In my current game as Terran, the Dreng fleets with 2-3 speed are chasing my 5 speed spyships while my fleets and transports are conquering thier border worlds. And I am talking 4-5 Dreng fleets following each spyship. It is just too funny. (Tough level game)

Hmm...in my current game I am constantly having to watch out for fast Torian transports escorted by 12 speed fighters...(I killed a few unescorted transports and suddenly the aI started to escort them)... it is less than 3.5 years into the game, and most of the aI have WARP or WARP2 engines compared to my Impulse 3 level.

1.31, Tough, large galaxy, 7 opponents, abundent, normal tech speed; advanced aI algorythms enabled, playing as Korx. Hell of a game - I am having a hard time keeping up economically; everytime I start to get up to speed I get slapped down.

And the aI has grabbed most of the resources ... I have always seen this, since v 1.0 not sure what level you are playing at where they don't grab them. BTW, no minors yet - and they are not always so easy...see Frogboys example game in one of his journals - he was waxed by a minor.

I suggest you experiment with the settings combinations to find one that challenges you...the game plays much differently depending on how you set it up. It can be adjusted for most skill levels...or to give a different play experience every time..though as always those few that are great game players will always find a way to beat it...as for the rest of us regular slobs I think it is a great and challenging game.

That is a great point nullspace. I NEVER buy/sell techs. To me this adds to realism. But even if the AI has warp and I have Impulse drive ... I place MULTIPLE engines on my ships and the AI puts xtra weapons rather than Xtra engines, I WILL HAVE a SPEED advantage. This is my FAV CHEESE !!!!!

So as for the CHEAT fav, I am saying that the fact that the AI knows where the Resource thingys are located (and the player must scout them out) and the minor AI build them faster, is GOOD for me ... the major AI (like me) is in a colony rush mode first ... this benefits me because I can take the resource from a minor race much easier than from a Major race.

I started using the Economy starbase Spamming of my manufacturing and tech capitols. That 200%+ boost really helps:). Not sure if it's considered cheese or a tactic, but it doesn't look to realistic, all those starbases crowded together.

Repair by upgrading ships.

One of my favorites. Actually I thought I discovered it when I first posted (Repairing Ships via Upgrade) about this on Aug 18th. But I did a search and you had pretty much covered the topic in your post from Aug 14th. BTW I tend to look at this as spending a reasonable cost for a reasonable service, but I can see how some folks might consider this cheese.

Wow, I started this "It ain't easy being cheesy" thread and no one has even mentioned the Ctrl-N thing. That is my second fav. OK now for REALLY GOOD CHEESE !!!! I have a save game slot "Invasion". I save before invading a planet and if I don't like how it turns out I can do it again. Let's hear some other GOOD cheese... PLEASE!!!!

41 Speed Transport? What's the fastest anyone's made their transports? In my last game with the Yor in 1.31 I think I had transports with over 90 speed by the end of the game. 2 Advance Troop Modules and grouped into fleets so I could have 18 billion troops in an invasion and fly away with 8 transports still in the fleet afterwards.

So the Cheese list so far is:
FAST ships - oh yeah !!!
Buying then selling techs - yes, this is a GOOD one - mucho thanks to nullspace
Upgrade ship repair and the planet grav assit - I like them both !! (tnx to kblore)
Econ starbases near manufacture planets and lining my trade lanes - VERY good for generating a lota CA$h !!!! kudos to DethAdder

My game position is improving...

Any more good ones out there ??

Cheese rating=Velveeta

That's good. I assume Velveeta is rather high (or should that be low) on the cheese scale. How would this compare to sponge bob square pants mac and cheese for example?

I love all that stuff in this game. It's just so rewarding to trump the AI with some cheesy tactic.

One of my favorites is the Sensors cheese. Just hold off on trading any sensors with the races until you have all the diplomacy stuff. Then hit 'em all with the 4 and rake in the techs. Tech shopping is so fun.

I also enjoy the resources cheese. Park a constructor next to a resource and wait for the race's enemy to destroy it. Or, if you're in a hurry, add a warship and hand it over to the enemy race. They'll kill the starbase for you. I've also paid majors to go to war with minors so they kill their resource starbases. Then my constructors in waiting scoop them up. Fun, fun, fun, get a real kick out of that stuff.

Just because a country famous for "ganking noobs" does it, doesn't make it not cheese.

But heh, I do that myself. "OMG LASERS! PEW PEW PEW! YOU WANT THESE!" While having top of the line beam defenses.

Their new fleet comes out, armed to the brim with Pew Pew (TM) goodness.

My new battleship comes out with missiles and laser defences, and destroys their fleets instantly.

That's what you get for being hostile in my region, yarr.

Oh yeah, this is another one I tried. Save game named - Fleet Battle. I played the same battle over again 5 times. I won each time in a 4 vs 4 frigate fleet contest. Two times I lost 3 of 4 ships, two more I lost 2 ships ...But one time I only lost 1 ship. This will now be standard during fleet operations. Hehehehehe