Ok...

[Col. Mustard]

5000 race points, large cluster, and high number AI's (Usually 18-20 I think)

[douglas]

That's with neutral AI's and no AI bonus, right?

[Fyron]

douglas said:
Edit: 40% vs 60% certainly seems less important to me. It also takes longer to get the full benefit of training than CS and ECM (ignoring research time).

But it is 40% versus _0_... ECM and CS being equal, that 40% advantage in both defense and offense is a hugely massive advantage. I can not stress that enough... Even a 20% advantage in both CS and ECM, representing just one tech level of advantage in both areas, is a huge advantage, given the importance of combat bonuses. Find a planet with moons. Build training facilities on the planet and the moons. 9% training per turn. Only takes 3 turns to complete the training...

Also, make sure to always take at the very minimum 120% in both racial aggressiveness and defensiveness traits. The extra 5% to get to 125% is generally not worth the cost, except possibly in 5000 point games... Berzerker culture is most certainly the best culture, as the 10% bonus to combat offense and defense is a very, very important edge to have, or a difficult disadvantage to overcome if you do not have it... Merchant culture, combined with 115% maintenance aptitude, can sometimes compete, if you can get enough ships built to take advantage of your very low maintenance rates to overwhelm the combat-bonus oriented empire designs. Make sure to still take that 120% aggressiveness and defensiveness though... Temporal Technology helps with this empire design, as you can get ships built much more quickly, to help in the overwhelming numbers cause.

[douglas]

Imperator Fyron said:

But it is 40% versus _0_...

I was comparing CS and ECM vs. training, not training vs. no training.

[rdouglass]

My only comments would be to re-iterate what Slynky said:

A lot of 4X games are the same (kind of) in that research is the key to the win. That and a strong economy. If you have that, a fleet to be reckoned with will come.

If your destroyers are up against dreadnaughts, you're seriously behind the expansion/research curve. Higher tech weapons / components / ships rule!!!!

And the part about training, I too consider training to be vital to any sucessful campaign.

[Fyron]

douglas said:
I was comparing CS and ECM vs. training, not training vs. no training.

Well of course you develop both of them as soon as you can... Training is a lot cheaper to research than CS III and ECM III... Training + CS I and ECM I is also cheaper to research than CS III and ECM III, and gives the same net bonuses. It also gives you a head start on the training bonuses...

[Col. Mustard]

Yes, neutral races and no AI bonus. Actually, I started a new game with some of you people strategies. Let me se how it works before you waste any more time on me lol

[douglas]

Here it is (.emp file attached in zip):
(general details, I just picked the first in each list)
Environment: rock/methane (breathers for this atmosphere are rare - you'll have an easier time finding breathers of other atmospheres to capture)
Culture: Berzerkers, of course
Physical Strength: 50%
Intelligence: 120%
Cunning: 80%
Environmental Resistance: 51%
Reproduction: 109%
Happiness: 100%
Aggressiveness: 80%
Defensiveness: 120%
Political Savvy: 50%
Mining Aptitude: 120%
Farming Aptitude: 80%
Refining Aptitude: 80%
Construction Aptitude: 121% (had some points left over for that Last 1%)
Repair Aptitude: 82% (with berzerkers penalty is exactly 80%)
Maintenance Aptitude: 120%
Advanced Traits: Advanced Storage Techniques, Hardy Industrialists, Deeply Religious, Crystallurgy

This race absolutely depends on the Talisman to have effective ships using direct fire weapons. I would advise you to use missiles until you get the Talisman. Once you do, use only direct fire weapons, and always set your combat ships' strategy to maximum range.

This race has a sufficient construction rate bonus to emergency build colonizers in one turn on the homeworld. Do so for the first 11 turns unless you really need something else pronto. Send at least the first few out exploring (don't forget to load population first). In general, if you don't know of a good planet to colonize, send the colonizer exploring unless you're certain it won't find anything unclaimed.

I strongly suggest building a space yard on every planet you colonize, usually as the Last facility in the queue. Colonize at least one or two tiny or nonbreathables early on to take over for when your homeworld starts slow build.

OT: why does the forum allow attaching .exe's but not .emp's?

[brianeyci]

It normally takes two turns to build a colonizer right? So what we need is 1.5x = 2, which means x = 2/1.5 = 4/3, which is one third. Therefore, you need around 133%, lets make it 135% for easy to remember.

Get hardy industrialists. +25% build rate. use racial points to pump up build rate to 110%. You have 135% build rate, the minimum to build a colonizer in one turn with emergency build.

Brian

Brian

[douglas]

Actually, 12% construction bonus is enough to do it with a good starting planet. 32% is needed for average. The race I posted has well over that at 44%.