Spiralus PBW discussion thread.

[Dragonlord]

Yep, Rollo is doing damage. My entire military was focused on the Yvelon and Irra-Nrr, plus a north fleet in case the Scron went hostile. I never expected a betrayal from the Space Vikings so my east was barely defended. The fleet he killed consisted of a half dozen green untrained warships, while (judging by the hit/miss ratio) his fleet was veteran or maybe even legendary.
He has also shown me the value of the extra 30% defense you get from putting all armor types on your ships...
So in order to destroy his fleets I need overwhelming numbers...which I have, just not in the right place. What's worse, he's capturing essential planets rather than destroying them, hurting my economy while he boosts his own. My weapon platforms were useless and I am now convinced that the *only* viable planet defense is...ships. Lots and lots of ships.

Will keep you posted, as I scramble to put up defense and redirect my fleets.

[Shoujo]

What makes you think any of us would reuse passords? *bats eyelashes*

[Rollo]

Frontline news (the Viking view) Last month 2408.1 (didn't have a look at the new turn yet):

Last month another brave battle was fought be Viking forces in the Aldan system. On Aldan III a fleet with a humanitarian mission to evacuate all Dragon civilists was attacked by Dragon forces. The Viking fleet was hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned. It consisted only of two Jarlsund LC and three Halden DS, while the Dragons attacked with a battleship and a battlecruiser backed up by five LC. We feared the Dragons would try to wipe out their own population, so while one LC kept the Dragons busy the other LC covered the retreat of the civilians with help of the destroyers. The Jarlsund fought bravely and was skillfully dodging most shots. Once the unarmed vessels were safe it was joined by the other LC and the destroyers to make sure the Dragons would do no more harm. At the end of the battle all Dragon ships were severely damaged and two destroyed, while all Viking ships remained unscratched and the civilians were safe. At the end of the month the entire Aldan system was liberated from Dragon oppression and the population jubilantly joined the Vikings. They will be welcome members of our clans for their superior trading skills, because we have a great demand for merchants and accountants considering our recent growth.

In the Wanduk system the Viking fleet was defeated by superior Dragon forces. We fear the worst for the people (Vikings and Dragons) in the Wanduk system.

We are truly shocked that the Dragons don't even stop at murdering their own people in their quest for galactic dominance. We have been friends the most time and would have never imagined they were even capable of such atrocities. This tells us that our intervention into Dragon space is a just cause of liberating helpless and oppressed civilians from an evil regime.
Even in the face of the genocide committed by the Dragons we will continue to fight and try to keep collatoral(sp?) damage and civilian losses at a minimum. We will try to take in as many Dragon refugees as possible and ask all other galactic powers to do the same should they seek asylum with you.

We have demanded the surrender of the Dragons to prevent more bloodshed. Hopefully Elder Avatar will come to his senses again or there will be billions of more deaths.

We mourn for the dead and hope they will be safely guided to Valhalla by the Valkyrja,
King Rollo of the Space Vikings

[BeeDee10]

Rearguard news, the Irha-Nrr view:

"Since the destruction of our entire military and of the shipyards and research worlds in Tesshana, the Dragons have withdrawn from our space. They are apparently satisfied that we no longer pose a threat, and indeed it will be a matter of many months before we have recovered sufficiently to defend our core systems and the Terran reserve planet located there.

In the meantime, as anticipated, the quadrant has gone mad as the tensions cultivated by the Dragons over the years all find catharsis. Every major empire has declared war upon the Dragons, who although quite capable of subduing any one opponent are apparently suffering significant casulaties due to the many fronts they are forced to divide their forces among. They have just finished annihilting a significant portion of the Scron's military forces, along with a number of Scron worlds, and are now apparently redeploying away from the Scron front much as they did from our territory after neutralizing our own forces. I believe that the attacks launched by the Space Vikings have been responsible for saving all of the rest of us from total extermination at the Dragons' hands, and I find it ironic that agression has been responsible for saving these species. At least in the short term.
It is strangely fascinating to witness the actual collapse of this cycle of civilization, fully validating the projection our models of long-term biological evolution produced. Now that the Dragons have rendered us completely helpless to intervene and prevent this cycle's collapse, it is almost exhilerating now watching it all end in destruction. I only hope that I will be able to recover samples of some of the other intelligent species out there in the midst of this chaos."

