How many colony ships do you recommend?

from Sins Forums
Just wondering how many colony ships people usually make in a game. It seems like colonizing and recolonizing is one of the major speed bumps slowing the game down for me. With such single purpose I rarely make more than 2 or 3 colony ships in a system, and never bring them in until after I am sure I am about to secure the planet. The problem is that I keep them away from the frontlines when my empire is stable, so I am always faced with waiting a few minutes for them to multijump there and then waiting a few more minutes for them to have the antimatter to colonize.

Anyone else get frustrated with this a lot? I know the answer is to better micro my colony ships, make sure they are nearby at all times, etc, but the ship search feature even has a special category for colony so surely others must be like me and only build a few/forget where they left them. And it seems strange that more micro is the answer.

The best luck I have had is with picking a colonizing cap as my second early in the game, but my economies have been suffering from it, and in low pop confrontations it feels like a bit of a wasted cap.

Anyone have some winning strategies out there? Because right now I am really wishing that the colonize ability was merely on a cooldown times and antimatter free.
20,349 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
I build 2 per actual planet I have, because I know I will lose some, and I know I'll need them later.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
2 per planet? Yikes, that's dozens even in a small game. How high do you usually get your fleet capacity? My Vasari make so little money I try and hold off upgrading fleet cap unless absolutely necessary.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
I apologize, I miswrote that. 2 every other planet. ...So 1 per planet. >_> I don't know how I got to 2 a planet.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
i make about 2 or 3 per game, as i am EXTREMELY capship oriented when it comes to fleets
my fleet always has at least one capship with colonize ability, so i colonize within a minute of when the hostile fleet is destroyed and/or the enemy colony is bombed to death
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I usually try to have two in working order at all times. That's not because I really need two, although it helps get around the two-minute cooldown and the antimatter recharge time. The real reason is to make sure I don't accidentally end up without one due to enemy action just after I queue up enough new ships to use all my fleet points. That really can be a speed-bump.

From time to time in a large empire I might make a third or even fourth ship if I'm expanding on two fronts or have a particularly troublesome asteroid colony forming a long trade route. You know, the ones that keep getting destroyed by even weak attacks that get stopped by the local defenses, but only after crippling the asteroid base. It can be cheaper to station a spare colony ship there than a full guard fleet and just rebuild the base every so often.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
I usually have two on the frontier of my space and one more sitting in reserve at my capital, but I usually also invest in an colony battlecruiser as well to help speed up capturing terran planets and not having to wait for a colony frigate to get to the front lines or charge up antimatter. It can even be worth building a colony BC as your flagship IMO, but only on larger maps where you're very unlikely to run into other capitals particularly soon.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
I usually have a capital ship with colonize in my fleets, so i never really build colony ships
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
I usually have a capital ship with colonize in my fleets, so i never really build colony ships


What about the asteroid belts?