Let's Play Stellaris 3.11 - Determined Exterminator Ep5 - Opportunity Costs

2273-2285ish

Consolidating gains from the Yalon war, gathering intel on the federation. Too many good techs drawn, too much empire size, not enough energy or research points.

Playlist link:    • Let's Play Stellaris 3.11 - Determine...  

00:00 Welcome back, recap of last time
00:29 Revisiting my "bombard vs invade" strategy
01:54 The Federation Situation - What does a "Pathetic fleet" actually mean?
03:27 Shifting focus from just knocking out homeworlds to homeworlds plus guaranteed habitables
04:24 Planning the fleet and intel pivot to war on the Federation
07:13 Starbase considerations
08:32 Thinking about the Khan
10:57 The other reason I'm taking the Federation more seriously now
13:45 Thinking about expanding Rare Crystal production for the edicts
14:33 Unpause
15:40 Maneuvering for the final battle with the Yalon fleet
16:20 OK yeah we definitely aren't getting Destroyers progress from salvage even when we destroy Destroyers
18:12 Ion Thrusters from salvage!
19:40 Free intel on one of the Federation fleets
21:24 Counting all the zombies I could've had if I had taken Mechromancy second
22:48 The other reason that managing your starbase cap is important that I didn't mention is that the upkeep scales up super-aggressively when you're over starbase cap. I think it's like +25% upkeep to all starbases per starbase over cap.
24:24 Resettling organic pops to deal with crime. I wonder if this is actually worth it / whether I'll make back 100 energy per pop resettled.
25:20 On maximizing energy income from organics... is the Martial Law decision gone now?
26:13 Tricky physics choice involves math
30:50 Finishing Unyielding, Synthetic Age
31:32 I salute your determination, Yalon, but this is not a fight you're going to win.
32:50 Questionable decision - I could have sent this one fleet to bombard down the rest of the Yalon's planets, per new bombardment doctrine, ending the empire. At the very least I could've gone and taken their bastion rather than spending alloys on a new one -_-
34:38 Planetary shield generator micro
36:44 The realization that I've had an idle scientist for like ten years
39:22 Federation intel check, doin' some espionage
40:43 I think I got the cloaking speed insight tech here and didn't realize it
41:03 Reasons to not just status quo the war with the Yalon
45:00 Hard engineering choices
45:23 The other thing we want gas for is upgraded Energy Grids and the orbital ring energy thing
49:19 Cruisers! Or not...
55:05 Third civic, about a 5% reduction in tech and tradition costs
56:55 While I was waiting to see if I got good techs for upgrades, I should've been filling out these fleets to 70 corvettes, since Destroyers increases fleet command limit
1:00:44 Engineering choices
1:04:05 Fiddling with species rights to assimilate the Yalon robots