What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?

[Llamatoesl]

Due to mysterious circumstances, all sensors in the sirius system suddenly spontaneously combusted on both side's vessels.  This also caused all missile launchers tos top working, and both sides experienced a strange feeling of goodwill towards all creatures and decdied to cooperate and put aside their differences for the greater good (Or I sm'ed in order to save a few dozen thousand bps of ships)

[Mastik]

I have unknown hostiles in Wolf 424, picking off my civilian shipping (the fools keep going in, and get vaporized!).  So late last night, i finally decided to send in a ship to see what i could find out. 

Energy weapon impact:  Strength 24 detected!
Energy weapon impact:  Strength 24 detected!

Hmmm

Systems damaged, but nothing fatal...yet.

So, i open the Combat overview, and i see all my weapon systems are "No target Assigned", i see nothing.

Energy weapon impact:  Strength 24 detected
Energy weapon impact:  Strength 24 detected

Arrrrgg, whats going on, are my systems damaged?  No, most were fine.  Did i forget to load missiles (Some fool forgot to load missiles a few months earlier  )?  No, weapons loaded.  Why cant i target this guy!

Energy weapon impact:  Strength 24 detected
Energy weapon impact:  Strength 24 detected

At this point it was decided to get out, and repair the damage.

Energy weapon impact:  Strength 24 detected
Energy weapon impact:  Strength 24 detected

After a nights sleep, i figured it out.  Some fool (probably the same one that forgot the missiles  ), had also forgotten about sensor disruption after jumping.  My ship was a sitting duck.

[Jaque_Thay]

The first two games I played, I started with 8 billion strong populations and by year 10 was ready for extra-solar colonisation.  One game has been corrupted (which is frustrating because I'd been keeping a written narrative, unedited, of its successes, pitfalls and politics), another I ran into what I think are Spoilers and my weapons tech is non-existent so I've put that game on hold for a while until I can learn about effective combat management.

My current game I went the very opposite route, started with 250 million and over the last thirty one years have slowly built up a small 'Earth defence' with first generation laser weapons (don't have the mining production to try for missiles), established the first automated asteroid mining colony last year and am gearing up for an economy-related Luna colony (Mars and Luna had no deposits, unfortunately, so there's nowhere in the solar system that is actively worth colonising without extensive infrastructure/terraforming).  Starting without only 3 labs and no construction specialist it took nine years to even work out trans-newtonian physics! We haven't even discovered the existence of jump points yet.  Only one comet remains to be surveyed (currently a 440 day trip from Earth so the geosurvey vessel has a tanker trailing it the whole way) so at some point I'm sure some bright scientist will stumble onto the idea of extra-solar travel. . .

The biggest pitfall we've faced so far has just emerged.  Due to oversight on my part while trying to gear up for everything else Earth has no fuel refineries. . .  and after 31 years has just depleted its stockpiles.  From the start I've RP'd the setup as Earth recovering after an alien occupation fleet withdrew so the fuel crisis is being played as old occupation bases becoming depleted with an emergency move to find new sources (new refineries).  It shouldn't hamper future efforts too much but it was frustrating at the time!

[JOKER]

Just had a total war with an NPR.    Suffered very heavy losses.   

My GTA fleet:
2 x GTCC Alaska II(9150t, Sensor ship), 1 lost 1 slightly damaged
4 x GTCV  Essex II(10000t, 4 x hangar), 2 lost 2 heavily damaged
10 x GTC Ticonderoga II(10000t, 10 x S1 AMM launcher and 2 x hangar), 10 lost
4 x GTC Forrestal(10000t, Collier refitted with 8 x S4 ASM launcher), 3 lost 1 slightly damaged
16 x GTF Cleveland(5000t, 18 x S4 ASM launcher), 12 lost 4 heavily damaged
16 x GTCv Caldwell(5000t, 6 x 15cm laser), 5 lost 10 heavily damaged 1 slightly damaged
32 x GTB Ursa(250t, 4 x S2 ASM), 32 lost
32 x GTB Medusa(250t, 6 x S2 ASM), 32 lost
40 x GTI Aegis(500t, 1 x 10cm railgun), 40 lost

NPR PVN fleet:
102 x 1000t missile boat, 86 destroyed
49 x 8050t laser armed destroyer, 49 destroyed
15 x 16100t, missile and laser armed cruiser, 14 destroyed
4 x 24150t, missile and laser armed battleship, 4 destroyed
Vasudan Prime, bombed back to stone age.   

