The Neptune’s Pride Diary of Sabor117 – Parts 1 to 3 and that of Elephant_God’s

His Royal Highness, Emperor of the Ileryu – Journal Entry 1

Stardate 9/1/20012

Log starts – Our great Empire has come to the sudden realisation that we are not alone in this Galaxy of ours. In fact we share it with another seven space-faring civilisations all in a similar position as us. Meaning they are just starting to expand the borders of their domain.

We are in an interesting position which could be considered either strong or weak depending on how you view it. We are at the edges of the Galaxy and as such are not so unfortunate as some in that we are not surrounded by the other civilisations. That said we are within reasonable distance of two space-faring civilisations and only a little further away from a third.

There can only be one victor in this sudden race for domination of the Galaxy and we mean for it to be us. That said at this early stage in time we have genuinely no idea of how to progress with our expansion. We shall expand as far as we can in the neutral zones (naturally) but when we come in close contact with other civilisations, who knows what could happen.

Those closest to us are the Teals and the Oranges. The Oranges have remained very quiet so what their plans are is anybody’s guess.

We have made contact with those five civilisations which are closest to us and received responses from three. Negotiations are under way. Currently it is our belief that we should make close friends of both the Yellows and the Greens as they are further away from us so our interests will not collide but they also both are in close proximity to those who might harm us.

In fact despite initiating friendly negotiations with the Teal nation it might be in our best interests to join forces with the Yellow and swiftly crush them, this would give us a strong foothold in our sector AND a staunch ally.

At the same time it might make sense to join forces with the Green and glass the Oranges before their ambition proves dangerous.

Of course this might spread our forces thin to attempt two wars at once. Plus, if both invasions worked out perfectly then we would be in the dangerous position of being strong but spread thin, with two slightly less powerful nations suddenly on our borders. And in that case they might decide to take advantage and work together to bring us down straight away…

All in all, though anything could happen in these early days and the friendly messages we have received from both Yellows and Green could prove traitorous. Who knows what the future holds in store for us all.

Log Ends

His Royal Highness, Emperor of the Ileryu – Journal Entry 2

Stardate 16/1/20012

Log starts – The time of expansion and slow build up of forces lasted most of this week, with starships sedately expanding the borders of all the various Empires. Whether through fault of my own in poor choices or a poor starting position (most likely the former) I ended up with the least amount of planets of all the players. The Oranges never joined this great game and were taken over by an extremely hostile and aggressive AI. Luckily compared with every other Empire (including my own) they were ridiculously weak.

My plan remained surprisingly similar to what it was before. We made close friends with the Yellow. Trading technology with him and slowly putting together a plan to crush the Teal Empire between us. We also at one point traded technology with the Reds and believe that they are friendly with us (as friendly as necessary anyway).

The Reds are worryingly strong, with a large Empire, however their attention is devoted to the Purple who were trapped behind them. Unfortunately for the Purple, the Red has pretty much annihilated any resistance and the Purple only has 7 planets remaining as I type. The future of my relationship with the Red probably collapse as soon as he turns his attention outwards.

I have heard very little from the Blue for the entire game but believe it is time to start making advances towards them in the name of alliance. For one simple reason which I will get to in a moment.

First I should explain that while I perhaps have made poor decisions in some places, I believe the worst mistake I have made this game was suggesting to the Yellows, Greens and Teals that we all work together and take out the Orange AI. This was done to prevent Teal from becoming suspicious and remain on good terms with the Green (as well as eliminating a potential threat to the Yellows). It seemed a good idea at the time, but now I suddenly realise that in doing so, the Greens are now within range, with upgraded tech, of my worlds. And the Green is unquestionably the strongest player in the game.

While I believe that together me and the Yellow could crush the Teals, the campaign would be long and costly. And the Green are the strongest player, and they are right on our borders. I now worry I have made the biggest mistake of the game. While perhaps we may beat the Teal I think by then it will be too late. I think the Teal might appeal to the Green (or the Green will simply see what is happening) and Green will take this opportunity to attack either one or both of us.

In planning to beat one player with the aid of another, I may have unwittingly handed the game to the Greens. That is why it is now imperative that we have the aid of the Blues. Their fleets could distract the Green long enough for us to beat Teal and turn our attention to him…

 

From here on forward, there are no plans…

Log Ends

His Royal Highness, Emperor of the Ileryu – Journal Entry 3

Stardate 19/1/20012

Log starts – War… War never changes… Me and Yellow have now crushed the Teal. I say crushed because he literally has 3 planets remaining and one weak fleet. Even if by some miracle he survives he can’t win now. The war was even more costly than we imagined though. Having an ally meant that victory was inevitable but Teal made up for it by trading with either (or both) of Green and Red. His weapons tech always matched ours as did all his other forms of technology.

The war was actually surprisingly quick, in that it only took two days to get from the stage of launching the attack to nearly having wiped him out.

