Operation Icos 15 Oct 2227-1 Apr 2228
The plan is to destroy the ships above Iconia before they developed space weaponry. Then once I have researched Planetary Invasion technology I will invade. If that is successful then I will try to take Iconia V in the same attack and wipe out the Yor for good (literally).

I send the TAS Spitfire (fast in name only) to destroy the ships in orbit of Iconia while I finish researching planetary invasion. I meanwhile acquire Trade and Scatter Blaster II technology from the Iconians and Alterians.

On 15 Oct 2227 the TAS Spitfire emerged above Iconia. It fires the first shot of the war. Both Yor ships are destroyed.

The operation works perfectly except for the problem that Planetary Invasion is still 6 weeks away from being perfected. The Iconians already have a fighter and it won’t be long before the Yor do to. The TAS Spitfire stays in orbit of Iconia and shoots down everything launched from the surface.

Finally after weeks of research and production the TAS Warhammer sets of from Earth with 2 billion troops bound for Iconia.

We don’t have enough logistics to escort the TAS Warhammer, so it was vulnerable to enemy attack. But on 15 Jan 2228, after three weeks of worry the first marine pods launched. I chose information warfare because we could get anywhere from 1-2 billion extra troops. Meanwhile back on earth the TAS Cleansweep left space dock with another 2 billion troops to reinforce the Iconia campaign.

The first invasion of Iconia can only be described as a complete disaster. The information warfare didn’t work well, and we landed in between several major Yor positions. It was a disaster, but luckily the TAS Cleansweep is coming and will arrive in three weeks. Until then the TAS Spitfire is on its own. Also the Yor are putting agents on earth and bogging down production of Transports. It has really saved their neck because the one factory they have sabotaged was the difference between a Transport every two weeks and one every three. I still hope that the TAS Cleansweep will arrive before the Yor get weapons. But wars never go as planned.

I order the attack.


It is the first battle where both ships have weapons. The TAS Spitfire easily wins this engagement. Now both the Drengin and the Torians have battleships. Now all hope in this operation’s success is getting the TAS Cleansweep to Iconia, and then winning the invasion. The Yor have another fighter on Iconia V and I am assigning the TAS Valiant to clear it out.

The TAS Cleansweep first fires gas at the planet that is supposed to dissolve Yor drones. All hopes ride on this invasion. We are outnumbered more that 4 to 1. Will our 2 billion troops be enough?
The answer: no.

We landed farther away from the main Yor force, but they still won. The one bright side is that the TAS Hugo is ready on earth and there are only about a billion Yor left on Iconia. I am altering the operation plan. Since the Yor now have weaponry I am going to switch back to H-Wings until the space in the Icos system is under my complete control.
I also designed the Y-Wing for surgical strikes.

The TAS Spitfire attacks the new Yor ship in orbit of Iconia while the TAS Hugo moves in. Also the TAS Valiant is redirected to Iconia instead of Iconia V.

However there isn’t enough time for repairs from previous engagements and I lose the TAS Spitfire.

A bad defeat, but the TAS Spear is on its way there and the TAS Valiant is in orbit already.

On 22 Feb 2228 the TAS Valiant comes in and finishes the job while the TAS Hugo prepares its invasion attempt. Due to the last invasion attempt the Yor are down to 1.7 billion troops, could now be the time of Yor defeat? That is the question as the TAS Hugo sprays gas onto Iconia.

The Marines land far away from the Yor army and using rocked attacks destroy them. Iconia is mine with over a billion troops left. There is the problem of the Yor fleet over Iconia V, but I have yet to see a transport. It is a wonderful day for the Terran Alliance. Meanwhile the TAS Sword and the TAS Spear set off for Iconia V.

The Yor don’t seem to be mounting a counterattack on Iconia. Also reports are coming in that the Yor colony of Iconia V might rebel. I think I will destroy the orbiting ships and leave the colony to rebel on its own accord.

As the 1st and 2nd fleets move in on the last Yor world I begin to prepare for my next operation.
The first fleet moved in and took out both of the Yor fighters.

