Completed Let's Multiplay Alpha Centauri - Binary Dawn - Game 4

[Kalin]

Let's Multiplay Alpha Centauri - Binary Dawn - Game 4

Gentlemen, with the completion of the previous community game it is high time for another round of manly and monocled SMAC. Although Merc dropped out we are still playing with his Binary Dawn mod, this time manhandled by yours truly to enhance the PBEM experience. Same map as before but edited to cull central jungle and add some monoliths/fungal rivers on all continents. As we could not find a seventh player (a recurring theme) the Lord's Believers have been PURGED so for once there is no A.I. this game. This time around we also play with Tech Stagnation to slow down the tech race and Do or Die meaning there won't be any escape pod pinball to prolong ITZ. All that said, let the carnage begin!

BRUTAL DAWN ETERNAL Changelog

Crawlers removed
Planetary Transit System moved to final tech
EMPATHY now gives an extra +1 GROWTH
POWER restored to give -2 INDUSTRY
Morgan got his +100 starting bux back
Peacekeeping base names restored
Sparta got POWER impunity
All factions start with two agri-bots
Forests take an extra turn to plant
Ascent cost doubled to 4000 minerals
Pods no longer yield artifacts
All SP names restored
Mentats restored to Thinkers
Planet Buster tech comes earlier
Orbital Defence Pods moved to Colonial Aviation

PBEM Rules

1. Be a bro.
2. Do not be faget.
3. Do not reload the save multiple times, or load game in scenario editor.
4. Do not conduct diplomacy with players before meeting them in-game.
5. Do not use colony pods to increase a base beyond its maximum population limit.
6. Do not use exploits to hurry production at reduced costs, or build something that could not directly be built.
7. Do not make social engineering changes and then change back in the same turn.
8. Do not start a terraforming task in one square, cancel it, and then finish it as part of combat terraforming.
9. Do not perform aggression against a player and complete pending negotiations with him in the same turn.
10. Reverse-engineering is allowed (making new designs utilizing stuff from a captured unit even though you lack the tech).
11. Exception to the above! Do not reverse-engineer clean reactors from the initial scouts. Haraam!
12. Upgrading units through workshop so that they can move the same turn IS allowed.
13. When you probe someone you do not have to pick harshest response or tell anyone what you did.
14. Planetary Council votes must be shared with all players because votes are not displayed in PBEM.
15. Never RETIRE default designs in the workshop, this can delete those units for other players as well.

Game settings

FACTIONS AND TURN ORDER:

University of Planet - Kalin
Spartan Federation - Grimgravy
Morgan Industries - Agentorange
Gaia's Stepdaughters - janior
Peacekeeping Command - Hellraiser
Human Hive - Absinthe

 

[RK47]

Entertain me pls.

 

[Reinhardt]

the Lord's Believers have been PURGED

 

[RK47]

 

[Storyfag]

Is dis thing ded yet?

 

[Hellraiser]

Is dis thing ded yet?

Turn 14, nobody wants to reveal sekrits yet. I have some things planned but not sure if I'll do them this weekend or next weekend. Need some time to flesh out the key UN Personnel and media.

 

[Kalin]

Yep

Spoiler

And here are the stats! Looks like I'm dominating but I play my turn first and also lucked out with pods giving me two techs. Last game A.I. Zakharov was in the lead a lot for similar reasons (that and I gave myself starting planet busters obv). Spartans being in the military lead is to be expected, probably got quite a number of rovers out and about. Curious to see Morgan being top dog in population. Hive also has greatest territory meaning the bases ought to be spaced out more than usual, might be going for big optimized bases or the starting location just sucked the big one.

 

[Hellraiser]

Also too busy o write updatan, maybe tomorrow. Wanted to write it for TURN 20, but too busy.

 

[Hellraiser]

United Nations Chiron Colony Anthem

Colonial Broadcasting Corporation News datalinks site, 18th of May 2222.

"De jurnay from Atalantika tu Rohdinya explaynd" from the CBC News Drone Section

Saylars yuse recovared yunity foyl tu kros owshen. Owshen is big pul of watah bitwin ar kontinant Atalantika ent odar kontinants. Rohdinya iz kontinant on odar side of owshen. De ship "Pacific" tek manee suplays for long jurnay, yuse orbitahl skan tu navigayd tu Rohdinya. Saylars ent Yu En ohfishals howp tu faynd odar sarvayvars of Yunity kolohnyi ship. Togedar work tu mayk planat ent kolohnyi rich fru trayd.

