So, after having played about 6 times times, I've beat it on impossible twice now without much difficulty.

The biggest change was to turn of the Antarians.

My favorite race is Telepathic, Cybernetic, Unified, and Repulsive.
That way I just spy all my tech from the AI.
I don't have to worry about troops at all.
Food techs aren't a big deal since food needs are halved.

Then I exploit the Cybernetic heal ability by getting good armor and always using heavy armor and reinforced hull. Half the time the AI's ships can't damage my ships fast enough to kill them due to the auto-heal.

Basically I build about three such battleships, declare war, and wipe the AI out faster than he can counter-attack. When I get tough enough to attack Orion I usually re-load until I get the dampener field and the Antarian armor, then I'm set for the rest of the game.

My final bit of advice is to not build stuff! There are so many buildings in the game that you don't need on every planet. A common planet would get a couple industry buildings, terraform, finance buildings, then research buildings and build trade goods while researching.

I just had a fun game and was surprised at how successful I ended up doing in single-player. It took 155 turns to beat impossible/huge/average-age/average-tech/8-player with this race:

Dictatorship, Pop Growth -50, Ship Defense +50, Ground Combat +20, Charismatic

Initially I was just screwing around and wanted a race that could capture the Antaran raiders. But I quickly realized this is basically a Blitz race that can nonetheless out-tech the competition by demanding it through diplomacy, and catch up to the expansionists through military conquest. This also allows you to act more like a creative research-oriented race, since you will quickly acquire much tech through diplomacy and can be fairly certain the AI will be willing to give you most of the "common" techs in each category. Once you've assimilated your first alien race, slow pop growth is no longer an issue.

This allows you to concentrate on building up a fleet for an early war, rather than expanding. I used heavily armored troop transport destroyers with kick-a$$ marines => Tritanium, Augmented Engines, Heavy Armor, Reinforced Hull, Troop Pods, Battle Pods + the best missiles I could fit. Go for Fusion Rifles. I was able to get Fuel Cells and decent engines from the aliens pretty early on as well, which allowed me to focus my research in other areas. All you need to be able to capture an Antaran Raider in addition is Tractor Beam and Powered Armor.

As soon as you locate a Repulsive race that won't be friendly, clobber them with your fleet of destroyers and powerful troops. After taking out two races this way while being friends with everybody else, I won the game by Council Vote.

...Oh, and btw, I did manage to intercept and capture the Antaran raiders too.

You did not take High Gravity?

And unification. But well, "basically a Blitz race" winning but 155 by council vote, ok.

If you actually want to capture Antaran scouts the best race for it is Uni HighG +20 ground Rich Large or Uni HighG +10 ground Aqua/Sub (maluses Repulsive, Attack, Defence, or Spy if you will use 19 picks races), if we're talking about those scouts essentially,
Uni bonus, just like moral one is apply after all modifiers from factories etc, and as morale is of no actual use in regular game, is strictly better. Also Uni is about food and prod, not science and prod, thankfully. And its the best economic pick you can have in game, you dont take it only to make your life harder (for fun). Just look at your race - it have zero production capabilities (2 food (and one need at least 3 from start to actually play), 3 prod, 3 sci, no planet size enhancers), yet you still perform better than AI's. Its ok, as almost any race work good versus AI, just also you can try some actual races (one above is for fast antaran capture only).
Its more about how your own race is developing here, not about assimilated AI's, you can assimilate all AI's on huge pre-T100 anyway.

Is there any other level than Impossible ?

If I play anything below that, I win way too easy..

It's no fun unless I have to time-travel back at least once or twice..
(Loading an earlier date to forestall being overrun..and squeeze out a battleship/titan/doomstar in time to fend of their puny armed forces with just one ship...)

I wish I had a screenie right now..(20+ ships of theirs vs. my doomstar..it's awesome..they all fire..but if my ship survives..it wastes like 7-10 ships of theirs each turn..)

Always pick creative..and get +2 research and artifact home planet..)
And rich and large..
You'll have to take some minuses in ship attack and stuff..but that's offset by the WAY faster tech research...
And always keep ur spies up..(I hate it when I just invented something and they steal it..)
Once you get the better techs (prod+res..well..you pretty much won the game..)
I always win by having more than 1/3 of all votes, so they can't choose an ultimate leader without me..
(I AM the council..)
And sice I never choose..the game just keeps going..
And I always loadsave myself into the xentronium and damper field..(HEH..is there anything better ?)..
With those and auto repair + cybernetics (evolution upgrade), you can repair 40% of ur ship each turn..
Do you know how many (obsolete) ships it takes to kill a doomstar with damper+xentronium+auto-repair+cybernetics ?
I dunno..never had that many against me..i think the largest fleet I ever encountered was like 40..
And a minute after the first plasma cannon salvo..they quickly evaporate..
(before those i use the fusion beams+enveloping..)

