Let's Play Stellaris: Part 28 - Victory!

"The Unified Uriy Suns, the longest standing rival of the Fox Cartel had proven time and again to be stubborn and the second war was doing little to disprove that fact. What they lacked in technological sophistication they more than made up for with sheer weight of numbers which blunted the technological edge the Cartel possessed over them. It was going to take more than military might to convince the Uriy Suns to accept subsidiary status. They would succeed eventually, it was only a matter of time now."

Stardate: 24-01-2323

So here we are again, aiding the Cartel's bid to become a galaxy spanning crime syndicate after leaving off just as we kicked off the second war with the Uriy Suns. We currently have the first fleet in orbit of the planet Flerm (not Flem I misread it last time) bombarding it ahead of a ground invasion. Now I likely have more than enough troops to take it regardless but I don't really want to take too many losses, so I'll just soften them up a bit first.

Whilst all that is happening the wheels of science continue to turn with the engineering division finishing the crystal mines tech. Let's just get them improving our orbital mining stations again as that is where a vast majority of our resources come from still.

A small Uriy Suns fleet attacks an outpost on the outer edge of Cartel space, not really a concern to me as I doubt they'll get deeper in and their war exhaustion is already at 30% (Compared to the Cartel's 12%.) Plus I can just take them back on my way toward the rest of the Uriy Suns star systems.

A small Uriy Suns fleet attempts to retake one of their outposts.

After bombarding two of the garrison armies out of existence Cartel forces land, at the cost of two armies we occupy the planet successfully. The first fleet moves out to try and engage that small fleet before making their way deeper into the Uriy Suns empire. Meanwhile the enigmatic cache in orbit of Vulpinus leaves as quickly and quietly as it had arrived, luckily it didn't explode, poison people or turn the entire population into zombies.

The first fleet happily romps through Uriy Suns space with minimal opposition beyond the token resistance of outposts along the way, either they never fully recovered from the first war or their fleet is hiding somewhere. Meanwhile more science goodness in the form of positronic AI for extra research speed is always a plus from the physics department, so let's set them to improving our shields even further.

It seems like it was a correct assumption that the main Uriy Suns fleet was hiding somewhere as they appear in a system to the north in the Homolog Continuum, so let's divert the first fleet to intercept. Luckily you don't destroy star-bases you occupy them so the star-base in that system should hopefully hold them in place long enough for the first fleet to begin a vigorous asset liquidation program for them.

My initial assumption they were going to try and retake Flerm appeared to have been mistaken as the Uriy Suns fleet vanishes off sensors again, very strange. I guess they know they would never really win a straight up fight given the first fleet is estimated to be 3 times more powerful so they are just trying to run up the war exhaustion. So let's send the first fleet back to knocking down outposts for now.

The first fleet moves to pursue one of the larger enemy fleets.

We get to choose another tradition meanwhile, the final one in the supremacy tree increasing star-base damage, reducing their cost and granting us war doctrines and an ascension perk for finishing the tree. The ascension perk is an easy pick this time, voidborne, allowing us to build habitats is too good to pass up. We have plenty of planets we can put them in orbit of as well meaning we have our next long-term goal at least.

The society research department meanwhile finishes off the ministry of production and finally gives us a population growth speed tech among our next choices, where was that a hundred years ago? Honestly you just can't get the staff these days.

After flattening a small star-base the first fleet enters orbit of the colony Klegg to bombard it when sensors finally catch sight of the Uriy Suns main fleet. Not unsurprisingly in orbit of their capital but upon detecting the first fleet they actually move to engage the Cartel taking the admiral a little by surprise given their tactics to date.

What ensues is the largest military engagement in Cartel history as the first fleet and Uriy Suns fleet crash into one another weapons blazing. Cunning class corvettes swoop through the Uriy Suns ships at point blank range as the destroyers hammer them with plasma fire, fighters from the Sylo-class cruisers darting in and out for attack runs as a ballet of chaos and fire ensues. The first fleet suffers some minor losses, three corvettes and a destroyer succumbed to enemy fire but the Uriy Suns came off far worse. Three destroyers and twelve corvettes were destroyed driving them off fairly decisively and allowing them to resume their bombardment of the colony.

The largest space battle in Cartel history takes place.

With only a single garrisoned army defending it I only wait until the transports arrive before moving the fleet toward it's next objective. As expected the colony falls in a matter of days with the next target all too clear, their capital. What's left of their fleet retreated there but even with a star-base backing them up the odds are definitely not in their favour. The ensuing battle utterly devastates the Uriy Suns fleet, for a paltry cost of two corvettes the first fleet destroyed two cruisers, eight corvettes and six destroyers as they resume their bombardment of the capital.

With the war progressing in the Cartel's favour the engineering division adds the cherry on top with another finished tech, they get sent off to improve our city districts housing capacity for now. Much to every ones surprise the Uriy Suns try to ambush the first fleet as they bombard the capital claiming a handful of corvettes before being utterly annihilated this makes the oligarch change his posture somewhat. Ordering an indiscriminate bombardment of their capital which doesn't break their morale as much as hoped as the Uriy Suns retake Klegg from the Cartel.

The first fleets corvettes swarm around a Uriy Suns star-base.

Many more smaller skirmishes ensue as the first fleet tries to mop up the Uriy Suns fleet and are ordered to retake any occupied systems before any negotiations take place. More research finishes among the engineering department so let's get them improving our mineral purification hubs.

Whilst we can't hold on to their capital as the remains of their fleet retake it and our war exhaustion is now creeping up the Cartel settles for a status quo meaning both sides take any systems they managed to occupy. Which means due to the first fleets recall to clear up, the Uriy Suns get nothing whilst the Cartel claims three systems and their colonised planet in Peya.

It's a victory though not quite as decisive as I would have liked, despite our technological superiority the Uriy Suns are a stubborn bunch of fungus people but we gave them a bloody nose at least (if they have noses.) Even despite the loss in territory and the amount of ships lost they are still rated as nearly the Cartels equal much to the Oligarchs chagrin.

Just as we draw this part to a close pirates once again pop up in Cartel space leading me to believe we need a station to protect our trade-routes or a small corvette fleet to patrol to suppress them. For now though I hope you enjoyed the read, keep your eyes peeled for more soon!

If you missed the last part, you can find it here!

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 27 - The Second War

"After months of scanning, studying, even some risky sample taking the Cartel's brightest minds were still no closer to unravelling the tubular mystery hanging over the capital. The initial fear and panic it caused faded as days turned to weeks without this enigmatic object doing anything at all. The first fleet was soon dispatched elsewhere to more critical affairs and yet it remained it's intent and purpose still a mystery with the only answer providing only fuel for more questions."

