revjwh

Join Date 02/2006

Would like to hear opening strategies for your race

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I would be interested in hearing opening strategies for different races. Please identify the race you are playing first, and then share, in specific, how you expand on all levels.

Why? Because I don't know about you, but I'm getting spanked by the new tech trees and decisions - it is taking me a lot of experimenting. I am playing the Yor so far and have pretty much played non-stop (ahhhh my professional life).

I have tried the Terrans and the Iconians.

In all cases I go into the red quickly on economy and my production values hit bottom I've been trying a variety of strategies and am having problems. So, if you feel like sharing: here's the place! Thanks.

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Krynn, Twilight of Arnor.

Focus on economy. Take advantage of innate morale and influence boosts. Keep approval at 100%, research Jihad and the tech afterwards, artifical gravity, space warfare (for recruit center), and a few of the econ techs.

Usually have sliders set at 50 social and 50 research. Depends on the planets around me and the number of habitable planets and opponents. You can quickly build the recruit center, consulate, and whatever the name of that first multipurpose building is (temple of Krynn or something). Between the 3 of these, it gives each planet a nice boost in econ, morale, and pop growth, which will get you over the economic crash pretty fast, if you have one at all.

After that you can gear up for whatever direction you want. If you want a influence conquest, continue down the line of techs that unlock buildings and influence modifiers. If you prefer military, your economy will be pretty well set using those first 3 buildings on each planet. Start building factories and research your weapons techs, and the race specific techs for fleet bonuses (righteous fleet/jihad). If you want tech victory, you keep researching on the line of techs you've already started, the Jihad techs. The Krynn dont get a tech victory from the labratory line of techs, but from the morale/influence line.

Pretty simple write up, but then again, the Krynn are pretty easy to play, in my opinion.

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From this thread

The AI as the Thalans have shown me an interesting idea on how to play them in TA...and oddly, I've made it work.

I've placed all 3 galactic wonders on Thala, some people will say to save the main one for a normal planet due to the population spike.

The AI does something I can only describe as the "pink blob" technique. The first building they can get their paws on is the Embassy. So the AI fills all their planets up with these damned things....making one sick influence blob. This works out well when I play it to buffer me until I can get a proper planetary setup.

I wouldn't recommend playing with very-slow tech rate with them.

Creativity is really seemingly a must for them over any other race. So the following is my typical game as the Thalans.

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Racial points: max economics, creativity, max morale, luck and if there were points left...social manufacturing.

I'm a medium map person...all abundant, no minors, normal tech rate, only conquest victory, NO TECH TRADING, tech stealing is allowed.

Place all 3 wonders on Thala, colony rush only about 5 planets...more if you get lucky with anomalies. In this time, get Universal Translator and then start plopping down embassies on your planets...fill those suckers.

After getting the UT, then work your way up to the factory trio. Once at the first factory tech, kill your research almost (get to the min that'll give you a time remaining). Let Creativity proc your way through the three techs....DON'T place the tier I or II factories. Once you have tier III, then get at least 2 on each planet.

After this, work on the econ techs, the tech for Zero-G entertainment building (I forget what it's called...it's an orange tech). All depending on your neighbors or the mil rating of people, you may need to make a fluff military some point soon to keep people off your back.

If you are still alive after getting the morale building and stock exchanges...it's time to party. Load up planets now with factories OR econ buildings. You'll need some money-maker planets to keep afloat. The non-econ planets get all geared up with factories though. Either they'll be pumping out ships or focused to research...

If you've made it this far you've made it past the hard part of the Thalans. They truly do have a horrid start, but once they get rolling they are a tough competitor.

I haven't seen the AI however transform from the 'pink blob of doom' stage. They hold a threat in the game, but nothing like what the AI COULD make it be if played right. Mainly it's a threat of influence flipping...and a minor military threat.

All this said, the TA Thalans are my favorite race to play. They are unique in every way due to their techs/buildings so it really makes me feel like I'm playing an entirely different game than any other TA race.

Spending the time for the 'pink blob of doom' is only warranted under cramped conditions. If the map is very spread out and you don't have neighbors pushing against you...just ignore the embassies.

Sadly, my 'strategy' for Thalans revolved entirely around luck of the Creativity proc lol. Getting a solid way to play them without tech trading....I'm still looking.

