Playing against hard AI

Lock the teams / give yourself a partner / play fewer cpus until you get the hang of it. 

Also, build a culture center or two, or three... to spread your influence and slow or counter their's.

If you can afford it, build a trade center or two...to build a chain of trade ships to boost income.

Also, consider more capitals, they cost more, and of course are more horrible to lose, but they hold their own pretty well and boost culture and have a range of abilities the frigates, for all their cost-effectiveness, dont.

Play closer to Home, dont expand too fast or get caught with small fleets out on the rim somewhere.

Expand slowly and build up as much as possible. Planet defenses are not a bad investment, they boost ship performance and add protection and dont leave your planet defenseless if you dont have a fleet there.

Its better to defend one planet with a good sized fleet and re-inforced planet, than two or more with smaller fleets and less planet defense.

Just some ideas,

-Teal

Usually you'll have to get some ceasfire/peace treaties going to prevent them from bashing you into oblivion.  I've been playing a game as advent recently and after losing and reloading to an old save from only 5 minutes into the game, I've somehow managed to gain the upper hand in the game without getting a ceasefire even once.  Depending on the map structure, the few ways you can hold off multiple opponents is to seperate your fleet to different planets with defenses, or try to reach a middle ground planet so that you can quickly jump to two directions where attacks can come from.  Defending and holding out against multiple opponents is easier if you've got entrrenchment.  The starbases really help bolster defenses.  The advent starbase is particularly devastating to combat large fleets with its mass disorientation and meteor shower ability.

Thanks for all the advice. 

It turns out that he map I was using made the situation much more difficult. It seems relatively cramped for 6 players (the gateway map) so I had all of the AIs knocking at my door fairly early in the game. By the time I had made allies with one (if I managed that) they were already sending combined fleets against me. I tried a larger map with 5 hard AIs and it was a lot easier. I was able to cement a couple ceasefires early in the game and was able to neutralize one team fairly early. I haven't won yet, but I'm at the point in the game where victory is almost certain.

:)  Sounds good, you sound like you are on your way!!  :)  Hang in there and enjoy the game, its crazy sometimes, but a lot of fun, and there is nothing quite like winning against tough opponents. 

-Teal

I have to admit that I've been having a tough time with the "hard" AI myself. On a Medium map, I somehow end up being severely outgunned in fairly short order.

So, I've seen it said several times on the forums to turtle in and limit initial expansion. It seems like whoever has the most planets has the most resources and will be able to survive longer. So, how many planets is considered "modest" for expansion's sake? Rather, what's the (in your experience) minimum number of planets/asteroids to gain before starting entrenchment?

Oh, I know it depends on the map and where the choke-points are and suchlike. But that would be a consideration to exceed the "minimum" rather than dictate the number of worlds necessary to build up the necessary tech/culture/fleet to start colonizing?

I've taken a liking to the Advent, though the chick's voice is starting to gnaw at my soul. I do like getting my culture started early, and I've noticed something that may very well be more important in HardAI than NormalAI: It's great when your culture envelops nearby neutral worlds before you or the enemy gets a chance to colonize them! Is that the goal of entrenching the Advent? To send out tendrils of culture to stake claims on nearby worlds rather than seek to colonize them quickly? Or is that just a nice side effect of the general strategy?

The culture effect is a bit of both really. If you get it set up early it can pay off much quicker than tradeports and gives you a slight offensive edge to work with on nearby worlds. It doesn't match up to a trade-line in the mid-late game but early on it is bascially a one structure trade link.

On the expansion note it generally depends on the map. I generally tend to go for the nearest choke points and fortify them before raising my fleet to 'conquer-level'. Since the AI isn't really that much of a thinker it just tends to throw its strongest units at you time and time again, or keep them back (as one stubborn TEC did in my last big AI game) so that you have to face them in their territory and risk losing your main fleet. However, by that point you're likely to have your main cap ships at a high level from the constant parrying of the AI as well as a good fleet to support it. There's nothing in the galaxy that can stand up to a massive fleet of Advent carriers (2:1 bombers-fighters) with some support guardians and a few cap ships to keep the main fleet busy.

After the first enemy falls it's basically a cake walk since you've built up your econ to the point where you're several steps above your nearest rival and your main fleet has a bunch of high level cap ships from the previously fought battles.

I try to pick the area I would like to control. I expand my boarder to about 1 or 2 jumps, fortify the boarder or choke point then start picking the directions I want to expand. I basiclly form a box with my planets then begin a methodical expansion. To form that box I may rush to the outer most planet, fortify it as best I can, then back track with frigates to take the inner planets.

I should also add I'm not big on using motherships anymore. I want the strongest cap as my first to expand fast. I will use Mazra or Radience or Desolator. Those are your strongest ships for the races. They help expand and then defend. IMHO

Hmm ... so I had thought I was trying to grab too many worlds too soon, but it appears as though I'm in line on that score. Though the choke-points are usually 2-3 jumps away from my homeworld. I have a hard time "skipping" over a world in order to secure a choke point first, but that's in my head more than anything.

What kills me is the initial AI rush. It always seems to hit just as I start building up my defensive forces in those border worlds. I may be spending too much on research and suchlike in that early stage, as I try to get a few of the early shield/laser upgrades along with some of the other low-level things. Though I'd really like to have Illuminators by the time the AI attacks me.

I'm not quite willing to give up the Mothership quite yet, myself. In that defensive stage it has a whole lot going for it. I've had it survive while outnumbered 3-1 defending a planet from multiple cap-ships. A couple levels of shield-restore plus a repair bay was enough to keep it alive until my other cap-ship + escort got there (it was fending off another attack). It's ability to keep itself (and any frigates around it) alive is pretty hard to beat in that early defensive stage (IMO) especially when combined with the reduced cost of those first 2-3 planet upgrades.