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I just finished a "short" game and had an absolute blast. I played it on a medium map and set the AI two steps above normal (intelligent?). I’ve been primarily focusing on playing longer games so far and thus emphasized economy and research in picking pre-game skills but I though I would try something new so I picked the speed and sensor "buff" options and one of the races I hadn't played before..
One of the most useful things I have been doing to ensure an early and quick expansion is taking a cargo hull and filling it with engines and sensors. This time the dang thing could see out five parsecs and move at 5 speed.
I then used the trusty mini-map to see where the early civilizations were and went were they "were not" with my scout and my "fleet" ship. I ended up grabbing six planets; the humans grabbed six, and the other races two each, and there was one minor race..
I went into full military mode and did a blitz on the two little guys to get their planets, so I had 10 planets to seven for the humans (he conquered the minor race). However, I had two big problems—the humans were considerably ahead on research, and the Drengi gutted my military when I took them down.
The AI went into influence mode and started drowning me with starbases so, even though I knew I was overall weaker militarily, I took out his new starbases in my territory. He came after me pretty hard and it was touch and go, but I finally talked him into a truce after I killed his transports.
That was all I needed. I put my economy and research into shape, and designed some ships to meet his load outs. Then the AI made a horrible mistake—he announced that he was attacking.
I didn’t know it at the time, but his main force was way back in the back of his universe. Additionally his ships were moving 2 and 3 while mine were moving 5 and 6. His delay in getting up front gave me time to take out all his starbases and clear the ships out of his forward worlds.
My speed served as a nice force multiplier. He had better, heavier, and more ships, but they were spaced out and slow. I ate him pieces and used my speed to take out his transports and then used my last transports to take out Mars and Earth.
I had a 12-5 advantage in planets but a lot of my planets were 2, 3, or 4 square planets. Additionally, I was out of transports and stretched across a huge space. My speed helped but it was a lot of space to cover and my home world was deep in a corner opposite of his worlds in the other corner.
That’s when the AI surprised me. He didn’t get away with it, but he did an "edge" walk with two transports in an effort to get into my rear. I was pleased that he tried it, but even more pleased that I had decided to look for it even though I never dreamed an AI would do it.
A little later on he did it again with a fleet of heavy fighters, but again I manage to trap him. He just couldn’t deal with my speed.
I’m really enjoying this!
Now, as for problems, a couple of times I’ve run into individual ships that will not form fleets. I discovered that if I save the game, shut it down and restart they will form fleets, but that is a bug if no one has found it yet.
Additionally, one major thing I don’t like is the fact that when you upgrade technologies you can’t use the old stuff anymore (or I haven't found the way to do it). So, for example, if you are up around the third or fourth advancement for building factories and you conquer a world you have to go though a long process and build the advanced factory. It would be nice if you could build the basic factory and update it at will later.
One of the most useful things I have been doing to ensure an early and quick expansion is taking a cargo hull and filling it with engines and sensors. This time the dang thing could see out five parsecs and move at 5 speed.
I then used the trusty mini-map to see where the early civilizations were and went were they "were not" with my scout and my "fleet" ship. I ended up grabbing six planets; the humans grabbed six, and the other races two each, and there was one minor race..
I went into full military mode and did a blitz on the two little guys to get their planets, so I had 10 planets to seven for the humans (he conquered the minor race). However, I had two big problems—the humans were considerably ahead on research, and the Drengi gutted my military when I took them down.
The AI went into influence mode and started drowning me with starbases so, even though I knew I was overall weaker militarily, I took out his new starbases in my territory. He came after me pretty hard and it was touch and go, but I finally talked him into a truce after I killed his transports.
That was all I needed. I put my economy and research into shape, and designed some ships to meet his load outs. Then the AI made a horrible mistake—he announced that he was attacking.
I didn’t know it at the time, but his main force was way back in the back of his universe. Additionally his ships were moving 2 and 3 while mine were moving 5 and 6. His delay in getting up front gave me time to take out all his starbases and clear the ships out of his forward worlds.
My speed served as a nice force multiplier. He had better, heavier, and more ships, but they were spaced out and slow. I ate him pieces and used my speed to take out his transports and then used my last transports to take out Mars and Earth.
I had a 12-5 advantage in planets but a lot of my planets were 2, 3, or 4 square planets. Additionally, I was out of transports and stretched across a huge space. My speed helped but it was a lot of space to cover and my home world was deep in a corner opposite of his worlds in the other corner.
That’s when the AI surprised me. He didn’t get away with it, but he did an "edge" walk with two transports in an effort to get into my rear. I was pleased that he tried it, but even more pleased that I had decided to look for it even though I never dreamed an AI would do it.
A little later on he did it again with a fleet of heavy fighters, but again I manage to trap him. He just couldn’t deal with my speed.
I’m really enjoying this!
Now, as for problems, a couple of times I’ve run into individual ships that will not form fleets. I discovered that if I save the game, shut it down and restart they will form fleets, but that is a bug if no one has found it yet.
Additionally, one major thing I don’t like is the fact that when you upgrade technologies you can’t use the old stuff anymore (or I haven't found the way to do it). So, for example, if you are up around the third or fourth advancement for building factories and you conquer a world you have to go though a long process and build the advanced factory. It would be nice if you could build the basic factory and update it at will later.