Let's Play Stellaris: Part 10 - Bigger Guns

"It was the Cartels first battle since flinging themselves into the vast unknown of space, the first fleet had been tasked with clearing Uzun system of some ancient mining drones. The leftovers of some former civilisation which seemed intent on carrying out their tasks despite their creators long since turning to dust. They were definitely hostile, the engineering division theorising that the materials of their ships just registered as more resources to harvest to them so they had to be removed. However there were more of them than anticipated, as the fleet arrived they were set upon almost immediately. Laser fire and mass driver rounds tore through the void with agonising silence as the fleet simply fought to survive long enough to perform an emergency jump. A bloody nose for the Cartel's first foray into interstellar combat but they would learn the lesson well and return ever stronger."

Stardate: 28-03-2236

Here we are again, continuing our journey toward galactic domination with the Fox Cartel crime syndicate. Things get immediately more interesting as another empire contacts us, the Yeon Progenitors, another fallen empire which is less than good for a few different reasons. Firstly it heavily limits our expansion options both in terms of territory but also branch offices and secondly we have no idea if they are going to be as quirky as the Homolog Continuum. Only time will tell but we are slowly being penned in with only hyper-lane routes to the North and North-West being open for us to continue exploring so long as we can clear our the hostiles in them.

The Yeon Progenitors, yet another fallen empire within a handful of jumps of Cartel space.. Potentially all kinds of not good.

The remains of the first fleet finally limp back into the home system meaning the survivors can repair and I can start replenishing the ships. However rather than simply going back to Uzun with corvettes I'll be getting destroyers at some point so perhaps that will prove to be the better option. Bigger guns. Maybe even a bigger fleet, let's see what our scientists give us to play with though it seems the society research division is first into the oligarchs office today giving us two new buildings to play with. The planetary capital and the hall of judgement, the next project we finally are starting to get some interesting options to play with. Extra food and a food boosting building, not so useful right now. Extra star-bases is interesting but I barely have enough alloys to get my navy back up to scratch much less build more star-bases. An increase in the admin cap however now that is useful, so that's what we'll do. I also make sure to upgrade the planetary admin building on Vulpinus with the far superior planetary capital building.

The admin cap basically means if you go over it that the costs of technologies, traditions, leaders and such gets more expensive and it's worse for a Mega-corp like the Fox Cartel but that new tech should take the edge off. I claim a few more systems before they get gobbled up by the rapidly expanding Uriy Suns to our east, we are going to have to deal with them at some point before they get any allies to help them preferably. However for now we can't even handle a bunch of old mining robots so perhaps it's best to wait given they are actually more powerful than we are.

Our science ship finds evidence of a shrine to some old gods from the Cartels ancient past. To say this is all very weird and a little worrying would be understating it but let's see how far this goes before I need to apply explosive ordinance to it. Hopefully it's just some elaborate hoax or cosmic coincidence rather than anything sinister. Meanwhile our other science ship finds a capsule ticking down to a date 42 years and 3 days from now. It could be a bomb but it could just be someones alarm clock, so I opt to keep an eye on it. The shrine contained a vast amount of initially hard to read text but as to what it all means we'll have to wait and see what our science ships discover.

It's hard to figure out where this trail is going to lead in regard to our 'old gods' but our scientists will figure it out, it's what we pay them for after-all.

The physics division finishes researching the extra research alternatives which will be a big help in the long-term so let's see what goodies they have for us to research next. Improved reactor boosters, plasma throwers, improved hyper drives, more energy credits and more research from orbital stations. Now that's a lot of useful options with the possible exception of hyper-drives for now, however sticking to my goal of improving my military I opt to research plasma throwers to give us some much needed firepower. Much the the glee of the admiral who practically skipped out of the oligarchs office.

I now start building up our new planet, Hades by adding a generator district not sure yet if I want to specialise the planet or just keep it balanced yet though I am leaning toward balanced. Mainly as for now it doesn't look like we are going to be getting a lot of planets anytime soon. Then our engineering division finally finishes researching, an entire new ship class, destroyers!

Before I get ahead of myself with ship design let's choose our next project from the available options. Unlocking fighters, star-holds which are basically the next step up of star-base, coil-guns (I can already see the admiral grinning again), extra housing and more minerals from mining. There are genuinely no bad options in that however I am sticking to my guns literally and I set the coil-guns to research. I see war in our near future and I intend for the Cartel to win it.

