Xenophile Feudal Empire - Stellaris Meta Builds

[@Drangir]

Flying a fleet with an unwanted admiral into an unwinnable battle is simplified version of what the emporor did to Duke Leto in the Dune

[@CountArtha]

“Uriah Gambit”

[@Elyseon]

That didn't work too well for the emperor though.

[@mygaffer]

@@Elyseon it worked fine in the short term

[@imperator8125]

@@CountArtha lol

[@Kalidoscope1230]

Sounds like a good way to handle succession if you ask me.

[@lalc__]

Making a Federation with yourself is just the sort of thing I have come to expect from this perfectly balanced game lol

[@burntpotatoes999]

i remember Montu doing this to abuse trade federations too which was really funny

[@HappySack]

Bro, people have been doing this ever since Federations was released because Trade Federations are oh so good.

[@yt-lemro3237]

In think it is RP

[@MChannel80]

@@burntpotatoes999 I always do this with trade federations, especially in multiplayer

[@blecao]

@@yt-lemro3237 I consider this the real way to pla a feudal space empire, you create vassals instead of controling the territory

[@TheAnalyticalEngine]

Xenophiles - Making friends...that are never allowed to leave

[@Snoogen11]

We're gonna be best friends... forever and ever...

[@alexkatc59]

Typical TAU empire.

[@TheAnalyticalEngine]

@@alexkatc59 It's for the Greater Good(TM)

[@philippesom5066]

My federation name is Hotel California

[@indrickboreale7381]

@@alexkatc59 Greater Good, but only if we have Hammerheads in your perimeter

[@major8625]

xenophile is for making friends? i thought it is only for making more trade or getting more diplo weight. Thank you Montu for another tip!

[@iona2225]

Mercantile/Diplo Tradition UNE: *STONKS AND FRENS*

[@necfreon6259]

The best way to destroy your enemies is to make them your friends if only LEGO Ninjago taught that earlier

[@maxn7279]

I wonder Is hegemony a good origin for this build?

[@michaeledmunds7056]

@@maxn7279 probably

[@Infidi]

there are friends in this game? Main processor does not compute, proceeding with extermination protocols

[@sebastianprimomija8375]

That is some Machevellian meta right there. Chef's kiss.

[@7Rendar]

Starts with a clip from Norsemen? That's a like even before getting prompted in the video! Love it.

[@HS-lv6wc]

Thanks for stating the movie!

[@7Rendar]

@@HS-lv6wc It's an Norwegian TV show. I believe it's on Netflix. Good comedy.

[@snarst]

I did a xenophile feudal empire and declared the first galactic Imperium 97 years into the game simply by making half the galaxy my vassals with restricted voting. No conquering required, I just made them like me and gave good terms for a bit before switching to restricted voting and defensive overlord wars for collective defense. With half the galaxy forced to abstain I could easily trade favors to win the votes to make myself custodian. At that point it was easy to simply strip away my term limit and proclaim the imperium before making the armada. Great Khan rose and the Imperial Armada jumped across the galaxy using a stage 1 quantum catapult to go kick his ass. Feudal society is broken right now and I'm loving it.

[@cullenpinney2997]

Really fun to wage war and watch all your vassals rush your enemy with you

[@lacrossehilda]

How do you manage to vassalize other empire if they are already in a federation? Just curious, i snowballed vassalizing but I couldn't finish it quick because of other federation.

[@snarst]

@@lacrossehilda You can't.

[@CMAzeriah]

Aaaaand here comes the nerf gun...

[@zestypigeon2729]

If you spawn a galaxy with max empires this is a easy way to get the achievement for having 10 migration treaties as a xenophile. Also it would be cool at some point to see achievement guides.

[@zentonil]

I’d like to see a short video of your settings when you construct a galaxy at the game start. Do you max out Fallen Empires, Marauders, and Primitive Planets? Which galaxy size and shape do you prefer? Do you play with Advanced Empires, Scaling Difficulty, and what crisis strength?

[@aliensinnoh1]

Same!

[@Ranked_Journey]

Watch the start of his long hour+ videos, he usually goes over his settings at the start of those. Generally it's very close to default, with the main deviation being 0.75 tech/tradition speed, and the pop growth being altered a bit (to balance machine and biological empires in multiplayer).

[@andrewgreenwood9068]

i did something very similar to this as my most recent campaign except with a void dwellers megacorp. the only problem was the absurd amounts of empire size from colonies. still it was very fun.

[@DzinkyDzink]

Gish will be much better when it Joins the Terran Empire.

[@MontuPlays]

A safe galaxy is a human galaxy!

