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Maso Strategies
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Alright, here's a discussion thread for the Maso players in the board. Put your favourite strats here.
         
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"There, that should be sufficient that someone who's never played maso before can win a tiny game."
That's true, Xavier. Maso/Tiny/Rare is the easiest setting on Maso. We had another Maso player, Ellestar, post a walkthrough based on that setting. You can find it in this strat forum.
But it's a good start. 
I'll be posting some of mine sometime soon but don't think it's going to be anything radical.
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#6
by Veteran vincible - 7/12/2003 11:17:22 AM
Okay, here's the AAR. I think it illustrates the power of a diplomatic approach to the game. I'm not sure if I should just put it in this thread or whether to post it on the main forum as well. I'm a bit leery of posting this, since Frogboy might take it as a sign that he needs to bump up the difficulty some more, and none of us wants that!
When I began this game, I did not intend to play single-sector. However, I got an amazingly good start for a single-sector game, and after playing a few turns I realized that if I was ever going to attempt it, this would be my best chance. It turned out to be surprisingly easy, probably the easiest win I have ever had on a masochistic map that wasn’t tiny/rare. I’m sure I could have done it with a worse start. Because I hadn’t known I would be playing single-sector, my racial picks aren’t optimized for this game, and I’m playing a modded political party (though the mod is in the Library so it’s not really cheating, imo anyway.)
Self-imposed rules. I can send nothing but freighters, scouts, and my original survey ship out of my home sector.
I can only build one starbase (which obviously must be in my home sector).
I am allowed to trade for combat ships outside my sector, but they must autopilot back to earth.
I wasn’t playing Ironman rules but I don’t remember any times when I abused saving and reloading the game.
Start: medium/rare stars/tight clusters
All races set to "Incredible" intelligence and standard alignments.
Political party: Ecologists (one of the library mods). Ecologists get +5% PQ, +20 social production, +5 economics. I’ve only played two games with them so I don’t know how they stack up against other parties. If I had known I would be playing single-sector I would probably have picked Populists.
Starting bonuses (including party)
+10% PQ
+20% social production
+5% economics
+60% diplomacy
+10% population growth
+25% luck
Stars in sector
Sol: Earth, class 18
Quatrale (purple star): PQ 16, 15
Westerfeld: PQ 16
Shugar: PQ 15
Colonization
I get the worm event and pick the 38% PQ bonus when colonizing Quatrale’s PQ 16 planet. Resulting PQ with racial bonus is 23, which after soil and habitat turns into a 26. Alignment takes a hit—I’m down to 40—but I figure it’s worth it.
I colonize the rest of the planets in the sector and build 2 scouts with my excess production. The scouts head out to make contact with other civilizations. I switch to 100% social and build soil and entertainment, then research through diplomacy and through improved environment control while building banking centers and habitat.
I find out where the other civilizations are located by checking sector influence, and send a scout to make contact with the only one in range, the Yor. Other scouts snoop around, finding several resources and also coming in contact with the Alexians.
In March 2180 I contact the Torians. I had previously researched Improved Environment Control, which the AI does not research until quite late in the game, in preparation for trades. I give the Torians Improved Environmental Control in return for their unique tech, then trade both those techs to the Yor for their techs, then trade to the Alexians. After doing this I’ve gotten Artificial Gravity, Cold Fusion, Controlled Gravity, Defensive Theory, Impulse Drive, Propulsion Theory, Trade, Weapons Theory, and the Alexians’ Diplomatic Translators in return for my Improved Environmental Control and a few BCs. Massive tech trading of this sort will occur constantly throughout the game and I will not mention it from now on.
June 2180 meet the Arcaens and Caronids. Give the Caronids all my tech for free, improving relations (and more importantly helping them stay alive longer). Give the Arceans my tech in exchange for having them attack the Dregnin.
The threats start rolling in, with a bunch of demands for Quatrale system, which contains my PQ 26 planet. I research Advanced Diplomacy and trade it to everyone else in return for a couple techs and to bribe everyone into going to war with everyone else. I give gifts to those civs that don’t have anything I want—after this, everyone is “Warm” or “Friendly” except the wary Dregnin who have a three-front war to keep them busy.
I build myself a starbase and put trade and production enhancements on it. At this point, I go on autopilot. I put 100% into social improvements/trade goods/wonders until there’s nothing worthwhile left to build. Then I switch to tech (since by this point I’ve fallen way behind) and research one or two techs that no one else owns yet. I trade these to the AI for the eight or nine techs that they have that I don’t, and while trading goad them all into war again. Then build whatever new social improvements come available. Rinse and repeat.
Since everyone is always at war with everyone else, they send all their trade to me, and I can run at 100% spending with a huge budget surplus.
Random checkin point: October 2185.
Yor: close, receive 50% of their income from trade with me.
Altarians: warm, receive 15% of their income from me.
Torians: neutral, 10%
Arcaens: warm, 11%
Dregs: warm, 16% (and I’m almost their only trading partner).
