Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

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Twigster
Posts: 1024
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:35 am

Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

I have the summer before I move to another state and begin work on my master's degree. I am retired military with plenty of time. I'll see how well I can do on this one.

Huge galaxy, 1400 stars, 15x15 sectors, Aggression: Chaos, Difficulty: Extreme, Very Expensive Research (999k), Space Creatures: Normal, Many Pirates at Distant Proximity, Strength: Strong, Destroyed Pirates do not respawn, Colony Prevalence and Independent Life: Normal, Zenox Technocracy, Home System: Excellent, Size: Starting, Tech-level: Pre-Warp, Corruption: Normal, Auto- generated 11 staring empires, Independent colonies allowed to form empires, All victory conditions and Threshold set to 100%, All Story Events enabled, No Tech Trading, Giant Kaltors allowed at start, Automation: Expert.

Screen shots and story to begin being posted tomorrow.
Damiac
Posts: 73
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2016 4:46 pm

RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Damiac »

Good luck, sounds interesting!
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Retreat1970
Posts: 1125
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Location: Wisconsin

RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Retreat1970 »

I was going to start my 2nd AAR, but you're doing what I was going to do. I'll watch yours instead. Good luck.
Twigster
Posts: 1024
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:35 am

RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

Thanks to you both. Please don't be shy during the course of it if you should have suggestions. [8D]
Twigster
Posts: 1024
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:35 am

RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

The burnt orange military ships are Black Prowler ships that escaped from the battles in the Astra system, mostly troop transports and escorts plus a couple of carriers. The 10 heavy cruisers of 2nd Fleet warped into Astra; 1 was captured, 3 destroyed and all but 2 were damaged heavily. A Constructor is en route to begin repairs. The other Zenox forces in the area are refueling in preparation to attack other pirate bases.



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Twigster
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RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

This is my most powerful ship at the moment. It has 2-3 times the firepower of the Pirate ships and other empire ships that I am currently aware of and approx. 40% stronger shields than all but the Pirate carriers. I am working on researching Velocity Shard Torpedoes and on getting my max ship size up to 1200. I jumped right into point-blank range of the Pirate forces at Astra. Enemy ships in general have much longer ranges than I do right now.

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Twigster
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RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

10 of my heavy cruisers produced these casualties. Several skirmishes killed maybe 20 more dead Pirate ships.

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Twigster
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RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

#2

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Twigster
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RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

The Pirate bases that I know of at present. I was just able to reach and fight at Astra with my current ship ranges. The Astra system is in Sector J11.

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Twigster
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RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

My tax policy has been as follows: from start I held to 5% rate, increasing to 10% in order to support my MSP, scouts and constructors in-system prior to warp capability. I stayed at 10% until population max on the home world. Consequently my fleet was relatively small, with just enough destroyers to fight off the pirates after I had shields, armor and decent firepower. An added benefit was naturally to grow the civilian sector economy. At population max I increased to 40%, instead of growing my fleet I funneled massive amounts of cash into crash research programs. Along with stealing large amounts of technology early on with a super-spy (which has since unfortunately died) I noticed that I had a nice lead on tech against the pirates and most other empires I early came into contact with. That lead is unfortunately gradually closing as AI empires grow. I was not beyond buying information on other empires and stealing tech from the pirates.

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Twigster
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RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

With Pre-Warp starts I don't see a good reason not to keep taxes low early on and grow my population to max as soon as possible. I have never seen the AI do the same, it generally taking much longer for AI pops to reach max.

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Twigster
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RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

The Tuula Prima Territory is a Human empire with a Way of Darkness government- fortunately they are on the far side of the galaxy, currently well out of reach.

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Twigster
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RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

I am in the process of slowly increasing my fleet size in order to fight the hundreds of pirate vessels relatively nearby.I am also keeping a close watch on how the nearby Banosserit military develops. This naturally has the effect of greatly slowing my research. I am on a push to achieve the Sentient Computer Core Wonder- perhaps after that I’ll go for Warp Gates.

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Twigster
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RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

My Leader and Colony Governor on Vrilya combined are providing a +78% to Colony Happiness which is a big help and will allow me to squeeze out more in taxes shortly. I have however already lost one Leader to a coup… I like to keep my newer colonies at 0% tax for as long as possible.

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Twigster
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RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

The next couple of shots illustrate some of the bigger Pirate threats.

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Twigster
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RE: Zenox Ascendancy- A RetreatUE AAR

Post by Twigster »

The Dirty Raiders have destroyed 357 ships!? [X(] I am not looking forward to mixing it up with them as of yet... but I am going to have to.

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Twigster
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Review

Post by Twigster »

One of the techs I stole was the Banoserit Far Sight Center (stolen from a Pirate faction actually)- I have placed that on my military and mining bases as well as on scouts and constructors. One primary reason for that decision was that so I could see any Pirate (or other) refueling bases that would facilitate attacks against me. I have taken such bases out when discovered. Even though I am nearly century into the game, at 999k Very Expensive Tech research, it takes time to get to decent techs. I really like that, because combined with a relatively un-crowded map, it forces me to better appreciate the techs I have and to live with the decisions made in the tech tree. As Colonization gets better researched by all entities and the map begins to become more crowded with colonies, those hard decisions will become even more critical. My incidence of stealing techs has dropped off a cliff because the spies I have are just not up to the task any more. I am having to adjust to no longer being ahead of the tech curve as I was for the first 75 years or so of this game.
AVN
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2016 6:22 am

RE: Review

Post by AVN »

Interesting [:)]

I bought this game 2 months ago and I'm still struggling with it on hard difficulty, but it's interesting to read how an expert is handling this game on extreme difficulty.

It's a pity your top tech stealing spy died/was neutralized. I'm sure he could have helped you a lot more.

Good luck in the continuation of this game [:)]
Damiac
Posts: 73
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2016 4:46 pm

RE: Review

Post by Damiac »

What do you do to train up intel agents to be able to steal research effectively?
Twigster
Posts: 1024
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:35 am

RE: Review

Post by Twigster »

What do you do to train up intel agents to be able to steal research effectively?

It is mostly luck of the draw as far as Agent abilities go... although you can always try a low-probability mission and hope that if successful the skills will improve markedly.
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