Stardate: 25-01-2314

Here we are once again at the glorious helm of the Fox Cartel, with just one rather large tube shaped mystery hovering in orbit over the capital world. It could be a huge potential advantage or it could exterminate everything in the blink of an eye, pros and cons you know. So, before we dive in and get to the difficult work of galactic criminal enterprising let's see what our goals should be meanwhile.

1. Investigate the mysterious ship in orbit of Vulpinus and hope it does not murder-death-kill everyone in the meanwhile.
2. Continue preparing for war with the Uriy Suns by building our fleet up and improving the defensive star-bases covering the hyper-lanes into Cartel space.
3. Try and improve the economy further still especially when it comes to alloys as it is the one thing we are critically short of since forever.

So getting things rolling I decide to upgrade one of the alloy forges on Vulpinus which may cause a need for some juggling with job priorities but that is fine I need alloys badly. There is also a short-fall of consumer goods so I build civilian industries on Nova Druzhnik to take care of that, I know it's a generator world but it's not that big a deal. Let's also build city districts on every planet we have especially our new colonies to ensure they have enough housing, I'll worry about jobs a bit later.

Meanwhile we get our next tradition, there's only one current choice in the supremacy tree but it is a most welcome one given we are about to go to war. Increased rate of fire for my ships and more damage from orbital bombardments you say? The Oligarch approves.

There is then a flurry of activity, with the researchers on Blissful Elysium successfully poking the dark matter portal with their science sticks to generate even more dark matter for us to harvest, neat. The physics division also finishes researching the advanced combat roles tech which we are going to plug into all our ship designs. First let's see what is next on the science shopping list, not a great deal of amazing options so let's just knock x-ray lasers out pretty fast to make room for something better next time.

After some market fun with resources I manage to scrape enough alloys together to upgrade our two defensive star-bases to star-holds, given I am expecting each one of these to hold off a fleet or two by themselves they'll need the upgrades.

The mystery remains with the first fleet ever ready to defend the capital should it prove hostile.

Speaking of upgrades I make sure all my ship designs are updated with the latest tech only for the Oligarch to nearly fall out of his over-sized leather chair in shock at the retrofit cost, over 1100 alloys needed, yikes! However our improved alloy production is helping to blunt that a little. Sadly our branch office in the Ymarcera Assembly gets closed down, it does feel like that happens far too often at times.

The engineering division is next out of the gate grabbing us the reduced star-base construction costs, let's see what's next. I opt to grab the rail guns next whilst reducing ship cost and construction time is tempting I'd rather not lose too many ships to begin with right now.

Making immediate use of the reduction to upgrade costs for star-bases I drop another gun battery and hangar bay onto each of our two battle-stations as well as a disruption field generator. Reducing enemy shield hit points sounds perfect for their role.

The first fleet briefly leaves it's position near the mysterious object to retrofit as war preparations continue apace. It's at this point more pirates emerge well talk about bad timing, the first fleet for now continues it's retrofit ahead of chasing down the pirates, it being deemed a more immediate threat than the alien object which to date has done nothing since entering orbit. The pirates have a grand old time wrecking the mining bases in the Ishnor system unaware the newly upgraded first fleet is now tearing across the galaxy to flatten them.

The pirates are quickly crushed by the vast might of the first fleet.

To say the pirates stood little chance against the state of the art firepower and defences of the first fleet would be something of a gross understatement. They leave the wreckage behind as a warning to others whom would engage in unsanctioned piracy within Cartel space when the political landscape of the galaxy changes for the worse as well. A federation has formed between the Prime Wardens and the Ziiran Mandate, whilst they are far enough away to not be an immediate concern it does cause some heated debate among the Cartel as to what it could mean if more empires join together in this manner.

The remainder of the first fleets reinforcements are now under construction as the Cartel prepares to make it's move on the Uriy Suns before they federate or garner the protection of another civilisation. The enigmatic cache after months of research leaves our scientists just as confused as when they started, they gather it's a probe of some kind that is foreign to our galaxy beyond that it remains a mystery. So long as it isn't the kind of mystery that blows up suns or some-such let's turn our attention to our neighbours.

Our engineering division finishes off the rail gun research and we finally have the rare crystal extraction tech roll around again making it an easy choice. Ahead of that research finishing I deploy a constructor to the systems which naturally contain these rare crystals. Meanwhile the society division gets us a tech to improve our workers resource output, I get them working on a ministry of production next to improve our alloy output even further.

The rate at which empires are now federating is becoming a worrying trend as the Alvothari Hegemony join the Golden Alliance too. We need to move fast now or we risk being crushed before we have even started, the first fleet and the transport fleet move to their staging area in the Janna system ahead of the declaration of war.

The first fleet ambushes what appears to be the Uriy Suns main fleet, vastly outgunned they stood little chance agaisnt their upgraded firepower.

The goal of this war is not to wipe them out of course but to weaken them enough that the offer of becoming a subsidiary of the Cartel becomes all the more appealing an option. The first fleet ambushes an enemy fleet on route to it trying to defend one of its colonies with disastrous results (for them) as they get obliterated without so much as a single loss inflicted on the first fleet. Emboldened the Cartel fleet moves in to Peya to begin softening it's colony up for a ground invasion. The star base is the only significant threat in this system however.

The planet Flem in Uriy Suns space is subjected to an orbital bombardment ahead of landing troops to occupy it.

The first fleet makes quick work even of the star-base and the few ships that escaped the ambush and begins bombarding the planet Flem. They are selective, targeting only military bases and planetary defences in part as there is no money in ruling a bombed out ruin of a planet, plus ammunition isn't cheap.

With the war now well and truly under way and the mystery of the strange object hovering over the capital world no closer to being solved it's time to draw this part to a close. As always I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing, keep your eyes peeled for more Fox Cartel fun soon!

I welcome any feedback, tips, comments or just general chatting here or on twitter, go on, I don't bite!


If you missed the last part, you can find it here!

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 26 - An Enigmatic Guest

"The entire board room was silent, eyes glued to the display showing a live feed from the first fleet. It was a rare thing indeed for the board members to be silent, their eyes fixed on the mystery before them. Only the background chatter from the fleet could be heard as they attempted to hail the mysterious object to no avail, scans of it likewise proved to be futile. No propulsion or weapons of any known design could be detected and it's design was like nothing they had come across before. The fact this particular mystery had landed on their front door-step was unsettling for many, an ominous shape hanging in the sky above the homeworld that could be seen even during daylight hours. A curfew was enforced to keep order as the Cartel prepared for the worst from this strange visitor, only time would tell if this was a boon or a disaster waiting to happen."

