New Player Needing Help

[Tyr4el]

Hey all! I'm a new player and really enjoying myself so far. A friend and I have started to play but I have some questions regarding strategy and mechanics that I think, if answered, will help me a lot!

1. How does war work? Where should you build military outposts and when in a war, what is the strategic way to go about moving fleets to take planets? I read the wiki page, but I feel it's not explained in too much depth. How do you know which wargoal is the best option to pick? Is it possible to completely annex another empire you're at war with like in EU4?

2. When playing an empire that uses slavery for its benefits, how do you deal with the unhappiness and factions that rise up?

3. Other than colonizing and outposts, how else do borders expand? Going along these same lines, when should you build outposts? When do you know you're able to demolish them without losing the borders it generated?

4. When building mining outposts on planets and on surface tiles, can you pretty much take the number of minerals or energy credits that it gives and add that to your + modifier per month?

5. Is there a way to have ships go to a spaceport and auto-upgrade once you've researched better tech? It's tedious to have to remember if new military tech was researched and if any of your fleets need to be upgraded.

I think that's it for now

 

[Mitchz95]

1. How does war work? Where should you build military outposts and when in a war, what is the strategic way to go about moving fleets to take planets? I read the wiki page, but I feel it's not explained in too much depth. How do you know which wargoal is the best option to pick? Is it possible to completely annex another empire you're at war with like in EU4?

Wargoals are all the outcomes you can demand at the end of the war (assuming you win). You can demand a colony or two (or all of them, if the loser is a small empire). You can also liberate colonies to create a new empire with your same ethos, or abandon them to kill/expel all the pops on them. Alternatively, you can force them to open their borders and allow your ships through, prevent them from purging pops or enslaving people, etc. Or you can use use wargoals as a formal excuse while your actual goal might just be to destroy a few Frontier Outposts blocking your expansion. It's fairly flexible, but the devs are planning to rework it some time in the future.

As for tactics, it's pretty straightforward right now. The AI will generally lump all of their ships into a single fleet (a "doomstack"), and it's generally best to follow suit. If your stack is bigger/more powerful than theirs, try to lure them into a trap by sending a single ship to tempt them toward your fleet. If your stack is smaller and weaker, try to avoid direct contact and focus on sneak attacks on their planets and armies. An occupied or blockaded planet produces no resources, so hitting enough of them will slowly cripple their economy. Overall, if you're weaker than they are, just keep them off balance until they get weary and are willing to accept a white peace.

2. When playing an empire that uses slavery for its benefits, how do you deal with the unhappiness and factions that rise up?

This will be overhauled in the upcoming 1.5 patch (April 6), but it's pretty simplistic at the moment. A problematic faction can be suppressed by spending monthly influence, the amount depending on how many pops are in the faction. If you don't have the influence to spare, it might be best to grant their demands until you're in a better position to deal with them.

3. Other than colonizing and outposts, how else do borders expand? Going along these same lines, when should you build outposts? When do you know you're able to demolish them without losing the borders it generated?

It mainly depends on the number of pops on the planet. There are also some technologies that extend your borders further. As for Frontier Outposts, I usually use them to either deny growing space to a rival, or reserve a promising planet for future colonization. They cost monthly influence to maintain, so probably don't have too many active at a time.

4. When building mining outposts on planets and on surface tiles, can you pretty much take the number of minerals or energy credits that it gives and add that to your + modifier per month?

Correct. Building a mine on a tile with 2 minerals will add to that mine's productivity. But you have to use the right kind of building; a mine on a tile with food will NOT get you the extra food.

5. Is there a way to have ships go to a spaceport and auto-upgrade once you've researched better tech? It's tedious to have to remember if new military tech was researched and if any of your fleets need to be upgraded.

The upgrade icon in the fleet window will have a yellow arrow if it's not yet upgraded. Just remember to update your ship designs from time to time and it won't be an issue.

Hope that helps!

 

[Tyr4el]

@Mitchz95 Thanks! For #1, as an added question, should I attack their mining facilities on planets first? Also, do I need ground troops at all? How does one go about liberating a planet (as that seems like a good wargoal to start with)?

 

[Emraldis]

@Mitchz95 Thanks! For #1, as an added question, should I attack their mining facilities on planets first? Also, do I need ground troops at all? How does one go about liberating a planet (as that seems like a good wargoal to start with)?

Just invade it with the wargoal set as liberate, once you win the war, the planet will be liberated.

 

[Mitchz95]

@Mitchz95 Thanks! For #1, as an added question, should I attack their mining facilities on planets first? Also, do I need ground troops at all? How does one go about liberating a planet (as that seems like a good wargoal to start with)?

Destroying mining stations doesn't really do anything except slow your ships down. Planets, fleets, and spaceports are all that matters.

Ground troops are useful if you want to occupy enemy planets, which isn't strictly necessary but can be useful if you don't want to leave your ships constantly bombarding the planet, especially if your fleet is inferior to the enemy's. Just keep an eye on the enemy's troop transports; they can retake an occupied world if your armies are weaker than theirs. Also, bombarding a planet reduces its fortifications and makes it easier for your troops to conquer, but if your armies are strong/numerous enough you can skip that stage altogether.

