Alpha Centauri 2 Forum Community Succession Game

[Mart]

... or mind control a unit with reactor so we can retro-engineer.
...

A very good idea!
Let us see, what kind and which unit we could probe.

[Kirov]

Reverse engineering is usually banned in the MP environment. Just sayin'.

[Mart]

In ACDG3 it was allowed, if I am not mistaken. And after playing this ACDG, I found its rules very reasonable. Probably, it was effect of experience from 2 previous demogames.
Banned was using speeder chassis before acquiring Doctrine Mobility, as either the only or one of the few cases.
And in fact, in our forum post on MP rules it states:

Rules for the fully patched game (including the unofficial patch):
...
8. Reverse-engineering allowed.
...

But I agree, reverse-engineering of speeder chassis is quite powerful diminishing meaning of Mobility tech. It takes from Spartans the most.
And in fact, it is negligence of game creators probably due to being in a hurry, that they made it possible, probe team on speeder chassis.
My guess is, that when they saw how less useful are infantry probes for probing actions, they made it on speeder chassis without much considerations for enabling techs and probably forgot reverse-enginerring possibility.

Reverse-engineering is an interesting game feature for me, and places ability of mindprobing units a very useful tool. Polymorphic encryption gets here more meaning, as well as setting faction social settings to probe level enough to make it immune to mindprobing.
Mindcontrol as parameter for factions, although not in limited 8 pool, has additional meaning too.

I agree, it is giving advantage like ability to give a pactmate e.g. fusion power units without giving actual tech, but that enriches the game, with implications like more diplomacy options and strategy options:
- our faction likes your faction but not that much to give you all fusion, so we give you reactor for units only. Forget Fusion Lab for now...
- we do leap-frog, so in order to not make some choices of next techs unavailable we do not share Fusion Power, but give reactor only to better defend/attack.

Ok, that's my rant here on this...

[binTravkin]

Whatever our moral stance on retroengineering, I think we can make an exception with the single goal to survive and probably make this game interesting in it's own right as one that extends past the airpower/fusionpower/hsa/planetbuster era.

[Geo]

Downloaded the turn. Let's see what's up...

[Mart]

It is 200 turns in play. Gaians just got fusion power and planes. We left the faction some time ago, but blind research, large map and tech stagnation are most likely to be what caused it. The "standard" setting would be like 100-120 turns only. For this kind of game, we can afford this, not having to wait like over a year to reach turn 200.
[edit]
I mean like our RL year, 12 months of our life.

[Geo]

MY 2301
Switched UNS Columbus production to UNS Corps D'Esprit in HighC, and helped production with a crawler.
Started a crawler in NuDawn.
Our probe near the new proposed base site encountered a mind worm. Luckily an adjacent missile rover could take it out, despite even odds.

MY 2302
Invasion! A Gaian transport appears south of NuDawn, disembarks a scout rover which destroys a former on 69,63. Our missile rover in NuDawn takes care of this intrusion.
ToS starts on a fungal former.
Rushed the Plasma Sentinel production in Amundsen Station for 3 ec.
Our colony pod made landfall and discovered an alien borehole nearby.

MY 2303
The offending Gaian transport which brought the scout rover to our soil attempts to escape westwards through seafungus.
Morgan sends word he has declared Vendetta on the Gaians.
I contact Morgan, but not much was gained. We agreed to do a joint assault on Sea Collective. Good luck with that, CEO.
The Hive reports the loss of Sea Collective to the Gaians.
Plasma technology is manufactured. Our production costs plummet on every object which has this technology incorporated.
Amundsen Station starts on the UNS Explorer.
HighC rushes the UNS Corps D'Esprit for 62 ec.
ToS rushes the fungal former for 3 ec.
Deep Warrant is founded south of the Borehole Cluster.

MY 2304
A Gaian elite missile infantry disembarks next to ToS, killing a former in the fungal fields.
A combined counter assault of the ToS missile artillery and NuDawn missile rover take care of this threat.
Also, a colony pod was disembarked. Our missile rover in the north starts to move in...
Corps D'Esprit attacks a Gaian transport, but its marine detachment fails to capture the boat. 2 units (the boat and an artifact) are destroyed.
Two probe foils started in HighC and ToS. Got a feeling we might be able to 'convert' a fusion unit sooner then expected...

MY 2305
seapod popped near HighC by our transport. An IoD appears. Artillery barrage by UNS Corps D'Esprit does not damage it significantly
Drone riots in NuDawn. I forgot to check the base screen after our missile rover moved out.
NuDawn has popboomed to population 7 before drone riots kicked in.
NuDawn starts on a fungal former (or will next turn).
Cape Station founded.
Gaian cp received a welcoming barrage. Over half damaged.
Fungal growth near NuDawn disables the condenser tile for food production. I shuffled some crawlers around to mitigate the ecological damage output of the base.


At the start of MY 2206, UNS Corps D'Esprit is lost with all hands and forests have expanded near Amundsen Station.
Morgan formers have changed the rainfall patterns near Deep Warrant.
We have saved up 259 ec. Buy us a fusion unit if at all possible!
Check the crawler south of Cape Point. I moved it north in the fungus to be rehomed to this base.

[Mart]

We have AAA now, so we can make 1-<3>-1 units.
Deirdre's bombers are 6 in attack. So on average, a base with a sensor would be 7.25 against such attack?
Though she has higher morale at the moment and *2 "health" from reactor.

