It seems aptly named - I have yet to win a game of MOO2 on Impossible. Usually the Sakkra or Silicoids have the repulsive trait and proceed to spread like wildfire\wipe me out early on. Even on the "huge" galaxy setting, it isn't long before I encounter the other races. It doesn't help that you're at a monetary disadvantage too.

I got slapped silly by Klackons that had more of everything than me, including techs.

Impossible is really hard.

You need to be faster than them. Admittedly I stack odds in my favor (huge galaxy, mineral rich - I love Lithovore :-)), but it's not that difficult to win if you design your ships carefully (like, my three puny Cruisers against their two Battleships...).

Maybe I'm designing my race wrong, or picking the wrong order to research techs. I never seem to get good planets nearby either...

Tried again earlier today, Psilons blitzed me with Battleships that had Hv Neutron Blasters, Class III shields and fighters. Since I had neglected the force fields tree, guess what happened :p

I think in Impossible you might as well pick repulsive since everyone hates you anyway. They are unreliable and will never give you good deals when trading techs.

Wish I could afford this guy...

Right now I'm playing a game on impossible and it's the most intense MoO2 game I've ever played.

FOR ONCE the computer is actively trying to kill me. Everyone is at war with everyone else, there are massive fleets of over 20 ships flying around and ramming each other.

It's awesome.

My race:

Unification (More food, More production)
Subterran (More people, Unification food bonus helps a lot)
Creative (To grab all the techs needed to optimize Subterran)

Repulsive (Computers can't be trusted)
- 10 spying
- 10 ground

==============================

I was extremely lucky in my spawn location. My primary had a large arid.

Right next to my first system I found a, get this, a Huge Gaia Ultra Rich planet. Protected by an amoeba. Basically Orion without the technologies and the Guardian.
I jumped on that planet as soon as I could.
One system further, I found a Large Gaia Rich.

Now, to offset this awesome bonus, I discover that my immediate neighbours are the Sakkras, and one turn later, the Sillicoids SURRENDERED to them. So, I have 3 system, they have 10. It's the beginning of the game.

We were at peace for as long as I could maintant it. I had to make as many ships as I could and with the Gaias I had, it was easy enough. At the first opportunity I had, I jumped on Sssla and captured it. Robbing them of their capitol and crippling the government.

They didn't let it go without a fight.

Their planets are all defended with Battlestations, fighter bays and missile bases. Plus they got a hold of Radiation Shield. The first time I attacked them I was using Heavy Fusion Beams which, to my surprise and horror, do not penetrate the radiation shield. My spies stole Anti-Matter-Bombs from the sakkras and I designed a battleship equipped with augmented engines, heavy armor, reinforced hull, no computer and as many bombs as I could cram inside them just to slam the planet as hard as I could.

They worked marvellously.

We've been at war ever since. They sent two invasion fleets to my systems and I managed to fight them off.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the galaxy, the Trilarians are DEMOLISHING their neighbors, they have over 15 systems and more ships than I can count. I'm still ahead in technology but they are becoming a problem and the Sakkras are still around.

It's very intense.

Point of note, when you play on hard and impossible, the computer gets additional race pics. (The Humans have Charismatic, Democracy and +2 food).

The Trilliarians have their usual bonuses plus a super homeworld: Large, Rich, Ancient Artifacts.
Tha Alkaries have maxed out ship bonuses.

The Sakkras have all their usual pics, and also +1 production and +2 food. Once I put them to work under my government they are extremely efficient.

Muahahahahah!!!

I only ever play this game on Impossible now. I usually win about 80% of the time at least now as well. I always choose Repulsive as well. Also as the player above noted the computer does get more picks on impossible, I think it's actually 4 more picks on impossible and 2 on Hard, and what is more they can go over the -10 point penalty cap as well which can really suck for you.

