Are early game blitzes possible?

Awww, you mean rushing doesnt work? .... SWEET!

I haven't tried, and that's pretty much why. The game isn't really designed for such tactics. That said, I'll be fascinated to hear if anyone has succeeded at something like that.

- Ash

~SDC~

I'm sure strength in numbers would work. After all they won't repair that early on so just send in say 3 star fighters to take out 1 or 2 defenders.

well... I've taken out a couple minor races before early on. I had corvettes

~SDC~

Strength in numbers would work if you could spare the industry and spending levels to achieve it. That risks destroying your economy(in the early game it is so crucial to micromanage your funding well) and grinding all production to a halt until things are put back on track....

Heh, just saw what purefx typed. Yeah, minor races like the carnoids are pretty easy to exploit. Hell, thats what they are there for.

Though some minor races aren't that minor(Dread Lords, I-League, Draginol...shudder)

Going all out on the military picks will probably enable you to rush against a civ without them(I have managed to win a war with starfighters, but that was my second game at sub-normal.) But I have to admit that I don't bother with it, the transports are just too damn slow at that point.

Strength in Numbers: Yes, but keep in mind that galciv makes you outlay almost 3x in offense. Not to mention all the transports you will need.

Military Picks: This could conceivably work. I dont recall the levels offhand, but if you could get 50%+ to attack then a starfighter might pose a moderate threat to say a Defender.

And stil there is the problem of Transport speed and the fact that you have to research them. Although.... I think you can somewhat alleviate Transport speed by actually moving troops to nearest colony with Colony Ships. Need to test that out, tonight.

Does anyone else think its silly you have to research Transports?

I don't think it's silly, I think it's great it's so hard to fight an early war.

If early war was easily, it would mean you'd practically have to go heavily military early on or risk losing quickly. As it stands you can take a variety of research paths and still be successful.

I've had some luck aggressively exploring for space junk until my survey ship gets up to +2ish attack. Then you can start picking fights with colony ships/constructors/starfighters until the experience points make you mighty indeed.

OneInTen, as I've continually said, it's fine if its hard to fight a war. But the facts as they are being laid out indicate that fighting early wars is, for all practical purposes, impossible against non-trivial opponents.

I haven't tried it (I'm usually more of a "I won't bother you if you don't bother me, but if you do bother me, I'll kick your @$$" player), but it might be possible on a smallish map. But, like several other people have pointed out, you'd have to put virtually all your money into research and attack ships. Then you'd have to set up camp around the enemy systems until your transports get there.

On any map sized "large" or larger (and probably medium, too), an early rush to conquest is out of the question, simply because of the distances involved.

If you get lucky and "find" a corvette early and race to get the tech to build transports, you can get some decent early military gains. You'd also want extreme military bonuses for your race if you wanted to employ a "rush" strategy.

--Soulfire

If you get lucky with att/def/HP increases for your survey ship then it becomes a very effective weapon, but if you don't then I wouldn't try an early rush. Planetary conquest isn't the only reward from a war though, you can play it just to deny resources (kill their constructors) and get them to sue for peace then add tech/cash/influence to your demands.

Ref transports I think it's quite reasonable that they must be researched since they represent an invasion armada (ie aerospace units, land vehicles, landing craft etc).

I played around some more with early attacks last night and its not feasible to research both Transports and Attack craft. On top of the fact that Attack craft are far outclassed by thier defensive counterparts (woe to you if your enemy has even a single battleaxe).

That aside tho, I have found a workaround to the hideously slow transport problem: use colony ships. Use a colony ship to set up a forward base near the system you wish to attack. Ferry additional troops via more Colony Ships. While they are enroute, research Transports and build/buy them at the forward base.

This tactic, combined with aggressively harvesting space junk and asteriods has allowed me to cripple or completely wipe out a single neighbor in everything up to a medium size galaxy. Once that is done, you can use your survey ship to clean up thier (and your) space and live like a king on the spoils

One of the early games I played (admittedly it was normal opponents in a small galaxy, this might not be feasible in other circumstances).

I got lucky and started out two sectors away from the Yor and my Survey ship met his initial colony ship in the sector between his world and my world. My survey ship had gotten lucky and found a +1 attack bonus early on, so I blew up his colony ship to start a war. I then raced to Corvette Tech and blew up all of the Colony and Constructor ships I could find. I never took a planet because I didn't have Transports, but at the end of the war I had a VERY favorable peace settlement (several techs and some cash) and I had a weak neighbor (even though he didn't like me, he certainly wasn't going to attack me any time soon).

In any case, I don't recommend relying on such a strategy (there was definately luck involved) but it is possible to beat down an alien empire early in the game without having transports.

- Matt Lepinski :->

Ironhawk-

If I'm playing on a small-tiny galaxy I have successfully executed blitz strategies several times. You do not always need an attack craft, your initial survey ship can get an attack upgrade, which is all you need. Granted that takes some luck, but happens more often than not.

Initial research should go towards Impulse Drive (obviously), while your survey ship goes looking for anomalies. Any spare parts anomalies should take precendence.

Agreed, mindlar. That strategy (especially when combined with the ColonyShips-as-Transports tactic I mentioned above) is effective all the way up thru Medium sized Galaxies.

I succeeded quite a few times in a 'Blitz' kind of war against the major races. I normally set spending and research to 100%, then rush to Impulse Drive, which gives transports. Then I set military production to 100% and produce 1-2 or how many transports and send them on their way, after that back to 100% research straight to phasers and back to production to produce star fighters. I took quite a few times the Yor and Alterian out this way, within the first year.
Minor races are a bit trickier, since they are, at least in my games, always well defended. It normally helps start trading with them, and afterwards to rush transports and star fighters to them, when they feel save, but that takes a lot of planning...

Having a nearby minor race early in the game is very cool. If you rush transports, you can drop a load of troops on them before they get established (and use your survey ship to kill their orbiting colony ships) and get an extra nice system or two.

As for major races... if you want to rush, you don't necessarily need to bother with transports and go for the kill. I've been experimenting with going straight for starfighters (and then corvettes) and sending them into enemy territory... not to try to invade, but just to try and blockade the enemy homeworld to prevent him from sending out constructors and colony ships. Even if you aren't 100% successful, you buy yourself extra time to steal worlds and resources that otherwise would have been his.