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Lightning Alpha Strike formula
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This is, I think, a radical approach to an alpha strike. When Ginata played 5 gigantic Maso games in 3 days I was shocked, and began thinking of ways to play a lightning game. This is the result. Today I played a 60,000 point gigantic masochistic in a little over 2 hours, no CTL-U, coupla CTL-N's to start with some isolation. Earth was PQ 17, also 1 PQ 20 and 4 PQ 15 -- 6 total!!! I did restart to race a minor for two PQ 15's, and I got the 35 Base random event on my 20 PQ, which makes less difference in this style than in others.
I know formulaic games aren't fun for most players -- I personally find them a fascinating way to explore the subtlties of the game mechanics.
Notes:
1) Starbases only for range and Terror Stars. No production, trade, cultural enhancements. No Resources!
2) Exploits are limited to Alpha-Strike, bribing for war or peace.
3) Trade only for technology on the list -- skip any pre-requisites if possible
4) Don't bother with wonders except Eyes of the Universe if you like. Build Trade Goods only if your planets dry up, but switch to Antimatter Generator when it becomes available.
5) Trade for morale enhancers, Gravity Accelerators
6) No Pondering! Everything is planned and executed precisely.
Build Order (* is optional placement, # was skipped this game accidently,& is optional)
Soil Enhancement
Banking Center
Entertainment Center
Habitat Improvement
Manufacturing Center
Fusion Generator
*Multimedia center
Antimatter Generator
Stadium
#Transporters
Harmony Generator
Stock Market
Economic Exchange
&News Network
&Medical Center
&Embassy
&Research Lab
Research Order (modify for alternate build order,& is optional)
(modify to keep your social build-queue filled)
(I traded cash for nearly a quarter of these last game)
Communication Theory
Universal Translator
Diplomacy
Trade
Medical Theory
Basic Environmental Control
Industrial Theory
Propulsion Theory
Cold Fusion
Interstellar refining
~~~~~~~~
Nano Electronics
Nano-Frequency Electronics
&Stellar Cartography
Sensors
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Impulse Drive
Antimatter
Zero-Gee Manufacturing
~~~~~~~~~
Advanced Diplomacy
Interstellar Negotiation
Extraveganza
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interstellar Business
Interstellar Marketing
Interstellar Capitolism
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Zero Gee Research
Genetic Mapping
Molecular Medicine
Transporters
~~~~~~~~~~
Weapons Theory
Phasers
Instantaneous Communication
1D Phasing
Large Scale Building
Artificial Satellites
Artificial Planets
Terror Star
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Stage 1
Military 100%, Expenditures 100%, Tax to morale about 80%.
As soon as 4-8 colony ships are build, equalize spending sliders. Adjust Expenditure Slider to stay in the black when necessary. Don't rush-build additional colony ships if needed, just go to 100% Military for a few turns.
Expand to a small number of nearby planets, keeping any majors far enough away to prevent early culture flipping. Stop expanding early!!
Build constructors to extend range.
Once Trade is researched choose a trading planet and build no more than 10 freighters. 6 may be more the mark. Send them to the closest planet.
Once Sensors are developed, build and deploy Sensor Drones.
I like to expand and explore in a grid, so I sent constructors out to fill this grid and I send sensor drones to explore in stripes from one side of the map to another -- no muss, no fuss. It may be faster to build only enough to explore clusters of stars, but I think that requires too much (many?) hands-on for this approach
The goal is actually to explore the existing planets and place starbases so that every remotely inhabitable planet is within range (4 or 5) of a terror star, so whatever floats.
Keep the AI's at war with each other and out of war with minors as much as possible through bribes. The build pattern above should allow ample cash for 100 turn trades of 15 -25 BC on a regular basis.
Stage 2
Set a Rally Point as near to the center of all opposing planets as possible. On most maps this will be around 13,13. Switch sensor drones to constructors when you have build enough to either pattern search or cluster search. Switch freighters to constructors when you have built 6-10. Set all planets to Rally Point 0.
