I just don't think I get it.

from GalCiv2 Forums
Never played GalCiv 1, but I'm an old MOO veteran.

My first couple games of GalCiv 2 were a breeze, on Beginner difficulty. That shouldn't come as a surprise. I tried a Small galaxy with two opponents, and went for an Influence victory in my 3rd or 4th game. Not a problem, I owned 91% of the galactic map before medium made an appearance.

Now I'm trying a Medium galaxy, 3 enemies, all on Normal intelligence. And they are wiping the floor with me. I was going to try exploring a Technological victory, using a custom race with good Diplomacy and good Research, try to get "get in good" with everyone and then micromanage my way to a tech victory. Here is typically what happens:

1. By the time my first colony ship is created, the Terran Alliance have sent out 2-3 colony ships, and have already begun colonizing PQ 10+ worlds my flagship is just discovering. If I restart games until my race isn't COMPLETELY surrounded by aliens, I can occasionally grab 4-6 worthwhile planets. If the Thalans are in the game, they take the same strategy. If I play with both Terrans and Thalans, the map becomes two-colored within 50 turns, as they expand like crazy with nothing to stop them. I don't even know how they produce this many colony ships, and the Terrans often STILL manage to out-tech me during this stage.

2. About 50 turns in, my relationship with the Drengin (or Yor, or Korx) begins to slip. No amount of tech or monetary gifts will appease them, and they declare war on me 100 turns into the game. In order to prevent my complete ruin at the hands of scores of 6-beam ships, I have to force my early tech into the military tree. I put up some Weak Defender ships, with 1-2 missile racks and 0-1 shields (of the appropriate type), around each of my planets. Ten turns after the Drengin declare war on me, they attack with 10 fleets of 2-3 ships each, and wipe out my entire defense squadron. It's only a matter of time at this point before the troop ships start coming. It doesn't matter if I rush to Medium Hulls, or if I defend myself with Small ships with multiple missile mounts, the Drengin usually manage to strip my defense off each of my planets.

3. During this time, the Terrans have continued their frenzied expansion, and the map turns slowly bluer as I fight off the Drengin. Occasionally, I'm able to score a peace with the Drengin, and that's when the Terrans start demanding money and tech tributes. My relationship with them starts to slip, until they eventually declare war on me, and I am too depleted to fight them off.

Now, I want to play this game without using any of the cheesy AI tactics I've found and read on the forum. I don't want to buy the Drengins' credits, I don't want to repeatedly conquer and donate a PQ4 planet to steal technology, and I don't want to play the Yor with their decidedly powerful racial features. But how do you simultaneously prepare for inevitable war against the Drengin while halting the Terrans' explosive expansion? If I go heavy Military at the start and crank out 7 colony ships, by the time I colonize all those worlds, my economy is in the crapper and I can't support the ships I need to defend myself against the Drengin. If I build for economy, the Terrans choke me by colonizing 15 planets and cranking their economy while I'm in the middle of a war.

I've read the "Beginners Guide" on the forum, but it's too basic to help me. Any other resources I can use to learn the strategy for this game?
8,119 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Try tech trading, as that's what the AI's doing. You don't have to take the cheesy route and buy credits, but you're only cheating yourself if you don't trade some techs. In my last game, I was going for a diplomatic victory (and got it on a small map with 6 opponents on Normal. I had plenty of diplomatic skill from the start through my chosen abilities, and used that to get a good deal on whatever techs each of the opponents had. Then, once you've bought the first tech, sell it to everyone else (I usually trade tech for tech + money, or if they have no techs for me, I'll do tech for money alone, or (finally) tech for money + influence points, if they're low on cash). The important thing to keep in mind is that if you don't do this, the AI will (at least until you switch to version 1.1 and turn off tech trading). Oh, and one more thing: don't trade your diplomacy techs... the fewer they have the better the prices you'll get. Whenever you come across another civ, immediately send 'em everything you've got (minus diplomacy, of course) to get a nice infusion of cash.

Anyway, back to that last game of mine I was using as an example. I built up enough money (and Trade Goods) to buy the navies of all my opponents... I didn't do any military research of my own (well... until much later in the game, but you'd be able to skip that most likely if you're going the Tech Victory route), but instead used their own fighters/heavy fighters/defenders/troop transports to conquer the Arceans/Drengin/Torians (the Yor were beaten by the Altarians), before I allied with the Thalans and the Altarians. I could've continued on and taken out the Thalans, too, then settled down to chip away at the Altarians (they had more than half the map by that time and were fairly powerful), but I didn't feel like dragging the game out any longer than it had already gone, so I donated every tech I had to both remaining civs, then allied with each of them.

