What are the 'milestones' for each year?

[Ava]

Currently I struggle to understand the pace I need to invest in various fields. At which moment should I have researches X or Y? Rush to colonise Luna or Mars? At which date should I kill first alien? Etc.

In my current game I own most of mars resource sites by august 2029 and have most of the europe united under EU but I do not make ships as I did not invest much in military shipbuilding techs.

[LorDC]

Currently the optimal strategy is EU start, followed by a space rush to grab all of the Mars with maybe one or two sites on the moon, followed by a tech rush based on all the space resources you get. Ideally you completely deny all other factions any meaningful space presence. At that point you need at most three ships: missile monitor + PD monitor to kill single alien ship to get techs and maybe a single ship with marines to grab anything that other factions may have put on Mars.
Killing aliens is not really much of a priority. The only thing it really gives you is you faction Org, but those are not super critical.
In terms of controlling Earth, you need a good stockpile of nukes and as much MC as you can possibly squeeze from you nations.
The only real milestone is around 2035 or so. That's when aliens will begin trying to control Earth orbit and start dropping armies. Ideally by that time you should have fleets with decent combat acceleration and capable of repelling couple of raiders above all your colonized planets and a nice strike force near Earth to turn that alien invasion into a debris field. Although there is nothing wrong with allowing aliens to land if you were a bit slow. You can always just nuke their armies on the ground.

[DarthVishis]

There is no sweet spot and many viable strategies.

In general.
2030
Be the dominant power on Earth.

2040
Be the dominant power in the Inner Solar System.

2050
Be the dominant power in the Outer Solar System.

Vtctory usually achievable anywhere from 2050 to 2070.

[corisai]

Originally posted by LorDC:

Currently the optimal strategy is

Jupiter rush.

[Ava]

Originally posted by corisai:

Originally posted by LorDC:

Currently the optimal strategy is

Jupiter rush.

By rush do you mean just going for the correct techs immidiately, or waiting for the AI to come up to it on its own but collect a lot of boost in order to just take all the sites?

Also, what is the time you take your first alien ship down? Asap?

[Ava]

Originally posted by DarthVishis:

There is no sweet spot and many viable strategies.

In general.
2030
Be the dominant power on Earth.

2040
Be the dominant power in the Inner Solar System.

2050
Be the dominant power in the Outer Solar System.

Vtctory usually achievable anywhere from 2050 to 2070.

How do you actually become a dominant power on Earth, when there is a control points limit and servants getting nasty alien help?

[DarthVishis]

There are basically five superpowers. USA, European Union, Russia, India, China.

Taking control of any one of them is a potential path to victory.

The least risky of these is probably EU. Its not a big deal losing a control point of one or two small countries and getting it back. But losing a control point in China or USA to servants is a pain because its tough to get back due to the economy size penalty.

I would suggest to watch the CP limit of servants. If they are in the red its unlikely they will take more control points and even if they do, being in the red, means its easy to get back.

So if servants are say in full control of China they will be at their control point limit and unlikely to bother you in USA. But its a given the aliens will try and and place the servants in charge of one of the superpowers at least.

I have had games where i started out controlling the USA but had servants take over one point after another just like that. I moved on to the EU or China and they left me alone long enough for me to get established. Happens.

Late game, with councillors having high science, and several anti alien techs under your belt, the risk is lower.

[corisai]

Originally posted by Ava:

By rush do you mean just going for the correct techs immidiately

Yes, bases on Jupiter moons around 2028 and then immediately a total war against aliens. Fastest way to win now.

[Deep One]

You can go to jupiter around 2025, depending on how much you optimize and startscumming. It throws the aliens AI into a stupid rage mode where they keep producing and sending single small ships as fast as they can at jupiter, so you can have fun spending the rest of the game klicking meaningless popups and waiting for tech piecharts...

It was probably designed for when you reach jupiter normally that the aliens would send everything they have at you, but it just ends up crippling them when you get there fast enough.

[corisai]

Originally posted by Deep One:

It was probably designed for when you reach jupiter normally that the aliens would send everything they have at you, but it just ends up crippling them when you get there fast enough.

Partially, aliens are playing honestly with space resources - so being denied with Jupiter they simply unable to build a sizeable fleet. And if you're deny them bases in Main Belt - they're almost unable to attack Earth themselves.

I really hope devs don't disable this strategy by cheats in favor of aliens (but of course it will be nice if being locked out of Jupiter & low on ships - they will focus on other outer planets instead).