Master of Orion is interesting in how the tech you can research is randomised so a lot of the joy in playing this game is, for me at least, to adjust to the given situation.

I always research at least one planetology tech early as higher tech levels in planetology improves your workers too aside from the effects of the tech itself. Also lowers the cost cost of building and upkeeping colony ships. Some improved fuel cells are very often needed early but sometimes you can reach a bunch of planets early with just the basic 3pc cells.

I am no master at this game (losing more than winning on the hardest difficulty level) but I use troops exstensivly.

The voting gets to me as well; most common way for me to lose. It seems to me that having 25-33.33% of the votes is dangerous and should be avoided so very quickly go from 24% to 34%+.

Different races are better in a small packed galaxy, the only kind of setup where I play Darloks for example.

Rather than keeping them happy, in my experience it's best to put them against each other. A faction at war is less likely to attack you or vote for the enemy AND it may also slow down their overall progress. Try to get everyone to break their alliances and attack each other, bribe them if you have to, it's usually worth it unless they're already extremely weak.
You should be especially mindful of weakening your strongest rival this way. Put everyone you can against them and check every few turns if they're still at war. If they aren't, consider if it's worth instigating more wars. If left unchecked some races can easily surpass you, and you can't afford that to happen.

In short, "divide et impera" is an extremely effective strategy in Master of Orion.

Put scout ship around as many of your own and unclaimed planets as you can. That will slow down the expansion of the other players.

I had once a game were colonizing ONE planet made the difference between winning and loosing.

It was a ultra-rich with 20 pop, (can't remember what precisely.....but not terran or similar, first I did not colonized it, my fleet got beaten (only a few ships) and that lost me the game.
I did save it (on purpose) this time I colonized this planet and this made me win the game.

Why? One one hand preventing the AI to use the planet against myself, and on the other hand giving me the production bonus a wee bit later.

So sometimes it is also just about preventing the AI from using something.

General tips on small maps are rather hard, it really depends on who is next to you......And which race you place. You will have to adopt your playing strategy to your faction.

What sometimes help to understand better, make saves (zip them) and see how different strategies do give you different outcome.

For voting, me thinks, that is actually the hardest to win on small maps........or just my inner emperor too strong :D

Read Sulla's MOO playthrough reports. It's some good spare time reading. He goes through detailed reports, laying out the strategies that beats Impossible level 2/3rds of the time on small to medium maps.

Basically, expand and develop your economy as fast as possible while avoiding all but the bare minimum to defend yourself. Only bother with ships in the very early game before the AI pulls ahead in tech and production (and they WILL on harder settings), or on gimped start AIs that are around your total power. Block colonizable planets from unarmed AI scouts and colony ships, first with your own scouts, then with some fighters. Otherwise you have to mostly rely on missiles until at least halfway through mid game. Constantly check for tech trades that can sang you invaluable techs while trading away crap techs. Capturing an enemy planet with an invasion is HUGE if it can snag you tech.

Best early techs: Construction, planetology, propulsion. You can ignore the rest for a while. You want waste elimination/reduction, longer range (or just enough for what you need), terraforming +10, construction tech 9.

Don't forget the race tiers. Not all are created equal. If you're having trouble, play with the stronger races first.

Psilons (undisputed best in the game)
Klackons (undisputed 2nd best)
Humans/Sakkra (top mid tier)
Meklar (slightly above average mid tier)
everyone else (mid tier)
Mssshrn/Darlocks (undisputed bottom of the barrel)

http://www.sullla.com/MOO/moo.html

Hello Everyone
Iv become foolishly addicted to this game, so maybe sharing my ideas on the early game will break the curse.

Stage 1 Scout defense
Stage 2 Spawn colony ships
Stage 3 V rocket defense
Stage 4 make a friend / absorb your twin
Stage 5 The game is on

Industrial tech and planetology are very important, almost ignore all other research, during stage 1 -3 get your industrial tech to level 8 or 7 asap, and avoid building ships before then. I like to max a planets population then max out the industry But not at industrial tech 9...factories are too expensive, so there is a delicate balance between researching Industrial tech 8 and building factories so you can research quicker.

