you really cannot rush buy colony ships in this latest version |
Yes and no. You won't get any abandoned yachts worth 2500 BCs in DA, for instance. You can still buy the first several if you're willing to wait a turn or two in between purchases, though. Here is the basic strat I have been using:
Set taxes to the point where your starting planet's happiness is just above the 40% no-growth limit. Tweak often to keep it there. Buy the very first factory on your home planet, then let all other structures production-build afterwards.
Set your social production slider to 29% and lock it there; set the others to 40% apiece. If your race has Ion drives, build a better colony ship and get it started production-building on your home planet. If not, your first tech to research should be improved hyperdrive. Drop your military production slider until the time to research that tech falls to 1 turn, then hike back to 40%.
Your first few techs to research should be improved & ion engines and galactic warfare & space militarization (for the 10% military production boos they both give). Then go for planetary improvements, which gives econ, social, and military production bonuses. Impulse engines should be next.
Design a better colony ship every time you get a new engine tech. If you play abundant stars and planets, it's a good bet to just send them out blind as soon as they are built.
Build/buying your ships: Let each colony vessel build on its own for at least one turn; sometimes two is better. On the following turn, purchase the ship and drop your military production to 0%. This is very important because it allows you to tech up faster in this crucial stage. Just remember to turn it back up to 40% on the next turn!
If I follow this procedure in a Masochistic game, I can keep up with the colony rush for a good long while. When I'm out of cash for buying ships, I usually put all of my sliders back to 33/33/34%. I know it can be maddening at first to slowly production-build that first factory on every colonized world, but the small sacrifice will pay dividends later on.
Some people like to keep all of their planets at 75-100% morale for the population boost at the beginning of the game, but I feel that at this point the extra growth is unnecessary. I stick it to my citizens for a little while at the start, then ease off on taxes when my economic improvements start to come on line.