Here's what I said awhile back to another newbie,
Quote:
brianeyci said:
I'm "relatively new"... but I think I'm rather good, so I
don't know if you want me 
All the stuff I know can be summarized in the following sentences. Avoid missiles like the plague, get point defense and military science II early, get mines II early, light carriers are awesome warships early on, get DUC V early, use PPB's mid-game, don't fall behind in research, expand like mad early on, make sure your race can build a colonizer on emergency build on your homeworld in one turn, and Last but most important make sure you max-min your race like Asmala does lol (see links below). Okay, so the above was a run-on sentence, so sue me lol.
I'll give you the links that I've read about so far...
http://www.spaceempires.net/home/mod...showpage&pid=1
http://www.spaceempires.net/home/mod...op=getit&lid=1
http://newbiefaq.spaceempires.net/
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbup...ategyGuide.zip
And of course the mother
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...b=5&o=&fpart=1
Brian
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If you really want to play PBW, forget the AI. The AI plays nothing like realy PBW players. The only reason why you would want to play the AI is to familiarize yourself with the tech tree IMO. I learned the basic gist of the tech tree in a few demo games, so I never even started playing the AI.
Make sure you start on the right foot. Learn what is good and what is not in Empire creation. This is covered in the first link. 120-125% attack and defense and bezerker racial trait is good, 150% ground combat is not. There is a certain type of empire called "The Clone". The Clone is basically what everybody uses to play competitive PBW. There are slight variations of The Clone involving certain racial traits and depending on the setup of the game The Clone might be more or less powerful, but the basic concept is the same -- spend points where you will use them and take points away from where you will not aka max/min. If you're not into competitive PBW, then fine, but might as well know what the best will bring and settle for losing except in roleplaying games.
Next most important thing is the early game. Figure out how to build a colony ship in one turn on a homeworld with emergency build on (should be easy if you max/min your empire). After that, figure out an expansion paradigm. After ten turns, your homeworld will be out of emergency build and will be useless for ten more turns. The idea is to get another planet, and to begin ferrying population to that planet at around turn 5 or even turn 1. Then you can set the second planet on emergency build as well, and with the new population have enough to build a colony ship in one turn on the new planet. That means by turn 20 you will have 16-18 colonizers. Of course this is tricky to work out, and you have to manage your resources properly or they may run out, and if you get in an early war you might be vulnerable, but if it works you get a good advantage that should Last you the rest of the game.
Hope the above helps,
Brian