Stellaris - How To Play Tall (3.6)

[@A_Spec]

Turns out that playing Tall has changed a bit since the last time we talked about it. What is your favorite empire type for playing tall.

[@melfice999]

Clone Army 1 planet challenge with unlimited slaves in the 600 pop New Delhi ecumenopolis. By Aspec (tm) (c) and then I get annoyed as my 5 vassals constantly have revolts and I need to clean up their messes nonstop.

[@freyrgrimsson4607]

@@melfice999 psi or gene? Max pops ever?

[@melfice999]

@@freyrgrimsson4607 Somewhat depends on what you get at start OFC. However I would probably pick either genetic or cybernetic on the current patch unless you pick spiritualist for ascension + death cult route. In which case you're probably better of with Psionic and make friends with Shard. This is due to both Cybernetic and Genetic allowing you to mass produce your main species, which helps with research and stability in the long run. Genetic however fits better with the RP I must admit as well as to maximize your slaves traits. And if I remember right, my top pops on single planet was around 750 or so thanks to raiding a fallen empire capital empty.

[@cockman8437]

Ocean paradise, with aquatic trait, and angler civic

[@lattekahvi1298]

@@cockman8437 that could be interesting with catalytic processing, being able to turn food into all resources you can possibly need sounds powerful

[@jpheitman1]

"Just a few dozen more systems, then I'll start going tall."

[@A_Spec]

Right untill you're pinned in between 2 Fallen empires with 4 system to play in. Some people re-roll, I think it's a challenge.

[@Shiro.1291]

@@A_Spec how mutch systems would you recommend? I thought that tall means 100 to 150

[@mortache]

@@Shiro.1291 isn't that like a big chunk of the galaxy? You can have a LOT of empire size in that space unless you have like 0.25x planets

[@Shiro.1291]

@@mortache i dont mean 100 system, sorry for my bad clarification. I mean empire size or whar its called... that parameter that slows dowd research speed. I played my first succesfull iron man campaign as an aggressive, non diplomatic wide empire and want to try out the ultimate tall, deplomatic democracy experience where roleplay is important (i have the most important dlc's)

[@mortache]

@@Shiro.1291 100 size might be way too restrictive especially in late game. You need few hundred at least. Because pops and districts add empire size too

[@Estoph11]

Its good to know that all I need is the surveyor and a ruined dyson sphere two jumps from my capital and all my tall builds will improve. 10/10 will keep that in mind in the future.

[@angermacfadden2702]

"This simple trick drives Wides Wild!"

[@thetroII]

@@angermacfadden2702 I lol'd. 10/10

[@dutchthenightmonkey3457]

@@thetroII I understand that the acronym is like a verb but pls never it like that again lmao

[@shadowmarine156]

I got boxed in by Neighbors who were twice my size when full contact was made as I'm playing a thousand star map with low empire at start chance i believe i set min 8 with max of 15 -17 empires and got the surveyor which helped to keep my economy going as most of my worlds in my space was either barren or tropical to my alpine needs so had to wait till I had terraforming and was lucky that one power made themselves my protectoric, another was friendly and the one who hated me from the start was never able to leave pathetic rating in navy and tech. its funny that before i went to war with them as they're slavers is that they have more like 4-5 times the worlds i have while i have 8 with two not even half way developed. I do talk a long while to even to colonize my first colony i think closer to around a hundred years from start.

[@ak6427]

@@dutchthenightmonkey3457 Agreed, the apostrophy makes it seem so pretentious. He should just say that he lolled.

[@janmantsch6675]

Remember discovering playing tall as Aquatics with the Ocean paradise origin. Was boxed in at the edge of the galaxy behind a xenophobic fallen empire. (It was a multiplayer game with friends so restarting was not an option) I played so tall that once I managed to break out by acquiring a fallen empire and joining the galactic stage I just didn't stop and conquered down the arm of my galactic spiral. I became an endgame crisis without the Ascension perk.

[@danielboatright8887]

nice

[@aphemorpha]

playing tall as aqautics has been my favorite thing to do since the expansion came out

[@janmantsch6675]

@@aphemorpha the aquatics trait was the reason I started terraforming planets

[@shinkicker404]

They nerfed Aquatics pretty hard didn’t they?

[@janmantsch6675]

@@shinkicker404 i wouldn't say nerfed hard. The game just moved in a certain way and aquatics just didn't work as well anymore.

[@newtubevector]

As void dwellers, you can just spam trade value and easily make enough energy and goods by only having 1/8 of your habs as trade habs with the rest being alloys, science, etc. I think for void dwellers it is even more efficient than masterful crafters.

[@elkudos6262]

Ugh, despite having 3x the population of the second most populous AI Empire and narrowly specializing the habitats, the Trade Void Dwellers have their Economy only at Equal. Player pops are not very efficient.

