Here is my first Year Zero Victory:
Level: Suicide
Galaxy Size: Tiny
Me: Altarians
AI: Thalans
Completed: May 15
Score: 25200
I colonized one planet and had to capture two planets.
This being my first Year Zero Victory, I did several things that we sub-optimal, where the primary goal is to finish in as few turns as possible and the secondary goal is to get as high a score as possible.
The first time I starting my research with "Interstellar Warfare -> Space Militarization -> Space Weapons -> Beam Weapon Theory -> Laser -> Planetary Invasion" allowing me to build my fighters and transports. However, this time I preceded the above with Impulse Drive. The +1 speed bonus allowed my fighters and transports to arrive sooner, resulting in a
April 22 completion to the game!
I also raised my taxes to 49% and later to 59% after lease purchasing a moral center, rather than keeping them low for 100% moral and double population growth as I would in a longer game.
Rather than place 3TM and 3 support on each transport, I only did that for the one going to the AI's homeworld. For the low population 2nd colony I just needed a transport with 1TM. This made it cheaper to lease purchase and left more tax payers on my howeworld.
Finally I sent my flagship in another direction and was able to pickup more money from anomalies thus allowing me to keep researching to all but the last couple of turns.
New Score: 31500!
