First council on hard?

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First council on hard? - 2/6/2021 6:10:29 PM

hugh04

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I have played several games on hard to turn 150+. Even won a bunch of them. However, I am not comfortable on choosing what is the optimal selections of councils (playing on hard difficulty and lowest tech). I have started with economic mainly to find a metal site in the territory I controlled. Military to get to automatic rifles and combat so my infantry can defend much better and push back against minors. I have started with Model so as to get light tanks asap. Even once with Interior to maximize good leaders.

But the early game bp points are scarce and the economy is very low. I have created too many councils and my research slows way down, i have researched light tanks but did not have the economy to really produce enough. The timing of councils, building infrastructure to create bp points and industry has been a little hit or miss for me.

Any good thoughts out there?

Post #: 1

RE: First council on hard? - 2/6/2021 6:28:19 PM

zgrssd

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This entirely depends on your Planet, starting Technology Level, your Aim for Profiles and your starting position. There are no hard and fast rules.

(in reply to hugh04)

Post #: 2

RE: First council on hard? - 2/6/2021 7:07:36 PM

newageofpower

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Joined: 12/3/2020
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Very much depends on your starting situation. If you've got a bunch of Farmer Minor Regimes next door, Foreign Affairs can get you their allegiance (and giant militiablobs) very quickly.

Surrounded by angry Arachnids and have a bad infantry/MG rolls? Model Design First.

I like Interior first, but almost anything (other than Secret Service) can be justified as an opening council.

(in reply to zgrssd)

Post #: 3

RE: First council on hard? - 2/6/2021 8:07:38 PM

BlueTemplar

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My first game on hard, I went very strong on the Economic Council - I know, not very original, but I do mean VERY strong - as I needed/had :

- A power plant to power the upgrades to High Command HQ and Bureaucrat Offices, which were going to bring me a LOT of early BPs & PPs in a Time of Bureaucracy and with Democracy's Political Bonus and Government's Bureaucratic Bonus.

- Heavy/High Tech Industry research, increased tech level and a power plant to power the public Industries boosted by Government's and Church of the Syndic Public Industrial Bonuses.

- Economic Council's boosted by Mind's research bonus.

- Research and a power plant to power for the QOL buildings boosted by Democracy's QOL bonus, which would keep workers happy for a while, requiring me to pay them less, freeing this money to buy metal for buildup, increasing the civilization level, giving me fate points and cards, increasing the maximum level of Bureaucrat Offices, and potentially giving me future leaders good at diplomacy/leadership for when I'm actually ready to acquire some territory.

- A Cap IV (!) Supreme Command Director to bring in those PPs, specialized in Covert Ops, which allowed to see the external threats coming from far away and to only have to commit the minimum of forces needed to keep them at bay while I build up.

- A Cap V (!!!) governor helping to get the raw resources required for such an intense buildup (and to placate the low pay workers and the dangers resulting from the outside world laying siege to my little fortress, though that wasn't enough, forcing me to set my only zone as unincorporated, discovering a bug in the process. Though maaaybe I also abused them too much with Fate-Point giving cards

).

- Plenty of water and open farming minimizing the costs and the defensive needs.

- A planet with 126% heavy elements, making relying on Metal Soil Filtration as my high level Recycling Facilities quickly ran dry a viable option (I later even got it randomly from an an Ancient Archive, see above about civilization level and fate points/cards !)

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=4953698

(in reply to newageofpower)

Post #: 4

RE: First council on hard? - 2/6/2021 8:09:40 PM

yutowap33

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I also like Meritocracy+Interior for the 'Recruit talent', the early investment in human capital comes with huge dividends in the long term, that I don't mind a some short term pain.

(in reply to newageofpower)

Post #: 5

RE: First council on hard? - 2/6/2021 8:23:16 PM

Maerchen

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From: Germany
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There are these guides I made... https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2314171481 and https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2314732568 for some sort of rope to get along.

Depending on your own strat map analysis from the first guide, you choose whatever you feel comfortable with.

