How fast do you build up your planets?

The rate at which you build is based on economy. If you fill every tile on every planet right out of the gate, your economy will go bust and you will lose. I usually set up a handful of ship builders with mostly factories right away. When I come accross reasearch bonus tiles, I put labs on them as soon as I can. Eventually, all the tiles get filled, but only at the pace which my economy can support.

As far as what to build, that depends on strategy. There are several including all research, all production, and all economy. I tend to use a hybrid production and economy approach. There are some guides floating around here. Check the Wiki and try searching the forum. Maybe someone can post a link?

CraigHB has it pretty much right, IMO. It took me too long to get over my "fill the queue" phase, and I don't think I could handle playing on Tough if I was still doing that.

I think the key point is that there is no single "best build list," even if you try to follow a formal strategy. These days, I tend to have short lists I'll stack up on a new world, but they vary for both planet map reasons (size & bonuses) and the stage of the game. Early on, I try to focus on making the planet a revenue producer (econ, farm, morale). Later in the game, when my economy is really cooking, I tend to put some manufacturing down early so that the other tiles get built more quickly.

I always start building markets early on. If i come across 300+ bonus tiles then i may choose to make that planet a manufacturing or science planet acordingly, in that case i will begin building only on the bonus tile and no markets. I will usually rush buy the building on a 700+ bonus tile if i find one.

Yes, absolutely true. Even when trying to strictly adhere to a particular strategy, you'll find your optimal build varying from planet to planet. You really have to look at each planet individually and think about how to build it in a way that will best suit your game.


I tend to focus on production initially, then economy a little further down the road. However, there are lots of ways to successfully play the game so it's hard to say if one strategy is better than another. Certainly, there are some that work exceptionally well, but the point is to have fun. So, if you don't enjoy a strategy, it's not a good one for you regardless of how well it may work.

It depends a lot on your pop/economy bonues. For me, I tend to plan the whole planet right off, but I also use heavy econ / pop bonuses. Also I have a lot of economy planets that don't build the starport for a long long time. This allows the population to grow without tempting me to build more colony ships.

As long a you build 2-3 factories 1st, allocate 20+ % to social, and focus social on new planets, generally you'll build out ok. Of course you need a few heavy manufacturing planets as well to get the colonizers out...

Ouch!

Money is so tight in this game, tighter than Bin Ladens asehole at a 'we love George Bush' convention!! Most of my planets will have markets, markets here, markets there, markets almost everywhare! + 1 farm and 1 morale building. Not untill mid game will dare to put 1 factory on each planet to speed the upgrading to stock markets.

Thanks for the many replies. There are other building strat threads around, and I've tried to glean what I could from them. Sometimes it still helps to crystllize your thoughts in a new thread.



This makes sense - the number of factories you build will depend on your money situation and immediate goals, leaving some space open for later. How many? Hmm. Back to the sandbox.



Can you build markets too early? When your population is low, they don't add much money. I will have to investigate the break-even point on those. Then again, it's easier to build now than go through all of your planets later...



Don't know if I could do without any of those - I think I need to get a better handle on how to use them all first. All econ buildings? Wow. I'm still working on the n00b strategy for now.

I always judge by what bonus tiles are on the planet I'm looking at and what I already have.

...except Mars. It's got so few spaces, I usually just make it a cash producer and let it rip...no starport, no nothing but entertainment centers. lol

*shrugs* It seems to work for me.

Yeah, key thing is to experiment and see what works best for you with playstyle, settings of the game, and prevailing circumstances.

I think it mostly depends on your racial bonuses. I often have big econ and moral bonuses which allows me to grow my planets as quickly as possible unless there are just too many. Add in some population growth bonuses and it's even easier.

One thing about Mars-like planets that are close to a civ's primary is that they tend to benefit very much from the terraforming technologies. Your PC4 banking planet could easily turn into a PC16 powerhouse later in the game.

A bad habit I've been trying to break myself of is force-building planetary improvements early in the game. At least in the easier difficulty levels, it's usually just not that urgent.

This is part of what makes Mars so great for my "Vegas" planet. By late game, I'm churning out so much money I can buy Large Hull warships every turn instead of waiting for them to be made. Or buy a LOT of fast constructors at once to play British Invasion on the AI races. lol

Not really, because a planet without factories will build quite slowly, so by the time several markets have been constructed, the population should be growing nicely.




I usually use Mars and planets like it to rush buy projects and trade goods (DL). No sense in killing tiles on good planets - trade goods and the like are little tile killers.

Yea, money is especially tight in DA, but not as much in DL. I put all my bonus points into morale, population growth, and economy. It may hurt me later in the game when I need to be pumping out warships and doing research, but it does give me some slack to develop a few ship builders first thing. Once I get those going, I work the economy buildings.

It's rarely wrong to be building markets in preference to building nothing.

When to start building up other stuff is much trickier. You don't want to wait until you can completely afford it because you will then have a prolonged phase where your economy will grow much faster than your capacity to spend the extra cash. This could easily end up leaving you well behind in the race. Equally, building up too early will leave you in a nasty financial hole. I judge it by feel...after a few games you'll be able to as well I expect. Certainly, though, almost all my planets are market fests in the early game.