Altarian Rebillion AAR

So what would I get? Well, I got a medium map, which made me quite happy, I wouldn't have to restart. Altaria doesn't have a great spread of bonus tiles, but I'm happy to have any bonuses. I rush buy a quick Basic Lab, and queue up another.


I set my production capacity to 100%, and set my sliders to 0% military, 0% social, and 100% research. I had already decided before the game started I was going for the tech win after all. I do set focus on social so that I can use the points produced by my labs to upgrade more labs. Now it is time to survey my surroundings:


Yuck! I've already met the Korx, so I'm going to have problems right away. Also, there is another race immediately to the west. From the shade of gray I'm guessing its the Korath, although it could be the Krynn. I don't like being good with a home planet so close to two non-good civs. I do see a research resource close, and I decide to rush buy a constructor to grab it, and increase my research even more. It looks like I got a map with rare everything, which means populations and colonies are going to be sparse. This game is going to be similar to the cage match tiny maps where I learned suicidal, so that at least is OK.

I look at the Korx ships, and my heart sinks. The Korx took +2 speed. There is no chance of me competing with them for anything. Counting the star clusters, I notice there are only 13. With ten players in the game, that means there are only three systems of planets up for grabs. I don't know how common habitable planets are, but I decide to just assume they are rare, rather than gambling that there might be more habitable worlds. I decide to just ignore the colony rush completely. I'm just going to have to make Altaria and Wisp do the most that they can. I'm really not liking how this is starting out.

Given that I have no manufacturing bonuses, I might still do OK if the map is packed with asteroid fields. This will help in completely focusing on research. I'm fairly centrally placed, which is not going to be a good thing. I'll be a popular target early. Well, good thing I have my Super Organizer. I'll want to figure out which races spawned quickly so I know who to force into being my allies.

_____

Eleys Mue sat slumped on the cold metal crate that served as her makeshift chair. Brow furrowed, she intently studied the star chart that had become her prison. Full lips curled downwards into a frown as she let out a heavy sigh. A shadow sprung across the map, blocking the already dim light from the glowsticks in the bunker.

Eleys glanced up into the eyes of Hadrian, her second in command. He was young and eager for war. Hadrian was charasimatic and would make an excellent field general, but Eleys knew the coming war would kill the enthusiasm and innocence that lay behind those eyes. For a second Eleys cursed that the Rebellion had put her in charge of this small outpost. The system was small and resources were scarce, and yet a whole host of potential foes had managed to gain a foothold here. The lives of billions of Altarians lay entrusted to the decisions that were about to be made.

"Commander?" Hadrian saluted as he spoke but the words were more a question than a recognition of rank.

"Report." Eleys gaze returned to the sparkling holomap of the system, still partially obscured by her Liutenant's shadow.

"We have set up food and water distribution for the rest of the refugees that found shelter in our camp. The bunkers are reinforced, but the skys are empty. I don't think any enemy transports will be landing soon. I was hoping to recruit some soldiers among the surviving males. There are many whose hearts will be called to the glory of serving the Rebellion! Is something troubling you?" Hadrian fell to one knee so that he was looking up at his seated commander, the dull artificial light revealing the tired eyes of Eleys.

"Recruiting soldiers can wait. We need to build up more of an infrastructure here on Altaria. I need every available pair of hands to work on building a research facility. Without better weapons we will be quickly overwhelmed. This system is poor, and we are surrounded by enemies."

"As you wish...", but Hadrian paused without rising. "Commander, if I may?"

"Speak"

"Commander, there may be many enemies here, but there may also be many allies. I have seen many inspired by the cause of the Rebellion. Allow me to send emissaries and scouts to the other systems, and see if we cannot pursuade some of the other empires to join us."

Eleys mulled over the suggestion as her keen eyes continued to scan the unflinching map before her. "Very well. Send as many as you can spare, but be discrete."

"Thank you." Hadrian rose quickly and saluted again. Spinning on one heel, he moved towards the hallway that lead down to the living quarters of the shelter.

"And Hadrain..." Eleys words stopped his motion in an instant. He was a junior officer, but Hadrian was well trained. "... I want you to set up three shifts. Everyone works two per day. That is all."

April 22, 2226 (16 turns in)

Well, I'm doing OK. I have lease bought Altaria full of Research Centers by now and I also have my tech capital. Wisp also has two research centers. I have switched focus on both of my worlds from social to military to build some constructors, and maybe some freighters. I'm still running at 100% research. I started out third in research behind the Korx and the Arceans. I've already managed to meet every race. Fortunately, after I lease bought my tech capital I jumped into first place in research. It can be hard to get into first place research wise on suicidal, so I'm very pleased about this. Still, my manufacturing and economy don't even register, so I might be setting myself up for problems in the future.

I'm dealing with either Fast or Very Fast Research setting, because I am just racing through the techs. I have already gotten Impulse through Warp drive (to compete with the Korx), and all the trade techs, as well as a good start on the diplomacy line. I have already met every race, and it is an interesting lineup. I am facing Torians and Iconians for the good, Terrans, Thalans, Arceans and Krynn for neutral, and Korx, Korath and Drengin for evil. I'm currently working on getting up to Star Democracy. My diplomacy, even with all this research is still only at the same level or slightly lower than each of the AIs.

