Best Uses For Outposts

[Forrest Gimp]

I haven't seen a thread on this one. But feel free add to the uses below. The manual mentions them as a way to stake a claim on an important planet - but I found that the least useful way of employing them:

1) as a jump point to attack someone barely reachable by your current fuel cells.

2) as a worthless gift to really piss off another player. Place it on a gas giant or asteroid on a fellow player's system, then offer it as a gift to the stupid AI. The AI sends ships to guard it, hehe and often declares war on the player.

On impossible, one time I was neutral to the Klackons but he was really pissing me off by demanding my tech, so I peppered his systems with outposts, then gave them away as gifts to his neighbors immediately after he declared war on me. BOY WAS THAT FUNNY!

(i.e it also confuses the hell out of him, since the AI sends a few ships to guard his own planets)

3) prevent another player from getting a good planet - lets say 4 two turns you and a rival have been capturing and re-capturing
the same Gaia, ultra rich system. Now you know he has bigger badder fleet, and the only way he can get to your other systems is thru the Gaia system. Put an outpost on it and give it away to the 3rd party. The stupid AI never colonizes it, and your rival can only sit there twiddling his thumbs

4) instant marine base for dictatorships and feudalism - put an outpost, then colonize

[The Mad Monk]

5) Decoy / Bait

The AI will usually hit outposts first, especially if they're unprotected.

In one game, Impossible/Huge Galaxy, I had half the galxy --a single AI held the other half. Because of the odd way the stars had generated, and our relatively low tech level, there was only two systems that could be used to mount an asault without using outposts; both had to be held, as they were the only two colonizable systems close enough to bridge the gap between the two empires. We each held one. The AI had the edge in both military tech and number of ships, and it was clearly building up for an assault.

There was one other potential "bridge" -- but one system was a heavily developed and defended AI sytem and the other was a star with an asteroid belt. I sent a single, unescorted outpost ship to that system, with an idea of sending a small strike force there later.

Imagine my surprise when, the turn after setting up said outpost, the AI sends most of its fleet to that system -- a ten turn voyage! I continue to build up my forces for the next ten turns. The AI declares war just as its fleet hits the outpost.

By the time it gets back, it's all over.

[Clear Skies]

6) Jump points, but not for assault - for colonisation. Useful only in the beginning of the game - if u have, say, a useless system (only asteroids) or a system you don't want to colonise (radiated), then outpost it and jump straight past it.

[LordEd]

I prefer to use outposts to claim wormholes - both sides. This allows me to spread easily throughout the galaxy.

[Hydro]

I plant outposts just before colonies so I get the free marine barracks - especially important with feudal and dictator (but really nifty with feudal since an outpost costs about the same as a marine barracks due to the ship building bonus!). I’ll send the outpost out first, if needed, to claim territory. I don’t bother with outposts/barracks with unification until later, or if I’m building too fast and have surplus production.