First Ten Turns

Well, I'll bite.

Tax to 49%, spending to 100%, check.

Military production to 100%. Design a better colony ship.

Set research for maximum speed, Scotty! (Impulse drive if possible, otherwise aiming toward Ion)

Rush buy a factory. Keep buying one every turn until I'm producing one colony ship every two turns.

Use the initial colony ship on the "other" planet in the home system if there is any. Set that one to building labs.

Once drive technology is attained, switch to getting Universal Translator.

Research and sell technology to sustain 100% spending as long as possible.

New colonies get factory-starport-factory orders to start. Occasionally, when expansion gets long and strung out, I'll rush buy the factory at the end of the chain to get that world building ships asap. Much more rarely (if I can see them coming), I'll rush the starport and rush a colony ship to grab a world from the AI.

first three things I buy are xeno labs, it ehlps to get teh early jump on tech (although it slows down your initial expansion).

So far I tend to set my tax as high as possible (usually higher than 49% due to race bonuses), slider to 100% utilization. Research/Social 50/50. Focus Social. Purchase first factory on every planet, buy at LEAST 1 colony ship for every size of the galaxy (tiny =1, small =2, etc) to colonize. Priority to size 10+, if I can't find any within reach, start colonizing smaller planets. Anything below PQ 10 is Research or Money oriented. I try to keep my approval in the yellows until about turn 25ish, and then stay in green to promote colony growth. I always research economy stuff first, since you can't do anything in the game without money. Usually end up with my Tax at 49% for the duration of the game, to keep approval above 70% (green), always keep production slider at 100%. If economy starts sliding, change research stuff. I'm pretty fluid since random events and some laws can screw you over sometimes.

First thing I do is set the tax rate as high as possible without dropping approval into the negatives. Second thing I do is I adjust the productivity so that I'm not losing more than 50bc a turn. I change military production to nothing and give research the majority of my funding.

Then I purchase one factory, possibly set up another factory or a xeno research lab depending on what my plan for that game is. Either way my first 3 buildings will include 1 factory, 1 xenolab, and either another factory or something to raise money. I then scrap all the core ship designs, redesign them all (or use previous designs) then purchase a colony pod with only 500 people on it. The colony pod may be designed for speed, longe range, both, or none depends on the star distribution.

I then set my flagship to exploring the nearest promising looking starsystem ignoring any anomolies unless they lie near the path of my flagship.

The first thing I research is xeno research (if I don't have it) then because I often set a computer to start out in contact with me universal translators.

Second turn I purchase an explorer ship, send my shuttle to a world (if I see anything above 6), if there are no promising worlds I send my shuttle off to investigate in the direction my flagship is heading.

After that I pruchase factory on every planet as soon as possible, avoiding going beneath -500bc, and buying enough shuttles to empty most of my treasury.

Second thing I research is either a drive tech (depends on what I start with and if I gave myself the speed bonus) or go right for miniturization. I find getting the largest hull sizes as soon as reasonably possible and the miniturizations greatly help my battleships or any ships. Nothing better than getting a shuttle out with 4 engines on it and reaching halfway across a galaxy to claim a planet right next to another species right before their pod gets their . So far that seems to work quite well on the tough difficulty.

O yes the second thing I build on adequite sized worlds is a starport (usually on the second turn) and then set it to make a research lab. I get almost all my money early in game by selling my techs off. Usually that leaves me a bit behind right after the start but I always end up doing 50% of the research (with 8 opponents) so I make that up pretty quickly.

buy factory, buy colony ship, set taxes high, set research 100%, spending enough to xeno labs in 1 turn
buy lab, buy colony ship, start resarching engines
buy factory, buy colony ship
set spening to around 35/20/45, and keep building up home planet
once you get good engines, redo colony ships, and go for sensors
once you get sensors, build a few more survey ships and clean up on anomolys...
(this assumes a large map...)

I make colony ships with an extra engine on them, then buy one per turn until I am unable to buy one without my treasury going under 0. I never, ever, lease.

I turn my military slider to 0, because I will be purchasing my ships, not building them.

I also turn my research slider to zero, because I have found in the early game expansion is more important than techs.

So, 100% on social building.... and then build factory after factory.

Taxes set so high that my approval rating is just barely over 50%. Dont worry about approval too much until you are past the expansion stage.

The colony ship they give you is slow, so use it on that class 4 planet next to your homeworld, and get started building factories.

Always build a factory before the starport, else the starport will take longer to build.

Ok, so your broke now, and you have several fast colony ships on thier way out.

Actualy, reading this topic shows me some improvements i could make to my system, but you asked what we do, so there it is. Of course what I do will be different now that I have read this


Put your military spending on 50% and your Social on 50% for a while, until you are happy with the number of factory's you have and can pump out colony ships.

Finaly, after a few races have met you and asked for your diplomatic translator to be turned on, drop your social down and increase research, I usualy go 40/20/40 (mil/soc/reas) for a while until I know I cant expand further.