Stardate: 23-06-2309

Here we are once again at the helm of the burgeoning Fox Cartel, so let's see what fun we can have today shall we? I feel that once our two new star bases are a little more upgraded and our fleet fully reinforced we go knock on the Uriy Suns front door for a donation. I will have to for now at least, continue selling excess minerals to buy alloys to do this but better that than waiting for my pitiful alloy production to catch up.

Meanwhile our scientists on Blissful Elysium, the home of our void portal, have found a way to potentially improve it's dark matter output though I find myself a bit wary let us see what happens. Poking it with a stick for science! It will put our engineering project on hold but I think more dark-matter will be a good thing, we may need it later.

I drop about 1500 alloys into reinforcing the first fleet which is about half of what is needed for it's planned size so we'll definitely going to war in this part I think. For now I just make sure all my colonies have enough jobs and housing for their current needs, only Hades needs more jobs though so I upgrade the holo-theatres, should stop them being so grumpy. As soon as I get some more energy credits I am going to make sure all the tile blockers I can clear on all my planets are done, more space for more stuff and more foxes to make more stuff, the equation of victory!

The Cartel hurries a caravaneer fleet out of it's space.

The Numistic Order caravaneers try to hawk their dodgy wares in Cartel space, I think not move along before we charge you a transit fee. I am once again running out of rare crystals but rather than using the market I think it's time I built a synthetic crystal plant on Hades so I can remove my dependence on the market. Lycaon Prime meanwhile looks like it could be either a fantastic city world or a mining world, so let's work toward the mining option by dropping a city district and a mining district in the build queue.

The Physics division finishes improving our orbital research stations and as we are now preparing for a more immediate war let's get them researching advanced combat roles to improve our ships. The society division finishes not long after, so for the future I get them working on the off-world trading company, not all our star bases will be battle-stations or shipyards in the end.

One of our science ships which I had set to passive rather than evasive stance made a bit of a blunder that proved enlightening. It stumbled into Dyss Marauder space and the brief glimpse it showed was terrifying, vast fleets of ships and huge stations filled the system and were at a brief scan massively more powerful than the entire Fox Cartel military combined, so maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to keep paying them off.

The Homolog Continuum had been quiet for a while so I guess we were due so robotic insanity at some point, they want us to colonise a specific planet.

These weird robots either know something we don't or they are a few thousand years shy on maintenance.

After a brief glance around I find the world they are referring to, a size-12 tomb world in Cartel space, uh, that is not exactly habitable. A tomb world is basically a world in the midst of a nuclear winter, I could terraform it I guess so I just agree to colonise it and shrug. The Oligarch has a look of mild confusion on his face but that is par for the course with our interactions with the Homolog Continuum. They sure are a strange bunch and I can't help but feel they are either glitched or there is something they know that we don't.

Whilst the Cartel gears up for another war with the Uriy Suns something even more curious than the Homolog Continuum's random requests occurs. A ship unlike any design the Cartel has encountered to date makes it's way through one of the systems on the edge of their territory, it doesn't seem hostile so the outpost ignores it and monitors it's course.

A strange tube shaped object enters Cartel space.

Initially it was thought to be moving through Cartel space but it moves deeper into it passing the battle-station in the Janna system then moves on to the Voldox system. Realising it's on a direct course for the Capella system and the home-world the first fleet initially preparing to move to it's staging area in Janna remains in Capella as the strange ship approaches. The first fleet moves into a defensive position in orbit over Vulpinus as we await the arrival of this rapidly approaching mystery.

As was expected upon entering the home-system it is on direct course for Vulpinus, all attempts at hailing the object have little effect and the first fleet readies itself to open fire should it attempt to land on the planet.

The society divisions head scientist simply decides to improve worker jobs output as the next project, the Oligarch clearly more concerned with the rapidly approaching object toward the Cartel's seat of power.

The first fleet hangs in orbit over Vulpinus to defend it as the strange object continues it's ominously silent approach.

The tube-like ship simply stops in orbit, surrounded by the entire Cartel fleet with every weapon trained on it's oddly shaped hull. Understandably the scientists want to study it and the military want to blow it up. It's clearly very advanced so a military engagement may be futile so the Cartel opt to study it, hoping to perhaps glean some technological insight from it.

The first fleet remains in orbit regardless as the engineering division prepares to research this strange visitor. For now though that draws today's part to a close it ended up being interesting in a way I couldn't have predicted!

I hope you enjoyed reading and I thank you for taking the time to do so! Remember I welcome all feedback, messages, chat, tips and the like here or on twitter so don't be afraid to send a message. Til next time fox fans!

If you missed the last part, find it here!

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 25 - A Looming War

"The population of the Fox Cartel was positively booming, from a single world they now occupied five others besides their planet of origin. Yet they had no intention of stopping there, as unclaimed territory became more scarce within the galaxy it was inevitable they'd come into conflict with the other empires around them. However the Cartel's branch offices ensured they were already spreading without the hindrance of borders, legitimate front companies hid more nefarious drug labs and illegal research facilities. The Cartel were determined to not just eek out an existence in one small corner of the galaxy, they wanted it all and they wanted every other empire to simply by an extension to them by any means necessary be it war, crime, negotiations or outright bribery. They would have it all. "

Stardate: 05-07-2305

Things are going fairly well for the Cartel so far if perhaps a bit more slowly than I'd like. The preparation will make it all the more fun when we start poking our neighbours a bit more though. First we have to get to that point and compared to my other campaigns of Stellaris I am by and large being ignored by the other empires so, I guess I need to rattle the cage a bit more albeit carefully as most every other race in the galaxy right now is bigger than me.

The Cartels current objectives remain the same, improve the economy so they can build and support a much larger military both offensively in the form of ships and defensively in the form of star-bases and defence platforms. For now the Cartel's position is pretty secure and aside from having a pitiful income of alloys everything else economy wise is doing well. Lycaon Prime should also be established soon and another planet terraformed not long after that so all in all we are doing pretty darned well.

The society science division starts us off today by finishing gene clinics which we chose simply to get it out of the list, next up is another tile blocker removing tech so we can more fully utilise the space on our planets. Our mineral income meanwhile bumps us into the cap again, so I'll sell some of them off and buy some alloys. It's good we have such a strong mineral income though as it's going to drop pretty hard when we upgrade the foundries and factories that use them.

