Super AI colony rush

from GalCiv2 Forums
I recently played a game on "challenging" with three other races: the Arceans, Terrans and Yor with a large galaxy and medium research level. Anyway, I was testing a custom race I had made and I noticed that as soon as I met the Arceans (around turn 6) they had six planets under their control!

They dominated the map soon so that half the galaxy was under their control. They even took colony ships across my territory and colonized on the other side. The Terrans only got the chance to colonize their starting system before they were surrounded. They also had a crazy amount of technology and were the top player in every category!

Everything about them seemed fishy, their colony ships were far, far faster than mine from the start (mine had two impulse engines attached) and they were able to produce ships at an obscene rate.

The Arceans had almost 5,000bc in their treasury, 87% approval rating, at least 500 million people on each colony. I don't see how it possible to do this and I am very perplexed. I decide to spend money on espionage just to see what was going on. They didn't have any precursor mines, just a 100% manufacturing bonus on their home world.

Needless to say that with relations to the Arceans rapidly cooling, I quit the game with no hope of winning.

Has anyone else seen this kind of AI-super-colony-economic-military-resource-technology- influence-rush?
6,892 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just keep on playing.....
The AI does not cheat except above Tough.

I can beat AI in colony rush fairly easily so far up to painful - working my way up, my games take a while due to time constraints.
In my current game, Painful, Gigantic, One below abundant stars (forgot the name), Abundant planets, and 9 opponents - no problem beating them in rushing to planets and colonizing.
Beating the AI in most all categories and overall number 1 at this time... only 3 years into game.

The AI is good, but anyone can beat the AI in "super-colony-economic-military-resource-technology- influence-rush".
Just keep on playing and I would suggest searching the forums for some pointers.

My way of play:

First turn - turn tax slider up until your approval is at 50%.
Bring spending to as close to 100% as possible without going into negative/debt.
Want to keep income at 0 or +

Build a speed 3 colony ship.
Buy first manufacture plant.
Buy first speed 3 colony ship.

Second - buy another manufacture plant.
Buy second speed 3 colony ship.

3rd - option to buy second manufacture and/or buy colony ship...
This is where for me it will vary on the map setup and amount of income coming in...
Make sure you keep an eye on the tax so that it does not get into the negative
Control the tax slider for approval along with spending to keep income +.

Afterwards, it really depends on the map, distance of AI, random events..etc.

Hope this helps somewhat.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, I personally don't play above Beginner, i don't see any benefit for playing any higher, i did try normal once, the difficulty increase compared to points gained is rather stupid.

I did see the AI expand so fast it was really unrealistic, it was the Altarians and well, i just gave up with it and stuck with beginner.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
JamieKirby= The AI is gimped at normal i think only running at 75 % , so actually their expansion was slower than it was ment to be...
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Who cares about points? I want to have fun, not rulezor the Multiversezor.

I've noticed the AI go nuts on expansion too. However, because they don't cheat, they just run out of money and fall into recession for ages, letting everyone catch up.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top


What is the point of maximizing colonization in the first few turns, if you can't sustain the colony rush beyond that? At 50% taxes, your population will barely be growing at all...don't get it.

I haven't played above tough yet, but I set my taxes to 3 or 4% to get 100% approval population growth bonus, buy 2 factories, power build a 3rd (2 turns), power build a moral building (1 turn), raise taxes as far as I can keeping 100% approval, power build a few colony ships, power build another moral building (1 turn), raise taxes keeping moral at 100% on home colony, power tech engines, power colony rush some more, then raise taxes and go into more balanced mode. This generally out colonizes and out develops the AI over the long haul, although it gets sticky if you start close to another AI.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
At 50% taxes, your population will barely be growing at all...don't get it.


Your approval will ony be a 50% for a few turns when you start colonizing new planets and build an entertainment center on your home planet the overall approval will be in the high 80s to low 90s.

I don't buy so many colony ships since I can usually get it built on my home world in 3-4 turns. Since 1.1 I have been taking the population bonus so I can load 500 on every colony ship and still sustain my home world population.

I am usually in yellow spending for no more than 20-30 turns and by the end of the first year I have the most planets and my economy is producing +100bc per turn.

I build the fastest possible colony ships on my home planet and use the others planets to crank out fast constructors to control the resources.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sorry if I was misunderstood, I never suspected the AI of cheating, it's just that with my opponents at the same intelligence level the Arceans STILL managed to get the best of both the Terrans and the Yor. As I said before the Terrans could only colonize their home system, the Arceans were everywhere! I haven't seen anything like this before and just thought I would bring it up. I still have no idea how the Arceans managed this though...
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've noticed the AI go nuts on expansion too. However, because they don't cheat, they just run out of money and fall into recession for ages, letting everyone catch up.


Yes I've seen this quite a few times, also with Arceans in my last game (coincidence? not sure). They expand like rabbits early on and then just grind to a halt. Indeed, there was a PQ 15 planet well within their range and I couldn't believe it when they just left it sitting there, but they had no cash at all and couldn't produce the colony ship they needed, so I grabbed it from right under their noses

How do they expand so fast? I guess they just rush-build colony ships, buying them up every turn or two (probably with a loan rather than outright) and send em out. Its not sustainable and will kill their economy. Take advantage, research troop transports and go invade early on when their production is still totally sunk.

Not sure how they add colony ships faster than speed 5 v early on, but remember warp drive tech gives +1 bonus in addition to the base speed; researching this fairly early on can really help the colonizing process in the bigger galaxy sizes. Click on their ships to see what's gone into them.

Also, a minor "cheat" without actually using the cheat option - checkout the debug.err file and you can see what they researched and in what order. You'll often see them going for engine techs early on.