Bobular plays Stellaris: Fantasy Edition

[Bobular]

I've wanted to do this for a while so why not do it now? I've not played Stellaris for a while and there has been quite a few updates since I last played so I'm going to start a new game and I'm going to record it here for both mine and others amassment.

So firstly I'll explain how I'm starting the game:
[li]I'm not playing with any mods but I did just buy all the DLC.[/li]
[li]I'm going to do things a bit differently from how I normally play, what I have done is create a bunch of fantasy races[footnote]elves, dwarves, orcs[/footnote] in Stellaris and made it so that they are the only ones to spawn in. I'm not paying attention to any kind of balance here, I gave them traits that I thought accurately represented the "standard" version of the races. For example I have elves as peaceful environmentalists, dwarves are industrious and orcs are roving barbarians that fight amongst themselves.[/li]
[li]I shall be playing as the 'Human High Kingdom', an authoritarian monarchy where the nobles rule over their serfs[footnote]Slaves[/footnote]. I shall be playing them fairly aggressively, which is not how I usually play[footnote]At least thats the plan at the start[/footnote].[/li]
[li]I have turned off marauders and fallen empires as I don't think I could force them to be one of my fantasy races without mods. I have however kept late game crisis enabled and turned up the difficulty of them[/li]
[li]I'm not going to go into too much detail, just important things and things I think are interesting[/li]
[HEADING=3]Let us begin[/HEADING]

Spoiler: Chapter1 (waning, many pictures)

So here is where we start, Earth in the Sol system. The first thing I notice is in one of the updates they have added in a kind of fog of war where now I can only see the hyperlanes between nearby stars rather than the whole galaxy at once. I think this is actually a really good change, it makes sense and adds a little more discovery as you spread out from your home world.

The second thing I notice is now there are binary stars, so the first thing I do is I decide to send my science ship to explore there, just to see what a binary star system is like, but before I get a chance to unpause the game...

I notice there is a trinary star system just to the side as well, so I chance the order and have the science ship start exploring over there.

The trinary star system is Alpha Centauri and so my science ship starts getting to work exploring everything in the system. One thing I notice quite quickly is that because there are three stars, there are also a lot more things to explore so it takes quite a while for the science ship to finish up here.

After a bit a comet streaks through the sky on Earth. The uneducated peasants see this lonely comet as a reminder that we are alone in the universe and some even say it is a sign of future tragedy and the splintering of Human society. Of course these are just the worries of the uneducated serfs and nothing to worry about.

We find this planet that is ripe for scientific endeavour. We begin packing our best scholars and magi, as well as serfs to ensure they do not have to worry about everyday problems like food, onto a colony ship and send them to their new home.

We name the new world: Nova Roma, a new great world for our people.

The colony ship lands on the new world and the serfs quickly get to setting up a first city for the new colony. It is just tents and prefabs now, but one day maybe it will rival Earth its self.

We find a wormhole in the nearby Zorf sector. We can't do anything with it now, but the magi assure the High King that one day we shall be able to explore whatever is on the other side.

Back on Nova Roma strange things are happening. The scholars currently have no explanation other than the gods must be helping us out, all they know is Nova Roma is even better than previously thought for the sciences.

Unfortunately as space travel becomes easier and the Kingdom expands there will always be those that defy their king. This group of lawless brigands name themselves "Fallen Ones".

They start out by attacking Alpha Centauri in a foolish attempt to steal the resources being mined there. This can not be allowed to continue.

The cavalry is dispatched in the form of the Royal Fleet. Though small I am sure they will be able to deal with these pirates.

A fierce battle erupts near the moon of Alpha Centauri 1a. Their ramshackle ships are no match for the Royal Fleet and are quickly dispatched.

Once again Nova Roma grabs my attention, this time however for a less pleasant reason. It appears that some of the serfs are getting a bit too uppity and want Humanity to embrace a more pacifist outlook. Lucky their pacifism is no match for the Royal Army's weaponry and the rebels are suppressed, though I will have to keep an eye on this to ensure that this doesn't cause problems down the road. Maybe the comet was right and there will be a splintering of Human society?

Despite the wishes of the Nova Roma rebels who would much rather just roll over and let the pirates take whatever they want, the Royal Fleet arrives at Bernard's Star and destroys the pirate's home base. The fleet then heads back to Earth to repair and resupply.

