I lose in the mid game, advice requested.

Greetings! Alright, so I can win on Challenging, but Tough always kicks my butt. Here is what happens on my LARGE map games on Tough with 5-6 opponents:

I play a custom race with +10% PQ, +10% morale, +10% research and +20% economics. In the early game I dominate. I usually colonize planets as fast as possibly with my patented starting build and ion drives. I get colony ships out in 2 turns, 3 if no +prod stuff on the homeworld.

I manipulate the domestic slider to 100% industry and 50% morale so I'm not losing on taxes early on. I jack up social production and buy my second factory (buying the first means no production gets done), and buy my first enhanced colony ship.

After I have about 10 homeworlds. I find myself a bit choked on money, this all depends on what kind of space salvage my auto-surveying flagship found. At this point I focus all my energy on the following research items:

1). I go halfway up the social production line (whatever is before manuf centers)
2). I go for a few diplomacy techs so I can build the early diplomacy +25% wonder
3). I go for ulta spices and occasionally the restaurant of eternity.
4). I then go for xeno ethics, and harmony crystals
5). I go for neutral research centers

At this point my research is x2 the nearest neighbor. I occasionally finish colonizing some worlds, but only if they are 7 or higher. I usually have everything around me that isn't owned by the other races though, which leads to...

6). Everyone now has a military, so I research up to harpoon, warp, and duranthium.
7). I now go for star democracy or whatever the second to last political tech is.
8). Next I finish off the invasion line.
9). Now I finish off the diplomacy line.

Usually by now 1 race is 6x stronger militarily than everyone else and only controls 1/5th the galaxy. Their research is now on par with mine, and their economy about the same. They have about x2 as many homeworlds as me by getting a lucky surrender early on.

10). I changeup to 90% military and crank out a ton of ships and transports.
11). I attack, take over 5-6 planets a turn.
12). I can't quite finish the job on the first turn haha... space is deeeep.
13). Next turn they counterattack, I soon lose.
14). I spend the rest of my life begging my allies to help out, they won't. I can't dent the enemy military, and my +5000% diplomacy skill and spin control center are doing me squat.

So yeah, my past 15 or so games have gone like that. If all the races stayed a bit more even through the middle game I'd dominate. One race always goes ape on me, and shoots up into the stratosphere before I can get my war machine going. I never GET attacked, I always pre-emptive strike to try and prevent that 1 race from going from 20% of the map to 90% of the map. It never works :/

What might be a better set of research objectives? I want the diplomatic translators and xinathium hull ASAP so the enemy doesn't get them. I only go for conquest wins to give myself a challenge, so the influence techs aren't too appealing. I like going neutral for the research, and I find spreading out my research makes my planets kind of stronger. After the early game I am raking in like 500-600 bc/turn so money isn't a problem.

Does a way exist to ensure one race doesn't go nuts and take everyone else over? What do I do when I see an enemy's tech and military start doubling and nobody wants to attack them?

Why doesn't Star Federation (and the other techs) have a noticeable impact on my research?

Bah.. too many questions. 15 games people! I'll never beat Tough :chuckle: Thank you in advance for any help you can provide me with.

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i have no idea how you get it done

my startup is pretty simular than yours, and depending on race war will come.
usually it goes like this, do the thing you do to, after i am done colonizing 9i'm usually around equally big than the biggest around or nearing to it and i play on crippling).
now i start to research economics, diplomacy as much as i can, but as soon as some clan becomes wary or worse i start to reseach ships, starting with hull.
usually i fight with medium or large hulls from the start.
having a nice bit of logistics is good to btw.

when a clan declares war on me i have no trouble stopping them, i can take on 3 clans at once, 100% militairy usually makes me by far the strongest in the game even if i am at war.
(1 time it wasn't, drengin was to powerfull, i really had to take over his productionplanets, i did win though).

if i lose a game i lose at the start, but that rarely happens, not on crippling.
if you are declared war on, just go 100% militairy till you are the strongest, if you are the strongest go 50% militairy and 50% tech and research for better ship parts, step 3 is totally anihilate your opponont.

mystic

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Get yourself 2 or 3 survey ships with impulse engines quickly -- buy em -- you'll more than make your money back. The shortest term pay-off buy is actually pretty good.

Remember to get and develop resources.

The key to defeating an AI opponent with twice your military rating is to have more speed on your ships and out manuver him.

Oh yeah take population bonus ability instead of economy bonus. You might want to consider military production bonus too. Personally i max out both of these abilities.