In your case, going for a tech victory, I'd suggest building up wealth by tech trading, then buy someone else's fighters to park in orbit around your planets, and throw up a few military starbases to overlap your planets. That should get you the privacy you need to seriously get your research on.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sell your techs (one at a time) to the AI. You will make a boat load of cash. When you start (and much or all of the game) put the spending slider on 100%. Micro manage your 3 other sliders. Go 100% social until you build several factories. Build lots of colony ships (again, 100% military). Focus hard on social stuff until you see others building their military. Don't forget traders. You should be able to play on painful once you get good at managing this. Again, the key is trading and selling techs.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Reading posts like this, I always wonder if the AI install on my computer is somehow broken. You seem to know what you're doing, so I'm at a bit of a loss as to why you are having so much trouble.

One thing is, if there is tech trading allowed in your game, and you DON'T tech trade, you are going to get stomped, since your opponents while have a substantial tech advantage.

The Drengin will go to war with you if you have a weak military (in their eyes) which basically means they will always go war with you.

If you expect that you are going to be in a war with the Drengin, try to figure out which system they will attack first. Try to get a military starbase built that covers your closest planet to them and their most direct approach. Do the appropriate research and put on the right defence modules and your 1/1 ships will be pretty much invulnerable. Don't leave ship in orbit on that planet, just fleet them up and keep them near the starbase. It's more fun to intercept than wait for someone to attack you in orbit.

I'm surprised about the 6-beam comment, though. In my games, they seem to take forever to get beyond the 2-0, or even 1-0 stage.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I agree with the above poster. Since you're already have high diplomacy, tech trading is the way to go. Tech trade for other techs, and BC. You'll find that you'll bankrupt the AIs pretty quickly.

As far as the Drengin go... Yes, they will almost always be the first monkey wrench thrown into your plans. But, there's a couple things you can do:

1) You ALWAYS want to be the biggest baddest military in the galaxy.

2) On the lower difficulty levels, you can usually just trade the drengin tech or BC for his ships to keep his military low and yours higher.

3) Keep the Drengin occupied by paying him to fight all the other civs in your game at the same time.

4) With +50% military production, you can easilly outpace them military wise.

I used to play with +50% diplamacy, +50% research, and populist party. Since patch 1.1b I've switched to: +50% military production, +30% diplomacy, +10% morale, and still populist party.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
1. "I don't even know how they produce this many colony ships"
You are aware of the possibility of buying the ships? This makes a huge difference in the start of the game.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I agree with the others about tech trading. I don't tech trade too heavily but I do trade for a tech here and there. I also usually try to tech trade with the civs I think I will want to ally with. Even with just a little tech trading eventually you will start to get ahead of your opponents if you also have a focus on research. I also am judicial about what techs I do trade. If its something I don't want the other civs to have then I don't trade it to them.

Regarding your other problems I have some advice.

What I do when I start out is always immediately buy the first factory on the planet. Do this for every planet you colonize.. build a factory and buy it out right away. On your home planet you might want to buy a second factory outright as well. I use my colony ships as my exploration ships. This way as soon as I find a planet I colonize it right away.

There is a risk of colonizing too fast but with the current version released I think you have no other choice. You must get more planets then the other civs during the initial rush. I believe in 1.1 they are affecting population growth so that colonizing too quickly will have even greater damage on the economy than it currently does now.

As soon as you can notch the espionage on the civs up just a tick or two. In time you'll acquire more info.

About the military issue, you must keep a very active eye on the Charts and Graphs section in your foreign advisor. The military rating is extremely useful and important. Keep an eye on the other enemy civs military rating and yours. They will all start at 0 but will start going up. It lets you know when the other civs start building their military. As soon as you see other military ratings go up, you must prioritize building military ships until you get yours to at least a little under most of them. Most civs will go medieval on you if you military rating is very low compared to theirs. Once you boost your military rating up to something respectable, around 100, then go back to building your economy and infrastrucutre. Even the Dregin think twice about attacking you if you have a capable military capacity.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hey buddy,

I had the same problem as you did....until I figured out how to work the sliders.....

