I have an advanced empire as a neighbor that is also a fanatic purifier.

[Tamasin]

Good, almost neighbor. It's eating my neighbor right now and then it's my neighbor. Year is 2223. Should I stop and start a new game? Seems kinda pointless.

[Spatzimaus]

Why would you do that? You've described the best possible situation, militarily: a neighbor you can declare total war on, to instantly absorb his territory, and who'll be at least a bit depleted by his current war. Because he's a purifier he can't have any allies or defensive pacts, and once you do start fighting him, it's likely other neighbors will also join in to try to grab some territory for themselves, so finishing him off won't be that hard.

I mean sure, you still have to actually WIN, especially in the initial fleet battles, but as soon as you knew there was a purifier nearby you should have been churning out ships as fast as possible (even if it takes you way above the fleet cap). If you haven't been doing that, reload an older autosave and try again.
And the AI's not that smart; you can bait his fleets into coming at your choke point defense station piecemeal to be picked apart by your massed fleets. (If you don't HAVE a station at a choke point, pick one of his. Grab it right away and wait for the counterattacks to diminish before advancing further.)

In my own games, I set AI aggression to high, and force 4 extra total war enemies in all galaxies (2 purifiers, one assimilator, one devouring swam). I also double the usual number of advanced enemies, so in most games at least one of those will be advanced and will conquer a sizeable chuck of the galaxy before I reach them. So while you might not be used to that sort of warfare, I can say from experience that it leaves you much stronger in the long run than "normal" neighbors. Plus, it's a lot of fun.

[climbingeastofwinter]

Or instead of settling the 20 nearest systems, you could save your influence (to 1000 if needed) and try to colonize a new region for your empire to flee to on the other side of the map.

[HellsBain]

Originally posted by Spatzimaus:

Why would you do that? You've described the best possible situation, militarily: a neighbor you can declare total war on, to instantly absorb his territory, and who'll be at least a bit depleted by his current war. Because he's a purifier he can't have any allies or defensive pacts, and once you do start fighting him, it's likely other neighbors will also join in to try to grab some territory for themselves, so finishing him off won't be that hard.

so your advice for me with the first person I find is a 4 or 5 colony overwhelming purifier in the 5th system I scan is attack it and win? we are separated by one empty system on 3 sides so no choke points. I have advanced neighbors off also. some times the game just bugs out and you have to start over.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Originally posted by HellsBain:

so your advice for me with the first person I find is a 4 or 5 colony overwhelming purifier in the 5th system I scan is attack it and win? we are separated by one empty system on 3 sides so no choke points. I have advanced neighbors off also. some times the game just bugs out and you have to start over.

Some AI empire having the Lost Colony origin is also a possibility (The Lost Colony origin makes it so that "An Advanced Empire with the same species and random ethics will exist in the galaxy" and its not counted as a advanced empire when it comes to the settings).

[Lady Crimson (RIP)]

What you do is you find friends to defensive pact with who can back you up, you fortify your borders like crazy with defensive stations, ships, and invest heavily in Alloys above all else.

Do that, and eventually you might win as the more powerful you are the less likely they are to attack.. and when they do you may be able to hold off on a status quo. (make sure to invest in armies too).

Purifiers only will be powerful at the start, they lose power later on from a lack of friends and being unable to take advantage of their conquered pops.

[Ryika]

Meh. Make sure every building is an Alloy Foundry and enjoy the influence-free territory you'll be getting soon.

[yuzhonglu]

It doesn't help if they hit you with multiple 8k strong fleets at 2230. Each of your destroyer is like 150 strength, so you need like 50 of them to battle back a single fleet.

[Ryika]

You probably shouldn't even tech up to destroyers if you realize you have a purifier as your neighbor. If it's early enough and a direct neighbor, just swap everything to alloys immediately, forget about tech, and build up a large corvette fleet as soon as the alloys come in.

