Colony rush gone bad

Yop, at the beginning there is always (I think so) a shaggy time when you simply can't keep on working at 100%, you have to slow down and turn at about 60-70% for a while, but don't go bellow 41%, otherwise your people wont breed. You need your population to grow in order to get the cash in and also sell some techs away...and glorious days are about to come...

I never run into that problem. When I get that red I start selling techs.

Hi!

... and you ran out of money just when you need it the most. I hope you learned the lesson: those 5000 BCs are there are for covering the hole your rapid expansion will made, not for buying stuff.

BR, Iztok

lease contractors? hehehehe, well i think you missed the punch line on that one! everyone knows the contractors are just a practical joke the developers put in the game to sucker newbs!!

Now that interesting and I also heard about others who do not have $$$ losses at the beginning neither...
The problem is, even as a federalist and selling almost all my techs, I consequently face this issue for about some turns. It seems I simply can't avoid not going below 100%, which is obviously tearing me back a little.

I don't want to open a new post here, but it would be interesting to find out...

Its fairly simple actually. I divide my colonies to roughly 80% economy buildings (with 1 farm), with a few planets specialized in nothing but research (If I'm going all research) or factories. I keep Tax's at 100% approval, and research as high as is reasonable on the diplomacy (to get more out of each trade) while building up my infrastructure (which is again is mostly banks and such). Its far easier on the all factories strategy, but it works fairly well with all research.

I also play with 2-5 minor civs and 4-9 major civs, so I always have plenty of buyers. I usually go either super adapter or super breeder (for techs to sell or increased population respectively).

I'am also filling 1-3 planets (size 4-6) entirely with economy buildings, I also buy my first 2 colony ships (I'am a consumer..), but I think my mistake is not keeping the taxes at 100% aproval at the very beginning since it gives a double pop growth...I didn't know this could make the difference...ok i'll try this way to find out

Well, 100% approval helps, but keeping out of the red is also nifty. It seems (at least to me) like you lose some approval if you hit red.

It is a balancing act you will learn, but buying ships and using leases is the fast track to the poor house. Buy the manufacturing base and build the ships(possibly doing partial built buys). All my colonies to start get an econ buildout, even if they'll be production later. If I'm running a long colony rush I'll also leave some planets building nothing as they can be breaking even almost immediately and you can wait for the pop. to come up to actually start building on them. You've got to stretch that starting cash and try to keep the 100% approval as long as possible. When I'm on my last turn before hitting the red I'll jack up taxes to 50% approval and if everything went right I'll usually have an empire that is in the green.

Certain races are harder on the econ than others. The Krynn for example, I can have in the green within about 6-8 weeks of starting the game even while still colonizing, but I have to be a lot more miserly with some like the Drengin. Once you get your start down and get over the economic hump it's smooth sailing as long as you watch costly upgrades like factories and such.

Let me second DA's advice here...Especially the swinging from 100% to 50%.

Never run in the middle if you can avoid it, but at one end or the other. Check, occasionally, what the tax situation will be if you have to go to 50% (toggle it down, check the numbers, toggle it back up without hitting the turn button) If I start to run out of cash early, I will often flick back and forth between 100% and 50% for a few turns.

On the flip side, if you are playing the Torians, I often flick down to 50% even when I have cash, if I only have a limited number of planets currently below 3-5 billion people (critical numbers for taxes), so that I can extend the starting cash and run more turns later in the game at 100% with greater numbers of recently colonized planets.

Speaking to the original topic, an important part of a good colony rush is knowing when to end it. There are often signs that will alert you - large numbers of alien transports streaking through your outer perimeter is the most obvious. There may be a few low PQ worlds left in your sphere of influence, but you will have to rush buy transports if you really need those planets. Better to cut your losses, usually, and stop building transports.

If the horde is not at your gates quite yet, but you already have enough planets to sustain your economy during the next phase buildup, you need to consider stopping your colonization anyway and switching to constructors, freighters, and warships immediately. Leave a few low PQ planets to the AI (especially extreme environment planets) on purpose. This will extend their colonization phase and delay their aggression for what could be the few vital turns it takes you to keep up with them.

If your empire is compact, your influence may overwhelm a few of these planets later. They will become a source of friction between you and the owner, but keeping up your military rating and sending them a freighter or two will keep relations calm for a good while.