1 Get scouts to all planets nearby. Their colony ships will run away if your scout is there. This will work roughly 3 times before they come back weaponized or with an escort, then scrap this tactic stage 1 is over. Denying them new planets for 10-30 turns early on prevents them overwhelming you later.

2 When you are able to build a colony ship on your home planet at a rate of one every 5-10 turns then build them every 5-10 turns! Don't spend 10 turns on a ship then 3 turns growing then 10 on a ship...spend 20 turns on two colony ships and spawn them out.
I like to populate new colonies by sending 2-5 people from each planet for 2-3 turns, it is tedious but worth it. That way no one planet has a large chunk of population missing (travelling instead of researching).
(during stage 1 send 6-7 people each turn to your first colony and your home planet's population should stay between 50 and 60 people, once satisfied stop sending and max out you home planets pop.)
During stage 3-4 i like to max a planets population, the its factories then focus on research or ships as needed

3 Know your enemy, exploit their weaknesses. They will attack, with more ships than you and better ships. Foolishly they build large and huge ships with many (40) Gatling lasers and/or Pellet Guns, this is stupid, yet somehow invincible in the early game. You can't design a ship better then the Destroyer early on so don't bother. Put a V-rocket on a medium ship with no frills is cheaper than a Missile Bases at this stage. Bases are stronger and more powerful, but too expensive so build an array of cheap V-Rocket defense...say 30 of them. They can defend multiple planets, they can wipe out a large ship or two with one volley, They can run from combat (tell them to stay at that planet) reload and fight again if needed.

This fight will only happen 3-4 times before you invent X-Rockets, keep the V-fleet they aren't obsolete yet. If you survive stage 3 you might have 100 medium no frills X-Rocket ship, which will eventually become the weakest ship in your first Attacking fleet (game depending), and you should be pushing towards industrial tech 7 or 6

I discouraged other tech, you probably have invented a space scanner by now. Know your enemy, they will only attack if they think they can win, you will see them coming. Have a savings ship (don't build your savings ship!!) Design a Huge one make it expensive, invest in it. Just before the enemy arrives switch to building your favourite v/x-rocket defense and spit out 10-20 of them (or more... game, planet size, savings ship, industrial tech level depending) Surprise! No more fleet for you enemy.
Finance, their fleet cost them money they didn't spend on research earlier in the game, which you did, and now it is gone.

Stage 4
At Industrial tech 7-5 Dance (Guerilla warfare) . Nuclear Engines gain a significant advantage over Retro Engines. And foolishly your enemy will send a fleet long distances, taking a long time. So, fly to a weak planet, attack it, just damage it, they will send a defense, you will fly to the place the defensive fleet came from and attack the Missile bases (without their fleet to defend them), then you will fly back to the first planet and intercept the slow fleet if you want to.
During stage 2-4 if they colonize hear you, invade with 10 troops (maybe you have invented Hand Lasers too), they will send 30 troops and a fleet. Forget about it, those 30 will take the planet back but they've just spend several turns not researching or building for the enemy.
Please note this is the perfect way to exploit the Silicoids (know your enemy).

If you get through stage 3 you are in the big game. Make a friend, ideally your first neighbour could become a buffer state between you and everyone else, bribe them. I spent one game stealing tech from the Psilons and gifting it all to the Meklars...who defended me from the Psilons and the Mrrshans for the whole game.
Sometimes you can eat your first enemy during stage 2-3, you'll have to focus 100% on this and hope no one else causes trouble. Maybe you have 3 planets and they have one, its a Terran, it should be yours. The others will get slightly ahead during this war, however that Terran will help finance your future X-Rocket defense.
The Silicoids are a plague to be exterminated on site everytime without negotiation, you can potentially take the Silicoid home planet during stage 5

Stage 5 Hotrods, Savings, The Galactic Vote, Attacking.

