Paguma, I understand, even appreciate your original point. The AI does exploit the crap out of anybody that looks remotely weak, militarily. In only my third game (second one I submitted), back on "challenging" difficulty, I learned that paying concessions was a waste of time and resources (for the most part). They come back for more too quickly, and the demands keep increasing.
So I quickly saw that the "farmer's gambit" (little to no military, while you pour all your resources into rapid early growth and economic expansion) was not going to fly in GalCiv. That's a good thing, IMO! In Civ3, the AI is coded to cut breaks to the weak, for the most part, as long as they don't actively smell your blood in the water. That's too exploitable. I find I like this much better, even if it is perhaps a little too hawkish the other way.
Think of it this way. If a player invests resources into defense, those are resources not spent on tech or infrastructure. If a player who builds NO defenses is allowed by the AI to get away with that, then the gameplay becomes a no brainer. No need to balance your expenditures. No risks involved in maximizing your early growth curve by forgoing defenses. That would be boring and way WAYYYYYYYY too easy for a building player like me.
I read your latest posts, where you talk about culture being "too easy" on Maso. I'm a veteran strategy game player just recently come to GalCiv, and I have deliberately avoided the forum until the last couple of days because I wanted to form my own views about the game instead of signing onto the conventional wisdom. I may have a lot to learn from others, but I usually find I do best to forge my own way first. Inevitably, I learn at least a few things nobody else has noticed yet. So... the culture bomb "flip them all with countless starbases" strategy did not even occur to me. Perhaps it is too effective. Perhaps there should be a sector-wide cap on starbase effects, to prevent players from massing bases. I have tended to avoid building many bases as yet because they are militarily exposed, too easily destroyed, and I've usually felt my resources were better spent elsewhere.
I have played a half a dozen Maso games now. I lost the first, won the second and third, did not finish the fourth (though I may go back to it yet), and won the fifth and sixth. I have another iron in the fire, the first time I tried WITHOUT five incredibles, and the outcome is seriously in doubt, but looking up after some initial severity. I won four alliance victories, but all very different types of games, different map sizes, different alignments, different political parties, different bonus abilities, and different dynamics on the path to victory.
And none of my strategies have matched either the starbase culture madness you describe, nor the military rush tactic Ray has outlined. I would describe my victories as political-economical survival. The diplomatic elements and strategic possibilities in GalCiv are manyfold and deep. Yet all of my games have begun with a farmer's gambit: essentially the same way your games begin. So I would urge you not to throw in the towel just yet.
The roots of my success on Maso begin with my first game on Crippling. I lost. I lost badly. I played it all the way out, fighting to the last man, and was conquered. I submitted the loss, too. Here's how it went. I played a large map with normal habitability. I had just come off a pure good beyond human victory on Painful, and I wanted to play Evil. Torians were my closest neighbor, and they turned out to have the most good planets of any empire in the game. I tried to trade with them, but they weren't having it. They got upset at my evil alignment and declared war on me, pronouncing that they would cleanse the filth of the galaxy (that being me, apparently). I thought that the AI would be inept with planetary invasions. Yes, my battle axe forces were obliterated by their battleships, but I fought valliantly. I eked my way forward, finally, to battleship tech myself, and started producing my own b-ships. I thought that could save me, but no. By then they had Dreads and even Rangers. They had more tech. They had military resources being mined. They were taking out my ships two and three to one, even after I gathered a few small stacks of battleships. They had more speed, so they got more initiative. The next thing I know, here come the waves of combat transports and bam-bam-bam, my planets go up in smoke, as my defending odds are a sad 2 or 3 to their 15 or 20. So much for my MOO1 style "it's OK that we're losing in space, because we can hold out OK on the planet surface" game plan.
The Metaverse allows one replay. You can submit a game a second time "if you think you can do better". So I gave that a shot. New plan: We will be Chaotic Good! "Oh yes, Torians, we love you. We are just like you. See? Us = good peoples. You don't want to burn down our homes. You really don't. Trade with us instead!" And so I rode the coattails of the runaway Torian empire as they wiped out everyone else in the galaxy, and in the end, we're still friends and I share in the victory.
I learned more lessons from this dual experience than I can shake a stick at. First of all, alignment matters. A LOT. You are only going to make friends with those near you in alignment. Don't waste time trying to befriend your moral opposites. Secondly, expediency counts. Taking the alignment of your close neighbors into account in your metagaming can turn the tide. Your closest neighbors are the ones you can most easily and safely trade with. They are close enough for you to get your transports there before they start to get mad at you, especially on large maps or smaller. The huge and gigantic maps, you are much more likely to run out of time before you can establish trade. Nearby neighbors can literally shield you from enemies if they sign on to the same wars as you, or vice versa. And if you shift your alignment to match theirs, you will naturally have the same friends and enemies as they do, at least generally.
This understanding, then, has formed the backbone of my winning Maso strategies. Here are the steps I've taken in common with each game I've won:
1) 90% spending of capacity on military to start, just enough spending to crank out a colony ship from homeworld every three turns. Build scouts as needed from secondary worlds and more colony ships with the rest of their production. When the starting money runs out, or the room to expand grows thin, end this phase.
