How about small galaxy strats?

[Harry Seldon]

I've seen a lot of info on large maps. I'm running a PIII450 and usually play small. I'm getting crushed on Normal. Every time I think I have a win in the bag I run out of money, have a bad event, etc. Does anyone have any advice for this size? I've tried focusing on tech or military and do alright but run into problems later with culture attacks. If I focus too much on defending culture attacks with social construction, I get hammered. I can't seem to find a truly workable balance between the three areas.

[LDiCesare]

On small maps, the ai will attack sooner. So you have to either attack first or build some good defense. Or make sure the ai fight between themselves.
I am currently trying to play tiny crippling (after winning huge painful) and getting toasted everytime. The best I got was when I stayed alone for a while, took my boosted USS Hero and my Fortune Corvette along with a transport and BAM no more Altarians.
I'd get rid of the evil guys first if possible. They seem on the average to have better techs than the good guys, and they will use them as soon as they can.
Of course, since I am getting toasted everytime I try tiny/crippling, I may not be the best to listen to.

[Harry Seldon]

I'm fairly good at getting the AIs to fight each other early. I found that turning my tech research to 100% for the first twenty turns or so before worrying about social or military production can usually give me an edge at the beginning. Then I ramp military up to around 15%, social to 25%, and tech to 60% until my habitat improvements are built. Then I switch to building econ but lower the social and pump military up to build defenders and constructors.

[LDiCesare]

What ai do you play against?
I agree that 100%tech to begin with is a good idea on small maps. However, the Drengin will build a fleet very fast and start attacking someone (preferably someone who has little ships) very fast too. (I'm palying crippling: all geniuses).
I think on a tiny map, it is vital to expand as much as you can by sending some transport towards the nearest race you meet. Probably get people to fight the Drengin ASAP, too, before they get too strong and everyone shivers at the thought of fighting them.
Once you've got 2 or 3 star systems, you need population. To that end, you need a high morale. I am not sure how to get that (entertainment networks?) yet.

[Harry Seldon]

I was playing normal but it seems like every time I get ahead I get crippled with events. Even when I'm the weakest civ on the map I get crushed by events. There's nothing more disheartening than seeing "(Insert most powerful civ on map that also hates you) has found 87 Precursor Rangers!" I dropped back down to subnormal last night because I needed a win to recover my self esteem.

I'm usually building defenders by turn 25 and have my first set come in around turn 35. The drengins attacked me last night around turn 55 but I was able to persuade the Altarians to attack them with my horde of tech. The Drengins and Altarians slugged it out and I got to lay terms for the Drengin peace treaty. I think I made it to turn 150 or so before I had to directly take anyone on.

[LDiCesare]

I finally managed to win against 5 genius ais on tiny map (crippling). I was lucky in the sense I used something cheesy, but that could have been won without. Maybe.
Here is what I did:

Colonize nearest star, find nearest colonized stars (one minor race, one altarian). Have 100% production set to research, in order to get transports fast. Roam with the survey ship, getting one nice +1 to attack and a mighty defender.
As soon as transports are available, build some. Rise military production to 100%.
I attacked both the minor civ and the altarians and took two worlds. The altarians was a good pick because they happened to be the most populous of the galaxy.
Then I switched back to 100% tech. Trade with someone north of me with noone in between so the freights won't be attacked (Arcean here). Bully everyone a bit because I had a mighty corvette and a defender found by my survey ship while they had nothing. That gave about 500bc.
Then the altarians sue for peace. They were willing to give all their techs and their money. The important point is to take all their money but on 5-10 turns. That way, when they have say 1000, you can ask for 300 for 10 turns. They are desperate enough to accept. Not only do you get three times as much money, they will be stuck deep in an economic marasm because they have to pay you.
Now with all that money, I got some techs, lowered the taxes so population would grow, built more ships, transports, and took out the altarians. My tech choice was: Go straight for the frigates, then build some. With frigates and transports, I took one altarian planet, they sued for peace, went bankrupt for 5 turns, which was the time I needed to move my other transport to their last world.
HAving gotten rid of the biggest civ in the galaxy, I felt cool. However, the Torians were powerful and hated me. I got both the Arceans and a powerful minor race to help me in the fight. They gave me some ships. Drengin and Yor were pitiful. I took out the Drengin, extorting money by smashing their defenses, then asking for tribute. When they have no defense left on thier only world, they are usually quite willing to give you many bc.
The cheesy thing I did was an event: A vote for freighters to become invulnerable. Noone could attack them so I built a lot of these and used them to prevent the Torians from reaching me. I only lost one system by miscalculating. The ai was quite pitiful, as it couldn't see what I did with the freighters. Since it was a genius ai and had many turns to manage the thing, I am afraid it is a bit of a shortcoming.
I also used the fact that a few sectors were void of stars, so I sent my dreadnoughts and battle transports that way, avoiding Torians ships by circling them, and struck their worlds from the flank. I didn't take them at once, but on a small map, if you send mass drivers and lose, you lose 5 billion, and they lose 20 or 30. Using that technique, I ruined the economy of the Torians. It took me a lot of attacks to get rid of them, but I finallymanaged to. They also sued for peace once, and I bled them like I had bled the Altarians. In both cases it was interesting because the ai had more techs than I (since I had been busy building those ships to overtake them).

So I was a bit lucky with the freighter abuse, but I couldn't know the ai wouldn't be able to see the potential of these. I promise I won't do it again. Anyway, in the start it is very important not to build a colony ship if this would get lost. Build transports instead and trust the ai to settle some juicy stars. I even suspect that might work better on small maps, since you could crank your transports, send them near yellow stars waiting for the ai to come there, and bash them as soon as they land. It is also very important to keep a good trading partner all game long. On small maps, you can pick an isolated race, and deal with them. Since they cannot expand and you can give them some ships once in a while, you can protect them, trust them not to grow too powerful, and make them more dependent of you than you depend on them.

Note also on a tiny map, even though I chose all the evil options, I was still neutral by the end of the game. On small, that means you will probably stay neutral for a long time, which should make relations with Altarians and Torians easier than on a big map if you choose the dark side (though Altarians are always bad tempered if you make the evil choice).

[Harry Seldon]

Very cool. I wouldn't worry too much about the freighter trick. I've voted to raise transports to 20 attack and used them to fend off other civs because they're so cheap until I could build something better. You've got to play the hand your delt, eh?

[LDiCesare]

Here is a strat that worked fine on tiny map:
Go for trade goods and sell all the morale increasing ones to everyone, and all of them to minors and races which you plan to be on good terms with (typically Altarians and whatever race seems pitiful enough).
Having contact with every other race and minor early allows to sell trade goods for tech and cash very early and fast. If you can disrupt the Drengin, Yor or Arceans by destroying their constructors early in the game, it can provide lots of money, an even tech or better, even though you don't research many techs yourself but buy most of them.

[Rolfski]

I won a few times against smart AI on a small clustered map. This is what worked for me:

- I went federalist party (economy bonus) and after 1.03 universalists (luck bonus ). I have the idea that luck really helps in getting habitable planets in your starting cluster.

- I went evil or good (not in between) because they give bonusses

- I stayed out of every war by:
1. focussing on strong miltary so nobody threathens
2. making everybody like me by heavy trading
3. not joining any alliance unless alliance victory is possible

- Let the others fight each other but don't let someone become too powerfull. There were times I gave away half my fleet (of course in exchange for tech/tribute/influence) to prevent someone from being crushed.

- Start off colonizing very agressively. At the start set military production to at least to 40% and spending rate to 100%. Purchase a lot of colony ships (choose small amounts and long lease terms) right at the start. By the time your debt reaches 500 adjust spending rate.

- Compensate the lease debt by selling tech to minors. Sell for small amounts on long terms.

- Don't get obsessed by starbasing far away resources in the beginning. They're just too vulnerable. In the end when everyone is at war but likes you there are enough opportunities to capture them from destroyed starbases

- Techwise I went for tech that gave me extra trade routes.

- Victory wise I went for alliance and culture victory