Deadlock:Planetary Conquest Guide

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sdu754
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Deadlock:Planetary Conquest Guide

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Deadlock is essential a game of colony management. How well you manage your colony will dictate your success. There are five basic areas you need to successfully manage: Military, Economy, Research, Resources & Workforce. All are interconnected, and sometimes tradeoffs need to be made, so making a good balance is key. It's also extremely important how you play your initial 10-20 turns, getting off to a bad start can be absolutely crippling.

Population Growth
Population grows according to the following formula: (2 - population/max population)*(territorial rate)
If Chch't multiply by 1.5, all rates are rounded down

Territorial rates:
Plains: 6%
Forest: 5%
Swamp: 2.5%
Mountains: 2.5%

The formula shows the importance of building your housing early. For example you start off with 400 colonist and 500 available housing. If you build an apartment complex in turn 1, you will have a pop cap of 1500, if you neglect housing all together, you will have a pop cap of 500. On a plains your growth rates would be as follows:
(2-400/1500)*6=10.4 rounded down to 10% or (2-400/500)*6=7.2 rounded down to 7%

Taxes

(Square root of population)*(tax rate)*(racial adjustment)
Double rate if there is a city center, round down the square root

0% = No taxes
40% = Minimal taxes
75% = Light taxes
100% = Moderate taxes
125% = Heavy taxes
150% = Oppressive taxes

70% = ChCh't
75% = Cyth
80% = Uva Mosk
100% = Maug, Re'Lu, Tarth, "No abilities"
125% = Human, "All have best"

Territory Types

Plains:
These produce the most food and have the highest population growth rate, but weak at producing other resources. Your first territory should generally be a plain for extra population growth and to produce additional food for other territories. This is also a good territory to produce works of art in. A good strategy is to move colonist from plains to lower growth territories (especially mountains & swamps)

Forest:
They produce the most Wood & Endurium and are second in production of everything else, including population growth. You can generally satisfy all your wood needs from one good hydroponic farm in a woods. These territories can be ideal for military production , as you can produce your Endurium for your units as well as make enough power to maintain a few factories and a tech labs for electronics.

Mountains: These areas are only good for their steel and sometimes enduriun production. You should generally have a few factories in the territories with your mines for metal processing or unit production.

Swamps: These territories make a lot of energy and very little of anything else. They do have one big advantage. You can place you power hungry building in these territories. They are excellent when used to produce technology and trade, as tech labs and higher level factories take gobs of power. This is where the bulk of you tech and trade should come from.

Getting Started

How you start the game is extremely important to your success. When choosing a landing site, start in a plains (especially if you don't select fast production) as you will need the excess food & population production. Look for a plains that borders a mountain and a swamp, and a forest if possible. Once you land check all bordering territories for shrines (these are free tech labs/cultural centers) Your second territory should either be a mountain, a forest or have a shrine in it. Immediately build a University & an apartment complex. You'll have enough food & energy to get you by for now.

Turn Two - Build an apartment complex in your second territory, followed by a mine. Start teching

Early Tech Path

I'm not giving a set in stone tech path, as you may need to improvise, but this path or a similar one will work in most cases.
Nuclear Fusion, Synthetic Fertilizer, Electronics, Chaos Computer, Metallurgy, Automation, Hoverway, Molecular Bonding & Fusion Canon.

This path gives you all the level two buildings as well as two important resource (electronics & Steel) and cheaper transportation costs and a strong early military unit, the fusion cannon.

You want to avoid level one building as much as possible, as they produce little, take a lot of workers and take up a lot of space.

The idea of the early game is to defend yourself from attacks while setting yourself up for the victory.

