Stellaris: New Paradox Sci Fi Grand Strategy

[Dramatist]

I have been going along steadily with my first real game. I’m playing as humanity, trying to get along with most of the other races in the galaxy and just growing in empire size and tech.

There’s a Warmongering neighbor, but they are boxed in by me and another empire that’s friendly to me and I’m outgrowing them so whenever they decide to go to war I’m not too worried.

I had a colony become unsatisfied with my rule but got them back in line quickly after watching some YouTube tutorials. There are a couple of systems in my space that have hostile alien “somethings” that are way too strong for my fleets to engage yet. I’m slowly researching ship and weapons tech to engage them eventually.

I noticed this morning that my home world can ascend a level now. Although I’m not sure what this means.

I’m having fun.


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[Kraken]

Thanks to an event that didn't go my way, one of my minor colonies that had no defenses got overrun with mutant bad guys. Two other worlds in the same system have armies. How can I move those armies to retake the planet? I don't have transport technology (assuming that's a thing) and the button to deploy armies is grayed out. Do I just have to let that loss fester until I gain invasion tech? And how do I get transports? I'm in the mid-game with no hint that the tech is coming, if I indeed do need a tech to do that.

Each ground army already comes with their own transport ship. So if you embark them from the surface, then a transport ship containing the newly-embarked army will pop up automatically in orbit. Or if you click the Recruit button from your planet's Armies tab, newly-constructed armies will form into an orbital fleet. You'll see this shown and explained at the 7:29 mark in the ColorsFade Gaming Stellaris Newbie Tutorial for WAR I linked earlier. Though I would strongly recommend watching that video in its entirety from start to finish if you've been playing peacefully for the most part.

Also keep in mind, transport ships are essentially floating tin cans and tend to be incredibly vulnerable while in orbit. So, do be sure to clear a suitable path for them, and keep them defended with a sufficient military escort.

One other useful tip about your transport ships: if you set their fleet stance to Aggressive, then they will automatically follow friendly military fleets around, and automatically invade hostile planets if their odds of success are favourable. So, if you've already cleared a path for them and have a military fleet orbiting the planet you wish to invade, this can ease the process of otherwise micromanaging them.

I did watch that whole video the first time around, but my memory doesn't work so well when a lot of information gets presented at once. I'll review it before I play again tonight. For the moment I'm just glad to know that there's a way to recapture the planet. I do have a bigass fleet in orbit already so I just need to figure out the "embark" business.

[Kraken]

I finally figured out armies. I hadn't realized I couldn't mobilize my garrisons.

It's a good thing I did, because my neighbor is acting unfriendly and his force is superior to mine. I have a feeling I'm going to learn a lot about combat pretty soon.

[Dramatist]

I washed out in my first game about 80 years in when two border empires next to mine declared war on me together from both ends of my empire and had vastly superior forces compared to mine even though the diplomatic screen said we were equivalent and my overall score was higher.

I started playing a different empire and I suppose I’ll pay more attention to defense prep this time.


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[Anonymous Bosch]

I washed out in my first game about 80 years in when two border empires next to mine declared war on me together from both ends of my empire and had vastly superior forces compared to mine even though the diplomatic screen said we were equivalent and my overall score was higher.

I started playing a different empire and I suppose I’ll pay more attention to defense prep this time.

[Anonymous Bosch]

BTW, for an easier learning experience, I'd suggest using these Game Settings for your learning-the-ropes games (ignore any settings that you do not see or do not apply, as they're likely related to DLC):

Galaxy Size	Tiny (200 Stars)
Galaxy Shape	Elliptical
AI Empires	2
Advanced AI Starts	0
Fallen Empires	1
Marauder Empires	1
Tech/Tradition Cost	1x
Habitable Worlds	1.5x
Primitive Civilizations	1x
Crisis Strength	0.5x
Crisis Type	Random
Mid-game Start Year	2300
End-Game Start Year	2400
Victory Year	2500
Difficulty	Cadet
Scaling Difficulty	Off
AI Aggressiveness	Low
Empire Placement	Clusters
Advanced Neighbors	Off
Hyperlane Density	1x
Abandoned Gateways	1x
Wormhole Pairs	1x
Guaranteed Habitable Worlds	2
Caravaneers	On
L-Gates	On
Xeno-Compatibility	Off
Logistic Growth Ceiling	1x
Growth Required Scaling	1x
Ironman Mode	Your choice

