Hi, i have been playing since 1 month or more. I am a casual player eager to learn the basics and i want to beat godlike one day. I can beat normal easily. But ı try 5 or 6 games at gifted difficulty and everytime i fail. Actually i didnt play to the end but it is obvious that i will lose. The thing is, i try with diffirent races with diffirent strategies.
I tried with custom race quick coloniation, i was ahead of AI at population and ifluence but i lack military, economy and other stuff.
Then i tried with YOR, i go for economy and researh, this time i fail military again and all the other factions even minor races threatened me.
After that failure i decided to go for basic faction, i choose Terran. I am going slowly this time. I micromanage every planet that i have. I have plenty of good planets with fair enough production and research. But still i am only first at pop and influence.
Where do i go wrong, i am trying to researh most valuable an most needed techs first, i am trying do build a decent army from turn 30-40 to defend, I WANT TO WİN DAMMİT.
Uhm.. sorry.
Any tips will be nice.
Thanks GG.
NOT:Sorry for misspelling.
Bigger maps are easier, but then it's all about starting position. You will have an easier time on a bigger map if you don't start near the Drengins or Krynn and have many colonizable planets.
Even then, it may be hard if you don't start right.
I tend not to over specialize my planets in the beginning, except that I make sure to use the tile bonus appropriatly. The Thalan Tech tree has the Hive that boost raw productions, other races have something similar too, so make use of that as soon as you can. When you build refinery at first, try to start close to your colony center if you can, for the first planets, as you get a bonus to whatever is next. Build them one beside the other, later, when you get improvement like solar power plant, you can destroy one refinery and build the solar plant instead. I try to build at least 2 refinery + solar plant for each planet, more when I have room. As soon as you research the first morale building, you should build these on each planets, prehempting any other production. On new colonies, I usually build one industry, one entertainment center, then another industry, one or two research center leaving room for a coordination center or other research boosting building later one. Then, by this time I have the first terraforming tech and I can upgrade a tile and build one farm. If there is room, a second farm. Don't overdo it at first, as you need the appropriate morale boosting.
Trade usually improves diplomatic relations so I make sure to trade with neighbours. I use diplomacy to exchange military techs and money with minors and I go very carefully at what I trade with other races.
If you start near the Drengin or the Krynn, try to build a military fleet as soon as you can. The Krynn are a paper tiger, but still they can be annoying. The Drengin can be frackingly tough to beat early in the game, if you find yourself at war with them and they can reach you, make sure to bribe other AIs into declaring war with them to keep them busy. Look at what type of weapons they are using and what is their weakness, build accordingly. As you will be no doubt strapped for cash early in the game, it may be wise to not upgrade your ships, but simply build newer ones and destroy the old ones.
If you are not near the Krynn/Drengin, it's time to look at your weak neighbours. Ideally, you keep on upgrading your worlds, building shipyards & starbases that you can support, build troop transports maybe 7-8 of them, then, at the proper moment, when a neighbour is engaged in another war, taking a beating and you feel you can overcome it, go and attack. Take a few worlds, remodel them, keep pushing until you're out of transport (that should be 7-8 worlds). Then, if you have the population from your shipyard worlds, you can build more ships first to placate the AI, then some more transports, but don't overdo it the first time. Next, build a few constructors constructors. Attack the AI starbases, destroy its fleets, get your constructor to take over the AI resources. Eventually, you can try to offer peace but the AI will be very stubborn, the only way to make peace maybe to accept his suggestion of peace with no compensation.
Rebuild your strenght, build new military ships once you have the techs, rebuild, repopulate your worlds, rebuild some more transports, 10-15 of them, gradually. They may become outdated as you research better engine tech, but simply use the old ones first to invade a planet later on. Start looking at your other neighbours, even the one you just beat into submission. Check the over extended ones, the ones with weaker ships, the ones at war. Keep thinking about what you need to beat them, adjust your military ships consequently. You can specialize your planets a little more, those that are linked to a shipyard should have more industries and the Hyperion military buildings, but again, don't overdo it, you may not have 30 planets yet.
Time to expand some more.
As you do that, you will reach a tipping point where you research more than most AI. Keep expanding and conquering while taking time to breathe. As you go further and further, build new shipyards for your troop transports and constructor, take the AI resources as you go, especially the xeno archeology ones. At that point, you may not even bother with designing your ships, just use the basic ones, unless they are a total mismatch for your ennemies' weapons.
Fleet composition:
I like having a small ships wich I load with support modules. Anti-missile / anti-beam / anti-mass drivers depending on what my ennemies use. Some fleet jamming tech too, whatever I can, but minimal weapons, even no weapons at all unless I have tons of room. With the Hyperion logistic system a small ship takes 2 logistics only, so you could reduce your number of attack ships and build 1 or 2 of them. One for defensive purpose, one to boost your attack.
