I'm playing a conventional test campaign that started in 2100, playing as a Starfire-style Terran Federation.
I overbuilt construction factories at the start, with 1800 from my initial 3200 conventional industry and only about 600 mines. Unfortunately, I hadn't allowed for my relatively small starting deposit of Corundium and therefore maxed out at 1100 mines. By 2115, I was desperately searching for a Corundium deposit. I found quite a few on LG worlds, but I had no Automated mines. Finally, I found Orphicon II.
Orphicon II Survey ReportDuranium: 88,258,898 0.60
Corbomite: 20,484,676 0.10
Tritanium: 51,179,716 0.10
Boronide: 9,853,321 0.10
Mercassium: 21,316 0.40
Vendarite: 19,184,400 0.10
Sorium: 32,421,636 0.10
Corundium: 14,969,161 0.90
Gallicite: 30,780,304 0.10
Orphicon II was colony cost 2.00 and already had water, a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere of 1.48 atm, including 0.04 atm of oxygen and a stable orbit. An ideal solution to my economic issues.
Unfortunately, my 1000-ton survey vessel was destroyed shortly thereafter by Precursors based on Orphicon III. They comprised five ships, which a probe confirmed as a 24,000-ton Asmodeus, a 24,000-tons Hecate, a 24,000 ton Tiamat and two Myrkuls of unknown size, but probably small FACs as the probe was destroyed a million km from the planet. The three large vessels had strength-476 shields.
Double unfortunately, as this was a Terran Federation run I hadn't built any warships, although I had developed most of the tech for a gas core level beam-armed ship and I also had developed hangar bays. After some assistance from industry in building components, I launched a carrier and a couple of 18,000-ton cruisers a year later.
In the meantime, I managed to get a freighter into the inner system to place a deep space tracking station on Orphicon II to monitor the Precursors. The second planet orbits between 86m and 92m and Orphicon III orbits between 156m and 159m. I ran the freighter in while the planets were at opposite sides of the Sun. As that succeeded, I also moved in a couple of STO batteries. About the same time, a new alien race (which I named the Khanate of Orion) appeared in Orphicon and lost a couple of 9000-ton ships to the Precursors. I detected the first ship only by the appearance of wreckage, while the second was detected by the newly placed tracking station before it too was destroyed. Both were lost in orbit of Orphicon III.
With another alien race in the scene and Orphicon II vital to my economy, I decided to try emplacing a colony on the planet, both as a base to attack to Precursors and to claim the system. The Precursor ships had still not left Orphicon III so I assumed they were all bases. I sent in a large freighter and colony ship convoy with support from three of my beam cruisers and my carrier with forty 275-ton railgun fighters. This proceeded without incident and a colony was setup. Finally, I brought in a couple of terraforming stations. By November 2117, the planet had a pop of 800k and infrastructure for 1.4m
Just as I thought everything was running smoothly, the planets reached almost the closest point in their orbits, about 70m km apart, and the Precursors launched a missile attack. A single wave of 45 size-11 missiles, moving at 30,000 km and equipped with multiple ECM-2 decoys. I had three Nelson class light cruisers, with a total of 12x 20cm lasers, 24x 15cm lasers, 24x 10cm railguns, plus forty F-1A Falcon fighters, each with 2-shot railguns, eight Skyhawk attack fighters with 15cm plasma carronades and a further 24 20cm lasers on the planet.
Nelson class Light Cruiser 18,000 tons 579 Crew 2,595.2 BP TCS 360 TH 1,440 EM 2,760
4000 km/s Armour 5-61 Shields 92-460 HTK 114 Sensors 8/8/0/0 DCR 12-6 PPV 88
Maint Life 2.12 Years MSP 1,081 AFR 216% IFR 3.0% 1YR 323 5YR 4,847 Max Repair 360 MSP
Commander Control Rating 2 BRG AUX
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Morale Check Required
Rolls-Royce RR-720-B Gas-Core Drive (2) Power 1440 Fuel Use 51.52% Signature 720 Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 947,000 Litres Range 18.4 billion km (53 days at full power)
Garvis-Vetere GV-46 Shield Generator (2) Recharge Time 460 seconds (0.2 per second)
Lawrence-Vaughan LV-20A Ultraviolet Laser (4) Range 256,000km TS: 4,000 km/s Power 10-2.5 RM 40,000 km ROF 20
Lawrence-Vaughan LV-15A Ultraviolet Laser (8) Range 240,000km TS: 4,000 km/s Power 6-3 RM 40,000 km ROF 10
Weston-Davis 10cm PD Railgun (8x4) Range 20,000km TS: 4,000 km/s Power 3-3 RM 20,000 km ROF 5
FN/SPG-10B Laser Fire Control (2) Max Range: 256,000 km TS: 4,000 km/s ECCM-2 96 92 88 84 80 77 73 69 65 61
FN/SPG-11B Point Defence Fire Control (2) Max Range: 64,000 km TS: 4,000 km/s ECCM-2 84 69 53 38 22 6 0 0 0 0
R-20 Gaseous Fission Reactor (3) Total Power Output 60.8 Exp 5%
FN/SPS-14D Large Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 11520 Range 77.1m km Resolution 120
FN/SPD-15D Missile Detection Sensor (1) GPS 16 Range 6.4m km MCR 574.5k km Resolution 1
FN/SQR-5C Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22.4m km
FN/SER-4C EM Sensor (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22.4m km
Electronic Warfare Jammers: Sensor 1 Fire Control 1 Missile 2
I hit 28 decoys, but only 10 missiles. The rest blew a 130,000 ton terraforming station to pieces. I will need to pull back my ships for now and return with a larger force, although that will take a while due to mining issues. I suspect the second terraforming station is also toast as I won't get a tug there in time. I will continue to try to sneak in colony ships and additional ground forces when the planets are further apart (orbital period of Orphicon II is six months). It will also be interesting to see if there are any more visits from the Khanate.