I'm nearing the completion of my Mrrshan game. I will be uploading complete commentary of my 4x fast-forwarded video footage of the rest of the game in probably a few days. But here are the main lessons I took away from my game:
1. Nuclear engines + heavy lasers + battle scanner on a large ship will carry you a long time, unless you are facing a foe that likes to build ship designs with 2-range beam weapons (usually the races like the Meklar and Silicoids that prioritize large ships that can fit those on there). Against smaller ships that will almost certainly only have 1-range beam weapons or slow missiles, you can "shoot & scoot" and whittle down the enemy for a long time. Depending on who one's neighbors are in a particular game, it might even pay to prioritize rushing nuclear engines (if available) rather than better weapons if you are expecting early conflict.
2. 2-move or 3-move nuclear bombers can carry you a long way. I ended up phase-2 POUNCING on a size-65 Silicoid ocean world that was still getting its missile bases built and had "only" 9 bases. Even though the silicoids had class II shields + class V planetaries, their bases were still vulnerable to several hundred nuke bombers with the Mrrshan attack bonus. And nuke bombs are so cheap, all it usually takes is researching a first tier tech in weapons to get just a few tech levels in order to fit the nuke bombs onto a small. Plus, these things remain relevant for longer than you'd think. In a game with 5 opponents, there's usually some poor opponent that is lacking planetary shields in their tree altogether, and they might only have class IV or class V shields 150 turns into the game, making them a juicy target even if you don't have good weapon tech. For example, in most games I'd rather have fusion drives and only nuclear bombs rather than have anti-matter bombs and only retro engines.
3. Games where you go on the offense are easier and more clear-cut diplomatically. Even if you don't plan on invading planets (for example, if you can't reliably keep air superiority in ship-to-ship combat), fusion bombs are possibly the #1 "diplomatic" tech in the game, allowing you to dart in and bomb weak enemy worlds to get brownie points with their enemies during the crucial mid-game phase when the player is most at-risk for losing a council vote.
1. Nuclear engines + heavy lasers + battle scanner on a large ship will carry you a long time, unless you are facing a foe that likes to build ship designs with 2-range beam weapons (usually the races like the Meklar and Silicoids that prioritize large ships that can fit those on there). Against smaller ships that will almost certainly only have 1-range beam weapons or slow missiles, you can "shoot & scoot" and whittle down the enemy for a long time. Depending on who one's neighbors are in a particular game, it might even pay to prioritize rushing nuclear engines (if available) rather than better weapons if you are expecting early conflict.
2. 2-move or 3-move nuclear bombers can carry you a long way. I ended up phase-2 POUNCING on a size-65 Silicoid ocean world that was still getting its missile bases built and had "only" 9 bases. Even though the silicoids had class II shields + class V planetaries, their bases were still vulnerable to several hundred nuke bombers with the Mrrshan attack bonus. And nuke bombs are so cheap, all it usually takes is researching a first tier tech in weapons to get just a few tech levels in order to fit the nuke bombs onto a small. Plus, these things remain relevant for longer than you'd think. In a game with 5 opponents, there's usually some poor opponent that is lacking planetary shields in their tree altogether, and they might only have class IV or class V shields 150 turns into the game, making them a juicy target even if you don't have good weapon tech. For example, in most games I'd rather have fusion drives and only nuclear bombs rather than have anti-matter bombs and only retro engines.
3. Games where you go on the offense are easier and more clear-cut diplomatically. Even if you don't plan on invading planets (for example, if you can't reliably keep air superiority in ship-to-ship combat), fusion bombs are possibly the #1 "diplomatic" tech in the game, allowing you to dart in and bomb weak enemy worlds to get brownie points with their enemies during the crucial mid-game phase when the player is most at-risk for losing a council vote.
