Having some problems with DA early game

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hey all,

I've recently started to play DA after a few games of DL. Dark Avatar, however, is giving me quite a few headaches early game.

I'm playing at the Normal difficulty, Large galaxy, Planets/Stars set to Common, Research set to Normal speed, 9 opponents and 8 minor races. I'm playing as the Drath Legion.

I'm pretty good at getting a solid economy up and running with 100% production, getting some good research techs rocking, etc. My problem comes from the initial colonizing phase. Even with my flagship on Auto Sruvey and a scout or two on Auto Explore, I can never seem to find a colonizable planet of decent PQ. I'll have 1 or 2 Colony Ships flying around trying to find something decent to colonize, yet I'm stuck with nothing but PQ8- planets, or planets that require Techs to colonize. Before I can get anything worthwhile colonized, I have 2-3 civs asking for tribute for being so weak, despite having 2-3 small fleets flying around as an attempt to display military power. I've tried trading with most of the nearby hostile civs, to no avail.

I'm thinking I'm spending too much time trying to find good planets. In DL, I'd ignore planets under PQ8 until I had nothing left to colonize. Has that changed with DA? Should I be trying to colonize everything I see and take over the better planets later, either through military, influence or trade?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I'm still relatively new to GCII.

Thanks in advance.
strategies
3,207 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
PQ 8 are not that bad. You can use them. They can be terraformed into atleast class 11s. Games are not lost because you don't own the highest PQ planets, or not having a bunch of bonus tiles on your homeworld.

I don't know about you, but I rather have complete control over a collection of sectors, than to to have a hand full of high PQ planets. It makes it easier, and more useful to use economy starbases. Innaddtion, you are less likely to annoy neighbors due to your influence, or lose planets because you colonized deep within another civs territory.

Before I can get anything worthwhile colonized, I have 2-3 civs asking for tribute for being so weak, despite having 2-3 small fleets flying around as an attempt to display military power.
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Keep your ships orbiting your planets. They seem to get a small attack bonus when they do. Early in the game, its a big deal to have +1 damage for all of your ships. Plus ships orbiting planets repair faster, useful advantage after a big fight.

My problem comes from the initial colonizing phase. Even with my flagship on Auto Sruvey and a scout or two on Auto Explore, I can never seem to find a colonizable planet of decent PQ.
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I'm thinking I'm spending too much time trying to find good planets.
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1. You should take what you get. A class 26 that you can't reach is worthless to you. Go grab a few class 8s instead.

2. The default scout designs are not that good. Its better to research a few sensor techs, and build a proper sensor ship using a cargo hull for space, and then give it sensors, life support, and engines.

Once built, you want to manually control this thing. Maybe order it to fly to a nearby system you haven't looked at yet. "Auto Explore" is only good for exploring every single parsec (which does have its uses) and can be expected to be too slow for finding planets.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I tend to play with clustered star systems, send out a few ships to a cluster and aim straight for the stars, which tell me whether there are any habitable planets around. If I find one with PQ4, then ok, it will need some work, but after soil enhancement etc, they can become fairly good planets to use. I think in one game I had a PQ4 planet go up to PQ12 after improvements. Normally with the smaller planets initially, I'll just have to rush buy things I need - they either get all research or all econ.

I strongly agree with what Divine Wrath said, maintaining control of sectors is much better than what could be best described as a scattering of planets you own through the whole system.

Also, how long are you taking to build the colony ships, mine I know are all rush bought initially (tend to buy two).

Finally, part of it does come down to luck. If you are stuck in a corner, and most of the star systems are on the other side of the AI borders, then it may be difficult to find a planet that is available for colonisation.
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