[Stone Mill]

Valid comments, fellas.

I love to bump up research, production and maintenance. When your ships perform like Gomer Pyle academy graduates, you will see the need to differ the points to attack/defense. What good is producing lots of ships and having more planets when they will all be fodder?

There is some flexibility, true; but not a whole lot of points left after you pay for 20/20. I guess that's why KOTH empires are starting to look like clones. Not that this is bad, I get your point. I also like the idea of the "stock" starting point.

True; You may choose warrior, or slightly reduce your attack/defense, but don't be surprised how much each one of those precious points counts... why?

Beyond making the empire, the combat enhancement stacking strategy involves going right for the techs that will snowball the combat percentages. If you don't do the same, you will get left behind before you know it.

Go ahead and try to research intel or minerals II, before you know it, ships with ECM and sensors will make your fleets look like target dummies.

I guess I'm just surprised how drastic this is; I kidded myself into thinking it really did not matter. My strat was based around ecomomy (expanding, colonizing, and choking off the enemy, and playing defensively until I was ready to attack en masse) which still works well, but not without the "fundamentals," souped up combat stats.

1FSTCAT and Rollo handed me my rear end on a platter (kills were like 50-1, their favor). A painful lesson indeed. I'm a slow learner sometimes, and the combat results bugged the heck out of me. They obviously caught on to this strat and are just too excellent to not press their advantage.