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Strategy for beginners
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I just won my first game on simple level (Final frontier victory).
A few observations.
I found that star systems were only militarily and industrially productive when they have 3 fully equipped star bases in the same sector augmenting them,.....
...... however, I also found that these augmented star systems, whilst productive, ran at a massive loss after a while. The more productive star systems you have, the bigger the loss.
How to solve this problem? well I figured if I'm already running at a loss, I might as well run at a big loss. I put my spending level up at 100%. Thereafter, I balanced the books by selling my advanced technology and star ships to the minor races (scotlingas and I-league). At one point I was receiving 20,000 a month in tribute, dwarfing what I was getting in tax revenue. So again I decided "well if taxes aren't making much money for me, might as well get rid of them".
This meant I needed even more money. In order to get this I would "sell" a planet to a major power in a sector where I was culturally dominant in exchange for techs and star ships which I would again sell on to the minor powers for more tribute. I would thereafter get my planet back quickly as the inhabitants would rebel because of my dominant culture influence..... Basically I ran the galaxy with the kind of budget deficit George Bush can only dream of.
You see where I'm going with this. I even started terraforming planets with the express purpose of selling them. The problems this gave me......
1) I was COMPLETELY dependent on the minor powers.
2) I had to maintain a galactic status-quo in order to prevent the minor powers from being swallowed up and keep the major powers rich enough to buy my wares.
What I would like to know is, how do I maintain my empire without being financially dependent on anyone else in the game?? (It felt like a kind of bizarre symbiosis).
Also, what are the optimum ratios for research, military and social? What order should techs be researched in? What order should improvements be built? And finally, which social improvements are simply a waste of money?
cheers
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What works best for me is.
1. put economic sliders to 100 military and colonize like crazzy.
2. when I start to run into other races then cut military down as much as posible then research like crazy. going for items like translators and othe trade items.
3. now I reduce research and up social when my approval is at 50.
4. do the diplomatic thing and focus on trade/culture and maintaining the power of all so others use their military on others not you.
This usually leads to a technology or cultural victory for me.
I cant be more specific for everything else changes as the situation dictates.
Now working on a basic stratagy for military conquest. Be the bad guy on the block. 
    
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#2
by Citizen Zerg_Food - 7/8/2005 12:32:00 PM
Hey, I'm a newbie too. Here are a few things I've discovered:
Gravity accelerators and anti-matter missiles are a lethal combination, particularly against a technologically superior foe. This single combination of technolgoies turned the tide in my most recent game, in which the Drengin had a powerful central position in the middle of the board and were extorting money and tech literally from all corners.
They came for me in ships so powerful that my battleships couldn't stop their frigates, but once the missiles rolled out their fancy ships were fish in a barrel.
You must remember, though, a "missile navy" needs constant replenishment. A fleet of Dreadnaughts is a fleet of Dreadnaughts battle after battle, but a fleet of missiles will disappear shockingly fast. Plan reinforcements.
Speed is also crucial. Missiles are naturally slow and always defend a stack first, so without a speed advantage they're vulnerable. You can defend them with a Corvette picket, but you'll spend a lot replacing Corvettes that way. Speed is better.
Other notes ...
If your back is really to the wall you can go on a planet-killing raid. Often the AI will leave its planets under-defended, so if you can evade the main battle fleet you'll get a free shot at an enemy world. A single Combat Transport will devastate the population if you use mass drivers. If you actually win the fight, you force the AI to re-take the world and even then they get back a damaged planet.
At maso level you can't sell anything for more than peanuts, with the sole exception of rebels who will pay through the nose for tech. Since techs are outrageously expensive if you try to buy them from the AI, you'll want to use your own techs in trades for other techs, not give them away for pennies.
There seems to be a universal consensus that a high diplomatic starting ability and the "Diplomatic Translators" trade good are the most useful advantages you can get regardless of what style of play you choose. I definitely agree -- the only way you'll maintain tech parity on maso is by trading lesser value techs for greater, and you'll only do that without going broke with a high diplo score.
The best way to get any tech that doesn't allow the building of a new ship category is to research a cheap tech no one else has then go on a tech-trading binge.
The best way to get those key shipbuilding military techs is to either research them yourself, trade with a minor, or "get lucky" with a beginning-of-turn trade offer from an AI. This seems completely random; I've had the Korx offer me Interstellar Tactics (Frigates) for Nano Electronics.
If you're powerful you can also extort tech from the AI's, but for most of the game you'll just be struggling to survive. Once you get missiles you might have an intimidation factor to work with, but if you've made it that far the hard part is already over.
The AI's have foreknowledge of yellow stars and special resources. You can level the playing field by saving the game at the start, scouting the map, and restoring back at turn 0. Now you know, too.
Corvettes are extremely useful behind enemy lines, but you'll need Eye of the Universe and a speed advantage. Your 'vettes can easily take down freighters, mini-freighters, constructors, and colony ships. Since the AI likes to defend with colony ships you can even strip planet garrisons, leaving populous, productive worlds vulnerable to a quick mass driver strike. But mostly you'll be picking off freighters and constructors. Every kill you make I suspect moves the AI closer to backing down, but even if not the loss of trade routes will damage their economy.
On the relationship between taxes, morale, and population:
Higher morale leads to higher population which leads to more tax revenue.
Planet growth stops at 52% morale and is enhanced at 100% morale. Maximum population is pegged to morale.
Higher taxes lead to lower morale and lower population.
Higher taxes increase the value of a unit of population, making morale-boosting more profitable. Conversely expensive morale enhancers lose money at lower tax rates.
Low population makes you vulnerable to invasion and culture-flip and reduces your troop capacity. Similarly, cutting taxes eventually increases your influence.
It would be very useful to know exactly how many people 1% of morale is worth, but I haven't tried to figure this number out yet. If I knew that at X% tax rate a given planet at 52% morale would have Y people generating Z revenue I could, taking all planets into account, set "X" to maximize "Z".
  
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