[@mortache]

Void Dwellers isn't exactly tall imo, more like deep. You have a lot more "planets" churning out huge amount of pops. But it does feel great being tiny on a map. Last time I was in liberation wars doctrine and allegiance warred a giant vassal swarm, my union map went from 1/8th of the galaxy to 3/4th of the galaxy in one war.

[@Razzlion]

@@mortache Owning 5 stars and still vassalizing the galaxy and making them your work slaves is great.

[@mortache]

@@Razzlion then fill your habs with soldiers, like feudal Europe or Sparta lol

[@elkudos6262]

"Deep" and "tall" are the same thing. VD are *dense* .

[@skylearion57]

I personally feel if you are playing with the void dweller origin you should go into expansion tradition either first or second tradition because of the reduced influence cost of expansion and especially for when you finish the expansion tradition you will have cheaper habitats IE habitats will only be 120 influence with only 1200 alloys. The need for alloys are extreme for habitat empires so the cheaper they are the sooner you can get into specialized habitats.

[@skylearion57]

I implore people to try and make specialized habitats because they are very small especially without having the max building slots

[@amugusq7567]

Honestly adaptation is much better - yeah, you get a big slower to start but you will never run out of space and materials.

[@swordyshield]

merchant void dweller is just way to op to pass up on if you are going for the strongest build.

[@viktorkolaric4156]

Combine all the above with the mod that gives you 2 extra levels of habitat expansion and you have a civ that can dominate the galaxy from a tiny corner of space.

[@kotzebrecher]

@@swordyshield Well, I have recently started playing again after the new expansion and void dwellers has always be my favourite start ever since Origins got introduced. I am interested to see if non-merchant void dwellers with vassals and the new holding buildings have managed to close the gap and of course that means I have to play both. Oh no, the horror of having to play my favourite way to play with a new, yet unknown flavour :D

[@lmaoroflcopter]

Hmm interesting. I'm someone who often finds playing tall easier than wide. The ease of managing sprawl, defensive choke points, etc. Within a tiny empire I know immediately where my ships are, they don't suffer with huge delays traversing it. It all makes for an easier game for me :) I am very much historically in RTS games and others a turtle :) maybe its just learned preference.

[@bengunderson712]

I love playing tall. I have 1 district right now in my ancient clone army start mega corp, and just spam field offices across the galaxy lol. They just made me galactic custodian

[@neotower420]

I'm new to stellaris, I still havent won a game. My wide machine purge empire became impossible to manage despite how insanely strong I snowballed, I started getting an endless stream of negative situations before I could wipe out all my enemies. How many planets should I have by mid game? I always either have too few or too many.

[@TheNebulaEffect]

That dyson sphere always gotta throw off peoples sentences. Love it.

[@A_Spec]

Surprise megastructures are always fun.

[@robjohnson3095]

Frequently, when you play megacorp, there's no-one to set offices for, but when it works, it's amazing for Tall, so I was kind of surprised it wasn't mentioned til the end

[@RobBCactive]

It's a good idea to seed the galaxy with some coop friendly empires, otherwise you're often completely beset by other corps & criminal syndicates around with militarist empires. It's almost like the devs think you want an early war. The intel changes made it a bit trickier to unifiy empires against a common threat and distance penalty on agreements in 3.0 on meant you need to make a nearby ally fairly early to boost things with branches.

[@unshackledjester]

Honestly, I'd be interested in seeing a full playthrough to mid-game with the updated systems. Just to see how decisions are made and the thought process for priority.

[@ipods36]

@@AkihabaraWasteland yeah this is KZbin pal, we gives thumbs up, take that upvote to Reddit will ya

[@JDuel100]

One of the nice things about Void Dwellers is that you can take he Adaptability tree - their is a Survey option that lets you search for a deposit to allow districts to be built off of it. I tend to take it as a 4th or 5th pick if I can't find the Surveyor.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Interesting

[@SingletonD]

I started this exact tall empire built on admiral difficulty few days ago, with a small extra modifier for habitable planets. Got the ZRONI precursors, with a ruined DYSON SPHERE and a QUANTUM CATAPULT tree jumps from my capital, in the same cluster, right next to my guaranteed planets. A cluster with one hyper line entrance and one colonizable planet. A perfect Cadia planet. I could not believe my bullshit RNG. Now I know its part of the origin because you got it too. Looks like there is a chance for megastructures with that origin.

[@RRSabrina]

Oh my god i'm so glad you made a video on this with all the recent changes. I love playing tall more than wide but I was lost in how to do this properly. This answered so many questions I had!

[@A_Spec]

Glad I could help!

[@williamjanak2013]

Never really thought about playing tall until now. And with your Fortress World video is giving me ideas on what to play next. Great video as always.

[@A_Spec]

Have fun!

[@glaxko2]

Thank you for an update! I've been wanting to build tall with the Giga-engineering mod and this help!