If you hit that sweet spot where you max out your naval capacity and can start an attack before the AI reaches the techs that allow them to combine their fleets to a death ball, it's very simple to clean them up one by one.

That's really difficult, potentially impossible, if you went for a blind tech rush with no alloy production at all, but that's the downside of such strategies. You're essentially gambling on a good start.

[Mistfox]

We can see the different viewpoints in this thread, some see it as an opportunity, some see it as a total loss.

Frankly, just fight. You can always start a new game after dying and who knows, you might just survive with more loot.

[yuzhonglu]

Originally posted by Ryika:

You probably shouldn't even tech up to destroyers if you realize you have a purifier as your neighbor. If it's early enough and a direct neighbor, just swap everything to alloys immediately, forget about tech, and build up a large corvette fleet as soon as the alloys come in.

If you hit that sweet spot where you max out your naval capacity and can start an attack before the AI reaches the techs that allow them to combine their fleets to a death ball, it's very simple to clean them up one by one.

That's really difficult, potentially impossible, if you went for a blind tech rush with no alloy production at all, but that's the downside of such strategies. You're essentially gambling on a good start.

Yeah. You summarized my play in a nutshell. What's even worse is all my alloys are going into robots.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

Originally posted by Ryika:

You probably shouldn't even tech up to destroyers if you realize you have a purifier as your neighbor. If it's early enough and a direct neighbor, just swap everything to alloys immediately, forget about tech, and build up a large corvette fleet as soon as the alloys come in.

If you hit that sweet spot where you max out your naval capacity and can start an attack before the AI reaches the techs that allow them to combine their fleets to a death ball, it's very simple to clean them up one by one.

That's really difficult, potentially impossible, if you went for a blind tech rush with no alloy production at all, but that's the downside of such strategies. You're essentially gambling on a good start.

Yeah. You summarized my play in a nutshell. What's even worse is all my alloys are going into robots.

If you are pouring alloys into robots, you are doing it wrong on a do or die gamble. You go ALL IN, not get distracted.

[yuzhonglu]

No, like I'm doing a tech rush AND going robots. You get like 3 science directors by 2210 with necrophage technocracy. The early tech gets you robots tech quickly, and I like to expand and I get the harmony +1 building with necrophages pretty early due to their insane unity generation, and there's nothing better to build in your new colonies, so....

It's more of a pop rush than a tech rush, but 300 research by 2230 isn't terrible. You can easily hit 1k pop by 2280 (without conquest) with 6k research.

But if a fanatic purifier shows up nearby at 2230 it's all over.

[El]

Originally posted by climbingeastofwinter:

Or instead of settling the 20 nearest systems, you could save your influence (to 1000 if needed) and try to colonize a new region for your empire to flee to on the other side of the map.

That would just be delaying the problem and by the time the purifier catches up they'll have had time and resources to become an even bigger threat.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

No, like I'm doing a tech rush AND going robots. You get like 3 science directors by 2210 with necrophage technocracy. The early tech gets you robots tech quickly, and I like to expand and I get the harmony +1 building with necrophages pretty early due to their insane unity generation, and there's nothing better to build in your new colonies, so....

It's more of a pop rush than a tech rush, but 300 research by 2230 isn't terrible. You can easily hit 1k pop by 2280 (without conquest) with 6k research.

But if a fanatic purifier shows up nearby at 2230 it's all over.

How does your playstyle relate to the OP's "problem"? And no, it's not "all over", it's a huge opportunity but as stated, you must go "all in" and not get distracted. In fact, seeing a genocidal empire nearby is one of the best things that can happen in a game. Double territory, a different species using a different habitat if you are lucky, it's a very good start if you can swing it.

[yuzhonglu]

Well I have the same problem as the OP. If I meet fanatic purifier nearby, I'm just dead unless I've got an "honorable warrior" neighbor as a defensive ally that can save my sorry ass.

I was responding to someone else talking about "blind tech boom."