Early expansion

from Stardock Forums
Ive found 2 strats to help with early expansion that I use every game(almost).

Dont know if anyone has ever posred these but Im gonna anyway.

First is move your capital--by this I dont mean moving the little crown icon(which you cant afaik) but moving your 1 billion starting pop to a better planet.If I start on a 16 or 17 planet I move my entire pop(except about 100 mil.)to a nearby 19 or 20 planet if their is one.The new planet must be within 1 turns travel tho or forget it.Of course if I start on a 16 -planet and their is nowhere close to move my pop then its ctrl-n all the way.This will keep you poping colony ships at a good rate without destroying your pop.base.

The second strat is colonizing your home system first.
Many peeps will tell you to send colony ships in all directions and not to worry about planets in your home system till all the other yellow stars are taken.
This is a good strat but I found that if I have another 15+ planet in sol and I colonize it with my first ship that I build filled with 200 million peeps.(the starting ship I send toward other stars) --then I can pump out 2 colony ships every 2 to 3 turns from these 2 planets.Almost doubles your colonization rate.
Dont worry--pop will still grow on both planets due to the fact that filling a ship takes pop evenly from both planets.

Well anyway thats what I do--hope it helps some. :notsure:
334 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
On the first suggestion:

I did this in the last game I won (small galazy, all genius AI). Found a plent with quality 22 in the next sector, took everyone off of Earth (except 100) and moved them all over to the better planet. I won the game so it must have worked.

This maneuver is based on the the principle that a single planet of high qualiy is more useful than a whole bunch of lower quality planets.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I play im massive galaxis so scouts are a must. Try building lots of them as they have no maintenance. Then use them to surround resources and planets to keep the AI off them until your colonists or constructors arrive.
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
One problem with moving almost all of your population: While in transit, they aren't taxed, so you lose money.

If you move 100 million people to a new planet, you make 5 BC with 33% taxes (which is, coincidentally, 5 BC more than before they were moved). So a bunch of decent planets can be better than a single high quality planet.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
If you like short, sweet games and aren't that concerned with Metaverse points, you can always avoid the whole early expansion part of the game by having Rare habitable planets and Tiny Map. Fun for a quickie :) Never thought I'd say that about a 4X game . . .
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I ship 50% of my population with each colony ship I send out during the expansion phase. Keeps morale at 100% since each planet has a small pop and allows me to expand at an exponential rate. This is a great tactic for a gigantic map, it becomes less worthwhile the smaller the map.

I use the first colony ship to settle in-system if I can, otherwise at the nearest yellow start, then have it pump out 4 scout ships in a row. I don't use interdiction tactics, so I've found 4 works well for me (I also tend to choose +2 sensors which helps a lot). Those 100 mil planets can pump out a scout ship every 2 turns with the traits and settings I use.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
"One problem with moving almost all of your population: While in transit, they aren't taxed, so you lose money."

Agreed --thats why I said only if you can get them there in one turn
;)