One advantage in playing with a galaxy of this smaller size, is that it helps avoid the more complex micromanagement of a huge empire while still providing a minimal amount to administer while you're still learning. It'll provide you with a solid grasp of what managing an empire in Stellaris is all about, and allow you to bump into other empires more quickly. Keeping things manageable while you're still learning goes a long way. Also, stick with the Elliptical galaxy shape while first starting out. A spiral galaxy can more easily box you in if you have more powerful and/or belligerent neighbours. And playing with two AI empires will give you a few empires to jostle with, but you obviously don’t want too many in a tiny galaxy or you risk ending up with the interstellar equivalent of a knife-fight in a telephone booth, which is never pretty.

[Kraken]

I'm about 150 years (which I think of as "turns" because that's just me) into my first game. I've claimed every star within my borders, settled all colonizable planets, and am pushing the limits on starbases and ships, and upgrading/growing at a good pace. A couple of AIs are acting decidedly unfriendly, and I've laid claims to a few of their systems. I'm stronger diplomatically than militarily and a couple of my rivals have more advanced tech. I think I'm about to learn how war actually works. I still don't really know how one "wins" this game short of having the most points at the end -- conquering the galaxy seems impossible -- but that will probably become evident once the conflict starts.

[Zarathud]

When the Galaxy fills up, things get interesting. Empires look for east prey on their borders, or team up. Sometimes both.

I recommend making sure you make claims on a rival you know is going to be hostile, so you can then bloody them good and take enough claims to cripple them. Sometimes they’ll beg to join as a Subject. And that’s often easier than waiting until you can finish obliterating them in the next war.

[Kraken]

I think I'm going to be the aggressor. I'm near my maximum ship limit and my fleets are all upgraded or upgrading. Soon the Blessed Harkonens (or whoever they are) will either feel my wrath or shred me -- I really don't know what expect, but it's almost time to find out.

[Lassr]

I think I'm going to be the aggressor. I'm near my maximum ship limit and my fleets are all upgraded or upgrading. Soon the Blessed Harkonens (or whoever they are) will either feel my wrath or shred me -- I really don't know what expect, but it's almost time to find out.

[Kraken]

I think I'm going to be the aggressor. I'm near my maximum ship limit and my fleets are all upgraded or upgrading. Soon the Blessed Harkonens (or whoever they are) will either feel my wrath or shred me -- I really don't know what expect, but it's almost time to find out.

That went as badly as I thought it probably would. Looking forward to starting a new game with what I learned from my first one.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I think I'm going to be the aggressor. I'm near my maximum ship limit and my fleets are all upgraded or upgrading. Soon the Blessed Harkonens (or whoever they are) will either feel my wrath or shred me -- I really don't know what expect, but it's almost time to find out.

That went as badly as I thought it probably would. Looking forward to starting a new game with what I learned from my first one.

That's the correct attitude. Stellaris is a complex game, and there's no way around the fact that complex games do tend to require practice, patience, and persistence to learn and enjoy. Perhaps the most crucial aspect in understanding and enjoying Stellaris as a beginner is learning to be okay with failure. So keep at it and do not be discouraged, because space is vast and full of wonders.

[Zarathud]

Space is also punishing if you don’t push up your fleet levels. It’s easy to get stomped by someone with better tech or bigger fleets.

Just played a game where I felt strong enough to take a Fallen Empire with 3 fleets of 60k. I could only see a 50k fleet on the map from my sensor data. Figured their tech was better, but had good odds to win. Turned out they could mobilize 400k. Went back and scummed my save 4 years earlier before I got greedy for the sweet planets they’re protecting.

Found a much weaker area to expand instead. I’ll terraform planets instead of getting stomped.

[Montag]

You got to have at least 2 fallen empires for the war in heaven.

[Lassr]

I worked my way up on difficulty. When I started back up a couple of months ago. I started on easiest difficulty and had no fallen and no end game crisis. Next game I added a marauder empire and fallen. Next game, up the difficulty and added end game crisis. It's a lot of game play but I felt necessary for such a complicated game.

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[Kraken]

Space is also punishing if you don’t push up your fleet levels. It’s easy to get stomped by someone with better tech or bigger fleets.