The operation will be officially closed next week when I destroy the 3 non combat vessels in orbit of Iconia V.
However Iconia V rebels on the planned closing day of Operation Icos. Operation Icos is over on 1 Apr 2228. We only lost one ship and 5 billion troops, but the point of the operation was to quickly conquer the Icos system in about 3 months. It took 7 for the Yor to be defeated. That’s four months that I could have been worrying about the rest of the galaxy.

The Torians have a large military and they are right on Earths doorstep. The Drath aren’t much of a problem but are still a nuisance. The Torians will be my next priority and they will be dealt with in several Y-Wing lightning raids in Operation Sudden Death…

Great screenshots.

Sweet!  

Question, does placement of "armies" on the Invasion Screen really matter or was your description made up to give your losses a more realistic feel? Otherwise nice AAR.

This is awesome, bertio. Keep it coming.      


Etrius

Just put a spolier warning.

Nice. I wonder how your allies have been doing?

Never knew how this much action could occur in a Tiny galaxy. Thanks for your answer to my question by the way.

Operation Arrowhead Oct 29 2228-8 Mar 2229

My plan it to quickly conquer the Arceans and the Korx before they can mount a response. They are relatively unarmed so I will only use the 3rd Fleet and the 1st Lightning Squad. I will have the slower and heavier 3rd Fleet attack the home worlds while the lighter and faster 2nd Lightning Squad takeout the smaller colonies and other targets like asteroids and Starbases. The whole time I will be building transports on Earth.



Then suddenly a stroke of luck came. Reproductive rats are doubled. This could help man the transports for the invasions.



Also Dratha IV finally rebels. There are no more Drath to worry about. This includes their agents. Immediately four of the eight agents that were attacking me are gone.



My ships begin to close in on Arcea.




The 3rd fleet dose 11 hp of damage and the Arcean ship dose only 4.



The defenses on Hammer II aren’t very much more effective.



The TAS Hood moves in to invade.

Suddenly disaster strikes. I sent the 2nd Lightning Squad to destroy a seemingly unprotected Economy Starbase. However it had defenses and it wiped out all of my ships. The 1st Fleet is coming and will fill in for the 2nd Lightning Squad. This is only my second defeat in a space battle. It had taught me two important lessons. To always do intelligence work and also never to be overconfident. I didn’t even bother to get a screenshot of the battle because I was so overconfident. However this isn’t a total disaster. The rest of the Arcean military is gone and the 3rd Fleet is more than a match for them.

The TAS Hood invades Arcea with Mass Drivers.



The attack is a success and Arcea is mine. The TAS Falcon is coming with 1 billion more troops to take Hammer.

Another Arcean fighter is gone.



Another battle has what seemed like an attempter Kamikaze, but the Arcean fighter just bounced off the shields.



It seems that Hammer II might rebel. It is home to almost 4 billion Arceans so it would be wiser to let them rebel on their own and therefore have a new population center. My population is dangerously spread out and low.



I defeat a Korx fighter with the 1st Fleet.



On the 22 Dec the Iconians launched a massive attack on several starbases. In the course of it they lost their main fleet the same way I lost the 2nd Lightning Squad but destroyed several starbases.



However after all was said and done it was a useless sacrifice because the Arceans rebelled the same day. Hammer is now the most populous planet in the Terran Alliance.



1 pirate can’t be of much hindrance to my fleets. But he might attack a transport. I spotted a fighter heading towards Korx territory but the TAS Excalibur was too damaged to pursue. I can only assume that’s him. I will send the 1st fleet to look for him.



And what do you now, he shows up for the party.



The TAS Pistol and the TAS Rifle take him on and destroy him.



I begin to move on Korx. The Korx M 1 fighters are extremely weak. The one problem is that they use mass drivers and I have shields. However they are still no match.



The TAS Falcon and 1 billion marines prepare to Mass Driver Korx.



We lose but kill 15.3 billion Korx troops. There are only .7 billion left on Korx.

Sidetracking for a bit my treasury has been in a steady downturn for the whole game but now I’m making money because of 344 bc per turn from tourism. That is giving me half my budget.

The TAS Andromeda begins its gas attack. I am using gas because there are only 1 billion Korx left on the planet.



