Prologue
The generation ship UNS Zeus was launched from Sol in 2053 to escape the impending ecological collapse on Earth. This mission was dispatched on a course that would take it to the Tau Ceti star system, but something happened and the ship found itself stranded in a distant part of the galaxy. The Zeus and her crew eventually arrived on the outskirts of a yellow dwarf star that they named Olympus, and settled on the planet they could be come to be called Gaia. From these humble beginnings the Olympic Republic was formed.
The current date is 2183 by Earth reckoning, 72 years after landfall. The Olympic population is surging and its people are ready to turn to space and seek out any other remnants of humanity that may have escaped Sol and ended up in the same region of space.
The Republic Army currently consists of 4 x Republican Guard units. These units aren’t very powerful, but they’re small enough to be transported to other systems if the need arises.
The Republic Navy is smaller and relies entirely on Atmospheric craft because Olympus doesn’t have any shipyards. The ORS Athena is an Athens-class light system monitor that lacks a FTL drive but is more powerful than your average ship at this tech level. Without FTL it is forced to rely on jump gates for interstellar movement, but it might eventually be able to move where a starbase wouldn’t be able to. The Republic’s other five ships are all Arrow-class frigates. These ships do have FTL drives, but they have very limited combat capabilities. They are going to be used to explore nearby space and as pickets rather than as combat craft.
The outlook for our naval forces right now is that we will need a more powerful ship to exert force in nearby systems. That project is going to have to wait until after we have built a shipyard in Olympus so that we can build non-atmospheric starships.
Olympus/Zeus (G5 V Single Star System) [High]
CAP 7, RAW 5, BIO 4, JUMP 2
CEN 3, MOR 3, ECO 3, IND 3, AGR 3, RES 3, INT 3
Republican Guard-I
C$ 5 M$ 2 BT 3 TL 0 Ground Force
DV 2 AS 2 PD 2 CR 3 CC 1
Athens-class light monitor
C$ 9 M$ 4 BT 5 TL 0 Starship
DV 3 AS 3 PD 3 CR 5 CC 2
Atmospheric
Arrow-class frigate
C$ 4 M$ 2 BT 2 TL 0 Starship
DV 1 AS 1 PD 1 CR 3 CC 1
FTL 1, Atmospheric
2183.01
ORS Pythagoras, an Arrow-class frigate, successfully explores the northern jump lane out of Zeus and arrives in the Hera system. This system is a multiple star system that contains a total of six stars. The system’s primary is a dim M4 V red dwarf. The innermost planet is a tidally-locked world that may make a good candidate for colonization as it seems to possess the right properties to support basic agriculture.
Hera (M4 V Multiple Star System) [Moderate]
CAP 6, RAW 2, BIO 4, JUMP 5
2183.03
The Pythagoras reports that it ended up mis-jumping while exploring near Hera. This put the ship dangerously out of supply and it took 1 damage as a result. The ship is now crippled. It will continue with its exploration attempts but will need to return home to be repaired lest it be destroyed due to a lack of supply.
The Republic Senate has ordered the government to begin investing in both tech and intel points so that it’ll be prepared should the need arise. Olympus’ current infrastructure allows it to buy 3 tech points and 3 intel points per turn and it’ll be buying its maximum every turn for the foreseeable future.
2183.04
We’ve lost contact with the Pythagoras. Space command believes that the ship mis-jumped again and was unable to return to Hera before running out of supplies. The ship and her crew will be remembered.
This illustrates why explorers with high Defense values are better: they can survive the effects of being in peril a bit easier than other ships can. I’m not going to worry about replacing the Pythagoras with another Arrow until the Republic reaches TL 1.
Morale in the Zeus system has increased based on a combination of factors that are signaling greater economic prosperity for the Republic and its inhabitants (+1 Morale @ Zeus).
2183.05
Construction has begun on a shipyard complex in the Olympus system. It will take 10 turns to complete this shipyard, but once it’s built the Republic will finally be able to start building non-atmospheric starships.
2183.06
The Arrow-class frigate Havilland reports that it has successful negotiated the last unexplored jump lane in Zeus. It emerged at the edge of a single star system that contains a single red dwarf star. The frigate notes that this star, which the commander has named Hades, is an extremely active flare star that is putting out unusually high amounts of radiation. Scientists believe that long-term inhabitation of this system would be expensive because of the amount of extra protection that colonies would be required to protect colonists from radiation exposure.
Hades (M3 V Single Star System) [Low]
CAP 6, RAW 4, BIO 0, JUMP 4, Radiation Field, Flare Star
Based on the Havilland’s report, the Republic Star Command has issued a travel advisory to all ships that might consider visiting Hades. Expansion through this system won’t be a problem, but colonization appears to be out of the question. Hades’ three unexplored jump lanes does make it an inviting target for future exploration missions, but the Hera system is simply a better candidate for long-term expansion.
Star Command is considering the possibility of building a supply depot in the Hera system. The amount of money required to fund such a project is high enough that it probably won’t be approved until such time as scouts can probe the jump lanes past the system to see if there is any reason to extend supply into the region versus just building a supply depot in the Zeus system and relying on it to feed supply outwards. Centralizing military facilities at Zeus makes it easier to defend these assets but it also might end up not extending supply far enough into the uncharted territories. Only time will tell.
2183.09
The Havilland suffered damage while exploring this turn. Unlike Pythagoras, the Havilland will be ordered to return to Olympus to undergo repairs before it resumes its mission of exploration.
The people of Olympus continue to be overjoyed at their prospects and the colony receives a +1 Morale bonus. It would seem that Olympus’ population is only happy when their scouts are threatened with imminent destruction...
2183.10
Havilland returned to Zeus from Hades.
2184.01
Havilland undergoes repairs at Zeus.