Anyways..in the end it's always me keeping the peace..
(systematically shooting down anything that leaves the planet in the same turn it's being finished..)
That way I can keep going in the research..and get to the numbered levels..
Ever seen a doomstar with multiple convertors in diff arrays ?
Pretty fireworks..
Each array fires once..
So It's like a big beam coming from it several times..
And the feeble forces strike back with..:PP
"I told you not to attack those right ?"..PFFFFFTTTT..bye bye..now you can build from scratch again..
And I also like reviving lost species..
(building a planet with robots, and then when finding the 'dead' race colonists planting them onto that new planet..)
(I hardly ever need more than one system to actually dominate the game..)
When you start with only one planet in ur system, restart..(any asteroids or gass giants I count as planets..)
Also..when there's a planet with lousy stats in the system, simply plant a colony base there, don't produce anything but trade goods..then when they come and conquer it..blast it with stellar converter and build a brand spanking new planet from the asteroids..It'll be large and mineral abundant..GUUUDDD..
I am know for offering up star systems for that purpose alone..even twice if I have to..
(once for getting at least one good planet in it..and then once more to destroy the other planets to rebuild new planets from those too..

MOO2..GUUD !!!

How I win on Impossible Part 1: Configuration

I win on Huge-8-Impossible farily consistantly. I really simplify the game for fast play which means ignoring many of the games less interesting features - like colony moral, planet invasion, spying, combat tactics (mid-game and beyond), and most of diplomacy. Here's my setup:

H-8-I-Avg-Avg
Tactical on: I use it early in the game for my missle cruisers. Once I get my beam ships up it's hit Z and watch the funI
Antarns on: Sacking the Antarans gives you a quick way to end a game you already have won without having to win at the poles or conquere every race
Random events off: These are usually not in your favor

Custom Race (Elerian base)
Unified: Bonuses to defensive agents, production, and food. No moral penalties so you can ignore those buildings
Subterranian:Double population on all worlds
Telepath: Instantly assimilate all captured populations. Just knock out the planet defenses with a Cruiser or better in orbit, punch mind control, and and you own it
Rch Home workld: You need all the production bonuses you can get

Negative picks to pay for the above:
-1/2 Food (easily offset with Hydro Farms
-20 Ship Attack (I use missle boats in the early game. Easy to offset with tech later)
-10 Ground Combat (Freebe, no ground combat required with Telepathic)
-10 Spying (Since I only use defensive spying this is also a freebe due to the Unification bonus

Settings:
Ship initiative - Off
Remainder: as desired
- The single biggest tactical advantage you can get in the game is to make sure all of your ships get to shoot first.. With intiative on all ships fire in order of their combat rating. With it off the fleet that initiates the attack goes first. However, if your fleet ids equipped with phasing cloak they have nothing to shoot at. So they all are forced to pass and then you still get to fire first. And with my late game Heavy Disrupter ship design their is nothing lef after I shoot first

Note that there is an exploit involving Time Warp Facilitator combined with Phasing Cloak that lets you uncloak, fire, and recloak without the opponent ever being able to fire a shoot back. I don't need it. I don't use it.

The biggest challenge in H-8-I is ovecoming the huge production penalties. The fastest way to loose is to get off to a slow start, colonize two or three star systems, then get overrun by repulsive lizards or thick-headed rocks. This is definately a production-focused approach. It lends itself to rapid early expansion, and quick early war..This lsetup ets you come out swinging.

Part 2 will focus on tactics...

How I win on Impossible Part 2: Strategy

Step 1: Get your production base set up and running as quickly as possible

Trying to play nice and keep a low profile will usualy get you killed in this game. Yes, you can try diplomacy and spying and aliances and tribute treaties and all that. Or, you can grab more planets, build more bases, and make better ships faster than they do and kick their asses. I go for the latter.

And, by the way, this is my fundamental problem with Creative. It is very expensive which means you can't use it with strong production picks like Subterranian and Unification. And you really don't need all that tech, especially if you're Unified Telepath. Trust me on this. There are only one or two spots in the tech tree where it would be really nice to have two picks. High Energy Focus and Megafluxers comes to mind.

Back to that fast start. Starting position is critical. In order to grow rapidly you need a solid home system that has an additional 3-4 star systems in range. You do not want to be stuck in a corner and forced into building Uridium Fuel Cells just to get to the next system. You should also avoid the middle. Too much exposure can mean trouble. I look for a system with at least two habitable planets in addition to my Rich homeworld and two other usable systems within range. Oh, and space monsters are your friend. Great systems, and easy to sack once you get missle cruisers. My standard planet build is Hyfro Farms, Auto Factory, Robo Minerr Plant, Research Lab, Missle Base, Fighter Base, Star Base. This is also the approximate order I research in.Once you get Auto Factories buld Colony Bases and Colony Ships as fast as you can use them.

