"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.
- Terraform all possible uninhabited planets for colonisation later on.
- Increase my resource production across the board but mainly focused on alloys, minerals and energy credits.
- Fortify Cartel space by placing combat focused star-bases at hyperlane chokepoints.
- 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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