Playing at impossible difficulty...

[Iasius]

Wow, what a game I just had. Unification, Creative, LHW, RHW, charismatic, prewarp (spy, ground, low-g) in a huge organic galaxy, impossible. Starting next to the Sakkras (repulsive, subterranean, tolerant, I hate when that happens).
After 300 turns I haven't met anyone else and build one colony in my own system. I destroyed about 120 Sakkra battleships and numerous frigates, cruisers, etc, during that time losing about 6 of mine, when I finally lost to the onslaught of 6-15 battleships every 4-5 turns (their numbers grew larger and larger and I could always barely kill them).
Then they developed transporters, which wouldn't be that much of a problem if all their ships wouldn't use neutron blasters. Needless to say, my fleet which had grown to 8 battleships by then was destroyed or captured and I lost.
The Sakkras first attacked me while I was developing Supercomputers btw.
A situation like that is usually the only way for me to lose on impossible when I'm not using feudal.
Oh well, it's been a while that that has happened.
It was fun losing again.

[vmxa1]

It can be fun to have those white knuckle battles.

[Kaptain Ken]

It is fun to be challenged, and that is why we often use suboptimal race combinations, just for fun and to see if we can win anyway.

[Sikander]

I win about 50% of the time on Impossible, but that includes a lot of experimenting with custom races. I started playing on Impossible years ago, but it wasn't until fairly recently that I got the final patch which increased the cost of Creative and made my pat race (Creative, Demo, Subterranean) illegal. It's been fun trying out new stuff.

I just won a game using Lithovore Tolerant, something I haven't done in years. That was a blast, being in the lead for the entire game. Everyone was so afraid of me that they wouldn't declare war, even though I was repulsive.

I won another game on Impossible a few months back with Feudal government. IIRC I had Telepathy, Unification and Warlord to go with it. I actually built a whole sh!tload of ships with scout labs, and they added a significant boost to my science in the early going. It was a really fun game.

[vmxa1]

Cool. I used a Warlord/Fuedl/Tele race to play a fast game (72 turns I think).

[Sikander]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Cool. I used a Warlord/Fuedl/Tele race to play a fast game (72 turns I think).

Have you tried MOO3 or GalCiv? I'd like to try out a new game, but it has to be good, and I don't trust the info I find on the MOO3 section as much as that from fellow MOO2 fans.

[vmxa1]

I have both of those games. I found them to be ok, but just not able to keep me wanting to play them.
I am hoping that Moo3 will get some boost to make it more fun. I played three or four games of each and set them aside.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by vmxa1
I have both of those games. I found them to be ok, but just not able to keep me wanting to play them.
I am hoping that Moo3 will get some boost to make it more fun. I played three or four games of each and set them aside.

They sound like bargain bin fodder then. Thanks.

[vmxa1]

Well a lot of people seem to find GalCiv to be great, so you may not agree with me on that one.

[Garth Vader]

I found GalCiv to be way better than Moo3, but not as good as Moo2.

The way exploration, combat, and the economy is handled I found isn't so good for replayability.

To be on topic, if I want a quick easy win on impossible I always play as creative with advanced tech on a smaller map.

[Kaptain Ken]

I have found smaller maps at impossible to be more difficult, at least with 8 players.

[vmxa1]

I think the key is that it is advanced tech start. This give you battlestations and missile bases.

[Garth Vader]

That's right. On impossible the weakest point is the early game expanding enough to match the computer players. This is why Unification races are suggested here.

With advanced start everybody starts out with a few colonies and they are usually pretty good, plus as creative you have enough defensive tech to withstand an early attack.

[Kaptain Ken]

Thanks guys, I haven't played advanced start in a long time. Something new to try to make small impossible winable for me.

[Kaptain Ken]

Playing advanced tech starts make playing impossible almost too easy. It was fun a time or two, but I think its time to go back to average and struggle more on small maps.