Hello. I am Eysteinh a long time fan of the endless series.  From time to time I write ARR where i both immerse into the game and also try to show some of my thinking of why I do the moves I do both for my own learning experience but also for others learning experience. Hopefully someone finds this usefull or interesting. This ARR leans more heavily on the strategy part but I also sometimes add immersion or story elements.

Part 1 can be found here (T1-T6): https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/forums/65-general/threads/31424-glorious-ada-arr-part-1

An overview of the ARR can be found here https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/forums/65-general/threads/31512-glorious-ada-arr-overview-thread

My goals after the turns where:"Gain more heroes as the boost early is strong and snowballs. Prepair for first invasion (minor faction) and increase overall influence levels and add a new law as I want the KEII law bonus back :) We also need more scout ships so we can know more what to do with future turns earlier. 

 [Mr president ADA] It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. Build more eyes for our empire to see the light! 
We need more scouting ships - we will change the que already on the end t6 save as we do not need more food than enough to grow 1 pop a turn. Ofcourse we do not need any weapons on the eyes of the republic. They are only there to see the enemy. 

We also que up techs to achieve our goals - Xenology and efficient shielding for a new law and new ship designs for invasion - Plasma metallalurgy for the hyperium resource and impactless sites to buy more heroes.

We add post-op analysis (how could we not with playing ARR) as its a neat supplement in ranges and also it adds xp to heroes someting very valuable.

With that we end our turn.

Savegame ada start t7: ADA start t7.sav

The fleets are renamed 1st eyes of the republic and 2nd eyes of the republic. 

We scout the two "high" chance curiosities for strategic resources on Janus

Netting us dark glitter

 [Mr president ADA] Our great republic now has access to the Dark Glitter - there will be no more darkness! 

Bonus is pretty neat +2FIDSI per pop not bad not bad

We secure as much hyperium as we can as while our scout fleet found light in the darkness, it did not find any hyperium sources!

Our hero levels up - since we have 9 pop and 150% FIDSI bonus it makes sense to get the +1 FI per pop skill

Our dilemma now is that the Argosy is ready. How it moves this turn will have quite an impact on the game due to the snowballing effects of early colonies.

The question is is it better to go for the safe dark glitter on janus to keep FIDSI boost our pop early - Should we head for Yakima for a low chance of a strategic resource (none of the curiosities have a high chance ) or head for one of the 3 lanes near micre into the unknown. This is where scouts come in handy as it will atleast for the next wave give us more knowledge of where to go next. 

In the end i decide to play it safe and go Janus. The dark glitter will definitivly help keep boosting the pop as it grows and that is quite a powerfull thing and needs to be set up early.

We send the 2nd eyes of the republic towards micre to explore more. The 1st eyes of the republic will explore the last curiosity of Janus to help the argosy settle downthere with optimal choices. 

In Cardano we boost industry and also influence since we are low on it and will need it for the law upkeep. 

Micre is not growing fast enough so not really happy with it. We decide to send one Galvran from Cardano to assist growth and also to set up the 50 pop law of Galvran.  

Savegame start t8: ADA start t8.sav

With one more law slot we pass Hatched at home again. We will trigger the quest to gain back KEII as well. 

We also found Mavros on the minor faction planet. They currently have 40 infantery. We need to prepair for an invasion very soon.

Because of this we also que up autonomos constructs technology 

Also we need to prepair for the argosy arrival on janus next turn and should sell some stuff on the market. (We also need dust for heroes !)


To trigger the quest for KEII we need to design 2 257 defence ships. (Did you know 257 is the 2nd largest Fermat prime? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat_number#Primality_of_Fermat_numbers) 

Looking at the two ship classes claw & Hoover the guardian based design seems superior for our future task of invasion.

However we need a new defensive technology to trigger the quest as 3 basic defensive is not enough for 257 defensive score on a ship.
Because of this I decide to change strategy and switch up the tech tree because of realizing we need a better plan

1. We need dust for heroes and the tech for buying heroes is currently useless as the dust goes to argosy currently.  Thus prioritize to build dust.

2. We will not get the KEII quest fast enough for us to go below loyal on KEII rating. We thus need to switch laws again soon and prioritize boosting the millitary tech tree.

So we change the tech tree order: Ubiquitous survaliance and extreme composites for upgraded HAWK designs (using our spare titanium) and also gaining us manpower building if we need manpower on a turn. Autonomous industry and unstable isotope machines to boost millitary tree and also gain us behmoth tech faster (cooporative quest 27 millitary techs)

 [Mr president ADA] Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men. We must commence a Ritual to boost our Dust even at the cost of some of our honorable souls. 

