War is Near
We're In The Lead
After finishing the research on "Ship Manufacturing", I decided to choose "Shield Generation" next, because it will lead to the technology, "Shock and Awe", which will allow us to build battleships.
You can tell by the score in the lower right corner that we are very much in the lead, but our economy is still in the red. We are losing 2 credits per turn and only have 28 in holding, so we are going to need a remedy soon, especially since our eventual military build up is not going to be free.
On another matter, the destroyer our scout found earlier has returned from it's previous fog busting mission and has taken up the new roll of beefing up our home system's garrison. Meanwhile, "New Earth" has just finished it's second "Colony Ship" and has started building an "Interplanetary Beacon" to increase it's influence growth. With the expansion of our fledgling empire at the fore, I sent our new "Colony Ship" just east of "New London", because of the superior quality and number of planets in that system. In another part of our empire, the PDS that "New Earth" built earlier had finally arrived at "New London" to be used as garrison.
Thanks For The Freebie
On the next turn one of our scouts discovered a new technology, "Shield Generation"! We were already researching this technology, but we still had 4 more turns to go, so it's still quite a welcome surprise. Not only that, but the first to discover this technology, also founds the value, "Power". "New Tokyo" had the honor of becoming the "Holy Star System" for that value.
No Revolution For You
I chose not to adopt the "Light Ship Doctrine" civic, which allows faster construction of Cruisers, Destroyers, Invasion Ships, and Planetary Defense Ships, because we are bee-lining for battleships even as I type this. "New Earth" finished building the "Interplanetary Beacon", so I decided to build an "Intelligence Center" to ward off any rival civilization spy missions, next.
Shock And Awe
Since we received the free technology, "Shield Generation", I chose "Shock and Awe" next, which will allow us to build the mighty battleship military unit. The "Police State" Civic will help with lowering war weariness, but I doubt that will be a problem, considering what we have planned for our neighbors. Read the title.
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Yo-Yo Economics
"New London" finished building it's "Mag-Lev Network" and our economy is immediately given a boost, so instead of losing 3 credits per turn, we are back to losing 2. However, the image to the left does not show that increase, because just one turn earlier one of our scouts discovered another destroyer in some space wreckage and the addition of that single unit to our military drove our expenses higher. Thankfully, the completion of this project helped offset the additional expense, so we are back to square one. "New London's" next project was an "Interplanetary Beacon", to incease it's influence growth; thereby, expanding it's borders.
Yes, War Is Definitely Near
As you can see in the image to the left, we are already at odds with both civilizations, because none of us share the same values. This occurrence is most probably a direct consequence of using such a small map, but even on larger maps it is almost a guarantee that there will be universal conflict. There are just too few civilizations available to avoid ideological wars from happening. With little consideration, it seems obvious that the addition of a few more competitors would eliminate the problem on larger maps, but what of the smaller? I guess we can't have it all.