Neptune’s Pride 2 Diary – Part 3

When we last left our Neptune’s Pride 2 Diary, mid-game was well in effect. Empires had spilled over their borders, and the weak was making way for the strong. Red had amassed a huge fleet and was going nowhere with it – meaning I had to clean out that corner before I could deal with everyone else. These are the exploits of the Yellow empire.

In all the images below, I’m Yellow. You can read Part 1 of the Diary here, and Part 2 here.

Entry 8 – Sleeping Giant

Light Blue continues to kick the crap out of Dark Blue, and I decide now is the time to make my move. I organise a trade with Green for Weapons tech, putting me one level higher than Red, and since Green has positioned itself as a kind of Science merchant for the whole galaxy (in the hopes no one will become hostile, I assume) I ask politely if Green would refrain from sharing that tech with Red for a while.

I come from three directions at once, entering hyperspace at 2am. I target the planets with carriers – they have more ships, but unless Red pays for more carriers (if Red has the money for it), it doubles the defensive reaction time. Those carriers would have to fly to a nearby planet and back to reinforce. I’ll have to take out those ships eventually, anyway. Later on, I’ll come in with a fourth attack, and I have several more waves on the way from my back lines.

Entry 9 – Better Than Coffee

I wake up, and it’s cold, and I don’t want to get out of bed. Suddenly I remember – “The attack!”

I grumpily put on clothes and crab-walk to my computer. The attack has gone fine. I have a beachhead in Red territory, and my first action is to pump up the industry there. His factories now work for me, and the longer I have them, the better it is.

Light Blue has all but completely wiped out Dark Blue now, and has surpassed me in the Leaderboards by owning more stars. I still have double the ships, but I’ll lose a lot in combat with Red, and after that it might come down to who pummels the lesser races quickest. Light Blue has pumped up Economy and Industry to almost the same level as me – I still have way more ships, but we’ll be growing at the same rate. We’ll see how it goes when the dust settles.

Entry 10 – All That Matters Is Few Stood Against Many

I steamroll through Red. In fact, I’m not even sure if Red is playing anymore. There are fleets of a few hundred ships on every star, and they’re not being rearranged at all. As the attack passes into the “nothing can be done about it” stage, it becomes clear that it’ll come down to Light Blue and I.

Light Blue is powering Weapons tech in anticipation of the coming war, and has moved in on Pink in a big way. I have superior Scanning tech, which I’m starting to think is really underrated as the galaxy gets more crowded. But I quickly finish my Hyperspace travel tech and switch to Weapons, as well as doing a bit of a Science boom. Light Blue has Weapons 7 as opposed to my Weapons 4 at one stage, but our Science is equal, so given the scaling of higher techs, I should be able to equalise by the time we meet. Or come close, at least. I might have to defend a bit to make use of the defensive advantage in combat – but that’s at odds with my urgent need to grab more stars.

Light Blue’s pummelling of Dark Blue and Pink brings it dangerously close to reaching the 115 stars necessary to win. But I have a huge amount of ships, and can afford a huge amount of carriers to transport those ships through hyperspace. Red was like some annoying Spartan army that wouldn’t give up its territory without a big fight, and it took vital time.

We’re at the stage of the game when our incomes are large enough to purchase expensive warp gates. Ships travelling between two warp gates go three times as fast, and before long my empire looks like a spider’s web of planned routes. I have carriers ferrying ships from all surrounding stars, and dropping them on warp gates. I then have another level of logistics, ferrying those warp gate ships to the front line. As I turn my war machine around to face the Real Enemy, all ships racing through hyperspace, Light Blue reaches 110 stars.

Too damn close.


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