Andromeda's Conquest MP game

#61 · 13 March 2022, 21h42

Quote from The Wargaming Scribe on 13 March 2022, 21h42
I ended with 3 planets and 16 of production - courtesy of Porkbelly.

I think I had the worst RNG : as you couls see, my area was pretty sparse in terms of systems, so except for the first system which was one turn away and decent, I always had to travel two turns to reach a new system. Add to this that the systems were pretty poor, often expensive to occupy, or already teeming with alien lives, and I did not have a good situation. I found a good system the one before the last turn - else I would have had 7 in production.

I also did not play my cards very well, building very early two echo to compensate planet dispersion.. but not realizing that one was in Porkbelly's range. Sending an attack mission toward Porkbelly's not realizing I had certainly not the muscles for that, etc... Porkbelly very soon (turn 4 or 5 I think) bottled me in my corner of the galaxy, and then it was just build Rama -send Ramas to defend my homeworld.

Pretty simple game, but unexpected strategic depth, too bad for the strong RNG. I also find the designer's decision to end the game when a player has 10 systems : we ended the game in 11 or so turns despite being 4 players, something totally hotseatable in 2 hours back in the 80s. I

The current feud and even bad blood between DDG and Dayyallu shows you don't need something as complex as Dominion for a solid and immersive multiplayer experience :). Porkbelly did not see this, but I tried to convince both players to discuss with the other, but both sides kept claiming the other side was not reasonable, not very flexible and demanding more than their military power should allow :). Let's not discuss further who was right, I am sure DDG will state his case in his AAR.

I am going to write my AAR now. @DDG : Let's coordinate when we release so we can cross-link. Dayyalu/Porkbelly : If you want to AAR after all, tell us, so we can coordinate at 3 or 4 then.

It was a good experience, another game coming soon for a more cooperative-but-not-totally experience.

I ended with 3 planets and 16 of production - courtesy of Porkbelly.

I think I had the worst RNG : as you couls see, my area was pretty sparse in terms of systems, so except for the first system which was one turn away and decent, I always had to travel two turns to reach a new system. Add to this that the systems were pretty poor, often expensive to occupy, or already teeming with alien lives, and I did not have a good situation. I found a good system the one before the last turn - else I would have had 7 in production.

I also did not play my cards very well, building very early two echo to compensate planet dispersion.. but not realizing that one was in Porkbelly's range. Sending an attack mission toward Porkbelly's not realizing I had certainly not the muscles for that, etc... Porkbelly very soon (turn 4 or 5 I think) bottled me in my corner of the galaxy, and then it was just build Rama -send Ramas to defend my homeworld.

Pretty simple game, but unexpected strategic depth, too bad for the strong RNG. I also find the designer's decision to end the game when a player has 10 systems : we ended the game in 11 or so turns despite being 4 players, something totally hotseatable in 2 hours back in the 80s. I

The current feud and even bad blood between DDG and Dayyallu shows you don't need something as complex as Dominion for a solid and immersive multiplayer experience :). Porkbelly did not see this, but I tried to convince both players to discuss with the other, but both sides kept claiming the other side was not reasonable, not very flexible and demanding more than their military power should allow :). Let's not discuss further who was right, I am sure DDG will state his case in his AAR.

I am going to write my AAR now. @DDG : Let's coordinate when we release so we can cross-link. Dayyalu/Porkbelly : If you want to AAR after all, tell us, so we can coordinate at 3 or 4 then.

It was a good experience, another game coming soon for a more cooperative-but-not-totally experience.

Dayyalu has reacted to this post.

#62 · 22 March 2022, 14h54

Quote from Porkbelly on 22 March 2022, 14h54
Thanks for the game!

For the bloggers I'm attaching my unedited game diary with the slugs POV... just a stream of consciousness for the last 3 weeks.

I didn't make any notes for the last two (three?) turns, but at that point it was really just Colonize next world, Build big Rama fleet, send to Ants.

