Imperium 18: Choked to Death

[Megafrost]

I initially rolled Ruthless Ecologist, but I decided that was way too close to my original playing style (which I consider Ruthless Expansionist). So I re-rolled and got Aggressive Diplomat. Unfortunately, keeping to the variant rules from the very beginning, I was already choking under the defense costs. Then the game decided that I needed a massive plague on my homeworld in 2344 with around 2500 RP to research a cure. That sunk it for me. Even if I had dropped the variant rules and played past that, I would not have been able to compete.

Game over. 2344 - Retired.

[sargon0]

Bad luck Megafrost. I liked the look of the challenge of the Militarist and Diplomat but you cannot sustain an early major event on top of the penalties they entail. Fortunately in my game, the early Plague in 2342 went to the biggest AI, the Meklars!

It is an interesting comparison between the Militarist and Diplomat. The Militarist has to spend more (50%) on his military (ships) but these are far more useful than static defences. My plan for Diplomat included scrapping all early bases and feeding reserves to push expansion - it wastes 75% of the bc's but might get early expansion rolling. At least Diplomats have a better research field emphasis in Computers. I would have liked to see how a Diplomat played out.

[RefSteel]

Yeah. That's another good argument for turning events off in Imperia (or at least delaying the first one until ~2400). A Homeworld plague before 2350 is just ugly. To make matters worse, Diplomat may have been the most difficult production emphasis trait on the board (for the reasons Sargon mentions - Militarist can at least make scouts and colony ships with early shipbuilding BC, whereas super-early base building is just throwing production away). Depending on available choices, computer research isn't necessarily any better than weapons during the critical early game. If I were playing this one again, and rolled Diplomat for my personality, especially for a Gentle Imperium, I would have basically played as an Expansionist up until I actually met another species, and only then switched over to the Diplomat rules. (Until you know another civilization, there's little use for, or meaning to, diplomacy!)