Current Year: 2400
Origin: Doomsday
Ethics: Fanatic Materialist & Militarist
Civics: Distinguished Admiralty, Police State & Technocracy
Traditions: Mercantile, Discovery, Supremacist, Psionics, Statecraft, Harmony & Subterfuge
Ascension Perks: Technological Ascendancy, One Vision, Mind over Matter, Galactic Force Projection, Arcology Project, Galactic Nemesis, Enigmatic Engineering & Galactic Wonders
Menace: Tier IV (Calamity) - 13,733
Tech Income: 9150
Unity Income: 2858 (2585 edict spending)
Alloy Income: 2029
Size: 2416
* war, war and even more war. If I'd understood how the Galactic Nemesis mechanics worked, I might have worked through a slower Menace progression. As things stand, I decided to go all in. The one thing I haven't done is complete the next Galactic Nemesis special project. That should unlock the Aetherophasic Engine since I've built up enough menace rating now.
* I made another effort to scrap the NEX population to prevent my empire from ballooning with robots when my psionic population are the efficient ones. Nothing I attempted worked, however. I could've attempted to turn off robotic workers altogether, but losing my existing population of robots (largely former NEX) would have been too big of a shock to my economy. I'm also not sure that a materialist ethic would've allowed for that. One more reason that I ought to have gone for a synthetic ascension run. As it is, my empire population is 46% NEX. I guess they get to destroy all the meat-life in the galaxy after all, just not the way they intended. My tech income went way up, but all the new robots and planets ballooned out the empire size to match it.
* one thing that's new to the game since the Machine Age expansion (I assume) is that I have a pretty solid nanite income now. My empire size is high so it isn't enough to run the Nanite Actuators edict, but I've filled up the rural Vetrisian worlds with Nanite Transmuter buildings to take care of my strategic resource needs.
* the Vetrisian and NEX wars were one thing, but I had to go into my war against the Cosmic Partnership with a plan. Step 1 is defending Terminal Egress and the L-cluster network. I have two fleets stationed within weapons range of the L-gate there and my starbase backing it up (although it is still being rebuilt after it was destroyed in an earlier Vetrisian war). The remaining six fleets fist struck at some critical locations and have now split up all over the galaxy, trying to take out the space presence of entire empires. There's a lot of mole whacking involved, of course.
* in the near term, I'm in a race to finish this subjugation war before the War in Heaven starts or the crisis hits. If I can do that in time, I'll plan to move to the last Menace tier and start the destruction of the galaxy. If the events start coming early in the late game, I'll have to see how things look then.
* for megastructures, I have two complete science nexus, a complete strategic coordination center, a ring world and partial progress on a dyson sphere and a matter decompressor. The ring world is coming in pretty late for an empire without exceptional pop growth. I'm planning to develop it out quickly and then start moving researchers from across the Column of Silence into the ring world jobs.
* war report at 2400 for the Cosmic Partnership war: I've lost 66 ships to 892 of theirs and have 11% occupation of their federation/vassal system.
Events during this period:
* 2383 - the Column of Silence declares war on the Vetrisian Watchers in retribution for the depredations of the elder race on the Pulcor sector. They inform the Galactic Community that the Watchers will never threaten the galaxy again.
* 2385 - the final world of the Vetrisian Watchers falls to the fleets of the Column of Silence. Fierce ground battles between the Column's psychic warriors and those of the Vetrisians break out across the system. As the fighting subsides, Vetrisian refugees fleeing from their conquered worlds report the wholesale slaughter of their population. The members of the Galactic Community that retained relations with the Column of Silence withdraw their embassies in protest.
* 2388 - signal intelligence from stations in the Shantarian Unity report that war has broken out between the Column of Silence and the NEX Destroyers. The NEX fleets are swiftly overrun and military experts analyzing the situation predict a swift victory. Although the end of the NEX threat is welcome, most conclude that war with the Column of Silence is inevitable.
* 2391 - the Column of Silence overruns the final world of the NEX Destroyers on the world of Matrix. A titanic explosion rips through the complex holding the final NEX core and the machine intelligence's command signal falls silent. Some researchers note a surge of data passed along the tail of the signal and some speculate that the NEX Core may have transmitted a final message to an unknown receiver. Efforts to decode the bundle of quantum data fail. Though the galaxy braces for a renewed onslaught of the robotic menace, none is forthcoming.
* 2394 - more nations join the Cosmic Partnership alliance forming in opposition to the threat posed by the Column of Silence, dividing the galaxy nearly in two. The Column of Silence proclaims a new war of subjugation against the Shantarian Unity, triggering a war between the Column of Silence and the majority of the Galactic Community.
Sector Highlight: I renamed my original L-gate, Proteema's Black Hole, because my last game with the Destiny of Pross had the same system. In this game, the black hole is known as Great Wolf. In addition to having the black hole, the sector is inside a nebula and has a permanent shield-negating storm raging inside its borders. I built out the starbase there as a backup line of defense against an intrusion through the L-gate network. At present, the Great Wolf system has a large pile of defensive platforms, all equipped with short and medium range lasers. No one has challenged the starbase because I've defended Terminal Egress well, but the starbase's military power rating is up to 156k, more than enough to sink most piecemeal fleets but not nearly enough to defend against a determined push. It'd be nice if I could remove all the dark matter deflectors doing nothing on it.
Attached pictures:
* a political view of the galaxy right before I declared war against the Cosmic Partnership. My color is white and theirs is light green, so their territory is formidable.
* a picture of the Great Wolf because you rarely get to see the black hole/storm combination together.