Now for something more fun, designing our first destroyer class ship now typically I design my destroyers as picket ships. They will have flak and point defences to screen the larger ships from fighters and missiles, however I feel at present I have more need of something that can destroy lots of smaller ships as quickly as possible. So I opt for the gunship bow to get the most weapons possible, the artillery bow was tempting but I feel the gunship suits better what we are designing right now. For the stern however, sticking with the more is better approach, I choose the interceptor section for it's two weapon hard-points. I give it an even balance of shields and armour in the six utility slots and slap a reactor booster in for good measure. Weapons wise I give it a blue laser in it's medium hard-point and four mass drivers in the smalls. This shall be dubbed the Heuntzelman-class destroyer named after a hero from the Cartels ancient past.

Our newest and largest space faring military vessel to date the Heuntzelman class destroyer.

Now to add them to the 1st fleet and begin construction, they may be retrofitted in future before we take them into battle but I figure it's best to build them now. I add five of them to the reinforcement queue along with six more Cunning class corvettes which entirely depletes my alloy stockpile. This is as big a fleet as any single admiral of mine can currently command so let's hope it's going to be enough. I am still considering waiting for one or two more weapon techs to boost firepower let's see how much our scientists want a bonus in their wages. 

It's at this point something very strange happens, a wreck we discovered some months ago leads to a strange encounter with a worryingly similar ship though this one is crewed. It seems at least as if they are from the past or that ship was from the future (time travel, oof.) We have a choice do we avoid potentially contaminating the timeline and close the channel or tell them?

Time travel.. What could possibly go wrong?

The Cartel opts to tell them to avoid the pulsar that killed their future selves, however rather than replying to us after a brief exchange among themselves they simply power up their engines and leave. Well, your welcome I guess, don't let that pulsar hit your tail on the way out, the Fox Cartel may be criminals by they are good mannered.

To finish off this part we hit our next election however as before I lack the influence to favour a candidate so it comes down to essentially chance, let's see where the dice of fate land. Our current Oligarch Faustus Volcatius remains in power even at the age of 72, a venerable fox indeed. It's both a good and bad thing though, we keep the research bonus but it won't be long before he pops his clogs and we have to elect someone new anyway.

As always thank you very much for taking the time to read this, keep your eyes peeled for the next part soon! All feedback, constructive criticism and comments are greatly appreciated too!

If you missed the last part, find it here!

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 9 - Mysteries, Ancient Threats & Conflict

"The Cartels spread across the galaxy had gotten off to a worryingly slow start in the eyes of some experts. A lack of viable colony prospects, even the planet that was found is far from ideal and will likely cost the Cartel a lot to maintain in it's early development. Star systems infested with hostiles and a neighbour as powerful as they are strange known as the Homolog Continuum. However progress is made, technology reserached, the fleet expanded now the Cartel merely needs to make itself into a true galactic power so that our people never again want for anything."

Stardate: 02-01-2230

Here we are once again following along on the Fox Cartel's campaign of galactic criminal domination, we are about to establish our first colony, the fleet has been expanded. I can only hope this is where things start to get truly interesting for this run! For a change the sociology division is first to burst into the oligarchs office waving their new cabbage growing tech and even offer some interesting choices for the next project.

So let's see what they have for us, unlocking a new capital building as well as halls of judgement now that is tempting for the capital alone as it gives a nice boost to jobs and housing. Next is the extra research, always a safe bet followed by terraforming, oh my. Last but not least an extra boost to naval capacity. Terraforming would help make so many worlds in my borders worthwhile it does however take about 10 years to terraform a planet as I recall. As we already have at least one colony about to begin it's settlement, I opt to get us that new capital building by researching Colonial Centralisation.

It seems those injections from our quirky robotic neighbours actually had a distinctly positive effect giving us a 5% bonus to population growth and increasing our leaders lifespans by 10 years. Maybe they do know what they are doing after all?

Worked out better than expected.

The city district on Vulpinus finishes construction but means we have no extra jobs for the rapidly growing population, so, time to make use of that building slot at last. Two options stand out as the most tempting for me right now, a stronghold for that extra naval capacity or an alloy foundry. For now as I have a lot of  'pest control' to get done I think I'll get the stronghold. Mainly as whilst I have a massive mineral surplus I don't really have the tech to make bigger fleets than 20 right now.

It seems a roving group of caravaneers have entered Cartel space babbling something about a goddess of fortune and sailing on cosmic energy (earning a decisive scowl from the Oligarch) I don't have a massive surplus of energy credits after opening that branch office so for now I tell them to move along. Just as the comm window closes the notification that our first colony ship has landed arrives, it's been a long time coming but we are finally out among the stars taking what is ours and eventually what is everyone elses too.

It took a long time but our first colony finally!

