Super Diplomat AAR -- Fiddling While the Galaxy Burns

I'm a long-time lurker but this is my first time posting an AAR (or anything else for that matter), so bear with me if it sucks (which it most certainly will because I have the writing skills of a paste-eating fourth grader). Also, I'm sort of unfamiliar with how posting HTML into these forums works, so if this comes out looking like a wonky mix between a technical manual on how to be an idiot and a small child's attempts to reproduce the works of Dali with fingerpaints then I apologize in advance.

I decided to write an AAR on the Super Diplomat ability, which is (in my opinion of course) severely underrated. I know a lot of people play with tech trading off to deny the AI the privilege of trading every single tech they own for every single tech every other civ owns and digging you into a Sarlacc-sized tech hole, but I've found that it's incredibly effective if the player gets out there and tries to beat the AI at its own game. In my opinion the best way to do that is with Super Diplomat, which you're almost required to have in order to get the AI to trade ANYTHING with you on the higher difficulty settings. On the lower settings it's tantamount to stealing candy from crippled children.

Some of the benefits of Super Diplomat:

1. You don't get stuck falling behind the "Zerg hive mind" in technology.
   
2. You can concentrate on one aspect of the tech tree for a while and fill in what you missed out on through trade.
   
3. Super Diplomat gives you some of the same benefits as Super Trader, Super Isolationist and Super Adapter, since you can easily just trade for the techs those civs start out with.
   
4. You can switch your weapon focus relatively easily in the late-game if need be by trading for a high level weapon tech on a tree you've been ignoring. Yes it's hard to get the AI to cough up weapons tech, but you should have such a huge technology advantage by that point that you'll be able to work something out.
   
5. Tech trading improves your relations with other civs, so you'll spend less time with Korath naval officers sticking railguns into your orifices.
   
6. Sometimes you can trade tech for planets, which is awesome just on principle alone.
   

Ok, down to the serious crap now, and I don't mean shoveling out the elephant stalls at the zoo. Here's the galaxy info:

- Gigantic Galaxy
- Nine Random Opponents
- Painful Difficulty
- Common Habitable Planets
- Loose Star Clusters
- Occasional Anomalies
- Normal Tech Rate
- All Victory Conditions On
- Tech Trading On (obviously)

And here's my awesome civ - note that I put a kickass Photoshop of myself standing on a CGI representation of the USS Enterprise as my personal avatar. The bad news is that I unwittingly overwrote the Paulus civ's portrait with this picture, so every time I run into the Paulus I encounter a huge portrait of myself looking like a dumbass.



I think my choices should be pretty self-explanatory. I went with Super Diplomat and chose the Populist party to get the +10 Diplomacy bonus, and tried to round out my skills fairly well. The +30 Economics coupled with the +30 Morale (including the Populist bonus) allows me to make quite a bit of money and constantly run my tax rate up into the 60-70% range without having to worry about elections. I decided to go with the +20 Weapons to help inflate my military score to the point where I'm not always getting kicked around and thugged for cash by punks. I've also found that having a high military score makes you much more effective diplomatically, since people seem to be less likely to turn down your trade offers if they think you can beat them up and stuff their unconscious bodies into a garbage can. The tech bonus helps me acquire trade bait and keeps me ahead of the curve, which is absolutely critical to this build.

You're probably calling me a total moron right now because I didn't choose Diplomacy as a skill and OMG WTF ROTFL how can you be a Super Diplomat and not take Diplomacy. However I've found that it's usually just overkill, especially if the first part of the game is spent racing up the Diplomacy tech tree. By the time the other civs catch up to your diplomacy score you'll have your research machine already in place and they won't be able to touch you. Those points are much better used elsewhere.

Now to the starting galaxy w00t w00t:



At first glance it looks like I've got the Terrans, Drath, Arceans, Altarians, Drengin, Korx, Yor, Thalan, and what is either the Iconians or the Krynn (I can never tell which is which). Either way it's a decent mix of Good, Evil and Neutral, not that this really affects my decisions in terms of alignment. With this build I always go Neutral for the extra Trade routes and the Neutrality Learning Centers. More trade routes means more money and (more importantly) better relations with AI civs, while the NLCs obviously help me build up my research and tech advantage. I also like not having to waste my time and Social Production on Terraforming upgrades.