Spoiler

While Kalin is luckily getting tech on top of tech from pods I am getting worms, lots and lots of worms. Already lost one unity rover to them . Also found a unity foil way back and I am now looking for the other bros to "trayd sum tek" as the drones say.

For a few moments I was first in pop but no more.

Oh and of course:

Base is actually called U.N. X.H.A. now, seeing that it also snatched a snazzy monolith from the pod that rushed those recycling tanks. The poo will make the UN Colony rich, so long as it is in the L.O.O. and not in the streets.

 

[Reinhardt]

howp

it's spelled hopw

 

[Hellraiser]

howp

it's spelled hopw

The U.N. Drone Pidgin codification act disagrees. Lern tu spel.

 

[Storyfag]

howp

it's spelled hopw

The U.N. Drone Pidgin codification act disagrees. Lern tu spel.

Behead all who insult Prosper!

 

[Kalin]

UNIVERSITY OF PLANET NEWS ARCHIVE 4.14.2134

MUTATIONS BEHIND DIPLOMATIC FAILURE - Last year Academician Fedor Petrov, Vice Provost for University Affairs, announced the complete breakdown of negotiations with recently-contacted Gaia citing "highly erratic behavior" and "unpardonable hostility" from the faction's leadership. In addition to underlying irrational borderline-religious ideology and confirmed covert third-party influence, experts now reveal pathological causes for the aggression, linking observed Gaian mental deficiencies to biochemical mutagens contracted both from careless interaction with xenoflora and xenofauna as well as prolonged exposure to radiation from the U.N.S. Unity fusion core.

ADJUSTED ALCOHOL PRIVILEGES - Operating on the principle that usefulness of alcohol stimulation is linked directly to cognitive capacity the Central Planning Committee of the University Central Bureaucracy Council amended the weekly vodka ration in liters as follows: Talents: Unlimited, Engineers: 2, Skilled workers: 1.5, Drones: 0.5. Additional beverages may be purchased for credits within prescribed limitations of the Mature and Responsible Drinking Act.

DRASTIC MEASURES TAKEN - Provost Zakharov has ratified the "Extraordinary Compliance Measures Act" drafted by our democratically elected Technocratic Council to curb outrageous obstructionism and safeguard development of the Universal Translator. The swift response, forced by drones violently protesting over-crowding and insufficient amenities, effectively grants University Project Management Association (UNET) extraordinary authority in Otkrietia Lab for ten mission years to normalize production by aerially-induced neurological adjustment, nerve-stapling and recyclicide. "I simply could not condone mere rabble impeding a project so vital to the field of Xenoarchaeology", Zakharov explained.

NEW RESEARCH HOSPITAL - Our scientific superiority was further cemented as Severnaya Bunker inaugurated its Bio-Tech Research Hospital. Constructed at record-speed the grand facility utilizes material salvaged by the crew of Barents-class Laser Hydro-Foil "USS Alexei", so far credited with the recovery of four Unity pods. Surplus fuel and rare metals have been stockpiled as University Security Assets to ensure combat readiness.

 

[Demo.Graph]

the Central Planning Committee of the University Central Bureaucracy Council amended the weekly vodka ration in liters as follows: Talents: Unlimited, Engineers: 2

That's some talented talents right there, chief.

Otkrietia Lab

Damn, I've managed to forget how disgusting these default "russian" names are... And now you!

Severnaya Bunker

You gave your northern bunker a feminine adjective.

Spoiler

It's "Severnyi" or "Severnuy" for masculine form.

 

[RK47]

 

[Kalin]

The golden age of discovery prompted by our completion of the Universal Translator in M.Y. 2141 and accelerated by subsequent breakthroughs in our Anomalous Materials Laboratory continues unabated at record pace. In but a single Mission Year our brilliant talents perfected our longevity research and gained new mastery of industrial genetic engineering. In addition, and of far greater importance, they also achieved the revolutionary leap which has redefined and transcended the very boundaries of human knowledge; the unraveling of the Secrets of the Human Brain. Aided by recent surges of human test subjects from extraordinary measures to curb unrest and improve efficiency in our HQ the University cognitive elites have expertly mapped the biological mechanism of human self-awareness itself!