[Mart]

Morgan has Environmental Economics (that lifts energy restrictions) please talk to him about it. I know we are Peacekeepers not Morganics, but we still need to pay for stuff...

Those alien boreholes would neatly give us then 0-6-6 !

[binTravkin]

Update: University has finished the HSA. Whew.

MY 2306
 - traded EE2 for Centauri Empathy with Morgan
 - spotted Gaian transport @ 69,39 (looks en route to invade Deep Warrant)
 - spotted Isle of Deep @ 71,37
 - moved our foil to load something
 - moved artillery in position to cover both Cape Station and U.N. Temple of Sol

END Turn:
 - Gaian transport from 69,39 moves closer to Deep Warrant
 - another Gaian transport appears @ 72,48

MY 2307
 - we bombard Gaian transport from Cape Station for 20% dmg
 - Morgan offers us Pre-Sentient Algorithms for 100 EC, we refuse

Gaian forces update:
3 fusion missile destroyers, 2 in production
1 fusion missile foil
5 fusion missile tacticals, 2 in production
7 fusion missile needlejets, 2 in production
60 missile squads
37 transport (0/3p/3)
4 fusion missile marines (6~/3r/1*2), 3 in production

END Turn:
 - Gaian transports make strange movements
 - Mind Worms land near U.N. High Commision
 - fungus expands near NuDawn

MY 2308
 - we bombard Gaian transport, 0 dmg
 - mindworms killed for the cost of one unit, 40 EC

END Turn: again some strange movements

MY 2309
 - moving probes in place, total of 5 probe teams (3 skimships, 2 on transports)

END Turn: Gaian transports have disappeared from our radars

MY 2310
 - I realized our skimship probe teams do not have deep radar.. didn't want to spend 150 EC tho, at least the next ones will have it

END Turn:
 - Gaian aircraft destroys one of our probe foils
 - Gaian aircraft destroyes one of our sea formers 1 tile from Cape Station
 - Native Sea Lurk attacks U.N. Temple of Sol and loses

It isn't a good idea to build bases in range of air power.
Cape station is 11 tiles from Sea Collective.
Unless we get Fusion & D:AP in next few turns, Gaians are likely to destroy that base
Please, do not station non-garrison units there or otherwise in range from Sea Collective.
I have left some (I think a missile rover) non-garrison there, because I didn't realize it's in range. That unit has to be moved out.

Our probe foil is in position to either probe Sea Collective or Chairman's Burrow.
I think we haven't probed Sea Collective yet, please correct me if I'm wrong.
Let's try to get Fusion power or D:AP.
Gaia also has Silksteel, which would also be useful.

The other remaining 3 probes are in position to advance towards Social Engineering Den.
However, extreme caution is advised as that area is covered by Gaian air power.
If People's Endeavour is still owned by Yang upon arrival, might be a good idea, to go into that base and use road to immediately probe Social Engineering Den.
If not, we can probe People's Endeavour directly.
Other nearby bases both East and NorthWest could soon be captured by Gaians.

Before probing, be sure to try to obtain all the possible tech from other factions by trade/begging, to narrow down the possible options as much as possible.

NuDawn base now has Command Center. Let's build our land military there.

We should also consider switching to Power SE choice.
It will give us +2 morale for existing units and +3 for new (removes the "morale bonuses halved" from Wealth), with Command Nexus, that's +5 morale from current.
The added support will somewhat compensate for lost Industry.
We could also switch to Fundamentalist, to give our probe teams better chances and for extra morale and support bonuses.
Now that I think of it, I should have switched to Fundamentalism durin my turns. Because the gains significantly outweigh the losses at this point.

[binTravkin]

And the turn.

[Geo]

Update: University has finished the HSA. Whew.

Ah. I knew I forgot to report something.

[Mart]

Playing...

Chairman's Burrow has two needlejets:
6-1-12*2 (fusion)
<6>-1-8 (regular)

Cost of mindprobing the base is 888 EC.
We have 410 EC.
If I can get somehow that 478 EC...

(2212)... it's bad.
it's really bad...

[Mart]

2311
Exchanging Applied Relativity for Pre-sentient Algorithms, with Morgan.
And I buy Adv Subatomic Theory, we have no chance for 888 EC at the moment, so let us probe.

Breaking at all costs to Ch.Burrow is 50%,34%. This is better with pre-sentient, that gives us +1 base probe team morale.
Failure to get anything...

In UN High Commision, hurrying Covert Ops.

End turn:
Deep Community taken by Gaians.
Our probe foil and two probe teams on a transport destroyed by Gaian Airforce.

2312

End turn:
Gaians take Unity Lair...
Gaians take People's Endavour...
any more?
No, that's enough cookies for one party.

2313
And now, there is just 3 tiles from Cape Station a new Gaian base Forest Primeval.
Empty, for now.
Deep community has 4 fusion bombers. Switching to Power.

2314
Gaians planes are moved to new bases.
Morgan does not want to give any energy.
Switching to Green. Deirdre is still Seething.

2315
No Deirdre attack. I wonder why...
She is is still seething and ignores attempts to communicate.
Morgan again refuses to give energy.
100 EC from unity pod. A drop in ocean of needs.

2316
Still no Gaian attack.

[binTravkin]

We've got a foil probe team on Cape base.
Should be probing closest Gaian base.

Also, same base has a bunch of units which have 0 chance vs Gaian air power.
Probably we should evac them so they are not slaughtered uselessly?