07-02-2001 08:51									#31
	Got spare money?

I was playing a MOO2 game the other day, on Impossible level, and checked out my opponent's race statistics. The Psilons were pretty similar to what they usually were except that this time they were Tolerant. That's 10 friggin race points that they gave to the Psilons. It may have been more, but I'm pretty sure that the rest of the Psilon statistics were what they usually were. What a friggin joke; it's no good taking over the computer's planets when half of them are toxic. Pleh.

I've found that Super Cheat Mode can be defeated in a Huge galaxy so long as I play a tech mongering race (which I almost always do). It takes forever to come into contact with the enemy, and when I finally do I've already got five spies built, have researched a few spy techs (like stealth suits and telepathic training), not to mention I've got better shields and weapons than the other guy. It also helps that his ships are by default outdated, since it takes so long for them to get across the galaxy that he's probably made a tech advance or two during the trip. The key with this strategy is to NEVER have a Democratic race; it seems that on Super Cheat Mode the computer's spying actions are ten times as effective as on Normal mode, so I always play as a Creative Dictatorship with a +20 bonus to spying and -10 to ground combat; or, a Repulsive Creative Dictatorship with a +20 bonus to spying, -10 to ground combat, and telepathic ability. When your tech level gets high enough your defensive spying bonus is at 80% using the first option, 90% using the second; even an AI on Super Cheat Mode has trouble stealing my techs then. Only problem with this strategy: it takes forever, and if you're unlucky and meet a hostile enemy race too early you're dead.

I've noticed on Warlords III that while the AI doesn't cheat in a regular game, it cheats like crazy in the campaign (I don't have the expansion, so the only campaign I've ever played is against Lord Bane and Lord Sartek). I'm not talking about how the AI gets additional units, that's to be expected in a scenario; I'm talking about how the AI gets units that are more powerful and can be produced much more quickly relative to the unit strength. I played up until the Dwarven Mines level and just gave up. However, I've never seen a Warlord cheat (except that they have an annoying tendency to burn down my cities...)