Moo1: some newbie questions

[Heerscher]

Hi all!

Just downloaded Moo1 and loving it. I have a few questions though:

In my first game my fleet consisting of some 50 small fighters, 20 medium destroyers and some bombers (most of them equiped with lvl 3 lasers, jammers etc.), was utterly destroyed by a tiny fleet of one really big ship and 15 medium ships. The medium ships were easily destroyed, but the big one killed my whole fleet!

# Has anyone got some tips on ship design? Should I make small, medium or large ships? What parts are especially important?

# Are there any good strategy guides out there?

# When should I make trade treaties?

# Any tips on general strategy for the beginning, middle game and end game?

Thanks!

[Gilgamensch]

For the ships:

Generally saying, so bigger so better.

Reason being you can use far more speciallities on them. I must admit I can't remember the names anymore (too long ago that I played it, but...). On I still rememeber is the HEF, increasing your weapon range and the repulsor beam, Those two already make a huge difference. With one you keep the enemy away, while the second makes sure you can still hit them.

But so long you don't have this tech, you should stay with smaller ones (harder to hit).

For further good information go here. This contains a 'quite' lengthy information about it.

For strategy, but not guide, just search on this forum, espacially the ones posted by vmxa1 (I don't say other's haven't contributed either, but ......). You should find plenty of information here, if not just ask

Trade treaties: I tend to get as many as possible, also prevents a bit them attacking you and more MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tips: Depends really on the race you are playing, except some:

1.) EXPAND as much as possible
2.) KILL the darloks

[vmxa1]

Ah Moo1, now that is my game. watch out for the link Gilgamensch posted as I think it is for Moo2.
He is correct that there are many useful post on Moo1 in the forum, unfortunately htey are mix in with Moo2.
As to strat guides the Offical one is teh best ever written on any game.
I will post some if you still need/want them.
As to the game you are talking about post a save before the battle so we can see what the ships look like.
What level are you playing on, impossible, hard or what?
I am assuming it is avg, but in general in the early stages of the game a huge ship will have 600 hp with out any additonal armor or shielding. Then will go to 900. So if you have a ships with class 4 or better can not be damaged by lasers. So you see the problem with using older weapons, they can be stopped cold. Gatling laser is the same. Heavy laser will do a small amount of damage out to class VI. Even if they are doing some damage it will take forever to bust the ship and if it has any auto repair device, you will never hurt it with those beams.
Most often the AI will have a repair device. This is for tech level 10 or less weapons. The best would be pellet gun or heavy Ion cannon. They would need class 11 or better to stop all damage and that is not going to happen.

[vmxa1]

I would agree with Gilgamensch expanding is the main focus. Some very detailed thoughts have been posted on this supject.
The main tatic I use works on hard or impossible is to not make ships ohter than colony ships until I have to.
I will make a missile ship to park on a planet and use its bases to defend. Once I get HEF (high energy focus) I will look to start taking over the universe. HEF with some multiple fire beam and my best shileds/armor/comp will chew up the fleets. Planets do not need bombing until they get class X shielfing or better.
I like to get all races to be at war with me and send their fleets at my bases so I can keep them from getting massive fleets.

[Urban Ranger]

Re: Moo1: some newbie questions

Originally posted by Heerscher
# Has anyone got some tips on ship design? Should I make small, medium or large ships? What parts are especially important?

Depends. If you are the Akari (sp?), you want to build small and medium ships to capitalise on their defensive bonuses. Otherwise, bigger ships are better. Things like Advanced Damage Control work on a percentage basis, so a huge ship can soak up a lot of punishment and keep going.

Originally posted by Heerscher
# When should I make trade treaties?

Always make them ASAP. After awhile, relations will improve to the point that you can make non-aggression pacts. However, alliances are another matter. Avoid if possible.

Originally posted by Heerscher
# Any tips on general strategy for the beginning, middle game and end game?

As it was pointed out, expansion is essential. Always expand away from your corner or edge.

For research, I always emphasize on Propulsion, Planetology, and Constuction. I usually spend least on Force Fields.

[Heerscher]

Thanks for your help!

