Questions for Domination Victory?

[Tyken]

I've never been a very war-like player, even in the earlier civs and I was wondering if I could get some advice some some more experienced or knowledgable players.

First, What is an optimized starting build to use and why?

Secondly, which techs and buildings should I go to first? Also, how soon should I go to war? I want to get a few hits in before they have time to build their strength or numbers but I know tech and certain buildings are key.

Lastly, what virtues should I go for? I feel like the war line is obvious but I feel like some of the others may offer greater benifits, atleast early game.

Any other tips or advice will help greatly.

 

[Tyken]

Anyone?

 

[m15a]

I'm not a warmongering expert, but in BE, military strength is mostly based around affinity points, so, to start, you should try to increase the points in your highest affinity fairly quickly and go for the unique affinity unit (e.g., the one that requires affinity level 4 for your affinity). You should make sure you know the upgrade order - your soldier upgrades at level 1, ranger at level 2, etc. As long as you're ahead in affinity level, whichever unit just upgraded should be relatively powerful. I'm guessing that attacking once you get your unique unit at level 4 would be good timing. Or maybe even at level 2 with gunners and marines.

I haven't tested all that, but that's probably a good starting point.

 

[Teadrinker]

Read the planet carver and battlesuit slavic slingshot threads on this forum, plus the gunner rush.

Only thing i'd add to those is for virtues go left side might through to the free affinity point, and do all the alien killing, nest and worm killing quests to get to level 3 or 4 in purity.

Rest is matter of taste.

 

[BroOfTheSun]

Some high level tips I can give, is that you need to establish your cities first. Don't start warmongering early, because it can slow down your growth. Spend hammers to build necessary buildings, get workers to improve tiles, etc. Basically, play peaceful as you if you were going for any other victory type. You will need science to get affinity points, and a strong military. Once your cities are in a good spot, then build an army and march it across the map. You know you're doing this right when you have a higher affinity level than other civs, and can win wars easily.

 

[Lucius_]

^This is generally how I go. My goal is to have 5 cities with at least 2 trade routes going from each city. I also like to have OER, Lab, Clinic, Recycler, and Pharmalabs if possible. Once reaching level 4 I pop out a couple UU's and go to town. You should have gunners etc already and waiting by then of course.

At this point, I've found having tacnet hubs nice but not required. If not on a Protean map, phasal transporters are the next priority, imo.

Once my continent is conquered, I then target opponents with highest affinity first, preferably if they went Harmony. Harmony AI's seem to be able to win the fastest so I prioritize them to be taken as early as possible.

I'm still perfecting my timing, but this has worked well on Soyuz. I'm still working on domination on Apollo. My current game is looking good though.