Turn 1 (22 Feb)
Send out the tentacles: 5 x Ramas (10 RP)
Four fleets of 1-1-1-2 (three for recon, one for battle)
We spot P1, the Fish-people, in open space out to the south-east - so must be an Echo.
And likely comes from 19,18...
I can't reach him with my Rama's.
In the spirit of fairness, I privately let him know we can see him.
Fleet 3 finds a worthless barren rock, lucky I didn't send out a single Echo.
Fleets 1 & 2 discover some very nice empty planets.
So we have a colony route for a new Echo next turn.
Fleet 4 my attack wing, also finds a great planet nearby, but with NPC Insectoids. We attack of course.
Privately, we threaten the robots.
We also send misinformation to the group chat hinting at a slow-moving fleet...

Turn 2 (24 Feb)
Build new Echo and send out to nearest good planet (10 RP)
Fleets 1, 2 & 3 continue scoping new planets. One excellent, one mediocre with feeble NPCs, one poor.
I can still see what must be the fish-people, now on planet, they are complaining about the locals 🙂
Someone else is to my north-east, single fleet on planet. Only one planet within range from it so if it is an Echo then highly suspect that 13-5 is therefore a homeworld. Fleet 3 (1 Rama) is now positioned to reach it next turn, but should we attack this early? We'll probe it with Fleet 3 next turn and then decide.
Fleet 4 continues attack (twice), reducing the NPC Insectoids by another 2.
We should be able to reduce them in about 2 turns, a new echo will be ready soon.
Make neutral commiserations to the fisheries.
Privately, we threaten the robots.
We also send misinformation to group on founding of new world...

Turn 3 (25 Feb)
Colonize System 14 and add 1 Defense to it (10 RP)
There seems to have been an attack, sounds like the robots vs. the fish.
And there are more fleets to the north-east, which most certainly include Ramas.
My suspected alien Echo seems to have moved on, and since there is a fleet in open space, I suspect that is it, heading south-east. It's possible that a Rama was sent ahead to scout the planet it is heading towards, and then I reckon the Echo probably has a Rama escort now too. Attacking with my one Rama ship I think would be ineffective, let's instead just probe the planet it came from and see if we can shake them up a bit.
Ah ha ha, it's an Insectoid colony. So now we know where their homeworld is (13-5). And that fleet heading south-east might still be a lone Ant-Echo. So... who's the other guy??? Must be a surplus Ant-Rama or the Echo wouldn't be going that-a-way.
Meanwhile....
Fleet 1 finds another good planet, but with strong NPC defenses, we'll need another Rama here to start reducing it.
Fleet 4 continues to reduce the NPC Insect planet, it should be ready to colonize next turn after one last attack so we need a new Echo.
Fleet 2 continues to scout to the south, another middling rock.
We make disarmingly open blab with the fisheries (truth, smoke and mirrors).
Privately, we continue to threaten the robots.
We also send additional misinformation to group on founding of a second new world...

Turn 4 (26 Feb)
With 18 BP we take 1 Echo and 4 Rama
I am getting warning signals from the Ants so I pull back my single Rama, and reinforce it up with the 4 news ones, the fleet sits on a small barren planet within flight distance from the Ant colony.
My first echo reaches planet 15 which we will colonize next turn (cost of 10).
My new echo I stop on the barren rock near my home planet. I can colonize this for a cost of zero, but I realize that I can only do one colony per turn. Never mind, he can move on to the NPC world next turn.
Fleet 4 reduces the NPC Insect world to 0 defenses, so it is ripe for colonization.
Fleets 1 and 2 continue to explore.
Fleet 1 finds another excellent world (48) with no life on it.
Fleet 2 finds another average world with no life.
That makes 13 known worlds, 1 is PC controlled, and 4 NPC of which only 2 have NPC defenses. So there's the ten I need to win!
I promise to send help to the fish people as soon as I can.
Continue to threaten the robots.
Send to group chat about building a fleet warships... for defensive purposes of course..