Shortly later we discover that we are not alone in the universe, there is other life out there. We find them in the terrifyingly named Demon's maw system.

And the news of alien life out in space heralds the end of this chapter of Human history and a new era begins. Will this era see Human High Kingdom rise to its rightful place at the top of the galactic hierarchy? Only time and maybe comets can tell.

 

[The Eupho Guy_v1legacy]

I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out. I'm always interested to see how other people approach games like these. I'm also totally not looking for strategy ideas... Not at all... >_>.

One quick question though, if you don't mind me asking: Which governing ethics and civics did you choose?

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Nice!
I haven't played since 1.4, since it always came down to following the script and allying with everyone and fight the "bad" one(s), or go your own way and be the "bad" one and fight everyone.

Overall it is an acceptable time-waster, but I do have some niggling oppositions towards some stuff in it.
Have they added an option to manually control all the planets yet?
Is war score still around and tedious?
Is it still war or war only?

The first thing I notice is in one of the updates they have added in a kind of fog of war where now I can only see the hyperlanes between nearby stars rather than the whole galaxy at once. I think this is actually a really good change, it makes sense and adds a little more discovery as you spread out from your home world.

It does add some more sense of discovery, though it can also get quite a bit more tedious not having a route laid out.
I'm guessing the main reason was to stop the long pre-planned and most of all buggy routes that consumed a lot of processing power.
Even though I like starlanes, which is rare apparently, I am a bit sad they had to remove the rest of the FTL modes.

 

[The Eupho Guy_v1legacy]

Have they added an option to manually control all the planets yet?
Is war score still around and tedious?

- You can, but if you control too many systems at once, you gain a penalty to your influence and energy credit income.
- The war systems have changed fairly significantly, although they could still use some work. Rather than spending points on war score, you can make claims on enemy systems at any time, provided you have enough influence to make the claim. When declaring war, you also choose the war goal (conquest, humiliation, subjugation, etc) from your available casus belli. The wiki has a better description of it: https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Warfare

 

[Bobular]

So I've just been playing some more, turns out the aliens I discovered where a custom race I forgot to turn off when starting the game. That's annoying.

I've ensured I've turned them ALL off now, turns out I have a lot more custom alien races made than I thought, including a bunch of different 'humans'. At least I found that one first rather than being multiple hours in before realising I hadn't set it up right.

I've started again now. I'll try to get further than I did with my first post.

One quick question though, if you don't mind me asking: Which governing ethics and civics did you choose?

Here's a shot of the Human High Kingdom before I restarted. I'm Fanatic Authoritarian & Militarist because the King's rule is absolute (and also I wanted cast a caste system to represent serfs) and I'm planning on playing aggressively so militarist. I chose Philosopher King & Feudal Society, I picked Feudal Society because I usually try to control as many planets myself as I can and so don't usually have vassals so I wanted to try something different and Philosopher King just to make the king better.

Is war score still around and tedious?
Is it still war or war only?

As The Eupho Guy said war has changed quite a bit. I find now you have less all or nothing wars and more boarder skirmishes. Hopefully you'll see that shortly.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

-snip-

-snip-

Thanks for the answers. Staying tuned.

Well, sucks about sectors still being enforced.
Luckily, there is a no-sector mod.
Or one could just change a tiny part of the code one's self.

 

[Drathnoxis]

-snip-

-snip-

Thanks for the answers. Staying tuned.

Well, sucks about sectors still being enforced.
Luckily, there is a no-sector mod.
Or one could just change a tiny part of the code one's self.

Sectors are awful. Problem with no-sector mods from what I remember is that manually managing your planets was unnecessarily tedious. There wasn't any way to queue upgrades so you'd have to go back to the planet constantly to set up the next thing to work on.

I haven't played since launch so maybe they've fixed it.

 

[Bobular]

-snip-

-snip-

Thanks for the answers. Staying tuned.

Well, sucks about sectors still being enforced.
Luckily, there is a no-sector mod.
Or one could just change a tiny part of the code one's self.

Sectors are awful. Problem with no-sector mods from what I remember is that manually managing your planets was unnecessarily tedious. There wasn't any way to queue upgrades so you'd have to go back to the planet constantly to set up the next thing to work on.