More physics research complete giving us better shields (we'll install those shortly) so let us see what to aim for next. FTL inhibitors aren't really going to be useful until later, extra physics research as always a safe choice, more powerful blue lasers or an energy boosting edict and a new energy credit boosting structure. Given I want to start clearing out these mining drones and angry space crystals, lasers it is much to the barely contained glee of the present admiral. Made even happier when I update the Cunning-class design to incorporate the improved deflectors that we just researched and then retrofit them into the existing ships.

Time for another district on Vulpinus, we don't need minerals yet for a good while, we are also good on energy and housing so for the sake of future proofing lets throw another agriculture district down. Its at this point one of my science ships stumbles into what looks to be the central crystalline creature area and I think we are going to need much bigger guns to deal with them all. The Karazit system is marked as off-limits and the military begins planning on how best to deal with the crystalline menace infesting these newly scouted systems.

We definitely need bigger guns.

The blue lasers research is complete and whilst there are plenty of good options in the list I am determined to improve my military so fusion reactors for my ships is chosen next. As the mineral stockpile hits capacity I opt to sell some of them off for more alloys to ensure I can keep building up my military and even build another star-base somewhere. I opt to reinforce the 1st fleet up to it's maximum capacity of 20 Cunning class corvettes as I prepare to head off into battle and deal with those mining drones.

The engineering division finishes researching it's further improvement to orbital mining stations, they also offer up a new ship hull as one of the options. With an ever widening grin on the admirals face the destroyer hull research begins in earnest, I think we are going to need them too. In the meantime the Hades colony finishes establishing now meaning we now have two planets properly, victory! Kind of.

I opt to allow the physics division to finish researching fusion reactors so I can retrofit them into the 1st fleet before sending them to clean out the mining drones in the Uzun system. They even give us some fun options for the next research project, they really are bucking for a promotion. Whilst extra research and FTL inhibitors pop up again, improved sensors and extra research alternatives are more interesting and of course I choose self-evolving logic to get that extra research alternative. Maybe that'll give the society researchers the chance of giving us more useful options. With the extra power I change the Cunning-class design to incorporate 2 blue lasers replacing 1 of the 2 mass drivers for now. As soon as the retrofit is done, it is time for battle.

Whilst waiting for that however the Uriy Suns crack down on crime, shutting down the branch office I had on their world. Now for a while I won't be able to do that again but it's not a massive concern right now. Our scientists discover a shrine to old Fox religions with talk of a great destroyer, whilst most dismiss those as nonsense from our ancient past however this thing has been in space longer than we have been so I decide to delve for answers.

This is too strange to not investigate, the Foxes may not be spiritual anymore but this has worrying ramifications.

The course is set, the 1st fleet begins their journey toward their first battle the very first of many to come. It takes them almost a year to make the trip, in the meantime we select our next tradition further improving the resource output of specialist jobs. It's at this point we realise our intel was off by far, the drones are present in far greater numbers and strength than initially predicted. They are too close to the edge of the edge for the system to avoid detection as the drones scream into combat leaving the admiral little choice but to engage in kind.

The 1st fleet valiantly attempts to destroy the ancient mining drones despite being vastly outgunned and outnumbered.

The battle rages on for several days, some ships manage to retreat before they are destroyed by the mining drones cutting beams, laser fire and mass driver rounds tear across the cosmos as the two fleets fight. The first fleet destroyed 6 enemy ships at the cost of 8 of our own, it could have been far worse had they stayed and fought, many of the drones were several times larger than our corvettes. The retreat was necessary lest we'd have lost all 20 ships, we'll return later with better firepower and finally clear our territory of pests.

And that brings us to the end of today's part, it ended a little more excitingly than most have with our first actual space battle, it will likely be the first of many to come. I do hope you enjoyed reading and as always I welcome all feedback, constructive criticism and support that gets sent my way! Watch this space for more Fox Cartel soon!

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

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 8 - Branching Out

"The Cartel is abuzz, nervous excitement, anxious pondering and fevered debate are abound in the head office of the Oligarch. Admirals, generals, governors, scientists and every other kind of important figure had been in and out with suggests, requests, forecasts of both doom and destruction as well as endless prosperity. Only one thing was certain and that the future of the Cartel was one of near infinite possibilities."

Stardate: 11-06-2226

Here we are again at the helm of the Fox Cartel with the galaxy spread before us just waiting for us to take all it's shinies and scream "Mine!" At the other races. For now though we have to play nice until we have a bigger stick to fend them off with.

Let's start things off by finally claiming the Bonos system and getting a colony ship building so we can finally get our first colony up and running. At the end of the last part we had another system filled with apparent hostiles which sent one of our science ships running, we dubbed them 'epsilon aliens' for now. So let's get that studied and find out just who else is in the Cartel's back yard and whether we need to enter aggressive negotiations with them or not.

