I'm just coming to the dreaded "mop up" phase of my latest game. I'm playing as Drengin vs the Acreans, Altarians and Yor on a medium galaxy. It was a pretty intense game. I started out right next to the Arceans, whom I was neck and neck with for military strength until they started a war with me. They had a HUGE chunk of territory. Probably 2/3 of the galaxie's habitable planets were theirs.
I never would have withstood them had it not been for the fact that, in their desire to crush me economically, they started shooting down torian freighters and had a two front war on their hands. The torians were on the far side of the board from me so I didn' thave to worry about them for a while. The altarians were amazingly powerful militarily for only have 2 planets in their control. They were keeping up with me even as I built up to take out the Arceans.
They were a tough slog, and they didn't give in until they had only two planets left, even though their war with me was over after I'd taken out 1/3 of its planets, including Arcea. For the time being, though, I understood why they didn't want to surrender. They'd made peace with the Torians, and they were hoping for a reprieve as the torians went to war with me.
I had a couple skirmishes, but then I bought them off so that I could finish off the Arceans. The torians had taken out the yor, and I took advantage of the Altarians situation by conquering their only two worlds in a single turn. I didn't even have to face their ridiculous military might. If I'd had to I would have been toast.
The stuborn arceans kept me bottled up on my side of the galaxy while the torians were ramping up their military much faster than I could afford. Once the Arceans finally surrendered I had a serious problem in that my ships were scattered all over. I was mostly playing defense until I could get my ships in place. I held my own as their ships were still fairly outdated compared to mine. Their ships were also far slower than mine. I always make sure to pack at least one engine on a ship, whereas the AI almost never does this. I had the initiative in nearly ever combat and it paid off big.
Eventually I got my act together and pushed forward into Torian space. I ended up losing the altarian home sector, as it was right next door to Toria, and they had a nonstop stream of ships and transports coming to it. So I let it go and focused on the other end of the map. I took out all of their lightly defended worlds, and then finally struck at Toria, their manufacturing center, and where all those damn transports were coming from.
That's where I'm at right now. The torians still have 7 planets left, but they are hopelessly lost. I almost don't want to finish despite how proud I am of this particular game. I kept up economically and militarily the whole game, and I was way ahead in research for most of the game. It was a hard fought win and I feel like I don't care if I finish now because I know the torians won't surrender until they have like 2-4 planets left.
I'm just going to make peace and take the influence victory because conquest would just take too damn long. I'm half-way through year 4 and it would take at least another 30 turns to produce and move the amount of transports and fleets necessary to conquer their worlds. Boring.
Don't get me wrong this was an awesome game and I'm proud as hell to have taken on, and defeated militarily, 4 AI players at Intelligent for the first time. I just wish I could take my well earned conquest victory without having to play mop-up.