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This is the strategy I use for Gigantic Maps with abundant everything and standard research, it will probably need to be modified a little for smaller maps… I tend to play on Crippling or Masochistic depending on how I feel with 5 opponents… I always have the computer players as the Yor, Drengi, Altrian, Acrean and Torian… The others are pretty much useless, play as a custom race or one of the others…

I will outline my strategy for Crippling below, Masochistic evolves more micro-management and diplomatic research…

Firstly you’re starting system… I tend to build 3 factories and then manufacturing capital and then another 3 factories, by the second factory so as not to waste production… I set spending to 100% and taxes to what will get 100% approval… Set your survey ship to auto-anomalies (make sure it doesn’t go for wormholes!)

Next design the fastest colony ship you can and sort the sliders so they come out every 2 – 3 turns, manage sliders as you progress…

Next take a look at you map expand towards the AI players as fast as you can… new colonies should build a Starport and then 3 factories and an entertainment centre… Set all new colony worlds to building colony ships as soon as they have there Starport… I never by improvements at 100% spending and 30% social production with the race setup I use each planet should have a Starport in 6 – 7 turns and be building ships…

Note: you will initially probably not expand as fast as the AI, but by the time the AI is out of cash you will be producing colony ships in a lot more volume than the AI.

Expand as fast as possible don’t stop building colonies, I never colonise a planet less than PQ 9…

Once colonies have built there initial orders set them to build 2 or 3 (depending on planet size) economic buildings and then 2 – 3 research buildings.

Ok onto research…

1. Research to Impulse Drive
2. Research All tech that gives + to social and military production
3. Research Sensors (then build 5 – 10 survey vessels to pick up anomalies)
4. Research to Xeno Entertainment
5. Research to first research building
6. Research ALL economic techs (to galactic stock exchanges)
7. Research to Warp Drive

I keep expanding until the AI starts to get threatening you can normally buy them off for sometime… The first ships I build will be large or medium hulls depending on what the AI is doing… That way they remain useful for upgrading… I wouldn’t worry about engines to start with just pack them full of weapons…

Note: If you are having problems with the strength of the AI military pack 8 ships into a planet and build spin control

If everything has gone well on a gigantic map you should have between 60 – 80 PQ 9+ colonies… Once you have got all the PQ 9+ colonies build the strongest military then set your sliders to 50% social production and 50% research… Go neutral at this point… Then research the culture / influence tech trees… this will pick you up all the small planets in your influence that the AI has colonised.

Note: The most important thing is you need to stabilise your economy before the anomalies run out… remember to be flexible and manage your sliders!

Get all industrial techs, and begin to setup your planets as you see fit…

At all times you should be looking for resources… Value Moral, Military and Economic as top priority… Influence and Research are nice if you can pick them up and influence will help you pick the small AI planets up…

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You know I just saved my first game on tough, I doing pretty good and my stratagey is the same that I always use, not enough time to really give you some tips but one tip I can give you that might help is on your next game select creativity ability, you'll see why it's usefull when you start researching weapons and defenses.

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10). I changeup to 90% military and crank out a ton of ships and transports.
11). I attack, take over 5-6 planets a turn.
12). I can't quite finish the job on the first turn haha... space is deeeep.
13). Next turn they counterattack, I soon lose.

Somehow, I think you got the pace incorrectly.

First you should build defender orbiting your planets (tiny hull, only weapon). The idea is to be in the top in military rating to prevent being attacked too soon. Don't fear to do some mass upgrade when you can.
Second, you should prepare invasion, that means build troop transports and stocking them in space. Try to get the max capacity. Your transports should have lots of speed and a decent range. But you don't need a too important range.
Third, use the fact that the AI will wage war between them to grab some ressources (military will be very useful) and improve them
Fourth, build a strike force that will handle correctly the weapon and the defense of the race you will attack: it doesn't make sense to use missile if everyone is using them and has researched the associated defense. And I fear it is the problem about the counter attack: if you loose that means that he is able to damage you. So you haven't surely the correct defense against his weapons.

I never GET attacked, I always pre-emptive strike to try and prevent that 1 race from going from 20% of the map to 90% of the map. It never works :/

Well, it isn't important to strike them when they are using 20% of the map. You should take advantage of the ongoing wars, to grab undefended planets: if you want to be able to defeat the N°1, you need to prevent him from getting too many worlds. And if someone if loosing, you may want to get some nice planets before he surrenders to his attacker.

