In my previous post, I started pondering a "No-Factories" strategy (except on bonus tiles). I've already heard people talk about all factories and all labs strategies, but no one in all these strategy posts has ever brought up the subject of an all economy social building strategy (at least to the best of my memory, I've read through all of the strategy posts this summer). I've heard people mentioning a rotation strategy for labs and factories, but once again, never for economy. So my strategy goes as follows...................

This (I think) would generally work better with a custom civ.  

For abilities, you would need to put your spending into: Luck, Diplomacy, Economics, Morale, Population Growth, Social Production, Trade/Trade Routes. Your points can either be spent on a one point per category basis (sortof), so you can have a mix of each bonus if you prefer. However, I would put all my points into Luck, Economics, Morale, Diplomacy, Trade (and in that order to). I may however want to spread out the points I put into Economics, Morale, Diplomacy, and Trade (leaving Trade out altogether even).   But no matter what, always put that one point into Luck, those 1000 BC anomalies sure come in handy for this strategy.  

For a Super Ability, choose either Super Diplomat, Breeder, or Trader (or whatever its called that gives you all the Trade technologies). Super Manipulater is another option you can pursue to keep all the other races off of your Arse in the early game.  

If you want to choose a Custom Civ over a Built-In Civ, you get 15 points to spend in the abilities category and you get to choose your own techs.   If you do this, make sure you branch out towards either the Xeno Economics or the Xeno Entertainment or even the Trade direction. I would choose Xeno Entertainment over the other two, and just buy Xeno Economics and Trade from another Civ (like the Arceans and the Korx). But if you are old-fashioned/stubborn and decide to choose a Built-In Civ, make sure that it is either the Korx or a civ that starts out with Xeno Economics.

For those of you who do not believe in being a Technology Whore, you don't have to, but this strategy will require you to use the Trading Screen more than you probably feel comfortable with.   

First turn, set your Production Spending slider to 100%, and set your Research slider to 100% as well. Buy Stellar Cartography and Ion Drive off of any civ (other than Terrans  ) and research the first Sensors tech as quick as you are able. Once this is done, make a custom Cargo hull surveyor with 2 Ion engines, Survey Module (DUH  ), and as many Sensors and Life Support that you can fit (make sure to have at least one of each of these components  ). Do not forget to put your Flagship to Auto Survey on the first turn. Send your Miner to wherever it must go. Get as many Treaties as you can with all of the Major and Minor Civs (within the first few turns preferably). As soon as you finish with the Sensors tech, put 100% spending into social production and forget about researching and making ships for a long time. Load your build queue up with: PQ 1=Morale; PQ 2=Morale, Economic; PQ 3=Morale, Farm, Economic; PQ 4=Morale, Farm, Economic, Economic; PQ 5=Morale, Farm, Economic, Economic, Economic; PQ 6= Morale, Farm, Economic, Morale, Farm, Economic; For the PQ 7 and higher planets, use the formula for a PQ 6 planet, in this same order, using the rest of the tiles apart from those 6 as you wish.   

If you come across a planet with a bonus tile or tiles, build the proper building/s on said tile/s. If you get farm tiles; do not build farms of any sort on them (too much of a morale issue, esspecially if you get any of the Xeno Farm techs), if you get 100% Manufacturing/Research tiles; do not build factories/research centers of any sort on them. However if you get Approval or 300% and up Manufacturing/Research tiles; you may Rush-Buy the structure that is meant to be placed on those tiles. Specialize only the planets with such 300% and up bonus tiles to be your Manufacturing/Research worlds (if you want to that is). You can place your capitals wherever you believe it suits you. If you colonize/capture a PQ 26 world (or higher if possible), do what you wish with it, wether it has something to do with planetary bonuses or not.

If you managed to read this far, I congratulate you  !!!

If you have read this far, you are probably wondering how you will keep up in research and in millitary. Simple, Rush-Buying, Leasing (you'll eventually have the money for it), and Trading. By Trading, I mean Tech Trading, Etc. For those of you who do not like to be Tech Whores, you might not like this strategy (heavy emphasis on the "might").  

If you do not like the idea of Rush-Buying/Leasing (or maybe even producing) your own ships, you can always buy them off of the other civs. This works best if none of the civs are below Neutral relations with your race (so that they won't complain about your warships being in their territory, telling you to get them the Fuck Out of their space). If you do want to produce ships on your own, and not have to build factories, just buy lots of miners (by any means necessary) and buy the Space Mining techs off of other civs (if they are not researching these techs, research them yourself by doing 100% research spending). Once you control all of the Miners on the map, send them out to the asteroids and begin mining. Make sure to priorotize which planets will receive the bonus. In order to control every miner on the map, try Tech Whoring as many techs as possible on your first turn to all the other civs for money that way you can buy out their miners the very same turn and make a huge profit as well (not to mention an extra Military/Social Production bonus in the early stages of the game).  

About Colony Rushing.................in a word, Don't!!! It will ruin your economy. Instead do not build anything, be it a social, military, or research project, just set all of your sliders to 0%. Set your taxes so that approval is at 100% and gradually lower them each turn if need be as long as you possibly can keep your approval at 100%. As soon as it becomes impossible to keep your citizens 100% happy (even with 0% spending) you can set your taxes so that your approval stays just above the red, in order for your population to keep on growing without suffering any losses. If you do want to Colony Rush wihout going into deficit too much, you can use your colony ships as scouts, parking them beside planets that are high classed or strategically well placed on the fringes of your empire or your colony ships range. Your ships would need to have lots of sensors of high or low quality to detect incoming colony ships, in order for you to estimate how long it would take those AI colonizers to reach the planet which your ship is parked beside, taking it the very turn that the AI is about to get there. This means that you can colonize planets within the center of your empire at any pace you would like without fucking yourself economicaly. Depending on your estimations and colonization rate, you may never even have to go into deficit.  

So my strategy rant has finally come to a close.  For those of you who managed not to have a mental meltdown, I congratulate you.  Now if you would be so kind as to add-on to this idea, or even critisize it (any form of critisizm is accepted and will be pondered by myself), I would really appreciate it. You've gotta admit, it's really straining on the back, neck, and fingers to type for over two hours (even if it is about a really great idea)!!!  

I do hope that some more experienced players than myself will post a few replies, if so, it would none the less be much appreciated.  

I should probably mention that I am still playing DA (Dark Avatar).

So as a final farewell to all my fellow Nerdigans, I would like to proclaim in the words of the                                 Gods of Rock & Roll...................................................

LET'S RAGE!!!!!!!!!!!