Money is a real problem, and I've already done one round of trading to try and get some basic operating capital. I'm running at -301bc/week, but I've already spent all of my cash on rush buying things. I need money (and more research, I'm insatiable) so I go another round of trading with all the AIs. I've sold most of my engine and research techs, but I gained 6500bc and all of the research treaties.

I know many people think tech trading makes the game harder because the AIs trade techs with each other, giving them a "Group Research" advantage. I haven't gotten any tech through tech trading, but I never could have bought all of those treaties this early with just cash and planets. Also, I'm helping the AIs keep up with me by selling tech, but I'm sucking down money at an insane rate.
Research treaties are, sadly, not as good on suicidal. You get 10% of their research, but it is before they get their bonuses, that is you get "base" research. Even so, the sheer number of them adds up.

With the treaties, I'm already over 800 research per turn by turn 18.

I've gotten through Star Democracy, and decide to pick up Majesty quick. I'm going to have to go for Xeno Ethics soon to secure some allies that are actually producing something other than tech.

I'm a little disappointed, I haven't found any asteroid fields that aren't attached to a home system, so it looks like I'm not going to be able to get anything more than three I started with. That is not enough production to run an empire.

___

Eleys stood at the head of long, crude metal table. Every month Eleys gathered with her advisors for an intelligence report.

The news wasn't all bad. Hadrian's agents had managed to infiltrate the scientific community of every other faction in the system. With some well placed bribes to key scientists the Altarian Rebellion was now being sent extra research secrets from all the empires.

There was also potential in talk of allies. The good races in the sector were weak, but that wasn't knew. There were however a large number of neutral races, and several powerful evil races. Eleys knew it would be hard to convince her followers to switch thier outlook, but a few ritual public sacrifices might help the Rebellion survive by earning the respect of some of the other races. Ultimately Eleys could control her people through martial law, and she was prepared to do whatever it took to ensure the Altarians survival. Her people might not understand the tough choices she was forced to make, but they would live on, and that was all that mattered.

The other concern was money. Despite repeated requests, this outpost wasn't getting any more money from Rebellion Central Command. Altaria was dominated by a gigantic state of the art research facility, but many of the improvements being created had been sold just for a few billion credits. Eleys worried that this was a situation that could not be sustained.

Aelea, headmistress of the spies coughed slightly, bringing Eleys out of her contemplation. Aparantly someone had asked a question, it was time to return to the meeting....

July 1, 2226 (25 turns in)

The moment of reckoning was at hand. After finishing all the terraforming tech, I have just picked up Xeno Ethics, so it is now time to choose who will come to my aid. The good races are weak, and good has no good bonuses, so I knew I wasn't going that way. The question (as always) was neutral or evil. Sadly for me, both alignments were clustered. All of the neutral races were to my north and west, while all the evil races were to my south and west (with the Korx and Korath also to my east). Anyone who came to my aid was probably going to have to fly through my space to get to my attacker. This really makes the usefulness of my super ability less.

I don't like how close the Korx and Korath are to me. My relations with both are hurting because of close borders and alarming influence (from my advanced government). I have finished Terraforming, but am kind of cash strapped, so I'm on the fence about rush buying the Orbital Terraformer. Still, if I go evil I get both the Articifial Slave Center and Mind Control Center.

Besides me, the Korx, Arceans, Drengin and Krynn have all started to militarize. This doesn't help, because that is an even split, 2 to 2.

Ultimately, I decide my populations are small enough that the cost of the MCC is prohibitive. If the Yor had been in this game I would have gone evil, but without them I decide to go Neutral. This gets me more tiles right away, as well as a +15% increase to my morale. Also, Neutrality Learning Centers will allow me to reach huge research totals.

I'm still running at 100% research, and after going Neutral I decide its time to get serious about invasion. The Korath already have planetary invasion, and they are right next door. I'm running at -522bc/turn, but my reserves from my last trade round are holding out. Fortunately I had just finished Majesty before that last group. I spend the next four turns getting all of the soldiering tech (took me one whole turn to get Tidal Disruptors, a frustrating use of my huge tech rate), and I missed getting advanced planetary defense in addition to planetary defense in one turn by just a small sliver. Sigh. I can't justify one whole more turn to just get a +10% soldiering bonus, so its time to move onto researching other things. By August I was ready for my first invasion:

Both Korx and Kora are just 8 spaces away from Altaria, so I will be able to lop the head off of one of the beasts. The Korx have better planets, a 10 and an 8, but with my terraforming I can turn the Korath class 4 into a high PQ planet immediatly. The Korx have a stronger military than me, and the Korath don't have a military yet. They do have 3 ships in orbit, but with my warp drive and impulse bonuses, my combat ships have 3 moves. Also, spore ships scare me, especially with a planet just 8 spaces away.

From earlier, I had researched to advanced min and stinger II, so I slapped a couple stinger IIs on a small hull and rush buy that to take out the Korath orbiters. Sadly, I also have already sold all my stinger technology for cash, so I know the Korath could also build stinger fighters.

