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This is going to be a very short AAR. In fact, you could call it a Pre Action Report rather than an After Action Report as it will be mainly talking about the start of the game. The idea is to explore the strategic situation from the start of the game in detail and then just play a short period of time to add to the flavour. Hopefully this will help new players get the 'space opera' feel of the game and make it more enjoyable and understandable right from the start.

The galaxy set-up doesn't matter much here because we won't be taking this very far. The race selected is a Human Monarchy. This is played in version 1.04 Beta 4. I'm a very new player myself and will be making a number of assumptions so I invite the experienced players to critique this please.

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The start

Once you remove the welcome screen, push pause immediately. We don't want to stumble into the game, we want to get a feel for what is going on so as the game develops we have an understanding for what is important and what isn't. We'll be spending a fair amount of time in this initial paused state and working out what is what in our fledgling empire.

Resources

Our people will be wanting luxury resources and our industries will be wanting standard resources. As we research technologies and design new components our demands will shift. Also, we will need to make sure we keep up our fuel reserves as the empire grows. In 1.04 Beta 4, having 10 luxuries available to your empire is an important goal because luxury resources contribute greatly to your income. The game doesn't really segment the strategic resources from the luxury resources in the planet views (would be nice if there was a way of seeing this easily) so we need to briefly educate ourselves.

So, lets see what resources we've got and what we need...

Open the Expansion Planner.

The top half of the planner deals in empire-wide resources. What resources we have. What resources we want. And what resources are valuable.
To be honest, I'm not sure how the economic model works and if freighters will bring in needed resources even if you don't have access to them.

Sort by Sources then scroll through to see what luxury resources we control. In our empire we make Rephidium Ale on our home world.



Now click on the name and read the Galactopedia on the resource. It says...

Rephidium Ale is a delicious, super-dry beer.

Several different variations of Rephidium ale are produced. Some of these blends use secret ingredients. However the primary common ingredient is the leaves and stalks of the Repha bush. Rephidium Ale is produced on Continental worlds.

Occurrence: very rare

Type: Luxury Resource

So our home world grows the rare Repha bush but this doesn't give us any other tangible benefit. Some of the other luxury items provide bonuses. But I'm sure our thirsty citizens will enjoy this rare and delicious ale.

So strategically we have one of our ten target resources. Nine to go.

Now lets sort by Your Demand and sort the planets by Resource Targets by Your Empire Priority



Sloes Van 2 is a Continental Planet that has a seam of rare Yarras Marble. Here is a second luxury item for our citizens so this is definitely worth colonising. This will help with beautifying our structures and buildings but the Galactopedia says that unfortunately it doesn't give any other bonuses other than the extra income we will get from owning it. It is worth 8 times as much as Rephidium Ale on the markets so this hopefully will give a boost to our private sector and merchants.

Our empire also needs more Argon (Sources 1 but 2k demand) and the Gas Giant Sastea 2 can be mined for this gas.

All our other needs at this stage are for more luxury goods.

Threats and Contacts



Our home system is Sloes Van and we have mining operations on two of our neighbouring systems. We have not as yet come across any other life forms or rival empires. But there is a pirate presence within the Ignacia system where we have a number of mining bases. We'd better investigate.



There is a pirate base orbiting the ringed Gas Giant Ignacia 2 with two pirate ships. We currently have 4 mining bases in the system and no military patrols. Lets have a closer look.

Most of the mining bases in the system are mining common resources that our empire doesn't need. However the mining base on the Gas Giant Ignacia 4 is our current source of Argon. It is away from the pirate base but can be attacked by the pirate ships.



Our mining base on Ignacia 2 looks as though it falls within the weapon range of the pirate base so things are looking grim here.

The two pirate ships are only Escorts with firepower of 8, shields of 160, and a speed of 44.



The pirate base has a firepower of 16 and shields of 720.

Time to look at the ships at our disposal.

Clicking on the Ships and Bases screen and filtering by Military Ships gives us our current ship list.

We only have three. One Escort (firepower 8) set to patrol the home system, one Frigate (firepower 16) also set to patrol the home system and one Destroyer (firepower 20) that is currently loading troops. They are all set to 'Automated'. Hmmm, we now have some decisions to make.



First of all, we are going to need all three ships so clicking on the 'Automated' icon will stop them getting orders to go and escort a merchant ship somewhere else. We should also select all three and create a fleet from them.



It is unlikely that our fleet will be able to take down the pirate base, but the escorts should be easy pickings. When the pirate escorts leave their base and attack we'll be ready to pounce on them. We'll move the fleet to the Ignacia system so they are close to the action. Initially the orders will be to escort the mining base at Ignacia 4.

Summary of Priorities

A colony ship is being built to colonise Sloes Van 2. I had excitedly ordered this before I fully explored the need for more frigates. Oh well, I hope the rare blue marble on that planet is worth it.

In the Construction Yards queue I'll add 4 more frigates which we'll use to help take down the pirate base.



And in the Ships and Bases screen I'll make sure these new frigates don't get diverted once construction is completed by turning off their automation.



