Master of Orion 1+2

I used to play Master of Orion 2 all the time, but it's perhaps one of those games that I remember more fondly than I should. It does do a lot of things very, very right, with rich diplomacy options, and tons to do. However, it requires micro-management at pretty much every level, which means that playing a competitive empire with a well-maintained fleet is a huge amount of effort, but on the other hand playing a small, focused empire rarely works unless you get just the right (randomly selected) leaders with the bonuses you need. On Average difficulty this is a fun game, and definitely one of the defining turn-based strategy games, but higher difficulties tend to be less challenging and more just an exercise in frustration, and later game empire management can feel more like a tedious job than a game. Fortunately the game pacing is fast, IMO too fast, as your ships are often outdated the turn after they are built, however this means that if you play to win as fast as possible then you can have a blast and waste a lot less of your time on the AI which quite simply cheats to an insane degree (far more than necessary to remain challenging). Unfortunately I never tried MOO 1, and perhaps I should, but graphically it has aged far worse than MOO 2, which has made it very difficult to get into.

Best games of the series.... if you're a young player start with part 2. Both games have a bit of a steep learning curve, but are totally worth it.

Back in the mid-nineties, when this game was new, I would come home from working a 12 hour shift (6pm to 6am), and STILL log on and play this game for about 4 hours. It was that addictive. Its interface is so simple, and that is what makes it flow so well. You can execute turns very quickly, which keeps sucking you in for that "just one more turn" quality. Definitely one of my top 5 all time games.

i luv this game when it first came out and still is in my top five games aver played i still play it to this day

I still play this game today. One tip when you load MOO1 is to hold down the ALT key then tap the Enter key to get it out of full-screen mode then hold down the Ctrl key and tap the F12 key to increase the cycles to 13000 (this is displayed at the top of the MOO1 window). Hold down the Alt key again and tap the Enter key to return to full-screen mode. I find the mouse moves so much smoother on this setting. I have played this game for many years. I can only play on Hard mode and I still lose often (bad starting planets) but when I can survive, I find the real fun in MOO1 is in playing the Darloks because of their ability to steal technology and resist spying (more useful in the end game). Try the Darlok on Hard mode, it's a whole new game. Play against 2 AI opponents. Grab as many planets as you can fast because you will be voted out if you don't, so only research planetology and propulsion at first (so you can colonize different planet types and reach out further). The AI always gangs up on you, so don't worry about it. Hard mode AI get a lot more ships than you so you need to use the Warp Dissipator trick, where you fire this Warp Dissipator off over and over until you freeze large groups of enemy ships and pick them off with missiles, torpedos or long range beam weapons. Never use auto combat. Always play the ship to ship combat yourself. That's where the real fun is in this game. Sliding the chess pieces around. As soon as the computer becomes aggressive try to build a Huge ship with Zortium armor, Auto Repair, Battle Scanner, best computer/force field/engines, Warp Dissipator, 2 space beam weapon and a rack of cheap missiles. Have fun!