Strategy

what size galaxy?

in a tiny/small/medium galaxy: go for a fast conquest (Planetary Invasion) and take the AI homeworlds; the added influence and capability will definitely help on such a map.

No offense, but........

I consider what you are doing.........

EXTREMELY............

STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Like I said, no offense)

You may have the patience for it .......

But I don't.

I play on Gigantic (once TA finishes downloading, Immense) size galaxies.

I like to play those long dragged out games. Abundant everything, and 5-9 Major races . And fast research speed . And 8 Minor Civs thrown in there as well . Ever since I found out how, I've been selling them colony ships, so that they can colonize planets . It's an easy way to make moolah , and it turns those pathetic Minors into Majors . And I must say that it is amazingly fun to have an all out war with one of them . It acctually makes the game more interesting. Try it out the next time you see one (if you don't believe me of course).  

I know what you'll probablly say......

"How do you not lose patience doing all that micromanaging of your planets and ships?!"  

The answer is, "I do" .

It's really tough not to throw your keyboard or mouse at the monitor , or throw your monitor altogether .

But once you start raking in 5 Million BC's per turn , you are elated and relieved that you did not spaz at your monitor.

But to answer your question.......

If you also play on Large+ galaxies, I'd pump out scouts, sending them in all directions.

And as soon as you find a habitable planet, send a colonizer over there immediately. You never know when another race might take it.

The only way, of winning this way (in my opinion) is to research, so you're on the right track. I'd research up to at least the end of the Impulse Drive part of the tech tree. Afterwards researching to the end of the life support branch. I'd also research sensors fully. It helps find planets faster.

Eitherway, I still think you should play with a higher degree of habitabillity. And if you don't already, larger galaxies.

Till next time.........

Watch out for the Rock Brigade!!!

(I'm tellin' no lies to ya mister , they might even try to steal   your sister!   )

DEFF LEPARD is an awsome band!!!

You should listen to them sometime!!!

I have one thing to say : "to each his own" extant faora ...

and you're totally..... out of topic   

Look out folks! EX_F has unleashed another Smiliey bomb on us!!!

Run for the hills!!!!!!!

And yes Def Leppard are indeed a fantastic group...touring here in Aus very soon.

And 5 million bc's per turn...............

Sounds very challenging. I never actually play with that few planets, but I'll give a small piece of advice anyway. Make sure you have a good number of economic buildings not just labs. While more labs mean more research, you still need money to pay for it. And with more money comes more spending for research even with fewer labs. But you need to decide what route you want to take for your victoey. If you choose to follow the advice of Silverbeacher then go with some more factories and reseach weapons and soldering. If not, go with economic and morale boosting techs, etc.

I think you need to carefully choose which techs you are researching. Of course you probably already knew that. But what I mean is that you need to really think about what you want to do and plan ahead more than you would in a game with a lot of planets. The good part is that the AI is stuck just as you are.

Calling the OP's game style choice "stupid" might be described as ... well, stupid! (No offense). The game is designed to allow players to experiment with different "universes," and this variety can make for very interesting gameplay. I also usually go for the "abundant all" on large maps, but I have had a lot of fun trying the minimalist setups such as the OP describes (in my case, I did it on the largest maps possible, but I DID include minors ... giving me somethign to conquer early on).

In this kind of a set up, obviously the speed and range technologies become very important very early in the game, and grabbing resources is critical. Starbases also are very important, much more than in a "regular" game. The "colony rush" does not exist, so you will probably not build a colony ship the entire game. Have fun, Thomas!

One more thing to consider. I don't know how many you'll have on your map with those settings, but the AI never colonizes PQ1 worlds. These will become PQ16 to PQ19 planets when fully terraformed. Going neutral or haveing an orbital terraformer will help. Keep these planets in mind as the game goes on.

First of all, I wasn't off-topic. I stayed on-topic for a good 50% of that post.

Second, Shamgar, thanks for the support.

Third, if you think that that was a smiley bomb Neilo............

You ain't seen nothin' yet!!!

Fourth, I'm surprised that no one commented on my Minors to Majors section of the post.

I know Mottikhan liked it, he gave me Karma for it (as you can see by my one Karma point).

I have an AAR in the works. It'll be released, most likely before the day is done.

Keep your eyes peeled.

Till next time.........

ARMAGGEDON IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At OP

You could do what i did and build an influence base fleet.

If another Civ only has their main two planets.. one or two influence star bases and 10 turns or so and they no longer exist and you have 4 planets!!!

Rinse and repeat till you have ALL of them and/or can now build a big enough military to win THAT way.

Also If you can, find a tough ally.

Oh and give EVERYONE you find trade   if they dont have it.. it works wonders when you have few planets.

Lastly build 2-3 economy starbases near your planets.. if you have few planets you want them to be awesome.

Regards,

Me

Regards,

ME

Nice, I like your style.

Also a very good tip.

I haven't used trade as a source of income for ages now.

And if anyone is interested, I released an AAR post finally.

It's called "A Prelude To Things As They Are".

Yes I am shamelessly advertising a post of my own on this here thread.

Deal with it. 

Please read it and respond.

TTFN

Ta Ta For Now

(Don't ask about the Winnie the Pooh quote, my girlfriend   asked me to write it. )

Whismerhill will probably like the Tigger quote and think it's cute.

Along with a few smileys thrown in to emphasize her point.

