marigoldran

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

I've noticed this one at least: Thalans have Lvl 3 Manufacturing matrices. The best factories in the game. They also have industrial theory and slave pits because you bribed them with it. [e digicons]O:)[/e] Guess what they do? They build the inferior industrial complexes and slave pits. Another benefit of bribery....

Infinite Loop Battle in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Ok: Get a starship with 300 defenses and 1 attack. Get another starship with 300 defenses and 1 attack. Have them battle and watch the battle screen. Will the battle ever end?

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Oh. What bugs? I've noticed that some AIs like the Altarians and the Arcaens don't expand much. The Drath and the Iconians suck too. But that's balanced by the Torians, Krynn, Thalans, Terran, and sometimes the Korath. They can be monsters depending on starting location.

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

In fact I highly recommend it.

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

You can get it via Steam. I got the Ultimate Edition for 20 bucks. I think it's cheaper now.

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

The mining bases only get attacked if the AI is within striking reach of it. This is why it's essential to keep your neighbors busy with someone else. On gigantic or immense maps, you can be at war with 2 other civs and still have all of your mining bases intact because they're too far away. The AI will attack other AI targets they're at war with. It probably will not work as well on lower planet densities. But on obscene I've expanded fro

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Culture-flipping IS the ultimate strategy on larger map sizes (as long as it DOESN'T involve the Yor). Note the title of the post.

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

@ LTJim If you aren't at war with any AI, your starbases don't get attacked. And even if you are attacked, if you can bribe them to attack someone else, you're fine. You're MORE likely to get your starbases attacked if you choose a military strategy because you're at war with someone. Which raises an interesting point: on the diplomacy screen, you can talk to an AI you're at war with and BRIBE them to attack someone else, while remain

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

And no you can't make influence starbases on all of their systems because you can't construct constructors fast enough. The goal is not to do one major strike. The goal is slowly expand your borders by flipping their border colonies. Since you're not at war, you don't have to worry about retaliation. Also, since you're constantly destroying old influence starbases, starbase construction costs are kept cheap. Two, you don't have to focus

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

EDIT: Ok, I got why the numbers are off. Gigantic map, very slow research speed. Iconian: All of the influence techs: about 65000 beakers. In contrast: Planetary Invasion: 26000 (base Planetary Invasion). Planetary Bombardment for Mass Drivers: 17000 Stellar Marines: 17000 Space Weapons, Interstellar Construction, Strategic Analysis: 10000 Miniaturization up to and including Level 3 (I'm assuming you'd want mini

Reply to Is Torians and Super Breeder OverPowered? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

You kind of missed the whole point of using super-breeder, which is to colonize as many planets as possible, ASAP, and then turn production AND tax rate as low as possible to maximize approval rate, thereby booming your population in almost ALL your colonies for 4-5 turns. Then turn your tax rate and production rate back to normal, and your population base for taxes has doubled in size. No one else can do that like the Torians/Super-Breeder.

Reply to Super Breeder Econ Strategies in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

No, you want near 95% approval rating to get as many planets at 100% approval as possible to increase population. Dropping it to 70% is sub-optimal because you're not taking advantage of super-breeder, which ONLY works if a planet is at 100%.

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Also, if you get the non-military techs early on, you also have more TECHS TO TRADE. The reason is the AI prioritizes military techs, so if you don't get them you have more viable tech trade/bribery opportunities. Master trade, if you can get it first, is one of the best techs in the game. It's excellent trade bait and if you can build the Galactic Bazaar, it's amazing. The only reason to choose Super Trader is because of the Galactic Baza

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Don't know where you're getting your numbers from, but each transport costs 400-500 bcs. You need about 3000 (2500 sometimes) troops to reliably capture colonies. This means: Cargo Hull (55 bcs) 3 Advanced Troop Modules (210 BCs) 1 Warp Engine (140 BCs) That adds up to 405 BCs. And this is bare bones. If you want anything else, it adds to it, hence the estimate of 400-500 bcs. Furthermore, even with 3000 troops, there

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Argh. I keep on hitting the "reply button" instead of the "edit button."

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Super-Breeder is the best trait in the game, with the possible exception of super-annihilator on smaller maps. I haven't played any races w/o that trait. Why would I want to nerf myself with inferior races? Besides, super-breeder is pretty useful for the "troop transport" method of conquest as well, so it evens itself out when it comes to discussing the merits of culture conquest vs military conquest. Finally, we're talking about the newest ToA so talk of DL/DA is mo

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

With MCC, the moment you hit the magical value of "4" on the Influence Point screen for an AI colony, it will flip automatically on the next turn. This is INSANELY powerful. Two franchise-chain-maxed out influence starbases can flip a border AI world. 12-18 Constructors can conquer 2-3 worlds WITHOUT having to declare war. Think about that. Instead of having to waste time stockpiling transports, you could be steadily conquering your way across t

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

1. To clear a path, you need a comparable fleet. That's a lot of bcs. AND a lot of research into the mostly useless military techs. 2. BCs and money better spent on constructors. Why stockpile transports or declare war when you can immediately influence flip with starbases and Mind Control Center? 3. MCC + Influence Starbase = 100% guaranteed capture. WITHOUT declaring war. Also, you need to be Korath to get spore ships

Reply to Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

1. To clear a path, you need a comparable fleet. That's a lot of bcs. 2. BCs and money better spent on constructors. Why stockpile transports or declare war when you can immediately influence flip with starbases and Mind Control Center? 3. MCC + Influence Starbase = 100% guaranteed capture. WITHOUT declaring war. Also, you need to be Korath to get spore ships if you don't like custom races. On the other hand,

Reply to First Game at Challenging Level in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

If the AI is attacking you, why are you wasting your time by building spaceships? Instead, do this: 1. Put all your BCs into research, take the tech lead, and bribe some other AI to attack them. 2. Get Intensive Farming II, and increase the pop size of all of your border colonies. 3. Laugh as the AI futilely tries to invade your planets. At higher difficulty levels, they might succeed, but not before they pay a huge co

Don't Defend Your Planets. It's Pointless on Larger Maps With Lots of AI. in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

If an AI declares war on you, or asks for money, just bribe some other AI to attack them or bribe them to attack someone else. Most of the war-faring AIs tech slowly. So if the Torians declare war on you, bribe the Drengin or the Korath to declare war on them. That way you can delay military research/production for a long, long time allowing you to get all of the essential econ/research techs. The logic is that invasions and war are terribly costly, e

Reply to How often does this happen...? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Bribe someone else to war against the Terran.

Reply to Funny ideas: The Pure Starbase Strategy in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

This strategy works pretty well, even on higher difficulties. The key is to disband influence starbases once you've flipped the planets. Also, be evil and get the Mind Control Center and the free starbase upgrades. Finally, BRIBE the AIs to constantly war on another, so they ignore your undefended constructs. The idea behind this is you can skip/delay a lot of military techs and the expensive and otherwise useless planetary invasion path. You

Reply to Funny ideas: The Pure Starbase Strategy in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Build farms on your border planets and increase population to like 16 billion with super-breeder. They can try to invade, but they'll fail. Even if they control the space around the planet, if the pop is high enough, the AI has to pay a huge price to capture it. And even if they manage to invade a planet, who cares? If you can influence-flip 3 planets for every 1 planet they capture, you're getting ahead.

Reply to Can You Give AI more Colony Ships? in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

Ctrl L makes a fun game on immense maps.