Thanks for the video. Learned quite a bit. Administrators only show up for defensive ground battles? Does Nute Gunray get a donut ship in space?

Also found out that Ord Mantell takes 21 weeks to win through diplomacy. I'll be taking it the old-fashioned way

The diplomacy depends on the strength of the troops in orbit and on the ground, I think it's good that it takes so long, it shouldn't be made too easy

The bottom line is that a conquest through diplomacy makes more sense and doesn't cost you any units

I agree that it's good that it takes a long time. I'd wait but I need Dooku for the quest worlds. Plus I've made loads of ground fortress worlds and need the Ord Mantell bonus more than I need the buildings/forces the pirates have

if you take ord mantel peacefully you get the kandosii that's sitting in orbit

That is awesome. I may try just waiting the 21 weeks next time since taking Ord Mantell by week 11 cost me dearly.

Yaga Minor went alright but now I'm overextended in the north and east galaxy. At least I'll occasionally make money on my fortress worlds now; one big attack repelled and the world pays for itself with that sweet ground salvage bonus.

As the CIS you start out quite spread out and should therefore focus on consolidating your position in some of the sectors. Your position is strongest in the Outer Rim near your capital. Grab the planets near there that are valuable, i.e. have mining facilities, as that is your sole source of 'extra' income as the CIS as opposed to the Republic. You want to be spamming Munificent frigates as they make most fights easy supplemented with 2-3 Captors and/or a Lucrehulk or some Providence class. I sold Wat Tambor and Poggle (forgot name, the Geonosian) and all irrelevant strongholds initially, then built the Administrator that gives a %-discount on Commerce Guild tech and 25% mining discount and build time reduction and the administrator that gives 50% discount on mining, including asteriod, as well as build time reduction. For whatever reason those two stack additively, so you get 75% build time and cost reduction for mining facilities and asteroid production, which is huge. Administrators take a long time to build, like really long, so I started Trade Fed 1 on Raxus Prime (your capitol, where Nute Gunray is); by the time your administrator is complete, you should have Trade Fed 1 finished and can start Commerce Guild 1 on Felucia. Commerce Guild 1 is by far your most important tech, as it allows for building asteroid mining, which is going to be a huge part of your income. You want to expand into Hutt territory at least including Sleyhoron (for the choke point) and Nimban (for the %-discount on Munificients and Lucrehulks), not to mention Kessel. You should also build up forces in order to take Bespin and the Tibanna gas planet next to Sullust and the planets in that area; they almost all have asteroid and mining facilities, not to mention Tibanna. If I would do something differently I'd probably get the administrator on Foerest that speeds up Tech construction earlier. If you get the two administrators I mentioned early and expand first where I said, you're not really struggling for money quite quickly.

For Diplomacy you should avoid planet takeovers that take a long time. It's not really worth it. You level up Diplomacy by doing missions on Republic planets, which levels up your rewards (you level up each time you run out of options) and allows for higher level actions, like planetary takeovers, at higher levels. The required planetary takeover that I did was Korriban, as it only takes 6 weeks, had a 20~ fleet pop fleet and some decent ground units. Here's a picture of what I control and my income week 37; I've pretty much won the game and playing sloppily for the past 10 weeks by this point. Expert difficulty.

https://i.imgur.com/i2GkWpr.png

I agree with everything that you said. If I could go back, I would absolutely integrate your suggestions. I did the Banking Clan first and believe that I lost significant income from space mines by doing so. I also lost time not researching Trade Federation 1 right away. I wish that I found that other 50% "selfish" CIS senator guy you mention up there--I had no idea that this was additive.

Here's my first stab at something of an opening outline (your words with two minor contributions of my own). These should all be done concurrently:

Economic Goals:
Send Count Dooku to Kessel (5 week turnover).
Immediately research Trade Federation 1 at Raxus Secundis (wherever Nute Gunray is).
Sell Wat Tambor and the Geonosian leader.
Purchase Mining Senator and Commerce Guild Rep.
Research Commerce Guild 1 as soon as Trade Federation 1 finishes.
Start building freighters if they work in your save (100 pop worth).
Start using Dooku for your main story mission and pursue cash--6000 credits per economic choice (I also started a riot on Mon Cala that made it much easier to take).
Banking Clan 1-2 is possibly the next goal for the smuggler/debt collectors (1100 credits from Coruscant alone).
Trade Federation 2 might also be a consideration for better freighters.

Combat Goals:
Dig in at every corporate bonus world in the core--especially Skako Minor (max shields are required imo or your garrisons are orbital bombardment fodder).
Ignore most pirate and neutral worlds to kick the Republic out of the outer rim.
Rush Ord Mantell (use Nute Gunray to help break through Yaga Minor and Ord Mantell).
Rush Gerrenthum for further 10% mining discount (and Bespin/the area's resources) but do not delay the building of mines for this bonus.
Take Eriadu and Mon Cala to reduce later headaches.

