Land Grab Help

[Ghost]

In the begining of the game, durring the land grab phaze, i aways screw up. I dont know what's wrong bug every single AI gets more influence and planets then me. I tried 2 stratagies: (1) buy as many colony ships as you can as fast as you can or (2) buy a ton of factories and build colony ships fast.
Neither one works well. I usualy play on normal and after the phaze i get creamed because i dont have neough land. By the way i play on huge maps most of the time.

Any sugestions would be really apreciated,
Thanks

 

[warpstorm]

Are you exploring? Knowing where the prize sites are important. A sensor ship (as opposed to the scout class) is a great early buy.

BTW, I buy most of my initial colony ships (ones that are redesigned to go faster -- which the AI does also). Are you adjusting your tax rate first turn? You should consider it, if not.

 

[Ghost]

with the money tou start with you can only buy 5-6 colony ships. never considered making it faster though. Ill try that.
I do adjust my taxes but as soon as i colonize a couple planets i start loosing like 50 bc a turn

 

[woodelf]

I'm usually not a warmonger, but I've found that if a system has two good planets I let the AI take one and then I plan on taking it later once I get Plantary Invasion. The early grab was killing me in colony upkeep costs once you get more than 5 planets.

 

[bonscott]

What size maps are you playing on? On Small maps I'm happy with 3-4 colonies to start. Medium map I'll be happy with 5-6. That's plenty because as mentioned colony upkeep will kill you early (think Civ 4 expanding too fast). You don't need any more then that really. I usually plan to take over the nearest AI anyway which will nearly double my planets.

 

[Ghost]

well i play on huge so i need more planets and the AI somehow manages to get A TON and a lot more influence area too.
once again :
huge map
normal difficulty

 

[woodelf]

I've been avoiding Huge maps until I get the right feel for difficulty level, # of opponents, ect. The penalties for overexpansion are crippling until you get some trade going. Like bonscott said....plan on taking either the minor civ closest to you or your nearest neighbor.

 

[bonscott]

I would follow that suggestion as well. Play a few games on smaller maps (small and medium) to get a real feel for the game. Things like how influence works and so forth. Once you can get it down on the smaller maps then ramp up what you've learned to the bigger ones.

I've only had one game so far where my influence was in trouble. Partially because I was stuck in a corner and another is I let an AI build influence starbases in my own sectors. I was able to finally counter it by building 3 fully decked out influence starbases of my own on my borders as well as taking out the offending civ. Now I totally avoid this problem by quickly getting enough beam tech to get a 2 attack ship out early and build a couple small fleets of these little buggers. I'll then destroy any AI starbase on resources in my territory and any influence starbases they may have built. So long as you have at least one fleet back for defense of any counter attack you are safe from anything until they learn planetary invasion (key thing to remember). Now I won't just declare on anyone but there is almost always at least one AI next to me that starts moving in my territory. He's my target. It's also someone you'll probably have to take out eventually as they won't like you much the rest of the game, but then that's a good strat anyway, take out your nearest neighbor.

 

[Elhoim]

Perhaps you should try "Space Grab" instead of "Land Grab"