I have decided to take the Korath, and so I invade. Sadly, I am forced to use mass drivers, I only can afford one transport, and the Korath surprise me with a soldiering value of 3. I know they get a base +10%, and they had planetary invasion, but apparantly they had also spent racial points on soldiering as well.

I'm happy during the invasion to see I'm getting a tech capital along with a few more research centers, even though I've moved on to research acadamies by now. I end up stealing toxic atmosphere reductor (useless) and I destroyed the two manufacturing centers and the starport in my invasion. But I won. Finally, a new planet.

_____

The shriek of the bomber's engines temporarily deafened Hadrian as he took cover in a ditch. Eleys had granted his request to lead the first assault along with the newly trained and recruited soldiers.

The reality of war on the ground was not as glorious as Hadrian had imagined. The Korath had proved to be much more cunning warriors in an assault than intelligence reports had suggested. Many of the invading Rebel marines had already been killed, and they would have been wiped out and overrun if not for the constant bombardment from the Rebel spaceships.

The roar from the bombers faded briefly, and Hadrian ordered his unit forward. Their destination was the planet's starport. If they could secure the starport the remaining Korath soldiers would not be able to coordinate their counter attacks.

The Altarian warriors moved quickly and in unison, each armed with pulse laser rifles. The starport was already partially damaged from an earlier bombardment. Hadrian stopped, and surveyed the scene. The battered metal beams and supports of the starport were still operational, but there were no Korath targets. The silence creeped down Hadrian's spine. Juxtaposed against the overpowering and recent roar of the bombers, the quiet was sinister.

Suddenly a group of Korath warriors sprang from the underbrush. They were large, imposing creatures all teeth and hair. They struck quickly, attacking with their claws and large bladed weapons. The entire unit opened fire, but each Korath warrior continued to fight after taking wounds that would have easily dropped an Altarian.

Hadrian shouted orders to his comrades and tried to get his unit to concentrate their fire. The Korath warriors slowly fell, but they took three times their number down. Suddenly Hadrian felt a breath on the back of his neck, and smelt the rank stink of a foul maw. Turning, Hadrian barely saw the attacker as a cruel Korath blade swung towards his midsection.

Hadrian dodged backwards, but was not quick enough. Although avoiding a killing blow, the Korath weapon dug into his thigh and lower leg. Trying to choke back the pain, Hadrian fell to the ground, firing as he fell. He lay, waiting for the killing blow. Several seconds passed, but it might as well have been an eternity. Looking up from the ground, Hadrian saw his attacker clutching its throat and crumble backwards.

Hadrian looked to see who his benefactor was, when the screaming of a fresh set of bombers pounded through his ears. And then he realized, the bombers target was the starport....

Oh, and I have to go. This game is finished, more to come later tonight

Not bad... I am interested to see the conclusion!

October 15, 2226 (38 turns in)

Well, Kora was a good planet to add, with just the research centers it gave me a base boost of 346 research, and I was already upgrading those centers to acadamies. I have managed to up my weekly research to over 1400 per week. (As an aside, the fastest I ever got to Technology Victory on suicidal in DA was in 26 turns - July 15, 2226 - which is one reason I have to turn this victory option off. The time I did that, I didn't even have a precursor library. Out of curiosity, has anyone ever gotten the tech win faster than 26 turns??) I have switched researching weapons lines, and already researched through plasma II, and I have researched hulls through to superier hulls. I put one turn into starbase defense, and that took me all the way to titanium armor III. I have a significant tech advantage across the board, even with selling tech I seem to have about 25-30 more techs than the next closest AI. I have still never once dropped off of 100% production capacity and 100% on my research slider.

But there is a real downside to my position. I'm running at -867bc/turn now, and that really is unsustainable. I switched over to the beam weapon line, but I've already sold through laser III for operating capital. I'm only running at a 47% tax rate to keep 100% morale, but increasing my tax rate won't make up for an almost 900bc per turn shortfall.

I design a fighter with my best tech. The next best ships any AI has are small hulls packed with stinger IIs, so this puppy should be able to win me a few wars.


But my economy is in a full collapse. I'm even below -500, and still have to wait a turn before I can tech whore for more money. I'm really being strangled by the lack of colonies on this map, I am used to being able to generate significantly more amounts of money from my own people by such a late date. So, at just 38 turns, it is already time for me to pull a Flip.

