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Having played a few games with a variety of settings to victory I wanted a real challenge and a lengthy game. I also figured these initial conditions would force me to engage in aspects of the game I had otherwise brute forced previously.


Galaxy settings. Nebula tick me off and are kinda of buggy for pathing so let's keep those to a minimum. 1000 stars max size irregular will really stress logistics initially.

Unstable. Very Hard. Pre Warp. Fixed Research (due bugs). Tech trading off because I enjoy pain. Very Few Very Strong Pirates. I can't ignore them, but they also won't spam my message log this way. High colony prevalence to ensure that rng doesn't hit me to hard and also ensure the AIs economy gets rolling.

The AI. Excellent start critical to getting their eco rolling.
My starting planet. It's not great. Economic woes ahead. Immediately on game start I pause and open the ledger. Disabling automated taxes I notice that I have a choice. Less debt, or more debt. Here's to hoping we can inflate our way out of the crisis by issuing 'ship bonds' to the private sector in a quantitative easing program. All we need is a good source of freedom oil.... Mortgaging an entire civilization to produce the necessary tech to achieve warp drive, we spread through our home system. Does uummm. Anyone notice a problem with this place?

Treating Caslon as just another imaginary number like our finances, we construct three explorers to prospect nearby systems.

I lie. We send out two exploration ships. Living on a hope and a prayer for caslon. Nope. Bugger. Ordinarily I would immediately begin prepping to liberate these people from their galactic ignorance, but I don't have the wherewithal to even attempt an invasion or occupation. And the other system. Oh dear.... this could be a run ender. Notably, these are two grassland/mangrove planets. My guess is that a Haakonish ai spawned nearby. [attachment=0]

Sadly, the two systems initially targeted did not provide the required source of Caslon. Things are beginning to look dire for our poor ackdarians. No caslon is literally a non starter.. and I don't believe I've seen a source of silicon either yet. Time will tell if I can pull through....

Requeuing our explorers to other nearby stars we continue our search.

The next system yields some promise #hopium.
Now to survey.....
Hahahaha. And our search continues....

Hope is starting to fade...... In the fifth surveyed star system, we finally...finally find Caslon. A short while later in a more distant star system we find silicon as well. Our access to critical strategic materials is secure for the time being. Our homeworld is beginning to turn a profit but it's still insufficient to cover state expenses. Our cashflow will be negative for sometime and our research underfunded.

You are a braver (and no doubt better) player than me. The settings you chose were tough enough, but having no Caslon in your home system is rubbing salt in the wound.

So it's about time I unveil my strategy to survive this brutal start. Frankly, there is no hope that I can attempt to compete with the AI at this point. My strategy will focus solely on economic growth technologies such as colonization and passenger compartment sizes while keeping relations with neighbours as friendly as possible to avoid DOW. If I spawn next to Morts or Boskarans, I'm probably in trouble. Fortunately it appears the Haakonish are the closest neighbours. Unfortunately it's going to take a quite a long time develop any kind of economic tech.

Uriah wrote: Fri Apr 01, 2022 12:19 am You are a braver (and no doubt better) player than me. The settings you chose were tough enough, but having no Caslon in your home system is rubbing salt in the wound.

Thanks! I think that with DWU/2 you really need to enjoy these sorts of positions from a story point of view. Otherwise the temptation to reroll for the best start becomes to great. If I lose this campaign, so be it... as long as it was entertaining along the way...

The Haakonish to the north has begun to spread its tentacles. Much to my chagrin it nabs the indie inside my territory and a relatively pristine Deep Ocean colony target that I had been eyeing off...

All I can do is helplessly watch and hope they don't come for me next.
Fearing being hemmed in, I take what equity I can out of the private economy and colonise nearby highly suitable grassland and mangrove systems. I focus on the relevant colonial tech to increase their growthrate.

Much to my disbelief. The prime real estate north has rebelled. The Haaks, locked in a war with Morts developed so much war weariness that this colony has overthrown their ruler. In a knee jerk reaction I send a large gift to curry favour but quickly realise that there will be no hope of a diplomatic annexation. Desperate times calls for desperate measures and I must do what I can to secure my borders. Unfortunately, I am unable to fund and project a ground based military so I must resort to more devious and creative solutions. Despite my strange alien ways these Haaks seem to enjoy the gift that I am delivering to them on an ongoing basis.

Ahhh, much better.