Just Getting Started

Well, I'm new to diplomacy, but I recomend getting Starbases relatively early.  They go a long way towards thwarting the AI's attacks, esspecially if you use them to hold the line until your fleet arrives.  Though you should only place them at your Homeworld, chokeponts, and fringe worlds of your empire's core.  (I view the "Core" as the planets you absolutely refuse to let go of for any reason)

Build Hoshikos Early as well, they are like little mobile Repair Platforms...Which you should also use, now I think about it.

Other than that, I'm not too good on giving broad strategy.  Ask me questions about specific single player stuff though, and I'm confident I can help you out.

If you really want help, I recomend Asking Darvin3.

-Twilight Storm

Thanks Twilight! I'll try to be more specific. Playing as TEC, what are the initial steps you take in the early game?

Depends on map size and # of opponents.  Here are the extremes:

Keep in mind, I usually play Random Huge Multi-Star maps, or the Aerolian Sector, with all opponents on, so these first two may be out of date.

Single-Star, Small, 1v1, Quickstart:  Basically, a rush.

Scouts.  Always Always Always have at least 5 scouts going in any game.  In a small map like point blank, 3 will suffice, but better safe than sorry.  Good intel is your best weapon...except yout real weapons, of course...

Drop one military lab and research Armor and Health boosts, a least one of each to give you an edge.

Build starting Cap(Sova, for me.  Build fighters-only to counter enemy bombers, and make sure the Missile Platform is the first special ability you get, with Embargo the second.)  Pump out light Frigs as fast as possible.

As soon as you have the Fleet Supply maxed out, attack your opponent.  Deploy Missile Platforms manually until you can set off Embargo once, then set them to Autocast.

Take out Factories and Constructor ships first, make sure you replace any frigates that go dowm as fast as you can to get them back into the battle.  Your opponent won't be able to because they will have no factories or constructors with which to build more.  Keep the pressure on.  On the chance that you see a colony ship in their midst, it should take precedent as a target as it may slip out and take a nearby asteroid, which is all it really takes to break a rush.

It's possible they may have gotten a second planet by now, but as long as you keep pressure on, they'll do their best to defend the Homeworld with any factories they have at this second site.  If you find it, bring in all yous scouts, turn off auto-explore, and set Attack to Automatic by Right Clicking the Icon.  They're no match for the enemy ships, but they'll keep reinforcements from arriving.  Once the enemy capitol goes down, send your own into the new site and repeat above steps, leave 3 or so of your Cobalts behind to keep constructors down.

Single Star:  Medium, 1-5 players, Quickstart:  Depends heavily on starting location, so I don't have as much of a step by step here, but:

Build scouts, find a choke point if you have one.  It may not be a true choke point, In which case this will be a bit harder.  Try to make sure it's no bigger than 3 planets, though, or you may not be able to hold them off.  "Lock down"  these planets, researching Ice or Volcanic if you need to, build the cheapest fleet you can to accomplish this.  I've found that a Sova, Protev(Left one jump behind your fleet until the fighting's done), and a group of Cobalts will pretty much take care of anything except Desert and Terran militia without backup.  On those two, just expect to be replacing alomost all of the Cobalts.

Beyond that, use the advice from my first post.

Huge, Multi-Star:  (Aerolian Sector) Quickstart:

Deploy 10 scouts right away.  Rush research Star travel, Starbases, and 1st tier fleet upgrade.  Build an Akkan as your first Capitol ship, fill your fleet with cobalts, and leave the star system right away to claim one of the 3 neutral star systems in the middle.  Preferably, you'll have scouted ahead and chosen which one you prefer.  I suggest one that is heavy in Ice Planets.  Take one of these quickly in case your Homeworld is attacked.  Once you lose your last planet, the game is over.

