Galactic Civilizations II: worse than it looks

Hateful, threatening, sinister and not in the least bit thankful; it makes you wonder why humans were stupid enough to give others hyperdrive. The apes should have taken over if this was what we knew we were going to unleash.

After the jump is a galaxy full of jerks

But we don’t know that yet. Instead, it’s full of stars and devoid of anything but us as far as we can see. You only have a colonizer, an explorer and your home world and can see as far as the fringes of your puny influence; just a tiny spot on the map. It’s the feeling that gets to me; the feel of all that’s unseen that’s waiting there, the possibility of something amazing waiting to be found, the majesty of the unknown.

Will you find a module of some sort just outside your space? How about an anomaly that grants you a quarter of ten thousand, billion credits or some repulsive species different from your own? Or to top all that crap, a beautiful, sexy, unbelievably gorgeous planet that’s 20+? Class 26 even? You better believe it’s possible! Hell, anything is possible in the uncharted waters of space.

At the start of Galactic Civilizations II, I always prefer the corner as my starting location. When war comes, that’s less fronts I’ll have to manage and I have less directions to search about. If I were in the middle, I could miss a sweet planet that was just a sector away and way superior to the ones I already found by going in the opposite direction.

On the other hand, if some loathsome alien is right next door, that can shut down any far-reaching colonization options in a heartbeat. They may nab planets farther away than me and limit me to those that are only close, thus reducing any chance of expanding my range. One less direction we can expand towards and much more effective in closing me off from the expansionary phase.

All it took was a month (1 turn/1 week) and I’ve already found two modules close to each other, two class 10 planets (No 20+ but better than the crap 4 they give you at the start), a 2,500 bc anomaly and a repulsive alien species beside my borders. Or their borders near mine. And it’s another month in until I met their leader, handsome face to ugly mug.

It’s kind of hard to talk smack and mess with the kids on the block when they surround your little kingdom. I would like to take back what I said about the corner being good as now, the corner is shit. Not even half the year has passed and I’ve met six of the bastards personally. Either I get out fast or I’m stuck in this dead-end corner. What I thought was a boon can soon turn into my noose. And to show you want I mean:

That’s not including the Dominion of Korx or the Torian Confederation, whom I still cannot see. This can’t get any worse as all the planets nearby are colonized except for the scraps, alien foreigners are on our borders (Saving some adjectives) and even worse, the farther planets are being colonized. If I can’t nab an outpost on the rim of my space or somewhere decently far, I don’t have the slightest chance to expand further. It’s a full set with everybody short of the Drath and Drengins. Thank God on the latter and could care less about the former.

With the tight, close borders, this means that I need to make friends with these…things. As much as I despise them, I know when one has to swallow their pride and agree to some trade and make nice-nice until some throats can be slit. Admittedly, it’s always nice to be pals with your neighbors as its one less monkey on your back for the time being. No strategy here; the Altarians for being like us in appearance and whoever doesn’t seem too icky. Exceptions may be made on how they feel towards us and their morals, as filthy as they may be. Speaking of morals, I just want to post these:

So far I may seem like a hateful, spiteful bastard who hates anything non-Canadian and alien. Know what? It’s both true and untrue. The first one is about backwater aliens being greedy and hogging the land. So in a shocking twist of kindness, I give them all prime slave jobs in my factories. That’s kindness right there, jobs, despite the game considering it evil.

The second one is a Class 7 and deals not with slaves, but my own people and a Precursor Artifact. Quite obviously, the bonus comes first and for another 4%, I can not limit it to volunteers but to everything living and breathing. It’s a dangerous galaxy full of disgusting aliens. I don’t discriminate on this one, as everybody is fair game.

These two planets are a ways away from my home world, and that class 10 is being renamed to Bangkok if I can expand my range enough to reach that small cluster at the far reaches of this cesspool of a galaxy.

This game is such a bitch.

Next episode: grace under pressure or a lack thereof
Click here for the previous Galactic Civilizations II entry

Thrawn plays last gen games for cheap instead of coughing up an extra fiver for recent gen ones. In his defense, he’s simply a cheapskate who scores a decent find.