Starting strategy
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I don't pretend to be an expert at Galactic Civilizations, but for anyone out there that is having trouble getting started, I've got a few pointers.
1. Try the green thumb bonus. You just cannot beat this one. The joy of having 8 class 25 + planets that crank out dreadnaughts in 7 turns, during a time in which the AI is just fielding frigates, simply cannot be understated. It is far far more valuable IMO than improving any one aspect of your skills (military/social production, etc), because a good planet is going to help all of that. Take a look at your starting system and the planets around it. CTL N resets your starting point, and if you're in a situation so dire that you think colonizing Mars might not be such a bad idea, then by all means, try again. Getting a good "Sol" planet can help a lot early on. Especially be on the lookout for sectors that have 3 or more yellow suns in them. Its much much better to have your good planets bunched together, because each planet can share the advantages of a star base. Because you've got so many planets working in tandem on constructors, you can get these star bases going very easily later.
2. Assuming you're using green thumb, set your tax rate at 50%. Too high, you say? Not at all. Because your people will be living on terrific planets, morale should not be a problem. I don't ever build entertainment centers/virtual reality modes...etc; the social projects that do nothing but improve morale. They do little other than sap your treasury. The planet quality keeps people in line. (Especially when you start fielding combat transports and cutting the population down) I stay at 50% tax the entire game, and use the advanced governments as soon as they are available.
3. Learn to tweak your production bars. The first thing you should do in any game is to turn your military and research WAY up and turn social to 10%. Why? Because the most important thing you've got to do early on is to get colony ships going. If you can beat the computer teams to the good planets, you WILL win the game (again, assuming you've got the green thumb
4. Take a look at the map and try to determine which way the computer will be coming from and colonize in THAT direction. If he is likely to come from the top, the planets below your home system will be out of range for him, and you can pick those up after you've beaten him to the ones between the two of you. Colonize only one planet per system unless the second best planet is so good that it can help you expand faster. Fill out the systems after you've colonized each yellow sun. Turn military down to 10% andget the initial line of basic social projects...soil enchancement, fusion plant, habitat, bank...etc going on all your planets. Use the governor; its amazing how much faster games can go when you aren't having to select a social project every turn.
5. During this time your research should stay at 40%. When researching, go straight for diplomacy. You've got to get the diplomatic translators. If you don't, then I GUARANTEE that the Drengin will. On a level less than challenging, you can get away with building them normally (remember that once you get diplomacy you will have turn social project buliding up and will be able to build the translator quickly.) You simply CANNOT let this fall into the drengin hands. The last thing you want them to have is a huge (especially early on) diplomatic advantage when they start hitting people up for tribute. In every single game I've played, if I don't make it a priority to get diplomatic translators, they get them.
6. Once you've got the translators, start researching faster drives, and work towards tristronium steel. I don't even try to build the aphrodisiac, which is usually the second trade good to hit the market in any game. It isn't that 30% growth rate isn't terrific, its just that you can get it fairly easily later on. You don't want to have Earth (or another high quality planet) spending that long working on something that isn't that hard to trade for later. Quite often, a minor race (Alexians,Scottlingas etc) will research this anyway, and you can easily trade them military technology (which they never seem to have) for it. The computer does NOT like to trade military techs OR trade goods. You want to make a habit of researching these yourself, because relying on trade to get them is going to cost you a bundle.
7. Build 4 defenders per system. Because of fast expansion (green thumb again, remember) I usually have more planets than the computer. Once the initial colony ship rush is over, switch to defenders. You don't even have to crank them out that quickly, unless you've got the Drengins right next door. The last thing you want to do is skip this step and start working on your starbases. If the AI looks and sees that you are a military weakling, it is going to come after you. The Drengin are a classic bully; they don't go after the toughest opponent immediately. Build up your 4 defenders per system, get your military rating decently high, and they will pick on someone else for a while.
8. I don't even look to start an offensive until the frigate/battlehammer, and if you've got a decent lead over the computer, you can often wait until dreadnaught. I never build battleships...the dreadnaught technology comes so quickly afterwards that quite often you'll simply change the production of battleship to dreadnaught before a single one is built. Once you've got the dreadnaught and combat transports, you're set.
9. As for morals...Never EVER EVER hurt your planets. When you get the "worms in the soil" event, either move them or kill them... If the % is high for killing them is high(and I've seen it as high as 37%) then DO it! It is never worth it to hurt the quality of your planets. Also stay away from any choices that hurt planet production, especially if it is on a really good world. If you've just set down on one of those gems with a quality of 23, then think long and hard before you do anything to handicap it. Unless you are hoping to beat out the Altarians for the Noble Peace Prize, use judgement with the choices. Unless know that you are going to be evil (and if you are, then choose nothing BUT evil choices) Use judgement with all the choices...the %'s seem to vary a lot, and its just foolish to choose the evil choice to get 8% bonus when the neutral choice gives 6%. I've noticed that some choices give your society rating more than one point, but I've yet to figure out if this is tied in any way to the %'s involved with the choices. Balance your "worms in the soil" (and you'll likely see this a bunch of times) by not stealing the starship with the technology (which also comes up quite often). Its not that hard to stay in the neutral range, but once you go evil, even choosing the "good choice" tends to raise your morality only one point, which basically indicates that there's no return, and you might as well head to demonic.
Again, I don't pretend to be an expert, but I've had this strategy work every time through the "challenging" level of difficulty. I've got a friend who was so frustrated with this game that he broke Moo2 back out. As 4x games go, this one is tougher than most. I just thought I'd share what has worked for me so far. Hate to think of anyone missing out on such a good game...
