Need help with Planet Colonization at start up.

Hey. I'm a bit new to GalCiv.

I'm playing on the largest map there is in the game. I'm playing on "Challanging". I can pretty much keep up with the AI in all areas aside from the very start up in the game where it comes to colonization.

My problem is, that I notice half of the AI Civs colonize about 10-15 planets in the first 200 turns of the game, where I only tend to have 4. I feel intimidated right from the get go... however accoring to stats and spy stats these Civ's are near my reaserch level and economic level.

Are they mass colonizing, however not building on all their planet land spaces right away? HOw are they keeping their economy balanced?

I tend to start slow, and take 4 plants and build buildings on all of them right away. I tend to BUY half of them right out. Then I consintrate on stabalizing my economy and keeping my reseasrch contenable. I tend to do this alright.

My fear, in the long run of the game, say turn 1000, will I have more the addvantage of starting out slow, strong and stable while only then sending out colony ships to try to colonize whatever is left? or would the AI have better odds by having all these colonies already and trying to slowly build their buildings on all their planets?

Which way it better? I'm wondering if I should be trying to expand much faster in the start of the game or not, and I'm also afraid of not being able to balance my economy well enough where my reasearch will suffer from the get go. I hate it when all the other races beat me in reasearch fast because I don't have enough money to allocate to research production BECAUSE i'm paying an arm and a leg into COLONY EXPENSES, which seems to kill me whenever I try to expand as fast as the AI usually does. Help?

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I for one dont build anything on newly colonized planets until they can cover the expense of just having them, it helps a lot. Oh and at higher difficultly levels the AI cheats so that might be how they afford so much.

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Hi!

My problem is, that I notice half of the AI Civs colonize about 10-15 planets in the first 200 turns of the game, where I only tend to have 4.

I assume you play TA. The econ there is the hardest of all game versions, but still, having only 4 planets at turn 200 means you're doing sometning horrbly wrong.

As first, you need more money. That means either increasing revenue, or decreasing expenses.

Increasing revenue

play Super Breeder. If you held their planets at 100%, will their pop there grow 4 times faster than pop of other races;
design race with max econ bonus;
always colonize with full colonizer (IIRC 250M pop);
trade non-warfaring tech(s) to every race in contact;
get those anomalies. Research Sensors and build some 5 survey ships on a cargo hull and let them auto-survey. They'll not give you lots of money, but will stil pay for themself quite soon, and also explore your surroundings;
grab every yellow (morale) and green (money) resource you see. Actuall grab EVERY resource, but those two are the most important in early game;
trade ships are so-so, but in early-to-mid game, when they start generating decent income, they can help a bit.

Decreasing costs

don't BUY anything, but the very first one or two factories at your HW;
don't build anything on new colonies, until they start generating surplus money;
colonize best planets first, "backfill" smaller planets lately, when money's not so tight anymore;
only build ships you MUST, thus decreasing maintenance costs;
design proper ships: you don't need a constructor with 3 engines and 2 "range extenders" in a cargo hull, if just a constructor module in a medium or tiny hull will do.

OFC there's more. Search forums for early game expansion stategy, or see my post on that theme: Playing with lots of planets - how to financially survive first year?

BR, Iztok

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I Grab a certain amount if possible say 15-20 worlds (depends on map settings and start locaion),

what I find helps is when i colonize a new world i immediatly build a recruitment centre and starport, it take 5-8 turns and costs very little, but provides a 20% bonus to population growth and 20% econ bonus, for a new colony its very helpful and in just a few turns my colonies start paying for them selves.

Once I colonize as many planets as I can and my population reaches the 100b mark or over (this helps in generating more taxes) I then set my econ,manufacturing and tech capital planets (which provide my foundation) after which I turn to my other worlds and slowly build them up.

Its a strategy that works for me. Hope it helps, also trawl through the forums there is a wealth of start up tips, the good thing about this game is you can try dozens of strategies you can try. Good luck.

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