What is wrong with me--Normal Level

I hade the same problem as you going to normal. This helped me.

The most important thing to remember is:
1.) Economic. All the AIs like money so get all the systems you can then focus on ecconomic bonus including banks, trade goods trade and wonders, buy then outright ( on a long lease) they make up for the cost.

2.) Sell the civs trade goods for tech and cash, keep them broke. Trade with the strongest keep them on your side of any war.

3.) Avoid war unless you start it. I've had games with a small fleet and a large ones, you can win either way: As long as the AI knows you can put the spending slider up to 100%, put military to 100% and crank out a fleet of battleaxe's in 4 turns! That takes extra income per turn or cash reserves.

4.) Pay attention to how they feel about you, if they don't like you give them a tech (before they ask) or sell a trade good to a minor $100 for 10 turns and give those bad guys 25 for 40 turns. Make them feel good about you, then kill them. Good luck!


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Almost forgot put ecconomic bonuses on starbases in sectors with mor than one planet and make sure freighters go through the sector.

Trade - it makes money and friends.

Watch your faction (good vs evil).

Make sure you hget your share of the galaxy in the initial land grab.

1. Play as a good guy.
2. Sell everything you have (techs/trade goods) to the minor races... they will give you lots of money for that. Never trade techs/goods to the majors.

And- most important - never give up.

I lost my first two normal games... but i learned...

Evil can work just dandy on Normal; it just depends on your neighbors, and *intelligently* choosing Evil. A big PQ, starship or production bonus may be worth it; a one-time savings of some BC may not be. And, obviously, it helps if the Yor and Drengin haven't been squashed. I've won on both sides of Good vs. Evil alliances. You'll also want to mess with everybody's heads, regardless of alignment. That is, while you want to have a good military relative to the others, one way of achieving that is starting lots of wars between everybody else via bribery. This also can stunt their economies, since warring races don't trade and can hit each others' freighters...

I trade with the majors all the time - if you have a tech that the others dont have make sure you trade it to them all because if you dont one of the otehrs will!!

Pure evil can work - the soldiering bonuses (if you get one of the high ones) are worth going evil for alone!

As for freighter trade, I like to trade with a minor instead of a major. One, the minor is more likely to feel indebted to me, because I'll be responsible for a far greater part of its income than I could ever be for all but the weakest majors. Two, it's less likely to be a problem in terms of competing for planets, et al. Three, while the extra money makes it more of a potential threat, it's still far less of a threat than a major with more money to pump into, say, a hefty war fleet or a large research-heavy economy. Four, if I do feel inclined to backstab it later, it'll be easier to knockover -- and, since it'll have far fewer planets to spend its riches than a major, its treasury will likely be far higher when it comes to beg for peace. That might mean getting, say, 10000+ BC/turn for 50 turns (because max tribute/year is their treasury for that turn) instead of whatever tiny treasury is left after a major's spent everything rush-buying ships.

Evil works just fine under one condition. Send your freightors to the Torians and Altarians. They are the one's that will declare war on you merely because you are evil. The rest wont given the standard morality choice for civs. Now they'll do it if you're weak, but not out of hand merely because you are evil. If you're a big percentage of that empire's trade, they will think twice and three times before declaring war.

Diplomacy kills in this game. Trade techs, and get trade goods and wonders and trade em. At normal and above, you will have to play from behind till the battleship era. But you can get em.


P.s. Sign up for the G.R.O.S.S. empire via the metaverse and show em you mean business. Don't take that from alien scum!!!!

Oh and at the higher levels, watch your cash flow. The higher you go, the less other empires are willing to part with it even for trade goods. And trade for the non=military techs. The Aliens put a premium on the military ones. It will cost you more than they are worth.

Thank you for all who helped me on this topic.
The strategy here seems so helpful and I think these replies alone could make a good strategy guide for the newbie like myself.

Mid Report.
After posting the message, I hang tight to the game and now managed to become the second. I am now focusing on research and trade with somewhat defensive forces. The threat was delinge (ohhhh spelling) but I managed to open 4 trade routes with them and the relatioship is now warm with them. I will keep you posted.
Thank you again for good tips!

I think you can play good, evil, or neutral for any AI level. I haven't tried above Bright but several people have done Macho on a routine basis playing evil. Evil is a bit more work, you have to worry about the Fundamentalists and the good civs, but the bonuses make it worth it, IMO. In my last game the UP decided in it's *first* meeting to not let evil civs have more than one trade route. Needless to say it changed my strategy significantly. I found that even if you can't trade with other civs, they can trade with you, so you can still get some bonus. Playing evil can be very fun. Playing good is, well, predictable. See the G.R.O.S.S. thread for more tips on evilness.

I always play evil, the goody-goody races won't bother you if your fleet is twice the size of theirs

I'd also pay attention to cultural influence - I had a good game going until the Yor went on the rampage (but not against me) - but the resulting increase in influence meant that my planets all flipped over in a bloodless coup. Starbases that have cultural influence bonuses and news centres that grant 'cultural resistance' also help a lot.