In terms of expansion, I'm going to try and go towards Yor space first, and then up towards the Drengin before sweeping around towards the Krynn/Iconians. The goal is to prevent the Yor from building a sizeable empire and thugging me too early and to box in the Thalan before they can really get anything going. The bad news is that there isn't a whole lot I can do to contain the Drengin, so I can probably look forward to having Lord Kona threaten me for my lunch money and crow about how 1337 he is all the time.

You may have noticed in terms of starting research that I took all the propulsion techs up through Ion Drive. "My" strategy (which I found on these forums thank you very much whoever gave me this brilliant idea) is basically to rush buy two labs on my homeworld, put 100% into Research and bang out Impulse Drive in about 8-10 weeks (depending on bonus tiles) so I can make Colony Ships that move like Ferraris. So I start out for that and notice something awesome:



w00t! I've had this game for about two months now, and I think I've only ever seen two or three of those +700% precursor manufacturing tiles of coolness +2, and certainly never before on my homeworld. This is going to help me out quite nicely.

So the first two weeks I build labs, then start rush buying a factory every single turn until my Impulse Drives are online. At this point I design a high-speed transport (5pc a turn I believe), switch my sliders over to something like 60/0/40 (I alter them every time a ship is completed) so I can crank them out every three turns, and start the colony rush.

For research after Impulse, I usually go for Planetary Improvements and Galactic Warfare for the MP bonus, and then start going up the Xeno Communications/Diplomatic Relations tree. As soon as I encounter new races I immediately open a trade dialogue and try to grab everything I possibly can by offering tech, money, influence, sacrificial virgins, and whatever else I can throw at them:



Now for some of my early-game trade strategies. First off, and probably most obviously, never trade anything that will boost their Diplomacy, since this will allow them to resist you when you make them "offers they can't refuse". I'll give out Universal Translators (because the AI puts a lot of value on them) but other than that I try to steer clear of sending them any of the advanced diplomacy techs. I also do not trade for Extreme Colonization. EC is an expensive tech, and the AI usually wants a LOT in exchange for it, but for all intents and purposes it's pointless for us to have it. We're just going to bypass it completely and trade for the hostile world colonization techs directly. These are an absolute PRIORITY, since not only will they help you along immensely in the colony rush, but the AI puts a TON of value on those techs and will give you pretty much anything you want for it.

Speaking of which, I run into the Yor and the Iconians almost immediately and am able to trade the techs I've acquired from the Thalan for Barren World Colonization, Aquatic World Colonization and the Toxic Atmosphere Reductor, giving me a huge colonization advantage right out of the gate. I continue to blitz through the galaxy, snagging PQ11 and PQ12 Aquatic Worlds out from under the Yor's aluminum-alloy noses and expand my empire without missing a beat.

A good rule of thumb when it comes to Super Diplomats performing actual research is that quantity is much better than quality, since the more tech you have to trade the more likely you are to have something the AI will trade you for. So after I've got a few techs up the diplomacy tree I usually just start grabbing anything I can get in 1-3 turns to improve my arsenal of trade bait and then go for one or two propulsion techs, since the AI puts a huge value on these as well. You'll find your stockpile of seemingly-worthless crap techs will come in handy when you meet civs that are far less diplomatically-inclined than you are:



You'll notice I didn't go for Soil Enhancement yet, since at this point it would be a waste of Social Production points. I want my planets building war factories, bioresearch labs and towering business districts, not wasting their time planting tomato gardens and celebrating Earth Day. Once I get Xeno Ethics and declare Neutrality I'll come back for it and get all those tiles unlocked for free.

After the early-game crash, you can help sustain your economy by tech-whoring out crap like Armor Theory and Life Support in exchange for bcs. My advice if you're going to go this route is to sell techs to the AI one at a time. It takes a little longer but you get a lot more money that way than if you just lump like ten techs together and try to send them all at once. The AI wants a bulk discount if you go that route and you're a galactic dictator - not a Costco.