[@TheMeatMan]

Another origin that I think deserves a runner up trophy for the tall playstyle is syncretic evolution. If you play Xenophobic, your syncretic species can be set to livestock on your capital planet, and for the cost of a single food processing facility on your capital (and maybe a couple precinct houses), you never need to build a *single* farming district the entire game! You can also (provided you have the lithoid DLC) choose for your syncretic species to be lithoid (when lithoid pops are set to livestock they produce minerals!), and then you just swap the food processing facility to a mineral one and you're set to build alloys as hard as you like early game, capture a few pops from neighboring empires, and then do the same with those pops and, provided that they're regular biological pops, not need to worry about food districts either! I would highly recommend taking the genetic ascension tree also, because you can genetically modify your livestock to be nerve stapled (they aren't effected by happiness) and Delicious/Felsic (doubles the resource you get from the livestock). You can also set the cloning facility on your slave planet (I usually choose my capital because of the inert bonuses) to one livestock, and then force pop growth of the other livestock! By this time you'll likely have a dyson sphere (or a trade based eucimonopoli) and will likely just not need to concern yourself with the base resource economic side of the game for quite some time. This playstyle is so potent that I've actually managed to win the game (with a fair bit of luck admittedly) on Grand Admiral difficulty with 4 systems, 3 planets and as many habitats as I could squeeze in.

[@Lankpants]

Another really interesting option for tall is Knights of the Toxic God. You get off to a slightly slower start than Void Dwellers, but you can basically do most of the same stuff and if you can survive till the end of your quest and start consecrating your other habitats you just become godtier. It's maybe not the best but it's super fun.

[@johannkwanlaw]

How to build tall: -Play Driven Assimilator -Beeline for enemy capitals -Move all the pops off each planet to your home planets/Ringworld -Delete all the stations outside your chokespoints/fortress systems -Let the silly organics repopulate the space around you while you kidnap other people to Borg. -Win. Or: -play Rogue Servitors -get nihilistic acquisition -kidnap all the pops you need to boost your specialist production bonus through the roof. -outscience everyone. -build an ecumenopolis -out alloy everyone. -become Galactic Emperor. Or: -Play barbaric despoiler clone army. -Never lay claims. Just kidnap. -Go full Synthetic or Psionic. Or Cybernetic (but then you might as well play DA). -Turn everyone into robots/psionics/cyborgs. Basically... Kidnap everyone.

[@damonedrington3453]

My takeaway from this is that Nihilistic Acquisition is OP

[@johannkwanlaw]

@@damonedrington3453 Yes, but total war is stronger. Kidnapping is easier when you can just land your armies and move the pops. The last pop on the planet can be left behind, or you can turn off all the industries and they will migrate to one of your worlds and abandon the planet on their own.

[@UnendingAbyssofFear]

I had a tall run where I had a Ruined Ringworld, Dyson Sphere, Cybrex and a Interstellar Assembly. Anyway I loved your video

[@davecrupel2817]

I had the Sanctuary ANDA Cybrex. 2 fully intact Ringworlds! Along with a black hole and a neutron star. All within 3 jumps range of my homeworld. And in a beautifully arranged star cluster that had only 2 ways in and out. Easiest tall play i ever had!

[@henrikt.183]

I had 4 habitable planets, 2pre ftls and a ruined ringworld with 1 choke. Died in y10 to my devouring swarm neighbor. Whoops.

[@sirensoulegaming4158]

Nice video. Things that haven't been mentioned: 1) you can restore the relic ecumenopolis without filling your district slots with city and industry districts - it's not a requirement to restore an ecumenopolis. It's only required for making ecumenopolis worlds using arcology project. 2) psionic ascension is really good for tall builds, since you can stack your core planet (ecumenopolis) with a psi corps and a seat dedicated to one of the psionic entities, for a whopping combined 70% bonus to resource output. Just avoid making a covenant with the eater of worlds, and you're good - playing peacefully, your odds of calling the eater should be really low. The Telepath bonuses the other 3 entities provide are all good in their own way, so there's no need to be too fussy, just pick one. If chasing Psionic Ascension, you can also start using Teachers of the Shroud and rush psio ascension, then use ascension perk on arcology project - it's still a saving of one ascension perk. If you roll eater of worlds then that's a sign you play an aggressive, wide game instead, so you wait until after forming the covenant to fully commit to a strategy. All in all, good video. Edit: to solve issues relating to needing planetary capitals to get the most out of psionic pops, build robots and move them around. Once you're done, have them fill clerk jobs - psi corps aren't boosting their productivity anyway. Spiritualist faction doesn't like robots, but as long as you restrict their rights and avoid researching synthetics your safe. Use the slave market or acquire refugees to bolster psionic pop count.

