Question on Campaign Mode

You're not the only one interested in suggestions on how to beat this level.

I've tried mucking about with the difficulty levels and honestly I cannot tell the difference. The strategies I've seen in the forum here suggest things like "Focus research on Planetary Invasion & Logistics branches", but by the time I can research Enhanced Logistics the Dreadlords are already flying around with 160 attack ships, blowing up my tiny 4 attack fighters and swooping in with their troop transports.

Personally, I've given up on the campaign and moved on to playing against the computer in sandbox mode.

-tom

Some people say that raising the difficulty levels in the campaign can actually make it easier on some levels. This is because the economic bonuses on the above-Tough levels do not effect the Dread Lords (who I think don't need money, only production?) but it boosts your teammates so that they can take out the DLs by themselves!

Useful tips against the Dread Lords:

- Tiny ships- since the DLs can take you out in one hit anyway, you're better off with lots of small ships (since they can only kill one at a time). This reverses when they start putting defenses on their ships though, as you'll need all the firepower you can get to blast through.

- Military Starbases- These can really turn the balance towards you. Make sure they're well protected though.

- Take DL worlds- You could snatch a powerful weapon technology. Equally, you should be careful not to loose too many of your own, or the DLs could get defensive or logistics techs that'll make your life much more difficult.

- If you can't take the DL battleships out head to head, concentrate on making fast ships with few weapons, which can avoid the DL ships while taking out the troop transports.

- Soldiering bonuses. For obvious reasons.

In the long run, the human should win. The DLs basically stand still (no research), so if you can just survive for long enough, you can research weapons to match them- their ships won't get any more powerful. Alternatively, strike fast, because it takes them time to build up their worlds.

Also, this level is called "Apocalypse"

this is the same old advice. It's reasonable, but it overlooks the fact that in the time required to research Warp Drive, Soldiering Bonuses, the DL are pumping out their massively powerful ships.

So my question is: how do you keep the DL off you long enough to research Warp Drive (for example)? I guess I should just put the computer on Insane difficulty and let my allies carry me through. But what's the point of playing a level like that?

The only reason I wrestled through the campaign was getting the story. Just because my tactic to get through sucked on gameplay.
i.e. get the planet required asap, don't spend a penny on any ship or building not required for this task. And yes I did play on normal difficulty

Sandbox rules though !!!!

The purpose of your allies is mainly cannon fodder. Don't push towards the DLs too soon, let the AI wheather the storm while you build up your forces. Trade techs like mad with all the friendly AIs to increase research speed- since you're all on the same team, you don't have to worry about them backstabbing you, so when you sell them a tech you're actually doing yourself a favour since they'll be better able to fight the DLs.

Of course, all this advice is based on when I played the campaign back on version 1.0X (IIRC), things may be harder now with the AI changes and suchlike. The biggest thing you're missing, of course, is first strike.

On easier difficulty levels, you may just want to give your allies all of your technology (since you will probably out-tech them), or give them very good bargain rates on technology.

Another key thing is to take one of the Dread Lords' planets (you can even give them your own, then invade it the next turn if you are desperate) for advanced technology. Of course, you may end up getting just Laser V, but you can sometimes acquire really valuable and powerful technologies. This works both ways - if they invade a planet and get logistical tech, you're in big trouble.

Why do you need to research Warp Drive? Focus on economy and infrastructure technology first, then work on getting a military force up - if you can stop them from launching huge fleets from their planets, you won't have to worry about transports for a while.

Crank up the difficulty and let your allies do the work - they sometimes can do the mission for you. You can then concentrate on soldiering technology and trade with them for the rest of the tech tree - very useful, because it makes their planets harder to invade, too! Get the Tir-Quan Training Center and Eyes of the Universe Galactic Wonders - they are extremely important (+25% soldiering and +10 sensor range, so you can use less troops and very few scout ships).

I am slowly making my way through the campaign on Obsecene level.

Here is my strategy for the campaign:

1) High populations & high moral/approval raiting

2) Focus all research on Planetary invasion -- be the first player to be able to launch invasions and do it early. If you don't think you can hold a planet then just destroy it with some nasty invasion tactics and then abandon it.

3) I build the defensive building that ads 25% to soldier skills on every planet, maybe even 2 on one planet if that planet is being constantly attacked. Also, build a Tir-Quan Training Center on your most attacked planet.

4) Research anything that ads soldier ability

5) I will build 1 very, very, very cheap attack ship on every planet just to try to take out Dread Lord troop transports, and when that fails my high population and high soldier skills will save me. But for the most part I don't build ships until the very last part of the game.

6) If you have allies GIVE them everything and anything you can. Trade with them constantly, and if need be just gift them researched tech. They are your allies, and you MUST support them.

7) Build an exploration ship to exploire anomalies that is very, very, very fast. Must have a speed of at least 12 in order to keep away from the fast dread lord ships.

8) When you are finally ready to attack focus 100% on military production and produce a MASSIVE fleet of tiny, fast ships with the most firepower you can pack on them.

I have completed 7 or 8 missions so far with this strategy.

They are your allies, and you MUST support them.

Where did you here that you MUST support them, and besides they usually try to put influence starbases around MY planets in campaign mode. I make em' work pay for they're techs, might as well have some fun and put them in debt while you're killing dread lords!  

I did not read Reply #7 before I went back and tried again. I think those are great tips.

I finally beat the mission on Suicidal level.

How I accomplished this was I realized that my main problem every time I played was running out of money. (Without sustainable trade due to dread lord attacks, I found money always short.) So, I allowed the AI to go toe to toe with the dreadlords on Suicidal. First turn, on the second colony, I bought a starpot and a colony ship with move of 5/turn. I bought a similar colony ship on the main colony. This allowed me to beat the AI to 2 planets. Otherwise, they get there first.

I put 66% spending on social and 33% on research early in the game and limited myself to 4 colonies (maintenance too high on too many colonies before taxes kick in.)Then I focused my tech on planetary bombardment tree (soldiering techs) and on economic techs: raise morale and raise tax bonus. I was able to easily trade for research tree and factory construction tree when I was ready to upgrade my planets. I put at least one market-type improvement and one entertainment-type improvement per 6billion people.

I bought a ship if I needed to defend against dread lord transports (autosave every 2 turns makes it easy to reload if necessary.) Also, admittedly, I did save/reload upon conquering a planet until I got some good tech. Once I got beyond mortality... funny, but useless.

Then I was able to find all my buildings at 100% and crank some research.

Then the torians conquered the dreadlords while I was thinking about cranking out ships.

So far, Suicidal on Apocalypse (level 6) is proving hard. But hey, I haven't finished my first try yet. I think 6 colonies is too many. I'm gonna take my own advice and go back to 4.

I think I beat Achilles Heel and Apocalypse on "Tough" and the strategy I used on Apocalypse was to completely abandon research and focus on my economy and industry instead. My teamates were more than willing to trade thier tech for the ships I continuously cranked out (and used to defend myself from the Dreadlords).

I was really into the story, and loved the Campaign. I turned down the level to Normal for the last few missions though, and the computer beat itself!! It was sort of a let down. The maps are so large that I took a long time to get the tech needed to go where I wanted (but not that long). I don't know if I should have kept it on tough or what, but as I slowly built a massive fleet my allies took out the enemy.

I guess I will have to try out sandbox mode now....or perhaps....do this paper for school?