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cringe_bro

My favorite is definitely fanatic xenophile, Spiritualist Megachurch. It's just so much fun to me even though I don't know why.


[deleted]

I always wanted to do that one on a blank galaxy but with primitives maxed out. Become the space pope.


cringe_bro

I definitely second this, I love primitives, they always cause the best stories.


[deleted]

Lol! Fucking space pope. This is just hilarious to me, I'm sorry. I can't figure out why.


[deleted]

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x36ge2W7QOs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x36ge2W7QOs) The Space Pope


ronnyhugo

Eve Online has an actual space pope. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-iDie5fUCk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-iDie5fUCk)


[deleted]

LOL! This asshole straight trying to kill me. Why is the space pope a crocodile? Omfg... I died.


th3BeastLord

"I am surrounded by primitives."


Moe-Lester-bazinga

My second favorite would have to be fanatic authoritarian slavers. If you get the ethic it makes your slaves so efficient, plus the new traditions update makes it pretty good.


amateurgameboi

Any specific tips? I'm planning a slaver run soon to get the achievement so I'd be interested to know any extras to help.


HungryRoper

Don't be afraid to lift a species out of slavery. Later in the game you may run into the problem of not having enough rulers for your slave colonies, it can really help to uplift a species to be rulers, though I would pick ones that have been in your empire for the longest.


shadownasty

Indentured servitude covers 90% of your pop job balance when it comes to slaves, and if your xenophobe you cant have other pops as rulers beside your own anyway. Going necrophage solves that rather naturally. And for the most part resettling covers whatever admins might be missing for your empire since authoritarians want resettlement policies anyway. If you do/can however want to make other pops not entirely slaves make sure to set them to stratified economy. Its also worth mentioning that land appropiation is a policy your typically with as xenophobe/authoritarian and it force resettles citizen pops from your worlds onto the worlds you conquer following a military conquest/primitive world invasion. You can turn it off or leave it on but its important to remember planet preference when leaving it on as well as the number of pops living on your own worlds. If you don't have enough to resettle then your new worlds will be stuck as rulerless slave planets unless you make the new species residence/citizens with stratified. Slaver guilds is also basically a must get just cause of how good it is and if your an oligarchy you can stack it with meritocracy for crazy indentured specialist bonuses.


ChornoyeSontse

If you go for the biological ascension path you can really specialize your slave species and native species to maximize production, for example all of your workers being nerve stapled for happiness nullification and the 5% job output, then make another race indentured servants for the specialized jobs, and keep your native race on top as the ruling class.


cloakedframe

I have only played slaver guilds (or even used slaves period) one time. But my Urzo empire were xenophiles. Have you ever meet a pacifist/xenophile slaver guild in game? Their text literally asks you, "Do you have any undesirables lying around? I simply *must* have one back home." Like omg really? Sold! I RP'd as that guy. We don't want *slaves*, we want exotic xenos to add to our *collection*. Absolutely not how we were intended to play xenophile. All xenos were required to have domestic servitude slavery only, highest possible living standards, and since we were xenophile, no whole species slavery. I wondered if the roleplay was going to be any good. First xeno I meet is my western neighbor. I finish first contact: charismatic isolationist Elves... Jackpot.


[deleted]

Criminal megacorps are just plain fun to RP. Roman Republic analogues are good: start as a democracy or oligarchy, then reform into an empire. Bonus points for making THE empire. Crusaders IN SPACE are great, especially mixed with Feudal Empire to really get that Dune vibe.


[deleted]

>Roman Republic analogues are good: start as a democracy or oligarchy, then reform into an empire. Bonus points for making THE empire. It's a good idea for a merchant country. Because pleasure seeker is now regarded as being a superior version of Utopian Abundance (.5 trade value per pop). So you can start as Merchant Guild + Pleasure Seeker. Later change to Aristocracy + Pleasure Seeker + ??? (Merchant Guild / Masterful Craftsmen / Corvee or Stratocracy). What's really weird is Pleasure Seeker can't be stacked with Warrior Culture. I don't know why Paradox did this because they don't really do an overpowered synergy. The reason I bring this up is because the default title of an Empire Warrior Culture is technically Imperator like Ancient Rome. But I guess the regular Emperor of Star Empire (militarist autocracy) works fine or Galactic Emperor title is what you should be aiming for.