The physics division is definitely hankering for a pay-rise as yet another project completes nudging our energy credit income a little higher. So we have extra physics research, more powerful blue lasers, FTL inhibitors or more powerful point defences as our next option. Whilst I know the fleet is likely looking at me with fox-puppy eyes for better guns I opt for the extra research for now. Then the engineering division comes running up as they finish powered exo-skeletons. It's at this point I notice we have passed the admin cap, meaning everything gets a little more expensive, oh well, it was bound to happen sooner or later given how much I am expanding.

Robotic workers, more engineering research, better mass drivers or more hit-points for corvettes. Again I opt for more research but the military is definitely next on the agenda given how we have a few systems to clear of pests. Then the Homolog Continuum throws yet another batch of strange into the mix, they apparently detect widespread biological vulnerabilities in our species (what nonsense) and they are sending inoculation units to safeguard our population. Naturally I am a bit wary of them after they thought it best the Cartel try to colonise a tomb world last time.

I have no idea what is with these robots but they seem to have taken more than a passing interest in the Cartel.

It does reduce happiness of my population by 5% but after annoying them last time I'd rather them not decide to cure the disease by killing the patient so for now it's a wary acceptance. Our scientists analyse the sensor logs from the science ship and give us the option of being able to destroy them for resources, or study them. The Cartel decides some of those crystals would look nice decorating head office so we opt to destroy them making the military all the more gleeful that finally they might get to do something.

The colony ship is built, the colonists are aboard now all that remains is to tell them where to stick the flag, to Bonos II, soon be renamed to something more appropriate. Given it's low habitability and keeping with the Roman space fox theme, I call it Hades. Just as our sociology division sidles up mumbling about farming tech or something, so I finally relent and opt to improve our farms given Hades might need the extra food. Now we get a more interesting choice with our next tradition!

Administrative Operations for reduced building and district upkeep is tempting even if we don't have that much yet, more tempting for now that reduced build cost and increased build speed for districts, so reduced upkeep it is for now.

It is now time to introduce ourselves to the neighbours in a more Cartel appropriate way, establishing our first branch office on their capital world. They even have a high enough population to support a Cartel building, how very nice of them, let's see what we want to do!

So many options to consider for the budding crime syndicate!

The branch office options for a criminal syndicate are particularly interesting, everything from bio-reprocessing plants which turn disloyal employees into food to things like illegal research labs and pirate free havens which give the controlling crime syndicate more naval capacity. As you can tell, it's a tricky decision but right now it is between two options for me. The first is an illicit research lab, that extra science is always a plus if you ask me. The second choice will be addressing our alloy production with a wrecking yard, victims of pirate attacks who have their ships stolen will likely find what's left of them here being broken down for alloys. So for now a wrecking yard is my choice so I can actually start building my military up a bit more. I am sure the Uriy Suns won't mind the increased crime rate it brings (I sure don't as it improves my branch office value giving me more energy credits!) It does give the Uriy Suns a Casus Belli against us but they hate us anyway so it doesn't really change much if you ask me.

Our science ships are running out of routes to explore that aren't blocked by hostiles, one more reason to work on the military as a priority. What I do notice is that I have an absolute excess of minerals at present, so using the internal market I decide to sell some off so I can use the energy credits to buy a stockpile of alloys to really expand our navy. Now that we have a stockpile of alloys it's time to start militarizing heavily. I reinforce the first fleet from 8 up to 15 Cunning-class corvettes just as we get yet another potential reason to be glad of having more firepower, more aliens.

As before I get my sociologists researching that instead of how to grow bigger carrots for now, if it's another empire the sooner I know the sooner I can branch office them to death. The physics division once again barges into the Oligarchs office bragging how much better they are than the other science departments with a new tech. Of the four options available for the next project it's a toss up better shields or unlocking chemical plants, I have a feeling we'll need the volatile motes they produce later. However as conflict is on the horizon I opt for better shields next, ships are expensive so best to keep them as unexploded as possible.

The first fleet in all it's glory, fifteen Cunning-class corvettes.

Another building slot and some unemployment on the capital world of Vulpinus, for now I drop down a city district so we don't run out of housing and I'll leave the building slot til we have enough workers to make use of it. The engineering division finishes their research so now I set them to further improving our orbital mining stations, improved planet building speed doesn't feel as useful as it used to but maybe I am wrong.

For now though this brings another part of the Fox Cartel's campaign to a close, I do hope you enjoyed reading it and as always I appreciate any feedback either here or on twitter. Watch this space for more Fox Cartel fun soon!

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

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 7 - They Want Us To Do What?

