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MASTER OF ORION III REVIEW
A Typical Game
This will be a kind of diary of a game I am sitting down to play. I wanted everyone to be able to get a "feel" for the game beyond all the technical data you get bombarded with from Apolyton, the strategy guide, and beta testers. I will be writing this as I play, not afterward, and also taking screenshots as I go. And now the show:[Turn 0 - Setup]
I'll be starting this game in a large 2-arm spiral galaxy with medium-length/few starlanes and 10 AI empires. I'll be playing on medium difficulty (I'm such a baby). I have chosen to use stock Meklar because I'm not that familiar with each race's strong points yet, but I know I like the Cybernetik combat music and the Meklar look cool.Now, before you just go romping around the galaxy picking fights, you need to have an attack plan. Master of Orion III does not play well on the tactical details level; you really need to have some serious high-level strategies going or you will certainly lose. My plan is this: I want to colonize far away systems, set them up with heavy defenses, and "gel". That is: secure the perimeter of my territory which blocks access to the core, then colonize backwards to get everything in between. I call this "shell colonization" and plan to test it some more in other games. This could work well in lighter populated and larger galaxies. I would need a different strategy if I were playing in a cluster or with a lot of AIs. As the Meklar, i want to be able to have a large production base, so this may work. I also want to exploit their production capacity and develop a decent military and pick off other empires one by one. The problem is that Meklar have a hard start-up time because the eat 1/2 food, 1/2 minerals, which lends itself to the shell colonizing strategy.
[Turn 1]
I start off at the bottom of a two arm galaxy. So basically, I'm not on the fringe of the core; not right smack in the center and not off in one of
the arms. This is a good place for a war because I have an edge to my back, but bad for contact and trading. I am also not a member of the senate, so
there are no other races on my radar at present. The good news is that I discovered I had a splinter colony in my home system! It's not the juiciest
planet in the galaxy, but I am essentially starting the game with two colonies instead of one. That does not happen very often. I'm quite pleased.[Turn 12]
Several turns later I encounter a Human empire close by and a Grendarl to the north. The Grendarl fried my scout so my northern exploration is, um, "discontinued". Meanwhile, I am mucking about to the south where a few stars hang out loosely connected but far away from the other guys.[Turn ~60]
Many turns later, I have not met anyone new other than the Grendarl and the Humans. The Humans are small, but they block my path to the
right. The Grendarl are even smaller and technologically deficient as well, but they are in the way as I explore up north. I don't have the engine
power to go far enough away from home and still be able to get ships out there fast enough, so I will hold off on colonization Northward. Right now I
have a more immediate though minor problem.The Humans have colonized one of my core systems which stands at the junction point between our two empires. I cannot work with them diplomatically and they are blockading my planet and my people are starving. I sent a 3-ship task force of low-tech patrols to scare them away. That did not work, so I have decided to raid the colony they have established (two I find out). I destroy their 3-ship fleet and knock away at the planet, but I don't have the power to take out their fighter base at this point and they cannot shoot me down in time; the battle ends in a draw. The good news is that they have no more ships blockading my system, but I do :-) The tables have turned, now they can starve for a while.
[Turn 80]
The Humans strike back! They have scraped together a smallish fleet and returned to Sung VII, the "junction planet". They quickly take out my unprepared defenses and launch a ground assault. I will probably lose this planet. My production is laughable and I can't get ships off the lines fast enough. My hope is that they take the planet and stay put so I can make a comeback later. I am trying to harass them with spies in military circles in the meantime.[Turn 83]
The good news is, the enemies ground troops have been whittled away by my local militia. The bad news is they still hold space superiority and my people are starving again. If they launch another ground assault, I'll be through, as I have no more ground forces left.[Turn 104]
The Humans are still holding space superiority over Sung. I decide to use a very evil human tactic: "Save & Reload"! I put together a test fleet of about half a dozen ships and send them to Sung. They are wiped out in less than 30 seconds! Explanation: The Humans seem to have a much better fleet composition than I do. Specifically , I got completely shredded by their first volley of missiles. The fact that they also had fighters and well-rounded beams makes them, at the moment, more than I could possibly handle. I have only a few ships, somewhat outdated. To make matters worse, the ol' Heavy Long Range Beam strategy that worked so well in MOO2 doesn't work so well in MOO3. I will have to design some ECM and point-defense ships to deal with the enemy missiles and fighters, while sending out my own missiles and fighters. Of course, all this takes time...[Turn 120]
I'm producing as many ships as possible. My military budget plan is set to "Total War" and I've got most of my decent planets pumping out ships, but even at turn 120, only my home system is developed enough to churn out anything useful in combat. So my homeworld, Mu Caneri, is creating my new large fighter/carrier "Mother 1" design, while my minor planets are creating point-defense pickets.Surprise! While I'm gearing up to take back the Junction Planet, two things happen: A Human fleet is spotted on radar with a course set for Mu Caneri! Also, my colony on Sung has been starved to death and disappears :-(
[Turn 121]
I have enough (i hope) ships to make a dent in the Human fleet around Sung. Even though the colony on Sung is gone, they are using the breach in my borders to attack other planets further north. My empire is now split into two sections. I create 3 taskforces with about 15 ships in total. They are sent out and I see the Human fleet en passant coming for Mu Caneri.[Turn 122]
The Humans show up at my homeworld with 7 ships. Luckily, I have 9 system defense ships waiting for them. They attempt to take the planet, but in a mild battle they are destroyed by my relatively up-to-date system fleet. Pheew![Turn 124]
Arriving at Sung, my 3 taskforces do a decent job of at least making a good impression. I'm not strong enough to battle the fleet, but they
split their fleet up into 3 parts and sent the other parts out into the galaxy (one I intercepted and destroyed at Mu Caneri). Their fleet is weak,
but the two colonies they have settled on Sung have at least one missile base between them, and missiles HURT. Neither side dares engage the other.
