by Grickster
Petri wrote:
Orbitals are good at least in 2 situations:
1. You end up with lots of materials and science but no money planets.
2. You end up isolated or almost isolated from the rest of the galaxy and don't have any ancients to fight with.
1. You end up with lots of materials and science but no money planets.
2. You end up isolated or almost isolated from the rest of the galaxy and don't have any ancients to fight with.
I can vouch for both. In my last game, I isolated myself in an attempt to Build my way to victory through Orbitals and Monoliths. I never drew Ancient hexes, so at first I spent my Materials on Orbitals. I was able to pull this off because my connected Planta neighbor and I were separated by an Ancient hex up until Turn 5 (he didn't make his moves optimally and left his invasions to chance [Building two average Cruisers apart and Moving them into separate hexes], whereas if he just focused on me, he could have put me in a jam).
At that point, I had Nanobots, and was able to Build 5-6 (if I Traded) Interceptors a Turn, which I used to pin my neighbor's ships in his space. And when he Built starbases in an attempt to unpin his ships, I just sent in more Interceptors--if not to take away his space, then to keep the fight out of mine.
This strategy would have worked best if I had spent an Action a Turn prior Influencing one of my sectors to produce two additional Money, and spent the resulting extra Actions upgrading my Interceptors with the Tech I had Researched (Fusion Drive, Fusion Source, Improved Hull, and Plasma Cannon [which I could have taken in any combination, and/or with Electron Computers, to boot]). I could have made them into much more than just pinning agents and probably taken down some ships with them.
I lost that game by one point to the Hydran Progress, who went uninterrupted the whole game (except for losses he experienced when he fought Ancients). I definitely think that this race has potential and will play again.