Each victory was bitterly fought for and we lost a great many ships and countless soldiers to this war. Worse even at the very beginning of the war we lost two fleets to the Teal defenders and so our advance slowed even further. Our co-ordination with the Yellows was almost minimal with each of us simply pushing forward, but despite on one occasion where I had to hastily withdraw from a planet to avoid fighting a Yellow fleet which could not change direction we worked together well and our advance on the Teal was unstoppable. We fought bitterly for every step forward we made, but fight we did and win we did.

And now comes the moment I feared but tried to ignore. We must turn our attention outwards. We understand from the Blue (who has inside intel) that the Red and the Green will fight together to crush me and the Yellow and wish the Blue to work with them (that is how he has come by this intel).

The Green and Red are similarly matched in strength and power in the same way that the Yellow and I are matched in strength and power. Unfortunately, despite all our gains, the Green and Red are stronger than both of us. Against their combined might I fear we have absolutely no chance. Especially as both me and Yellow haven’t even started to recover from our exhausting campaign against the Teal. Our armies are weak and spread out and now we face the two strongest nations in the galaxy and I will say now I have little hope for the future. Especially when I see a combined fleet strength of over 300 ships gathering on my border with Green.

The Oranges are still, somehow, in the game but the Purples were annihilated the day after I made my last star-log.

Combined the Green and Red have double the number of ships of both the Yellow and I together. In fact our only hope now is one thing. The Blue. The Blue was asked to join the Red in crushing the Yellow and, as fa

r as I understand, they believe he will work with them. At the last moment though, when the Green pushes towards my borders and I rush my Veteran fleets to intercept them he will attack from behind. The three of us together may yet be able to win this… Although I very much fear for the future of my Empire… I do not now believe there can be any victory… At least not for me…

We will finish off the Teal and I will stand as a Spartan against the Green onslaught. We will fight until the bitter end… But I fear it is the end…

Log Ends

Click here for Parts 4 to 8

Elephant_God’s (the Yellow) diary of Neptune’s Pride

Part 1: Early game until the war against the Teal

 

After a first few days of nitpicking about barely even colonized borders and dissecting the galaxy by colours, our little game looks boring as hell like a color-by-the-number game. Everyone is afraid of going too far, growing too fast, concentrating the others’ mistrust on himself too early. Careful now. “Oh, you want that planet? Well, then there’s no way around you to the rest of the galaxy for me, do you want that?” is the reply I get for one of my rather more forward demands.

I’m in the middle of the galaxy so I’m writing back and forth negotiating uneasy truces with my direct neighbours and hoping for more long-lived technology alliances with those further away. The first victim of this vulturous and greedy expansion phase is the orange player, who missed the start only to have a quick look at the game some three days in when we were already moving in, having his territory divided up between us in a mixture of first-come-first-serve and post-war Germany, without there even having been a war.

It’s just the general tone of the game – look, we’re civilisations expanding far beyond our home system, we’ve all done genocide before, no doubt, it’s no big deal really. He sends out his fleets to take back some planets, but soon realizes there’s nothing to be gained any more and never answers to any in-game-inquiries. The tentacles of our yet-joined empires twitch back like the antennae of a snail, but only briefly, soon to silently but inevitably extend again…

Now the AI has taken over the orange player just as most of his planets are hours away from invasion, with a fleetless but heavily guarded central planet probably staying intact until the end of the game, if the AI doesn’t decide to move out. Meanwhile, around this area of mathematical, silent natural selection the galaxy has been nearly fully colonized and one can spot the first few alliances by their concurrent technological development. I seem to have found a friend in the dark red player, Sabor117, with whom I am trading technology and busy planning the demise of the (blue) enemy between us. The problem is: he might be in league with the red and green players, who are currently in the lead planet- and technology-wise. If that is true, we and I especially will be surrounded by enemies now that orange is gone. So we need another ally. We have significantly upped our game technologically, so we could give a lucky third player an instant edge over his suppressors, but is that wise? All depends on the frailty of Teal’s relationship with the current big boys.

 

Part 2: The war with Teal

 

Our little alliance decides to do or die and we attack – rather rashly, especially me – and send our fleets into light blue territory. The moment where I press launch on my biggest fleet is some 6 hours before it will enter blue scan range, so the timing works quite well after all, as my ally is quick to react.

Our attacks are rather random, and barely coordinated, but we whittle away a quite a few planets from McDan’s cold blue hands, before we notice he keeps a tight ship and has most of his ships concentrated in his 6-7 fleets, and every planet is expertly guarded with a garrison of one ship. A minimum of effort for a maximum of defence.

Amongst this, the deeply disturbing, devious and actually very political part of the game kicks in: When we started our attack, we had a +2 weapons advantage over McDan’s bright blue empire. I look again (and again, and again, in disbelief), and his weapons tech is on par.

I doubt that the currently leading player, green as envy Delmoor, has fought a single battle in this game, but he has now cost two players more ships than the red player lost eating up the complete purple empire.