I finished a dark avatar game with terrans. Small galaxy, normal level, 2 major races and random amount of minors. When I started, little did I know my only planet the whole game would be just my homeworld. Sounds boring? Nope, it was fun and alot of it might I say. I done all of this with diplomacy. Diplomacy was key to victory. In the first part of the game I encountered the Drath Legion and then the Korath Clan. Drath was neutral and korath was evil. I quickly seen after a while korath was dominating in most areas, they were ranked 1st and had several colonies. Seeing this, I decided I don't think I would be able to beat them, so I will join them, or at least try to. So I went evil, every chance I had, I went evil. This in turn with numerous trading techs and a research and economy treaty gave me close relations with korath. Then, using my excellent diplomacy skills as terran, I gave them a few techs to attack the drath and they accepted. War broke out, I sat back and watched. All the while, I sent freighter after freighter to korath worlds, opening trade routes throughout the galaxy.

It took several turns but drath was clearly losing the war. I designed and built some fighters and a couple of destroyers and gave them to korath to help them fight the war. I also gave techs to korath as gifts, I trusted them and it worked. Mainly militray techs that I knew could help them win the war. I stood out and never got involved in the war. Finally I allied with them but still remained out of the war. Not long before drath were crushed, I message came up which frightened me. An organizaion name The Jagged Knife entered the game. They immediately had 4 planets and every tech the korath had, ultimately they were a minor race but a powerful one. At this time, i still was sitting on my just my homeworld but I had strong technology, all or more then what the korath had. Now, I had to give korath more ships and techs to fight the war that I payed them to fight. I had to be sure drath was taken out asap, if not that minor race could cause major problems. Well, finally, it happened drath was elminated by korath, ending the game in a diplomatic victory for me.

This was awesome, shows you can win this game (on lower levels) even with one planet if things go smoothly and you have good diplomatic skills. I took a chance though. Its like I was not planning on having one planet, it just happened that way. The AI took things pretty quick. There were some other worlds that needed techs to capture, but I decided to research other things and the AI researched the needed techs and took them. The thing about this whole game, I could have easily lost but made it by. I could have lost in the very ending too, especially with that minor race coming into the game like it did.

Now I ask, has anyone else ever won with only their homeworld?