New Opening Strategy(large+ galaxies) - buying SE on Earth

from Stardock Forums
My last couple games I've tried something new as an opening move on the large/huge universes I've played on.

I've bought Soil Enrichment outright on the first turn on Earth.

The rest of my strategy is based on long term spending as opposed to lease (100% spending, 80/20 break between military and research, colony ships every 3 turns).

I find this builds my population quicker and allows my colony ships to always be shipped out with 200-300M people without having earth's pop drop below 1B. This allows the next colonies I set up to start cranking out additional colony ships right away giving me a big head start in the land grab that happens in the larger universe settings.

Was wondering if any of the experts have tried this (or if they would) and whether they find it's worth the lease cost (173 + 5 for lots of months).
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Depends on starting PQ for Earth and what ability picks you made... if you've got a PQ 22 Earth, +10 Morale then you can do the above without Soil Enhancement while collecting taxes at 75% and spending at 100%.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Why do ppl do the 80/20 break, why not go full mil spending and pop colony ships out every 2 turns?

~SDC~
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
On smaller universes - or if I start in a really large cluster where I know I'll be fighting for it with at least one other race then I'll pop them out every 2 turns.

For larger universes, popping them out every 4 turns gives Earth enough time to grow that I can fill my colony ships with 200 million people. Once those colony ships land they can immediately start producing a colony ship and have it done it 5 turns.

It also means you can grab a couple techs during the colony rush.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Because Pink, alot of the early tech is crucial to the early land grab. For example, Propulsion, Cold Fusion, Impulse. I can't imagine playing a large / huge galaxy without getting Impulse tech ASAP. Its a HUGE advantage that allows me to nab 3-4 planets at least that the AI would have claimed due to the extra speed.

I also like to get Habitat Improvement as soon as possible. I actually prefer 70/10/20 or even 60/15/25 as a spending start unless playing on Abundant planets.

This lets me crank out a colony ship every 5 turns, which is roughly how long it takes for my scouts to uncover a good planet to colonize anyway, and if I get lucky and find a bunch at once its easy to lease one or 2.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Agreed, many critical techs. In fact, I do a 50/0/50 split until I've beelined to diplomacy, then go for a 34/33/33 to try to get to Diplomatic translators first. A perm +10% bonus through the whole game helps if you like wheeling and dealing.