These fightin' Ferengi bartenders are crazy!

I recently played the following config: All T3, Cards T4, me T1 (well... except for the fact that I miraculously changed my Scout I into a Sovereign...) and who was left: The Feds (read: me) and the Ferengi! I have set all their ship's maintenance to 255 and none of their ships yet has more than 5 Torpedoes, so how is it possible to catch up with three other majors???

i`m redoing the dominion ships, i have the heidiki in as wqell as the hutet gotta increase sheilds and torp accuracy to even things up.

BOTF is tough game to balance. It seems either you it can be too hard where your wiped out or too easy where after about turn 150 it turns into a mop-up game where your victory is only a matter of time.

For me it seems that one of the biggest problems is the other empires expand so slowly. As the Feds I often have a quarter of the galaxy before turn 100. In my last game I was the Feds starting at level 1, the other empires started at level 2 except for the Cardassians who started at level 3. By turn 200 I had over have the galaxy, Klingons were allies between me and the Cardassians and Romulans. The Ferengi had about 5 systems and were a non factor. It was no longer fun. It just a matter of turns on until the Feds conquered all.

I usually start at Level 2 but this was the first time in a long time I started at Level 1. It definately slowed down my expansion for about 30 turns but by turn 60 I had caught up to the other empires. It was a huge factor once I got past 30 turns.

Here's my next goal. I'll be playing with the Ultimate Mod 2.0 (after playing this mod the unmodded game seems to dull). Large, irregular, many minors, impossible. I'll be the Federation starting at Level 1. I'll start all the other empires at level 3 (two ahead). I may start one empire at level 4 but I don't know which empire I would do that to. I'll see if a two level head start can make an interesting game.

xir_:
If you're still interested in how my game is going, I can give you a quick synopsis. I'm not sure exactly how to get images from my computer into posts though, so you might have to go with the text only version (unless you'd care to give me some pointers ). The shortest of the short synopses is: the game goes well.

The Carddies conquered the Ferengi within turn 22, and the klingons not long after. I believe they made one large mistake, however, they made an alliance with the Feds. I don't think they've been able to expand as much as they could, and this has left all of their ships (impressive though they are, they've been building nothing but battleships for the last 30 turns) in my space, easy pickings for my groups of 15 cruisers (especially once they became cruiser IIs).

At the moment, I am starting a gigantic buildup of destroyers that I can change to d IIs any time. I have 8 systems building 1 destroyer a turn, and enough reserves to last me for about 50 turns at that pace. With some quick math, and what I already have, I should be well over 400 destroyers (of course, half if not more will be scrapped instantly).

This game is essentially over. The Carddies didn't do enough to destroy me when they had the chance, and they failed to take the Vulcans away from me (Vulcan has been building ships for the last hundred turns at the rate of a cruiser every two turns, or a destroyer every one). Now I get to revel in my conquest !

Correction: Looks like I actually have 10 destroyers being produced per turn, those tricky tricky singularity plants.

I've detailed my latest game, starting two levels below everyone else:

Build your own system fast load up with 27 troop transports then reach as far as you can build starbases, then devide building warships with colony ships. after you have at least 10 systems, attack! attack! attack! the smallest race/enemy system nearest you.