I have tech and ship design advantage, two waves of Vasudan destroyer were wiped out before they could approach my fleet.   However, with resolution 100 sensors and missile fire controls, my S2 and S4 ASMs hardly work on missile boats, fighters and bombers somehow works at point blank range but suffered heavy losses, 1 Alaska II damaged and 1 Ticonderoga II destroyed.   The next wave consisting 1 battleship, 7 cruisers and some destroyers shoot down  some GTA bombers and frigates, destroyed 2 Ticonderoga II and 1 Essex II.   Then I met 3 battleships, 8 cruisers ,some destroyers and about 40 missile boats on Vasudan Prime orbit.   They launched 200 S1 AMM at about 20m range, instantly wiped out my bomber squadrons and ASM salvos.  Then my fleet defence were overruned by hundreds of S1 and S3 ASM, most Ticonderogas and Clevelands were blast into pieces within 10 minutes, others were heavily damaged.  All I could do is to order Caldwells make a suicide attack. They have 12 layers of armor, absorbed much damage during attack run.  Finally, 9 Caldwells made it and blast Vasudan ships into pieces.

[Vandermeer]

Interesting, so you were able to use beam-only ships efficiently against a barricade of missile spammers. This means that perhaps even with not so advanced tech or mass advantage, you can still go for close combat sometimes? Whenever I tried so far during equal to slightly above tech phase, I usually needed at least 2:1 in mass advantage. Much much more even against PDC. Were the missile spammers distracted with other targets, or did some run out of ammunition during the assault? What is your secret?^^

[JOKER]

Interesting, so you were able to use beam-only ships efficiently against a barricade of missile spammers.     This means that perhaps even with not so advanced tech or mass advantage, you can still go for close combat sometimes? Whenever I tried so far during equal to slightly above tech phase, I usually needed at least 2:1 in mass advantage.     Much much more even against PDC.     Were the missile spammers distracted with other targets, or did some run out of ammunition during the assault? What is your secret?^^

Not efficiently at all.     My fleet get within 15M before being overruned, and Vasudan ships run out of their ASM.     They keep blasting my destroyers and missile frigates into pieces when laser frigates advancing, then attack each one equally before they run out of ammo.     most survived frigates lost 9 or 10 layers of 12, but no internal damage.     If they attack wisely they could destroy or disable 11 or more instead of only 5.   

My laser frigates are not designed to intercept missiles, they are heavy-armor privateers.     The reasons they survived are they have 12 armor and enemy used 1 damage AMM against them.   

Heavy fighters with 10cm railgun are my main non-missile defence system.    I haven't research turret tech yet.   

[Vandermeer]

Ahh, so key was indeed distraction, ok thank you. That explains why I could throw 300kt of close combatants in two 25kt PDC and still had to retreat.

[JOKER]

The war against Vasudan continues.       GTA suffered a major defeat when their landing ships and escort frigates ambushed by 10+ Vasudan missile boats, nobody survived.       The remnants of GTA fleet, badly crippled and suffering lack of fuel, supply and ammo, retreated from Vasudan system.     

Now GTA is rebuilding her fleet, all factories on earth working day and night for more fighters, missiles and ship components.     

The New big fleet project:
One year passed.    project updated.   
1 of 1 GTCC Alaska II
1 of 1 GTCV Wickes(10000t assault carrier with 6 marine companies and 6 assault shuttles)
8 of 9 GTCV Lexington (10000t, Cheaper version of GTCV  Essex II, abadoned sensor and some armor for a deeper magazine)
4 of 6 GTD Arleigh Burke(10000t, Upgraded version of GTC Ticonderoga II, abadoned a thermal sensor and some armor for a deeper magazine)
4 of 4 GTC Carolina(7050t, a cheaper version of GTD Arleigh Burke, don't have hangars and jump engine, but have 6 more size1 launcher)
8 of 16 GTF Cleveland II.       Have a deeper magazine and upgraded weapon system for those annoying FACs.     
4 of 4 GTCv Caldwell III.       Have a small active sensor and 4 12cm railguns for close combat.     
64 GTB Medusa II.       Much faster than older version, but have little armor.     
16 GTI Aegis III.       Have an upgraded 10cm railgun.     
16 GTI Aegis IV.       Have a 0.   75x 15cm laser.     
16 GTI Cobra.       Space Superiority Fighter.       Have a short-range R5 sensor and 4 Anti-FAC missiles.     
8 GTI King Cobra.      Heavy Space Superiority Fighter.       Have a short-range R5 sensor and 10 Anti-FAC missiles.     

A stealth scout managed to approach Vasudan Prime.   2 new colonies detected.   Vasudan Prime seems somehow survived GTA's bombardment, or it is not Vasudan's capital at all. 

[Vandermeer]

Keep feeding updates on this. Wars with NPRs are the most fascinating thing in Aurora.

[NihilRex]

See, I find them pretty boring...

Of course, my response to locating an NPR is to pull the BCs and CVBG out of drydock and make nice while moving to a forward staging area.

[JOKER]

“Yes, Admiral.  Overwhelmingly, Admiral. ”

This marked the end of the GTA-Vasudan War.