2) 100% research in phase two, high spending if there is cash left, or break even if not. Beeline to Diplomacy for the government swap to improve economy. Usually still some colony ships poking around in this phase, but that's good, because so far NONE of my planets have built a single thing yet, and they will all "grow up together" from whatever point I shift to infrastructure. Variable research from there, but usually Trade and then Habitats are next techs to get, and after that, depends on who I met and what trades are available from minors, if any. This phase is usually short.
3) 100% Social spending. Two PQ upgrades are always first. Always always. Then banking (need money to fuel spending) and entertainment (need morale by this time on many planets to fuel pop growth). Economic capital on largest planet (not always Earth).
By now, I will have met my nearby neighbors. Now comes the game plan about whom to befriend, where to send my freighters, and how to go about getting military techs. Deflectors? Forget it. That's an AI "My Precious" tech, which they always want your firstborn AND both arms and a leg to trade for. But shields are doable. They don't overvalue Shields. If I can get shields in trade from a minor (who needs diplomacy picks anyway?) I'm set. If not, I need to research Deflectors and Shields myself as the TOP priority. The moment I get to Shields, it's time for Phase 4:
4) Build some military! If you think you ought to be allowed to run a permanent farmer's gambit in a competitive environment, with complete impunity, think again. If the AI's did that, would you not be tempted to waltz in and stake your own claim on some of their lands? This isn't pattycake. It's the Game. The big diplomatic game of major powers vying for dominance in a hostile climate. Get yourself some military, even if it is cardboard cutouts of soldiers manning the walls and a few guys running around under cover making lots of noise to try and sound impressive. You have to look like something that won't roll over with its paws in the air begging to have its little belly scratched when the alpha wolf comes around.
Battle Axes (available with Shields) are a solid unit. They are relatively cheap, and in numbers can fend off anything short of battleships. Build 100% military until you have enough battle axes sitting around to rise up out of the cellar on military rating. Blam, you're set. Nobody will pick on you except your alignment enemies or a runaway superpower. If that superpower is near you, you OUGHT TO have already decided you need to be their pal and have shifted your alignment toward theirs. ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS COME SECOND TO THAT ONE. Survival first, worrying about victory or moral principles second. If there is no superpower, or there are two, you're set. You can play the buddy game with whomever your alignment matches, and try perhaps to soften relations with those not matching your alignment but not too far away from it. Up to two shifts away, you can still hope to be friends. Maybe. With a lot of trade and/or a much stronger military rating than they. That is, neutral can befriend anybody with enough effort. Chaotic evil... forget the Altarians. They will not like you no matter what you do. Chaotic good, forget the Drengin. They are coming for you. Period. Unless a more urgent fight presents itself. As long as you have some allies, though, you are in the game. Let the wars start. Your friends will either join you or covertly supply you ships, or both. Don't blink, and don't lose your backbone. Just plug along. Wait until you can build your own battleships, or whatever is competitive to the era, and then go 100% military again for a while. If your enemies are far away, you've got time. How best to use it depends on the situation, but there are many options open.
The one option you don't have is to be left alone. If you want that, Maso is not for you.
I've won four different varieties of Alliance victory in four reported Maso wins, in six Maso games played.
The first was a pure Coattails Alliance. I spotted the Altarians right next door to me on a medium map with the next to lowest fertility setting. I coddled right up to them, and they were the lone superpower. Rode their strength to an allied victory for good, with my own alignment just short of Pure Good.
My second Maso win was nothing short of true military conquest. The start looked lousy at first, tucked in the corner of a large map, with crappy planets nearby, but there turned out to be one highly fertile patch of planets in the back corner behind me, which only I was positioned to reach. The Drengin were the superpower and my closest neighbor (though Altarians were also near). I sidled up to the Drengin, becoming chaotic evil. They fended off the goody two shoes races for me while I sat in my corner and built up my economy. The Drengin make lousy allies, but I didn't need them to side with me, since the good races automatically targetted them. I was so shielded, plus blessed by what was honestly the best land in the galaxy. I had the most population, and eventually I got the strength (dreadnaughts) to run over the Altarians. From there, I had to hit the Drengin, and that was tough. I had to pull a massive surprise attack, and the first blow took out their two best systems and I eked out from there. (No, I didn't use Ray's trick of buying an attack against them to lure all their ships away from their planets. I went THROUGH their ships with my Avatars. I did not even have War Party or military bonuses. I had set out to try for a research win, but there turned out to be TWO red cone military resources in my region, and fully mined, they doubled my ship strengths). From there, it was merely logistics to wrap up, and rather than turn on my Yor allies, who were on the far side of a large galaxy, I let them lick my boots and survive with their 18% of the territory.