Before Industrial Tech 5-4 ships are crap, no 'all-rounders', just expendable simple designs. Let your first hot rod be a small ship with a Pallet Gun, build 100 ( or 1000 game depending ), they will attack you with this ship, you will chip away at that fleet with your V-Rockets and run. The Energy Pulsar is the weapon to deal with big numbers of tiny ships, at the time this ship gets built (Large, Energy Pulsar, Inertial Stabilizer, level 3 shields, only 1-2 Beam weapons, maybe a Fusion Bomb) the enemy might be scrapping its first fleets (2000+ small ships etc, especially the Klakons) so the Energy Pulsar is kinda not needed just as it gets invented, you'll be ok.
Your small Pallet gun ships are completely expendable and replaceable, and can hit hard in groups. At roughly Stage 4-5 you will be shifting from a defensive fleet to attacking ones, put Pallet Gun on your medium size X-Rockets, it is nice to have a small support of 40+ additional pallet guns, once the rockets have fired, to support your (crappy at this stage) normal ships, and help finish the battle.

Savings, when planetology gives you 10+ 20+ population, select 25% for gentle growth, start you reserve savings now. (Each time I get this tech I click increase the reserve a little) As your population and factory numbers increase you will be producing as before and wont notice the reserve savings as a loss. You might have 2-3 Missile bases on each planet by now, through necessity or fear. Remember they will only attack where you are weak, when this happens put all of your reserve into Missile Bases on the attacked planet. Just like the savings-ship strategy. I was in a terrible battle with the humans so created a 'Honey Pot', no bases, and the went for it, and it took 15 turns to get there, during that time I was attacking their planets with my little fleets, and when they arrived there were 30 Bases waiting.
Missile Bases are expensive to maintain better to have a large reserve and defend as needed. Use your own judgment this is not a flawless strategy.
Fog of war. If you have 10+ Bases early in the game on each planet, they might not attack, however you don't know if your defense is preventing them trying or they are busy elsewhere. If there is an eerie silence early on and you don't need the V-rocket tactic, this means the Humans have bribed peace throughout the galaxy and will win the galactic vote soon. Increase your propulsion distance, make a friend, pick a fight. Sometimes you just lose.

More planets and population = more control over the Galactic Vote. Remember that friend you might have made during stage 2-4, keep gifting to them, you only have to prevent the game ending, ps out dated techs still gain favour as gifts.

Attacking. Don't bother until you can wipe out a planet instantly, again no hotrods just a focused fast bomber ( Best engines you got, Inertial Stabilizer, best ECM invented so far, Fusion Bombs minimum). Send 200 (built from a savings-ship), in combat maybe 140 will survive to reach the planet and wipe out the missile bases in one hit, and then the entire population. Imagine you have 5 and they have 5 planets, this war would be an ugly brawl in no-mans land, Or if you destroy one planet completely before the war begins then it 5 planets vs 4 :)

Have 100 or 1000 small decoy ships, with 40 or 200 bombers. Mysteriously their missile bases will fire at the small ships?! Which will a) Die, b) retreat to Decoy another day c) the base will be wiped out and the missiles still in the air will disappear.

Invasion. Every 50 factories you capture in an invasion will steal a tech, generally it is better to invade than bomb/wipe out. Remember travelling instead of researching is a huge cost, and most of the time they will have ships at home to stop your ground troops arriving. Should you notice the Silicoid home planet around Stage 2, from that moment on plan to take it around stage 4-5. Use the decoy bomb tactic above, send out small guerilla fleets to distract their fleets away from their home planet while your troops are travelling (timing is everything here). When you take the Silicoid Home planet, they become your bitch and from then on are only a problem for the other enemies, they'll never recover and will keep on spreading and annoying the others.

Ideas from each stage overlap, each game is different, use your own judgment, duck n dive, rol with the punches, invent what you have to, know your enemy, exploit their weaknesses, copy their strengths, and don't be afraid to sacrifice a planet to save empire.

