From a macro perspective, the fledgling empire has three main concerns: Expansion, Research & Defence. These need to be weighed carefully, especially during the first 100 turns and civilization customization.
This is arguably the highest priority of a new empire. You must expand or die at the hand of those who did. During the first 50 turns or so, your primary concern should always be to colonize and build facilities (building nothing but colony ships for 50 turns is also a sure path to defeat).
There are quite a few ways to go about the initial expansion, more than I am prepared or have the competence to describe here. Briefly, however, there are two major approaches, and one variation. In the standard approach (which you should use), you build a mix of farms and colony ships while maintaining a decent number of farmers (40-60%). You may also opt to have a few scientists on your homeworld, and the order in which you build ships and farms is a science apart and subject to constant scrutiny.
A variation of the standard is to build a lot of colony ships, but without actually using them until you’ve reached a certain threshold The point of this method is to appear weak (according to the game mechanics). With just a few planets you’re likely to get a reputation bonus by declaring war on nearly any neighbour, which is exactly what a player using this strategy will do. When he has gained the reputation bonus, he settles the planets in one go and arms them post-haste. This must be considered an ‘advanced’ strategy, certainly not for the new player. I myself have no experience with it, being a little too risky for my taste. On this, Gedrin commented:
”The col wave is not at all dead... the original reason for it was to keep score down while you hit players for rep. The savings in col ships was a minor benefit and its removal... a minor loss.”
The other major approach is that of ‘The Aggressor’, an extremely offensive strategy where the player builds next to no colony ships and steals the young planets of his neighbours. I’ll cover this in the section on war (yet to come). As as new player, you shouldn’t consider this a viable path for you. Know only that others do use it, which is why the early turrets are so important. The turrets are very capable early defenders since ‘the aggressor’ often have just a troop ship and no bombing power. They stand their ground even against a few bombers.
Lastly, I should mention that it’s very important to get your planets up to full population. It might look like it takes a lot of time to get those last few citizens, but it really is worth it. Perhaps a couple more farms would help out? However, my home planet, as an example, hasn’t been the first to max out in quite a while. It might not be the best option to max out very big planets (30+), right from the start of the game. Build towards it, sure, but maxing it out does take a lot of time - time and ‘effort’ that you could have used towards acquiring new planets. Which is not an insignificant objective. It’s a tough balance to find, and you’ll surely struggle with it for the duration of your time here.
Another very important factor in the beginning, indeed throughout the game, is your research. I tend to forego research in favour of more farmers or workers (facilitating expansion), but some very aggressive players will divert quite a lot of effort into researching new technologies right off the bat – they need them to build bombers and troop ships. Some players have won galaxies without building more than a handful colony ships (for the home system). You may see the arrival of such players at your systems as early as turn 50 (though usually a little later).
Perhaps the most common path through the technology tree, is to go for either Autofactories or Science Labs first. On the way there, you might need to research a little drive-technology and Planetary Defence, as well as Banking Centres, Propaganda Offices or Mines. Perhaps a doctrine too, but until you get more familiar with the game you wont go wrong if you make one of these two your first over-all priority.
Among your first 3 technologies should be Planetary Defence level 1. Build at least one Light Turret on every planet you own, and do it fast. Build a farm and a factory first, if you must, but never later than that – not at the start of the Galaxy. In the later game (after 100-200 turns), a single light turret will make precious little difference for an attacker, but they are very effective at stopping the early aggressors. Since they’re still without scans they’re essentially flying blind, which is a great advantage to you. I personally love to see the shrapnel of a daring troop ship plummet into the seas of my planets
The above is my take on the early defence, but there are other views. Comments on the guide suggests that some players don’t put as much emphasis on getting the Light Turrets early on. Gedrin wrote:
“You do not really NEED to defend early planets with PD... [e.i. turrets] a troop ship hanging around is fine too... If the planet gets taken... you can take it back... especially if you have multiple planets in the system, and it has the added benefit of hitting that silly upstart who thinks he can take the last planet in the system.”
chrisadamley wrote:
”I would say that one of your first 3 tech definitely doesn’t have to be Pd1....
A majority of players will not attack early....only if I know from experience that I’m by somebody that does a fairly early attack do I build Light Turrets... otherwise troop defence is sufficient early.”
Don’t forget that paying to train military is cheap in the beginning of the game. Since the early aggressors usually don’t carry a lot of troops with them (10 at the very most, often just 1), turning even a single farmer into a soldier could save the planet. The worst case scenario is that this ‘emergency’ soldier takes an enemy soldier or two with him in death, which isn’t bad at all.
guides\nongolfguide\initialconcerns.txt · Last modified: 2012/02/26 22:17 by jackjack