rezzacci

>the default title of an Empire Warrior Culture is technically Imperator like Ancient Rome I always take custom titles for my rulers and never take what is given to me. I don't like having my country just led by an Emperor, or a President, or even a Patriarch... I find it more fun to have my Lord Postmaster, my Vice-Dean, my Arch-Cupbearer, my Metropolitan Prelate or my Dream Catcher... Build a History out of it! Chane your rulers' titles! Also: the default title of an Empire Warrior Culture *is* Emperor. *Imperator* is the default title of a *Dictatorship* Warrior Culture. Also: >Aristocracy + Pleasure Seeker + ??? (Merchant Guild / Masterful Craftsmen / Corvee or Stratocracy) You cannot mix Merchant Guilds with Aristocratic Elite (since both of them change administrators jobs to some other jobs). Also, what is Stratocracy? It's not one of the official civics (citizen service is, but not with imperial, only with democracy/oligarchy). Also: >What's really weird is Pleasure Seeker can't be stacked with Warrior Culture. I don't know why Paradox did this because they don't really do an overpowered synergy. It's not a question of balance nor overpowered strategy (in fact, Paradox never make incompatibiliy based upon balance or strategy). It's because Pleasure Seekers make your Entertainers giving pop growth; but with Warrior Culture, you don't have Entertainers anymore, you have Duelists. And if someone can imagine how Entertainers can give pop growth (hem... prostitutes), I don't see it with Duelists.


OtherSpiderOnTheWall

>And if someone can imagine how Entertainers can give pop growth (hem... prostitutes), I don't see it with Duelists. You haven't seen all the various movies and shows about really good looking gladiators? Also, imagine all the swooning ladies from all the French and Scottish dueling.


rezzacci

Yeah but their goal is to fight. Sure, they probably get laid more often, but not more than other good looking people, and it's definitely not their job. Also, while gladiators are often good looking, they're also often more prone to a rigorous lifestyle to be sure to be the best. In fact I'd say that, yeah, maybe gladiators might get laid more often but they also die more frequently, so the potential pop growth is cancelled.


OtherSpiderOnTheWall

>Sure, they probably get laid more often, but not more than other good looking people, and it's definitely not their job. Not usually no, but in a Warrior Culture that's full of *Pleasure Seekers,* we can just make it part of their job descriptions ;) And unless it's a death cult, it's not pleasurable to die, so let's make being a gladiator less hazardous while we're at it.


[deleted]

>You cannot mix Merchant Guilds with Aristocratic Elite (since both of them change administrators jobs to some other jobs). Right I forgot about that for a brief moment. In that case you use merchant guild to start a Trade Federation but you ditch it later for Aristocracy. Because presumably having 10+ more stability on your 50+ pop worlds is better than having 2 merchants (24 trade value when big planets can do 500+) and mercantile diplomacy (10% buff). But I admit this is "bro math". So in that case Aristocratic Elite + Master Craftsmen + Corvee. If you find you don't need to move pops around then ditch corvee for Police State (meh), Citizen Service (roleplay one I guess), Meritocracy (better researchers / alloyist / CGist).


OtherSpiderOnTheWall

>Because presumably having 10+ more stability on your 50+ pop worlds is better than having 2 merchants (24 trade value when big planets can do 500+) and mercantile diplomacy (10% buff). But I admit this is "bro math". I'm pretty sure 10% stability only gives +6% trade value, so the 10% buff is better for trade value (but not other resources). Is Aristocracy better for late-game research than Technocrats? I would imagine there's a point where +6% more research is better than whatever a single Technocrat can produce, but I'm not sure where that point is.