The Dregnin are becoming the clear leaders in the race for power. Everyone but myself, the Yor and the minors are at war with the Drengin. The Yor have been taking a beating so I’m trying to keep them out of trouble, plus they send a lot of revenue my way. Everyone else has Battleship Technology and is driving for Dreadnaughts. I never bothered to research it, and other races won’t trade it, so I am without battleships but I don’t need them because of my good relations with everyone else. The Drengin are looking really powerful, and I’m thinking a change of strategy might be in order—they seriously might be able to take everyone else on at once, and win. I send some freighters their way and emphasize them more in my gift-giving.
I’ve traded for a few ships, but at this point I have still not yet built a single combat ship of my own.
May 2187.
My fleet at this point consists of 3 frigates, two battle cruisers, four corvettes, and a star fighter. These were acquired in trade. I still have not yet built a single ship. Everyone else has at least several battleships, and three races have several dreadnaughts. I’ve gotten a few trade goods, and my treasury is now at 12,000 BC. I’m taxing at about 40% with a 100% approval rating.
The war between the Drengin and everyone else continues to rage. I am now close to both the Drengin and the Yor due to me being their only trading partners. My relations with everyone else are “friendly.” The question now is whether to ally up with the Dregnin and try to help them beat everyone else, or to continue playing all the races off against each other. The trouble is if I ally with the Dregnin I get dragged into the war that I have created.
I decide to wait until the war between the Dregnin and everyone else peters out, which it does in another year. I then ally with the Dregnin and then bribe all the other races to go to war against each other.
At this point it’s just a matter of time.
July 2188. Drengin declare war on Yor, I honor the alliance. I still haven’t built any ships of my own but I have traded for several battleships. Sometime around here I trade a whole slew of techs and trade goods to the Alexians for Battleship Technology. My ships are on guard, but no enemy ships ever make their way to my home sector.
Feb 2189. Yor surrender to Altarians. Grr.
May 2189. At war with Altarians and Torians. Finally start building ships.
From here on, it’s just a matter of building social improvements, maintaining a decent military, and building techs that complement the Drengin’s techs, and trading with them exclusively—this allows the Dregnin to get a huge tech lead over everyone (except me of course). Because all my ships stay at home with my military-enhancing starbase, they’re very strong in spite of my lack of military resources. I just hit “next turn” over and over, with occasional slider adjustments.
July 2196: Arcaens surrender to Drengin.
August 2196: Torians surrender to me. I give the worlds to the Drengin.
May 2197: Altarians surrender to me. Victory!
I fought just two battles in the game, both when ships that were gifted to me were attacked en route to my home sector.
If I’d been playing for a military victory, rather than for an alliance victory, I would have kept playing all the races against each other, then when I judge that one race is about to fall, I would take it over. Just a simple matter of taking over the galaxy piece by piece and grabbing resources when possible.
Score: 8384, submitted to Metaverse
[Message Edited]
  
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Just won a Gigantic Maso with very different evil military conquest strategy. This was based on speed, sensors, and careful invasion tactics. AI seems far too careless about leaving orbit, and is then very vulnerable for invasion if your ship speed is good. As far as ships go, packs of Frigates rock the planet. Cheap, fast and with good range, perfect for invasion assist. Not sure if one really needs to research for any other ship beyond them. Rather, build up Mil bases, and all kind of mil abilities. Then your Frigates can take out Battleships easy.
Playing as Evil seems far too easy and comfortable to me too. You get all those lovely planets and bonuses, and there was no real penalty for it. At one point Altarians became Friendly towards me, and later even made peace happily after our short encounter. So much for high morales! I was about as evil as you can get...
How about you had some kind of planet erosion or crime going on on your planets if you decided to go evil. In general I think the GOOD guy should get the sweet stuff and super planets, deserves them better. At least on the long run.
If anybody interested in more detail happy to post it here. Just feeling little tired of posting full AAR right now.
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Sorry this only a question at this point. I am thinking to try Maso cultural victory next. Is it doable in 1.05? Any observations/suggestions? So far my cultural efforts have not worked at all in Maso...AI much too powerful, or declaring war if I get too close. Would love to hear of other work before I start down this road...e.g. which abilities to pick first of all?
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Welcome to this thread, jn64. I saw your other post in the main forum first. Maso players are rare nowadays.
How do you rush all the AI on gigantic? Even with max speed boosts, the AI usually can get up to dreadnought by year 5-6. Frigates would find it tough going. Yeah, the AI leaves their planets much too easily. That's a key weakness.
Maso AI has +50% influence bonus right from the start. That's why your planets get so easily absorbed if you share a sector with Incredible AI during the colonisation phase. Cultural victory should still be doable. I would say rush 1/2 of the map and then culture bomb them. Pure cultural victory without invasions would be very tough I think.
