Diary of Jory Hutchinson: 3014 – 3023

 

I am Jory Hutchinson. Faction Leader of The Hutchinson Dominion since 3001.

51 years old; married (twice) with two surviving daughters, Brielle and Teagan, and living on the capital system, Phecda.

My earlier logs are: 3002: The Beginning and Star Date: 3005 – 3010

Diary Entry: Star Date – 3014

The last few years have been very unsettled – rulers from all factions, including mine, are raiding weaker systems for resources, and even occasionally allying with each other to raid the capital systems of leaders.

The bad blood between Vandalin and Argus is causing significant problems now (the two rulers joined me after Argus’s rebellion  led to the downfall of Vandalin’s faction).

Argus and Vandalin have raided each other multiple times in tit-for-tat attacks. Initially I helped Vandalin defend, but latterly I am remaining neutral. The only solution I can see is to depose one of them as ruler, but they both have allies among my other rulers and I suspect the attempt would split my faction in half.

Diary Entry: Star Date – 3016

I attacked, conquered and deposed Ruler Kimberly Medina, a ruler from the Diaz Collective faction who kept raiding my systems and allying with some of my rulers against others.

I gave her system, Juxta, to my daughter Brielle to rule.

My rulers, however,  became unhappy with the frequent fighting caused by raids, and the war with the Diaz Collective over Juxta and Tseen (another system I conquered).

I never under estimate the ability of discontented rulers to de-stabilise a faction, so I quickly regained the approval of my rulers by reducing their taxes to me.

I maintained the state of ‘at war’ with Leader Roger Diaz for two years,  but neither of us made any attacks. As the stronger leader, I invited him to surrender twice but he chose to surrender to Leader Luam Hanson with whom I had no enmity, and so the war was ended.

I am the most powerful leader in this quadrant of space with 12 systems and a strong military fleet of ships.

My house has grown in prosperity to host over 50 nobles and I have sent several diplomats as ambassadors to live on the systems of my neighbouring rulers and leaders, increasing my public reputation for diplomacy rather than warfare.

Diary Entry: Star Date – 3018

Unfortunately, Juxta’s economy was in a bad state at the end of the war with the Diaz Collective. Brielle could not save the system, and the colony had to flee to safety, leaving it in ruins.

I decided the time had come to sort out some of the more disloyal rulers.

I deposed Ruler Odessa Davies from the Tau Cygni system because she allied with my enemy, Leader Roger Diaz against me in the war and later they also raided my system together!

I gave the rule of the Tau Cygni system to my wife, whose title  became Ruler Oralee Dean and she moved there with our youngest daughter, Teagan.

This appointment greatly pleased Oralee, who is ambitious (and made amends for her grievance against me for an affair I’d had with Leader Diaz’s mother, Rosalba in the past!).

However, before I could turn my attention to the long-running feud between Argus and Vandalin, the system infrastructure on Yildun collapsed after a raid by Argus leaving Vandalin and my grand-children, Hila and Santos, homeless and without status.

I gave Vandalin and his people a home on Phecda.

As Hila was 18 years old, I arranged a good marriage for her with Noble Colman Ayers, the son of a nearby ruler from the Deleon faction and she moved to her husband’s system, Neshmet.

Santos is 15 years old, and a fine looking boy – already sporting a moustache, he resembles me! I look forward to negotiating a marriage with good prospects for Santos in the future.

Diary Entry: Star Date 3020

I have deposed Ruler Grizelda Newman from Marfik for not responding to my call to arms and for allying with outsiders to raid rulers in her own faction which she has done several times over the years. We have never liked each other.

I gave Marfik to Brielle – hopefully she will have more luck with this system!

As I had ample and clear justification to depose Grizelda and Odessa, my rulers supported my actions on Tau Cygni and Marflk without concern, and my reputation was undamaged.

I raised my rulers’ taxes to medium, but spent the next six months investing in the economies of all my faction’s systems to ensure that our faction remained powerful.

On a sad note, my wife, Odessa died at the relatively young age of 50 – our daughter, Teagan, inherited Tau Cygni and rules there now.

Without Grizelda, Odessa or Vandalin in power, there were far fewer raids amongst my rulers and I did not engage in any fighting unnecessarily – my only combat was to help Ruler Cory Ibarra survive a rebellion on her system.