Once stadiums are built, try to keep morale at 100%. You should be able to manage 100% morale, 100% expenditures, and peak at around 1000BC/mo with only 5 or 6 traders.
When the Terror Star is researched, turn research to 0% (you can research morale items like virus, depression if you like). When the social queue is complete set social spending to 0%.
As the constructors reach Rally Point 0, group them in stacks of 5 and send them to park near the *farthest* planets first. Park a stack next to each Major planet. I like to send several to minors as well, in the event the planets are taken over by majors.
Try to judge when you have built enough constructors and turn Expenditures to 0%.
Keep the AI's at war; above all keep them from allying with each other. Keep them at peace with the minors if possible so you need fewer Terror Stars.
Stage 3
Terror Star Alpha Strike at your convenience
Hope y'all find this interesting!
        
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Maxtipherous, thanks for the tips. You speed players are impressive. This may be the 60,000 point crank. If I ever play gigantic again, I must try this. 
I do have a couple of questions please:
1. Why do you use sensor drones if you are not going to snag resources? The alien planets "light up" once you establish contact even in a unexplored area. Plus you can use "culture scouting" to find out where the majors are.
2. Do you mean you are bribing the majors with 15-25 bc per turn over 100 turns to get them to go to war with each other? I have never used cash - only techs - to bribe because I usually save cash to buy starbases. Thanks for clarifying.
     
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1) three reasons (besides my compulsive need for order) -- I don't like to waste constructor stacks on minors; minor homeworlds don't show up as yellow on stellar cartography and if they are taken over I still don't think you can see them; in an extended game majors often colonize non-yellow planets.
I guess you can use the diplo screens to find everything, but that seems to me to take more actual time.
2)Yes exactly. In this style I avoid giving them the benefits of my tech unless I am broke near the end when I am about to rub them out. It is a matter of style, really, not strategy. Like the ultimate xeno-phage. I kinda like the idea of living peacefully, quietly alongside for a hundred years or so then Wham! Right in the Kisser! Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-(Gurgle gurgle phapffffithththth)
~~~~~~~~~~~
Um, I'm me again.
Played another game today. Ended up with a second round of expansion because there were 5 more planets between me and the corner. This put the whole system so far behind I had to modify the build order to keep Earth happy. Caused me to drop tax rate three times waiting for a morale improvement, starting the econ spiral of death. Pulled out of it OK, but the whole game proceded more slowly. Counting 1/2 hour for a couple false starts and 1 CTD, dinner and working on my son's homeword 4 hours. Less is more!
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i'LL tRY iT yOUR wAY oN mE nEXT gAME mATE 
    
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Two small addenda:
I left off Organic Piecing as a prerequisite for Genetic Mapping, and I trade for speed and range technologies. Finished another including two false starts in 2:45.
Cheers!
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I think he means setting the mini map to display influence.
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You are correct. Culture or influence scouting is just using the minimap to find out where the majors are before contact. But it certainly does not find the minors. Thanks for your answers Maxtipherous. If you are flush with cash you might want to make the AI work for those techs.  .
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Impressive Maxti! You are a founding member of the influence club and this extends the work. Are you saying a Terror star next to eadh planet generates enough influence to flip them all on a gigantic map? And you'd need to basically do it all at once otherwise the cost of the Stars would send you down the drain, or have I missed something?
 
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no, not flipping Wombi -- Alpha strike. Knock-em all out in 1 turn.
I feel I might have left my flipping days behind me for now. I really don't like the economic impact of scortched-earth planets, or the time it takes to delete the dozen unwanted social improvements on the others. I'm afraid the tedium got to me, which is the other reason I started this technique.
You can certainly use this technique to park 4 stacks of 7 constructors in hot spots rather than terror stars, turn them all into party palaces in one turn, then just hit next until you win hehe. You have to research quite a bit more, secure some culture starbases, and probably build a wonder or two. Would take hours longer, though.
