Another lame tactic

Try raising your level of play a bit.

People need to NOT comment on the AI unless they have played it at a high level

Quite so, play with the AI's on Bright or better. Then tell us it's flaws.

Ever heard of social production, its a slider too. A big empire with a strong economy can run at 100% spending which means its researching, military production and developing worlds all go quickly.

I've just learnt the hard way why it's bad for the empire which you have over 75% of your trade routes decides to declare war on you . .. my poor poor money

Ugrok, play on the "Tough" level (the fair one) before commenting on the AI. Safari Joe, that's like saying that all you have to do to win is win (have a big emp with strong economy). That's kind of obvious.

Seriously.. Agree with the opinions expressed by subsequent posters. The AI is quite capable if you don't gimp it by choosing an easy level of play. Play at Intelligent or better. . .

Safari Joe, that's like saying that all you have to do to win is win (have a big emp with strong economy). That's kind of obvious.

I guess I was a little glib.

What I meant was that with social production running an economy grows (well as long as you don't just build research centres and factories) and allows you to increase your spending rate which leads to higher output in the other two areas as opposed to slamming military and research sliders back and forth.

I believe the easy levels are a training course such as a tutorial for new players, once you are strong and solid enough, you must kick a notch and start playing hardest level, you ill be amaze how strong is the AI, I am still playing between beginner and challenging just to get a grip, there are so many variables and different things, events, espionage, trades, etc that makes the game fun, if you are disappointed a low levels, like everyone else already mentioned above, kick the game a notch and get ready to face the wrath of the AI. Sometimes the AI is very mean and the Drengins will like to invite you for dinner, guess who is the main plate???? Anywho..................

Trade?!?! NAY! tax your weakling society type...persons and uh...er..hmm no wonder i keep getting my *censord* handed to me

I don't think it's that easy, because it's a lot of micro.

Lol i tried to play it on normal earlier......i must be doing something horribly wrong...i get pounded =P....Back to the Newb Table for me...

I'm so good at GalCiv2 that I'm regularly beating the computer on Tough and higher without even owning the game yet! My Firefox heavy fighters and Destiny class frigates with there secret fourth weapon type - Krispy Kreme Donuts - make mincemeat of the Drengin hordes muhahahahahahahaaar

I played against the dreadlords on Tough, I must admit they were pathetic, they beat me though but for about half the game I was owning them. Chances are that I could of beaten them but I didn't want to play another few hundred turns to see so I started again on normal and beat them really quickly.

I've yet to play the sandbox version of the game. I think that might be harder for me, since all my combat experience as been against the Dreadlord, those guys use completely different tactics to everyone else, with the Dreadlords all I built was cheap assault ships with fast engines the idea being if I hit them first I tend to win the battle. Problem with the DLs is that they build slowly so each lost to them is a blow while for me it isn't that bigadeal. But the other ai races will be on my level of technology and will require little time to build up a massive and I mean massive fleet.

But on the other hand the tactics that I have employed against the DLs to keep such a powerful race at bay might also work inpart against my less advanced foes. My heavy interceptor design seems to almost always work, combine that with sensor AWAC ship and you can pretty much guarantee no one will be landing troop ships on your colonies.

J

Lol i tried to play it on normal earlier......i must be doing something horribly wrong...i get pounded =P....Back to the Newb Table for me...

"normal" is actually a beginner type of setting. The AIs are a notch or two below "intelligent." You have to play on "tough" or higher to play against "intelligent" AIs.

I found that on "normal" I didn't have to mess with the sliders much since the AIs aren't as smart (and i think they get resource penalties so they build and research slower). On "tough" I usually micro the mil/soc/res sliders a bit more to optimize occasionally because the AIs and their production are more formidable.

I doubt that this so-called lame tactic would radically unblance a "tough" game. It's just another approach to building/research and I would highly suspect that the "intelligent" AIs periodically use radical slider settings at some times.

I played a large game with all AI's included today, took me about 4 hours to admit defeat. I did the amazing economy strat, building up a negligible military and then focusing on starbases and trade routes. Around the time that I was feeling like I had the game in the bag, two races that were my primary trading partners erupted into a bitter war, and it was like WW II; everybody started chosing sides. At the end of it, the Drengin/Yor/Arcean alliance smashed my allies the Alterians and started to mop up on everybody else. It was only a matter of time before I was next, and their was no way I could counter their military might. That game was played on Tough.

Also, some minor race named the Venge showed up about halfway through and RAPED a Arcean world. Reduced a class 17 world to class 5! Never seen that before, but the Arceans justly sodomized the minor race for it almost immediatly afterwords. Pretty cool.