10/10 Scorched earth/ Scorched Earth - impossible to beat?

[swizzlewizzle]

So on my recent 10/10 game I pulled a scored earth and a speed racer... if I am reading the scorched earth AI correctly.. it denies ALL planets?

In that case, how is it possible to win a 10/10 with both AIs as scorched earth? It just seems to me like this one AI type is leaps and bounds harder then pretty much any other, including the large exo galactic wave senders (at least with those AIs you can expand past a single planet.

[Draco18s]

In that case, how is it possible to win a 10/10 with both AIs as scorched earth?

Scorched Earth / Scorched Earth is not a winable game.  At any difficulty.

I had a Scorched Earth / Stealth Master one time.  Any planet I could see was just a nuclear explosion waiting to happen.  The rest were planetary cloaked.

I rapidly gave up on that game, and that was at 7/7

[resonence]

There is one way i could conceive of beating that combo, though it is nothing but cheese. Play a 10 planet map and take the max number of possible home worlds - 8 . Or if that's too cheesetastic for you take 7, to leave one nonhomeworld, non you planet.

Again, this is completely cheesing the scenario, but you could at least in theory win.

[Aklyon]

Most 10/10 involves significant cheese anyway.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, you can make the scenario winnable by taking a bunch of territory in the lobby, because that's the only time you can take territory

The game is very deliberate about never picking Scorched Earth as a random AI if the other one is already Scorched Earth, for this reason.

[ZaneWolfe]

Most 10/10 involves significant cheese anyway.

Isn't part of the point of a 10/10 game that you CANNOT beat it without significant cheese? If I recall the design goal, any non-cheese/insignificant cheese win over 10/10 is a design flaw and will be corrected?

[Coppermantis]

Most 10/10 involves significant cheese anyway.

Isn't part of the point of a 10/10 game that you CANNOT beat it without significant cheese? If I recall the design goal, any non-cheese/insignificant cheese win over 10/10 is a design flaw and will be corrected?

Yep.
http://arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=8373

[RockyBst]

See: The 45 second irreplacable retargetting and threat behaviour changes coming out of my current diff 10, 10 planet thread.

I think you have slightly more chance of winning against a double scorcher than after using a Mk. 3 nuke, seeing as you at least still have resources from your homeworlds, but personally scorched earth is an AI type too far for me.

[Draco18s]

I think you have slightly more chance of winning against a double scorcher than after using a Mk. 3 nuke, seeing as you at least still have resources from your homeworlds, but personally scorched earth is an AI type too far for me.

You'd have no power generation structures.  You'd have an absolute maximum 36,000 power.

[Aklyon]

Is the Omega Drive nuke-immune?

[Draco18s]

Is the Omega Drive nuke-immune?

Nein.
Also, that would be cheating.

[keith.lamothe]

Is the Omega Drive nuke-immune?

Nein.
Also, that would be cheating.

In the world of scorched earth AIs and Mark III nukes: if you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough.

[Aklyon]

You could be it easily with enough spawned fallen spire fleets, but I thought I'd bring up something less lolstompyfirst, since the omega drive only gives you power and metal. And a thousand AIP if you blow it up.

Sadly, you'd have to obtain one post-nuke to actually keep it, which makes it rather hard to actually build anything with the energy you now have to use.

[Draco18s]

Good news:
It does not require supply.

Meaning that if you had one, post-nuke, it would still function.

[Kahuna]

Most 10/10 involves significant cheese anyway.

Isn't part of the point of a 10/10 game that you CANNOT beat it without significant cheese?

Yep.
But then again.. what counts as "cheese"? I'd say Fallen Spire, Champions, some bonus ships, multiple homeworlds, lazy ai and some other settings, full visibility, easy golems and easy spirecraft. Maybe Area Minefields, Assault Transports and Core Turrets. (No Riot Control Starships are not cheesy) EDIT: disabling Core Shield Generators might be cheese too.