Part of the beauty of this system it you win before your economy stagnates. All morale improvements are built quickly, pop increases quickly, trade is way behind, and no morale or econ resources. All works out nicely, though.
Hey, if any of y'all are trying this, what starting bonuses do you think would work best? I tried industrialists with military +20 and PQ +7. My logic was I want to build as fast as I can in the short term, and I only want 5-7 planets so they should be as good as possible. Unfortunately, social production so far exceeded research that I was constantly tweaking the sliders. Anathema!
Next I am goint to try Federalist +20 econ with research and military bonuses.
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AIs tend to be slow to research Medical Theory, so it's sometimes useful for trading. More importantly, it leads on to Basic Environmental Control, the Habitat Improvement tech, one of the most quick and useful things you can build.
In my recent games, I've had loads of money to spare. The things that aren't on Maxtipherous's list (or are on it with an &) are mostly a waste of money. Personally, I keep social % at zero unless I have a trade good / wonder to build. Selling techs to minors still raises a lot of money. The other key to money is trade. Building trade bonus starbases isn't essential. Having planets in the centre of the galaxy seems to help, as does conquering minor races who aren't trading with you and who have built economic capitals. You can get more money from trade just by not wiping out alien races. When I do attempt a war of conquest, I tend to leave the AI with one system and then make peace. That way, he can set up trade routes with me until I'm ready to finish the game.
 
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Mighty Max: Thanks for the ideas. I tend to like trying formulaic approaches sometimes, in part to speed my play from glacial to merely cold molasses. With your ideas I hope to finish a gigantic map in finite time...maybe only 1/10 as fast as you. 
In my first attempt (now under way after a single Ctrl-N) I got great isolation in the lower right, with no majors anywhere near me. However, the K-minors started in the same sector and beat me to one multi-planet system. The only PQ15+ planets were distant from Sol (3+ sectors away), but then there were a *bunch* of them available, so the colony ship phase lasted longer than usual and I couldn't resist switching 100% spending from Mil to Research to Soc. [When I even out the sliders the numbers are *so* depressing!] Of course this torpedoes playing speed, which was the point of your exercise.
I *may* have expanded too long and too far, and I've now bumped into Yor colony ships racing me for a juicy system. If they get it perhaps I should give my nearest system to a flip-resistant minor.
I also couldn't resist sending a constructor to the nearest tech resource (the *only* nearby resource), in part to deny the bonus to the enemy. I now have the early-game cluster of TGs and wonders available; I'm inclined to build the TGs and (reluctantly) skip the wonders...after all, I'm spending money on social production, so I might as well get something for it.
Onward and outward! -- HtL
p.s. Oh, about bonuses...I think I went with the party that gives +20 Morale (a perpetual bugaboo), and I also took a lot of bonus diplomacy figuring that I might be quite cash poor. I forget the rest at the moment. I was tempted to take bonus speed for the gigantic map. It is a LONG way to Tipperary!
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Terl: culture scouting is not just turning on the influence display on the mini-map. You can also click unexplored sectors anywhere on the map, then click the sector influence button at the top right of the main screen, and you get the influence numbers for that sector, regardless of how far away and regardless of whether you have explored the area. If on the first turn you see 200+, you've found the home world of a major AI; if you see about 40 you're in an adjacent sector. This could be considered an exploit (for obvious reasons), or you can consider it info gained from the limited contacts prior to the invention of the hyperdrive. You could also think of it as a leveling factor against the AIs knowledge of where the yellow stars and resources are. -- HtL
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| If they get it perhaps I should give my nearest system to a flip-resistant minor. |
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I *never* thought of this! cool!
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You're welcome; it's just my devious mind. Of course it may not work if the minor doesn't want the system. (I suppose that usually applies to low-PQ planets.) The other problem in this game is that the only minor I've encountered is the K-minor (name escapes me), and I don't know if they are flip-resistant. "Yo! Carinoids! Where ya hangin?"
