Oops! Wrong character! I guess that game is going to the Hitchhikers. Don't worry. I'll get another one done soon.

lol, its ok FB. Have some questions: what size map do you play for one and also, what is your basic research pattern. Outside of some early, cheap techs that I get, I usually find a line and stick with it (my "important" items being in rough order: Diplomacy (for Diplo Translators), the soldiering line techs (and Tir-Quan), , and then I go all out on the Ethics (Evil), and get my MCC (for a 100% Econ boost, REALLY nice that) and the No Mercy Invasion Center (this is a must since I play on huge/giga maps, all those worlds to invade adds up)

Of course I have my race tweaked a bit. Current racial stats that I'm playing with and am finding to work out very nicely is as follows

Super Hive

Economy +10
Defense +50
Morale +60
Pop. Growth +40
Espionage +50
Diplomacy +25
Loyalty +25
Hit Points +30%

Universalists
Economy +5
Defense +10
Pop. Growth +10
Luck +25

(And since I play as a customized Krynn, I also receive due to inherent techs, 20% social production and 10% military production)

I'm going the Factory route, which Hive allows me to do quickly even without my production bonuses and the Pop Growth bonus usually means I'm financially afloat by the end of a year. Though for the record i don't develop any world that isn't at least Class 11 (I colonize them yes, but they get just a farm) until very late in the game.

****As a side note, as anyone else noticed Class 3 and under worlds not posting growth beyond a certain point? I colonized Wisp (Class 3) and it wouldn't grow beyond 1.3B until I used Soil Enhancement to make it Class 4), this also happened on another Class 3 world.****

The biggest hit is of course research, in my current game I have six or seven "developed" worlds (with manu centers currently) and I'm spending about 450BC on Research (since its all Focused production only); not bad, but I really need about 2000BC in research spending.

I work with my strengths, that is while certain techs give you a bonus in a given field, unless I have a starting bonus in that stat, it'll be no much for the AI. I personally try to make sure I get all the Diplo bonuses (tho..not for a Political Win hehe, and i very very rarely tech trade...no...i use my vastly superior diplo skill to take every last one of my enemy's worlds when he offers a peace treaty); I make sure I get Xanthium Hall Plating (with my bonus, plus that, and the two HP techs, thats a +65% increase in HP); and I make sure I get my morale boosters, both wonders and resources; even not being a Super Breeder, 100% morale means double growth, and also means I can keep my taxes higher without suffering the effects.

I'm currently building Medium Hull Fighters with two Psionic Beams (attack of 24) and HP of 26 for a cost of 400BC, which my homeworld can kick out every two weeks. I don't have any defense on them yet, though, you hvae to get pretty far down the defense line before its really useful IMO.

There is a limit on max natural population growth based on planet quality. You can still bus pop. in up to your support limit and they will remain though.

This is from the Wiki, it may be dated but it's pretty close.

PQ 1 = 0.16 b.
PQ 2 = 0.54 b.
PQ 3 = 1.28 b.
PQ 4 = 2.50 b.
PQ 5 = 4.32 b.
PQ 6 = 6.86 b.
PQ 7 = 10.24 b.
PQ 8 = 14.58 b.
PQ 9 = 20.00 b.
PQ 10 = 26.62 b.
PQ 11 = 34.56 b.
PQ 12 = 43.94 b.
PQ 13 = 54.88 b.
PQ 14 = 67.50 b.
PQ 15 = 81.92 b.
PQ 16 = 98.26 b.
PQ 17+ = 100 b.

interesting, the funny thing is tho, after reaching Class 4 I've never had an issue getting my population up to my farm limits (13b or 20b depending) I'm using DA 1.61.

Too bad we can't actually reach 100b due to the morale nerfing

I'll pay more attn in the future, see if the limits still hold true

The bonuses the universalists provide are too spread thin to actually matter much. I'm not saying they're useless(especially the pop. growth bonus) but they are spread too thin.



I've found that building a whole lot of fighters in the beginning of the game which can match your opponent civilization's military might but in the long run is terribly counter-productive. So I tend to choose quality over quantity.

This is how I manage attack 98 frigates by early year two:

My HW must be either the research or manufacturing giant of the galaxy, a research or manufacturing bonus tile is extremely helpful in achieving the mega frigates.

-Research upto "Expert Miniaturization"(or advanced minaturization if you're playing a race which has a miniaturization bonus.)

-Research upto Psionic beams.

-Research upto warp drive or Impulse drive MK III(anything below will cause drastic reduction in the potential of the mega frigate explained below).

-Research upto Medium hulls.

In fact, its very easy to get these frigates while not falling behind in other areas. I would advise to not worry about burning through your treasury. A -150 bc loss is normal(for me atleast since I am not as experianced).

Then design a frigate with one engine and as many Psionic Beam modules as you can. Then the real challenge. Each frigate costs upto 1027 BC to manufacture. But if your HW can produce 250-200 MPs/week then it'll take about 4-5 weeks to make. The attack output is measured at 72 attack but with a +20-40% weapons bonus it can go to 98. If one of the engines(i.e. Impulse Drive MK II) cost too much space then that means you will have a shortfall of 2-5 points and then the last Psionic beam module can't fit.

