Keep in mind that there is no one formula for victory. With that said, here is some (hopefully) useful advice:
Rampant colonization in the early stages of the game. If you see a planet that you can colonize, colonize it. Don't worry if it is a tiny moon with values like 7, 12, and 14. 5 of them equal 1 Huge domed planet (assuming no Advanced Storage). Build Research or Storage facilities on them.
Don't waste time building warships early in the game unless you desperately need them (eg: you start next to the Rage or something).
Try to get your resource usage as high as possible without having to have constructions stop due to lack of resources. In fact, it is often best to spend so many minerals that you deplete your initial large store of them. Don't rely on saving for a rainy day: make the enemy have a rainy day instead.
Weapon Platforms will not stop an organized assault by a human opponent. Do not rely on them for defense. They can be a thorn in the enemy's side, but they will not stop fleets of 100 ships. They are a good early game deterent though, because they can stop small fleets or lone ships.
Be ruthless (esp. vs. AIs, who know no other way). If you see a weak neighbor you can take out, do so. In most situations, it is best to conquer them rapidly than it is to glass their worlds. Use combined troops. For the first troops, use shield troops: 4 Shield Generators and 1 Ground Cannon (or Electric Discharge). Load these onto the transport first, and they will drop first. For the rest of the troops, give them 1 Shield and 5 Weapons (I think I remembered those numbers right, but you get the idea). Use about 30-40 shield troops loaded first and the rest weapons troops. You will virtually guarantee the conquest of any sized planet and no losses on your side with these, especially if you have Small Shield Generator Vs.
Always make sure to send a few Space Yard Ships and a lot of Repair Ships with every major fleet. If you get a ton of damage to the fleet, park somewhere and emergency build repair bases (with 3 Repair Bays). Then, turn off the EB. You won't notice the slow build, because moving SYs can't build anything anyways.
Make use of WP manipulation. Seal off vital choke points in enemy territory. Set up a network in your empire so that your ships can move to any system in 1 turn from a staging ground (which should be a planet with 2 moons, all of which have a Ship Training Base, and then a Fleet Training Base if you can fit it).
Max out Propulsion as soon as you can afford to do so. Speed is vital in combat, as well as to respond quickly to threats on the strategic map (out of combat).
Don't build too many Dreadnoughts. Sure they are big, but they move 1 slower than Battleships in combat with max engine techs- which (to me) makes them worth very little- and they use the same mount size. Baseships are too expensive and way too slow. Sure, they get Massive Mounts, but they don't get a range bonus. So, faster ships can fairly easily out range them by using Max Range strategy. And since Baseships get a defense penalty, the faster ships will have a better chance at hitting the Baseships than they will of being hit.
ECM, Combat Sensors, Stealth/Scattering Armor, Training, and Racial Combat bonuses will often decide a battle. Try to never fall behind the enemy in any of these areas. If you do, try to compensate with another area. I have lost battles where I had vastly superior firepower and better racial bonuses than the enemy, but his ships and Fleet were trained and mine were not.
Do not underestimate the Monolith. Yes, they take up to 5 turns to build, but they make a lot more total resources than 1 normal resource miner does. With a Resource Converter, you can easily set up a functional empire that has around -100K minerals deficit, but has 200K Organics and Radioactives surpluses, and converts them to Minerals every turn. Do not start building Monoliths if you are in a difficult war; that will bankrupt you. Start building them in a long stretch of peace. Once you get the first 20 or so built, you won't have to worry too much about the high Organics and Radioactives costs of building the Monoliths. But, you will need to devote most of your income to buidling an effective Monolothic economy for a while, so being in a war where you need to build a lot more combat vessels is not a good time to begin building them on a wide scale. (Wow, that was redundant
)
Fast build rates are very important. Hardy Industrialists plus 120% Construction Rate are very useful to this end. Even if you choose not to take them, keep in mind that planetary SYs build a lot faster than Base Space Yards. BSYs cannot benefit from population or happiness bonuses. And if you expand quickly enough, you should be able to build enough planetary SYs that you won't be able to afford to use very many BSYs anyways. Build a SY on every planet that has at least 4 facility slots, and on planets with 3 slots once your empire gets so large that 1 extra facility is only a nominal increase in overall resources/research/intel. Research Space Yards II and then III ASAP. Do not get them before other vital techs (eg: Mines, Point-Defense, etc.), but make them a high priority. Temporal can be very useful with this philosophy: Temporal SYs + HI + 120 Const. = very, very high build rates at planets.
[ October 12, 2002, 09:23: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]
Formulae of Victory
Linear Mode