My usual Race is Psilons as I do not like to let the computer have them and then they trade their techs to everyone, or get them stolen by everyone. Not to mention they can be the worst to come up against in the late game. My Picks are usually as follows:

Repulsive - 6 picks (as anytime I am not 4/7 of my opponents are)
Ground Combat - 10% - 2 Picks
Ship Attack -20% -2 Picks

Tolerant +10 Picks
Cybernetic +4 Picks (ALWAYS!!! ship repairing during battle ROCKS)
Large Home +1 Pick
Rich Home +2 Picks
Research +1 (on small maps or Production +1 on Large or higher)


I usually begin games in the following way
- Electronic Computer
- Research Labs
- Reinforced Hull
- Automated Factories

At this point I build all Colony Bases that I can

- Nuclear Fission (all 3) Freighters
- Chemistry (all 4) Basic Armor
- Cold Fusion (all 3) Colony Ships
- Hydroponic Farms
- Physics (all 3)
- Fusion Rifle
- Battle Scanner
- Battle Pods
- Tritanium Armor

At this point I usually build 1-3 ships depending on enemies and they will have the following. Sometimes I need a Cruiser Quickly and will make one sooner then refit it ounce I get these. Also build Scouts first 1 or 2 Colony Ships after I have the Cruisers or Battleships.

Laser Cannons, Heavy Mount/Normal/Point Defense all with Armor Piercing and AutoFire. Cruisers will have 3 of each Battle Ship 6/6/8.
Battle Pods
Battle Scanner

**If a lot of races nearby have high defense bonus I will add Continuous and No Range to the beams in addition to the above. Cruisers then have only 2 Heavy mounted and Battle ships have 5 each Heavy nomral and point def.

Next steps of research:

- Neural Scanner
- Planetary Super Comp
- Space Port
- Robo Miners
- Mass Drivers
- Inertial Stabalizers
- Class 3 Shields
- Stealth Suit

At this point I upgrade my Fleet to have Mass Drivers Armor Piercing and Auto Fire.

- Soil Enrichment (Or Cloning if I can steal this)
- Telepathic Training
- Cyber Security Link
- Neutron Blaster ( I may equip ships with a few of these normal mounted to capture enemy ships to scrap for $$$ and tech in addition so that ounce I imobilize with my Armor Piercing weapons I can capture them easy usually for Ship Drives, Computers, Zortium Armor)
- Planetary Gravity Generators (to help out those nice Ultra Rich and HG planets you find on occasion)

Most of the rest after this varies depending on what I believe I can steal. But I always make sure I get Structural Analyzers and Phasors (Then Rifle and Disrupter Canon so that my Phasors can be Shield Piercing + Autofire). Then update my Fleet

Typical Battle Ship at this point would look like

5 Phasors HV,SP,AF
5 Phasors SP,AF
5 Phasors PD,SP,AF

Battle Pods
Battle Scanner
Inertial Stabalizer
Structural Analyzer

Class 3 Shields
Electronic Computer (usually manage to have stolen better by now)
Tritanium Armor (Usually stolen Zortium Armor by now as well)

Any Cruisers I still have would be same but for 3/3/3 for Phasors.

My Ships regularly take on 5 of my Enemies Battle Ships and emerge unscathed at this point as well. I remember when I had 3 of my Battle ships take on an enemy fleet of 1 and a half rows and never even came close to taking out one of mine. BTW THEY attacked me to ;)

Making Diplomacy Work

I only play MOO2 (stock 1.31 with no hacks) on Huge/Eight/Impossible. My win rate is well over 80%. However I do not use Creative and I do not play as Repulsive. My picks are: Unified Subterranean Telepath w/ Rich Homeworld. Minuses to Food (offset by Unified), Ship Attack (easy to fix with tech), Ground Combat (not needed for Telepath since they can Mind Control conquered planets), and Spying (waste of time unless you play Darlocks).

I find it interesting that people don’t like Diplomacy. Since I don’t play Creative, trade is my primary tool for getting the techs I want but can’t research because there’s another one in the same list I need more. High Energy Focus and Megafluxers is a good example. Research and Trade agreements also help me develop my economy faster. Here are the techniques I use to deal with other races.

Agreeable
- I willingly trade anything I have for anything I need. Since I don’t use Spying they’ll steal it in a few turns and trade it to everybody else anyway. If I can get a couple of trades done then my approval rating is usually high enough to get a Research or Trade treaty. I keep trading and work my way up to Nonaggression Pact. I do not make Alliances. The first time my new BFF is attacked they’ll insist that I declare war on the opponent and be pissed when I don’t and declare war on me. I prefer to pick my own wars, thanks.

Uncooperative
- These are races that don’t like me right off the bat. They won’t agree to any trade or treaties due to a low approval rating. They will take a 5% Tribute Treaty though, and in a few turns their approval rating will be high enough that they will start to trade. Problem Solved.