[Dragonlord]

/ooc In response to the message from the Vikings:
/end ooc

After the treacherous betrayal from the Space Vikings, whom had been staunch allies of the Dragons throughout our lifespan in this galaxy, we suffered medium-sized losses.
Apparantly the Vikings had been planning this betrayal for some time, since shortly after their war declaration they captured an undefended large research planet in a forward system we shared with them.
The next month enemy forces moved into other undefended frontier systems, targetting mineral planets and resupply stations. Their agression cost the lives of millions of innocent Dragon civilians. Meanwhile, Dragon fleets are scrambling to reach our east frontier. We were too late to save our population in Aldan, but have beaten back the enemy in Walduk and reclaimed this system. Another small fleet, done with the removal of the Amonkrie and the Rage, has entered some outlying Viking systems and destroyed some small colonies there. It will now move on to more strategic targets.

It is true that we were forced to destroy colonies we once held in Wanduk. However we have *at no point* fired on our own population. The planets in question were all oxygen planets with Space Viking population on them, colonists we had received from the Vikings back when we were still at peace with them. These traitors received the death they deserve, for not fighting to defend the infrastructure they built with Dragon resources.

Another small fleet we sent into Aldan was targetted on Viking transport vessels, not on our planets there. To our dismay our technically superior ships found it nearly impossible to hit the enemy ships, while the enemy occasionally scored a hit. These Dragon ships died the horrible death of "a thousand fleebites". Fortunately our ship captains are now gaining the experience necessary to offset the defensive shielding (stealth and such)and the racial defense bonus that the Vikings enjoy. Our total fleet forces is also nearly double that of the Vikings, who also have to station at least some ships on their frontier with the Praetorians. We remain confident that we will avenge our innocent colonists. We will bathe the Vikings in righteous fire, to the point where they will return our colonies to us and scrap their ships. As the Irra-Nrr would say, none of these races can be trusted with military toys, and we follow the same goals as the Irra-Nrr (albeit for different reasons): remove all military capbilities of our neighbours, to protect their civilians from the self-destructive course their government set them on. After that we will help any race willing, to rebuild their economy and return to a prosperous lifestyle of peace and prosperity.

Elder Avatar

[Rollo]

/ooc

"Apparantly the Vikings had been planning this betrayal for some time..."

I really wish I had more time to plan this a little more. My attack was actually pretty rushed, because I feared everybody would call it quits, before I got the chance to smash a few things. So I just pulled everything together real quick and charged. My initial fleet was well trained, but outdated. Heck, some of them were still using DUCs and armor. On the other hand my newly build ships, don't perform nearly as well as my veterans. Note: A DUC at the hand of an expert is ten times worth a PPB in the hand of a rookie (but I guess you all know this already )

Anyway, the wrath of the Dragons is taking its toll. I reckon there will be a major battle next month that could end my objectives of pesting the Dragons a little more . After that I'll pull all my ships together to make a Last stand and we'll all go to Valhalla.

Rollo

[Rollo]

Dragonlord has just destroyed one of my fleets that attempted to strike into his mainland just short before reaching its target. If everybody agrees, it is okay for me to end this game now. If not, I still have another fleet ...

Anyway, it's been a pleasure, even though I didn't interact with most of you until late in the game. This being one of my first PBW games I sure learned a lot.

Rollo
[edit]typos

[This message has been edited by Rollo (edited 01 September 2001).]

[Dragonlord]

Aye, I enjoyed the bit of spice Rollo added to the end fase, once again I was eager to see the next turn come in and see If I had hunted down his fleet yet or if he would do more damage. He came dangerously close to my core mineral planet (80k production)! I even started closing warp points to force any of his stray ships to go through my kill zone if he really wanted to strike at my core planets.

It's been a good game and I for one learned a lot. I too am now ready to call it quits, and free up some time for my next game: Diplowar II.


[This message has been edited by Dragonlord (edited 02 September 2001).]