As we stand astride Chiron as an economic and technological colossus our regressive rivals evidently view us with utmost fear and envy. Aside from continued hostility from the Gaian mutant enclave University staff members have now also been met with unpardonable aggression from "Peacekeeping" forces posturing about using weapons they do not possess and raving about nailing University operatives to their rather humble walls for the imagined crime of "violating" their territory and "stealing" their inferior equipment. No shots were fired, and the poorly trained rabble struggled to maintain formation as our numerically smaller but technologically superior University detachment withdrew to continue their mission.

This latest incident conforms to a pattern of provocation on the part of the U.N. Peacekeepers who "upon revision" appear to feel themselves free to disregard previous agreements made between our respective leaders. In response to this duplicitous behaviour and suspected scheming against our interests the Technocratic Council has tasked our dedicated University Security Police Organization to establish a "Zero Zone" defense system in which any intrusion into University territory, including the seas surrounding our continent, will be met with deadly force to safeguard the peace and prosperity of the faction.

 

[Hellraiser]

For Earth and all Mankind

CBC Planet News BREAKING NEWS
11th of April, Mission Year 2146

University forces have been spotted breaking the treaty of friendship not just with further illegal pod salvage operations in our territory, such as that which triggered last year's seismic event. They have sent an armed task force in the direction of the U.N. Xenoheritage Agency, a blatant unprovoked move which has lead to an official declaration of war, as University troops responded to hails and warning shots with the killing of a Peacekeeping fungal reconnaissance patrol.

The United Nations Office of the Prosecutor has pressed charges against Zakharov for this obviously belligerent act and other violations of the U.N. charter. The U.N. Secretariat has officially announced through acting U.N. Secretary General and U.N. Colonial Commissioner Pravin Lal that, quote, "our response will be decisive and we shall not hesitate to spill University blood, as regretful as violence is".

Civil defence drills have been announced and martial law will be in effect as of midnight.

comment

Kalin is trying hard to fill in for Merc in the aggressive first contact department. One probe team I detained and thought that would be enough as he was just scouting to see whos base it is, but then he comes back with 2 more, steals shit (a Unity rover) and tries to threaten me into a pact. Which BTW I would have joined if he allowed me to send those two probe teams backs and if he disbanded the rover he stole (stacked with probes), didn't really want to fight him now, but I also could not have allowed myself to get infiltrated or worse.

Then I though at least he'll fuck of into isolation and we'll get to LARP some cold war, but it turned out he was sneaking impact units through some no-man's land. He got a bit lucky there due to [redacted] stuff I cannot reveal now.

We're already in the turn after it started and so far he hasn't really shot me first or attacked a base (his forces moved elsewhere, more on that in some future update), I just lost some scouts in suicide attacks, but who knows what he just did on his 48th turn, I'll know tomorrow as I am almost last in the TURN order. There's probably going to be a bit more propaganda posted in the coming week it seems. I have no intention of going down easily.

 

[Hellraiser]

UN war analysis music

United Nations Secretariat meeting, 21st of April, M.Y. 2148

Tikaram: Enemy forces are keeping their distance.

Lal: That would be scenario?

Tikaram: Scenario beta, Sir.

Lal: Seems they are cautious, nevertheless the relative bloodlessness of this war is some bright spot in this dire situation.

Brighton: It could turn bloodier at any moment. Zakharov seems quite cross with us, and from what we know he does possess significant advantages in not just technology.

Avaserala: They can cry us a goddamn river. We don’t follow up first contact made with a team of spies, by sending in even more teams of spies, next stealing foreign hardware after the first group got detained and sent back. Not to mention audaciously claiming we are their biggest concern and that we should accept some glorified form of vassalage to prove goodwill, while simultaneously threatening sabotage in our settlements or datalinks.

Tikaram: We have contingencies, forecasts and projections in place in case it does turn bloodier. Some good intel also, and that seismic event from a couple year ago, seems it triggered a tsunami that capsized an egghead transport ship. Possibly with troops aboard.