[@DzinkyDzink]

@@MontuPlays Glad we beat some sense into you, Lizard!

[@trixie2558]

Xenophobes when I have 172 species and 1900 pops (I am going to win by crashing their game)

[@miles1034]

@@trixie2558 but why do you hate yourself? 1 day per minute gameplay

[@maxn7279]

@@MontuPlays I wonder Is hegemony a good origin for this build?

[@that_one_helljumper]

I tried something like this once, the three other large empires in the galaxy all made a federation together against me. Its pretty fun, all out war 24/7

[@whitenight6114]

I remember one of my games where I basically pushed my economy to spam out ships, so then I could vassalize another empire that I was friendly with... then I integrated them and basically doubled in size and resources. With that I was able to slowly start snowballing vassalizing other empires, then integrate them, and destroying those that I couldn't.

[@KingRoyal98]

people laughed at fuedal society at one point well whos laughing now honestly one of my favorite civics right now

[@johnyancey9082]

I can't imagine how deadly the wildlife would be in Space Australia

[@thorin1045]

how deadly would it be? so deadly, that rabbits and small dogs could turn into ecological disasters as the local pathetic level animals fail against them?

[@josephtripp1696]

Xenophile Authoritarians has been one of my favorite memestrats for entire patch cycles, great to see it at the top of the pecking order.

[@Ironpat]

Epic. Was doing something similar but didn't know Hegemony was so op.

[@Ancient1981]

Montu’s “friend” remarks make me laugh every time.

[@DrApylon]

A variant of this is to enlighten primitives you automatically spawn as a Necrophage, though noticeably slower

[@doctornox3276]

Did you ever talk about your thoughts on the "best settings" for the game ? (Star systems number, AI empire number etc...) And if not, what are they in your opinion ?

[@kingjamestres]

If we're talking performance I've been playing around with the settings for a while now and I honestly can say I can barely notice a difference no matter what I do.

[@Tomnessish]

I like playing what’s I call “thunder dome” settings. 2x tech, 0.25 planets, 0 guaranteed habitable, 0.75 hyperlanes, 1.5x primitives, 2-5x crisis (depends on how good you think you are), normal mid and late game. It forces a huge amount of conflict and just makes things overall more interesting, to me

[@alekzanderor5489]

You probably should clarify whether you interested in multiplayer or singleplayer settings.

[@Ranked_Journey]

Watch the start of his long hour+ videos, he usually goes over his settings at the start of those. Generally it's very close to default, with the main deviation being 0.75 tech/tradition speed, and the pop growth being altered a bit (to balance machine and biological empires in multiplayer).

[@damonedrington3453]

@@Tomnessish I tried this and omg it’s so fun so far already. The few uninhabited habitable worlds instantly become the single most important “resource” in the game due to the stellar culture shock modifier from conquering primitive making fresh planets significantly stronger. Feels closer to what it would really be like

[@michaeledmunds7056]

God damnit, I literally just made my aquatic Xenophile fuedal state today and then Montu goes and does the same thing.

[@BaronRael]

I’m excited to give this build a go, thanks Montu!!!

[@isabeluelmen9727]

Can I say that I love the funny memes at the start of each episode? They're all just fantastic.

[@jacekztarnobrzega161]

i found out you can do similar thi g with clone army just spam corvets and everyone just submits or is just destroyed even on advanced start ai

[@Michael-yf1wo]

Thanks! And please - more content like this! Your work of discovering specific advantageous combinations of civics, traits and government types, origins, etc., and presenting them as playable empires, really helps me improve my gameplay. I enjoyed trying out your approach - except my Delphinidae species is charismatic - you know because they're dolphins and keep humans as a subordinate species; a veritable Planet of the Dolphins!

[@mofosho3124]

I know I’m late but I just wanna say I tried this recently and by year 60 I had a dyson sphere worth of energy income and didn’t even go to war once. Insanely powerful build

[@newtubevector]

you could also pull this off with megacorp(franchising) it was quite fun to spam branch offices

[@EyeOfMagnus4E201]

Yep. Managed to make everyone in the galaxy my subsidiaries with a military oriented xenophile megacorp (while founding 4 mercenary companies to be my military - I had pretty much no navy, but maybe 30k fleet power of mercenary ships (with cruisers just being recently introduced). Piling hegemony on top of that would have been almost identical to the feudal xenophile build here. 👍

[@sytela6346]

Love to seeing your videos as always Montu good work

[@notleviathan855]

God, this strat really is 'Congratulations, you're being rescued, please do not resist.'