Unfortunately I don't have my save anymore, because I started a new game. I play at simple, medium galaxy, three opponents.

I guess the first aspect of the game I have to master is to expand as quickly as possible. In my games often the enemy is the first to built six colonies and when I meet them, they immediately start threatening me and attacking my colonies. In my last game I signed a non-agression pact with the Klackons and a couple of turns later they invaded one of my colonies without warning! I guess they just know I'm a newbie

If you can post some parts of that strategy guide, that would be wonderfull.

[Gilgamensch]

About the expansion:

Take really any planet you can find, even the poor/ultra-poor.

They might not give you immidiatly something, but at least you can use them to produce population and espacially in the first stage, that is what you need, they are the once giving you income and production.............

Also more planets, more planets in range and more to colonise

[vmxa1]

On a medium size map you should be able to safely grab all colonizable planets within your range and get them up to the point that they will be able to defend themself, before anyone can attack them.
The issue will them be gettign the next wave of planets.
This will be a function of your race and who is near.
I like to expand out first and get as many of teh large planets as I can.
I tend to not grab a planet that I can not hold, but that is a preference as other will.
The planets that will come into conflict require me to have a ship to defend.
I play mostly on small impossible maps, so the conflict planet(s) are few at that point. Often I just need to get the one key planet and I will build a large ship with garling laser or plain laser. This will be enough to defeat the crap the AI will sent 9 out of 10 times.
If you have Sakkra near, you may have a problem as they may drop large nmbers of troops on your planet and ignore your ship. They grow faster and can swamp a planet early.
Anyway as soon a I get my home world finished with factories, I let it do one or two turns for research boost.
Then I will go all out to make colony ships for all planets I can reach. As a Klac that will mean 5 turns beofre any pop boost or factory boost.
I set my research down to min on all but Planet, Const. Computer and Prop. I will vary propulsion depending on the need to get a range increase. In a small map that may not be great, but in med size, it could be. Especially if you have range 5 and not 4. After i get my first +pop may make research even across the board.

[da_hal]

there are three things you should look at:

1. damage control/adv damage control
2. computer tech level
3. size and type of fleet

When the computer builds large/huge ships with damage control, you have to do more damage per turn than it repairs. if you can't, just retreat.

if your comp tech level is way lower than the computer's, you can't hit them. in moo1, comp tech is key for almost everything, including spying, combat, etc.

the computer generally builds two types of fleets: thousands of small ships or hundreds of large/huge. sometimes you'll see a mix, but not often. for small ships, you need to build ships that have weapons that destroy %'s of ships outright (like black hole generator) or weps that hit all ships simultaneously (like that one that expands 1 square in all directions.) For large ships, you need firepower, although black hole generators will destroy them a bit at a time. my favorite was minaturized mauler devices.

moo 1 game killers:
sub space teleporters
black hole generators
mauler devices
that one that increases range X3
class XX shields/barrier shields

[vmxa1]

"that one that increases range X3" is called HEF or High energy Focus.

[vmxa1]

Ok here is one author unknown to me.


MOO Strategy Guide v. 1.0, Section 2


Beginner tips

Maximizing Planet Production
A few notes on what to invest in to maximize production. At the start, for most races, it is factories. Factories cost 10BC generate 1BC of income and 1BC of pollution (which costs 1/2 BC initially to clean up). In 20 years factories will have recouped their initial cost.
This is the game default, non-surprisingly.
Colonists cost 20BC to generate (via eco spending), and generate 1/2BC per year with no pollution. In 40 years, they will have paid for themselves. Other conditions may shift the balance here too. Factories tend to get the early breaks with reductions in cost, and reductions in waste output. Colonists get later breaks, with vastly increased productivity (cloning, advanced cloning), etc.
Klackons start out with colonists equal in return rate to factories. I start out with colonists for a short time, but only until I get my planet(s) up to 50% of population where the natural population growth rate is maxed out. Then I shift to factories, which will start to increase in productivity earlier. (This is only with the Klackons, other races I start out with factories). The balance definitely shifts towards building colonists when one has had a population decrease on a world, which already has a lot of factories (there are a lot of potential reason for such a decrease, sending out colony fleets is the most common). The impact of lower pop can be minimized, by cranking out those colonists by spending that money on 'ECO'.

