So when should you start causing insurrections? At the start of the game there is always at least one good place for an insurrection, and in one game I played against a human player I managed to get a whole system that way. Then again I have heard other people saying that it's better to wait..

 

Wait for what, I wonder?

 

What do you think?

It really depends on several factors. Any planets you bring in are not going to necessarily help you. They will have little to no defense and you can't take too many resources away from your other planets to put into these new ones you aquire. Also remember these planets might be barely on your side and you could loose them very easy if one of your fleets looses a ship in the sector or the enemy is able to succeed in too many sabotage or uprising missions. But if you can gain some shipyards or something worthwhile, or if you are simply short on maintenance, then it might still be something worth doing.

it has the added bonus of hurting the other guy, which is never a bad thing

It all depends... usually i don't do it unntil later in the game when i have the fleet to back it up when they wanna come over to my side.

Hmm... they want to?

 

Well I suppose evil does good in a sort of way. After all, the planetary governors and their staff do pretty good for themselves. Also the people who show the most potential to subdue their underlings are highly favored too. IFAK the empire has the best rewards program in the galaxy! Just don't screw up

IFAK?

 

And me? Screw up? Hardly!

Bah should have been AFAIK. But then again I really meant "in fact".

Oh right... these crazy acronyms and slang just muddle my poor little head.

do it at the start because the empire is sure to move diplomats in at some point. BUT, when you're playing the computer, if you look closely, some systems are loyal to one side, but just barely. if there are no troops on a system like this, that loyalty will shift when a the computer puts a troop there (which it does after a while) making it a good target for an incite uprising mission, when it wasn't at the start. the computer does this when it is the empire or the alliance. a real person would probably never do this. i always try to get it more loyal with diplomacy first and then move troops in if its a planet i'm going to defend with military units, unless it is a very important system for me to keep control of early, then i'll risk it, but i'd be sure to put a decent garrison there, not just one or two regiments. this is the only time i'd wait. if you're using diplomacy in a sector and you gain some planets, you can affect opposing planets and get to into or near uprising as well, so then send other missions to those systems. when you liberate a system, this effect is greater in the sector, so, again, send new missions to other planets. these are related somewhat to the first effect and also they're common sense, and you use your incite missions whenever you can, that can work very well, especially when you're the alliance. but take your time and see if what i mentioned first happens. i assure you, if a planet is loyal to the empire but close to being neutral, they will send troops there, making it a prime incite target.