[@Snoogen11]

This whole video could be described as: "read the fine print" XD

[@rogerreger9631]

In my current game I have vassalized the whole Galaxy through sheer fleet power and asking nicely, except the one fanatic purifiers. And im in the current process of being voted custodian and its funny because they cant vote against me but they can abstain in the vote. So I imagine my empire envoy in the senate room asking everyone if they want to vote, and everyone just standing there rolling their eyes and scoffing.

[@tinobeltran6964]

Just pop on your videos at work, and listen to that soothing voice all day long.

[@MontuPlays]

I hope it doesn't put you to sleep 😅

[@tinobeltran6964]

And if I dream, I dream of planet cracking and bubbles.

[@tidalgrunt]

For people doing federations post overlord for trade, or research, you can actually use a split off sector vassal you make match your decisions to form a federation with someone else, and then boot that rando out. It lets you effectively have a 1 nation federation, all to yourself.

[@thegreathornedrat1219]

Feudal society has always been my favorite, so glad it got reworked

[@shreddedpaperplate2993]

I’ve gotta say this was the most fun I’ve had with Stellaris in a while.

[@baconpalm]

Wow, this was the build I've been fine tuning for the past few weeks, whilst similar in play style, you play it a lot better xD. I didn't notice that hegemony "exploit" though.

[@littlefinger4509]

Lol i literally just made a really similar empire on my own and wanted to check if feudal society is any good, i guess this answers my question

[@Calozard]

This whole meta build i actually figured out randomly while playing a random game lately It's absolutely bonkers, and it didn't take long before I kicked my "friends" from my fed as they were trying to expell my own subjects

[@vpliskin3590]

That Hegemony/Vassal trap is really powerful, almost too much, do you think it will be qualified as an exploit ? Anyway, great video as always !

[@Berek71182]

IMO it's an exploit, using the game-mechanics for overcoming the A.I. in such an atrocius way. I bet The DEVs got no other choice to implament a RND element in terms of A.I Diplomacy, just like in the good old RPG days when there is always a chance diplomacy may fail and players recive a negativ modifier for the next try whenever failing. (The negativ modifier will disapper over time for another try)

[@Staarfury]

It is an exploit, just like the +5 diplo acceptance trades were. I'm not sure it'll be fixed in 3.4.4 though.

[@pieterfaes6263]

Yeah it's probably an exploit, perhaps a check whether they would face restrictions like that could be implemented, given they have enough intel to know, to change the weights on the negotiating board.

[@Brambazai]

Ever heard of NATO?

[@necfreon6259]

What’s bullshit is that’s totally legit making it literally impossible to fix without breaking the system

[@dannymoldff2019]

Lawers, the evil of the civilised world. The whole galaxy united just because of the loophole. Amazing.

[@bkane573]

Norseman is such an under rated show. So Amazing. Just like Lillehammer. (Most of the same actors.)

[@jackryan2612]

I remember i essentially accomplished this when I was playing as fanatic xenophile federation builders and i opened the l cluster and got gray at about year 40. Within 6 years I went from a proud, pacifist equal partner in the tiny Friendship Butterfly Federation of Peace and Love to the fanatic militarist xenophile leader of the Eternal Hegemon of Love and Stability controlling the whole galaxy

[@Insanemasters]

Federation/vassal trap is like you sign contract without reading small text in it.

[@ferristhered1401]

For those curious, this can still be done in version 3.14, but it's not quite as easy (the AI is more stubborn about vassal contracts and GalCom votes than it used to be). Now, that early backup strategy really helps - releasing a sector as a vassal as early as possible. Release the vassal to form a Hegemony, release another sector as a new vassal (who immediately joins the Federation under your rule), then kick the first sector out of the Hegemony to re-vassalize them. Shackled Federation established. Since Machine Age, bonus points if the sectors you release are large systems - because eventually, your vassals can build Arc Furnaces that won't count against your Arc Furnace limit of 5.

[@BulldogLawyer]

The Xenophilic MegaCorp after vassalizing the entire galaxy before I’ve researched cruisers:

[@ObligedUniform]

7:47 Ahh yes space Australia. Particularly space Brisbon. Go space Bronco's!

[@thevoxdeus]

You can also do this using the corporate version of these traits and / or using the hegemony origin depending on how you want things to play out.

[@brylythhighlights4335]

I've been experiencing this naturally, you just get to vassalize more or less any AI and they're OK with it

[@koshi6505]

It's also not cheesy because the AI does the same thing.

[@sovereign1160]

It is because we love the xeno that we must rule them. How could they survive without our protection?

[@siegechamp2295]

All hail the SPACE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE!

[@DethmourneSilvermane]

Lol, I just finished a game as United Nations of Earth (single-player) where literally every other empire in the galaxy was someone I had diplomatically vassalized. I fought one war early on and that was it. I didn't bother messing up my economy by going Emperor, though, since I was fanatic egalitarian.

