Lets Play - Armada 2526

[VGD]

I'm addicted to making Let's Plays.. I know.. wired right? Well w/e.. I do what I want!!

So, I picked up Armada 2526 a few days back along with a number of other space civ games that I am slowly trying out as I am sick of playing Galactic Civilisations for the last 9 years or so. I decided to start on Armada as I was impressed with what I had read about its complexity but also that the designers have made a effort to try and not let that complexity get out of hand. So, yea.. I started with this one...


Amanda 2526: Supernova - Tutorial Mission - (4:25)
[*]Session 1 - (1:28)
[*]Session 2 - (31)
[*]Session 3 - (1:23)
[*]Session 4 - 1:01

Ok, so the tutorial game is out of the way and I'm pretty impressed. The game feels a little simplistic in some areas but the designers have gone to great pains to make the game just fun to play. Through the cutting down of some of the "standard" 4xSciFi stuff they have freed the player up to really get into it. Like, I was never feeling over whelmed and that each time I was pressing the turn button I was also forgetting 1000 different things and that the game was just spiralling into unmanageable levels.

All in all I was very impressed with Armada not least of all because it challenged some of my preconceptions of what I like about this genre.. I mean no custom ship designing?!! Oh wait.. I didn't really miss this at all for some reason.

[VGD]

Wow, after seeing Anguille's AAR thread, I thought that was just to cool, so I think in addition to my normal lets play I might try to do one of those.. as I have all the screenshots in the video files anyway!

So here we go...

Armada 2526: Supernova - Twelve Races - The Jellution Collective



Game version: Armada 2526: Supernova v1.0.4.0
Faction: The Jellution Collective
Turns: unlimited (I think nothing is written in the scenario talking about turns)
Difficulty: Hard
Opponents: 12
Type: Scenario "The Twelve Races"
XP: This is my 1st ever game after the tutorial.

Overall Strategy:
I like to play peaceful, agreeable and technological advanced civilizations. My preferred method of play is defiantly passive and diplomatic. I am new to this game and not sure if this is even possible, it seams to be much more combat based than others I have played. The idea here is to exploit the fact that I have a slightly different base planet type to most species and try to build up my empire under their noses with out causing much of a fuss. Then befriend a big bad boy and get them to beat up on my enemies, as they are usually lacking in technology so that is always a good thing to trade.

We have +1 to infomational and Skunkworks, so the plan is to have undirected advanced research form the skunkworks and use information research to enable us to start placing informants and saboteurs at key locations of the other civilizations around us, so if/when things hit the fan we can cripple their colonies in a single turn.

Turn 1

We start in are rather out of the way part of the universe on the far bottom left side of the map and the majority of the entire galaxy lies to the NW of the minimap. The law of averages says that we will meet more people heading that way than any other. This suits us fine as if we can either befriend of conquer the lower SE of the minimap we will be able to secure an entire galactic sector and only need to worry about defending a single boarder, rather then a circular boarder. Freeing up production and upkeep for more important things.



After a quick look around we see that picking are pretty slim. Out of the 5 planets aroound me, 2 need technology to colonise and another has a habitability rating of 3!



I send out a scout to the far planet and send arks to the other two, I place an escort on these from my base ship population. I leave all the transports behind.



For my initial steps into research I decide that I need to work on my Construction Technology, I'll need arks and I will need improved mines for cash, and these other barren planets all have asteroids and other rich smaller planets I can exploit with the correct construction tech, I select Technology Complex. Ontop of that I start my research into Dust Navigation. Interstellar speed is always one of the techs I value highly. Still Dust Navigation being in the Informational Research Tree sets me on a spiral free fall of mistakes as I get Hyperspace and Informational research mixed up for many turns to come.



Finally I Look to my initial construction I chose a mine to get started on income and then qued a research as tech gain was crucial to my game plan, then the inevitable constructor upgrade, as for ships we chose an extra ark, some transports, a scout and started on some ships for escort duties. Another noob mistake here, I didn't realise that even though I had a large tooltip on some of the initial planets, they were still showing as "not scanned". If I knew I would have pushed my scout further up the que, as it was I lost valuable time in not scouting these star systems, for it was turns before I noticed this.