Now we're ready to start the game...

Pirate Raid



Almost immediately the pirate escort Wrathful Assault attacks the HN464 Mining Station located on an outer moon of the Gas Giant Ignacia 2 and the pirate escort Grand Assassin attacks the mining base at Ignacia 2 itself. Grand Assassin is still close to its base but Wrathful Assault is open for attack. The fleet is now given new orders to attack the Wrathful Assault while the mining base at Ignacia 2 will be sacrificed to the pirates.



The pirate escort is quickly destroyed with only minor shield damage done to the moon mining station. The orbital mining base around Ignacia 2 is not so lucky and our fleet can only watch from a distance as the the shields drop and one by one the various components within the base are destroyed by the pirates.



After finishing off the mining base, the pirate escort Grand Assassin spies our escort, the Praefectus 1 and tries for a lightening strike. The Praefectus 1 has its shields down to 30% after the previous battle but the frigate and destroyer are close by. The pirate ship sweeps past with all guns blazing taking the shields of the Praefectus 1 down to 10%. All components are fine but the Praefectus 1 leaves the battle and allows the frigate and destroyer to finish off the impetuous pirate escort.



Now only the pirate base remains.

Meanwhile, a Giant Kaltor lurking near Ignacia 6 is attacking freighters as they travel between the home system and the mining colonies. The Kaltor has an attack strength of 7 and health of 219.



While the new frigates are being completed, we'll destroy the troublesome beast with our three ships already in the system.

The Kaltor has caught one of our freighters as the fleet arrives to confront it. The freighter has taken damage.



After crippling the freighter the Kaltor turns on our destroyer doing minor damage. But the combined weight of our fleet quickly destroy the beast.



Soon after the new frigates arive and the attack on the pirate base can commence. The fleet is re-structured to include the new ships and release the escort Praefectus 1 to automated duties for the empire. The Praefectus 1 could be given escort or patrol duties but the brave souls with shields still below 50% decide to join in the attack on the pirate base. The damaged destroyer Enforcer 1 retires to the home-world to be repaired. The escort and 5 frigates should be enough to destroy the base without taking too much damage although the new arrivals have shield strength worse than the gallant Praefectus 1.



The battle rages on with shields dropping like flies.



But the fleet prevails and destroys the pirate menace.



The butcher's bill so far is a damaged destroyer and freighter, and a destroyed mining base against the destruction of a pirate base, two pirate escorts and a Giant Kaltor beast.

The Ignacia system is now safe for commerce and the important Argon gas mining can continue unabated.

Meanwhile...



Sloes Van 2 has been colonised and the first blocks of the blue Yarras Marble have made their way into the chambers of the home world. The price of this precious commodity has soared from $8,000 per container 6 months ago to $128,000 today. The most expensive commodity in the known galaxy!



An exploration ship has visited the nearby Arcanea system, discovering a desert moon that has traces of rare Natarran Incense. More Argon has been discovered within this system on one of the outer Gas Giants.

That makes three luxury resources within our control. Next we will build more exploration ships and continue our discoveries...

The End (of The Beginning)

Hope you enjoyed this very short AAR. [:)]

Awesome early-game AAR -- as useful as any that's ever been posted here! I will point my friends to it.

Would love to see more if you have time.

Thanks!

Very nice pre-AAR, Das123 (looks for a :thumbsup smiley)

Grotius did indeed point his friends to this thread I very much enjoy SciFi strategy games (I have MOO, MOO2, RftS, SE4, SE5, GalCiv, GalCiv2, LE:I, SotS, and Aurora) and am thinking of getting Distant Worlds. Your pre-AAR is great as an example of game-play. Thanks for posting it

Thanks for the comments. [:)]

Distant Worlds is such an enormous game with so much going on it really is like a soap opera set in space. While you're focusing on one aspect, your government run by the AI is building and making decisions that you will most likely never really be aware of. This puts you as much in the role of a spectator as anything - which I am really enjoying. But you can jump in at any point and run a particular aspect. So you are constantly shifting focus and manipulating sub-plots, then setting things back to automatic mode.

Well done Das123, I was getting a bit bored with DW the last couple of weeks but this makes me want to play it again!

Das123 - good AAR. I like the detail in it.

One comment though. An alternative way of dealing with pirates in your systems at game start is to pay them for 6 months of protection while you build up your fleet. When the six months of protection ends, your fleet is ready to destroy their base.

Thanks very much from a new player, I intend to print this as a "get started aid"[:)]

very cool, wish this had been written before i blundered my way through my first game!

I too am glad this thread was hanging around! A good 'where to start' guide. Thanks![:)]

Awesome early-game AAR -- as useful as any that's ever been posted before. Hope to see more..
 
 
 
 
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So cool.Thanks very much from a new player.thanks

Abit of thread necromancy go on...

Love it[:D]

This one certainly deserves it, Das123 should come here more often...he's one of the precursors [:)]

What the heck is a spambot doing down here in the DW AAR forum anyway? It's an odd place to advertise.

Actually, it's not the first time....we should have known better.