[Taqwus]

In my fairly long solo games in huge universes, my empire usually goes through several phases. In the Last game, these included --

1 - Colonization of original system. Limited exploration of nearby systems. Research is mostly basic stuff like better ship hulls.

2 - Once mineral income is assured, rapid expansion. Research may go towards better research. I mostly limited colonization to breathables with the major exception of ruins.

3 - Preparations for large-scale defense. Fighters are stockpiled, mines produced and deployed at warp points and critical planets. Intelligence facilities hopefully start going Online. Research now includes a strong mid-game military emphasis.

4 - Preparations for offensive war. The first warships of significance are launched. These may be range-limited if solar cells haven't been researched yet.

5 - Preemptive strikes on neighbors. Hey, they're going to call me Mega-Evil soon and declare war anyway -- I should remember to raise the 500k threshold sometime. Might as well give them something to talk about. Objective is merely to push them back far enough to establish buffer zones, and in the process to gather information about what assets they have. Unusually weak neighbors may be annihilated during this phase. By now, I'm may be colonizing non-breathables simply because remaining known breathables are too far.

6 - Once buffer zone is established, massive efficiency drive begins. Component one is researching resource manipulation and construction of a Resource Converter III on the homeworld. Component two is researching Stellar Manipulation III for the Monoliths. Component three is researching the entire Computer tech area. Component four is researching the entire Planet Utilization area. Component five is researching Applied Psychology for the Urban Pacs. War is still primarily defensive; anything near my borders must be neutralized, but there's no need for conquest yet.

7 - (a LONG phase) Every system with enough space gets an Urban Pac and all three System Computers. Every colony gets an atmosphere converter if it needs one, pref. also one climate facility and one or two value improvement plants. All m/o/r facilities are replaced with monoliths. A clipboard becomes necessary to track which systems have undergone conVersions/additions.

This phase tends to overlap with the next few due to sheer length.

8 - Once production is going well, research turns to high-tech warfare. Engines, shields, PPBs, sensors, cloaking, quantum reactors, all the fun toys that haven't been researched or stolen yet, are now.

9 - Late-game ships are launched. They can be hideously expensive because the Monolith IIIs and RCs give me an obscene production base. They may also be trained to +20% with good probability. Minesweepers become extremely important as remaining AIs have probably put up significant defenses, and these ships ARE hideously expensive...

10 - War turns completely offensive. "If they won't join you, beat them." Massacres on the scale of billions ensues time after time. AIs eventually surrender.


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-- The thing that goes bump in the night