My third alliance victory was a medium map, eke it out from last place, Oh My God Here Comes the Superpower Now What Do I Do gaming experience. I played good once again, since the Torians and Altarians were both near me. Each race had exactly three good planets, including me, except that I had settled two PQ13's and two PQ14's in addition to my three good planets, so I had six stars and seven planets in my two sectors. The Yor and Drengin each had only two stars, but they both had a system with two planets. Looks like a nice even contest? No. The Arceans had three huge worlds, and so they had the best economy, got most of the wonders and trade goods, seized more resources than anyone else, and grew into a true superpower. They were too far for me to trade with, plus I had NEEDED my trade routes to suck up to the Torians and Altarians. By the time I had the range to make nice with the Arceans, since I had been stuck deep in a corner, it was too late. When they came for me, with Rangers to my Battleships, and their bonuses on hand, I was doomed. I got away with it for a while, as they kept attacking the Yor and the Drengin, who were closer to them. But at one point they made peace with both and came after me in earnest. JUST BEING AT WAR WITH THE ARCEANS upset both the Altarians and the Toreans. They were both closer friends (tradewise) with the Arceans than with me. Not good. I had to buy the Altarians into the war at enormous costs to me, and when the Torians went cool with me on relations, I had to buy them in too! I spent massive amounts of leased payments to achieve this. Eventually, the two combined became almost a match for the Arceans, who then made peace with me. I sent a wave of freighters up to the Arceans and cancelled most of my routes to the good civs. The Arceans then swallowed the Yor and the Drengin, although the Drengin surrendered their last planet to me to spite the Arceans. I then had all three surviving civs on good enough terms to avoid any more wars, and it was a question of whether or not I could improve relations with all three in time to win before the Arceans got a tech victory. (I didn't know at the time that an alien tech victory doesn't actually cause one to lose the game, but only to be unable to win by tech yourself). Incredibly, it was the Altarians who proved the most obstinate. The Arceans were research Final Frontier when I finally got the Altarians, with SEVEN trade routes from me and all kinds of huge gifts of money and tech and ships, to line up Close and complete the Galactic Alliance.
My fourth Maso win was a pure shot at Beyond Human on Maso. I played with rare habitability on a huge map, drew the best land in my area, added a few PQ14's to that and one PQ13, so I had eight planets to four or three for the rest of the major powers, and only ONE planet for the poor Arceans, who got stuck deep in the corner behind me. With rare habitability, my usual plan of spamming the colony ships was out out out. I built two SCOUTS first, plus my starting colony ship, knowing it would be too costly to overbuild colony ships when there might be only a few worlds out there. That game plan worked very well. Anyway, the Arceans and Altarians were near me, so I angled toward good. Nobody had many planets, but the Yor got to four systems while others had one to three. They started to pull ahead to become a superpower, and by mid game, the phony wars between them and me gave way to real danger. Their starbases and tech reached the point where they could get ships into my territory. I panicked, halted my economy-research game plan and started to build military. My trade routes got bushwacked and my economy collapsed. (I had Populists party and trade/morale-related bonus picks). Next thing you know, they are grinding down my planets, my allies are also dying, and the game is lost. I did not play it out to the last (so I did not submit). Instead I took my one replay to go back to the panic moment and change my strategy. Instead of building up my military, I went with NO MILITARY. I had my early battle axes, still, but that was it. Instead of researching battleships, dreadnaughts, etc, which had taken up FORTY full turns at max research doing nothing else, I researched morale and trade picks. I ran trade routes on the least exposed routes from my back lines to the nearest Altarian world, and I loaded those up. The Torians then came to me and offered to trade me first battleship tech for Conglomerates, then Dreadnaughts for Molecular Medicine, and eventually Rangers for some other bio tech, I don't remember which. So I essentially got these "for free" instead of spending forty turns of production to research them myself. I did finally HAVE TO build military, with the Yor at the gates, but it was my Rangers to theirs, and though even on attack I lost more than one to one, I built about twenty Rangers and killed over a dozen of theirs, blunted their offense, and then a miracle happened. The Drengin, second strongest power in the galaxy, got the alignment flip event. They became good! So instead of two strong evil powers vs two weak good powers and lil ole me, the dynamic changed to one evil superpower vs the galaxy. The tide turned, and the Yor lost some world to the Altarians, then surrendered to the Torians. AT THAT POINT THE GAME WAS WON. I had Close relations with all three, but I wanted my darn Beyond Human victory, so I tried for it. The Altarians went absolutely nuts on me. That, plus a United Planets event of sharing tech caused ALL MY TECH LEAD to vanish. I had expensive techs like Evolution Control and Wormholes, enough of a tech lead to (possibly) stay ahead of the Altarians. All given away out of my control. (Apparently, the random events giveth, and the random events taketh away). I lost the tech race and fell back to my Alliance victory as second prize.
Four games with 5xIncredible, four map sizes, four different game plans, different alignments, different politcal parties and bonus picks, and none of the prevailing cliches or known exploits of the main community here. And on my last game, the LOSING move was military, while the winning move was sticking to the original plan and beelining my research.
I don't think the situation in regard to GalCiv game balance is nearly as bleak as you paint it, Paguma. In fact, I find it stunningly good.
- Sirian
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