What would you do in this situation

my advive... CNTRL+N

Try to get a few more planets when you restart the game

Sounds good. Setting social production to zero is fine if you remember to turn it back up when you want to upgrade buildings.

By the way, you say you have no other planets, but shouldn't you at least have Mars?

let me guess, the yor magically appeared from the other side of the map and grabbed it 3 turns from the start! (slight exaduration alert - 'slight')

Yeah, I kind of let mars slip away...

Culture flip the thing. Its in your back yard. Its only going to cause you problems in the long run.

I played a small uni, ignored mars and ended up with just one planet
Poor me, well it's only a game.

To be honest I selected rare for everything.

Shucks.

Hi!

How many planets have other players? If most of them are restricted to their home systems and maybe 1 or two more planets, you could still have an intresting game, esp. if you're playing below masochistic. With Humans a viable path would be an alliance victory.


Excellent approach. With small number of planets trade can really make a difference in income. Just make sure you "hit" the farthest planets possible.

When Earth is maxxed (everythign built), switch to research and build military ONLY if others with big military start seriously threatening you. A few fake defenders can help here.

Research path: level 2 buildings, 1st trade (immediately build traders), some military tech to be able to build fake defenders, or 2nd trade (depends on the situation). When trade starts bringing money go for 3rd level buildings and last trade. If there are big extreme planets available, consider researching the tech that will give you the most tiles. Otherwise go for terraforming, or (if wars already started) for planetary invasion (see below). If you're in danger go for medium hull, missiles and defenses for weapon your main adversary is using (level that gives 2 defenses/item).

Watch actions in galaxy constantly. Drengin and Korath ares especially dangerous to grow big. If they attack someone and he's losing, consider invading his planets before Drengin does.

Playing Humans should help you quite a lot. Try to befriend with everyone (trade routes will help), have at leat moderate score in military and soon you'll find some races as "close". Trade away Alliances and ally with them and ride that path to the alliance victory.

BR, Iztok

Alternatively, be agressive. Find another minnow, or a minor race, rush Planetary Invasion and some low-level weapons and steamroller them to get yourself some new planets.

Thanks for all the tips.

What are "fake Defenders"?

Hi!

Defenders that are never meant to fight, just to increase your military rating. I use for that a cargo hull with 1 cheapest beam, missile and gun on it. In orbit such a ship shows attack 2 in each category, so it increases your military rating by 6 points. Since military score is calculated as a summ of (all your attack + all defenses + all hitpoints/10), gives such a design the highest bang for the bucks invested.

BR, Iztok

In DA if your Arcean with their first strike ability then these ships are good in combat too.

Heh... only if they're powerful enough to remove all opposition in that first shot, or even a small fighter could wipe out a fleet of them.

somewhat, but a ship can only destroy 1 enemy per weapon. So if a tiny fighter has 2 powerful weapons, they can only destroy 2 of your cargo hulls per round.

Edit: unless the excess firepower carries over to the next ship... i forget if that happens?

So if your cargo hull ships have reasonable weaponry, you should always do quite well being Arcean.

Two logistic techs allow you to field fleets of 3 cargo hulls. Given that, a fighter with 3 or more weapons could theoretically rip a fleet apart in a single volley, assuming that none of the shots rolled a 0. Considering the cash investment in weapon loaded cargo hulls, that's a considerable risk even in early game.

I can see the value of it in some situations, but with only a single hp its a risky proposition in any scenario.

That's my point I guess, Every way i went, the planets were useless and the other civs had 3 to 5 planets by the end of the rush, I played on a bit and got major war, It's so easy to get slaughtered if your unlucky in the colony rush especially when the margins are so tight.

But you're right Iztok, sometimes it's so worth plugging away. it's a real buzz to win against the odds.

That's what the game was designed for