1. Try the green thumb bonus. You just cannot beat this one. The joy of having 8 class 25 + planets that crank out dreadnaughts in 7 turns, during a time in which the AI is just fielding frigates, simply cannot be understated. It is far far more valuable IMO than improving any one aspect of your skills (military/social production, etc), because a good planet is going to help all of that. Take a look at your starting system and the planets around it. CTL N resets your starting point, and if you're in a situation so dire that you think colonizing Mars might not be such a bad idea, then by all means, try again. Getting a good "Sol" planet can help a lot early on. Especially be on the lookout for sectors that have 3 or more yellow suns in them. Its much much better to have your good planets bunched together, because each planet can share the advantages of a star base. Because you've got so many planets working in tandem on constructors, you can get these star bases going very easily later.
2. Assuming you're using green thumb, set your tax rate at 50%. Too high, you say? Not at all. Because your people will be living on terrific planets, morale should not be a problem. I don't ever build entertainment centers/virtual reality modes...etc; the social projects that do nothing but improve morale. They do little other than sap your treasury. The planet quality keeps people in line. (Especially when you start fielding combat transports and cutting the population down) I stay at 50% tax the entire game, and use the advanced governments as soon as they are available.
3. Learn to tweak your production bars. The first thing you should do in any game is to turn your military and research WAY up and turn social to 10%. Why? Because the most important thing you've got to do early on is to get colony ships going. If you can beat the computer teams to the good planets, you WILL win the game (again, assuming you've got the green thumb
4. Take a look at the map and try to determine which way the computer will be coming from and colonize in THAT direction. If he is likely to come from the top, the planets below your home system will be out of range for him, and you can pick those up after you've beaten him to the ones between the two of you. Colonize only one planet per system unless the second best planet is so good that it can help you expand faster. Fill out the systems after you've colonized each yellow sun. Turn military down to 10% andget the initial line of basic social projects...soil enchancement, fusion plant, habitat, bank...etc going on all your planets. Use the governor; its amazing how much faster games can go when you aren't having to select a social project every turn.
5. During this time your research should stay at 40%. When researching, go straight for diplomacy. You've got to get the diplomatic translators. If you don't, then I GUARANTEE that the Drengin will. On a level less than challenging, you can get away with building them normally (remember that once you get diplomacy you will have turn social project buliding up and will be able to build the translator quickly.) You simply CANNOT let this fall into the drengin hands. The last thing you want them to have is a huge (especially early on) diplomatic advantage when they start hitting people up for tribute. In every single game I've played, if I don't make it a priority to get diplomatic translators, they get them.
6. Once you've got the translators, start researching faster drives, and work towards tristronium steel. I don't even try to build the aphrodisiac, which is usually the second trade good to hit the market in any game. It isn't that 30% growth rate isn't terrific, its just that you can get it fairly easily later on. You don't want to have Earth (or another high quality planet) spending that long working on something that isn't that hard to trade for later. Quite often, a minor race (Alexians,Scottlingas etc) will research this anyway, and you can easily trade them military technology (which they never seem to have) for it. The computer does NOT like to trade military techs OR trade goods. You want to make a habit of researching these yourself, because relying on trade to get them is going to cost you a bundle.
7. Build 4 defenders per system. Because of fast expansion (green thumb again, remember) I usually have more planets than the computer. Once the initial colony ship rush is over, switch to defenders. You don't even have to crank them out that quickly, unless you've got the Drengins right next door. The last thing you want to do is skip this step and start working on your starbases. If the AI looks and sees that you are a military weakling, it is going to come after you. The Drengin are a classic bully; they don't go after the toughest opponent immediately. Build up your 4 defenders per system, get your military rating decently high, and they will pick on someone else for a while.
8. I don't even look to start an offensive until the frigate/battlehammer, and if you've got a decent lead over the computer, you can often wait until dreadnaught. I never build battleships...the dreadnaught technology comes so quickly afterwards that quite often you'll simply change the production of battleship to dreadnaught before a single one is built. Once you've got the dreadnaught and combat transports, you're set.
9. As for morals...Never EVER EVER hurt your planets. When you get the "worms in the soil" event, either move them or kill them... If the % is high for killing them is high(and I've seen it as high as 37%) then DO it! It is never worth it to hurt the quality of your planets. Also stay away from any choices that hurt planet production, especially if it is on a really good world. If you've just set down on one of those gems with a quality of 23, then think long and hard before you do anything to handicap it. Unless you are hoping to beat out the Altarians for the Noble Peace Prize, use judgement with the choices. Unless know that you are going to be evil (and if you are, then choose nothing BUT evil choices) Use judgement with all the choices...the %'s seem to vary a lot, and its just foolish to choose the evil choice to get 8% bonus when the neutral choice gives 6%. I've noticed that some choices give your society rating more than one point, but I've yet to figure out if this is tied in any way to the %'s involved with the choices. Balance your "worms in the soil" (and you'll likely see this a bunch of times) by not stealing the starship with the technology (which also comes up quite often). Its not that hard to stay in the neutral range, but once you go evil, even choosing the "good choice" tends to raise your morality only one point, which basically indicates that there's no return, and you might as well head to demonic.
Again, I don't pretend to be an expert, but I've had this strategy work every time through the "challenging" level of difficulty. I've got a friend who was so frustrated with this game that he broke Moo2 back out. As 4x games go, this one is tougher than most. I just thought I'd share what has worked for me so far. Hate to think of anyone missing out on such a good game...