@youtowap33 has a very valid point made, though. As long as the model design doesn't need breastfeeding, I opt for interior 90% of the times as first council now, as on hard the tax rate starts at 0%, too.

I tested a lot, but I always go with meritocracy - commerce - mind now, as switching to democracy is relatively easy late game.

Did you know that you can restart your games from lastplanetgenerated.se to reroll your government decisions and possibly get new factions, too?

_____________________________

The logistics hell this game is IS the fun part! - Maerchen, 2020

The good thing is, we have all the information in the reports. The bad thing is, we have all the information. Maerchen, 2020

Came for SE. Will stay for SE.

(in reply to yutowap33)

Post #: 6

RE: First council on hard? - 2/6/2021 8:47:05 PM

Uemon

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I have had successful games with economic council and military research council as first.

Economic is when you dont have immediate threats that will annihilate you. The basic idea is to rush (as other have pointed out) metal soil filtration because once you have that built to level 2, you dont depend on any on map metal deposits (thats a huge thing).

Military research is when you have immediate threats that will rush you; getting those weapon upgrades and combat armor will give you a fighting chance. If a major regime attacks you early on though, its not gonna save you :D

(in reply to Maerchen)

Post #: 7

RE: First council on hard? - 2/6/2021 9:05:41 PM

BlueTemplar

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I started next to a Militarist (who later happened to be an Expansionist) and *immediately* declared war on him - which might have been a bad decision as one of the farmers next to me didn't seem to be interested in asking for peace upfront (maybe the Expansionist protectorated them ??), and neither did the arachnids (with whom, first time me meeting any, I kind of ****ed up my defense and they managed to eat a recycling facility before I kicked them out).

Or I guess that he would probably have declared war on me anyway...

I ended up by getting a Military Council, got Padded Envirosuits, Combat Armour and High Velocity Guns, the last initially against the Arachnids, but now they're finding another use as the Militarist has started to field Light Tanks.

(in reply to Uemon)

Post #: 8

RE: First council on hard? - 2/6/2021 11:52:48 PM

BlueTemplar

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quote:

Threat assessment 101 - What to do before you do anything :
[...]
As my first council I chose the model council, as I got really good structures on my units and the field testing would come for sure.

Hmm, wouldn't a model council be even *more* important if the starting structural design rolls were bad ?

(in reply to BlueTemplar)

Post #: 9

RE: First council on hard? - 2/7/2021 8:17:02 AM

Maerchen

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From: Germany
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Sure. If I wasn't at war from turn 1 I would maybe try to get some military research first, then model that into the process of getting better structural design.

Upgrading existing models is cheaper than restarting from scratch, and being already at war and putting carbines instead of slugthrowers to work is a good reason to go with model design council as first council.

_____________________________

(in reply to BlueTemplar)

Post #: 10

RE: First council on hard? - 2/7/2021 3:06:32 PM

zgrssd

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The Military Council is useless without a Model Council to "install" most of the tech.
Meanwhile however the Model Council has uses of it's own. Between finding models you already had the tech for, better structural rolls, turning field testing in Base Design and tech found via Fate Stratagem it can be entirely viable to operate on it's own.
This is magnified on higher Tech Starts, as you got more units unlocked and have more options to design.

(in reply to Maerchen)

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RE: First council on hard? - 2/7/2021 6:34:40 PM

BlueTemplar

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I'd say *almost* useless :
- Radiation Filters seem to apply immediately to all your troops (and perhaps also civilians ?)
- There could be a rare situation where you're swimming in BPs but still want to unlock tech groups faster (and for some weird reason aren't interested in other councils that much), so researching & discovering with both councils would allow you to spend up to 400 BPs/round on that without penalties ?

EDIT: Thought of a third possibility :
- You have lucked into good scientist(s)/inventor(s), but have yet to find a good technician, so you give the Military Council a headstart on research. (Especially since it will have to be discovered and researched before you can add it to one of your models.)

< Message edited by BlueTemplar -- 2/7/2021 6:58:38 PM >

(in reply to zgrssd)

Post #: 12