What am I doing wrong?

Is there any particular area you tend to fall behind in? E.g. do you run out of credits, or people, or can't crank out ships fast enough?

There's a thread on starting-tactics here: Link which has some useful ideas - though everyone has slightly different opinions!

First, don't be concerned with the quarterly reports about your position in the galaxy. They can be quite misleading. Check the graphs at the bottom of the interface. those will give you a clearer look at where you are.

Depending on the difficulty level you are playing at (you didn't mention), with only 3-4 civs on a huge galaxy you should be in a good position to win.

Some simple tips:
1. Check your tax rate and production allocation sliders, with an 80%+ approval, you may be able to coax some more BC's out of your population.
2. Don't be afraid to spend BC's, especially on planetary improvements to get your new colonies on their feet.
3. you say you colonized 10 planets? what are their Quality values? in your initial colony rush, you should avoid colonizing planets of less than size 10, unless you need the range. Save the sub-10 planets for later colonization.
4. Build one ship for each of your planets, even if its with 1 weak weapon, that will discourage aggressive civs... for a time anyway.
5. Early on, before you need to build lots of ships, set your funding sliders a little more aggressively. perhaps 10/30/60 in Mil/Soc/Res if you want to go heavy research, or 10/60/30 if you want to speed up building planet improvements. you can go higher or lower or more balanced.
6. Try to specialize at least some of your colonies, and don't forget to click on the Focus button on the colony screen when you want that extra focus.

Early on you need to do alot of economic tweaking because that is where your empire will get its strength. You will need to check back frequently to make sure your development is doing your bidding efficiently.

Hope this helps some.

Cheers,
Reaver

First, don't be concerned with the quarterly reports about your position in the galaxy. They can be quite misleading.

Spot on reaver, this game actively lies to u. I have played several games where on the most powerful nations, i am bottom of the pile the entire game, right up till i win

Power in GC 2 is rated just on military strength. Which is wrong. Should take into account manufacturing, research and economic strength which i am usually 1 or 2 at.

The stats r misleading to new players, seen a lot of players say they give up on games and started a fresh. I usually come from behind to win my games, especially on the higher difficulty levels.

Good advice above. More specifically, my way is:

Set initial tax rate at 51% and military to 10 60% with research at 20 and social at 20. Buy a factory and entertainment on your home planet and start building colony ships. You should be able to build one in 5 turns.

Load 100,000 on colony ships to keep your home planet popolation from crashing and get your 10 planets (all 10pq or better). Start early building constructors on at least half your planets to assure you get your share of resources. Research Planetary improvement and Xeno Econ early to kick your economy

The above depends on moral bonuses and designing a better colony ship with 3 pc speed.

After 30-40 turns I usually change the sliders to 60 reasearch and 20/20 military and social. You can play with the tax rate but try to keep it over 70% to build population. If you are playing with anomalies use the flagship to get them and scout with colony ships. The money you get from anomalies can sustain you for a long time.

The original 5000bc is meant to spend so spend it but don't allow yourself to get too far into the red.

Depending on map size there are other considerations regarding future colonies and scouting.

If you're just talking about military power, you need to build some military ships to get a respectable military rating. 100 is average, so if yours is much lower start building some warships. If you don't someone will declare war on you.

Play on a lower difficulty setting. Sub-normal is good for the first few games. After about 5 games or so, you should be good enough to play normal. Play on a easier level just to get a hang of the game mechanics.

You're gonna get as many different things here as there are posts, but my $.02 for what its worth. Note that with version1.1 population is going to be a huge factor and therefore morale also is a key.

I play almost all my games on huge, the last 4 games at crippling difficulty and working up the difficulty ladder (Played masochistic in Gal CIv I eventually). I'm also a warmonger. I use 7 AI. The more AI the less room each has at their early disposal. I like to start with Ion drive but if I don't have it when I start I get it quickly. I set my tax at 49%, production 100% with military at 60, social 20 research 20. I want to find and get to those good planets and resources fast.