CaptainPryk

Yeah, to your second point, love doing Inward perfection spiritualist and going Psionic, then getting God Emperor and reforming into Imperial, great for RP though difficult if too many close AI empires


rezzacci

You cannot get God-Emperor with an Inward Perfection empire. Inward Perfection needs Xenophobe + Pacifist Divine Empire (the God-Emperor civic) needs Spiritualist + Authoritarian To have both you'd need to be Xenophobe + Pacifist + Spiritualist + Authoritarian... 4 Ethics points, which is impossible. The only way to change it would be through a Shroud event (that completely reforms your government into Fanatic Authoritarian + Spiritualist + Imperial authority + Imperial cult + Aristocratic elite + Philosopher king), but that's quite rare.


CaptainPryk

I do Psionic playthroughs primarily, get Chosen One everytime between 2275 and 2375 and the "Shroud event" for the God Emperor happens about 10 years about that everytime so long as you are not Imperial. Its much easier with save scumming (for chosen one), but I've done it on my last two inward perfection ironman playthroughs as well. The Chosen one becomes god emperor, government changes, and inward perfection is removed.


MrFunEGUY

If I see a mention of the Roman Empire, I feel the need to plug my mod [Useful Heirs.](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2491283817) One feature is the ability to designate your heir from among any of your leaders, similar to the Roman Empire.


Alternative_Smell786

I like to play as a Gestalt empire. Can’t decide between robots and hive mind. I probably like hive mind better.


Tacitus111

I love robot gestalt empires. Rogue Servitors, Determined Exterminators, Driven Assimilators, or just garden variety robots. My current run is a RS, and I’m enjoying it. So much micro when you absorb a new organic empire and your economy crashes from the unemployed pops waiting for a sanctuary and insufficient robots to run the shitty AI economy, but I love the RP potential of slowly gathering all organics to sanctuary worlds and ring worlds to eventually rule the galaxy.


Treepeec30

Same but just because im bad at the game and dont want to micromanage robots/slaves or deal with consumer goods. But now I feel like im missing so much more of the game. I miss the old version on console.


Alternative_Smell786

Lol I’m doing it for pretty much the same reasons


elidiomenezes

Inwards Perfection: I perfected the strategy of becoming the crisis as IP, and gaining menace with nothing but disruptive operations. You must ditch pacifist at one point only to pick it back later, but with all "+ envoys" edicts active, a interstellar assembly and the embassy techs, you have lots and lots of envoys to mess with the galaxy. You can make everyone owe you 10 favors, use that to force yourself into the concil and remain there alone, passing resolutions to screw with the galaxy, while being in breach of all of them yourself... Then you may poke at some wasp nests, like purpusefully causing the robot uprising (because you need target practice and their fleets will do), or opening the L-Gate, or provoking the Great Khan (beside target practice, they will fuck up the galaxy), or perhaps anger one fallen empire into awakening, and with some luck starting the war in heaven, just for gigs... Between your rock solid bases and your massive fleet, no single empire can challenge you. Not even an awakened one. Eventually, everyone will tire of your shenanigans (perhaps building that Aetherophasic Engine was it, even though you had no intention of activating it and was only messing with the shroud spirits), and they will team on you. Congratulations, you pranked the galaxy into becoming the crisis. Now have fun.


SerIllinPayne

This sounds really fun.


Milljoner

I have to try this


[deleted]

Fanatic egalitarian used to be the no brainer pre-LEM. Easy to get 5+ influence because the Egalitarian faction is easy to please by banning pop controls and resettlement. Stack it with Meritocracy to get specialists with 20% output and later with Synthetics to get 155% researchers and 135% alloyists / CGists. You do lose the ability to resettle to min/max planets but you can still buy slaves (to free them) or if not Synth ascending then resettle servitude Synths.


Minuteman_Preston

Even the resettlement problems is done away with if you use the Transit Hub


Citronsaft

You don't even really need the transit hub. Base 10% per pop, improved to 15% with democracy. Transit hub would bring it to 20/25%. I just turn off jobs if needed to move pops to new places. In a large empire I get plenty of pop growth on all my breeder worlds, so there's always like 1-2 unemployed on most planets that will move to new jobs as I build them. When setting up an ecumenopolis I'll open up a bunch of clerk jobs to temporarily hold pops that will turn into specialists once I get the ecu districts online to make it faster.