Turn 5 (27 Feb)
Founded our second colony at planet [15] for 10 BP, and build 4 Rama ships.
Holy mollusc! It looks like the Ants attacked, and with a Nova! and 2 Ramas. We lost 2 Rama! The Nova has minimal protection which seems like a expensive move on their part!
We begin by retaliation... and our 3 x Rama wipe them all out in two short blasts!
And in return we'll send our new Fleet 7 of 4 Rama back to go squat on their colony. It looks like they have bumped their defenses, so we knock a single point off. Good, let them spend! Although our fleet will probably be attacked I hope it is more powerful than they expect.
Now move the colony ships to their new positions, we want planet 8 next turn and then 30 after that. Then I think we might be unstoppable unless they all gang up on me.
What's this I see on the southern horizon? Looks like the bots or fish are on 10,16. I'll leave Fleet 4 with two Rama to defend my Echo but hope they don't probe my way in force.
Fleet 2 continues scout, finds another good planet with no life [3].
Fleet 1 has run out of scout missions so I'll send him to empty space at 7,6 to confuse the Ants.
Remain fairly quiet this turn, no reason to alert the bots about my attacks on the Ants. Let them try to figure out what happened, expecting to hear alarms going off in the chat shortly.

Turn 6 (28 Feb)
Founded colony on planet 8 for 11 BP, built 7 Ramas.
Ouch, it looks like the bots probed me from 10,16 but only sent 2 Rama. I lost a Rama but luckily the Echo wasn't taken. I'll need to draw a fleet back to destroy them, will have to be my Fleet3 of 3 Ramas from the Ant frontline.
And the Ants are everywhere, ha ha. But no combat last turn. They have fleets in space to confuse me, likely scouts but could be an Echo prize in there somewhere. I'll probe these in force. I have a scout Fleet1, and Fleet7 of 4 Rama on the Ant colony, and my new Fleet8 of 7 Rama. Enough to do damage.
Colony ships first, one echo is in position to colonize [30] next turn, my 2nd Echo will need towards the cluster in the south, and out of enemy range.
Now my fleet4 a single Rama against two Robots, let's see if it's possible to do any damage with my 2 attacks. Nope! Ok, so Fleet3 with 3 Rama comes down to reinforce, they attack. and yes, this time I get both his ships. Phew.
Ok, now the Ants, I want to probe with Fleet1 first, see if there are any juicy targets. There's a fleet on planet at 7,6 that might be an echo. Ah, an Echo with a Rama, on a small uncolonized world. Yep, there's my target. Fleet1 has no effect, but we can bring in another 4 Rama, and sorry Ants!
Lastly my new fleet of 7, only one alien group it can reach... a single Rama as I thought. It departs to Ant heaven also.
That just leaves my Fleet2 scout in the south. Looks like bots, or fish, scouting to my east, no concern for now, but good that they see we're here.
We find system [27], mediocre world, no life.
As expected I think they're on to me now. At least the fish-folk seem to be neutral, likely heading east to build like mad. I have no idea where the bots have all gone, but if they stay out of range them I'm good.

Turn 7 [4th March]
Phew, a long delay to sort out a design flaw the crashes the game when more than 8 enemy fleets are probed in a single location.
Ok, first things first, we establish a colony on planet [30] for 11 BP and I think this progress [now 45 BP/Turn] makes the squids near unstoppable. I reckon I should be able to take the game in 5 or 6 more turns. Next turn will be System [12].
I build a fleet of 1 R, 1 N, 1 E for 24 BP as the beginnings of a planet-killing attack fleet against the enemy players. It will get loaded with Rama shortly.
It heads north-east to link up with a fleet of 7 Rama. Fleet 7 of 4 Rama heads to bug colony [32] and kills a Rama scout sitting there. My big fleet could reach there soon, but I stupidly placed an Echo with my Nova. bah! I join them up to free some fleet slots.
Fleet 3 heads south-east where the bot probe came from and we find uncolonized system [6]. Mediocre planet but a good forward base. There is a bot fleet nearby so I expect to get probed in force. Let's see what they can bring.
Lastly, my scouts, Fleet 1 checks out the bug colony [9] to the north-east. It is a poor world, with 1 Rama defender. I may lose my scout if the ants build up here, but he doesn't know where I'm going and at least it's a distraction.
Fleet 2 probes the last planet to my south [23]. It's an NPC ant colony. Middling planet, not too strong. I probably won't need it to win, so will leave them alone.

