AgentTBC AgentTBC

New Masochistic Strategies?

▼

New Masochistic Strategies?

from Stardock Forums
I was getting a handle on Masochistic/Gigantic level games before the 1.03 patch and could usually win unless I had a very bad starting position. But I'm getting slaughtered now.

In my last game, I started in a moderately sized cluster far away from the rest of the galaxy. I shared it with the Torians but I had selected speed +, so I was able to grab about 18 star systems to their 9. I thought this was a good position: One civ nearby with far fewer planets, and space would protect me from the rest until I consolidated.

The Torians started demanding massive tribute very quickly. Things like 800bc lump sum when I had less than 30bc in my treasury. Next they demanded Sol. Yes, my home system. I was racing to get to battlehammers but they declared war and overwhelmed me with Battlecruisers and BAttleships while all I had was defenders and a couple battleaxes.

I had contact with the Torians, the Drengin, and the Yor collective and some minor races. None of them would buy any tech at all from me for more than an absolute pittance, so my economy was shafted thew whole game.

What strategies have people successfully used in Gigantic/Masochistic games with the 1.03 patch? Without being able to trade tech and sell ships I'm not sure how my economy is going to be able to compete with the massive advantages the AI gets.
4,864 views 29 replies
Reply #26 from Stardock Forums Top
Wow, grats on win anyway Mark, can I ask what your
population and what turn you finished the game on?

Trying to get a feel for how games are being scored.

And yea, seeing the AI have mostly 26 or better pq planets
early on was somewhat intimidating.

I had about 7 trillion in 2194 I believe in my gigantic
maso.

As far as buying starbases, I buy influence ones, which
of course I guess is the biggest cheese, but I have
never bothered with any other. In fact as I do it with
tech/tradegoods and not cash, I never until now
considered it a cheese, as I was always limited by my
narrow non cash perspective.

Perhaps you should address this point on the main forum.
I don't think many people read this one, much less
the dev team.


[Message Edited]
Reply #27 from Stardock Forums Top
Trade goods are still useful... probably more fair overall. I basically only sell the really powerful ones to the minors or a dying Major. But you can spin frictionless clothing for 1-2 techs from every race and some cash... I think that's worth it.

The big drawback is I can't use them to end and start wars anymore. Used to be if I was getting whupped I could offer peace and Gravity Accels and maybe one other Trade Good. Now I can offer about 8 of them and the AI won't accept.... which means the only route is to fight... kinda removes a bit of flexibility.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #28 from Stardock Forums Top
Hey Staffa, sorry I don't remember the statistics of that particular game..But by 2194 I usually have pop in the trillions (depending on the map of course) and I'm usually mopping up by then. I don't remember the last time a game lasted to 2200. Since you wanted a sense of scoring, when I do huge/abundant/maso (5x incredible), I usually finish by the mid 2190s, have all techs by early 2190s. And I'll usually turn off culture victory and just do alliance/conquest. These games seem to yield something like 8000 Mpoints (though this scoring is very subjective as you know). I just did a game on huge/rare/maso and that only got me 6000 Mpoints even though I finished at about the same time

As for the starbases, I like to buy the economic ones first, since I prefer to pay with cash. I used to follow that up with influence ones, but something funny happened to me in a recent game. I assembled a fleet of excaliburs and combat transports to invade the Drengin..I put my fleet by their border and just before I attack I buy out their influence and military bases. And I managed to take the first planet, then moved on to the next one but before my transports could get there it flipped. Then sent them to the next system and again it flipped before my transports could get there. It was ridiculous, I only got to actually invade 2 of their systems (first and last) while 20 or so flipped before my transports could get there ;). This influence cascade got a bit boring after a while so I don't think I'll be buying influence bases anymore unless I need them.

Good point, I'll make a post regarding this in the main forum.



~SDC~
Reply #29 from Stardock Forums Top
#23,25,28

Wow, Mark...very thoughtful & impressive. Agree buying SB's is one of the "tricks" to 1.04 Maso. Taking diplomatic bonuses greatly facilitates the strat, as you point out.

Hope the devs don't "fix" it before I complete my current game! ;)

~SDC~