Enough theory though. Back to the meat-and-potatoes AAR. Here's how the galaxy looks after the initial colony rush:



I'm the dark red, which is kind of hard to see on a black background but at least I don't get myself confused with other civs on the graphs. I was able to get a pretty decent foothold in the galaxy, got my Econ, Manufacturing, and Tech Capitals online, have all the colonization techs (regular and advanced), and am building up my planets at a nice clip. You'll notice the huge population spike, because I've been running at 100% approval and making up for the -107bc/week deficit through anomalies and tech-whoring myself on the streets of Tycho IV. I'm a little concerned however, since at this point I have found ZERO resources. Every time I run into one it's already been claimed by some jerk alien. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with something, but I guess we'll see. I also need to get my economy on-track, though I've got quite a few planets building Markets so once they get up and running and my population gets up to speed I'll raise taxes and get back into the green. I'm also working on building Harmony Crystals, Diplomatic Translators, and the Eyes of the Universe because man I like wonders and trade goods.

Once the colony rush is finished, I basically try to make a habit of speaking to every civilization on a quarterly basis and grabbing every single tech that I don't already have. There usually aren't many, but every little piece helps. My main priorities at this point in the game are to establish trade routes with the other civs, build Economy Starbases to boost production on my capitals and increase trade revenue, build Defenders to garrison every one of my planets and basically inflate my military score with cheap crappy space garbage. I set my homeworld to produce custom high-speed Freighters, my manufacturing capital to build garbage 1/0/0 attack Defenders and everything else with a Starport to build Constructors.

After a few months of this I'm able to get my economy back on track and put together at least one trade route with every single civ, something that's important if you want to go for the Diplomatic Victory. I stay out of forming Alliances (if I'm going to war I want to do it on my own terms, not someone else's), and I use my techs, monetary surplus and diplomatic advantage to get economic and research treaties with any civ that will talk to me and hasn't already whored themselves out like a common street tramp:



At this point I'm first in the galaxy in Industry and Economy, but have fallen behind the Altarians and Thalan in Research. This isn't a big deal since I can just trade for techs I don't have, but the longer the game progresses the less you want to depend on tech trading, because you're going to have to start coughing up better and better technologies to get what you want. It's time to start building NLCs.

Once the NLCs are done, I've got a new problem: the Drengin are getting out of control in a hurry. They've been at war with the Korx and have taken enough planets that they've passed me in Population, and their military is of course following what I like to call "The Drengin Curve", which you should all be very familiar with by this point in your galactic conquest careers. It looks a little something like this:



I'm not super worried about it since right now my relations with the Drengin are "Friendly", but I don't like falling that far behind anyone in any category, especially someone as aggressive as the Drengin.

However, just as I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to deal with this growing problem, the universe cuts me a huge break:



The galaxy burns with the fire of a million laser beams and the dismembered appendages of all kinds of weirdo alien species. I don't really even know how it all got started, but all of a sudden I find myself as being the only civilization in the galaxy who isn't at war with someone. The Drath did what they do best and instigated drama all over the place like a bitchy cheerleader who got snubbed for Homecoming Queen, the Arceans fell behind militarily and got swarmed by opportunists, the Altarians used their sway to get the good civs to gang up on the Korx, and the Drengin and Yor are, well, they're the Drengin and the Yor.

One thing I love about the Eyes of the Universe is that it helps me keep up on what's going on militarily, and this was a prime opportunity to see what types of weapons the other civs were running. It seems to be a 60/40 split between beam and mass drivers, with the evil and neutral civs focusing on beam and the good civs and the Thalan going with mass drivers. I decide to start gearing my defenses towards beam (just in case) and use my widening tech advantage to race up to Ultimate Invulnerability within a few months.

I watch the wars like a retired general watches the History Channel and take note as to how they're playing out: The Arceans are in a hopeless situation with the Yor, Thalan, and Altarians all pounding on them relentlessly. The Altarians are also doing a number on the Terrans, and the Drengin and Korx are getting the better of the Drath. The Yor-Thalan War plays out pretty much in the middle of my influence sphere, but it seems to be about as potent as a slapfight between grade school girls. They've both got bigger fish to fry and weaker civs to beat up on, and no planets change hands there.

Thanks to my popularity and diplomacy, during the Great Galactic War the powerful races dial me up to let me know I can get in on the beatings if I want and the weak races more or less grovel for assistance from me. When people beg me for mercy I usually shoot them everything from 100bc to some random advanced colonization tech because I think helping them out when they're in need increases my chances of having them surrender their civ to me when their hopes of survival are finally crushed. However, my pacifist humanitarian tree-hugger hippie efforts during the bloody interstellar conflict also produce another advantage:



With all the races at "Close", I can easily flip open the UT, ask for Alliances, nail the Diplomacy Victory and call it a day. But I'm sort of curious to see how this war plays out, so I don't act. I'm like Switzerland or Emperor Nero or that dude from Marvel Comics who sits back and drinks Miller High Life while everyone punches each other repeatedly about the head and neck. I'll just bide my time, build up my planets, work on my research, let all these idiots kill themselves, and if I so desire one day I'll swoop in to take advantage of everyone in their weakened state.