How you will manage your 5 basic areas in the early game
Military: Just enough to defend yourself from attack
Economy: You need enough money to keep expanding and building up territories
Research: you want to quickly get through the first 8 techs, and continue to out tech the AI
Resources: Enough to build new buildings and get those second level buildings up ASAP
Workforce: Want to grow your labor force, but put your workers where they will best help you
Last edited by sdu754 on Fri Aug 04, 2023 5:00 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: Deadlock:Planetary Conquest Guide

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Resource & Military Production

Looking at the following values, you can definitely see the value in getting level 2 buildings ASAP
Numbers in parenthesis are number of workers

Food & Wood
100% : 100% - Farm (8)
125% - 150% - Hydroponic Farm (6)
150% - 200% - Food Replicator (4)

Iron & Endurium
100% : 100% - Surface Mine (5)
125% : 125% - Mantle Drill (4)
150% : 150% - Sub Space Magnet (3)

Energy & Antimatter
100% : 5 - Nuclear Plant (5)
150% : 10 - Fusion Plant (3)
300% : 20 - Anti Matter Plant (2)

Research & Electronics
25 : 5 - University (4)
50 : 10 - Tech Lab (4)
100 : 15 - Collective Tech Lab (3)
30 - Shrine (4)

Trade : Steel : Tridium : Units
20 : 10 : 10 : 20 - Factory (8)
40 : 15 : 15 : 50 - Automated (6)
60 : 20 : 25 : 100 - Robotic (4)
80 : 25 : 40 : 200 - Metal Replicator (3)

Trade & Units
60 : 25 - Airport (8)
30 : 75 - Military Airbase (6)
80 : 25 - Shipyard (8)
60 : 75 - Hydroport (6)

Units
50 - Missile Base (4)
100 - Anti-colony Assault Silo (2)

Territorial Self Sufficiency

The moving of resources between your territories can cost you a huge amount of money. Lets say you start the game on a plain, then settle a mountain & a swamp. If all your food comes from the plain, and most of your power from the swamp (you'll almost certainly need a power plant in your initial territory) you will be needing to move large amounts of food & energy. If you have 25 colonist in both your swamp & mountain and have moderate taxes, you'll be spending half your tax revenue derived from those territories to transport in food. This doesn't include the cost of transporting energy.

This is why it makes sense to make your individual territories as self sufficient as possible. I would recommend having at least one power plant in each territory. They don't take very many workers, and will usually save more money than paying to transporting in energy and then putting those workers in a factory creating trade. Plus the factory will further up your energy consumption.

With the huge energy production in swamps, and the efficiency of late game factories, it makes sense to just produce more trade in a swamp to pay the transportation cost for the food. Tradeoffs like this will need to calculated to see if the costs of transporting outweighs the opportunity cost of producing within the territory.

Racial Bonuses

ChCh't
* +50% population growth
* +20% Construction
* +10% Build Units
* -25% Research
* -30% Taxes
* Doubled housing capacity
* Doubled Overpopulation "safe limit"
* -1 Infantry defense
* Faster units
* Scouts can steal resources


Cyth
* -25% Taxes
* Morale fixed at 80%; Usual adjustments to Morale don't happen
* Special adjustments to Morale (Skirineen scandal; Re'Lu Scouts) last one turn
* Scouts can destroy Food stockpiles
* Command Corps have Mind Blast


Human
+50% Trade
+25% Taxes
+50% Artwork production
-1 transportation costs
Skirineen scandal is more likely and severe when dealing with them
Infantry have Berserk; Greatly increased Attack, but will die after battle


Maug
+50% Research
+50% Electronics
+25% Build Units
More research options
Scouts can steal technology well Sabotage buildings & units
More susceptible to rioting and rebellion

Re'Lu
-1 Vehicle defense
-1 attack to Forts
-1 defense to Forts
All regions are viewable in detail.
Scouts can Subvert Morale
Command Corps may Mind Control an enemy unit, permanently joining you.


Tarth
+50% Food
+1 Infantry attack
+1 Infantry defense
+2 Vehicle defense
-1 Ship attack
-2 Ship defense
+1 attack to Forts
+1 defense to Forts
Infantry have Juggernaut; Focuses on destroying buildings quickly.
Spies are more likely to get caught.


Uva Mosk
+50% Wood
+50% Energy
+50% Iron
+50% Endurium
+25% Food
-20% Taxes
Infantry have spying orders
Command Corps have Shaman Dance; Produces bonus resource tiles in region
Last edited by sdu754 on Wed Aug 09, 2023 11:50 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Deadlock:Planetary Conquest Guide

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Cost of moving resources

Through controlled territory: 2 credits
Through neutral territory: 3 credits
Through ocean territory: 4 credits
Through enemy territory: 5 credits

modifiers
Humans -1 credit
Hoverway -1 credit
Transporters -2 credits

The transportation cost will be calculated according to the most expensive territory type that they move through. As you can see it's important to keep your colonies connected if possible and to avoid having to cross water or other races territory. Hoverway should also be a research priority early in the game. Having somewhat self sufficient territories can also save a great deal of credits, especially if that territory is isolated from your main colony.