Avaserala: I guess when they prayed to Carl Sagan, recited the litany against fear or whatever it is that these supposedly enlightened people did in the face of certain death, they have wished that they would have agreed to be politely escorted by our forces back to their bloated academic campus, as we offered to.

Brighton: Our intelligence is far from ideal, especially given the situation.

Avaserala: While it is true that the black ops teams have not gained the knowledge we seek so far, I believe the general is making an excellent job at keeping our people safe. And once we have what we need, my staff at the black site will do what they can to make the people even safer.

Nhi: With the Diana Initiative now in the maturity stage I am sure the general will have an easier time in repelling these incursions.

Tikaram: Yes, our boys in blue are most appreciative of the Diana Railguns. The much needed firepower parity gives us crucial tactical and strategic flexibility.

Lal: I prefer we would have had no need for such R&D projects, still my deepest fears that unfortunately we are going to need it have proven to be correct.

Brighton: It was a good bet, it took more than a decade but any moment later and the current situation could have been very dramatic. No to mention the trade value and bargaining options it opens up. Plus, it seems the University was not expecting us to have this technology, despite Avaserala’s colorful although slightly premature stern warnings.

Avaseral: We don’t need railguns to nail their invaders to the wall, and it seems that contrary to what they keep saying about our stern warnings, they are quite fearful of what I told them, judging by their movements so far.

Lal: I quite abhor this kinds of quite graphic violence you speak of Deputy Undersecretary, and I say this as a surgeon who has seen his fair share of gore and guts. Diana was insurance, and as it is with all insurance, it was a bet we wanted to lose. In this case we have unfortunately won it. Let us pray that is not the sole victory we can claim in these trying times. Please do remember the sacrifices that were made so that others could live. The 6th and 11th fungal reconnaissance companies of Styx River, that dealt a major blow to their cavalry despite their own demise. And the 23rd fungal reconnaissance company of XHA, that tried to reason with the intruders, only to be cut down with brutality.

*silence*

Lal: The contingencies we are familiar with and they are to be followed as outlined in past meetings of this Secretariat, so let us go over the other areas.

Nhi: The Helios Initiative is almost ready. The Xochiquetzal and Ninurta Initiatives are pending your approval.

Lal: I will make my decision this afternoon. What about foreign affairs.

Avaserala: No changes for now.

Lal: Any word from Deirdre's faction?

Avaserala: Deirdre seems committed to her isolation policy bordering on ignoring we exist, despite the shared border. The few intelligence reports we have seem to indicate Ted Kaczynski and a couple of other colourful neo-luddite characters would gladly join her neopagan kumbaya and dance around the camp fire.

Brighton: Still, they might have something of use. Raw materials, terraforming techniques, anything.

Avaserala: At this point it seems the Gaians as they call themselves have nothing to offer anyway, apart from ecorevolutionary pamphlets, printed on recycled paper. If Miriam’s pod didn’t burn up, I guarantee that her bible study groups would develop more new technology than what Deirdre's aspiring little witch coven of Chiron has. If we wish to gain new technology and elevate our people to a higher standard of living, we must look elsewhere.

Lal: Deputy Undersecretary, please humour me and try reaching out to Deirdre again. We have a lot to offer, and I think some of it might be up to their standards of environmental sensibility.

Avaserala: Understood.

Lal: What about the naval expeditions, Admiral?

Vincze: The status remains unchanged, no new salvage or contacts, Sir. Just some more detailed cartographical data. It is expected candidate site Kappa will be the first of the current batch to be reached.

Lal: At this point the status quo seems quite attractive.

Brighton: We must be ready for change.

Lal: I believe we are, and I hope I am not mistaken here. We will meet again tomorrow at the same time. Thank you all for your work in preserving the legacy of mankind and of Earth.

Spoiler

The turn is 48, 3 turns in and the war so far looks like this:

With the girl being Kalin’s eggheads. My guess is that so far I managed to be one step ahead of him not really giving him any possibility for an attack that is worth it. Dunno what he did on turn 49, but as of turn 48 the situation looked rather uneventful, with both sides engaging in manoeuvring and tacticool bamboozling, rather than direct combat.