I haven't played since launch so maybe they've fixed it.

If you shift click an upgrade it builds all of the upgrades for that tile. I don't think the game ever tells you how to do that, but its there to help out with that kind of thing.

 

[Drathnoxis]

-snip-

-snip-

Thanks for the answers. Staying tuned.

Well, sucks about sectors still being enforced.
Luckily, there is a no-sector mod.
Or one could just change a tiny part of the code one's self.

Sectors are awful. Problem with no-sector mods from what I remember is that manually managing your planets was unnecessarily tedious. There wasn't any way to queue upgrades so you'd have to go back to the planet constantly to set up the next thing to work on.

I haven't played since launch so maybe they've fixed it.

If you shift click an upgrade it builds all of the upgrades for that tile. I don't think the game ever tells you how to do that, but its there to help out with that kind of thing.

Huh, cool. I'll have to give the game another shot if I ever get a new computer.

 

[Terminal Blue]

This is cool. I always wondered why there weren't more AARs on this forum, and Stellaris is one of my favourite games.

And on the sector discussion, it's worth noting that the game director has hinted they will probably be overhauling the planet system altogether (and removing the current Civ-esque tiles, as they don't really sit with the game any more and are just busywork). This will probably also mean changing how sectors work, since the tile system was the main issue they were meant to solve.

At this point, there's very little you can't do with sectors that you can do with core worlds, so it's not really an actual restriction anyway.

I chose Philosopher King & Feudal Society, I picked Feudal Society because I usually try to control as many planets myself as I can and so don't usually have vassals so I wanted to try something different and Philosopher King just to make the king better.

Feudal society is insanely powerful if you commit to it and represents a hugely underrated playstyle. It takes a little while to get going, but it means you can play tall and keep stronger tech and unity generation while having a huge vassal swarm. AI fleet behaviour isn't nearly as awful as it used to be, so generally vassals won't be a massive liability in a fight. Tributaries are also handy.

The vassalization CB is also cool because it can be used on empires that don't border yours. Just demand vassalization, and when they refuse go to war. If you can force them to surrender (which can be a challenge late game with massive federations) you also snag off any claims you had as well as vassalizing the target.

 

[Bobular]

Spoiler: Chapter 1

So here's the new start, almost the other side of the galaxy this time. I'm pretty confident I've got it set up right this time. I start exploring around Earth.

Quickly we discover there are remnants of an alien race we know that there were other species in the galaxy before us, though they are clearly no longer around for whatever reason. Everyone from serf to High King is talking about this monumental discovery.

Another science ship discovers a system with two types of crystal that are theoretically useful for us, one increasing the power of our energy weapons and one able to increase the armour penetration of our ballistic weapons.

Pirates attack once again, this time calling themselves the "Tormentors"

And once again the Royal Fleet dispatches them with ease.

As we continue exploring around our home world, we find an emergency buoy that seems like it was ejected by a human civilian ship. The High King makes the decision to investigate further.

We fix the buoy and speak to whoever it is that launched it.

Turns out these people have been kidnapped by some bandits. The High King doesn't need any time to think about it, he declared that it is the King's duty to protect all those beneath him including these people kidnapped by bandits.

The captives are grateful for this deceleration, they manage to use the buoy to send us an information burst that help us locate them.

Unfortunately it seems they are all the way over here, it will take us a while to get over there and save them.

Meanwhile the first Human coloney has been founded, once again named Nova Roma.

I noticed the worlds where we found the remnants of the old alien race, there are three systems next to each other all like this, with worlds turned tombs with nuclear fire. Whatever destroyed these aliens didn't want any trace of them left.

More pirates appear...

And the much larger Royal Fleet destroys them once again.

We encounter some living aliens! We get our scholars working on a way to communicate with them.

And we meet our first living alien race: The Halfling League of Constituents. They great us and tell us they are built upon the principles of piece and freedom, so we're probably not going to get on well with them with our mighty Royal Fleet and serf workers.

Human response to the discovery of the Halflings is mixed. Some believe that this is a great opportunity and we have found a new friend in the galaxy whilst others belive all we have found is a threat. Either way all agree this is a historic moment for the Human High Kingdom.

We can see here the location of the League next to the Kingdom. Whilst we already technically boarder them, due to the hyperlanes around here they are actually fairy far from us for now.

