posted 04-27-99 08:13 PM ET     

Ok. Here are a few questions:

1. It takes forever for my colonies to grow. I plant farms, but I can never get my food surplus over +2 or so. Any suggestions?

2. What's a good number of defenders in a city while not at war? If I'm not misstaken, defenders eat food (see Q1). If I put only 2 in a city, the worms can get through...

3. I usually play the University; is this a good empire to start with? I find when I play the Peacekeepers I get out-teched fairly quickly.

4. Is expand, expand, expand the best policy? Or expand, build infrastructure, expand better?

Any input/advice is welcome. Early game tactics even more so. Oh yea, advice on wandering worm defence would be appreciated also.

Thanks!

posted 04-27-99 08:25 PM ET            

2. I don't think defenders eat food. They do require support on minerals though. I can't help you with the number though.

3. I usually use the University. There a good one. Hive is also good too.

posted 04-27-99 08:45 PM ET            

1. You need Centauri Enpathy before the food restriction is lifted so you can get more then 2 per square. Exception is for special resources. If you see a food special resource (the green leafy looking stuff) then the fastest way to grow is to build a base right on top of that square, if possible, then use that particular base to crank out colony pods since it will grow fast enough to compensate for the population loss every time a colony pod is produced.

2. Two. Worms are mostly larvae mass at the beginning, very easy to pop. They make nice popping sound . Two units are plenty.

3. A lot of people prefer University for the research but PK is O.K. too. Make sure you get the Human Genome with PK and your cities will be in Golden Age most of the time, reaping in the energy for research. The main thing is early expansion. Against the computer, I can outtech the UoP even when I play as the Hive.

4. There's a very good tip when playing as the UoP (from Smigol ?). It's expand, expand, and expand and keep all cities at size 2 to prevent drone riots. Then get to Industrial Automation to build supply transports and he is able to get all the SP's.

posted 04-30-99 11:46 AM ET            

1. What Zozo said, I'd add the 'kindergarden' facility to the equation. Gives you a higher growth rate and increases efficiency of your colony. Mandatory for those far-away outposts or if you run an unefficient government 'planned economy', for example).

2. In the early game, I mostly keep only one defensive unit per city. However, I run some sort of a 'proactive defence' scheme: Per three cities or so, I build an attack unit; a rover in early game, choppers later on. I use that one to get worms or approaching enemies before they can reach my cities. Less expensive & more effective than keeping a large defence-only garrison. A side note: as in real life combat, mobility is vital. Build roads as early as you can; this makes it easier (or even possible at all) to use the above token attack rover as an active, shuttling defence unit. As for worms, you get the 'Trance' ability pretty early in the game - since that ability is for free, you can (and should) add it to your standard defence unit without increasing its cost.

3. IMHO the University and the Spartans are the factions whith which it's easist to win, so they are great for starting out. As for being out-teched, always keep in mind that it's not the research bonuses that fuel the tech race - it's the amount of energy your colonies create. Example: at a 50% science setting, a 20-energy basis produces 10 science points (without bonuses). If you want to increase your tech points drastically, a) build lots and lots of solar panels, later on echelon mirrors as well and b) trade with anyone you can. Also, any city improvements and secret projects that increase the enregy output indirectly also increase your tech output - IOW, get them. If you don't play
the UOP, you might want to consider probing them to death. To do so, I regularly take over their bases with the 'total mind control' option. Since they already have a probe malus, their cities are pretty cheap to overtake in the early/early mid-game. Nifty trick: build a sea base and a probe ship. Keep the probe ship outside the base's radius, then give the base to the UoP as a gift. The next turn, mind-control the base with the probe ship. I often get the base back for a 100 cred or so, plus I get one of the UoP's techs. Way cheaper than researching yourself, and if you do it with the 'absolute mind control' option, you don't even risk a war with the victim faction.

4. I'd say it's expand, expand and build first secret project(s), expand and build roads, build infrastructure, expand soem more until you run out of space or have to fight your first 'real' war. In other words, I bild colony pods exclusively until I have 4-6 bases up & running. After that, the initial bases build projects & the first coupla improvements. The new bases always have the production pattern 'defensive unit/former/colony pod', which I keep up until my empire reaches a critical mass of 15-20 bases. After that, I mostly found bases either because there's a really good spot to be settled (the Geothermal Shallows, for example), or because the have strategic value (as the staging point for an invasion, or 'permanent aircraft carrier', for instance). If you want to push the highscore, build LOTS of drop colony pods in the endgame, and settle everywhere you possibly can. Note: the latter is only effective if you possess the 'Space Elevator' and 'Growing Vats' projects, other wise you can't drop where you like or the colonies won't grow fast enough.

Last bit of wandering worm advice: towards the endgame, you often literally get overrun by 10+ stacks of fully grown worms of all types. I tend to bust these with a really lowly unit - a 1-1 hovertank with 'Empath/Trance' abilities. Normally, you can keep even the worst worm attacks at bay for practically no price. Important: if you can manage it, always attack the worms instead of defending against them. In PSI combat, the attacker automatically has a 3:2 advantage, so in most cases even a unit without special abilites will be able to overcome a worm if it manages to attack the spaghetti first.