My Apollo tips (1.0.2.666)

[maltz]

Hello,
I am sharing here a rather overpowered way to beat Apollo difficulty (version 1.0.2.666). By the end of this Turn 230 Emancipation victory (Atlantean all standard, using Elodie), I was earning 863 breakers per turn, while the 2nd, 3rd, 4th place AI was earning 235, 303, and 254.

In short:

• Aggressive early game, rob AI's workers.
• Trade with large AI cities (mostly the capital) ASAP.
• Mid game, rush for Cognition and Terraforming tech, spam Academies on good tiles (grassland, riverside plain) & Terrascape on bad tiles (all else).
• To sustain the upkeep: Spam solar satellite, rent strategic resources to friendlies, supremacy lv 3 (no road upkeep), Master of Control wonder (no worker upkeep)
• 10 Prosperity virtues in a row followed by 10 Knowledge virtues in a row. Ignore all else.
• Solve quests that gives affinity bonus

I am going to supply some screenshots below.

 

[maltz]

The reason for picking 10 green virtues in a row is because when we focus early-middle game on expansion, health is a really serious concern. Going 10 straight prosperity virtues provides a total of 3 +health mechanics (#7, #9, and for collecting 10, +1 health per city), which is just about enough to offset the health problems, while the other three virtue lines are not as powerful at this point of the game (they work on bigger, more developed cities). The timing is also about right to allow the construction of the 50% better Terrascapes.

Then I choose to go straight for 10 knowledge virtues to boost science.

 

[maltz]

On Apollo one must build a good army ASAP. I tend to have 4 soldiers promoted to marine through expedition or quest (2 built, 1 as quest reward, 1 from purchase) and 3 rangers. With some careful maneuver that's enough to butcher AI's free combat rovers and take down cities with 20+ defense. Some AI cities start with 30+ defense and that's too tough for marines.

Every body hates AI who spawn cities right next to us. But that also means we can steal their workers very quickly. In this game I was able to snatch 2 workers from Hutama right off the bat, and another 2 in the next war declaration.

 

[maltz]

There are many +affinity quests. Unfortunately, they are given randomly so there is no good strategy to optimize this - in this case I was able to send a worker at the crashed satellite site for Cultural Burden to prevent the AI's explorers from spoiling the quest.

 

[maltz]

Since Apollo AIs grow fast, trading with their large cities gives a large advantage. So it is a good idea to send explorers to find a workable trade route. I always first build a trade depot in new-found cities and ship a convoy/vessel from another city when it is done.

 

[maltz]

To get the most out of our strategic resources, first convert them to favors (2 resources = 1 favor), then convert favor to cash energy (1 favor = 100 energy). So essentially every unit of strategic resource can sell for 50 energy over 30 turns. It is a strange "feature" that AI is willing to pay more up front than stretch it over 30 turns. In order to sell cash you have to sign a Cooperative Agreement first, which is quite easy to come by early-mid game. You can also sell Open Border for 50 energy per 30 turns.

Note: The value of favor does not appear to be not scaled by game speeds. If you play on Marathon, renting two units strategic resources (90 turns) still exchanges 1 favor and then 100 energy. But if you rent them by cash, each unit (90 turns) gives 135 cash energy -- 2 units for 270 energy. So on slower game speeds definitely sell for cash, while on faster game speeds converting to favor first is the way to go.

 

[maltz]

I tend to go for Cognition tech after Alien Science (xenomass well), Computing (spy agency), Robotics (firaxite mine). By the time the workers would have finished resource improvements and roads, and can concentrate on building Academies. And the major cities can also spam workers. 2 workers per city is about the right pace. Then after Cognition comes Terraforming for Terrascape. The 10th prosperity virtues should be available around this time as well.
After Terraforming I go straight for Organics and Photosystems for solar power satellites.

 

[maltz]

The best site for Academies is riverside grassland, or any grassland. Normally one would build farms here but CivBE has so many kinds of food supplies (buildings, internal trade route), I think farm is quite useless unless you play as Purity. But then you forgo the best sites for Academies. Tech cities best come with Xenomass and Firaxite resources, as they both allow +10% science buildings.

 

[maltz]

The best wonder for spamming Academies and Terrascapes and is Master Control - free worker upkeep. The AIs are usually not keen for it, maybe because they don't need workers to harness resources anyway! It is a very cheap wonder to build.