Scouts/Spies

There is a formula that will tell your chances of getting caught spying: {[(base value) + (Maug modifier) + (units x 10) + (patrolling units x 10)] x [(difficulty level)] } /(unit status)

Definition of the terms
Base value is 10 except for Tarth, where it is 30
Maug modifier is 10 if spying on the Maug
Units is number of non missile units
Units patrolling is the units given the patrol special order
Difficulty status is as follows:
No special order: 1
Steal technology: 2
Re'Lu subvert: 2
Chch't steal resources: 3
Cyth poison land: 3
Maug sabotage: 3
Unit status:
Green: 1
Veteran: 2
Elite: 4

For example a veteran Tarth scout spying on the Maug with one patrolling unit in the territory would be as follows:
[(30+10+10+10)*1]/2=30% chance of getting caught

Every races spy abilities are unique
Chch't will steal 75% of the largest resource stockpile
Cyth will destroy 50% of food stockpile
Humans have generic abilities
Maug will sabotage units or buildings. The preferred order is missiles, which will target the territory they launch from, then units then buildings
Re'Lu subvert morale
Tarth much more likely to be caught
Uva Mosk infantry can spy

Which are best? I would say that the Maug and Re'Lu are the most effective, they can bring a territory to its knees.

The Chch't could come in handy for the extra resources, but it wouldn't be debilitating unless timed right. Large stockpiles tend to be of items in plentiful supply. This is why the poison land isn't very useful. If your enemy already has a large stockpile of food losing half might not matter.

Uva Mosk can use laser squad as generic spies to look around, they can't steal tech though. They can also infiltrate the enemy lines and attack the less well defended territories in the rear with any infantry units.

The best way to use spies is to level them up by using the generic spy order until they gain enough experience to be either veteran or elite. You can not gain experience unless you are actively spying in an enemy territory. Choose a territory without any units in it lessen the chances of getting caught.

Culture and Morale

Morale can be improved in four ways, either through the creation of culture, the creating of Artwork, having low to no taxes or suppressing the population back to work. Suppressing a population can cause it to revolt and join a rival colony, however.

The culture producing buildings are the following:

Building: Culture: Workers
Culture Center:10:5
Museum:20:3
City Center:15:8
Native Shrine:20:4

An Art Complex employs up to four workers and will create a work of art every so many turns, which will boost morale 2% for the territory it is located in. There is a maximum of a 10% boost to morale through Artwork, and pieces of art can be transferred from territory to territory. Culture can only boost morale up to 25%, giving a culture boosting total of 35% through artwork & culture.

Taxes can modify morale in both a positive and negative way. The modifiers are as follows:
No taxes +10, minimal taxes +5, light taxes 0, moderate taxes -2, heavy taxes -5, oppressive taxes -10

Taxes are set colony wide, but can be adjusted one level either up or down in each territory. Unless you are playing as the Cyth, you shouldn't set your colony wide tax rate to oppressive. You can get oppressive rates by setting the colony level to heavy taxes than increasing them for the individual territory. Taxes won't increase above oppressive. Setting taxes in this manner will give you greater flexibility, as you can move the rates between moderate, heavy and oppressive if need be.

Morale can be negatively influenced in several ways: overpopulation, high tax rates, starvation, unit special orders, Re'Lu subversion and Skirineen scandals. The only one of these that the player has no control over is whether the Re'Lu decide to subvert their morale.