It isn't long before the League declares that we are no longer welcome in their territory (not that we actually managed to get that far yet anyway). The High Kingdom responds in kind, banning the league from travel within Kingdom territory.

As we continue our exploration we find a planet that would make a good candidate for terraformation at a later date, once we discover how to actually go about doing that.

We colonise a second planet, this time 'Nova Serica'. This world looks like it will be decent at producing energy for our growing kingdom so we send craftsmen to build the massive power stations that will one day be what Nova Serica is famed for.

It is shortly after this second world in colonised that we finish off our tradition of expansion and so we get to choose a perk. I shall pick Interstellar Dominion, to ensure we can continue to expand out into the galaxy and claim it for the High King. I also notice shortly after this that it seems now you get to control an additional two worlds for each perk you pick, so thats an interesting new feature.

We find a disabled gateway build by some ancient race, possibly even the aliens whose worlds are now but tombs within the Kingdom's boarders. This will hopefully prove useful when our Kingdom stretches across the galaxy. If we can fix it...

One of our scholars publicly announces their loyalty publicly by starting the Loyal Citizenry Group, fanatically loyal to the High King.

Finally we manage to reach the kidnappers with the Royal Fleet. We begin the attack in an attempt to give the captives a chance to escape in the confusion.

Whilst the attack is underway on one side of the galaxy, on the other our science ships discover another gateway in Zultar's Maw. This one is different, unconnected to the gateway network it only seems able to connect to a distant point just outside our own galaxy. Unfortunately it is stuck in a forced maintenance cycle. We will have to find a way to unlock this at some point.

Unfortunately, whilst the Royal Fleet is making its rescue attempt another group of pirates decide now would be a good time to attack the Kingdom. There is a second fleet under construction, but it isn't really powerful enough yet to be able to deal with this bigger pirate threat.

Soon the Royal Fleet has destroyed the ransomeers' base...

And the captives were able to escape in the confusion. A happy ending to this incident.

Another scholar creates a second faction, this one dedicated to celebrating the military might of our Kingdom, calling themselves the Patriotic Vanguard. How a nerdy scholar is head of this faction though I don't know.

A plague spreads on Nova Serica. The High King has no other choice but to kill the infected, lest it spread to others.

And once again we find more aliens. I wonder who they will be and if they will be more worthy allies than the Halflings.

It turns out to be Dragons. The Dragons are warriors like us, but they also seem to value individuality and have some kind of strange Dragon Cult. Our warriors salute them.

Here there be Dragons. This is the state of the known galaxy at the end of this session. The Dragons are on the other side of the Halflings, although it looks like there will be a way around via our northern boarder as well.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Please please use the hobbits as livestock.

Second breakast is you, stupid fat hobbitses!

 

[meiam]

With the change in how system spawn (more cluster) they've done something I didn't think was possible, they made expansion even more important. You need to expand like crazy to hold the choke point and prevent the AI from expanding, if you do it well (meaning you snake around and leave tons of uncolonized system that no one else can reach) you can actually prevent any of the other empire to grow big enough to ever threaten you.

 

[Pseudonym]

Please please use the hobbits as livestock.

Second breakast is you, stupid fat hobbitses!

I've heard that Stellaris allows for fucked up decisions over and above even most other paradox games and I can see what people are talking about if that is an option.

 

[meiam]

Please please use the hobbits as livestock.

Second breakast is you, stupid fat hobbitses!

I've heard that Stellaris allows for fucked up decisions over and above even most other paradox games and I can see what people are talking about if that is an option.

You can genetically modify species, if you go down that path you can make it so species are considered delicious at which point if you purge them they become food. You can also nerve stable them so they don't feel anything anymore and don't get angry if you do that.

Gameplay wise it's pretty pointless, food is easy to produce and they've just made it so the consequence of running out of food aren't so bad anymore. But it's a fun RP option if you wanna play as galactic slaver.

 

[Terminal Blue]

You can genetically modify species, if you go down that path you can make it so species are considered delicious at which point if you purge them they become food.

It's not necessary to do the genetic engineering. Any species which can use slavery (including the Human High Kingdom here) can designate species as livestock. Livestock don't produce that much food, but they are sustainable and don't need any infrastructure like farms.