Ok, thats more than ten turns hehehe.

First turn I buy an entertainment center. I set the tax to slightly under the break between 100% and 99% approval. My spending is either at the highest without having negative income or 100%. I'll either set my research to 100 or 50/50 it with social. I set my flagship to autosurvey unless there is a specific star i want to explore first. I move my colony ship it's 2 dinky spaces towards a visible habitable planet or a promising nearby star. Once it's moved, I upgrade it to my custom colony ship (it's finished at the start of the new turn and has more movement). My research is aimed at impulse drives for global +1 speed bonus and the impulse drive engine. After that, I then buy/build markets and purchase colony ships. I do markets because they are cheap, increase your income, and can be upgraded later to cut out a little build time. I buy an entertainment center on each new planet i settle, and keep adjusting tax/spending to stay 100% approval and as close to zero income (spending as much as I can without losing money each turn). Once my income can support it, I'll produce factories and work on building up my planets.
By staying at 100% approval, my population growth is doubled. Mixed with the markets, it allows my income to increase at a very fast rate.

Am I the only person that hates making up these detailed strategies for the beginning of a game? I know it sounds funny, not liking to make up a strategy to play a STRATEGY game, lol, but for some reason it just ruins the mystique of the game for me. Yeah, sure, I build up some colony ships and what not, try the ole "snatch and grab", but...hmpf, I dunno. I guess I kinda get into these games in a different way. I know the computer is doing everything it can to pump out colony ships and steal as many habitable planets as possible (without caring who's territory they are infringing on), but....meh. I usually research Univ Translator right away so I can open up diplomacy with my neighbors, then after that it depends on what alignment I feel like playing. If it's evil, I'll start working on weapons and get planetary invasion asap so I can steal the juicy planets. If it's good, then I'll start on trade and industry.

Oldschool GC1 colony ship rush. Rawr.

I buy up colony ships (never on lease), and build factories to start planets off. Everything else simply depends on the situation, and my mood.

Might as well chime in:

Flagship to autoexpore, colony ship headed twards something decently promising.

Buy a sensor ship immediately and send it out scouting, on large galaxies, buy two. Possibly buy a colony ship if I find a good world and its near a neighbor or if I find a 2500bc anomaly.

Buy a factory. On higher difficulties, make that buy a factory on some sort of manufacturing tile or else restart the game. Even the min manufacturing bonus can shave several turns off at the start.

Tax to 49% (or 59% with enough morale bonus), spending to 100%. 100% social production. If I have a good manufacturing tile, make 1 factory per turn until the capital is close to filling up (2-3 free tiles). If you're feeling like micromanagement, you can adjust social spending down and military up as you complete factories, so that you don't overspend social too much. Then put the manufacturing capital in the queue but don't actually start building it, instead set Military spending to 100% and start putting out 1 fast colony ship per turn. (might or might not work, depending on racial bonuses/tech, but usually works for me as the Yor or as a custom race).

Depending on tech level, buy a factory for each new colony if possible (tends to vary based on how many cash anomalies I get). Specialize social spending. Build 1-2 factories, and decide how to specialize the world. Large worlds are usual econ, medium worlds are usually factory worlds, and small worlds are usually research, but it varies depending on tiles and I try to keep at least one large world to stick a tech capital on. If I find a world with good manufacturing bonuses (I've been getting lucky with precursor mines lately), I'll cancel the unbuilt manufacturing capital on my homeworld and move it there, otherwise it'll complete itself when I turn social spending back on.

Starports are the third item on the list for all manufacturing worlds, but I don't bother with them for most others. If I can't decide on a planet, I make it a generalized world. 3 factories, starport, couple farms/entertainment and a couple econ buildings. Typically where I make cheaper ships and useful for extra places to buy ships in an emergency, but not optimal. I always try to have at least one starport per "cluster" of stars, so if needed I can purchase a ship at the nearest starport and move it to defend a planet the next turn.

Once you start running out of scouted colonizable worlds, set spending to 50/50 social/research and start moving up the tech tree. Specialize your homeworld on military so you still have some ships coming out, but this gives the rest of your colonies time to fill out their social buildings a bit more. Get the universal translator first, then see if the AI have any holes and try to fill them. You'll be behind on tech for a bit, but can catch up quickly once you turn it back on.

The idea behind this is to reduce purchasing ships as much as possible. You need at least one scout ship out as soon as possible so you know where to send your colony ships, but if you can avoid buying colony ships your initial 5000bc goes a lot further. 1 colony ship per turn for the first 5 turns gets you a quick 5 colonies, but that also means you don't have the cash to buy factories to get them started well. If you wait till you've built up your capital a bit, you can pump out 1 colony ship a turn for at least 10 turns, starting 5 turns in and still have cash to buy factories for at least some of the colonies. On larger galaxies, its worth giving up a few turns to pump the ships out longer.

