1. Don't be too clever.
The Altarians were looking pretty powerful, and I was behind on my military production. No problem, I had tonnes of money. I bribed the Drengin to pick a fight with the Altarians. It was drawing to a painful stalemate, then the Altarians actually took the Drengin capital. The Altarians then demanded tribute from me while focusing on dismantling the Drengin war machine.
I paid them off and focused my research and industry towards military production. To buy some time, I cleverly contacted the Thalan and bribed them into attacking the Altarians.
The AI may be clever, but it has a hard time fighting a war on two fronts. Anyone would, really. Things quickly turned against the Altarians. The Drengin surged forward, and the Thalan showed up with fleets of ships that looked tailor made to slaughter the Altarian fighters.
The war went so badly for the Altarians that I saw little choice but to declare war against them and scoop up a few high PQ planets before the other two took them away. The result? I went from second to third place in the power rankings, and the Thalan where the new galactic threat. D'oh!
2. Late game minors are funny
It's almost like you can see the drool when they appear. Every eye in the universe turns to them on their bright new shiny PQ15+ world. Those poor Vegans never stand a chance. In one game, I had an amusing 3 way race to their planet as the Korx, Torians and Humans launched troop carriers towards the Vegan planet. Luckily, Warp V engines were the fastest in the galaxy, and I had them. My troops arrived just in time, followed one turn later by a defensive ship that I quick built. Poor Vegan's; goodbye, thanks for all the planet.
3. Surrenders can change the game
I was playing in a large universe against the Torians, Altarians and Iconian Refuge. The Altarians had a significant influence and military lead. The Torians where happy in their corner, amassing a huge, huge (huge!) fortune and trading with the Altarians. The Torians were also happy to ally with me, in the interest of peace. (Remember this, it will be important.)
That left me and the Iconians vying for second place. I let my military lapse for a couple turns and suddenly they attacked. I was surprised, and they showed up with huge (in comparison to mine) fleets. I lost a couple important star bases and an entire generation of fighters defending against their attack. My new gen fighters were able to force a stalemate and a peace treaty was signed.
Duly warned, I focused my attentions on obtaining a military advantage against the Iconians, so I stocked my planets with the Iconian Defense Ships and cranked up the research and social production. Rebuilding my decimated trade routes also became a priority. The result? Money and a Large ship called the Star Flower, lasered to the teeth with a rudimentary laser defense system that could fly around in fleets of 3. It took about 20 turns.
I looked at the power graph and saw that the Iconians had rebuilt their navy, and had just surpassed me. I was unsurprised when they announced their war. Immediately, I dropped all social and research production to 0 and focused completely upon military production. By the time the slow Iconian fleet arrived, they faced a formidable line of ships that did more than hold the line. The Iconians approached for peace after I took two of their planets. It cost them their entire treasury and, and all their technology. I sold the techs that I deemed to be of little use to me, and walked away from that war with and additional 25k in the bank.
This cycle of research/buildup/war/Iconian defeat repeated twice more, with the final war resulting in the Iconians losing all their planets > PQ15 to me, and no navy. They approached for peace, and I rejected it. I was going to decisively remove them from play.
Then they did it. They surrendered to the Torians.
The Torrian influence began to spread at an alarming rate. See, it turns out they only got 3 planets in the initial planet rush. The iconians still had 12 left when they surrendered. The Altarians lost all of their trade routes with the Iconians and which had a catastrophic effect on the Altarian economy. Suddenly, the Altarians couldn't afford their huge navy, and had to sell them off to make ends meet. The Torians got 3 of the 4 influence mines and quickly maximized them.
Within 15 turns, 3/4 of the mini map was Torrian green. The Altarians had been swallowed up, had no economy and no military. The Torians had mass driver ships, and the Altarians hadn't even researched Armour Theory. The Altarians came to me whining that the Torians where threatening them, and I should help. Magnanimously forgiving the dozen or so times the Altarians demanded tribute in the past, I responded that an alliance would be the perfect solution. The Altarians happily
agreed. I pressed the "Turn" button and won the game.
This was a game that I was willing to chalk down to a learning experience, convinced that even after the final war with Iconians it was likely that I couldn't win.
4. People are amazed that all this fun can be had from one game.
I've shared these stories, and more, with my friends and co-workers. They listen attentively and every single one of them is amazed at the variety and depth the game offers. To be honest, so am I. I played CivIV so much, but it really boils down to the same game, especially by the end. Every time I play GalCiv2 it's different. Every time I win I crank the difficulty up a notch and loose a few games. Then I win, and it feels like an accomplishment.
I'm looking forward to the 1.1 patch so I can try new strategies and learn to play even better. I'm even looking forward to it breaking my bad game habits, like the colony ship rush tactic.
Thank you StarDock!
