Military Conquest Victory Broken?

I Can't Afford to Defend Myself!

from GalCiv2 Forums
I'm cruising along, making money, spreading my culture and wealth around when the Korx decide I should be taken out. My military rating is over 100 and I've kept my ships in orbit, nothing to make anyone upset. I have some economy and influence starbases spread about but usually on my side of the border. OK, the Korx want a fight I'll give them one, I have plenty of money and I definitely have a tech advantage. I take one of his planets and I get NOTHING for my effort. NO loot, NO tech, just a happy populace of liberated aliens. But I do notice that my positive income has swung into the red. Huh? I see the newly freed world has a small population and I expect that it will be a drain on my economy until the local tax base gets large enough to support itself, but one planet is bankrupting me? The Korx aren't ready to change their ways so I quickly seize another of their planets to no effect. They expect me to give them something for peace? What do I have to do? Bulldoze their entire civilization? Now the conquest of the second planet gains me nothing but more red ink and my treasury quickly slips into the red. Soon my economy shuts down as I can't go any further into the red than 500 bc. My population, who was cheering me as I conquered, now goes on strike because of my budget deficit and my military begins to shrink relatively because of the production shut down. I'm hopelessly stalemated and helpless to grow my economy and military. Eventually the Korx produces new ships to counter my tech and I'm on the defensive.
In my mind the game is broken at this point. If I don't receive any rewards for conquest, even when I was attacked unprovoked, what's the point of a military solution. And then to become bankrupted by my newly conquered worlds is unacceptable. I'm using normal invasion techniques so as not to damage the infrastructure of my new worlds and they are still bleeding me dry. This is absolutely no fun. Has anyone else experience this or am I missing something here?
11,822 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hahah. Getting the world is its own reward. A whole new world is better than money or a single piece of new tech. I dunno, when I'm at war, yeah, my coffers slowly deplete, but, I usually have near 15000+ BC in my coffers when combat starts (around turn 52 IIRC), which I use as a buffer... It's expensive to manufacture and research, so I trade tech for BC from the AIs to fund my poor economy. Once I grab a few worlds, it's clear sailing from there, as I can make my bank world. No matter what I lose money each turn for 90% of my game, but I try to keep it under 180 BC per turn. It climbs to 300 BC per turn when cranking out ships. This is all prior 1.1, so I expect it to be easier now.

When I started playing, I played on cake-walk to understand the game better. Then normal, then tough, then suicidal. Each time my tactics improved as I developed a playstyle that could defeat the AI. I don't think I could beat the AI on suicidal without tech trading, or by creating balanced worlds.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
destroy the colony! you didnt need it did ya?? obviously not if its draining your economy. trade the planet to another race and let it drain their economy
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Good idea. If it's a horrible planet, just sell it for tech or bc.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nobody forces you to take a planet! If you don't have a healthy enough economy to build up and defend another planet, don't do it. You must have been running pretty close to the wire for a single planet to bankrupt you. Before even consider advancing on, never mind taking a planet, always make sure you have either a big cash reserve (10,000+) or a healthy net income (200bc/month or more).

As was said above, you always had the chance of selling it on. Either to someone else, or back to the Korx in return for peace and lots of cash.


Also, if your economy was so shaky, there is your reason for the Korx attacking you. Also a military rating above 100 means nothing if their rating is 400. You're still small fry to thm, just less so.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
When you go to war, you have to change your economical sliders to adjust your society to a war footing that can support the war. Look carefully at what the AI has built on the planet, and make changes to the infrastructure to fit your style of play. Many times the AI has built the planet up totally unrelated to the bonuses that are available on that planet. I have not taken a planet from the ai yet, that I have not had to make changes to the planet.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Don't blame the game and call it broken for your inability to manage conquest and your economy. I and many others have conquered hundreds of worlds without running into your problem. The problem isn't the game - its your lack of ability. And I hate it when someone claims a game is bugged because they screw up.

Oh, yeah, if military conquest were broken, then explain why so many high scorer in the Metaverse have alot of military conquests? Can you explain that?
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Hey kent henson. What has happened here is the planet you have taken over is producing a lot or has a lot of expensive structures on it.

Normally a planet has a large population so it pays for the expense of manufacturing (which costs 1 billion per point) or for special buildings, when you invade it you slaughter everyone. Then the remains of your army become the population, this will mean it makes a loss initially. Basically you need to either move down the sliders for the amount of tax you spend on military/science/social, raise taxes or destroy some of the improvements on planet which cost a lot of money to run.

As time passes you will start to see the population grow and then see the taxes similar amounts to the cost of the planet
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sounds like the world you took over had a manufacturing capital on it with a load of factories. That caused a huge increase in your spending.

You didnt get any tech from taking over the planet because you already had all their techs. You never get cash from taking over planets - strengthening your position and weakening your enemies is reward enough, the free tech is just icing (unless you are playing against the Dreadlords!!)
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Also, a loss of trade routes when war starts can quickly drop your income.

You mentioned you are using normal invasion so as not to damage infrastructure, if that is so, you are losing a lot more people then you would in other routes. This loss of people is a loss of tax revenue. Further, I've often taken planets where teh ai had let the morale go to pot, which quickly droped my nations morale. Make sure you balance that quickly, even if it means demoing some structurres on the new world.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I was making between 100 and 200 BC per week before the attack. I had nearly 3000 BC banked and was building my fleet to keep up with the competition. I might add, that my ships have a qualitative advantage over the my foes. I seldom lose battles. But that doesn't matter when he's replacing his 6 losses with 12 more.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
sliders for war

100% spending

100% military
0% social
0% research

highest taxation level you can go while keeping 51%+ approval

The planet you captured the new buildings on it you acquired would be the drain on your economy, if they were upgrading or producing stuff. Either bulldoze un-needed structures and build economic - morale boosting structures instead or as someone else said sell the planet.

You gained no extra tech as you already were ahed on tech so had nothing new to gaain.

100 military doesnt mean you were ahead (goes over 100) check the military graph screen for a more accurate idea of where you are in relation to everyone else strength wise.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What's actually happening is that you're now paying the maintenance of the new planets, as well as not collecting as much tax from the new planets as its previous masters (b/c you kill off 90% of the populace), as well as generating more industrial output from the new planets.

So it's a triple drain. Consider setting your industrial production down a bit after you've conquered the planets. You'll probably produce the same net production despite having the slider back.

And, as a side note: Military conquest has never generated money for those who try to conquer-and-hold. You only make money when you sack and raid, and leave the conquered populace penniless and destitute. Galciv automatically assumes you aren't doing the latter. You can probably simulate this by selling the conquered planets or just making agricultural planets.