Step 2: First Contact

Make friends if you can. Trade, Research, Non-agression if possible. Offer 5% tribute if they balk. Ignore them if they're Repulsive. And don;t hesitate to trade anything you have for anything you need. If you don't they'll just trade with another AI or steal it anyeay, egardless of how many spys you have. Thhis is also a good time to start checking your relative fleet strenght.

Note: If you only learn one thing from this post, this should be it: Relative Fleet strength is the single most important factor in your ability to negotiate successfully with AI players. Period. To check it select INFO - HISTORY GRAPH and turn off everything except FLEET. If the lines for opponents, especially repulsives, are higher than yours, expect company to come knocking - soon.

Whats the point to make AI's even more weak, and ruin the great possibilities the combat of moo2 is offering? Initiative-less combats are simply silly and boring.

About "winning fairly constantly" & "late game Disruptors", while playing with Uni-Tele race; -food and hydrofarms; trading with AI's and other similar for a new player issues - there is some strategy posts on this forum and on some more specialized moo2 ones. That would be faster to just read them first, and it should be enough to fix the problems, but i could try to answer if some question would still remain.

RE: Whats the point to make AI's even more weak, and ruin the great possibilities the combat of moo2 is offering? Initiative-less combats are simply silly and boring

Go back and look at the topic of this thread. It's not about how to be nice and play fair with the UI. It's about how to win H-8-I. It's 7 against 1, they have a huge production advantage, and they're out to kill you. You need every (legal) strategic and tactical advantage you can get.

I find shiip combat to be tedious and boring. So I don't do It. I build ships that don't need me to tell them what to do. Combat starts. I hit Z. Combat is over.But for those that enjoy combat tactics, by all means be my guest.

"Even more weak" Even. More. There is absolutely no problem at all to win an aforementioned settings, as moo2 AI is making players trying to set a games such way to make AI stronger, not weaker (say, by playing intentionally weak races, not using overpowered race picks, making competing in battle or economic harder). From your logic the cheat codes would also be of great help btw. So, you dont like to play properly in economical sence (AI is dont having any production advantage at all if player using a good race and do it properly (player triple the AI's production very fast then)), and find a combat boring also. There is some point in latter, actually, as AI so horrible in Tactical Combat, so leasing your own ships into AI's hands by fighting on Auto make a fair sense (as it would waste them too then, not only own ships). Just there is also a huge world of actual Tactical combat in a game. Strategic combat should help to make a life for AI more fair too to a some level

Surely its only up to you, as its your game and your settings. But if you actually care about learning game basics (simply feeling no problems at all in wiping off any number of AI's using a good race to do so is just a most basic level of game), i pointed on a some problems in your approach.

@sdgorrell - Missile Base is good to have early on, especially for races that expand slowly. But you NEED Automated factory. So MB is a no-go unless you are creative or can trade/steal/demand for it (which is quite often actually in SP games).

There is a pretty good research tree posted at [url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Master_of_Orion_II:_Battle_at_Antares/Recommended_research_paths]strategywiki.org[/url] if you haven't already seen it. Following those tips (or at least being aware as to why they are good suggestions) really helped my game vs Impossible difficulty.

StrategyWiki have some reasonable stuff, but this certain article is slightly messed up by the Philcha. Still some good points there for a new player, right.

Although this is intended for MP play, when I studied and applied what is at Siron's MOO 2 blog (google it)
concerning the early game with any race, I learned to destroy the AI's playing Imp, and not just with OP super custom races.

@ sdgorrell, your race seems like a production race to me, I'd colonize any other planets in my system immediately.
You want those quick colonies doing pop 1 housing until they have something to build and then they usually go back to pop 1 housing for a while.

I don't like your choice of -food, especially with Uni, as now your farmers start producing 2.25 f/t rather than 3 and you need 4 farmers rather than 3 at the start, and that reduces a strong advantage of Uni. I suggest, since you're telepathic and will just make a few colonies and take the rest, getting some minuses from LG instead if you don't want to be Repulsive.

There are so many better things to do early than research and build farms. ie labs and factories.

@ Quite a few players, sure it's easy to have spawned on the side of the galaxy with two nice planets in your system, but you'll move further along the road to playing better if you suffer with whatever start you're dealt. What fun to play a garbage race like Bulrathi and start in the middle of the galaxy and have your only planet for CB be pop 1 UP LG. Win that game and you'll learn. One learns by being put under pressure and by trying new things, yeah..sometimes you must reload lost games and try again.

.. neilkaz ..