The physics division is next to kick down the oligarchs office door waving a new tech under his nose with the disruptors. Much like gene clinics it was mainly to get it out of the way, I get the improved reactor booster researching next.

For the first time in a long time I can now fully reinforce the first fleet including one brand new Sylo-class cruiser, the Cartels first foray into carrier based warfare. Next on the alloy shopping list is a pair of star bases to seal off our empire to the East so when we go after the Uriy Suns again they won't get very far in our space.

The first of the Sylo-class cruisers enters service with the first fleet.

The physics division quickly finishes that reactor booster research so let's give them something else to get their teeth into. Let's get those mining lasers off the list, I doubt we'll use them now but it's bugging me, also a new tech roll may get us some better options next time. Not to be outdone the engineering division finishes researching the synthetic crystal plants and just as I am about to select the crystal mines as the next I notice a rare tech which will actually be useful for the 'Grand Plan'. Modular Engineering basically reduces the cost of the star-base and any modules by 25%, can't argue with that!

With another world now terraformed let's get another colony ship up and running to settle it, for now I'll hold off on anymore terraforming and colonising to let our newer planets catch up a bit. Another election, hmm, let's keep the current Oligarch in the comfortable chair for now as that population growth bonus is too helpful (and needed) to pass up.

Another world terraformed for the glory of the Cartel.

Now let's see about our defences, I am not too fussed about defending the outer systems that I claimed from the Uriy Suns and they have too many hyper-lane connections to be effective choke points. So I opt to fortify Qabji and Janna which means if they want to attack me they'd have to go through either of those systems. Whilst those upgrade from outposts let's increase the fleet to our fleet command limit, four cruisers, fifteen destroyers and thirty-four corvettes, the first fleet is getting pretty big now. I'll hold off on reinforcing and conserve our current alloys for ensuring those two new star-bases are formidable defensive installations but once that is done and the fleet reinforced the Uriy Suns will be first to feel it's sting.

The physics division quickly knocks out the mining laser tech so let's get something more useful this time. Orbital research station output will do for now as I want to stay ahead of the curve with technology. Aside from the ongoing war to our west and the growing strength of the Ymacera Assembly the galaxy is a fairly quiet place I have a feeling that is not going to last. There are few places left to expand now so border tension is going to skyrocket.

The Cartel stays focused on preparing for the next war with the Uriy Suns, the society division finishes it's tile blocker research so let's drop something else in now. An upgrade to the unity generating building is good enough. The new colony ship finishes and is sent to settle the newest world and shall be henceforth known as Colonia Dwarvian, a small but potentially powerful world, set to be an urban centre (or that is the plan anyway.)

The Prossnakan Star Hunters decide to throw an insult at us calling the foxes an affront to nature. Yeah, maybe you should worry about the Ymacera Assembly more than the Cartel as right now they are thoroughly kicking your purple back-sides.

Let's finish off today's part by selecting the star-base modules for our two new soon to be battle-stations. For the two stations I select a gun battery, a hangar bay and a target uplink computer and a single Gladius-class defence platform for each, my alloy stockpile won't allow more for now.

With preparations well under way for the next foray into Uriy Suns space it's time for today's Stellaris adventure to end. Hope you all enjoyed reading!

As always I welcome all feedback, support, comments and tips whether here or on twitter so don't be afraid to interact, til next time!

The beginnings of a defensive star-base to protect Cartel space from the galaxy at large.

If you missed the last part you can find it here!

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 24 - Winds of Change

"From atop the Oligarch's tower he watched the comings and goings of a burgeoning empire. From this far up it looked like an ant colony, people flowing from place to place, shuttles and transports all but clouding the sky. Over thousand years ago they had been naught but a street gang and now they were a galactic power, it hadn't been easy to get to this point. They'd had to take on corrupt governments, religious cults and rival gangs and yet their greatest challenges awaited ahead. Among the stars, empires more vast and powerful were ever drawing closer on the map and unknowable alien horrors waited in every dark corner. Turning away from the window the Oligarch slipped into his seat, the holographic display illuminating his grey tinged orange fur, one digit outstretched swiping through the green light hanging in the air. 'Get me the admiralty, we have work to do.' "

Stardate: 9-12-2299

Here we are again, more Fox Cartel fun times abound! Hopefully anyway, anyone that plays Stellaris knows full well the lulls that can happen not to mention I tend to get a bit into the whole empire building and economy side of things a bit heavily at times. With that said let's decide on some current and future objectives to keep things moving shall we?

1. Boost our population growth so we don't have so many empty job slots and the new colonies become productive more quickly.
2. Terraform all planets currently within Cartel controlled space and colonise them
3. Increase the first fleet in size as well as ensure it is fully reinforced and always has the latest tech.
4. Build defensive star-bases in key hyper-lane choke-point systems and economic ones internally to boost the overall economy.
5. Construct and build defence platforms everywhere but focused on key defensive systems and potential weak areas to reduce the chance of small enemy fleets driving up our war exhaustion.

So as you can see we have our work cut out for us, something I noticed in our war with the Uriy Suns was their use of small fleets to attack undefended systems. I am also considering designing a variety of defence platforms but I'll get to that later. Once I have a few more cruisers and bulk out the rest of the first fleet and have the key systems defended I'll go say hello to the Uriy Suns again.

The Dyss Marauders send us a strangely friendly message meanwhile saying their fleets are for hire if we need them. That actually isn't a half bad idea, I could send them to weaken the Uriy Suns further before I declare war again or perhaps even send them to slow down the advancing Galactic Ymacera Assembly.

The society division finishes our food processing facilities tech so lets send them off to research 'insterstellar campaigns' basically it reduces war exhaustion gain and the influence cost of claiming systems. I set one of our new food processing facilities to be built on Hades for now, though looking at it Blissful Elysium has greater potential to be a farming world, I'll swap it for something else later. I also drop down another two generator districts on Nova Druzhnik, with the aim of turning that into a generator world (so I can actually maintain a large fleet and masses of star-bases and defence platforms.)

A dimensional portal on Blissful Elysium you say? Let's poke it scientifically with a stick and see what happens!

Something a little worrying happens on Blissful Elysium however, some kind of dimensional portal which makes the colonists their understandably a bit nervous. Science minions! Go and poke it with a science stick and see what happens please and thank you. It is going to put our physics research on hold for a while but I don't want to leave it and have some kind of horrific aliens start coming through and eating my colonists.

