THIS WAS A BLOWOUT. I mean, it wasn't even close. Either the Pan Galactic Trade Corp may need some nerfing in the next patch, or I was really lucky to find the two good planets. I won the 200-turn game in less than 90 minutes with 2,014,000 points, and the 2nd-place race, The Hoon Yon, had only 650,000 points or so. In comparison, I had reached 650,000 myself somewhere between turn 80 and turn 120 (I stopped checking once I broke 500,000, so I'm not sure).
Anyway, I decided to try one of the alternate human races, so I chose the Pan Galactic Trade Corporation. This human faction gets victory points in only one way: dividends x80. The trick is figuring out how to make profits when you start out with nothing but 10,000 credits, a mother ark, and three corvettes. Since the mother ark can move anywhere, it is almost unkillable until the late game.
I decided I needed to do three things to survive. Most importantly, I needed trade stations and allies. The four-ship fleet's maintenance is $130/turn, so there's a slow burn of credits as one tries to establish a financial base. I considered the third goal less important, but at least in this game it was the cause of my eventual victory: I wanted to find at least one habitable or ideal planet and establish it as a base.
Finding allies and building trade stations was easy. Since the mother ark can move anywhere, I found the Teyans and Qa Qa next to each other. I established trade stations at their capital planets, but they both asked for an extra $1000, so each trade station ended up costing $2000. I hoped that I'd make it back as their capitals grew. Both races also agreed to 100-turn non-aggression pacts. I think it was because I appeared puny and weak at the time.
Since I knew that both races start with three ark ships, and since I was in between them, I deduced that if I moved perpendicular to them, I'd have the best chance at finding habitable or ideal planets for my third goal of a safe base.
As luck would have it, I found one habitable and one ideal planet tucked away at the bottom edge of the map, with a dust cloud bordering them! I colonized them with the mother ark right away, built mines on them, and let their population grow slowly while I continued to explore west. Since I had 100-turn non-aggression pacts, I knew the planets were pretty safe. I was still losing money, but only a trickle.
I ran into the Cryons west of my new planets. At first, they wouldn't negotiate a non-aggression pact of any length. This worried me, because they would be able to annihilate my newborn colonies. So, I had figure out something to make them like me a little. I had explored quite a bit of the Teyan and Qa Qa territories, so I decided to try trading my map info to them. They gave me a pretty rich deal... something like $6000 over 15 turns, I think? I don't remember the exact numbers. However, the effect on my victory points was tremendous. When I checked a few turns later, I had something like 80,000 points, and I wasn't even at turn 25 yet!
Note: I think the game's diplomacy code caused the Qa Qa to get angry with me because I revealed their location to the Cryon. Their opinion of me dropped from friendly to indifferent after I traded my map info. I didn't care, of course, having 75 more turns of safety due to the early treaty.
At some point before turn 50, my ideal planet reached 7 population, so I was able to build a shipyard, and then a couple of transports. I moved 2 of the 4 population on the habitable planet to the ideal planet so it could produce population faster, and then when it reached 13, I moved 6 back to the habitable planet so I could build a research station there. As the population on the two planets grew, income grew, so my points grew. I invested more of the returns back into more trade stations. I was also able to accumulate enough money to bribe the Cryons into a 20-turn non-aggression pact.
I decided to focus research on construction because the ideal planet also had an asteroid belt and an Oort cloud. If I could get those built, I'd make lots of profit (and lots of points). I'd also get cheaper ships, so I'd be able to defend the planet. I built a second research station and then upgraded it to defense research, since I wanted heavy missiles to prevent a Cryon attack after the non-aggression pact ended.
In the meantime, my mother ark continued to push outward. I established contact with the Jellun and the Klurgu. Surprisingly, the Klurgu accepted a 100-turn non-aggression pact with no strings attached. The Jellun wanted some money, but they took one as well. I decided I wanted a third planet in the core of the galaxy, so I could maintain diplomatic contact with the Jellun after moving my mother ark (you lose diplomatic contact with a race when no planets are in navigation range of your empire).
This third planet was irradiated, but it was rich and contained an asteroid belt. I figured I could make lots of money there, too, and with the population of my first two planets at healthy levels (20+ on habitable and 30+ on ideal), I figured I could start working on the defenses for it. Unfortunately, I did not time the colony's founding well.
The Cryons attacked the third planet as soon as our non-aggression pact expired. They bombarded it, wiping out the one heavy missile I had managed to build, plus the colony itself, of course...
This was a sad event, but by this point (turn 90?) I had well over 500,000 points and was a couple of turns away from Cruiser II technology, and both of my planets had at least fifteen heavy missiles and ten light missiles, so I did not expect the Cryons to attack my main planets.
Eventually, I had a fleet of six Cruiser IIs and two Dreadnaughts. I took it to their nearest large colony, took out the militia and missile, and negotiated a peace treaty. The Cryons had made the mistake of getting into three wars simultaneously, so I assumed (correctly) that they would not defend their border with me as strongly since I was comparatively weak.
From this point at around turn 120, I knew I could not lose. There was no way for any race to catch up. My two planets, with upgraded mines and decent terraforming, along with my various trade stations, were producing enough credits that I soon reached one million points, then broke two million points on turn 200. The last 80 turns were pretty much just clicking end turn, and occasionally building more heavy missiles, cruisers, and dreadnaughts when the Jellun and Qa Qa declared war near the end of the game. I did try another attempt at a third colony, but I was only able to build 4 heavy missiles on it before the Qa Qa sent a large navy there on turn 199 and annihilated it.
LESSONS:
- PGTC needs nerfing! Maybe a 40x multiplier instead of 80x? Or 60x, if I was just lucky with finding two good planets and negotiating 100-turn non-aggression pacts?
- My trade stations on foreign planets aren't as profitable as I expected, although they definitely help as long as they're on large planets.
- When defenses are good, go ahead and let other races establish trade stations on my own planets, because the guaranteed $100/turn is more reliable than one of my trade stations on their planets, and the +1/happiness per foreign trade station helps offset the pollution unhappiness from upgraded mines.
- Explore as far as possible, because as one finds out about more races, one also finds out who is fighting whom, which is pretty useful intelligence when planning raids and planetary defenses.
