[AAR] The Catnip Cabal
[AAR] The Catnip Cabal
I bought DW and the RoTS expansion around this time last year and only played a few games until the fonts and ship design issues caused me to put it on the back shelf. Due to that, I've just started playing Legends more as a noob than as an experienced player.
So, I thought it would be kind of fun to do a Legends AAR as a (mostly) new player with some humor to it because, let's face it, it's going to be a comedy of errors anyway so we might as well just roll with it, right?
I've chosen a 10x10 varied cluster galaxy with 700 stars and 11 races. All the setting are pretty much normal. I have space creatures turned off but Pirates are normal. I've chosen the story events for the original DW but have excluded those from RoTS.
The race I've chosen to play is the Zenox. Why? Because they're giant, fluffy, golden furred, techno geek cats, that's why. 'Nuff said.
The Zenox race has some interesting advantages and some weaknesses. Our strengths are some race specific shield tech and the Technocracy government type. It allows research at a high rate. We'll start with a natural 20% bonus to population growth and happiness. We'll also get a ship maintenance bonus.
Fleet Admirals and Troop Generals will be more of a rare happenstance while Scientists and Ambassador leaders will be more more numerous.
So, I thought it would be kind of fun to do a Legends AAR as a (mostly) new player with some humor to it because, let's face it, it's going to be a comedy of errors anyway so we might as well just roll with it, right?
I've chosen a 10x10 varied cluster galaxy with 700 stars and 11 races. All the setting are pretty much normal. I have space creatures turned off but Pirates are normal. I've chosen the story events for the original DW but have excluded those from RoTS.
The race I've chosen to play is the Zenox. Why? Because they're giant, fluffy, golden furred, techno geek cats, that's why. 'Nuff said.
The Zenox race has some interesting advantages and some weaknesses. Our strengths are some race specific shield tech and the Technocracy government type. It allows research at a high rate. We'll start with a natural 20% bonus to population growth and happiness. We'll also get a ship maintenance bonus.
Fleet Admirals and Troop Generals will be more of a rare happenstance while Scientists and Ambassador leaders will be more more numerous.
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- 1_Xenox.jpg (359.2 KiB) Viewed 615 times
RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
With the AAR underway here you can see that our Zenox Leader has already nearly given his last full measure of devotion to the cause. Deeply exhausted from pounding those keys with his little paws, he struggles valiently to keep our fledgling empire afloat.
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- catnap.jpg (58.6 KiB) Viewed 615 times
RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
Here's our starting position in a small central cluster. On one hand, being right in the middle means we're surrounded by the other empires out there and that almost guarantees lots of conflict at some point. On the other, we should be able to reach most of the other clusters fairly easily and can hopefully levereage some diplomacy and tech selling to climb the empire ladder. With some luck we'll have this small starting litterbox all to ourselves for a while.
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- 4b_position.jpg (94.94 KiB) Viewed 615 times
RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
There is a also a potential colony nearby so we'll check that out right away.
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- 4_position.jpg (66.15 KiB) Viewed 615 times
RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
The first order of business is to upgrade our spaceport from medium to large and then buy some more exploration ships.
Looking around the immediate neighborhood we can see that there's no caslon gas anywhere in our starting system or in nearby explored systems. No hydrogen gas either for that matter. This is bad mojo for our little catnip lovin' kitties. But, there's more than one way to skin a cat, as they say. We'll prioritize scouting all the remaining close by systems and hopefully find some soon. If we don't, this game may get ugly really fast.
Looking around the immediate neighborhood we can see that there's no caslon gas anywhere in our starting system or in nearby explored systems. No hydrogen gas either for that matter. This is bad mojo for our little catnip lovin' kitties. But, there's more than one way to skin a cat, as they say. We'll prioritize scouting all the remaining close by systems and hopefully find some soon. If we don't, this game may get ugly really fast.
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- 5a_Resources.jpg (294.22 KiB) Viewed 615 times
- Gelatinous Cube
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RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
Hey, that's a pretty good little map. Looking forward to this! No such thing as too many AARs going on.
RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
While we scout about and upgrade the starport, let's take a look at our leader. He has some pretty good stats. The +18% mining rate will come in handy in the early expansion and the trade income and diplomacy bonus' are nice as well. The population growth hit isn't too bad. Since we started with a 20% bonus, that means we're now down to +10% net there.
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- 5_leader.jpg (43.73 KiB) Viewed 615 times
RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
And, our first scientist has emerged. He specializes in energy research and is methodical, which hopfully means fewer research failures.
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- Gelatinous Cube
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RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
Are you just playing the game, pausing every now and then to take pictures and post? If so, that's a pretty good way to do it. Much easier than taking a bunch of pictures and trying to remember the narrative later when you're typing it all up.
RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
Cats are lucky and have nine lives. As proof, the potential colony right next door is populated with an independent race of Zenox. Talk about a stroke of good fortune! We'll want to get a colony ship over there ASAP. This will help our empire grow.
There are also ruins on the planet which point to some coordinates to investigate nearby.
There are also ruins on the planet which point to some coordinates to investigate nearby.
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RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
Nah, I played it some last night and took screenshots when playing. Then went back through and edited them all and put them in order. It takes quite a bit of time but now I can just post them in order and tell the story.
RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
What's this? More luck? One of our curious kitty explorers has found an abandoned capital ship, the 'Grevious Enforcer'. This could be a real game changer this early in the game. With a capital ship in hand this early, our little cabal will be able to run its claws up and down the faces of any neighboring empires. Do we want to investigate? Oh heck yeah!!
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RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
NOOOO! The capital ship expodes and destroys our scout. Oh, what could have been. Just another reminder that exploring is dangerous business. That, and that curiousity killed the cat.
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RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
In the meantime, suddenly we have pirates on our doorstep. They attack our mining bases and make up an offer. We'd love to accept this offer but we only have $7K at the moment. We also still have not found any caslon and other critical resources. Our economy is limping along.
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- 9_pirates.jpg (44.82 KiB) Viewed 617 times
RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
Fighting the pirates has caused a rare troop general to appear and offer his services to the Cabal. We don't yet know what skills he has.
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RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
Our overall stragegy to this point has been to explore and colonize to the southeast and lock the bulk of the remaining systems in the cluster within our sphere of influence. When we do get around to taking a look toward the north, we find a nest of Frogs. The Haakonish homeworld is practically on our doorstep. Out influence is suddenly cut in half. This is really bad news We are really going to have to work hard now to find a system to colonize that will expand our influence and block the expansion of his. We'll take a look at those clusters of stars outside our sphere to the east first. In the middle term, there's only room for one race in this cluster and that's us. We are going to have to squish some frogs if we can. Right now, we are way too way to weak. As weak as kittens.
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- 11_Frogs.jpg (69.01 KiB) Viewed 617 times
RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
We are weaker than the frogs. Much weaker. We need to make nice for now. They can help us with trade and exploration until we are stronger. We approach them meekly with hat in hand.
We ask them for a mutually beneficial trade agreement but they turn their froggy noses up at us. We ask to trade maps but they spit upon us. They are jeleous of our territory and the resources we control ahd they don't like us. One day, they will pay for their slights.
We ask them for a mutually beneficial trade agreement but they turn their froggy noses up at us. We ask to trade maps but they spit upon us. They are jeleous of our territory and the resources we control ahd they don't like us. One day, they will pay for their slights.
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- pussnboots.jpg (131.49 KiB) Viewed 617 times
RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
Immediately, our Power Meower sets about growing our empire. His mining rate skill and colony happiness skill both increase in short order.
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- 12_leader.jpg (257.01 KiB) Viewed 617 times
RE: [AAR] The Catnip Cabal
Off to a fun start. Look forward to more!
I do my AARs the same way. Play, take a bunch of pics, edit them and later and post. I usually end up cutting about half the pics I take, and it's easier to figure out what to delete if I play for a long session and then sit back and look at all the resulting pics. But yes, it does take a bit of time.
I do my AARs the same way. Play, take a bunch of pics, edit them and later and post. I usually end up cutting about half the pics I take, and it's easier to figure out what to delete if I play for a long session and then sit back and look at all the resulting pics. But yes, it does take a bit of time.