Xenophobes and hive-minds can also set species for processing, which produces more food, but the processed pops will be killed off within a few decades.

The tasty trait can be used with either, and adds +50% to the food produced.

Ultimately, it is possible to get more food with high level hydroponics farms and chattel slavery, but using livestock has a niche as it allows you to skip building those farms and, more importantly, researching them, freeing up society research for more fun stuff. The other downside is that a lot of empires have a truly inexplicable problem with the idea of eating other sentient lifeforms, and it will hurt your relations with them.

Food isn't as useless as it used to be. Having a big food surplus adds a considerable bonus to pop growth, and surplus food can now be traded away to the trade enclaves for minerals or energy.

Livestock/processing is never going to be an elite meta strat, but then elite meta strats tend to be really boring. It's like playing for fun in EU4 versus doing a world conquest run, the latter is technically playing "optimally", but it just feels like work.

But yeah, some of the options in Stellaris are pretty mean. I tend to play super nice, utopian pacifist most of the time, but sometimes it's fun to do all the bad stuff. Plus, they're hobbits, what do they expect!

 

[Bobular]

Sorry about the delay, I've had a bunch played but haven't been bothered to actually write it up as it's far too [color=dark orange]hot[/color] here at the moment.

Spoiler: Chapter 2

Almost as soon as I load up the game, the Elves send me communications.

The elves send their greetings and, like the Halflings, are a peaceful race and they hope that any future grievances will be settled with words rather than violence.

And to prove how much they want to be friends with us they send over a bunch of gifts straight away. They do this 3 times for some reason. The High King accepts these gifts and puts the resources into building up the Royal Fleet. For peaceful reasons of cause.

In recognition of their gifts, the High King offers the Elven Queen a none-aggression pact, which she gladly accepts. This should hopefully keep the Elves happy whilst we deal with the Halflings. Also if the Elves keep liking us, maybe they'll send more gifts!

We now found a new colony, Elysium, which looks like it'll be a good world with many exploitable resources and exotic animals that the nobles will want to get their hands on and the scholars will want to study.

Shortly after the founding of Elysium a science ship exploring beyond the boarders of known space discovers something quite odd. A race of lizardmen that were clearly at some point fairly intelligent, well as intelligent as lizardmen can be, but have since reverted back to being stupid lizards. It is thought that this may have had something to do with some slugs that attached themselves to the lizards in the past in a symbiotic relationship but have since stopped doing so. The High King is intrigued by this and authorises further study.

The chief scholar in this pursuit decides that the only way to further her research is to attach one of the slugs to herself. The High King is wary about this, but curiosity gets the better of this and he allows the experiment to proceed.

The scholar declares that the brain slugs are great and that everyone should get one as it makes the host so much more intelligent than they already were. The only reason the lizards stopped is because they decided that having brain slugs was a bad idea for some reason and got violent. The High King spends much time deliberating this, eventually deciding that humanity will work together with the brain slugs and agrees to let more people attach brain slugs to their heads.

Understandably however, not everyone is pleased with this thought and unrest grows between those with brain slugs and those without.

An asteroid is spotted heading towards Nova Serica. The people declare this to be a ill omen, to which the High King responds "well yeah, its a giant asteroid". Plans are put before the king on how to deal with it. In the end it comes down to two plans. Firstly there is the plan to send a bunch of miners up on a couple of space ships to the asteroid to drill down into the asteroid and blow it up with explosives, but the High King decided to go for the second option...

...Sending in the Royal Fleet to blow it up. This works perfectly and no one died having to sacrifice themselves so that their daughter's boyfriend could get away.

The Elves continue to act as friend to the Human High Kingdom and offer a research treaty. Considering the Elves seem to have better technology than we do at the moment, the High King accepts.

A research ship finds a strange device floating in space. It is counting down to something, but we don't know what and it seems to be broken as it seems to think 1 second takes millions of years to pass. Some scholars believe it to be a bomb, but the High King thinks that its not going to go off anytime soon so might as well just keep an eye on it.

The Elves form an alliance with the Halflings, and considering Halflings are considered the but of every joke in the Human High Kingdom they decide to cancel their none-aggression treaty with us until we stop making fun of the Halflings.

Another science ship finds what seems to be a robot crashed on a far away world. The High King decides to send a construction ship to pull it out of the acidic rain of the planet and fix it up. As this is a far away world, past any kind of civilisation, the construction ship may take some time to get there.

