I'll never forgive you if the Torians win Ascension while everyone's not looking...

In all honesty, though, we can revive that acronym from the first page:

KUTGW!!!

I've never had the patience to wait out an Ascension victory.  Does the AI defend the ascension starbases?  

That's a drag -- this was a great AAR.  I can understand your frustration, though.  More, shorter posts?  

Resuming this; cutting down on the number of screenshots and splitting the post in half in the hope it solves the issue with crashes.

Part 14: The War Ends... for now

With the Iconians gone, my next objectives were to finish the conquest of DalNalten III and knock the Drath out of the war. The latter would be the easier task - the Drath home fleets had been seriously weakened by the Krynn, and while the influx of Torian-donated ships and Iconian defenders had swelled their forces some, it would be easy enough to knock those out. The Torian-donated ships were also a good reason to remove the Drath: as demonstrated by the TAS Endeavor's encounter with one, they were significantly more dangerous than anything the Drath themselves could build.

My forces that had been invading Iconian space began mopping up the defenders there.

The Enterprise engaged and destroyed an ex-Torian defender.

Meanwhile, the ships of the Expeditionary Force took on the latest Altarian fighter at DalNalten III, destroying it with relative ease compared to past battles.

With the planet once more open to attack, I sent in my transports, though they couldn't quite get there that week. Fortunately, there was little chance the Korx would beat me to the planet.

Meanwhile, the time had come to open negotiations with the Drath. The sooner the war ended, the sooner I could begin preparing to deal with the Torian crisis. As such, I was willing to offer the Drath extremely generous terms despite their weakness.

I also convinced the Krynn to make peace with them - while the Drath posed little real threat, I didn't want the Krynn to waste effort against the Drath when the far more dangerous Altarians were still at war with me. The Korx, who were both far away and no longer an ally, weren't worth the effort.

It's sort of amusing that I got more from the Krynn as part of the peace deal then I did from the Drath.

Continued in next post...

It's back up!  Goody, goody. 

Finally! I love this AAR, can't wait to see more!!!

Part 15: Interbellum

The conclusion of the Great Galactic War had not been a conclusive one. True, the Iconians were gone, and the Drath's new evil alignment effectively nullified them as a major threat - it could only be so long before the Torians came after them. But the Torians themselves were still a major danger, one which I would have to deal with as soon as possible; and relations with the Altarians were ruined likely beyond repair. Still, I expected the galaxy to enjoy at least a few months of peace before things blew up again.

So I was surprised when they did so immediately... and even more surprised in that it was a good thing:

The Arceans, generally speaking, are not usually a first-rate power in my games, and certainly one-on-one they weren't a match for the Torians. But they were quite powerful - enough so that they, in combination with the Korx, could easily slow down or even completely halt the Torians' rise to power. This was excellent news.

Arcean frigate fleet on its way to the front lines - the 4/4 frigates weren't quite equal to the Torians' latest-generation ships, but they were an easy match for their older vessels, and (by Arcean standards) they were shockingly fast.

The news got better the next week when the Altarians called me up. Their boast of developing Pulse Cannons was not a big deal, but their unexpectedly friendly demeanor was a different story - checking the diplomacy screen revealed that, contrary to my expectations of a lingering grudge, the Altarians were already back to a "Neutral" stance towards me. This left open the possibility of once more regaining them as an ally.

Of course, that didn't mean I could dismiss them as a threat: as this quarterly report revealed, they had by now surpassed me militarily.

Still, the diplomatic picture looked a bit brighter then it had been just a few weeks before, and so while I continued to focus on preparations for war against the Torians, the Terran Alliance was able to resume its more civilian activities as well.

Post-war expansion

With the war over, I was able to reassign some of my armed survey ships to exploration duties. The TAS Enterprise, upgraded and repaired in Krynn space, now set out towards the unexplored 'south' - once the domain of the Drengin Empire, now a tangled region in dispute between the Arceans, Krynn, Torians, Altarians, and a few minor races, including the Dark Yor, who I now made first contact with.

In the Enterprise's wake, freighters arrived in Krynn space, established trade routes with my most trusted ally to replace those ruined in the outbreak of war. In addition to this, and to the extra-profitable nature of these sectors-long routes, they offered another benefit: possible replacements should a crisis erupt with the Korx, who while no longer an ally still accounted for a great deal of my trading income.

Meanwhile, the veteran TAS Endeavor made a key discovery: the first located Torian ascension starbase. This would be a primary target in the event of conflict.

And closer to home, other survey ships found a number of highly profitable anomalies.

Continued next post...

Part 15, continued

I continued to develop my planets during this time of peace, creating a few wonders:

But even with the cash flow from anomalies, I was a bit low on funds, less because of any economic crisis then because of the large number of upgrades (structural and ship) that were going on. A number of deals were made with friendly races for small sums of credits.

I also opened negotiations with the Torians and managed to score a bargain, acquiring several engine techs in exchange for the relatively worthless-to-them Sensors IV.

While my dealings with the Torians were still peaceful, they continued to press my ex-ally the Korx hard. Enormous fleets flew "south" from Torian space to the Korx home sectors.