Some General Observations
1. TRADE
I think trade is important, especially in large or huge universe games. With trade and alliances I have been able to generate 1500BC/turn. This provides lots of funds for spying!!! Ideally, I don't establish trades until they reach 300+ or higher.

2. EXPANSION
I noticed that some of the races stagnate (stay on their home world only) when I expanded as quickly as I could (actually outstripped the rest of the races, no silicoids in the game). However, if I gave them (oh, so many options for "sending them on a wild goose chase") a better move, they wouldn't try and expand, even with good planets around. Hope this is a function of the average level AI.

3. SABOTAGE
This I think has hidden potential. I decided to try and start a rebellion in a Mrrshan colony. I am not positive about this, but once I got them over 15%, they really started rebelling. The next time they went to 30%!! I invaded, and I swear it seemed to FALL much easier to my troops.

4. DEATH FLEET
I do the three suggested methods of attacking.... capture factories (large amounts enemy pop, large invasion force).... bomb till almost nothing.... and DEATH FLEET. This is my favorite. By the time I use this it is pointless to take more colonies.
Nothing I hate more than trying to manage that much (kinda like 50+ cities in CIV). What you do is just build a huge fleet with a lot of bombers and a few capital / large ships (maybe 30+ large, 6 HUGE).
Then go from planet to planet completely obliterating them. Nothing more satisfying than seeing "100 million colonist killed"

Basic whole-game strategies
It seems to me that the key to winning with any race is to build a strong industrial base on at least 2 good- sized planets before committing any resources to research. To grow the fastest, keep your home planet at about 50 people for maximum growth, and ship off 2 or 3 each turn to your first colony. For at least the first 10 years, devote all resources to factory construction.

Devoting most of your resources to factories. Until you've maxed out, I keep at least 1/4 of each planet's production in factory building, preferably 1/3 or 1/2. I try to keep new colonies strictly devoted to factories. Don't devote any resources to ship building until absolutely necessary. When your first two planets are nearly full, build a colony ship. Keep siphoning off people from your home planets to the new colony, keeping them at about 90% capacity for speed of growth.

By the time your 3rd colony is getting full, your second transport should be ready, and you are now in the expansion phase of building lots a new colonies. I build friendly relations with my neighbors from the earliest. While they devote resources to building low-tech fleets, I build industry and research.

When I have a strong economy (like, maxed industry on my home world) and higher tech, I start building my war fleet. I devote at least 1/3 of my homeworld's production to shipbuilding, and usually a good fraction of my first colony's. I prefer large ships, and use heavy weapons with their 2-space range.

As my tech grows, I save a few advances and then commission a new class of ships. I will usually have 3 different large warship designs current, plus a colony transport design (totally unarmed), and a long-range scout. I find that small ships are virtually useless in combat, and medium ships nearly so (but I haven't played races that get combat advantages, where I might prefer medium ships).

My very favorite specials are Battle Scanner (which gives you initiative and attack advantages, plus letting you see enemy ship stats), and Automated Repair. Combined with heavy beams (2 space range), and a combat speed of 2, I can decimate even huge dreadnoughts by dancing and keeping them at a distance, if they only have speed 1 and beams with range 1. It is important to have at least beams and bombs in your ships. I also usually add a missile or two. Missile-only ships are sitting ducks once they expend their missiles. I put in mostly heavy beams, one or two missiles, and fill up the rest with bombs.

Of course, I max out computers, ECM, engines, etc. I usually take on the 2nd strongest race that is nearby. In my case, that was the Darloks, who I really hate cause they can steal my tech. I don't attack until I have 2 or 3 higher tech large ships, then I decimate the nearest colonies. Bomb 'em down to 5 or so, then send in the troops, at least twice as many as they have, preferably lots more, from your now-full homeworlds. This gives you an advance base. Move onto the next planet and repeat, but this time ship troops from the first planet you took. This eliminates any need for colony ships; you just eat planets. Meanwhile, your homeworlds should be churning out warships every 5 years or so.