[@JonathanToolonie]

Nation resisting subjugation: Close the Borders! That will Hold them! Player Nation: Bribes with deals and tempting offers. Nation resisting subjugation: They are still coming through! This is Impossible!

[@NoFaceOrGun]

It's absurd how easy this strat is.

[@dygon7663]

I've tried this and they've fixed this now. Distance from your territory brings a massive penality when trying to vassalize basically making it impossible...

[@Laydralae_Joy]

Finally, the Blorg can have all the friends they want, by force!

[@MaxYoung-Maxinfet]

You are naming all these vassals a "friend of Rome" basically.

[@Soliprem]

I loved playing as a plantoid with tree of life because the tree of life holding gives a full chonky +1 loyalty per month and it's awesome

[@kingjamestres]

I kind of did this accidentally on my first run with the new DLC it was bonkers how overpowered I became

[@endgame7568]

Seems like a very fun meta build! Thanks for the idea. Looking forward to seeing how broken I can make it.

[@frenchgundam9079]

Lol this feel like a political science classes simulation, too good.

[@R3GARnator]

"I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it further".

[@randomuser1093]

Yeah playing as a xenophile, almost all the galaxy are my vassals. One economically more powerful empire is friendly towards me, and one xenophobe is hostile towards me. The rest are all my vassals 😄

[@tosy1203]

Really cool seeing Norsemen being used in the opening for the video, an amazing parody of the Vikings series. So, first watch some Montu, then check out Norsemen.

[@Orthanderis]

Just did this run to test out the new rework and vassal types lmao. Vassalized the galaxy within 100 years and it was one of the most fun games Ive had in a long time

[@selwrynn6702]

With Pacifism you can make the space fauna friendly to you which may help you in finding other empires

[@nicholasthoelke4768]

Not nearly as fast, but I managed to subjugate the entire galaxy l by 2300 as a rogue servitor. Once integrated we will all live happily ever after…

[@MadPutz]

I lucked into this playstyle as a militarist spiritual teacher of shroud because my neighbors had the Hegemony Origin. I fought their neighbor, they invited me to the federation and I promptly took control of it.

[@lotllady]

I've never subscribed to the idea that xenophiles are just carebears like pacifists. As an almost exclusively xenophile player, I declare wars on empires specifically to abduct their pops because Xeno's are much easier to admire when they're within your borders and you don't have to worry about a planet's stability if you don't take the planet. c:

[@Turk656]

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but this feels very much like a tall, or at least taller, build. Since influence is so key to get subjects, you don't necessarily want to be stretching your borders out too far - you wanna grab your habitable colonies, grab the cheese colony to make your federation, then you've got most of your science ships away looking for frens, and got maybe 1-2 science ships surveying

[@silveredgamer6893]

Solid guide into "how to use and abuse vaselization"

[@garrettkiley522]

Literal been doing a play through because of your 5 hour stream today and took a break only to find this. XD. My necrophage empire been doing a unity rush with feudal empire and man it is so much fun XD

[@chattychatotchannel]

I love xenophile builds it's nice to see one

[@pieterfaes6263]

From testing this strategy, there's a couple of practical notes one should add when using this Feudal playstyle when playing Grand Admiral AI (no scaling). -In the beginning, I advise to focus on alloys and not to pay much attention to tech. The AI gets quite a boost to fleets early-on, so I sometimes had to have almost double the fleetof what Montu had in this video at a similar year to not be underpowered to get the subjugation approved. That might also be because I play on tech x1 instead of x0.5, though. It can thouroughly affect the gameplan. Once that is achieved though, you can switch to focusing on tech to keep up, as you'll likely to be able to maintain sufficient firepower after. -Be careful with technology and advanced resource-taxes. Once you out-tech them too much, a vassal becomes a protectorate and loses all of those taxes in their agreement. You can't get anything but basic resources from such vassals in agreements after, until their tech level catches on, something they in my experience didn't seem to be able to once you get the ball rolling even if you gave them a research agreement. -Don't combine this with Void Dweller origin. Feudal workings and building new habitats compete for influence otherwise, and your expansion will be hindered too much to pull this off effectively.

[@MinecraftConnected]

Would like to see a playthrough against an early crisis with this build. Unify the galaxy then defend it.

[@HammerFell-]

I have been preeching this build with the hedgemony origin since launch day of overlord, its so fun

[@jle2500]

Tall has finally beaten wide

[@MontuPlays]

Long have they waited!

