My new way to play (for a while)

Maximize your economy and influence instead of your starfleet and you just might win consistantly like I and other empire builders do.

Scincerely,

Scintor

My bet is that you're toast unless you keep the difficulty level set very low but hey somebody has to play the role of prey.   

Vuk-

Lots of ways to play and that is one of them. My tendency is to -play neutral with high influnce and diplomacy. On small maps this approach and pacifict is quite effective.

However you have to maintain a strong military if you want a military victory over the last AI standing. They will eventually come for you and you better be ready. An influence victory is usually a piece of cake on a small map and you can usually do it without ever building any military at all.

On largee maps I win so easily and consistantly with influence victories that I turn influence victories off because they end the gane too soon.

Scincerely,

Scintor@aol.com

This play way is no problem. I constantly win this way on always bigger universes at maximal difficulty level.

dap

On which level?

I can win most of the time playing like this on Painful (DA). The only difference is that I have to declare war from time to time. You know, in the name of galactic peace

Make sure your diplomacy is top notch. The defensive bonuses your ships receive can really counter the evil toys you'll be missing out on.

Unwanted influence victories can be easily prevented:
Start a war. This will even work in the 10 weeks countdown...

playing anti-military can work quite well with the economic and influence bonuses.

I forsee many tech victories in your future young padawan

I forgot to mention... I always play with no influence or tech or diplo 'soft' victories, although those are still vital tools of course even for a conquest victory. Some of the first few games I played went to influence victories just as I was licking my chops over finally being on the brink of conquering the galaxy with some demonic race.

So, I am still keeping with conquest victory only.

I do not always play with tech trading but for this one I will because, after all, if they offer a trade I have to take whatever they offer! It is knda like the guy in that documentary who _always_ had to order the super-size when the fast food place asked him.

I think one of the biggest problems I am going to have is finishing off the game. If you let your military rating get too strong (as an aside, I think this will also be a problem if I let my diplo rating get too high) then the last AI's sometimes just drool a lot and will not declare war on you - which now is going to hurt as that is the only way I can beat them. Also, I am not going to accept any 'gifts' from the AI empires that are not part of a trade (doesn't count as the "take whatever they offer" rule above), so without those usual benefits the military rating is actually going to make it more difficult.

I mostly play on 'tough' but sometimes lately a notch or two higher. Think I will settle back to 'tough' while trying this out, and probably still get creamed for a while until a re-focus the way I am used to playing.

I think I am seeing I need to make _one_ exception... if I am at war with the last (only) AI and they ask for peace, which normally by the "must be nice guy" rule I would have to accept then make them pissed off all over again, if they are the very last AI I can turn them down. Just saying this advance "just in case" - in reality the AI does not seem to offer peace often in this kind of circumstance.

Now, given all this.... should I turn surrenders back on (I have not played with them for a while now). Have to think if having or not having them would make it way too difficult, but this is going to be so different I am not sure what the impact will actually be.

Sounds like fun. I once won a conquest victory without firing a shot (except once when the prisoners hijacked a ship and started wreaking havoc). I did have a big military, as a deterrent to being attacked. Over the course of the game, planets flipped to me and empires surrendered to me little by little (cannot remember the exact size of the map ... I think it was "large"). I was getting impatient when the last planet would not flip, so I built my first transport ships and sent them toward the stubborn world. At the sight of my marines, they immediately "saw the light" and joined my peaceful empire, my conquest victory complete. It was a memorable game, and I wish you a similarly satisfying experience!

And yes, I would turn "surrenders" on. It is certainly a good and peaceful policy to allow wars to end by voluntary capitulations. It is especially gratifying when you get a bunch of planets out of a war that you weren't even inolved in. You have spared those people (or whatever they are) from planetary invasion and brutal oppression.   

I've played the Yor as a good race before; it was funny that it took the AI's a long time to be convinced of my sincerity after declaring for Good with the ethics tech. heh.

Personally, the high diplomacy games I play often bog down into universal peace, which is nice, but gets boring.

My last game was fun, I was an evil Yor player and I have several squads of frigates (small ships) toast fleet after fleet of Drath ships, both small and medium thanks to strong military starbases.

I was behind through most of the game, but I was about to attack a neighbor to get a boost ahead but the almighty terrans attacked and wasted my super frigate fleets and I surrendered at that point.

To be honest, I would like a shot at playing and winning more militant games.