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Just won my first game with 1.03A and at crippling (all AI = genius) after 4 previous unsuccessful attempts. I've been playing with almost the same settings for awhile now: huge galaxies/tight clusters/occasional habitable planets and speed+2, sensors+1, econ+20. I kind of like huge galaxies as they feel like continents separated by oceans and they are fun to play in the beginning and middle parts of the game, but they are long games and tend to get boring at the end. Using these settings, I've played various difficulty levels with good success until now and have found that at this level, its difficult for this playing style (econ oriented) at the beginning of the game. In all of the last 5 games, including the one that I just won, the Drengin were nearby, requiring me to concentrate on my military build-up right off the bat to try and keep the Drengin from attacking. This instead of building up my infrastructure to keep pace with the AI production bonuses. I either ignore the Drengin which causes them to attack and gets me into a war of attrition or I spend too much time on military and can't catch up to the other AI's economies. Man, this is a tough level.
In the game that I won, I tried the 'trick' of just building Star Fighters to quickly generate a good military score, which kept the Drengin off my back and allowed me to build up infrastructure. I also got a good starting location, other than being right next to the Drengin. I found an uninhabited little star cluster just out of my colony ships' range with 5 or so inhabitable planets, one of which was a class 24. So I got a constructor on lease to hopscotch on over to it. I've found that leasing colony ships isn't the best way to start out; I use leases to get trade goods and the occasional emergency constructor for grabbing a resource. Constructors are really expensive now (1.03x), it takes a long time to build one with early game planets.
So I finally exit the early phase of the game in decent shape. The middle game became very strange (and very fun) as I was in an unbelievable arms race with the Arceans, of all people. I'm trying desperately to keep ahead of their aggresive military build-up so they won't declare war. The Drengin are becoming quite friendly to me (I'm evil, too) and they are the tech juggernaut
. There are wars all around but I'm staying out of them as I haven't allied with anyone and I'm keeping a good military presence using Battle Hammers and AA missiles. I've got to keep on my toes to advance my tech, my infrastructure and my military all at the same time.
So now the end game. This is the part that usually drags on in my games, and this one is not too much different. The Yor gave up in the middle game and the constant wars decimated the Altarians, the Drengin and the Torians. The Arceans are still in pretty good shape militarily, but not too much of a problem. I'm way ahead in population and have the best economy. The Drengin are constantly being hassled by the other AI and they keep asking me to help them out, but I can't give up too much of my military might since the Arceans are not too far back and I'm leery of an Alliance as I suspect the Drengin will drag me into a war via this device. I don't have much culture to leverage off of, everyone but the Drengin hate me as I'm real evil and war isn't really a good option for me as my military is primarily defensive in nature. So I guess its a 'tech plod' to the end of the game. So I emphasize science and back off on military builds and carefully watch as the Arceans creep back up on me in military might. At some point during this phase, the Arceans, Altarians and Torians form an alliance and their combined might eventually knocks the Drengin out of the game; the Torians end up with their planets. I'm a little worried at this development but I'm well on my way to a tech victory, so I figure: no sweat.
Except.
Some late game surprises. First, I lose a UP vote on the number of trade routes for evil races (ie, me, myself and I). 8 of my 10 routes axed. And then, I find that one of the last techs needed for the 'Final Frontier' takes an enormous amount of time to research! I don't recall this problem in my previous tech wins, so I'm not sure if Brad threw a little twist into 1.03A or if my economy is not quite as strong as I thought. Of course, the UP trade route vote didn't help this situation. So now, I have to stop my military production and totally focus on research. From that point on, the Arcean's military graph slowly starts to converge on my military graph and I also notice that the Torians military might is coming on strong. With two turns of research left on the 'Final Frontier' tech, the Arceans reach military parity.
The Arceans declare war. Big surprise.
Virtually all of my starbases vanish in the opening round of the war. But my AA missiles decimate the ships that are hanging around my sectors. A nice side effect of this war: I had built one Excalibur earlier to see what it did to my military score (not much that I could see), and for the first time ever, I got to see what it was capable of. I had it hanging around the Torian's star space, which is kind of funny, because when it first cruised into their sector, before the war broke out, they immediately warned me of my 'military build-up'. Well. One ship and they freak out. But after I saw it in action, I can see what they were scared of. Man, that guy took on 9-10 ships of various types, including Dreads and Rangers, and only suffered about 10% damage. That's a nice ship!
Suffice it to say, the war came too late to stop the Terrans from exiting this plane of existence. The end-game movie actually mirrored the Terran's situation somewhat.
