I personally tend to "play dead" if you will. I completely ignore military assets till well after the colony rush and take my time building up my infastructure/tech trading to obscene levels while the AI gets involved in brush wars (sometimes because I paid them to . hooray Super Diplomat!). Sometimes the AI decides im just too damn prosperous to leave alone and declares war anyway I then proceed to tapdance on thier face with my (usually) superior tech (mmmmmm NLC).

I'm that way too. i spend a lot of time getting my infrastructure and research done and economic starbases (for the production bonuses). I build a couple of defenders but i am usually last in military. When war inedivtably gets declared on me its not hard to build up and destroy the AI who foolishly attacked me.

The one strategy i use is that when the militaries are starting to get biggesr i rush research the soldering branch of the tech tree and make sure i get the ur Quan (or whatever) training. then i dont worry about having war declared on me. It means nothing if i lose no planets.

I have tried to get myself to attack eary but then i think,,, i need money, i need production and i need better techs. Before i know it i'm last in military but i have the ability to build quickly.

Acquiring staying power rather than rushing the war is my strat too. I couldn't play super-aggressive from the start, I set the AI way too strong for that...
I also run up the soldier branch when concearned that war is going to break out(with me in particular). There are usually enough enemy planets with only one weak ship defending for my meager fleet (I usually only have 1 or 2 fleets at this stage, neither very impressive...) to take out and then I invade myself back into the research competition...

I used to play reactionary tactics while i was learning stuff still. Only built military when provoked or felt absolutely necessary.

Since then I've learned to identify when Im pissing someone off and can see the future engagement coming, but even though im not preparing for full blown war, having several defender type ships around certainly does its job of buying you time, intimidating crippled or struggling civs, and is great for taking out minor races after the colony rush if you have had a good spread of scientific and economic growth to be able to afford ships capable of breaking the ones in orbit on their planets.

On a slightly related topic, Ive adopted a new motto:

Always have your cannons loaded, or pirates will ravage your booty.

I am not sure if this is viable in the upper half of the difficulty levels, but picking on a weak race early as possible works well for me too. Though sometimes i get beat to the punch, but still.

Colony rush.
Economy/infrastructure.
Early cheap military.
Dominate weak/crippled civ.

I'm another cautious, "build up and then strike" type player. After the initial colony rush, I put a single small-hull fighter with no engines and a starter weapon in orbit around my front-line planets, just to hold off any early opportunistic invasions. Then I don't build any other military ships for a long time, focusing more on freighters and starbase constructors. I'll set up a few starport planets ramped up to very high potential military production near the front lines, so I can crank out a fleet quickly when I need it.

Meanwhile I research (or trade) far enough down the military tech lines to match or beat the other races. Sometimes I'll build a few "big stick" frigates or battleships if I need to make a show of force, to hold off bribery or attack. The AI isn't good at judging your potential military strength. It seems to look at only what's already built, so a few "big sticks" can avoid stupid early conflicts. Then when I'm ready and feel the time is right, I go for the jugular on my own terms. Sometimes that agenda gets pushed a bit, if I see another race making rapid progress with conquest or influence expansion, and I can't hold it off through diplomacy tricks.

I've tried a few early blitz games, but it's easy to get over-extended and not have the economy to support expansion, when you rush down the military research lines. I'd rather have a really pumped-up economy sitting behind my military.

Yeah, if you have a military (or potential for one) you better darn well make sure you can support one. My taxing is at 80% with 1.028 Trillion people and I only make 500-something credits...it's tough to manage a military AND stay in the green.

I like this...keep 'em commin'...

(I hope you all enjoy reading these as much as I do.)

I've only had the game a few weeks (I know!) and I am pleased to see that my strategy of build up quietly then go for the jugular seems to be a popular one. I'm going to start a war tonight and have used my spies to check which civilization can't defend against my weapons. In regards to this I have a few questions:

1) If I click on another civilizations planet, I can click on their ships to see what they are equipped with. Is this down to spies or is it a game flaw?
2) Is there anyway to make spies more effective? Mine get caught after only a couple of turns...

Loving the game even more than Civ IV...

they get caught if the AI has one to spare to neutralize it. With a better economy you can outproduce spies. Or wait and let the AI hopefully waste each other's spies. Thats why its cool that they cost progressively more. Life Insurance cost increases i imagine...

It's not a flaw...I actually use it in designing my ships...like seeing how fast their ships can go, what it's predominant weapon type (and how much attack it has in that type) and any defenses. I then counter that with custom ships. I honestly don't think it's a flaw...they would have fixed it in the DA expansion if it was.

From what I understand through reading these strategies, a lot of people would be good with the drath, because, since many of you go to war later in order to allow your economy and research to grow, you could ensure that you would not have to go to war by using the Drath "Super Manipulator" ability, thus allowing all the super-power military states to remain preoccupied. In addition, since your economys are relatively well developed, you would be able to support your manipulation ventures.

I play almost exclusively with the Yor yay for that interdiction field! wheee!!

GalenEvil

I play on masochistic, and I almost never build any military ships until I've got medium hulls. I like to build up basic infrastructure first, then build medium hulls and attack the weakest adjacent civ. With diplomacy and bribing them to war upon each other, I almost always stay at peace until I choose to go to war. I usually form an economic or research treaty with one close-by potential threat, because it almost always prevents them from declaring war on you. If there are any minors close by, I take them out first, because you're essentially getting another homeworld quality planet, with the civ-capital colony tile. I also make sure I trade all the minors the necesary techs so they can build all the capitals, because sooner or later those capitals become mine.

I usually dont launch an attack at a civ until I have enough to assault multiple systems at a time, but if a civ is growing too fast I may attack them earlier and pick off stray planets. Once I'm at war with someone I don't stop until they're annihilated, except for some very rare situations. I try to fight only one war at a time, but as the current one nears the end, Im assembling the strike forces for the next one. Im generally in a constant state of warfare, with just short interludes of peace.

I always play custom races, because I like to try different combinations of abilities, but I also like to fiddle around with them instead of using any of th prepackaged races. I usually create ones from various sci-fi that I've read/seen...and often use the Kzinti of course.

Sentient species taste better...