[@Itharl]

I stumbled into this playstyle during a single player game when (as a hive mind) I was invited to a hegemony federation and immediately took it over because my fleet size and political power was ridiculous at the time. In almost no time at all the entire galaxy was in my federation and I was essentially only competing with the crises at that point. (it was still early/mid game). Never thought about making this happen from the start but it looks like a lot of fun.

[@blagageorge3824]

so basically 'read the damn fineprint' the space sim

[@brylythhighlights4335]

I typically went with a void dweller trade megacorp - getting commercial pacts with huge numbers of allies is really really good. This also means that all of your vassals come with basic resource pulls from the getgo!

[@demonx3779]

Moral of the story: Read the fine prints or you might end up in a hegemony you didn't plan

[@gerryw173ify]

Can't wait to try it out and have Fanatic Purifiers and other xenophobes spawn around me lol

[@onchristieroad]

Yep, tried it today. Fanatic Purifier on one side, Inward Perfectionist on the other, closest friendly empire was a very advanced start that I just couldn't get to accept vassalisation.

[@TheBrokenIce1]

New montu video hell yeah

[@Cerabelus]

Montu Dolphin: I am diplomacy.

[@jacobmulherin1805]

I wish i would have known about this when i started my xenophile empire

[@Yacovo]

Thanks for the video. I see you went with the Star League method of galactic dominance.

[@glenmcgillivray4707]

That strat you save for your friend who insists on playing Xenophobic isolationist and you just want to get some Federation gameplay

[@GamesCooky]

Xenophile-Authoritarian: "We will be friends.......indefinitely!"

[@joshfarrington2775]

Is this by chance patched? Im having difficulty vassalizing people now

[@ancillius]

This wont work anymore in 3.5 would it? The empires will have the "Overlord" modifier, thus you cannot gain empires and vassals that have been vassalized/overlorded already, right? Or am I missing things?

[@rylanlunnon9640]

Yes, not only that as well, I tried to make it work but even empires who are equal will not want to be subjugated anymore. If they are superior to you in any way it's hopeless. So Admiral and above this strategy won't work.

[@Chiatrolll]

I did something close but I was a megacorp for the massive branch office spam and I used the specialized vassal types because the resources and research become insane as you snowball and they level I up. Also I used many ministry of truths because I needed influence.

[@garabic8688]

I used a mixed psionic rush and this build and ended up as galactic emperor by year 2290 and currently have more score than both fallen empires combined

[@ghostban3743]

So much friends. So much Geometres. Friends everywhere

[@pieterfaes6263]

Now if they only gave Xenophile some separate bonuses against human players...maybe something like increased war exhaustion, or decreased influence cost for making branch offices and the sort.

[@EyeOfMagnus4E201]

Good idea. Right now it’s only good for AIs.

[@alpacalover0]

Xenophile and Egalitarian are both busted already.

[@nonono4160]

"As you know we can't fire you, so why don't you take a ship and take a trip to the proverbial farm?" "I wish we had unemployment"

[@andrewspears8891]

Shaded Destiny ascension perk voids the loyalty loss from multiple subjects.

[@SusanWojcickiTheBolshevik]

Kaboom! You’ve been lawyered. Lol

[@danielefabbro822]

Recently I have this idea of playing a scenario where Earth, other that create its own sphere of colonies and basically a core empire, have spawn also few rogue colonies that in time evolved into various new empires inspired by old ones. Kinda a new byzantine empire, a new republic of venice, new ottomans etc... In a sort of late medieval scenario. I have to play something like that. 🤔

[@GA-ww3gr]

Something to note about trade deals; you can trade for favors with relations as low as wary, and there is a cap for how high relations are raised by a favorable trade deal. This means that you should improve relations to wary, then get a trade deal for 10 favors and +100 trade acceptance. This will raise relations by 100 points, and combined with the 10 favors, can get you many other agreements even more easily than with relations alone. Combine that all with the trust from the agreements, and you can potentially get things like migration pacts with fanatic xenophobes. TL,DR diplomacy OP.

[@GA-ww3gr]

P.S. trade in consumer goods and food. It's harder to weaponise those resources than it is with minerals and alloys.

[@jaxbrookey7843]

I love overlord because of the subject mechanics. I started my game as a fanatic xenophile Megacorp, made friends with everyone so no one wanted to kill me, got massive amounts of tech from consumer benefits trade policy, then built a massive fleet and proceeded to vassalize everyone.

[@dygon7663]

Does seem to work for me anymore, there's a massive penality now for distance. So empires that are somewhat far away just isn't possible to make a vassil.

[@palefire9988]

with using trade you can get to the point where you don't even have to have pops doing any jobs and you will still be getting tons of resources