Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares/Some effective race designs

This page presents a few effective race designs. Try them first, and then start experimenting. Most of these designs, except for "Blitz races", are for the medium to long-term, usually in Medium or larger galaxies with Pre-warp or Average Tech starts. And all are for standard 'MOO II - we can't predict which mods you will use. The race names generally follow the conventions used in most online discussions.

Basic principles
This summarizes the main points in the discussion of race design options.

Population is power
This is a common saying among MOO II players and it's 99% true. More people = more money and some combination of more research and more production.

More precisely, research + production = power. Farming is not an objective, it's a requirement in order to support your workers and scientists. That's why Lithovore is an alternative to the other population boosting picks, despite not increasing maximum population; no need for farming means you will have more population in production and research and won't have to build freighters and pay transport costs.

All race designs take a gamble on something
In standard ''MOO II' it's impossible to design a "best in all situations" race.

Production versus research races
MOO II is not perfectly balanced between production-oriented and research-oriented races - in practice production-oriented races have the advantage most of the time. The main reason for this is that Colony Ships are large construction projects for small, low-tech economies (500 production points), so production races colonize faster. This gives them higher populations in the short term; and when the production races construct research buildings on their new colonies they eventually out-research the research races because they have more colonies and therefore more research buildings.

On the other hand many production-oriented races have rather slow early-game research. Since a few high-tech warships almost always beat a larger number or tonnage of low-tech warships, research-oriented races have to be prepared to blitz production races as soon as they (research races) can launch a few ships.

So production races' advantage is usually greatest in fairly large galaxies with a small number of players, so that they do not have to worry so much about blitzes.

UniAquaProd2
A gambler's race: if this race finds a few "wet" planets (Tundra, Ocean, Swamp, Terran) early in the game, it quickly becomes a monster in both production and research. In this case it should research and build Cloning Centers early to maximize population growth.
 * Unification [6]: farming and production advantages; no morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Aquatic [5]: better farming and higher population capacity on wet planets
 * +2 Industry [6]: this race is production-oriented!
 * Rich Homeworld [2]: increasing homeworld production.
 * Large Homeword [1]: use that last pick.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

UniTol
Works well in most starting positions (good or bad); its gamble is that a nearby aggressor will not take advantage of UniTol's slow early research by blitzing it. UniTol should research and build Soil Enrichment early (1 extra food per farmer), so that it can move some people from farming to research.
 * Unification [6]: farming and production advantages; no morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Tolerant [10]: no pollution so can build flat out when desired; similar maximum populations to UniAqua
 * +1 Industry [3]: this race is even more production-oriented, because it's also Tolerant.
 * Large Homeworld [1]: use that last pick.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

DemoLithArti
The fastest possible early research (if you ignore Creative's "two for the price of one" deals), and improved cash income to buy items. Its main weakness is having no traits that increase maximum populations. Biospheres (increase maximum population by 2 when built) and later Terraforming will be important to it. This race does best if it can kill a Space Monster that's guarding a planet with a large population capacity early in the game; its research advantages will provide the tools to do this. Later in the mid-game Android Workers / Scientists will boost its population (Androids are Tolerant, so you can add Androids to a colony that has reached its maximum biological population). DemoLithArti has no industrial production bonus; but it should be able to research and build Automated Factories and Robo-Miners very quickly; and its cash advantage enables it to buy things when half-built.
 * Democratic [7]: extra research and cash; no morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Lithovore [10]- no farmers needed, allows the player to have more scientists
 * Artifacts Homeworld [3] - +2 research on homeworld; assumes that this race will get Research Labs and Supercomputers by the time other colonies are ready to start researching.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2] - the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

DictLithSubArti
Researches fast and can also build up a large population; but quite weak at early production and expansion. It gets Automated Factories very quickly to compensate for its weaker production. After that it should research either Robo-Miners to boost production or Cloning Centers to take advantage of its high maximum populations.
 * Dictatorship [0]: the best government this race can afford, since its other positive traits are expensive; suffers morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Lithovore [10]: no farmers needed, allows the player to have more scientists
 * Subterranean [6]: gives the largest boost to maximum populations.
 * Artifacts Homeworld [3] - +2 research on homeworld; assumes that this race will get Research Labs and Supercomputers by the time other colonies are ready to start researching.
 * Large Homeworld [1] - use that last Pick; maximizes the number of scientists that get the benefit of Artifacts Homeworld.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2] - the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

A variation of the above works very well. Substitute Industrial Production+1 [3] for the Artifacts Homeworld [3]. When you start out, research the Research Laboratory, Scout Lab, and Planetary Supercomputer before researching any other items. Of course, build these items on the colonies and into every ship - including the Scout ships. Having these in place, other items will research very quickly.

The secret power of this race, which some call a bug or the Mega-Morph race, rebuilds itself end-game: When getting evolutionary mutation and taking Cybernetic, the lithovore pick gets re-imbursed, since it cannot go together with cybernetic. You can then also deselect cybernetic if you do not want it. Now you can spend a lot of points to morph into a warrior race ready for war. You can also keep a few points unspent from the start so you can take more expensive picks like Telepathetic or possibly transdimensional. Your empire will require food from this point, so have freighters and food ready for them on the turn that you morph. You get the benefit from early lithovore boost, and later, with a large empire, it's easier to ready gaia's for food. You can morph into Stealthy/Warlord/Telepathetic/+spy/+ship attack race with this trick after building a strong empire.

