Galactic Civilizations II

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I'm playing the demo, and hoping to get the full game for Christmas. :smallbiggrin:

So, anyone have interesting stories regarding the game? Great victories, outstanding defeats, advice for the newbie, etc?

[Ominous]

All I have to say is that it is the greatest space strategy game ever made. I've played through an entire match every two weeks since I bought the original three years ago.

[SolkaTruesilver]

The quality/price ratio is extremely favorable. What you get for what you pay is very nice.

Not to say the game is below-average. If you like 4X games, it's one of the "must"s, along Civ4 and SMAC. But I still crave for a true AI (which neither Civ4 nor SMAC produced)

The quality/price ratio is extremely higher than Civ4's, that for sure :)

Here is my favorite story.. (my other nick is Cikomyr)

http://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=346&aid=127897

God I loved that game.. I played as the Yor, and conquered parts of the Iconians pretty quickly, but let them live. I played as total xenophobic closed evil race, with having only (huge) trade with the puny terrans, who standed in the middle of the Galaxy. So they got pretty rich, and became my lapdogs.

The only 2 other evil races in the galaxy (among the Iconians, the Terrans, the Drengins, Torians, Altarians, Krox, Thalans, Arcaean and me) were the Krox and the Drengin. I tried to help the Krox in a war agains the Thalan, but the #1 superpower of the galaxy, the Altarians, stepped in and simply wiped the Krox clean. I managed to buy peace..

Meanwhile, the Drengin had a random event that turned them GOOD (DAMN), leaving me as the sole evil specie of the whole galaxy. Luckily, I had my back against the wall (totally, I occupied the center of the south-side of the galaxy).

The Arcean declared war on me, being my neighboors and having 3 time as much military as me. But it's just an AI, and I eaten/annihilated half of their empire, while occupying the whole southern border of the galaxy (except for the remaining Iconians worlds, about 10 of them).

My ships were quite powerful, and I was beggining to be the #3 military powerhouse of the galaxy (#1 economicly, technologicaly, and manufacturing). But most of all, my ships were QUICK, and my assault transports (3 billions people/ship) could move 55 parsec/week, which made my invasion fleet simply too quick for the AI to even computer them, but since this was a Gigantic galaxy, I lacked range. sO, within about 10 weeks, I conquered 5 minor race homeworld, and fortified them. That put me into striking range of every planet of every major species, save half of the Altarian empire.

The whole galaxy began to hate me 'cause of the previous conquests (minor species), but it was fun. I declared war on an old ennemy, the weakest specie of the galaxy: the iconians. The story is depicted in the link.

To make a short story even shorter, in 1 week, I declared war, annihilated every one of their ship with my mighty fleet (not 1 ship lost, I don't even think 1 scratch (shields for the win!)), and genocided all their population with all my transports within a week.

THAT WAS FUN. What was funnier is when the whole galaxy (save my lapdogs, the Terrans) declared war upon me. Me Vs 5 guys, and not the least powerful.

What a game. But I grew tired when I had conquered the other half of the Arcean, almost all of the Torians, a third of the Drengins, half of the Thalan. I outpopulated all the other species combined.. so, I had won anyway.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Supplemental addition (when searching trough my personal archives)

http://forums.galciv2.com/?forumid=346&aid=125449

Oh my god.. this brings so GOOD memories.. my Torian Domination game was so FUN..

It IS well told, so feel free to steal a sight in the above-linked forum.

[Tallis]

Speed wins. Faster ships get to where the action is and attack more times in a turn. Build up your diplomacy and you can trade for more tecg than you can research.

[Om]

I got the game on high recommendations from friends but was disappointed. There's a fine game there but not enough to hold my interest. In particular the AI peace algorithms were poor and ultimately every game boils down to who can occupy enough decent planets in the first great settler push. That the game ran slowly on my laptop didn't help either.

If you like 4X then you'll like GalCivII but to my mind its nothing special.

