Oddest/Hardest Game

[Chowlett]

Is the one I'm currently playing - on both counts!

On a huge planet, almost all the land was concentrated into one huge continent which ran W-E, then turns N-S. I (as the Peacekeepers) started exactly on the elbow, and exploration discovered the Hive to my west, the Gaians to the south.
Unfortunately, piecing together what happened retrospectively, all 7 factions started on this one continent - Uni and Morgan west of Hive, Spartans and Believers south of Gaians. The Hive and the Spartans were in all out nastiness mode, and by about 2250-2300 had eradicated all other factions.

So here am I, squashed between the 2 most powerful factions, each with about twice my land area. Then the Hive attack me, I take a base, and trade it back for peace. Then the spartans attack me - I manage to take quite a large number of her bases, and am proceeding merrily southwards. Then the Hive, who have been moving through my territory unstopped (mainly because I'm unable to) decide to suddenly attack me. Small problem, though, in the shape of the "defense gap" - the Hive have Shard (A13), while I have Silksteel (D4). They're now about to take the Human Genome, The Virtual World, and the Weather Paradigm. I could be in trouble here.

[BustaMike]

PLANETBUSTER!!!!!!!!!!

KABOOM, no more Hive

Else you just need to counter attack. I've found that 2 rovers and a monolith can take out an infinate number of AI troops.

[Aredhran]

...until the monolith is spent

[SailorUranus]

Easy, just use what I'll call the "Unit Steal Dirty Trick".

Step 1, get a probe team.
Step 2, make sure there is at least one empty slot in the unit workshop.
Step 3, steal any of Yang's advanced units.
Step 4, open the unit workshop. You'll notice the unit you just stolen is now available in the workshop and already prototyped. Change the whatever you want, but don't change anything if you don't have its required tech unless you really want to (i.e. putting lighter weapons on defensive units or light armor on speeders).

[Chowlett]

Well, that would work, except that I got the project the Hive are stealing wrong. It is, instead, WP, Citizen's defense force and Hunter-Seeker! Ashamed to say, I couldn't face that - I reloaded from earlier and am now making Photon/Wave, and next Probability Machanics, my next two advances. Let's do some upgrading, guys.

Oh, and SailorUranus, I have as good weapon techs as the Hive. The problem is that Advanced spaceflight was researched well before anyone had (or indeed has) Photon/Wave machanics. Really, I should be playing with SNAC - that fixes the defense gap.

[Vi Vicdi]

A true Ironman only reloads when TerranX crashes ...

[Chowlett]

Who's playing ironman?

I may start sometime soon, though. Apart from this game, I rarely reload.

[Master Marcus]

I ALWAYS play ironman. I'm a perfectionnist, I want to be in control of every anal aspect of my empire ( sole exception: auto tubes ) even if this means 20 minutes per turn: playing ironman is essential then.

Oddest game? see "total destruction of all your bases" in AC-Help.

[Lord Maxwell]

20 minutes per turn... *smile* I know those turns... (I gave up on trying Byrons moss strat when the turns started taking more than an hour. Gotta draw a line in the sand eventually.)
Well, I play iron man because I like racking up a big fat score.

[Vi Vicdi]

The day TerranX stops crashing I will gladly play Ironman. Until then I'll just visualize my score x2 and pat myself on the back for shrewdly not bowing to the demands of ego and instead following the advice IT professionals have been dispensing for years: "Save early, save often."

And yes, I know about the autosave, which in the later years just isn't good enough. I don't want to spend 20 minutes watching terraformers creep their way across the map a second time because TerranX crashed some time after they did it the first. (Oh, by the way, units move faster if you scroll the map to the extreme edge before sending the move order.)

[David Byron]

LOL. 20 minutes

[GeneralTacticus]

...until the monolith is spent

AFAIK, monoliths don't vanish unless you use them for upgrading morale, not just repair.

[Archaic]

Oo

One does wonder why you're replying to a topic from 2000.

[GeneralTacticus]

I didn't even notice the date.

[Archaic]

Wouldn't the fact it would have had to have been on the last few pages been a good hint?