Lock this entire system down by placing 4 starbases at the star as soon as you are able.  Keep your fleet here as well, and keep researching.  Get Hoshikos and Javelis as quickly as possible, then research 2nd tier fleet upgrade and 2nd Capitol ship.  Build a Sova, then fill the rest of your available fleet with 1/3 Hoshikos and 2/3 Javelis, keeping all the cobalts you had.  After this, no plan can really be perfect.  Make sure you keep those 10 scouts out there, and Try to ally with whoever is relatively weak, but not doomed.  That way, you'll have a weaker opponent turning on you at the end.

This is all off the top of my head.  If you have specific questions I'd be glad to answer them.

-Twilight Storm

Great advice! I can't wait to try it.

No problem.  Any other questions, I'll be sure to try my hand at them.

And like I said, you should really ask Darvin3.  They have a much better grasp on step by step strategy than me.  Esspecially if you intend to eventually do online play.

-Twilight Storm

Just thought of this, but if you're JUST starting out, I recommend doing a medium map, with pirates on and no AI enemies.  Hit keep playing when the victory screen immediately appears, and just spread out as fast as you can, then get familiar with all the researches.  I say turn pirates on beacause they are a renewable source of Cap-ship expierience.  Make sure to build 1 of each capitol ship and at least one of each of the Frigates/Cruisers, just to get an idea as to what they are.

-Twilight Storm

Of the strategies you listed, which one is best to overcome the learning curve? Single star map or huge multi star?

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Edit: I didn't see your last post but that answers my question. I didn't know you could play that way. Awesome.

If you really want to learn the basics, I recommend first doing as i said in reply 6.

Then, play as whaichever race you choose, and have 3 easy enemies, one of eac race, on a medium single-star map.  THat'll give you the general concept of what to expect.  THen work your way up through the difficulties, maybe skipping up to vicious if you think you can cut it.  (I can't...yet...)

Alternateinvely, you can do the Aerolian Sector map with all enemies on hard.  (Which to me has become the new "Normal" standard)  and use my strategy there, keeping at least 20 scouts+ scattered across the galaxy and just watching what the enemy is doing.  THis will most likely end in a defeat on that playthrough, but you should learn what to expect.  A few things:

The AI likes to send Siege Frigates after your planets in numbers between 1 and 5, without escort.  2 Hangar defenses on every world is a very good idea to defend against this without moving your fleet, if you plan on getting into a longer game.

Upgrade your starbases, and they'll repel almost every attempt to kill them that is tried by the AI, unless two factions gang up on you.  I recommend Weapons, Hull, and FIghter bays on the 4 at the star, maybe equipping one of them with a frigate factory instead of a hangar.

Build Fighters equal to 1/3 of your strikecraft total, since the bombers are the real damage dealers where it counts, except against Long Range Frigates.  (Javelis, Assilant, Illuminator)  Fighter's primary goal is to destroy bombers.

Do not underestimate the power of a couple Cielos in your fleet.  3-4 Cielos, 3-4 Hoshikos, and 2 Siege frigates to draw fire if you need to get that fleet out of there in a hurry is a good backup force.  (Other than these two kamikaze siege frigs, you will never want to build them.  Siege frigs are not really worth the fleet-cost until much later in the game, and even then it's iffy.  TEC's frig costs 14 or 16 supply, I can't quite remember.  I only say to build them because the AI ALWAYS attacks these early on in a battle.)

Pirates are a good source of Capitol ship expierience, but beware, the expierience from each kill is divided by the number of capitol ships you have in the gravity well.  If pirates turn out to be too much, wait until 5 seconds before they launch, and dump enough credits into someone else's bounty to get them off of you as a target.  THat'll buy some time, but doing this more than twice in a row can be counter-productive, unless you have lots of creds to spare.

I'll add to this list later on, but that's what I can think of right now.

-Twilight Storm

I wouldn't mind rushing with LF (Light frigates, Skirmisher, Cobalt, or Disciple) on anything where you're more than two jumps from the enemy. I'm not sure I'd try it on less than one. Especially against vasari, they'll almost certainly have LRF, which butcher LF. By the time you can rush over more than two jumps, they'll also have 2-3 planets, including their homeworld. Maybe 4, if they're doing fast colonize. While you focus on clearing out the HW, they'll set up factories and spam a ton of LRF. The fighters will help counter them, but not fast enough, if they've got a mass.

