01-03-2003 22:54									#1
	Playing at impossible difficulty... Tired of ads?

Okay depsite playing this game for a huge number of years (I forget how many, but a HELL of a lot), i still cannot even gain the upper hand in an Impossible difficulty game. The opposition always seems to be in control faster than I am.

Does anyone have any tips as to how I can take control early in the game, or any strategy's that are bound to help me?

Please, I just wanna be able to beat impossible difficulty at least once before i move to MoO3...

thanx,
Li

	01-03-2003 23:34									#2
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I would say if you use the concepts put forth by Originalbork in the custom Race thread you should be in the hunt.
First for most players, you will have a hard time beating impossible with just any race, it can be done, but failure is common. So what you need is a super race. This could take the form of a number of traits, but the best ones are Unitol and UniLith with complimentary boost.
In order to get the job done in ultra quick fashion you need to do some extreme things, but to just win you can be a bit less drastic a la the few I have posted.
The thing is you have to use your worker in a specfic manner and use some specific research and build paths.
These are reported in some of those post.
I know I did not give credit to some other players, but you will see their names in the thread.

	02-03-2003 20:04									#3
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vmxa1 is right on. I too have played Moo2 off and on for years and am just now learning how to play it well enough to win on impossible. Thanks to these posts by people like vmxa1 , Originalbork and many others, I am finally getting it.

	03-03-2003 01:20									#4
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Well with thanks to all various sources studied, most noticably this site, I have succeeded in winning on Impossible three times today. I guess I just wasnt using custom races to their maximum pontential...

Unification/Telepathic/Repulsive with various modifiers seems to work well for me....

cheers guys.

	03-03-2003 02:00									#5
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Good to hear.

	03-03-2003 22:28									#6
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Another good combo is lithovore/telepathic/charismatic... sweettalk the big and nasty AIs into trade & research treaties while mindconning the weaker ones into submission (gaining neat techs and a nice population boost along the way), then crush the rest using your massively increased industrial base.

Sucks if you start right next to the Silicoids or Darlok, though. But you should have no problem winning otherwise.

	05-03-2003 00:09									#7
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I preferr to not use lithovore as its too easy. Yes there are some starts you could not win without it, especially at impossible. IMHO you lose strategy almost as much as using creative, I like the difficult choices and food can sometimes be cut back without affecting population much.

	09-03-2003 20:19									#8
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korndoll82,

Have you tried any other custom races on impossible and if so what seems to work and what do enjoy playing the most?

	10-03-2003 01:38									#9
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not many yet....skoolwork has taken my time away from M002 this week, but ive tried using simple Creative/Telepathic/Ominiscent combos mostly....of course that makes rushing the opposition much more tricker but i manage to get a huge focus set on research early on, keeping safe, assimilating several races, usually the sakkra for the population benefit. Then when I have decent technology to build larger powerful weapons I begin to take control of the galaxy rather quickly....

Sometimes i play Tel/Tol/Omni but with somethin stupid like Repulsive...but always make use of the -10 ground combat, seeing as Telepathic practically negates the need for it...

	11-03-2003 13:18									#10
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I win on impossible about half the time...it depends on how things go in the first third of the game.

I go with either super-science: creative-democracy-science bonuses or super production: creative-tolernat-rich-large hw. Yes, I almost always use creative-it's in the game, and if you want to win on impossible, imho, it's the best racial pic.

On research:

1. computer-research lab
2. heavy armor-auto factories
3. hydro farms/biospheres

(in that order, pausing to install each as gained)

4. the techs needed to build colony and other ships


The first part of the game is all research and installing improvements-I alternative 100% scientist with 100% workers (minus what I need for food). In moo2, specialization works best.

Second part of the game is sending out scouts, then grabbing every good world I can colonize before I meet oither races.

Third part is when I meet other races, I pull back, build spies for a short while, then 1 battleship apiece for each system I own, while slowly expanding. In this time, I bribe races to give me research and trade agreements, and, of course, non-agression pacts. (never alliances)

Fourth, I hold position with a good number of worlds 5-10 systems, and research and improve colonies up the wazoo.

Fifth, I build a fleet of battleships and transports, and gang rape each enemy race in turn.

-KhanMan

	11-03-2003 13:27									#11
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KhanMan an honest man it would seem. If you want to up your percentage of wins, dump the creative race and use a Uni. Unitol, UniLith. Mind you I find it fun to play more or less like you mentioned as well. No more heavy armor though, unless you steal it or beat it out of them.

	12-03-2003 12:01									#12
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V-My win percentage is good, and even the losses are fun in some ways.

Of course, my ultimate pick for evilness is TolLith. No food. No pollution. Just total power of specialization

	12-03-2003 12:21									#13
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There are several viable race and in fact you could win impossible with any race, but a couple as far above the rest for consistently out producing the others.
I will not always use the best one as I like to try different things from time to time. As you say, it is about having fun. Some time I miss the early games of Moo and Moo2 were I could get into big trouble and have to sweat it out on lower levels.

