Imagine Earth

As is usually the case, I don’t know if this is the best way, but it worked for me. In lieu of a better solution, hopefully this helps.

You can do this any time. I did this in between campaign missions. The second half of the campaign introduces and builds on the idea of competing with other companies so it might be worth finishing there before you start on this.

First things first, this achievement is cumulative across multiple games in Competition mode. Each match can have a maximum of 20 Victory Points. The achievement description numbers are also incorrect – I believe you need 50, 100 and 200 points in total for the 3 related achievements.

So, you’re looking at doing this at least 10 times but it’s not too bad once you get the hang of it. Each game was taking me roughly 30 minutes, so 5hrs all up.

Victory Points are rewarded for several different categories but the most reliable and easiest to obtain is Population. You get a point for every 500,000 inhabitants. This solution is based around growing your settlements as quickly as possible to get your population up.

Start by selecting a new Competition Game. I didn't because I was trying different things out but you should be able to go into the World Editor and create this template, which will net you the World Creator achievement, and load it each time you start a new Competition game. Otherwise, create a custom game and change the settings each time.

Go through the tabs and select as follows (hidden in spoiler just to save space and improve readability):

This sets you up with a nice, large planet with ample landmass to build on. You can leave forests/mountains/rocks in if you want, but I found they got in the way and I just had to clear them.

Aside from your single competitor, global warming can be a problem. I liked to remove all the forests but that meant that construction had a greater effect on the environment and occasionally I would experience flooding and other issues. The large planet size should negate this and you’ll be only using Wind Farms and Solar Farms for power.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is going to follow a repetitive cycle, with a few differences as mentioned. When placing City Centres, try to find some Coral to collect for Medical Substance, which you will need later on. You don’t need too much – just one or two pieces of coral should be enough.

Start with your first City Centre. Licence Wind Farms and Mines. You will already have access to Organic Farms. Place a couple of these buildings around the edge of the buildable area.

Now build residential buildings around the City Centre. Remember to clump them together so you can upgrade them. Ideally, you want to get the City Centre up to Level 4. You will start with regular and Park blocks. I also licenced the Health block which will keep your people content.

You also want to put down a Warehouse.

In the first area, also licence and build a Spaceport and Workshop.

In terms of research, you definitely want:
• Wind Lens – Increases Wind Farm power generation.
• Efficient Energy Construction – City Centre and Districts use less power
• Mining Rare Earths – I used Mines as my primary source of supplies, so why not make them more efficient?
• Warehouse Level 2 – Store more precious minerals to sell to traders.
• City Level 4 – Not only does this increase your population like normal, there is a Victory Point for whoever has the most Level 4 City Centres.
Then you can research anything else that increases output or reduces environmental impact.

Now it’s just a case of expanding as fast as you can. Build industry buildings to address power, food and supplies as required. Keep placing residential buildings as fast as you can, depending on resources and finances.

For Power, I also licenced Solar Farms and placed some of them depending on the type of land.

For Food, you’ll want at least 3 sources so licence and build at least another 2. Greenhouses are useful and you can use whatever else you feel like.

For Supplies, I ended up licencing and placing everything eventually. You will want Electronics and Chemicals for crafting so be sure to build them and have a steady supply of those resources.

As you go, make use of the vendors who land at the Spaceport. Aside from Chemicals, Electronics, Lithium and Medical Substance, along with any Medicine and Stock Market Hacks you craft or obtain, feel free to sell everything else. Towards the end, once I was happy that I had everything I needed, I even sold Tech Licences and Landing Permits to finance the purchasing of shares.

Having ample Warehouse space to store goods and being able to sell to vendors is vital, especially early on when money is limited.

When you get a new Landing Permit, place it right away. Your competitor has a habit of taking up all the ‘good’ land so start new areas as soon as possible to negate this. I would just leave a previous area in whatever state it was as soon as I could place a new City Centre and potentially go back later on.

Each new area should have at least 1 Warehouse but you only need a Spaceport and Warehouse in the first area.

Just repeat the process of resource buildings around the edges and residential around the City Centre.

At the Workshop, set it to automatically create Medicine and Stock Market Hacks (click the circle next to the item). Obviously, Medicine will be needed for epidemics which will occur from time to time.

As you go along, your competitor will likely out-pace you and get ahead. To get around this, once you have 7-8 or more City Centres and your income is healthy, start to buy stocks in their company. You should be able to buy 2 or 3 times (8-12%) normally then you’ll need to use your Hacks.

On the Stock Market page, look on the right-hand side of your competitors tab. You will see their cities listed in the lower half, along with a percentage next to them. If you have enough stocks, you can buy out that city!

This works twofold. You will increase your own Victory Points by claiming everything in the city. You will also reduce your competitors as they will lose all those assets.

Don't try to 'save up' stocks and go for the bigger cities. Just grab the smaller 4%-8% cities when you can and only save up if there is no alternative.

Even when the competitor got a handy lead, say they had 15 points and I only had 10, I was able to rein them in for a comfortable win each time using stocks and city buyouts.

So, that's it. The main takeaways are:
• Large planet size and landmass to counter global warming
• Wind and Solar Farms to counter global warming
• Must craft Medicine and Stock Market Hacks
• Only one competitor
• Expand your population as fast as possible
• Selling to Vendors can provide much-needed money, especially early on
• Use Stock Market to buy out competitors' smaller cities

Final points; I tried making a save just before winning and reloading it over and over... Sadly, it doesn’t work.
Also, use the icons on the right edge of the screen in the middle. This expands a menu where you can upgrade all your buildings, without having to move all over the map. Makes it much easier!

Best of luck, colonist!