jmatt

Join Date 11/2006

Questions regarding the colony rush phase

Okay, I’ve read some threads on this board and I just want to codify the initial strategy and clarify some of the reasons for the choices.

The goal of the first hundred turns or so is to gobble up as many uninhabited planets as possible. In order to do so, we must outrace the competing civs. That’s accomplished by researching a handful of techs to make faster ships (?), building the necessary manufacturing infrastructure to produce them and then cranking them out of the shipyard.

Questions, as Roy Batty says.

1) I’ve read that it’s possible to stick another engine onto the initial colony ship (although I’ll be damned if I can figure out how to do it). So, during the colony rush, do you simply build an upgraded (additional engine) design of the initial colonizer, or do you set research to 100% and run up the engine branch as quickly as possible to create a faster colonizer?

2) How do you set your production sliders initially and what milestone events make you re-adjust them in the first hundred turns?

3) I’ve read that it’s good to maximize the number of taxpayers for revenue purposes and I’ve also read that it’s possible to simply build lots of stock exchanges, keep the population low (and hence morale high) and still make plenty of credits per turn. Which is it?

4) Is it better to send your first colonizers racing toward the systems nearest to your closest competitor (in the hope that you can hem him in) or is it better, from the exponential-turns perspective, to simply colonize each planet you discover asap, even if you could have a follow-up colonizer land on it a few turns later?

I have plenty more, but that’s a start.

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keep in mind that the different difficulty levels and galaxy sizes require different strats. i'm by no means an expert yet but i'll give it a shot:

1) just build a new colony ship from scratch with 2 engines.

2) i usually go 25/25/50 for m/s/t right off the bat. spending 100%, tax rate 49%. when it's time to go to war i'll do 75/15/10 to pump out the ships

3) i'm not sure which strat leads to more money per turn, but adding a farm at the appropriate time will give you lots more available troops when it's time to invade.

4) you want to fan out and grab the juicy planets and clusters first, then backfill the smaller ones. one trick is to start developing your military right before the colonization phase is over, catching the ai with their pants down.

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do to life support you can't hem them in

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I’ve read that it’s possible to stick another engine onto the initial colony ship (although I’ll be damned if I can figure out how to do it). So, during the colony rush, do you simply build an upgraded (additional engine) design of the initial colonizer, or do you set research to 100% and run up the engine branch as quickly as possible to create a faster colonizer?

Build your own. The first one I use has 2 x Hyperdrive and 2 x Basic Life Support. I have another set up the same way but with 2 x Impulse instead. And yet another with 2 x Warp. My initial spending is 75 research 25 social.

2) How do you set your production sliders initially and what milestone events make you re-adjust them in the first hundred turns?

My initial spending is 75 research 25 social. I don't adjust them until I am ready to build military. About 2229.

3) I’ve read that it’s good to maximize the number of taxpayers for revenue purposes and I’ve also read that it’s possible to simply build lots of stock exchanges, keep the population low (and hence morale high) and still make plenty of credits per turn. Which is it?

Both. In ver 1.4, all of my 12 PQ and higher have 20 Billion pop. 2 ADV Farms, 3 VRC, neutral alignment, all morale TGs, several morale resources. Tax rate is @ 69% and overall approval is 94%. The only other things on these planets are NLCs and Stock markets. Current gross income is 119079 BC / week. On 8-11 PQ planets I go with 1 farm and 1 VRC. The rest are stock markets.

4) Is it better to send your first colonizers racing toward the systems nearest to your closest competitor (in the hope that you can hem him in) or is it better, from the exponential-turns perspective, to simply colonize each planet you discover asap, even if you could have a follow-up colonizer land on it a few turns later?

During the initial rush I grab 1 planet in each cluster and keep expanding outward from home planet. My goal is to get the other civs to colonize planets in my sphere of influence so I can flip them later.

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First of all, I prefer playing with medium galaxies.

1. If you're using Ion Drives, it is possible to fit three, if I remember correctly. You need to sacrifice range, but range probably is not as important as speed.