No further diary entries by Jory Hutchinson ….

Post-Script – Star Date Jan 3023

Jory Hutchinson died suddenly at the age of 61, in the year 3021.

His daughter, Brielle Hutchinson inherited his empire of 11 systems but she was intensely disliked by her father’s rulers and her rule was short and disastrous.

The end was swift. Leader Gizelle Deleon declared war on the Hutchinson Faction, and took the Tseen and Sigma Draconis systems in combat easily when Brielle’s rulers ignored her call to arms. Praecipua, the next system to be attacked, collapsed and became uninhabitable.

Brielle’s half-sister, Ruler Teagan Dean, took the opportunity to raid Phecda, which also became uninhabitable as a result of the combat; making Brielle homeless and ousting her as faction leader.

Teagan became faction leader, aged 16, but the Hutchinson Faction was quickly defeated by the Deleon and Diaz Collective factions which attacked simultaneously.

Jory Hutchinson’s legacy was wiped out in 6 months.

Play Tester’s Note

This AAR showcases Strategy Mode, where I play the game with full control to select any valid action for my character.

The fate of characters is influenced by personality traits, opinions character form of each other, kinship and feudal bonds, economic/military strength and consequences of actions taken. The success of Jory and failure of Brielle was not  pure chance.

Our other story, Katie Bond, features Star Dynasties in Story Mode where the player selects an action from recommended options.

Star Dynasties is in development; some of the game systems in this prototype are incomplete or may change in the future.

If you would like to comment on this post, click here.

Diary of Jory Hutchinson: 3005 – 3010

 

Hello again! I am the Faction Leader of The Hutchinson Dominion, and this is my diary.

Here is what I wrote in 3002:  Jory Hutchinson – The Beginning

Diary Entry: Star Date – July 3005

My household is well populated with 19 nobles belonging to my House, and 4 guests (diplomats from other star systems). My daughters, Brielle and Iokina, are married; Iokina has a  daughter, Hila, and is expecting her second child.

My wife, Oralee, is also pregnant. She is my second wife (not Brielle and Iokina’s mother).

My faction has been at peace for the last 4 years and my four rulers have been loyal, although Ruler Grizelda Newman is unhappy with me for not helping her quell a rebel uprising on her system.

Diary Entry: Jan 3006

My wife, Oralee, successfully gave birth to a daughter, Teagan.

Tragically, Iokina died in childbirth although the baby survived, he is called Santos. I had hoped that Iokina and Vandalin, her husband (and heir to the Trujillo Planets faction), would enjoy a long marriage with several children to build a strong alliance based on family ties.

Six months later, Vandalin’s father, Leader Clove Trujillo, also died and Vandalin became faction leader of the Trujllo Planets. However, our factions are very similar in size and military power, and we have a good opinion of each other so our alliance remains strong.  Hila, my 4-year old grand-daughter is Vandalin’s  heir, but he has married again so probably she and Santos will have siblings with rival (albeit weaker) claims to inherit their father’s faction.

Diary Entry: Jul 3010

The factions around me have become increasingly unstable.

Leader Ezra Bass, has the largest faction near me but three of his rulers are constantly fighting – raiding other systems, and asking him for military support or justice which he ignores. Albadah was raided so often that the system infrastructure collapsed and the colony living there had to abandon it. I gave Ruler Grizelda Newman resources to increase the military strength of Marfik which borders the Bass Colonies; and we have supported Ruler Wiley McConnell, the Bass ruler of 70 Ophiuchi, in combat to earn her goodwill as her system is next door to us.

Vandalin’s faction has fragmented into two. One of his rulers, Ruler Argus Wilkerson, raided Vandalin’s system, Yildun,  and stole resources from him. Vandalin tried to depose him with the help of another ruler and myself  but failed to win the combat in spite of having a much larger military force (supplied by me), and Argus Wilkerson has broken away and set himself up as an independent single system faction.

On my other border, the Diaz Collective faction declared war on someone unknown to me, and conquered a system so they are growing more powerful.

Vandalin was left in such a weak position that I suggested he surrender his power to me and become part of my faction. It was highly likely that one of the larger factions would have attacked him so he accepted and became one of my rulers.

I then asked the rebellious Leader Argus Wilkerson to surrender to me as well because he was also vulnerable, and he did – which could get interesting as Vandalin obviously has a grievance against Argus for breaking up his faction.