END - Turn 1

Notes - Wow, that is a lot of work, much more than doign a lets play.. I'm not 100% sure how well I will be able to keep this going. I thnk I will onlyh post major events and do a single thread of the state of the empire every 25 to 50 turns!

[sabre1]

Welcome aboard, and that is quite the first post. Aren't you the ambitious one. [;)]

[VGD]

Armada 2526: Supernova - Twelve Races - The Jellution Collective
Turn 25

Well 25 turns in and I'm starting to feel that I am not being aggressive enough. I think this game is much more about conflict that building a stable Empire. Also, it wasn't until I read some of the AARs on this forum that I realised there was a turn limit in my game. So I am blissfully unaware that there is a time constraint, thinking i can just play for ever, until I win or I get over run. I think I would have been much more aggressive at the start.



The Jells have moved from Ocean and taken bases at Atlantis, Shell Beach, Tower Falls and Fargo (as not named in this pic) So only a measly 5 planets, most of witch are under 5 in habitability scale.

Still not everything is bad. I have only colonised a mere handful of planets, but those planets seam to be strategically important. I have one planet witch contains GEMS and have focused on getting interplanetary trade running.



Also Tower Falls has a great tourist spot! With a Majestical Heavens feature! This and the trade could really help our production income.



Unfortunately our planetary trade advisor is such a noob that he didn't realise that building star ports on newly formed colonies that have hardly any population is a tremendous waste of resources. He was exiled to a sunny beach on the northern hemisphere of Shell Beach, you guys might not realise this being ugly bags of water, but hanging out on land in the sun is not a nice thing for us Jellies.

So I had to scrap the shipyard on Shell Beach and replace it with a Mine to try and recoup some of our losses, I know... real shame.. but I saw no option!



As for our neighbours well, there is some good and some bad...

[

We first encountered the AROM. We saw this as a good thing, they did not seam aggressive and there lack of technical innovation made them ripe for a trading partner, there awesome production ability means they seam to have much cash to spare.

Then the Unn showed up!! Swooping down and raising a little hell. We soon found though that they were no to greedy yet, a small bribe now and then kept them completely off our backs, while there low tech skill meant the rush of ships I started building on seeing them were in fact superior in every way. We feel that while we do not really want a conflict, we are ready for some all out battles with the Unn. Still as I said, a few bribes into the correct pockets and they seam to picking on others in the area and leaving us alone..

As for our little war, it was a complete miss understanding. Our ship captain meant ot hit ignore but hit auto resolve when a ark ship of the Cryoken came into orbit. My ship was there specifically to make first contact. There was a small battle, no inquires, and I quickly retreated. We have yet to be able to get in contact to try and rectify this disaster.

The captian is also on northern hemisphere of Shell Beach along with the trade advisor.

While the Klurgu and the Qa Qa are in this list we have yet to encounter them, they are just rumours and hearsay form the other aliens in our contact, we found out about the maybe trading map information.


Well that's about it!! See ya at turn 50!!

END - Turn 25

NOTE: Now that I am doing this as well as the lest plays, my plan is to make "state of the game" screenshots and stuff every 25 turns. I am at turn 70 something myself so it will be a while until the proper posts start, still I am cobbling them together form my lets play vids.

[VGD]

<deleted>

[VGD]

Armada 2526: Supernova - Twelve Races - The Jellution Collective
Turn 50



Jellution Collective has come into a prosperous times, while are military advisors have been getting more and more restless are civilian trade and tourism industry has boomed. Money is flying in at a incredible rate, leading to massive research budgets in the blue sky areas of the skunkworks! Pushing our perceived technological superiority out further and further.



We now have no general purpose research labs, just skunkworks and Informational and production labs churning away. New discoveries are coming in almost daily so much so that an entire ship type is about to go obsolete. This was great news to our military, whom have been expressing concerns that if we do not start expanding soon, the sheer numbers of potential enemies will over whelm us no matter our advantage.



