GrinningMoon

"Don't forget that not everyone has brand-new hardware. Make sure your games will work on the hardware that people have today." Here, here! I don't get the recent, 'It's designed to be played on the machines of the FUTURE!' philosophy that apparently everyone is supposed to be a big fan of. I mean, what the Hell does that even mean? They have Nostradamus leading their design team, and he's divined what the hardware of the future will be able to do? I'm supposed to not only have

No dice, I'm afraid. I didn't really 'lose' - the map became utterly unplayable. Between swarms of DL ships and Pirates, nobody was moving a ship anywhere, and surrendering races eventually just left myself and the Thalans with huge swaths of the galaxy - which the DLs were happy to camp. I suppose I could've sat it out and raced for a tech victory, but frankly, I got bored. Looking back, a few things I should've done differently: - This was the wrong research pa

[IMG]http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/7038/dreadsuy3.jpg[/IMG] Guess who? In the interim, while I win the tech race by a country mile, The Drath, Torians, Drengins and some other schmucks surrendered - the Drath giving me the whole swatch that was their territory. How generous. DLs only came with one planet and a crappy warship - so I'll let the pirates explode the warship, then I'll run in and grab the planet. I'm also running raids against the Tha

[IMG]http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/8335/disarmingwa5.jpg[/IMG] Why do I have my fleet manager open? Well, as you can see, three wars just broke out. All against me. Apparently the entire galaxy think that the Starvorine menace has grown too great. Shucks. If only the pirates felt the same way. Pirates? Yes, the pirates. I have my fleet manager open because apparently a bunch of pirates have decided that this is the time to come flooding

[IMG]http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/3236/deathfc1.jpg[/IMG] Bye-bye. Better luck next time. Meanwhile, the Council resolved for a galaxy-wide ceasefire - so I'm no longer locked in mortal combat with robots & lizrds. Right after, however, the bug and afore-mentioned lizards decided to launch an offensive against the Drengin. I think this is a good opportunity to take the Thalan by surprise. According to the Foreign stats, they don't appreciate the way I'm manhandli

[IMG]http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/4640/situationyz2.jpg[/IMG] Jeez, it's been a few turns - so here's the deal: I'm more or less as far down the Planetary Invasion path as I feel is worth going, so I started digging into Logistics. Got a ways down that tree, then realized I was going to need some more firepower because the Korx started cranking-out the fighters like there was no tomorrow, so I finished-up about midway through Logistics and switched to MDs. Yay cannons.<br

[IMG]http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/390/crackrr3.jpg[/IMG] Turns out the Korx don't want to fight anymore. Go figure. Too bad I feel like getting back into the black, and taking their planets is the quickest way there. Of course, I've been forced to pause my progress into Planetary Invasion to make a quick dive into Space Weapons, just so I can mop-up the terrible little Defenders both the Korx and Yor have parked over their worlds so I don't have immediate ac

[IMG]http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/6569/gongshowhb6.jpg[/IMG] Look at these jokers. Apparently the Korx weren't the only ones envious of all the prime real-estate in my region. Fine by me - there's plenty of Gatecrashers for everybody (well, I'll let the Torians have that Class I, if they want it so bad. Poor Torians). Speaking of the Korx, I think I just did them in. Landed on Korx II, which had their initial colony (AKA - Capital?) on it. It's starting to secede

[IMG]http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/8086/invasionef0.jpg[/IMG] Turns-out they got invaded afterall. And the icing on the cake? [IMG]http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/6868/spoilsyi1.jpg[/IMG] Why yes, I'll be happy to take that lovely added punch to my production. Of course, now the Korx and I are at each other's throats. Though, alas for them, I doubt they've made as much headway into the Invasion branch as me. I'll have to take a look and see what k

[IMG]http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/8028/uninvitedfv8.jpg[/IMG] ...Would you look at that. Right conveniently after I finish researching Planet Invasion, and just as I finish designing this: [IMG]http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/2964/gatecrasherje2.jpg[/IMG] The Korx, apparently thinking that I'm just some chump, decide to come on in and plant their asses in my zone, on a Class IV I couldn't colonize myself - and then try to STEAL MY MINERS with their influence.<

Alright - so that didn't take nearly as long as I'd thought. Between getting Den refocused on research and running into a breakthrough anomoly, Planetary Invasion was fast in arriving. I'm now the only actually dangerous civ on the map, which is a fairly nice little bonus. Both Morale resources are mine, each Starbase established with it's first 4% module. The class 10 world is mine too... and then I discovered another nice little treat tucked away right beside me: [IMG]http://

22 Apr, 2226 (I'll do an update each time I gain new tech, at least for as long as I'm not totally steamrolling the tech tree. Later in the game I imagine I'll just update after I've finished kicking the snot out of an opposing civ) Wrapped-up the Space Militarization tech, so we're onto the big daddy on my tree: Space Invasion. I also did one other thing in turn 1 I neglected to mention before - I parked my initial colony ship the Class IV world in my home sector. Not much, bu

Slept-in this morning, so I only gave it a couple of clicks before heading out the door. ...And my first mistake occurred before I even got out the gate: having just waken-up, I hit the New Game button instead of the Continue game button. D'OH! Fortunately for me, the Galaxy generated more or less exactly the same starting position (except I get a Morale resource this time around): [IMG]http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/4007/newstartrh6.jpg[/IMG] So, to kick

Salutations. While I fire-up my next game, I figured I'd also start off one of these threads to follow it along. I'm a new guy (both to the forums and the game), so I'm sure that I'll learn more from any feedback (and even looking at my play in hindsight) than any reader will be able to glean from here - but I'll do my best to make things interesting, if nothing else. This is just a 'normie' game (no 'MEGA INSANEZORZ WINZ!' strategy here, I'm afraid) - Normal Difficulty, 9 othe