I have learnt of two new neighbours, the Heath Territories and Deleon Quadrant factions, through Vandalin’s rulers.

I am in a strong position with 9 systems in my faction

This AAR showcases Strategy Mode, where I play the game with full control to select any valid action for my character.

Our other story, Katie Bond, is a more light-hearted look at how you can play Star Dynasties in Story Mode where you are choosing between recommended options.

Star Dynasties is in development; some of the game systems in this prototype are incomplete or may change in the future.

If you would like to comment on this post, click here.

Rebellion!

The story so far:

#1 – A Young Leader with a Lot to Prove

#2 – Love is in the Air

Zeta Ophiuchi

Oh heck … this leadership lark is full of hidden pitfalls!!!

 

 

 

A noble called Orson Glass is asking me to help him overthrow Ruler Leland Davis on one of my colonies, Zeta Ophiuchi.

As you know, I don’t really respect Leland much (-7), but I recently agreed to the marriage of his father and my stepmother – which puts me under kinship as well as feudal obligations to support him.

I like Orson (the guy rebelling) much more than Leland, but it would be wrong to support his rebellion, so I refused him.

Groan!!    … Orson won the fight!

Leland hired mercenaries but he still lost the battle. He didn’t bother to ask me for military support interestingly, I guess he thought I’d ignore him which is fair enough. He knew I didn’t like him much.

SO … I now have a new ruler who is unhappy with me for not helping him in combat. Going well!!

Two Years Later

Good Lord … what is going on over there in Zeta Ophiuchi?!!

Leland Davis is now rising up in retaliation and trying to wrest power back from Ruler Orson Glass again.

In the meantime, Orson and I have built a small but healthy mutual respect for each other, and frankly, I would prefer to keep Orson as my ruler. However, Leland has more military support locally than his rival – Orson will almost certainly lose unless I respond to his plea for help.

Ours is a harsh world, you need to be strong and well-connected to hold on to power against your rivals. Skirmishes and wars are inevitable and expected; our society respects those who protect their colonies from attack.

This is an interesting twist of events actually!

Orson has no legal right to rule the colony because he grabbed power by force, but over time his status will become accepted if he continues as ruler. Leland, however, has a strong legal claim to rule Zeta Ophiuchi and could reasonably expect me to uphold his right.

Other leaders and rulers will be watching to see whether I respond to Orson’s call for help or not!

In the end, I did support Orson, and of course, he easily crushed Leland’s rebellion with the addition of my military forces which increased his defence to four times its initial strength.

Orson is proving to be a demanding ruler!

Straight after the skirmish for power, he asked me to invest resources in the infrastructure and economy of Zeta Ophiuchi from my central funds. Cocky or what?!

It crossed my mind to tell him to stop fighting, and spend more time running the colony better – but I know a refusal would make me unpopular, so I bit my tongue and sent him money. Oh well, his opinion of me has soared (+44), so I guess I am his NBF!

Mizar – Another rebellion!

One of my other colonies, Mizar, is in turmoil too now.

Ruler Riley Moyer was outnumbered 26 to 51 against local rebel, Noble Montague Rodgers until I responded to Riley’s call for help and thankfully, we won the skirmish. Our ships fought well, and we wiped out the opposition convincingly with almost no military losses on our side.

The End

Note: Sorry …. that’s all we will ever know of Katie’s fate as a faction leader in the post-apocalyptic world of Star Dynasties. 

At this point in my game, the prototype version I was using crashed. I might have been able to continue if I had remembered to ‘save’ more often, but I forgot (my bad!). 

For those who are wondering what might have happened … I think eventually, Leader Odele Ayers would have attacked and conquered her (i.e. game end); but I was building Katie’s military strength, alliances and reputation as a ‘good leader’ so other leaders would probably have responded to her call for help in combat, possibly overturning Leader Ayers instead? 

Footnote:

This AAR is a light-hearted story playing Star Dynasties in Story Mode. See Jory Hutchinson for an example of playing the game in Strategy Mode where the player has access to all actions and full control to choose from any.

Star Dynasties is in development; some of the game systems in this prototype are incomplete or may change in the future. Christine Cooke is a playtester for Star Dynasties.

If you would like to comment on this post, click here.