Let me discuss 3 recent games that involved suicide players...
In the first game, Oli was in suicide, surrounded by 2 decently skilled players and I was his eco...early feed and continual feed allowed him to have a giant fleet and hold several planets....by the end of the game, Oli was fighting a 4v1, I as eco never had to fleet, and he still was holding on to several planets...he played his position very well and the combination of his excellent play and large amounts of feed (I feed 360k that game, most of it to him) won us the game...
In the second game, Oli was in suicide, surrounded by me and Khan....khan was very close, but I was 4-5 jumps away and I had to go through some very rough militia...in this case, the DLC actually advantaged the suicide player, because the only planets between me and him (and there were several) were all 3 or 4 tech planets....Oli got early feed and stopped khan dead cold...by the time I got to Oli, there was no way the situation could be salvaged, especially since we didn't have an eco player...in this case, early feed combined with a good map position allowed a suicide player to ravage both of his opponents...
I don't remember if Oli SBed his HW in the 1st game, but regardless he held onto several planets for the entire game....in the 2nd game, I don't think Oli ever built a starbase....
In the third game, I was in suicide, with Doci and Kevin on my flanks...both of them were very close (HWs 3 jumps away)....I don't remember who my feeder was, but I think it was either Oli or Slackah...I held onto my HW and moon for a decent while, and after losing my moon I still clung to my HW for most of the game...in this case I did have to SB my HW, and it took 2 ragnarovs and a lvl 6 marza to drive me off of it, and only by sniping out my ability to generate enough culture (SB and tactical structures were still there)...a DE built by Oli allowed me to recolonize my HW...meanwhile, my titan and two capital ships had safely made it to the map center and were reading to recolonize...
By all accounts, these three suicide plays were extremely successful, and largely for the same reasons:
- Early and consistent feed....all three suicides had a skilled feeder on the other end who fed them ASAP
- Immediate fleet up...part of this is using military labs to get the ships you need....I can't speak for Oli, but I myself used lum spam to stop my enemies...
- Key military techs....repair bays are essential, and in my case I also needed hangars with shield bestowal and eventually guardians with repulsion...in 2 of the three cases, 4 military labs were needed for titans, and in my case I had to get those techs before I lost my moon, because maintaining 4+ military labs for a long period of time was impossible...level 4 and 5 techs (titan techs, RB, aux gov for TEC, repulsion) on the military side are far more relevant than on the civilian side...you can survive without colonizing fancy planets, but you won't hold your HW without having good military options
- The suicide plays forced the nearby players to militarize instead of eco...even though against me, Doci still got a good economy, he couldn't send his fleet away because he knew my titan and very large fleet would hit his worlds...by the time he could safely move his fleet, his team had lost the other 2 fronts...
I think the third game is the most important, because this situation most favored the attackers (closer and higher skill) and still showed that prolonged survival is totally possible...all three games have shown that what the suicide player does can largely determine the outcome of the game, and death or loss of the HW is most certainly not inevitable...
Btw, 2 of the suicide plays had the suicide player as Advent (first game might have been Oli as Advent as well)...in none of the cases did the suicide player rush culture...
