I've been itching to get some real burning and pillaging going on, so I've decided to try playing as Drengin. I started a few really promising games, but I'm having some real difficulties so far, probably due to my very un-Drengin-like tendency to get distracted by lots of shiny non-military techs. This has often led to not having much of a military when the AI suddenly decides it doesn't like giving me money listening to my witty banter anymore, such as when I was attacked by the Krynn and the Altarians joined in right away and blew up all my ships and I got the UN to call them off and they attacked again the next turn and got the Thalans to help out too, and then in the next game the Altarians attacked and the Thalans came tagged along with them, and then there was that time when the Krynn showed up and I was actually able to fight back, but then the Altarians showed up with some sort of laser-encrusted death frigate...

Anyway, I think I may have that particular problem solved. I started a new game, researched military techs much earlier, and was much better prepared when I was attacked by the Torians and, to my great astonishment, the krantz-plorking Altarian slime-dogs. I think the Arceans might have joined in as well, but nobody cares about them.

Things didn't exactly go easily, especially when massive fleets of Torian fighters began to swarm about my empire like so many Cordillian Doom Flies, but the Altarians eventually backed off when they were attacked by the Krynn. (who had obviously intended to attack me, but they must have clicked on the wrong name by mistake) Eventually I managed to get enough medium cruisers in the same general location to swat down the Torians, and though repeated invasion attempts had threatened to cripple my economy, I fielded enough of them to push back the Torians and soften them up for the inevitable invasion.

Then the Drath declared war on me. From the other side of the galaxy. And the game gave me approximately eleventy-bajillion Super Dominator Corvettes. This, of course, is super awesome, but the maintenance on all those ships is killing my economy. I have to set spending below 20% just to break even, which means no transports for the invasion and no more Fly Swatters for the Torian Front.

So my question is this: When you play Drengin, how do you manage the sudden and sometimes unpredictable spikes in maintenance costs? Temporarily halt all spending? Keep a bigger economic cushion? Suicide rush on whoever dared declare war without your permission? Fervent prayers to the anomaly gods?

I really like the basic mechanic of this super ability, but it seems a little odd that the AI could bankrupt you instantly and unexpectedly just with simultaneous war declarations.