You're not the only one interested in suggestions on how to beat this level.

I've tried mucking about with the difficulty levels and honestly I cannot tell the difference. The strategies I've seen in the forum here suggest things like "Focus research on Planetary Invasion & Logistics branches", but by the time I can research Enhanced Logistics the Dreadlords are already flying around with 160 attack ships, blowing up my tiny 4 attack fighters and swooping in with their troop transports.

Personally, I've given up on the campaign and moved on to playing against the computer in sandbox mode.

-tom

Also, this level is called "Apocalypse"

this is the same old advice. It's reasonable, but it overlooks the fact that in the time required to research Warp Drive, Soldiering Bonuses, the DL are pumping out their massively powerful ships.

So my question is: how do you keep the DL off you long enough to research Warp Drive (for example)? I guess I should just put the computer on Insane difficulty and let my allies carry me through. But what's the point of playing a level like that?

The purpose of your allies is mainly cannon fodder. Don't push towards the DLs too soon, let the AI wheather the storm while you build up your forces. Trade techs like mad with all the friendly AIs to increase research speed- since you're all on the same team, you don't have to worry about them backstabbing you, so when you sell them a tech you're actually doing yourself a favour since they'll be better able to fight the DLs.

Of course, all this advice is based on when I played the campaign back on version 1.0X (IIRC), things may be harder now with the AI changes and suchlike. The biggest thing you're missing, of course, is first strike.

I am slowly making my way through the campaign on Obsecene level.

Here is my strategy for the campaign:

1) High populations & high moral/approval raiting

2) Focus all research on Planetary invasion -- be the first player to be able to launch invasions and do it early. If you don't think you can hold a planet then just destroy it with some nasty invasion tactics and then abandon it.

3) I build the defensive building that ads 25% to soldier skills on every planet, maybe even 2 on one planet if that planet is being constantly attacked. Also, build a Tir-Quan Training Center on your most attacked planet.

4) Research anything that ads soldier ability

5) I will build 1 very, very, very cheap attack ship on every planet just to try to take out Dread Lord troop transports, and when that fails my high population and high soldier skills will save me. But for the most part I don't build ships until the very last part of the game.

6) If you have allies GIVE them everything and anything you can. Trade with them constantly, and if need be just gift them researched tech. They are your allies, and you MUST support them.

7) Build an exploration ship to exploire anomalies that is very, very, very fast. Must have a speed of at least 12 in order to keep away from the fast dread lord ships.

8) When you are finally ready to attack focus 100% on military production and produce a MASSIVE fleet of tiny, fast ships with the most firepower you can pack on them.

I have completed 7 or 8 missions so far with this strategy.

I did not read Reply #7 before I went back and tried again. I think those are great tips.

I finally beat the mission on Suicidal level.

How I accomplished this was I realized that my main problem every time I played was running out of money. (Without sustainable trade due to dread lord attacks, I found money always short.) So, I allowed the AI to go toe to toe with the dreadlords on Suicidal. First turn, on the second colony, I bought a starpot and a colony ship with move of 5/turn. I bought a similar colony ship on the main colony. This allowed me to beat the AI to 2 planets. Otherwise, they get there first.

I put 66% spending on social and 33% on research early in the game and limited myself to 4 colonies (maintenance too high on too many colonies before taxes kick in.)Then I focused my tech on planetary bombardment tree (soldiering techs) and on economic techs: raise morale and raise tax bonus. I was able to easily trade for research tree and factory construction tree when I was ready to upgrade my planets. I put at least one market-type improvement and one entertainment-type improvement per 6billion people.

I bought a ship if I needed to defend against dread lord transports (autosave every 2 turns makes it easy to reload if necessary.) Also, admittedly, I did save/reload upon conquering a planet until I got some good tech. Once I got beyond mortality... funny, but useless.

Then I was able to find all my buildings at 100% and crank some research.

Then the torians conquered the dreadlords while I was thinking about cranking out ships.

So far, Suicidal on Apocalypse (level 6) is proving hard. But hey, I haven't finished my first try yet. I think 6 colonies is too many. I'm gonna take my own advice and go back to 4.