DemoSubLgRichArti
Combines the cash generating Democracy with the large populations of the Subterranean; In a Pre-warp game, increase the tax to 50% and use Trade Goods while you research to get the Research Laboratory. You can build up a huge cash reserve. Once the Research Laboratory is researched, set the taxes to 0%, build the laboratory and use the 50% purchase methodology. Key technologies to research would be Automatic Factories, Hydroponic Farms, Soil Enrichment, First level Chemistry and First and Second levels Power (to get the Colony ships) and Terraforming (to expand planet capacities). While you research these, build Battleships packed with Nuclear Missiles - 2 shot, Extended Fuel Tanks and Battle Pods (if you have researched them already). While the armor will be basic, these ships can launch enough missiles to overcome any monsters guarding the great systems (Ultra-rich and/or Gaia planets). Build two ships and a Colony ship (once you have researched it) and go planet hunting. Replace ships which get destroyed in combat. When meeting with the other computer players, use Diplomacy to get treaties in place to keep them off of your worlds. With good colony management, you can keep the tax rate at 0% (for speedy production) while researching the technologies like crazy. With careful buying at 50%, you can grow into a monster empire.


 * Democratic [7]: extra research and cash; no morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Subterranean [6]: gives the largest boost to maximum populations.
 * Artifacts Homeworld [3]: +2 research on homeworld.
 * Rich Homeworld [2]: base production 5 per worker.
 * Large Homeworld [1]: can be used to maximize the number of scientists that get the benefit of Artifacts Homeworld and then move to production as needed.
 * Low-G World [-5], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Attack [-2] - This way the ships defending your worlds will not be penalized.

UniAquaProdSci
This race gambles on getting early "wet" planets, and becomes a monster if it gets a few. This race is also a very dangerous blitzer if it finds a less advanced empire nearby - it's not the fastest to build ships initially, but speeds up as it researches and builds Robo-miners; then each warship it makes is probably better than the last because it researches fast.
 * Unification [6]: farming and production advantages; no morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Aquatic [5]: better farming and higher population capacity
 * +1 Industry [3]: good but not extreme production.
 * +1 Science [3]: good but not extreme research.
 * Rich Homeworld [2]: maximizes homeworld production.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

DemoAquaCash
This unusual race is sometimes described as a research race but it's really more of a balanced race: it sacrifices part of its potential research advantage to generate very serious money, and makes extreme use of the "buy when half-built" technique to get fast production. It can and should get Automated Factories very quickly to increase the rate at which it can "buy when half-built". Maximizing population growth will maximize both the cash advantage (more taxpayers), and its research; so Cloning Centers are important for this race. If its neighborhood contains high-capacity planets guarded by Space Monsters, it must use its research and cash advantages to produce monster-killing fleets quickly. If there are few "wet" planets nearby, Terraforming is important a little later in the game, and this race can afford to buy rapid completion of Terraforming projects; this may make it less of a gamble than Aquatic usually is.
 * Democratic [7]: extra research and cash; no morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Aquatic [5]: better farming and higher population capacity on "wet" planets.
 * +1 BC [8]: usually a poor choice, but this race is designed to make good use of it.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2] - the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

CybUniTol
This combination mitigates early starting position risks. The strategy is to colonize all nearby planets rapidly and develop an equilibrium for population upkeep based on planetary traits. As Freighter Fleets and Hydroponic Farms are twice as effective at providing food to population, food production is increased, planetary populations are maximized and pollution does not eat into production, a rapid early expansion using colony bases on ALL available planets is possible. The key to using this combination of picks is to power build yourself into a strong position via multiple planets.
 * Cybernetic [4] The main advantage is splitting population upkeep between food and production for a versatile opening based on what planets are available.
 * Unification [6] Provides a farming and production advantage, which is convenient for feeding your cybernetic race with minimal population investment.
 * Tolerant [10] Maximizes planetary populations and mitigates pollution, allowing all planets in a system to be colonized early via colony bases.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

WarDictSubProdSciFarm
Similar to the previous race, this strategy involves settling all planets. You get food, production and science bonuses along with large population, so early on you can easily readjust the focus of each planet's economy as needed. Desert and Swamp planets will be able to support large populations, even without being terraformed. Warlord gives you additional CPs even without a Starbase, so you can support a large early fleet if necessary. By mid-game once you have terraforming, pollution-control and planetary supercomputer, this race grows into a versatile juggernaut.
 * Warlord [4] A very nice early CP boost that will continue to make itself felt throughout the game. The extra planetary troops and boosts to your leader's experience are just icing on the cake.
 * Dictatorship [0] Later in the game when you form the Imperium, your CP limit is going to max out even higher with this build.
 * Subterranean [6] Maximizes planetary population. More farmers, workers and scientists, all paying taxes. Basically means you can act as both a Production or Research race as you see fit.
 * Production +1 [3] Speaks for itself.
 * Science +1 [3] Ditto.
 * Farming +1 [3] Allows you to keep even more population engaged in Production and Research early on.
 * Repulsive [-6], -20 Ship Defense [-2], -20 Ship Attack [-2]: both combat penalties are essentially negated by the Warlord's bonus crew experience.