Meanwhile the science ship Ptolemy finds a ship wreck. It becomes quite clear from the abundance of kitchens found in the wreckage that this was once a Halfling ship. The High King declares that the ships cargo now belongs to him, when his advisers warns about possible Halfling repercussions the King just laughs for 10 minuets straight.

Eventually even the Halflings notice that we took the cargo and demand that we return it. This is answered with another 10 minuets of laughter from the High King.

The construction ship arrives to pull the robot out of the planet. As it is brought up it becomes clear that this robot was actually meant as a unmanned warship. An AI activates as the ship is slowly brought back online.

The ship boots up and the High King speaks to it directly, first asking about why it was on that planet.

The ship is grateful for us resucing it and repairing it and asks to join the Human High Kingdom. The King agrees and welcomes this newest warrior.

The ship has some quite advanced weapons compared to the ships in the Royal Fleet.

The High King decides to colonise the far reaches of the known galaxy, but doesn't want to bother with ruling such distant worlds himself. He declares these worlds shall be ruled over by an appointed Baron and so forms the first vassal state of the Human High Kingdom.

Another discovery by our science ships, this time a system filled with mineral rich asteroids. The scholar in charge reports that something seems off about this however, and unusually the High King listens to his advisers and doesn't immediately start building mining stations throughout the system.

The Elves are getting more annoyed at our attitude towards the Halflings, especially after the cargo ship indecent, closing all their boarders to us.

The High King proclaims that this has gone on long enough. He sends an ultimatum to the Halflings, stating that either they become vassals of the High King willingly or they become vassals of the High King by force. The Halflings stupidly decide to try to fight.

This refusal to become vassals is all the reason the High King needs to go to war with the Halflings.

Here is the current state of the Halflings' territory. Our boarder with them is protected by two space castles that the Halflings must pass through to get into our space, however we can freely move into their space as they didn't seem to consider that we would attack them.

To the north east there is a boarder connection to the Elven Kingdom. The plan is to quickly rush into the Shire and conquer Hobbiton before the Elves can come through to aid their ally. The Royal Fleet will head towards the Shire whilst the Second Fleet will fly to Weiguvis to defend against possible Elven reinforcements.

Before the war officially starts however, the High King dies and his son Crown Prince Primus becomes the new High King. Long live the High King!

With the war underway we get our first look at the Halfling fleet. Compared to the Royal Fleet it is tiny and obsolete. It should prove no threat to our brave knights.

The Royal Fleet attacks, taking out a few of the small space castles along the boarder with no problems.

It comes across the first signs of Halfling defence.

The battle is hard fought but seemed to be going well until Halfling reinforcements turn up and the Royal Fleet was forced to retreat. Most of the Halfling ships were destroyed but the space castle was still standing. The Royal Fleet returns back to friendly castles to repair, ready to go back out against the now alone Halfling castle.

It is during this battle that the Emperor of the Cyclops Empire contacts us, having heard of us from the Elves. They are far less friendly than the Halflings or the Elves, telling us to stay our of their business or else. If they were anywhere near us we'd show them what threats against the High Kingdom get you, but unfortunately they are on the other side of the galaxy.

Not long after the Cyclops Empire, the Foundation of Forrest Prima contact us.

The Ents tell us that they want us to stay out of their peaceful forests. If we don't bother them they wont bother us.

And another race appears, this time the cousins of the Elves, the Dark Elves.

They are not as happy to meet us as their cousins were.

Unfortunately the Elves have snuck into the Kingdom, bypassing the Second Fleet that was trying to keep them from helping the Halflings. Luckily the sentient ship was able to defend the castle and the army that was amassing here for the invasion of Hobbiton.

Yet another race contacts us. This time the Golem Animus, a race of sentient constructs. They seem willing to cooperate with us for now.

After running away from there sneak attack on the castle, the second fleet is able to track down the elves and engage them in battle. Unfortunately the cunning Elves are able to slip away again, suffering only light losses to their fleet.

The Royal Fleet and the Second Fleet work together to take down a castle protecting the way towards the Shire. The Second Fleet helps out as they lost track of the Elven fleet again and were near to the Royal Fleet after chasing the Elves arround.

