I'm bad at MOO (screenshots)

[Nimbostratus]

Apologies if this isn't allowed here, but I wanted to share some chronicles of my adventures in MOO. I used to play it a lot in my younger years, though I would always play on Beginner or Easy. I never won a game on Average until fairly recently. I've tried Hard and Impossible only to be thoroughly trounced. :x I think my main problem is that I don't scout or expand enough in the early stages of the game... but I'll let you guys be the judge. Here is my AAR of the first game I won on Average.

Started with 4 stars in range. Normally I send my Colony Ship out on the first turn, but this time I decided to scout first and see which was best.


That turned out to be a good decision, because otherwise this might have cost me my CS.


Good planets all around, two size 95 and a size 70. Grabbed one of the 95s as my first colony, meanwhile building industry and more scouts on Sssla.


This was the only time in this game I'd meet an AI scout before actually meeting the AI itself.


Researching Range 5 brought me into contact with the Bulrathi; cursor pointing at Ursa.


The star just west of Orion has an Artifacts planet. The one I circled is Ultra Rich.


Thankfully I managed to grab everything I really wanted, but my empire still wasn't much compared to that of the Meklar. Their technology was also superior to mine in most respects, though I think I had better shields.

The Mrrshans came to me proposing an NAP... but broke it almost immediately thereafter. Then declared war. And since they and the Meklar were allied ... I prepared for the inevitable dogpile. Surprisingly though, the Meklar backed off when I threatened them. I also talked the Bulrathi into declaring war on the Mrrshans, so that took some of the pressure off of me. Then the Silicoids came calling.


Geez, that's a lot of yellow and purple.

(to be continued)

[Catwalk]

You're most welcome to post that here Two quick questions for you:
1) Do you use scout sentries to block off planets from your rivals early on? It costs almost nothing and has a potentially huge deterring effect.
2) What is your early economic strategy like? When did you start researching, what did you research and with how big an investment (roughly) and when did you start building your first colony ship?

[Nimbostratus]

1) Do you use scout sentries to block off planets from your rivals early on? It costs almost nothing and has a potentially huge deterring effect.

Yes, but it often takes me a while to field -armed- scouts, so on occasion the AIs still poach planets from me.

Case in point, stolen by the Silicoids.

2) What is your early economic strategy like? When did you start researching, what did you research and with how big an investment (roughly) and when did you start building your first colony ship?

On this my memory is a bit less acute. I'd say it varies from game to game, but I usually try to have respectable population and industry before starting research, and I usually put equal RP into all fields unless there's something I really need.

Again, case in point; this was a bit of a game-changer.

Shortly after I developed Warp 3, the Meklar declared war on me. Worse yet, they were allied with the Silicoids. I knew I was well and truly boned unless I managed to drive a wedge between them. So I buttered up the Silicoids a bit and managed to turn them against the Meks - but with all the tribute I gave them to make it happen, it could have easily become a "cure worse than disease" situation.


With the south dominated by the two strongest AIs, I focused my efforts northward instead. I captured a planet from the Meklar and colonized another nearby. Meanwhile, the first election was held, with the Meks and Silicoids as the nominees. Voted for the Silicoids to keep them off my back.


Two elections later, I managed to make peace with the Meklar, though it would turn out to be short-lived. I also managed to get myself nominated but nearly lost the game.


Everyone voted against me, except for the Bulrathi, who abstained.


I captured this planet from the Mrrshans, then tried to strike at the Meklar, but my weapons just couldn't seem to punch through their shields. The Meklar then taught me a rather painful lesson with their counterattack.

At some point I realized that I should actually be fighting the Silicoids, since they were my electoral opponent. So I dialed up the AIs and talked them all into declaring war on the rocks. (It probably helped that they and the Meklar were already at war.)


The result at the next election: close, but no cigar. But then, 25 turns later...


Huzzah! Victory from the jaws of ... well, perhaps not "defeat". Victory from the jaws of mediocrity? :v


Power graphs from the final turn.

[Catwalk]

In that case, my recommendation would be to try to get either IT+10 or IER before your first colony ship. Both of those work wonders for your early economy, and you definitely don't want to waste early RP on stuff like weapons or force fields. Planetology not only gives you nice benefits, it also reduces the cost of your colony ships and makes your citizens more productive.

It's not usually worth trying to protect unclaimed planets with armed scouts, by the time the AI brings escorts you can only realistically protect important systems that you want to get at any cost. But for a long time you can keep them from going anywhere in your direction with simple scouts.

[Zygot]

For 20 years I usually played on Average myself, maybe sometimes Hard. When I came here and saw people seemed to consider Impossible the standard difficulty, I was like

But it's really not too bad. The biggest adaptation I needed was to my mindset. Whereas in the past I could easily slip in to a zone of mindless clicking "next turn" for decades while fortified behind my missile bases, I've found that on Impossible I really need to work the systems more. Plan my research goals. Design better ships. Try and predict Council outcomes. Fight more, and be more agile on the galactic map.

Of course, my win percentage has gone from 100% to, well, something less than that!

But one of the best games I ever played was a Huge Impossible Mrrshan game last year. It was an epic come from behind victory. Way more engaging than a typical game in my past. Good times.