DicSubProdSciLgRich
Similar to the two previous races, this strategy involves settling all planets. You get production and science bonuses along with large population, so early on you can easily readjust the focus of each planet's economy as needed. Desert and Swamp planets will be able to support large populations, even without being terraformed. Since most battles are won or loss in space, the Low-G World option is used to balance out the picks. Food technologies, Pollution control and Command point boosting techs are essential to growing your empire.
 * Dictatorship [0]: the best government this race can afford. Suffers morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Subterranean [6]: maximizes planetary population. More farmers, workers and scientists, all paying taxes. Basically means you can act as both a Production or Research race as you see fit.
 * Production +1 [3]: Helps boost economy of poor and ultra-poor. Makes an industrial juggernaut out of a large rich or large ultra-rich world.
 * Science +1 [3]: Helps research for all worlds. When combined with a research colony leader on a large world with mostly scientists, makes for a monster of research. Poor and Ultra-poor worlds are ideal for this.
 * Rich Homeworld [2]: base production 5 per worker.
 * Large Homeworld [1]: can be used to maximize the number of scientists or move to production as needed.
 * Low-G World [-5]: balances the Picks

Creative races
Remember that Creative is controversial and 2-edged! Creative races often get crushed early but, if given time to develop, can win hugely - but to do so they must be very aggressive once they have a few decent warships.

Since Creative races usually have no production bonus, they are slow to build warships, so stockpiling production is important for them (covered later).

For the same reasons their younger colonies are vulnerable. And in the early game Creatives can't afford large defensive fleets because they have very few Starbases (these cost 400 production points, i.e. they're major construction projects for new colonies, especially for non-production races). One way to minimize this vulnerability is:
 * Missile Bases are in the same tech level as Automated Factory (the first production booster) ; most non-Creatives choose Automated Factory, but Creatives get both.
 * New colonies in vulnerable locations should build Automated Factories, and possibly Robo-Miners (2nd-level production boosters); then stockpile enough production (this technique is covered later) for a Missile Base, but don't build it until needed (this saves maintenance costs).
 * Then use these colonies to increase your population at more developed colonies (the techniques are covered later).
 * Research Radiation Shields. These completely block damage from low-tech weapons and reduce damage from mid-tech ones, so they make Missile Bases a lot tougher. They are part of a military tech path that non-Creatives seldom use early in the game, but which has some very useful "bonus" techs for Creatives. It would be nice if you could research Radiation Shields shortly after Missile Bases, but there are higher priorities. Once again, reduce maintenance costs by stockpiling enough production.

After producing colonies, the homeworld must maximize research in order to reach as fast as possible the tech levels at which Creatives start to get really useful "bonus" techs.

Creatives must attack as soon as they can build a couple of decent warships. They can attack with smaller fleets than non-Creatives because of their "bonus" techs:
 * Some are special systems for warships, which enable a well-designed Creative Battleship to beat 2-3 non-Creative Battleships that are apparently 1 or sometimes 2 levels ahead in armor and weapons (shields are a different matter, discussed in the military sections of this guide). Battleships are the smallest warship size that can accommodate 4 special systems without a crippling reduction in the space available for weapons.
 * Others strengthen planetary defenses.

The most effective Creative races are probably Lithovores, because their freedom from farming maximizes their early research rate and allows them to build useful populations on "dry" planets and to use no-farming planets as Housing colonies. But Creative + Lithovore is such an expensive race design combination (18 Picks) that the best government they can have is Dictatorship, which means their new colonies are slowed down by a 20% morale penalty until they build Marine Barracks. They are also as slow at production as research races, but have less cash than DemoLith research races to buy things when half built, so their early colonization is the slowest of all (Feudalisms are faster because they get ships at 67% of standard cost).

A quick note on being Creative: non-creatives have to choose between Automated Factories (pretty much an essential tech for any race) and Missile Base (an excellent detterent from attack early on). And some of the other things they miss out on are Fighter Garrison (for Spaceport), Mass Driver (Class 1 Shield is a popular pick) and even the Dauntless Guidance System ... so their missiles are not re-targeted. There are far more benefits to being a Creative that most folk realize.

UniAquaCreLge
This race gambles on getting "wet" planets nearby. If it does not get them, it's weaker than CreLithxxx because on "dry" planets UniAquaCre can't fully exploit its population and and farming advantages until it terraforms (mid-game tech; fairly expensive construction), while CreLithxxx gets a technology lead because it does not need to farm. This race needs to maximize homeworld population and then, if it has "wet" colonies, their population too - a later page will cover population growth techniques. Since it has neither production nor cash bonuses, it should stockpile production in order to build things as soon as possible after the relevant research is completed (another technique that's covered later).
 * Creative [8]: gets all the techs at each level.
 * Unification [6]: farming and production advantages; no morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Aquatic [5]: better farming and higher population capacity, on "wet" planets only.
 * Large Homeworld [1]: use that last pick.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