Overpopulation

The safe limit for colonist in each type of territory is as follows: Plains 2000, Forest 1500, Mountains 1000 & Swamps 1000. The safe limit for the ChCh't is doubled to 4000:3000:2000:2000

The formula for morale loss due to overpopulation is as follows: [1 - (Safe Limit/Population)] * 25
For example a human plains territory with 5000 population would have the following morale adjustment: [1-(2000/5000)]*25=15

Safe Limit Chart

Safe Limit 1000 1500 2000 3000 4000
Population
1500 -8 0 0 0 0
3000 -16 -12 -8 0 0
4500 -19 -16 -13 -8 -2
5000 -20 -17 -15 -10 -5

Starvation

Starvation does not affect population growth, only morale. Starvations negative morale affect works on a scale of 0 to 7. Each turn a territory is short on food, no matter how little it is short, moves you one unit higher on the scale. Each turn that your colonist are completely fed moves you one unit lower on the counter. For example, if you allowed your citizens to starve for three turns, then fed them all for one turn, you would be at a level 2 on the scale for -1 morale. It would take two more turns to get back to level zero. The negative affect is as follows:

Level 0 turns = 0
Level 1 turns = -1
Level 2 turns = -1
Level 3 turns = -3
Level 4 turns = -5
Level 5 turns = -10
Level 6 turns = -15
Level 7 turns = -20

Special orders

There patrol order that you can give your units will lower morale by -1 per patrolling unit. This will make the unit twice as likely to catch a spy.
The Suppress population order will improve morale, but territories may rebel. Higher tech units have a higher effectiveness, but they also make rebellion more likely.

Skirineen Scandals

There is a Skirineen scandal scale, and each time you are caught dealing with the Skirineen you move one step down the scale. If you get caught in a major scandal, you move two steps down the scale. Getting caught buying technology or military units will trigger a major scandal. Once you hit level four all future scandals are level four scandals. Humans are 50% more likely to get caught for dealing with the Skirineen.

Scandal: Local Morale: Global morale: chance of a riot
First: -20%: 0%: 5%
Second: -30%: -10%: 10%
Third: -50%: -25%: 20%
Fourth: -80%: -50%: 50%

Morale recovery

You can only recover a maximum 10% of your morale per turn no matter how much excess culture you produce. Maug can only recover 8% of their morale. Example: Humans with a morale of 76% in a territory have a net positive of +12 morale, they will only be at 86% the next turn. It will take three turns to restore morale to 100%.
Last edited by sdu754 on Fri Aug 04, 2023 6:25 pm, edited 10 times in total.
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Re: Deadlock:Planetary Conquest Guide

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Dealing with the Skirineen

The Skirineen represent the black market on the game, making a deal with them can have positive and negative affects. There is always a chance you might trigger a scandal, but you could use them to catch up or get ahead in your game. They are especially useful to sell resources to when razing territories. The chances of getting caught is linearly related to the amount of money changing hands. Example: spending 300 credits is three times as likely to get caught than spending 100 credits. Skirineen scandals can take some time to recover from, with morale drops as high as 80%, making them quite risky. Riots can destroy or damage buildings as well as reduce population. The Cyth will recover morale back to 80% the next turn, leaving the possibility of riots the only real drawback. Humans shouldn't deal with the Skirineen at all, as they seem to get caught every time.

There are four types of deals that can be made with the Skirineen.

Buy/Sell resources You should only purchase resources if you are in a pinch, but selling excess resources can make sense, especially in isolated territories that you are razing. The Skirineen pay little for resources and sell them at an expensive rate. The exception being that they give a really god price for artwork.

Buy information For 25 credits you can see the colony view of any territory on the game. There is a low chance of getting caught doing this, but in the long run you can simply spy with a scout in a nearby territory far cheaper while gaining experience. This really isn't very useful.

Purchase technology The Skirineen will sell certain technologies at certain times during the game. Technology is available as follows:

Level 1: turns 1-40: 450 credits
Level 2: turns 10+: 650 credits
Level 3: turns 20+: 1250 credits
Level 4: turns 40+: 2250 credits
Level 5: turns 60+: 4250 credits
Level 6: turns 60+: 8250 credits

Purchase Units

Unit (turn available)
Laser Squad (4)
Laser Cannon (8)
SAM Trooper (12)
Fusion Cannon (16)
Sea Transport (20)
Battle trooper (30)
Disrupter Cannon (36)
Shockwave Dreadnought (45)
Assault Trooper (50)
Shockwave Carrier (60)
Holocaust Cannon (75)

Each unit type can only be purchased one time, so you can't stock up on a half a dozen Fusion Cannons early on.

