Getz AAR: Super Breeder
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Isn’t imitation the sincerest form of flattery? I read the AAR by Wargazmo (GalCiv 2 forum), who ran a custom Super Breeder. He also had a number of picks I hadn't considered. So, since I haven’t tried Super Breeder of the picks I though I’d give it a go. My settings are similar if not identical to Wargazno’s: +2 speed, +30% economics, +20% morale with populist party (+10% diplomacy and +10% morale). I want happy and economically productive breeders. For technology I selected 3 propulsion techs through Ion Drive, Stellar Cartography, and Xeno Engineering. I named my race "Getz" for no particular reason.
I set the game to Painful with 7 random AI opponents, and then set the game to random everything. It is easy to get in a rut, so I think this should shake things up a bit! Tech trading is turned off since I don’t like Group AI Research that seems to occur with the 1.50x patch, and all victory conditions are activated.
In the first go it gave me a gigantic galaxy (18 x 18, and 324 sectors!) with a Progenitor Mine on my home planet. But I was squished in a corner with no planets anywhere in the vicinity, and the Torian further out with a huge cluster of planets. So I was a wimp and regenerated (control N), and got a gigantic galaxy again. This time I had a Progenitor Library (!!!) on my home planet, so it looks like I have a research planet homeworld.
There is a little territory I may be able to colonize before I meet the Terran, who is closer to the middle of the map and has access to many more planets that I will. It looks like in this galaxy there are tight clusters of rare stars, and the Terran is blocking my way into the galaxy. On the mini map it is clear that each race has only a few directions to expand: our likely opponents are very clear, and we’re funneled in one direction due to the tight clusters of rare stars. I have no idea on the abundance of planets, anomalies, or anything else. This should be strategically interesting (but very straight forward), and an exercise in focused aggression for those like my race the Getz who have limited opportunities to expand.
I haven’t played on a gigantic galaxy before, and it may tax my PC. I only have P4 3GHz (the recommended PC speed), but I did recently upgraded from 512MB to 1.5GB RAM so GC2 would run better. Performance has improved noticeably. For instance, I can tab out of the game with screenshots without the game crashing, animations are smoother, loading times are less, and turns seem to go faster. We’ll see.
Image 1: galaxy on the first the first turn
Image 2: home planet, with Progenitor Library.
I already like the Speed 2 bump. My ships move along at speed 4 (colony and space miner) or 5 (survey ship), thank-you-very-much. On a gigantic map this may be a big advantage. My new colony ships are a base speed 3 with Ion drive, so I think they’ll be speed 5 out of the gate. Another idea is to have no engines and get speed 3 colony ships to significantly reduce cost (from ~120bc to ~80bc), but I think I like speed better. I’ll likely have to invest in life support to increase my range, but I’ll worry about that later.
I set production at 100%, reduced taxes until I hit 100% approval (to get 8x growth with Super Breeder), bought my first factory, and set my spending to 60% military to crank out colony ships, 10% social since I’m buying my first infrastructure, and 30% research. I plan on building 3 factories, 5 research, and a entertainment center with my 10 tiles on my home planet. My research priority will be to get Xeno Research, then development techs (since propulsion is in good shape), and sensors. Normally I have a semi-generic tech sequence, but with Ion Drive already under my belt and the new strategic position I may have to be flexible.
With my speed 5 survey ship set on automatic survey for anomalies I’ve already found a minor race and a PQ9 planet. After sending my colony ship back to my home planet to top off its colonists (it starts with only 100M, and now has 0.5B – key to getting a good growth rate) it’s making a b-line for the PQ9 planet, which will be an economy planet.
Other features of interest are a morale galactic resource nearby. How handy! I just hope the nasty Jessians don’t grab it first.
Looking at the mini map it looks like my opponents are Yor, Drengin, Korath, Terran (near me), Krynn, Altarian, and Drath – a fairly even mix of good and evil. The Yor are stuck in a corner. Of the races it looks like the races in the middle of the map have the best opportunities for expansion: Terran, Krynn (or maybe Korath – can’t tell by their colors), Drath, and Altarian. All the races are pretty spread out due to the gigantic galaxy, so we’ll see how the wars and diplomacy develop.
Second turn, January 2226
Well, it didn’t take long to scrap my plans. My speedy colony ship landed to establish my first colony: Betelguese III. For a PQ9 world it sure is a honey: a Precursor Library (7x research), a research artifact (1x research), and a manufacturing special (3x manufacturing). This will not be an economic world as I planned, and I think it makes more sense to have this be my research capital since I only have to build 1 factory and then boatloads of labs. Now my home world can be a balanced world with an economy focus. Hopefully I’ll find a few more good worlds to get my economy going or I could hit a wall. I purchased the factory on Betelgeuse to get the 3x manufacturing bonus right away, and to get the production kick-started.