Keep the other races peaceful-like as long as possible. Especially with Psilons, buy them off with a non- combat piece of tech as tribute; this makes them real happy. Usually, some race has expanded like wildfire, and the council has met to decide between the two of us, with no majority. Try to convince the other races to have a non-aggression pact with you, and declare war on the big bad enemy. I have found trade to be nearly useless, unless you are playing Humans. It takes forever to show a profit, and I've never seen anything close to the agreed-on amount. Do it to make friends, but keep the amounts low. Especially, don't up it in small amounts over time. If you decide to be friendlier, adjust it a lot very rarely. Also, don't trade lots with your soon-to-be major enemies, just 25 or so when you first meet them, to keep them pacified until you attack. After you've decimated or totally eradicated your first opponent, turn your sights on the big bad guy. Create a war fleet to do scorched earth tactics, just bombing each planet to (almost) nothing. Remember to leave a few citizens. If you have improved scanners, you may see colony ships moving to new planets nearby. Let 'em; as soon as the colony is formed, send in the troops. (I love eating those new colonies.) If you see a bunch of transports heading to one of your planets, send a fleet to that planet, and you can kill most or all of them before they land. Conquered colonies should be kept fairly small, as they may get taken back.

Devote their energies to research, not factories. Getting a colony with factories is great, but don't get greedy. The best way to do this is to decimate one colony to nearly nothing, then move your war fleet elsewhere. The enemy may send a transport fleet to the decimated colony. If so, then send your troops to take the planet that sent out the transports, which is now under populated.

Build missile defenses only on your main colonies. By devoting a small fraction of your resources to them, you should be able to build one each 5-10 turns. With proper tactics, your home worlds may never be attacked. But if they are, 4-10 missile bases will prevent enemies from making cheap attacks. If you see the enemy making a major attack, get a fleet there, fast. Improved scanners that give destination and ETA are a must in a serious war. It is absolutely critical that your fleet be faster than your opponents.

Researching speed techs in preference to range (once you have range 4 or 5). In general, high tech is critical. Ignore the 'fleet size' and 'total power' status lines. Just keep production near the best, and tech higher if you can. If the Psilons are an opponent, this is likely impossible. In that case, cultivate their friendship, and exchange tech a lot. They tend to be peaceful.

In general, exchange tech when ever possible, but I prefer to give non-combat advances in exchange. Even if you have better stuff, trade for advances you don't have, as it will raise your tech levels. It is tempting to research robotics tech that allows you to build more factories, or terraforming tech to grow worlds. Once you are in a serious war, resist this temptation. In war, you can't afford to devote the resources to growth. You need them for ships and research. Do these things before war breaks out, or between wars in a long game. At any time, don't build expensive robotics factories until you've reduced the factory costs. On the espionage front, keep spies on every player. When you are at war, change their missions to espionage, or sabotage only if they have no tech at all. Your computer tech helps here. I try to keep my overall espionage and counter-espionage spending at 10-15%.


***************
The <<<< >>>>> marks some notes I put in. Enjoy.

[vmxa1]

Continued as it was too large for one post:


