Thanks Ghostwes. I was beginning to think the Empire had died of old age.  

Welcome to this band of veterans, Amalric.

I am not a Canadian either.
I live in Australia, which, I suppose, is very similar to Canada in many ways...apart from climate of course.

I will have to remember that in a few years. When our son heads off to college, my wife and I are planning a SCUBA trip in Australia. We're wanting to dive with great whites... from the safety of a shark cage of course. I'm not *completely* stupid... yet.   

Well, a long time coming, but I finally posted my first game for The Gerontocracy.
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Nice to see some recent activity here. I have been working my way through the various races, trying to get the every-race victory medal. Scores still in the 20K+ area, but not too shabby since my system won't handle huge galaxies and my lax gameplay can't yet handle the extreme difficulties that some of you experts shrug off. I had to laugh at Embird telling us all not to worry about great whites. So typical of the Aussies to make light of what the rest of the civilized world considers a terror.

Anyone else mildly put off by the fact that the Gerontocracy colour is so similar to the other empire shown right beside us on the Empires map! Just like in the game where the three grey coloured races always seem to end up in the same part of the galaxy.

Actually, it's still there.

I grew up reading Claremont's X-Men. Good stuff. The past few nights at work I was bored and started reading some wikipedia articles on X-Men characters and wow, I have no idea what happened -- what a mess. Read the article on Psylocke for a good example of my confusion.

I posted my first game for the empire a couple of days ago. I am now working through the second and third games. I installed at work so that I could play over lunch. Now THAT'S dedication to the empire! (Others might just call it obsession.) If I can just finish off these durned pirates then I can turn my attention to the other races.   

Why thank you. I thought I did ok, but does our empire have any ethical standards with regard to 'cheating'? My personal preference is for the biggest galaxies (occasional, occasional), v. slow tech, on crippling difficulty. However this requires scumming (ctrlN) a decent start, and using a custom race. Plus I reloaded when I lost most of my hard won gains to the knife empire event. I did get hit by the max speed 5 event too, which I stuck with.

What are other people's play styles like? I've played with the standard races, lower difficulty and no scumming as a challenge, but I find I come to a 'crisis' point quite quickly, after which I've lost, or will eventually win. On crippling scumming a good start gives me enough to survive with initially, but only just, and I stay edge-of-the-seat for a long time. I can take out my weaker neighbours, but can I do it quicker than the No1 empire?

The events certainly spice things up. I have a pretty conservative turtle style of play too. Develop infrastructure up to the extreme colonization level, throw out some freighters, get the economy as big as possible. DOWs don't concern me too much - as soon as I start seeing mil transports I rush research into mediums. By this point the AIs have specialized in weapon types - their defences may not be obvious, but I know it'll be usually be against the commonest weap type. I'll research the appropiate counter attack/defences, and get a minimum single medium on evey colony. The AI sticks with fighters for far too long, and a good medium design can take on a whole fleet of these. Then I go all the way into the planet invasion techs, and try and grab tir-quan training.

After this stage I'm ready to go a-conquering. I pick a target, do a bit of extra research (a couple of levels of logistics at least) and send off the transports with fleets of three mediums. On crippling I'll need to do some diplomacy, hand out lunchmoney and so on to 'develop' a target - I can take on a big neighbour if he's busy on a couple of other fronts. I also need to keep the No1/2 empires busy, preferably with each other. (NB I turn off tech trading, so I have to use treaties to buy this).

I use plenty of SBs too. First round is mil SBs with basic def, and -2 enemy ship speed. In the early days that guarantees no nasty suprises. If I'm fighting an advanced AI I'll need some combat support pluses too - I've had some really critical battles just over getting a mil SB built and upgraded in a strategic spot. Econ SBs are a nice to have - until the economy is really huge I can't always finance the results.

One of the nice things about this game is you have to flip between conquering and turning turtle again. I usually have to scrabble several times to deal with becoming target of the month for the AIs, or to handle events. I can go back on the offensive when I hit certain tech points - for instance, being evil, when I get the bonus weapons. Or just when the AIs all jump on one of their own.

Whew, went on a bit there. Just started a new gigantic game, and guess I'm in planning mode.

OK, guys, I know I'm not in the empire but I have a little challenge for the more life-experienced gamers out there, and y'all are the biggest concentration around.

AN AWARD! 3 silver chin wiskers artfully braided during the boring parts of the last opera that SWMBO imposed upon me.

To the first old f...hand who properly identifies my new icon. I was going for obscure but meaningful to those of us who have really spent a (long) lifetime fond of SF.

drrider

Many of your members probably only saw it in black and white, originally.

I'll even give a text hint: 0 N, 0 E.

drrider

I think the hint might have something to do with Atlantis...

You know, to the MTV generation it does look like something and it ain't no spaceship.

Oh well, that was fun anyway tickling those close to dormant brain synapses.

Thanks for the trip in the "Wayback Machine" drrider.