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« Last post by boolybooly on Yesterday at 05:14:32 PM »
I have to say its really hotting up now, literally as Sol Disaster heating @1% is also in play. I am having to use everything I have learned about the game so far to avoid the destruction of my chattels. Because of the spoilers I am making an AAR here.
A single raider scout was followed by a three ship fleet with a big tanker, which I had to face with 9 salvos of third generation missiles plus a few odds and sods. The missiles were big slow and not very damaging size 6, speed 17k, warhead 5, to hit @3k-94%.
I disabled the three destroyers which bought some time but the suspected tanker was really ... tanky, as you might expect and a damage sponge which soaked up all my spare missiles. As luck would have it I had a scout ship in overhaul and I had taken it out to avoid the expected blitz and sent it away, the lone tanker set about trying to ram it, which was alarming and yet kind of amusing.
I can imagine this 50kt tanker trying to ram a tiny 1kt scout travelling at 100km/s due to the overhaul exit penalty as the plucky and inventive but thoroughly corrupt and not entirely competent engineering crew (this empire name theme is based on gangster ranks like gangboss and gangleader) were frantically trying to get the engine back online and the pilot was dodging and weaving using skills developed as getaway vehicle driver to avoid the massive blundering hulk piloted by an insanely vindictive, possibly psychotic raider.
However the pilot succeeded in doubling back to lure the tanker within range of the planetary guns of Earth (18 lasers) and they eventually made a wreck of the tanker. This was salvaged for 1.5k research in armor which was welcome as a new generation of smaller faster and more powerful and cheaper missiles was researching along with new orbital missile platforms. It seemed to be going well until the size of the next raiding fleet became apparent, 14x 10kt destroyers each with around 20 shots capable of 4 damage at close range and 1 damage at 160k, I figure it must be a 20cm railgun x5, very potent and perhaps something unique to the raiders. I want to capture some but current beam tech cannot compete so its missile doctrine all the way for now.
I am not sure the empire can beat this fleet as things stand, not enough missiles and long reload times. Luckily I have figured out a way to use their berserker mentality against them and have sent my one FAC missile boat 'Citrine' to lure them away as the OV scout did. It was specifically engineered to win a race against the raider destroyers observed top speed but at some cost, it is working as a lure and winning but only has 11bn range remaining and I have to figure out how to use this and the time it offers to defeat the armada.
All the while the Sol Disaster is in effect, the system is growing hotter by 1% per 5 days. The only thing stopping Earth from boiling is a fleet of 45 terraforming modules in 9 stations with 5 each. If the Aliens destroy these it could get very nasty very quickly and might even mean defeat and the extinction of humanity and its criminal ways, so they must be stopped, of course.
The gangster empire has only had time to partially scout 4 other systems and found planets with high terraforming rates and potential population sizes which could take the population of Earth. Alpha Centauri BIII is already being prepared by a terraforming station and has a small human colony of 120k currently in infrastructure based accomodation. Another world, Sirius AI, will soon have its own terraformer station too just as soon as I can get a portal jump tender station to Sirius JP. The single tug is working overtime.
As if that was not enough there is also a mineral shortage looming. All the empires original shipyards were destroyed by the raiders and building new ones is expensive. So these challenges must be met and overcome on a shoestring budget. I am not certain of success but that makes it all the more fun to try.