How to leverage each races abilities

ChCh't

The ChCh't are all about population. The only way that you can really be at a disadvantage with the Chch't is if your growth and expansion is limited. Because of this you should try to settle where you will have room to grow your population. The Chch't get two modifiers that help them with population growth. The first is a 50% population boost, the second is the less obvious double population limit per housing type. Since population growth rate is affected by the percentage of open housing, the Chch't get an additional growth bonus. The original landing for non Chch't races will start with a growth rate on plains as follows: (2-400/500)*6=7%, remember to round down. The Chch't equation is (2-400/1000)*6*1.5=14%. The rates if one apartment complex is built go to 10% and 16%, so it doesn't make the bonus always double, but it definitely adds to the advantage. Because of this you should always be expanding with the Chch't and pressing this most important advantage.

The Chch't also get a morale bonus. They are allowed to be at double the safe rate for population in a territory before they start to suffer negative affects to their morale. The Chch't morale adjustment in mountains or swamps is the same as other races, save the Cyth, in plains. This will actually allow you to starve the Chch't like you can the Cyth if you properly maintain your culture. This gives the ChCh't a cultural bonus that rivals the Cyth.

The special unit bonuses that the Chch't get are that their scouts can steal resources, which could come in handy if you are running low on something, and their units move faster in battle. Their infantry units are slightly weaker however.

The negatives of the Chch't are that they only pay a 70% tax rate and only research at 75%. While these two drawbacks may sound bad, but they are more than offset by the population growth. It won't take long for a Chch't colony to double the population of the other races, meaning that you can put double the number of workers into research.

The name of the game with the Chch't is to leverage the population bonus as much as possible on your path to victory.

Cyth

The Cyth's big advantage is that their morale doesn't fluctuate, except for in two situations: Skirineen scandals & Re'Lu subversion. The effects of a Skirineen scandal only last one turn, and Re'Lu subversions affects only end after the scouts are gone. Culture doesn't affect the Cyth, either positively or negatively, so don't build culture centers, art complexes or work culture in your city center or native shrines. You can also starve the Cyth without any negative consequences, so you can get by with only a wood farm or purchasing wood from the Skirineen. You should also sell your initial 100 food to the Skirineen for the 100 credits. You can also just set your tax rates to oppressive and forget them.

Because the Cyth don't need food, don't bother settling in plains territories, instead start in forest, the population growth isn't much less and forest are good at producing all resources.

The special unit advantages that their Scouts can poison land, reducing a territories stockpile by 50%. The issue here is that a territory or colony with a large stockpile of food is probably producing enough food each turn to cover its citizens. The other ability is that Cyth Command Corps can mind blast opponents, destroying them with a single shot. This could be advantageous defensively if you are behind as it might stave off a superior force.

The positive of the Cyth is also the negative, morale is fixed at 80%, meaning that you will lose every fifth worker. The Cyth only pay taxes at a 75% rate, which takes some of the value out of being able to set oppressive tax rates. The Cyth advantages are largely offset, making ease of gameplay their biggest advantage. If you are playing the Cyth, you should play on slow production, as it makes their food & cultural advantages more powerful versus the other races, as the other races will need to allocate a higher percentage of their population to caring for these tasks.

Humans

The big advantage for Humans is in credits. They get three bonuses here: 25% higher taxes, 50% higher trade income and they pay one less credit per trip for transportation. This advantage will allow you to focus more of your population on resource collection and production. You can also specialize your territories, as Humans won't pay transportation costs once Hoverway technology is researched. The other advantage Humans get is that they are 50% more likely to create a work of art.

The special unit advantage Humans get is that they have the berserk order for infantry. The units will fight much harder, but they will die off at the end of the battle.

The Humans are 50% more likely to experience a Skirineen scandal than the other races, so you should refrain from dealings with them unless it is completely necessary.

Maug

The Maug are the technology race. They research technologies 50% faster, build 50% more electronics and produce units 25% faster. The Maug also have the ability to research additional techs as they can tech jump one level. For example they can research automation without first researching metallurgy. The Maug are more adept at catching spies making them somewhat immune to espionage. The best way to play the Maug is to tech up to more powerful units and take out your enemies.

Their special unit advantage is that their Scouts will sabotage the enemy, which will destroy enemy units, buildings or launch enemy missiles back at the territory they came from. This is one of the better special abilities in the game.

The disadvantage with the Maug is that if you let their morale drop too low they are more likely to riot and they recover lost morale more slowly. Be sure to not allow their moral to drop, and they will be a powerhouse race.