Maybe your AI is more aggressive, but I literally haven't been attacked from Mon Cal or near the Muunilist sector / adjacent at all. I went Commerce Guild 2 right away afterwards for the commerce stations, but I reckon IBC 1 into Commerce Guild 2 is better, albeit Commerce Station is strictly better than banks. I thought about getting Yaga Minor, but you have no space heroes and almost no units there and can't construct them. I don't see why you would prioritize Ord Mantell, if anything at week 37 it's still neutral/unconquered and is a nice buffer to the Republic? In general that part of the galaxy just isn't as profitable to expand in imo. Focus on the South and East. It's literally all of my income with Commerce Guild 1/2 and IBC 1:

https://i.imgur.com/cstBWZh.jpeg

If I was less lazy I'd have cleaned up the Republic pocket around Kamino, too, but in general I essentially prioritize money -> hassle from AI attacks, so if the AI is disinclined to attack somewhere due to how fortified that somewhere already is, I leave it be until we get to the point in the game where they're doing Venator spam and bothering me.

As for Kessel, the 5 weeks thing sounds good, but I think you should more or less have conquered it at this point and prioritized levelling Diplomacy with Dooku by essentially doing diplomacy acts whenever you're able to and in a path that lets you complete the 'obligatory' act 1 diplomacy actions. The early rewards don't really matter anyway. You should have Kessel conquered at the same time as your two senators (mining senator is at Murkhana btw) and Commerce Guild 1 is researched at the latest; ideally it should also have a space station built and the two senators in orbit so that you can build everything in seconds. After this you use the senators to build out Roche, then send the mining senator south to Christophis / Utapau etc. to build out all of the asteroid mining colonies in that area. You can sell the Felucia senator for another one or keep her around in that sector depending on your preference. I could see going for Yaga Minor to build it out and use it as a choke-point earlier, but I just found that using your resources on the sectors in the screenshots are better spent.

I do regret not having Nimban already as the absence of Lucrehulks is sorely felt. I don't even have Providences yet and my northern fleet is in tatters. Maybe I should have just conquered the Hutts.

I also like that you took Lantilles, I should do this. It's much more defensible than what I was planning.

Ord Mantell feels really good just because I like getting paid for both space and ground. I've built a Verdun-style ring of ground fortress worlds to bleed the Republic dry mostly because I really like AotR/AotCW ground combat. And I do think the gains can add up shockingly fast. Even 1-2k gains made on offense from lighlty defended worlds subsidize my B1 battle droid expenses. I've gotta have those yellow numbers while I mow down waves of clones behind my energy shields.

can someone explain the diplomacy please? in the beginning i was able to get a pirate planet via Dooku but now whenever i go to another pirate or independent planet it's saying covert diplomacy not available even after having Dooku noting happens or a mission pops up

Originally posted by YoManThrek:

can someone explain the diplomacy please? in the beginning i was able to get a pirate planet via Dooku but now whenever i go to another pirate or independent planet it's saying covert diplomacy not available even after having Dooku noting happens or a mission pops up

Was one of Count Dooku's missions to convert a pirate world interrupted by an enemy fleet at any point? I broke diplomacy once by moving him off of a world before the text advising me of mission failure (due to a Republic fleet appearing) came through.

If yes, you will have to load to an earlier point to wait for the message. You may just have to restart you whole campaign if your save is from before the last major patch on January 15th.

Originally posted by YoManThrek:

can someone explain the diplomacy please? in the beginning i was able to get a pirate planet via Dooku but now whenever i go to another pirate or independent planet it's saying covert diplomacy not available even after having Dooku noting happens or a mission pops up

Each planet has 3 space slots, try move Dooku to another slot i.e. to another of those three circles but still on same planet and maybe the mission pops up. I have this for republic, will report a bug for it.

Originally posted by Falcor:

Originally posted by YoManThrek:

can someone explain the diplomacy please? in the beginning i was able to get a pirate planet via Dooku but now whenever i go to another pirate or independent planet it's saying covert diplomacy not available even after having Dooku noting happens or a mission pops up

Was one of Count Dooku's missions to convert a pirate world interrupted by an enemy fleet at any point? I broke diplomacy once by moving him off of a world before the text advising me of mission failure (due to a Republic fleet appearing) came through.

If yes, you will have to load to an earlier point to wait for the message. You may just have to restart you whole campaign if your save is from before the last major patch on January 15th.

i was able to convert the first pirate planet, and it's the newest update brand new campaign began this morning still doing nothing

Originally posted by molchåmor:

Originally posted by YoManThrek:

can someone explain the diplomacy please? in the beginning i was able to get a pirate planet via Dooku but now whenever i go to another pirate or independent planet it's saying covert diplomacy not available even after having Dooku noting happens or a mission pops up

Each planet has 3 space slots, try move Dooku to another slot i.e. to another of those three circles but still on same planet and maybe the mission pops up. I have this for republic, will report a bug for it.

tried it, didn't work sadly still says covert diplo is not available