Final Note: The Star Fighter military smokescreen 'trick' definitely helped me get through the beginning phase of the game. I don't know if Stardock put it in place as a game balancing element or if it is a gameplay loophole. Going on the presumption that it is a loophole and that Stardock will eventually close it, I'm going to have to find a different set of beginning attributes to play at this difficulty level or go back down a notch or two in difficulty. Or maybe I should just become a better player (practice, practice, practice)
. In any case, I think my next game is going to be oriented towards military dominance and see how that works out.
In the game that I won, I tried the 'trick' of just building Star Fighters to quickly generate a good military score, which kept the Drengin off my back and allowed me to build up infrastructure. I also got a good starting location, other than being right next to the Drengin. I found an uninhabited little star cluster just out of my colony ships' range with 5 or so inhabitable planets, one of which was a class 24. So I got a constructor on lease to hopscotch on over to it. I've found that leasing colony ships isn't the best way to start out; I use leases to get trade goods and the occasional emergency constructor for grabbing a resource. Constructors are really expensive now (1.03x), it takes a long time to build one with early game planets.
So I finally exit the early phase of the game in decent shape. The middle game became very strange (and very fun) as I was in an unbelievable arms race with the Arceans, of all people. I'm trying desperately to keep ahead of their aggresive military build-up so they won't declare war. The Drengin are becoming quite friendly to me (I'm evil, too) and they are the tech juggernaut
. There are wars all around but I'm staying out of them as I haven't allied with anyone and I'm keeping a good military presence using Battle Hammers and AA missiles. I've got to keep on my toes to advance my tech, my infrastructure and my military all at the same time.So now the end game. This is the part that usually drags on in my games, and this one is not too much different. The Yor gave up in the middle game and the constant wars decimated the Altarians, the Drengin and the Torians. The Arceans are still in pretty good shape militarily, but not too much of a problem. I'm way ahead in population and have the best economy. The Drengin are constantly being hassled by the other AI and they keep asking me to help them out, but I can't give up too much of my military might since the Arceans are not too far back and I'm leery of an Alliance as I suspect the Drengin will drag me into a war via this device. I don't have much culture to leverage off of, everyone but the Drengin hate me as I'm real evil and war isn't really a good option for me as my military is primarily defensive in nature. So I guess its a 'tech plod' to the end of the game. So I emphasize science and back off on military builds and carefully watch as the Arceans creep back up on me in military might. At some point during this phase, the Arceans, Altarians and Torians form an alliance and their combined might eventually knocks the Drengin out of the game; the Torians end up with their planets. I'm a little worried at this development but I'm well on my way to a tech victory, so I figure: no sweat.
Except.
Some late game surprises. First, I lose a UP vote on the number of trade routes for evil races (ie, me, myself and I). 8 of my 10 routes axed. And then, I find that one of the last techs needed for the 'Final Frontier' takes an enormous amount of time to research! I don't recall this problem in my previous tech wins, so I'm not sure if Brad threw a little twist into 1.03A or if my economy is not quite as strong as I thought. Of course, the UP trade route vote didn't help this situation. So now, I have to stop my military production and totally focus on research. From that point on, the Arcean's military graph slowly starts to converge on my military graph and I also notice that the Torians military might is coming on strong. With two turns of research left on the 'Final Frontier' tech, the Arceans reach military parity.
The Arceans declare war. Big surprise.
Virtually all of my starbases vanish in the opening round of the war. But my AA missiles decimate the ships that are hanging around my sectors. A nice side effect of this war: I had built one Excalibur earlier to see what it did to my military score (not much that I could see), and for the first time ever, I got to see what it was capable of. I had it hanging around the Torian's star space, which is kind of funny, because when it first cruised into their sector, before the war broke out, they immediately warned me of my 'military build-up'. Well. One ship and they freak out. But after I saw it in action, I can see what they were scared of. Man, that guy took on 9-10 ships of various types, including Dreads and Rangers, and only suffered about 10% damage. That's a nice ship!
Suffice it to say, the war came too late to stop the Terrans from exiting this plane of existence. The end-game movie actually mirrored the Terran's situation somewhat.
Final Note: The Star Fighter military smokescreen 'trick' definitely helped me get through the beginning phase of the game. I don't know if Stardock put it in place as a game balancing element or if it is a gameplay loophole. Going on the presumption that it is a loophole and that Stardock will eventually close it, I'm going to have to find a different set of beginning attributes to play at this difficulty level or go back down a notch or two in difficulty. Or maybe I should just become a better player (practice, practice, practice)
. In any case, I think my next game is going to be oriented towards military dominance and see how that works out.
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