>> Strategy aside <<
But I should describe more what I'm talking about. The Flip is a tactic I developed about three months ago, and it really works wonders against the AI at any level. Not having enough planets, using it here is more of a desperation move, and I'm playing pretty clumsy to this point overall.
Here is the deal. You see, getting your Production Capacity to 100% is only half the battle. With a production capacity of 100%, if you split your buildings on all of your worlds combined between research and manufacturing, you are necessarily only running at 50% of your MAX potential. Take any tech slider combo you want, lets say 33/33/34. Here, your factories are operating at 66% and your labs at 34% of max capacity. Combined, it means you are running at an aggregate 50% of total max capcity. You really are not getting the most out of every tile.
Fortunately, there are two solutions to this, 1) only build research buildings or 2) only build manufacturing buildings. Lets look at each -
1) The all research building empire. This one is the more sophisticated option, is slightly trickier to use, but once you master it can give you unreal amounts of production and advantage. This works especially well on very slow or slow research settings (which I was hoping for, but didn't get this game). Research buildings produce more units and have lower upkeep costs than similar manufacturing buildings. The Discovery sphere produces 18 points with an upkeep of 4, vs. the Industrial Sector which produces 12 points and has an upkeep of 5. Or earlier on, a research center produces 10 points with an upkeep of 2, compared to an enhanced factory that only produces 8 units with an upkeep of 2. That research buildings produce more (and research cooridination centers are a one stop shop between anti-matter and quantum power plants) isn't a problem game balance wise, research is less versitile. Factories can produce both social and military, so this is a good balance. But to produce the most points possible out of every tile, you have to go all research buildings. Now, you still produce social and military points by using focus on a per colony basis. You will actually produce at a fair rate if you do this, try it and you will see. The difficutly is that you can never both upgrade buildings and produce military units, and you don't have the flexibility to jump into 100% military mode. But neither of these are as big a problem as they seem. First, many people already use the 1% military 99% social tactic. This is just another way of saying, build all improvements first, then build ships. That exact same strategy can be reproduced by using all research buildings, and focusing on social till your improvements are done, and then switching to a military focus. And as for not being able to flip into 100% military mode: you will find that the weapons and armor higher up the tech tree are more cost efficient. If you play with all research buildings, you will always have a significant tech advantage (even on suicidal, the AI builds mixes of factories and labs, so is only ever getting 50% of its real max production values empire wide) and the few ships you build by focusing your research points on military will far outclass the enemy.
Indeed, I have played my entire game to this point using exactly this strategy. I'm running into money problems, but that is a symptom of the number of worlds available, not the strength of the tactic.

2) Response number two to the problem is to only ever build manufacturing buildings, and then just focus worlds on research production for all of your research. This is slightly less sophisticated and easier to pull off, if you have the right map settings. Conversly to strategy #1, this strategy works best with research set to fast or very fast. The problem with this strategy is it requires a minimum 30-50 colonies to really pull off effectively, otherwise you run into a huge tech hole early (on suicidal). In this current game, with only two colonies, I would be so far behind in research at this point the game would be over. The Korath could have invaded ME already, and I would have been far away from starting the soldiering tech. You generally will have lower research, but will kick out a lot more ships. You are not producing max per tile per turn for your empire compared to research buildings, which slightly lowers overall score IME, but you can quickly go to 100% military spending and kick out lots (think hundreds or thousands) of weak ships quickly with little effort. This is more of a brute force approach (hence less sophisticated), and if you are practicing using one of these two strategies I recommend learning on all manu buildings before trying what I'm doing, which is the all research buildings approach.

BUT, I'm not done. Perhaps the single most advanced empire management trick I know (and I'm giving it away for free right here, so pay attention) I refer to as "The Flip" or "Flipping". This lets you have your cake and eat it too. Basically, you start out using strategy #1 to get an unsurmountable tech lead, and then, ideally around turn 60, you flip your entire empire and build over every research building with manufacturing buildings. Upgrading in this way doesn't really take very long, and you will find that then you are able to kick out hundreds of very high tech ships. When this tactic works perfectly, on very fast research (with lots of worlds) I flip on about turn 61, and will have finished ALL techs except for the extreme colonization techs, two weapon trees, all starbase upgrades, and the tech victory techs past discovery sphere. Except for those, I can have everything else in the tech tree finished by around March/April of the second year (2227). This is a devastating strategy against the AI, and it really can't recover. The speed of the flip depends largely on your income. When you first switch your sliders to 0% research, your spending will drop dramatically, only your home colonies are getting funding instead of all those buildings. If you make enough money, you can then rush buy your first few upgrades of labs>>factories, and complete the flip in around 8 turns for the whole empire. If you can't afford to rush buy, going to 100% social usually will get most of your empire flipped in about 20 turns. That is a pretty fast change, still.

>> end strategy aside >>

So, at turn 38 I queue up enhanced factories to build over all of my research centers and acadamies. I have wasted two of my 30 tiles between my worlds on the two technology capitals, but that is a price I can live with. I switch my sliders to 40% military, 60% social, and 0% research. My per turn deficit drops all the way down to a manageable -24. The terrans recover in terms of trade quickly, and I am able to trade with just them for a few hundred bc to get me back above -500 with a few turns of low empire production. I'm pretty upset that not only am I using my own strategy poorly by having to flip so soon, but that it had to happen while I'm doing my first AAR. Oh well. Stupid rare settings.

And after starting the flip over to a factory empire, my military rating really jumps.

Studying the graph I'm happy to see the Krynn are in second place in military, and the Terrans and Thalans are starting to militarize. Now that I have gone neutral and these empires have militaries, I will really be able to throw my weight around. If an enemy declares war on me, they will have plenty to deal with. This lets me play a little looser than I otherwise might in this situation.

I still have serious long term problems though. My economy only seems manageable because I'm actually producing almost nothing. When all of those factories come off the assembly line, I'm going to need to pay for them to produce. My income is low, so my flip will start slow, but when my trading recharges hopefully I will be able to inject some speed into the process. I would rather sell every tech and planet and the first born child of my empire's leader than ever run one turn at less than 100% production capacity, so I'm really going to have to dig deep into my bag of tricks here.