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Important points:

0) research 2 sensor levels quick, and build lng rng, high speed survey ships. Grab up the anomolies, find the resources, and then use these AWAC's as a line of sensors to see what the
other races are doing

1) research through the tech tree for all econmic- do it fast, and try to avoid building every economic improvement before stock exchanges- you can updgrade from an advanced market just as easily. Stock markets are great because they are cheap (150) and give other bonuses as well.

2) surge research on occassion- every so often, you can move up the research to grab a series of techs very quickly. Do so and then move the research back down so that you can build improvements or ships to use what you just learned.

3) Always do some spying to see what the other races (especially militaristic) are doing and build defensive counters for their offensive weapons. If I have enough defense, they can't touch you, even if your ships are only doing 1 pt at a time. Have enough logistics to build 3-4 ship fleets

4) if you are intent on conquering the other races, research the whole invasion tree. Build transports that can carry 2k troops each, and stack 3 of thess so that you can overwhelm the other planets. If you have enough tech and troops, you have some left over, so you can do the next planet.

5) For the invasion phase, get your morale to 100% (as much as your economy can) so that your planets are produing enough troops, I mean population, to support your invasions. Also, high populations provide some serious pain for an invading force. This implies that you've added a farm to all your planets to get max pop around 10B.

6) Sneaky tech tricks. For some early cash, sell the same tech to all the other races. Why should the Torians get cash for selling what you sold them? Try to avoid selling propulsion techs. Selling increased manufacturing can be helpful, as the AI then has to spend time building expensive factories, and any new colonies take forever to get the first factory...

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Ive not played any higher, or lower than tough and i almost always win but i tend to do it differently to you guys. I always prolong developing my military or military techs until i have some real enemies as you can be sure everyone is too busy too research all the invasion techs. This ensures that when i need a force i can pump it out with all my latest techs.

If there is a dominant race on the map the way i remove him is to take out the smaller races first, as they are too weak to ally with. Then i create a huge alliance of the remaining civs and park my transports next to a planet of the enemy and force him to declare war on me and everyone else. You have to spot whose going to be strong early on though so you work out who you want to encourage and who you want to slow down. If you realise youve lost your standing in the galaxy early on just bluff your way long enough until war ravages the other civs enough for them to up their relations with you. A way to do this is build that building which makes the other civs believe your stronger than you are.

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My basic strategy is to stay out of war until I can overwhelm the other races militarily. I put all my focus on maintaining good diplomatic relations. Playing good alignment provides a head start with half the field. Once I've sufficiently surpassed the other races, I take them out.

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Estabilish your planets first. Try playing against fewer oponents. Gift them tech to keep them happy until you are ready to invade. The AI will usually only equip ships with one type weapon. Defend against that weapon and use a different one for attack.

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In addition to grabing economic techs, grab trade, too. Opposing civs are very reluctant to attack me if I have a few trade routes with them. I send freighters to my nearest neighbors first, then to farther ones as I get starbases in place to reach them.

Also, don't hesitate to wine and dine minor races. Giving them techs means nothing, because they never attack, but they seem to send more freighters to me than others when I'm the only one they're 'friendly' or 'close' with. Not only that, but they can quite frequently gives you techs you don't have yet (in the early game, anyway). You can also use them as piggy banks. Trade them sensors, and take half their treasury. Trade them sensors 2 and take the other half. 3 turns later, trade them sensors 3, and drain their treasury again.

Also, I like to build really low-tech ships, with slow speed and out-dated weapons, and trade them to other civs in exchange for war with the big boys. My factory planets can churn them out in one turn each, so I keep supplying one side of the war. Either the big boy takes out the lesser civ I was backing (and they usually surrender to me, rather than the person I forced them to fight), or the civ I'm backing mostly wins. Wash, rinse, repeat. I never have to worry about invasions, since I'm almost never at war with anyone. If it looks like a civ is itching to make war with me, I throw some other lesser civ at them as a distraction.

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Slow down on the Neutral Research Centers. The best time to go for most planetary improvements is after you've already completely built up most of your worlds. That way the buildings will be both cheaper to maintain at any given production level and they'll also be working for you even whilst they're being upgraded. Once you run out of room and assuming you have the money to support them, then go for planetary improvements.

Also slow down on Star Democracy and the other forms of government. They only actually provide 10/20/30 economic bonus and no production bonuses, so they're not as great as they sound. Switch the focus to economy techs first instead...1 stockmarket on each planet will pretty much recreate the government forms bonus. You'll use up an extra tile, but on the plus side you'll get there much quicker since the economy techs are much cheaper. Very fast research setting might be an exception to this rule.

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