Strategies for specific races
Alkari:
They are pretty easy to win with. The defense bonus is a godsend early in the game. Expand hard and fast in the beginning, and put together a large fleet of small, nimble fighters and frigates (with a few fusion or omega V bombs). Then expand like a banshee. These guys work great for almost any game plan EXCEPT the pacifist technologist game plan. You need to fight to take advantage of their specials, so DO IT.
Bulrathi:
I find them rather tough. You are going to lag in computer tech, but you can offset that by stealing from more advanced races when you invade. Your +20 ground combat tech is really nice, but ONLY if you stay current in ground combat tech. The problem is that to use it, you HAVE to fight. You will step on a lot of toes playing here. I suggest a hard expansion followed by a retrenchment and then a brutal war against your most advanced neighbor. Ignore casualties and TAKE PLANETS.
Darlok:
I like them because they have the coolest graphics (is that Stormbringer the Darlok warrior is holding?). With that said, these guys are tough to play, but a blast because you can really mess with the diplomacy. Don't expand too fast or the galaxy will turn on you since they already hate you. Get computer techs as fast as you can, and turn up the spies. Use your ability to frame to turn the strong races against each other (frame them for espionage acts). Then move in to collect the pieces. Early on, you may have to accept losing a few planets to avoid going to war with the whole galaxy. Bite the bullet and do it since A) they DO hate you and B) they CAN kill you and C) any excuse turns B into THEY WILL KILL YOU.
Human:
Boring. Sorry. This is the only race I have won at through the diplomat option... i.e. getting people to vote me into office when I have significantly less than 50% of the galaxy. You are a pretty generic race other than your wonderful diplomacy so expand solidly, kill the weak and use your diplomacy to keep the strong from killing you. Eventually, you should win. You have a unique ability to concentrate on one enemy at a time since you can buy off other enemies cheaply, so USE IT. Remember, peace is just the long period of retrenchment between wars.
Klackon:
I hate these guys. You start with an insane early expansion and then end in a whimper. Your inability to develop decent propulsion techs is ultimately CRIPPLING. So, expand insanely in the beginning, and then beg/plead/steal for good propulsion techs. Only THEN should you even consider war. DON'T get involved in a premature war. No matter how strong your industrial base is, if your ships still rely on RETRO’s to get around then that inferior Alkari fleet zipping around on fusion engines will eat you alive by concentrating both strategically and tactically.
You should have your industries up and running smoothly long before the other races do, so use the breather thus offered to A) build good defenses and B) get a lot of cool construction techs.
<>
Mecklars:
I find these guys to be absolute cake, er, most of the time (grin). Expand early, but don't crush any toes. Remember, you don't need as many planets as all those other non-industrialized races. Keep people off your back with diplomacy until your industrial base gets rolling, and then, well, kill them. Your weakness in planetology can mean a huge waste of resources going to cleaning your planets so Beg/plead/steal any waste reduction or eco restoration techs you can. Your planets will have good defenses and you should have a nice, compact industrial base. This allows you enormous freedom in a war since you are virtually impregnable (50+ missile bases), and can strike out in any direction. Take your enemy's best planets and make them better. Research robotic controls whenever available. Fear the Doom Virus. Get the antidote.
Mrrshan:
I find them harder to win with. Their gunnery edge is nice, but not the equal of the Alkari's defense bonus. You should go over to the offensive as early as possible, trade for good armor and construction techs with obsolete weapons and research the gauss autocannon as soon as it becomes available. Don't rely on your gunnery edge to win you battles. It helps, but it won't allow you to totally ignore the laws of numbers. Remember, you may hit them better, but THEY CAN STILL KILL YOU.
Psilons:
I know, everybody and their brother plays as the psilons because they get all the cool toys. Grab what you can early, and DON'T piss anybody off. You are VERY weak early on. Buy peace for the first half of the game while building a good tech edge, and then expand across the galaxy. If you control 15-20% of the galaxy you should be able to block anybody's election in the council until then. An interesting alternate plan I have used is to quickly acquire a tech edge in shields and weapons and exterminate a few low-tech planets. It often works, but if you get stopped, their vengeance will be terrible to behold. I usually play the former strategy.
Sakkra:
I love these guys. You breed like rabbits, AND you get all the cool planetology techs early. Well played, you can have 30% of the galaxy colonized before the end of your first expansion. Sure, you will be spread very thin! Anyway, as soon as your first rush is over, buy peace as long as you can, and build up your defenses, because the whole galaxy will come for you as you are almost definitely winning. Once you get your defenses going, develop a good star fleet and start a relentless advance across the galaxy. If you fall behind in TECH, consider a few "Lizard Wave" attacks against weakly defended High Tech worlds. You can afford the casualties. Think of your empire like Russia in WWII ... No matter how many troops you lose as long as they take losses too, you are winning. Once you get cloning, and a few fertile planets, you can vat grow an invasion force every 2-3 turns. I find these to be the easiest to win with UNLESS the Psilons get entrenched on the other end of the galaxy while you and your neighbors rumble. If you don't stop them they will get a huge tech lead and Bio-Terminate your empire. If you see this happening, carve a line through your enemies, conquering planets as you go until the Psilon’s empire is in reach and then terminate them.
Silicoid:
Ok, I find these guys to be especially tough. You start out very strongly, and colonize lots of worlds. BUT, your low birth rate is crippling. You will have lots of poorly inhabited worlds. A well thought out counter attack can knock you off your rocker faster than you can say "Sakkra Swarm". So expand hard, but DON'T press your luck. Then develop planetology techs like a madman. All those crappy 20 Habitability Toxic worlds look a lot better after +60 terraforming, atmospheric reconstruction, and cloning. You face another problem in your poor tech ability. YOU MUST control a large portion of the galaxy early on to offset this. You can continue expanding long after the other races have run out of useful planets since you can colonize anything. Expand as fast as your population growth will let you. Trade for any planetology tech you can get. OK, now, I'll say it again, these are simply MY feelings on the races. I'm sure other people have different strategies and feelings. Don't be afraid to improvise, and don't take what I've said as gospel.