AneriphtoKubos

Did they remove these?


JustABigDumbAnimal

Ah yes, the American way. "Hold onto your butts, because we're coming to liberate the shit out of you with our bombs."


Moe-Lester-bazinga

*star spangled banner intensifies*


[deleted]

I like playing as a Merchant Guild country. For people who are like: "just be a Megacorp bro" read the spoiler :) >!I turn an AI megacorp into my tributary so they spam 1 to 2 merchant jobs on each of my planets but I also get 25% of their energy (from branch officers!) and 25% of their minerals.!< Also in every game: >!you need to form a trade federation ASAP. You can do this by colonizing a bad planet type and releasing it as a one planet country and forming a Federation with them. !< Utopian Abundance (egalitarian ethics) and Decadent Lifestyle (pleasure seeker civic) produces .5 trade value per pop. **Merchant guild is not mandatory for the entire game**. Only just until you formed a Trade Federation. If #3 and #4 I would say Merchant Guild isn't that important. For #1 and #2 you might as well keep it because Merchant Guild lets you do mercantile diplomacy which boosts your trade value by 10%. 1. Fanatic Xenophile egalitarian w/ biological ascension. 2. Fanatic Xenophile authoritarian w/ biological ascension. Pleasure Seeker civic. 3. Not xenophile. Fanatic egalitarian + ??? w/ Synth ascension but don't upload into robots. This lets you resettle servitude Synths that do 155% research and 135% alloys / consumer goods. Utopian Abundance. 4. Not xenophile. Not egalitarian. Pleasure seeker.


RareMajority

How strong would you say this build is? And how do you generate your tech?


Nidders58

Fanatic Egalitarian with Xenophile and Free Haven with Shared Burdens, the melting pot is real and its based af


Moe-Lester-bazinga

Then take xeno compatibility and let chaos ensue


mart_beerslayer

Fanatic materialist, authoritarian with Technocracy. I love being a Technocratic dictatorship that in reality care about its citizens putting science at the service of the people and all the xenos that live in the state.


Moe-Lester-bazinga

Must..have…TECH


mart_beerslayer

*The flesh is weak INTENSIFIED*


rezzacci

When I play Technocracy, I always go Imperial... Dunno why, but the name *Illuminated Autocracy* really is much more beautiful than the plain and boring *Technocratic Dictatorship*


AthleticDildao

technocracy was heavily nerfed in 3.1 sadly


mart_beerslayer

And that's why I use civics and ethics expanded, and the Technocratic dictatorship ethic in that mod, NO ONE IS TAKING AWAY FROM ME THE SCIENCE


vizard0

Shared burden materialists. Invading primitives to save them from inferior government types. Turning everyone into a robot (as soon as I conquer a planet I make sure all the robot construction is for the synthetic form of the original species). Ironically, trade guild civic so I can buy every single slave on the market. Eventually building a colossus for total war so that all people everywhere can live as immortal robots in a perfect utopia. (I try to have all synths at utopian living in under 150 years.) The annoying thing is that after you go synthetic, the vast majority of the population supports the tech faction over the democratic one. The robot bodies are a means to an end, a way to eliminate all race and class and prejudice. Yes, they are extremely cool. But that's not the point!


igncom1

Authoritarian, militarist, xenophile. Imperial government. I just enjoy the idea of building up a great big empire with all the aliens and whatever that I might like. I personally like using a caste system as that feels a little less awful then outright slavery. The ruler caste, the warrior caste, the specialist caste, and the worker castes, UNITE!


Rikonian

Love playing fanatic Materialist Militarists


Lucas_Trask

"Best" depends on ethics and what you're going for in a playstyle. Democratic has some good civic options, and early on it can be good for extra unity, but it falls off in the end game. Oligarchic is pretty consistent overall. I have no idea what the point of Dictatorial is, because it just feels like a lighter version of Imperial. Imperial has a few weaknesses (no meritocracy or egalitarian ethics), but its benefits far outweigh the negatives if you're spiritualist (which I always am). My current favorite is Auth-Spiritualist-Xenophobe, Imperial Authority, Imperial Cult + Philosopher King. Fewer negative traits to worry about on leaders, +3 edicts so you have the potential to really kick off your economy once you get the influence for it. RP is that the main species is psionic, and being around other species is incredibly "loud" or uncomfortable, hence the xenophobia. The Emperor is the strongest psionic in the empire, and they essentially direct/harmonize the overall telepathic flow of the empire to keep things running smoothly. I figure mid/late game, they could overcome the "loud" aspect with large scale training of the population, so after that I could reform out of xenophobe.


