Cold War Comments Thread

[Voltbot]

Well... It escalated quite quickly. I'm afraid that it's gonna work out the same as with WW2 German population. Even after surviving mass bombardment they didn't revolt. Only troops in the streets of Berlin finally stopped the war.

[StarshipCactus]

Well that can't be good. I hope one of those hidden Jump Points the Colonial Union has leads to their space so they can launch an attack if the new threat declares on the Alliance.

[StarshipCactus]

I'm glad to see the % spent on maintenance is lower than 50% at the moment, the CU needs to focus on the economy and refitting to prepare for the future, at least in my opinion.

[Kurt (OP)]

I'm glad to see the % spent on maintenance is lower than 50% at the moment, the CU needs to focus on the economy and refitting to prepare for the future, at least in my opinion.

Yep.  Something that's become very clear is that once a government's maintenance percentage goes over 50%, they are in trouble.  At that point it becomes difficult to fund colonization and tech increases, and it increasingly becomes necessary to sell off industry to fund things that need to be done, which causes income to decrease, exacerbating the situation. 

Kurt

[Gyrfalcon]

Ah, Humanity keeps on shooting itself in the foot over and over.

So if Sligo goes ahead and succeeds, how much of the Fleet goes with them, and how much of the Union's budget does it lose? Also most importantly, do they threaten the Union's access to El Dorado?

[Kurt (OP)]

Ah, Humanity keeps on shooting itself in the foot over and over.

So if Sligo goes ahead and succeeds, how much of the Fleet goes with them, and how much of the Union's budget does it lose? Also most importantly, do they threaten the Union's access to El Dorado?

The Sligo District represents almost half of the Union's income, as although it is not as populous, it has been the Union's primary expansion and colonization site for some time.  Right now it is unclear how the fleet would shake out.  The Humanity First group has risen to replace the New Dawn Party, and Sligo and the other systems in the District are more or less solidly Humanity First.
 The Union Assault Corps was solidly pro-New Dawnist, and is now pro-Humanity Firsters in Sligo, in spite of attempts by the fleet to dilute this.  The rest of the fleet is more or less evenly balanced, however, the Union Fleet has been successful in ensuring that no one planet's population dominates any of the crews of the larger vessels. 

El Dorado is solidly in the Sol District, however, there are several other potential trouble spots.  Earth was a New Dawn stronghold, and remains solidly in the Humanity First camp, but lies within the Sol Sector, obviously.  And the Tlatelolco, who are very nearly members of the Union themselves, are in the Sligo District.  They know what the Sligo-led Humanity First party would do to them, as they had a taste of it during the New Dawn rule.  They are solidly Reform-Progressives, like the bulk of the Sol District. 

[Gyrfalcon]

So basically, it fully guarantees a destructive civil war that invites the other major players to step in and take over the adjacent human systems to them.

Ah humanity, never change...

[Kurt (OP)]

So basically, it fully guarantees a destructive civil war that invites the other major players to step in and take over the adjacent human systems to them.

Ah humanity, never change...

Humanity has not faired well in this playthrough.  I guess that's what happens when you nuke your home world. 

[misanthropope]

i for one welcome our doom snot overlords.

[Voltbot]

I don't know why, but this update reminded me of the time when another race backed by some unknown power, invaded one of the Alliance associate races (I think it was Doraz, but I'm not sure). By the way, do you plan for us to hear about this power (I assume that this is the same power as the imperial D'Bringi backer) anytime soon?

[Kurt (OP)]

I don't know why, but this update reminded me of the time when another race backed by some unknown power, invaded one of the Alliance associate races (I think it was Doraz, but I'm not sure). By the way, do you plan for us to hear about this power (I assume that this is the same power as the imperial D'Bringi backer) anytime soon?

The was just before the start of the D'Bringi civil war.  It was actually part of the plot.  The plotters needed resources, and they needed to divert Alliance attention.  To this end, they infiltrated the D'Bringi contingent of the Alliance team to the Chirq Cooperative and influenced them away from establishing contact with a race that they had just discovered, the Khozun.  The plotters then established contact themselves, using one of the three D'Bringi corvette-carriers assigned to the Chirq Patrol Group.  They promised the Khozun, a backward race even lower tech than the Chirq, a rich reward if they raided or conquered the Chirq.  And then they funneled resources they had pirated from Alliance frontier freighters that had 'disappeared', along with tech, to help the Khozun prepare. 

The Khozun obligingly sent off their entire fleet to attack the Chirq home world, which they conquered and looted.  The D'Bringi plotters then intercepted the loot-laden freighters on their way back to Khozun, destroyed their escorts, and pirated the proceeds of the conquest.  They then visited the Khozun home world, destroyed the infrastructure they helped build, and dropped a nuke on the Khozuni capital to eliminate any evidence they were there.  The proceeds of the conquest of the Chirq home world, while not large on the scale of the Alliance budget, were immense on the scale of a band of plotters intent on suborning individual officers in the D'Bringi fleet, or in the home world government. 

The success of the Chirq-Khozun operation funded the plotter's successful takeover of the D'Bringi government.  However, it did not entirely work out as they would have wanted.  The Alliance sent a small squadron of ships to investigate once they figured something was going on, not a large fleet, as the plotters had hoped.  The Rehorish were already on alert that something was going on, and although they didn't immediately link this to the plot, it increased their uneasiness with the deteriorating situation in the Alliance and prompted them to react decisively when it became clear that the plotters were behind much or all of what had been happening. 

[StarshipCactus]

I guess fear finally made the Lothari wake up from their cult. Or more accurately, it made the majority who kept quiet and toed the line realise they had more to lose if they stayed quiet than if they stood up and said they were sick of the government. It probably looks a bit like parts of Eastern Europe as they were standing up against the USSR after tolerating it out of fear for so long.

[StarshipCactus]

Oh wow, the difference between the CU and Alliance is pretty big, although the Alliance do have a lot of territory to protect so can't deploy everything easily. If the CU and Alliance fight, the CU had better hope they can gain a tech advantage, tactical advantage or have allies who can take some of the pressure off.

[Gyrfalcon]

The Alliance had more or less hit the point where they’ve ‘won’ and all that’s left is clearing the board. You see it in games like Stellaris a lot where outside special mechanics there’s nothing left that can challenge your snowball.

[Andrew]

Not necessarily we know there is a high tech 3rd party out there, an attack by them could hurt the Alliance very badly. They have a closed WP into one of the core Alliance systems taking out that world and its nearby colonies would cripple the Alliance.
A Close alliance of the 2nd and 3rd powers would be close to or superior to the Alliance, particularly if was a planned war with the 2 allied powers surge buidling a fleet before the war. I also did not recognise the Mintek alliance in that chart , while probably smaller than the Alliance they also had a tech superiority and have probably still got a small one.
Finding a closed WP into a critical area of the enemy is always a game changer if the attacker can seize core worlds cutting the economy and shipyard advantage of the larger power and maybe catching a major fleet by suprise and concentrating a bug force against it