I got ganged upon. While I was building my empire and fleet, some of my rivals formed a federation that went all NATO on me when I attacked one of them. I *was* playing the diplomatic game and had one vassal of my own, but it wasn't good enough and they came at me on three fronts.

[Zarathud]

The AI gets nasty if they can form an offensive alliance. You need to keep up with your guns or they’ll take your butter.

And your Rivals will spy on you to have warning and strike before you can get a fleet built.

[Kraken]

My second game's start isn't as open as my previous game's was. I have a belligerent neighbor right next door, forcing me to make a border, and a roadblock on my exploration front bottled me up until I could defeat it. So my part of the galaxy is smaller than it was last time, and I don't have any good worlds beckoning. This doesn't feel like a winning start. But I'm new here, so I'll adapt.

[Anonymous Bosch]

My second game's start isn't as open as my previous game's was. I have a belligerent neighbor right next door, forcing me to make a border, and a roadblock on my exploration front bottled me up until I could defeat it. So my part of the galaxy is smaller than it was last time, and I don't have any good worlds beckoning. This doesn't feel like a winning start. But I'm new here, so I'll adapt.

Again, that's the right attitude; keep at it, and don't be tempted to overhastily throw in the towel. When I was first learning how to play Stellaris, my biggest boost in success probably came from learning not to give up prematurely. Initially, I used to abandon games as soon as I lost my fleet during an early war or other similar downturns. But it turns out that if you just keep playing and doing your best, you'll be surprised by how often you can actually turn a lot of seemingly 'unwinnable' circumstances around in dramatic and interesting ways. And if you aren't able to turn things around, defeat is your greatest teacher. So take your L's in stride, and try to analyse your failings.

[Zarathud]

It can actually become a good start when you get boxed in but can claim a lot of your neighbor’s territory and conquer it in an offensive war. When expanding, you’re balancing the penalties of size against the additional economic and research power. The trick is winning that initial war, then integrating the defeated enemy’s planets.

[Kraken]

I don't respect any strategy game that doesn't beat me the first time through. And I like that the second play-through (with the same race and settings) is giving me a very different start.

[Kraken]

Game 2 went poorly, as I thought t would. I built a fragile scattered empire with a couple of dweeb vassals on the other side of the galaxy. I folded when a hostile neighbor steamrolled me with no realistic chance to recover.

Game 3 looks more promising.

[Kraken]

Before I get much farther into this game, I could use some strategy tips on diplomacy. I mostly understand the mechanics, but don't know how to use them. My default stance is "friendly human." So far in this third game I've met an ancient empire that will form a remote border, and a neighbor who hates me. I have one other contact in progress and a lot of exploration left.

[Zarathud]

You can’t diplomacy well with a xenophobic neighbor who has rivaled you. Unless you have a bigger stick, and then they’ll only pretend to diplomacy until you’re weakened. Or offer to join if they know they’ll lose.

[Kraken]

Googling (or to be accurate DuckDuckGoing) "Stellaris diplomacy strategy tips" was only marginally l helpful. I don't think it would have helped this game anyway. I am hemmed in by hostiles. I look forward to putting in more hours and getting crushed.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Before I get much farther into this game, I could use some strategy tips on diplomacy. I mostly understand the mechanics, but don't know how to use them. My default stance is "friendly human." So far in this third game I've met an ancient empire that will form a remote border, and a neighbor who hates me. I have one other contact in progress and a lot of exploration left.

Your options for diplomacy can be a bit of a roll of the dice, and mainly depends upon your starting neighbours. But even if a neighbour is initially somewhat hostile towards you, assigning Envoys to them ASAP will slowly make them more favourable towards you, and multiple Envoys also stack. In the early game, you're somewhat limited by having only two Envoys, but the Stellaris wiki provides a useful list of all the ways to gain additional Envoys (click to expand the 'Available Envoys'). But this won't help if they're already rivalling you or you're surrounded by Fanatical Purifiers that despise you. Another way to counter this somewhat in the very early game, is that it can sometimes be beneficial to avoid having a military at all, so as to impede rivalry declarations. Because the AI has a bias to create early rivals to improve their influence income, which means even seemingly-unprovocative AI may try to harm relations if they don't have a first contact to pursue early on. One way to disrupt this is to dismantle your starting corvettes, so that you're so militarily powerless that the AI cannot rival you. After the period of Envoy commitment, they'll change their Envoys to other first contacts, allowing your relations to recover and improve. Researching and building Embassies will also significantly increase the speed and efficacy of your Envoys' efforts to improve relations. But there's no denying that trying to make friends with belligerent neighbours can be an uphill struggle. Sometimes, it's just better to make them want to avoid becoming your enemy, or as Teddy Roosevelt so aptly put it, "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." So maxing out your fleet capacity by amassing a sufficiently robust fleet, and projecting power to bend others to your will via gunboat diplomacy is always a viable option.

