Playing on 'normal' in gigantic galaxy; got myself boxed into a corner (still with about 20 planets colonized) by the Iconians and the Drath. Put my focus on R&D and trade to research and buy my survival. Managed to survive for quite a while, but after the Iconians wiped out the Drath I knew the game was up. I'd built a whack of mid-size ships a lot earlier on so as to convince the Iconians that I wasn't that weak, but now they were coming at me with 7X the ships and a tech level not so far behind mine. Here's where debt becomes useful.

Knowing (through spying of course) the general composition of Iconian ships I'd put lots of research into mass drivers, something to which they'd not developed or implemented for their fleets. The instant they declared war I upgraded every single ship I had to fast mass-driver equipped cruisers - it cost me 300 000bc, leaving me 200 000bc in debt. I then kept a few fleets at home to deal with invasions and sent the other five fleets off to Iconian space, where they systematically hunted down and destroyed every Iconian ship.

Naturally all research and social spending had been frozen to pay off the debt, so I was gambling that I could take out every Iconian without losing all my ships - important as I could not replace any until I was out of debt. It was a close thing but in the end about half my fleet survived, just enough to maintain a blockade of every Iconian planet (whenever he built a ship I took it out). After 80 or so turns I was finally out of debt and I could finally build transports.

It was an ugly victory perhaps, but it outlined how useful debt can be when facing a superior foe. Don't hesitate to use it, provided you've a steady income to get you out of debt in the end.

pnich of the hapless Terrans