Imperium 30 Report & Notes from the Sponsor

[RefSteel]

My report is up in the usual spot! Fear not: It's not nearly as long as the last one.

Notes:

I kind of threw this game together at the last minute because of my computer trouble; I meant it to be a relatively Gentle Imperium, but (depending mostly on whether the Psilons made a couple of critical early jumps - there are variables on every map) it may have turned out even more so than intended. The idea of the game was in part just an opportunity to design ships on an individual basis, and in part to try out a different style of ship building: For a number of reasons, in a normal game, large fleets of small ships are best under most circumstances, supported by larger ships only when and as necessary. Obviously, "large numbers" were not an option in this game.

The galaxy was small so the player wouldn't have to deal with too many fronts at once, the Klackons were selected so that individual worlds could produce enough BC to make huge ships reasonably feasible (without playing as the Meklar, who we've seen a lot of recently). And the game was set to hard difficulty since we played at Impossible last time, and I was looking for a gentler imperium (admittedly, the last game was easy too for those who added reserves to their homeworld in 2300, but for those who didn't it was a good, challenging game).

Imperium 31 should open next Monday - if any of you have suggestions, requests, or a desire to sponsor it (meaning, create a map and a ruleset and hopefully playtest it a bit) let me know; otherwise, I'll use one of the ideas I've been kicking around for a bit. In any case, I hope everyone enjoyed this game!

[Episthene]

I don't know if it has been tried already, but I tried a variant recently with no research allowed, as the Darlocks. It makes for a different type of game entirely, because the economy goes entirely into low-tech ship building (or spying), aiming to overwhelm by the sheer number.

It gives an opportunity to experience fully one feature of the game that is probably too strong, the tech steal when invading. In the game I tried, I ended up the most advanced technologically and that was not from spying, although it helped early on.

I can send you the map (medium size) and a small scenario if you want to try it. 4 of the 5 Ais have decent starting positions, and the player has a good possibility for early expansions, with the starting techs, but also (most importantly), early contact with 3 other races.

It is a challenging scenario even on the "hard" setting, but doable.

[codehappy]

Somebody read my mind: I was actually thinking about suggesting this very thing for a future Imperium. "No research" is one of my favorite MoO variants to play for a challenge. It's easiest with the Darloks (their espionage bonus is awesome) but I like to do it with the Psilons... the variant takes away their racial advantage, leaving you with an extremely hard game.

When playing a non-Darlok race with this variant, you do need some cooperation from the map (early contact with the AI, preferably multiple AIs, is absolutely crucial.) I have a map that works for a no tech game as the "anti-Psilons", if anybody's interested.