1. Psilons, good to play with and a tough race to play against the computer with. Screwed if you have a substandard starting position. Create a 'technocore' area with high defense on the outside and little on the inside (to save credits) get a major tech advantage and then explode outword in a orgy of destruction. ALWAYS try to be in third in population so you can swing the council votes and not deal with alliances.
2. Klackons, nasty to play against, nice to play with. You produce more early on in the game so attack once you have the needed tech to do so without major fleet lose. Send out population to new planets quickly and build up populations before industry as each colonist is worth a factory.
3. Darloks - not great on either side but fun to play. When attacked early in the game be sure to have the enemy home planet rebel, this usely nukes his war effort as the computer SUCKS at getting planets back from rebellion. You can maintain the over all tech advantage by stealing from EVERYONE. Frame groups in alliance with each other etc. Only research computer tech, after the first few advances and defend your planets WELL. Later in the game when everyone is fighting everyone you can start to conquest.
4. Mmrrwhaters Alkwhaters Bulwhatevers - Icky bad to play, and not hard to beat when playing against them. Their natutal combat abilities are nullified by 2 tech levels, and thats all they have. If you play them attack early cause you won't have much chance later. Fight, kill, and pray they don't develop better computers, propulsion or armor than you.
5. Silicoids - fun to play but hard to win with. Slow pop growth and slow tech abilities are crushing in a war. IF you can avoid being attacked for the first 100 turns of the game you can have a chance, but Planetology landing technology is cheap, and after enchanced eco restoration and 60% pollution, who cares about waste. IE your advantages as a silicoid are limited. PLUS the fact that the computer can invade planets he doesn't have the tech for so even that advantage is lost.
6. Meklars - cool to play with and hard to beat EARLY in the game. Like the psilons being in third is not bad as you can equal or out produce the computer even with fewer planets. (You can't lose a game in which you are equal to the computer in strength as the computer is a moron in combat.) Meklars on ultrarich planets are fun.
7. Sakkras - I have to take back the bad things I said about them in the past. These guys are the easiest race to win with. Expand like the plague and send out about 10 colonists to a planet to kickstart growth and watch the puppies grow. This is the one race where you can be number 1 in pop early on and NOT loose the vote cause you have so many so early. Invest in planet tech and robotic controls and watch the numbers grow. These guys are also the best in ground combat (sorry
Bulrathi). You can send wave after wave. My favorite is having a race near by early on and taking all their planets and home planet before they can build a fleet.
8. Humans - a dull boring race of semi-idiot people who have no concept of self or any vision. Oh, they aren't that great in the game either. You can win with them but hey you can win with any race.

[vmxa1]

Whoops this should have been the second part and belongs between the prvious two.