Vasudan don't have any chance when GTA fleet returns.  They still have several dozens of FACs, but they can't survive more than five minutes when facing new GTA fighters.  However, Vasudan refused to surrender until GTA fleet dropped 400 nuclear missiles from the orbit of Vasudan Prime.  Few of them survived.

GTA fleet have 0 casualties.

After this decisive battle, GTA fleet discovered some hidden colonies in Vasudan system.  some small outposts were destroyed by only one volley of railgun.  A big one with 14m people thought it is better surrender then being vaporized.

GTA get a big deal from the inheritance of Vasudan empire.  It may took decades to digest them.

[Llamatoesl]

Just sunk a precursor fleet.  No casualties to me, but I took a few hits to armor.  Attempting to press the advantage, I went into Gilese 1 as it ruins on a habitable planet,t hinking I had bested all of the ships, only to discover a cruiser coming for me.  deciding  (that after losing ships to them in the past) to make best my escape and make for the jump point.  They pursued but didn't fire.  I've had a fleet picketing the JP into Gilese 1 until the salvage ship could arrive.
In the process of salvage.  the vessel has not shown up. 

[Jaque_Thay]

Following on from my post a fortnight ago, I'm now 52 years into this current game and the empire has almost stalled; TNEs on Earth are reaching depletion point and there's not yet much mining going on in space.  I've branched out into two neighbouring systems but am not able to fully take advantage of them as I lack the fuel (long term problem harking back to the last update) to ferry supplies out there.  Finally looking to change that with the deployment of jump gates and more commercial engines over the next 2-5 years though, and I've spent the last decade heavily investing in fuel refineries (nobody has thought about mining Jupiter yet).

The most tragic event right now though is the death of 73yr old Oliver Parsons.  Parsons was one of the three administrators left when the Occupiers (rp way of justifying small starting population) withdrew.  For the first seventeen years he was just a background figure but when my first governor was forced to retire on health grounds Parsons stepped up and under his watchful eye humanity's population expanded fourfold, colonies were established across the solar system and early exploration of surrounding systems occurred.  In 50 New Era he was forced from his position of governor by political machinations put in place nine years previously when he made various bargains to obtain support for controversial industrial operations to keep humanity growing.  In a surprise move though, sector command had just come into being and Parsons won the public vote to become first Grand Overseer of humanity even though he was ineligible to remain governor of Earth.

Now that he's gone there's a power vacuum to fill. . .

[mtm84]

Playing a slow research, no starting NPR, conventional start game.    Slowing exploring the systems around Sol, found one 2 jumps away with ten major bodies.    Only the first 6 fit inside a 25b km zoom level.    The 7th is orbiting at 181b km, and it just gets worse from there.   Number 8 is at 1.  62 trillion, number 9 is at 2.  92 trillion, and number 10 is at a whooping 8.  2 trillion kilometers (!)  Needless to say,  it's surface temperature is a brisk 4 degrees kelvin, and I don't think I will be surveying it with ion drive tech.    On the plus side, it does have an LP jump point in its orbit that is only a mere 7 trillion km away. 

edit: I should consider myself lucky.   The last easily reachable body just happens to be the one with a 376 million duranium deposit on it.

[Barkhorn]

Just had my first ever battle.

Jumped into a new system, began scouting around. 
Spoiler'd because I'm pretty sure it wasnt a regular NPR.
Picked up 43 enemy contacts, each 750 tons, and could do 10,000 km/s.  Tried negotiations as soon as I detected them, but they began moving aggressively. 
My main fleet could only do 8,000 km/s.  Split off my 11 gauss-armed corvettes so I can harrass the enemy all the way to my ships.
~100,000km out, my corvettes start taking meson fire.  I don't realize at first, because its my first battle.  I also miss my first few 5 second intervals once I'm in range due to being a newb.  My corvettes mix it up with them for 3 minutes, I've lost 2 corvettes, they're down to ~25 mobile ships.  A few bad intervals later and I'm down to only 6 corvettes left.  So I order the corvettes back to the fleet, taking more fire on the way out.
I eventually manage to figure out how to fire my missiles, but only my AMM's are in range.  I start firing those, and manage to waste about half of them on targets that were already doomed.  Anyways now they're down to 18 left mobile once my AMM's are dry.  Eventually they get close enough for my ASM fire control to detect them, and I start blazing away with those.  Those whittle them down to 10 enemies left, but they reload so slowly I'm not gonna get another volley.  Just as the enemy closes in to my laser-armed battleship's range, I send the corvettes in again.  I do NOT want mesons in range of my main fleet, so I figure I'll use the corvettes to keep the enemy busy while my battleship's lasers pound them.  I kill the last 10 without losing any more corvettes.  I then go clean up the crippled ones and pick up my life pods.  Now I see a huge EM signature slowly plodding towards me at ~1000km/s.  It's at this point I'm sure it must be the Star Swarm and that's a mothership that's coming towards me.  I can't leave, as my return jump-gate isnt ready yet, and won't be for ~80 days.