DemoAquaCre
Another gamble on getting "wet" planets to colonize. This one sacrifices production and farming bonuses in favor of research and cash, so it needs to buy things at the right times. And it must beware of enemy spies, since Democracy is weak in defensive spying operations. If it comes through these difficulties in good shape, its power increases rapidly because it soon reaches the tech levels at which Creatives start to get really useful "bonus" technologies. Then its advantages in research and money allow it to cope fairly easily with the financial burdens of a large fleet and it can get aggressive.
 * Creative [8]: gets all the techs at each level.
 * Democracy [7]: research and cash advantages; no morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Aquatic [5]: better farming and higher population capacity, on "wet" planets only.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

DictAquaSubCreLge
Yet another gamble on getting "wet" worlds to colonize. It is the riskiest of these gambles, because it sacrifices farming, production, research and cash bonuses for the highest long-term population potential. These trade-offs make it a slower starter, so it really does not want early contact and very much prefers a large or huge galaxy with few players. On the other hand it does not need a huge number of colonies, which enables it to delay contact and to switch from colonization to research fairly early. Population-building techniques (covered later) are very important for this race in order to maximize research on the homeworld once it has finished building Colony Ships and Colony Bases.
 * Creative [8]: gets all the techs at each level.
 * Dictatorship [0]: The best government this race can afford, because Creative, Aquatic and Subterranean are expensive choices. No early advantages; morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Aquatic [5]: better farming and higher population capacity.
 * Subterranean [6]: Can build huge populations; even larger on "wet" planets because of Aquatic.
 * Large Homeworld [1]: use the last pick; maximize early homeworld research.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

UniCreLgeRichProd
This avoids the gamble on getting "wet" planets, at the cost of reduced farming efficiency and reduced population capacity on the homeworld (compared with Aquatics). Its industrial advantages help it to colonize faster, but feeding the new colonists without Aquatic's additional farming bonus will reduce its early research. The food problem can be minimized by moving population from the new colonies to the homeworld, but that has lower population capacity than UniAquaCre so UniCreLgeRichProd needs to get a good large planet as early as possible to avoid a slowdown in either research or population growth - getting such a planet often involves killing a Space Monster and the Rich Homeworld helps in building a monster-killing fleet.
 * Creative [8]: gets all the techs at each level.
 * Unification [6]: farming and production advantages; no morale penalty at new colonies.
 * +1 Industry [3]: the homeworld builds Colony Ships and Colony Bases faster, and new colonies get going faster.
 * Rich Homeworld [2]: increasing homeworld production.
 * Large Homeword [1]: this also increases the production level at which pollution starts to bite into production.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

UniCreLgeRichArti
This race sacrifices UniCreLgeRichProd's industrial bonus in favor of faster research, in order to reach as quickly as possible the tech levels at which Creative gets really useful bonus techs; the industrial sacrifice mainly affects new colonies, since the homeworld is Rich. Like UniCreLgeRichProd, it avoids the gamble on getting "wet" planets, at the cost of reduced farming efficiency and reduced population capacity on the homeworld (compared with Aquatics). And it also needs get a good large planet as early as possible, if necessary by killing a Space Monster. Spaceport (increases a colony's tax income by 50% when built) is a very useful early tech for this race, enabling it to compensate for colonies' industrial weakness by buying things when half-built. [The counter-argument in favor of +1 Science over Artifacts is that a home world that's Rich+Large -AND- has Artifacts can only fully benefit from one or the other of those advantages, not both. But +1 Science is empire-wide.]
 * Creative [8]: gets all the techs at each level.
 * Unification [6]: farming and production advantages; no morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Artifacts Homeworld [3]: +2 research per scientist, on the homeworld only. Better than +1 Science [3] for this race, because: the lack of an industrial bonus makes the colonies slow to get into research; being non-Tolerant, this race can't produce flat out on the homeworld, and Artifacts Homeworld maximizes the productivity of the few scientists it has while it's building colonies.
 * Rich Homeworld [2]: increasing homeworld production.
 * Large Homeword [1]: this also increases the production level at which pollution starts to bite into production.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

UniCreProdSci
This race gambles on getting good planets in the home star system -- because your homeworld gets Poor resources. Of course, if this gamble fails, you'll know as soon as the game starts, so you can always begin another game ...

This race's positive picks are:
 * Creative [8]: gets all the techs at each level.
 * Unification [6]: farming and production advantages; no morale penalty at new colonies.
 * +1 Production [3]
 * +1 Research [3]

It uses different negative picks to the other Unification races listed in this guide. Instead of Repulsive, low Ground Combat and low Ship Defense, it goes with Repulsive, low Spying, and Poor Home World. Hey, if you're going to be Repulsive, why weaken your military capability? And while having techs stolen through spying is annoying, Unification government gives defensive spying bonuses, so you'll lose no more than a handful of your techs before you have enough resources to build a few defensive spies and/or upgrade your spying capabilities. Forget offensive spying; you're a research monster, you shouldn't need it.

A possible variation is to drop the Production and Research bonuses and take Subterranean instead. This allows a much bigger population per planet, but that takes time to build up, whereas the +1s give you benefits at the start. Since the biggest weakness of Creative races is often at the start, take Subterranean at your own risk. Note also that, when your research gets to Androids, your non-Subterranean planets get a pop limit that's the same as Subterranean races.

You might also want to drop Repulsive and take other negative picks to get some better Leaders applying to you. But again, they will cost you a fair bit of money early in the game, when you least want to be impeded. As a Creative, you won't want or need to exchange much tech.

