I was just wondering what most people tend to think of as their prefered game strategy, not to be confused with most effective, just what you enjoy trying to do the most.
For myself, I am a big fan of Proxy wars. I like to get an edge in diplomacy, and get other civ's to do the fighting for me. If I am attacked, I will often try to bribe other civ's into attacking them. If I see a neigbor does not like me, I often pay him off to go to war with someone else.
And when I have an adequate military for self defence purposes, I make a class of ships I call 'Loaners', that are big on life support and engines, and armed with weapons I have alot of defense tech for. Then I just keep giving those ships away as gifts to any civ that is currently at war with someone I view as a threat. Sometimes the ships are just gifts. Sometimes I trade for tech, or just sell them.
When the target of my proxy war comes to me asking for help, I will then jump into the fight myself and mop up. And if my proxy ends up eyeing me, by that point his military is stocked with a bunch of ships that are tactically non viable against my own ships due to my selection of defense tech.
If you want to get the best use of your own shield tech, sell everyone else lasers.
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