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Thanks Maxti - I now feel like saying a big "Doh!" Never been one for destroying everything either - doesnt it affect your end score? I had always thought one of the side benefits to flipping big, well developed planets is that they add to your "Society" score where scorched earth planets dont count for as much? Still, it's really interesting and I'll try it out - thanks mate!
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Hermann the Lombard,
The technique is still valid. By the time most minors are ready to flip you can have party palaces and gift one or two to them.
Wild Wombat -
The score system seems to have been tweaked pretty seriously in the last two updates. I have no population, no serious tech tree, and I hardly have time to establish my alignment, yet I am maxing out (hehe that was a pun!)
Oh, you know the individual scores shown at the end have nothing to do with metaverse score, right? Completely different fomulae.
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Maxtipherous
Since we don't care about resources and know where the majors are, is the sensor drone scouting done to find the minors?
The mini-map pop button helps track the AI after contact because the systems become big colored circles instead of tiny dots. Using this is a visual aid and makes the mini-map more useful playing gigantic. Minors and all AI systems "light up" after contact - even the ones in unexplored areas.
It helps send freighters . . . and other things.
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| Since we don't care about resources and know where the majors are, is the sensor drone scouting done to find the minors? |
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I think the idea is to find as-yet-uncontacted minors, to be able to send those "other things" just in case. It must be a bit embarassing to go two gazillion credits in the hole only to discover that you overlooked a late addition to an alien empire. 
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Hermann the Lombard
Exactly! just one terror star short mucks up the whole thing hehe.
I just tried building 7 or 8 drones to explore manually -- too much work. I set them up in a pattern (depending on Eyes of the universe of course):
5 to the right (of the first sector line, 2 to the right, 2 to the left, 5 to the left, repeat. Ususally I try and start from both edges of the map and work toward the center, so they all finish up around the same time I am starting to fan out my constructor stacks. Pretty thoughtless -- just three clicks.
1 click to set them up, one click to send them, 1 click to bring them all and in the darkness disband them.
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I've tried this technique now, approximately. The cranking issue doesn’t bother me too much as for a long time I’ve found my games are won or lost in the first hour. After that, if I’m on good terms with the other races (which I usually am), it’s just a question of whether I win by culture (which is easy because the AI doesn’t know how to defend against culture bombs), war (which is fairly easy because that AI is bad at handling transport ships) or terror stars (also easy, though this is the first time I’ve tried it). If you pick the approach you’re going for and focus on that, it tends to go quicker.
There was still a challenge. I started out on the edge of the galaxy, which I’d normally consider to be a bad thing, but I stuck with it (since it kept the majors away). Scouting the area, I found the Scottlingas and two decent empty systems. Unfortunately, the Scotties beat me to both of them, giving them six planets to my two (one a PQ 13). So I traded techs with him and rushed to phasers and impulse drive, built a transport and a starfigher and went on the offensive. The transport was incredibly slow, so I traded with the Alexians for Controlled Gravity, lease-bought Gravity Accelerators, and conquered all but one of the Scotties worlds.
After that, I proceeded with evenly-spread spending and research in the precise order you specified.
One shortcut that cuts down on the get-all-planets-within-range stage is to trade techs for starbases.
It took me longer than your games, about five hours (but faster than many of mine). This may be partly because I didn’t stop colonising completely. I’m trying to finish all my games at Pure Good, which is very hard without a lot of colonisation (apart from taking a little extra time, it didn't seem to get in the way). I finished the game in December 2195 - fast in game terms?
I also had about 100,000BC left after building my terror stars, due to generous minors. The Torians and Altarians formed an alliance, but this didn't seem to matter.
It felt a little strange to play in what seemed like a sub-optimal manner – ignoring resources, not building wonders, and so on. A lot of the things that I think of as important really aren’t.
So why are you so keen on keeping morale high? Your technique doesn’t seem to depend upon it. You could probably build a lot less social stuff – just enough to keep economy and production up – and wouldn’t need to research teleporters or interstellar capitalism. The research and military parts would then go quicker.
[Message Edited]
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later. I am trying to leap ahead and win quickly.
