Expansion mandatory?

If you can keep the a.i's from attacking you yes it's possible. I did win once by finishing the tech tree, with a relatively small number of planets, but more planets colonized also means more people working on research which means done a lot faster


~SDC~

thanks!

It is "possible" but VERY difficult. This is because the AI will recognize that it can outproduce you and crush you like a bug... damn aliens.

Just play on smaller galaxies with fewer colonizable planets. It allows you to win a game with only a few planets because the AI only has a few planets as well. I have one many games where the AI has 2-3 times the number of planets I have, but at higher intelligence levels this becomes very very hard.

Paul.

so, wait a minute, maybe I'm not getting this straigth. we're saying that you can win galciv through tons of other ways than by military might. However, the ai seems bent on attacking you if it sees a weakness (i.e. more planets than you, more production, etc.). is this accurate? If so, does that mean that the ai only considers military conquest as the way to win the game? Does it also try diplomacy, influence or all the other ways?

I think I'm missing something, just can't quite get my finger on it....

Just because it's going for a tech victory doesn't mean that it won't wipe you out if it can. I guess what I'm trying to say is you can win without going out to conquer everyone, but if you leave yourself defensless the AI is definately going to attack you. Even if you don't want to use it you have to keep your fleet big enough to ward off agressors.

Seams reasonable. The ultimate goal of the game is to win. If a human player is going for a tech victory and sees an opportunity grab a political win, he/she is most likely going to take it.

Or, most likely, one of the AIs would be going for a military win ANYWAY, seeing as there's 5 of them that could choose that. It doesn't see it as the only way, but if it didn't even see it as a way to win, that would be very silly.

No,
the AI will not definitely attack you if you don't have a decent military. Unlike many games the AI behaves intelligently. It will not just attack because your military strength goes below some number. Consider it like a human player. If a human player would attack you then the AI might. Remember that some of the AI's may be evil in which case that's what they should do (take advantage of any weakness!).

You can however control other empires aggressiveness towards you through trade, alliances and diplomancy. If you trade heavily with an AI then it will be less likely to attack you because of the damage it would cause it's economy. If you have militarily strong allies the AI will be less likely to attack you because of your allies. If you keep the AI sweet (occasional bribes) then the AI will be less likely to attack you.

Similarily the higher the AI intelligence setting the more liekyl it is to spot a weakness and consider whether to exploit it. If you play with all good AI's and are even slightly careful then you should never be attack (even with NO military). Expect an evil AI to take advantage of weakness, but only REAL weakness. Not having a military is NOT a weakness if you have defense in other areas (alliances, diplomancy, trade).

Paul.

Ah. I (wrongfully) assumed that everyone plays with the AIs at the same settings as me. The Drengin and the Yor are always Evil for me and the Arceans are always Neutral. All set to bright or higher, I have NEVER been able to keep them all happy enough that at least one hasn't attacked me if I was a sitting duck...
That and if you go Evil it's a fairly good guess that the Good races will come to kick your hide all over the galaxy...

I think the key word in the original question here is "mandatory", and I am not much for absolutes. So my answer would have to be "no". That said, I think the comments already expressed gives a good picture of what to expect from Galciv. There may be a way to totally avoid expanding, totally avoid war, and/or anything else aggressive in nature, but I don't play that way, so I have not discovered it.

~SDC~

thanks guys! I appeciated it