"Our initial forays out into the galaxy yielded little signs of other intelligent life beyond remnants of the Yuuht, an advanced pre-cursor civilisation. Then we found two different races no more than a handful of jumps from Cartel territory. The Homolog Continuum, a race of caretaker machines thousands of years more advanced than us and the Unified Uriy Suns a race of xenophobic isolationists. Whilst our military expands we will see if we can't invest in our neighbours criminal elements for our own gain."

Stardate: 22-04-2222

So here we are again after the last part which saw things start to look up for this particular campaign of Stellaris. Whilst I don't see much intentional interaction with the Homolog Continuum the Unified Uriy Suns can definitely expect some branch offices and criminal enterprises popping up on their planets soon. However I need to address two issues, the first is the complete lack of influence due to aggressive expansion, the second is going to be building up our military to match or hopefully surpass the Uriy Suns.

The lack of influence I can already start to address by declaring the Unified Uriy Suns as a rival which should give us some extra influence, I'd say it'd make them hate us but they already do, sitting at -65 opinion. They are xenophobes so, they hate alien races plus the Cartel is a criminal syndicate, well so I may as well just lean into it. They give us a threat about losing business but the Cartel doesn't need their permission to conduct business, so we shake our fuzzy orange butts at them before closing the comm-link. Now they utterly detest us and have a superior fleet power rating, I'm sure it'll be fine.

That planet we were going to colonise is going to cost a fair bit of influence to get the outposts built but afterwards we start saving up to get some branch offices set-up in the Uriy Suns space. It's at this point I notice the capital hasn't got a governor so I recruit a new one, Vopisca Laenius who increases science output will do for now, Foxes love science afterall. So, that one building slot I have is taunting me with it's emptiness so let's put something in it shall we? At this stage of the campaign given my steady flow of resources there are a few options to consider.

Whilst it's not colonisable yet, as many planets haven't been we at least have plenty of terraforming targets later on.

First and most tempting is a research lab, getting some extra science rolling could give us the edge in the long run. Second is an alloy foundry, we are going to need a lot of alloys to build and maintain our military going forwards so it'd be a solid choice too. Last we have a stronghold, not only will it give our homeworld some more defence armies but it will give us extra naval capacity. It's a tough choice really, all three are solid options but I opt to go for the research lab it'll give us the most long-term benefit.

Basic combat roles finishes researching so I make sure to add it to the Cunning class corvettes design and then upgrade our existing 8 ships plus I add in our upgraded armour from last time. We also have two options for increasing research, one for orbital research stations, one increasing physics research from scientist jobs, we also have global energy management and auxiliary fire control as options. I think Zero-G labs is the best option for now though. Given most of our research is coming from orbital research stations I feel we'd get the most out of this for now.

Society research finishes next and again, not many good options, we are doing alright on food and I am not a massive fan of the gene clinics so I just choose the 20% extra society research option instead. Geothermal Fracking finishes gives us a nice boost as research finishes giving us +94 minerals a month now, without even thinking about it I grab powered exo-skeletons as the next option, bonus to minerals and army damage at once? Yes please. Given that minerals are used to make almost everything else, the more the better.

Come on scientists, give me some more interesting options than that please?

Physics research finishes again so I just grab field modulation to future proof the old energy credits. Things in the Cartel seem to be ticking over nicely, the science ships surveying many more systems, the constructors following behind laying claim to what they find. Only for my prediction for the Homolog Continuum to prove false. They claim that our chances of survival will increase if we colonise Scheat II, so I go looking for this world, was it something one of my science ships found recently? No. No it was not, it was the tomb world we found years ago leaving me scratching my head. On the one hand I don't want to ignore a fallen empire sitting not far from my doorstep but on the other hand colonising that world is virtually impossible with my current tech isn't really appealing.

For reference a tomb world is a dead world and most races will generally have a habitability of zero, basically doubling pop upkeep and amenity usage. At this stage I don't think I could afford to support such a colony so I ensure the Homolog Continuum is told to get stuffed. Politely of course. I have no idea what the consequences will be but it can't be worse than colonising a world which could tank my economy. If they had asked me to colonise almost anything else I might've agreed but I think those caretaker robots are a few centuries short on maintenance, I just hope they don't do anything hostile as at this early stage even my main starbase would prove little defence against their vastly superior tech and numbers.

Whilst I sit there wondering what those crazy robots are thinking I get a distress call from one of my science ships evading some hostiles. I get a brief look at some kind of crystalline things before the ship flees the system and gets an updated survey route only to run into even more hostiles in the next system. That's two more reasons I need to start working on my fleet it seems.

Seems I always think a part is going to be boring and then a bunch of crazy stuff happens near the end. Not that I am complaining I just hope we get to parts where it's all crazy and exciting stuff but hang in there, we'll get there, Stellaris is meant to be a slow burn kind of game afterall. We now have a lot of objectives and goals forming, beyond wondering why there are no planets to colonise and why there are no other empires nearby.

