Early game woes...

from GalCiv2 Forums
I must be doing something terribly wrong. I have played 3-4 games on tough, with all 9 enemies set on intelligent, so no economic advantages for anyone. Still, in the early game they zoom ahead of me in just about every category.

I am talking specifically about the first 2-3 years. Even with 50% tech research bonus most enemies just get research much faster than me for that initial period. This game in question, to my luck a united council resolution gave every tech researched to every race after a couple of years. I hoped to stay with the pack at that point, but in six months they were all 3-4 techs ahead of me. Only after I got both ahead in diplomacy and got a few expensive techs was I able to catch up in technology and eventually get ahead. This is an example, but it happened every game so far.

Population is the same issue. In those first 2-3 years they get 3-4 times more population than me, which increases their income and lets them get ahead very fast by going to 100% spending much before I do.

In the end I am always able to win, but the game comes down to keeping them happy with me for the first 3 years and then eventually I can take them rather easily. Those first years are especially tough since the also seem able to churn out a huge amount of fighters, which makes my military rating low and makes it harder to keep them off my back. I miss a good tight game were you have to fight for your life throughout. The one game I played as evil (always custom race) I got attacked early by 2 vastly superior races. Again luck struck and when I was just about dead a resolution forced a cease fire. Two months later I had those 2 civs plus another blow me from space.

So my question is, how do you go about your early game? I have tried rushing factories to get production up faster, but that ended up in me falling behind in planets because I had no cash to rush colony ships and my production was barely on par with other civs. I have tried rushing colony ships, but I got as many or fewer planets than other civs and my production fell way behind because that first factory on new planets took forever to come out. I have tried rushing a couple of constructors to grab a couple of resource starbases early, and while that helped in the later game, I could not afford to upgrade them till much later.

What am I doing wrong? Is the only way to keep up early to tech whore every single turn? I would prefer to go looking for trades every ten turns or so, but by then they all have the same techs, mostly, and overcharge me for trades. If I don't do it every turn, eventually I have nothing to offer and fall behind immensely.

Is there a way in which I can keep up early and afford to fight a war in the first year? The problem seems to be they outproduce me in every category early due to more population and thus more income. Even with the same number of planets my population only catches up after 5 years or so. I usually leave my approval around 50-60% in the early game.

Don't get me wrong, it is challenging and I am able to win most times, I am just wondering if I am doing something wrong and if it is possible to have a tight game throughout, instead of behind early and ahead late.



P.S. Not sure if this is a joke or not, but it is very funny. It is a hint on the posting page:

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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Here's my early game strat.

On my first turn, I buy a factory on my home world and begin building a second, followed by two or more research centers. I begin scouting near-by star systems with my survey ship, and colonize a habitable planet with my colony ship. On the new colony, I buy a factory, and, since the nearest planet is usually class 4 or 6, I make it a "research planet". I might save a tile or two for other uses, like an embassy or entertainment network. I then buy another colony ship at my homeworld.

On my second turn, with any luck, I've found more habitable planets nearby, and I send my new colony ship towards them. If I've found multiple habitable planets, I buy another colony ship. Otherwise, I let my starport build it until I do find more habitable planets.

I keep this strat going until I run out of money. Most planets below class 10 become specialized worlds. If I need a starport in the area, I make it a manufacturing world, otherwise I make it a research world. On my class 10 and above planets, I buy the first factory, if I can afford it, and immediately build another. I might build a starport next, or go straight into building research centers. When I run out of money, I cut my spending back to the break-even point, and wait for my economy to catch up.

Using this strat against "sub-normal" intelligence opponents, I'm way, way ahead on everything - research, economy, population, influence. I don't start building military vessels until someone else does, in order to keep research and social production going as strong as possible and avoid ship maintenence from bankrupting my already fragile economy.

I hope that helps.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
All I can say is that your racial and governement bonuses at the start really make a difference, as well as the kind of buildings you make. My favourite approach is the long slow economic overpower - Master economics, Federalists, moral and research bonuses get me far ahead. Even on higher levels where the AI has an economic bonus, even when I compare my ~10 planet empire to the most powerful ai's ~25 planets empire, I'm first in economy and research, due to all the funds.

My trick? Build lots of economic buildings, build some moral building, tax the hell out of your people.

It's harder at first but using your research bonus, go down the economics path early.

Also, don't skimp on galactic ressources -YOU NEED THEM. They are incredibly powerful and can turn your whole empire around. A single green (Economic) bonus can turn your -100BC/turn deficit into a +300bc surplus when fully upgraded.

Of course, this is -one- tactic. It's the easiest one but it also has its risks. That's up to you to find out

Besides, wouldn't you say that all the lagging in technology makes the game more entertaining? You really have to pull your tricks out of your hat to win the day
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I never buy factories at the start. I play with all my oponents on bright and I do this. I choose economic/research/military production skills. I crank up my spending to 100%. After that, I queue up a factory (it builds as "never") and keep buying colony ships.

When I spend all my money on them I then end up building them somewhere in 4-5 turns. I also take the time in there to build a scout to help my survey vessel look around. I then use my colony ships and send them all off to random star systems and hope for the best as far as planets go. A great tactic I noticed that works is try to go where the AI is "most likely" to expand and expand there first.

Lastly, I can't stress the importance of designing your own ships. You can make your own colony vessel that moves an extra par sec just by adding engines to it. Forget sensors. Worthless on the colony ship. All you need to do is find the sun of a solar system, click it, and you'll see if planets are habitable. No reason to explore the whole thing.

After all that, build a few constructors to grab up resources, research some military techs, put up units and build up my economy and buy techs up. Hope that helps.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Besides, wouldn't you say that all the lagging in technology makes the game more entertaining? You really have to pull your tricks out of your hat to win the day


Absolutely. I am a thinker and I like challenge. What I was referring to is the fact that I am always behind early and then ahead past the midpoint. I can't keep up early and they can't keep up late. I was just wondering if that is how it goes or if I was doing something wrong.

Thanks for all the replies. I have tried all these things, but against intelligent opponents I always fall behind, even though they are running on the same specs as me. I simply cannot afford a war one year into the game, whereas the AI seems to be able to easily. The one time I played as evil I got crushed like a worm, since I could not keep the good races off me. I usually play as neutral, but I will try playing as good to see if I am treated differently and can focus more on my infrastructure.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have found diplomacy to be incredibly powerful. I rush to build diplomatic translotors and galactic showcase. With very high diplomacy, you get a lot when trading techs (the AI will trade offensive techs if you have high diplomacy.) It is also easier to get enemies to attack each other. Having probs with the Arcaens early on? Hire their Korx neighbors to attack them. If an AI is already fighting one war, they often will not attack you and start another.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Keep your loyalties at 100% for the early game to boost your population. Eventually you can let it drop on your bigger planets once they are near to max filled.

At some point you can up your taxes to where you are keeping your planets loyalties above 51, no need to do it higher unless you are engaged in some wars at that point.

Running after diplo techs is also a good idea to help you keep your deficeit spending going by selling off older techs to other races.