2184.02
Havilland moves to Hera.
2184.03
Havilland begins exploring the southwest jump lane in the Hera system.
Scientist at Olympus have made a technological breakthrough, increasing the empire’s tech level to TL 1. The system’s own tech level must be upgraded before it can benefit from this tech advance, but any new colonies will start at this higher tech level.
2184.04
Republic Star Command’s Bureau of Ships has recently been debating whether or not to upgrade the Athena light monitor to TL 1. With a construction cost of 9 EP, the Athena is the biggest ship that the Republic is currently capable of building. It is Atmospheric but doesn’t have FTL, which severely limits its utility as the Republic looks to expand. A unit refit would allow the ship class to be retooled. Upgrading the ship from TL 0 to TL 1 provides it with +1 MU, and it could remove its Atmospheric capability to free up an additional +2 MU. That would be enough space to install a FTL drive and still have an extra MU to go towards improving its combat factors. The downside to these upgrades is that it would increase the unit’s maintenance costs from 4 to 6, a 50% increase that would mean the Athena would cost an extra 2 EP per year to maintain.
Due to the underlying economics of such an upgrade and the fact that we only have one of the Athens-class monitors, the idea of refitting the ship will be tabled until later once technological upgrades make it a bit more practical.
2184.05
The Olympus shipyard facility is completed. The system can now build non-atmospheric starships.
2184.06
Protoyping has begun on a new starship class at Olympus. The new Sparta-class light cruiser is slightly smaller than an Athens but has substantially the same statistics. It isn’t Atmospheric capable, but it does have a basic hyperdrive so that it can travel from one star system to the next. Its point defenses aren’t as good as the Athens, but it has superior firepower. Military planners hope to make up for this defensive gap by designing and building a new dedicated escort frigate that could lay down defensive fire for the ship.
Sparta-class light cruiser
C$ 8 M$ 4 BT 4 TL 1 Starship
DV 3 AS 4 PD 2 CR 5 CC 2
FTL 1
2184.08
+1 Census @ Zeus
Sparta prototyping complete, construction begins
The Havilland has completed its survey of the southwest jump lane in the Hera system. It leads to Argus, a multiple star system that contains an uninteresting white dwarf. The system is barely habitable and only has one jump lane connecting to it.
Argus (D VII White Dwarf Multiple Star System) [Very Low]
CAP 2, RAW 1, BIO 2, JUMP 2
2185.01
Havilland discovers new system:
Vulcan (K6 V Orange Dwarf Single Star System) [Moderate]
CAP 10, RAW 2, BIO 1, JUMP 4, Maser Nebula
2185.03
Work begins on the Laconia, the Olympic Republic’s second Sparta-class light cruiser.
2185.04
-1 Morale @ Zeus
2185.06
Laconia is completed
+1 Industry @ Zeus
Olympic intelligence sources report that they have heard rumors of pirates operating out of the Argus system. They are evidently using the system as a base from which to attack prospectors that are journeying to the system looking for claims to stake on various planets and asteroids in that system. The system is located outside the Republic’s sphere of influence for the moment, but eventually the pirates will have to be dealt with (11 EP of pirate forces are now in Argus).
2185.07
Havilland finally repaired at Zeus
Extra troops purchased at Zeus
2185.08
-1 Morale @ Zeus
4 EP of pirates in Hades; Arrow class Janssen retreats from system as soon as it arrives
===============================================
Some thoughts on how things have come together thus far in this campaign:
- I purposefully started with a small colony so that I could have a slow build up and see whether or not some of my other rule changes would negatively effect minor powers with limited economies. This test shows that things should turn out all right for them. I'm currently eying a 6 Census, 6 Morale, 6 per Infrastructure as the new default game start conditions. That would give empires quite a bit of room to maneuver early on, especially with home systems with a minimum CAP 10, RAW 5, BIO 5, and that will probably get bumped to CAP 12, RAW 6, BIO 6 as before for standardized starts (equivalent of 3 special trait rolls preassigned).
- The maximum amount of tech I can buy each turn is equal to my total utilized Research value, and the maximum amount of intel I can buy each turn is equal to my utilized Intel value. This restricts the rate at which both resources can be collected. For tech, it means that I can only research 1 tech advance per campaign year unless there are extenuating circumstances, because I can have at most 1 Research utilized per Census and it takes 10 tech points per Census to earn a tech advance. This balances tech back to where it should be while making Research infrastructure something that you wouldn't necessarily just scrap out of hand. The intel tempo still needs tested, but what it'll likely come down to after testing is having an intel cost for missions equal to 10 x Difficulty (returning to 1-4 difficulty) and then you use utilized Intel at your colonies to give yourself actual bonuses. Also look to have defensive intel back, with +1 mission difficulty per 2 utilized Intel in a system (round down).
- System generation has not been kind to the Olympic Republic. Two of my avenues for expansion have been blocked by hostile system terrain. The maser nebula in Vulcan is going to be a problem until I can get supply into the system, and the radiation field doubles my population increase costs. Luckily Hera is about as good as Zeus, and I plan on (finally) colonizing that system once I have enough money saved up against after a wave of (undocumented) infrastructure upgrades that I've made at the end of year 2185. Here's to hoping that my scouts can find better systems in the future.
- An Industry upgrade at Zeus increased my supply range and put Argus within my supply range, so I'm losing money from the pirates in that system now. I'll have to build up a military force to dispatch to the system to try and take those guys out. I am tempted to use intel points to sabotage the pirates there instead of sending ships, but I'll probably just send the Sparta down to take care of them.
- I am a little concerned that facilities may be taking longer to build than they should. Ten turns is a long time to wait for something to complete, but I guess that's appropriate considering what they represent, and I wouldn't want an empire to replace those kinds of things too quickly.