Your tactic should be to build colony bases on all useful planets in your home star system before sending out scouts; look for Rich or Ultra-Rich planets over Large or fertile planets, as you will soon have techs to increase population size, and until you do, excess people can be shipped to other planets. If playing Pre-warp, it's a toss-up whether to start your research on Research Lab and Automated Factories, or to go straight to Freighters and Hydroponic Farms to support those colony bases. Feel free to experiment.

UniCreSci2
Another variant of the previous races that trades off production for more empire-wide research. A good Pre-Warp race, as well as 'End Game Perfectionist' build - you'll never feel anxious about research! Unification provides the food needed to have massive pools of researchers as well as grants a production bonus that gets your structures/colony ships built fast. The focus is to leverage your science research to quickly unlock better production bonuses, farming bonuses (to support more researchers) and to get Android workers.
 * Creative [8]
 * Unification [6]
 * Scientific Research +2 [6]
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: (the standard negative picks.)


 * Large Home World [1] (SP variant, though it uses 21 picks so the overall score will be 90%.)

Variant: take Artifact World [3] and +1 Research [3] instead. Faster research initially in the early game, but loses its edge vs starting with +2 Research as your other planets reach their population limits; +2 science is like having a free supercomputer per world, whereas +1 science is like a free research lab.

The idea is to populate all home-system planets as fast as you can, and set up auto-factories, research labs and cloning centers on each... Divert all homeworld population into making colony bases. Turn 1 sell your starbase to gain +200 bc immediately and +1 bc/turn savings on upkeep. Then turn 2 sell the barracks for +30 bc and +1 bc/turn. Try and buy colony bases at close to 50% completion (ie. 1 prod to 2 bc ratio). Before your first tech is even researched, you should have bought your second base. Don't worry about freighters, as starvation never kills off the last pop on a planet.

Sometimes you get offered heroes early game. So if you you don't mind delaying purchase of new colony bases or delaying research/production a little, you may decide to hire a useful hero.

So the early tech goals are research labs > auto factories > freighters > cloning centers and to build those on all planets. Build hydroponic farms to keep as much of your pop on research as possible. Once that's done, switch your pop back to science and research. Pick the planet with the highest mineral resources and have all workers there start building your 1st colony ship. Make a scout to explore all nearby systems in range.

The next research goals is planetary supercomputer. Stockpile each colony's production by assigning 1 worker towards building a colony ship (costs about the same as a SC; minimizes pollution but maxes science); by the time you have unlocked supercomputer, each colony should have enough production to buy one. After that, go for deuterium/tritanium so you can explore even further afield looking for heroes and the best possible location(s) for your 1st interstellar colony(s). About this time you will start having money problems with all those hydro-farms and cloning centers, so research spaceports as needed, or set a planet to 'trade goods'.

Then work up the tech-tree to get robo miner plant (almost doubles production output per worker). While they are building on your planets, research laser cannons. Then put all effort into researching autolab. While working towards that goal, your richest production colony will probably make a colony ship or 2, and overpopulation from cloning centers can be freightered to the new planet. Once unlocked, build an autolab on every planet ASAP, as it bestows an outrageous +30 research.

Now invest 100% into research to get androids as fast as possible and start producing 1 android worker/turn on all planets. Now here's a nifty trick bug... since you didn't mess with taking aquatic or subterranean, your population can stack with androids in a special way. Clear off all colonists from terran, large, or high-resource planets such that only android workers are left, then build more till the android population is maxed-out. Then return the citizens and overpopulate a planet up to 50 pop.

Direct research into the 'chemistry' tech tree for missiles, fuel cells and pollution reduction... at this point setting up treaties, exploring and colonizing planets is the goal. If you are getting messed with by an alien race by now, research assault shuttles. A destroyer with battle pods can fit 3 shuttle bays and pretty much capture any battleship.

After researching atmospheric renewer, your blitz phase vs enemies begins. Pick a high-production planet to make a fleet of escort destroyers loaded with a mix of missiles + assault shuttles and battleships outfitted with battle pods, augmented engines, reinforced hull, class-1 shields, heavy armour, 1 assault shuttle 1 EMG ECCM ARM merculite missile (to disable/capturing enemy battleships), the rest of the space filled with 2-shot MIRV ECCM merculite missiles. Alternatively try class-3 shields and ecm-jammer instead of heavy armour / reinforced hull. Any more than 1 assault shuttle per battleship makes them ill-suited vs space monsters. The augmented engines + emission guidance combo ensures quick capture of enemy ships or star bases, while the mirv missiles take out planetary defenses. Heavy armour + hull + augmented engines ensures you make it to the star base alive. This tactic works for early game domination.

Later on titan class ships with lots of assault shuttles/beam weapons (usually CO neutron blasters & battle scanner or late-game disruptors) may work better vs races with large developed fleets. Such a titan class ship with stasis field/cloaking device can solo the guardian at Orion. If you gain the special Orion techs, protect them at all costs; if other races capture/steal any of those techs your starbase-raiding days will abruptly end.

Expand fast and hard using androids with the goal by mid-late game to unlock deep core mines/galactic unification/advanced city planning. At that point, each planet will have 60 research from the building alone. Then maximize production and terraform each planet, eventually replacing the android workers with android scientists and shipping the unneeded workers off to develop fledgling new worlds (build auto-factory, more worker-droids, robo-miner, core mines, then fill to max-pop with android scientists). If done right, the highest techs can be researched at 1 tech per turn!