Unless I am absolutely desperate to invade a neighbor early on, the months immediately after I stop colonizing form the most crucial point of the game. Building infrastructure AND military power AND keeping my research and economy going depends on not overextending myself by colonizing too many planets; and also by using every trick in the book to keep the AI factions from escalating too rapidly at the same time.

If I am forced to go to war early, of course, the real infrastructure buildup usually has to wait for that to draw toward a close. By then my economy is usually hurting and I know that my military rating is the only thing keeping the jackals at bay.

The post colonization game is a fine balancing act that begins with knowing when to cut off the colonization phase. Too few planets means not enough tax infrastructure to sustain the empire; not enough worlds dedicated to economy buildings means the same thing; and too many planets can create a spiraling maintenance cost nightmare that your scattered population can't keep up with. Especially if you're trying to build improvements and starships on all of them.

Above all, don't let my tone fool you into thinking it's easy for me. I struggle to find the best stopping point almost every time. It's not always easy to spot, and there is always the temptation to try to get just one more planet. Or go for just that one extreme colonization tech that will let you grab the radioactive PQ 19 world that's hanging right there in your grasp. Then you notice the Drengin frigates hanging around your space while you have only got small hulls armed with Laser II. Be careful out there!

I hope my first colony rush doesn't fall apart like that. I will be in a Large Galaxy with Uncommon Planets and Tight Clusters. My opening, as per current plan, is:

First turn:
Buy factory, buy bank, queue up research center, get that Flagship on the rove, scramble that Space Miner towards the closest asteroid it can find, send the Colony Wagon out exploring, ignore Mars, keep tax low and approval at 100% so that I have lots of taxpayers ASAP. Begin researching Ion Drive.

Next few turns:
If I find any good planet above PQ 6, I send the colonizer in and buy another one. Else, if the Space Miner is traveling far from Earth, send the colonizer/s after it. If the Space Miner finds asteroids nearby and begins building, I keep the Colony Ship exploring, and send the Flagship somewhere else to explore further. I slowly begin increasing taxes as long as the people remain at 100% approval. If I find a cash anomaly, I buy an extra fast colonizer and take Mars right away. If it's a big cash anomaly, I even buy a research building on Mars. As soon as Ion Drive is complete, it's on to Xeno Research and then Universal Translator(since it will be a while before I meet aliens).

As soon as I've got UT and found a few friendly/neutral neighbors(preferably Arceans, Altarians, Korx, Torians or Krynn), I buy a fast Freighter and send it off towards the homeworld of my first choice, provided it's within the Freighter's range. This will be the beginning of my trade array.

If I find a bad neighbor(Drengin, Korath, Thalan, Yor), I send them a cheap core Freighter to keep them from getting sour until I've got Harpoon missiles(some time away), with which I will be able to build my first frigates, or at least pathetic Lasers, with which I will be able to build useless Star Furies just to have a symbolic military, and to trick enemies into using Shields.

PeskyFly, for a guy who hasn't even got the game, you sure do seem to be doing well at it!

Maybe it's because I play normal challenging, but I don't really care about 100% happiness. I start off by buying a factory put my production slider to 100% where it will always be. My military slider is at 50% and the other two at 25 - 25. My space mining ship goes right next door where it will mine and my flag ship grabs the closest anamoly. I build colony ship without buying one unless there is a really great planet which would be 16 plus otherwise I just wait on production usually it's 4 turns. I research ION and then UT. After that it all depends on what I find out there. I play on big maps.

I find that some players play to much on the mechanics at least to my taste. I prefer to go with the flow. Of course you get an advantage by knowing how everything works but I find to really enjoy it's better to let it slide and enjoy the ride.

Then again maybe at higher levels you have to play it that way...

Just my 2 coppers

I've got the game(got it on the 3rd). But it's in a cupboard. I won't open the box until the 18th due to exams, and posting here takes far less time than installing that and getting hooked to it(esp. since I've done so much planning and would want to execute much of it). That'd be dangerous.

In DL you can upgrade cargo hulls to colony ships, and it is cheaper than rush bying colony ships!

What i like to do, is build colony ships first up and send them off, if any find a nice cluster of planets then i send cargo hulls loaded with engines in their direction. Once that first colony ship claims a planet, all the cargo hulls can arrive and upgrade to colony ships to get the rest of the planets. Of course you have to claim the first planet otherwise the cargo hulls cannot upgrade to colony ships in time before all the planets get taken by the AI(upgrading is impossibly slow when at the edge of range).