Ello planetfallers!
I got another video for you all this week. Sinsling, the best tech rusher that I have played against, joined me for the video discussion and was somehow able to unlock Barragers by turn 12 in the example game that he played at the end of the video.
Here is a a link to the video:
Here are my notes that I used for this video:
A quote from Sinsling - “All mountains, no tech in site. We are doing it anyways”
We will start by going over some general tips while looking at a save that I prepared, and then Sinsling will play through 15 turns to show off how he likes to rush tech.
General tips:
I got another video for you all this week. Sinsling, the best tech rusher that I have played against, joined me for the video discussion and was somehow able to unlock Barragers by turn 12 in the example game that he played at the end of the video.
Here is a a link to the video:
Here are my notes that I used for this video:
A quote from Sinsling - “All mountains, no tech in site. We are doing it anyways”
We will start by going over some general tips while looking at a save that I prepared, and then Sinsling will play through 15 turns to show off how he likes to rush tech.
General tips:
- Useful Commander backgrounds: Martial Tradition, Merchant scion, star union scholar (is my and sinsling's favorite) , convert operative, Data Repository (a bit random and therefore risky), colonist cryopods. DON’T take stubborn (when you are tech rushing), even if you are playing Shakarn.
- You should make a Central science building in your capital and in your first colony if you are tech rushing. After that you may need to grab an energy central building. It depends a bit on if you can get research sectors easily.
- Research exploitations . If you are lucky enough to start near arctic ruins or fungal ruins, then you want these up asap. If you can only get arctic, fungal, ruins or fertile plains, it is still worth building, it is just less of a priority. The Builder doctrine will make it easier to make these. Sinsling and me are both big fans of the builder doctrine. Sinsling has been known the build research sectors without any supporting terrain, if the map doesn't give him research sectors. I would not recommend trying that out as a newer player, as it will be quite inefficient.
- Anomalies - having a hoverbike/ a dedicated hero to clearing anomalies who can travel quickly around the map can be worth it. It depends a lot on where the anomalies spawn in. Sinsling sometime saves 6 skill points points on his commander for a couple turns to see if he can send him over to a nearby anomaly at the beginning of the game.
- Clearing research sites will provide a bit of immediate research, and once connected to a colony can generate a bit of extra research each turn.
- Pickups can be used to get that extra bit of production or energy needed to rush out a colonizer which in turn means more resource income earlier.
- Generate knowledge if you got nothing that you want to build, and if you have plenty of energy income.
- Tech Priorities: ALWAYS GO FOR RESEARCH EXPLOITATION UPGRADES WHEN TECH RUSHING. The rest depends on your commander loadout. Sinsling used kirko xenoplague to rush towards barragers, but he easily could have used that combo to rush out really strong engulfers. The assembly can get a lot of research from combat, using the battlefield autopsies doctrine. Most doctrines aren’t very good for tech rushing. Good ones: echo walkers, economist. Bad/too late: Forgotten depth, Connected Society, the Quantum Project , Organic Mutation Research.
- Specialist/racial buildings: a few of these can help you make more research
- MP strategy vs empire mode strategies. You get lots of tech for free in empire mode, so research is less of a priority)
- Razing can provide an influx of research. Not super useful for tech rushing.
- Covert op: research taps - DON’T DO IT. Investing research to potentially steal research is a bad deal.