Phase 1:
Send out scouts to two nearest worlds. Colonize all immediately available worlds quickly. Don't worry about anything further than 5 squares away, but make a bunch of cheap fighters and send them out to stake out planets.
This will give you perhaps 2-5 planets, while your strongest opponents may have 3 times that number or more. Don't even think about being influential in the council for a while.
Phase 2:
Settle in. Expand if you can, but make sure you keep your tech spending high. A good balance tends to work better than specializing. Armor tech, ground fighting, and especially terraforming and factory control will help you hold your planets and make them more productive than your opponent's larger number. Trade whenever possible. Build lots of missile bases, and no ships. Eventually you'll find yourself blocked in, probably by the groups more powerful than yourself. Make sure you get frequent reports on their tech.
Phase 3:
Go to war with one of the more technologically advanced groups. Try to steal tech from them (they'll start the war). Steal tech from anyone who goes to war with you. Defend your planets. Don't attack except perhaps with bombing raids.
Concentrate on building up a fleet, which could hold a planet by itself. Then take a planet. You should have sufficient resources to take one planet from even the strongest player and to hold it if you wait long enough. Send transports from many colonies (not just one) and just eliminate the missile bases and ships guarding the planet, not the factories. Ideally, you'd like to take a rich planet, or one with artifacts. You'll certainly want to take a developed one for the tech you'll gain.
Phase 4:
Eventually whoever your at war with will stop beating on you. Put that fleet to use on a weaker neighbor. Don't eliminate them, but steal their inferior techs to pump up your own tech levels (make components cheaper, smaller). By stealing from whoever wants to fight you, heavily defending your planets, spending little on ship-building, maintaining trade, and occasionally taking the choicest planets from your current enemies, your greater ability to assess the value of a given path of tech advancements will make you stronger than the computer. Case in point: I just spent the last 600 years technologically inferior to the Psilons. Despite the fact that they held Orion for 20+ turns (that I HAD to take from them) and discovered a derelict, I am now (just) superior to them technologically and militarily, and am in the process of beating them into the ground. This is in a large galaxy, at one point, they held over half the planets (I had about 6 then). I'm playing as the Humans.
<<>>

<<>>

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RULES
Never take a planet you can't hold.
Never eliminate a foe. The weakest one can give you technologies you missed, or specialize in an area where you are weak.
Don't destroy many colonies in a given area unless you can keep them from being recolonized, or you're ready for a shift in the Balance of Power.
Do destroy colonies in a given area if two races you are trying to get to fight are in that area in force.
Disclaimer: I haven't tried this with Sakkra or Bulrathi, or in Huge universe. It has worked on hard on small and medium, and average on large. The strategy is especially suited to Psilon, Meklar, Darlok, and Human empires.

Strategies for different stages of game
Like Chess, Master of Orion can be broken into three phases: the opening, or the initial expansion phase (the computer does this phase really well), the middle game, where you hunker down and develop the worlds you have (the computer plays very poorly here), and the end game, where you try to take over at least enough to give you the win (again, the computer does not do this well. It does not follow up on its victories enough). Following are strategies for the different stages.
Opening Game
For some reason, all of my games (Huge/5/Hard or Impossible) develop in exactly the same way:
1) I put almost all of my researching into Planetology, (for pop. and possibly controlled X environment if there are ultra-rich planets about) Propulsion, (for a high enough range to reach the stars in my corner) and Computers (for Improved production: some tech also in Construction)
2) I colonize madly until I get 15-20 stars in a corner or edge.
3) I make peace/friendship with everyone else by trading and giving tech (mainly because they're so far ahead of me in tech, etc.) and concentrate on population and production development.
4) I block the vote in the first Galactic Council by abstaining (I've always been in the running, but I've never had enough votes to win). <>
5) 4-5 years before the next vote, I get all the other races to declare war on each other (This has never been difficult: For some reason, whenever the two biggest CP rivals attack each other, all of their alliances come apart, and everybody gets into a free-for-all). I also make NA-pacts/alliances w/ everyone except my rival.
<>
6) 2-3 years before the vote, I attack my rival - suddenly, everyone in the galaxy loves me and hates him.
7) Before he has a chance to attack, I win the Council vote. This strategy works very well with Humans (because of the diplomatic and trade bonuses), Klackons, or Mecklars (for the production bonuses). The big problem with this stategy, as everyone can probably see already, is that I never get to do any fun conquest - I never have enough tech or production to win a war against anyone without sacrificing my diplomatic situation or production.

