Quest for Glory: Preparing to Invade |
This is a copy of an e-mail I sent to my PBEM opponents; they are rookies (some to 4X, too), so my goal was to give them some thought-starters on what they should be doing with their empires.
I bumped into an AI that got annoyed with my surveys of what turned out to be his home system; I held his side of the warp point for several turns but ultimately lost my fleet there. I'm about to launch an offensive into his space...
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Grand Admiral Belisarius looked out the viewport; a large hull floated in the orbital space year. The first of the Argo-class light carriers was nearing completion. It would help carry the battle back to the Cue Cappa Commonwealth…as would the battle frigates clearing slipways around the Empire. One of the iron-clad rules he had put in place was that every space yard's first build order was the construction of a space yard space station. The Byzantine Empire now had a burgeoning economy and considerable space yard capacity, though the minerals treasury had been nearly drawn down to empty as the initial rush of expansion consumed vast quantities of materials in the race to build facilities on new colonies.
He turned back to the ministers ringing the conference table. It was time to review the Byzantine Empire's status.
"Reports, gentlemen."
The Minister of Population spoke first; "The recent expansion of our population transport fleet has enabled us to accelerate population distribution. Many of the frontier worlds are still thinly populated, but we anticipate that between local population growth and our efforts to shuttle population around they will continue to grow. We recommend dedicating one space yard's production to new transports."
"Production?"
"The rebalancing of facilities has more-or-less balanced our resources versus our consumption. We have moved research and intelligence facilities to low-value worlds and have maximized our production on the richer planets. As you know, we nearly exhausted our mineral stores but the research breakthrough in Level 2 mining made a big difference. We also can now lay satellites with remote mining capability if necessary."
"Survey?"
"As you know, we now have solidified several of our borders. We still have unexplored systems along one frontier and several survey vessels are continuing to advance down that set of warp points until they make contact. Our western capital now has a space yard and is building more survey ships to speed that process. This will offset the transfer of the bulk of our survey ships to Battle Fleet." He managed not to sound resentful; nearly all of the Bowie-class survey ships in the Empire had been hurriedly retrofitted into Ajax-class battle frigates when the war with the Cue Cappa had erupted. It was a Survey Fleet vessel that had made first contact and destroyed several Cue Cappa frigates before retreating due to depleted ordnance supplies. The Cue Cappa home system had been fully surveyed as relations deteriorated until they declared war and pushed Byzantine forces of the system. One lone Battle Fleet frigate had escaped through a warp point on the far side of the system and made contact with another empire; the rest of the fleet was lost. Belisarius reflected that Byzantine ships had destroyed four or five Cue Cappa frigates before the tide turned.
"Defense?"
"We have deployed Skywatch-class recon satellites on perimeter warp points and have stationed fighter squadrons on likely routes of enemy advance. As you know, it is unlikely that these pickets will stop a concerted assault but they will definitely repel minor probes and lone scouts. Mine production is ramping up and we are preparing to seed perimeter warp points with our first generation mines. Per your orders, we have made a few troops as prototypes but the main thrust of planetary defense is to interdict the enemy in space. We are concentrating on weapons platforms and fighters. The research advance into fighters that yielded the carrier hull type also gave us larger small fighters; we can now add a second layer of armor and additional ordnance storage that will significantly increase their capability, especially against first-generation enemy fighters." Byzantine strategists had created an "Interceptor" design strategy for its fighters, prioritizing enemy fighters and drones; the fighter-bombers maintained a more traditional strategy.
"Intelligence?"
"Our operatives have successfully completed 3 of 15 spying operations and provided general intelligence on 2 empires. Counter-intelligence reports no apparent enemy activity against us. Our intelligence spending remains approximately on-pace with potential enemies. We estimate total Cue Cappa frigate strength to be approximately 15, with a substantial number of fighters and other units. Disposition of these forces is unknown."
"Colonization?"
"There are several more planets to colonize; we are prioritizing those with ruins to see what technologies they unlock." (Filtering the planets queue by "Special" will list those planets with ruins or special attributes.)
"Research?"
"We are nearly complete with our investigation into Level 2 applied research. Once our facilities are upgraded, we will see a significant increase in research output. As you know, I wished to conduct this research initially but was overruled because it was determined that we needed other technologies too urgently to invest the time in basic research. I am pleased that we now will be more efficient in our studies. As you know, there is never enough capacity to research everything we need all at once."
"State?"
"We have secured non-aggression treaties with most of our neighbors. Per your direction, we are giving non-combat technologies to our neighbors to further cement their good will. Our trade treaties are in place and we are beginning to reap the benefits, though because our economy is larger we are receiving a smaller percentage boost compared with our trade partners."
"Naval Architecture?"
The minister responsible for Empire-wide unit and ship designs spoke up. "We are continuing to concentrate on frigate designs. The Bowie-class scouts are up to generation IV and now have solar collectors to extend their range. Per your orders, they continue to be armed with offensive weapons and point defense at the expense of supplies. The Ajax-class battle frigate design was unsuitable against the latest Cue Cappa designs; we modified the design to the Ajax-B class and our simulations show they are now able to hold their own against comparable Cue Cappa forces. " He gestured out the viewport. "As you can see, the first Argo-class carriers are almost finished. We will monitor their performance against the Cue Cappa and will redesign as necessary. My designers indicate that we have almost taken the frigates as far as they can go and will need to begin researching destroyers soon to maintain our fleet's combat power. For Defense Command, we have two freighter designs with either mine or satellite laying capability, though we may standardize on a ship with 1 of each component to give us more flexibility."
All eyes now turned to the last minister: War.
"We are almost ready to commence our offensive into Cue Cappa space. We have assembled our fleet in the staging area; it is split into two task forces. The first is composed solely of battle frigates and is organized for mutual defense. The second task force contains our auxiliary ships: one repair freighter and a supply/ordnance vessel. The two Argo-class carriers will be added to the second task force once they are completed, pick up fighters, and relocate to the system. The Expeditionary Fleet has been moved to the warp point and our local space yard is building a minesweeper to send through to survey the far side of the warp point. If the warp point is clear, we will send the fleet through and work to establish a beachhead. There is a planet close to the warp point that will serve admirably as a forward base. We intend to advance to that position and see how the Cue Cappa respond. Our goal is to defeat the Cue Cappa fleet in detail; if we can destroy a significant fraction of their fleet I will then split our expeditionary fleet into two forces and blockade the Cue Cappa planets in that system. Once we establish space superiority we can then build transports and launch a ground invasion.
As you know, no empire has a significant lead in weapons technology; we are going to be forced to slug it out with relatively poor weapons. At this point, fighters are very strong because capital ships are small and lack shields, advance point defense, and heavy armor. Once ships grow in size and have more advanced systems, fighters will be less important.
It is my belief that our expedition into Cue Cappa space will be able to deal their navy a significant blow. We may even be able to force concessions from them at the negotiating table.
If things go poorly, we will withdraw our forces back to the staging area and repair/refit them as possible. We will have a substantial fighter force deployed to the critical warp point, either to be transported into Cue Cappa space aboard the carriers or to secure the warp point if the fleet is forced to withdraw."
"Excellent. Execute Operation Chimera. Dismissed."
