Imperium One - Off to a Flying Start

[Kylearan]

I attempted to autoexpand 70-odd abbreviations.

Thanks! That was much better. I got a lot of insights from reading further on; I especially liked your thoughts about Planetary Shields V vs. normal Class IV shields.

Overall, I'm a bit surprised how heavily you do rely on spying. I'm no Impossible player and feel comfortable only on Hard so far (though I hope that will change with the Imperia). But already on Hard I made the experience that too much spying could lose you friends, which could lose you the game - or so I thought. Now I read in your report that you willingly avoid researching certain techs, to steal them from other races instead. I have to figure out what it is you're making different, maybe trading, or gifts; and it seems I have to rethink my assessment on spying.

So no, your report no longer reads like a tech manual, but instead has provoked a lot of thoughts that make me itch for more games.

I'm not trying to entertain you but rather to make MoO more entertaining for all.

Fair enough. I hope you'll play again in this tournament, at least one of the Impossible games, and I'm looking forward to your results!

-Kylearan

[Justus_II]

Nice report, shows the value of a builder approach!
(There are other uses for the hammer!
Your screenshot of your planet reports made me envious, all 12 planets neatly maxed, in factories and pop. Mine was in a constant state of flux, as I was terraforming here while building factories there, while trying to squeeze out a few Ion Fighters in the process! Keeping peace w/ the Silicoids was key, building some decent defenses seemed to help to deter them.

I especially wanted to point out your paragraph from the year 2315, I think that is one of the most succinct descriptions of the early game Factory/Colony ship/Growth debate, what your choice was and why. I printed that one out!

[Justus_II]

Thanks for the great report, as usual. I knew from your tutorials and other discussions that you were a big believer in bases, but playing this game and having a comparable frame of reference, I see now my ideas of 'secured' planets are a little lower than yours, by nearly an order of magnitude!! I will have to take that into account as we move up the difficulty ladder!

Your comment about forgetting to evacuate the colonists from the Radiation accident planet hit home too, although I didn't forget, I just never thought of doing that when it hit me. :rolleyes:

Thanks again for a great game, and looking forward to the next one!

[Justus_II]

Thanks for an interesting report. Another report showing heavy base construction, I'm seeing a pattern here! And also a major Mrrshan presence. Interesting how things develop differently. They were always in 4th place in my game (at least until I pared my neighbors down). I know I was suprised by the Silicoid's Death Spores, but 28 on one ship, that's pretty horrific!!

[Justus_II]

That was a lot of detail, but as I'm usually guilty of long reports, I appreciate the depth of info. The abbreviations took a bit, (I actually grabbed my copy of Brackard's tech tree to decipher a bit as I went) but still valuable. It will be interesting as these games progress to see how much a 'standard vocabulary' develops, and it might be a good idea to start up a Glossary thread somewhere down the line to capture commonly used abbreviations for new players. Referring again to Civ, my first few visits to Civfanatics took a bit of context-reading to figure out things like ROP, TOE, OCC, and even SG. Then of course, there's always the ubiquitous GL, whether it means Great Leader, Great Library, Great Lighthouse, or something else. And my wife gently reminded me what RL stood for...

[Justus_II]

Thanks for an excellent pre-game analysis! You really had a good picture of how the galaxy was laid out before you even started. (Kind of makes me anxious to see a preview screenshot of the next Imperia!.

Ironically, after all that analysis, it looks like you missed the call on Jinga in the NE corner, did you not get a scout up there? I remember a comment about "must be no planet, or Orion" because the Silicoids hadn't colonized it yet. I found myself forgetting to forward scouts a couple times, particularily W of the Meklars, and not prioritizing systems I could have targeted during our border wars.

I also identify with your comment about the excess bases at a planet left on defense building, although mine probably wasn't as dramatic. I had left the Rich Laan building bases by mistake, and had like 24 there by the end, even though my other planets were mostly in the single digits. (Of course, compared to some of the other reports, maybe Laan was on track, and everywhere else was the mistake...) :rolleyes:

[Zed-F]

Yes, a lot of people seemed to have a spot of trouble with Silicoids managing to knock out a world or two. I didn't really have a problem with that for some reason, but my galaxy stayed fairly peaceful for a LONG time. It wasn't until I started stirring up brush wars in the 2400s that things started heating up, by which time combat was on my terms and not my opponents'.

There's two different approaches to spying. One is to go ahead and spy, and accept that you will annoy people and this probably will get you into a war. Another approach is to not spy until you already have someone that is at war or at least regularly picking on you. This time I chose the latter, safer route, but spying early can pay off handsomely under the right circumstances. That, plus the early double vote for the Silicoids, might have been contributing causes to why my game was so peaceful. Even so, a lot still seems to rest on the roll of the dice.

[Justus_II]

Good report, I like the 'editorial comments'! I also like your explanation of the Tech Tiers, I have done the same with my copy of Brackard's tech tree printout. In fact, I have started making a copy for each game I play, so I can line through those techs not on my tree, to help me remember what I do and don't have access to as I go. (Then again, I'm pretty nuts about printouts when I play).

Silicoids had Planetary XV! Wow. Interesting how the AI's prioritize different techs, I assume since our tech tree options were fixed once the game began, that their's are also, but it seems the AI prioritized different fields in different games. (Although the Silicoids seem to prioritize Death Spores in all of them...).

[Justus_II]

Nice game! Effective use of Diplomacy to persuade (Bluff?) the Sillicoids into backing down, that saved you an early colony, quite valuable.

Also quite a nice touch in the end game, capturing all the planets! Did you have a major lead in gropo techs? You must have shuttled quite a few troops to forward bases as you went? I found I could barely get troops to new colonies, and so started obliterating everything in sight (which cost me a little bit!. Was Cloning a big help with that?

[Kabuki]

In the wrong spot - edit-