I got board today so I loaded up a good old STOCK version and began to play. I gave the Ai a high Ai difficultiy and a low bonus. Right off I knew I was golden as my system had a few good planets and some nice asteroid systems near by. At around turn 80 I ran into the
SJ (Star Junkies)and well the game went rapidly down hill from there. I was not in a position to fend off the humaniod machines war machines and lost many worlds on my outer rim as a result. The best ship I could send against their LC's was a frigate armed with PPB 3 and no shields. The SJ's LC were packing shield V's, PPB 5, and armor. I lost reapted battle after battle after battle.
Then the SJ began to mass huge fleets that began to capture the planets of my inner core systems. Oh boy... rioting soon began and resource production, always tight, plummitted. I began to loose ships as a result and had to place all of my ques, yes all 87 of them on hold. This only slowed the chaos a bit as the SJ continued to their reign of conquest.
Finally, with my allies promising to help but not, I had not option but to either surrender to the SJ or to an ally. Since I could cripple the SJ by surrendering to them, I did so.
This marks the first time in over four years that I have ever had to surrender to an AI. - I was promptly beheaded by an angry mod.
So ended Emperor Atrocities bid for supreme Galatic Ruler.