Multiple VC at Apollo Difficulty

[vorlon_mi]

I usually play at lower difficulty levels, but stepped up to Apollo, trying to get the achievement. The AI are growing like crazy! Multiple cities, big navies and armies.

If two AI are pursuing an affinity victory condition (say, Purity), can they both build the wonder? Two AI are building toward Harmony, both having researched the required techs. With their reduced production costs, does they AI usually build sufficient Mind Stems to boost connect speed? Or will their Mind Flower still take ~40 turns to connect?

I got attacked early on, so I'm behind in completing my Supremacy gate. I will probably lose, not completing it before an AI wins some other way. I'm hopeful that INTEGR is slow in settling her Earthlings, since she has more aquatic cities than land cities, and doesn't have a lot of land for founding their settlements.

Is there a planet type that is easier to win with, at Apollo difficulty? I'm definitely going to try again.

 

[Guide-on]

There is a trick given elsewhere on this forum by Rykia that suggest you start on a duel map as ARC and rush the spy tech. Then you put a spy in the other capital and use the others to improve chances of success. You can win by coup. I tried it and it works.

 

[vorlon_mi]

I'm not great at waging war, though I'm improving. I used a duel map to win by domination and get that achievement. That victory was at a lower difficulty level, though, so I could out-produce and eventually overcome the single AI. I will try ARC next time!

 

[vorlon_mi]

Yup, two different AI factions built the Mind Flower, and are waiting for it to connect. One faction (INTEGR) built an Exodus Gate and is s-l-o-w-l-y settling Earthlings. I'm mystified why the other AI who are advanced and built the end-game wonder (two Harmony, one Supremacy) have not DOW'ed INTEGR. Nobody built the Beacon, or even decoded the Signal this game.

 

[Tiberiu]

Is there a planet type that is easier to win with, at Apollo difficulty? I'm definitely going to try again.

Sorry for late reply but in case this is still useful I would like to say that planet Mu Arae F is in my opinion the easiest map to win on apollo. This is because the map has poor terrain, a lot of it snow, and the AI is worse at managing to expand and to explore.

I think AIs perform better on richer maps. The richness of the map helps mitigate AI incompetence.