Please note that the Cardassians and Klingons can only incorporate militarily, the Federation only dip, but Romulans both, and the first to 12 wins. The Romulans are obviously better than the other options for that win-con.
I’ve heard from critics about some release day bugs, but we are seven updates since, and the release day reviews were 57% mixed on Steam but last 30 days are 71%. Normally I wouldn’t touch a Paradox Grand Strategy this soon after release, but they are just publishing, it’s developed by Nimble Giant and then they used a later build of Stellaris to build up their nation so my hope is that it’s more polished than a normal Paradox Grand Strategy this soon after release.
Federation Traits and Abilities:
Cosmologist - -25% Science Ship Build Speed, +33% Anomaly research speed
Pioneer – Colony Ship Build Cost -35%, Colony Development Speed - +25%
High Education - +1 Recruitable Scientists cap, +15% Pop Growth from Immigration
Diplomatic Expertise - +30 Opinion after First Contact protocols, +2 Envoy Approvals with Minor Powers.
Government Type:
Federated Democracy – Elections held every ten years, -25% Dip Influence Cost
The game starts in the year 2346 January 1st, about 20 years prior to TNG beginning.
Here’s a screen shot of the Map with us on the bottom. You can see Bajor between us and the Cardassians to our left, the Klingons to our right, the four planet Neutral Zone between us and the Romulans above us, and then the Betazeds below us in Beta Zeta. You can also see our resources like Deuterium to the left of our Energy Credits in the upper left corner and then the key Stellaris stat of Empire Spread and we have 90 of 115 so we are pretty close by.
I start Techs in three places:
Physics – Corrosion Beam – 57 months, gives us Cutting Beam
Society – Fast-Tracked Training – Takes 65 month, gives us +10% monthly Officer Training, and +10 Officers.
Engineering – Anti-Matter Recycling – We get Power Cores, and then it’ll take 57 months
Our four Planets:
Earth – Homeworld of Fed, in the Sol System, Class M Continental Planet, Planet Size 22, it has Research Laboratories, Starfleet Academy and Planetary Admin with space for two more. It has 2 available jobs we’ll grow into. I set my Governor Ship to improve basic workers here.
Andoria – Andorian HW, in the Procyon System, Class M Arctic World, Planet Size 14, 2 Available Job, it has Planetary Admin and space for 4 more, 12 Energy, 9 Ag, 10 Industrial Districts
Vulcan – Vulcan HW, Eridani System, Class M Arid World, 18 space, 2 open jobs, Planetary Admin here as well as space for 3 more. 8 Ag, 13 Indust, 5 Energy,
Tellar Prime – Tellarite HW, Class M Alpine, in Cygni system, space for 22, 2 open jobs, 3 open building spots, and then Planetary Admin building. 15 Ag, 17 Industrial, 9 Energy districts
I need to designate my Andoria, Vulcan and Tellar Prime as key planets, so one should be mining, one agricultural and one energy our base three things to make from those. Who has the most of those three districts? The most Energy is Andoria with 12. The most Ag is Tellar Prime with 15 but they are also the most Industrial with 17. That means Vulcan will either be 13 Industrial which is my mid-state and Tellar Prime Ag or Ag with but 8 spots since they are Arid. So I make these planets the specialists of my Empire – Tellar Prime – Ag; Andoria – Energy; Vulcan – Mining
As you can see, I have two open planets in my area that no one has colonized:
Risa – Class M Gaia, World, in the Epsilon Ceti System, planet size 8 – anyone has a 100% suitably for Gaia world.
Denobula – In the Mantichoras System, Class M Tundra, size 7.We all have 80% suitability here.