I upgrade my scout, constructor and colony ships to be faster than the AI, speed 4-5. My scouts also get range. I buy a scout on turn 1 or 2 so I don't waste valuable constructor and colony moves looking for a place to land and resources to mine. Try to settle the higher PQ, contrary to the others I'll go down to PQ 8 initially and pick up the lower PQs later thru colonization or culture flipping.

Economy starbases in your core empire are valuable as they increase your military, social and research rates and will help later increasing the value of trade routes. I don't build military starbases until a little later and only where I think the AI will bring an invasion fleet. As mentioned earlier, when you get military weapons the Defender will become available. Plop one on each planet if you get threatened or whenever it is convenient to you. Also, threats are just that. I tell em to "go away" the first time they try to threaten me and then throw down some defenders.

Don't build your capitals until you have your core explored/colonized and then evaluate all your planets. I hate it when "one last planet" has +700% manufacturing and I already have a Manufacturing Capital. .

You can keep up in research and even ahead by trading with the AI. You also see what techs they have and can tell a little of what kind of ships they like. You and the AI need Planetary Invasion to be able to get troop transports. If you don't have planetary invasion, watch the AI "Trade" list of techs. They can threaten all they want but if they don't have planetary invasion then so what. They are not capable of waging a war until they get it.

Galactic BAzarr, available with Master Trade, is a huge help in trading.

As far as build order on planets I'll get a morale booster then a factory up early. Then I want to put up a bank or two. All my 9+ planets get a starport early on, either my first or second build. My PQ 5,6,7 [lanets get almost exclusively research buildings and then focus on research. Make sure you use those bonus tiles early and for what they help with. Don't put a farm on a plus manufacturing or research tile. That's the AIs trick (stilll).

Use the focus on top of your planet screen. If you want to get buildings up quick on a new planet, buy a key building (factory) and focus on social. If you need those ships quicker and can't buy them, focus on military.

I find this works for me to get a solid foothold in the universe before I start sendng "guests" to the AIs areas.

Once I have colonized the planets I'm going to I drop my military, usually settling in at a balanced 34/33/33 except when circumstances (key tech, project, war) dictates othrwise.

Good luck and keep at it. One of the best games around imho.

Great I appreciate all your responses. Yes I personally think I gave up to easy when I saw myself faling behind. So I will stick with that.

When I fist start off, after colinizing a few planets I set my sliders to 30/30/45. But I am going to mess with those a bit and set that to social and research orientated.

Also Reaver I am playing on Normal level, and yes I get at least 5-10 high PQ planets before I even mess with military. Or maybe I should go into military after I see myself sliding down a bit.

I also agree those sliders may be manipulative, I may rock in 3 catagories but not in the others.

Ok well I might read all these posts a few more times to come up with a better plan. I also might try playing with 2 or 3 races so I can be left alone for a bit.

I am sure you know what I mean, kinda thinking back to other games like this one.

Ok thak you all.

I had a similar problem and my solution was to look at the graphs at the bottom of the screen for military power. I would research up to lasers early. I custom made some cheap fighters. No engine, no armor but 2 weapons. Then ehrn I see a race start to build up or when I didn't need any other ships built I started to build them to always stay on top of the list in military strength and then get working on medium hulls.

You don't "NEED" a military but if you don't have one or a small one then one of your AI foes will "NEED" your planets and take them off you hands using what your weakest at which is military.

The AI does the smart thing. If your ahead in tech and have money rolling in and pushing borders back with influence but have no military then almost any race will attack you as you have made yourself an easy target to expand their race. I realized this when in one game that I had no military and everyone declared war on me even races that I had friendly relations with.

I find with a high rating in miltary that you are better at diplomacy and trade because everyone is afraid to piss you off. Plus they all pay you tributes which always helps. I also build a spin center and place my best ships in orbit as then no ones gonna attack you and they really pay you well in tributes to be your friend.