Except for some suicide attacks where I attacked an egghead impact rover with my scout infantry. Had two patrolling Styx River through which Kalin tried to sneak 3 times already, they got boxed in with zones of control and there was no better way to use them. I managed to get lucky rolls and damaging one impact rover to 50% reducing it to just one move .

Fear the peacekeeping scouts. Those 3 scouts are my only losses so far, not bad for repelling a sneak attack.

BTW expect more Expanse references in the future, I have one idea for an update that is waiting for the conditions to materialize. Avaserala just naturally fits into the type of LARP and gameplay we do in the PBEM SMAC games on the codex.

Oh and Kalin was stealing pods from my turf, popped one at a coast that created a new mountain, expanding my landmass, and killing his ship in the process as it was in the sea next to the new mountain peak, r00fles.

In other news as Kalin has noticed I finally have impact weapons. If it wasn’t for shitty pods not giving me tech and janior larping turboluddite Gaians that do not trade tech, I would have gotten it before this mess started. Had to research mining lasers (applied physics in vanilla? laser weapon tech) myself, could have gotten it from janior if he was willing to offer it and that would save me 10 turns of research if not more.

Oh and a bonazs, some diplomatic communication I sent him when I saw his probes and rover theft, the bluff didn't work as he had impact weapon tech already and could easily check on the tech trading screen if I have the tech or not (but also confirmed he had it, before I got infiltration, unless that was also an attempt at bamboozling):

It has been a great pleasure making contact with you Mr. Zakharov. As U.N. Extrasolar Settlement Initiative Deputy Undersecretary, I have been tasked by the good commissioner Pravin Lal with finalizing our negotiations.

We have sent you an offer of alliance that is pending your and our approval, once certain provisions of goodwill are made from your side we will also accept it on our end, now that we have had a chance to further review the situation.

The rovers you stole are to be disbanded immediately. As for the specs ops troops, we politely request that they sit exactly where they are with no armed escort, waiting for UN personnel to provide them with the necessary travel papers to swiftly fuck off from our territory under UN peacekeeper guard (I will politely detain and send them back). We ask that you honour these simple requests or find your men maimed by our impact weapons and any survivors nailed to the wall as an example.

Sincerely,

C. Avasarala
United Nations Deputy Undersecretary

 

[RK47]

 

[Hellraiser]

Sopona ambience

Operative Blue was guiding the Deputy Undersecretary through the facility, it was not common of Avaserala to visit the black sites in person, despite being the head of diplomacy and espionage. This visit at Sopona was her first, and also the first black site visit in general since the war started.

Operative Blue himself was quite used to the brutalistic and dimly lit corridors of the Sopona Blacksite, navigating effortlessly through the maze of holding cells, classified laboratories or hidden fabricators. He has been assigned to the facility ever since it was estabslished. The site itself was a fairly new thing, erected hastily out of prefabs in the remote giant fungal fields to maintain utter secrecy, both from those within and from those outside the U.N. colony on Chiron.

They made their way towards their destination. A cell door has opened and the prisoner held inside of it was visible. He has been mounted on hooks by his arms, a position more fit for a shotgun in hunting cabin.

“Was he willing to say anything?” Avaserala asked Operative Blue.

“He did say things but...” the operative stopped before pointing at the prisoner.

“...and when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path,” the prisoner mumbled in a hasty fashion.

“We are not sure if this is some form of brain damage or just autism,” the operative explained.

“I can see why you are not certain; but at least he is not drooling.”

An east asian woman entered the cell, she wore the pin of the Xenobiology Research Institute.

“You are late,” Avaserala commented.

“I had to check the labs first, Chrisjen,” Deputy Undersecretary Nhi explained.

From Blue’s experience, Nhi was a common guest to the site. Not as common as Master Operative Cyan or Director Black, but few people visited as frequently as Nhi, as she was the head of all U.N. research, much of which happened in the black sites. This arrangement was not merely due to the need for secrecy, but also so that any researcher found sympathetic of the University could be easily identified and dealt with, before he or she became a critical faction security fuck up.

The prisoner continued to recite his litany, not slowing down in pace, repeating it over and over again.

“In any case this man does not seem in the mood for divulging new intelligence,” Chrisjen scoffed.