Also note, my research drops a lot, but not off completely. I still have 8 research treaties being sent my way (I'm not focusing any of my three planets on tech yet, it is still too soon) - so those research treaties are going to help my tech to continue to limp along.

Going over how to boost my economy, I come across a bug(?) that nearly crushes my spirit.

My economy rating is too low. I started with a +60, and should be at 60(starting) +10 (xeno economics) + 5(xeno banks) + 20 (democracy) + 4(anamoly boosts) = 60+10+20+5+4 = 99. But I'm only listed as a 74%!!!!!?!?!?!?!?! How did I lose 25% to my economy. If this is a penalty for playing on suicidal, I've never noticed it. I double check that my government is set right, all of my techs, etc. No explanation. Not only has the game given me no planets to use, but now it is randomly taking away what little money I should have. Frustration levels are rising.

However, notice, 40 turns in or so, I might be 10th place in production, but I'm first in both military and technology. This is exactly how I planned to win from before I even started the game. My strategy is working. My biggest enemy now is my economy, followed by the Korx who have colonized several worlds and have a decent military and are close. If I can handle my economy and the Korx, I've got this one in the bag.

____

Posting this is taking me too long, so I'm going to end the roleplaying story for now. Hadrian lived through the attack on Kora, although he is injured. This section was going to be more Eleys brooding and the unveiling of the Rebel Eclipse prototype.

December 22, 2226 (48 turns in)

Well, I just about want to give up at this point. I'm just so frustrated with the lack of resources. My flip is progressing at a decent pace, and I'm already back up to running a -200/bc per turn rate. I have switched over my worlds to being 50% manu buildings, 50% banks, with one farm on the two planets I have with only a 6b starting pop cap - and nothing else. No morale buildings, no wonders, none of them have been worth the cost of rush buying yet. But these upgrades are far from over. I used my new medium fighters to attack the Korx. I signed a peace treaty with the Korath. I have researched nothing (my treaties have inexplicably dropped from giving me around 200bc per turn to only 56 bc per turn in free research. Apparantly every AI has decided to stop researching.) I also discovered a minor race, the Paulos to my east, and I've conquered them, as well as the Korx colony to the east. I also have found the Snathi and Scootlings, but they are nestled between the Thalans and Terrans.

I wasn't able to goad the Korx into declaring war, so I didn't get help from my "allies", the other neutral alignments. Still, the Korx have dropped from 4 worlds to two, and I took their capital. Also, when I invaded Korx I stole Enhanced Logistics - which sells for a high price to the AI. I immediately sold it to everyone for a nice cash boost that should keep me going for another 4 to 5 turns at my current rate of spending. I notice that all of the AIs have researched Aquatic colonization tech, so there must have been an aquatic world out there somewhere.


So this is the setting at the end of year one. I managed to take both Kora and Korx, although both of those races are still in the game. My money problem is only going to get worse, I'm going to have to win quickly.

Still, I have said before, and I will say again, games are won or lost in the first year. Therefore I have to take stock of where I am. I have a significant tech advantage over every AI. I have by far the best military in the game, everyone else is only using small ships, my beefy high tech mediums can take anyone. I also have six worlds. This puts me even with the Terran Alliance who also have six worlds, but appear to be dithering - I'm not sure what they are doing but there is no killer instinct. All the other AIs have only one or two worlds. When/if I finally finish the rest of my Flip and get on top of my economy, I have won.

So, verdict is I have won this game one year in. Still a lot of grinding to do.

March 15, 2227 (58 turns in)

Well, I have managed to use my increased industry to kick out more transports, so I have by now finished my war with the Korx. I also attacked the Korath again and took their one planet. I'm really glad I didn't align with evil at this point. I also managed to buy one of the planets from the Terran alliance - (thanks to Magnumaniac and Purge who encouraged me to get better at this tactic, I'm still learning but improving I think).



One thing I notice is that the system to east, which I now control, had 4 habitable planets. This makes me think the map settings must have been rare stars, probably tight clusters, but then common or abundant habitable planets. Weird.

The terrans now have the second largest military, so I'm glad they are on my side. My flip has been completed at this point, so I'm now focusing my worlds on research, and getting a decent rate (for midgame). I'm running at -370bc/turn. Now with 10 worlds under my belt, though, and I see a light at the end of the money trouble. All of my new worlds only had base pops of 6, so they are getting one farm and all banks. These improvements will build fairly fast because I'm still running at 40% military, 60% social spending, 0% research.

I continue to tech whore up a storm to get money. I have sold almost everything except for my plasma weapons, medium hulls, miniturization, terraforming and diplo/majesty techs. Speaking of, I've been working on Total Majesty, which will really help the cash I get per tech sold.

I still haven't necessarily overcome my economy. I currently face a Hobson's choice with expanding the war. Every civ I attack now is one less research treaty, and one less bank account to raid by selling tech. However, if I don't keep attacking fast, my tech advantage will be overcome by me... as I will be forced to sell every last bit I have to keep running.