[@aesirgaming1014]

I've always been partial to Void Dwellers for playing tall. Unless they patched it, you can take Non-Adaptive and it's basically a free pick because you're still at full habitability on your Habs, but zero everywhere else. From there, you have options. I often go with a trade build, but I don't think that's optimal (I do it more for flavor). Also, you take the other growth trait, not Rapid Breeders because your Habs will hardcap your growth speed anyway. The advantage to being a Void Dweller is you can play tall, but still have a bunch of specialized Habs that give you immense flexibility. If you went trade route, then eventually you can basically focus these on alloys (using your Trade Federation for Consumer Goods, Energy Credits and Unity). Because you're a Void Dweller, it is much easier to turtle up by creating a chokepoint with a ludicrous number of fortress habitats. If you vassalize, migration treaty or enslave another race (preferably Lithoids) you can make this even more silly. I've done this once in multiplayer and my opponent ended up quitting because he got tired of banging his head against my chokepoint systems.

[@austinfulton7350]

Really appreciate the tall update. I keep trying to get into Stellaris and your videos have been the most informative.

[@Sonar90]

Ringworld mega-corp is my favorite tall start. I just funnel my alloys into ships early and watch the vassals roll in.

[@sipofsunkist9016]

14:16 your reaction right there was priceless!

[@sipofsunkist9016]

“..but its something that we DOOOOONT oh good lord…”

[@marcustulliuscicero5443]

It's of course worth pointing out that what exactly is tall depends a lot on galaxy size. A 50 system empire on a 100 star map is incredibly wide, while on a 1000 star map it's arguably on the tall side. I personally prefer opening Prosperity and picking the building cost reduction tradition, then switching to Discovery. Also you can technically cheat and be BOTH tall AND wide by just releasing your sectors as vassals.

[@gabrielsanchez3901]

Yessss so pumped to watch this thank you aspec

[@ryansta]

Really enjoyed watching your guide and as a new player could follow in general what was being said. Was set at just the right pace without overloading on information that goes off on a million tangents like others i've seen. Thanks

[@craigchaotic]

Every time a watch one of of your videos I learn so much, it’s staggering

[@Dwarves_In_Space]

Tall means splitting the galaxy vertically, wide means splitting the galaxy horizontally. Only the Imperium of Man can do both. The god Emperor protects us all!

[@maximusfive]

31:25 .......damnit, now I cant unsee it.

[@Roartykarma]

Please continue these types of tutorials. I feel like the meta is changing so much that I need these types of videos terribly. Also would there be any chance of a tutorial on how to grand admiral? I feel like there's not much content on that. It also feels like the only way to play it is to go hyper aggressive and abuse the GA scaling by making vassals in whatever variant you need.

[@hariravichandran6560]

A couple tips for anyone interested in tall play on higher difficulties: - Mercenary Enclaves are EXTREMELY overpowered. Instead of trying to produce our own value, we can extract it from other empires. The AI will also essentially bankrupt themselves to buy your mercenaries while you rake in the money which you can then use to tech up and develop your economy. Keep upgrading your enclaves as much as possible - the AI generally does not prioritize upgrading the enclaves. Also keep sharing your tech with them to get more pocket money and so their fleets are powerful. Remember, the better their fleet is, the more money you make, and the quicker you can milk the other AI players for resources. - To save money when founding enclaves, you can give them tier 1 equipment in all slots and nothing in the auxiliary slot. I wouldn't recommend naked corvettes that some others have suggested. Then, you share tech with them to get some free money while they upgrade their fleet to your latest tech. - If someone with a more powerful fleet attacks you, such as a fanatic purifier in the early game, just rent one of your mercenary fleets and own them, after which they will have to sue for peace. Then, simply cancel the contract so they don't keep draining your resources. - I follow the strategy of using a Megacorp and focusing on mercenaries. Getting the Naval Contractors Civic and the Private Companies Civics at the start of the game gives you +3 mercenary enclave capacity. Note: You can always change your civics later after you've built your mercenary enclaves to some other civics such as MasterCraft Inc., Franchising, and Free Traders. - As your first perk, take the Lord of War ascension perk. It gives you +1 mercenary capacity and greatly increases the number of dividends you will get from your enclaves. - In the Galactic Community, keep pushing for mercenary resolutions that increase capacity and dividends. This will lead to even more enclaves, dividends, and money for you. - Try to focus your economy on three things: research, consumer goods production, and alloy production. If you have these three, you can always trade for the other stuff you need, such as food and minerals, in monthly trade deals. Also, having a majority of specialists as opposed to normal workers is good, as it makes good use of your limited pops to generate more value per worker. - Try trading excess consumer goods for energy credits with other empires. You would be shocked at how much money you can make by creating monthly trade deals with Xenos. You can get something like 8 to 10 energy credits per consumer good, so trading something like 100 consumer goods per month can make you upwards of 800 energy per month. At the beginning, you may have to accept a lower rate (e.g., 5 to 6 energy credits per consumer good), however as they become dependent on you, you can start to squeeze them for better rates. - You should be a Xenophile in order to make the best use of the above. Militarist is also a good ethic to have. Improve relationships with other empires as much as possible using extra envoy capacity. - Giving xenos full rights and signing migration treaties allows you to effectively steal pops from other empires. There are edicts that boost immigration pull, use those. - Save alloys for megastructures such as the Matter Decompressor, Dyson Sphere, Strategic Coordination Center, and Ring World if possible. Also, how else can you build a glorious fleet? - You can release single planet vassals and lease them fleets in order to boost your power further. Also, mercenary enclaves start giving you free ships as dividends after upgrading them. - Branch offices can compensate for your lack of planets if you can get those commercial pacts and first dibs on other empire's planets. Corporate Embassies increase diplomatic weight and mercenary liaison offices increase naval capacity. - Using these strategies above, as well as a lucky start (in my case, next to one xenophile empire, one pacifist isolationist empire, and a xenophile pacifist megacorp), you can win on higher difficulties playing tall. I had about a dozen systems with seven planets, three habitats and managed to become Galactic Custodian on Grand Admiral difficulty. Hope the above is helpful! Let me know your thoughts.