Hoarding resources can be a useful tool for diplomacy, too. Because sending resources as gifts without asking for anything in return can go a long way to increasing an empire's opinion towards you. On the flip side, creating trade deals, asking for something you do need, and deliberately overpaying is another effective tactic to further improve their trust and opinion of you. Gifting future favours via trade negotiations can also be mighty helpful. When first meeting a Xeno, gifting them 2-3 favours can get you an instant +100 opinion. This can unlock a few diplomatic agreements that will further improve your relations, all of which should be sufficient to convince 'em to like you fairly quickly. Even if you do intend to later conquer them, persuading them to like you and agree to a Non-Aggression Pact can provide ample time to plan, scheme, and muster sufficient forces if needs be.

[Kraken]

Thanks, that's the context I was looking for. The two empires I've met so far are both hostile and resisting my overtures, but I do still have a large frontier that might still reveal some friendlies. I try to keep my navy maxed to gain the influence bonus because influence is so precious in the early game.

[Kraken]

I had my first successful war when my buddy asked me to join him in an attack on the bad guy on our borders. We won, and my buddy's minion even asked to become my vassal. Sure, little guy! Unfortunately I only had enough influence to claim one unimportant system, but still. The bad guy was humiliated and won't be a problem for a while.

Which raises the question of how one asks an AI to join in a war. I don't see that option on the diplomacy interface. We aren't federated or otherwise allied, but we do have excellent relations.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I had my first successful war when my buddy asked me to join him in an attack on the bad guy on our borders. We won, and my buddy's minion even asked to become my vassal. Sure, little guy! Unfortunately I only had enough influence to claim one unimportant system, but still. The bad guy was humiliated and won't be a problem for a while.

Nicely done, keep up the good work.

Which raises the question of how one asks an AI to join in a war. I don't see that option on the diplomacy interface. We aren't federated or otherwise allied, but we do have excellent relations.

When you declare war, there's an "Invite Attackers" section that allows you to bring in allies who can help you defeat a more powerful foe. But if you aren't declaring a war through federation, the AI typically won't join a war that they can gain nothing out of. If memory serves, they need to have a claim on systems owned by your target empire(s) for you to otherwise be able to invite them to join your war.

Also, your military fleets have a "Take Point" command that causes allied AI empires to send their fleets to follow that fleet during a war (it's the button depicting a few ships next to your fleet stance). This can make it beneficial to sometimes take a detour to gather up forces of your accomplice and lead them where you desire. It can also be useful when you'd prefer to inhibit the fleets of your allies and vassals from futile attacks against more powerful enemy forces, generating war exhaustion for you in the process.

[Kraken]

Last night I successfully formed a federation -- the first one in the galaxy, and most of the AI empires are at least slightly in the green. Other than the two passive ancient empires, there is only one Big Bad. This takes me into unknown territory in a good way. I need to read up on federations before I play again.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Last night I successfully formed a federation -- the first one in the galaxy, and most of the AI empires are at least slightly in the green. Other than the two passive ancient empires, there is only one Big Bad. This takes me into unknown territory in a good way. I need to read up on federations before I play again.

Here's the Stellaris wiki entry on federations, and you may find the following video helpful. It provides a concise overview of how federations work in Stellaris. However, if you'd prefer more detailed federation advice and guidance, this Montu Plays video ought to do the trick.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Last night I successfully formed a federation -- the first one in the galaxy, and most of the AI empires are at least slightly in the green. Other than the two passive ancient empires, there is only one Big Bad. This takes me into unknown territory in a good way. I need to read up on federations before I play again.

BTW Kraken, the latest Galactic Paragons DLC and newest Gemini 3.8 update patch are due to be released next week on May 9, 2023:



I just wanted to provide you with a heads-up. Because in my experience, it's safe to assume that any Paradox update can disrupt saves from a prior version of the game. Even if your old saves still load, they may behave wonky and become unplayable as a result.