I do take this opportunity to churn out Constructors and snag all the resources that have come available during the war however.



In the wake of the fighting I'm able to grab, mine and fortify 2 economy resources, 3 military resources, 1 research and 1 morale, which is nice considering that I had nothing before the war broke out. I also go around with colony ships and grab all the crappy little PQ1 nothing planets that the other civs left alone during the colony rushes. Now that I have Neutral alignment and all the Terraforming techs, I can colonize a PQ1 and have it turn into a PQ8-15 immediately, which is nice. I actually even had one go from PQ1 to PQ19 just by landing a colony ship on it. I turn these worlds into fat econ planets and at this point in my galactic domination career I'm spending every night sleeping on top of piles of money with many beautiful ladies, while halfway across the galaxy the Drengin are driving monster trucks over the bodies of unconscious Drath warriors and the Yor are exterminating or enslaving all sentient life in the Galaxy.

After the war progresses for a few months, the first casualties start coming in:



The Arceans are done. No skin off my back, but I do wish they'd surrendered to me instead of the Yor. I feel a little gyped.

Anyways, here's the situation at the moment:



Since this screenshot was taken the Drath have succumbed to the onslaught of the Yor, Terrans and Drengin, and their territory has been carved up by the three of them. The Great Galactic War has died down for the most part, but the prolonged fighting combined with a long-running economic recession have crippled the economies and production capabilities of many civs.

As we speak, I'm the tech leader by roughly the same margin that the Drengin were ahead in military in that screenshot above and nobody is even close to touching my superiority there. I'm first in economy and industry as well, but war has been good to the Terrans, as they are rising alarmingly fast in both categories and have already overtaken me in population and influence. Military superiority is split between the Drengin, Terrans and Altarians, though I've seen their ships and they really aren't anything to be worried about. I'm only in fourth place militarily because I'd been churning out Constructors to grab the errant resources and almost completely neglected the Republic Navy.

I'm currently the tech leader by far and can easily become the military leader if I so choose. I've maxed out beam defenses and mass drivers and have several planets capable of pumping out 0/0/48 Attack small-hulled starfighters in 3-4 turns, while the toughest opposition I've seen in the galaxy is a 24/0/0 Attack 8/0/0 Defense Terran Battleship. My battleships meanwhile are somewhere in the 0/0/70 Attack 36/0/0 Defense range with two MkIII Hyperwarp drives and can be built on 2-3 different planets in around 8-15 weeks. Of course I've yet to produce a single one of these ships, but they're there if I need them, and I have the logistics ability to fleet them together if I feel like making some aliens urinate themselves uncontrollably.

This is a critical time in the game however, since I've now maxed out the weapon and defense tech trees and my advantage likely won't last for long. My options are many - Influence victory is nearly impossible on Gigantic maps, but I could build a massive fleet and crush every civ in the galaxy, I could start building Influence Starbases in Drengin space and try to provoke a war without coming off like the bad guy, I could ally with the good (or evil) civs and attempt a coalition victory, or I could just ask for alliances from everyone and declare that "we're all winners" - though I almost hate the idea of winning a game without ever firing a single shot, and a diplomatic victory would seem stupid considering that for two-thirds of this game every single nation was at war with each other.

My question is this: Do you guys have a preference? Is there anything you'd like to see? Should I slaughter everyone (I sort of doubt that I have the patience to conquer all 100+ worlds on this map though)? Go for the coalition victory? Do you want me to post a picture of the diplomacy victory, shut the crap up and never write another super-long boring AAR again? Let me know. Also, I'd love to hear pointers/critiques of this AAR if you've got them. Just be gentle, because my ego bruises easily. I'm also thinking of doing an Evil-Aligned Super Warrior AAR (sort of like the antithesis of this game) so let me know if you'd even interested before I pour another hour of my life into writing another one of these.

Either way, I'll post the conclusion in the next few days.