And I forgot to mention Neilo, that Mumblefratz is a really helpful guy, if he decides to glorify you with his presence on your post/thread.

This should answer your 5 million BC's per turn (WHOA!!!)       statement.

Well i tried it and it didn't work.

Hahahahahaha, yeah i think i may have spoke to Mumble once or twice..... I mean he is in my empire and we were on the MVC together.....i think...yup..thats the guy...yeah i spoke to him once or twice.

Seems you missed the point of my statement....i dont need the comment answered at all. I was amused at you is all.....

Seems i may have misjudged you, i don't need glorification. Are you trying to name drop Mumble to me??

Perhaps i have missed some humor or sarcasm in your post...as the case can be in this format...but you enjoy your games.

*Thinks that EF is a Winnie the Pooh fan EXTREEMIST   and blames his GF so that he can maintain some semblence of manliness   , poor GF probably hates it *

Ahem,

J/K Me

I'll KEEL YOU!!!

I'LL SMITE YOU WITH MY HAMMER OF DOOM!!!

YOUR LIVES WILL BE GOING DOWN LIKE.....

IN THAT ORDER TOO!!!

AND BY THE WAY YOU FAIL!!!

Another thing.

My GF is a babe . She's unlike anything you nerds can get (no offense, I'm in a way one too).

Second, I've got 7 inches of manliness , which I will post on these forums along with a picture of my GF.

Third, I'm not a Winnie the Pooh "extreemist" , the real reason for why I posted TTFN, was because I was running out of things to say, and I was getting bored of my whole "LET'S RAGE/ROCK ON!!!!!!" routine.

Fourth, this thread was posted from within your own house!!!

(JOKING!!! K!!!)

i play on medium map ;D

You also use classic smileys still.

ROCK ON MATE!!!

Hello

Pooh is better then Barny anyday!!!

EF,  I like your post.

What is the % on Offense vs % on Defense.

On my Mercury Class-Battleship which is 322 s huge = 80% O vs 20% D plus one engine ST and one sens SA and one life US.

On my Mercury Class-Ineterceptors which is 34 s tiny = 100% O plus one engine ST.

What do you think.

Oh no! I have no smiliey, it is like no honey for Pooh

Mmmm Find out we must Mmmm

First of all....

Nice Yoda impersonation.

Second, Barney only teaches kids to sing at bullies in hopes that they won't get their skulls bashed in.

However, singing only makes it worse.

Third, are you trying to ask me what amount of my available space on starships is used up by attack/defense modules.

If so, I try to keep it a close 50/50, and if anything 25/75  or 75/25 it depends on the situation.

Attack is on left side of the slash, defense is on the right.

I personnaly like DL (non-updated) where attack and defense applies to all ships, as in it stacks to form one giant percentage for all the ships. In that case I make ships built with nothing but one weapon type for all 3 weapon types, and 3 more ships which have nothing but 1 type of defense for all 3 defense types. So all in all I have a fleet of six Huge size ships, owning evrything in their path.

It's been a while since I played DL now, so I probably forgot if this does work in the first place (I think I read it in the manual somewhere). If I'm wrong, please correct me.

Hello

EF, I have never done 50/50

On my  BB 70% O / 30% D,  CA 80% O / 20% D,  DD 75% / 25% D  ships, I have one weapon class and one defense class then I make three of each ( Mass Driver BB, etc...) 

  On my FF 100% O / 0% D,    I 100% O / 0% D, (Missile I )

Then I have 3 more classes of ship base on engines ( Venus Class Mass Driver BB which has 3 engines, Saturn Class Beam BB which has two engines, Mercury Class Missile BB which has one engine)

My scouts have six engines no O or D (Xenon Class Survery DD)

I use alot mixed classes to make fleets.

(1 BB, 1 CA, 2 DD, 5 FF, 11 I) Logic is 64 

My BB Zebra X  is one of better ships. I have picture but I haven't leaned how to post yet.

Mmm Hidden it is Mmmm

You guys are going to think I'm crazy.   I just got Hyper Computers in my current game.   I'm flying around in Small hulls with 3A/36D.   :D    Stinger I's and Aeron Missile Defense.   LOLOLOLOL.   :)   What's more, my Korath neighbor's ships use Laser and Mass Driver.   This is going to get interesting. 

I like your style Tetley.

I am going to do that one day. Only research the first weapons techs, and max out the def and use tiny hulls to.

Do tell us about how it turns out though.

I wrote an AAR on it, but I accidentally updated to ToA 2.0 before getting all the screenshots.  Now I can't get all the save games with the screenshots in them.   Uh...oops. 

To sum it up, though, the game's over.   It worked out.  Those high-missile-defense ships held their own just fine when I fleeted them up (to try & get that attack up).    I should have equipped them with PD Combo III defense modules instead, though--for the money, they're cheaper, especially for off-type defense.  I didn't research ANY weapons techs.  Stinger I was got via trade early on, and that lasted me until I tech-stole better stuff from the AI.  Even though I got Hyper Computers for research, I didn't really need to research weapons at all.   Another cool thing was that Hyper Computers is a Trade Good--any AI whom I wanted to do better research (namely, minors), I could trade it to them. 

I expect this max-Missile-Defense/Hyper Computers strategy should work all the better in ToA 2.0, because of the steep weapons costs.   Maybe I can do another AAR--and this time, not screw up the screenshots.