Turn 8 [6th March]
Ooh, I lost ships. Fleet 1, just a scout, but also Fleet 7 of 4 Rama.
To begin with colonization I'm going with system [20] first [6 BP], a poorer system than [12] but a good forward base for bug hunting. And then I'll buy 19 Rama with my remaining BP. A Fleet of 6 to pester the robots, and 13 to join my war against the Ants.
Firstly the robots, there's a Rama in sight so I've been probed, but there is another fleet to my south-east. I'll bring my new fleet 1 of 6R to mop up this scout, and probe the bots with my Fleet 3 of 4R. System [4] is a bot planet with 2 Rama guarding. We attack but only get 1, dang it!
Now the Ants, I've been probed so they know I have a slow Echo/Nova on the way but they'll get a shock when my new Fleet of 13 Rama hits their colony first. On we go to find they have 4 Rama, my attack wipes them all out.
Lastly, my remaining Scout heads east to scope out robot domain.

Turn 9 [8th March]
Wow, the ants took out 12 of my Rama! That's a big deal. Don't see much obvious reaction from the bots though.
Ok, first we colonize system [12] for 8 BP. And another 19 Rama for 38 BP.
Scouting the Ants I find 19 Rama ships. That's quite a fleet, more than I expected, with another 3 Rama scoping my oncoming planet busters. Their system has a defense rating of 9, so let's knock that to 7 first with the remnants. Then we fly in the kill fleet with it's War Power of 12, it's not enough! We need to get their fighters first or we're gonna get wiped out in their 2 attacks. We kill 6 and then bring in another 16 Rama for another 8. That leaves them 6 Rama vs. my 25 plus Nova, so a big problem on their hands I hope.
I spy an Ant fleet in my rear zones, too close to a lone Echo. I do have a small reinforcement fleet of 3 Rama on [8] that I was going to use against bots. So in that goes. It's only 1 ship so was no harm after all, but we kill it quick before it can scout anything. That leaves my Echo safe to take a juicy planet [48] next turn, with [44] to follow the turn after from my second lone Echo.
Now to the bots.... apparently I may have killed a Fish scout somewhere last turn so I need to apologise and be more careful. I don't see much use in reducing their colony defenses so we'll scout the next planet over where I see a fleet. Hoo, it's my fish buddies with a single Rama and a Nova. Ok, we'll raise a tentacle, fall into defensive formation and back them up. Not sure where they are headed... but heck, the bots may come this way... so I'll bring in all the troops, to make it a 10 Rama support fleet, and we can let them lead on!
Lastly, I have a lone scout on the bottom row, will keep moving east. We find world [35]. NPC Mammalian, and not much resource.

Turn 10 [10th March]
Ok, my fleet is down to 11 Nova, I lost 14! But not as bad as I feared.
Ok, colony first, we take [48] at cost of BP12, an excellent planet. And we build another 19 Rama, 1 fleet. I have 8 worlds now, just need two more.
Scouting the Ant colony I see they have rebuilt back to 18 fleets. And the planet defense is 8. So, we bomb the planet, bringing it down to 2, and then the second attack.. KABOOM! And in comes my new fleet of 19 to take the sting out of his counter-attack. Damn, 19 ships and I only manage to take out 2... ha ha ha! But will they fight or retreat?
I send my small attack fleet with Echo to start reducing the Amphibs at [31], just in case I need another colony spot in the rearward marches. My second Echo will skip [44] and sit on [3] to add it's 8 resources next turn.
Now the Bots... I had a message from the Fish that they had taken the planet to the south-west. Sounds like a big punch-up is still ongoing, I send it my scout to check it out before committing my 10 R fleet.
Damn, BAD SUBSCRIPT error... means there are more than 8 fleets in the system.
I'l have to redo my turn.. I perform the exact same key-strokes and get exactly the same results as above.. gotta love the Apple's 'Random Number Generator'.
Ok, so I'll need to leave the Fish/Bot fracas and I'll go back and scout elsewhere.
Ahoy! Planet [29] we find the robot homeworld! No fleets, defense 12. Of course, we attack!. I bring in my 10 Rama and we reduce defenses to 7.

Thanks for the game!

For the bloggers I'm attaching my unedited game diary with the slugs POV... just a stream of consciousness for the last 3 weeks.

I didn't make any notes for the last two (three?) turns, but at that point it was really just Colonize next world, Build big Rama fleet, send to Ants.