Other races...

Korath, (again) Creativity proc your way to the spore module, then rule the universe. In the mean time, build with the buildings you currently have. After getting the spore module, learn Adv Toxic since most of your empire is about to be toxic. I actually skip the colony rush phase with this by making my colony rush with spore ships.

Krynn, I agree with Piznit's method...I don't play much too unlike that with them.

The rest, I haven't played them as much as these three to get something nailed down, but I would normally get a hefty research base down and try to out-tech my opponents when it comes to war.

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I usually play as a custom race with the Terran tech tree (for their oh so fast engines) with bonuses set to econ, moral, research and creativity

Then I research straight for banks - then straight for republic.

While doing this I try to send my colony ships a ways out to try to make a line near where other races might be and then fill in behind. This usually lets me get a planet jump on the AI which likes to fill planets in close to home. By the time they reach the line, they have to fly past my outer colonies where my lines of travel are shorter

First build queue for planets is factory, space port and two econ buildings

First three planets with space ports start building colony ships, the next two, constructors. After that it depends

I will usually have to lower production for a couple of years due to a low population base (due to constant expansion) but once the pop base comes back up I have one heck of an economy

The draw back is that my strategy almost always results in me being declared war on as I have a lot of planets and little military. I can usually fight for a bit since they rarely have planetary invasion early on. Then I settle for peace with some piddly techs or money.

But thats ok. I make my list of who is mean and next time around they will be trying to make peace with me - usually to no avail

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*I meant turns not years

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I have played all of the races in TA, and one thing applies to them all, and it is precisely what Piznit said: Focus on economy. It is much more difficult now to grow and maintain a robust economy. (As you know) Here are a few things that I have learned along the way, that apply to any of the races.

1) When making your racial picks, pick economy, pop growth, and morale. These have been the standard picks for awhile, and are even more useful now. You don't *have* to pick this way; in fact I mix up my picks quite a bit from game to game, but it will make life easier later on. Creativity is the best 1 point you can spend, though. There is nothing like seeing a 52 week tech proc in two.

2) Grow your population as quickly as possible. It takes taxpaying citizens to fund your projects. Build recruiting centers asap, and try to keep your approval at 100%, in order to get the 100% pop growth bonus. You will probably have to lower taxes, and/or build a morale structure. At the very least, try to keep your morale above 75%, so you will get the 25% pop bonus.

3) Be very judicious about building social projects. I spend a fair amount of time early in my games building nothing at all. I usually build a recruiting center, an economic structure, and perhaps a morale structure, if necessary. You can build a basic factory, or lab, but again, go slow. Avoid building on bonus production or research tiles at first- the extra production comes with extra cost. Wait until you can afford to build there.

4) Don't expand too quickly. This will break the bank faster than anything. Of course you will need to expand, just be smart about it. Take only the better planets (for the inherent morale bonus) whenever possible. And when you do, get their pop up asap, so they will begin paying for themselves.

5) Don't build up a grand fleet right away. Maintenance costs on ships are high. At first, all you really need is a defender or two in order to keep the AI off of your back. Survey ships can be one of your biggest advantages, though. If you have few anomalies in your game, then stick to the one you are given, but put it to work right away. If you have many of them, build 2 or 3 more, and snap them up. When those 1000 bc amounts come rolling in, you'll thank me. Those alone can give you a lot of leeway in how you grow your civ, and all of the other bonuses can really add up as well.

These are just generalities, to be used, modified, or discarded, as you see fit. In the game, as in real life, you have to live within your means. Remember, the AI is playing the same game you are, and faces the same economic conditions. (At most difficulty levels.)

Hope this can be of some help. Good luck.

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Hi, I haven't played GC2 in a long while and I have a basic question about slider settings.

Should you move your economic sliders to the minimal percentage to finish researching a technology or build an improvement or ship? For example, if I'm researching a tech that will be finished in three turns with my current percentage allocation to research (let's say 50% research for this example) should I lower this percentage to the minimum percentage it takes to complete the tech in three turns (let's say 42% for this example)? This would free up 8% to go elsewhere, which would have gone to research; but the research is done in the same amount of turns as if I had left it at 50%.

