Ability choices

I like social/military production bonuses, tech bonuses, planet quality bonuses, and morale bonuses. I play around with those. Sometimes I throw in influence and/or population growth bonuses.

And I've always picked Technologists.

i like trade, trade routes, diplomatic bonuses and sensors. things like economy, tech, production, influence and morale bonuses are easy to come by in the game so i don't bother spending points on those. trade, sensors and diplomacy can only be increased through certain technologies and the occasional wonder/trade good.

planet quality and speed are nice ( and really difficult to improve ) as well, but quality is very expensive and speed broken. or is it fixed now?

cheers

h

oh and i always use mercantile.

cheers

h

What kind of victory condition do you aim for?

I've been practicing with cultural victories so far. So, focus on diplomacy, influence, sensors.

influence and alliance when i'm too lazy to mop-up.

cheers

h

I almost always make heavy econ picks. Since it bumps up your basic income, it is effectively the same as picking +soc/mil/res, depending on how you set the sliders. As far as I have seen, everything is run by money, except for Influence.

I was like Ironhawk here except now that the Speed trait's been tweaked, I'm becoming partial to that ability.

With +2 extra movement, +1 range, 100% spending, 100% military production, I can colonize everything in sight without breaking a sweat. Every planet I colonize makes me stronger, and my opponents weaker It'll also come in handy at Genius level where the AI can make better use of planets than you can.

Gov't is Federalists of course. I tend to devote 100% to a single slider, so the only value I'm taking advantage of 100% of the time is econ.

Other than that I'd recommend +30% econ, +15% planet quality (better planets = more cash, and you can instantly take advantage of class 14 and below planets that the AI never colonizes), or anything that boosts trade because trade boosts income.