You can't trust a dolphin.

3 May 06

Another update on the Tarka/Liir war. I didn't have much time to play today, but that doesn't mean interesting things didn't happen. My assault fleet arrived at Mon El to find the Liir had significantly reinforced the planets garrison. It had only a few defense platforms but a dozen cruisers and about fifteen destroyers. The mighty assault fleet didn't look so mighty any more. My five cruisers and dozen destroyers were in trouble. That might not sound so bad, but one of the cruisers was a repair craft and a couple of the destroyers were fuel tankers.

The initial plan was to sweep by the planet on a tangent. I would try to take out the end of his defense line and get a few shots in on the planet while deploying my assault shuttles. It worked pretty well since my missiles fired at range. I took out about three destroyers on my way in. I roughed up a cruiser and deployed my shuttles. I probably could have pounded the planet for a while, but I wanted to take out that cruiser to even the odds. I swung around and tried to array myself as best I could with my armored destroyers and cruisers to the front. I took out the cruiser, but not before finding out he had upgraded his medium weapons to fusion cannons (upgraded plasma cannons). That was not good. Since I was still heavy on missiles, that meant that I had to stay at long range to keep up my weapons advantage. But, as I mentioned yesterday, he had upgraded his engines. So his cruisers could out pace mine. It was a bloody battle, but as the timer ran out, I had taken out another cruiser and destroyer and merely taken a lot of damage on my ships.

After the turn change, I was glad I had that repair ship. I was able to repair all the damage except one armored destroyer. Unfortunately, I noticed a relief fleet vectored in on Mon El. Scanners showed a dozen ships arriving in two turns. I had one more chance to damage the planet before I would probably be wiped out. That didn't go well. The Liir used their speed advantage to close and focus fire on my repair ship. Its guns went out quickly then all I heard were the dying screams as the ship broke apart. I was able to damage another cruiser as they made their pass, but the damage rate was too high. I turned toward deep space hoping my hyper drive would be ready before my ships blew. Of course, the problem with running is that you're turning your engines toward the enemy. That's practically begging to have them blow out your engines. But what are you going to do? Only two ships made it to the retreat rally point.

After that bloody battle, we reached a kind of stalemate. He had heavy defenses near my worlds, and I had the same. Neither of us were willing to spare a fleet on a risky attack. His speed and short range punch were negated on offense by my defense platforms and long range missiles. I had to get in close to do damage to his planets. I solidified my defenses and went to work on improving my speed and marching the long slog to dreadnauts.

That plan worked with only one hiccup. He sent a couple of scouting fleets out (cruiser, destroyer). He was mapping worlds and looking for vulnerable colonies. He sent two out to somewhat vulnerable colonies. I was able to respond in time and destroy his ships. When two more appeared, I made the same preparations. Unfortunately I slacked in checking the intel. One was a scouting fleet. The other was a full assault force attacking a lightly defended early colony. Six cruisers come roaring in on my two. The planet's firing missiles, but they're so early the rate is pretty slow. Initially, I thought I might be able to hold out until the timer, but when the armored cruiser went, everything else disappeared rapid fire. I lost six ships, most of the infrastructure on the planet and three million colonists. He didn't even want the planet. He just didn't want me there.

Now the first Dreadnauts are rolling out with antimatter engines and warp drives. I'm working on a few special weapons to keep him on his toes (fins?). After that, I'm going to have to cut research way back to build the fleet I'll need. It's also time to seed the next wave of colonies. I hope I don't find my other neighbors too soon.

Jason