Stellar Manipulation Qs

jim · #1 January 28th, 2004, 05:38 AM

In a couple earlier Q Posts, I mentioned that I was shaping towards a NON-Gold game showdown with a psychic AI let alone too long. Well, I'm almost there. The AI's heavy ships almost all have Sweep Vs, virus, and subverters. Combined with every AI system having training facilities, I cannot win a fleet fight no matter what I do. I have connived and stalled until I had Star Destroyers well into the construction queues, along with warp openers and closers.

Ideally, I'd "nuke" the border systems where I see main fleets of 100 or more warships, then shoulder into the heart of his empire with a big fleet with plague ships for stubborn worlds and a few more star destroyers for big inner systems.

Now, that looks unlikely, as his sensors are too good. So, I may have to be sneaky, but I almost never do stellar manipulation, so I do not know certain things. Thus:

1) Can I make a wormhole directly over a planet? The idea would be to convert a breathable into a fleet trap with cargo facilities allowing me to get a huge # of WPs there.

2) Can I make a wormhole on a star and then make a blackhole of it, preserving the wormhole? The idea would be to make a fleet trap. (I do not see a way to do it with a pre-existing blackhole)

3) Can I do Stellar manip while cloaked, either w/stealth armor of cloaking device?

4) If I have never been to a system and am not Ancient, can I make a wormhole and go through it on one turn? (I think I recall the trick of doing it after I have been to the target system) The idea would be to appear with a fleet deep in his space, possibly in a nebula system where he has not managed to kill the nebula, make planets, and build anti-Stellar manip facilities.

(At the moment, my second "track" is intel. I have left two other AIs in the game, amde treaties with them, and all three of us are eroding the psychic AIs CI. If we break through, I can try to destroy him via stealing ships and planets. I have ~600K to his 5 x 130K, but the other AIs have 5 x 10K and 5 x 80K. Fun game!)