02-23-2003, 10:13 AM
My tactics are a little different . . .
I love the idea of a cybernetic race. I take it a step further and build The Borg. :D
Cybernetic, Telepathic, Industry +1, Farming -1, Unification Government and Uncreative IIRC.
The tactics are fairly straight forward. Build up, colonise, make contact. The Industry bonus gets the first colonies happening quickly, while the farming penalty hardly has any impact at all considering the half and half food requirements of Cybernetics.
I deviate from Star Trek's Borg in that I always make a uniform agreement from the outset. You get four negotiation attempts upon first contact and almost always fail one. That's ok. I only want three. Trade, Research, Non-Agression Pact. And from then on your victim is on near-permanent 'ignore'.
Military, and this is where it starts getting silly. I get Assasult Shuttles at all costs. It's the ultimate weapon. I make two classes of ship; a combat vessel and an assimilation vessel. Asimilation makes up the bulk of the force and Combat has more to do with missile defence and space monsters. The assimilation ships are packed out with Assasult Shuttles and whatever defences I can find. When large packs of Assault Shuttles bear down on the enemy, the enemy will always run or self destruct. Silly eh?
Well that is except for the Antarans . . .
And there's the key. Right around the time the races are gaining Zortrium Armour, I'm intercepting Antaran scoutcraft and assimilating them. After the fight I simply sell them off and 1 to 3 pieces of Antaran tech becomes mine. All I really need is Xentronium Armour and Damper Fields. A year later in game time I'm fielding Battleships of near-Antaran Calibre while the other races are becoming strong enough to repell Antaran vessels a couple of hull sizes smaller. A complete walkover ensues.
And that's it really.
Being uncreative is kind of fun. You have to play the hand you are delt and some of the results are hilarious. There was one game I had where no races developed targeting computers of any kind until well after Neutronium Armour started geting around. So I fielded missile boats packed with missiles or torpedoes while the other races continued building their same old cliched junk piles with all the heavy duty beam armaments that could barely score a hit at point blank range! :lol:
Being uncreative is hardly a problem either considering you can research your own limited options and steal everything the enemy ever puts in their ships. Telepathic yields a spy bonus and Unification Governments making spy defences very tight allowing for more spys to be distributed afar much earlier and I can usually assimilate a fair bit before the enemy battle fleet turns up. Most of the technology advances are stolen from the other races.
Cybernetic helps my ships last the distance, giving time for the Assault Shuttles to do their work.
Telepathic means I don't have to bother much with troop transports.
Unification means I can mix and match the races to exploit the best abilities of each, like adding Sakkra to a world just to flesh out the population and maybe have them as farmers. Androids are as good as any race too because I don't get access to the 'hapiness'(name escapes me) bonuses anyway. I often wind up three races represented in most colonies.
Not true. They do use death spores rarely. It's easily defeated though, if androids are acceptable. I must say it's very strange being left with a colony with no inhabitants if you force the enemy out after they kill the people. IIRC you have about 6 turns to re-inhabit the vacated world before all the structures on it cease to exist and it becomes a bare planet again. (It could be 10 turns)
I love the idea of a cybernetic race. I take it a step further and build The Borg. :D
Cybernetic, Telepathic, Industry +1, Farming -1, Unification Government and Uncreative IIRC.
The tactics are fairly straight forward. Build up, colonise, make contact. The Industry bonus gets the first colonies happening quickly, while the farming penalty hardly has any impact at all considering the half and half food requirements of Cybernetics.
I deviate from Star Trek's Borg in that I always make a uniform agreement from the outset. You get four negotiation attempts upon first contact and almost always fail one. That's ok. I only want three. Trade, Research, Non-Agression Pact. And from then on your victim is on near-permanent 'ignore'.
Military, and this is where it starts getting silly. I get Assasult Shuttles at all costs. It's the ultimate weapon. I make two classes of ship; a combat vessel and an assimilation vessel. Asimilation makes up the bulk of the force and Combat has more to do with missile defence and space monsters. The assimilation ships are packed out with Assasult Shuttles and whatever defences I can find. When large packs of Assault Shuttles bear down on the enemy, the enemy will always run or self destruct. Silly eh?
Well that is except for the Antarans . . .
And there's the key. Right around the time the races are gaining Zortrium Armour, I'm intercepting Antaran scoutcraft and assimilating them. After the fight I simply sell them off and 1 to 3 pieces of Antaran tech becomes mine. All I really need is Xentronium Armour and Damper Fields. A year later in game time I'm fielding Battleships of near-Antaran Calibre while the other races are becoming strong enough to repell Antaran vessels a couple of hull sizes smaller. A complete walkover ensues.
And that's it really.
Being uncreative is kind of fun. You have to play the hand you are delt and some of the results are hilarious. There was one game I had where no races developed targeting computers of any kind until well after Neutronium Armour started geting around. So I fielded missile boats packed with missiles or torpedoes while the other races continued building their same old cliched junk piles with all the heavy duty beam armaments that could barely score a hit at point blank range! :lol:
Being uncreative is hardly a problem either considering you can research your own limited options and steal everything the enemy ever puts in their ships. Telepathic yields a spy bonus and Unification Governments making spy defences very tight allowing for more spys to be distributed afar much earlier and I can usually assimilate a fair bit before the enemy battle fleet turns up. Most of the technology advances are stolen from the other races.
Cybernetic helps my ships last the distance, giving time for the Assault Shuttles to do their work.
Telepathic means I don't have to bother much with troop transports.
Unification means I can mix and match the races to exploit the best abilities of each, like adding Sakkra to a world just to flesh out the population and maybe have them as farmers. Androids are as good as any race too because I don't get access to the 'hapiness'(name escapes me) bonuses anyway. I often wind up three races represented in most colonies.
Quote:I usually give out useless techs such as security stations, dauntless guidance, ship labs (forget the name), death spores (which the comp never uses), etc...
Not true. They do use death spores rarely. It's easily defeated though, if androids are acceptable. I must say it's very strange being left with a colony with no inhabitants if you force the enemy out after they kill the people. IIRC you have about 6 turns to re-inhabit the vacated world before all the structures on it cease to exist and it becomes a bare planet again. (It could be 10 turns)
Heed the Song of Battle and Unsheath the Blades of War