I decide to make the Iconians my next target. They are close. They are good alignment. They have a decent military, so taking them down will only strengthen my position further. My only real enemy at this point is my economy, but I'm probably sounding like a broken record.

May 15, 2227 (64 turns in)

Well, the situation has changed slightly over the last 6 turns. I got Total Majesty, finally finished off that last sliver of Advanced planetary defense, and picked up extreme miniturization (which I had also almost finished on a much earlier turn), I've basically been playing tech tree cleanup from when my research had really been humming. I am now back to researching the weapons line, so that I can sell my current set of weapons. Another round of tech whoring netted me almost 5000bc, but I used half of that to rush buy some things.
Speaking of tech whoring, I have now sold through Plasma III to all AIs, and I'm only researching Phasors II, so my weapon tech advantage has almost disappeared.

I'm running at -456bc/turn. My manufacturing is really starting to get some legs, but... Unlike research, I have no natural manufacturing bonuses. My asteroids are upgrading too slowly for this style of game, by the time space mining upgrades are finished on the 9 fields I currently have the game will already be over. I'm wishing I hadn't been forced into a desperation Flip into all manu, I would have liked to take the all research strategy throughout. Oh well.

I have also gone through and manually upgraded all of my enhanced factories to manufacturing centers. I stole manufacturing centers when I took Kora II to end that war, but I don't like the stats on man centers when you are trying to get your industry up quick. But the time has come, so its upgrading across the board. When this is done, my money problems will probably get worse.

With two minor races snuggled between the Terrans and the Thalans, I decided to leave the Iconians and go for the Thalans. The Thalans only had one world, and I eventually need to take down the mediums. The deciding factor was that over the last 6 turns I only built one transport, and I would have needed two transports to knock out the Iconians in one turn.

There was also a mega event involving everything having unlimited range. I didn't realize any ships were being limited by range, but whatever. Made no difference to the game.

But then I attacked the Thalans:

What? I precursor library? A tech capital and all those research buildings?!?!? The Thalans should have won this game. Instead, they were almost always last in tech, and had built a poor military. My guess is that they went retarded on their sliders. Even though they only had a few manufacturing buildings, they probably had put a lot of points into social/military (probably social) and had only been funding all of that research to a very small degree. Too bad. If I had started with this planet instead of my pathetic Altaria, I could have really made the AIs pay...

Oh well, poor AI. It tries.

Even more painful is the fact that now I'm building over all of that lovely research, including the precursor library, to put up manufacturing centers and banks.

August 15, 2227 (78 turns in)

Well, I've relaxed a little bit. I've really almost overcome my economy. I've really been playing pretty conservative over the last 3 months while I just consolidate my position. Kind of like playing with the high chip stack in poker.

Not long after my invasion of Thala I finished large hulls, and I have been kicking those out (switched to 50% military/50% social/ 0% research, with focus on all worlds on research). I also just finished Phasors II. My bonuses from research treaties has dropped of to an inexplicable 15bc per turn, even though I still have half a dozen being sent to me. I've also built Tir Quan Training, Hyperion Shrinker and Xanthium Hull Plating, with Ultra Spices and Harmony Crystals queued up and on the way.

I'm running at a very manageable -114bc/turn right now. AND I'm still at 100% approval (have been all game). My populations of 12b and 9b are getting close to maxing. I now have the added comfort of knowing that in a pinch I can jack taxes and control my own destiny. I never did build freighters or economy starbases, both of which I was planning on doing early. I just didn't have the resources for either.

Also, I have been kicking out large hulls for quite some turns now, and none of the AIs are using meduim hulls yet. I have slipped down to tech parity, I've sold EVERYTHING but my last level of miniturization, my hull increases, and terraforming (habitable and soil enhancement I ended up selling). The AIs all now have the same weapons as me. But I have much bigger ships.

At this point, tech doesn't matter. I have managed an insurmountable lead in military. The AIs window of opportunity has closed. Now it is time to just build transports and win.


It was slow getting to this point with no bonuses, but I finally can outproduce the AI based on the sheer number of factories I have built.


All we need is a few good larges. I have now built a fleet that can crush the rest of the galaxy simultaneously.


Maybe hard to believe, but even with this economy I'm still running a deficit.

And I'm getting a little bored and impatient. I had this game won almost 30 turns ago, and yet cleanup takes so long. I want a new challenge. Maybe I should be medicated.

Hi!

A bit of advice: homeworlds don't require ANY costs to maintain, and have "free" 12B pop and 25% approval bonus. In my current (and first) suicidal game I turned all 4 HWs I conquered into money-makers (but 1-2 best research buildings). Now I only need to wait for the pop to grow there above 1B.

BTW thanks for sharing your strategies. You listed a lot of abuses of the game workings, but that's probably the only way to win at suicidal. "Conventional" methods just don't work there anymore.

BR, Iztok

November 15, 2227 (88 turns in)

Well, and just when I thought the universe would go down without firing a shot against me. I sucked up the two minors I found, as well as taking out the Iconians. And then, the Terran Alliance declared war! They gave me a dialogue about needing to stop my war machine. I agree with them, but in this case, too little, too late. They might, might have done some damage with a declaration 20 turns ago, but even then my super organizer would have been a good shield against them.