Re'Lu

The Re'Lu advantage is that they can see the entire planet from turn one including the settlement view of the other races. This allows them to scout out shrines and to keep tabs on their enemies so they won't get hit by a surprise attack.

The Re'Lu get special unit abilities that allow their scouts can subvert enemy colonies and their command corps can mind control units. The subvert special ability can bring a colony to it's knees. The best way to take advantage of it is to have a scout spy on a territory until it is either veteran or elite, then switch over to subvert. I have had a game where I mass produced scouts and subverted the other races into a standstill. This sets the Re'Lu up as the best race to play defensively and win Gallius IV by building City Centers. The command corps is also an advantageous defensive unit as it can convert attacking units to your side, helping to defend a territory.

The disadvantage that the Re'Lu have is that their tanks and defense fortifications are slightly weaker. Remember that higher technology units will still carry the day, and if your enemies colonist are protesting and rioting, they won't be able to attack you anyways.

Tarth

The Tarth are the military behemoths. Their land units and defense fortifications are slightly more powerful, but their sea units are weaker. Their scouts are very weak and really shouldn't be placed in enemy territories. The other advantage of the Tarth, except for the fact that they look like talking dogs, is that their farms produce 50% more food.

The Tarth special unit ability is the juggernaut infantry order, they will fight harder and destroy buildings, but they can get killed when the building collapses. This is most useful if you are attacking a territory you don't expect to take over, but only want to wreck.

The best way to play the Tarth is to get to military production quickly and to start pumping out the Fusion Cannons while researching better technologies. The Tarth Colonizer is likely to win a one on one battle with another colonizer or a one population territory. It can also be advantageous to purchase early military units from the Skirineen with the Tarth to press your advantage. By turn 16 the Laser Squad, Laser Cannon, SAM Trooper and Fusion Cannon are all available.

Uva Mosk

The Uva Mosk are the big resource producers. They produce 50% more wood, energy, iron and endurium and 25% more food. These advantages are somewhat offset by the fact that the Uva Mosk only pay 80% of the normal tax rate. The resource advantage allows you to put more workers into producing credits, though.

The special unit orders allow command corps to Shaman dance, which can produce bonus resources. Their infantry can spy, which can be used in several ways. You can send a large force to your enemy borders undetected to launch a surprise attack, you can infiltrate your enemies less defended territories in the rear and launch a guerrilla attack, or you can use laser squad as cheap spies to keep tabs on your enemy.

Play the Uva Mosk to leverage their resource production advantages to victory. Remember that you can always sell a glut of resources in a pinch to the Skirineen if cash gets too tight.
Last edited by sdu754 on Fri Aug 04, 2023 6:29 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Deadlock:Planetary Conquest Guide

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AI Personalities

The AI has five distinct personalities, which gives the game variety, as well as it can make for a much more difficult game based on "luck of the draw". The five personalities are as follows: attacker, spoiler,balanced,tech leader and builder. The personalities are completely independent of the alien races, but certain races are stronger with certain personalities. The personalities can change during the game based on the situation. If you select "all AI ally against you", they will place their races in this order from closest to farthest: Attacker, Spoiler, Tech Leader, Balanced then Builder. The Ai will also help one another out by forwarding units to the attacker and resources to the builder. The AI never fights against another AI on this setting.

Attacker

This race will start attacking the closest race to them as soon as they can put together an army. The first wave will usually be composed of laser cannons and laser squads. This is the most annoying personality to deal with, as you will have to defend more heavily and they will slow down your development. The toughest races to deal with in this personality are the ChCh't, because they can build a strong colony quickly, and the Tarth, due to their military bonuses.

Spoiler

This personality will build lots of missiles and scouts, and send them to nearby enemies. Not as annoying as the attacker, and pretty easy to defend against. 2-3 Laser Defenses will generally take care of the missiles, and the scouts can be caught by patrolling units. The toughest races for this type are the Re'Lu (Subvert) & Maug (Sabotage)

Tech Leader

This race will focus on technology to acquire advanced units, and then try to take you out. They generally go for Disrupter Cannons and Assault armor before attacking. This personality is tough to deal with if you allow them to get to that point because they will have tough units to deal with. The toughest race to face with this personality is the Maug, as they get tech bonuses and can tech jump. The Tarth are also tough, because they get military bonuses and you might be forced to play them with same level units. The tech leader will build lots of Universities/tech labs.

