Assumptions: single-player, alone on a medium sized or larger continent, Transcend. The example game below will be UoP, though I have played the same game more or less with the Gaians, the Peacekeepers, the Hive etc.
I have two types of base spacing, and either one will work well. The first I call the Lager, and I do this when alone on a smaller continent (not so small that it won't hold 9 bases) and I start near the sea. I place my bases two or three apart along the coast. There will usually be some land in the interior of my continent which will be used as a crawler park later.
The second type of spacing I use is a 3 on the diagonal spacing. (That is every base is three away up, down, left and right from the others). This allows more room for each base in comparison to the Lager spacing, and supports a more worker intensive production than the Lager spacing.
For my free tech as UoP I take Centauri Ecology. I build two formers at my HQ, and if I am lucky enough to get a free unit to garrison other bases I build two formers there also. I beeline immediately to Industrial Automation. My formers build roads and forests, with most bases after the first two also receiving a sensor before the colony pod builds upon the square. My first two bases produce their formers (possibly a garrison for the second base as well), and then build colony pods. I go for Planned as soon as I can afford to, then Wealth.
I usually will get Industrial Auto very close to the time my first two bases have completed their colony pods. If I have to wait a bit, I'll use my first two bases to build garrisons for the second two bases as well. I pretty much forest everything that I can at this point in the game, except when a base doesn't have a square which produces 2 nuts, when I'll build a farm if necessary (and possible). Once I reach Industrial Auto some things change. I research Biogenetics and Social Psych (followed by SotHB). My first two bases start cranking crawlers out, and these crawlers are set to crawling minerals from the road/forest squares my formers have prepared. When Biogen is researched, I will add to that mix recycling tanks, and when they are approaching three pop I'll add a Rec Commons as well. I otherwise will keep cranking crawlers until these first two bases are producing 16+ mins a turn. My 3rd and 4th base keep cranking out colony pods until I have 9 bases, then they start working on the crawlers etc. as my first two bases have.
Once my first two bases have reached full development (Tanks, Commons and producing 16 mins) I start working on the HGP, with one base building it and the other sending a crawler every other turn or so to help. The HGP should go up very quickly. As soon as the HGP is finished I switch to Free Market. At this point I usually have about 6 bases, though only two of them are mature, and two others are usually building infrastructure. Fortunately, the HGP lets me run FM without any problems from bases under size three. The next SP is the Weather Paradigm, and it is usually produced also by the first two bases (the second two bases are usually getting near full development while this is going on). Next I build the VW and (sometimes) the ME. By this time I usually have four fully developed bases (16+ mins, tanks, rec commons), so I can usually team up two for each SP and build them simultaneously.
Tech wise, after SotHB I beeline for the restriction lifting techs. By this time most of my starting 9 bases are placed (and when they are I go Democratic as well). I usually have enough slack capacity to build the PTS while I am waiting, but I don't live or die by this SP, and sometimes my developed bases will instead build an extra former, or crawlers for my less developed bases. When I get tree farms tech, I hit the ground running. Usually I have about 5-6 bases developed or nearly so, and a lot of cash (from FM). I start building those tree farms in every bases which is fully developed, and using cash to hurry along those that are less developed (if they can catch up quickly). I can often speed the whole process up by buying the last few turns of production at every base. Once the tree farms are in, I prepare for my first pop boom by building Children's Creches.
My first pop boom differs from the rest in that it is a Golden Age pop boom. I stay in FM, crank my psych from 0% to 20%. The payoff for the bases which go into GA are +2 growth (pop boom with demo and creches) and +1 economy (total +4 with wealth and FM). With the HGP, VW and Rec Commons I have plenty of drone infrastructure to handle a pop boom up to 7 pop. If I have trouble with a drone in the later stages, I merely switch a crawler that was hauling 2 mins to hauling 2 food, and turn one of my citizens into a doctor. The effects of this pop boom are usually very large. Most of my bases were at three or four population, and within 3-4 turns are at 7.
Source:
Apolyton
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