[rdouglass]

I set my games to freq high and catastrophic. One thing I have found is that many times with these settings, a colony ship will encounter a "spacial anomoly" and be transported across the galaxy. To me, its a cool way of getting to other systems without stellar manip, especially early in the game. It can be wierd though. Once I had a base with a SY on it get transported across the galaxy only to end up in a black hole system. 3 turns later, it was gone - sucked up into the hole. Of course, you gotta' take the bad with the good, hence the occasional destroyed system via star explosions. So, I lose a system once in a while - I don't want to win ALL the time. It also is very satisfying to recover from a devistating loss of a crucial system (if you can).

Raynor, I do disagree with your statement about intelligence and affecting the outcome. I use intelligence a lot and have brought down an AI MEE with only about 20% combat and 80% Intel. The Puppet Political Parties and Crew Insurrection can deal a pretty tough blow if you grab the right things. However, I do feel that Intel should be made tougher, but that's probably better left for another thread.