In terms of getting your econ up, the main thing is to expand. I like taking the colonizer ship - for TEC, it's the Akkan - and using that to colonize planets. If you really want to expand fast, you can also build colonizer frigates. Us them to colonize the planets close in, as their antimater doesn't recharge really well. Use the Akkan to grab the roid, and then colonize 2-4 jumps from your HW. Once you've got a lot of planets 5-6 planets in a row, you can start up trade. The goal is the have the longest unbroken trade chain, calculated in terms of number of jumps, that you can. The base production of every tradeport is boosted for every jump in your trade chain. If it loops back at all, be careful not to put trade ports at planets that would short cut the route - it will take the short cut, and you'll lose credits. 

Do make sure to do at least the minimum planet population upgrades - 1 for a roid, two for everything else - to avoid taking negative income. It's best to max these out right away, as planet income is your best source of income early on. Culture is another important economic booster, as allegiance affects both credit income from planets, and metal/crystal income from extracters. You definiately want both LRF and trade before culture, unless you're playing advent - then you might go LRF and culture, then get trade.

It's also important to get LRF out quickly. Even for the Advent, who have to build three military labs, quick LRF (Assailant, Javelis, Illuminator) are essential. They're your primary damage dealers early on, and counter everything but strike craft and HCs in an acceptable fashion, although some less well than others. They especially shred LF, and, in a significant number, caps.

Also, skip weapons/hull/armour upgrades early on. Focus on putting ships out there, and on getting the right kind of ships. The only non-prototype military tech I'd get are repair bays, and the first level of the TEC repair bay tech, which is a pre-req for hoshikos.

Your early fleet should be 1, maybe 2 caps, hoshikos, and javilis with carriers full of fighters/bombers. If you opponent wants to use fighters, mix in a ton of flack frigates (Gardas). They also do a respectable job against LRF, though it's not great.

Ender's Game comic book!

Being quite new to the game as well I read with great interest

This is an excellent tip - I havn't thought of this myself but I have spent all too much time reading up on research subjects, ship class abilities etc. while the clock is ticking and I am losing valuable empire activity to my opponent AI. I'll def. go through such a round to learn the stuff

I actually don't like most of the advice given so far in this thread.  There is tons of info out there, and I've written posts ad nauseum (as have others), so I'll just be brief here, and let you do some searches on this forum on your own.

1) TURN PIRATES OFF.

2) Select small random map, normal fleet size, all normal speed settings, normal start.  Before playing online, you will need to practice with all fast settings, and quickstart, but I wouldn't recommend it at this juncture.  You need to actually learn the game.

3) Build your capship factory right away, then 2 civ labs, then your resource extractors.  Pump at least 1 scout per phase lane exiting your homeworld, start scouting.  Build 1 colonizing frig.  Build colonizing capship (later you can experiment with a carrier capital ship).  Research ice/volc as necessary.

4) Get eco going.  The first step in this process is colonizing as many planets around you as fast as you can.  You need to get good at doing this.  Darvin has an excellent guide on it if you can track it down.  Learn the "equal expansion" (or dual expansion) colonizing strat.  Learn to colonize a roid with just a single frigate, dropping a turret after colonization to kill the frigs.

5) Trade ports, refineries.  Again, there are guides written on this - you have to know how to do it right.

That's what I would start out learning, if I were you.  Learn these things well and you will have a solid foundation upon which to build, the next things being fleet and combat.  Without this foundation, you have nothing to build on and will be crushed online.

The next things you will need to learn are counters, i.e. what units counter what units in the game.

Excellent advice for online training, I agree, but this was more directed towards single player.

Still, It can't hurt to learn both ways.  If I could actually got to ICO and start a game within...say...10 minutes, I'd be a bit more active online.  (Like, at all.)

-Twilight Storm

My advice is also the correct approach for single player.

