In my last game (on tough) I had both the Drengin and Yor surrender to me when they had 3 planets left. Granted, no planet in either case was higher than PQ7 as I had taken out all their larger planets.

A couple games ago the Arcean and I were in a corner, with me farther out. The Terrans were in the middle, the Altarians and Torians were on the far side of the map (Gigantic map), and the Iconians were on the same side as us, but in the other corner.

Not liking my back door open to a potential enemy, the Arcean's were the first to go. Eventually I sneak attacked the Terrans, but didn't realize they already had alliances with everyone else. Fine. Iconians go down next so I only have half the map to worry about. I take out the Altarians and have completely destroyed the Torian's fleet with my main battle groups and transports on the way from the former Altarian sectors.

Just as I enter Torian space, they surrender. No one else surrendered the entire game. The Torians surrendered because, "You have smashed our military and are marching on our worlds. Our people are in a panic. We surrender."

If I want someone to surrender, I usually take their homeworld and other planets of the same system, and any capitals they have. Once those are out, they usually just give up. This is especially true if you have trashed their military fleets. Get their military rating under 10, and most will just give in without a homeworld.

Just from my observations, I don't think the last player in the game will surrender to you. It appears, anyway, that the intent was for you to have to crush the final race completely instead of just getting a cop out 'I surrender', which can be so frustrating at times.

Yes Supergeek got it right - I've no problem getting races to surrender to me earlier in the game; it's that last surviving race that proves problematic. They're the only other race left, so perhaps that's why they keep fighting. Still, I'll see what happens when they've zero ships left.

pnich of the hapless Terrans, conquerers of the Snafi