Strategy at the start

What I do at the start of the game is set social and research each to 50% and put manufacturing at 100%. I keep buying colonyships(mine cost 1054 due to ion engine) and sending them to uncharted systems. Once I'm down to about 700bc I put military back to 33, social 33, and research 34. I then continue to build colonyships. I keep my tax as high as possible so all colonies are as close to 45% happiness. When the BC is close to 0 I lower manufacurting and watch it closely. Adjusting each turn as needed.

I also set my flagship to immediately auto-survey. I basically use my colony ships to scout out systems. They have 4 movement points due to the ion engines.

Anyone else do something similar or see a better way to start?
2,350 views 3 replies
Reply #1 Top
Ctrl+N until I get a 700% mine on my home world. I love doing that on gigantic maps. I keep restarting until I get a great homeworld, then I creat a small little empire with only about 6 planets and see if I can survive.
Reply #2 Top
I do something similar but stop buying ships a bit earlier than that, as my economy is always going down the drain at the start so I need to keep a buffer of funds. If I run too low I try to trade tech as much as possible to keep afloat.

The biggest difference I make is with the tax rate. I keep mine deliberately low, which keeps happiness and therefore growth rates up. I build an entertainment centre fairly early in the development of any high (10-12+) PQ planet, and then keep the tax rate such that happiness is >80%, ideally 100% (for double growth). I feel the extra population more than compensates for the lower tax rate - and you also gain in influence and available troop numbers.

Depending on the map and the starting point, my first or second purchase is often a scout ship. I also priortize getting engines up to the first +10 speed tech, and sensors 1 also helps a fair bit.


Edit: This is with beta 4a - if you're playing 1.0X then the growth rate isn't a big issue.
Reply #3 Top
how about first strategy on third mission where dread-lord start attacking my planet.
with beginning of research, there is no way in handling dreadlord with big hitpoint and massive point for weapon.
pls help