What's with Altarians in Milky Way campaign?

from GalCiv3 Forums

Hi, this is my first post. I've been playing GalCiv3 for a couple of weeks. Thoroughly enjoying it and discovering the depth, scope and complexity as I work through  the early campaigns. I'm a veteran strategy gamer and it's great to find a new (to me) turn-based 4X game that challenges me.

BUT... what's with the overwhelming power and erratic behaviour of the Altarian Resistance in the Milky Way campaign? No matter what I do, at whatever level of difficulty, pretty soon after I encounter them they steamroller me and I've nothing to counter them with. Their fleets are far, far superior to anything I can produce, and their attitude towards me makes no real sense. Cordial, even warm, to begin with, then out of the blue they tell me I'm ripe for conquest or I've done something to upset them. Then a couple more demands for tribute or similar, and no matter how I respond then they declare war. 

It's happened three times consecutively now. They are absolutely mighty and once they decide to crush me I'm crushed. 

Kind've a gamebreaker, really. Would love to find a way around this. Maybe I should just move on to a different campaign but I'm stubborn and want to see this one through. I don't object to the Alts being a galactic superpower, it's more the irrational behaviour that bothers me, leading them every time to wreck my game. Diplomacy (which does seem a somewhat limited/simplistic, potentially interesting but under-developed feature in the game overall) and negotiation go nowhere. I'm stumped. 

36,097 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Make a cargo ship design full of guns (Kinetics as you get the most on, requires the first military tech). Have a dedicated shipyard pumping them out constantly. Dock them forget about them, they wont cost you much to maintain. That will or should negate the ripe for conquest (We have more total attack power on our ships than you).

All ways try to take thier credits in trade when ever you can, will limit what they rush/upgrade.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Horemvore, that's an interesting workaround. As I'm new to the game I haven't even looked at ship design. I'll give that a go. Thank you.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Finally winning my Milky Way campaign game against the Altarians on Normal difficulty ... I had the same problem as you, Altarians would always be far too strong and crush me ... but then I got better at the game and I strategically tried to Ally with them early, and made sure I always had a decent military.

 

Milky Way campaign kind've sucks as it's missing most of the DLC features of the base game, and seems to be kind've slow ... gonna be happy to complete it in the next few hours  :)

 

 

 

 

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting skywalkerhogie, reply 3

I had the same problem as you, Altarians would always be far too strong and crush me ... but then I got better at the game and I strategically tried to Ally with them early,  
End of skywalkerhogie's quote


How did you ally with them? I can't see an option other than to build up Diplomacy research to strategic alliances, which is a long long process. I've never got that far.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Try going to the diplomacy screen and finding out what is causing them to hate you early on, and do whatever you can to avoid conflict.  Give them gifts, don't be afraid to give them tech etc when they ask.  Diplomacy techs are important, as well as military tech ... specialist in Beam Weapons initially since Elerium is so plentiful on the map (but don't forget to research the bigger ship hulls and logistics (bigger fleet sizes) from the engineering tech tree).

 

Another tip would be in the first turn to go to the "govern" screen and move the slider to 50/50 research/manufacturing ... you don't need to care about $ (it is more important in the full game with all the DLC ... but not for this scenario) ... this should hopefully give you a boost early on to have something of value that can be used to trade and keep enemies happy  :)

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting tinmash, reply 4

How did you ally with them?
End of tinmash's quote

The Altarians are very sensitive to your Ideology.  If you're not Benevolent, it will take some work.  Trade with them ASAP, which will help your diplomatic status.  Trade techs whenever you can.

If in mid-game and you're still not buddies, try to set up a war between them and the Iridians.  They'll beat on each other for the rest of eternity.

In ship research, specialize in SPEED.  Speed is victory.