“I can have the empaths look into this,” Nhi suggested, “I’m sure they can get something out of the egghead.”

“How will that even help, they probably made the man catatonic in the first place.” Avaserala replied.

“Just as empaths and the worms guided by them can project fear and horror into the subject’s brain,” Nhi started explaining, ”we believe a skilled empath might be able to do it with other emotions. Emotions to which the subject might respond in a way that allows our operatives to efficiently interrogate him.”

“Unless he’s autistic, like probably half of the University is,” Chrisjen remarked.

“Surely even a mind of an autistic individual has its security holes”, Vihn countered.

“Then prove it,” Avaserala told her as she approved a transfer on her phone. “The prisoner is now your lab rat, I transferred him from internal security black ops to the psionics office. Just work with Operative Blue on this, he has more experience with interrogation than your empaths. I heard they get along better with worms than people.”

Operative Blue, while trained in mental techniques to resist mindworm psionic assault, still felt a slight feeling of terror when thinking about the mindworms. They have proven to be a useful asset, true, but there was something on a deeply basic and primal level that made him disgusted by them, even despite all the things he has witnessed when working in U.N. Black Ops.

Nevertheless the Ninurta project has proven to be a great success which he could not deny; mindworms guided by empaths were the first units to emerge truly victorious over egghead forces, defeating an enemy captured boil and the spetsnaz they were escorting. The first boil was of course lost in the counter attack by enemy impact rovers supported by more spetsnaz, but those rovers and the spetsnaz were also defeated by another U.N. boil. A small group of empaths turned the tide of war much more effectively than all the peacekeeper cavalry companies armed with Diana railguns had.

“While I am quite sure my empaths could handle it, we will use this cross-department knowledge sharing opportunity to its fullest potential.” Nhi enthusiastically told the Operative and Chrisjen.

“Yes,” the other deputy undersecretary replied, “I am quite sure our people can learn much from each other and we should use the most of this opportunity, Vinh.”

A notification appeared on the HUD displayed by Operative Blue’s tactilenses. A message was sent to him by Avaserala:

If they try to put a psionic spell on you, you have my permission to shoot them. I’ll take care of the paperwork.

”comments”

The turn was 51. Janior fixed his computer so the TURN flows once again for a few days already.

After my brave UN suicidal scout charge there wasn’t any combat going on, and as previously mentioned it appeared the eggheads were mostly focusing on running away. Or at least on making appearances of such so that I walk into a trap with my blue helmets.

In any case after I found some eggheads lurking about, I used worms to kill Kalin’s worms, he captured some as he has +1 planet from controlling the manifold nexus. Those worms were guarding a probe team so that’s a double kill right there.

Kalin counter attacked with his impact rover guarded by more probes, killing my boil. I killed the counter attack force with the other worms I had in range as I expected that might happen, PBEM 47D chess and all that. If that ain't dead, I should be ahead in total damage inflicted, when counting in minerals lost (and excluding the free worm he got).

I figure the campaign is not going for him as he planned.



Then again...

...while the graph doesn’t look that bad the thing is Kalin has double my pop. We have the same number of votes, except I am Lal and have double votes

Also Hive is leading in tech, which means they probably have the most contacts (or probes) to acquire new tech.

 

[Kalin]

Progress

 

[Hellraiser]

Spoiler

The turn is 55, I have recenlty obtained the comm frequency of every faction, and just called elections after I managed to squeeze some extra votes out thanks to the magic of demokwacy. This is how the number of votes looks like:

Of course the number of votes is recalculated on the start of everyone's turn as we saw 3 games ago when I was Zakharov and wanted to be governor, in the most infamous of governorship elections we ever had in PBEM.

In other news I have been leading in military for a while now and the eggheads ran back to mommy. Worm-fu too stronk.

Wealth tends to flip-flop between random people depending who kills worms or pops a pod, as everybody is spending all the cash they can. Tech also depending on the current wheeling and dealing.

 

[Grimgravy]

Where my bribes at?

 

[Grimgravy]

There they are!

