Appreciate your point. I was indeed going after the economy - managed to wipe out lots of asteroids, constructors etc. But was still too far behind I guess.

Record on maso is improving - just completed another win .

And so far no Cntl+N  . Dont like the idea of doing that.

Did you see in the documentation that ship design is often the difference between winning and losing? Your mention that you "got battleships" indicates that you are only taking the default ship designs (and I have played that way - and it is fun, but when you dynamically create ship designs to fit opponents strengths and weaknesses, the game transforms). If you click on the Shipyard, any military tech you have researched is available to you in a ship design. You will not have to wait for the default battleship to be available to get military might. At the higher AI levels, if your opponents are creating custom ships (which they do) and you are not, then you are giving yourself a handicap against them.

Mascrinthus - thanks a lot. Will be really looking forward to your notes.

Overmindprime - did not use the generic battleship - it was a large hull custom built one that i called battleship .

Wyndstar - I read your AAR and am totally impressed. I agree that I still have figured out all the nuances to move on to suicidal but am slowly getting there. The last 2 games on maso worked out quite well and I am in the middle of another one which too should be successful.

I wanted to detailed AAR because I thought it woiuld provide a lot of insight not just for me but also for so many others who, like me, are probably half way up the learning curve.

In any event - thanks to all of you for your response. There arent too many forums where players are so supportive of noobies.   

I completed that medium map suicide/ultimate AI game and I have a very detailed AAR with lots of screen shots. However, when I post the formatted text, the forum strips off my whitespace making it harder to read (especially the planet invasions)!

The medium map is the hardest map to win on suicide.
On tiny maps you can rush the AI.
On gigantic maps the colonization phase lasts much longer (the AIs don't get aggressive until this phase ends) and the AIs will cripple their economy by expanding too fast (quickly spending the starting game capital on buying colony ships and factories rather than building them). Also these maps have the most galactic resources that can net you a global bonus of up to 39% each! A skilled human player is much better at claiming these than the AI and will pay AIs to go to war so that he/she may claim their resources when their starbases are destroyed by the enemy.

When playing a suicide/medium game you must plan ahead and always be working to one or more goals. Playing the all factories strategy(no labs just factories with each planet's focus set to research) and keeping spending at 100%, I frequently adjust my spending sliders between military and social to limit waste. If a planet is building a ship that costs 190BC but is producing 180 per turn, then it with take 2 turns and 360BC to build it! Adjust your sliders so that it is completed in one turn but remember this will affect your other planets too! Another option is to switch a planet from research focus, to social, military, or no focus. I usually start a new colony with focus social until my factories are built and then switch focus to research.

I like to build fast constructors with good range for claiming galactic resources but very cheap ones for building up starbases. A constructor module on a cargo hull costs 125BC but only 110BC on a small hull or 95BC on a tiny hull.

Another trick is to start building a ship before you have researched all the techs for the design. This is possible because you may switch ship construction without penalty! So while you’re researching the techs for that expensive next generation warship start building your most expensive ship and switch when you have the new design. If your ship construction will complete before the design is ready then switch to Nothing; switch to the final design when it is ready and your ship is partially built, maybe even ready next turn. Sometimes I'll create an interim more expensive design and switch to it to keep production going while researching the techs.

Most new player's research strategy is to always research the cheapest tech; this is a bad strategy. Every time you make a research choice you need to consider more than the cost of a tech but also how it will assist you in achieving your goals. One turn researching a cheap tech that does not help you is a wasted opportunity. The techs that provide you with a global bonus to your economy, population growth, morale, production, diplomacy, and speed are very valuable! Also look for the techs that allow you to buildup your economic and mining starbases. Mining starbases are always useful but I only bother with economic starbases on medium or smaller maps.

With the all factories strategy your planets will develop quickly but funding this development gets expensive. I keep my taxes low so my morale is 100% for double the population growth. As my morale grows (from morale galactic resources and morale techs) I raise my taxes but keep morale at 100%. When my planet's population nears maximum (or I really need the money) I raise taxes keeping morale above 50%. Some players let morale go very low and then drop taxes just before an election but I think this is cheesy.

Finally, you need to keep the AIs from declaring war on you while you build up your infrastructure. When an AI demands tribute consider how much they want and where they are before deciding to pay or not. Once you have a healthy economy you may pay the AIs to fight each other while you build up your military for your first war. Use the Altarian Resistance's super ability to your advantage by paying the evil races to attack them; the other good races will come to their aid giving you a galactic wide war between good and evil. Remember to have a constructor waiting to claim their galactic resources as they become available!

Back in June-July I played a suicide medium map DA game and kept detailed notes for my own AAR but I never had time to complete the AAR. Today I was to leave on a trip to Italy with my wife but I had to cancel since my wife is recovering from oral surgery. So today I finally completed the write up (minus the many screenshots).

I added my own 2007/11/11 Detailed Suicide Medium Map DA AAR! - Rise of the Lexionians, for a total of 135 (note my last post should have said 134)!