And then immediately almost the rest of the galaxy declares war on them! Hooray for my superability... um, too bad I had to wait this long for it to kick in. If I hadn't already won, this would have been a lifesaver. As it is, just a cute gimick near the endgame. The Terran Alliance do have 5 worlds, so they are the big dog on the block. However, they are no where near me in total worlds, population, manufacturing, economy or military. I'll be sucking them up now.

Also, I continue to keep my tax rate at a level that leaves me with 100% approval and sell whatever tech I research. This is really not working well anywmore, because the AIs have less and less money, and there are fewer and fewer of them to trade with.

Notice I am *finally* getting around to building my all time favorite spin control center. This with my already huge military will send my military rating off the charts. But this is more for fun, I don't need my big stick for intimidation anymore.

And then, hilarity ensued. On the VERY NEXT TURN:

The Drengin and Torians declare war with me, both citing my war with the terran alliance. BUT, then the terran alliance, even though it is at war with me, declared along with everyone else against the Torians and the Drengin because it shared my alignment. Galaxy wide free for all. Woohoo, everyone is fighting everyone. I've lost the last of my research treaties by this point (average time I held one was only 55 turns, they were barely worthwhile) This battle royale is going to be fun, and no one can touch me. I'll pick off the straglers, starting with the Terran alliance.

Oh, but my moment of elation was just as suddenly ruined. In the ensuing turn, the Torians ambushed several of my constructors, and the Drengin attacked and destroyed one of my space miners - with an attack six freighter cargo hull! These ships, while not military, are my very first losses of the whole game, and I had been hoping to go undefeated, with zero ships destroyed. Plus, I should lose points for the shame of losing a ship, any ship, to an attack by a freighter. Now I decide to really push to take everyone out.

Jan 22, 2228 (turn 100)

Well, there isn't much left of any value to talk about. The AIs finally have started to mix mediums hulls in with their fleets of smalls, but they barely scratch my fleets of large hulls. I've lost several more non combat ships, and my first combat ship - a medium Eclipse Fighter went down while attacking a world with... what else, an orbital fleet manager. Seems the only time I ever lose combat ships in this game anymore is when I face the dreaded OFM. I blame the tie rule, but that is another topic.

At 100 turns in, I can finally start to grind with my economy. My worlds populations are near max, so it is time to really let my people have it:

When the last few million finish breeding or cap out at 40% approval, I'll be pushing that up to an 89% tax rate. And I never built a morale building this whole game. My highest pops anywhere are only 12b, most of my worlds are 9b. It's good that I can do this, because I have no trading partners left. Of course, If I could have started the game with a couple dozen worlds things would have been a lot different throughout. This marks the end of the tech trading era for me, although by my tally I gained over 75,000bc in selling tech all game. Now I can keep the new tech I research for me, but it doesn't really matter, I won 55 turns ago.

Endgame - Thoughts and Analysis

So, then I eventually won -


Although I'm a little upset with my final kill ratio. 33:1 is decent, but I should have easily managed 100:1 with how I used my tech advantage.


Well, what can I say. Another entry into the ol' metaverse profile:


Analysis:
I was really unhappy with this game throughout. I managed a decent score for the total lack of resources at my disposal, but come on. I can get more than twice that score on a medium with all abundant settings. I felt as though my strategy was cramped at every turn.

Super Organizer really didn't have a great showing in this game, but mostly because the AIs were ready to start waging war too late. It did help me play more aggressive in turns 35-45ish, and that shouldn't be underestimated. I can win entire games with this ability though, and that clearly wasn't the case here. Maybe I will have to do another one.

Also, my research ability points and political party were a waste. I only used my +65% (eventually +222%) research for the first 38 turns!! What a waste. The lack of resources led to an early flip. I probably won't go for a tech win in this way for a while, it depends too much on the map settings to really work well. I needed a much slower tech rate to really rape the AI with the setup I took going in. It was almost as if the random generator devised a combination of settings to annoy me.

The game took me just under 5 hours, which is about half the time a medium map usually takes me. But I attribute that to the lack of colonies and micromanagement. Doing this AAR, screenshots and writeup has taken me closer to 10 hours, so I don't know how soon I will be doing another one. I don't have a lot of free time, and devoting 16 hours total to one game, well.... its taken all of my free time for the whole week, and now I have only posted one game for this week

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the read. And now you have a little window into one style of how I play.

Oh, and one more thing. Every time I play with tech trading on, I just don't see it as an advantage to the AI. I know they trade tech when you can't. But if you use it to not get tech, but get money, treateis, start wars, etc. etc. etc. it always still feels like an advantage to the player. Even on suicidal. I can't imagine having won this game without tech trading.

I hear they eased it up again in 1.6. That might mean I can start getting tech again, but tech trading still gives the player many more options IME.

Thanks for the AAR. I enjoyed a look into your game style.

Thanks for the AAR. I enjoyed a look into your game style.

Well, I got an email about this - so thought I would post on it. Some of you may remember that a while back I posted a thread on Conquering Suicidal. If you just read through my first post, and then compare to my step by step description of the game:

Point 1: Followed. I took the max econ boost. Money was super important the whole game. I was running with almost -500bc in leases per turn, so overcoming that deficit was the real challenge of the whole game.