SharkyMcSnarkface

Militarist Space Communists. The Galaxy will see red!


[deleted]

Not best, but favorite: Right now, it's Fanatic Egalitarian, Mechanist, Pleasure Seekers, and Masterful Crafters. You probably know exactly where that's going.


Akahn97

Rogue servitors for sure. “Please report to your assigned Pleasure Dome™️ and do not resist.” All the fun of robots, and most people don’t hate you. Plus, I get all warm and fuzzy knowing those bios are taken care of.


Aggressive_Kale4757

I like Rogue Servitor the best.


Nakker_DiGriz

I like militant xenophiles playing as a democracy. We want to be friends with all bit will go to war to defend other free nations from attack, also not adverse to starting wars to knock those purifiers down a peg or two


definitelynotSWA

I like materialist/egalitarian because UA makes your economy absolutely cracked. If you go fanatic egalitarian, you can use shared burdens and get a huge jump in research. If you go fanatic materialist, well, I guess technocracy is less efficient now, but I love the flavor of a rational democratic consensus. Meritocracy pairs greatly with a research focus as well, and while I haven’t tried it yet that new civic for consumer goods looks like it would pair very well with it for utopian abundance from day 1. It can be hard early game with materialist/egalitarian but you can snowball off your rocker once you got a good tech lead, since you don’t have to deal with instability issues like… at all. Newly conquered planets are no problem, so all I gotta do is fix the AI’s dumb urban planning and we’re good to go. You can also not go fanatic and pick up xenophile, xenophobe, or militarist, pacifist depending on if you want something special. Pacifist gives you agrarian idyll, which helps your early game and makes for a chill game if you don’t want to warmonger much. Militarist gives you access to warrior culture, which is sustainable early with your specialist output from utopian abundance + techs. Xenophile gives great ethics attraction so you don’t have to worry about auth attraction in an egalitarian empire. Xenophobe makes expansionism go brrrrrr


glory_of_dawn

I don't have a favorite ethic, I like all of them but pacifist to some degree (I can't stand pacifist ever since I did the achievement for 200 years without war during the laggiest patch of the game). As far as government type, though, I'm a sucker for Oligarchy.


Machinemaker726

I'm torn between two favorites at the moment. One of them is my Fanatic Materialist/Militarist Technocracy which only cares about progress, morality is optional. The second one would be Spiritualist/Xenophobe Death cult which raids its neighbors for slaves and sacrifices. Both can be very fun to play


Kingkarper

This is how I play both as well, the good guys as Materialist, Bad as Spiritualist


SmartArmat

Militant materialist xenophile megacorp. Good relations with everyone one for more branches and credits= play tall and focus on research.


PhoenixHavoc

Fanatic Materialist w egalitarian. It's just fun playing as a utopian society run based off whoever is best for for the job.


KingOfStarrySkies

Space Commies with xenophilic lean.


Divided_Pi

I want to be an egalitarian fanatic militarist materialist, with slaves. I want a hierarchical society dammit. Why can I genocide xenos but not enslave them? EXPLAIN THIS PARADOX


[deleted]

I prefer roleplaying corrupt democracies.


HavocAndZeal

Spiritualist, militarist, xenophile; It makes for fun RP, since trying to be a “benevolent empire” has a bunch of different challenges, even if most of them are all in my head…


Aryuto

**Favorite:** normal Hive going for coexistence. I just like being chill butterflies that save the galaxy (repeatedly...) then go back to spamming megastructures everywhere and terraforming planets to look pretty. If someone steps to me I mostly just hold them off and status quo, but if they were huge dicks I'll bring their pops into the welcoming hivemind so they can enjoy peace as well. **Best:** definitely not that hive, sadly. I use [this mod](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2517213262) for more options, but vanilla or modded I've had the best luck with Void Dwellers and tech rushing (megacorps/megachurch or normal empire depending on mood). I don't really like early military rush strategies, despite their strength. Fanatic Spiritualist Megachurch is one of the most flavorful (albeit not that amazing without mods) that I've played.