I'm safe as long as I don't attack the planet. I will make them come for me in space if they want to free their colonies on Sung from my blockade.[Turn 134]
I've managed to amass 21 ships making up a decent composition at Sung. Time for battle! Miraculously, I destroy all 10 of their
missile-based system ships. I survive with only 8 ships, but it's worth it. Now, I'll be taking back my system and the chokepoint is sealed off again
for a time. Now it's time for the troops to move in[Turn 135]
I'm not too experienced with ground combat so I'm sending in a medium sized army to Sung. The enemy has several planets located there, and
taking them all could take a while. But let's give it a shot. [Turn 137]
My 16-unit army arrives on Sung Prime. They have a whopping *1* unit on the planet - a militia unit at that. My battle is quick and
overwhelming in my favor. The troops complain about how rocks are getting in their boots and play poker to pass the time, having little else to do
:-) The bad news is that I dumped all 16 units on one planet. Now I don't have as much to send at the other planets in the system. Oh well. That's
how you learn. I should have checked their forces before going in, so forgive me for being hasty.[Turn 145]
I land a few more troop ships on Sung colonies, one at a time. The lightly defended colonies fall easily. "At least it's a target-rich environment!" my army commander tells me :-)[Turn ~150]
By this point it would seem that my small struggle is over. I am slowly absorbing Sung. The problem is that the Humans are #2 on the power graph, and I'm not sure how to interpret that. I am #5. However, my navy outranks theirs 3:1 now, so I am not too worried. I downgrade the military development a bit and refocus on industrial growth, secondary colonization, and research. But not too much... My Northern "friends", the Grendarl, declare war on me, but I'm not sure why. Perhaps they can be bought. Even if they can't, they are no large threat. Perhaps I will just land troops on their nicely developed colonies as well. But Humans first. Grrr...[Turn 212]
It took a while, but Sung is now completely mine and the Human control has been been broken. As a side effect, the planets on Sung are well
equipped with ground forces that remained after the various invasions. Now that my borders are secure again, I will chase the Humans down to their
core. They are not the hardest opponents I could be picking on, but not the easiest either. All I know is that I never liked Humans in MOO.
Meanwhile, I have stepped the industrial production down and increased colonization efforts to grab what worlds remain in my area. If I concentrate
on war efforts too much, I will die a slow death. I now have 3 empires at war with me, but most are out of range to be concerned with. I have made a
defensive alliance with the Aburs, another Grendarl empire, who just happen to be #1 on the power graph. They should make good friends since they
have acquired a lot of territory to the north and I can't afford another war. [Turn 220]
I have lost! Much to my surprise, another empire has won the senate election. Since I was never a member of the senate, I had no idea it
was coming. Too bad; I was just starting to have some fun.Talkback:
This game highlights some good and bad points of MOO3 that should be talked about: One thing that stands out as a "real boner" is the fact that there is no more Final War (for those not familiar with MOO1+2, if you lose the senate victory, you had the option of continuing to fight... against every other empire in the galaxy! They trade all their best techs with eachother and become allies against you). For this game though, I could never even attempt a Final War, even if I had that option.This also shows that not being a member of the Senate has some serious drawback, like not knowing who is going to win. But it also has some goodpoints: I don't have to deal with all that election garbage and can concentrate on my own selfish interests.
I lost this game for several reasons:
- My global strategy was good, but my surroundings were not. My position in the galaxy did not lend itself to my strategy either.
- I got dragged into an early scuffle unprepared to fight. This required me to divert energy and funding into military interests instead of finishing up my exploration of the galaxy and creating a decent industrial base. Basically, my empire was using it's production prematurely and i was not so ready to handle a war of good scale.
- My empire's development plans were shaky and poorly thought out. Should have read Lore Weaver's strat guide section on the Cybernetiks before I started!
- I had a rash of Red/Yellow, barren, loser planets in my area. There wasn't anything really good to grab in the early game, and by the time i did find anything decent, it was too far away to colonize in time or defend properly. Other empires got them all first. My colonies were all spread out too which is bad for defense since you can't get ships out fast enough.
On the other hand, my ending power rank was 3. I thought my empire was small and defenseless, but I put up a good fight at least. This was my first game that I played to completion. Too bad I lost :-(
But you know what they say: "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game". Of, course, that has nothing to do with being Master of Orion.
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