tips for going past maso?

sig

If you can afford to, you always want to take +20% research and/or Technologists on Maso or higher-at a minimum the +20% research, but both is better.  There's a hidden modifier to the player's research bonuses on difficulties higher than Tough, and Maso+ is where it really begins to show itself.

If you can't afford to, you really want to figure out how you can afford to.

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I would say you're probably colonizing too little...5 planets on a large/all abundant seems very low.  Are you by chance rush buying your colony ships?  If you are, don't do that.  Medium and above, the only things you want to rush buy early are improvements so that you can afford to build ships.

Although it doesn't seem like it would work with your strategy, it's important to keep in mind that leaving an AI with one planet doesn't count as taking them out of the game for diplomacy purposes related to the other AIs, so as long as you don't go around instigating all of the wars, if you can leave an AI with a single planet (preferably surrounded by yours), the other AIs won't perceive you as a genocidal monster.

(I haven't played MV, hence the rather obvious lack of medals.  But if you'll look around the forums, you'll see I know what I'm talking about.)

Hi!

So don't build your silly 1-attack tiny hulls . Bribe another (aggresive) civ to attack your intended victim, and after they clear victim's defenders, you invade.

On those high levels you need to mis-use your game knowledge and AI's weaknesses. "Normal" way you practicaly can't win. They have too many bonuses. The smaller the galaxy, the earlier you realize that.

BR, Iztok

You can win if you can hold off wars with those superior militaries longer. You are playing the Drath so I figure that you already get the most powerful civs to fight each other.

Where I've been successful in all games is the choice of weapon branch and the fact that I'll typicall have on-type defences and the AI doesn't. I can be way behind but once I get Aeron (spell?) Missile Defences I know I'll start taking zero damage soon (onvce the enemy's best ships are gone in the opening battles).

As with all difficulty levels, economy is very important. And as Sole Soul said, research. But it may be difficult to take the technologist party and a large research ability bonus with out having to work extra hard on your economy.

Speaking of which, this bonus doesn't seem to apply to the Research Coordination Centers.  Looks like the RCC's only add a flat 25% to the planetary bonus, even at Obscene, and it is only added to the Technology Capital.   I assume that the total planetary research w/ bonuses gets calculated first, and then multiplied by Economic Starbase + Racial bonuses (which are also added together).

In light of that, it seems like RCC's don't make much sense on your Technology Capital.  Not unless you have at least 9 research labs (after counting the bonus tiles).  5, on your non-tech capital worlds.  This is all assuming you have 0% research bonuses from ethical events--which would make the break-even point even higher.

If that hidden Maso bonus applied to RCC's, that would change everything, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

ok, so i improved my colony rush phase by leaps and bounds...by using the no build strategy.  Now Masochistic is a joke.

The next level Im better matched, though Im smoking it bad now too.  Once i get the diplo up, i have everyone declare war, start collecting 3k/turn from war profiteering, trade away my research and econ treaties to the two most powerful civs on themap for their pwn techs...and then proceed to kill everyone. 

This can work too... but it can be hard to pull off... Get planet invansion early and go own a neightbor... cause they don't see it coming and they will have low population. But when they get military ships, make  a peace treaty and then trade some techs for a few extra worlds of theirs and set up trade routes to make them like you until you are ready to slap them around again. But getting a lot of colony ships off the ground too also works. Cause lets just say I got an extra class 18 planet and a few extra class 13s, 10s, and 8s so ya it was GREAT!

ya i use the transport rush in every game i start.  the only downfall is if you nab a few minors you get hella diplo hits....but now im using a custom race with the diplo super ability and +30 diplo...it is simply insane how the whole board looks at me "close" even though im murdering everyone in their sleep.

gotta love diplomacy

Here's a trick you can use to make Maso simple. Works well the next difficulty level up also. Don't even worry about voting in the UP for the first three years. Use all the Influence points for something better. When trading the AI civs and minor civ's, give the influence points for most all of their BC. Now, I usually trade IP for 100 BC and repeat until they have maybe 100-200 BC left (then it costs a whole lot more). While you colonize, this can sustain your economy for quite some time. Also, when trading, attempt to trade influence points for your opponents techs (1 tech at a time), if they will, it will usually cost you under 1000 IP for a tech. If they won't do it, then don't worry about it. This is easiest done with Terrans since they have great diplomacy, but works to an extent with all civ's. That way you don't need to trade your tech's for BC or tech's. And chances are in the beginning your UP vote won't count for much anyways, so might as well use those IP's to help you out in the beginning.

Experiment with it a little, and you will find that every several turns you can bring in an additional thousand or more BC and perhaps a couple techs. It really makes a huge difference. All for the cost of influence points, which in the start, don't mean much anyways especially on harder difficulties.