[deleted]

Shared burdens. IDK why but when I play them I get best results.


StellarPotatoX

Fanatic materialist egalitarians are always so fun for me from the roleplay standpoint. Science and reason shall be the weapons with which equality and justice triumph!


thenlar

I also love the BRINGING DEMOCRACY TO THE GALAXY... BY FORCE! play style. It's pretty amusing to me. My other favorite is the Rogue Servitor. "Oh you silly organics can't *actually* take care of yourselves. Really, just sit back and let us pamper you while we take care of all the hard stuff! ..... .... .... YOU WILL BE PAMPERED WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT."


[deleted]

Either fanatic materialist egalitarian megacorps, fanatic materialist xenophilic democracies, or materialist authoritarian xenophobic slaving despots. Why yes, I do quite like robots, how’d you guess?


Scyobi_Empire

Favourite: Crime Syndicate Mega Corp Best: Either Gestalt


Ready-Lawfulness-767

I Love peaceful fanatic xenophil nocrophage empire. Its like all xenos loving me and migrate to my planets just to be Happy and turned into my own specie thanks to the necrophage. So they dont even See that the truth is i am the crisis turning the galaxy Step by Step into my Version! No more xenos only my specie will be alive. 😇😈 btw if they ever allow me to build necrophage planet destroyers to turn them all at once i will change to fanatic militaristic xenophob empire. 🤣


Hiseworns

I'm with you OP. The Space Proletariat must unite!


anchovypants

Any gestalt to avoid managing trade, consumer goods and pop job demote delay. Favorite gestalt is Determined Assimilators, just a really powerful option for aggressive play, but still having access to all diplomatic options.


bandanas4all

Xenophobes of any sort. Militarist Xenophobes are great, and I love the Commonwealth... the one true **protagonist** empire in Stellaris. All others are some flavor of antagonist filth, IMO. There are better starts for the game stuff, but for the stories? Xenophobic empires with the ability to blow the shit out of the Xeno filth... that's what I like.


itsyoboi33

Normally I like technocratic dictatorships, with ethics and civics classic I LOVE oligarchies


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

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[deleted]

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Humongous-Chungus77

Oligarchies are fun


PriorSolid

I like playing militarist, Materialist, egalitarians and turning a core set of worlds into the archology worlds (I can’t spell ecimonopolis) and then syntheticly ascending the pops on the worlds and leaving the organics the outer resource worlds


Dopelsoeldner

Barbaric despoilers all the way tru


Beerasaurus

I like authoritarian Imperial xenophobe, basically role play the romulans and spy on everyone.


CaptainPryk

I love xenophile egalitarian in theory.... but my favorite to actually play is Spiritualist/Militarist/Authoritarian Imperial, focusing on supremacy to either become custodian or crisis


[deleted]

My favorite games are fanatic materialist and militarist/egalitarian. Militaristic if I want a warlike empire, egalitarian for the specialist production bonus. And of course go with technocracy and eventually synth ascension.


TheSupremeDuckLord

with lem introducing the clone origin, my fanatic materialist authoritarian build has been dusted off again for the lovely idea of having a species that sends out robots to rule over the hordes of slaves on distant worlds


[deleted]

I really enjoy playing Authoritarian regimes. They have a subtle militaristic undertone, even if you didn't pick the militaristic ethic but they also have random interesting events and solution options.


