What Galactic Civilizations taught me about this game

[Jarek Noschese]

The best "defense" is a good offense. This is why I finally decided to be brave and play a Tiny Map as the Hive. I practiced on a 16 wide by 32 high (for reference, a Tiny Map is 24 wide by 48 high) map for my new strategy. The strategy itself is obvious: ICS (Infinite Colony Sprawl) if possible. Basically, you just plant as many cities as you can until your landmass no longer has room. Once you have Level 2 Weapons and Armor, you will have to start conquering everyone on your landmass. You should be able to research and manufacture the new units fairly quickly, because the Hive has ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY Impunity. This means you can have a Planned Economy and be a Police State with no disadvantages, making this combination the best one with our strategy. Falling behind in tech early on is inevitable however, because of your -2 ECONOMY. However, you get a free Perimeter Defense at every base you found, and +1 to GROWTH and INDUSTRY. You get the +2 INDUSTRY and another +1 GROWTH from the Planned Economy. If you can get the Cloning Vats, you can use the Power Values without the -2 INDUSTRY. With the +2 SUPPORT from both that and the Police State, base size >4 can support until the city size for free, and base sizes 1-4 can support 4 units freely. With the +2 MORALE, all your defenders will have +2 Morale and your attackers +1 Morale. With that many units with such high Morale, your military is basically invincible. Best of all, the +2 POLICE from the Police State means you can have 3 units as "cops" in all of your bases, saving you what little money you make for other purposes. With the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm, your bases and units are completely immune to Probe Teams. This lets you use Knowledge Values without the need to worry about the -2 PROBE. The +1 ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY and +2 RESEARCH let you discover new technologies at a decent rate. This lets you compete on higher difficulty levels. With +2 GROWTH and +3 INDUSTRY, your cities can grow and manufacture at good rates. With another +2 GROWTH from those Children's Creches, your cities can grow their populations at absurd rates.

 

[Jarek Noschese]

The best "defense" is a good offense. This is why I finally decided to be brave and play a Tiny Map as the Hive. I practiced on a 16 wide by 32 high (for reference, a Tiny Map is 24 wide by 48 high) map for my new strategy. The strategy itself is obvious: ICS (Infinite Colony Sprawl) if possible. Basically, you just plant as many cities as you can until your landmass no longer has room. Once you have Level 2 Weapons and Armor, you will have to start conquering everyone on your landmass. You should be able to research and manufacture the new units fairly quickly, because the Hive has ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY Impunity. This means you can have a Planned Economy and be a Police State with no disadvantages, making this combination the best one with our strategy. Falling behind in tech early on is inevitable however, because of your -2 ECONOMY. However, you get a free Perimeter Defense at every base you found, and +1 to GROWTH and INDUSTRY. You get the +2 INDUSTRY and another +1 GROWTH from the Planned Economy. If you can get the Cloning Vats, you can use the Power Values without the -2 INDUSTRY. With the +2 SUPPORT from both that and the Police State, base size >4 can support until the city size for free, and base sizes 1-4 can support 4 units freely. With the +2 MORALE, all your defenders will have +2 Morale and your attackers +1 Morale. With that many units with such high Morale, your military is basically invincible. Best of all, the +2 POLICE from the Police State means you can have 3 units as "cops" in all of your bases, saving you what little money you make for other purposes. With the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm, your bases and units are completely immune to Probe Teams. This lets you use Knowledge Values without the need to worry about the -2 PROBE. The +1 ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY and +2 RESEARCH let you discover new technologies at a decent rate. This lets you compete on higher difficulty levels. With +2 GROWTH and +3 INDUSTRY, your cities can grow and manufacture at good rates. With another +2 GROWTH from those Children's Creches, your cities can grow their populations at absurd rates.

