Can you give us a little context to your bug stomp fiesta? Who you are, how you came to dominate both the bugs AND the brains? Anything? I'm picturing you delivering that line to your screen in the most Sam Jackson way possible while playing this game...
(March 29th, 2016, 19:45)Ianus Wrote: Can you give us a little context to your bug stomp fiesta? Who you are, how you came to dominate both the bugs AND the brains? Anything? I'm picturing you delivering that line to your screen in the most Sam Jackson way possible while playing this game...
It was a heck of a game! My first win as the Sakkra on impossible, and a game where I absolutely HAD to tech to the end of the tech tree. My glassing spree was just me playing around with all of the late-game goodies for fun, and me not wanting to wait until the next council vote for the victory. By that point, I had already conquered three opponents AND beaten the guardian and colonized orion, so I was snowballing way ahead. The game was practically decided by that point.
Since you sound interested in it, I will go ahead and attach the earliest autosave that I have of it: 2306. It was tough going at first. Click below to see spoilers:
Challenges with this game:
1. Few nearby planets to colonize. Only 4 non-hostile within 5 parsecs range. (And stupidly I chose range 4 before seeing that Collassa 5 parsecs "north" was size 100 terran. Oh well. Range 4 is cheap. Better to mistakenly choose range 4 vs. 5 than the other way around!)
2. Bad planetology techs. The Sakkra are supposed to be excellent in planetology, you say? Not in this game! I had no improved terraforming techs that I could research on my own until +50, and no controlled environment techs other than inferno. At least I had improved eco restoration for level 1. But the only option for level 2 was death spores! This meant that there were only 2 additional hostile planets that I could colonize in my neighborhood, and I could not get those going until I researched controlled inferno. Also, no battle computer upgrades that I could research until Mk VI. My solution was to tech-whore like mad (snagging improved terraforming +30, controlled toxic, and battle computers Mk III that way), even trading away juicy stuff like robotic controls III and soil enrichment to cover those gaps. I never did get controlled radiated, and nobody else did either until the very last few turns of the game, when I think the Psilons happened to have it in their tree.
3. No bombs better than fusion bombs in my tech tree. The Klackons, Psilons, and Alkari were sporting level 22-26 shields (Planetary Class XV + Class VII or XI deflectors) which meant I HAD to conquer Orion to continue my expansion. (The Humans and Darloks fell to fusion bombs). Not only did I get the death ray, which I was prepared to use, but I also got Omega-V bombs, which was even better, and which allowed me to really go on the offensive vs. the Alkari and seal up the game. Note that, if you wait long enough, I know for certain that the Klackons have neutronium bombs in their tech tree, so you could also try stealing from them if you can survive that long into the game....
I guess I could have gone with a death spore strategy instead and gone on the offensive sooner. But the diplomatic situation would have been trickier in that case...
The keys to my victory were:
1. Trading with the Psilons for controlled toxic. I was able to snag all of the controlled toxic planets out "east" before others (who eventually did get controlled toxic in their trees), which put me within striking distance of Orion. Without that, I would not have been able to reach Orion, and I guess my endgame strategy would have had to have been death spores instead.
2. Dogpiling onto the unpopular Darloks (who, unfortunately for them, did not have any planetary shields--only Class XI deflectors), who were at war with everyone else, and that brought me expansion, tech catch-up, and diplomatic breathing space for a long while, until I could conquer Orion and really go on the offensive.
Things that could have ended my party real quick, if the AI had half a brain to design good ships with the technology that it had:
1. Early massed Klackon fusion bombers and/or missile boats. At a certain point in the game, that would have been unstoppable. But they stuck with beam weapon ships pretty much the entire game, or at least until I had plundered the shielding tech to deal with their fusion bombs and pulson/hercular missiles.
2. Alkari subspace teleporter doom virus fighters. My repulsor beams would have been useless. They could have just teleported right next to my planets on move 1 of each battle and spored my planets into oblivion without me even being able to do anything to stop it. The Alkari had all of the tech to pull this off, and I only had bio-toxin antidote in my tree, not the higher level spore cure. And I was nowhere close to getting subspace interdictors. So I would have been defenseless.
Perhaps an earlier death spore strategy would have been wiser after all, to knock out some of these AIs before they could get a chance to play with such nasty toys! In any case, I definitely dodged a couple of bullets!
(March 30th, 2016, 22:01)thrawn Wrote: I had a quick go.
1. You are right, the Range 4 delayed the expansion, I was wondering why you selected it.
2. I saw the bad techs in Tier 2 - only Death Spores and didn't bother researching Planetology at all. The map was just not right given how close the AIs were. You would delay for not much gain, and the AIs become strong. Instead I went for Propulsion and Weapons and invaded the Klackons, the Psilons and then the Darloks. All of them were close and weak - very basic missile base tech.
3. Fusion bombs are great! Just use them early
My summary is - the Sakkras' strong start with the Artifact and the Rich planet put me ahead of the AIs, and then i conquered the neighboring planets one by one reaching a veto vote and a dominating position in the early 2400s.
Congrats Thrawn! Once again, a more aggressive playstyle than I am used to can pay dividends, I see! I have some questions for you under the following spoiler tag:
Did you tech up to sublight engines before going on the offense? Or just nuclear engines? And did you just use lasers for ship-to-ship combat and defense of your gains? I'm just trying to get a grip on how you can consistently go on the offense so early. I guess if you narrowed your research to just propulsion and weapons, you could make some quick progress down those lines.
(Also, as for posting images, usually you want to upload them to something like photobucket or imgur first. And then copy the link to where you uploaded them, and put the link inside [img] [/img] tags.)
![[Image: mrglassmoo1_zpsqgfuxptm.png]](http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e326/Zeiter/mrglassmoo1_zpsqgfuxptm.png)
