think it's impossible to beat the AI at this level whilst using "normal" strategies |
I'm playing a 1.3beta 3X, suicidal, large map, 3 opponents, abundant stars, planets,and habitable planets, tech trading off -- game right now. I should win it -- it is around 5-1-2228 and the Yor took out the Drath a bit ago.
The Yor have a military rating of 150 and mine is a bit over 200 -- the Iconians are the other civ and their military rating is around 60. From what I see of the Yor fleets, I could pretty much attack any time now. Their fleets are around 250 offense and a little defense -- mine are 900+ offense.
I had the center starting position and was able to grab 44 planets in the colonizing phase -- the Yor got about that many, the Drath about 35, the Iconians about 25. I did manage to gat the majority of the resources -- the only morale resource, 4 research resources, 2 economic resources, 2 military resources, and 3 influence resources -- which has been the key to my eventually catching up and passing the AI.
The Yor still out rank me in Technology, 3500 to 2600. But I'm in great position -- Having researched just about everything I need to research. Completely done with Factory, Morale, Diplomatic, Influence, Economic, Lab, Farm, Starbase Fortification, Invasion, Hull, Drives, Sensor, Miniaturization, and Logistics Techs. My missile tech is up to Antimatter, which with my 2 military resources is almost as good as Black Hole Missiles
With update 1.2, I could pretty much win suicidal games on maps that had 16-45 planets/civ every time. But I never tried it with tech trading off.
I'm sure I can not win at suicidal level consistently as of the 1.3 betas but I can still win a good share of the time thru 1.3beta3x. Won 2 times with the 1.3beta2a.