The marauders on the other side of the galaxy the Husko Raiders make a similar offer to send their craziest warriors to fight our enemies for the right price, how adorable. The Oligarch nods and smiles before closing the comm-link turning his attention elsewhere. Such as the more important happening of another branch office being closed down, time to spend some energy credits to set up some more on different worlds. I still wonder if there is a trick I am missing with branch offices for crime syndicate mega-corps. So let's set up about four, one in each neighbouring empire and see if putting them on something other than capital planets works better and have the first building be a front company on each when possible.

The portal on Blissful Elysium leads to a null void, a dimension of pure entropy which gives us some research toward null void beams (pretty sure we have those already) and some dark matter production, handy! Then something a little more worrying happens with our growing rivals in the Ymacera Assembly, their beliefs shift them from a democracy to a xenophobic imperialist which.. Means they will likely be expanding even more, uh, this is not good.

Luckily the engineering division sees fit to cheering up the Oligarch by finishing it's research into plasteel armour for our ships and stations. Let's get them even further improving our orbital mining stations as they form a good chunk of our resource income still. The physics division follows hot on their heels with the experimental hyper-lane breaching tech, which means my science ships can maybe get some more surveying done. I do send one of them to the homeworld to assist research though as I don't think I need two out there at this stage. Let's get these disruptors researched now as all the other options are not all that useful at present.

A non-Cartel pirate faction emerges in the Tatanga system and disables the outpost.

Pirates who think they can operate in Cartel space without a license pop up, I think not you scurvy ridden upstarts. The first fleet will deal with you very soon so just stay where you are and try not to struggle too much it increases the ammo cost. The society research division finishes once again and gives us some interesting options however let's get some of these cheap techs out of the way like gene clinics and alien zoos, so we have more space for better choices later.

The outpost in the Tatanga system fares poorly against the pirates further reinforcing the need for defence platforms everywhere. The first fleet however is flying at full speed toward them so that will be their only success.

Whilst we wait for the first fleet to arrive Nova Druzhnik can now upgrade it's capital building and the planet in the Acrux system is terraformed. Luckily the colony ship is already in orbit so let's name this one after another legend of the Cartel, Lycaon Prime is now the latest in the list of planetary acquisitions for the Cartel. Long may it prosper!

The engineering division finishes improving our orbital mining stations so let's get them researching synthetic crystal plants as it's the one strategic resource we have a deficit of. The first fleet finally arrives to engage the pirates who have broken their contract with the Cartel, so let's liquidate their assets. With explosions.

The first fleet rapidly arrives to deal with the pirates.

The well trained crews and state-of-the-art ships of the first fleet tear through the pirate fleet with frightening efficiency, leaving all 14 pirates ships and their ramshackle station destroyed without a single loss among the first fleet. Short of needing a new touch of paint here or there the first fleet returns home to Capella whilst we get to choose our next tradition, progress!

Both available options in the supremacy tree are tempting and we'll be getting them all eventually but for now I settle on 'War Games' increasing our admirals level cap by 2 and our fleet command limit by 20, very nice.

To finish things off for this part I make sure all star-bases in systems with colonies are upgraded to star-ports and upgraded with a trade hub and a hangar bay, the former for trade value the latter to protect the trade routes. Let's see how Vulpinus is doing as getting those upgraded alloy foundries is key to the next stage of the grand plan.

Down from 9 available jobs to 7, it's a start at least but to ensure I don't run out of housing and having no district slots left I use a building slot for some luxury residences, rich Foxes only and if you have to ask how much, you can't afford it.

As always folks, thank you very much for taking the time to read this and I truly hope you enjoy it! I welcome all feedback, tips, comments and chatting here or on twitter so don't be afraid, gentlemen foxes never bite. Til the next part!

The state of the galaxy so far, bit hard to read but basically the Galactic Ymacera Assembly (the blue in the west) are easily the largest empire around and they just turned from democratic to imperialist. Not good.

If you missed the last part, you can find it here!

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 23 - Cleaning Up

"As a part of the grand plan military recruitment had been toned down in favour of promoting more economically minded jobs like farmers, technicians, miners and the like in order to ensure the Cartel had the resources it needed later. The Fox Cartel were certainly playing the long game as in their minds winning one war, one battle at a time was insignificant, they wanted to ensure they would win all of them before they had truly begun. It was that concept which birthed the grand plan in all it's glory, only time would tell if their forward thinking would pay off or not."

Stardate: 14-2-2296

Once again we find ourselves in the far too comfortable seat of the Oligarch of the Fox Cartel, I know the last few parts have been a bit mundane but hopefully that won't be for much longer. So just hang in there and I promise there will be more space battles and fun stuff going forward, I just don't want this to end prematurely!

Right now we need to find ways to make our fox citizens more frisky so we get more foxes to fill all the empty job slots we have. So we will need to get lucky with our society tech rolls to get some faster population growth, though there is no real time pressure right now as the rest of the galaxy seems content to war among themselves.

Just as we get rolling the Alvothari Hegemony our other immediate eastern neighbour alongside the Uriy Suns decides to throw a diplomatic insult at us. The Oligarch of course has to stifle a fit of giggles before closing the comm-link, I guess they want to be next in line for a visit from the first fleet. I get the feeling not many people in the galaxy actually like the Fox Cartel right now, just a hunch.

Meanwhile the society division finishes it's research to further increase our star-base capacity giving us a whopping 15 to play with. There aren't many vitally important next choices to research so I just go for hyper-entertainment forums, just in case one of the new colonies needs a bigger happiness boosting building, that and it's cheap so it should finish quickly.

The first fleet heads out of the Capella system en route to a system infested with mining drones.

I decide to give my new admiral a road test, there are still some mining drones and weaker crystal entity systems that need clearing so I order them off to deal with them. You were thinking there'd be no space battles, well, me too but this gives us something more fun a taster of what is to come if you will. Hades looks like it needs some more jobs ready to go soon so rather than making use of the building slot for now, I drop down another mining district. We may have a massive mineral surplus right now but once we upgrade the alloy foundries and consumer goods factories that is going to drop pretty sharply.

The first fleet engages the mining drone fleet in the Algol system along the Uriy Suns border greeting the faulty drones with a hail of bullets and plasma. Once the early nemesis of the Cartel's early interstellar military efforts the entire drone fleet is obliterated without a single loss among the first fleet. Without breaking stride they pulverise the station as well before moving out of the system toward their next target more mining drones in the northern area, the crystalline fleets have seemingly got larger. Let's get a constructor ship over here to claim this before the Uriy Suns do.

The first fleet clashes with the mining drones in a hail of auto-cannon rounds, plasma and cutting beams.