Well, I started my first game over the weekend and I'm having a lot of fun learning the ropes. I used Twilight's advice with only the pirates while I get familiar with the processes. Its been a long time since I played an RTS game and with a lot of GalCiv2 experience, I keep looking for a pause or next turn. Hopefully, I'll get over that.

@ComradeYakov: What does LRF stand for?

@Agent: thanks for the tips!

Long Range Frigate = TEC LRM, Illuminator or Assailant

Here's a couple more tips:

Learn to use alt+[select unit type], this will select all units of the same type such as all bombers in the gravity well.

Learn to use shift+click to stack multiple commands. For example after alt+[select fighters], shift+click to attack the siege frigate, then shift+click to attack LRM1, 2, etc. This can be performed zoomed into the grav well clicking on targets or through the empire tree for attacking. This is useful too with your colonizer. Drop the colonizer cap in a grav well, shift+click to attack the siege frigates and then shift+click the colonize ability and select the planet while still holding the shift key. Now you can go perform an other task on a different front while your colonizer finishes it's tasks. Once you hear the planet was colonized skip back and finish the job. Shift is also useful for coordinated movements, such as the example to retreat a damaged ship around a repair bay, or to go around a starbase. Just issue multiple shift+click move commands. If done correctly you will see the red/green lines indicating the multiple stacked commands when hovering the mouse of the unit.

I find the close encounters or point blank maps useful to learn how to effectively build up fleet (no trade) with a small number of planets while being spammed constantly by the AI. This is also a good map to learn how to use the different capital ship abilitities as they are more critical to winning on this map. For example, try a carrier cap/LF rush on the AI. Eventually you will get good enough to beat an unfair AI on this map.

Thank you!

Does that mean hold alt while clicking on the ship-type I want?

How useful are fleets? I tried them but its annoying when all new ships automatically join the fleet.

Yes, simply hold the alt key while left clicking on a specific unit either in the gravity wel or in the empire tree.

I tried using fleets when I first started, frankly I don't find them very useful now. I prefer setting my frigates and capitals to either "hold position" or to "local area" and then manually moving the them or groups of units to specific locations or attack positions in lieu of using fleets.

It's comments like that that make people not like you.

No, your advice is one correct approach.  Don't be so full of yourself that you believe your way is the only way.  Two people here have tried this, and liked the way it helped.  I'm not saying you're wrong, you did give good advice, but don't push it.

-Twilight Storm

Whoa!  I guess i was in a rush, and the terseness of my response was somehow interpreted as dickishness?  All i meant was that the advice I gave (learn to eco, learn to expand and colonize, etc.) is as good for single player as it is for multiplayer.  I didn't mean anything else.  And my response should not be taken as a criticism of advice you may have given - in fact, I don't even know what advice you gave, although I'm sure I saw your name up there somewhere.

Just hit pause on the keyboard.

Sorry bout that, Karma.  Mostly my fault I think.  I've been trying my best not to bash on Protoplazm on another thread and I guess It came out here.

Guess I read into it too much.  Oh, and the "makes people not like you thing"  wasn't directly aimed at you, just the tone of the comment anyway seemed a bit dark, i guess.

Oh, and hitting the menu button also pauses the game I believe.  Up at the top near the research area, on the left.

-Twilight Storm

This is the first game I've played that uses the [pause] key for what it is.

Last night I wiped out the pirate's lair. That was hard! I lost a bunch of caps, cruisers and frigates. Luckily, my base was only 1 jump away for replacements. They had a ton of super platforms with 7k health.

For gauss platforms, the best way to kill them are Ogrovs, or bombers.  Keep anything else outside weapons range.  Also, I believe the Sova's Missile platform outranges them, but I'm not sure.  Regardless, gear your fleet towards killing the pirates themselves, but make sure you have 12 or so bomber squadrons.  As soon as you see a hole in the gauss platforms big enough to bomb through, start, cuz it'll take a while.  You can see the range of any unit or building's weapons by holding Alt, or Ctrl...One of those two, I can't quite remember.  I think Alt.

-Twilight Storm

Yeah, its Alt. Those platforms have incredible range. When the planet dies, do the platforms stop?