[@Souljaman2006]

That Megacorp is crazy! I would have loved to see the playthrough to that game. I can never get mine to that point. Something always happens that messes up my game. GG sir, you are a beast!

[@davecrupel2817]

Planetary ascensions.... That's a new one for me. I've clearly been away from Stellaris for far too long. I think it's time for another run!

[@nathanmckay2998]

I played tall as a megacorp and had trouble getting branch offices down because everyone else was a megacorp or purifiers. So what I did was make my own vassals from my sectors and set my branch offices up immediately after releasing them. Get yours down quick before the AI gets to them, so make sure you have the influence.

[@lattekahvi1298]

or you could have your competitors build the infrastructure ready for you and start a hostile takeover and save a ton of resources

[@HairyTuttle]

Gotta confess: I did not expect to ever hear the phrase "Orange goatze flag". lol

[@martinfrancia2948]

For this content I am subscribed to your channel above all, although everything you upload is very good. Stellaris is absurdly massive and with the constant updates, it's very hard to get a general idea of the different approaches to play. It would be great if you could make a video of the possible variants compared in general terms, updated to 3.6. Good job, good channel.

[@A_Spec]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@wolflordy3193]

You could probably play a single system tall empire with megacorp. Haven't tried it yet, but it's on my list to try out.

[@Kdub09swm]

Omg, the surveyor has a total station. Those are used irl for land Surveying and distance/angle measurements.

[@Gaarafan007]

This comes at a very good time. I just started a game of (XboxOne) Void Dweller Barbaric Despoilers (Was going to be Fanatic Purifier but I wanted Militaristic and Spiritualist) and wound up boxed in on the edge of the galaxy. Hegemonic Imperialists to the left, Marauders above, and a Hegemon Federation next to Keepers of Knowledge to the right. The Imperialists have joined the Federation, so now only have to worry about 1 war every decade rather than two, but friends are not in my future. Annoingly, I can't seem to get beyond 5/6 Cybrex artifacts, and I'm cut off from Shard's system to try and get the Rubricator except during truce time (really hoping I can get it from her when I wasn't the one that awakened her). Amusingly enough, while I didn't get a ruined Dyson Sphere, I did get a ruined Mega Art Installation 2 jumps from home. This is proving quite the interesting challenge to balance fleets vs habitats, especially since I usually play super wide. I will take the advice here and try to get more science habitats, I'm 99 years in and just got Habitat Expansions and Gene Tailoring. I wish I had access to Overlord goodies, sad console noises. Perhaps I should try subjugating my neighbours rather than just defending myself. EDIT: I did have one question. When building Foundry/Factory Habitats, should I be doing that on blank planets or ones with resources?

[@josephjessop3006]

Blank would be best or on strategic resources. Not zro, gives science districts. Motes, gases, or crystals give resource building slots 1 per amount. If you have 2 motes, you can build 2 mote harvesting buildings.

[@TescoValueMemes369]

"We're gonna go with the orange goatse flag." That caught me off guard lmao

[@johnhobbes2268]

I like playing tall. And I think it is in the current version stronger than playing wide. Playing wide means that you basically can "build population" through the systems you claim. Further more you boost your growth by the high number of planets. To offset that you need another way to grow your population. On the other hand you want to maximize the benefit of the tall playstile. Which means low overextention and cheap traditions. So I would highly recomend to start with either feudal society or with parliamentary system to boost your early unity. In most cases I "grow" by using the resources I saved by not expanding to get an early vassal and annex him asap. Resettle most their pops and release them again. With this strategy you can skip habitats and go directly for the Ringworlds. Another thing that should be mentioned is the Psionic tradition and that you should maximize your favor with the patron to get the sanctum and the chosen asap. (Whispers if you play with habitats and otherwise Instrument) Another thing that should be mentioned with habitats is that you can have a huge amount of leaderjobs. So you should use either stratified economy or academic privilege to get an insane amount of unity from the factions. (or in the case of the video at least decent conditions, damn ethics :-) )

[@kennyfarmi9878]

thank you, i hope u keep making stellaris video, u are now in my favorite stellaris ytber

[@kelw5787]

How is it possible that AI empires are able to expand like craaazy and are able to play extremely wide, and I have to abuse closed borders and block choke points to even get a little amount of playable territory even when playing tall

[@johnhobbes2268]

My favorite playstyles for tall in ascending order: Overtuned with efficient bureaucracy Ringworld origin (or viodborne), trade focus, parliamentary system civic and academic privilege sol. As many merchants as possible. Necros with relentles industrialist and fudal society. Just grow by purge your vassals 🙂 Knights of the old gods with nihilitsic acuisition Hegemon with fudal society. Kick them out vassalize them immediately, switch to spiritual federation and annex them. No need to expand when you have 3 full homeworlds next to each other and 3 times the normal number of archiological sites. In most cases I build the sanctum of desire in less than 40 years.