First will be to claim the systems to colonise our first planet, that'll take time due to how low our influence still is and likely will be for some time. Second due to the multitude of threats around us now expanding the military is now essential rather than a luxury. I should also look into taking improving existing military technology. Third is to begin establishing branch offices in the Uriy Suns territory to not only destabilize them and make them a softer target for later but also to get us the resources we need without having to use building slots on our own planets.

Vast fleets of crystalline ships or creatures scare off my science ships and have the Cartel military eagerly begging for more ships (again.)

As always thank you very much for reading I greatly appreciate you taking the time. Feedback, improvements, support all helps me keep wanting to do this and improve it and make it fun and interesting to read. Watch this space for the next part soon!

If you missed the last part, read it here!

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 6 - First Contact

"Whilst our modest navy hangs in orbit over Vulpinus, eagerly awaiting their chance at glory it is in fact the Cartel's scientists whom are always in the news. Evidence of ancient and advanced civilisations, new technologies and new planets even if it is something of a sticking point they have yet to find anything habitable. One day, our military will be at the forefront staking our peoples claim on the galaxy and laying low any who stand in our way."

Stardate: 04-08-2219

So, here we are again another part in this slow burn epic campaign of Stellaris I had a bit of a think pondering how to proceed to try and get us to the fun stuff a little faster. Sadly Stellaris is not a game one simply rushes and besides, I think it will pay off in the long run so here we go again.

First off, I feel I need to set some immediate goals to pursue the first of which is obviously going to be to try and find at least two decent habitable planets. Whilst the very nature of a Megacorp means they are not punished for having a small empire I am not entirely sure the idea of a 'one planet challenge' is within my ability just yet.

The second goal I feel should be to build up our alloy production and hence our military production. Most immediately to deal with those mining drones nearby and in the future to go do some hostile takeovers of alien empires. Also it fits the whole theme of the Fox Cartel, fanatic militarist materialists, they blow up your stuff and take whats left. With those goals set, let us begin!

I am almost tempted to get a third science ship out there surveying for us or maybe send one off purely to explore for a planet but for now I'll be patient. In more interesting happenings it's time for us to choose whom will be our next glorious Oligarch, out of the four candidates we obviously have our current ruler who gives us better farming and cheaper ships. However there is one thing I notice about all four.. None of them are younger than 50, yikes, for now though I opt to stick with our current ruler so I throw my influence behind the venerable Mania Pasidienus. Or I would have if I had enough influence, looks like it goes down to the dice roll. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be fine!

FaustusVolcatius is elected as new Oligarch which actually is quite fortuitous, he gets an extra 25 years lifespan and more unity as his traits and his agenda, 'scientific leap' gives us a +10% bonus to research speed, I hope it's a good omen!

Then it happened, we met out first alien civilisation and it's not quite what I expected by far. The Homolog Continuum, an ancient fallen empire of caretaker robots and they are right next door. Something tells me I better be careful not to annoy them lest they delete us with lasers. They may have given us open borders with them but yeah, the military is feeling a bit less eager now. In better news the Agathodaemon has discovered some exotic gases we can make use of later.

Our first contact, a fallen empire of caretaker robots right next door.

Now for a genuinely tricky choice, our next tradition selection and as we completely finished the Discovery branch its time to choose a new one to pursue. Expansion still feels too optimistic a choice even if the admin capacity increase is always so good, everything else isn't so useful to me given I have no planets to colonise. Supremacy feels thematically apt but as my only neighbour is a fallen empire going to war with them is a one way ticket to oblivion so I opt for the next best thing. Prosperity. A good economy is always a big plus so that is what I go for much to the grumbles from the military.

I change my second science ships route away from it's previous one which is now Homolog Continuum territory, we need planets foxes, even if theirs are nice we are a about 500 or more years of research away from winning a war with them. Only for that route to make sure we meet yet another alien race, it's all happening now!

The Unified Uriy Suns, fanatic pacifist xenophobes, I'm sure they'll love us. Ahem. My military are already rubbing their paws together in delight. Now I can start making use of my criminal syndicates special traits, establishing illegal holdings on other empires worlds. Now unlike other Megacorps who need permission as a crime syndicate I can build my special structures wherever I want. There are some benign options but most of the others increase crime on the hosting planet, the higher the crime rate, the more they give me. It does mean that crackdowns from law enforcement can close my branch offices and stop me from rebuilding them for a time and the target empire usually doesn't like it but the Fox Cartel would likely tell you to kiss their fuzzy orange backsides if you don't like it.