 

[Hellraiser]

Figaro

AN ESCAPED DRONE'S SHOCKING ACCOUNT OF UNIVERSITY NERVE STAPLING

The Suns has made contact with Mr. X (name changed by The Suns staff), who has escaped the University gulags and lived to tell the horrifying tale. "Da, if we not work 14 hours a day, science commissar staple right in brain, no matter if exhausted, hungry or want to take a leak," Mr. X told us. "You disobey they take you to the nerve stapling array, is big place where hundreds of stapling stations run all day until they break you. If you lucky, you only end up there or in gulag. Unlucky, religious or love sport? You go to special lab, they make injections, cut out body parts, test cybernetic implants, never come back to see wife and kids. All one can hope is quick death, da. Experiment succeeding and surviving, much scarier fate."

Due to accounts like this surfacing and due to the findings of the Planetary Council inspectors sent to investigate by Governor Lal, the University is now embargoed for well over 250 years by other council members. "Zakharov think people his playthings, subjects for study, but people want live, get job, drink vodka and squat. He not even give basic dignity and take away joy of life for some cruel science." Interfactional pressure is now increasing on Governor Lal to take action against Zakharov who, contrary to multiple acts of goodwill from UN side, refused to choose the path of peace. Some hope Lal might even go as far as to write Zakharov another stern angry letter with strong words.

BRIGHTON AND LAL FINALLY FIX THE BLOODY LOO

Following supposed "overhaul" of the L.O.O. system in the Customs Control Bureau, residents of the outpost have been forced to seize the initiative when it came to going about their business. After 2 years of complaints about the stench coming from the town's streets, the UN Secretariat saw it fit to actually bloody do something about it. Thanks to a massive mailing campaign, supported also by The Suns, new loos will be installed and the poo will go where it belongs, back into yummy colonial rations or into your power grid.

THIS MOTHER CRIES AS SHE "CAN'T AFFORD TO FEED ALL 9 OF MY CHILDREN ON BASIC ASSISTANCE"

Mrs. Shagsawanker is a typical colonial mum, a true patriot that performed her duty of spreading her legs and bringing as much offspring as possible to the Chiron Colony. Yet the UN, which hammered the message of dutiful reproduction into her and every other citizen's head, refuses to raise Basic Assistance. "I went out and did my part, and what does the secretariat do? They give nothing! Nothing for my hard work of finding blokes and letting them finish inside of me," she told us before she started crying.

"The dads refuse to give anything, because their Basic Assistance barely covers the bare essentials like a few pints at the pub. The Social Services administrator told me I need to get a job and give my children to the Creche when I am at work. I am shocked she said that, how can I watch Morganic Reality TV such as Sodom Shore if I am stuck picking lentils in some farming zone. How can I teach my daughters how to paint their nails, if they are stuck in a creche learning useless Algebra like some Talent or other bugger!" The case of Mrs. Shagsawanker is but one of many caused by the Secretariat's refusal to acknowledge that Basic Assistance is too low, and that it is the state's duty to give people money so that they don't have to work. Lal and the rest should give us what we bloody well deserve.

comment

The turn is 57, won election a turn earlier. Kalin of course tried to bribe people, but I was already on that before I called the election and managed to secure some key votes with bribes of my own first. Global infiltration is useful as I learned some [redacted] things through it...

...for example how much stapling Kalin did, he did it least 28 times since it is 10 years per atrocity. Probably over 30 times, but I don't know exactly when he did it for the first time. Unless he was just razing his own bases and its not just the stapling that caused these sanctions.

First time I got to be governor in PBEM at a stage where it does matter. Only other time was after Kurgan 3 games ago, but by then my University was just mopping up AO's Believers as all other opposition had sudoku'd themselves. Every other time either someone was bigger and/or had the projects that doubled the votes or was Lal. Such as in vanilla PBEM game 2 a few years ago. Brozil's Lal who got Black Friday'd by my Hive was governor, I could vote for either him or Kalin's Believers who had the empath's guild, no option for governorship in that game. Was close as University before Kurgan 3 games ago, but Kalin called the vote just before I boomed past him (on purpose obviously) resulting in the infamous election with 3 candidates.

I was leading in tech for a moment and got surpassed in military by SPARTAAAA. It looks like people are catching up, however the graph does not accurately reflect Kalin's twice as big population compared to me or Sparta, as was visible on the votes screen previously.