	08-05-2003 01:31									#14
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You must be charismatic in this way you can estabilish a non-aggresion pact with the AI.

	08-05-2003 01:51									#15
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quote: Originally posted by ABX You must be charismatic in this way you can estabilish a non-aggresion pact with the AI.

I hardly ever use that trait as I do not want to trade or bargain with the AI. It is too easy to abuse them. I tend to go with Repulsive so they will not even talk to me, except to go to war.

	10-05-2003 07:09									#16
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Wow, what a game I just had. Unification, Creative, LHW, RHW, charismatic, prewarp (spy, ground, low-g) in a huge organic galaxy, impossible. Starting next to the Sakkras (repulsive, subterranean, tolerant, I hate when that happens).
After 300 turns I haven't met anyone else and build one colony in my own system. I destroyed about 120 Sakkra battleships and numerous frigates, cruisers, etc, during that time losing about 6 of mine, when I finally lost to the onslaught of 6-15 battleships every 4-5 turns (their numbers grew larger and larger and I could always barely kill them).
Then they developed transporters, which wouldn't be that much of a problem if all their ships wouldn't use neutron blasters. Needless to say, my fleet which had grown to 8 battleships by then was destroyed or captured and I lost.
The Sakkras first attacked me while I was developing Supercomputers btw.
A situation like that is usually the only way for me to lose on impossible when I'm not using feudal.
Oh well, it's been a while that that has happened.
It was fun losing again.

	10-05-2003 08:52									#17
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It can be fun to have those white knuckle battles.

	10-05-2003 18:53									#18
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It is fun to be challenged, and that is why we often use suboptimal race combinations, just for fun and to see if we can win anyway.

	16-05-2003 12:41									#19
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I win about 50% of the time on Impossible, but that includes a lot of experimenting with custom races. I started playing on Impossible years ago, but it wasn't until fairly recently that I got the final patch which increased the cost of Creative and made my pat race (Creative, Demo, Subterranean) illegal. It's been fun trying out new stuff.

I just won a game using Lithovore Tolerant, something I haven't done in years. That was a blast, being in the lead for the entire game. Everyone was so afraid of me that they wouldn't declare war, even though I was repulsive.

I won another game on Impossible a few months back with Feudal government. IIRC I had Telepathy, Unification and Warlord to go with it. I actually built a whole sh!tload of ships with scout labs, and they added a significant boost to my science in the early going. It was a really fun game.

	16-05-2003 22:26									#20
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Cool. I used a Warlord/Fuedl/Tele race to play a fast game (72 turns I think).

	19-05-2003 02:46									#21
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quote: Originally posted by vmxa1 Cool. I used a Warlord/Fuedl/Tele race to play a fast game (72 turns I think).

Have you tried MOO3 or GalCiv? I'd like to try out a new game, but it has to be good, and I don't trust the info I find on the MOO3 section as much as that from fellow MOO2 fans.

	19-05-2003 05:01									#22
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I have both of those games. I found them to be ok, but just not able to keep me wanting to play them.
I am hoping that Moo3 will get some boost to make it more fun. I played three or four games of each and set them aside.

	19-05-2003 06:50									#23
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quote: Originally posted by vmxa1 I have both of those games. I found them to be ok, but just not able to keep me wanting to play them. I am hoping that Moo3 will get some boost to make it more fun. I played three or four games of each and set them aside.

They sound like bargain bin fodder then. Thanks.

	19-05-2003 08:14									#24
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Well a lot of people seem to find GalCiv to be great, so you may not agree with me on that one.

	21-05-2003 21:48									#25
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I found GalCiv to be way better than Moo3, but not as good as Moo2.

The way exploration, combat, and the economy is handled I found isn't so good for replayability.

To be on topic, if I want a quick easy win on impossible I always play as creative with advanced tech on a smaller map.

	22-05-2003 22:07									#26
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I have found smaller maps at impossible to be more difficult, at least with 8 players.

	22-05-2003 22:17									#27
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I think the key is that it is advanced tech start. This give you battlestations and missile bases.

	23-05-2003 03:19									#28
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That's right. On impossible the weakest point is the early game expanding enough to match the computer players. This is why Unification races are suggested here.

With advanced start everybody starts out with a few colonies and they are usually pretty good, plus as creative you have enough defensive tech to withstand an early attack.

	23-05-2003 23:06									#29
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Thanks guys, I haven't played advanced start in a long time. Something new to try to make small impossible winable for me.

	30-05-2003 23:22									#30
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Playing advanced tech starts make playing impossible almost too easy. It was fun a time or two, but I think its time to go back to average and struggle more on small maps.