Point 2: Closely followed. I mixed up the research order slightly, but I had everything on that list but Federation and Total Majesty very early. I've adjusted from trading for tech to trading for money, and researching the tech myself.

Point 3: Never needed it, although I built it late. I crushed the AI under real military strength, so no need to fake it.

Point 4: Completely followed. I hit early and I hit hard.

Point 5: Didn't need to worry about this because of my super ability

Point 6: I followed this for the portion of the game that mattered. By the time I was at war with multiple enemies a) I had already won and b) they were also all at war with 4 other civs thanks to my super ability.

Point 7: I used this too, but only through my super ability. While I never formed an official Alliance, I had four AIs that were at my beck and call.

Again, no deep dark secrets. Now you just got to see some specifics behind the formula.

Questions? Comments? How can I improve these in the future? This was my first one, and if people think they are valuable I might take the time to do another.

Thanks again.

I have a question, Wyndstar (Actually multiple questions on the same subject). When you are getting that many research points per turn, is it possible to completely research more that one tech per turn? I have played a few games on normal research speed and have turned the research slider to 100% for a large portion of the game. What I noticed was there were many techs that only would take one turn to complete, but I would have to use a turn on each one. In other words, it seems that maybe I was getting enough research points per turn to complete Armor I and Armor II, but the game would only allow me to get Armor I on one turn and Armor II on the second turn. Does unused research get wasted or does it add on to whatever you pick to research on the next turn? Since it seemed to me (perhaps incorrectly) that this research overkill was a waste, when I decided to crank up research to 100% I went after techs that took multiple turns to complete and skipped the one-turners until I turned my research spending down and my military and social up. I also started micro managing the research slider. For instance, if Phasors II took 5 turns to complete at 100% research, but still took 5 turns at 68% research, I would turn it down to 68% until Phasors II was complete and build ships/buildings a little bit faster. In your Reply #6 on this post you said you put one turn into Starbase Defense and that took you to Titanium Armor III. Does that mean you actually researched Starbase Defense, Titanium Armor I, Titanium Armor II and Titanium Armor III on the same turn? If so, did you get to pick the other techs that were researched or did the computer do it for you? Is there a limit of one tech per turn on the normal research speed, but not on fast and very fast? Can you please tell me how research/overkill research works, if the above strategy I was using is wrong or a waste of effort and what your strategy is in picking what to research to maximize the amount of overall technology gained in the fewest possible turns? I appreciate your expertise.

Very interesting insight Wyndstar. In fact i have pegged down something that has hampered me in my game play i think. I don't build research buildings the way you do. I always go for the economy techs first and the research techs once my economy is on track. I had no idea one could research that quickly through the tech tree.

Next game, i will give that a try. Thankyou for the tips.

Hi!

That can be done fom version GC-2 DL 1.1 (or close). If you can't do that, you must be using a very old version of the game.

BR, Iztok

Very interesting read. Thanks!   

Yes, although I was typing fast so I misspoke. I actually researched StarSHIP Defense, Armor Theory, Titanium Armor, Titanium Armor II, and Titanium Armor III in one turn.

And yeah, Iztok is right, early on they changed through patches the ability to research multiple techs in one turn.

Hope that helps.

well maybe you aren't cheating but I think you still have a lot to learn. you just got lucky with your map settings. I have read dozens of AARs on these boards. not one other person plays even close to how you play. did you ever think to see other people's strategies? I also tried your strategy on a gigantic map on challenging and got pwned. ever think of designing a system that would work for other players? you seem to have a lot of excuses for not playing on a gigantic map. I think its just because your strategy doesnt work on a large map.
I also checked your metaverse, and lots of players are better than you. I will listen to storyteller, allianz, zorn, purge, magnumanic or lionova before you. they all really know how to score. and Ive never seen any of them suggest the kind of strategy you used. you should learn from them.
I;ll give away my best empire secret for free too, don't ever buy something with a lease. if you calculate it out you always spend more money by paying for a lease. you keep bitching about money problems. then you post a screenshot with a -469 leases expense. maybe if you didn't buy stuff with leases you wouldn't have had any problems. rush buying things also costs you more than just building them. now maybe you will do better in your next game.

and tech trading does suck now you are wrong. you just got lucky that you got tech trading to work for you in this game. try trading for tech and you will learn quicly.

I did like the story. too bad you didn't finish it. if you do another one you should write the whole story.

Hi!

Ugh!!!! You don't know what you're talking! You read a lot of AARs, and now you think you're an expert. When you'll finish a game or two on suicidal, then come back and read again your post and you'll see how n00bish it is. His play was a masterpiece of extreme balancing. You just don't know enough of the game to actually recognize that.


One gram of salt makes soup better. Does one kilogram make it a thousand times better? That's for me a gigantic map - way too much of everything to be tastefull.


Who says every strategy works on every map?


O sancta simplicitas!
Every point you wrote is correct, by the "book", works... for apprentices. Masters play differently. He's a master, so shut up and rather tray to learn something from his post, like I did.

BR, Iztok