A strategy to war prevention and the arms race: GC2: DL

from GalCiv2 Forums
At a certain point in the game, it goes from being a colony rush to kind of an arms/economics race. It seems in higher difficulty the arms race favors the AI, which is good, but its not impossible for the human player to catch up. Basically, what I recommend is and have experimented with is, when more weapons/engines/defenses come along, build a hull for each sized craft in your empire, then upgrade to the superior plateform. I did this in a game recently, and it worked much better than I thought it would. I'd just finished war with the Altarians, and Drengin were now looking at tmy empire with jealousy, and were even bringing transports into my territory, and it looked like blitzkrieg. Well I went and made a balanced design for all my ships from dreadnaughts to interceptors, and upon upgrading, the ships were so powerful that my military raiting shot through the roof, and I got to watch for the first time as the Drengin retreated from my territory.
strategies
6,661 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I also use upgrading to boost military rating, which in turn keeps AI's off your back. I tend to think of it more as a diplomatic tool, the mil. rating that is. Once your economy is rolling and planets fairly developed I use my extra income to keep ships upgraded to the latest. A combination of building ships and putting about 60k a turn into upgrading older ones can shoot you from last to first in military rating in no time. Of course you some would say you could just buy 60K worth of new ships instead, but I prefer quality over quantity approach. 500 outdated ships sitting around waiting to die does me no good.   
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Actually the economics favors upgrade over rush buy. Certainly the production of new ships directly is the most cost effective solution but if faced with rush buying a fair amount of ships it's better to rush buy the hull only and 'upgrade' to the final ship. You probably save between 1/3 to 1/2 of the total cost this way.
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wow, that is a great strategy I won't have thought of.

Well Done

best

JMD
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
it's better to rush buy the hull only and 'upgrade' to the final ship. You probably save between 1/3 to 1/2 of the total cost this way.


But you're playing neutral, right? I don't think you otherwise save that much that way.

You know, actually, the hull is cheap. Many of your planets can probably build just the hull in one turn--it takes one turn to rush-buy anyway.

All-in-all, not a bad idea. I'm still looking for good & efficient ways to spend surplus money.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hi!
But you're playing neutral, right? I don't think you otherwise save that much that way.

There is a way. Not an easy one though: gigantic galaxy, 200+ planets, (x)x00,000BC economy, (x)x0,000 surplus each turn.

BR, Iztok
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
But I'm comparing rush-buying ships outright vs. rush-buying just the hulls and then upgrading. You don't save that much over rush-buying outright if you're not neutral. You'll save some, just not 50%-66%.

I'm not sure how relevant that comparison is anyway, since I think you should be just building the hulls in one turn instead of rush-buying them.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, I won't lie, it all but crushed my economy for a few weeks, the upgrade did. But I had something on the order of 20 battle ships, and 10 dreadnaught hulls to upgrade, not including fighters and interceptors. nevertheless, desipte my delapidated economy, short term, I am quite certain I could have gone the rest of the game without a single war, just by how my jump in military strength went.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't try to avoid war. Actually, I like war. It makes the AI spin their wheels throwing ships at you, and if you've got it under control, just pick them off. If the AI spends all his time building ships that are going to die, instead of researching, that's good for you. You were going to build your ships anyway.