Some questions about war and conquering

[Lithit]

First off, my apologies to you mods if this is in the wrong sub-forum. Just accessed my account for the first time and this seemed like the best place to post this.

Anyway...

Just had my first war and won (yay), it was against some guys that called my people beasts fairly early on in the game, who I then proceeded to summarily pummel a few decades later (totally not a petty person).

The issue I realized, a bit to late now that i think about it, is that my warlike fanatic materialists can't really keep slaves, so my lofty ambitions of keeping a slave race were (for now) turned into nothing more than fleeting dreams (not yay) And to top it all of, I have a lovely faction on my hands, that's eating all my influence.

So with the backstory out of the way, I want to know;

1. Advice on how to best proceed from this point, should I just wipe out the empire they originated from? Should I give up my not pettiness and try to make them happy? Is there some uber convenient research I'm missing that'll make this all go away?

2. I want advice on the most efficient way of going about my daily galactic conquering, with the least amount of repercussions.

3. I like a research all the way play style going with F.materialists and War, Is this ethos alignment doomed to never efficiently wage war, or am I just not doing it right?

Basically,I'm just looking for advice on how best to deal with immature foolish xeno scum.



P.s. My game had a glitch after I destroyed The main drone mining base, now there's an over sized image of the base next to my galaxy, I don't know if it'll still be there when I come back, but I'm asking about it just in case.

 

[Bossman Zero]

Sounds like you ran into some Xenophobes. Capturing their planets is only good if you've got some degree of Collectivism or Xenophobes yourself, as those are needed to unlock slavery and purge policies. They're always going to hate being under your rule unless you get high negative ethics divergence going to shift them to your way of thinking. If you can't purge or enslave Xenophobe aliens, it's better to make them someone else's problem: use the "Liberate" wargoal instead of "Cede" to create a puppet government of that race with your ethos. The puppet will slowly turn them to your ethos, so you can later vassalise and integrate them. The downside is you will need to protect them from their original empire, either through an independence guarantee or defensive pact, both of which cost influence.

Even if they aren't Xenophobes, conquered aliens are always going to cause problems during the integration period. You're going to have to ride it out with careful management of their faction support levels until the "Recently conquered" modifier runs out in 10 years. Oh, and every planet you conquer adds to your threat, which doesn't decay, it only decreases if the planet returns to the original owner. There's always repercussions for conquest.

Militant Fanatic Materialist isn't the most effective ethos for conquering, usually a combination of Militant and Xenophobe does better as it can enslave, purge, use the "Cleanse planet" wargoal, and get more influence for suppressing factions from rivalries. The only problem is most empires will hate them, especially as the threat builds, and will band together against them.

 

[Lithit]

Sounds like you ran into some Xenophobes. Capturing their planets is only good if you've got some degree of Collectivism or Xenophobes yourself, as those are needed to unlock slavery and purge policies. They're always going to hate being under your rule unless you get high negative ethics divergence going to shift them to your way of thinking. If you can't purge or enslave Xenophobe aliens, it's better to make them someone else's problem: use the "Liberate" wargoal instead of "Cede" to create a puppet government of that race with your ethos. The puppet will slowly turn them to your ethos, so you can later vassalise and integrate them. The downside is you will need to protect them from their original empire, either through an independence guarantee or defensive pact, both of which cost influence.

Even if they aren't Xenophobes, conquered aliens are always going to cause problems during the integration period. You're going to have to ride it out with careful management of their faction support levels until the "Recently conquered" modifier runs out in 10 years. Oh, and every planet you conquer adds to your threat, which doesn't decay, it only decreases if the planet returns to the original owner. There's always repercussions for conquest.

Militant Fanatic Materialist isn't the most effective ethos for conquering, usually a combination of Militant and Xenophobe does better as it can enslave, purge, use the "Cleanse planet" wargoal, and get more influence for suppressing factions from rivalries. The only problem is most empires will hate them, especially as the threat builds, and will band together against them.

Thanks for the help, I chose the materialist path because I want a research focus, I even went with the government type that gives research speed and reduced station cost. For such a build, while I understand that conquest may not be the best I couldn't see me and them ever getting along, plus they were slowly advancing towards joining a federation I'm enemies with, a federation I'm about equal with.

Also, would you happen to have any advice for a research build? Like maybe better ethos choices or government type? While research is my main focus, I'm not above beating my enemies over the head with a stick if it gets the job done \(^_^)/