What do you do if you only have 2 planets?

i'd research the federation government to get a bonus to economy and the extra diplomacy it gives would keep the other's off your back for a while, you could get the technology line under that too, all the trade techs, all the diplomacy --> majesty ---> total majesty and so on will increase your influence quite a bit, set up as many trade routes as possible, and set up economy bases all along the trade routes, and a bunch around your two plants to increase social production, with that done you should be in a decent position. also with the high diplomacy you can trade for the techs if you're falling behind there, and control all the wars going to on try to keep anyone from getting too powerful.

err no, xeno business raises culture (influence) rather, not majesty, but those help too for the diplomacy

With only 2 planets your civilization's potential is capped at a very low level. Unless your home world is blessed with some exceptional bonus tiles, you'll be well behind the other civilizations, economically and technically, before the end of the first year and falling further behind at an increasingly rapid pace. Population plays an important role in both revenue and influence - with 2 planets, you won't have much of either! If you choose to play this game, instead of using CTRL-N to generate a new map, I don't think you can reasonably pursue anything except a diplomatic victory and you'll be depending on creativity and luck to advance through the tech tree fast enough to keep the AI from declaring war on you.

With only 2 planets you may have a good amount of cash still in your treasury. As the AI values planets based on their populations, perhaps you can buy some planets as they get colonized. In this regard diplomacy techs can help you. Keep in mind though that after getting a trade with a civ you will have to wait a while before speaking to the again.

To answer your question, getting your population higher is how you would go about increasing your influence. You can also build embassies. I'm not sure why you want to concentrate on influence though; unless you are in danger of having you only planet(s) flip already.

You may also want to consider rushing weapons and invasion techs and take some planets before the AI is ready.

Depending on what difficulty you're playing on, you should either get aggressive and conquer some mofos, or ctrl N. I'd try the former first, because it'll be a learning experience. Like in business, you always wanna be growing. And the econ is kinda like a simplified abstract of business. You grow or you die.

For a while there, I played the one or two planet strategy on large maps. In them, I'd rush buy labs and research sensors and engines first. Build 2 or 3 survey ships and try to get as many anomalies as I could. Once I got Warp Drive, I'd switch to the yellow techs up through Total Majesty. Trade is also a good one, since it boosts diplomacy and costs so little in time.

I'd go for the beam weapons techs until I got phasors and then research ethics. Go evil and research the Psyonic Beam. I'd build several cargo hull ships full of psyonic beams and leave them in orbit on my homeworld. I'd build the Spin Control Center on my homeworld and watch my enemies start beating a path to my door trying to be my friend. Trading techs for money and other techs can keep you going until you're ready to go on a military walkabout.

I now do a combination approach, but if faced with only having one or two planets, I revert to that strategy.

How long would you do this for? How many years? Wouldn't the AI's start breathing down your neck for not having any military? And by rush buy labs, you don't mean lease right? you mean just full price regular.

You're correct. I lease buy the labs on the longest terms.

The strategy usually culminates in wars in the early months of year one. (Not to be confused with year zero.) There are a couple of ways to handle it though.

First, I never give the AIs anything when they threaten me. If they want war, I'll be ready soon enough.

If I'm not ready for the war, which has happened a few times, I simply ignore it for the most part. Someone declaring war means little if they don't have planetary invasion researched. I just switch to a military buildup and attack when ready. I might build a few all attack ships to fend off any escorts that have troop transports with them if they've gotten that far. Any fleets without transports are just empty threats.

If I'm ready for the war, it means that my military strength was only a turn or two late from being able to prevent it. A quick buildup is usually enough to fend off any threat and diplomacy can net some big rewards.

Once the Spin Control Center is built, there's a several month window of opportunity where you can set up your attacks with near impunity. Take advantage of that window and you can wipe out an enemy in one turn. That should be enough to put you ahead of the other AIs or at least on equal terms with the most powerful ones.

In my current DL Gigantic all abundant game with nine suicidal opponents I never built a colonizer during the rush. Started with my two planets in the home system. Now it is a year and a half into the game and I have 427 planets. It is doable using a very direct approach and a narrow focus on your must haves. Also when playing with less a few turns can make the difference between being a galactic god or a tasty morsel for the local bully.

Another thing that you can do that hasn't been stated is to get the first terraforming tech and colonize the PQ-0 worlds around you. The AI will never go to those and they will become very nice planets one you have all the terraforming techs. I usually get PQ16's out of them. If you go neutral or eventually build the orbital terraformer, you won't have to wait for the tiles to become usable.

In my early games I ignored these, but now i go for a trird colony rush and colonize all of them. This is when my influence is large (don't want the new guys flipping away) and my economy is making at least something like 8000 bc/wk. Then i rush buy a stock exchange or a manufacturing center each turn until its up and running; industrial sectors will update at their own pace. At this stage of the game I have no use for more labs but there will be a farm and starport mixed in there somewhere. A fertility clinic can be helpful to get you population started, a rush buy is only 204 bc.

With taxes set at 80% the new colonies will be profitable even with only 500 million people.

PQ0 worlds remain so unless an event makes them something different. Perhaps you mean the extreme worlds with low PQ numbers that are greater-than 0.

I'll join the crew of 'invade someone'. As early as possible, take out another civ's homeworld. Not only does this net you another planet, but it's a great planet and will help you slingshot past the other civs.

OOPS !!! That was supposed to say PQ-1.

My previous post was referring to all the PQ 1 planets not the PQ-0's. The AI won't touch a PQ 1 whether its extreme or not.

Thanks Loup

Sorry for the question not regarding this thread:
Can you turn bonus tiles off? It has not occured to me to ask it until now.

Not to my knowledge. I don't know everything though. How to program a VCR still eludes me....

That's ok. I know everything. Well, except that.