Gal Civ 4 Player Guide:

This guide is for winning on a map with high AI settings.

I play with:

Incredible difficulty

Distant proximity

Normal pacing and tech

Galactic sectors

Huge starting sector

Stars, planets, resources, anomalies, all abundant

Extreme planets none

Minors and hostiles common

For race pick what you like and custom it to the following:

Starting System:

Sol best system in game to start lots of dead worlds to convert and a lot of asteroids.

Civilization Traits:

Can set picks to anything they are not that key anymore.. but I play min/max for core stats vs invasions because I never let ships get to invasions if I can.

Clever, rich, productive, likeable, explorers, fast all +2

Brutal, deceptive, intimidating, persuasive all -2

Courageous -1

Civilization Abilities:

Archaeologist for extra charges on artifacts and spores, along with a policy for +1 production from asteroids.

Spore for charges to turn dead worlds into class 5 worlds to feed core worlds and chance to spawn planet resources.

Starting Ships:

Colony ship  and Survey ship

Commander Ships:

Legendary Ships for +1 culture points to gain more spore charges.

Turn 1:

Click into Earth and start building Industrial Center, and then Capital Mainframe in these slots:

Click back to map and spore Venous and Mercury. Send a colony ship to both, use spawn colony ship to get a second.

Click into leaders and buy the best tech one for Minister of Technology and one for a commander.

Click to ideology and spend your point on Self Governance for +10% approval and a leader. With that new leader I make them a Minister of Colonization if high social, if not then another commander and another culture point.

Click Civilization and select Asteroid Exploitation. I set taxes to low for high approval.

I join my commander ships with my survey and go for the closest artifact anomalies.

I send my probe to the closes purple start to find Promthenon.

Shipyard I que up a colony ship and a probe.

Click into research and select Asteroid Mining, if it is not there reshuffle engineering until you get it.

Turn 2:

nothing

Turn 3:

Asteroid Mining should be complete and select Starbases, reshuffle if not.

Take your miners and mine the 2 closest asteroid belts. You should have about 20-25 production on Earth on turn 3..

Turn 4:

Pick a new anomaly to survey.

Turn 5:

Starbase should be complete and select Hyperwave Radio for a new policy slot.

Send the new colony ship to mars and select the leader option. I make the new leader a commander and send that ship to group up with my survey ship. The culture point I put into Mobility Rights for +2 starbase range so I can get those 3 cluster nodes with 1 starbase.

I send a starbase the nearest purple star for promethion and one to the nearest red star for durantium.

Earth should be complete so build a entertainment district in the following spots then production in the following slots.

Turn 6:

Shipyard I que up a colony ship, asteroid miner (for belt near mars), probe, and constructor.

I send my newest probe to the nearest yellow star to start looking for a good class 20-30 world for my next Core world to buildup.

Turn 7:

Hyperwave Radio should be complete and select Subspace Scanning for Eyes of the Universe wonder, reroll to get it if need be.

For the new policy slot select Coerced Colonization for 100% growth -5% approval.

Turn 8:

New colony ship, spore Saturn and colonize.

Your survey ship and 1st commander ship(s) should have leveled up. I pick Communications Terminal on Survey ship for +2 sensor range. For the commander(s) I pick Crew Quarters for more hps. Send Survey fleet to suvery. I go for artifacts then ship yards.

Hopefully your stabases have hit marks and you can mine duratium and promethion. You need 5durantion for Elron's Lift and 5 promethion for Kazar's Mainframe and Eyes of the Universe.

Turn 9:

Continue to send your probes to look for a new core world.

Turn 10:

Continue to send your probes to look for a new core world.

Turn 11:

Subspace Scanning should be complete and select Space Elevators to build the wonder Elon's Lift.

Send your newly built constructor to a purple star for more promethion.

Que a colony ship and a probe.

Turn 12:

Space Elevators should be finished and select Research Districts for the wonder Kazar's Mainframe.

Spore Jupiter and send your new colony ship to colonize.

Turn 13:

Continue to probe and survey. Looking for good core worlds, locating all the resources around Earth, and surveying for artifacts and ships.

Turn 14:

Research Districts should be finished and select Anomaly Detection to get to survey ships.

Earth should be completed doing districts and then build the Coordination Beacon at the following slot.

Turn 15:

Should have found a good 20-30 class planet to core world. So start sending colony ships to colonize that world and a few feeder worlds around it so when you convert the core world it will have production to start out.

I also start to que up Treasure hunt missions for some credits for more leaders and buy stuff on the new core world coming.

Turn 16:

Earth should be ready for a new improvement Build Elron's Lift or one of the other tech wonders if you have promethion in the following slots.

Turn 17:

Anomaly Detection should be complete and select Survey ships.

Turn 18:

Maintain probes, survey ships, colonize feeder worlds for new core world, putting starbases at all key resources try to get those 3 nodes.

Turn 19:

Survey ships should be done now I focus down the path to law and order to remove crime. So select Leadership Recruiting.

Turn 20:

Maintain probes, survey ships, colonize feeder worlds for new core world, putting starbases at all key resources try to get those 3 nodes.

Turn 21:

Leadership Recruiting should be done now select Colonial Bureaucracy.

Earth Elron's Lift or another wonder should be done try and build Kazar's Mainframe in the following slot. If not able to build then make some research districts around your capital main frame.

Turn 22:

Maintain probes, survey ships, colonize feeder worlds for new core world, putting starbases at all key resources try to get those 3 nodes.

Turn 23:

Colonial Bureaucracy should be done select Political Capital.

New policy slot select Planetary Stimulus.

Turn 24:

Maintain probes, survey ships, colonize feeder worlds for new core world, putting starbases at all key resources try to get those 3 nodes.

Turn 25:

Earth try and build Eye of the universe if you have the promethion or Beacon of Babylon in the following slots.

Turn 26:

Political Capital should be done now select our main goal Colonial Law and Order.

Turn 27:

Start looking for a good leader to convert that class 20-30 we are building up with feeder colonies. I go for highest diligence, loyalty, and mid-high social.

Turn 28:

Maintain probes, survey ships, colonize feeder worlds for new core world, putting starbases at all key resources try to get those 3 nodes, mine all asteroids in your influence.

Turn 29:

Colonial Law and Order should be done. My goal now is production so I go for Planetology toget Xeno Manufacturing.

Turn 30:

Maintain probes, survey ships, colonize feeder worlds for new core world, putting starbases at all key resources try to get those 3 nodes, mine all asteroids in your influence.

Turn 31:

Xeno Manufacturing should be done now select Starbase Modules to build modules for your starbases.

Also on Earth build the durantium processor in the following slot.

Turn 32:

Maintain probes, survey ships, colonize feeder worlds for new core world, putting starbases at all key resources try to get those 3 nodes, mine all asteroids in your influence.

Turn 33:

Starbase Modules should be done now I work towards terraforming techs so I select Xeno Research.

Turn 34:

Maintain probes, survey ships, colonize feeder worlds for new core world, putting starbases at all key resources try to get those 3 nodes, mine all asteroids in your influence.

Earth:

Should look like this now:

You should have a good amount of Production and Research now.

New Core Worlds:

Pick one with best research for Galactic Mainframe.

Rest mainly production, population, influence.

 The goal is always build production improvements next to the capital and each other to boost production. Then you build production district around them all. The do the same with population, influence, research, and wealth.

This should give you a great start more to come later I have spent a few hours on this today already...