Impossible Darlok as Enemy

Discussion on how to play against other humans.
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Matthew
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Joined:Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:06 am
Impossible Darlok as Enemy

Postby Matthew » Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:44 am

I've been practicing against the AI on impossible lately.

My latest game I picked Tolerant, -10 Spy, -10 Ground, Unification, Repulsive. The Universe was Large and Abundant.

I expanded quickly and also researched techs at a good rate. I built 10 Frigates with Nukes and took out some monsters allowing me access to some UR planets. Eventually, my expansion brought me into contact with the Darloks. They immediately started stealing technology and took out 2 of my colonies. Since I couldn't see their ships, figuring out where they were going next was difficult. I tried to build up some Spy defense and build a bigger fleet but they still managed to steal just about every new tech I researched and their sneak attacks kept coming. I tried to strike back but their fleet was superior so now I'm on the losing end.

Would a +20 Spies and Stealth choice work in for online play or would it be at a disadvantage for lack of grow/production?

How does spying work exactly?

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Cabman
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Location:Zabrze, Poland

Postby Cabman » Wed Mar 15, 2006 3:39 pm

That's a great mistery. Sometimes you can steal tech with just one or two spies where there are more than 20 defensive ones ( with similiar spy bonus) , and sometimes you can have 20 against just 2 demo spies and steal nothing.

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Matthew
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Postby Matthew » Wed Mar 15, 2006 4:15 pm

That's a great mistery. Sometimes you can steal tech with just one or two spies where there are more than 20 defensive ones ( with similiar spy bonus) , and sometimes you can have 20 against just 2 demo spies and steal nothing.
The manual isn't very clear on it. It says that there invisible wars between your agents and enemy counter agents. Given that I picked -10 Spying and the Darloks have +20 Spying, it would seem to give them an advantage for espionage. I researched the Spying techs and built lots of Spies but it didn't seem to matter. All my guys were on defense too. I guess it could be that it's bugged.

HAL
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Postby HAL » Sun Mar 19, 2006 3:59 pm

I noticed when I play impossible that the darloks almost *always* dominate everybody, frequently me as well, even when I don't come into contact with them. Tolerant, stealth ships, spying bonus, and whatever else they get from the "impossible" bonuses makes them quite tough.
Obey the fist!

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zoetropo
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Location:Melbourne, Australia

Postby zoetropo » Sun Mar 19, 2006 6:57 pm

When I was more practised than I am now, I beefed up all the AI races using Melting Pot. In one Impossible game, the Darloks came at me with 36 well-chosen positive picks. Suffice to say, I was not used to losing to the AI no matter how strong their picks are, but those guys overmatched me.

Against the regular base Darloks plus Impossible picks, a fun strategy is to out-spy them. Choose +20 Spy with Telepathic, then go on an espionage and sabotage rampage. That one can do this consistently proves that a little spy advantage (in this case, +10 from Tele) goes a long way. It's like marines: every step of 10 is on a log scale, so the actual effect is an exponential of what you might first think.

Against the AI, but certainly not against humans, a good "survival against the odds" race has Charismatic, Telepathic and Spy +20. It can spy with virtual impunity, as you only have to give each race a one turn rest for them to completely forgive you, as Telepathic has a diplomatic bonus that adds onto Charismatic's. You may not be able to negotiate with Repulsives, but behind the scenes you can woo them!


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