Empire Mode 1 city challenge

[coodav]

Sup fellas, I wanted to show you an alternative way to play on Empire mode, which is a dramatically different playstyle than normal. It surprised me, so I wanted to share it.

So I started on a 'defeat the allied commanders,' map here:

And I am going to do a one-city challenge, so I got things that would really support that.

Now to start, my city's adjoining landmark was food. That was a little disappointing, but it worked out surprisingly well in the end. The lower food requirements for population helped a TON. I probably got 3 or 4 population in the end more than I would have. Anyways, I grabbed it right after I finished the first quest - on turn 2.

After that, I need to figure out where the city will expand. Money is always the biggest issue, so I need that first. Next, since I am using the psi-fish, military research will help. I had the best plots I just can't reach them quite yet because of the hazards:

Now I plan to really blow out the population here. To really bump this, these are the operations I need:

Basically because they will allow you to power up one city with incredible speed. You are going to start attacking everything you can hit instantly.
- Battlefield autopsies will allows you to power through low-tier research ASAP.
- Black Market allows you to get cosmite, if you are starved. You MUST have this, if you don't get good diplomacy trades.
- The Great Harvest, because it is so deeply, completely busted.

So you hit battlefield autopsies first, and kill some stacks with my crappy starting army. I fly straight to operation effectiveness, only stopping for food:

And bang, by killing the map objectives, I use renown to buy all three operations, and all three are up. Now it's time to kill wholesale. I bought a few crappy psi-fish crysalis, and started blasting through every node I could find. Here is an example of what a squad can do in one turn:

Guys... that is a lot of resources. I mean A LOT.

Research: 20+48+36+28 = 132
Food: 25+60+45+35 = 165
Minerals: 50+120+90+70 = 330
Energy = 123+226 = 349
Cosmite = 18+ 34 = 52

And that is one stack. On turn 13. I have a second one heading this way, built largely with the incredible 349 minerals I just got. I also got a full pop on my city, almost two, plus a ton of buildings, and a few units.

I fly down the coastline (which is AMAZING for fights), and kill everything along the way, ending up behind by my enemy's city:

And kill everything, taking the landmark, which I sell to the him for a whopping 250 cosmite, and which I will take back in a few turns, once I blow him out of the water.

But watch what happens as the army moves across the map. The city goes from this:

To this:

To eventually this:

That city is insane.

And it cranks out units that look like this:

Take them, and put them in an army with even a half-decent hero, and you have this:

Guys, that is 7 armor and 11 shields (granted a slightly different loadout). I don't give a crap what you go up against, those units aren't dying. And when maxed out, that is a 13 range! And they hit like a truck, plus penetrate shields.

Anyways, time to win. I explode all over the place:

Simply walking over the opponents. They offer zero resistance.

Boom. I think you could win one of these games in maybe... two hours real-world? Three, if your starting location blows?

Whatever. Guys, you might try this. It was NUTS. And literally unloseable.

You do need a few things for this. You have to have psi-fish, therian, and spacer relics, plus assembly maxed. That may take a while, but MAN, that is FAST.

Thoughts? Anyone have a different angle that could make this even faster?