UniSubCre
Similar to the UniAquaCreLge build above, though this build sacrifices some farming efficiency for a broader and higher long-term population potential.
 * Creative [8]: gets all the techs at each level.
 * Unification [6]: farming and production advantages; no morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Subterranean [6]: Can build huge populations.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

DictSubCreProd2
Like the DictAquaSubCreLge build, this build focuses more on long-term potential, meaning that players may initially want to avoid early contact with other civilizations and focus more on internal development over rapid colonization. However, its focus on population potential isn't as immediate. Instead, it focuses more on production capabilities, though unlike the UniSubCre build above, it substitutes Unification for Dictatorship and +2 Production so that it can benefit from morale-boosting technologies. While a Unification government does provide a +50% bonus to food and production, which goes up to +100% if Galactic Unification is researched, colonies under an Imperium have the potential to gain +100% or more in bonuses in food, production, research, AND income through morale-boosting technologies, buildings, and leaders.
 * Creative [8]: gets all the techs at each level.
 * Dictatorship [0]: Chosen over Unification because it can benefit from morale-boosting technology.
 * Subterranean [6]: Can build huge populations.
 * +2 Production [6]: Helps make up for the loss of Unification's +50% production bonus, especially when paired with morale-boosting tech.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

CreLithLge
Gets faster early research than non-Lithovores because it needs no farmers. But it has to turn this faster early research into longer-term advantages, usually via Creative's "bonus" techs, and then attack as soon as possible; otherwise the non-Creative races and the non-Lithovore Creatives will grow larger populations and out-research and out-produce it. This race has 1 unused Pick, but this can't be used without sacrificing something that's useful. Use population growth techniques to maximize early homeworld research.
 * Creative [8]: gets all the techs at each level.
 * Lithovore [10]: no farmers means more scientists.
 * Dictatorship [0]: The best government this race can afford, because Lithovore is an expensive choice. No early advantages; morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Large Homeworld [1]: maximize early homeworld research.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

CreLithRich
Another Creative race that does not gamble on "wet" planets. Gets faster production and colonization than CreLithLge because it takes Rich homeworld rather than Large Homeworld. But that means this race needs to get some high capacity planets early to grow its population. If all the good ones are guarded by Space Monsters, it should research monster-killing techs (covered later) as fast as possible then use the Rich Homeworld bonus to crank out the ships (stockpiling production is essential here too). Like other Creative races, it has to attack as soon as it can build decent warships, otherwise races that build larger populations will out-research and out-produce.
 * Creative [8]: gets all the techs at each level.
 * Lithovore [10]: no farmers means more scientists.
 * Dictatorship [0]: The best government this race can afford, because Lithovore is an expensive choice. No early advantages; morale penalty at new colonies.
 * Rich Homeworld [2]: maximize early homeworld production.
 * Repulsive [-6], -10 Ground combat [-2], -20 Ship Defense [-2]: the standard negative picks, to get the total down to / below 10.

Blitz races
This section is about "glory or death". You either attack early and conquer, gaining advantage through assimilated alien homeworlds, or you risk falling seriously behind. The blitz races described here are strongest in densely packed galaxies, where several enemy empires are fairly close. They are risky in more disparate galaxies, as the longer it takes for you to reach your victim the longer he has to build better defenses. They are usually hopeless if you cannot conquer at least one (or more) enemy homeworld(s) in the early game and thereby gain a meaningful industrial or technological advantage.

Blitzers often profit the most from early-game military advantages gained from Racial Picks or through research; they rely on successful conquest to offset not taking other Picks or researching technologies that give more long-term benefits. Conquered and assimilated alien populations bestow the benefits of their respective Racial Picks on their new ruler (note: Feudal research penalty always applies even against assimilated alien research bonuses). Thus the successful blitzer makes the alien racial strengths his own.

Blitzers' chances are best in Advanced Start games and worst in pre-Warp games:
 * In pre-Warp games they have to research all the basic space travel and combat techs, and most blitz races are inherently weak(er) in research. Advanced Start and Average Tech games give them those techs for free (these are all "general" tech levels, i.e. even Uncreatives get all the techs in these levels).
 * The free Battleship all races get in Advanced Start games is also a big help to blitz races, as they've often sacrificed production as well as research to gain combat bonuses. Indeed, certain blitz races might only be viable in Advanced Start games.

Warlord
You simply gotta have this. The Warlord trait [4 Picks] was made for blitzing: it gives nice exp bonuses for your ships, which essentially translates into combat bonuses, plus allows large fleets without building starbases, fleets that grow in size with each subsequent conquest. The Ship Attack and Ship Defense bonuses alone would cost 5 Picks if chosen separately (but keep in mind that the warlord bonus is smaller, unless the crew is Ultra Elite). Your ships built without a Space Academy have "normal" crews rather than "green", very useful especially when considering you will likely be facing "green" enemies. But even more importantly the extra command points added with each new conquest enable Warlord races to rapidly expand their fleet using the fastest way of getting firepower into space, which is a lot of small ships. A small horde of Destroyers armed with fighters or missiles early on while your neighbor is still weak is quite fearsome. Overwhelm your enemy through sheer numbers and firepower. Indeed, this balloon-like fleet expansion and time-advantage over the need to build starbases is so great, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say non-Warlords are by definition no longer (effective) blitzers.

