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Wow the difficulty of this mod is insane to say the least. I won my first play through on normal so opted to jump into hard. I have managed to beat hard difficulty 85% of the time now (without reloads). I have now taken it upon myself to play impossible ICE X 8 players Large-cluster average Galaxy(so all races have the chance to use their traits) and I always play pre warp. I suppose they call it impossible for a reason. I have played solid none stop now for days on this setting and I have literally read every guide on the planet for this game and I still get hammered..... Although through every defeat is a lesson learnt! So I went back to vanilla moo2 for a break from the insanity that is ICE X and to my surprise i absolutely thrash the AI on vanilla impossible, without realising it I have actually become pretty good by getting destroyed by ICE X AI
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So I took a look at my previous save games and looked at the dominant races in them. I have discovered that as good as tolerant is! It's pretty expensive. Most of the dominant races ALL had subterainean and some form of growth+. So I decided to play Uni Sub 50% growth prod+1 lhw. It was working pretty well but I noticed that once the Galaxy was sliced up and it become pretty set in stone. Growth + pretty much serves it purpose rather quick and closers are fairly quick to obtain. at 6 points I want it to benefit me all game. At the same time I found a threat about the art of housing linked to a YouTube video. I was astounded that you can achieve 100 population in 100 turns so I stopped playing and played a huge Galaxy 2 players and practiced housing. I was shocked that I could do it so quick and looking back having 100 pop by turn 100 as oposed to my nil void population constantly clicking away at the end turn button for my next tech I feel I have now turned a corner. I don't need to extra +50% pop now so my final build is.
Unification
Subterranean
+1 industry
Warlord
Large home world.
So now i have taken these lessons into real game and I am now holding my own. I can get 80-100 population and a battleship out by turn 100-110 consistently. my tech rout is .
Coloney base > standard fuel cells > electronic computer > auto factory > biospheres > cloners > soil enrichment > neural scanner > super computer > get all 250 tech opting for mass drivers. > tech to zort armour and so forth.
I now absolutely dominate population beating even the Sakkra I fall behind in terms of tech but I quickly catch up.
I am now struggling with my first battleship designs. I absolutely don't understand it . I have tried everything. I have gone shield route upgrading mass drivers they seam ineffective I go beam route and fully upgraded fusion beams is like throwing sticks at the AI. Full on missile boat approach doesn't seem to work I am at a loose end creating anything that can effectively take on a nabouring AI. I have played countless 1v1 small maps to try speed up my games to employ different tactics but nothing seems to be working . Can anyone please help me with early to mid game ship designs.
Also with research once you hit the end part of the counter are you best off taking off most of your scientists once you hit say 20% brake through And getting some production out of them ???
I also get my ass handed to me in the spy department even with 20 defensive spy's they just rape my tech off me.
I have also turned off Antarans because they are just horrible nasty guys who constantly just attack me and no one else
![Evil or Very Mad :evil:](./images/smilies/icon_evil.gif)
I feel if I can get some of you guys to help me out on my early ship designs I can make further brake through into this impossible campaign of mine.
Just scrolled up and raised Ho much I have typed
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Many thanks
JD