[@sepedintuba]

You are a lovely nutter with your passion, skill and presentation ability for Stellaris. Thanks for the content!

[@KyralRetsam]

My favorite "tall" game is the "single system challenge". Would love to see a video on that 😊

[@A_Spec]

Great suggestion! Good thing I have one already. One System Challenge.

[@shinkicker404]

@@A_Spec that video is pretty old isn’t it? Would it need updating?

[@Edelweysss]

i believe it is better to chose shroud origin to get easy access to psionic ascension and add their ridiculous job output bonuses, the bonuses of the covenant on top of the bonuses you get from ascension, and since it save you the psionic ascension perk to get the access to the psionic tradition you can take the oecumenopolis instead and also got the oecu (and the ability to have other oecu if you want). It gets you less pop than genetic ascension but each pop can print tons of resources and the psionic bonuses will come slightly faster than with genetic witch means more snowball. You also get a tons of time because to have all the benefits of the genetic ascension it imply a ton of micromanagement and cost a lot of society research, while you'r psionics pop will only need their psionic traits and migrated pop will only need to be psionicly assimilate to become productive. Nice video :)

[@Jamblesquack]

Your videos are fuckin great. Especially at times like these while im using the restroom and can give it my undivided attention.

[@A_Spec]

And people wonder why we're in there for 30min+

[@TheArklyte]

Me, playing as megacorp with lost colony and private prospectors origin just to get lucky with planets, systems and enclaves and never stop expanding for first 30-40 years: that video would be very informative since I've already failed it.

[@LoyalHulk07]

Almost 2k hours played and I never knew you could 'acsend' a planet

[@A_Spec]

It's slightly obscure

[@TheNeilBlack]

ASpec: Shows an example of a tall empire Me: That's just what my normal empires look like 200 years into the game.

[@michaelmacdonell4834]

You explain what it is. You show us how to do it You give us a template so we can try it. Damn, that's quite something!

[@janstraka8674]

My favorite tall empire, which is totally unoptimal and totally shit, is Life Seeded Inward Perfectionists. It only sorta kinda works with you roll Baol, otherwise you are not competetive for most of the game but... it is fun to see world go up in flames while I am here like "I don´t care, I just wanna be my own happy little thing."

[@amugusq7567]

1) If you are playing tall you do not always need to federate for defence - normal starbases are absolute defence units till endgame. And with ethernal vigilance + unyielding - you better pray a lot before trying to capture them... 2) Void dwellers with adaptation tradition have + 1 building slot and a build-in mining droid scanner - this is huge since you can live anywhere if there are planets, even if they are all empty. Also trade even early game can give you a LOT of CG - even you are not a void dweller. 3) Clone army - tall empire comes naturaly from having limited clone vats, and while you are looking for friends to live with you get a lot of bonuses. Also dont forget Toxic God origin, where you get a habitat tech as an option from the start - and also an OP building for habitats in mid-endgame. 4) My favorite build is clone army tall mercenary megacorp, with 5 enclaves- since enclave admirals keep their clone trait, and since enclave mercenary mech and troop armies also keep their damage and health bonuses) Oh, and starting some wars with spies is a huge)

[@A_Spec]

In this case it was super helpful due to the Federation bonus.

[@amugusq7567]

@@A_Spec Sure, i mean that sometimes you do not need a federation- specially for defence

[@Marconius6]

I feel like Megacorps may be a bit OP now... in my latest game, an *AI* megacorp basically took over half the galaxy as subsidiaries, and became Custodian, because they were getting a stupid amount of diplo power from branch offices. Oh and add to this they controlled like a quarter of the galaxy just on their own too.

[@Lostforface]

Didnt get goatse refference right away, well played sir.

[@bravalloy]

This video made me remember the Slylandro probes.

[@gamester512]

I feel like Machine Intelligences would have the easiest time playing "Tall", due to the fact that they can colonize *any* sort of habitable world, including Tomb Worlds, with no trouble. Plus they can eventually make use of Machine Worlds, which are only usable by Machine Intelligences. This allows them to colonize more planets over a smaller area of space that much more easily. And unless they are a Rogue Servitor or Driven Assimilator, they also have zero need for Food (which if you are playing as a standard Machine Intelligence means you can just use whatever Food that you *do* produce as "currency" when trading with organic Empires). So a "Tall" Machine Intelligence could just carve out their chosen section of the Galaxy, and then just focus on consolidating their own territory and letting your neighbors clash with each other while you just stay neutral (unless you ever feel like being aggressive and going to war with someone).

