Didn't like the stunt MK2 pulled with NG+, well, that and tired of playing it anyways, so I've pulled out an old standby, Alpha Centauri.
Went with the Morgans because I don't use them nearly enough. Turns out I get to start in a cluster where I'm surrounded by the Gaians, University, Peacekeepers and Miriam, though fortunatly she's mostly on the other side of a lake. The Hive is off on a northern island by themselves, and the Spartans end up being fully contained and reduce to irrelevance by the Gaians who are the major power in this game.
Just my luck, it's the Gaians and Miriam who decide to dislike me early on, but being Morgan, both are easily bribed. However, that does serve nicely as a warning call that it's time to invest in some military hardware, which I do. When the truce expires, I choose to focus on the Gaians, because they have land I want to expand into. So, buy off the Believers, and then I go to war. It ends up being kind of a slap fight as we both lose a city to the other, but no one can take anything without wrecking it beyond usefulness. All the while, I'm slipping further and further into third with my Peacekeeper Buddies slowly catching up with their successful war against the Believers who got sandwiched between the University and Peacekeepers while I was busy looking the other way.
Around this time, the Gaians decide they don't like the idea of fighting me, and I agree, so we end up pacting (what can I say, without planned economy as an option, Green economics makes a good wartime economy) and I decide to show Lal my appreciation for denying me the commerce bonuses I wanted from him. He obviously never saw me coming as his defenses are pathetic, and he offers abject surrender far too soon (halfway through taking Garland's crater) which means I lost my opportunity to keep him as my pet and have to trek out to the old Believer country to hunt him down and finish it. Can't say I regret it, as the cities near that crater are my industrial engine. Anyways, finish him off and switch over to Free Market and Wealth in order to consolidate my gains and get up a good bankroll and tech lead.
This is ruined part way through when the University, engaged in a war with the Gaians who I am squarely between, decide to declare war on me as well. Unfortunatly, the AI only has two ways of waging war. Tons of force, or sucking it up. They didn't have a lot of spare force. As it stands, even under anti war conditions, I manage to take one city, and when the Gaians start sending signals that they aren't happy with me, it's time to end it. By this point I've already got Fusion Reactors, Sattelites, Shard Weaponry (13A), and am in a good place to start fighting again.
The University crumbles before my old units from the war against the Peacekeepers, and some of the units the Gaians gave me (I assume to wreck production and morale at a few bases) and when I'm on the verge of invading territory the University didn't take from the Believers they fold. Whatever, their lands kinda sucks and I tried to make peace with them before this, so I accept. At this point, it's time for the rematch I've been building up for. As my first Shard units come online, I forge a truce with the Hive based on the agreement that I attack the Gaians. The war starts badly.
Our empires at this point each take about half of the equator, connected on one side by a collection of isthmuses, and on the other there is a straight between old Believer lands and the Sunny mesa where the Gaian Empire ends. They have a large fleet of fighter craft, which they use to harry Believer lands as well as pick off targets of opportunity in the main front. Additionally, my infantry typically get picked off before they can actually attack bases, and the main entry point was nicely built on stony terrain with a fortress and a sensor. well... this all changes as I get my fighters setup, as well as a few anti-air rovers, and then the bulk of my offense came from just smashing my rovers into the enemy strongholds since even with walls and sensors, their defensive bonuses can't quite match up to my improved weaponry, and my infantry end up just going in to hold cities.
This report ends with five cities captured, and the practically an island with the Monsoon Jungle is under my control, with my forces poised to move on and complete takeover of the densely settled Gaian homeland, while my fledgling navy, air forces, and drop troops prepare to start moving on the Sunny Mesa. Once they surrender, it'll mostly just be ignoring the Spartans, and likely the Hive as well, and then going for either diplomatic or economic victory.
