July GoTM AAR, Sindai- (Unfortunately, this being my first GoTM, I took no screenshots or notes, so I'll just recount how the game went in phases.) "That's Funny, We Didn't Get Seven Yellow Stars..." I knew I was in trouble as soon as I was finished exploring to the limits of colony ship range. Only two other yellow stars in range, and both have a single planet with generic 15 or 16 quality ratings. Of course, I always usually play on abundant, so I must just be spoiled. I'm sure the AIs will be just as badly off. (Upon reading this I picture the Torians and Arceans chuckling evilly to themselves.) So I colonize both, recall all of my roving colony ships to boost populations, and even out my sliders for the midgame economy boom. With my first constructors I grap the morale and influence resources nearby, ignoring the military one. I'm supposed to be a trader, so I don't think I'll need it. Soon enough the Torians grab it. I pick the good path on random events because I'm going to play a benevolent trader for a change. Some scouts go out and the Hero is set to auto-survey. I rapidly realize I'm in for a very tough game as I see the Torians and Arceans have seven or eight planets each, the Drengin four, the Yor three, and the Altarians only one. This means that in terms of raw resources I'm tied for fourth! "Don't Worry, We Only Need To Hold Them Off Until Our Leaders Start Begging!" I get Trade and decide I'm going to attach myself to the Torians, since they're both slightly more powerful than the Arceans and sitting between my space and theirs I quickly crank out four freighters and send them from Earth to the two largest Torian planets. Both the Arceans and Torians almost immediately begin to extort cash out of me. I don't mind, as I sell some tech to the minors, Yor, Altarians, and Drengin and can keep up with their demands even with 100% spending...Then the Arceans decide to declare war on my anyway. I muster my small force of star fighters to ward off their much larger force of star fighters. I beat back the first wave, and by the time the second one shows up I can negotiate peace for only some cash - but not before my precious morale starbase is destroyed. I quickly rebuild, but while I do so the Arceans and Torians pull even further ahead of everyone else. "More Trade Starbases! More! More!" Since I can barely even muster the research to lease techs any more, I resort to something I never tried before: building trade improvement module on my starbases. I quickly build five such starbases in Sol's sector (where all of my trade originates) the effect is immediate and dramatic: the Torians promptly quit extorting me once I account for 49% (no exaggeration) of their income. In reciprocation, the Torians set up three trade routes with me, the Altarians two, and the Alexians two or three. Suddenly I don't even need to lease techs to manage 100% spending with a tidy profit. I no longer have money troubles the rest of the game. ...But I still need to figure out how to win, and how to deal with the Arceans when they demand I hand over Sol! "Diplomacy Blues" At about this point in time, several other interesting things were going on: - The Yor surrender to the Drengin after a losing war with the Torians. - The Torians (quite the warmongers) attack and absorb both the Alexians and Carinoids. - The Altarians and I (they love me because I'm Saintly) form an Alliance. I dedicate most of my energy during this period to getting the Torians to "Close" so that I can ally with them as well. No dice. No matter how often I give them battleships, trillions of credits, technologies, and trade goods, they won't make that magical leap from Friendly to Close. Then I see that the Altarians have managed to ally with the Torians where I couldn't and I get really ticked. Meanwhile, the Arceans demand a few hundred billion credits every year, which I have no trouble supplying them with. I lose an election as my popularity dips below 50%, which prompts me to realize that between all of my trade routes and starbases I've got so much income I can simply drop my tax rate to 0%. I win the next election in a landslide. Then the Torians declare war on the Arceans. I begin to rub my hands together in evil - wait, no, saintly - glee. Since I've been using my compact (but extremely efficient) industry to supply them with battleships and trillions of credits a year, the Torians proceed to rip the heart out of the Arcean's empire in short order, dropping them down to my level on the power charts before the Arceans beg hard enough for peace. As an encore, the Torians declare war on the Drengin, just as a new crop of minors (including the Independent League) start to pop up. I make large amounts of cash leasing all of my trade goods, bankrupting them all almost immediately. Unfortunately, trying to ally with the Torians is looking hopeless at this point, and I know that unless I do I don't have a prayer of winning the game. I try the very last idea I have: breaking my alliance with the Altarians and hoping the Torians will accept me then! "You Skin-Eating Surrender Monkeys!" So I break my Altarian alliance, giving the Torians even more battleships to crush the poor Drengin with while I'm at it. The Drengin lose a couple of planets and promptly surrender...to the Altarians! That's got to be a first, a Demonic civlization surrendering to a Saintly one. The Alarians are now more powerful as I am, with the Arceans behind the two of us, and the Torians so far out in front we could barely see them with the Hubble. At about this point, I check the foreign relations screen and see...and see...my god, can it be? My relations with the Torians are at Close! Yes! YES! For the piddling cost of seven trillion credits, I'm able to secure an alliance with the Torians. They're not too enthusiastic about it for some reason, but I don't let that dampen my high spirits. "The Last War...DunDunDUN!" I continue to up my industry and trade, while the Torians keep on doing the war thing, absorbing all of the new minors in short order - except for the Independent League who have become the Torians' close frind somehow. Weird. When the Torians get around the attacking the Arceans again, I learn something interesting: the Arceans and Altarians are allies. Well, fancy that. Guess I should check my relations screen more often. So now I'm forced into a war against the Arceans and Altarians. Unfortunately, by this point everyone has dreadnaught technology except me. I buckle down with a large defensive force of battleships and cross my fingers. Turns out I have nothing to worry about. The Torians are getting so good at the "ass-kicking" thing they do that I never even see an enemy warship. The Arceans soon surrender to the Torians while I make peace with the Altarians. Things are quiet for a year or so while I try to ally with the Altarians to end the game. No dice. The Torians attack them again and drag me in again. This time, inside of year, the Altarians surrender to me. Since that just leaves the Terrans, the Torians,and the Independent League in the game, that's a diplomatic win! "Durrr...What Went Wrong?" Okay, that was pretty fun. At one point in the midgame it looked as if I was going to be attacked and conquered by either the Torians or Arceans at any second, but I pulled out a win anyway. Lessons learned: - Trade starbases are worth every penny you spend on them. I won the game only because I made the Torians (who were vastly more powerful than me in every other way) my economic slaves early on, and I ended up with an average tax rate of 0%! - Aggression can be good, even for a trader. Sure, the Altarians shared my alignment, but they would have been of more use to me conquered. Reading other AARs, I see many people took them out early and blitzkrieged the rest of the map, finishing a decade before I did. - For future reference, in games without Abundant habitable worlds, maybe those range bonuses would be worth while. I could have easily grabbed two or three more worlds if I'd had that, putting me in a position to challenge the Torians and Arceans on equal footing.