When claiming a new system or placing a new starbase, you have to wait until the next turn for the extended range to take effect. That may have been the problem you had. Did you hit the generate turn button before you restarted? ... stuck in the corner like that, I would have probably restarted as well before I got hedged in.
Thanks all. I pulled back on the expansion for about a year, going 50/50 civil/research and let my population stabilize. That pushed the tax income back up so that I could run with spending at 60-70% until the trade routes went operational. I don't lease ships unless it's late in the game and I need a strategic hole filled, or if I'm rush buying a trade good/wonder. That is one "beginner's tip" that should have NEVER crept into the manual. When I first figured out the spending
Hrmm... the problem I have with ignoring planets is that the AI swarms in and grabs them behind me. I must be stuck in a CIV III 'grab the land' type mentality here. I have also noticed that when switching government at the start, my income goes down. WAAAAY down - 100bc/turn or so. I'll try to go with a more modest expansion and see if that fits the bill. I just hate having to fight my way through what I could have owned if I just went out full force and nabbed it at the begin
I'm having some problems getting my economy up to stuff in the early game. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I play with huge galaxies and common or abundant planets. Usually I play with loose clusters. My typical strategy is to first switch to 100% production and 80% mil/ 20% tech or 80% mil/10%/10%. I build colonizers on my homeworld sending out ~200-250 colonists per ship and ~400 if I find a nice planet (PQ 19+) or if I'm crossing a great distance to get a foothold in anot
heh. Once I was just fooling around to see what could be done. I asked the Drengin for one star system and offered EVERY SINGLE system of my own in return: over 20 of them. No dice. That's just foolish, IMO.
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