Cant lose on Normal, Cant win on Challanging

any tips?

from GalCiv2 Forums
Like the headline really I win really easy on Normal, and games only drag because i make them (i like long space opera games) ... wheras on challanging if i dont get an IDEAL start (ie in regards to starting position) the games are over fairly quickly with me being one of the early races out.
I upgraded to 1.1 beta and its helped (no more micromanaging social military rates every couple of turns yay) and im VERY impressed with the patch so far

Wondering if anyone could give me some very general pointers on how to make my civ more competitive at challanging level?
4,567 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Try researching some military techs earlier and devote a planet to building nothing but military ships. If you can keep up or exceed the AIs in military strength early in the game they will tend to leave you alone.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
do you secialise your worlds? you need to once you start playing the higher levels

small worlds up to 8 become my money earners - farms, morale, and finance buildings(and a factory if you can to speed up social prod)- absolutely no starport!!!

anything above depending on bonus tiles become my research or manufacturing capital
if you're lucky you'll get a class 16 early in the game and that can house you're economic capital

i usually have 2 planets with just factories and a starport which can churn out ships at a great rate. (initially you will need to have a morale improvement though)

Militarily - you need to be able to defend your territory in the early stages so build plenty of military starbases with ships on and around them, dont bother fortifying them, just keep a fleet on top. the early mil techs are cheap so it shouldn't take too long to be ready research wise - all you need to do is churn out fast constructers(2 engines)

research wise the thing is that you need to be carefull how you research otherwise too many tiles will be upgrading at once. Get trading as quickly as possible it'll make them like you more.

In the early stages some will threaten you with death unless you give them something tell them to shove it as its only bluster. these should be the guys you trade with first to keep em sweet until your ready to kick their ass)

Yeah i think thats enough! I've just started a masochistic game and it is really really hard now. i'm so way behind i might not recover. might have to go back to crippling. its the 200% percent bonus thats the prob i think....

Good luck mate hope i helped.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It really depends on the game and map settings. One thing that will help is to research space weapons quickly so that you can defend yourself while you go to research star republic (which gives a 25% bonus to all of the major attributes). Planetary Improvements will give you a 10% boost to all major attributes as well. Xeno Ethics also gives you a lot of bonuses that are very helpful, especailly if you research it early.

Other than that, try to get some resources to help you out. And if you notice that you have been having trouble in any particualr area, pick a political party that gives a bonus in that area to help you out.

Those are some simple suggestions. If you want me to write a longer strategy guide or sometihng, I might find some time later this week.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
On challenging I always research influence based techs first (along with impulse engines and planetary improvements for added bonuses), they're reasonably cheap and they help a great deal when you have an AI on your border... Try conolizing around the AIs they'll start to fall culturally to you, and use espionage and the foriegn tab to determine how close to war with you each race is... when a race gets to cool or wary start building ships... if your economy will support it buy them outright... And always make sure you are building research infrastructure as you want to stay at the front of the tech race (or at worst second place)....
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I always start my challenging games this way:

1) buy colony ships, don't wait for them to build. Use your survey ship to sweep through your cluster to know which systems are worth colonizing.

2) research the 2 (or 3, depending on the race you select) diplomatic techs you need to get Diplomatic Translators

3) buy dip translators for cash. The advantage they give you means you can tech trade your way back to positive cash balances quickly.

4) colonize the best planet in a system. colonize n-1 planets, so a system with 3 planets, colonize the two best. Build embassies on them so when another race grabs the third one, it'll rebel and join you quickly.

5) Keep your eye on the military graph. Trade techs aggressively (don't do just one round through the other races; since you may get techs new to a race after you've traded with them the first time, keep round-robining through them until no one needs a tech you're willing to trade) If you can get all the techs for a decent warship without researching them, stick to researching things you can trade for well (xeno farms and research stuff, for example)

6) NEVER trade your diplomatic translators to a major race, NO MATTER WHAT.

7) NEVER be the weakest line on the military graph. If at all possible, stay in the top half of the pack.

8) If you build a starport on a world, build at least 2 factories for it. Otherwise, you'll die of old age before you get the ships completed there. I try to limit starports to worlds where I can pile up 3 or 4 factories.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
First win on challanging after reading your posts an average sorta start have certainly had better and worse... i played as drath legion and got a conquest victory, normal sized map 6 ai... i found the key difference is that i tech tradeded like mad early on, infact it kept my econ going (which is usually why i lose).. i usually have a massive tech lead even early on but with the trading i managed to keep my factories and reaserch bases pumping at 100% the whole game..

the building military early on REALLY made a difference... i just got laser I and put them on a ship called orbiter... hehe they stayed around my core bases the entire game .. kept in the top half of the military graph and it was like playing on normal, no overly agressive ai or anything... now onto tough difficulty i think ..

THanks for all the help guys!