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Say, is it a good idea to increase production output to 100% early on, and then shift all of the budget towards Research, to gain a quick technological advantage, or to do the same thing with social and military production? :smallconfused:

[SolkaTruesilver]

I prefer to keep a well balanced economy early on, maybe 40:30:40 (social/military/research), but try to keep taxes low in the beggining, that's the key! Low taxes mean higher morale means more population means more taxes. The devs really believed in the Reaganomics.

[Om]

Say, is it a good idea to increase production output to 100% early on, and then shift all of the budget towards Research, to gain a quick technological advantage, or to do the same thing with social and military production? :smallconfused:Production is key in the early game. You want to churn out as many colony ships as possible before all the best planets are taken. Otherwise you'll end up confined to two or three systems with no recourse to expand beyond destroying larger neighbours.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Bah, "grabbing as many planet as necessary", is overrated, in my fun department. If you want to play the AI really, really as the best you can and smash it down until it cries, then go ahead.

Personnally, I prefer play favorful, since the AI can't compete with me on the long run, I love to take stupid actions to have more fun :smallwink:

[blackout]

Production is key in the early game. You want to churn out as many colony ships as possible before all the best planets are taken. Otherwise you'll end up confined to two or three systems with no recourse to expand beyond destroying larger neighbours.

So, early rapid expansion, got it.


Bah, "grabbing as many planet as necessary", is overrated, in my fun department. If you want to play the AI really, really as the best you can and smash it down until it cries, then go ahead.

Personnally, I prefer play favorful, since the AI can't compete with me on the long run, I love to take stupid actions to have more fun.

Well, I don't believe in the 'as neccessary' part, I believe in 'as possible.' :smallbiggrin: They can't contend with the Terran Empire when we have half the galaxy in our grasp!


I prefer to keep a well balanced economy early on, maybe 40:30:40 (social/military/research), but try to keep taxes low in the beggining, that's the key! Low taxes mean higher morale means more population means more taxes. The devs really believed in the Reaganomics.

:smallconfused: How does high morale mean more population?

[SolkaTruesilver]

The more population you have on a planet, the less morale you have on it, that is why check how many farm you build, or you'll end up with a lot of crowded unhappy and ungrateful civilians. (I solve that problem by loading them in assault transport and keep them sleeping until I can send them to die somewhere, on an unimportant world)

You also get population growth bonuses on a planet that has 90%+ morale rating

[SolkaTruesilver]

They can't contend with the Terran Empire when we have half the galaxy in our grasp!


My point, exactly. As a human player, there is no way the AI will ever beat you if you do have half the galaxy after the initial colony rush.

That is why I try to role-play my games.. mwahaha.. that remembers me the Auroran Challenge in MoO2

[Nerd-o-rama]

:smallconfused: How does high morale mean more population?
If your people are happy, entertained, and well-fed, what are they going to spend most of their time doing?

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Hehehe. Fun game just happened.

I reset the Terran's point allocation at the beginning, and geared them towards Military Production, Social Production, and Reproduction all at once. Then, I started cranking out colony ships, and took most of the star systems with habitable planets in the whole galaxy. The rest of the galaxy's habitable worlds consisted of seven planets(two Altarian, two Korath, two Krynn, and one held by Carinoids.).I just accumulated research, and built starbases while concentrating almost exclusively on my social production for awhile. While I was at it, I researched all the government types, all the way up to Star Federation, and then made an alliance with the Krynn while launching a ZOMGSUPRISEATTACKLOL blitzkrieg offensive on all unprotected worlds in Korath and Altarian space...which is to say all of them. The only bastion of resistance left in the galaxy after the several week-long war was the Carinoids(the Krynn were effectively bought by me). SO, I bought off the Carinoids, making them give me their whole budget(7075 billion credits), for a small handful of outdated technologies. Following this, I then deployed all of my attack ships in the Carinoids' general direction, backed up by about three troop transports. Using Information Warfare(like in my other conquests, I like to turn the population against one another), I cleared out the orbital defenses above Carinoid III, and then started dropping troops backed by Carinoid rebels on the planet's surface. After the fall of Carinoid, the game ended, either cus I ran out of turns(the demo does that), or the Krynn and I were allies, and there was no one else to fight. Either way, I won, and the Korath, Altarians and the Carinoids were all slaves to the Terran Empire now.

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