Repulsive
- Best bet with these guys is to wipe them out ASAP. A swarm of missile cruisers is great for this. I use a Cruiser class with Battle Pods and 10x 2-shot MV, ECCM, FAST nuclear missiles. Cheep and fast to build. If you’re Telepathic and can Mind Control planets just 4 Cruisers and a couple of Scouts can blow through the early-game Silicoids or Sakkara like the wind. If you let them fester they will only get worse.

Keeping Your Treaties
- Now that you have the treaties you need, the second problem you’ll have to deal with is keeping them. We have all experienced the game where all of your former allies seem to get mad at you at the same time for no apparent reason. Typically this is due to a bad Spy roll (thank you Darlocks). Your best defense against this is to always be the baddest-assed player in the game. A negative spy roll when you’re armed to the teeth may get a warning or a broken treaty. If you’re weak then the war starts. The problem is that other races have a significant manufacturing advantage and can build fleets faster than you can. So here’s how to deal with it.

1. Always be sure your fleet strength is on par with or better than your opponents. This is easy to check. Go to Info/History Graph and uncheck everything but FLEET. If your line is lower than theirs, you’re treaties are at risk.

2. If you’re falling behind, fix it by building ships - fast. But here’s the trick. They don’t have to be equipped! From a stats standpoint empty hulls work just as well as armed-to-the-teeth war machines. And they’re a lot faster and cheaper to produce. Plus, you can upgrade and arm them later when you need them. Three or four empty Titan hulls can really boost your stats and give your opponents something to think about.

End Game
- And finally, for those top-level techs that are hard to trade for, make sure you’re the one that sacks Orion. The only tech in the bunch you get that is at least useful is the top-level armor. But the Orion stuff does make great trading material and will let you fill any gaps in your tech tree.
.

People dislike diplomacy simply because its cheap and lame. AI cant handle it, so it always work for you favour. For example you can be prevented from attacking by the distance between stars, and go to AI and ask for his fuel. And it probably give you (or surely trade). Generally - to accept any deal with AI you wouldnt accept on its place - its exploit. And game is easily winnable with 100%+ rate without any diplomacy even with most stock races, not even talking custom. Creative is not needed indeed, but you cant lose with telepatic, even basic Elerians is 100% win on huge impossible.

@sdgorrel: I like your empty-hull misinformation trick. You are right, they only pick on you if they THINK you are weak. Also on the subject of diplomacy: if you start stealing technology from others, this generally pisses-off the Psilons and they will declare war on you sooner or later, even if they are not the target!

I've also found that having 5 defending spies is the minimum to be reasonably "safe" from enemy espionage in the early game.

Imo once you have a feeling for the tech tree and the basics of diplomacy down, the hardest thing about the game is the randomness of the Antareans rather than the difficulty level. On hardest difficulty, you can expect them to attack about every 10-15 turns or so. If you are lucky they leave you alone long enough to get a decent empire going. But usually they come and attack your key planets, completely f--king up your economy. Don't know how many games I've lost due to Antarean raiders gutting my core worlds...

Yeah, yeah I know, use Missiles against Antareans. Well, it doesn't work. Not in Impossible mode where they come at you with like 165% accuracy and 120% dodge right from the start. I've rushed missile techs and taken them on with planetary missile base + space station + missile cruiser fleets with fast MIRVed, yatta-yatta-yatta, and they still scorch my fleet and capture my planet.

EDIT: After much more play experience, I have found in order to reliably destroy Antarean raiding fleets mid-game, you NEED 4 of 5 key techs: Reinforced Hull, Augmented Engines AND Zortrium Armor (a Battleship can survive only 1 round of concentrated fre with this, so add in Heavy Armor if you want them to take more punishment), then either your choice of Electromagnetic Guidance System OR Tractor Beam. Antareans will self-destruct if their ships become immobile. SO the goal is to outfit 4 or more Battleships with either enough Tractor Beams to completely immobilize the Antarean fleet while you move out of their firing arcs, or to fire MIRV-ECCM-EGM merculite missiles point-blank at their ships to blow their engines. If you want to board the immobilized Antareans to capture their tech, you ALSO NEED Troop Pods, Plasma Rifle, Personal Shield and Anti-Grav Harness with at least 4-5 Battleships or Titans.

