I considered it a double-whammy. It makes colonizing easier AND powers your shield technology. So while I knew I was leaving military tech under-invested, I figured my shields would buy me cover as threats emerged.

But your military tech ended up being 21, and my shield tech was only 18. I don't know the formulas used in running combat, but I guess a 3-point tech spread can be decisive. Even so, there was clearly a difference in our overall tech performance. All totaled, your techs added up to 105, and mine came up to 98. So my focus on building ultimately 2 freighters and some colony equipment ended up costing me roughly 2 turns of scientific progress. Hefty.

If there is ever a next game, I am thinking I would put an early focus on tech and maybe just plant a few huts on nearby systems. Tech advances come rapidly at the beginning, so maybe players can't afford to dilute their investment until they hit higher levels.

I wasn't so worried about not knowing the location of your home world. It was a fairly compact star cluster, and I had 3 scouts flitting about on auto-explore. Your location was evidently near mine, so pinpointing your particular system wouldn't be hard. I was not in a position to counter-attack, in any case.

I agree that my practice of broadcasting much of my strategy each turn greatly weakened my position. But the role-playing was enormously entertaining, and I don't regret it. I didn't use the forum to communicate with you directly, because the forum was technically outside the game itself. It would have spoiled the metaphor. I did send you communications in-game, but never got any response (other than a hail of bullets). I admit my first message was not friendly, but neither was it hostile.

I was more positive with the friendly Tilkatians, and perhaps less icy with the neoHumans and the Mold. But point-taken -- I allowed my race to sense your malevolence in-game, and chose to take a less-than-open-armed stance with you when we met in my colony system as a result. I did so in no small part because I thought my freaking shields would be up to the task of protecting my ships.

This brings up one final complain about FH -- why not share the method by which combat is calculated?

Having said all this -- would anyone like to start up a new game? Our moderator is gone, but the game is open-source, right? Can we get enough people together and have another go at it?

How amusing that you fancied that shields would be your species' salvation from the likes of Darkseid.

FOOL!!

Removing the unknown factor from combat would simply unravel the game further, for me. Everyone's entertainment value mileage may vary, of course, but I prefer that players look less to the math, rather than more. Why? Simply because I think that unknown factors, particularly with regard to core game mechanics, can be very helpful in building up the atmosphere factor of a game, especially a space conquest game involving different species.

How much atmosphere is created from knowing that all players start the game equal? That doesn't make the Klingons more Klingon-ish, does it?

I don't want a player to attack Darkseid and his minions, because that player knows that he will win by a 2.783421 attack advantage differential. Likewise, I don't want Klingons avoiding attacking the Federation, simply because the math shows that the Federation is more powerful.