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[Whoha]

Ok, heres how it went

My bonus:120 (and i'm high gravity)
Sarka Bonus:100

I sent 20 marines against 38 marines, and lost 11, to kill all 38 marines and take control of the ship.

Then against the orbital:
First assault shuttle wave:
18 marines vs 80 on the orbital
all 18 die, taking 56 with them

next wave is 32 vs 24
7 of my marines die, all 24 of his die.

the numbers would indicate that 10 of my marines should kill 12 of his, but its more like 10 of mine are killing between 30 and 35 of his.

[vmxa1]

What other factors are not equal if any? Armor, weapons, leaders and any other bonus?
If you have better guns or armor that would make it easier to win.

[Whoha]

I gifted him all my combat tech, only the racial +20 combat bonus and possibly high gravity put me ahead, no combat leader, that would be present in the bonuses listed though.

[vmxa1]

Well that is out of my experiences, I seldom pay much attention to ground combat. I don't enter into it unless I am sure to win.

[Whoha]

This was for ship capture, and really, I don't seriously pick HG, this was an average difficulty game. You would need a lucky anteran strike in just the right place, at just the right time, with just the right rolls from the random number generator to be able to take advantage of HG for anteran tech. too bad lucky doesn't help out there.

[vmxa1]

I do not capture ships any more either, too lazy. It can be fun and of course if you get Antarian ship you may get some tech, but tend ignore it.
Years ago I did a few Kzintki runs or what ever they called it then. It is just a matter of taste.

[Whoha]

Indeed, unless you are using anteran tech as a crutch like I am :P

[Lazerus]

Just completed hard in a matter of a few hours, using the custom race :

unification, tolerant, -10 ground, -0.5bc cash, -10 spying, +1 industry. (It feels very Hiverian Frankychan )

Researching straight for the automated factories, then the research labs and after that biospheres and the robo miners.
Getting industry as high as possible to use as housing to speed up growth then pumping out colony ships to get around 1/4 of the stars. After that continuing to increase industry while have a few all food planets on poor mineral sustain the growth of others. I find i tend to not bother having workers as scientists since with the available techs im researching at 1 every 6 turns anyways and i like to pump out those battleships and titans to hit any AI that refuse to pay my 5 or 10% demand until i own around 2/3 of the stars.

By then i can easily crush the AI, get elected council (defied my own presidency election once for a laugh) or go and conquer orion.

Time to see how impossible "impossible" really is

[Whoha]

Impossible can be quite impossible, I played a small/impossible game where the klackons took out my starting starbase with a spy, and the gnolams rolled in with a couple of ships the next turn that would have bombed me out if I hadn't just quit when I got word that my starbase was gone(prewarp start... and no contact from the klackons that I can remember, so the gnolams probably framed them).

Right now i'm doing a demo/lith/LHW -.5 BC -Growth -ship defense on huge impossible. All the ai except the psilons took the damned +50 ship attk/+50 ship defense, so most of them are worthless to me AND I have to put battlescanners on my ships or they get first shot from the damned initiative crap(not to mention the fact that my ships are missing shots) . Took subterranean at evolutionary mutation since none of the ais had it, gave it to all the ais and they just improved the beam defense/beam offense picks . Psilons have +2 research/+2 industry, very nice. I could have, and should have ditched lithovore at evolutionary mutation(can do that by picking cybernetic since they are mutally exclusive) and picked warlord, telepathic, and something else, or +2 production, cybernetic, warlord.

[vmxa1]

Try this race on small/impossible/normal tech start


Telepathic
Warlord
Trans Dimensional
Omniscient
Rich HW
Feudal
Repulsive

Do NO research and you will have an easy time of it.

[Kaptain Ken]

I don't know that I would go so far as to say that its easy to win small impossible with your race vmxa1, but it is certainly winnable in a relative short time frame when you know what you are doing. I have to try again to beat your time, but work and travel will delay me again.

[vmxa1]

Unlike many posters, I do not hold the believe that it is easy to win at impossible. Some feel you should more less never lose, but I don't always play optimally.
If I could never lose or at least have a couple of tight spots, I would have to stop playing.
I do not see any joy in beating the hapless.
So I did not mean to imply you could not lose, only that it may be a good way to get a win. You would have to understand what the race ia all about. That is why I mention NO research. If you tried to research you would be in trouble soon. You coul dnot out research or produce most races, so you must jump on them ASAP.
Getting a few early Home Worlds, will allow you to out produce them.

[Lazerus]

The AI seems to know exactly when to gang up on you for optimum results, i was just framed and so went to war then another AI comes in and declares war for no reason while a third flank is opened up by those damn silicoids not looking good especially since the AI is copying my scorched earth policy and just b4 i saved and quit was heading straight for my central planets with 6 battleships ......

[Whoha]

No thats alliances most likely. Until you know how to run circles around the ai like some people around here apparently do, i'd suggest just whoring techs around to make the ai like you more(even if its a horrible trade like 2000rp for a 250rp tech),and get naps/research/trade with the goodwill garnered from whoring techs. It works for me.

Doesn't mean you won't be at war with everyone, you will, it just buys you time and bumps up your research and cash for the time being. Also having a large standing fleet, getting orion fast enough(grav beams or emg/mirved/merculites if you can dig up that, its on this board somewhere) can help.

[Iasius]

That is the great diplomacy bonus of creative races, just give them all the useless tech.
If I have a halfway decent race I usually win on impossible (huge/prewarp is what I play almost exclusively). Only problem arises when the silicoid or sakkra or so spot me too early and arrive with their huge fleets before I have any decent defense/tech.
Although those games, especially if it's a close call for 200 turns or more can be the most fun.