For the release week bnof Villains of Star Control, I absolutely had to show off the Scryve. Ah the Scryve. How I wish we had thought of them before. Thirty years ago, when I was 18, I came up with the Drengin Empire. They are a pretty good villain for the Galactic Civilizations universe. But the Scryve? Ah, there is something magnificent about a race of demigods whose species is slowly dying out. An empire that was once as idealistic as any college freshman's utopian dreams but has become malevolent for no greater reason than time.
They say time heals all wounds. That phrase has a darker meaning to it. Because what it really means is that given enough time you just won't care as much about whatever wound you suffered. The Scryve are the personification of this concept. A race of immortal beings who have ruled for thousands of years has a hard time empathizing with the brief flickers of life that represents the span of time most species exist.
If you are planning for the long...long term, like the Scryve do, it becomes perilously easy to become callous. Combine that callousness with the arrogance of vast experience and you have the Scryve. And like I said, they're dying. And now they're in Galactic Civilizations III. This AAR will tell you a little bit more about them and help provide more insight into how an evil vs. evil game plays.
Doing what needs to be done to protect you since before we had agriculture
The beginning of the end
The Scryve, like the other 4 civilizations that come with the DLC, get their own ship styles, unique ability (in this case, their ships get tougher and tougher based on the size of your empire when in their own territory) and dialog. Their home system is very similar (intentionally similar) to that of the Terran Alliance.
The Scryve starting location
A couple of weeks into the great expansion something comes up:
It is their duty to go on a colony ship...no matter the cost.
Choosing the Aggression ideology results in a ship.
One comment I have is just how far the art for Galactic Civilizations has come. We originally shipped GalCiv III four years ago! And since then, we've really learned how to use the engine.
The Imperial government choice (from Intrigue)
In this particular game, I got lucky with a great set of planets and no immediate neighbors. As a result, I was able to grab a lot of good stuff quickly.
The Scryve also get their own starbase style.
Future Ward Species
The Scryve consider themselves at a higher level than other species. Being immortal, their rationale is how much wisdom can someone amass in a handful of years? There are also some species that dislike more than others.
The Xraki. Give up trying to be buddies.
The Scryve's good luck continues as they find a Precursor world to colonize.
The Scryve choose the benevolent choice for a change. Hard labor is benevolent...
We are nearing the end of the initial colony rush as we don't have the population yet to continue (we've sent most of our people to other worlds). But we have 3 candidates:
Let's recap:
Harrison I:
Has a Preumbral Beacon. These spawn space monsters in target locations which can wreak havoc on enemies. However they don't really do much for me.
Harrison II:
Not as good as the other two but has a Nanite Transmitted artifact. These spawn Overlord ships which can be a life saver (spawn one when a planet is about to get conquered).
Harrison III:
Has 2 food which is nice and has the same production benefits as Harrison I.
Which one?
I think I'll go with Harrison I. Two extra tiles is too much to pass up and the artifact can still be handy.
(It doesn't ultimately matter, the Phamyst got all three -- we were just too far away).
Lesson learned: Build Hypergates early and often.