Turn 1 (22 Feb)
Send out the tentacles: 5 x Ramas (10 RP)
Four fleets of 1-1-1-2 (three for recon, one for battle)
We spot P1, the Fish-people, in open space out to the south-east - so must be an Echo.
And likely comes from 19,18...
I can't reach him with my Rama's.
In the spirit of fairness, I privately let him know we can see him.
Fleet 3 finds a worthless barren rock, lucky I didn't send out a single Echo.
Fleets 1 & 2 discover some very nice empty planets.
So we have a colony route for a new Echo next turn.
Fleet 4 my attack wing, also finds a great planet nearby, but with NPC Insectoids. We attack of course.
Privately, we threaten the robots.
We also send misinformation to the group chat hinting at a slow-moving fleet...

Turn 2 (24 Feb)
Build new Echo and send out to nearest good planet (10 RP)
Fleets 1, 2 & 3 continue scoping new planets. One excellent, one mediocre with feeble NPCs, one poor.
I can still see what must be the fish-people, now on planet, they are complaining about the locals 🙂
Someone else is to my north-east, single fleet on planet. Only one planet within range from it so if it is an Echo then highly suspect that 13-5 is therefore a homeworld. Fleet 3 (1 Rama) is now positioned to reach it next turn, but should we attack this early? We'll probe it with Fleet 3 next turn and then decide.
Fleet 4 continues attack (twice), reducing the NPC Insectoids by another 2.
We should be able to reduce them in about 2 turns, a new echo will be ready soon.
Make neutral commiserations to the fisheries.
Privately, we threaten the robots.
We also send misinformation to group on founding of new world...

Turn 3 (25 Feb)
Colonize System 14 and add 1 Defense to it (10 RP)
There seems to have been an attack, sounds like the robots vs. the fish.
And there are more fleets to the north-east, which most certainly include Ramas.
My suspected alien Echo seems to have moved on, and since there is a fleet in open space, I suspect that is it, heading south-east. It's possible that a Rama was sent ahead to scout the planet it is heading towards, and then I reckon the Echo probably has a Rama escort now too. Attacking with my one Rama ship I think would be ineffective, let's instead just probe the planet it came from and see if we can shake them up a bit.
Ah ha ha, it's an Insectoid colony. So now we know where their homeworld is (13-5). And that fleet heading south-east might still be a lone Ant-Echo. So... who's the other guy??? Must be a surplus Ant-Rama or the Echo wouldn't be going that-a-way.
Meanwhile....
Fleet 1 finds another good planet, but with strong NPC defenses, we'll need another Rama here to start reducing it.
Fleet 4 continues to reduce the NPC Insect planet, it should be ready to colonize next turn after one last attack so we need a new Echo.
Fleet 2 continues to scout to the south, another middling rock.
We make disarmingly open blab with the fisheries (truth, smoke and mirrors).
Privately, we continue to threaten the robots.
We also send additional misinformation to group on founding of a second new world...

Turn 4 (26 Feb)
With 18 BP we take 1 Echo and 4 Rama
I am getting warning signals from the Ants so I pull back my single Rama, and reinforce it up with the 4 news ones, the fleet sits on a small barren planet within flight distance from the Ant colony.
My first echo reaches planet 15 which we will colonize next turn (cost of 10).
My new echo I stop on the barren rock near my home planet. I can colonize this for a cost of zero, but I realize that I can only do one colony per turn. Never mind, he can move on to the NPC world next turn.
Fleet 4 reduces the NPC Insect world to 0 defenses, so it is ripe for colonization.
Fleets 1 and 2 continue to explore.
Fleet 1 finds another excellent world (48) with no life on it.
Fleet 2 finds another average world with no life.
That makes 13 known worlds, 1 is PC controlled, and 4 NPC of which only 2 have NPC defenses. So there's the ten I need to win!
I promise to send help to the fish people as soon as I can.
Continue to threaten the robots.
Send to group chat about building a fleet warships... for defensive purposes of course..

