Try this for a good game of GCivII

Just imagine the nightmares, Boogly.

No way i would consciously set-up a game like the above. It could mean the end of my fuzzy-brain - forever. I wouldn't be able to sleep for days on end. I'd even switch breakfeast for a tasty empty cup of coffee, me being too busy not to lift the butt from that chair.
And with the low-mid-end PC i own and paid for, it would take forever to deploy anything away for about three sectors besides Homeworld-Planet X. Not counting much later turns progressing, where the Yor has a bunch of full-fleets worth maxed-out invasion powers sitting right next the last remaining outpost overthere in the distance,
Bye, bye. Empire Earth. So be it.
But, it could be quite a lot of FUN.

Here's mine.

Showdown at the OKay-coralllll;

-- One against One (doesn't really matter which).
-- Tiny map, custom. A single system each (i'd even go for the solitary space body, pop-12 or slightly less) and two other system (three planets each, possibly all in the 17+ numbers) dead-smack middle equally distant from both races.
-- Full-tech tree artificially done, somehow. Don't want to bother with the time it takes. All advantages considered, it may even get MORE challenging just to figure what to build on the extra planets, if you're lucky or fast (!!) enough to reach there first.
-- Plus, no more ships available besides the defaults initialized. One design possible only, pick the right stuff or you're dead.

Conclusions?

-- What would you trade with?
-- Shoot first, ask questions later.

And by around 2275, your "constructors" would have nothing to upgrade. The scout tightly tucked in a corner away from dangers. That is, if you still have any more in some strange orbital gamble rocky place somewhere.

Yup, lock'him'up. Doctor, please Help me!!

- Zyxpsilon.

In Groovy Green Peace, it might be impossible to prevent the demise of a minor civ too far away for you to effect the situation, early in the game. Still, sounds like a great challenge.

"Cultural assimilation does NOT equate to extinction."

Wow. Try putting 8 empty Tiny Hulls in the 8 parsecs surrounding 1 planet of each race, for both minor and major races. This prevents that planet from being invaded unless someone's at war with both you and that planet's owner, and should also prevent that planet from launching ships. Build a strong military just in case someone tries to destroy those 'planetary barrier' tiny hulls of yours.

Then you can go conquering all but that one preserved planet of each race. When your influence from conquered planets overcomes that of the preserved planets, then they'll culture flip and you'll win an Influence or even Conquest Victory. Or you can use your strong military and woo everyone into allying with you for a Diplomatic Victory. Or stay on good terms with everyone and research your way to a Technological Victory.

Of course, just putting up those 8 tiny-hulled ships to form a protective barrier around 17 planets, before some belligerent race goes and kills someone, is challenge enough. That's 136 empty tiny hulls you'll be spamming, costing AT LEAST 3400 MP(Life Support and engines will increase costs too if you have to save someone quickly).

In my Arcean DA game a while ago, I had Diplomacy and Influence Victory turned off. Conquest and Technology Victories were on. So I destroyed the Thalans, Drengin and some Minor Races, made allies with everyone else, and then culture flipped them all to win a Conquest Victory. Similar thing in my Altarian game. By flipping a Good/Neutral Ally, you get their planets, their asteroid mines, their galactic resources and even their military ships.

Mmm, this sounds interesting!

Ah, following the letter of the scenario but not the spirit.

I think the idea is that you are some kind of inter-galatic hippy striving for universal peace (pun intended), not a warlord who keeps zoo planets.

lol - that sounds like a new James Bond movie... with Bon Jovi performing the theme song!

Every time I play a big galaxy game with tech victory and surrenders enabled, one of two things happens:

1. One of the aliens gets to tech victory first; or

2. One of the aliens (usually the Korath) start gobbling up the other empires; they always seem to surrender to the big bully and pretty soon it's hopeless.

It's a neat concept, but I would disable both of those settings in anything larger than medium.

That empty tiny hull trick sounds like a fairly hideous exploit. Has that been reported before?

Hi all! Well, I pulled it off on my second try. The colony rush just didn't favor me the first time, and I realized I didn't even know where all of the races were by midgame, so I restarted.

