GalCiv2 Forums
Hi,
I just bought this game and can't wait to get started. I hope to come here often and learn the ins and outs of this game. Anyway, I thought I would introduce myself and I am hoping the community is still active. I normally have lots of questions, I hope there are lots of patient helpful people here. So HIIIIII, howya doin? 
Hey. Welcome aboard.
Not sure how active this place still is but I'm sure if you post any questions you'll get all the answers you need. The people here have always been ready to help.
i just want to say hello too, seems a nice place for newbies that want to learn and for pros to discuss stuff 
Welcome! CaptainYar is right. Also, there is already a lot of information about the game available. Do check out the GalCiv2 wiki:
https://www.galciv.wikia.com/wiki/Galactic_Civilizations_Wiki
I got the game this weekend and OMG, I love this game. It is so deep and thoughtful. I can't believe what an amazing time suck it is. I blink and 3 hours have gone by. I still have a lot to learn but it is fun learning. Great game. I am so glad I got it. I will be pestering you all soon with lots of stupid questions. LOL.
I just got the game and cannot figure out how to play it. I printed out the manual but it was of no help. Could someone please tell me how to play it and move my ships. I need HELP.
There are video tutorials in the game that will help you get started with such basic things.
After that, you might want to go through the official basic strategy guide here:
https://forums.galciv2.com/104908
You should be good after that. Don't give up on this game - it is a great game 
Welcome! 
I noticed a few non intuitive things (at least I think so) about movement. If you right click and tell a ship to go somewhere and it says auto move then you would think it would move at the beginning of the next move. It seems like it moves at the end of the next turn. You can still manually move it and I did for a long time thinking the auto move was not working. Eventually I realized it moves at the end of the next move. Also when I discovered how to use the rally point and the governors in the civilization tab it made things much easier for telling your ships to automatically go to a spot. I played on cakewalk to make sure I was at least doing the right things mechanically. I have won in all modes and now it is time for me to increase the diff. It seemed easiest and quickest to win a military victory at least in cakewalk diff. I only did 5 races and a small galaxy.
Cakewalk justifies its name 
Try normal or challenging difficulty - before that the AI is pretty much useless IMO. And you will soon find that military victory is one of the most difficult to obtain. In fact, impossible without turning off Influence victory.
So at that level of AI the other civ's will try to win with an influence victory and influence me to death? Just curious?
No, no. What I mean is that for a military victory, you need to eliminate all the other races. Whereas you get an influence victory when you get about 70-75% of the galaxy under your influence. How are going to take over all the planets without getting an influence victory first? By turning off influence victory, of course
Welcome, been playing off and on since the first release. Still enjoy it. I think this has to be the most replayable game I've ever purchased, one of my all time favorites. You didn't say what version you're playing, but with all the expansions, the depth of the game is almost endless.
Get familiar with all the options in the game setup. There's a lot of them and you can really change the character of the games with those. Again, adds more depth to it.
what i like about the depth of the game - ot no "forced" depth, it is just "there" because everything fits together so naturally
the game feels so complete and organic in the way everything happens, it is fun to play even if you lose because whatever happenes is always like some historical event
everytime i watch babylon 5, i look at things and think "yes, THAT could happen in galactic civ 2 too" and vice versa (i am still early in the first season 
)
Well I played on cakewalk to get a feel for the victory conditions and the game mechanics. So after a few weeks I am ready for the big time. I can't believe what a time suck this game is. 3 hours go by in a blink. Very weird. Anyway yesterday I tried playing as Torian and on normal diff. I went on a large galaxy for the first time with 10 civs. My goal was to turtle and try to win a scientific victory. I had just 3 planets and I did not want any confrontation. The Drengin started taking over the other civs and eventually go around to me. Although I saw it coming and tried to prepare by researching lasers and shields, they came with Frigates and I had fighters. They wiped me out and I never even got close to a scientific victory. I had a lot of trade routes with them and I hoped they would not want to lose them, but the Drengin did not care. They stomped on me, lol. I guess researching more in logistics and hull size is important. I am beginning to believe it is also important to get the military research done earlier, even if you don't plan on using it. BTW I am playing the combo version sold now with both upgrades included and I sand box in TOA, I guess.
You have to understand two things here:
-The real and IMO only effective way to make sure not to be attacked is by the AI is to have high military rating. Otherwise you are fair game, no matter what.
-3 planets, you say? In a large galaxy? I am sorry but that is just asking for trouble. Sureshot way to lose. You MUST colonize fast, the whole game depends on it.
Welcome to the game and this forum. I hope you'll ejoy it. Keep us posted about your experiences and post an AAR!
Cheers!
Ain't it the truth... 
What is an AAR? I assume it is a game recording or something like that.
AAR's are written by the player to presumably describe a game. Most here are literary in nature...some well written and I'm sure enjoyed by many. A few are similiar to a field commander reporting post action which can be informative.
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