Critique my strategy

from GalCiv2 Forums
I've been playing GalCiv II for a few weeks now gradually increasing the difficulty level. One cheese tactic I have found is going straight for engine and sensor techs and building fast surveyors on cargo hulls. With three or four of those I can get the majority of anomalies on a huge map with three opponents. I'm easily winning my first game on challenging using that tactic, although I did have the number of anomalies set to common. I must have gotten close to 20,000 credits that way, which totally smoked the AI which could expand as fast as me, but couldn't fund research while expanding. In the future, I will set anomalies to the lowest setting.

I always do the following:

Play a custom race, since choosing one just limits your potential number of opponents. I put points into morale, research population growth and research. Things like luck and trade don't seem to be all that useful.

I've been playing huge maps with three opponents, since more just means some will be very weak compared to others.

Set inhabitable planets and stars to common so that nobody is starved for planets to build on.

Turn off tech trading. I just don't like it since most cheese straegies revolve around tech trading.

I've started setting tech rate to fast since it is easy to get to the end game with half the tech tree untouched on normal.

Expand as fast as possible (no brainer), building faster colony ships as I go along until there isn't much left to take.

For a build que I always use some variation of:
Factory, factory
Lab
Market
Starport
Lab
Market

Then vary this according to the situation. If I'm doing well financially and in the tech race, I'll concentrate more on factories since those are almost always useful. I dislike cheese like building a factory on every square on some planets while filling another one with markets, with the various capitals being the exception.

I have learned to aim for a max population of about 18b, since more just become unhappy. Is there some great advantage to having 30b that I'm unaware of? I know you get more income, but is it worth the happiness hit? Most planets with mid to high population will need at least one entertainment improvement.

I will give in to cheap demands from aggressive opponents but refuse expensive ones.

I concentrate on constructors in the early mid game and economic starbases. I try to set them so that each touches more than one planet. Just as a no cheese rule, I don't dogpile starbases, limiting each planet to at most two economic starbases.

I try to hold off building much of a military until I can get medium sized hulls, since the smaller ones die very easily. When I get large hulls I almost never build medium hulls any more. I never use the stock ships. They stink big time. OTOH, as a balance issue I have found that a fleet of four large ships with good offense and defense tailored to what the enemy is using to be almost too easy. No AI can outthink a player, so wars are usually one-sided.

What would be nice is opponents who are nearly equal without being overpowering. One thing I have noticed about all 4X games is that the outcome is more or less decided very early. If you are competitive in the early game it is hard to lose the end game. If you are dwarfed in the early game, you face a titanic struggle from there on. The problem with changing difficulties is that it is easy to go from one extreme to the other. I'm not sure which is worse, winning too easily or being ground to dust by an opponent that is twice as large. I wish there were options for somehow tailoring the difficulty level differently in early and mid game.
strategies
7,310 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sounds like you do pretty much what I do. Only difference is I choose more than 3 opponents in a huge galaxy. I find it too easy to get the 75% influence victory with only 3 opponents. Also, I just don't build markets in 1.4X, except on the econ capital. I don't need the money.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You seem to mention a bunch of things as being cheezie. I would counter that by saying its sound tactics. As you play higher and higher levels of difficulty you will find these tactics are necessary. On Masochistic the computer has a 200% bouns to production to match that on a single planet you need 8 Economy Star bases around it. To even keep up in tech you need to be able to trade tech occationally.

Going for Impulse engines early is almost necessary. In DA it might not be as necessary but you still need to beat the AI in colonizeing. DA may change a bunch of things tactics-wise.

Tech trading off is fine if you like those settings but I don't know that tech tradeing is cheezie. Whats wrong with 4 starbases in a sector? The game already limits it. Why limit yourself further.

You are right I usually shoot for 18 billion per planet if its PQ is high enough on low PQ planets I just let them sit at 6 billion. My economic capital might get more people if I have the space on the planet to keep everyone happy.

I would contend that if you are finishing games this quickly you might try a much higher level of difficulty. If you can't win on the higher settings and are getting ground into dust you might try using some of those cheezie tactics you mention.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You play very similar to what I do. However on higher difficulty levels tech trading is essental. If a computer opponent who has more production, planets, and better weapons tech comes at you in early game (which often happens) you need to tech trade or you are smoked.

Oh and with the two larger galaxy settings the 1 point cost for luck becomes really valuable. You can get more ethical desions on planets to give them a bonus.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I use the "Cargo-hull" tactic for fast surveyors; they're also handy for upgrades to Constructors to quickly claim precious galactic resources, or freighters to establish trade routes.

