Bentley241

That's a broad question. The simplest answer is to lower the difficulty until you can win, then gradually raise it as your play improves. Read the strategy forum for some excellent tips. Study sensors early, at sensor level 1 you can build more survey ships. (Set anomalies to frequent provide cash and bonuses. Be sure to automate your survey ship.) At sensor level 3 you can build Nano Recorders to increase research. At sensor level 4 yo

It looks like the majority of Galactic Civ players have a real life, as opposed to WOW players who don't. The difference is turn based vs real time online with no pause key. While playing Galactic Civilizations, if your wife/girl friend needs something, you can be there for her. (Apologies to female players)

A more accurate rating would be based on the strongest 2 or 3 fleets. When the computer has a fleet or a ship that I can't stop, then I am impressed. At higher levels, you can't afford to have a decent defense on every planet. Eyes of the Universe is very helpful here. Watch out for very fast, armed transport fleets, particularly from the Terrans. (in my last game, their transports were armed and had a speed of 14 -

[quote]Also, on higher difficulties it is harder to keep up with the AI, especially early on. Haveing a very fast rate will just make you even further behind since the AI's bonus will be multiplied to a higher starting rate. At least thats the way I think of it.[/quote] I think its better to focus on general techs that help combat, such as medium scale building, miniaturization, logistics, engine techs. You need to have enough of a military to impress the minors and to h

These components are actually quite useful in a close game. It is definitely worthwhile, although it certainly increases your micromanagement. Some approaches: (I can't fine the "Cheesy fleet tactics post", which explains most of this in detail.) If its a fleet defense bonus or fleet attack bonus module (Tulon, Vengeance), you can put it on a small or mediu

You can always purchase your way to goodness, 2500 for neutrality (recommended for Korx), 10000 for goodness (from evil) Don't pass up a huge bonus for the sake of alignment.

At higher levels in close games (Obscene is my current max), you need all the free production you can get. I just gradually build space miners throughout the game. I micro-manage them. When they run out of things to upgrade, I research the next level. If you already have the game in the bag by then, then its time to play at a higher level. If you automate them early, they often build mines out of your influence. No point

There are a few good bonuses. One of the special structures increases the chance that when another civilization surrenders, they surrender to you. (I have had success with this) Good players are much less likely to be attacked by all of the AI players.

Yes, it only prevents new spies. So try to get the tech early in the game and start building them. The structures are expensive, but provide a nice morale bonus. As spies get increasingly expensive, this saves a fortune in the long run. The Drengin and the Korath have to trade for the tech to get it. Unfortunately, the AI does not prioritize getting this tech, so that may take awhile.

Lots of good tips here. At higher levels, the tech selling to minors works really well, especially after you have enough military/diplomacy to get their attention. Early in the game, they pay very little for new tech. Once you have a few medium ships, the intimidation progresses to the point that you can trade techs for Economic/Research treaties. This eventually works for the weaker majors as well. &nbs

As I understand it, bonus tiles for manufacturing and research do not benefit power plants,research coordinators,devils's forge,manufacturing capitals, or tech capitals. (far from a complete list) The actual factory or primary research structure should be placed on these. Influence and morale bonuses, as far a I know, always benefit from bonus tiles. If you place a farm on a bonus tile, be sure to disab

The Korath, with their spore ships and later dark influence, own the Jagged Knife. It does require a bit of micromanagement to replace the population, but its alot cheaper to build small spore ships than transports. When this happened to me, by the time I had captured most of the Jagged Knife, the rest of the galaxy was rapidly flipping. (Mind control center works extremely well here.) Medium ships with fast engines and psyonic beams easi

Actually, that sounds like alot of fun, particularly if you have managed to get a ton of credits, and you have tech trading disabled. That might be a good way to acquire those environmental techs from the stingy Altarians. And I always save a few spies for invasion purposes to disable morale structures. (or farms)

I tend to research other things early to midgame, and trade with the minors for weapons tech - usually missiles. For defense, I usually go with missile defense. (and the hyper recorders as mentioned). When the pirates show up, they usually have ships to counter mine (typically beams and point defense) , so I research defense and weapons to counter theirs. (Guns and Shields) If th

I am dealing with pirates now. I have had a long game playing the Korx (Immense, Masochistic, 9 other races). I have enjoyed a great economy the whole game. (I bought my way to neutral) I have 165 colonies. (Thanks for the governors) The pirates came with Beams and Point Defense (I had Nightmare torpedoes) and some shields. Some of them were in stacks of about 10 fleets, each fleet with over 1000 beam attack a

If you attack several of them, you may take a hit. The Altarians (and everyone else) once attacked me with the rallying cry of "Remember the Akilians".

It also means that your global tax rate will probably have to be lower. By not making planets with >16 Billion Population, its not hard to increase taxes to 79%. Otherwise, it is too much micromanagement for little or no gain in income.

This game was on a Gigantic Map and the resources were out of reach until later. For a long time, I had only made contact with 1 of the 8 minors in the game. I am in the process of getting my fleet together and securing those bases, although I am much slower than usual. I built the Empathic Temple (something like that) off of the Good Tech tree, and the Korx just surrendered to me. (I haven't even attacked yet!) I guess the hidden (or not

I tried the technologist strategy with the Iconians, without first reviewing TA 101 - big mistake. The Iconians have almost no economic techs, but have great research. (Not even Interstellar republic) I had a great starting position, but no yellow or green resources. (I had 2 research, an influece, and a military resource.) I almost gave up, but an economic uptrend allowed me to build up and expand. Sti

[quote]Ontopic: If you're wanting to play Masochistic up to Suicidal, choose Technologists and the 20% research bonus with your customization points. You're free to do whatever else you like with the rest of them, but a point in morale for 10% is always a good bet. Additionally, research planetary improvements as soon as is humanly (or Drenginly, whatever the case may be) possible. A rush to Nano Recorders off of sensors 3 is also in order, if you can manage it. As you need sensors 1 to get s

Human players that have acquired playing tips on a website in a complex game are very difficult to defeat. There are all kinds of options that are very difficult to code in AI. For example: Complex defenses combining fleet tactics (see cheesy fleet tactics) and military starbases. Devious ways of capturing resources wi

I was playing Thalan on masochistic level. They did not declare war until everyone else did as well. They did suffer from low morale - probably from a tanking economy. Actually, all of the AI had a tanking economy because I had all of the resource bases. Since they are a minor race, they cannot be flipped. In the future, I will just load up

I only load saved games in the event of a game crash, so that doesn't help much. If it happens late game, you can (if you want) simply work around the event and secure your victory. If you were playing the Korath, this event would be very easy. Each planet gets a free Spore ship, possibly simultaneously throughout the galaxy. Even if you couldn't hold them all, you would win with all the free tech. (if tech stealing is on) &

Lots of good advice in this thread. Be sure to check your Stats as well. I have had games where my economic bonus was 29% (late game - ouch) ranging up to 200% (econ bases, lucky surveyors, econ bonus techs) With a low bonus you will needs lots of economic worlds, with a high bonus you can do whatever you want and never go broke. It really just depends on the luck and available resources of each game. (The

I seem to get this event fairly often. They usually tend to take my cluster of stars that I have enhanced with star bases (which are suddenly worthless), and had been providing a large percentage of my production/research. They are usually not aggressive, but did attack me in my current game (which is now in the mop up stage) after everyone else did. It all started with the Altarians "Remember the Akilians", and soon I was lab