TIPS: Small-Medium Map, First Few Dozen Turns

[yin26]

Some tips a few of the frustrated players on the board might find useful since playing the first several turns well is *crucial* to success. These are simply my home-grown ideas. I bet there are even better ones out there from better players, so please share!:

** Rush buy --at the longest lease plan-- colony ships for however many good planets (rating of 15 or higher if at all possible) are nearby. Use the survey ship to scout if needed. If this means 4 rush buys, do it! 4 15+ planets that early will give you a huge advantage later.

** IMPORTANT: During these first crucial turns, set both military and social to ZERO! Why? Well, if you are rush-buying ships, that money on military is wasted! And what techs do you have available to you the first several turns? Soil Enhancement and Entertainment -- well, your planets are already more than good enough, and so will be your morale for a while!

It's also important to realize that buying social stuff you don't need yet comes with an insidious dark side: Maintenance! That's right. That fancy entertainment system you didn't need just then anyway is costing you precious upkeep that needs to go some other direction.

Therefore, 100% tech for the first few turns. After all:

1) It's better tech that will open more pressing social spending options to begin with.

2) It's better tech that will allow you the ability to speak with alien civs and start to trade more tech, which will begin the foundation for being able to pay for your leases.

3) It's better tech that will open up the ability to trade, which will further dig you out of your early money problems. Yes, it's O.K. to go in the negative numbers (up to 500b.c.) in these early turns! Don't worry. You'll recover.

Of course, you'll need a scout in order to get contact with the other civs. This is *hugely* important. So, after your colony ships, you can rush-buy a scout (or up the military spending and make one in 2 turns), switching all other planets to constructor ships.

At this point, you want to put about even money to tech and military because you want a constructor ship claiming resources ASAP. Trust me, the AI is already on its way. If there are no resources nearby, build the starbase near you and focus on econ.

After all, what other ships will you build at this point? If your survey ship is doing it's work properly, you'll likely get a free ship or two, and these should be pulled back to your planets for early defense. Oh, it's not that the AI will attack this early, but a free ship or two raises your military rating high enough that for several turns nobody will want to pick a fight with you.

This is also the place to reiterate the maintenance issue brought up earlier: Buying too many ships before you need it not only hurts your starbase production but incurs deadly upkeep costs.

Thus, keep the constructors coming for as long as possible, building up econ bonuses first, then switch to offensive ships just enough to look scary to other civs. Attack when you feel like, if ever.

When do you start some social spending?

When something is now useful enough for you to buy it! Once morale starts to drop, for example, consider entertainment stuff. Etc. In other words, develop an aggressive JIT (Just In Time) strategy to your spending, putting that first 2000b.c., the ability to go into debt 500b.c., and the ability to setup leases to maximum leverage.

Every turn is crucial in the early game. Use them wisely!!! If you have doubts about this strat ... try it!

[Harry Seldon]

I've never thought to mess with the sliders on the econ screen, although I've seen them from time to time. I'll have to give that a shot tonight.

[Master Marcus]

yin and all, I'm still trying to learn the game and my firsts attempts are econ failures. I'm asking here again since nobody answered me in Help forum: what to do exactly in order to have income on new colonies? I have good morale, class 13-16 2nd and 3rd planet and 0 income, some expenses. The AI opponents that I know have their very newly founded colonies already pumping some income even with low pop.... What am i missing here?????

[Harry Seldon]

Population. You're dumping about half your planet size for each colony you start. With the purchase of these colony ships, you lose money on the loan and on the lack of population to tax at the initial stages. I usually don't start making money until I research Trade. Just try to keep your rate of loss small so it takes your empire longer to hit bottom. Don't worry; the money will come.

[Master Marcus]

ok. perhaps I had bad starts so far. Like some said, better have class 15 and over especially if it takes too long for well-established trade routes and starbases.

[BlueDEvil]

The higher the planet class, the higher the income. You only get income from class 15 and above, but from my experience, you should look for even higher class planet. Don't be too eager to colonize unless you are playing a map with few hospitable planet.

[Lemmy]

The higher the planet class, the higher the income. You only get income from class 15 and above, but from my experience, you should look for even higher class planet. Don't be too eager to colonize unless you are playing a map with few hospitable planet.

Are you saying not to colonize every class 15 planet, but to wait till you find higher class planets?

[Master Marcus]

Originally posted by Lemmy

The higher the planet class, the higher the income. You only get income from class 15 and above, but from my experience, you should look for even higher class planet. Don't be too eager to colonize unless you are playing a map with few hospitable planet.

Are you saying not to colonize every class 15 planet, but to wait till you find higher class planets?

Perhaps, if you're playing on a map you've set with abundant hospitable planets ( v1.01 ). If few hospitable planets, then don't hesitate for 15 - and the 14s only after having colonized the better. Too much of lesser class planets in the early stages and your economy is ruined, that's what I've just learned in my firsts attempts.

[yin26]

Correct: There are certainly very good strategic reasons for taking planents lower than 15 (exerting your influence in key regions, being able to stage battle farther out in other sectors, ability to upgrade them to great planets later--which will also help keep pop booms going and morale hight, etc.).

