Words of wisdom? Well- I have been playing on Gigantic Maps since 1.0, soley for 2 reasons- 1) It seemed to be to easy to kill of everyone, I'd simply get troop transports and bum-rush everyone. 2) The games where way to short on a small map. (3 years tops) This was back in the day when the defender didn't get to shoot back after you killed him, so I don't know if thats all changed or not- So I would question any call I would make on a map smaller then Gigantic.
In this game I played I did learn a few things I didn't know. 1- Keep a minor or two alive, because they sure are handy to trade with. I traded with 1 that was about 200 moves away and was bringing in an average 186bc a turn. When I traded with the Acreans who where 400+ moves away I was only averaging 60bc a turn. I found if I ran all my trade routes to the minors I got the benifit of not loosing my trade routes in times of war with the majors AND I made more money.
Also, in 1.3 I saw something I never saw before- Troop Transports armed to the gills, in the end of this last game the Dregins where running around with one that was armed with 11 doomrays,4 hyperwarp engines and 2500 troops. The nice thing about facing those is your ships well target them first since there fire power to hitpoints are so bad. Just slam disposable ships into them and your good to go.
On the new version, moral of the people can be a pain- Luckily the computer seems to have the same problems- Gooble up all the Morale resources- Same goes for Economics. When your to weak to take on the Majors, just go blow up some Minors resource mines and take them- Since whiney people make for a horrible tax base, and horrible tax bases equal horrible cash flow. And let me tell you from that last game, they sure like to cry alot.
As far as points go, I'm probably not the best to ask. I normaly play a game until I have the momentium and am going to win, then I quit. I've never lost a game as of yet- every game I've quit I was confident I would win- Thats why I've decided to play the Metaverse so I'd finish'em, and who knows, I might get waxed in the end game. I only took this game to an Allaince win so I'd have proof when I say, "Its not impossible to get allies in the new patch", but I only got 21000ish for it. (And I controled 80% of the map...)
I don't know if my other observations well hold water in 1.3a or not- if they do, I'll say something. But those where the biggies.