[@adamhubbert8896]

I have a ruined science nexus, gateway and the quantum catapult all on 5 jumps. And the drone thing just beyond that.

[@felixrowan3740]

Burst out laughing at 14:21 because of your reaction!

[@sharpshots5813]

"I will play tall this game" -proceeds to spawn next to 2 fanatical purifiers

[@sirgaz8699]

I just started a fanatic spiritualist, authoritarian. Started with Slaver guilds and Exalted Priesthood but I'm going to end with Slaver guilds, Cutthroat politics and Ascensionists and I'm taking Slaanesh. Slaanesh likes being the dom, so with authoritarian and slaver guilds I should get its attention. I'll take Domination as my first tradition to please Slaanesh and because slaves get 10% from Slaver guilds, 10% from Chattle slavery (only use for the early game), 10% from Domination and 20% from extended shifts edict. With -20% Cutthroat politics, -10% Psi ascension and fanatic spiritualist -20% I'll have -50% edict cost so I can run lots of them.

[@Johannicus]

No one gets me to want to install and try Stellaris again as Aspec. Each break I take his videos pulls me back.

[@samsonthemanson]

The benefit of empire size keeping tech tradition costs low cannot be understated for the purposes of being competitive, since research costs a lot of consumer goods.

[@JamesSmith-cd6rf]

This is getting to where it reminds me more of civ 5 only reinterpreted. Civ 5 loves tall.

[@IvanRmz27]

I sometimes miss the gameplay series we used to have

[@FurArmoredBear]

When tall your your standard way of playing i never realy played wide. i love turteling more then expanding. for me tall is a few systems cause i wil spam alot of habitats when i can

[@speedy01247]

I had a middling empire in my first game I took to the end stayed neutral the whole game never declaring war on anyone and just accepting it when I got boxed in early, I did however have the largest fleet by far in the game and used it for diplomatic issues, throwing on a bunch of envoys to basically double my value, by the time the crisis happened I had 200K diplo power and it made me regret choosing to become the crisis myself as I totally could have united the galaxy through diplomacy had I not done so. (my first war was against the fallen empire next to me and that war gave me enough menace to become the crisis, though at that point the crisis had already shown up, not that it or the other empires could stand against me)

[@zegrze]

Lol, the Subscribe Federation, love the way you bring the subscribes in, much appreciated and ofc your videos are very informative.

[@A_Spec]

You're very welcome.

[@neotower420]

I built SO wide with my last machine empire, it became insane to manage, and by the time I was snowballed it became too difficult to fight against the entire cosmos.

[@StephenSaid]

Hi Aspec. Big fan of your work. Your videos taught me how to play Stellaris. Thankyou! Just wondering what you think about vassalisation atm? I've started a thread in Steam where a bunch of players are frustrated with the current state of vassalisation. Single player games seem to degenerate quickly to one big massive blob against you (one Overlord and every other nation their vassal). What are your thoughts? Would you be open to doing a video on the current state of vassalisation in single player mode? Be great if you could use your influence to draw the developers attention to this aspect that some feel needs balance/adjustment.

[@Oi-mj6dv]

Tall empire for me means void dwellers ultra focused on research and, jampack a couple of systems with habitats, get a couple of star fortress ASAP and then go round searching being a tax collector vasalizing a comfortable enough buffer zone

[@voided_sun]

If you need influence, it means you should have pushed your power projection, which is easier when playing tall

[@notme3603]

My personal law is that I only take planets with at least 50-60% of districts already build when conquering Or at least size 20 or more with the districts I need or rare resources, The rest I just de-colonize them cause they’ll be a financial void until I fill the rest of my planets Same with starports, if they aren’t in a good position for a shipyard or a choke point then I don’t need them

[@marcoaraiza9381]

Tried a tall mega Corp game. Found a relic world but it was so far away. Had to make an outpost costing way too much and can hardly defend. Got an l gate stolen just barely and when I declared war on the owner suddenly I'm at war with 4 others around me, and I'm only equivalent since I was at max fleet size and max star bases. Playing tall just cripples you and let's everyone else flourish. Playing wide let's you get strong and make the enemy weaker by taking their stuff.

[@emre30489]

man i love your videos.

[@theautisticveteran2466]

This is fantastic for Vanilla... I also like the Toxic God tall build. With mods? Birch world is BROKEN!

[@elitacilan891]

this video gave me some good ideas, thank you

[@A_Spec]

Glad I could help!