Dwarves are found by our science ships exploring to the west of our boarders. They are working hard to improve their craftsmanship and don't want any interference from us.

The Royal Fleet finally makes it to the Shire. Unfortunately there are two Halfling fleets and a castle here, so the Royal Fleet can't take them alone.

As the war has gone on, resources have become stretched. The High King orders diplomats to speak to all the races to try to buy the resources needed to keep the war going. The only ones to agree to trade with us is The Great Dragon League.

Just as the Second Fleet is about to arrive at the Shire to aid the Royal Fleet at finishing the Halfings once and for all, the Elves re-appear, taking the castle at Rayima and then pushing on into the Kingdom. This can not be aloud to continue so the Second Fleet is dispatched to reclaim the lost systems and to teach the Elves the true meaning of war.

The Halflings are getting sick of this war, they would much rather be lying back, smoking their pipes and eating their third dinner of the day. The recent Elven conquests have given them hope that we may also want to end the war, but they are mistaken if they think this will be the end of it.

For some reason the Cyclops Empire decides to close its boarders with us, not that we were anywhere near their boarders to begin with.

The Elven fleet skirts around the edge of a system, trying to avoid the Human fleet coming towards them. Too bad for them that they are unable to escape this time and the Second Fleet wipes them out and then slowly reclaims the captured Human systems.

The Cyclops Empire declares war on the Golem Animus. It will be interesting to see where this goes in the northern part of the galaxy.

After defeating the Elves, the Royal Fleet is joined by the Second Fleet and the Scouring of the Shire begins.

The two Human fleets beat the two Halfling fleets easily and begin the burning of Hobbiton as the army is brought in.

In honer of the tradition of supremacy we have shown during this war we are able to pick a new perk and so we select to have the kings word be law when he passes edicts.

In a terrible bit of luck for us, the people of the Human High Kingdom have become sick of the war with the Halflings just before the final blow could be dealt by landing troops on Hobbiton. To be fair this war should have been over much sooner. A cease fire is signed and the fleets and the army are recalled back home.

If it wasn't for the Elves getting their sneaky second attack in at my castles and being then able to start conquering systems in Human space, Hobbiton would have fallen. I hope the Halflings enjoy themselves during this cease fire, as I can guarantee it wont last forever.

And at the same time the war between the Cyclops and the Golems ends.

The Cyclops, weakened from their war with the Golems, form a defensive pact with the Dark Elves.

The Golems respond by forming a none aggression pact with the Ents.

The expansion westward causes some concern from the Dwarves and they close their boarders with us.

About a year later the home world of a extinct race known as the Cybrex is discovered, just sitting there in the middle of human territory.

A science ship is sent to explore this newly discovered system.

The Cybrex home world was a giant construct, built in a ring shape around a sun. Some of the scientists even describe it as being halo like. Unfortunately, the fall of the Cybrex also led to the destruction of this marvel of engineering. Maybe one day in the future we will be able to repair this great ring.

The Dwarves continue to be displeased by our westward expansion.

And the Dark Elves insult us for no other reason than they are mean.

Some scientist had been experimenting with mushrooms and had managed to accentually create mushroom men.

They are happy that we basically created them and so become our vessels out in the west, just below the Dwarves. The High King bets the Dwarves are not best pleased about this either.

The serfs are getting to uppity towards their betters, causing the good, hard working nobles to worry.

One of the scholars comes up with a theoretical way of travelling without the use of the hyperlanes. This could have major implications, both militarily and in terms of just shortening travel time within the Kingdom as at the moment it can take ages to get from one side to the other. The High King approves pushing forward with this research.

So this is the current state of the known galaxy. The only way for the Human High Kingdom to go is either through the Halflings and Elves or through the Dwarves. I know which I think will be easier and so am just counting down the hours until the cease fire ends.

 

[Terminal Blue]

That's a lot of really cool and rare events in one playthrough..

Especially the brain slugs. Gotta love those brain slugs.

 

[Bobular]

Spoiler: Chapter 3 part 1

Once again the game opens with communications. This time the Dwarves want to reopen their boarders with us.

The Dwarves also offer to share some of their advanced technology with us in exchange for some resources.

The High King decides that rather than colonise a new world somewhere far off on the boarders it would be better to create better worlds closer to home.

