What's the point of Militarist?

[Water]

Just got done playing a single player campaign and went Fanatic Militarist with Egalitarian. I won, but barely.

My ships would regularly get their asses kicked and I had my entire fleet wiped out more often than not. I notice when I rush tech, high-tech ships are world beaters even without the insane ship fire rate bonus militarists get. I think due to start of game bonuses, plus some bonuses I picked up along the way I was around +50-80 fire rate by the end of the game, maybe more, but it didn't seem to matter.

My army also suffered a bad defeat they should have probably won.

Did this use to be a good playstyle? I would never recommend using it to anyone.

[Mournblade]

I also have a ton of trouble building a large military and making use of it. I admit that I'm pretty new to the game, but I never have the resources to build and maintain huge fleets of ships. I would also agree that I'm not having any luck getting the right tech for military success. I am trying to play a mostly economic and diplomatic game, but I need do need a better military to overcome some obstacles.

[arronax06]

Did you design the ships yourself or did you use the default build? Sometimes the default build is really bad... I don't know the current meta, but if you see your big ships only have very short range weapons for example, that might be why you're losing.

[Half Phased]

Militarists are really, really good at an early game rush. Fanatic militarist gets a +20% fire rate and unlocks militarist civics, such as distinguished admiralty, which gives a further +10% fire rate, admiral bonuses and command limit bonuses.

So the combined +30% fire rate benefits is basically an upgrade to tier 2 weapons, right at the start of the game. The stronger admirals and enhanced command limit is a further benefit.

Use that as an early rush to capture systems, colonies or even vassalize other empires. And then use that to scale beyond the tech rush empires. After all, it’ll take them a few years to get T2 weapons online, even if they’re ignoring economic and science tech, which is a win-win for you. Oh and you can also scavenge debris to fill the tech gap.

[nilfiry]

Sounds like the problem is your ships, and not your Ethics. Militarist is a strong ethic.

[zeeb]

AFAIK, research speed have always been the meta.
However, Militarist is really strong as well, but it is still not research speed.

Feels like Research Speed is more Quality > Quantity than Militarist. Resource gathering efficiency would be on the other side of the spectrum; Quantity > Quality.

Before you start a game and create your empire think about what you want to do, what do you want to be and how do you want to go about it. Do you want to amass a ridiculously large fleet and outnumber your enemies or do you want superior ships? When you know the answer to those questions, you won't have a problem picking your ethics etc, just look up what they each do and how they work and you'll find your answer.

Personally I usually play Democratic with a focus on research and then I ally with those that have superior resource gathering but not as good of a research speed, because then I just trade with them for what I need in return for what they need.

Trades could've had more options in this game though, one thing I'd wish they add.
Another game called Distant Worlds has really nice trade; You can bully other nations if you're strong enough that you promise war if they don't give you what you want. If they deny, you just crush them, but the AI in that game is often smart enough to know when they stand no chance and better pay up. But now I'm getting off-topic so I end it here.

[Immortalis]

Militarists start off strong but if you allow others the time they need to catch up via research they’ll do just that.

[watto]

If you rush the early game as militarist and take systems early, then you should play into snowballing in the mid game, and then tech rushing in the end game with your massive economy. Focus all of your tech on weapons too to gain even more early and mid game advantages. I have a lot of experience with this play style, and I even take it a step further by going fanatic purifier, which is militarist x2 basically. It's harder to play like that on greater difficulties though, but you can do it just as well with a little bit of luck. If you are playing on higher difficulties then I would recommend a tech empire. To be honest, I think I've only played a xenophile maybe twice in my entire playtime of this game.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Originally posted by Water:

...

To me it sounds like you weren't fighting enough.

In theory: If you are playing militarist and keep targeting those high tech empires over the course of the game (trying to always pick a fight while you aren't to far behind so that your fire rate bonus let's you win some fights) you will get their weapon/defense/ship tech from the salvage while retaining your fire rate bonus on top of that.

Obviously the situation changes once you go into repeatables territory, but that is very late game.

[mss73055]

If you go Dictator / Philosopher King / Disgusting Admiration you start with a level 8 ruler.
Don't pick your ruler trait, so you get a random one after the game starts.

Venerable clone army, militarist, admiralty, supremacy. That's +55% attack speed and 50 instead of 20 corvettes to boot on first contact.

[iheartdaikaiju]

I always build large militaries because my influence per turn is horrible without it. I know it's a percentage, but I find it makes your neighbors subject themselves to you when your numbers are high and every subject is worth 0.35 influence per turn with a ministry of truth which adds up very quickly. Influence is the primary currency in the game and militaries allow you to convert high steel production nearly directly into influence. I usually use them on just monsters for relics or anyone stupid enough to attack me and otherwise I go mercenary enclave to make a profit off it all. Declaring war gives you a too high influence-to-territory ratio and it is always very easy to goad stupid AI into attacking you and taking all their territory. The game becomes just plain more fun when your influence isn't trickling in slowly, it is the sloggiest slog without a large military.

[Hate Bear]

Militarism in general is actually the meta and better than anything else, but you're not using it effectively, sounds like. Playing non-militarist in general is a lot harder.

[dollars202]

Try playing pacifist and you will understand.