Thus, now that we have established that irrefutable fact, blitz races can be divided into 2 main groups, Telepathic and non-Telepathic, as outlined hereafter.

Telepathic Blitzers
For Telepathic races the name of the game is mind control, effectively making the need for invasion troops redundant. You will need a Cruiser or larger warship to mind control an enemy planet (another reason why Advanced Start is good for blitzers). However mind control will not work if the target planet has either a telepathic population or a telepathic leader. Mind control also brings the added bonus of being able to instantly use a captured enemy ship or starbase while still in combat. Mind control has several advantages over more conventional planetary invasion troops:
 * There's no need to spend construction effort and Command Points on Troop Transports.
 * Command Points are critical, as early empires have very few Command Points and can be ruined financially if they try to operate invasion fleets in excess of their Command Points.
 * Troop Transports don't have extended fuel tanks. Not needing them means you don't suffer from this.
 * Construction effort is critical: your own planets can concentrate on research or other beneficial production instead of supporting your military troop buildup.
 * You spend the picks and research you would otherwise need for effective assault troops on other things. Win/win.
 * The conquered colonists assimilate instantly: they work, farm and research at 100% immedately, so they're an asset; they won't rebel, so the telpathic blitzer can build defenses immediately and let its ships move on to new conquests.

Common racial Picks to offset the cost of Telepathic are:
 * -10 Ground [-2]: mostly you have little need for troops (notable exception: capturing enemy ships/starbases), unless there is another telepathic race.
 * Low-G [-5]: same as for -ground, you will likely not need to invade when you can mind control. As soon as you assimilate an enemy race, you can use their colonists without the low-grav penalty anyways.
 * -10 spying [-3]: A pick that is (largely) offset by the telepathic spying bonus.

TeleUniLrgArtiWar
This race gets a research bonus on their homeworld, which is leveraged using Large Homeworld. Unification also grants farm and production bonuses. Warlord + Telepathic means the first alien race you encounter is likely toast. This biggest downside of this race is being forced to make some painful early tech choices that will affect your blitz strategy (fighters vs reinforced hull, tritanium armor vs deuterium fuel cells, fusion drive vs augmented engines). However, this is a race that can still potentially pull off a blitz strategy in a Pre-Warp game.
 * Telepathic [6]: mind control / diplomacy bonus / spying bonus
 * Unification [6]: farming and production advantages; no morale penalty at new colonies (captured, of course; blitzers don't build colonies!).
 * Warlord [4]: more skillful warship crews; extra command points and your CP limit increases automatically with each conquest.
 * Artifacts World [3]: gives your scientists +2 research bonus on your homeworld.
 * Large Homeworld [1]: extra space on your homeworld for extra scientists.
 * Low Gravity [-5], -10 Spying [-3] and -10 Ground Combat [-2]: you need 10 negative picks with this race to balance the positive ones. You should be working towards assimilating new colonists by mind-control conquest early on, so both Low Grav and negative Ground Combat are fairly painless choices for this build. The spying penalty is offset by both the Telepathic and Unification spying bonuses.

Note: There is a variant of this race that substitutes Trans Dimensional for Warlord + Large Homeworld. Although their ships and fighters are faster, the CP limit can be problematic early on, since it will only increase at the pace that new space stations can be built.

TeleDictCreaRichWar
Like other creative races listed elsewhere this race is good for all-around strategy, while the Telepathic, Warlord and Creative traits make it an excellent blitzer as well. You do not need to waste production on Transports or worry about choosing between technologies. This means almost from the get-go you will have Fighter Bays, Tritanium Armor and your ships get extra experience bonuses from Warlord to boot. Not to mention Dauntless Guidance System (good for blitzing using missiles).
 * Telepathic [6]: mind control / diplomacy bonus / spying bonus
 * Dictatorship [0]: advantage in defensive spying, Free pick with the ability for extra command points. Imperium effectively grants a 20% morale bonus to all planets with Marine Barracks. Also enables an extra global 10% morale bonus from the Psionic tech.
 * Creative [8]: You get all the best blitzing techs from your normal research pathc anyways, and you get to leverage that. "Have tech - will blitz" should be your motto.
 * Warlord [4]: more skillful warship crews; extra command points and your CP limit increases automatically with each conquest.
 * Rich Homeworld [2]: helps to build ships faster, and use up those last 2 picks.
 * -10 Ground [-2]: little need for ground units, other than ship capture.
 * Low-G [-5]: Gravity generator tech eventually available for all creatives.
 * -10 spying [-3]: nullified by both dictatorship and telepathic.

TeleDictTolWar
Being Tolerant gives this race a lot of options, as it isn't hampered by pollution. The Warlord/Telepathic bonuses allows you to expand your fleet as you quickly conquer new territory.
 * Telepathic [6]: mind control / diplomacy bonus / spying bonus
 * Dictatorship [0]: doesn't gimp our research like Feudal would, otherwise we are taking it for the low cost.
 * Tolerant [10]: no pollution. Throw every available colonist into cranking out warships.
 * Warlord [4]: combat and CP bonuses.
 * You need to take 10 negative picks with this race. Use the same 3 negative traits recommended for the previous race (for the same reasons).