And with all right thinking nobles still upset over the inconclusive war with the Halflings the High King decided to re-ignite the war.

Before the war starts though, one of our scholars decided to use what we learned from fighting the Elves and research magic powers!

The mushroom men need resources as they aren't really self sufficient at the moment and so offer to buy food from the Kingdom.

This time the Second Fleet is able to block any Elven reinforcements from coming into the Halfling's space. So far this time the war is going more according to plan.

The Elves try to push through the blockade and help their tiny friends, but the Second Fleet is too mighty for them.

Meanwhile the Royal Fleet is pushing closer and closer in toward the Halfling's home world, our new cruisers making quick work of the Halfling's outdated ships.

The Cyclops Empire decides that it is possibly a good idea to be on our good side after seeing how easily we are cutting through Halflings and Elves and so re-open their boarders with us.

But a comet is sighted in the skies and the peasantry starts talking of it being an ill omen.

The Serfs start taking the comet as a sign that this is now their time to rise up against their betters. This will not stand for long.

The serfs manage to blow up some key buildings, showing that they were planning to rise up all along and just used the comet as a rallying call to begin their terrorist acts.

The Royal Fleet finally arrives in the Shire. With only a small castle and an army mustering in orbit the Shire falls into Human control fairly quickly.

Unfortunately with the war going on the High King's attention was drawn away from domestic issues and there was a food shortage due to the terrorist acts of the serf rebels. This presented an issue as it would take some time to get new farms built and running again and we need food now.

The Human High Kingdom turns to its northern neighbour, the Dragons, and asks for a food shipment. Knowing how desperate the Humans are for food currently and being naturally good negotiators they strike a hard bargain. This will happen a few times during the war until eventually a treaty is drawn up between the Dragons and the Humans for a monthly exchange of food for materials over the next few years. Its not the best idea, but it does mean that all focus can go back to the war.

So back at the Halfling's homeworld of Hobbiton, we can see there are loads of Halflings down there. The army is in position to invade, but there are currently just too many of them and so the High King decides to just let the Royal Fleet nuke them from orbit for a bit.

The remainder of the Halfling fleet doesn't like this bombardment and so comes to give a desperate, but futile, defence of their homeworld. This buys Hobbiton a few days without missiles, lasers and ballistics raining down upon them but that is all.

One of our top scholars has an idea about the workings of the L Gate. Curious about what is on the other side of the gate the High King allows this research to proceed.

The war between the Cyclops and the Golem comes to an end.

And Admiral Erucius of the Second Fleet dies of old age.

He is replaced with Admiral Geganius, a man improved by having a brain slug attached to his head.

After months of bombardment the High King orders General Oppidius to begin the invasion of Hobbiton. This does not go well, there are just too many Hobbits left on the world and so the invading force is repelled. Many legions were lost in the battle and subsequent retreat.

A recruitment drive is initiated across the kingdom. Clips of Halfling barbarity are shown on all news stations and the slogan of 'The only good midget is a dead midget' is plastered across billboards in every system. Some people worry about this offending the Dwarves, but their concerns are waved off as being Halfling sympathisers.

The serfs want reforms to the way they are treated, and oddly some people are actually starting to listen to them. There are protests on the streets demanding freedom for the serfs and even asking for elections. The High King decides to ignore these idiots.

The Serfs start meeting in secret, braking their curfew. The nobles start becoming worried about what they could be plotting.

The Elves manage to regroup and force their way through the blockade. The Elves have managed to enter the war proper now.

Scholars have been wondering what to do about the recent unrest caused by the serfs. One scholar comes up with the idea for giant processing facilities that will brake the serfs will better than ever before. The High King thinks this a great idea and creates a team of scholars to develop this idea further.

Four years of bombardment has left Hobbiton weakened enough for a second invasion. General Oppidius manages to regain her honour by successfully landing her troops and fighting along side the soldiers. Having twice the men of the defenders doesn't hurt either.

Hobbiton falls. The soldiers rape and pillage their way through the world, getting vengeance for each and every human that was killed, but as Hobbiton's inhabitants are all Halflings they don't get human rights. A small garrison is left behind to keep the Halflings in line, but at this point they are a broken people, all but ready to bow down to their new Human rulers.

 

[SupahEwok]

Suffer not a halfling to live.