Middle Game
Your "mid Game" starts as soon as the majority of your worlds are industrialized and have > 10 missile bases. It generally ends when the wide spread availability of good bombs and large fleets shifts the game balance away from the defender.
Well, a lot depends on the size of your galaxy. I'm assuming you’re playing on large, and yes, 7 planets is a slow start. Suggestions for improving your initial expansion follow:
1) Place scouts over every nearby world, one per. The AI tends to colonize worlds it has explored before putting resources into arming colony ships. By placing a scout over a planet, you deny the AI exploration and hopefully grab the colony yourself.
2) Build up your first two colonies and then start colonizing new worlds. Use one world to produce colony ships, and use the other to throw population bombs onto your new colonies. Then let them develop on their own while you colonize past them. Exception: Rich and Ultra Rich worlds are worth putting resources into to speed inital expansion.
3) Avoid building a fleet unless necessary. Most low-tech fleets are not useful against planets, thus the conquest of enemy colonies becomes a very slow process.
4) Play as the Klackons or Sakkras, both of whom will develop colonies rapidly. Alternately, play the Alkaris and build fast, long range colony ships.

Tips on a slow start:
1) Human Turtle. This works best as the humans, but can be done with skillful bribery by almost anyone (yes, even the Darloks). Trade with all your neighbors to the hilt, and build no fleet. Maximize your tech and trade for it whenever possible. Sign non-aggression pacts with everyone and NEVER make an alliance as it may drag you into a war. Eventually, especially on Average or Hard, you can garner a tech advantage in this manner. Once that happens, its all a mop up. On impossible, this tactic will only work if your initial base is significantly larger and contains some good worlds. EXCEPTION: MOO versions below V 1.2 are quite a bit easier.
<< Do not over look spying to get back in the game, steal all you can -KG>>
2) The Balance of power: Pick the largest power you think you can deal with. Then induce a few nearby races (preferably the LARGEST power in the game) to declare war on them. Once they are heavily engaged (and likely losing), move in and stab them in the back with your own fleet. NOTE: This is dangerous unless you are prepared to finish off the race in question. They WILL hold a grudge.
3) Tech Raids: This is a gamble, but sometimes pays off if you are losing heavily in tech. Find a poorly defended, high tech world, and swarm it with troops, all of whom should arrive on the same turn. With luck, you should steal the planet out from under the missile bases. NOTES: A) Works best when missile techs are poor and your transports have good speed B) You will generally lose planets thus acquired unless you follow up with a supporting fleet, but you keep the tech.
4) Orion Hunting: Capturing Orion is a sure way to turn a losing situation into a possible winner. If it is within range, and you have at least the Neutron Pellet Gun, then consider making a play for it. Remember the rules of Orion in considering your fleet.
The guardian has 4,000 HP on Easy, 6,000 on Av. 8,000 on Hard, and 10,000 on Impossible. Assuming at least a battle computer Level 5, then each NPG will do 1.5 points of damage. A mass Driver does 4.5 points.

Rule 1: You must deliver > 30% of the guardian's HP per turn to kill it. Otherwise it will Auto-repair.
Rule 2: You will lose 250 fighters to the guardian's missiles before he runs out of ammo.
Rule 3: You will lose 125 Mediums to missiles if Titanium, 83 if duralloy, and 62 if Zortium.
Rule 4: Every odd turn, you will lose 4 small or medium ships.
Rule 5: Every Even turn, you will lose 14 small or medium ships.
Rule 6: The cheapest way to get a weapon into space is to strap it on a fighter. Medium, Large, and Huge ships cost more per ton of available space. In general, on average level, 2000 fighters with NPG’s will do the job. I generally wait for the mass driver, however. Just a few suggestions...

[vmxa1]

Again I do not subscribe to the whole thing, but it will be useful to get someone started at Moo1.

[da_hal]

heh yep moo1 is a pretty complicated game, which is why i just put up a few tips. the moo1 faq is still out there i think, and the moo1 strat guide, as others have pointed out, is pretty decent.

one thing also is that there are three basic phases to the game: expansion, extermination, endgame. expansion means getting 2-3 planets and defending them. the extermination phase begins once all the planets are colonized, and fighting is the only way to get more planets. the endgame is when there are only 2-3 races left and they all have substantial fleets.

i suggest mastering each phase 1 at a time, as they require different strategies. warlords1 is another that has distinct phases like this.