All planets colonized: What to do next?

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hi everybody,

I started my first game on a gigantic map with a custom race (populists + diplomatic bonus). All planets are colonized. These are the stats:

Arcean: 85 planets, 372 attack ships, 453 billion people
Drengin: 23 planets, 178 attack ships, 131 billion people
Torian: 50 planets, 257 attack ships, 370 billion people
Iconian: 44 planets, 182 attack ships, 304 billion people
Me: 78 planets, 117 attack ships, 568 billion people.

Above stats and more I got from spying on them. My spies have infiltrated their society and they tell in great detail what I want to know.

I am 1st in population, Economy, Technology, Influence and Production. I am playing at normal difficulty and it's a peacefull universe, nobody is at war.

My questions:

The Arceans have a huge fleet compared to mine which I find a bit intimidating. They also build these things like crazy. Are they preparing for war? Should I be concerned?

I am puzzled about how to design my attacking ships. Should I use lasers, missiles, railguns? Can anyone provide me with an example what to put on an early design attacking ship? (small & medium hull, I have recently researched stinger IV, railgun mk 4, plasma, ECMIII, Shield II, titanium armor III) .

What should be my strategy? Should I focus on 1) research, 2) military, 3) influence or a mix of the three?
I don't want to go to war (yet) but if I fall behind in military too much and the Arceans keeping building more ships then I am very vulnerable for attack.

What should I build on my planets. I am really confused. Should I build research academies, influencial buildings, more banks or focus on planetary defence and starbases?

Because of the number of planets and the number of possibilities I find it extremely difficult to focus. Can someone give me some advise?

colonies
9,660 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The question is not "what happens next", but rather "what do I want". If you think war is coming and you want to be prepared to fight, crank your military slider up in the budget, set your colonies to military production, and build factories. Use your espionage to find out what the Arcean ships are like - i.e. are they outfitted with mass drivers and deflectors? Then put titanium armor and stingers on your ships. If they have beam weapons and chaff then use railguns and deflectors, and so on. Focus your research on a specific type of weapon and defence, as well as logistics, drives, life support, etc. Make sure you have planetary invasion and defense. Build military starbases if you think you're going to start off weak. And definitely research larger hulls. A good large warship can turn the tide of any battle.

If you DON'T want to fight, but you think the Arceans are getting belligerent, be prepared to appease them. Perhaps send them something as a gift. How does their faction feel about yours? Your best diplomatic option is to make friends out of other civs, though, and hope they'll support you if war comes.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
78 planets... O_O

Crazy.

How can you bother micro-managing all that? my empires usually have only 10-15 planets I actually pay attention to.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This is just me, but I pick the weakest civilization and beat them up.

Also, in terms of weapons, I think it's best to pick 2 types, and also, you will want to get an ethical alignment as soon as possible - which ever you want - as they tend to have better weapons.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Oh my... It wouldn't be able to control 10-30 planets, let alone 70!! Amazing.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
ROFL, and this is why I play on huge maps with habitable planets set to Rare... I would hate that, ugh.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
watch for the Arceans, they decide that they don't like you and try and kill you. Try and team with Torians and Iconians, and kill drengi. After that go after the big fish. Then You can decide what to do next. Balance research and military, it doesn't seem like you need to build up planets, and military starbases are very efficient at defense. Also, if you see the Arceans building durable ships, build durable ships, if they build attack oriented ships, outclass their attack. And don't forget to use the empire screen, the damnable AI can maximize production each turn and it doesn't make mistakes or get tired. Humans would never do that.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
With that many planets I would go appeasement + eventual research victory, but that's just me
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
My suggestion would be to do a little "constructive diplomacy"..... why not try and negotiate a war between a couple of parties. Find out who is allied to who and with a little skill and luck, you can set the whole galaxy on each other and sit back and laugh.

If you are worried about the Arceans, build some military starbases on your borders with them. Send more trade ships their way and sell off some of your crappy techs to them.

As for what to do, Paradox above said it right. This is where you choose what to do. You can do anything of the above that you listed..... plug towards a victory type. Build up your research on your planets (leave your slider alone for now) and tech up. Or, crank out a load of Constructors and build influence bases around your neighbours borders to quietly assimilate their planets. Really, this is the meat of the game.... post rush expansion planet grab stage, you set the pace and the goals and work towards them.

Whatever you do, looking at the stats above, I would crank out a few more ships - or just put some higher tech on a new model and replace older designs with it.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ok I read all your comments carefully and here's what I did:

I maxed (in the domestic screen and on all planets)out research for a number of turns and researced larg hulls and good and evil. I turned my ethical elignment to good for 0 BC.

Next I maxed out military (in the domestic screen and on all planets) and build large hull military ships. I researched the military of the AI by spying and decided to build an alround attacking ship with all kind of weapons and defense systems. I did this for a large numer of turns until I ranked as number 1 in military stats.

Next I maxed out social rate (in the domestic screen and on all planets) and built all "good elignment" buildings and a lot of farms because a large number of planets had reached their population limit.

Maxing out the social rate cost me a lot of money so I sold techs to 5 befriended minor races and they all paid me good money because of my diplomatic skills. Also my spies stole one or two techs from the other races.

Finally I balanced social, military and research.

All this has resulted in a strong military position, a growing population, more influence and better relations with the other races (++ for military instead of -- I initially had in the relations screen)

Don't know yet what my next steps will be but I know I can't sit still for too long ! I have the feeling the AI won't let me