Imperium 41 - toddestan's report

[Ianus]

Wow what a game! Being trapped in that corner was my greatest fear in the early game. It is very interesting to see the differences between our two games in how the AI expanded. I don't know that I could have fought my way out as you did. Congratulations on an epic battle and victory in Final War! I totally chickened out and neglected final war until the last possible moment. Well done!

[RefSteel]

Wow - an epic report of an epic game! I loved the little touches like pointing out the Escort with nothing to Escort as it dropped a can of RAID on your bugs. Plus you provided a really good sense for the sheer destruction (and whack-a-mole flashbacks) involved in the endgame of a large galaxy no-transports game. (Suddenly remembering to take Orion as an afterthought in mid-war was classic too!) Coming back from Impossible Final War is no mean feat, and you provided an excellent example of the "hit 'em where they ain't" method of handling AIs with unbeatable fleets. Well played!

[toddestan]

Glad everyone enjoyed the report as much as I did playing! I'm not sure if the AI expanded differently so much as I didn't make an as aggressive push towards planets like Gienah (and Misha) which could have tipped the balance more in my favor early on. Though on the other hand, I think I was the only one that didn't manage to colonize Herculis up in the top corner, which I thought was pretty safely mine until that Psilon colony ship went zinging across my territory.

In regards to the final war, believe me, I was totally planning on chickening out too. Having it sprung on me like that was definitely not part of the plan, and having to fight my way out of a hole like that to victory made the game that much more enjoyable!

[Psillycyber]

Holy cow, I know I'm about 3 years late in reading this, but what a game! What a comeback from a legit final war on impossible! So much death...those planets must have been pock-marked asteroids by the end of it all.

It was particularly satisfying to see those huge AI deathfleets vanish the second they got exterminated. Going into full glassing mode really turned the tide! It looks like it was a race against time there for a while to glass enough enemy planets before their deathfleets glassed your core worlds. MoO1 really does become all about the offense in the endgame. There's pretty much no way for you or the AI to protect worlds from being bombed out or plasma-torpedoed-out on the battle screen by hordes of fast-moving ships, no matter how many missile bases you build or what kinds of ship-to-ship fleets you protect them with.