So, if you'd prefer to avoid disruption from automatically installing the newest update and instead safely finish playing out your existing save game(s) using the pre-3.8 version of the game, you can follow these instructions to do so:

• Find the Stellaris entry in your Steam client.
• Go to Properties -> Betas
• Under Select the beta you would like to opt into, select 3.7.4 Canis Minor rollback, i.e. the current pre-3.8 version of the game.
• This should keep your game set to version 3.7.4, and prevent it from updating until you are ready to do so, allowing you to complete any existing save game(s) without disruption.
• When you are done playing your existing save game(s) and are ready to dive into the latest update and features, return to the Properties -> Betas section of your Stellaris entry in Steam, and change it back to none.

FWIW, you can actually choose to play any earlier versions of Stellaris in this way.

[Kraken]

Well crap. I have an epic game going and it probably won't finish by 5/9 -- I'm still playing very slowly, this being only my third game and the first time I've gotten so far -- so I reckon I'll have to do this. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Montag]

Well crap. I have an epic game going and it probably won't finish by 5/9 -- I'm still playing very slowly, this being only my third game and the first time I've gotten so far -- so I reckon I'll have to do this. Thanks for the heads-up.

I think you can switch off automatic updates so it will hold the level. I also think you can go to the beta version and pick past versions maybe?

[Lassr]

Stellaris had a major update last week, changed a lot around. Really screwed up my game I was in the midst of, as I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and fell behind a few other civs. Started a new game trying to learn the new leadership and diplomacy stuff.

https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Patch_3.8

[LordMortis]

All the bumping of this thread got me wondering if I want to install and play again. It looks like quite a few expansions came out since last I played. They want $68 to "complete" my edition. Can someone PM me when GMG do a deep discount?

[Anonymous Bosch]

Stellaris had a major update last week, changed a lot around. Really screwed up my game I was in the midst of, as I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and fell behind a few other civs. Started a new game trying to learn the new leadership and diplomacy stuff.

https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Patch_3.8

FWIW, if you can return to an earlier save game, I'd suggest following the simple instructions I posted above to safely complete the game you were in the midst of. Then switch back to the latest 3.8 update after you are done playing out that game.

[Anonymous Bosch]

All the bumping of this thread got me wondering if I want to install and play again. It looks like quite a few expansions came out since last I played. They want $68 to "complete" my edition. Can someone PM me when GMG do a deep discount?

It's simpler and easier to just use IsThereAnyDeal.com to notify you when the Stellaris DLC you're seeking is suitably discounted.

EDIT: FWIW, now is likely as good a time as any if you do wish to "complete" your edition though, since plenty of Stellaris DLC is currently on sale until May 18 at favourable discount pricing courtesy of the recent update for Galactic Paragons. If you prefer to really stretch your pennies and do not mind being patient, you could instead opt to purchase only DLC you are missing that is also currently discounted on Steam, and remove items that are not discounted from your cart. Then use IsThereAnyDeal.com to notify you when these particular items are on offer at a suitable discount from stores such as GreenManGaming and the like.

[Kraken]

Stellaris had a major update last week, changed a lot around. Really screwed up my game I was in the midst of, as I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and fell behind a few other civs. Started a new game trying to learn the new leadership and diplomacy stuff.

https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Patch_3.8

FWIW, if you can return to an earlier save game, I'd suggest following the simple instructions I posted above to safely complete the game you were in the midst of. Then switch back to the latest 3.8 update after you are done playing out that game.

Thanks to your advice I locked in the old build and my game is still progressing. I fell behind my allies and lost control of my federation, but recently regained the presidency through normal rotation. I'm about to start a major war. I'm still only about 135 years into what I understand to be a 300-year game and still figuring it out as I go along, while enjoying the process.

I do look forward to playing the "new" version, and possibly even adding some DLC, but first I want to see my current game through to the end...which is a long way off, since I only play 5-10 years per session.

[Lassr]

Stellaris had a major update last week, changed a lot around. Really screwed up my game I was in the midst of, as I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and fell behind a few other civs. Started a new game trying to learn the new leadership and diplomacy stuff.

https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Patch_3.8

FWIW, if you can return to an earlier save game, I'd suggest following the simple instructions I posted above to safely complete the game you were in the midst of. Then switch back to the latest 3.8 update after you are done playing out that game.

I thought about it but decided just to move on and learn the new parts now.

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