Balanced

This personality plays like you would expect a normal human to play, attacking when it is advantageous and focusing on building city centers when it is advantageous. Even though this personality takes the best strategy, they are actually one of the easier races to defend against and beat. This personality will build lots of Universities and they will produce city centers.

Builder

This personality just focuses on peacefully building city centers. As long as you don't allow them to get the requisite city centers, they are easy to defeat, as you can build up a strong military and take them out. The number of required city centers greatly affects their strength. The toughest races in this personality are the Ova Mosk (resources) and Humans (credits) are easier to come by. The Tarth can also be good in this personality, as they get military bonuses to their defense fortifications and militia.

Defense Fortifications

Defense fortifications are best built on the right side column of the map. This is because all attacks come from the right, and your fortification will be attacked before anything else, meaning they will soak up the brunt of the attack limiting collateral damage. Missiles target defense fortifications first, and by having them on the right side of the map limits the chances of an errant missile causing damage.

Building defense fortifications will also deter early attacks from all the AI personalities except for the "attacker" personality. The spoiler personality will eventually start lobbing missiles at you, but the fortifications are there to take the damage. Building early fortifications will give you plenty of time to build up your colony.

If you build defense fortifications in the center of your territory the chances of shooting down incoming missiles goes up, but the chances of those missiles damaging buildings and hitting units and militia also goes up. There is also a greater chance of incoming units killing your units and militia as well as destroying and damaging buildings if your defense fortifications aren't in the farthest right row. Incoming units will stop and fight defense fortifications before attacking buildings.

Blockading Ports

If you place three ships in the sea territory that the AI has chosen to put its port in, you will blockade their port and they won't change the port to a different territory. The AI will further build a full queue of ships, wasting valuable resources.

You can also put just two shockwave dreadnaughts and three planes in the territory and destroy their ships one at a time. This will allow them to keep producing ships, wasting even more resources. You can also level up your ships and planes this way. If you are going to use this strategy remember to re-blockade the port to repair your ships when their health drops.

Housing

Housing is a little thought of part of the game, but it plays two very important roles.

First, the percentage of unused housing is a major influencer of population growth. I explained population growth earlier, but it makes sense to build your needed housing for a territory early.

Secondly, housing can be used to limit a territories population. Limiting population in mountains and swamps can be a good idea. If you have 50 population in a mountain/swamp, it will ceate a negative 20 morale. You can only use 25 culture that is created from buildings, which leaves you with only 5 positive culture to raise taxes, send patrolling units and deal with scandals and subversion, which isn't very much. You can create works of art for additional culture, but this can be slow and requires moving them around, and you would have to have them in advance to deal with scandals and subversion. On the second highest tax rate, a colony of 5000 population will pay 70 credits in taxes, a colony of 3000 will pay 54 credits in taxes. If you ship all of your food in, with hoverway, you would only net 20 credits in the 50 population territory, whereas the 30 population territory would net 24 credits. You should be shipping your food into swamps because they can easily make more credits by putting their would be farmers on factories and creating trade. The only good reasons for not limiting population in swamps and mountains is that you get a morale bonus (Cyth and Chch't) or there is a scarcity of territories. Remember that all houses will eventually upgrade to Luxury Housing, which houses 1500 colonists, so plan your housing with this in mind.

Where you build your houses is very important as well. There are a few rules of thumb that you should follow:

1) Always put your housing where it won't impede the construction of a four square building later. Fill in the holes between your buildings. This is especially important in your initial territory.
2) Never build housing on top of a resource bonus, unless you are 100% positive you won't need that bonus. A good example of this would be if you have a forest territory with multiple wood bonuses. You won't likely build two wood producing farms.
3) Don't build housing in the far right column of the map. The only thing you should build here is defense fortifications and resource production buildings (mines, farms and power plants) if the tiles are advantageous.
4) Energy and Endurium production suffers on the edge of the map, food, wood and Iron do well on the edge. All produce badly by water squares except food which excels by water squares. Build your housing accordingly.
5) Don't build housing on cracked squares if at all possible, you may need to eventually build a power plant there.
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