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Yes, rushing the gigantic was one of the best and most challenging part of the game. It is a very interesting optimization puzzle whether you are better off colonizing a nearby planet, or should reach out and beat the AI for a far out one. I went for the latter in most cases (but not always) and managed to capture more than anybody else, exploiting the PQ bonus with Save/Load along the way. Just cant help myself staying away from PQ evil path...those top planets are just too nice to live on...
I also traded for Grav Accel early on, so I had +2-3 speed advantage. Works miracles for your invasions and surveying (I had 3 surveyors going) and even for trade.
In this game I had Battleships/Dreadnoughts/Rangers also. Just as afterthought and in the last turns it seemed that Frigates were the best of them. All my planets could churn them out quickly and they were doing speed 9 with all the bonuses.
With a speed benefit like this, the key point during war time was NOT to engage in battle with enemy ships. After all, unless enemy ships are doing REAL DAMAGE to you right now (like invading, hitting your star bases, or killing your trade), they are near useless and actually a welcome maintenance cost to your enemy. Leave them be, and focus solely on planet invasion!
It was good fun to watch half a dozen BS and DN basically sitting at my planets, in total control, but no invasion arsenal nowhere in sight 
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Good point about the AI tactical behaviour. The AI is much better at obtaining complete space superiority than planning coordinated invasions.
So even if you are completely outclassed, you can survive and launch speedy counters as long as you can keep those transports from reaching your planets.
Speed is a critical commodity.
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Yes, AI does not seem too clever about targeting enemy transports properly. I had a Torian Ranger leaving orbit and chasing my sensor (hopelessly) across the screen, leaving a skimpy colony ship (battleaxe at best) to defend its base.
Key thing in battle is to keep a cool head. All those AI ships launching everywhery may appear a terrifying and totally overwhelming sight. But, using the sensor, position your ships carefully and you can fairly easily stay out of all trouble.
By the way is there a secret button somewhere just for attack enemy (not move)? The AI seems to have that benefit that they can use all their move points, then hit you. I am not whinging about it, just wondering if there is a special key for us to do the same?
I realise I am saying too much here....we'll probably need a whole new set of strategies after the next fixpak. Thats also a massive thing about this game...the AI will just get better and better over time, learning from us all. Its actually quite nice now when it still has some of these little weaknesses, so we still have a little chance in the game.
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The secret is autopilot instead of manual move.
If the enemy is 7 parsecs away and you have 6 moves, click the enemy ship with right mouse, the ship will make 6 moves and end with a free attack. Same goes for colony ships.
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#19
by Citizen Nastavnik - 7/21/2003 9:53:56 AM
Hello guys,
You all seem pretty well versed in the game mechanics, so maybe you can help me. It's not a maso game, far from it, but I guess what works fine up there should do well down here, at normal.
Here is my situation: 4 races left (me, drengin, alterians (who looks human), and the yellow one). Thanks to a huge galactic recession I came back in the race, using my war chest to catch up my "military gap" while their economy was crushed.
Now, the yellow guys dominate half the galaxy, and they re not very fond of me. I know they will be coming for me soon or later, and I've been preparing to attack them. Everything was in place, ships, AM missiles (to take out his resources starbases), and a fleet of constructors to rebuilt them immediately "under new management".
Just prior to attack (which finally wasn't launched) I check the treaties screen only to discover that my two allies (drengin and alterians are also allied to the yellow superpower). Therefore my question: is there a way to know "beyond a reasonable doubt" to which side they'll go? If they turn against me I'll be crushed in a matter of turns. On the other hand, if they stay my allies, I have a chance.
I've postponed the attack for the time being, waiting to research new techs that allow me to have more trade routes with them, but I don't know what else I could do.
Any ideas?
Besides, I cannot directly invade this race's planets: they have 3 or 4 times more population than I do. But if I can take down their economy and with a help from my allies, I do stand a chance. Otherwise, only a terror star will do it, and I don't think I'll survive that long.
Thks
PS: I used to play challenging, but after a 3 month pause and 2 updates plus the expack, I've found the AI much better, and had to tone down the difficulty.
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Hi Nastavnik,
You can't tell for sure which side your allies will support. There may be various considerations made by the AI on where they will fall but I don't recall reading about this on the forum. It could be random so if you don't mind cheese you could reload till it goes in your favour.
Alternatively, I would suggest you try for an alliance victory (hope you have not switched that victory condition off). Since you would only require an alliance with the Arceans, build trade with them and send them gifts (those now redundant military ships/AMMs come to mind), even planets if you are desparate. Should be doable.
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Hmmm, for some strange reason my games have been pretty much alliance free so far. Maybe finished too soon. Anyway, in your situation I would just try and see. If it turns out bad way, Reload. I use Undo quite a bit in genral as a basic survival technique (at Maso level anyway).
On your second question, researching some decent Soldiering skills can help your invasion chances tremendously. Even 20M pop can be taken out with single CT. Also, with the war couple turns old, the AI often sends transports out which of course lowers their pop there too.
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