pnich pnich

opening planet rush

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opening planet rush

what are the best settings and tactics?

from GalCiv2 Forums
I'm always playing on Gigantic, so I can be fairly sure there's no attack coming for a while. Still, the initial planet rush is crucial to setting up a perimeter and getting control of resources. Some various tactics I've read in posts:

1. send out several scouts as far as they'll go and send your colony ships as far as they'll go as well, so as to create the largest perimeter possible. Produce colony ships as quickly as possible while maintaining research and social construction.
2. send out colony ships as they are produced, in random directions, looking for planets. No scouts. If you run into other races or hit empty space you could 'waste' a few colony ships but that's better than wasting time on scouts. Produce colony ships as quickly as possible, reduce research and social to bare minimums, buying what's necessary for production.
3. colonize only the good planets; leave the PQ4-6 for later on.
4. Research quickly up to a faster drive to the detriment of social and colony ship construction. Once you've the faster drive then sprint into action.

There are other variations, approaches, etc. but I've not the time to list them all here. Besides, I'm more curious to see what others are using. Me, I try to churn out and/or buy the colony ships asap, don't use scouts, and focus research on expanding my research capability. I've found that while other races do expand faster, by the time I have been encircled I've usually a half-decent tech advantage. Still, I've yet to try this on anything harder than 'Tough'.

pnich of the hapless Terrans, beaten by the Snafi
15,759 views 29 replies
Reply #26 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Here's a blueprint to how i played on my last large map, settings abundant all , tough, 4 opponents.

1. Set spending to 100%

2. Left social/military/research at 33% (maybe not optimal)

3. Bought a factory, started working on next factory and a newly designed colony ship (one equipped with only engines.) Continue buying factories and colony ships until cash drops to some 200 or so .

4. Consulted mini map, I was on the middle lower left, while the other opponents were ranged mostly on the right . Th Toran were the closest. Colony rush was clear, to fill up the left portion of the map. Sent first colony ships 'blindly' towards furtherest range. the next one leap frogged the prior one... Also pick up nearby colonies if they are high quality enough. Ignored the couple of star systems on the extreme left, these are low priority targets until the AI starts to send scouts there.

5. Started researching up to ion drives, redesign when necessary. Next research cheap but useful tech that add bonuses to military/social production.

6. Initally, the main source of colony ships was the homeworld. But as the empire expands, this becomes inefficient, look for colonies on the expanding edge of the empire which have bonus tiles and/or production bonuses due to moral choices as the next source of colony ships.

7. Ship building Colonies on the interior can be used to build ships to colony, lower prority targets within the empire and/or claim resources.

8. Take note of the scouts from the AI . Areas that are scouted, should have priority to be colonised, because the Ai will soon send colony ships in. If this area is within your influence, you can either deny the AI by colonising them first , or if the planets are really low PQ, let them in, and watch them get flipped by influence.

9. #8 applies to resources too. I would assign greater priority to grabbing resources within the enemy influence..... then those within yours....

Works like a charm on tough.... got slightly less then 50% of the map....




Reply #27 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
can I have an answer to my question about designing the colony ships? because from what I've heard around here, the core ships are kind of sucky and its suggested you design your own rather than use the core ships.
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Reply #28 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
a question here, I'm doing the demo atm, but will get the game in a few weeks for my B-Day, so it doesn't hurt to pick up a few strategies now.

my question is, when I start, since you don't want to use the core ships, should I buld colony ships with one or two colony modules?


Definitely one. the idea of a colony rush is that You are trying to stake your terrority , so sending 500 or 1000 has the same result. In fact, you might even send a colony ship with 1 unit at first, if you just want to use it for none-tax generating reasons, anyone tried that? After all a planet with 1 million people do as much research/manufuturing as one with a billion.

The core design is slapped on with life support, you can replace it with another engine to increase speed, at the cost of range. If you colonise in the right order, the extra range isn't significant. I personally find that there is little point in long range ships, if their speed is so low, they take forever to reach the limit of their ranges.

Still, if you are playing settings where stars are clustered and habitable planets, stars are not abundant, long range colonies become more useful

Some races also start with advanced technologies like ion drives, so you can quickly design much faster colony ships right off the bat.





Reply #29 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
ok, thanks man