We CAN actually buy mercenaries in GalCiv2!

thu a clever twist in existing gameplay...

from GalCiv2 Forums
Simple: Buy another civ's troop transport! Its highly likely that some people has already discovered this tactic, but probably it didn't hit em yet that THAT is in fact shopping for mercenaries... Yes, we are buying the ship, but we also get the soldiers inside it for our own use... what more, if we buy one that is parked in orbit, the ship will come stocked full with soldiers taken from that planet! Can use em to conquer others, or as a quick way to grab populations from other civ to bolster our own... I used this strategy in my last game, where I buy troop transports by the truckloads and transfer em to my newly conquered Arcean homeworld which has tons of economic buildings and Econ Cap... in that single turn, i invaded the planet, and populated it to 10 bil pop and it starts rolling in wads of BC right away...
16,185 views 19 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Errrr... why did'nt I think of this? Good one  

Now I can get that 100 billion population planet a whole lot faster 
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wow! That is a great idea! You thought of it before me. I'll have to try it. I'm just about to go conquer a terran pq18 full of economic buildings. Could work wonders there!
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hmm, never thought of that before, bad me

Must try that out in my next game! thanks a lot
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
or colony ships
Better yet bild a huge colonny ship mid game, load 1pop on it,move next to alien's home, sell it, wait for it to enter orbit , buy it.  
it should work...
Note: Use colony modules because they are't thretaning to the A.I. 
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Very sneaky..... I like it! Just wondering what it costs to buy it. I know there are a bunch of varibles but a round figure will do.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Been using this tactic since galciv1. Even give the enemy the transport upgrade tech so they make me better transports. You will find that the same certain races stock pile them every game. Unfortunately one of the changes, in one of the upgrades, was to make them very expensive, at the higher levels, anyway.

I even experimented with upgrading my foreign purchased transports with weapons that could get through the planets defences. Purchase, upgrade, attack. Send the freedom fighters home. Defeating an entire race without sending a single of my own ships to the area. Great when it works. Very costly if it fails. But I did have a few complete success's. The other advantage is your taking the soldiers off the world. Depleting the world of defenders.

Also you should know, if you buy to many you end up depleting the races population to the point that they no longer have many mercenaries to put on transports. They come only partially full. Brutal if you did not check and your landing them on other enemy worlds with just a few thousand troops on board. Can put the damper on a fast take out strategy.

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
one prob with buying colony ship from AI from my gameplays so far is that they are so darn clingy to them compared to troop transports... i can only buy them if i offer several good techs vs just one good tech for several troop transports (i got high diplo skill).

Maybe that idea of selling your own design col ship would work though, if you built it cheaply (just hull + colony module)... gotta test it out. But this overt manipulation is dangerously closer to an exploit now...
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Interesting Idea. Build colony ships populate it with just 1 citizen and see if the AI will buy it.

Do the same with troop transports make a swap theirs for yours etc. See if it would work. They could try and invade all they want but if they don't put more troops on it that army of one is going to have a really bad day.

Has anyone ever seen the AI resupply a troop ship or colony ship for that matter.

I was thinking that if you sold them a colony ship of 1 citizen it would take them quite awhile to build up a planets population.. Thus reducing the funding they receive for a short time.. compared to a fully stocked ship...


Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Dang, that's a great idea, I'll have to try that one out.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
you guys are devious and creative, gotta try it.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
yea, i buy those things by the dozen as to how many troops you get, if it is launched you get what it has onboard at the time. if on planet it gets up to half the planet pop, but obviously not more than it can carry. i use it to a) stock up for wars , b) deplete their populations (thereby slowing their growth), c) slow their expansion, d) fill my planets. i sometimes even give away imp troop carrier tech to improve my investment

for those that think the ai has no personality, try this technique and you may change your mind. torians for instance make TONS of transports. more than their racial growth bonus can account for even. and they build slow ones at that. drengin, yor, terran, and those bug guys whos name i forget make fast transports, but in more modest numbers. this holds true even if they have the engine tech to build better. some just dont bother to make them fast, ever.

there are some things you have to remember if you do a lot of this tho. bought transports will start out in their territory, which cause problems with your relationships til you get it well away from them. and for every other faction whos territory you pass thru. lots of transports on you own planets even cause friction for you immediate neighbors. for instance, i am constantly being attacked by minor races seems they get upset by the parade of mercs passing near their territory. growing your planets with mercs can cause morale problems if you are not careful. those mercs in their territory also degrade your ability to trade with that culture as long as they are close enough to be a threat (diplomatic trade, not merchant trade).

the technique is pretty powerful, but it does have it's faults. but just being able to conquer them with their own ppl make it worth the trouble
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Seems kind of odd though that an empire would actually sell its own millitary off to the highest bidder..


A good empire would say "No! You will not have our men!"

A neutral empire would say "Sorry, We cannot risk the lives of our men"

An evil empire would say "Nope! Those are OUR shock troops."
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i found buying transports to be extremely effective in the campaign game, since the other empires on my "team" would build them and never use them properly.

of course, first thing i did after buying them was usually to upgrade them to have enough speed to reach the battle before it ended, but that's just a detail...
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i have found that if you give the minor races coloy ships they will use them of course i give them a full ship for that purpose
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
depends... prolly too many factors in play to make a simple estimate.

perhaps somebody can try to experiment to correlate RP cost of techs traded with our diplo level with their diplo level with their level of relations with us?
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sorry, seems pretty cheesy to me. I think I will stick to building my own.
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
what you pay depends on your diplomacy stat and relationship with the faction. personally i rarely pay than 2k for a 1k transport. later i dont pay more than 5k for a 3k transport. this is not what they cost me per se, but how much i am WILLING to pay. i do it as a part of my tech trading. usually i try for a transport with the change in cash. if you play with tech trading off tho you will end up paying quite a bit for your troops, but if your draining them constantly thru tech trading they will soon not be able to give fair value in cash so ships start to look pretty good. maybe grab their scouts while your at it;) scouts make nice reserves and passable scouts too

to be honest, trading for mercs can be tedious. just as tech trading gets tedious if you do it consistently. just one more tool for your toolkit.