24 hours later, a few strategy questions

[yanner39]

Hey all, first off I love the game. Very addictive. For my first game, I am Elodie, Gemini level, standard size map, Terran.

Here are my questions.

Micromanaging pop. It doesn't seem like you can production focus, lock down food tiles. So what are some of you doing? Nothing, or still locking food tiles and growing on the best tile?

How are you using specialists? In Civ 5, you could generate great people. In BE, I don't think there are great people so why would I run specialist?

How early do you decide on a VC? In my current game, I decided Purity VC right off the bat.

 

[Shafi-is-back]

Is gemini two levels down from the top? i think im playing the same. not really bothering to micro pop. doesnt seem to be needed at this level.

Dont bother with specialists at all. They need to be used only if you dont have any decent tiles to work, even the governor seems to understand that.

I think you are asking about Affinity right? well so far for me i would say very early in the game, during the eraly scouting phase, i feel the virtue tree also has some synergy with certain affinities. (this is what i think)

i feel that prosperity goes well with purity as its all about food / farms / growth etc. probably good faction choices are KP and the African union.

Supremacy i feel is more with Knowledge + Industry. Its more of a production / science focussed affinity. So i went this path with Elodie (Franco-iberia)

 

[Traejun]

Managing pop/health is challenging before biowells, especially if you're going wide. Prosperity tree allows for 4 cities in ~50 turns, 5 if you get lucky with energy cans and can snap-buy a colonist (managed to pull this off once in an experimental game). When I see my health creeping down, I generally switch city focus to production or manually work tiles to avoid growth. Essentially, get as many early cities as you think you want, then do this until biowells. After that, expand to your heart's content.

Specialists give you boosts in whatever the specialty is - i.e. science, culture, etc. THAT is their sole benefit to my knowledge. I'm sure the first expansion will put great persons back into the game. Until then, use your specialists sparingly. Thus far, I've only used them in short spurts to get something I need - i.e. wonder race, tech rush, life-saving virtue.

My first game, Soyuz/Standard/Protean/ARC - I decided Harmony/Transcendence and played accordingly. Won at ~T275. Since that game, I've been pretty much experimenting - games that I don't intend to finish or play "right." I'm trying to see what works because as my first campaign taught me, this game is functionally very different. The sheer number of small decisions to be made make this complex. My knowledge of Civ helps, but it wasn't enough. That first campaign should have taken ~200 turns at most.

I recommend you do some experimenting as well. I'm currently trying to figure out an open that works well for Supremacy/unknown.

 

[ggmoyang]

As for VC:
If you want to go Domination, go for it.
If you luckily found progenitor signals form expeditions, go contact.
Otherwise of affinity specific one.

But if you are purity, you may want to go contact since promised land is too annoying.

 

[Sprenk]

But if you are purity, you may want to go contact since promised land is too annoying.

Do you mean the issues with finding places to plunk those pesky earth settlers?

 

[ggmoyang]

I have to manually summon an Earthling settler every turn.
And I have to move these 1 move units.

 

[Lanth]

I have to manually summon an Earthling settler every turn.
And I have to move these 1 move units.

Once you're prepared for it, these aren't big problems. Choose your 4 city sites first, build the gate on maglev and have maglevs out to the city sites.

 

[Memoryjar]

You can lock tiles worked. I use specialist if it doesn't hurt my growth.
Autoplant for production if tile worked is worst than +2 hammers.
I fill all specialist that produce science.
Food if a tile doesn't produce twor food. One pop is one science before multiplicators.

 

[ggmoyang]

Once you're prepared for it, these aren't big problems. Choose your 4 city sites first, build the gate on maglev and have maglevs out to the city sites.

I didn't said it's hard. Just whole micromanagement thing is annoying. I forget o summon them somethimes. Also, unlike normal cities Earthling settlement does not count as a road so the settlers end turn when entering the settlement, so have to wait till next turn.

 

[Acken]

Hey all, first off I love the game. Very addictive. For my first game, I am Elodie, Gemini level, standard size map, Terran.

Here are my questions.

Micromanaging pop. It doesn't seem like you can production focus, lock down food tiles. So what are some of you doing? Nothing, or still locking food tiles and growing on the best tile?

How are you using specialists? In Civ 5, you could generate great people. In BE, I don't think there are great people so why would I run specialist?

How early do you decide on a VC? In my current game, I decided Purity VC right off the bat.

-I micromanage pop to suit my need like I did in Civ5. Best balance of food and hammers.
-I don't really use specialists, scientists are okayish (3science) especially if you went down prosperity
-I am used to chose a VC before I even start the game so that I can focus on the best way to achieve it from the start rather than fooling around and chosing mid-game. It helps focus to have a goal.

 

[kingsbury]

scientists are okayish (3science)

Academies can be better than scientists at this point because with the virtue that gives +2 science to them that is a total of 5 science per tile. With 3 scientist specialists that is 9 science vs 15 from academies. The academies also give whatever is beneath them like food or hammers, and also give +1 culture with the appropriate tech. The only drawback is energy because they cost 2 per tile, which would mean that you are getting a swing of 6 or 12 energy for those 3 citizens if you get the +2 energy/specialist virtue.

As it stands right now I think specialists are totally useless unless you literally can't find any tiles for a city to work.

 

[Acken]

Yes academies are better if you have them of course.

 

[Iskiab]

Deciding affinity - contrary to what others seem to do, I wait to decide on my affinity until I've seen the surrounding resources. If you have a good source of floatstone then go purity, lots of firaxis (or whatever the bananas sticking out of the ground is called) then go domination, and if there's a lot of the green slop on the ground I go harmony. These are the main resources for each affinity and without them you'll have less production and won't be able to create your best units.

Specialists - specialists increase yield so are definitely worth it. I don't micromanage them though, I let the computer manage them for me. Later on a lot of buildings give specialist slots rather then science/production/etc... and have a greater effect.

Food tiles - I think all tiles are irrelevant unless you're getting a resource, they're only important for the first maybe 50 turns after landing. Everything can be changed or terraformed to what you want the tile to do for you. What I generally do is produce farms next to rivers (because of habit), generators further away, etc... Watch out for some of the advanced types too, I don't auto my workers because they'll tend to spam terraforms around your capital making you go broke.

Food in general.... here's how I prioritize resources:
Health > Culture > Science > Production > Food > Energy

So I don't really worry about food at all.