Hey yall. Just won my first post masochistic game (dont remember what its called, crippling maybe). The one right before suicidal. Anyways, after having all my questions answered here, Ill give back to the community and write up whats worked for me and what hasnt. Thanks to everyone who wrote these tips in the first place. You rock.

First things first, I stopped playing humans and went with the drath. Lots of economy and diplomacy just make the game so much easier.

The beginning of the game is critical, the "colony rush". Make your home planet a production planet and rush your factories while building a fast colony ship. Mess with the sliders so that youre busting out a colony ship every other turn. Your social production simply isnt important right now. Unless you have a very good reason, make like the next six planets you make economy planets. Thats 3-4 factories, a starbase, maybe a happiness building, and the rest economy buildings. Later on, when morale isnt a problem you will make a tile a farm.

Id like to add here that I specialize my planets. Ive found a starport on almost every planet works well. Slapping 4 factories on your econ planets makes every planet a transport factory.

The techs you want to go for is maybe an engine, the tech that boosts military production,, the one that gives plus ten to all your outputs, and then DIPLOMACY. Particularly the branch that lets you switch your governments. They rock your economy.

Once you feel the colony rush starting to end, speed up the tree to planetary invasion. If youre playing on masochistic or lower you should be able to get it before the computer does. On my current level they actually have ships up before I can get the transports but oh well. Convert the ships youve been making into transports and then transport rush your neighbor, preferrably a minor race or any other race who doesnt have ships yet. Home planets are always a plus. Once they start pumping out defenders, use your diplomacy youve been hording away to get some ship techs. I NEVER research ship techs. Once you have high diplomacy the AI just throws it at you. Anyways, I ride this as long as I can. Once everyone starts getting a military you chill out for awhile ; yours consists of just transports. This is when I start working on my social productoin hardcore to jumpstart my economy, all the while hammering at the diplomacy tree. Once I get a sizeaable diplo lead, I trade and get the best starship techs. tada, instant mega military. Start pumping out those shiny, metallic dealers of death.

Time for your first real war. Go ahead and pick whomever your judgment tells you to. I like to kill whomevers hostile to me. Dont attack till you have the forces to actually take a few star systems in one turn. Then its all momentum.

Id like to add here that everytime a race becomes friendly to you, ally with him. This just keeps him off your back the rest of the game as well as I believe giving you better deals in future trades. Also, if you simply must trade away miilitary techs, trade them away to your furthest neighbor.

Ah, its crucial that you dont get the production techs too soon, they can really slow down your new planets. It takes sooooo long to make a manufacturing or industrial center from scratch.

Lets see what else. Ah, mining. Any kind of mine is gold, grab them when you can. Instead of using modules to defend them, just stick a fleet there. Trust me, its much better. Also I hate to put this in here but maybe some dont know. Use fleets to defend your planets, dont just park them on your planets like the computer does. Its suicide.

Dont waste your time with freighters.

Save yourself the headache, use rally points and governors. Make sure your transport farms actually have enough pop to fill the ships. Before starting the war with the next race, see what weaps/defenses you are using and build your next generation of ships accordingly.

Anyways this is whats worked for me. This will get you a mlitary, diplo, or tech victory, whichever youd like. Ive never went for cultural. Im wondering if that will significantly raise my metaverse score though.

So this is one way to kick ass at the high levels. Im just wondering how the chaps beat suicidal without tech trading on. I cant even conceive of doing that. Anyone here have any insights?

Thanks for readin,

Steve