This also serves the purpose of queing up industry so we can finish intergalactic supermarket faster (currently 2 turns hopefully 1 turn next turn)

Unsure of an optimal scouting path we send out probes near Micre

With those radical changes we decide to end the turn.

Start of t9 savegame: ADA start t9.sav

Glory to the republic. We have found hyperium with our probe missions.  We have also found even more glitterdust in Aeri that will be helpfull in boosting our population.

Our President ADA made a bold move in his observance ritual making sure we gain a big boost in dust (from +282 to +484) while making a que that could finish intergalactic supermarket in a single turn. There is much wisdom to observances if you use them when the timing is right. 

We scout in Janus to prepair for the Argosy

Netting us a glitter dust and .... PIRATES !!! Sneaky Pirates !! Luckily the 1st eyes of the republic did have weapons and armorment unlike the 2st eyes of the republic.

Battle is like a bonus for the ADA as they recieve some sought after KEII

To boost our Galvran population we need 3 bluecap molds for 48 dust. We also need some 200 dust to settle with argosy this turn.

Luckily we have quite a bit spare titanium and decide to sell it and trade for some bluecap mold

We settle in Janus:


Due to a visual bug with having both argosy and KEII i cannot select the spaceport to send from Cardano to Janus. To fix this i chance resolution temporary and send 1 galvros to Janus. (for the 50 pop law bonus in the future) 

Interesting tidbit but transitional population does not cost you anything to boost but you probably will get the bonus when the pop arrives at the planet (could have some limited usefullness in early game if you are lacking only a small portion of the resources needed) Ofcourse this also means I did not have to buy 3 bluecap mold (bah!) only 2. 

1st eyes of the republic the fleet that actually had some weapons is going to stand in janus and repair while waiting to randevouz with some manpower carrying fleets. They will send probes out to scout in the meantime when available. 

Zinius looks like a good target for some curiosities exploration for the 2nd eyes of the republic to scout thus the fleet is sent towards Zinius. 

 [Mr president ADA]  One must pass through time before arriving at oppertunity. We should do a final observance before the election creating hope and prosperity for the future as our people find a new path. 

While in general I would not want to sacrifice population in a 3 pop system there is one galvran pop on the way and the +50% dust is quite important for the turns to come now.

Start of t10 savegame: ADA start t10.sav

Overview. Notice how Micre is still building Public private partnersips even it showed 1 turn in que. Probably if i Had selected it before the observance ritual it would be built as well so I lost 20 science if that is correct. 

We also found Nihal system with a nice Savannah that could potentially have a strategic resource

Cardano prepairs for ships next turn and manpower (only 1 item in que to store up industry for ships next turn)

Meanwhile Kogewa focus on forced labor to boost manpower and keep growth at 1 turn a pop.

Scouting Zinus we trigger a quest - Foreign Contamination - that will net us sweet sweet KEII. Problem is the 2nd eyes of the republic fleet have absolutly no weapons.

 

We decide to redesign our scout ships and move back to Micre to upgrade. Our scout ships now with the millitary upgrades have enough to trigger the KEII quest as well (257 defence) 

We decide to use our mistake to our advantage (the best ways to treat mistakes imho) and in micre because of the observance we have qued up industry that we will build 2 scouts with 257 defence. 

With that we end the turn.

Savegame start of turn 11: ADA start t11.sav

Elections are looking interesting - will we get some militarist laws or ecologist? or pure boost of scientists ? Sun god's ritual can possible be strong if we are not 1 turn per pop in any of our systems so we can put a lower prioritization of food for the next election period. 

Cardano is quite a diversified population with a majority of scientists

The one ecologists actually pushes forward a new law! 

Not a bad bonus on planets with anomalies

We have a dilemma this turn. Argosy is ready. Should we head for the hyperium in Zinius and delay or colonization by 2 turns or get more Dark Glitter in Ariel this turn.

One one hand setteling Ariel means we can keep a breathtaking pace of expansion with colonies. However we will loose the ability to buy a hero next turn without depleting a lot of our stockpiled resources to sell for dust.  However we have quite a bit of dust income per turn as well.

Upgrading the eyes is not going to cost us much so we are going to do that. However we will change the design to beams since we want scout ships to hang back in any fleet at the back of the fleet and not take much damge.  Beams gives us the flexbility to do just that. 

We finally decide upon delaying colonization and heading for the hyperium source given how little hyperium is left in the market

It also means we will need mediteranian technology to settle on the planet in Zinius - doing a 2fer1 on techs with getting ability to buy heroes and settling on mediteranian. It also sets us up for endless secrets as a 3rd tech to get curiosities that can get us more valuable strategic resources.