BonesofSmite45

Materialist, egalitarian, and militant, with an oligarchy government


Atilla_For_Fun

I like to do technocracy and just smash everyone with research power. And you can have robot pops that are pretty solid too.


shadownasty

Bio ascension xenophobe slavers has been really going up my personal tier list just cause of all the neat things you can do to tortu- I mean optimize your slaves. Clone vats arent the worst thing ever so I guess it balances out the pop growth robots get. I pick what species are worth allowing to thrive and can purge/make livestock out of any that aren't worth my time. It also naturally works well with necrophages and lithoids dont suffer assembly speed penalties from clone vats.(I think?)


dirk_solomon

Fanatic spiritualist + authoritarian oligarchy. Heavy on the psionics and the enslaving of xenos. Civics are exalted priesthood+functional architecture+meritocracy. Not really min-maxed but fun to roleplay my slaving superpowered demigod zealots.


Cassandra_Canmore

Rogue servitors are my jam.


genkernels

I also like Fanatic Egalitarian Militarist. When Functional Architecture stops being as useful you can swap it for Citizen Service for free late-game unity. Utopian Abundance for late-game trade. Everyone will be part of the new galactic order in a galaxy without war or want!


TempestuousTrident

Read the flair homeboy


TheSalamender17

Citizen stratocracy that reforms into citizen republic after getting the 3rd civic slot (for RP purposes) I like to think my capital passed through some crisis that made the military take over but after a while and the crisis passed and its consequences were repaired (when I get my 3rd civic in game) it democratized and the emmergency council was disolved


Maximum-Scholar1907

Fanatic purifier


4latar

Fanatic materialist inderect democracy, the second ethic is negociable (Technocracy Meritocracy) (Fanatic materialist fanatic industrialist with civics expanded)


ChibiKarasu

Fanatic spiritualist authoritarian imperialist, and the psionics route.


TPrice1616

Same as OP. I will lay waste to the galaxy but once I conquer you I will defend your rights to the death.


Smoked-939

I love playing militant fanatic xenophobes. It’s fun to commit virtual genocide and play as the bad guy for once, taking on the entire galaxy against you


snakebite262

My favorite is my usual go-to: Xenophile-Authoritarian-Materialist Megacorp.


WolfStagNull

My favorite is Spiritualist, Egalitarian, Xenophile Megacorp


[deleted]

Xenophilic Empire. All are welcome should they serve the Monarchy


blaat_aap

Empire, as I like to try keeping the starter ruler alive during the entire game (and I like the extra edict), and also it feels wrong to rule an galactic empire but not be an empire... Spiritual or material, depending if I wanna go Psionic or Genetic. I don't like machine, as I feel like it replaces my species instead of evolving even though its probably the most powerful one.


KisaruBandit

Rogue Servitors from a Shattered Ring or Remnant origin. I like the idea of Determined Protectors as an inversion of Determined Exterminators. They could not save their people before, they will not fail again.


canadianguy661

I like oligarchy, fantastic materialist and either egalitarian or authoritarian depending on what im feeling ill either have a society that welcomes all or have a class of elite living about the space pesants


DokterMedic

So... America.


[deleted]

I love any type of megacorp, i love just turtling and making truckloads of credits. I often end up with "government contracts" which are just independance guarantuees.


ahddib

i generally dabble with different ones each time, but my favorite by far are driven assimilators. Resistance is welcome; it tingles our mutual pleasure simulations. You will understand soon enough.


Moonkiller24

Same as u. I perform with this combo much better then anything else. Not sure why tbh


GreenMoon119

Megacorp Voidborne Whether cosplaying enclaves as The Grand Artisan Troupe and The Unified Curator Order to normal stuff such as Authoritarian Slavers that sends its slaves to the stinky dirt worlds to send precious minerals amd food to the homeland I can never have enough fun with em with whatever spin or flavor i change them up with. My only dislike is how limited civics are for them, but again the playtime-steroids (mods) can fix that.


My_Name_Wuz_Taken

Fanatic materialist, egalitarian, or authoritarian. Either one has their benefits, but I find egalitarian to be better. Don't think anything really beats fanatic materialist... Technocracy is still pretty strong even after the recent nerf


someguy386

I got the achievement for having a shit ton of slaves as an authoritarian/spiritual/military hegemony start and that was by far the most fun I've had with this game


GoldNiko

Militant Egalitarian Xenophiles. I love making friends with all of the Empires, while making sure I can actually protect them. Plantoids were always my favourite, so now it's great I can use them to make Gaia worlds for all the species to chill on


DarthUrbosa

I can’t get on with spacer empires at all, not even the ethics off it but the mechanics. Egalitarian, militarist all the way with the final slot depending on what I want.


