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MASO Medium/Rare/Tight - Strategy review
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I have been playing v1.51 AP MASO Medium/rare/tight lately. I would like to share my tactics.
I start with the research party and then load up diplo 60, influence 20, morale 15. All AI on and set to evil. My goal is to go good. I also have the Saints & Sinners pack installed. Only those 2 mods.
I like to get 3 planets to start out. One of them has to be a PQ of 20. The rest can be anything 15 or over. The ideal location is the middle of the map so that the AI can be located quickly. Use Cntrl-N until you find the desired position and planets. The correct planets are more important than the position.
When starting out I save the game and use the cheat mode to find all the AI, yes its cheese but I can live with it. I then reload the game which automatically turns the cheat mode off.
I set my spending to 100% and my tax as high as possible making sure that my morale is still at 100%. The tax rate usually starts between 50 - 54%. I almost never change the tax rate once the game gets under way.
My start is to set military to 100% and build 1 scout and 1 colony ship. If there is a chance to get 1 or 2 more planets then build the colony ships to do that. You need at least 3 planets starting out and you should not get more than 5. More than 5 will cause your starting position in research and social building to be way behind the rest of the AI. If this happens you will be at a severe disadvantage and it will be tough to catch up.
After the ships are built you will set the research slider to get tech researched in one or 2 months tops. My social slider gets the rest. By monitoring these sliders for each tech early in the game you can maximize your research output. Some people like to do 100% on their sliders but in my opinion that is too much micro management and not really needed.
It is important to find all the AI as fast as possible. The survey ship only picks up anomalies if they are in its path to the AI otherwise I ignore them. This is important, the whole basis of this strategy is to find and make contact with all of the AI, majors and minors.
Note: remember I used Cntrl-U to find out where all the AI was. Now it is just a matter of sending the scout and survey ship to meet them.
As you meet the AI you will start to trade techs for techs to the majors but look to the minors first. They will give you a better deal. Never ever trade your techs for ship techs. The AI will give you a horrible trade. Never ever trade your diplomatic techs to an AI. The diplomatic techs are part of your advantage. The higher your diplomatic status, the better your trades. Within a very short time 12-15 turns you will be ahead in techs.
Find the AI that has the TRADE tech and get it then I usually give away to the other AI to increase my diplomatic status with that AI. At this time I also trade for freighters and use only the farthest trade routes possible. You should have your two freighter routes active no more than 5 turns after you have the Trade tech.
Once you have the following techs research or traded to you then switch your sliders to 65% social and 35% research.
Soil enhancement
Banking
Manufacturing
Habitat
Fusion plant
Now as each planet finishes the Fusion plant start building a trade-good. The Diplomatic Trade-good should start first. As each planet finishes its trade good have it build
Entertainment
Research
When Research has been built the planet should build the next available trade-good of if none are available finish the social build tree shown below. You have about a 50-50 chance of finishing the Tri-Strontium Steel TG. The AI tries to build this one aggressively. If you get the tech before another AI does then you will win building it. Regardless, if you decide that you must fight some battles you should at least trade for that Tri-Strontium TG before fighting.
About 5 - 10 turns after starting to build the trade-goods I start trying to trade for transports. I do not make it a priority, but if I can get 1 or 2 here and there I can bring them back to my planets and dump the colonists on to them.
The only downside here is I may have to build my morale boosters a little early.
The major upside to this is, my 3-5 planets become super charged at production and get most if not all of the trade goods and wonders built before the AI can build them. Now my planets are getting a higher production start.
During my Trade Good / wonder building phase my morale takes a hit all the way down to 50%. By this time I will be able to finish my social buildings concentrating on quick morale booster techs.
During my build sequence I am trading and bribing the AI to war. When the build order below is finished I switch my research to 60% and my ship building to 40%. Start building constructors.
I pick my best planet to build all my wonders on and most of the super projects. Build all other trade-goods as soon as you get them.
My build sequence:
soil enhancement
banking
manufacturing
habitat
fusion plant
diplo TG
gravity accel TG
galactic stock exchange
galactic exhibition
frictionless TG
aphrodisiac TG
Eyes of the universe
ultra spices TG
virtual reality modules TG
Harmony TG'
micro repair TG
Restaurant of eternity
entrainment
antimatter power
news
multimedia
economic exchange
embassy
cultural exchange center
Harmony center
orbital hospitals - only on planets that need the morale booster
medical center - only on planets that need the morale booster
There are special trades that are beneficial to you. Any techs you have that increase the trade routes +1, any techs that increase the weapons +10 and any techs that are political techs will cause the AI to trade at a disadvantage. In other words you get a better deal. During these deals I try to trade for transports/ combat ships, strategic Starbases (used to get more range), Death Nights and bribe the AI to war.
Great care must be taken to ensure that the Minors are not defeated by the Majors. These are your planets and you have to be ready for them. Some of the transports that I traded for are floating around waiting for the right time to take the Minors out.
Also be on the look out for a Major that is about to be defeated and have your transports ready for that as well.
Cheese Tactic about to be exposed: if you flip a major and its their last planet then go to the diplo screen and trade for all their techs that you do not have and any transports or heavy battle ships. Trade everything you have to get this stuff. It matters not because the AI is gone next turn and will not be able to trade these techs to any other AI. By doing this, you can catch you up on ship techs quickly.
Now I start taking over resources that are open due to all the fighting. Occasionally I will try to trade for a resource if it is out of the way.
Sometime, usually just after I complete my initial build order one of the majors gets the Star Federation. The Galactic Monument wonder is very important to get for influence. I make sure that I watch the AI and trade for that tech then rush build that wonder.
Monitor all the AI, sometimes you will find that an AI has 1 or 2 transports and a ship on a planet. You may be able to trade for those ships and then invade quickly. The AI is very stupid and will do this often. This can help shorten your game quite a bit.
Once I start taking resources I usually have defeated one major and one or both minors. It is important to get the resources that deal with culture and max them out.
Even with AP v1.51 I am flipping most Majors quite easily. I build 2 or 3 culture starbases in key areas and the game is mine.
Sometimes I may have to convert 2 cultural Starbases to terror stars just to move them closer to flip the last Major.
My game is taking me almost 3 hours to play. For your information there are players that play Gigantic/MASO with an Alliance win in about 1 hour.
After I am finished the build order I described above I still concentrate on other techs and build diplo and morale based pojects and anything that has a Trade Good or wonder. They are mine all mine.
Depending on the game I am usually finishing just as I get the Terraforming tech. Sometimes it goes slightly longer.
TIP:
Once you have taken a planet over, go to the details screen and cancel all ship building related projects, all defence related projects and all projects that have maintenance of 5 BC.
TIP:
One key to getting a 60K score on Medium is play the game as fast as possible, get the highest population possible and as far up the tech tree as you can go.
          
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I've been playing on Tiny for quite a while now, so I'm appreciative of your Medium advice. Have you tried going for Interstellar Business and Capitalism to get Stock Market, and going for Extravaganza to get Stadium? I've found that those help greatly in keeping up morale and boosting economic activity.
    
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There are several techs that I do get later on that allow me to build morale and economic boosters. I was getting tired typing 
Medium is a little trickier starting out but I found that it was easier once I had my pattern down. You really have to hustle to find the AI and start trading wtih them. That is the key to my strategy.
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