Presidential log: Stardate 77004.22675065784. Also known as January 2, 2400
Every day we progress. Every action we take, as a race, comes one step closer to earning us true glory in battle. Though there are exceptions, of course... Among them, sadly, my council. The fools! They fight this war as if it were on earth, for land, the way we have fought wars for 400 years. They are short-sighted. And I must defy them... They demand ships of destruction, hideously beweaponed. They desire increases in ground forces. The fools. We have a galaxy full of potential, and they demand bigger guns? One system will not save us once the aliens, the Xenos attack! We must expand...
I have ordered the engineering and construction of colony ships...
They are named Enterprise, for what they aim to achieve. And some other reason, which has slipped in my mind. They will serve us well.
The same applies to research. They are weak, and afraid, demanding greater weapons and armor. But before we can destroy, we must know our target. We must explore this galaxy. I have ordered the investment of the majority of our research budget into the creation of superior sensors... Though to prevent accusations of cowardice, I have been forced to order the creation of superior weaponry.
They are angered... I hope they will learn wisdom.
President’s log, 1st of February, 2400
Let there be celebration in the streets! Our research was successful! Our advance into space brought such new knowledge...
And the fruits of our labor are indeed worth having... New sensors, new weapons. But we must not lose sight of the goal. These advances are great, but they are but means to an end. For all my expansionism and love of research, this is merely a way to see our foes burn.
President’s log, 9th of February, 2400
They may be but means to an end... but yet I feel honoured to have witnessed this moment. Our shipyards completed the first ship of many, the beginning of our fleet. The Enterpise class colony ship rose slowly, majestically into the sky above our greatest city... and the whole world watched. It remained there, a beacon to us, the sun gleaming along its edges... Man’s greatest achievement to date. 9 million brave individuals, all of them trained and skilled, were loaded via shuttles. I watched one of the last batches personally, as 3000 of our citizens marched up the shuttle ramp in lockstep. Had we an anthem, they would have sung it. The determination on their faces was just as good, though. The knowledge what they were entering the unknown, not for their own sakes, or the sakes of their loved ones, but for the entire race. Means to an end, perhaps. Put noble means. I do hope the end can do it justice.
President’s log, 3st of March, 2400
It is done. Our first colony, our first step into the galaxy. The Enterprise 1, nicknamed “Columbus” landed on its target planet, disgorged its colony module and population load, was broken up for metal... and in its destruction, created the first instance of human extraterrestrial life. A proud moment indeed.
And not one, but two colonies were created in the last two months... 18 million pioneers, going... bravely... where no man has gone before. We have sufficient transport ships to keep them supplied with resources, which is why the first order I gave was to initiate the building of further shipyards, one on each planet. Research goes on... Our sensors grow even more powerful, our weapons more destructive, our armor more impenetrable. We are learning to fight...
President’s log, 12th of May, 2400
And we are gaining the means to do so... Two more colony ships, two more colonies, 18 million more brave warriors and explorers. Celebrations, globally, as we come to comprehend the fact that in the space of less than 5 months we have conquered our solar system.
But despite these... causes for celebration, the council becomes anxious. I promised our race a war... and now the first outliers are demanding one. And I must give in...
I have ordered the designing of a heavy space station. They want war and destruction, I shall place a huge chunk of metal armed with 16 guns into our atmosphere. If they agree.
I will go meet them now, our first major conference since the launch of our great empire.
I’ll drop the exact date, I’ll just give the months.
Also, the game takes place in 10-month increments, so gooooodbye june and july!
Also, we have our first few planets now, and some space, so what to do?
Two strategies I usually use is either sending out scouting ships, locating high-value planets (you can colonize planets with your planet type, ours is rock, but if the atmosphere’s unbreathable you can only build a quarter of your usual facilities on them. That’s quite a drop. Planets that you can colonize and breath (rock and oxygen) are fairly rare, we were lucky to have a large one in our first system.) and colonizing those quickly, as well as choke-points which we then secure, while sending out more scouts to locate and harass our enemies. Alternately, we just take every planet we see, colonize everything. Since any planet can have a shipyard, that can give us quite a lot of productivity, just at the cost of quick expansion and more valuable planets. Though we can still send out scouts and build invasion fleets. Whichever you prefer. Oh, and what should we do with the empty space we have? Research? I haven’t researched intel yet, though I could just do that.
And I'm not sure what our enemies are, but there're 15 of them. Would the council accept a diplomatic approach to some of them, just for fun?