Image 3: First colony – Betelguese III
The minor race I saw called up to say hi, but since I don’t have universal translator all I got was gibberish. That tech is low on my list right now, so I’m going to ignore him. If planets are rare I’ll have to invade, but I want to see the lay of the land first. Minors can be useful to get quick cash, although only be extortion since tech trading is turned off.
My survey ship still hasn’t found an anomaly, so they must be pretty scarce. This might change my research priority on sensors, but we’ll see.
March 2226
It looks like my area of the galaxy is a pretty barren place. Most of the systems toward the Terran are devoid of habitable planets of any sort. There are a few systems near my home system that I haven’t explored yet, and it looks like I’ll have to explore with my next colony ship. Even at speed 5 my colony ships take a long time to get anywhere, and support may be a problem.
Image 4: galaxy map in March 2226
If more planets don’t show up soon I’ll have to switch to Blood Makes Grass Grow and take out the Jessians, and then gun for the Terrans. Although I have a pacifist party, the Getz are will not be meekly absorbed by any race that limits our progress.
My survey ship has found a few anomalies, but nothing great so far. Although anomalies aren’t abundant, they aren’t rare either, so it does look like researching Sensors is worthwhile. I’ve finished xeno research and planetary improvement, so Sensor 1 is now queued up. Communications are next, and then likely military techs so I can get a few basic war ships out, and prepare in case the Terrans are hostile, or I decide to be hostile to the Terrans.
The population growth rate of my colonies is impressive, as would be expected for Super Breeder. Betelguese III how has 1.5B+, and my home system ~10B even after taking population off for colony ships. I’ve colonized my 3rd planet – Caeser I. It is a PQ8, so it will be a very modest economic planet. It has a farm special, and that is an OK bonus for an eco planet.
I’ve adjusted my economy so that my 2 new colonies have 100% morale to keep their growth rate up, and my hope planet ~90%+. Spending is 50/25/25 military/social/research. Economically I’m losing 55bc/turn, which I can sustain for a while with my remaining 2500bc bank. The deficit is a small price to pay for the large research and production bonuses on my home planet and first colony. I don’t plan on buying any more facilities or colony ships so I can preserve my bankroll.
My home planet has finished building a recreation center and is now building markets to upgrade my economy. Betelguese is finishing its labs, and will then build a star port. Caesar will produce what it can, which is not much.
I haven’t been brave enough to try the 98/1/1 spending split. Maybe later!
I set the game to Painful with 7 random AI opponents, and then set the game to random everything. It is easy to get in a rut, so I think this should shake things up a bit! Tech trading is turned off since I don’t like Group AI Research that seems to occur with the 1.50x patch, and all victory conditions are activated.
In the first go it gave me a gigantic galaxy (18 x 18, and 324 sectors!) with a Progenitor Mine on my home planet. But I was squished in a corner with no planets anywhere in the vicinity, and the Torian further out with a huge cluster of planets. So I was a wimp and regenerated (control N), and got a gigantic galaxy again. This time I had a Progenitor Library (!!!) on my home planet, so it looks like I have a research planet homeworld.
There is a little territory I may be able to colonize before I meet the Terran, who is closer to the middle of the map and has access to many more planets that I will. It looks like in this galaxy there are tight clusters of rare stars, and the Terran is blocking my way into the galaxy. On the mini map it is clear that each race has only a few directions to expand: our likely opponents are very clear, and we’re funneled in one direction due to the tight clusters of rare stars. I have no idea on the abundance of planets, anomalies, or anything else. This should be strategically interesting (but very straight forward), and an exercise in focused aggression for those like my race the Getz who have limited opportunities to expand.
I haven’t played on a gigantic galaxy before, and it may tax my PC. I only have P4 3GHz (the recommended PC speed), but I did recently upgraded from 512MB to 1.5GB RAM so GC2 would run better. Performance has improved noticeably. For instance, I can tab out of the game with screenshots without the game crashing, animations are smoother, loading times are less, and turns seem to go faster. We’ll see.
Image 1: galaxy on the first the first turn
Image 2: home planet, with Progenitor Library.
I already like the Speed 2 bump. My ships move along at speed 4 (colony and space miner) or 5 (survey ship), thank-you-very-much. On a gigantic map this may be a big advantage. My new colony ships are a base speed 3 with Ion drive, so I think they’ll be speed 5 out of the gate. Another idea is to have no engines and get speed 3 colony ships to significantly reduce cost (from ~120bc to ~80bc), but I think I like speed better. I’ll likely have to invest in life support to increase my range, but I’ll worry about that later.