The Korx, in serious economic disarray, were in no real shape to meet them. Reports from my spies on their colonies in Terran space indicated that the possibility for revolt was ripe as the Korx taxes rose ever higher - and it still wasn't enough to keep them in the green. The situation reached its most drastic point yet as Kralax of Korx's Mercantilists were toppled in an election.

As the Torian armada drew ever closer, skirmishing was already in full swing between the Korx and the Altarians.

The mining starbase at Sobek-Re repulses another attack.

Torian and Korx fighters do battle.

I wasn't particularly inclined to root for either side. The Korx were frankly getting their just deserts, as their aggressive behavior while my ally had long been a source of grief. On the other hand, I was in no hurry to watch the Torians defeat another opponent, particularly as they retained their edge over me - and continued to grow stronger.

I was equally dwarfed by the Altarians, but thawing relations made that less of an issue.

Still, the war was not without its positive features. When a Korx squadron annihilated the Torian mining starbase where I had first made contact with them years ago, I had constructors waiting in the wings, and was able to sweep in and claim the influence resource for myself. It would be a useful contributor to my goal of assimilating the Korx worlds within my territory.

Part 16: The Second Torian/Korx War

As 2233 drew to its end, the Torian and Korx armadas came together at last. Terran ships monitored the area as all-out war engulfed a huge segment of the intergalactic void.

And things weren't going so hot for the Korx.

Numerous isolated and outgunned Korx ships were destroyed as the Torians' flag squadron - seven advanced ships led by an appallingly well-armed battleship - slowly ground its way towards the Korx core systems. While exactly what was going on with the Arceans remained more of a mystery, it was clear that whatever damage they may have been doing wasn't enough to stop the dismal situation of the Korx.

Closer to home, numerous Korx and Altarian skirmishes took place. Mostly, they went in the Dominion's favor...

...but not always, as the Altarians succeeded in finally taking out the mining starbase at Sobek-Re.

As the major powers wreaked havoc upon each other, I kept up my exploration and expansion programs. While it might become necessary to launch a preemptive strike to destroy the Torian ascension starbases, if at all possible I wanted to prolong any conflict until I could face them on more equal terms. That would take time - the question was, how much did I have to spare?

Survey ships continued to pick up anomalies, though most were not terribly valuable.

More useful was this discovery by the frigate TAS Pioneer: a second Torian ascension starbase (center of screenshot). Only one more remained unknown...

The year ended with a disappointing meeting of the United Planets. The proposed Colonial Tax offered a decent sum of revenue from the Korx planets in Terran space, but widespread opposition scuttled the plan.

2234

The new year opened with some worrying news. The annual quarterly report showed that the Terran Alliance remained a second-rate power at best...

...while intelligence reports showed that aggression was once again on the rise towards minor races.

The threatened minors were not the most important news of the period, though. That honor went to the startling reports from our agents in Korx space.

For some time now, I'd been aware that the Korx government was in bad shape. The recent unseating of the Mercantilists had been its most striking manifestation, but ever since I'd severed my alliance with the Korx their economy had grown worse and worse, and their taxes had grown accordingly higher - and their government had grown more and more hostile. It hadn't been clear just how hostile the Dominion's own people were towards it, though - until now. Fully fifteen different Korx worlds had dropped below 40% approval, and their homeworld had the impressively bad rating of just 29% approval - the worst in the galaxy.

Even raising taxes hadn't relieved the crisis.

And that wasn't the worst of the Korx's problems...

(Continued...)

looking forward to it.  

Part 16, continued

Two weeks into 2234, the Altarians launched a direct attack on the Korx home system.

Precisely how they'd managed to get this far into Korx space - which had largely withstood ground invasions so far - was a mystery, but the damage they did was considerable. Both Korx and Korx II lost their orbital defenses, though the Altarian task force in turn was reduced to just one ship (and swiftly eliminated by a nearby battleship).

As the war raged on, my exploration and expansion programs continued. Though it would take a painfully long time to research, work had now begun on developing Large Scale Building, which would finally let me construct my own battleships. Meanwhile, on the exploration front, two of my Enterprise-class ships were formed into a scouting fleet headed for the "south" corner of the galaxy - the only area that remained unexplored.

At home, meanwhile, survey ships continued to net useful discoveries.

And in the unsettled region once claimed by the Drengin, the Enterprise witnessed a battle between the Krynn and Paulos that left the latter in a bad position.

These first two months of the new year ended with a number of changes on the diplomatic front, both good and bad.

The Korx colony of Sthenelos IV, one of many they had established in Terran space, erupted into open revolt. My subversive efforts were beginning to pay off.

In Torian relations, however, I made a pair of unpleasant discoveries. Their space now included a fourth ascension crystal - though it was so far unclaimed, that wouldn't last, and there was no possible way I could beat them to it. And equally disturbingly, their relations with my ally the Krynn had degraded to Hostile.

But another bit of news that same week was excellent: a gift of Xeno Ethics to the Altarians improved relations back to Friendly. It now seemed entirely possible that I might manage to re-ally with them - which, considering that they had signed an alliance with the Torians, would be more then just helpful.

Pleeaase update soon! This is the best AAR I've ever seen!