In all that excitement I almost miss the fact we have a potentially habitable planet now within reach as well. The Bonos system is home to an arctic world which for our alpine dwelling foxes sits at about 50% habitability. However it is size 22 so I am going to start building outposts toward it to claim it for the Cartel.

This arctic world in a binary star system (yeah I know) looks to be the Fox Cartel's first colony target.

As we end this part on a high note there are a few issues we are going to need to fix sooner rather than later. Firstly, we are critically short on influence, the aggressive building of outposts with two constructor ships means I don't have the influence to establish branch offices within other empires yet. Second, we are going to need a much bigger and better military which means we need more alloys not only to build the ships but maintain them as well.

I admit fox fans I was getting a little worried this would be yet another part where precisely nothing interesting happened. It seems not to be the case, thankfully so it's looking up for the fledgling Cartel and their dreams of galactic domination.

Thank you very much for reading and if you post any feedback, retweet it, like it, it's always so humbling and hugely appreciated! Watch this space for the next part!

The Unified Uriy Suns have no idea just how unlucky they are to have us as neighbours.

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

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 5 - Science For Victory!

"Two planets so far had been found that might one day support the Cartel but both lay aside the range of suitable habitation, some of our scientists theorise we may one day be able to 'terraform' them but for now they are useless. The Cartel needs a symbol to show our people that our dreams of a galaxy spanning syndicate are not folly for now though, we survey, catalogue, mine, stockpile and research until we can make that dream a reality."

Stardate: 19-03-2216

Off we go again seeking galactic goodies such as planets and aliens or at least that is the hope! To start us off yet another potentially habitable planet falls into view of my science ships but I don't hold much hope, it's a tomb world. Vulpinus at least reaches the next population milestone giving me another building slot to play with but I'll worry about that later.

In order to keep the expansion of the soon to be mighty Fox Cartel moving apace I decide to build a second constructor ship to make sure no-one else claims the good systems before I get there. The science ship that was studying the precursor anomaly finds a Yuht Cruiser, so I set them studying that, what goodies will it hold I wonder?

Seems I was correct, the tomb world has zero habitability not that I am surprised but I don't think I've ever had a start where I only had one planet for this long and I've played Stellaris since it's release. Something interesting does happen next however, as the science ship Agathodaemon enters the Tatanga system to begin it's survey a huge ruined structure appears on sensors, a ruined installation of some kind, oh my.

The science ship Agathodaemon stumbles across a huge ruined mega-structure in the Tatanga system. What could it be?

The science ships seem to be getting all the glory at the moment much to the gnashing of teeth and flailing of fox-tails it causes from the military. Our second science ship finds another strategic resource deposit, Zro. The Cartel can't make use of it yet but it's safely in an area they can all their own so, more shiny stuff for later. For the more immediate future there are pops that need work on the home-world so let's figure out what to build for them.

We need a lot it has to be said, from alloys to more research to better naval capacity but for now I decide to future proof things a little and get an agriculture district built, hungry foxes are especially cranky. We even get another tech, Automated Exploration Protocols finishes research so let's see what our physicists have on offer for us this time.

More powerful blue lasers, tempting if only so we are potentially able to take out those mining drones in that nearby star system. More energy credits from technician jobs, again tempting as are specialised combat computers, which would again help our military out. Just as fusion power would help our ships out too. The long term side of me thinks going for energy credits is a safe bet but I figure I better start improving my ships, so let's get the combat computers researched for now.

The science division once more maintains it's glory streak with another technology, ceramo-metal armour so let's see what the engineers have on offer for us before the social division finishes their research. Better engineering research, better mass drivers, improved corvette hulls and increased minerals. I already know I am going for the minerals as you need minerals for consumer goods and alloys, the latter will be important later. As you need them to build ships so just as the social division finishes their patent pending 'Friskier Fox' tech to increase pop growth speed.

Our options among the social research are less exciting than lasers and railguns however. A new building, the gene clinic plus starbase hydroponics and yet another building for planets, more hydroponics. Plus the returning discount to leader recruitment, so I opt to go for that one for now maybe next time our sociologists will come up with some more exciting options.

The Fox Cartel continues it's expansion into the galaxy unimpeded with not a rival in sight to date.

For now though I'll bring this part to a close, we will get to the good stuff soon I promise but until then I'll just try and put more parts up in a week. I hope you enjoy reading about the Fox Cartel and their bid to become a galactic crime syndicate, all the feedback and support is always greatly appreciated. Watch this space for more in the next part!