Liberating planets is just a war goal like cede and abandon. It happens after the war is won.

 

[Tyr4el]

Destroying mining stations doesn't really do anything except slow your ships down. Planets, fleets, and spaceports are all that matters.

Ground troops are useful if you want to occupy enemy planets, which isn't strictly necessary but can be useful if you don't want to leave your ships constantly bombarding the planet, especially if your fleet is inferior to the enemy's. Just keep an eye on the enemy's troop transports; they can retake an occupied world if your armies are weaker than theirs. Also, bombarding a planet reduces its fortifications and makes it easier for your troops to conquer, but if your armies are strong/numerous enough you can skip that stage altogether.

Liberating planets is just a war goal like cede and abandon. It happens after the war is won.

So I guess my question should be, how do I gain war score? What do I need to do to make that number go up? Bombarding a planet just makes it stop being able to produce anything right? Or is that all I need to do?

 

[Emraldis]

So I guess my question should be, how do I gain war score? What do I need to do to make that number go up? Bombarding a planet just makes it stop being able to produce anything right? Or is that all I need to do?

Bombarding planets, and occupying them with troops, as well as destroying enemy spaceports, military stations, or fleets, gives you warscore.

 

[Tyr4el]

Bombarding planets, and occupying them with troops, as well as destroying enemy spaceports, military stations, or fleets, gives you warscore.

Thank you sir. That's what I needed. So if I want extra warscore, I can invade them with Attack ground troops right? After I wipe out their defensive troops, should I keep bombarding?

 

[Amaror]

Thank you sir. That's what I needed. So if I want extra warscore, I can invade them with Attack ground troops right? After I wipe out their defensive troops, should I keep bombarding?

Not after successfully invading a planet, you control it. That means you should just move on with your fleet and attack troops to take another planet and then another planet. Until you have the warscore you need to get your war-demands.
Also it's impossible to bombard a planet you control. So you literally cannot keep bombarding them after invading their planet.

 

[Tyr4el]

Not after successfully invading a planet, you control it. That means you should just move on with your fleet and attack troops to take another planet and then another planet. Until you have the warscore you need to get your war-demands.

And to successfully invade a planet you just have to wipe out its defending ground troops?

 

[Mitchz95]

And to successfully invade a planet you just have to wipe out its defending ground troops?

Correct. The planet is now occupied by your empire (although not owned; you won't be able to build buildings or get resources from it) and you can pull your armies out without fear of rebellion. Just remember to keep the enemy's armies from taking it back!

 

[Amaror]

And to successfully invade a planet you just have to wipe out its defending ground troops?

Yeah, you have to win a battle against their defensive troops with you offensive troops.
Btw. if their defences are too strong you can just widdle them down over time. Attack with your troops, fight until one of your troops is on the brink of dying and retreat. Then you wait for your troops to recover their health and attack again. Defensive troops under bombardement don't recover health while your attack-troops in orbit do. Though this tactic takes pretty long and takes quite a bit of micromanaging.

 

[Tyr4el]

@Amaror @Mitchz95 Thank you guys!

I have another question regarding robots. I know there's 3 types. When would you ever want to use any of them? What would be the circumstances

 

[Emraldis]

@Amaror @Mitchz95 Thank you guys!

I have another question regarding robots. I know there's 3 types. When would you ever want to use any of them? What would be the circumstances

You have Robots, Droids and Synths, Droids are Upgrades for Robots, once you've researched them, they automatically upgrade all robots to droids. Synths are upgrades for Droids, they do the same thing, basically.

 

[Amaror]

@Amaror @Mitchz95 Thank you guys!

I have another question regarding robots. I know there's 3 types. When would you ever want to use any of them? What would be the circumstances

You would want them if you have an excess of power and a need for minerals as they are better at producing minerals (And I think food) than most species. Droids have just a plain stronger bonus than Robots in that aspect and Synthetic are better at producting everything, including research and power. They come with the thread of the Synthetic uprising crisis late in the game, though. They work also well for colonizing uninhabitable planets as they can live on anything without problems.

 

[Tyr4el]

Oh that's great! Thank you so much!

We were also wondering how a research agreement works. Could anyone explain? Is it that anything I have researched will research faster for my friend and vice versa?

 

[Amaror]

Oh that's great! Thank you so much!

We were also wondering how a research agreement works. Could anyone explain? Is it that anything I have researched will research faster for my friend and vice versa?

I mostly play an aggressive conquerer, so I generally don't do too many research agreements, but I think it works like you described. If you research a technology your buddy has researched allready, you will get a percentage bonus to your progress towards that research. Don't quote me on that, though, I am not sure on this.

 

[Emraldis]

Oh that's great! Thank you so much!

We were also wondering how a research agreement works. Could anyone explain? Is it that anything I have researched will research faster for my friend and vice versa?

that's exactly it. I think it describes it in a tool-tip if you hover over it.

 

[Tyr4el]

Oh! Yeah I think you're right. I recall it having a tooltip now that I think about it. Sorry! Could have looked on that one.

 

[Tyr4el]

How do sectors work? Are they controlled by the player or controlled by the AI. It was unclear when reading the wiki. When I reach my 5 core world limit, and want to expand, should I just add a sector instead?