Another one I like is to plant warships right next to another civ's resource mines, then sell them to another civ they're currently at war with. Naturally I have a Constructor nearby

Buying freighters from Civ's is a handy trick although I use it less often. My last game another civ actually gave me one for an instant trade route, I was pleasantly surprised.

I also read you can load up 1-hp cargo hulls with weaponry to artifically inflate your military score / get other civ's off your back. I hope this one isn't true as I consider that purrrrty cheesie. Of course, in WWII we used to make mock planes, ships, or equipment to fool the enemy and tie up their resources, so maybe it's not as cheesy as I think.

My new planet preferences are:

Factory (usually bought outright)
Starport
Market
Farm
Temple (what I call "Happy people places")
Lab
Embassy

While I rarely plunk down Planetary Defense buildings, I have lately gotten into the habit of almost always, planet class permitting, getting the Orbital Fleet Manager.

I'm surprised you don't go for Starports earlier; I like to get new planets to work on ships as early as I can, even if it at 100-turns per ship. I can always rush-buy one if I need it, and new planets are almost always on the periphery of my burgeoning empire (and thus nearest to plums in need of a quick Colony ship)


Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top


I also read you can load up 1-hp cargo hulls with weaponry to artifically inflate your military score / get other civ's off your back. I hope this one isn't true as I consider that purrrrty cheesie. Of course, in WWII we used to make mock planes, ships, or equipment to fool the enemy and tie up their resources, so maybe it's not as cheesy as I think.




That might be a cheese tactic against an AI, but in WW2 we also had the converse of the mock equipment. Ships called Q-ships - freighters with hidden weaponry added on. In lieu of a convoy escort, a Q-ship would be supplied. It wouldn't be able to stand a pounding from a destroyer or anything with a halfway-decent gun on deck, but against a sub or other small convoy raider, it could wait until it came into range (after it thought it saw an unguarded convoy) and open fire from close range. Even then, without any real armoring it was still vulnerable, but would hopefully have gotten enough of a jump on the enemy that it could deliver a crippling/killing blow before the enemy could respond.

I've thought about adapting the idea here, but with just one HP, a Q-ship would be damned expensive for its potential survival time in a fight. Even heavily armored or shielded, it only takes one lucky hit. I just don't think it's worth the expense.

One thing this game needs, though, is a way to attach a fighting ship to a freighter as a "fleet" - to allow an escort ship or ships to escort your freighters without having to do it by hand for each freighter.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Buying freighters from Civ's is a handy trick although I use it less often. My last game another civ actually gave me one for an instant trade route, I was pleasantly surprised.


What two planets make up a trade route if you buy the freighter?

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I would suggest some tech trading. One strategy I use is to bring my diplo and soldering up as high as I can as fast as I can and then go to the diplomatic screen and trade a low level tech for every alien transport on the board. As soon as the AI accepts you get fully loaded transports just one square away from their systems. Time to declare war on the AI. I've conquered the galaxy very quickly that way with Xeno Farming II. One big suggestion though make sure first you have 3 or 4 heavily armed and defended fast ships to take care of anything in orbit first.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I thought this thread was DOA, but now I see there have been a lot of replies. I guess I should pay better attention. Sounds like people have come up with some innovative strategies, but a lot of them seem to take advantage of the dumb computer. I've played a few tough games now without losing, but the Arceans could have beaten me in my last game if they had tried. I got away with a tech victory, which the AI seems content to let the player have without a struggle.

One thing I have changed is that I turn off the governor and make my own build queues. One brilliant insight I had was that if you keep 300% farming squares at basic farming, you can use them for their intended purpose without them becoming a liability. I also focus less on markets, with some planets not really needing one at all, for reasons that I don't fully understand. Stock markets are a nice improvement, however, because of the influence bonus.

I still think the game is pretty much decided in the early stages, although I doubt I will ever be in much danger of losing on tough. Curiously, it always seems to be the good and neutral races that are the most powerful. The Drengins are fun to play against, but never seem to keep up on the non-military side. The Yor and Korx are so obnoxious they seem to always be getting beat up by somebody. I paid the Iconians 400 bc to get into a brutal war with the Yor. That was funny. I guess next week I'll get to see if all my finely tuned strategies go out the window with DA.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Buying freighters from Civ's is a handy trick although I use it less often. My last game another civ actually gave me one for an instant trade route, I was pleasantly surprised.


What two planets make up a trade route if you buy the freighter?




I wondered about that one too, like the time another Civ gave me a freighter. I'll have to double check it; it would suck if it didn't change its origin point to one of my worlds, heh.