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

Let's Play Stellaris: Part 4 - My Kingdom For A Planet

"After the wars which had seen the Cartel emerge as the dominant civilization there was definitely a lot more room for the now growing population and more than enough food to go around. However a new planet was not about merely space or food for the Cartel, it was to be a symbol, a rallying cry to stretch forth their hand and take what they believed to be rightfully theirs. Even if that was the galaxy."

Stardate: 13-07-2212

Here we are again, guiding the fledgling Cartel on their quest for galactic domination and shiny things. There are a few more fairly decent resource rich systems nearby that our construction ship will lay claim to and exploit whilst the science ships consider their never-ending quest to find us another planet. I am finding it a little strange that not only have we not found a single worthwhile planet yet but we haven't seen any other empires. Which is good as that means there is no-one trying to nuke us from orbit but bad because it means we have no-one to deprive of their shiny loot.

More fairly mundane anomalies are scanned, researched and nothing shiny is falling out leaving our science ship crews in dismay but something finally turns their way, hopefully. Also a tip for those of you wanting to send your science ship to do a research project without interrupting the route you plan, CTRL+Shift+Click sets the order you give to the front of the queue. Another planet which initially showed as possibly habitable turns out to be a desert world, we do not have the technology for that just yet, the search continues. I was initially hoping to get at least two or three half decent planets by now to give us a solid base to work from but this is starting to feel like a 'One Planet Challenge' at this stage.

A literal dust-ball that taunted the Cartel with being nearly habitable.

Some unemployment pops up on the home-world again so let's see what we really need a new building or a new district more. Looking at our resources there is one we might need more of soon and that is Consumer Goods, so I use our building slot for now to build Civilian industries but I also queue up a city district so we don't run out of space for Foxes. Districts do take a long time to build so it is worth planning ahead. Also as we have plenty of resources I start clearing those tile blockers and then we get a nice new shiny technology! AI controlled colony ships, perhaps a little optimistic at this stage but let's hope we get some use out of it later, now, what do we want to research next in the physics department?

Whilst all four options are good, more physics research, better orbital research stations, better shields, I opt to go for Automated Exploration Protocols whilst exploration is still a thing. That and whilst more research is good, 10-20% of not a lot is.. Well, not a lot. A short time later all of our science department heads level up simultaneously just as we get, yet another tech! Ground Defense Planning, that'll please the military, let's see what our next choices are.

Better farming, more society research, faster population growth or increased leader pool with reduced cost for recruiting them, hmm. I am going to throw caution to the wind here and go for Genome Mapping for the population growth, lets hope the next research roll is a bit more exciting. Just as I say that one of our science ships finds evidence of precursor activity, let's hope it doesn't explode.

A new tradition to choose but that is a simple choice, I finish the discovery tree with 'Faith in Science' which makes it so science pops have less upkeep. Also for finishing the discovery traditions we get a further 10% increase in our research speed and a nice shiny ascension perk, what shall we choose?

The ascension perks we can choose right now don't seem massively exciting if I am entirely honest, of the six we have available the only two that seem good to me right now are Mastery of Nature and Technological Ascendancy. Now mastery of nature is very interesting for a tall empire like I predict the Fox Cartel will be as it gives each planet a one time improvement to increase it's maximum districts by 2. Technological Ascendancy on the other hand gives us another 10% bonus to our research speed, a bit more bland but definitely very helpful.

However as I don't see myself getting more than a handful of planets anytime soon it means I will likely only get about 10 more districts, the Fox Cartel is definitely heading for tall not wide. So I choose technological ascendancy, I am sure the military will be happy at getting new ways to explode things. I knew this wasn't going to be as initially dramatic and eventful as Rimworld but it's definitely proving to be a very slow burn right now, it'll pick up once the early game is done though (I hope.)

To end this part of the play through we finally get a choice with those mining drones, we can opt to get a bonus to destroying them or increase our mineral station output. The Fox Cartel are nothing if not a fan of getting more stuff so they opt to take the bonus mineral output. I'll likely still destroy them anyway but the bonus to damaging them would only be helpful once, maybe twice.

I am genuinely getting a bit concerned this isn't an exciting enough Stellaris campaign so far but hang in there, I promise there will be space battles and galactic conquest! Just as soon as we find anyone, I may go a bit longer in the next part though to help nudge us toward the fun stuff a little more quickly. My last few Stellaris games before I decided to write one up were all kinds of crazy, early wars, hostile neighbours, long-time rivalries, staunch allies etc! I have a feeling the wait is just a sign we are in for an epic campaign so hang in there with me!

Thanks to everyone who reads and enjoys, leaves feedback it all means the world to me!

The final score for the episode, plenty of room to expand in terms of systems but not a single worthwhile planet. And no neighbours to exploit.. I mean, 'befriend'

If you missed the last part, click here to go read it!