Just 2-3 of the mega frigates can catch upto suicidal AI's military might rating even if you have no other military vessal. The AI might have dozens of small weaker fighters but it'll consider your military superior.

Just remember to use them quickly as the suicidal AI is not going to take being outclassed for too long. There will come a time when even the mega frigate will be obsolete. But the point is, a very powerful ship built with relatively basic tech able to outclass a dozens of fighters alone in military rating.

Hmm, looking back on this I don't suppose anybody would be willing to read something this long.

How do I sign up?

You can go Hereand hit join empire under the Logo on the left. And Welcome aboard!

Neilo, maybe you should update the op with both a link to the join page and a link to the Tyranny forums to make it easier for current and future Tyrants to get the latest in evil happenings

sShake-n-bBake, and a most evil day to you!!!!

Glad to have with us on our evil tirade..

Here's a link to our forum site, plenty of useful info there, many strategy's and such...
http://tyrannyofevil.eamped.com/index.php?sid=91178023065cd54a6bbe17f8386753a1

Good idea DA, will do.

BMF

Fire, I don't want to hijack this thread talking bout strategies; we have a number of different threads on our Tyranny page (link in the OP) that are interesting to check out.

I'm gonna post one over there in a moment fully expanding on what I was saying here

How are we all guys? Just about to post round 4 teams and game rules. Should prove to be a very interesting few months in the league.

I am still working on my gig abundant all game for the tyranny...it is a very slow game, the planet count is over 900 and i only colonized about 30 of that. The Torians are dead and the Thalans just surrendered to the Altarians. So i guess they are my next targets. My military is by far stronger and my Sb array is coming along nicely. The problem will be that the Altarians are allied with the Terrans, who have around 550 planets!!! Compared to my 120 or so. They have taken the Yor and the Arceans and their military is close to mine. So it is a long, long game. The Thalan war took alot out of my war machine and i have to stop building 1/1 fighters to hurry up and get transports. And i still have the Korath, Drath and Drengin to go too!!

It is now been 7 years game time already, so since this is going to be a long one i thought i might try something. I am going to build multiple SB array's. Has anyone does this and what effect do they have on score, since they will be built late in game and not early as is the best. Thoughts guys? Is it worth it?

My advice is to go for the mega-frigates(mentioned earlier). If the best terran current ships have even 60+ attack in their battleships then one mega-frigate can outclass them as one mega-frigate does 98 attack(assuming you have +20 weapons bonus) and can also be easily manageable from early year 2. Its the key to military domination in my games. IT EVEN WORKS WITH SUICIDAL!

Try imagining a mega dreadnought(huge hull): Heres how mine stack up: 323 beam attack 0 defence speed 9, over 2800 BC to manufacture and 79 BC to maintain but at 130 HP(with xinatium hulls and HP bonus) these ships are almost invincible. The real shocker is that if your research output is focused enough without annulling your manufacturing capacity you can easily maintain 10 of these with enough income from a 120 planet empire right from mid-year 4! And if your logistics are above 20 then thats a 260 HP, 646 beam attack fleet of only two ships!

The downside is that if your best manufacturing planet can produce 200 MPs/week then it'll take 14 weeks to make one. And you must have the economy to support their maintenance costs(from 79 to 101 bc).

As you can see my dreadnoughts outclass dozens of fleets. If each fight has 8 HP then it'll take 16.25 fighters to match its HP. If each AI fighter does 20 attack then it'll take 16.15 fighters to match its firepower.

Thats 16 high tech fighters available in year 1 for suicidal and year 7 for challenging AI in one fleet to match.

My ships are fine...about 250att/120def and about 40 in speed. Plus i have three worlds with plus 1000 military production and about 10 others with around 500. The thing that set me back was that the Thalans had 2...yes 2 precursor library's. Their ships, though not as many as me, far out gunned mine and i took a hammering getting to his planets. It is rebuild time now. I just wanted an opinion on whether you guys thought building more than 1 SB array was worth the effort.

No way, dude. They are mostly for score. They are for enhancing your military effect on 1 area alone. Eventually they are gonna be a pain. Besides you need 24 logistic points to build one array and then you need 48 to build the other. What next?

I must say I'm humbled. The mega-dreadnought is not in the least intimidating now. They could still deliver about 150 points of damage at the very least through 120 defence but I'm still humbled. That much speed? The mega-dreadnoughts could wipe out so much more even faster! How do you do it, neilo? I must know! The secret to the defence and the firepower! I must improve the mega-warship formula and I need to know what you use!

1000 MP+?! Thats a mega-dreadnought in 3 weeks.

I agree with Fire. SB arrays are no fun. I don't go for score(As you can tell by my crappy scores). Your ships sound very impressive, Must have some military mining resources. And to have planets with that much production, Possibly some economic starbases? I will have to go back in to I think the core, or early in this post or into killing Dreadnaoughts and find out what my ships were. Chat later.

Here we go. 915 laser attack no defence and 418 laser attack 462 missle defence. I have had larger using missle attacks however.