Favorite strategies!

I personally tend to "play dead" if you will. I completely ignore military assets till well after the colony rush and take my time building up my infastructure/tech trading to obscene levels while the AI gets involved in brush wars (sometimes because I paid them to . hooray Super Diplomat!). Sometimes the AI decides im just too damn prosperous to leave alone and declares war anyway I then proceed to tapdance on thier face with my (usually) superior tech (mmmmmm NLC).

I like to play on suicidal, so I'm always waaaaay behind the AI in tech and military until well into the game. I bribe them to go to war with each other so they're too busy to notice how puny I am. I get research treaties with the AI as soon as possible, generally trading my super ability techs to do so. I nearly always cave in to extortion, if I can possibly pay it.
I play on gigantic maps with tight clusters so the galaxy is divided into some critical areas and a big load of nothing, allowing me to concentrate my much smaller fleets on specific fronts, rather than having them spread too thin. I refresh the map until I get a starting position I like.
I watch for opportunities to "poach" minor races - when a major race takes out their ships and is about to wipe them out, I send in my transports first.

I'm that way too. i spend a lot of time getting my infrastructure and research done and economic starbases (for the production bonuses). I build a couple of defenders but i am usually last in military. When war inedivtably gets declared on me its not hard to build up and destroy the AI who foolishly attacked me.

The one strategy i use is that when the militaries are starting to get biggesr i rush research the soldering branch of the tech tree and make sure i get the ur Quan (or whatever) training. then i dont worry about having war declared on me. It means nothing if i lose no planets.

I have tried to get myself to attack eary but then i think,,, i need money, i need production and i need better techs. Before i know it i'm last in military but i have the ability to build quickly.

I just can't do the no-military thing. I don't have to be first but I find that if you don't support a military, you just end up losing the same amount of money due to extortion. I'd rather have some ships.

Plus you can always give ships to allies to wage proxy wars etc if you want to get rid of them.

Acquiring staying power rather than rushing the war is my strat too. I couldn't play super-aggressive from the start, I set the AI way too strong for that...
I also run up the soldier branch when concearned that war is going to break out(with me in particular). There are usually enough enemy planets with only one weak ship defending for my meager fleet (I usually only have 1 or 2 fleets at this stage, neither very impressive...) to take out and then I invade myself back into the research competition...

I usually don't build a military till necessary, but I research the soldiering branch very fast so I can have max soldiering (not the Yor) while they have like 5 or 30 for their soldiering. I still research weapons and stuff like mad so I can counter enemy ships easily by making specialized ships. I only build up a military when I feel like killing someone or they attack me.

Usually I don't give in to extortion because I need the money to build my economy/production/research up.

Thanks for your posts...more are welcome ^^

I used to play reactionary tactics while i was learning stuff still. Only built military when provoked or felt absolutely necessary.

Since then I've learned to identify when Im pissing someone off and can see the future engagement coming, but even though im not preparing for full blown war, having several defender type ships around certainly does its job of buying you time, intimidating crippled or struggling civs, and is great for taking out minor races after the colony rush if you have had a good spread of scientific and economic growth to be able to afford ships capable of breaking the ones in orbit on their planets.

On a slightly related topic, Ive adopted a new motto:

Always have your cannons loaded, or pirates will ravage your booty.

I grab as many planets as I can, then focus on infrastructure.

I'll be as friendly as possible to anyone I meet, then once I think my military is sufficient, I'll go on the offensive.

I am not sure if this is viable in the upper half of the difficulty levels, but picking on a weak race early as possible works well for me too. Though sometimes i get beat to the punch, but still.

Colony rush.
Economy/infrastructure.
Early cheap military.
Dominate weak/crippled civ.

My strategy for DL 1.5 at Tough difficulty:

0. Sliders at 1-49-50.
1. Keep morale at 100% as long as anomalies (read: free cash) allow
2. Explore to find other races, thus defining your "territory"
3. Grab high PQ planets near the borders if possible.
4. Backfill planets as available.
5. Diplomacy my way out of early wars.
6. Build offensive medium sized starships.
7. Lay waste to the galaxy.

I'm another cautious, "build up and then strike" type player. After the initial colony rush, I put a single small-hull fighter with no engines and a starter weapon in orbit around my front-line planets, just to hold off any early opportunistic invasions. Then I don't build any other military ships for a long time, focusing more on freighters and starbase constructors. I'll set up a few starport planets ramped up to very high potential military production near the front lines, so I can crank out a fleet quickly when I need it.

Meanwhile I research (or trade) far enough down the military tech lines to match or beat the other races. Sometimes I'll build a few "big stick" frigates or battleships if I need to make a show of force, to hold off bribery or attack. The AI isn't good at judging your potential military strength. It seems to look at only what's already built, so a few "big sticks" can avoid stupid early conflicts. Then when I'm ready and feel the time is right, I go for the jugular on my own terms. Sometimes that agenda gets pushed a bit, if I see another race making rapid progress with conquest or influence expansion, and I can't hold it off through diplomacy tricks.

I've tried a few early blitz games, but it's easy to get over-extended and not have the economy to support expansion, when you rush down the military research lines. I'd rather have a really pumped-up economy sitting behind my military.

I find that I'm often on the defensive due to my tech rush/late military strategy, so I'm fond of military tactics that let me pick away at a superior force. Typically, that means picking and choosing fights, as well as VERY carefully managing distancing and planet defenses. I'll typically build ships powerful enough that one of my fleets can consistently thrash enemy fleets (though there is typically a need to repair/replenish numbers afterwards), leveraging a tech advantage in war even with my limited industrial capacity.