Turn 5 (27 Feb)
Founded our second colony at planet [15] for 10 BP, and build 4 Rama ships.
Holy mollusc! It looks like the Ants attacked, and with a Nova! and 2 Ramas. We lost 2 Rama! The Nova has minimal protection which seems like a expensive move on their part!
We begin by retaliation... and our 3 x Rama wipe them all out in two short blasts!
And in return we'll send our new Fleet 7 of 4 Rama back to go squat on their colony. It looks like they have bumped their defenses, so we knock a single point off. Good, let them spend! Although our fleet will probably be attacked I hope it is more powerful than they expect.
Now move the colony ships to their new positions, we want planet 8 next turn and then 30 after that. Then I think we might be unstoppable unless they all gang up on me.
What's this I see on the southern horizon? Looks like the bots or fish are on 10,16. I'll leave Fleet 4 with two Rama to defend my Echo but hope they don't probe my way in force.
Fleet 2 continues scout, finds another good planet with no life [3].
Fleet 1 has run out of scout missions so I'll send him to empty space at 7,6 to confuse the Ants.
Remain fairly quiet this turn, no reason to alert the bots about my attacks on the Ants. Let them try to figure out what happened, expecting to hear alarms going off in the chat shortly.

Turn 6 (28 Feb)
Founded colony on planet 8 for 11 BP, built 7 Ramas.
Ouch, it looks like the bots probed me from 10,16 but only sent 2 Rama. I lost a Rama but luckily the Echo wasn't taken. I'll need to draw a fleet back to destroy them, will have to be my Fleet3 of 3 Ramas from the Ant frontline.
And the Ants are everywhere, ha ha. But no combat last turn. They have fleets in space to confuse me, likely scouts but could be an Echo prize in there somewhere. I'll probe these in force. I have a scout Fleet1, and Fleet7 of 4 Rama on the Ant colony, and my new Fleet8 of 7 Rama. Enough to do damage.
Colony ships first, one echo is in position to colonize [30] next turn, my 2nd Echo will need towards the cluster in the south, and out of enemy range.
Now my fleet4 a single Rama against two Robots, let's see if it's possible to do any damage with my 2 attacks. Nope! Ok, so Fleet3 with 3 Rama comes down to reinforce, they attack. and yes, this time I get both his ships. Phew.
Ok, now the Ants, I want to probe with Fleet1 first, see if there are any juicy targets. There's a fleet on planet at 7,6 that might be an echo. Ah, an Echo with a Rama, on a small uncolonized world. Yep, there's my target. Fleet1 has no effect, but we can bring in another 4 Rama, and sorry Ants!
Lastly my new fleet of 7, only one alien group it can reach... a single Rama as I thought. It departs to Ant heaven also.
That just leaves my Fleet2 scout in the south. Looks like bots, or fish, scouting to my east, no concern for now, but good that they see we're here.
We find system [27], mediocre world, no life.
As expected I think they're on to me now. At least the fish-folk seem to be neutral, likely heading east to build like mad. I have no idea where the bots have all gone, but if they stay out of range them I'm good.

Turn 7 [4th March]
Phew, a long delay to sort out a design flaw the crashes the game when more than 8 enemy fleets are probed in a single location.
Ok, first things first, we establish a colony on planet [30] for 11 BP and I think this progress [now 45 BP/Turn] makes the squids near unstoppable. I reckon I should be able to take the game in 5 or 6 more turns. Next turn will be System [12].
I build a fleet of 1 R, 1 N, 1 E for 24 BP as the beginnings of a planet-killing attack fleet against the enemy players. It will get loaded with Rama shortly.
It heads north-east to link up with a fleet of 7 Rama. Fleet 7 of 4 Rama heads to bug colony [32] and kills a Rama scout sitting there. My big fleet could reach there soon, but I stupidly placed an Echo with my Nova. bah! I join them up to free some fleet slots.
Fleet 3 heads south-east where the bot probe came from and we find uncolonized system [6]. Mediocre planet but a good forward base. There is a bot fleet nearby so I expect to get probed in force. Let's see what they can bring.
Lastly, my scouts, Fleet 1 checks out the bug colony [9] to the north-east. It is a poor world, with 1 Rama defender. I may lose my scout if the ants build up here, but he doesn't know where I'm going and at least it's a distraction.
Fleet 2 probes the last planet to my south [23]. It's an NPC ant colony. Middling planet, not too strong. I probably won't need it to win, so will leave them alone.