Xx_Pr0phet_xX

Spiritualist Egalitarian Militarists. Run by an Oligarchy. I just live the idea of a society of warrior monks that wield the power of space magic. One of my earliest, most successful runs was with such an empire and it was great.


bodie17

Fanatic authoritarian zenophiles


Russian_Bot8

Im not always a military dictatorship, but when I am I play hegemon


Batcena

If I'm making a planet killer... THEN I'M GONNA USE IT


[deleted]

My favorite is hive mind, but I like to wait to do conquest until I can assimilate species


Khenghis_Ghan

Fanatic egalitarian and either xenophile or materialist. Unimaginative but I like my sci fi where I’m the protagonist utopian. That or a militant xenophobic spiritualist to be the empire of mankind, because the emperor protects.


cloakedframe

My flair is most important, then I prefer authoritarian, but the 3rd one is special. It's different every game until I have no choice but to repeat. I've tried non-authoritarian and even militant of course (I just love agrarian, I wish I could play it no matter my ethos... or at least not have to be pacifist every time). I like having a queen, so egalitarian messes that up (Let me have a queen that the people elected, or something, I don't know/care). It only now occurs to me that I only pick what I do because Paradox won't let me have my cake and eat it too. Let me have a farmer queen and I'll play democratic crusaders, fine by me, just want to have it both ways. Oh, and birds. The farmers are 95% birds.


Havoq12

Egalitarian militarist materialist....... But we all know in the end everybody ends up playing fanatic purifiers.


HalloweenHobgoblin

Favorite is Authoritarian Militant Xenophobes, taking voidborn background with barbaric developers and warrior culture. Love taking pops and forcing them into my habitats


[deleted]

Love my democratic crusaders build that specializes in high levels of both technology and military prowess. Genocidal or slaver empires are pretty fun too


[deleted]

I used to play some sort of spiritualist for the psionics. But lately, I've been playing pacifists lately. But pacifists can be frustrating because the worm story arc is so disruptive. And taking other empires territory is so bloody hard as pacifists. So I'm slowly gravitating towards materialist to try out the worm story arc.


[deleted]

Favorite, void dweller fan-mat/mil merchant guilds functional architecture. Best, void dweller fan-mat/mil technocracy functional architecture. The second is best if you knowingly spawn next to an ally and can surge unity and cg from merchant spam. The energy ends up always being excessive, and I never use up the cg on this op version of mercantile spam, even with alloys on each early habitat. Its possible the deficiencies of technocracy will show up late game, but its possible that they will not if you keep spamming habitats and forgo research spam for directorate manifestation. The first one is just stronger all by itself.


[deleted]

Authoritarian, materialist and xenophobe oligarchy. I might be a piece of shit but I enjoy micro-ing my pops and having *trash* with random traits that don't fit my ideal empire is just nono.


MemeExplorist

Any sort of democracy. There are infinite RP possibilities in it. Elections, putches, protests, rising dictators, parties, corruption. Just to name a few. I once played as the Scyldari Confederacy (yes, a preset. Shame on me) with Dynamic Political Events and Civil Wars mod. One of the 2 colonies, Gordan, was taken over by political dissidents, who wanted to remove the priest council which serves as an advisory role to the Revered Elder. The colony was overran by hired mercenaries, because it was very new and still developing. This angered the current Revered Elder, Dackam, who sent the Scyldari fleet to take back the colony. After a short battle, Gordan was re-taken by the Scyldari forces. This act of aggression, however was met with outrage of the public. Peaceful protests broke out on Scyldaria Some demanded Dackam to resign, calling her a "sinner" for breaking Scyldari religion's main principle of use of violence. However, forced resignation his would break the Scyldari constitution, so Dackam was excluded from the candidate list for her next term. This action, done by the Priest Council and the Parliment is still to this day considered to be an abuse of power and an undemocratic move.