I set production at 100%, reduced taxes until I hit 100% approval (to get 8x growth with Super Breeder), bought my first factory, and set my spending to 60% military to crank out colony ships, 10% social since I’m buying my first infrastructure, and 30% research. I plan on building 3 factories, 5 research, and a entertainment center with my 10 tiles on my home planet. My research priority will be to get Xeno Research, then development techs (since propulsion is in good shape), and sensors. Normally I have a semi-generic tech sequence, but with Ion Drive already under my belt and the new strategic position I may have to be flexible.
With my speed 5 survey ship set on automatic survey for anomalies I’ve already found a minor race and a PQ9 planet. After sending my colony ship back to my home planet to top off its colonists (it starts with only 100M, and now has 0.5B – key to getting a good growth rate) it’s making a b-line for the PQ9 planet, which will be an economy planet.
Other features of interest are a morale galactic resource nearby. How handy! I just hope the nasty Jessians don’t grab it first.
Looking at the mini map it looks like my opponents are Yor, Drengin, Korath, Terran (near me), Krynn, Altarian, and Drath – a fairly even mix of good and evil. The Yor are stuck in a corner. Of the races it looks like the races in the middle of the map have the best opportunities for expansion: Terran, Krynn (or maybe Korath – can’t tell by their colors), Drath, and Altarian. All the races are pretty spread out due to the gigantic galaxy, so we’ll see how the wars and diplomacy develop.
Second turn, January 2226
Well, it didn’t take long to scrap my plans. My speedy colony ship landed to establish my first colony: Betelguese III. For a PQ9 world it sure is a honey: a Precursor Library (7x research), a research artifact (1x research), and a manufacturing special (3x manufacturing). This will not be an economic world as I planned, and I think it makes more sense to have this be my research capital since I only have to build 1 factory and then boatloads of labs. Now my home world can be a balanced world with an economy focus. Hopefully I’ll find a few more good worlds to get my economy going or I could hit a wall. I purchased the factory on Betelgeuse to get the 3x manufacturing bonus right away, and to get the production kick-started.
Image 3: First colony – Betelguese III
The minor race I saw called up to say hi, but since I don’t have universal translator all I got was gibberish. That tech is low on my list right now, so I’m going to ignore him. If planets are rare I’ll have to invade, but I want to see the lay of the land first. Minors can be useful to get quick cash, although only be extortion since tech trading is turned off.
My survey ship still hasn’t found an anomaly, so they must be pretty scarce. This might change my research priority on sensors, but we’ll see.
March 2226
It looks like my area of the galaxy is a pretty barren place. Most of the systems toward the Terran are devoid of habitable planets of any sort. There are a few systems near my home system that I haven’t explored yet, and it looks like I’ll have to explore with my next colony ship. Even at speed 5 my colony ships take a long time to get anywhere, and support may be a problem.
Image 4: galaxy map in March 2226
If more planets don’t show up soon I’ll have to switch to Blood Makes Grass Grow and take out the Jessians, and then gun for the Terrans. Although I have a pacifist party, the Getz are will not be meekly absorbed by any race that limits our progress.
My survey ship has found a few anomalies, but nothing great so far. Although anomalies aren’t abundant, they aren’t rare either, so it does look like researching Sensors is worthwhile. I’ve finished xeno research and planetary improvement, so Sensor 1 is now queued up. Communications are next, and then likely military techs so I can get a few basic war ships out, and prepare in case the Terrans are hostile, or I decide to be hostile to the Terrans.
The population growth rate of my colonies is impressive, as would be expected for Super Breeder. Betelguese III how has 1.5B+, and my home system ~10B even after taking population off for colony ships. I’ve colonized my 3rd planet – Caeser I. It is a PQ8, so it will be a very modest economic planet. It has a farm special, and that is an OK bonus for an eco planet.
I’ve adjusted my economy so that my 2 new colonies have 100% morale to keep their growth rate up, and my hope planet ~90%+. Spending is 50/25/25 military/social/research. Economically I’m losing 55bc/turn, which I can sustain for a while with my remaining 2500bc bank. The deficit is a small price to pay for the large research and production bonuses on my home planet and first colony. I don’t plan on buying any more facilities or colony ships so I can preserve my bankroll.
My home planet has finished building a recreation center and is now building markets to upgrade my economy. Betelguese is finishing its labs, and will then build a star port. Caesar will produce what it can, which is not much.
I haven’t been brave enough to try the 98/1/1 spending split. Maybe later!
