So, I played this scenario (EDIT: I should clarify: Imperium 46!) like two weeks ago and obtained an extermination victory in 2488. Really don't have time or energy to write a full report with pictures at the moment (although I did take some screenshots). Will finish this report later.
Main highlights:
Mrrshans attacked my second planet with 4 large warships early in game (7 heavy lasers apiece). Took several missile bases and some ships to fight off. Had to rushbuild at the last minute due to DSS not popping early enough to get scanning range to detect it earlier.
Edit: After reading other reports, I guess I should mention that I was lucky enough to have the Mrrshans colonize that world (forget the name) that was the logical 3rd planet to get, due west of the starting 2 core worlds. I didn't really hear from the Psilons until well into the 2400s, and the Humans I didn't meet until the very end of the game.
In my game, the Mrrshan capital of Fierias went rich. Didn't really matter except by allowing the cats to hang around a bit longer before I was able to finish them off in the late game.
2395: I bombed Tao. It only had 9 Hyper-V missile bases. Hard difficulty sure isn't hard compared to impossible!
2401: Captured Tao. Got inertial stabilizer and II-9.
I took a bunch of Silicoid worlds around this time (the ones they colonized around my starting core two worlds. I was able to capture them basically right after their colonization).
The Silicoids had some huge ships that were just awful to fight, including some with auto repair if I recall correctly.
2425: Captured Vulcan. ECM1, Class4 shields, Range6, Graviton beam, NPGs, ISS.
2430: Cryslon taken. Class X Planetary taken. (Thankfully I had already bombed out missile bases a few turns earlier before Silicoids could build the planetary shield).
2451: Fierias bombed. Super-cheap nuke bombers still working on their class II shields. Planet captured shortly thereafter, cleaning out all of their obsolete techs. From this point on, I was untouchable by the AI (even the Psilons), but it would still take quite a while before I could successfully attack any of the Psilon worlds with their class 22 shielding, Mark IV battle computers, ECM6, and scatterpack VIIs.
2480: Xudax (Psilon world) bombed out using mediums sporting Omega-V bombs, plus supporting ships. I had several big stacks of hundreds of speed-4 medium bombers by this point, so I could bait them into firing on one stack that danced around while the other one went in for the kill, taking almost no losses from battle to battle. From this point on, it was just a question of how quickly I could bomb out Psilon worlds to reach an extermination victory since I had been 1 vote shy of getting a council victory in the 2475 election.
Extermination victory in 2488.
Main highlights:
Mrrshans attacked my second planet with 4 large warships early in game (7 heavy lasers apiece). Took several missile bases and some ships to fight off. Had to rushbuild at the last minute due to DSS not popping early enough to get scanning range to detect it earlier.
Edit: After reading other reports, I guess I should mention that I was lucky enough to have the Mrrshans colonize that world (forget the name) that was the logical 3rd planet to get, due west of the starting 2 core worlds. I didn't really hear from the Psilons until well into the 2400s, and the Humans I didn't meet until the very end of the game.
In my game, the Mrrshan capital of Fierias went rich. Didn't really matter except by allowing the cats to hang around a bit longer before I was able to finish them off in the late game.
2395: I bombed Tao. It only had 9 Hyper-V missile bases. Hard difficulty sure isn't hard compared to impossible!
2401: Captured Tao. Got inertial stabilizer and II-9.
I took a bunch of Silicoid worlds around this time (the ones they colonized around my starting core two worlds. I was able to capture them basically right after their colonization).
The Silicoids had some huge ships that were just awful to fight, including some with auto repair if I recall correctly.
2425: Captured Vulcan. ECM1, Class4 shields, Range6, Graviton beam, NPGs, ISS.
2430: Cryslon taken. Class X Planetary taken. (Thankfully I had already bombed out missile bases a few turns earlier before Silicoids could build the planetary shield).
2451: Fierias bombed. Super-cheap nuke bombers still working on their class II shields. Planet captured shortly thereafter, cleaning out all of their obsolete techs. From this point on, I was untouchable by the AI (even the Psilons), but it would still take quite a while before I could successfully attack any of the Psilon worlds with their class 22 shielding, Mark IV battle computers, ECM6, and scatterpack VIIs.
2480: Xudax (Psilon world) bombed out using mediums sporting Omega-V bombs, plus supporting ships. I had several big stacks of hundreds of speed-4 medium bombers by this point, so I could bait them into firing on one stack that danced around while the other one went in for the kill, taking almost no losses from battle to battle. From this point on, it was just a question of how quickly I could bomb out Psilon worlds to reach an extermination victory since I had been 1 vote shy of getting a council victory in the 2475 election.
Extermination victory in 2488.
Big stacks of fast bombers is usually a really good sign. If they are yours, anyway. 