Is there a newbie guide anywhere?

from Stardock Forums
Heres some specific questions.. but a fan created newbie guide would be better: I suspect I'm playing on the wrong settings, but I'm not sure what the "right" settings are.

1) I've never won a war with the computer. If I focus on balancing production, it just delays the inevitable. It always seems to have a lot more stuff than I do... I've been min/maxing my economy with 100% spending at what I'm pretty sure are the right times, and I don't generally use leases...

2) Somewhere I read that colonies under 15 pop aren't generally useful. What do you guys find is actually the minimum useful population to colonize before you have advanced techs?

3) How do you fight an offensive war against the computer? I've tried harassing supply lines, but always seem to get eaten alive trying and then their higher tech ships show up by my systems, destroy my fortified starbases and then they proceed to invade my planets with traditional warfare, where they usually win with 20:1 odds using far less troops than I have...

So uh.. what am I doing wrong?

- Tom
234 views 3 replies
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Kardos. Prolonged wars are generally not a good thing. Don't get into one unless you are in position to deal a crippling blow to them your very first turn of it. If you are out tech'd, kiss it good bye. I recommend bribes while you are weak before they come asking. They will generally outproduce you regardless. Also, the puter doesn't know the difference between a real military and a paper tiger. So build those corvettes early. It will help your rating which will get you less chance of a shooting war. Go for culture conversion to take planets. Then once you get to dreads, build some anti matter missiless. They can really take out some heavy ships, are cheap, and only cost 1 to maintain. They blow up as soon as they are used, however. Once that is accomplished, the puter really never wants to start much of a war again (unless you get a random event like your diplomat just assassinated their emporer)

I have been playing shoot em ups recently just for fun. You can wear em down.
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
1) Okay first of all the computer will usually outproduce you at the beginning so just don't even try second never set your sliders to 100%. 80% is okay but at 100 it is a pretty useless unless you really want that tech to help out in a war.

2)15 pq planets are fine you just need to first always get soil enhancement on them second build a entertainment network this keep you okay with moreale for a while while you build up other projects.

3) to fight an offensive war against the computer you need to either A.be able to outproduce the or B. have better ships. Once a war starts if you find yourself behind technologiclly pump up research to 70%-80% and just work on cathcing up in tech any ships you have stick them in planetary orbit around important planets. Once you have equal tech just begin pumpong out all the best ships you can on all planets then once they each produce one ship send them back to whatever they were doing before building transports or continue building good ships. Building worse ships is pretty useless unless you got a huge production capacity and are pumping out a fighter every turn.

another thing you can do to help yourself out in a war is to bribe the other major powers to go to war with each othe if a major is at war it is much less likely to attack you and if you are already under attack just bribe other powers to attack your enemy to help you out.


~SDC~