[@andrewgreeb916]

Who needs more space when you can shove everything you need into a small space? tall builds in a shellnut

[@sipofsunkist9016]

35:29 i was not ready for that xD you usually dont use nono words lmao

[@A_Spec]

Rated pg

[@Flygoniaks]

Forgive me if this question sounds stupid; for context, I'm completely new to Stellaris, having only learned about the game around a week ago. But I'm curious if I'm onto something here... Do you think "Here Be Dragons" might be a good origin for an empire that intends to play tall? From what I understand about the game, I think it could work - the Sky Dragon would protect your home system in the early game, and the guaranteed deposit of Living Metal could help you build megastructures faster (something I'm guessing tall empires might want to invest in).

[@SuperNovaDragonYT]

I recently played Tall, I had many vassals that loved me and I won the game.

[@tonewipera]

Finally! After 70 hours of stellaris I can now know how to fkin ascend a planet. Why is it so hard to find some simple know-how what to push on the UI screen to actually do that!

[@AlexandraFarmer]

I found some of this a bit harder to implement than you make it seem on admiral. Priorities feel skipped over, bullet point wise. Might be worth making an accompanying video to go over build priorities and such. I've only got a couple hundred hours in Stellaris, and most of that was from 2020 and before. New players could benefit a lot.

[@12Monkeysable]

If i play tall i can not play wide and take all, whats belongs to me and is to collect in other hands....

[@kelw5787]

Why not start with ocean paradise and aquatic civic for a tall build? In combination with masterfull rafters you can essentially put the entire planet full of industrial districts while also putting it full of research, sure you won't really make use of the 15% mineral and food output, but you can get those from space and hydroponics or since your economy is boosted so much, from trading. You probebly at cap for consumer goods constantly, you simply trade them for what you need or bank some political favors

[@northstargaming2363]

Got boxes in early on in my current run, thanks for the help! However I had a species migrate to my planets thag had a +10 pop growth

[@BlackReshiram]

how do i know which system has the surveyor? also, do you have a video on how to play wide effectively? im no meta gamer and dont really have the skill YET to play that effectively, so id appreciate the help! ty in advance

[@Nostromo2144]

I'm back!!! ;) Trying to play a Shattered Ring machine empire. Only just a few years in. Seems like you are totally crippled until you can start to colonise and clear the 2 ring segments. Wasted alloys on a 2nd science ship, which was also a waste of time, as I realised I can't even exploit other planets for resources - so what's the point of building starbases anywhere until you've pretty much maxed out your home system...? No, really. So, you just watch the months and years go by. Only way I can build anything with alloys is the trade my energy (which is plentiful) for it, also some materials, which are not quite as easy to come by, but far, far easier to get than alloys! Building the alloy upgrade building will take time. Clearing debris from the ring segments is inordinately slow and expensive. How does anyone enjoy this playstyle...? My actual question: Can I build a tall empire reaching to the stars (well, just my star!), without actually leaving my home ring world? If it's in any way viable, I might start again & see if I can do it. Obviously you would need massive, advanced fleets and tech to defend against all would-be invaders. But, will there be enough resources to even come close to winning on default game settings...? If not, what else do I need to do at a minimum, if I really don't want to expand or get entangled with all those smelly organics...? ;) Will I need to create 1 or 2 more ring systems, and if so, what's the quickest and easiest path to do that? Cheers guys!

[@justastickofbutter5547]

I suck at economy in Stellaris, I always have consumer goods issues cause I prefer non-gestalt empires, I also prefer tall because of the empire size system, so I need this

[@purplepigeon1501]

Tall is good if you don't like to micromanage but a true wide empire will always out tech and out eco a 'tall' empire. I feel like the tall strat was only viable in the first instance of this game where it would only let you micromanage one sector

[@danteredgrave5238]

What mods would you recommend if you want to overhaul the game experience?

[@Nihongofreak]

How did you get high habitability colonies? In my playthrough everything was 20% habitability.

[@GabrielGABFonseca]

I was incredibly confused for a while until I clocked in that "playing tall" is just my normal "play Stellaris".

[@A_Spec]

It happens

[@MyRedHulk]

10/10 I can never see that flag the same way again

[@Dr_Speedy]

Doing my first tall playthrough and it's honestly a lot easier than a large empire. I wish I would have played as machines tho as it'd help a lot not needing to eat or use consumer goods

[@SardonicEffigy]

Did a one system habitat mega corp build playin MP with my friends and was genuinely surprised how powerful it was

[@GAMEFREAK330]

Hell I go tall megacorp in 50% of my games. Though I am generally xenophobic/trade focused. So I have all the energy to buy anything I need, and I can just buy pops as needed for slave labor. Usually win through conquest with no federations. 2-3K energy/mineral income and mostly supplemented by subsidiaries.

[@jorenger]

Great video, helped me a lot to get back into the game after a long break! What mods are you are using? Primarily the one that changes planet/habitat icons to what their designation is.

[@learnoreldarion620]

That is a setting within the outliner menu, you can set the icons to be planet class/ habitat or the specialization type

[@jorenger]

@@learnoreldarion620 Thank you for the info! I've been playing for a while, but never realized that was a thing..