Help me improve my play

[utwig]

I sent 25 + 13 + 15 transports from Crypto, sent 20+20 from Meklon to Crypto. I want to stand up new world quickly as Psilons are close.

[utwig]

Y 2352 Barren colony built and on the way to Galos, Transports are reaching Thrax.



Researching Class II Force FIelds, Gatling laser (only available) and +20 Terraforming.

While Gatling is OK, at this stage I would build a cruiser with:
1 missile for tactics
as many heavy lasers
1 or more lasers or 1 laser + nuclear bombs
Battle scanner.

The point is with heavy laser you can do damage without taking it if enemy only has short range weapons and not too many missiles. I know this tactic is unfair to computer but hey, we're playing on impossible.



Thrax will start building bases, while scouts shift from Crypto to Thrax and from Thrax to green star.

[utwig]

Green star north east is the Orion.



Psilons are first to 6 planets and this is where I think they are about to go run away. Suggestions how to proceed?



Staggered transports on the way to Galos (24+13 while 20 goes from Meklon to Crypto). With frontier worlds, I bring them up to population quickly while I trickle rear worlds at 2-5 transports per turn from nearby planets.



Scouted Beta Ceti and Kakata. Is there a way I could deny them one of colonies?

I can send transports but I have nothing to defend with.

[Ianus]

Oh man this one looks rough. I estimate fully THREE AI races are stuck with one planet while the brains are shaping up to control half the galaxy. Yikes! I think at this point you just have to hope that whoever is in the SE corner can hold their area while you fortify what you have and try to tech into SOMETHING. Push Planetoloyy maybe and try to grab as many hostile worlds in your corner as possible to get some production going. And/or push Computers and use espionage to ride the brains’ coattails to get what you need. Good luck!

[utwig]

Year 2380


Managed to make peace with Psilons after a brief war where i took over Beta Ceti and they failed to take over Crypto



Took Deep Space scanner, they have Robotics III but not too far advanced.





The corner is held by Mrrshan who were nominated against me. I could vote for them and have non-agression pact.



Crypto after war - 3 bases were enough to kill cruiser but still no good missile tech on hand.

[SpaceOWL]

Well, I think you're doing pretty well... are you sure this is impossible?? 

The cats have 3 planets and were nominated to the vote instead of the brains with 5 worlds (maybe 6 at the time)? 
This is surprising...

Can you show us a map with the environments of the planets? 
I'm curious about your chances at the green star to the left

[Qhored the Cruel]

I hope you keep playing and win; I have been lurking off and on this forum for years but have never made a post. One day I would like to be able to beat this game on Impossible, but until then I will keep learning from how everyone else plays.

[utwig]

I continued playing for a bit but war with Psilons is inevitable and I don't have missiles to defend. I've been busy for the past couple of weeks and next week will be busy as well, so I will revisit this games.

I can win about 10-20% of games on tiny impossible with Meklars which are one of most powerful races. What I'd like to know is are most games on impossible winnable with perfect play?

When I checked some imperium games, the level of play there is above mine.

[RefSteel]

What I'd like to know is are most games on impossible winnable with perfect play?

Yup! Even short of perfect play, our SG teams have a good record even in Impossible games with restrictive self-imposed variants! (It's been a while since we played one of those though....) Playing a succession game with good strategic discussions is a great way to learn the game and improve your strategies too. And I notice Ianus is trying to pull a team together at this very moment!

[Bionic Commando]

Most games are indeed winnable. The key is speed. If you spend resources on things that are not very useful you can fall behind quickly. Research can be a big resource hole, only a few techs are worth researching, and if you look through my games, I often stop at tier 2 or even tier 1 and rely on conquests only. The big thing to master is early warring. It yields much better gains that colony ships+factories and you cripple the enemies too.

I've been really amazed to read some of your game reports. I can't grasp your pacing which seems like it's several orders of magnitude better than my level of play. Joining this forum has really opened my eyes to the inefficiencies of my play and I love learning from the many masters here!

Which are the techs you view as worth researching? From the reports, seems like IT10, ER3, Range4-5, Hand Lasers, maybe Duralloy. Any others?