With Blissful Elysium now half-way to being established it's time once again to sell off our excess minerals to terraform yet another planet. There's an arid world in the Vorsham system that's a decent enough size, so let's terraform that just to give us some more internal expansion options down the road. Whilst I let things tick over for a little while my branch office in the Skanuri Bloc gives me some intel on the war, whilst the Prossnakan's are definitely fighting pretty hard it seems they are being gobbled up by another neighbour. The Galactic Ymacera Assembly seem to have cut a huge swathe through their space which is as impressive as it is worrying. I may have to turn my attention west rather than east if they keep expanding at this rate.

The society division cheers up the Oligarch by being very much on point, finishing the last tech and giving us a very helpful option with food processing facilities. Basically it's another resource multiplier building but for food which means Hades may oddly enough become the Cartels bread-basket. Not to be outdone the engineering division makes our admiral giddy with excitement as the Ripper auto-cannons have also been researched and we have a lot of interesting options to ponder for the next tech.

Better armour, improved housing, railguns, bigger consumer goods factories and an L-Gate insight.. Hmm. I can't even see the L-Gate anywhere near me so I'll just skip that for now as it feels like it'd be a waste to research it. So let's improve our ships armour I have a feeling we may be needing it sooner than I planned.

The first fleet continues it's clean-up campaign in another system, taking on another fleet of mining drones and their supporting station.

The first fleet engages the next collection of mining drones in the nearby Baxom system, as with the previous engagement the first fleet obliterates the drones without a single loss. So I send them home for repairs and cake, not to mention a well deserved retrofit including refitting the old salvaged cruiser into the newer Sylo-class.

Something more worrying than rapid expansion begins to happen among the more galactic eastern empires though as the Alvothari and the Prime Wardens enter into a series of pacts with each other. If they become a federation that could be a whole mess of trouble the Cartel doesn't need. For now though I think the 'Grand Plan' is safe to continue if only for the reason of getting more alloys to massively fortify my territory.

The physics boffins finish the research institute for us but Vulpinus is still growing very slowly so it will be a while before we can make use of it. I opt to take the rare tech of speculative hyper-lane breaching next which allows us to (with some risk) avoid the typical hyper-lanes, my science ships will be the ones using it as they are stuck with nothing to survey now.

That brings us to the end of the Cartels adventures for today, we even got a couple of space battles in and some more concerning activity from our unwitting future subsidiaries (meaning the other empires.)

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you enjoyed it! As always feedback, comments, tips are always very  much welcome either here or on twitter.

A beauty shot of another world the Cartel aims to terraform for it's own use.

If you missed the last part you can find it here!

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 22 - Expansion

"Resources were flowing in larger quantities than had ever been conceived, population growth was booming and the Fox Cartel was becoming a highly prosperous crime syndicate. It all had a purpose , a grand design, every ship component, every ingot of refined alloy, every scrap of food was all now aimed at a singular goal. It had been dubbed by experts as 'The Grand Plan' the goal of which to turn the Cartel from a back-water upstart into an economic and military powerhouse able to claim all other empires as subsidiaries of itself. Or at least hold their own against less business minded empires who saw it as their goal to conquer the galaxy or cleanse it for whatever twisted alien purpose they had. For them there would be no negotiations just fire, rubble and unforgiving cold of the void."

Stardate: 03-01-2291

Right let's get this galactic conquering underway shall we? Or at least the important things that will let the Fox Cartel succeed at the conquering bit or I guess turning the galaxy into it's subsidiary. Same difference in the end. It will involve lots of big guns and bigger ships I am sure.

Before I go around kicking down space doors for space loot I will need to continue improving alloy production and energy credit production so I can afford to beef up my defences. For now I just continue using one of my construction ships to claim a few more systems that have some resources in I just hope the Yeon Progenitors don't get annoyed with me claiming systems so close to them.

Meanwhile it seems our latest terraforming target is nearing completion so I order a colony ship in advance to cut down on wasted time (that and it takes a year to build one so terraforming will finish first.) I take a look at Vulpinus and realise it only had space for two more districts at present so I drop a mining district and city district down so I don't have to worry about the capital anytime soon.

The Skanuri Bloc and the Prossnakan Star Hunters are once again engaging in fisticuffs with each other, honestly I am hoping the Skanuri Bloc come out on top. Mainly because I can actually construct branch offices on their worlds unlike the Prossnakan's who just want to blow up anything that isn't them. For now though the Cartels goals remain firmly on economic gain for the sake of supporting future military campaigns, the foxes are definitely playing the long game here.

A shining new world for the Fox Cartel, named Blissful Elysium (after a follower Blissful Kitty!)

With the new world terraformed and the colony ship on it's way its time to name that shiny new green and blue marble. Blissful Elysium is chosen as a name but it will be some time before it is up and running. Hades has a minor unemployment issue but not enough population for another building slot so, let's drop an agriculture district, foxes enjoy being well fed after all. That and it still counts as a rural world giving basic worker jobs a resource output bonus, may as well make use of it right?

Vulpinus seems to be suffering still from having masses of empty job slots so with the food situation back into a comfortable surplus let's fire up the planetary decision to increase population growth. Hopefully that will help as once the home-world is working at full tilt it's going to be pumping out masses of resources which we will definitely need when we go knock on the Uriy Suns door again. I really need the extra population so I can upgrade both the alloy foundries, that should really jump-start my preparations.

We then get a flood of decisions to make as two techs finish researching and we get another tradition choice pop, so let's start with that first. As we are already working on the 'Supremacy' line I opt for the 'Master Shipwrights' as part of the Grand Plan, which makes our ships not only cheaper but we can build them faster as well, always a plus.

Now let's get the research sorted, the society division gets us the extra admin cap improvement for the next tech I go for one that increases our star-base capacity for one good reason. The hyper-lane layout is a bit awkward at the moment, the western side of my empire is fairly easy to block off but the eastern one is not. So more star-bases mean I can cover the gaps as needed.

Our cunning fox engineers finish researching star-fortresses which will be a huge help in securing Cartel space in future. For the next one I opt for the upgraded auto-cannons the aptly named 'Rippers' I am sure the captains of future Cunning class corvettes will have fun with those.

The Yeon Progenitors Starbase is pretty scary and huge, let's hope they are friendly neighbours.

The physics division is last into the Oligarchs office with the upgraded point defence tech, not much catches my interest for the next tech so I just opt to get UV lasers off the list, I may use them on defence platforms, we'll see. Meanwhile, I claim the system right next to the Yeon Progenitors half expecting them to go into a frothing genocidal rage but not so much as a squeak, phew. One of the newly claimed systems has a continental world within it which we are going to terraform for the glory of the Cartel, so lets get that started.

