Question about military

from GalCiv2 Forums
What is the best thing to do with military? I am playing a game where I have worked on most everything, and if I haven't then I bought it from others. What do you suggest for getting a good military? I'm trying to fight the Drengians (sp?) and I have one of the lowest military ratings. How do you get a good military? I have the weakest ships in the game. I just need tips on how to get a good military.
I'm using the latest beta.
10,842 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Oh, and what weapons and armor do you suggest?
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
anything really, your rating isnt based on how good your ships are, its based on sheer numbers, i usually research guns till a point because you get something called the nanoripper at i think graviton driver 4 and its an awesome weapon, im also a fan of the armor over shields and point defense, because i dont usually care about cost and armor usually researches fast and has high protection. id say focus on one type of weapons and armor for awhile, then you can buy other things from people and later in the game if you havent researched lower stuff you can actually research more then one tech per turn
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Personally I crank out 1 defender per planet relitively early on. This keeps my military rating up enough to keep the other civs off my back for a bit. For real defense after that I tend to design tiny 1 laser or mass driver and 1 armor ships and build a military starbase. Beef up the starbase and make a fleet of as many of the tiny ships as you can. The fleet should have a really high attack and defense in all catagories if you have the techs to beef up the starbase. This is costly and time consuming so start early, but it really ensures that you have cheap and easily reinforcable fleets that can defend your planets.

To explain a tiny hull has a logistics cost of 2 in a fleet. if your logistics is say 16 thats 8 ships. With the bonus from second starbase assist tech (Mobilization i think but i cant remember) It gives a bonus to all attack and defense of 3.
So 8 ships with 1 beam and 1 armor is a fleet of 8 beam and 8 armor. 8 ships getting +3 to all attack and defense means 24 attack in rail guns, missles, missle defense, and beam shields. Beam and Armor will be 32 for the fleet. This can take out most attackers if you strike first so monitor the area you are defending. If any ships get destroyed crank out replacements and reinforce your fleet. Rock solid defense at a price you can afford. (at least after the initial cost.)

Side note - With a really high logistics and two military starbases covering one area you can have a fleet with attack/defense in all catagories well into the hundreds.

For attacking other planets (which I'm not nearly as good at so take this advice with a grain of salt.) I usually build a fleet of the largest hulls I have with as many of the best weapons I have. (Usually rail guns due to the nano ripper and beam armor because the AI seems to love beam weapons.) These ships usually fare a lot less well because they are much more costly to build and they stay further from home, but since I don't have the bonus from the starbases the smaller ships get blasted pretty quick.

Hope this helps and if anyone wants to recomend a better stratagy I'm all ears, particularly on attack vessels.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
For a good military rating, build ships with all weapons maybe one defense so they can take adavantage of base assist bonuses.

For a good military build sensor ships, and make your combat ships faster the enemies. Also make some really fast ships with only one gun (cargo hulls work if you have nothing better) to take out all helpless targets like transports, freighters, unarmed bases, and constructors. Also make your troop transports faster than the enemy ships. If you are on the defensive build military starbases with ship assists. If you are on the offense keep a fleet of constructors ready to build a military starbase where you plan to attack. When possible go after enemy planets not fleets. Always go with a suprise attack and conquer as many planets as you can at one time.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The military graph is mostly only useful for AI diplomacy purposes. Just slap some guns on some ships and build plenty of them. Being effective militarily is a different story.

The most critical military engagements in the game usually take place early on, and your often going to be overmatched in Tech. Dealing with the opponents ships is easy enough to manage though, just build a star base and do everything you can to use the enhancements it provides.

If you plan on going on the offensive, I strongly reccomend getting the first two minuturization techs and impulse engines. Being able to move faster then the opposition is hugely important. From there I tend to throw an engine and some guns on a Small (NOT tiny) Hull. Lately, I have been favoring the Mass driver line of weapons since they tend to be cheaper then beam weapons, and the early missile weapons are too space intensive. It also helps to micro manage your fleets after fights, and pull the most injured back to a nearby planet to recover HP.

I tend to disregard defense until I hit Medium hulls. Once I get to medium Hulls, I will also start doubling up on my engines. Start using whichever defense is appropriate to your enemies prefered weapons tech, since it will often make a huge difference, even if you only have 1 or 2 points in it.

Against tough opponents, I can usually conquer my nearest neighbor early, and once I start grinding out medium hulls, I am in a dominant enough position that I dont really need to go to larger hulls to win the game.

The most critical thing to do with respect to having a strong military is to realize that its more important to be able to pound out new ships quickly then it is to have the latest and greatest tech. Rapid production will let you change gears quickly if your fleets get mowed down. By mid game, ships are expensive enough that your probably only building ships out of one or two primary production planets. Try to hold off building yoru manufacturing capitol until you either get at least a class 15 planet, or you find a class 5 or better with a precursor mine. Then surround that planet with 4 economy star bases and max out the bonus to production. You should be able to pound out your best possible ship within 2 or 3 turns at any and every point in the game.

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Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah I agree about the late game strategy fo the above post but IMO take the very first class 15 you come across and make THAT your primary research planet (build 2 factories and everythign else labs) planet and pump out an interceptor style ship (two engines and as many guns as possible) I tend to start with laser techs since you can just fit so many on the hull.. First tech I get is impulse drives then I go for Soil Enhancment (+10 to social/miltary/research) followed by the interstellar republic bonus at this point if you need weapons BADLY I'll go for laser 2 otherwise I get the research lab tech (the first one avialble that improves research cant remember name) followed by laser 5 ... this helps to establish you as a fast heavy producing race.

Favorite Ship Design
Interceptor Mk2
Engines: 2x Impulse Engines
Weapons: 4x Laser Mk5's
Defense: None added
Game Period: around 100 turns to turn 250 (or whenever i get plasma weapon 3)
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You should note that Military starbases ASSIST your attack and defense. You need at least 1 point in of attack/defense in whatever the module assists.

Example
Module gives +3 to laser, mass driver and missile attack.
Ship has a base 3 laser attack, 1 mass driver attack, and no missile attack
Ship would get 6 laser, 4 mass driver, and 0 missile after applying bonuses.

Also, small ships die easily, so it's hard to level them up unless you have them run around freighter killing. Big ships, while they don't use military starbases to their fullest, don't die as easily and are more likely to level up because of their survivability.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Phbbt, you sure about that? what version of the game? I havent paid much attention as of late but I know that the attack applied to all three in both attack and defense as long as I had at least one weapon of any type and one defense of any type. I'll check this again to make sure.