Turn 8 [6th March]
Ooh, I lost ships. Fleet 1, just a scout, but also Fleet 7 of 4 Rama.
To begin with colonization I'm going with system [20] first [6 BP], a poorer system than [12] but a good forward base for bug hunting. And then I'll buy 19 Rama with my remaining BP. A Fleet of 6 to pester the robots, and 13 to join my war against the Ants.
Firstly the robots, there's a Rama in sight so I've been probed, but there is another fleet to my south-east. I'll bring my new fleet 1 of 6R to mop up this scout, and probe the bots with my Fleet 3 of 4R. System [4] is a bot planet with 2 Rama guarding. We attack but only get 1, dang it!
Now the Ants, I've been probed so they know I have a slow Echo/Nova on the way but they'll get a shock when my new Fleet of 13 Rama hits their colony first. On we go to find they have 4 Rama, my attack wipes them all out.
Lastly, my remaining Scout heads east to scope out robot domain.

Turn 9 [8th March]
Wow, the ants took out 12 of my Rama! That's a big deal. Don't see much obvious reaction from the bots though.
Ok, first we colonize system [12] for 8 BP. And another 19 Rama for 38 BP.
Scouting the Ants I find 19 Rama ships. That's quite a fleet, more than I expected, with another 3 Rama scoping my oncoming planet busters. Their system has a defense rating of 9, so let's knock that to 7 first with the remnants. Then we fly in the kill fleet with it's War Power of 12, it's not enough! We need to get their fighters first or we're gonna get wiped out in their 2 attacks. We kill 6 and then bring in another 16 Rama for another 8. That leaves them 6 Rama vs. my 25 plus Nova, so a big problem on their hands I hope.
I spy an Ant fleet in my rear zones, too close to a lone Echo. I do have a small reinforcement fleet of 3 Rama on [8] that I was going to use against bots. So in that goes. It's only 1 ship so was no harm after all, but we kill it quick before it can scout anything. That leaves my Echo safe to take a juicy planet [48] next turn, with [44] to follow the turn after from my second lone Echo.
Now to the bots.... apparently I may have killed a Fish scout somewhere last turn so I need to apologise and be more careful. I don't see much use in reducing their colony defenses so we'll scout the next planet over where I see a fleet. Hoo, it's my fish buddies with a single Rama and a Nova. Ok, we'll raise a tentacle, fall into defensive formation and back them up. Not sure where they are headed... but heck, the bots may come this way... so I'll bring in all the troops, to make it a 10 Rama support fleet, and we can let them lead on!
Lastly, I have a lone scout on the bottom row, will keep moving east. We find world [35]. NPC Mammalian, and not much resource.

Turn 10 [10th March]
Ok, my fleet is down to 11 Nova, I lost 14! But not as bad as I feared.
Ok, colony first, we take [48] at cost of BP12, an excellent planet. And we build another 19 Rama, 1 fleet. I have 8 worlds now, just need two more.
Scouting the Ant colony I see they have rebuilt back to 18 fleets. And the planet defense is 8. So, we bomb the planet, bringing it down to 2, and then the second attack.. KABOOM! And in comes my new fleet of 19 to take the sting out of his counter-attack. Damn, 19 ships and I only manage to take out 2... ha ha ha! But will they fight or retreat?
I send my small attack fleet with Echo to start reducing the Amphibs at [31], just in case I need another colony spot in the rearward marches. My second Echo will skip [44] and sit on [3] to add it's 8 resources next turn.
Now the Bots... I had a message from the Fish that they had taken the planet to the south-west. Sounds like a big punch-up is still ongoing, I send it my scout to check it out before committing my 10 R fleet.
Damn, BAD SUBSCRIPT error... means there are more than 8 fleets in the system.
I'l have to redo my turn.. I perform the exact same key-strokes and get exactly the same results as above.. gotta love the Apple's 'Random Number Generator'.
Ok, so I'll need to leave the Fish/Bot fracas and I'll go back and scout elsewhere.
Ahoy! Planet [29] we find the robot homeworld! No fleets, defense 12. Of course, we attack!. I bring in my 10 Rama and we reduce defenses to 7.

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#63 · 23 March 2022, 19h20

Thanks Porkbelly.

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Andromeda's Conquest MP game