Imperium Twelve: Results

[TheArchduke]

Hmm, well can bases be destroyed by the Black Hole Gen? Pulsars can´t, no?

[kjn]

Hmm, well can bases be destroyed by the Black Hole Gen? Pulsars can´t, no?

Well, if the BHG can't destroy bases, the Death Spores definitely can.

[sargon0]

Both BHG & Pulsars can destroy missile bases but not pop or factories (called a clean bomber). BIO's can take out the pop, if you are not allowed to invade, then recolonize fast for all those factories!

[Megafrost]

Yeah, I tested this out. Both can destroy bases. Pulsars seem to do the job much more effectively, although this may because of their smaller size (and greater numbers). It's also worth noting that planetary shields didn't stop them.

I didn't test out whether computers make them more effective or not. Does anyone else know?

EDIT: I had another thought. Pulsars and BHG may be unable to wipe out population and factories, but if your pulsar ships have nuclear bombs, the nuclear bombs will work once the bases and shields are gone. Consider doing this if you're afraid to incur diplomatic wrath for using bio-weapons.

[kjn]

EDIT: I had another thought. Pulsars and BHG may be unable to wipe out population and factories, but if your pulsar ships have nuclear bombs, the nuclear bombs will work once the bases and shields are gone. Consider doing this if you're afraid to incur diplomatic wrath for using bio-weapons.

AFAIK, the planetary shield stays in place, even if all the missile bases are destroyed. But if you manage to destroy the bases, then you can do the ground invasion, so no need to bomb the planet.

[sargon0]

Interesting idea about the nukes instead of bio-weapons, there are two disadvantages. Firstly you need a decent Battle Computer, which BHG and Pulsar do not benefit from. Secondly you will destroy a lot of factories clearing the planet of pop. The Battle Computers would help with intiative or you might use Cloaking Device or Subspace teleporters.

[Edit] Cross-posted with kjn - he is right, the shields will remain making nukes ineffective at the time of BHG or even Pulsars.

[Megafrost]

Ahh, okay. So can't do the nuclear bombs thing then.

We can't do the ground invasion either. We'd risk picking up weapons techs in the looting. So it has to be bio-weapons then.

[RefSteel]

I'd be interested in trying a no weapons game, definitely. Who's poor in weapons? Let's see ... the ... um, Silicoids, who are poor in almost everything. No-weapons 'Coids would make an interesting game, but Psilons, Humans, or Sakkra would probably be the best bets. Still, they're also among the easiest races to play, so if we want an even greater challenge, maybe try it with the Darloks - to counter the perpetual "Spy hit = weapons only" with more spy hits altogether. Yeah, almost any race could be fun with this one, I think.

One recommendation for any variant like this (and especially weapons) in the future: I would permit ground invasions, and just let the scoring penalty take care of itself: you can send your troops to that world, if you're willing to risk the (potentially massive) scoring hit.

In general: I think the hardest "nothing in this field" variant would be no propulsion, and I don't think it's close. Not only are you chugging around at warp 1 for the whole game, but you can't colonize beyond range 3 until you're some ways up the planetology/construction trees (unless you build a HUGE colship!) and you can't colonize or attack beyond range 6 ever! Imagine fending off attacks from aliens who you can't reach without going around the long way via three different stepping stone worlds, two of which require you to squeeze LR tanks onto your combat fleets in order to take them ... and remember that, as in all these games, the stepping stones you establish will be incredibly vulnerable, brand-new colonies ... except that you're stepping between them s-l-o-w-l-y ... and your interdicter (and bomber!) fleets have a combat move of 1....

[Megafrost]

I think the "no weapons" theme would best fit the pacifistic Psilons and diplomatic Humans, but I can see it working for the subtle and hidden Darloks. It'd be really hard though. As Dathon pointed out, it would be tremendously difficult to keep AIs out of your territory without weapons, and being a diplomatically-unfriendly race like the Sakkra or Darloks would just make them want to attack sooner. The Psilons and Humans are awfully powerful, but without weapons we may need all the help we can get.

At the very least, the bio-weapons and pulsars have to be guaranteed to be in our tech trees.

[RefSteel]

Something just struck me on the no-weapons variant (which I still think is doable and could be lots of fun to play). If we try it, it should definitely be done with events off. (Likewise for ... force fields, I think?) I don't think I've ever actually seen the Derelict event benefit the player, but if we play an Imperium with a weapons tech scoring penalty, you know it'll happen to somebody!