And don't forget your military once your other factory worlds start developing. Having a decent military is key to keeping the peace and not becoming a target of opportunity for everyone else. Once you see someone else start building ships on the timeline don't ignore it for more than about 10-15 turns or you'll be in trouble at higher difficulties.

Well, I do things a little differently so I'll throw in my 2 cents.

First, I only set my tax on 39% so I can keep my colonies in the green (faster population growth rate).

Second, I take a cargo hull and fill it with engines and sensors so that I have a scout that (depending on starting abilities) can move either 3 or 4 and can see five or six parsecs out. I purchase this on turn one.

I purchase a factory on the home world and start building an economic and lab resource.

I set the "ship building" slider to 0 (since I purchase my first few ships) and raise the social and research spending to 50/50.

I immediately settle the second planet in the system and purchase a factory, start building a starport, and schedule the rest of the squares as factories.

I then scout by hand (not auto) with the flagship. Unless I'm playing the humans, I look at the minimap, using the influence spheres to see where the other gusy are and the systems are, and I race to the systems on the edges of their influence spheres and settle them before they do by building fast colony ships (which I build--I never use the slow core ships for anything) and purchasing them.

During the first few turns I usually end up 500 in debt but have anywhere from five to seven worlds settled. A lot of times I end up with the bad guys settling worlds in my sphere of influence which makes them easy targets later on.

I love this game. I'm having a blast. I created a race called Klingoons (lame, I know) and they are a mighty people. Even the Drenghin tremble when they hear about the Klingoons!

Hm I found that it does not help to set taxes to 49 % at the beginning -> population growth is too slow ...

And really ... it does not matter whether you get 20 bc for 49 % or 10 bc for 25 %. Afterwards people of course have to pay the imperator

Am I the only person that hates making up these detailed strategies for the beginning of a game?

I understand perfectly what you are saying, mate. It's always made me frown how people turn strategy games and MMO's into very formulaic experiences, almost like it is a job. However, I believe that the early land grab is absolutely essential, especially in higher difficulties, that is why I apply the same tactics right in the beginning. After that though, all of my games have had a different flavor.

I most definitely change my startup depending on the map. When you play a large map with many, many planets, there's no way your starting treasury can handle purchasing colony ships. You'll be lucky just to keep your spending at 100% producing colony ships the old fashioned way. On a small map with very few planets and no manufacturing bonus tiles you have to change your tune, too--you might have a treasury surplus, and there may be less planets to colonize than you have treasury.

Either way, though, I do NOT recommend starting your tax at 49%. Get that approval to 100%. Your colony ships will be raiding you of population enough as it is.

I might point out that the pop growth racial bonus makes for a SWEET start. It might bog you down in the mid-game, but if you can exploit your pop advantage enough, the game may already be decided by then.

I do what Brillig does but with some variations. I fall behind in tech because fo this but I end up with probably most pop most of the time. I don't research anything until there are no more open worlds in my area.

Set 100% military 100% spending and have my homeworld crank out colony ships (Usually speed 4 with properly set starting technology) every other turn. To do this I buy 4 factiores (Less if there is production bonus on the planet) but during the turns im buying the factories Im also building a vessel to help scouting. All my colony ships drop off 100 million people. These people will eventually grow by the time I get to the phase where I turn to social/research 50/50. Then they will provide heafty amount of tax.

So for the first 10 turns I only buy factiories and make a scouting ship with scanners and colony ships.

I panic buy (rush buy sounds way too controlled) everything I can to get my colony ships out faster. A factory on the homeworld and purchase a ship every other turn.... so I tend to leave the sliders where they are at the start as I want a bit of everything. I still always outcolonise the AI by a large margin - I play on Tough - ..... but the first 10 turns are mostly uncontrolled panic on my part!! I've never been hemmed in yet or failed to get any decent quality planets within range of my starting system unless I am practically sharing a system with another civ (i.e. smaller maps).

I try to get another planet or 2 with a factory and starport immediately to help with this manic settling.

Generally by the time the AI is gearing up on world snatching, I am pretty much ready to settle down and start focusing on social building and constructors.

I generally just dont bother with any planet lower than 8 until I have seen all nearby systems and have the jewel planets settled unless I need to settle to increase my range. I rarely bother to settle a PQ4 even after panic settling as my influence will take it back anyway.

Once all decent planets are settled I fill in the lower PQ ones in order.

I'm sure there are better (and less stressful) ways of doing this but I invariably come out with the largest chunk of planets, have all the decent planets and still have a small treasury to defecit spend from. Next I focus on getting my economy running before I run out of cash.

Zerg rush!!!

I won't say it's the right or wrong way, but I've had good luck picking the +4 Sensors racial trait and letting my colony ships and flagship do the initial scouting. I don't need to build scout ships until I research sensors. When building a custom race I don't need stellar cartography (and its prerequisites), either.