Starting is the hardest part at higher difficulties...

[Dragon]

I'm finding that the first few minutes, maybe 30 minutes or so, of a game are the hardest of the game.  After I have taken a couple planets the game gets a lot easier, and tends to level off, never getting anywhere close to as hard as it was in the first hour.  But slowing down and lagging, because the number of ships in game are going up up up.....

Are there any tips to make starting easier?  Or specific AI types that are easy at the start, but harder later on?

[superking]

I cant see you are finding the begining of the game difficult, can you elaborate on your problems?

just putting your factory rally points as free range defender so all your ships come out ready for battle virtually automates defence. building 15-20 MK I mrls turrets around each wormhole and a few individual turrets around out of the way mines ensures your homeworld is fairly inpregniable to MK I waves. taking a planet next to you is as simple as piling all the boys into a transport, flying over, unloading over the command station, popping it, then loading back up and flying back to your planet to defend the wormhole against the now freed ships, takes a matter of minutes and then the planet is pretty much empty.

[Dragon]

Well, pretty much, I take the planet next to me, and then I get hit by the first wave, which is ~500-1000 ships.  Which swamps my defenses.  On 8.3 or higher, that first wave normally sweeps through my ships and turrets, and kills me.  Another time I took two planets before getting hit by the first wave, and that was enough to make the 500-1000 ships be mark II instead of mark I.  That bowled me over crazy fast.

On 8.0, I was able to hold out long enough to build up some more ships, and then after I took a few more planets, the rest of the game was suddenly very easy.  For the most part, the only way I was able to survive waves in the 8.0 game was to build spider turrets, and play a game of "chase after the rebuilt command station" by making a bunch of colony ships and just rebuilding the station on the other side of the system whenever it blew up.  That kept them away from my home world, and after a while the spider turrets had them all frozen in place.

I have the factory rally point at a wormhole, and in FRD mode.  I normally just make tractor turrets, and make ships instead of gun turrets.  Are the MLRS or basic turrets stronger then basic fleet ships?  If so, I'll make them instead.  Maybe I should research Grav turrets right from the start, instead of using tractor turrets....

But I still find it odd that the start would be so much harder then the rest of the game.  First 30 minutes of 8.0..  Super hard....  Most recent hour of same 8.0 game...  Super easy, just steamrolling the AI.

[superking]

turrets are more efficent than units, and each turret hardcounters certain unit types (eg, laser turrets 1 shot spacetanks). beam turrets are very efficent indeed, at most things. if you are getting taken down by the first wave then you are expanding too quickly, take time to consilidate and fortify each holding.

[Spikey00]

I agree with the OP; it's usually most difficult, or rather, less progressive at the start of a game than it is mid or late game--however, I do find it the most interesting part of the game to be honest.

[Dragon]

Taking a single planet before the first wave is expanding too quickly?  Heh, here I was thinking I needed to expand faster, so as to create a larger buffer zone between my home system and the ai.  And also to create more resources...

So I should wait until after the first wave to take my first system?

[superking]

at low AIP ai buildup is absolutely trivial so you can afford to take your time. I dont tend to move out of my home system until I have 60+ turrets up, a flagship and 300-400 ships. then I take a number of systems I have scouted in rapid succession and use those in turn to hit data centers as quick as possible. by keeping AIP low and letting it stay up as little as possible, AI reinforcement is non-existant and waves tiny.

[Dragon]

Hummmm.....  I'll have to try that.  For some reason, in all the games I have played, the Data Centers have always been many many jumps away from my home system though, I don't think I have ever found one sooner then 3-4 hours into the game...

Does playing with multiple people, or with multiple starting planets change this strategy at all?

[Frozen Critical]

Wat

The Starting is Extreme Fudging Easy , i don't see why you get problems at the start , it gets harder when the game leaves the Early game state

[Dragon]

I guess I'm just not all that great at defense or something....  *shrug*

[NickAragua]

The Starting is Extreme Fudging Easy , i don't see why you get problems at the start , it gets harder when the game leaves the Early game state

Pay attention, the OP is playing at difficulty 8.3. It's a little harder than diff 4 milk runs.

My advice would be to make heavy use of turrets - tractor beam + basic + mlrs will take care of your wormholes while the AI is still at mark I waves. If the AI is using ships immune to tractor beams, then you'll need to invest in grav turrets.

[Frozen Critical]

DIFF 4 IS FOR TINY COWARDS

REAL MEN PLAY DIFF 9

[Sunshine!]

DIFF 4 IS FOR TINY COWARDS

REAL MEN PLAY DIFF 9

If you're so awesome at this, why not suggest a strategy instead of just flapping your lips at us?

[Spikey00]

(*Giggles in the corner*)

[Tusoalsob]

At harder Starting positions it mostly halps to kill every jump gate expect 1 aroud you planets so you know ehere the first waves are coming from. Then i love to get the havybeam turrets and some emp mines.

The set up is then that the EMp mines buy the time for the turrets to take down huge potions of the incomming ships. The other turrets are reserched after i see what starting ships the Ai's have so i know what will be coming through the wormholes.

Ah use the Rane on the turrets so some Ai ships can't shoot at then but they can shoot at the EMpd ships the tractor beamy have some nice HP, so then wil live a bit at the portal, perhaps in a very hard wve i send 1-2 Shild gens over to protect the tractor turrets with some bonus hp and give the wave something toi shoot at, so my turrets will live a bit longer. But don't use the gen from you home station for it ^^.

Then perhaps don't build to many ships at the start that cost to mutsh ress ( figates / Starships ) you will need some but not all of them. So a bit more fighters and bombers to kil figates and bombers are better, the AI fighter will have problem with you forcefield from you home station bt a 500 Bomber wave can be realy hard to counter with 150 Frigates build