One opponent

I did, but unfortunately those Altarians got trapped in a corner and never expanded beyond their own system. (This was before I knew how to find out the locations of the other majors on the first turn using sector influence.) I didn't bother finishing the game. I've always intended to go back and play another, after making sure that the other civ had a decent start.

I think playing against one pure evil civ probably would be the hardest possible game.

As stated above, we assume that the "cheat" flags go on or whatever therefore no score for the game (this is done just for the enjoyment anyway, right?). Wasn't there a "cheat" added to autocolonize all major races in the game?

That might make for a quicker start and somewhat even distribution of planets. Unless you really want to go through that . . .

~SDC~

I don't assume any kind of cheat flag. No cheat key whatsoever. I'm just saying that a simple game is worth nothing to someone who could beat an incredible ai.
I saw that the minors can give you some money, even though the incredibles don't. This would indeed make the game simpler.
Starting position would be very important in this type of game.
I checked once and the Drengins had 10 stars when I could reach 5, then on the second game the Carinoids were in my home sector, which helped a lot. I decided not to bribe the Drengins just to see how they'd build up, and well they do get frigates early on. Might be worth trying again, but it looks like on big maps it would be a matter of turtling, then getting AMMs and tactically outmaneuvering the ai...

You could try pumping up the minors (giving them all the tech for free) and setting them on your opponent while getting in their way.. no idea if it would work -probably the minors would just get wiped out.

Wow just tried playing against one got wiped out! So then I tried playing against two . . . got wiped out again!

Less is definately more . . . difficulty-wise!

I got it done on a tiny map (because it plays faster).
I used +60 diplomacy and +50trade.
My first idea was to trade with the Drengins so they'd love me. They never got close and I was killed.
So I decided to trade with only the minors.
This resulted in the Drengins at war with the minors, thus they traded with me and loved me. The minors, receiving my money, could build ships and resist the Drengins. Soon enough, the Drengins were close and I got an alliance victory (from an alliance you can always win except if the aliens were able to culture bomb you).
I think this strategy would work on bigger maps but not on the most abundant settings, since it requires minors to survive in order to be successful.

Nice! Tiny map, what star abundance?

I picked rare to make things easier. The Drengins had about 3 stars and I had 2. I bet a tiny abundant would be much harder because they expand fast and have a huge culture (Alexians tend to flip fairly fast with that settings).

I started a few of these on the OS/2 version of GalCiv and was consistently handed my hindquarters on a platter, so to speak. Initial position is extremely important in these games, for you, your opponent, and for the minor races. Not being able to play the major AI civs against each other makes for a tough scenario.

I think it would be interesting to try an "Earth-modelled" scenario, where you start in the corner (sort of the equivalent to being at the far end of a spiral arm of the Milky Way) and have to survive contact with a more advanced and avaricious species (this would be the Drengin AI in its usual full expansion mode). Interesting in an - "I've just scraped all the skin off my face with a piece of broken glass" - sort of way.

End transmission.

~SDC~

I replayed one medium map game with the Incredible Drengins and won again. I submitted the pitiful score in the vague hope Brad might look at it and see the strategy I used.
It's basically the same thing as when there are 5 ai's except you must give lots of influence and cash because you can't pit them at war against one another.