With the Cloning Vats, the -3 SUPPORT from the Thought Control Far Future gets ignored too. With another +2 POLICE, your "cops" enforce your will with double effectiveness. This makes Drone Riots a thing of the past on even the hardest difficulty levels. With the extra +2 MORALE (+4 MORALE total), all of your units get +3 Morale no matter what. Combined with the right Facilities and Projects, it becomes almost impossible to lose in combat. With the +2 PROBE, you can actually start using Probe Teams against the enemy yourself. With the Network Backbone, you get to keep your POLICE power with the Cybernetic Far Future. This lets you freely have good RESEARCH and great ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY. Any city with the all-important Creche will, at this point, have a PARADIGM ECONOMY, making Economic Inefficiency almost irrelevant. With this strategy, I got to the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm in ~M.Y. 2268, but it still didn't matter, because by then, my game was won. Needless to say, it doesn't matter how you slice it, because the game will be over real quick. My score was 2450 ACS points and 107% ACR points (Mind-worms in the Mist) on Citizen Difficulty. The only nation who posed any threat to my will in this quest was Morgan.

 

[Jarek Noschese]

With the Cloning Vats, the -3 SUPPORT from the Thought Control Far Future gets ignored too. With another +2 POLICE, your "cops" enforce your will with double effectiveness. This makes Drone Riots a thing of the past on even the hardest difficulty levels. With the extra +2 MORALE (+4 MORALE total), all of your units get +3 Morale no matter what. Combined with the right Facilities and Projects, it becomes almost impossible to lose in combat. With the +2 PROBE, you can actually start using Probe Teams against the enemy yourself. With the Network Backbone, you get to keep your POLICE power with the Cybernetic Far Future. This lets you freely have good RESEARCH and great ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY. Any city with the all-important Creche will, at this point, have a PARADIGM ECONOMY, making Economic Inefficiency almost irrelevant. With this strategy, I got to the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm in ~M.Y. 2268, but it still didn't matter, because by then, my game was won. Needless to say, it doesn't matter how you slice it, because the game will be over real quick. My score was 2450 ACS points and 107% ACR points (Mind-worms in the Mist) on Citizen Difficulty. The only nation who posed any threat to my will in this quest was Morgan.

Once I got airplanes however, I was able to provide REAL land-based support for my ground troops, signalling Morgan's doom. With the Longevity Vaccine, two more Drones per base will become Workers, making Drones almost nonexistent. Caution is advised on higher difficulty levels for OBVIOUS reasons, but even so, this strategy is SURPRISINGLY powerful. If anyone manages to beat this on >Citizen Level and >Tiny Map Size, let me know with applicable proof. The rules from my previous posts still apply. I used War Spoils to steal techs at bases' capture until I could compete in tech with other nations. If you fear the worst, you can disable all victories except the Military one. However, I would prefer it you find a way to win without doing this. I did this to play it safe, but again, I'm sure there's a way to safely make do without. Here's the save file from just before my win...

 

[Jarek Noschese]

Once I got airplanes however, I was able to provide REAL land-based support for my ground troops, signalling Morgan's doom. With the Longevity Vaccine, two more Drones per base will become Workers, making Drones almost nonexistent. Caution is advised on higher difficulty levels for OBVIOUS reasons, but even so, this strategy is SURPRISINGLY powerful. If anyone manages to beat this on >Citizen Level and >Tiny Map Size, let me know with applicable proof. The rules from my previous posts still apply. I used War Spoils to steal techs at bases' capture until I could compete in tech with other nations. If you fear the worst, you can disable all victories except the Military one. However, I would prefer it you find a way to win without doing this. I did this to play it safe, but again, I'm sure there's a way to safely make do without. Here's the save file from just before my win...

And here's the file from when my score was finalized...

 

[Jarek Noschese]

On November 7, 2021, at 11:30 pm Eastern Time, I won with this strategy again, this time on the Specialist Level. The Holo-Book was All I Ever
Wanted To Know I Learned In The Cloning Vats (95%). My ACS mark was 1916, and the M.Y. of completion was 2267. This time, Miriam was
the last one to fall, and I only needed ships, not planes, to achieve it. Here's my semi-finished file...

 

[Jarek Noschese]

And here's the fully finished file, proving I didn't cheat...

 

[Jarek Noschese]

Update:: now live in an apartment (technically), no change in...

Back to the drawing board (AGAIN)