2. It really depends on what I want to do.

3. A high population is important for reasons besides tax-income. I prefer lots of stock markets (but not so many that I sacrifice production or research), but I combine them with a high population. A large population defends your planets and allows you to invade your enemies without totally emptying planets.

4. I try to spread out in a fan from my home world; I like to provide all my planets with economic starbases, and a more compact territory makes this easier. Having a few scattered worlds in foreign territory can be nice for extending range though.

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Q: Is it better to add life support or build a SB to extend range? When would I want to do either.

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

Well i do neither. I just use the extended range that the first colonized planet gives me. What i mean is that i colonize the planet furthest from my home that i can reach, that will increase your range on its own.

If you do this in each direction, n/s/e/w, your range will increase without having to put life support on your ships freeing up room for more engines.

Of course it all depends on what level and size game you are playing, i dont play small galaxies so i would say anything under large this won't work 'cause the ai will beat you to the punch.

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Have you evr ran into a range cap? I'm playing on a gigantic map and I can't go past an orange line about 10 sectors away. Even if I add life support the game won't let me. Since I've never experienced this before I am going to try building a starbase to extend my range. All the worlds in that area are owned by the AI. I tried reaching the Terrans but couldn't pass the line, and now they surrenderd to the Arceans. Too bad. Half the map is unexplored

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

Yes and no. I'll try and explain. Let's say the range of a ship with 2 basic life supports might be 2.5sct, now as i understand it that is from the furthest planet/starbase you have, which is why at times you can have two sphere's of influence on the map not connected (the line you mentioned is separating them) but yet can traverse the space in between, though without stopping in that space. You will hit a stop with the life support you are using and may need to research up that branch a little. Eventually you should have access to the entire map once you have gobbled a few star systems and resources, i have not hit a ceiling i could not get past that these tips won't defeat.

So, yes you will hit a range cap until you have spread your influence far enough. The best to do this, at least in the colony rush is new planets, then resources, but after that yes you will have to build what will seem like useless starbases in space just to increase your range.

When forced to this i try and compromise and build an economy starbase near some trade routes or if need be, i build a military starbase. Now this leads off topic a little but i will explain why i build a military base in these circumstances. Later in the game build up that military base and park an armed transport near it. I find that it attracts the ai and is useful as an ambush point.

Like i said these work for me on challenging and tough on gigantic maps, and i'm sure there are other and better ways of getting around it all but it works for me, hope it works for you too

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Thanks, I found that building an eco SB on a trade route extended my range sufficiently to make the lower left map corner ( I am lower right). After that I could reach the star system with my Titan Class constructors that travel at 107 moves per turn - huge hull, and all engines. The AI doesn't design constructors so their rapid speed allows me to topple worlds with influence SBs long before the AI's constructors can arrive to build influence SBs of its own. I now have 32 worlds while the Iconians are being dessimated by defections to the I-league and myself.

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

107!!!!

That's insane!

I assume you are using DL, they seriously nerfed engines for DA, or have you had the Mega Event that doubles speed?

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Yes, its my DL game. And a huge hull constructor with max hyper-warp Mk3 engines is quite reasonable when you consider I'm playing on a gigantic map. Otherwise the number of turns per game is ridiculous (I'm already above 200+ game turns as is, and using normal constructors has several disadvantages ... 1) speed, it simply takes too long to move across the galaxy. 2) pirates like to follow constructors and a "wagon trail" back to my home system is a recipe for disaster. 3) the AI likes to attack vulnerable trails of constructors when I'm at war. I usually mass constructors outside my targets and when my "military" build up is suffient I launch a massive constructor "assault" where I build all my influence starbases at the same time (only works against allies too powerful to be attacked directly - they soon break alliance and declare war but by that time their worlds are flipping like pancakes and it ends up too little too late for them. Bear in mind that I have sufficient fully loaded troop transports and fleet to handle whats left (if I can't get all the worlds). And 1 or several pc's(i.e. squares) with a large mnumber of constructors is easier to defend if necessary because my fleet is not dispersed. Its only possible because constructors have no maintenace cost until you add weapons or defense.

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