Over 100?? That had to take a few colony ships... 
          
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Well, if you want to be cheesy, make as well cheese all the way. I think he save/loaded to get the PQ events.
  
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You know, I've been wondering this for a while.
If the AI doesn't colonize very often under 15 PQ, then wouldn't it be better to play with Rare planets and make the AI suffer with only a few planets?
Meanwhile, you swoop in and colonize 13s and 14s.
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Barry that is a good thought. I tend to play abundant because I don't know where the yellow stars are and I figure that neutralizes the computer's advantage a little to have a high % of yellows. On the huge and gigantic maps, I can't play abundant (too many planets  ) so I go ahead and get stellar cartography and find it helpful. Later the eyes of the universe helps a lot on huge and gigantic (and having the speed to get there). Back to the original question . . .
I rush for colonies first. I go full out 100% military when there are but a few planets but with bigger maps or abundant will go with about 2/3 military and 1/3 tech research (enough to get colony ships every 3 turns). After getting the available yellows, then rush constructors (although this is less helpful on painful then lower levels because the darn AI has already taken the resources ). Then backfill/colonize the multiple planet stars. I routinely colonize 13 & 14 planets in or near my sectors although I do it last (after the yellows) and when I have enough money to immediately get the soil enhancement and the next turn habitat improvment. If I don't have the money I can always park the colony ships a few turns. Also if I take the 5% PQ bonus at the start up, I can colonize 12 and easily get them to 15. As pointed out, getting them to 15 is important to avoid the "bad PQ tax" and it is nice to get them cranking up star fighters/corvettes or constructors. When I have totally completed colonization then I can start to shift the sliders and do some social building and the game moves into a new phase. After the intital colonization, I rarely colonize a sub 15 unless there is a darn good strategic reason. Hope this helps. Others please critique.
Rick
    
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In the early game, the economy is small and with rounding down it is much more efficient to go with 100% most of the time. Therefore, my opening gambit is always 100% military to tag all habitable systems within range. I don't colonise PQ14s and below because 5bc tax is alot of money in the early game. Anyway, the AI ignores them most of the time so I grab them later.
If I have PQ+5% I will also take PQ12s later. Else I will take all the PQ13+14s. I take them also to get more colonisation events so that I can get up to alignment 90 for trade centres. It is much easier on bigger and more abundant maps.
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Thanks Ray but when I get too far behind on tech I seem to have trouble catching up. Any thoughts there? Maybe that is because I usually play abundant and the good stars are in the dozens. I feel like the tiny/small games are a sprint to colonize but the large, huge, gigantic are more like running a mile. Or, maybe I just don't have a good feel yet for when to abandon the 100% military and start tech research even with habitable planets still waiting to be colonized.
Today on a large, painful, abundant map I learned a lesson. If you colonize a low quality planet that shares a sector with an opponent's better star system, they you take the risk of being flipped. I lost my planet with the brand new soil enhancement and habitat improvement to the Torians. . . those snakes. . So, maybe I better take the low quality planet in a non-aligned sector but leave the ones in the opponents zone of influence alone.
Rick
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It's worse on Cripppling and Maso because the AIs get bonuses to Influence on top of others. On Maso, once the AI grabs a planet in a sector, the entire sector is theirs.
The higher the difficulty the further you will be left behind on tech after the colony rush. Trade for the critical techs that you need from the minors first (because they tend to possess a lower diplomacy level than you and thus trades are cheaper), the get them from the majors. It's even easier and cheaper if you take diplomacy picks at startup.
You can safely skip some of the useless starting techs by trading for more advanced techs. For example, if you are a rusher, trade for Energy Channeling and Space Militarisation and voila, you can immediately research the killer Interstellar Tactics, or if you like Turbo Phasers, for the frigates and cruisers.
Other useful, cheap and early techs to grab from the AI are phasers, shields, trade, advanced trade, basic environment control, industrial theory, controlled gravity, etc.
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This is getting a little off subject maybe but: what are you guys talking about 100% Military? I think I know but I want to be clear.
-Dark
    
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If I were you I would colonize anything in the area of class 14 or higher 14 can be improved with the soil enhancement and the habitat improvement to something better. Once you get all the planetary improvements to its class, you can snag planets in the area of class 7 and 10 and whatever you may come across. I personally have never tried to colonize anything below a 10 but if you feel confident in your abilities to keep the people happy........  good luck, you may need it
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Your saying if I were to adjust the sliders to military early in the game, that I'll produce colony ships faster and thus get the good systems?
Because if that's what your saying that'll be sweet.
| Your empire logo goes great with your name! |
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Haha, I know. It works doesn't it.
Thanks,
-Dark
[Message Edited]
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The class of the planets are generally lower on rare. It's tough looking for decent culture bomb planets among the AI sectors when I play rare. On Abundant, there are always lots of uninhabitated 10+s around.
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I've also noticed the lack of 15s cause the AI to colonize 14s, but not until a little later on. Which doesn't bother me, because they immediately start having morale problems. It's sort of like they resign themselves to settling for weaker planets.
Still, I go for 14s immediately after all the yellow stars are gone. The earlier you can colonize those, the better, since there's not such a morale hit with a low pop.
Of course, this is "Challenging" level strat, and doesn't pertain to higher levels. Colonizing 14s early in painful got me invaded really quickly. 
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