keyed

I got this game last week and am having a blast with it. There are so many ways to win that it makes it difficult to decide which way to choose (lol, I've only won one game though). The game is fairly difficult, but right now it's mostly because I'm unfamiliar with the tech tree and the mechanics of the game. I played my first game on the default beginner mode and smashed through it. Didn't even bother to finish it because I was so far ahead. The second game, I played with the AI's set to normal and was in the reverse position, getting stomped no matter how many times I restarted the game and tried a different strategy. I just didn't know enough about the game and the damn Yor would take over most of the galaxy.

I've been going through the galciv forums and reading about different strategies and learning how to adjust social and military production.

Last night, I finally felt I could handle a normal game in a small galaxy. Alas, the Yor are my nemesis again and are stomping through the galaxy again, although not through me. I made the mistake of trying to get them dependent on trading with me so that they wouldn't attack me. It worked well in the beginning, as they were initially threatening me and demanding money but now it's backfired. They have a 'close' relation to me and I don't mind that, but they're tearing through the galaxy, attacking the other civs and demanding tribute. At this point, my trade is too dependent on them to attack them directly. I've tried building cultural structures, both on my planets and bases and am trying to get their planets to revolt to my side, but I'm not sure how effective it is. I've also passed the other nations battleship technology in the hopes that they can stall the Yor, but it's doubtful at this point. I'm probably going to have to start building battleships myself and give them to the nations directly.

Well, that's about it for me. If you've played Galactic Civilizations, post your thoughts, experiences, and tips for the game

stingo

Never heard of the game - but it sounds interesting - is it rts or turn-based?

keyed

Turn-based, single-player game.

RolloTomasi

Stomped the Normal AI twice already.. I only play on small galaxies though; I think my brain would explode if I had to manage more than 25 planets. Hopefully seeing my strat will help - I don't know how it will work at higher difficulties.


1. Starting race - Technologists. In every empire game I've played, Technology is the key. I also put 5 points into research, the other 5 into diplomacy (which really helps).

2. Beginning - Aggressive expansion is the key. I bought a colony ship on every turn using the highest interest option. Although I had 0 bc by turn 6, I also had control over 6 star systems, which will prove far more valuable in the long run. I also scrambled up the tech tree as fast i could, mainly hitting the diplomacy techs. Why diplomacy, you ask? Because of the...

3. Midgame - I made contact with the minor races early, and secured deals to get the techs they already had. But after that, all the deals were one-sided - my side. Thanks to my mad diplomacy skillz, I made deals to get approximately 100 or so BC per turn from them. If you shop around through all the minor races, you should be able to cover all your costs, while still having income into your treasury, all at 0% taxation. Believe me, the boosts to your morale help a lot, especially since the game is horribly unforgiving with morale. Before I had 0% tax, any non-Earth planet, even with all the morale structures, would hover around 45% morale.

The other thing I worked on was Starbase manufacture. Any time my planets weren't building combat craft (which was most of the time; I only built enough to make the Drengin think twice about attacking me) they were building constructors. I cannot tell you how cool starbases are. They can triple the production of all the planets in a sector, improve defenses (my Survey Ship had an attack bonus of 109 in my home sector), and when on a resource, boost that, not to mention increase trade income to obscene amounts - all without requiring maintenance fees. So if you ever feel the pinch of maintenance, sell all your production facilities on your planets and move your production offworld - it's much more effective.

3. Endgame - The biggest problem I found was that thanks to the huge morale, efficiency, and cultural power of my empire, my influence had skyrocketed, and was starting to absorb the minor races. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN. If you absorb a minor civ, you lose lucrative trade routes and money-for-tech deals. Near the end of the game, it go so bad that I had to return planets to them every other turn. I gave them a couple thousand influence points; I don't know if that helps, but it seemed to slow down the process. Anyway, byt this time, I was so far ahead of the minor races diplomatically that I could trade 5 low-level techs for 1000 bc per turn. Of course, it goes without saying not to trade diplomatic techs with them, otherwise, you lose the advantage.

By this time, It was assured I was going to win the game, i just had to choose how. My influence was so great that I had to give away thousands of points of influence to all the major civs just to keep from winning a cultural victory. I ended up deciding a military path. Thanks to the ring of starbases in my home sector, the Sol System could churn out on average two Avatars per turn... most of the major civs had barely reached battleships. It was no contest.


Of course, this was on normal. If the AI had a ton of bonuses, it might not work so well. YMMV.

Edit: I just tried out this strategy on Bright, to make sure it held up. I won easily in 300 turns, and I only had 3 planets! The only problem was when a random event put me at war with the Drengin. They took out a few of my freighters, but when 12 of my battleships moved into their sector, they were pretty eager to make peace, giving me all their techs, goods, influence, and even 10000 BC Maybe I should try Genius... I should definitely lose there.

Lateralus42

I have this game, it is really good. This is the first strategy I have played where you can win without even starting a war. It's difficult but it is possible. The diplomacy and trading aspects are good, i can lose a whole day just playing around with this game.

Duran

www.galciv.com