It's at this point I realise I accidentally built two colony ships though it's not entirely a waste as I can move them toward the world I am currently terraforming, should save a couple of years at least. Then we get some sad news, the admiral of the first fleet perished at a frankly ludicrous age of 124, let's find a replacement. Admiral Statia Orbilius is next in line who has the skill of boosting our fleets weapon damage and hull strength at the cost of making it less likely for our ships to disengage when damaged, very much a 'no retreat' kind of fox it seems.

The alloy shortage is still plaguing the Cartel even now, meaning the first fleets reinforcements and all the planned star-bases are still on hold til Vulpinus' population catches up to fill all the job slots. The physics division quickly finish off researching slightly shinier lasers, I opt for the research institute as the next research project as it basically gives a percentage boost to the planets total science output which will be very good on Vulpinus right now.

The expanding first fleet, in drydock at the Capella station shipyards.

With things mostly ticking over nicely and some baby-steps in terms of progress in the current plan I think it's time to call this part to a close for the day, as always hope you enjoy reading and I welcome all feedback, comments, support on here or twitter!

Til next time fox fans!

If you missed the last part you can find it here!

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 21 - Ticking Over

"The Cartel had by and large halted it's early rapid expansion in favour of testing their mettle against the Uriy Suns. The Grand Plan, a post conflict initiative saw the expansion continuing with the main goal of ensuring a vast economic base to support an equally vast military. With the exception of the vagrant marauders and the declining fallen empires most of the Cartels rivals were at least double in size, this initiative would change that. For the moment, the galaxy paid little attention to the Fox Cartel, turning to the more immediate concerns of more aggressive neighbours and their own internal issues. In time they may come to regret not paying much heed to a fledgling criminal empire."

Stardate: 10-3-2287

So here we are again folks trying to build up the Fox Cartel to be powerful enough to go kick down some space doors and take some space loot. To say I feel like I need a much much bigger military is understating it right now but we also need the economy to support it too, if the first fleet were to be destroyed right now, it'd take years to rebuild it if not longer because of how low my alloy production still is. So some more immediate goals to add to the 'Grand Plan':

1. Continue to improve our economy not just in the basics like minerals and alloys but also the more exotic resources like rare crystals and exotic gases as we will need those for building upgrades not just our ships.
2. Improve our population growth, either by using planetary and empire wide edicts but technologies and buildings too.
3. Specialise Nova Druzhnik as our primary energy credit generating planet to bankroll basically everything as to maintain the fleet, star-bases and defence platforms alone we will need a lot of energy credits.

With both of our consumer goods factories now upgraded and me prioritizing farming jobs on Vulpinus our resources have finally stabilised for now but before I even build any buildings I will wait for more population. Meanwhile Hades colony is more than able to make use of one of it's building slots so lets actually get an exotic gas refinery converting some of our minerals to gas. As for Nova Druzhnik let's get the energy grid building to start working it toward being our primary energy world. 

Meanwhile the galaxy seems to be ticking along fairly quietly the two wars that were going on between the other empires have stopped so maybe this is the calm before the storm. Whilst I may not be planning on sending the Cartel to war anytime soon that doesn't mean someone else won't come knocking looking for trouble. Our scientists from the physics division at least break up the lull by unlocking the upgraded version of the energy grid, handy! As I have some serious colonising to do later on I decide to get the self-aware colony ships to help get the colonies established a bit more quickly. 

A tropical world being terraformed into an alpine world ahead of the Cartels ambitious expansion plans.

Then we get the big one, the society research division finishes researching the system capital complex, our capital upgrade building and an extra civic point to spend. Before we do that lets get them applying their foxy cunning to another project. Another +20 to my admin cap? Don't mind if I do, off you go science minion!

Now let us make use of that new shiny civic point, there are so many potentially useful options here. I could keep it in character by going for Private Military Companies to improve our armies. Franchising would mean any subsidiary empires give us more of a cut whilst reducing branch offices impact on our empire sprawl (it's an admin cap thing.) Or even Free Traders, improving our branch office income and our trade value meaning even more shiny energy credits. Maybe even Media Conglomerate? Making our people happier whilst also slowing down how fast we accrue war exhaustion. Trading posts for even more star-bases? So many good options, argh!

A new civic, so many good options!

After some back and forth pondering I settle on the 'Free Traders' civic for the simple fact that the 'Grand Plan' is all about boosting my economy to support a military. And I think it fits, the Cartel may be militant but they like a profit too as it means they can buy more ships and bigger guns. Also I intend to be making extensive use of branch offices so improving them is also a win. Speaking of which, let's see if we can worm our way into the illicit underbelly of some of our neighbours shall we?

The Uriy Suns is a no go for branch offices as we still have a post war truce active with them for about another year and the Prossnakan Star Hunters are also a no as they are fanatic purifiers so they basically want to blow up everyone that isn't them. So I find an outlying world of the Skanuri Bloc to get a small branch office on, I can't do anything with it yet though. The Alvothari Hegemony however have a nice ripe capital world I can afford to set down roots on, so let's see what fun we can have on their homeworld.

Two whole building slots to play with? Well well, the Alvothari are not going to enjoy this but I sure am, onwards minions! First off lets get a wrecking yard building for those sweet sweet alloys our military so craves. For our second option let's get an illicit research lab down too, more science is always a plus if you ask me. I'll see what other planets we can make use of later once we have some more energy credits and influence to burn. It does give these empires a casus belli (or cause for war) but yeah hopefully I'll have some serious firepower and defences by the time they get annoyed enough to use it. I hope.

Sadly the big branch office doesn't survive long so it looks like the Alvothari are quite on top of their game when it comes to crime. I wonder if there's a way to protect them that I am missing, I guess I'll find out sooner or later. The Skanuri Bloc throw another insult our way which is kind of adorable when you consider the only way they can get to Cartel space is by going through a fallen empires territory. Good luck with that bird brains.. And then they open their borders to me, what? I sense some kind of elaborate ruse with a dose of shenanigans, I am not falling for that! I'll avoid any obvious 'foul play' puns as these birds seem a humourless lot.

Let's finish off this part for now with our next physics research project, with our improved colony ships ready well ahead of schedule let's see what we want next. Nothing utterly amazing but given the Uriy Suns use of missiles in the last war let's get the improved point defences researching just in case.

The current state of the galaxy, those other empires are getting pretty large now.