The second time, I got lucky in the colony rush and got very lucky with the placement of the minor races, having all but three located fairly close. With the super-breeder, I was able to expand like crazy. After getting the edge in research and infra-structure techs, I focused my research priorities thus:

1. Cultural Dominance
2. Diplomacy
3. Engines and Sensors
4. Planetary Defense and Weapons (which I dispensed to the minor races)
5. "Cookie Techs"- Highly valued techs I could trade for diplomatic favors without putting any real power in the hands of super-powers (habitat improvement, extreme colonization, or planetary defense anyone)?

Once I had a bunch of techs and the diplomatic edge on just about everyone, I was able to stop most wars by offering cookies. One strategy I employed that worked was locating the races in a hurry, and "purchasing" some minor worlds near my endangered species to use as what I call "Sentry Worlds." I didn't plan this, but found races remarkably willing to accomodate me for a few techs here and there. As I said, only two races were out of reach to begin with.

I thought about trying the hulls surrounding the planets, but gave up the idea because I assumed races would simply go to war with me..but, in retrospect, it might have worked, because the only real fighting I did was against the Arcaens when they were down to their last world (they didn't want to be assimilated completely, but were after I had to wipe out their fleets). And the Korx, who became pirates when they got assimilated. These were the only two races to succumb to my groovy greeness completely. So the small scout hull idea might have actually worked, but been tedious. One thing that did NOT work was giving minor races ships---they just didn't use them intelligently. If I were to try again, I would drive the ships to the planet, because I just gave a bunch of first generation fighters (speed one)...they just sat around where I had them to begin with.

Apart from the colony rush, this game was won on the diplomacy screen. I hoarded all the diplomacy I could get and kept it to myself. Like I said, I didn't even fight any major wars. I thought at one point, I would have to regulate to keep the humans from killing the Snathi, because they kept taking my techs, making peace, and then declaring war just a few turns later. But then I realized that the Korath were heading threw Terran space in large numbers on their way to another war, so I bribed the Korath to wipe out the comparatively small human fleets. Once I had enough military in place over every minor race and cultural assimilation maxed, I just spammed influence starbases all over the map, keeping a careful eye on the diplomacy screen keeping everyone neutral or better. Oh, and I had to bribe folks to keep the Yor beat down, with that 100 percent loyalty bonus and all.

I was very happy at myself over this game--it is my high score at 22600...difficulty tough, galaxy size large. It lasted five years, and my morality was "saintly."

My next major game I am calling "Heaven is For Sale"---Playing the Korx,trading my brains out, and turtling up real nice going for the tech victory. I tried it once already, but ended up getting dragged into a conquest war. I figured traders would con as neutral to all races, but they are evil...so...I maxed out diplomacy with custom points (and trade) and am giving her another go. After getting over my fear of futzing around with trade, I LOVE THE KORX NOW ).

Yours,

Boogly Fiendish

PS--I know how it is to forsake all else for a game of GCIV and an empty cup of coffee! And to Zyxpsilon, the game you describe reminds me of the first DA campaign scenario.

Boog

Okay, the old post was for DA, and now we are into a new era. I am a big fan of alternate victory conditions in my head, and the Torians are no longer the race with which to pacify everyone via pacifism and benevolence....it is now the Krynn, and they are well situated to do it. A nice, passive Jyhad with a heavy stick for those who wont be nice works very well with the Krynn...it is very possible to keep anyone from going extinct even at higher difficulty levels...unless someone just gets stomped because of oversight/too many things going on...or the map is too huge and you cant get there in time to intervene.

NEW GREAT GAME/TA ERA:

Take the Korx in an immense galaxy...all minor races, tough difficulty level (the max difficulty without giving the pc empires econ bonuses) and the max number of major races.

NEW VICTORY CONDITION...finish the game WITH THE MOST CASH YOU CAN MAKE! Its very fun getting a large tech and econ advantage over the AI and just protecting your mercantile interests...of course, you have to keep other empires from winning as long as possible....How much money can you make with the Korx? Its fun; give it a try.

"the tiny hull trick" is not an exploit!

As you know, this blockade is perfectly legal, and we would be happy to receive the ambassadors - Nute Gunray of the Trade Federation

or

Were able to construct a unique form of force field called a slave shield (Ed.: only supported by 8 small ships with no apparent function) - Ur-Quan Kzer-Za