* roads and transport are your friend, like one of your best friends....build them into every area that has good resources.
*supply depots are also your friend, and they get along well with roads and other transportation methods. Build them on them.
* build at least 20 stellar transports
*your going to be loading transports a lot.... so.. make a grid of roads where you can land your transport in the center of, the roads will make getting the troops into the transports much easier and faster then open terrian.
* use your planetary engineers to build your space docks.and then space production in your home system planets.... reason ? your going to need a huge amount of space ship production just for stellar transports at first and a measly 5 at your home planet just wont do.Keep in mind, you currently dont have to colonize to build space dock and space production.
* Find getting down to on planet view troublesome when you have a large amount of ships in space around the planet ? look for the little green tank icon by the planet,i think its a double click on that .Til now, i was trying to click on the planet....and not being happy with it.
*when space traveling, make your ftl speed jumps as far as you can.its going to take a long while to get where your going, but large jumps can help.
*keep a mental note, if not the real thing, on where your ships are in space. White squares on a blue background filled with white dots...not as helpful as id like when looking for the damn ships
* Declare war on any planet/moon you want to invade BEFORE your ships get even remotely close....although weve been told missiles are not in game , the space ships however do have them and neutral ships will kill you with them for no reason other then being to close.
* When you go to do so,use the diplomacy section and hit that big red button. After many many tries,i decided at best trying to declare war on a planet by using the order "declare war" for the ships,either doesnt work ,or i cant figure out how to make it work. Id guess its prob 50% 50% on either being the case
*Make sure any fleet your assembling in the area for an invasion, are well outside that red hex around the planet/moon you intend to invade.They can hit you just a bit outside it with the above missiles
*As your ships approach the area, make sure their flight paths are also well outside said red hex. Battlecruiser seem to have the range to fire from where the enemy cant hit them.Think of them the way you had to aircraft back in ye olde days of sr.
*when you land your transports, pause game unload all your land units, and make sure your roe is set right, otherwise your land units might just sit there and not fire a shot while being annihilated.....on that nore, why the heck is the default "avoid" when your at war ?
* land your transports somewhere the enemy has little to no supply. Use your transports once empty as the supply source for your ground troops.Launce and drop them as and where needed.No matter where you land them ,your ground troops will have no supply.So best to do so where your on equal footing supply wise with the enemy
*get a couple of barracks asp ,because ....
* expect a bloodbath. Your troops will need time to organize and the enemy will throw a ton of air units at you along with its ground units.Get your engineers to work instantly on a supply depot at the least.I prefer a small almost zero supply urban area.So when you take it, you get some minor supply which you can then increase.Keep in mind a military complex builds fast,and has a nice supply rating.Just also keep in mind,if you build one and lose it in your beachhead area, your prob hosed.
* expect to have to land reinforcements.and have them handy.
* expect to be pounded by hundreds of enemy aircraft.
* Dont bother to colonize new planets at this point,your better off conquering existing civs .Colony growth and the building of complexs needed for such take an age. We'll call it "The age of spending a day or so real-life watching nothing much happening on your colony ". I imagine engineers would help,but im too lazy to build them, transport them, land them, and then see just how much they do or dont help
Plus im not sure i know how - and i fully support it taking this long by the way. I just think its hugely more effective to just take what other people who arent you, have.
* at this point watch the youtubes made by "reviewers" if they are tutorial structured. Fast forward a LOT.