Using the above stated tactics, I can now reliably win with Antareans active, but often I just disable them cause I don't feel like dealing with the hair-pulling frustration. Here's a fun custom race have I used to beat on Impossible difficulty (beware slow research start):

Feudal, Aquatic, Subterranean, Telepathic, Ship Attack +20, Ground Attack -10, Espionage -10

Absolute first tech to get is Research Labs, and rush-produce them asap, because buildings don't apply the 50% research hit for Feudal (basically do all your research using ResLabs/SupComp/Autolabs on lots of planets). But once you have that and Cloning Centers, your population advantage from subterranean/aquatic should start kicking in nicely (you would be amazed at how many swamp/tunda worlds there are that can support large pops).

My most successful fleet strategy generally revolves around ganking the enemy with Tractor Beams/Neutron Blasters and capturing his de-crewed ships, then scrapping them for the alien techs I need. It allows me to pit 5 battleships and 15 of my own cruisers against 20 enemy battleships and titans with a good chance of winning. Later on I will add in stasis fields as well to isolate the enemy bass-a$$es while I capture them one-by-one.

Well, if you play so weak race - you should attack as soon as possible. Basic Elerians should win more early than turn 200 from prewarp, and your race is stronger than they are (but not really much stronger tho). Antaran cant be a problem at all, game is usually over prior they send anything at all or 1 scout at max. But even in case they send larger fleet - it cant be problem still, as it would mean what youll have insane production anf technology on so late turn. And normally you dont have a missile bases at this game, as they are not of much use and placed badly at tech. But if you have problem with antarans so much and want to do it with early-medium tech - get EMG, one nukes mirv EMG destroyer kill any antaran ship. And dont build missile cruisers. Actually maybe you forgot to put ECCM on your missiles? And surely you should get some neutron scaner, or at least tachion.

If I get Missile Base it is generally through tech trade or conquest, unless I am uncreative and don't have a choice. In the game I mentioned, I was specifically developing an Antarean defense, which I'm sure everyone agrees involves missiles (EDIT: don't rely on Missile Base vs Antareans, rather use the tactics and tech I mention in my previous post).

"Game is over before they send anything at all"? On Huge Insane? Give me a break man. And your single destroyer isn't going to get a chance to fire off his EMG nuke missile, because the Antarean scout gets to move first and is going to smoke your ship with his 3 x 160%+ accuracy lasers from hell. Of course if you just keep reloading the game till your ship gets lucky and survives, then yeah, I guess the Antareans are easy.

Anyways as you state, if Antareans are active it requires you to rush counter-tech to defend against them, shutting out a lot other interesting game development strategies. I don't like it, nor the complete randomness of it, so I just disable Antareans Attack most of the time on highest difficulty.

I'm not saying my suggested custom race is a powerhouse. But Feudal isn't as bad as people say and can have its own advantages if played right. Once you are over the hump of getting your first research buildings and can maintain decent expansion, you should be good to go.

EDIT: A very balanced race for taking on Impossible difficulty is: Warlord, Dictatorship, Subterranean, Production +1, Science +1, Food +1, Repulsive, Ship Defense -20%, Spying -10%. The exp bonus from Warlord cancels out the defense penalty, and Dict cancels out the spying penalty. Once you get Planetary Supercomputer, pollution controls and Terraforming, this race grows into a versatile behemoth.

This game is surely over pre-100 turns with right race on huge impossible 7 AI prewarp. Once i did it for 63 turns, but ofc its not normal, average is around 80. With weak race, like basic Elerians, it took 180-200 (150 if you lucky) turns. Of course no need to reload to acheive it.

Where it was sayd what you need 1 destroyer? 1 destroyer kill a ship, of course you have more ships. Also in multiplayer people also turn antarans off... but... because its count too cheap if one player got attack, and other is not, because lucky guy can capture antaran ship and get a game-winning tech. Actually antarans are outright weak. You can kill Guardian on turn 100, and antarans are absolutely no match to him. And even this forum already have topics what describe all of this, and there is other, much better forums (even IRC) covering knowledge about game.

After youll realize how to win all games on impossible huge 7 using most of precon races (not mention custom) - its just a zero-basic knowledge of game. Actually AI offer no resistance at all in game. If you serious, and really have problems even with antarans and want to improve - try to join our IRC chat, it would take one evening to stop count any moo2 AI for any match for you. I can try to answer some questions here too, surely, but its not so productive, as it take more time compared to real-time talk.