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thanks vinicible; do you build an embassy?
          
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Scouts - Depend on map size. I don't build any on Tiny even Small but on Gigantic I could build 3-4.
Embassy - It's almost at the end of my build queue. I feel the small bonuses are only worth it for its maintenance at the end where numbers are big. The influence helps in my culture flipping as well.
    
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I have a better feel for embassies and scouts now.
My 5th maso game was very rocky. The Yor made the diplo translators and then the Yor were destroyed before I could afford them - 4 trade goods to swap for diplo translators weren't enough 
Then the Dregnin who I bribed to start wars actually starting winning them all and got 5 planets compared to my 2. In spite of keeping everyone at war and some cash-flow from trade, the Drengin got so strong they went through the unambiguous communications plus majesty I,II,III. Having exclusive control of those 4 is similar to diplo translator power and my diplomacy edge from my initial picks vanished. My military was zero (never got to dreadnought) and things were tight. I culture-bombed like crazy but by the endgame my gifts of tech & influence points weren't impressing the Dregnin who were extorting about 2k or so from me every few turns. They went from friendly to hostile really fast in spite of me being their only trading partner with about 4 routes and my bribes no longer were effective. The interface indicated I no longer had any edge in diplomacy. Fortunately I flipped them before I ran out of extortion money but it was way too close. I learned today on maso that if the AI has the lead in planets and all other categories plus the human has no military and no diplomacy edge, then that human better win pretty fast or else.  .
Please comment on anything but my main question is, what do maso players do with the military superiority issue? In the beginning I seem to need no military but should one go for dreadnoughts and build AMM to bump military superiority in the mid-game? Or does diplomacy only break down without diplo translators so don't bother with military? Comments on managing military and military superiority issues on maso are appreciated. Thanks.
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It was at painful but, Ive taken out Rangers and even an Avatar with my battle hammers. I love em. Its all about controlling military resources, building shipyards etc, and developing them in levels as the battles go on. I aslo find that building battle axes at all planets seems to keep the ai off my back. Might be a little extreme though.
   
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| I usually only use AMMs and combat transports. |
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Seems a bit wasteful for those planets that are defended by loads of defenders and colony ships. I'd always back up my AMMs with a few moderately powerful combat ships.
| They went from friendly to hostile really fast in spite of me being their only trading partner with about 4 routes |
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Drengin tend to be very aggressive when they feel superior. Why only four trade routes? The diplomatic effectiveness of trade depends on the proportion of their income they get from you. If they had a lot of planets bringing in tax, it would have been a very low percentage (one of the icons in the diplomacy screen will tell you how much). You could boost that percentage with trade boosting starbases, although that would have weakened your culture bombing.
 
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Alliance victory would certainly be the quickest. I usually get at least one or 2 races to "close" without trying hard. Of course  , then I stab them in the back. Muhahahahahaaaa!
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LDiCesare,
Im far to attached to my military units to go with AMM's.  . I name all of my combat ships so I just cant send the Annihilator to his death. It just seems wrong to waste the Omega on just one ship . See my problem? Im a military freak. I go after all of their ships first in a war. I dont invade until Ive cleaned out the area. I know its ten times harder but thats the way I like it. In just a small game I killed well over a 100 enemy ships. Sadly, doesnt seem to do much for your military score. I dont understand how any of your score is calculated for that matter. It rarely gets the "most powerful ship" listed right.
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I buried this in a very long Empire thread so thought I should ask here.
I have read some say medium and large maso are the hardest map sizes. They are harder than small/tiny maso because of the need to build scouts delays tech building and the distance makes it take longer to meet AI (including minors). It also seems the tech cost more bc at bigger maps (communications theory cost about 30 instead of about 26 and universal translator cost closer to 20 but about 11 on tiny small for example). At least that is how I see it.
Why aren't huge and gigantic harder than medium/large? It seems to me you just have more of the need for scouts and more distance/time before tech swapping begins. Since I really don't like to play huge & gigantic, I depend on others to help answer that mystery. Thanks.
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I agree that medium-sized maps are more difficult than big-sized maps.
That's because the AI is weak at waging long distance wars and it's easier on big maps to "hide" from the AI or to turtle.
AIs on medium sized maps are harder to rush or alpha strike due to the longer distances and the higher number of planets as compared to small sized ones.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts on map sizes. I understand better now. 
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#169
by Citizen CypherPax - 10/14/2003 4:04:08 PM
The Transport Gambit:
In my last game, I found myself in a desperate situation. Conquest of the Alexians was next on my to-do list and the Drendin were about to beat me to it. My survey ship revealed that not only had the Drendin taken out the defenses but they had three transports that would land in the next turn and they would only need one.
If the Drendin took the planet, the game was over as they already had 3 systems to all the other incredible AIs 1 or 2. Not wanting to lose the game, I offered 6 BC for 100 turns and a junk tech. They accepted and I captured the planet.
This felt like an incredibly cheap price since I could not have rushed a ship for that amount of credits (and it would have been a turn late and 3 sectors away to boot).
I felt there would certainly be other applications, like the war I had started between the Torians and nearly everyone (which had given the Drendins the edge). I flew my Star Fighter next to the remaining Torian planet to discover that it only had 2 transports and a colony ship (and about 16 billion Torians). Note: The Torians had at least 3 Death Knights flying around – but they had also just launched an offensive. For 4 minor techs, I was given both transports. The Star Fighter picked off the colony ship. The first transport used an destructive invasion technique and did a ton of damage leaving only 2 billion Torians (and a lot of Torian sushi). The second transport took the planet. This was almost more surprising than the Alexian situation, because I was surprised that planet bound Transports were loaded when I ‘purchased’ them. Essentially, the Torians had taken themselves out.
I figured I could try this out as a strategy. The Drendin and the Yor had the biggest militaries and they were located a sector apart. I bribed the Drendins to war against the Yor. Thankfully, they eliminated each other fleets – but the Drendin were about to prevail and land their transports on the Yor homeworld when I traded a good number of techs (some like Stellar Cartography and Basic Repair) for their transports. I then eliminated the Yor.
Finally, in clean-up mode, I used this gambit to buy all the remaining Arcean ships (including a pair of combat transports) and invaded their homeworld with their own ships.
Assessment:
This economics of scale makes this very useful on smaller maps, but it good also be useful on larger maps in specific situations. I don’t know how much population is put on purchased transports, but I’d guess they’ll about half full as if you had auto-launched them.
There is a certain satisfaction to having the AI build the transport, grow the population, position the transport, and in some cases, destroy the defenders and then buying the victory for a fraction of the expense and time.
In a certain sick sense, the Torians and the Arceans committed suicide because they didn’t see how the transaction could hurt them. The AI does not place a premium on transports like it does on other ships.
  
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| they went through the unambiguous communications plus majesty I,II,III. Having exclusive control of those 4 is similar to diplo translator power and my diplomacy edge from my initial picks vanished |
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Ric, did you try trading them a planet in an area you had a huge influence advantage in. The ais will give you tons of techs and even ships for planets, even planets that will soon flip back to you 
  
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