It was a blowout victory for the Terran Alliance. We only lost .1 billion troops. Now it’s on to Korx II.

I attack the last Korx fighter and they manage to destroy the TAS Pistol. However they are still destroyed by the TAS Rifle. I fold the TAS Rifle into the 3rd Fleet.



Korx II is now rebelling. It has 7.5 billion people that I could use as troops against the Drengin. I will wait for them to rebel while I rally my forces for the final push.

I also design a new ship with the new medium sized hulls.



The TAS Enterprise finally rolls off the assembly line.



Finally the Korx rebel.



The Galaxy is almost mine. I lost 5 ships and 1.6 billion troops and took 4 planets. The Drengin are the only ones who stand in my way. My economy is under control and there is new Battlehammer squadron that will spearhead the attack on Drengia. I will finally bring the galaxy under control in Operation Final Victory…

True, but Operation Final Victory sounds cooler.

Meyby, but if you read my next one, then you will have enough obsqure referances to last you a lifetime.

Operation Final Victory 15 Mar-22 Jun 2229

To make up for the limited range of the A-Wings and Battlehammers I made the Military Starbase Deep Space 9 to give us more range. Also I researched more logistics. No sooner had I combined the 1st and 3rd Fleet into a fleet of 5 ships then it was attacked by a Drengin Fleet of 3 fighters. It was the first space battle where both sides were fleets. The Drengin Fighters swooped under us first.




Then we came around and fired, but didn’t hit very well. Still we take out one Drengin fighter and injure another.



The last two ships are destroyed relatively easily.



The result was a clear Terran victory.



But the Empire did strike back. The next day two agents appeared on Earth and one on Dratha. The question is: “is this the Drengin, or are my allies trying to weaken my hold on the galaxy?



However the ships I have on the front lines are all I need to conquer the Drengin. The fight begins above Kona.



The Battlehammers see their first action above Drengi. The enemy ship is destroyed in four shots.



This is what the Drengin front looks like now.



The Grand Invasion Fleet begins its Mass Driver attack on Drengi.



The Invasion loses but we wipe out 15.2 billion Drengin troops. I will build more transports and go for it again. I hold the space above Drengi but the Battlehammers are so damaged that I need to withdraw them.

Meanwhile I invade Kona with Mass Drivers. I really just did this for the photo ops of ending the war on a capitol world.



It works and I only lose .1 billion troops.

I am about to invade Drengi. The TAS Finalist begins its Mass Driver invasion.



We win. The skies of Drengi are filled with smoke.



I rename Drengi New Hope. My fleets happily parade around it. The entire Galaxy celebrates.



Operation Final Victory lasted four months. In it we only lost 3.1 billion troops. The galaxy is now united under the leadership of the Terran Alliance. Today is proclaimed Galactic Peace Day.





Overview

So there it is. I won the game in less than three years. I only lost 5 ships due to my early buildup and technology. Only the Iconians had better research that me, and I traded for their technologies. I lost 18 billion soldiers in my numerous invasions (mostly in Operations Cleansweep and Icos). This made it harder for my economy because they couldn’t make my population grow more and I started my invasions when my population was still small. I only lost 2 battles and both were due to overconfidence and lack of observation.

Lessons I Learned

1. Quickly conquer your close neighbors before they can build up militaries.
2. If you conquer a home world your influence will increase in the system and the other planet will rebel. You don’t need to invade it.
3. Specializing ships can be advantageous, but don’t be afraid to improvise with them like using fast ones to protect planets.
4. Conquered planets will always need a lot of social work done to make them worth having. Don’t bother sending them funds for social production or you’ll go bankrupt.
5. Always take the initiative. If the enemy is helpless then follow up on it.
6. Sent in one transport with 1 billion guys and use Mass Drivers when invading and then send in the rest with gas warfare. That way you keep the planet intact.
7. Naming ships is both fun and it helps you remember which ones are where and how experienced they are.
8. Always be careful to have your ships avoid asteroid fields. They aren’t the millennium falcon.
9. Always do intelligence work and never be overconfident.

A wicked AAR Bertio-very enjoyable   what difficulty setting were you on again>?

Great AAR!

Terrific screenshots too. What service do you use?

Hydro