With the galaxy seemingly ticking over quietly and the Fox Cartel continuing it's plan to build up before advancing again, time to bring this part to a close.

As always I do hope you enjoyed reading and I welcome all feedback, comments, tips etc either here or on twitter! Til next time!

If you missed the last part you can find it here!

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 20 - The Grand Plan

"The war against the Unified Uriy Suns taught the Cartel much about interstellar conflict. Not just strategy, tactics and combat maneuvers but also the logistics of waging war out in the void. Extensive plans were drawn up and projects earmarked as the Cartel turned their attention inward. They needed more fleets, more ships, more star-bases and the economic base to support them. Meanwhile agents were deployed en mass to establish more illicit branch offices not only to keep their growing list of rivals weakened but to funnel much needed resources back home. The entire initiative was simply referred to as 'The Grand Plan' and would guide much of the Cartel's decisions for years to come."

Stardate: 22-01-2280

As you can likely tell from my preamble fluff I have a plan for the Fox Cartel and a rough idea of how to go about it. In the broad strokes this plan is to build up the Cartels economy to the point it can support a vast and powerful military. To that end I have the following goals in mind.

1. Terraform all possible uninhabited planets for colonisation later on.
2. Increase my resource production across the board but mainly focused on alloys, minerals and energy credits.
3. Fortify Cartel space by placing combat focused star-bases at hyperlane chokepoints.
4. Spread Cartel branch offices around as and when they can be afforded mainly focused on destablising rivals or improving the Cartel economy.

So, let us begin the Grand Plan. Starting off let's upgrade the Bir Zun star-base with a hangar bay, a trade hub and a target uplink computer. A bit general purpose perhaps but hangar bays give a lot of trade protection so it will help our economy out and not get filthy (non-Cartel) pirates raiding us for space bucks.  

Social research is the first one to finish today and we have a couple of stand-out options in the next set of techs available. The ministry of production is basically a booster for metallurgist and artisan jobs which would be very helpful. However we also have the option of further upgrading the planetary capital building and get an extra civic point to spend.. So I opt to go for that as it could really help us. It will take a long time to research but that is no problem we still need more foxes to put to work with the buildings we already have.

The Cartel's prize for their brief war against the Uriy Suns, a trio of systems that cut into their empire.

Our food situation has stabilized a bit but we still need more consumer goods which as always needs more workers, lets hope we can get a population growth speed tech soon. Speaking of techs the engineering boffins have finishes improving our defence platforms (giving them an extra 500 hit-points) so let's see what's next. Another upgraded version of alloy foundries, maybe later for now I opt for mineral purification so I can boost our mineral production I have a feeling we'll need it.

Oh dear, our venerable leader popped his clogs at the ripe old age of 94 now let's see about a replacement for him. Maio Caedicius seems the best choice of the four for a few good reasons, firstly he is the youngest. Secondly, he boosts population growth and lastly he boosts food production and reduces ship and army upkeep. I'm convinced, you've got the job, enjoy the chair it is very comfy. 

The physics division finishes it's research to improve our orbital science stations further but the new options aren't super exciting. So in keeping with the 'Grand Plan' I opt to further improve our technicians energy credit production. Also looking at our new colony of Nova Druzhnik I feel it would make an amazing energy production world as it has a lot of room for energy production districts. 

Meanwhile as we let things tick over let's actually get around to designing our new cruiser class ship which I didn't do in the last part. With cruisers we start getting some more interesting possibilities including a hangar but it's just the one so it's hardly a carrier but it's an interesting possibility. We also don't really have the missile tech to make missile focused ship just yet so let's do our first escort carrier type cruiser. I arm it with 3 medium plasma accelerators, 2 flak batteries which gives us some point defence (and they can even attack other ships unlike the other point defence option) and a single basic strike-craft squadron in it's hangar. Ladies and gentlemen, foxes of all ages I present to you the Sylo-class cruiser, the Cartels first foray into space-borne carrier warfare named after an ace pilot. 

The Sylo-class cruiser, the Cartels first foray into carrier based warfare.

To upgrade our consumer goods factories we are actually going to need rare crystals, hmm, lets hope that tech pops up again soon as that big stockpile is starting to look a lot smaller. Whilst I ponder all that our scientists watch a stream of nanites terraform a planet near instantly into a pristine Gaia world in the Sargas system. However that borders on the Dyss Marauders space and I don't feel quite up to dealing with those vagrant upstarts just yet. You'll get what's coming to you soon Dyss Marauders!

Next tradition pick, yay! I grab the fleet logistics corp tradition as it'll make our ships cheaper to maintain and also give us a 20% boost to naval capacity, win win if you ask me. Whilst I don't plan on going to war for a while again just yet I feel it's best to continue down that tradition tree for when we do. 

I finally get enough energy credits together to begin the terraforming part of 'The Grand Plan' and opt to terraform the tropical world in the Phonok system. I also decide to start claiming some more systems just to the north as there are a lot of resources within a cluster of linked systems I could really use. 

A cluster of isolated systems near Cartel space that are rich in resources that we are aiming at taking.

I know this kind of expansion is going to slow down my technology research speed but right now I need resources, the other empires in the galaxy are all at least double the Cartels size already. Mineral purification finishes research so in light of boosting my economy further I set exotic gas refineries to research next. 

My consumer goods stockpile continues to plummet so I make use of the market once again, selling excess minerals off to buy rare crystals to allow me to upgrade our consumer goods factories. Just as things start to stabilise and my economy starts to improve the Dyss Marauders decide they want a piece of the pie, those guys are starting to annoy me now. So muttering under his breath the Oligarch pays them off with more of our abundant mineral wealth and carries on with more important work. 

The physics division at least cheers up the Oligarch as they finish improving our technicians once again. Let's research planetary power grids next to give us the energy nexus, another resource multiplier building which will be helpful. Continuing the avalanche of science the engineering division also finishes researching, all kinds of awesome, gas refineries. I decide to finally research the afterburner to finally push the Cunning-class toward it's intended role as a swarming ship. 

To say they finish that research at a blistering pace is understating it so I select something a bit more ambitious for their next project in line with the grand plans idea of fortifying Cartel space.

With 'The Grand Plan' well underway I think it's time to bring this part to a close for today. The Cartel is going to give some of it's uppity neighbours a rude awakening once they realise what the foxes next door are planning.

Hope you enjoyed reading and as always any feedback, thoughts, ideas and comments are always welcome, leave them either here or on my twitter, thanks for reading, til next time!

If you missed the last part you can find it here!