In other words, is it worth your while to check your sliders each turn to make sure your allocating the minimum percentage it takes to finish a tech or a building or ship in a certain number of turns? Thanks in advance

By the way: The version I'm playing is the latest (ToA 1.9 something). I have research set to "slow" and tech trading disabled.

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If you're just starting out, I strongly recommend playing Torian. Their racial bonuses - +morale, pop growth, super breeder, are all exactly what you need to sustain yourself during and after the colony rush. Their racial techs only enhance this - they start with a set of very powerful 1 per planet improvements: a +10/-2mt factory, a +3mt/+10% food/+20% pop growth farm(!), and a +15% morale/influence temple. Every colony should buy the factory and build the farm and temple. Your morale techs unfortunately don't give an ability bonus, but your morale buildings are cheaper. The tech 1 morale is +18%, so save your amusement bonus tiles for those and put the temple on influence bonuses.

Torian economic strategy emphasizes high population over lots of econ buildings, so make sure you max your econ ability bonus at every turn. Your high pop will also give you influence and resistance to invasions.

Torian research is strange. You get relatively weak research buildings, but a string of cheap +5% research techs that lead to tech victory. Other thing to note: You can research aquatic colonization without first taking the prereq tech for all other extreme colonization types.

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DivineWrath

Join Date 05/2006

+135

If you need help, tyr looking at my TA 101 strategy guide I wrote:

TA 101

My objective for that guide is to ease the transition from DA to TA. To that end, I make a few comments about what I think is useful to know, and what to consider using.

If you want to know more after that, go read another strategy guide... or better yet, experiment for yourself.

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is it worth your while to check your sliders each turn to make sure your allocating the minimum percentage it takes to finish a tech or a building or ship in a certain number of turns?

Oh goodness no. This game can last hundreds of turns, and micromanaging these can make you crazy. Now, some players enjoy this type of thing; squeezing out every last bc or mp in a turn. If this is your cup of tea, then knock yourself out.

As for me, I tend to use broad strokes. If I find myself in a shooting war, I may need to crank out a lot of ships in a hurry, and will max out military. At some point, I may find myself in a race to build a wonder, and I will max social. At other times, I may feel the need to race towards a new, 'must have' tech.

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If I allocate a higher percentage to research than the minimim needed to complete the tech in a given number of turns, does the extra "carry over" to something else or is it simply wasted?

How do most players deal with these issues? Thanks in advance

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It carries over towards the next tech in line. If you get your research high enough, you can complete two, or even three techs in a single turn.

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It carries over towards the next tech in line. If you get your research high enough, you can complete two, or even three techs in a single turn.

Depending on the tech rate and how high you get your tech production, you can actually finish over a dozen techs a turn. Mistralok gives good advice, I just didn't want you thinking it capped at 3 techs in a turn.

~ Wyndstar

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Absolutely. The sky's the limit.

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The only time I might move sliders to finish a tech in 1 turn is if it is the LAST tech in the line, or the last tech I want in that line.

Examples: Spore technology, psi weapons, terraforming, galactic stock exchanges, etc.

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So all things considered, should I discontinue adjusting the research slider like this every turn? If it really makes a difference I'll keep doing it; especially now that I'm behind almost every other race in my current game.

But when I do this each move, right before I click on "next turn", I can't help but wonder if this is what most players do.

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is it worth your while to check your sliders each turn to make sure your allocating the minimum percentage it takes to finish a tech or a building or ship in a certain number of turns?Oh goodness no. This game can last hundreds of turns, and micromanaging these can make you crazy. Now, some players enjoy this type of thing; squeezing out every last bc or mp in a turn. If this is your cup of tea, then knock yourself out. As for me, I tend to use broad strokes. If I find myself in a shooting war, I may need to crank out a lot of ships in a hurry, and will max out military. At some point, I may find myself in a race to build a wonder, and I will max social. At other times, I may feel the need to race towards a new, 'must have' tech.

Never forget the very important tool of FOCUSING each planet to one of the three main investment areas... you know, clicking the little icons in the planet screen, or better than that, clicking the respective cell in the Colonies Management screen...

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A note for TA: if you build fairly balanced planets, focus will almost always save 1 or 2 bc's per turn for that planet. Just a note.

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