TeleDictLrgTransStealthWar
This race allows you to combine mind control with a large fleet of invisible, speedy ships to weave a cunning strategy of stealth and uncertainty. Remember, stealth-ships doesn't work on troop transports, but because of mind-control you don't need them! Where will your ships attack next? Where is your fleet? Which of your planets are undefended? Your opponent will only find out the answers to those questions the hard way. Transdimensional allows you to even wage an aggressive war of conquest during a Hyperspace Flux, while the enemy fleet is stuck in-system! You will need the racial bonuses of your opponent to boost your economy and research, once you have assimilated his planets.
 * Telepathic [6]: mind control / diplomacy bonus / spying bonus
 * Dictatorship [0]: doesn't gimp our research like Feudal would, otherwise we are taking it for the low cost.
 * Stealthy Ships [4]: all military ships are invisible on the galaxy map, until they arrive in an enemy-occupied system. Doesn't work on your colony ships, outpost ships, or troop transports.
 * Transdimensional [5]: all ships +2 speed on the galaxy map, +5 speed in battle; ships unaffected by Hyperspace Flux.
 * Warlord [4]: combat and CP bonuses.
 * Large Homeworld [1]: use the last pick.
 * You need to take 10 negative picks with this race. Use the same 3 negative traits already recommended.

TeleAquaFeuLrgFoodWar
This race has some interesting strengths: 2/3 ship production cost, increased combat and CP bonuses, and gets the telepathic bonuses for diplomacy/spying/mind-control. As well, each citizen generates extra food, both from being Aquatic and +1 Farming, which will allow us to move a lot of population into either research or production as needed. Being Aquatic auto-upgrades any Terran-class planets to Gaia-class, which fits perfectly with this strategy since you will soon be seeking out and capturing enemy homeworlds anyways. You need to concentrate on a fighter-carrier research strategy before your neighbor can put up a strong defense. The major downside is the 50% research penalty, making a lot of mid-level techs hard to get to until we have Planetary Supercomputer. Thus it works best in an Advanced Start game where you begin with a battleship and can start your first war pronto.
 * Telepathic [6]: mind control planet capture and spying bonuses.
 * Feudal [-4]: ship construction costs 67%; research per scientist 50%.
 * Aquatic [5]: increases food production and max population on swamp/tundra/terran/ocean worlds.
 * Warlord [4]: increased combat experience bonuses and CP increase automatically with each.
 * +1 Farming []: generates even more food per farmer, so you can move pop to workers or scientists as needed.
 * Large Homeworld [1]: Use that extra pick to leverage your Gaia homeworld bonuses.
 * Repulsive [-6]: we conquer our neighbors, so who needs diplomacy?

Non-Telepathic Blitzers
A very real problem early on for non-telepathic blitzers is that, unlike colony ships and outpost ships, your troop transports don't get Extended Fuel Tanks ever. This means that Deuterium Fuel Cells is almost an obligatory tech to research for effective blitzing. Even so, you might often need to establish a friendly outpost in the most distant hostile systems first before you can send in your troop transports. Defending such an outpost as your transports are en route can majorly slow down your expansion (as well as invite enemy counter-attack), and waste a lot of precious turns in what might initially seem to be an easily winnable war. If the system you are trying to conquer only has a single planet and your transports happen to be out of reach... U R screwed.

A non-Telepathic blitz race must be able to find a good, warlike way of using the 6 Picks saved from not choosing Telepathic. Otherwise you would be better served either going with a telepathic race, or not blitzing at all.

CreaFeudTolRich
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FeudTolProd2War
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Starship Troopers
This race's "warships" carry nothing but marines - made tough by growing up on a High-G World. 4 empty Frigates (no weapons, just grunts; the frigates close in faster that way) board a star base and capture it. The Troop Transports carry more High-G tough guys who capture the enemy colony. This does not work if the enemy has more than just a starbase, as ship to ship boarding is only possible when the target is immobilized and planet-based defenses can't be boarded at all. Depending on the situation to continue the boarding strategy you would need to bring some firepower/assault shuttles/tractor beams/transporters.
 * High-G World [6]: tougher marines
 * Warlord [4]: more skillful warship crews; extra command points (probably only 2 extra, as this race probably only has its homeworld before it attacks).
 * Unification [6]: farming and production advantages; no morale penalty at captured colonies.
 * Rich Homeworld [2]: build warships faster.
 * Large Homeworld [1]: use the last pick.

LithFeudWarTol
Feudal + Warlord can produce a fleet very fast, and replace destroyed ships very fast; but it needs to win quickly, otherwise Feudal's poor research (50% of normal) will be fatal. For example:
 * Feudal [-4]: ship construction costs 67%; research per scientist 50%.
 * Warlord [4]: more skilful warship crews; extra command points (probably only 2 extra, as this race probably only has its homeworld before it attacks).
 * Tolerant [10]: can build flat out because no pollution.
 * Lithovore: [10]: no farmers needed. Helps in researching the basic warship technologies, which come quickly enough despite Feudal's inefficient research But it will wait a long time for 2nd-level techologies, so it must attack as soon as possible.

Note: Impossible race to create without the 14 race picks command line switch (aka cheating) as it requires 14 negative picks.