I decided my best, easiest, hope was to take on one of the fallen empires before the awakened, having reached the fleet strength where they were likely to do so ( Read more... )

Wrapping up previous warAfter carving off a geographically convenient chunk of the NE empire, the balance of power shifted a bit. Some empires rivalled each others. Others (or the same ones?) signed defensive pacts. Most of them became too weak for me to count as official rivals so I lost the influence gain ( Read more... )

A very short, somewhat farcical warSo late last night I ran a little experiment. There are two relevant empires. One that used to be quite friendly, but every time I stopped buttering them up they immediately turned hostile and I eventually got fed up of babying them, who are now inferior to me (in military strength. And ethically. But I mean, not ( Read more... )

More multicultural and less multiculturalA couple of aliens from one of my allies did immigrate to one of my planets, although it took me ages to actually find them! But I love having a multi-species empire. Currently I have: my original Duckbills; Funguses and Dangerous Smug Reptiles from conquests; Morlocks from a mysterious underground ( Read more... )

I had several sessions which ended up a bit muddled.

Session 1: ReaversThe first was the end of the war against the reavers. In a war with no claims, just "if you take over a system, it's just immediately transferred to you", I wasn't quite sure how that worked with allies. It turns out (I think), that if there's only on adjacent allied empire, ( Read more... )

Along with our glorious allies, we have finally taken the fight against the reavers to their territory! May we extend our reach there ( Read more... )

WarOne of my allies declared war against the ominous, but now not as threatening, Banthurian Reavers (who look like meek mild-mannered reptile geeks, except genocidal). Apparently they're a rogue state and the usual war rules don't apply, they just attack people any old how, and you can attack them any-how in return ( Read more... )

EconomyMore planets! Up to 17. Mineral income up past 400/month. Not impressive to experience mid-game players, but I feel better. Still might not be enough to take on fallen empire directly, but I got a lot closer than before ( Read more... )

The 10sAfter the war, I gained four new planets. I spun off my most-developed planets into an AI controlled sector so I didn't go over the core planet cap, although that's another mechanic they keep changing ( Read more... )

TraditionsThere's the equivalent of a tech tree for "traditions" which unlock various bonuses supporting particular play styles. It lets you specialise your empire somewhat. Some of the bonuses are a flat +X% to something (in theory enough to always be quite significant, although it doesn't always work like that), others unlock particular abilities ( Read more... )