Looking at the improved CLAW class we are ready to get some manpower moving around the galaxy ! With 4 slots for modules it is quite flexible.  We are going to do a design mix of kinetic/laser/ beam with some serious manpower for destoyer size ships (200)

 [Mr president ADA]  We will name these ships Kodachi and they will be part of the 1st liberators fleet 

Getting out 3 will net us 600 Manpower while Esh currently have 40 troops (200 manpower) 3-1 is generally the acceptable infantery attack scale on invasions in most millitary litterature and with tanks should hopefully serve us well.

 

We also continue scouting from Janus while waiting for the fleet. 

We upgrade the 2nd eyes of the republic fleet with armorments. 

 [Mr president ADA]  At this point in time when things are unsure - nothing is more revealing than movement. We must change our laws. This will help us colonize faster and help us conquer faster even at the cost of resources this must be the right choice at this point in time.

In micre we build a spin project to keep influence going along. This also allows us to not use -30% system buildings cost law and free a slot for +4 movement. 

We also put war banners on our argosy so it can reach for settlement in next turn

Ofcourse we send the 2nd eyes of the republic to gain the KEII quest in Zinius as well.

And in Janus we made a mistake and ofcourse que up a system development for the massive early FIDSI (Notice that a system development since it only costs turns is ideal to build while you do not have law of -30% system buildings cost)

We also need to boost niris and buy in the market for this and boost and sell some luxuries for dust. 

We upgrade to tanks as we have quite a bit manpower and need to prepair for the invasion comming. We also do not upgrade tanks yet as we save dust for buying a hero next turn.

We also have a new quest for more KEII as long as we can increase our manpower limit

The quest nets us some pretty nice tactics and tech!

And how ... convienient we have to invade a system for the next quest

We add repair and recover as it is a nice tactic to keep momentum

And with that we are ready for a new turn.

Start of t12 savegame: ADA start t12.sav

And we meet the the unfallen. They will.... wait for it.. fall. 

Actually they are going to be quite vengefull if i Declare war. Who would have known. 

We have two heroes to choose from 

In the end I decide to go for more influence as it is hard to get enough of at this point in the game and is needed for future wars.

Kogeaw moves to Micre to assist there. 

While Ruthian the new hero settles at Cardano for a +9 influence per turn.

We scout in Zinius to trigger the quest

And I feel quite silly for having upgraded the fleet early as you are REWARDED a pirate ship not that you have to fight it.. Oh well the dust is badly needed so it is good as well! (sold the ship for 348 dust)

Also one of the quest curiosities gives us a whopping 30 hyperium! 

We continue to boost our population with Darkglitter. At this point its starting to matter. 13 x 2 FIDS.

We send the 1st liberator fleet towards Esh

And the eyes of the republic towards Ursa

We trade in the market so our Argosy can afford to settle this turn

And some more for transvine boost to system development. 

And settle in Zinius 

We seend Galvan from Micre to Zalvius and from Cardano to Micre (propegating pop is more effective than sending it all the way from Cardano.)

We switch laws from +4 movement to -30% system cost. Notice how switching laws allows you both to recieve the bonus from the movement on the turn and then also the bonus from the end turn effect of -30% system cost.

Micre ques up some dust buildings

Cardano as well

Tech wise the plan now is to set us up for more planet expansions with lava and desert. 

And that is the end of t13. At this point we will stop this part of the ARR and summarize and figure out some ideas for next time. Feel free to discuss or if you see some interesting path or move I can make.

End of t12 save:ADA end t12.sav

So lets look at our empire 12 turns into the game. We have some 19 population. We have 84 KEII and we got some decent FIDSI walues and resources. We are quite lacking still in hyperium and we need to find transwine as well as more advance resources to fuel our later turn growth as well as more advanced ships. 

Politically we look fairly stable into science. Hatchet at home is going to get more and more costly and at some point needs to be replaced. 

Millitary wise we do not yet have many fleets. Atleast dust keep is very low.

Our heroes should hopefully quickly gain levels with high industry output systems

Quest wise Behemoths are soon to enter the battle fray

Galaxy wise we have met the unfallen but do not know where they come from.  Likely northeast from Esh and could be a natural conquest target. 

 

So we will need influence

What to do next? At this point in time I feel what tech path is taken is going to be critical to how fast we continue our growth. To double our science levels seems like a wise goal to get as the tech research speed is slowing down. We will also need to build quite a bit of ships for conquests as we are bound to hit limits on expansion with the Argosy soon as the map fills out. A trippeling from 1 attack fleet to atleast 3 seems a goal to have for the next turns. Graviton shields for +30 science and +2 per pop seems a good idea to boost science and reveal uncommon related curiosities



As well as wave function so we can get the rare curiosities as well.

This also means we need new 2nd layers of scouts so a new scout fleet should be a target as well.




That concludes PART II. Part I you can read here: https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/forums/65-general/threads/31424-glorious-ada-arr-part-1