It does take very careful management of ships, though. You have to keep an eye out for transports (since you can't waste ships as defenders when running a hit and run war) and you have to make sure that there's always a place to retreat for repares and reinforcements when you need them. I find the ideal defensive position in this strategy is a series of planets that have only one square between them. With such a setup, you can set the exit points on the planets such that you can move ships between them for free, turning that stretch of planets into an area that may be defended by a single fleet. Any enemy that is 2 squares away from ANY of those planets may be engaged using only 1 movement point. It's pretty awesome.

Yeah, if you have a military (or potential for one) you better darn well make sure you can support one. My taxing is at 80% with 1.028 Trillion people and I only make 500-something credits...it's tough to manage a military AND stay in the green.

I like this...keep 'em commin'...XD

(I hope you all enjoy reading these as much as I do.)

I usually start out militarily weak, while investing heavily in research which increases my research and infrastructure capabilities. Later, I trade techs with other civs to obtain military capabilities.

In mid game, I invest more in military research and build up my military for defense while building influence starbases and making alliances.

In the mid to end game, I will take out smaller, weaker races.

When I do win a game, however, it is through diplomatic or cultural means. I have yet to win through conquest or technology.

I've only had the game a few weeks (I know!) and I am pleased to see that my strategy of build up quietly then go for the jugular seems to be a popular one. I'm going to start a war tonight and have used my spies to check which civilization can't defend against my weapons. In regards to this I have a few questions:

1) If I click on another civilizations planet, I can click on their ships to see what they are equipped with. Is this down to spies or is it a game flaw?
2) Is there anyway to make spies more effective? Mine get caught after only a couple of turns...

Loving the game even more than Civ IV...

I usually go for a couple of research & econ techs, then go for neutrality, NLC, and terraforming (which is automatically built on all planets - thank you neutral). Then I aim for the 5x power tech, go strong in 1 weapon arm, and build a couple ships on a single planet with the 5x. All of a sudden, my military standing goes from last place to near 1st, so the other civs leave me alone to work on other improvements (such as diplomacy, federation, influence, colonization, etc). Frequently, I can beat difficult games with multiple players on a difficult level without ever firing a shot, simply based on influence or tech wins.

they get caught if the AI has one to spare to neutralize it. With a better economy you can outproduce spies. Or wait and let the AI hopefully waste each other's spies. Thats why its cool that they cost progressively more. Life Insurance cost increases i imagine...

What i see happen a lot is that the AI, even with a gret military will leave a lot of their force in orbit around planets. In my curren game the Korath were WAY above me but he had a hugfe hulled shiop on each planet, with some others. ONly a small leet or 2 for me to destroy befoe i could pick off their planets one by one.

It's not a flaw...I actually use it in designing my ships...like seeing how fast their ships can go, what it's predominant weapon type (and how much attack it has in that type) and any defenses. I then counter that with custom ships. I honestly don't think it's a flaw...they would have fixed it in the DA expansion if it was.

Okay, finally decided to put in my 2 cents here

Okay, for infrastucture i usually just go with the all-tech strategy. It works for me and I play pure evil so I just roll with the deficite until either i work through it or until i get the MCC built Then it is usually smooth sailing on economy.

At the start of the game I find whoever is close and I attack them with as much force as I can muster, with an escort of one fleet of small fighters. Usually by that time I also have medium hulled ships built, so I have a few of them coming up the rear for support if necessary. Trick the enemy into thinking i just have weak ships hehehehehe.

This can usually get rid of one enemy without a lot of effort

My next step is usually to rebuild the newly taken planets as all-techs and then begin to create massive amounts of transports and attack ships.

It works for me, I don't really see how it works for me, but it does

GalenEvil

From what I understand through reading these strategies, a lot of people would be good with the drath, because, since many of you go to war later in order to allow your economy and research to grow, you could ensure that you would not have to go to war by using the Drath "Super Manipulator" ability, thus allowing all the super-power military states to remain preoccupied. In addition, since your economys are relatively well developed, you would be able to support your manipulation ventures.

I personally don't like the Drath...I dont' know why.

I play almost exclusively with the Yor yay for that interdiction field! wheee!!

GalenEvil

haha...that's anoying...-_-...but it's their super ability.

I play on masochistic, and I almost never build any military ships until I've got medium hulls. I like to build up basic infrastructure first, then build medium hulls and attack the weakest adjacent civ. With diplomacy and bribing them to war upon each other, I almost always stay at peace until I choose to go to war. I usually form an economic or research treaty with one close-by potential threat, because it almost always prevents them from declaring war on you. If there are any minors close by, I take them out first, because you're essentially getting another homeworld quality planet, with the civ-capital colony tile. I also make sure I trade all the minors the necesary techs so they can build all the capitals, because sooner or later those capitals become mine.

I usually dont launch an attack at a civ until I have enough to assault multiple systems at a time, but if a civ is growing too fast I may attack them earlier and pick off stray planets. Once I'm at war with someone I don't stop until they're annihilated, except for some very rare situations. I try to fight only one war at a time, but as the current one nears the end, Im assembling the strike forces for the next one. Im generally in a constant state of warfare, with just short interludes of peace.

I always play custom races, because I like to try different combinations of abilities, but I also like to fiddle around with them instead of using any of th prepackaged races. I usually create ones from various sci-fi that I've read/seen...and often use the Kzinti of course.

Sentient species taste better...