Mission: Impossible

[odomi]

Rinze: 32x32 30 Worlds
Code name: Jungle Gym

Factions: Syndicate
Difficulty: Impossible (maiden voyage)

Current Year: 9.43AE
Colonies: 9 Worlds (Pop 99)
Fleet: 4 Vessels
1 Templar Explorer (XP 24)
1 Templar Defender (XP 66)
2 Strike Fighter (3rd Gen)
1 Offense oriented (XP 28)
1 Defense oriented (XP 8)

Gross Revenue: 3919

Diplomatic Condition:
Extremely high tension. Revolving door of conflicts. Double conflicts is not unheard of, and once a triple conflict (two spy battles and one solar war).

Technological Advancement:
Fast research progress with Rychart bonus. Double spy battle intended to be kept unresolved. Built multiple spice den 1 per colony to match population growth. Unlocked Faction specific technologies.

Colony Quality:
Provided 2 habitable units above population need. Ample spice. Factory kept up with population growth.

Fleet Integrity:
Lost countless 1st and 2nd Generation Strike Fighters. Demolished one Repair Carrier and one strike fighter to prevent negative incone.

Current Xeno Condition: Suppressed
Total colonies: 4


Remarks:
Obvious up-tick on political tension.
Xenos build ships faster, Lv2 Xenos are evasive, also aggressive.

Survival Strategies:
Always have enough hab units. Keep up with factories, delayed aggressive mining. Do not attempt to resolve spy battles. Balance research path.

Battle Strategies:
Increased Xeno activity = Defensive formation in green zone.
Decreased Xeno activity = pursue and destroy.
Keep Xeno ship count under 5 to prevent xeno colony ship production.

[tenbsmith]

Nice write up. Do you feel that you're 'over the hump' with this game? That the game is now well in hand? Or, are things still touch and go?

[odomi]

tenbsmith

I know this map very well, nice place to practice on a higher level.

The politics was overwhealming at times, teaches us how to run a very lean economy.

I managed to hold off xeno growth and expansion with Templar Ships and some brave Heroic Strike Fighters. It would be a different story with multi-front enemies.

Crazy difficulty is just a longer version of Hard difficulty. Impossible is really good.

I learned lots of new things in building colonies and battle tactics. And ship configurations are very pronounced at this stage, where in lower difficulty can be easily overlooked or underappreciated.

To answer your last question: still a learning process, but after this game, I know what to look for when considering Points allocation for ship and captain, choice of weapons, armors and add-ons.

[odomi]

OK, so...

Been busy with Rinze 100x100 Impossible.
Great Houses
9.38AE

So far so good. The gap that separates the 4 corners help a lot, and so are the Green and yellow sectors around anomalies and asteroids. In my opinion, from early to mid game, Rinze 32x32 in Impossible is much harder than this. The fact that Xeno has enough stars to accommodate their aggressive expansion before finding you, makes this map a bit easier.

Politics have been manageable.
Research needed to be really deep in planetary side.

I did not invade intil I comlpleted Angelic Drop Ships.
3 Xeno planets purged, one has been colonized, one Dead and one awaiting colony ship.

I find my ship techs are 1 level behind. and Xenos replaced their low level ships with the highest possible level (I did not know they can do that).

Their attacking style is same. They send 1 or 2 escorts with WK at choke point. Easily dealt with Templar Defenders, 3 strike and 1 assault fighters.

This is going to be a super long game. 89 of 90 worlds has been occupied. Great Houses 22 : Xeno 65


Key elements on surviving Impossible from my experience:
In order of importance
1. Colony profitability.
2. First expansion timing
3. Tech tree route
4. Fleet quality and timing

[anrdaemon]

Smaller maps always harder on higher difficulties. True for most, if not any, games.
Unless you get a lucky roll out from the start (MoO2/initial fleet with Gyro Destabilizers? Joyride/bulldoze enemy colonies before they know what happened…), the pressure rise quickly and unless you prepare your defenses early on, you could easily be roflstomped in a first or second wave.

[tenbsmith]

By defenses, do you mean planetary defenses (FDF Garrison etc...) or can you get by with ships alone. Playing on Hard, I use only ships, but maybe on at higher levels of difficulty planetary defenses are more important.

[anrdaemon]

By defenses I mean your overall consistent ability to repel incursions into your territory.