MOO2: Fun Spymaster build

[rgp151]

I just finished a game with this. It's something different and pretty fun. There are few variations you could do, but here's how I did it:

-Feudal
-Repulsive
+Telepathic
+Spying +2
+Omniscient 
+Production +1
+Rich Home World

Granted this makes for a very bad research start, but basically you just don't worry about it and work on making Outposts, Scouts and Colony Ships to make contact with as many races as possible. Find Worm Holes and put Outposts on the other side to quickly get access to all the races and then build tons of spies and basically forget about research. The main things to research early are just the +Spying techs. Make Cruisers and take over worlds.

There are some other possible way to do this, like with Warlord or actually taking Farming +1 and Large Home World could be good too. 


Another way to do this without Feudal would be:

-Ground Combat
-Repulsive
+Telepathic
+Spying +2
+Unification

This gives a little better economy and you can do some of your own research this way, but it loses some of the flavor. Anyway, I'm sure there are other similar combos, but this was pretty fun. I did hardly any of my own research, just relying on Spying and picking up a few Spy techs and early critical ones here and there. The beginning was a bit difficult with food production the way I did it. I did start by researching Hydroponic Farms. Once I got Planetary Super Computers my own research started to be okay, and with Auto Labs of course I was ale to finally direct my own research reasonably well. I got a little lucky in that Psilons were in the game, who I never attacked and just kept taking their research. I also got Draxxx pretty early as my second Leader, which was a nice surprise.

[rgp151]

Just played one more game with this setup on Impossible. Tons of fun. I'd say its the most fun setup I've played. The opening is so random because its based on whatever you get from spying. I did get lucky and my first planet was Arid with Natives, so I had some descent farming to start this time. The Omniscient helps find the good Planets. I started with the Arid natives, then got a large Terran that I was able to get Missile Bases on just in time.

I never used any Scientists the whole game. I also got lucky in that I got Research Facilities as the second tech I stole, so that helped.

Basically to open, after building one Freighter Fleet I build Outpost ships and send them all over, especially to worm-holes to gain access to all the races ASAP. Get 5 or 6 Spies in play, and don't bother with defensive Spying.

I got pretty lucky with some of my early draws. I got Automated factories, Mass Drivers, Deuterium Fuel Cells and Fusion Drives along with Fighter Bays and Missiles Bases. I made a Cruiser with Fighter Bays and Nuclear Missiles and pumped out a few of those. With those I was able to defend against some attacks and take a Silicoid planet that didn't have any planetary defenses yet. So once I had those four planets I was able to just keep rolling. As usual, early on its all about missiles, eventually moving to beams once you get good targeting computers. Doing this a second time around I was a lot more aggressive early on.

My opening research (Once I got Research Facilities) was Biospheres then Soil enrichment. Soil enrichment took a while with only 10 RP per turn, but I think that's the best way to go with this setup. I've done that twice and both times I research Soil Enrichment before stealing it. Its so essential to get your economy going and most anything else, like Automated Factories, you can assume you'll snag from spying. Quickly enough. I'd get Hydroponic Farms instead of Biospheres normally, but with the Natives I didn't need them. You can assume that you'll get all the low level techs eventually anyway, and usually Hydroponic Farms are more important early in the game. After Soil Enrichment I went for Dauntless Guidance System for the missile boats.

Warlord would be nice, but probably not worth giving up the production bonuses or Omniscient for. Darloks were in the game, and close to me, so I quickly turned on them and just kept swarming them with missile Cruisers early to get them out of the game. Don't want more than one Spy Master in the game! The cool thing about this build is that you dedicate all your resources to production, no research at all, so it really lets you swarm pretty effectively. I kind of kept one planet making Spies constantly, mixed with building upgrades as I got them, and just kept pumping out ships. The Sakkra were in the game with their Spying penalty and, as usual, they were leading in pop and research, so I just left them alone and kept farming them for techs.