 

[maltz]

So with Academies and Terrascape, our cities out-tech Apollo AIs by miles. From then on it is a very easy way to victory.
Welcome comments.

 

[Ryika]

It's certainly a very different (though not quite fast enough) approach than most of the "conventional" strategies. I actually like the idea and it reminds me that stealing workers is actually an option when one has early military.

I'm missing quite a few important of this strategy though:
- How many cities do you aim for?
- What loadout do you use?
- Why do you Terrascapes?
etc.

 

[maltz]

1. How many cities do you aim for?
2. What loadout do you use?
3. Why do you Terrascapes?

1. In this game I spawned 6 more cities by turn 100 or so. In total I have 11 (4 puppets).
2. Artist, Tectonic Scanner, Machinery. Default settings on maps.
3. To grow population, to increase production, and to unlock more virtues.

 

[ProphetMaster]

1. In this game I spawned 6 more cities by turn 100 or so. In total I have 11 (4 puppets).
2. Artist, Tectonic Scanner, Machinery. Default settings on maps.
3. To grow population, to increase production, and to unlock more virtues.

Interesting. I generally don't build many terrascapes because they are such an energy drain. How do you manage energy? Generators? Buildings?

 

[maltz]

Interesting. I generally don't build many terrascapes because they are such an energy drain. How do you manage energy? Generators? Buildings?

The first-tier building (+5 per turn) is awesome. Others I don't find necessary. You get enough incomes from spamming solar power satellites, renting strategic resources (each unit is equivalent to 1.67 energy per turn), and supremacy lv 3 (no road upkeep), Master Control wonder (no worker upkeep).

 

[Ryika]

External Trade Routes also produce additional Energy compared to most Strategies that go full Internal.

 

[AgentDib]

This is pretty similar to what I did in my last game but with more terrascapes. Seems like it would be worth taking the first two knowledge virtues 5th and 6th, as you are only delaying the rest of prosperity one turn due to the free virtue and the terrascape improvement not at all as franco-iberia.

 

[maltz]

External Trade Routes also produce additional Energy compared to most Strategies that go full Internal.

External trade routes are awesome early-on for energy and science, linking our new, tiny cities with AI's populous capitals. They are also great friend-makers to allow us to sell strategic resources. However, from mid-game on (when academies, terrascapes and solar satellites start to shine), the benefits of external trade routes diminish and for our larger cities, trades might benefit the AI's cities more than ours. Toward end-game I switch most external trade-routes to internal (unless my city is still crap, such as when puppet cities' AI have their mind stuck on energy).

 

[Ryika]

External trade routes are awesome early-on for energy and science, linking our new, tiny cities with AI's populous capitals. They are also great friend-makers to allow us to sell strategic resources. However, from mid-game on (when academies, terrascapes and solar satellites start to shine), the benefits of external trade routes diminish and for our larger cities, trades might benefit the AI's cities more than ours. Toward end-game I switch most external trade-routes to internal (unless my city is still crap, such as when puppet cities' AI have their mind stuck on energy).

Most strategies don't use external Trade Routes at all because the growth offset you create by not using internal Trade Routes from the very beginning is not really worth the flat energy/science you gain (especially since getting to 12 pop is very strong because of the second trade route slot).

 

[maltz]

This is pretty similar to what I did in my last game but with more terrascapes. Seems like it would be worth taking the first two knowledge virtues 5th and 6th, as you are only delaying the rest of prosperity one turn due to the free virtue and the terrascape improvement not at all as franco-iberia.

Early game I usually expand as quickly as (un)health allows. While Apollo AI has 3-4 cities I already have 7. Thanks to 10 straight prosperity virtues, my health is usually controlled at -10 or better. The first knowledge virtue only provides benefits when healthy, but that probably never happens until the 3 basic health buildings (clinic, pharmalab, cryosurgery) are in place for the new cities. The second (I suppose you mean every pop = 0.25 culture) works better with a larger empire. By spawning a good number of small cities and trading with AI's large cities, we get a very significant science boost, too, and every city comes with +3 culture from Artists. Even before getting academies my science level was usually around the top of Apollo AIs.

BTW I think Elodie's perk is not that great - the free virtue is given only after 10 hard-earned virtues, meaning that the 2nd free virtue is only given toward the very end game (after we manually unlocked 20 virtues), hardly making any difference.

 

[Ryika]

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