Im relatively new to the 4x genre, and not very good at it.

so in the name of enlightenment, I ask you to share your early game strategy. (for the first 50 or so turns)



I usually play as sophon, do the scout thing with both the scout and colony ship.

Start out with a general policy of maximising the population as fast as possible, by research, carefully choosing where to start new colonies and keeping tax as low as possible.



I focus on the bottom and left of the tech trees for as long as I can, occasionally going to the right side to get research boosts.



Heroes are brought in as soon as possible, and put into the fastest growing colonies at first, then moved wherever needs the boost later.



I like to avoid conflict as long as I can, to that end I try to stay in my home constellation and fill it with as many spohon heads as possible.



I keep this up as long as possible, so when war arrives I can smash through half the war tree in 5 turns and start building the most advanced ships in the galaxy.



I'd like to hear how you guys do it?

I like to expand slower than most and make sure I have a hefty fleet. Check out the tutorial linked in my signature, it goes over an entire game but the beginning most certainly has the most detail.

I'm a noob to ES but here's my strategy. I keep taxation to around 20% and focus on 2 to 3 colonies/outposts at first. I make improvements to maximize food production and research that maximizes population. I hire a hero or 2 to work as system governors and then set the AI for those systems to concentrate on food or industry or dust depending on the system - at least one for dust. I then use my first colony to become my production center and pump out a couple of fleets and hire a third hero to command one of them. I switch research to military improvements and retrofit my ships as I go. By the time conflict comes around, I have a lot of dust and at least 2 to 3 fleets with upgraded technology at the ready.

There are some good discussions of this in the "30 turn challenges" threads; join the group:

http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/group.php?groupid=80

Also in this post under known bugs, I have collected some good strategy threads:

http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?1879-Avoid-duplicate-bug-reports-by-reading-these-...&p=21109&viewfull=1#post21109

I generally focus my research on the expansion tree, and I explore the planets closest to my home planet. I expand as fast as possible, but I also pay close attention to the planets in the system and what anomalies they have; if all the planets have too many negative modifiers, I don't colonize the system and just move on. I also try to keep all my colonies/outposts connected, with no breaks. And I try to put a ship in orbit around every planet, just in case.

I don't focus too much on the exploration at first though; I don't use my Scout to explore too far from my empire, and I don't build up any significant military presence until later on. After the Expansion tree, I also dip into the tech and diplomacy trees to make use of the colonies I founded; I'm least familiar with the military tree and leave it towards the end.

Cheers Davea & arrowlance. Good info.

Interesting to hear how different people play!



Have to re-evaluate now that I know the tax system is borked



But looking forward to the challenges!

This is a pretty helpful thread! Dont let it escape to the 2nd page

Tip for first 2 turns: Ind>Dust to get fast hero, if an admin is in your pool.



You can probably lower taxes to get to 'Happy' approval. You maybe able to get hero on turn 2, if not then turn 3.

What do I do?



I my pop as happy as possible, expand to a good number of decent systems, then build them up. Simple. Once that's done, make one system produce dust and turn tax down to 0% (Sophon's are my main race) and concentrate on science and getting as far ahead as possible. I would go more in depth about my strategy, but it honestly changes from game to game. You've got to flow with what you're given! (or give up if you're an unlucky sod with only 1 planet systems as far as the eye can see )

I find this strategy works best for me (I play Horatio, Sowers and occasionally the bird race :P). You expand very rapidly at the start, clutching up systems with at least 1 high food producing planet and the rest industrial or dust planets. On the bread-basket planets, build food improvements and start boosting your population ASAP. DO NOT colonize other planets until the food planet is nearly maxed with population. Once it is maxed, colonize the highest industrial planets in the system, and build industry improvements on them. Move your population over to them and you will find a massive increase industry from this technique. All the while this is going on, keep your scout constantly exploring. If it dies, make a new one and explore again. Keep track of systems with lots of resources and good industrial planets (lava, gas giants, etc.). By mid-game you will want to have quite a large empire with a few super-heavy industrial planets (think 130+ industry) in order to pump out fleets in a matter of 2-3 turns. Recruit administrator heroes for these industrial "forge" planets and recruit commander heroes for your larger fleets. By now, your empire borders should be hitting enemy borders. I use enemy because everyone is eventually an enemy in ES. Make sure your research tree is focused on industry, expansion and some military upgrades. Get the basic diplomatic and fleet+ (CS3/4) in the diplomacy tree as well - all trees offer bonuses, so just look around. With your insta-fleets, start conquering smaller empires that are isolated or have little contact with other empires. Place hero admins on conquered planets to ease the population under your control. With your constant fleet creation, you should be able to press from a number of fronts.

I go for food (population) and exploration when starting.



I expand with a tactical goal, try to reduce the points (systems) that may be attacked (reducing the number of systems linked with other races). Basicaly creating a RISK type of defense with a few strong systems stacked with fleets (and no defence elsewhere). I may start a early war to get hold of a tactical important system.



Explore the whole universe a early as possible, using open borders agreements and upgraded scout (engine - in right tech tree). This opens the trade (get me Dust). I hunt pirates to train hero's.



Later on I go for peace (trade routes) but stack a lot of fleets in the strong points. Eventually there will be war and I better be ready...

I play cravers mostly and my plan is to generally populate my system so no one can steal planets and then create fleets to kill others quickly while they are weak.. Then I go deep into production and such while I defend.. And repeat until I've killed them all !!



Oh and btw how do I get an avatar on here? I've looked all around but I can't seem to find it :/

I currently played as Amoeba with expansive playstyle.

In earlier turn (10-30) i'm doing just fine, always stays on the top. But gradually my score progress slowed. What should I do? Any tips?