Enjoy the rest of the game, it is yours.

It is insane to type this is 2021, not doubt you have all played and moved on since 2017.

Friend me upon Steam if you want: skel8tor

Damned, now I want to play MoO again...

Sounds like it would work on many maps but not all.

I strongly suggest avoiding the reserve slider if you have a choice, instead use a planet that is built up and maybe even rich/ultra but away from the front. Have that planet make reserves instead of stealing, with the 50% penalty, from the planets that need as much production as possible.

Even the nuclear bombs can be useful sometimes when the enemy has weak shields and you cannot get better bombs or missiles, which are also good against planets but fusion bombs are indeed very good for quite a long time. Beams have a 50% penalty against planets but also work well enough against weak shields.

Having a combat speed of four or more (combination of engine, inertial stabiliser/nullifier) is really nice for bombing against lots of bases as you can reach the planet in two turns and avoid all the slow missiles until dropped your first load.

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I really should learn to use tactics like bombing out some planets I cannot invade so not to lose but I find it hard to destroy a good planet and tend to get into Final War instead, blaaargh. I guess I need to go to war really really soon in my current game.

EDIT: Ooops! this was not quite right so removed it: "and Alkari race trait" They get added defence as if their combat speed was one step higher but not actual speed.

Moreother, sounds like it could work on some races but not all.

many maps
Yes and many races

reserve slider
Good advice

Good info on beams thanks

combat speed of four or more
Yes thats the ticket

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Came back and read the thing, and when i saw "you take the Silicoid Home planet, they become your bitch", I cracked up laughing

Redundant banal "advices" how to win with many races on many maps (read: with some races only, and only sometimes) are irrelevant. Relevant is how to always win with Mrrshan-grade kind of garbage on any map at any difficulty, all the other stuff is derived from it. As i got from reading that many words of you, you're not any even distantly close to it yet.

After few re-reading i still not sure if you just suppose to use a dedicated "Trade Goods" planet producing RESERV instead of empire-wide Taxing simply to not hurt developing planets, or you think that production getting into Reserve this way is not suffer the same 50% penalty as from Tax. In any case it does (unlike MOO2, where Tax convert it 1:1 (while TradeGoods still do at 2:1), making this option much more obviously useful than in MOO1). About usablity of Tax in MOO1, it depends about ability of player to calculate Maintenance costs and manage them. It could be pretty useful, but its even more about micromanagement than even that loonacy that Simtex did with Research there (the fact that Maintenance get no explanation at all, and Research get wrong explanation in manual is sorta additional offence). Maintenance is just surreal (and inability to trace Transferred amount per planet hurt even more). Till recently i even didnt realise how much better MOO2 is being vs MOO1 in terms of micromanagement, MOO1 is pure nightmare (and its without mention MOO2 have our patch to make it even more handy). Not sure i got it right, maybe its about some later patches or so? What Alkari's racial have to do with combat speed? In vanilla it add initiative and defence, not speed.

Sorry for doubleposting, was sure it will just edit previous post as it usuall do in such cases; probably it works only within some time passed after previous post.

Yes, as not to rob developing planets and any artefacts planet. That 50% tax on reserves is important point as it means you want to not go overboard with reserves.

Ooops! this was not quite right so removed it: "and Alkari race trait"
They get added defence as if their combat speed was one step higher but not actual speed.

The new patch and mods for MoO2 are awesome and I wish someone would improve on the old fan patch for MoO. Not a whole lot is needed but those blue info screens at the beginning of turns are a PAIN.

Way more important is that taxing may (and may not if used carefully) whack a ruin on economy due to a way Maintenance is calculated. While using BC from Reserve could bring much more profit again, essentially due to a way Maintenance is calculated (again). Thats above of usual tricks with UR/arti with Reserve. But you need to put BC into it first somehow.

Must confess i've no idea you're about there. Those "blue info screens" are something added with later patch there? I never been deep enough to MOO1, so never played anything above classix 1.3.