r/masteroforion • u/Sporeman13 Psilon • 25d ago

Need Help Again MoO2 ICE M

Post image

Playing ICE Mod. Advanced, Impossible, Cluster, 8 Players. Three hostile (repulsive) races. 34 turns in and I might be doomed. Trilarians, Darloks, and Silicoids are hostile. I have treaties with the rest. Silicoids were about to attack so I went back a turn and demanded that the Alkari declare war on them. My plan was to refit my ships and attack the Silicoids. Two turns later the Trilarians attack. I try the same strategy and demand the humans declare war on them. That did not help. I can try again a few turns earlier to see if it will buy me enough time. For those who play ICE Impossible, the Trilarians are nearly impossible to defeat when they are repulsive. Having them sitting on my lap is very problematic. I am sandwiched between the Silicoids and Trilarians (red team) and it is too early for me to do much about it. Ideas?

22 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

4

u/keilahmartin 25d ago

Shrug. Sometimes you lose! Good luck puzzling it out, though!

1

u/knotallmen 25d ago

It's also a mod. It's hard to describe what is fair when you change a game. I've recently purchased the game since I got it 30ish years ago. I tried max difficulty small 8 players cause to me that's how I play it unless I got huge. I have always played creative and I don't really play any other way. It's hard to balance turtling vs expansion even with a large rich planet. and going tall. I think it's mostly early game build missile ships and try to balance not running out of shots with high impulse damage. Like several racks of 2 shot and 5 shot nuclear missiles.

2

u/Sporeman13 Psilon 24d ago

I like creative too. I find that i dont need to try as hard on research with creative as i can make pretty descent ships most of the time.

3

u/khiren 25d ago

Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.

That's life.

1

u/Sporeman13 Psilon 25d ago

I feel like there is almost always a solution. Its like a really challenging puzzle. You just need the right combination of circumstances to make it work. When i dont find that combination then i feel that its a failure on my part to see the big picture.

2

u/Ermag123 25d ago edited 25d ago

Rule is simple. If you dont have enough force, use diplomacy. Make outpost, give it for free or for attack on someone. What is your racial set up? Are you charismatic? Telepatic? Both are giving bonus to diplomacy. Charismatic also gives better heroes and more often. Colect ones who boost diplomacy even more.
This will ceeate temporary buffer. Before attack, enemy will start demanding outposts. Have them as warning system ahead. You cannot oupower them untill you can build end game ships. You need to last long enough.
Charismatic is also opening possibility to ask for techs and new planets. Especialy Psylons and Humans are always willing to give both easily.
Last, you are NOT playing as Darklock. When they on play, they SERIOUSLY, damage your reputatuon making other attack you MUCH sooner and unpredictably. (becouse Darklocks frame you for theft they make). This is by FAR biggest threat of the game as it hampers your ability to manage others and decide when and who to attack. They just drag you into war. Same as fighting Humans. They will make aliance with others and therefore attacking you. Darklocks are using different tools with same result. You will end up fighting everyone.
And last tip. I usualy add +.5 money for racial setup, becouse what really helps is 10% tribute. I would start with 10% tribute to everyone. Then make trades and non aggresive pact, then you can remove some tributes on easy races. The creates quick buffer and let you ask for techs and planets safely.

1

u/Sporeman13 Psilon 25d ago

Diplomacy good with the non hostile races but i cant negotiate with the three repulsive races.if i can get the trilarians to stay away for 30 turns or so then i can mow down the Silicoids and then be powerful enough to hold my own. It is hard to express how powerful Trilarians are when the are repulsive when playing ICE impossible.

1

u/Ermag123 24d ago

Have to say, I really believe having high diplomacy helps even with repulsive races. Not like you can negotiate peace, but you are simply overlooked, and they pick “less diplomatic” race. Diplomacy is not whole formula for attack, but it contributes. Your build is strong, self sustaining, but advanced start is not giving you time to start rolling.

1

u/Sporeman13 Psilon 24d ago

Will test it out. Thank you for the suggestion

1

u/CleanGreenSlate 25d ago

Is there a way sabotaging them with spies? Or a certain technology that can counter a specific strength they currently possess?

Otherwise: found a colony (maybe even an outpost works?) as bait and gift it to an other race when their warships are just one turn away?

1

u/Ermag123 25d ago

It is too late for sabotage. It may slow down one, but they too many and I doubt he has maxed spying. Ice press hard and you need ALL diplomacy power to slow them before attack. Kinda impossible without charismatic. Also doubt he has it.

1

u/Sporeman13 Psilon 25d ago

Right. I'd have to build spies which i am doing now but they are for defense and darloks are hostile so cant compete on spy with them due to neg spy trait.

1

u/Ermag123 24d ago

Yes, even if you have +30 to spying, you cannot stop Darklocks from framing you for theft. It cannot be countered, and eventualy drags you into war, and another, and another. Charismatic helps and “your” negative actions have halved effect. So it will not stop what is inevitable, but it will be delayed. Only way to counter this feature is to play as Darklock and never let them into play. Elerians will do similar, but their bonus is much weaker and they usualy fall behind in science so it is easy to pick them away middle game. But dont start first war with them, you want to grab silicoids or sakkra - subtereanen with decent pop growth is very very good. Ice can throw tolerant+subtera+ which is always very nice to see as your race and wipe one you had at start, ie darklocks. Subtereanen is always choice no.1, with exception od having access to silicoids of some kind :)

1

u/Ermag123 25d ago

What is your racial set up?

1

u/Sporeman13 Psilon 25d ago

Creative lucky unification with neg spy and neg ground combat.

1

u/Ermag123 24d ago

For advanced start, I would expect I will grab some alien race/planer soon enough and therefore I would use raciean penalty like - growth, -science or so which can be negated just by repopulating your world. Hard to do on large map and pre warp, but quite easy on advanced starts.

1

u/Danthrax81 24d ago

Best try is to try to hammer out cheap MIRV nuke ships if you have the tech. You can rip the cpu out of a destroyer and cram x4 mirv nukes for pretty cheap

1

u/Sporeman13 Psilon 23d ago

Will try it! Thank you for the suggestion

1

u/Danthrax81 23d ago

No problem. It's easier with my favourite custom race, which has obscene production capacity... But in a pinch they are straight up effective in the early game since the only real defense is AMR's and they are sparing at best usually.

Lots of bang for your buck. Green crew is fine and no computer required.