QwertyUiop1011

[quote]2) Your relations with that race need to be 'close'. Nothing less - friendly doesn't work, and certainly nothing lower than that. When you look at the race relations screen, look at what you get pluses and minuses for, and focus on getting more pluses with any given race if you want an alliance. Once you've both got the tech and your relations are 'close', sidle up alongside and ask for that race's hand in alliance marriage. (It's on the diplomacy screen, with those economic

[quote]How far into the game were you when they zapped you?RegardsZy[/quote] I wasn't too far in... I didn't keep track of the exact length but it was no more than two years in. I had focused on trading and culture techs so I only had the first few basic military techs so my handful of fighters couldn't put up much of a fight.

Okay, I tried a game on a medium map and normal difficulty and received a solid ass-kicking when the Yor invaded =) I had focused too much on economy and expansion without building up a military which I guess made me a pretty appealing target. Another question that popped up in the course of this game... how do I form alliances? I researched that tech, but all I seem to be able to do is offer/demand economic and research treaties.

Okay, I just won my first game, without firing a shot =) Granted, I was playing on the beginner difficulty so once I got my empire up and running the computer didn't really pose much of a challenge, but I really was using this game more as practice just to get used to game mechanics. It has, however, cemented my love for the game =) I'm still barely scratching the surface, but I think I'm ready to start increasing the size of the galaxy and computer difficulty.

Okay, never mind, I figured out the insurrection modules =)

Ah, that makes sense; I had about 70% approval but the population had maxed out. I'm pretty far into my game on a tiny map and things are going well. I have a great deal of income, spies everywhere on my opponents' planets, and my influence is growing rapidly. Another question =) ... I just finished the tech that allows for insurrection modules, but when I sent a constructor to an influence star base, it wasn't available to build--it does go with that star base, right? I really

Thanks for the help and encouragement--it's appreciated! I've been playing around a bit on a tiny map, and I'm bringing in plenty of money, but even with my tax rate at 0%, my approval rate is plummeting. I have three entertainment centers, but the approval is dropping steadily at about 2% per turn... how can I stop this?

How do I tell when my economy is ready for me to expand to other planets?

Ah, gotcha. Are trade routes just established between factions or can they be made between planets I control? I'm still trying to get the hang of how fast to expand, and what to produce and when.

Thanks for the response... I guess from my experiences with other games, I'm used to farms being one of the first things to build =) Is there a regular farming tech or will I need to go after Xeno Farming specifically to build any sort of farm?

First off, I want to say I'm completely new to GalCiv; I had heard a great deal of good things about it so I went last night and purchased the complete bundle with DL, DA, and ToA. I loaded up ToA, watched a few of the basic tutorials and started a game as the Terrans, but it seems that I can't build any farms. I've looked through the tech trees under Research and I found Xeno Farms (which I was able to build once I had researched that far) but nothing about basic farming--isn't that some