However, those planets take time and many upgrades before they begin to turn a profit. I'd say if you don't have at least two 15+ planets colonized in the very early game, you're almost doomed ... at least this is true on a higher difficulty level.

[Gelvan]

@Yin&all
Some questions, because I'm still crumbling to dust:

1. The rush build is quite complicated, I usually go bankrupt some turns later, when using this strategy.

2. When (with what technology, or with how many) would you say it's ok to reduce the research?

3. If you don't build the maintenace-costing buildings, the AI will, and than you'll loose your sectors thanks to culture flip.

4. what about TG's and Achievements?

5. How do you build a constructor in the beginning of the game, without paying leases till you die, or put the military to 100% while the AI researchs you out.

Somehow I've got the feeling, that there must be something I don't get here. Thanks a lot for your help!

[BlueDEvil]

1) If you plan to buy your stuff, you should set the military budget to zero.

2) Don't ever reduce research. You must get diplomatic translators to talk to other races. This allow you to do some tech trading, as most races is likely to embark on a different path. Research is your only profitable option from the start. Minor races can pay a lot of cash for it in the near future. After this, go for trade so your can build freighters and make sure all minor nations can as well, so they can trade with you.

3) If you can't build up a strong economy, no point in worrying about culture flip. You would have lost the game either way. Unless you are in the same or adjacent sector, I doubt any races can have cultural effect so strong to trouble you at that stage.

4) No comment

5) You don't need contructors near the start, except to established a starbase to increase your range so that your colony ships can colonize further away. Only build plenty when you are going to established trade routes. They will be very useful at this stage as they can further increase your trade income. If you are at war, they serve as a bait for enemy ships and also help you defend your sector. Generally, best build in a sector with many planets. They can give all your planets in that sector tremendous boost in production and shipbuilding.

[yin26]

"1. The rush build is quite complicated, I usually go bankrupt some turns later, when using this strategy."

As noted, put military spending to zero when buying ships. Also, you *will* start going in the red here ... this is why you've got to locate other civs (get a scout out ASAP) and start trading for a profit!

"2. When (with what technology, or with how many) would you say it's ok to reduce the research?"

I don't reduce research. When I'm buying ships, I put military to zero. I also have social to zero for the first bunch of turns until I actually need a morale boost or a better planet. But you will *always* need better tech so you can do better in trading.

"3. If you don't build the maintenace-costing buildings, the AI will, and than you'll loose your sectors thanks to culture flip. "

You'll have to start building them when your morale drops and in anticipation of needing a better planet for better production, etc. Just not in the first dozen or two turns.

"4. what about TG's and Achievements?"

I ignore them mostly depending on my strategic plan. If I'm going for a culture win (for example), I might dedicate a planet to things that will give me a greater edge.

"5. How do you build a constructor in the beginning of the game, without paying leases till you die, or put the military to 100% while the AI researchs you out."

I don't lease constructors unless it's do or die. But if the AI is coming to take a resource, I'd seriously look at leasing ... it's O.K. if you have to pay for a long, long time.

"Somehow I've got the feeling, that there must be something I don't get here. Thanks a lot for your help!"

Post back with your progress!

[Gelvan]

@BlueDevil & Yin 26

Hey thanks a LOT! Now some things have cleared up to me.

Still though, I don't like leasing anymore. After a whole weekend of loosing one game after the other thanks to an unraveling "you've reached -500bc..." I'm standing a bit on the economical side right now.

Thus said, I'm trying another strategy:
Build Social Enhancement and Habitat Improvement first, *then* research trade, and with the first trade routes, slowly increase military, and eventually social spending.

Instead of having five morale eating (16+) planets, I'll have three cheering (20+) planets. (at turn 12)

I'll report how that works out. Wish me luck. ;-)

[Pyrkaige]

Gelvan,

It sounds like you're getting the hang of it; the beauty of this game is that there are multiple paths to victory, even from the start. So, just to toss in my $.02:

I never lease anything, at least not long-term leases; it kills your cash flow. I buy a few items straight out (the first colony ship, for sure) and then crank them out with the high production (sliding the production scale all the way up to 100% until I run out of cash.) One of the main aspects of the game is managing to keep your cash flow up to support production; it sounds like you're learning one main way to do that, with trade routes. If you can keep your production high, you don't need to lease your first ships, you can just produce them fairly rapidly. In short order you can produce ships in 5-6 turns on Earth, which helps with the second wave of expansion.

Even later in the game, being able to keep up your cash flow means you can keep production at over 80% without having to raise taxes too high. This makes all the difference when it comes to turning out those high resource projects that you really want.

[Harry Seldon]

If you focus more on research at the beginning, your deficit won't be as bas because you're not spending money building anything. I try to go ten-fifteen turns without building anything then go straight to habitat improvements. I also try to focus on economic improvements for each colony while building one mondo production planet. I had a couple of games that didn't hit negative until later when I relied heavily on trade.