A plan forms, to sell an advanced ship design to all of our allies. A ship design that we are currently scrapping as obsolete, one we believe our new ships should have no problem with. The sale of these items for a hefty yearly fee, we then will lower taxes at all points, relying on the yearly tributes form the arms sales to support us for the foreseeable future. This should boost are population growth and happiness in all ports. At the same time our universal ark should be coming online and we can start to move out into the unclaimed in the NE side of the minimap. Witch contains some great planets for growth and trade as well as a neutron star!


Still at turn 50 and still only at 5 star systems we are really feeling the pressure to expand and start building our defensive.. a quick and powerful strike right now will cripple us.

END - Turn 50

[VGD]

Armada 2526: Supernova - Twelve Races - The Jellution Collective
The End



This is a message from The Cryoken Federation... The Jellution Collective is no more. The Jellies for long thought of as are slightly retarded younger brothers decided to make a drastic push towards our neutron star base. This act of aggression could not be tolerated. Quickly we sent out our forces and captured 3 of there 5 planets, their puny fleet, though large in number was no match for our offensive capabilities. These pacifists had no recourse but to consed all their territory. There egotistical view of their technological superiority was shown to be a dangerous illusion, one that cost them dearly. Advanced mining dose not help you when you field against out Dreadnaughts!

The Collective are beyond our reasoning, after the fall of there colonies instead of subjugating to our rule and eventual control of the galaxy they decided to put all there reactors on the home wold into overload, Ocean, and Tower Falls are no barren and dead, the light of the Jellutions is now but a footnote in the rise of the CryoKen Federation's path to galactic dominance, as the first to fall.

NOTES: - After reading the other AARs (remember I played to turn 77 in my first session, just took me a while to place the posts) I started to realize that my ideas of this game are far from correct. The normal slow expanding and research rate I am used to is just not how this is played.. I didn't even know there was a turn counter! At 100 turns I had 6 planets and only a handful of ships. The high and advanced research I thought I was turned out to be the 2nd lowest in the Galaxy, in fact I used the charts for the first time when I started to think about points and I was last in the universe at everything I decided to try and start being aggressive and push into Cryokan space, towards the neutron star, unfortunatly they were more than a match and quickly destroyed or took over 3 of my 5 planets. I felt I would have more fun starting a new game, so quit.. ensuring the end of the Jellutons for all time

<SOB>

[VGD]

Armada 2526: Supernova - Twelve Races - The Jellution Collective



Game version: Armada 2526: Supernova v1.0.4.0
Faction: The Jellution Collective
Turns: 500
Difficulty: Hard
Opponents: 12
Type: Scenario "The Twelve Races"

Overall Strategy: 1 - 120ish



This is my 4th go at this mission, after the tutorial. I haven't played a game past 200 round yet and still at a loss at some of the core concepts. Trade is one off the most confusing things to me at the moment. I can not seam to work out how to tell if a planet is inside trading range or not and have spent massive of resources setting up what I think would be a lucrative trading or tourism port only to find it doesn't connect to the planets I thought it would!! Also Some of the technology I am not sure as to its uses. I have yet to use the physic tree at all really and have not had the chance to use spies or infiltrators and the like. It seams to me that Hyperspace, Construction, Shields and Weapons seam to be what I am using a lot of. The Jells get a +bonus to information, and I did one game with a full research planet in that field with rocked though the tree, but I never really used any of it. Anyway, been having a blast with this game, defiantly the best game I have played in a long time.

So the plan for attempt for is to be much more aggressive in my initial taking of colonies, I want to have a decent amount of planets for when the game starts to stability around the 100 turn mark. Then start to work on my defense and attack positions. I plan to use heavy Skunkworks an get my skunk research up to a huge amount to really capabilities on the +50% research time that is stacked on my race bonus to fly though my tech trees. During the 100+ mark I will build some addition labs to focus efforts in any areas that the random nature of skunkwords has ignored.