Crank your tax slider so that you generate more BC's....but remember to keep above 40% approval to have your population growth bonus....

In the beginning of the game keep your industrial production slider cranked to 100, as you should have a bunch of BC's to start the game.....buy a factory on your homeworld, and buy a colonship....that should give you 2 colony ships initially....from there you can pretty much run with it.....as soon as you meet a minor race start trading tech for BC's to maintain your industrial production slider at 100%.....that will keep you producing colony ships to expand quickly....eventually your revenue with Trade and economics should turn your negative BC's per turn into positive and....voila...you have an economy.....

Hope this helps...
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Okay, the AI will only go to war with you if you have a low military rating. Despite the quarterly guy saying that 100 is a good military value, don't listen to him. He stinks. You need to keep up with the top civilization.

Don't be afraid of going to war. When you invade a planet you can really get a high end tech. I went from laser 1 to laser IV with a planet capture before. That's a good amount of inbetween tech that you don't need to research.


Anyway, here are a few tips:

1. The AI generally will favor a certain weapon type for a large stretch of the game. Figure out what it is and research the defense.

2. When they build defenses, it is usually for the weapon they use, since the AI is using that weapon. Pick an opposing weapon.

3. With the above two in combination you can really destroy a stronger military quite easily. You'd be surprised how much a 1 can really help.

4. You'll never get in good with everyone unless you have a large bank account. They won't go after your money, you'll juts have to keep them busy killing each other so they don't go after you.

5. Your starting bonsues make a huge difference. What's most important for tech? Your economy and tech. ability. Maximize though.

6. Be reayd for war. Someone's going to declare it on you. It's so easy to run up the soldiering bonus branch of the tree. Eventually, you'll be stomping them with your massive soldiering bonus and steal their high end tech.

7. Don't ignore engines. It's always better to attack than be attacked.

8. Sensors will help you as will Eyes of the Universe when you run up the ridiculously easy sensor branch.


Summary: All in all.. Plan to go to war. A tech victory can be one of the most annoyingly long routes to victory you can go (rivalled by a military victory on a gigantic map... gah), so plan to take detours and enjoy the scenic route on your way there.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
quick buy the first 4 colony ships, you start with 5000 BC and each is less then 1000
and having 1000 BC as backup is enough for the deficit spending you will have the first some turns

drengins bug you? wait till they have good military and then bribe them to attack 2-3 other civs
then they are busy fighting their wars and wont bother you

and keep trading your techs, all of them, except the diplomacy ones and some key techs (i like to hold back planetary invasion just to be save in the beginning, same for medium scale building)

while all other races are fighting wars that you bribed them to, you can build up your economy and get tons of techs (after all, they need to spend their money on fleets, you have it for techs)
with that advantage you can bribe them to war again once they make peace and boost your economy with more tech trading
this will give you an even greater advantage, which you can then use in the late game to crack out some highly advanced nearly invulnerable starships to conquer the enemy (or buy their cultural mining starbases or whatever)
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Oh.. for the post above. They're going to get planetary invasion either way and it's so easy to stop one of those. Trade it away for big bucks, expecially to the Krox. I agree on Diplomacy techs past Advanced diplomacy. I also agree 100% on medium hulls.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks everyone. Tech trading turned out to be the key to victory. The idea of going high Diplomacy and then selling my technology for BC never even entered my universe before now. Right now, I'm playing a Medium galaxy with 3 opponents. I'm using the Terrans (rather than a custom race), with the Thalans, Drengin, and Torians. I have 10,000 BC in the bank, 100% spending slider, and a green economy. My research is now easily double every other race's, because I had the capital to expand as fast as possible without worrying about negative cash flow.

It's a little unsettling to me that yesterday, I was losing on Normal difficulty in the first 100 turns, and in the first game that I'm trading techs for cash, I'm on the straight path to a warless victory. I still have exactly zero ships, but the constant tech trade keeps the Drengin from getting too much below "Cool" on the relations slider. A couple influence starbases later, and half the map is a nice Terran blue. I could even end the game in 20 turns by going for an Influence victory, though I'm holding off to try a Tech victory.

This method seems a little... I dunno, silly. A race threatens to go to war with you, but they'll agree to sell you their own battleships so you can mount a defense? Is that how the universe is supposed to work?