is this game REALLY hard or is it just me?

Biggest single thing I can think of is not focusing your
early game enough to maximize your potential.

You want to set your government spending to 100%
it defaults at 50%.

and depending on the map, you probably want to expand
to new systems as fast as possible, so put the military
spending to at least 70% with the rest in research(ie
zero out social spending for awhile)

And build lots of colony ships and a scout or two

Dont send more then 200million people to a new colony
early on; unless u have a plan

Find the minors and try to trade techs with them as
well as the majors. Trading techs is very useful in
this game.

Oh yea, raise taxes to about 50% too, depending on
the PQ of earth.

I never raise my taxes to 50%...maybe I should start...

Now that I think about it...I've never gone over 35%.

NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!

Well, you will need to lower them again later on
but on a pq 20 world with +20 morale, you can goto
53% tax rate and still keep earth at 100% morale.

For awhile anyway, you will need to lower it again
as your pop goes up.

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Re: raising taxes...

Make sure you look at my post on pop. trouble in the Strat forum. Keep in mind that the higher you set taxes, the fewer planets have 100% morale, the slower your population (and thus your taxpayer base) grows.

It's definitely a tradeoff. I like to keep any planet with base PQ 18+ at 100% unless I'm leading the population curve.

The really vital things are tech trading and the early-game landgrabs. Master those and you'll be in a much better position.

-EtherMage


~SDC~

What about party types, which is a good one to start with?

In general, the Federalists are allways a good pick.

They give you +20% on economics. More money=more you can spend wherever you need, so you are not bound to a special strategy, it always helps. (Choosing the War Party, for example, gives you a bonus that only makes sense when you play agressivve.)
And when you're not used yet to optimize you economy, it might make this part of the game less critical.
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the party you pick depends on what kind of game you're going to play.

pick the populists or the pacificsts if you're going after a cultural or an alliance win.

I usually pick the war party since the the +50 hitpoint bonus is hard to beat ... yeah, I'm a warmonger.

also, what size maps are you tryin? dont pick the tiny until after you get the hang of the game, maybe try medium. the tiny maps are not all that forgiving due to the fact you wont have too many planets. medium would be good, big enough to make room for mistakes, and not big enough to make it hard to keep track of everything.

I always play the technologist, but the first time i played i tried the universalists. Ive also tried less-than-stellar games as the federalists, the mercantile, and the war party.

As for early on spending, i always have it set to 75% military and 25% research that or something around there.

I agree with hairythe taco on map size...tiny leaves no room for error.

I don't play strategy games much, partly because I stink at them. I actually find GalCiv quite easy on the lower difficulty settings (in a good way, not a complaint). I'm currently thrashing the AI on sub-normal in a medium galaxy (though I had a lucky starting position which helped).

It would very much help to know what kind fo game you are trying to play. There are lots of ways to play. I tend to pick bonuses to influence and diplomacy, jump ahead in influence and tech, then trade my way to a healthy economy. You may have a very different strategy. Give us a bit more info about what you are trying to do.

I often raise my taxes very high, sometimes into the 70s. most people would say that's a lousy idea, but it has worked for me.

One general note...keep an eye on the military graph. If others are getting ahead of you early, build a few ships to boost your rating. that will help keep them demanding tribute or attacking.
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rufusjonz
I only bought the game myself about 10 days ago and I would say it is very easy to play but difficult to master. Umh, so I would it is not you, it is the game.

I find a Civ3 type of strategy very successful at the three lowest levels. I had a very easy win at the third lowest difficulty (sub-normal?) using a Civ3 strategy. My Civ3 strategy as applied to GalCiv:
1. Pump out settlers (100% spend, 80% military, 20% science, no leasing)
2. Send that scout out under manual control to find habitable worlds (research drives first to get around quicker than research language so you can talk to the other civs then research starfighters then social techs for improvements and trade for freighters)
3. Build some defensive units (a few starfighters will do for a while)
4. Settle one world per system at first (colonise the other planets in that system later)
5. Settle say 12 worlds on a medium map (less on smaller, maybe more on larger maps)
6. Switch to 80% social, 20% science to build soil enrichment, habitat improvement and perhaps banks
7. Ramp up military spending to crank out more settlers and beef up a military deterrent and send out a few freighters for trade. Try to plant a starbase on resources
8. Go back to social to build more improvements, wonders and trade goods (and shipyards on those worlds where you want to produce your warships)
8. Along the way do some tech whoring and sell trade goods to minors
9. By now you should be the biggest kid on the block. If you want to, build up invasion forces and as the Civ2 advisor says "let's go bonk some heads".

That will do just fine for the first three levels.
It seemed to also work at "normal" difficulty but I did not finish that game.

A note of thanks for those tips - I'm very much like the original poster; having trouble making the transition to and above normal. Like Peter, I've got some decent experience with Civ3, Alpha Centauri, etc. but it seems the jump from sub-normal to normal is pretty harsh in GalCiv, much more so than comparable games. I'd also suggest small map size - I've found it gives you just enough to think about and all types of victories are possible. Anyone else feel the AI jump is too harsh sub-to-normal?

Haven't tried "normal" in Galciv yet but may I suggest out that the jump from Chieftain to Warlord in Civ3 is a big jump. The jump from Emperor to Deity is collosal. On that basis, I would not be at all surprised if there were to be a similar jump somewhere along the line in Galciv.

Umh. Smaller maps can magnify the harshness of the jumps too. If your first few starting moves are not so good you get no time to make up for it before you meet the neighbours. eg. In Civ3 you really can't afford to develope the wrong squares in the first dozen moves on a tiny map at a higher level.
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