My plan is to spend the initial turns on expansion and undirected research, the AROM seam to be decent neighbors and I will look to them to learn some advanced mining techs and other trade items. The Cryokon on the other hand seam to be a major problem and one I will have to address. So I will be blustering my defensive and starting work on 2 main response fleets to try and get running by the 120is mark.

Then we will see how we go!

Turn 1

The Jellution have reached the stars! We look out and see a empty universe ready for exploration, who knows what wondrous things are waiting be be discovered on the near planets that we have gazed at our entire evolution? The discovery of a new propulsion engine gives us the power to sate our curiosity and we look out into the void and realise our place within it.



Of the 5 planets that surround us, only 3 are capable of supporting life. Our science academy theorizes that technological achievements would enable us to colonize more hostile words. Taming them yet leaving them still a barren, dry or icy rock. I wounder what kind of Jell would want to live in such a place.

We send a scout to Zeta to get a closer look as our sensors give us little on what is going on here while we send are bright eyes and eager colonists to Wassat and Alpha Persei. We are assured that these planets will hold true to the predictions that they will hold a life giving ocean for us to dwell in. Our 3rd and final ark is also sent to Alpha Persei with the main fleet in the hopes that the planets beyond our reach may also be of use.



END - Turn 1

[VGD]

Armada 2526: Supernova - Twelve Races - The Jellution Collective
Turn 30



After a mere 30 years the Jellution Collective has spread far and wide across known space, some fear we have spread to far to fast, are economy is collapsing under the expenditure to add facilities to these new worlds and keep up with the research goals our people find so integral to their well being. I fear that a eminent attack on our boarders is coming and that we will not have the ability to defend it.

With the recent completion of an Ark capable of settling in incy and barren worlds we took Smaui and are punching to Delta Antiae. There is little of value there, but it will extend our ship rnge deep into AROM territory, a perfect place to build an array and keep an eye on their civilisation.

Tahiti A rich system is hoped to aid in our financial troubles but our scientists work best when left to their own devices and seam to be focused on other areas of study, while the break through are coming fast and steady some crucial technology like advanced mining and even the technology complex is unavailable to us.



We have set up Ocean as our main research centre, with 4 fully dedicated skunkworks locations, and a smattering of standard labs around the collective to try and fill technological needs that are vital but not as exciting to our young minds.



I have to try and focus some of this learning to more practical things. We need better mining, larger production facilities and I'm starting to worry about some of the strange races we have encountered.



This "AROM" or Ancient Race of Machines seam like a trustworthy group. Over the years we have had a few encounters and none have been hostile, they often ask us for our technology, but I feel that this is our one advantage, and until we have a good defence I do not want to share techs that could be used against us. We speak to them often to trade map information so we can have eyes on the other side of the galaxy. It is my hope that we will be able to strengthen our relationship with trade and even tourism, and though that they will allow us to place a realy station on some of their worlds, so we can move further into the void. Still I again dream to fast, we need to consolidate what we have before any more expansion.

If the tales we hear of the Klurgu and the Unn are true we will need to be prepared, and soon.

As for the Cryokon, we have made every attempt to try and befriend them, even offering them some diplomatic deals that were far in their favour, but again and again are talks have lead to nothing, we find it so strange that a machine life form has more in common with us then these strange things. After a few minor confrontations we have had little contact, but they worry us greatly.

Samui was a ice world, their preferred habitat and they lost the space race to get there and claim its rewards.



Also we went out ships to guard the Plaskett's Star, we want this system, our scans show it as a very rich system, with an asteroid belt, the perfect place to set up a 2nd shipyard and mining facilities to bring much needed income, we need technology to claim it though, so are garrisoning our fleets here to scare off unwelcome visitors.

Also, Atlantis has revealed to us some strange native wild life, Physic Plants if you can believe it, it has spurned a rush of bio-research.



Still are overall position is precarious at best, while we are doing very well at this time I fear our unfocused research will mean that more aggressive, more focused species will be far in front of us if hostilities ever come out, our quick expansion has crippled our ability to fund it, we are slowing down, and this is a crucial time.



Still for now, we seam to be doing well.







END - Turn 30