Paths to Victory Strategy Guide

havn't read all of it, but it looks intersting enough to consider on a deep, deep level  
way to go for writing something and posting it. It's always great to see the community grow.

I totally disagree with buying colony ships. Buy factories instead, and build the colony ships. Get +50 military as a race ability if it's important enough to you. Also, you suggested design-your-own colony ships is optional. I would argue that is NOT optional. What I would say is optional, though, is you can do the Ctrl-N cheese until you get a bonus factory tile on your starting planet (GC2:DL only).

If your goal is to colony rush (and it should be), I disagree with researching the diplomatic techs first. Research Space Militarization, Planetary Improvements, and engines first. I go out of my way to get Impulse early, if only for the +1 speed. That doesn't just help you colonize, that gives you more anomalies.

I have to agree I rarely buy colony ships. There are occasions when I will but its rare. For example in my current game I found a purple star with 2 planets around it both PQ26. I colonized one, built a starport started a colony ship and then the next turn bought it. If you do buy them waiting for them to build a turn seems to reduce the cost enough that its worth the turn wait. In general I agree with tentleytea I buy factories and let the colony build the ships. Factories are cheaper to buy will work for you the whole game. I typically buy the factory after it has built a turn as well. Again it seems to reduce the cost quite a bit.

This brings me to my next point. Buying buildings instead of colony ships will make your starting bc last longer but will run you into a deficit sooner. This is a necessary evil but unlike what you recommend I run in a deficit most of the first year. I suppose for a new player its good to recommend no deficit spending but there are ways to manage it. Tech trading, early trade routes and anomalies usually keep me afloat. I will even run a bigger deficit so I can grow my population quicker. Larger, happier populations make it very difficult for the AI to take planets with a single Transport.

That is as far as I got on you guide. I did like a bunch of stuff I read. Its not easy to write any kind of guide for a game with so many complexities.

Thanks for your guide. Although I know many of your strategies it was nice to see these confirmed. Furthermore the ship buidling advice at the bottom was an excellent read. I hope there will be more versions. At what difficulty level do you play your games?

RE: to buy Colony ships or factories.

It all depends on the level of difficulty, the map size, how inflated youve set the amount of habitable planets to be, and the amount of competition.

On easier difficulties, with fewer competitors on a more wide open map, or if youve increased the numbers of availiable planets beyond "occasional"...buy factories.

On harder difficulties(with far more aggressive and productive AI), more opponents/more crowded map area...hell yes buy your self-designed colony ships. The colonization phase is so competitive, the choices you make in your first 5 turns will often determine if you can make it to other planets, your starting footprint in the game, and on the highest difficulties, whether you even have a chance of competing.

hum, might be stupid, but where are the "tutorial videos" ?
Thanks !

hum, might be stupid, but where are the "tutorial videos" ? Thanks !

Click the tutorials button on the game's main menu.

I'm always go for other techs in the beginning, I don't bother picking up the Translator until the 7th or 8th selection.

Xeno Research -> Stellar Cartography -> Sensors

Then upgrade all my cargo-hull based scouts to Survey vessels

This aid me in both finding the plum of the habitable worlds out there, and the galactic anomalies ("abundant" setting).

Then its propulsion techs. I do pick up the Translator along the line, as well as then going hot 'n' heavy after Diplomacy, but its never my "first choice", since I'm focusing on the colony rush

First of all, thanks for the input!

RE Difficulty level
Usually I play on Challenging, Tough or Painful. Galaxy size ranges from large to gigantic. I always play against all the races. I leave the initial galaxy settings, other than size, at the default levels. It really depends on how long I want the game to be.

RE Factory vs. Colony Ship purchases
I've never really considered buying factories outright at the beginning of the game; I'll have to try that and see how it goes. I do tend to play on the tougher difficulty levels versus all the races, which may influence my preference for buying colony ships outright instead of factories. I think you would have to agree with me and Bingjack (above) that on the tougher levels with more, or all the opponents in my case, the faster you can turn out Colony ships (ie buying them) the better, at least initially. I will definitely give buying the factories a try though.

RE Building your own Colony ship.
I put this as "optional" because some new players may not want to build their own and just use the "stock" ships. I totally agree with you that it is MUCH better to build your own, however.

RE Deficit spending
I know, and agree with you, that you have to do this sometimes. I really just put it in the guide because newbie players who don't know much about tech trading and trade routes can really dig themselves into a hole by doing this.

RE Tech Research
Yeah, I may go back and edit that... You really can go in just about any direction with Tech Research, particularly at the beginning of the game, and be fine, as long as you don't spend like 20 weeks on one tech! I'll look into changing that up a little in the next update.

Thanks all again for the input. If you get further along in the guide let me know whatever else jumps out at you. (This is why I put that disclaimer at the beginning of the guide. )

You really can go in just about any direction with Tech Research, particularly at the beginning of the game, and be fine, as long as you don't spend like 20 weeks on one tech!

You can even do 20 weeks on one tech, so long as the one is Impulse Drive. It usually only takes me 8 weeks, though.

BTW one big tip I learned: you know those anomalies that give 25% research to the tech you're researching? They have a distinct look to them--kind of like a derelict, wrecked starship. Go after those and switch your research to Impulse Drive right before exploring them. You can always switch your research back right after exploring the anomaly. This will give you +25% to an expensive, important tech, instead of something silly like Stellar Cartography.

BTW one big tip I learned: you know those anomalies that give 25% research to the tech you're researching? They have a distinct look to them--kind of like a derelict, wrecked starship. Go after those and switch your research to Impulse Drive right before exploring them. You can always switch your research back right after exploring the anomaly. This will give you +25% to an expensive, important tech, instead of something silly like Stellar Cartography.

Hmmm, good idea here. I may put that in the guide and, of course, give you credit. The only problem is, at least for me, I usually completely ignore my Survey Ship after I manage it. Guess I'll need to start paying more attention to it.

I do a combination. One nice thing about auto-survey is it'll vector to anomalies you can't see yet. But I also think finding the max # of anomalies is important enough to micro.

Great guide, thank you. Saw it thru another thread, but glad to see you keep updating it. Thank you, again.

Thanks! I'm glad you found it useful!

What other thread did you see it on?

Well, impulse drive/sensors is only one good early strategy. I like to play with anamolies set to very rare, because the AI is not so good at picking them up, so (it feels to me) like an unfair advantage for the player. With no anomolies, the extra +1 sensor range doesn't make much difference.

The same goes for rush buying buildings/colony ships - or anything at all! Believe it or not you can play whole games without ever rush buying anything if you know that you need to avoid an economy hit. If you play with very rare planets + very rare habitable worlds - then rush buying colony ships can be a good thing, you only need a few, and taking the time to build ships might mean you get no planets.

The problem with a strategy guide - and different strategies overall for this game - is that a lot depends on the map size and settings.

All that said, seems like a fine guide to me.