Alpha Centauri 2 Forum Community Succession Game

[Kirov]

Lal will be able to mindprobe our 30% damaged synth on that forest in this turn yet. If he has enough EC, but we do not know it, and damaged units are easier mindprobed. Putting a second unit there will prevent it. You cannot mindprobe a unit when it is not alone on a tile.

Are you sure about damaged units being cheaper? I've seen the formula somewhere and I'm quite sure it doesn't mention the damage.

[Mart]

No, I am not sure of that, but I read about it somewhere. There was a discussion, maybe it is not price, but chance of success.
If someone pulled the formula out of the exe, then we would know.
Prima Guide does not have it listed.

[Kirov]

I played without waiting for your advices...because I felt like it.
I must add that I would have not taken 2 full hours to play if I wasn't thinking all the time about "they would say so". It gives a lot of pressure and takes out a lot of fun...so play my legacy and don't complain! 

Darn, that's a bummer, it seems we have the opposites of fun in mind. My approach is, without discussion it's just clicking things around, and in a very ineffective manner to boot. We could use a plan and if it's not followed, it's because somebody else's got an alternative plan. But I don't see what you had in mind here and how you would follow this situation. We've just lost a tile with +75% defensive bonus and getting rid of those 2 x 2-2-1 will take us forever now (the best odds we can get are 1:1 each, so we need 4 units to kill them).

Any ideas, anyone?

[Geo]

Any ideas, anyone?

Switch to Conquer research? Or have our current research finished ASAP in the hope probes will come out.
By the way, if we do get Planetary Networks, do we reprototype rovers from our probe teams or not?

[Mart]

Chassis needs to be prototyped as well. But we could do it the cheapest, 3 rows. Any design with that price.

[Mart]

... We've just lost a tile with +75% defensive bonus and getting rid of those 2 x 2-2-1 will take us forever now (the best odds we can get are 1:1 each, so we need 4 units to kill them).
...

This will be soon heart of our territory away from borders.
And we do not know what Yang is going to do. We may get rid of them in another way.

Bad thing is that Hive has most often a lot of "fresh meat"

[Kirov]

No, I am not sure of that, but I read about it somewhere. There was a discussion, maybe it is not price, but chance of success.
If someone pulled the formula out of the exe, then we would know.
Prima Guide does not have it listed.

Yitzi did:

"-The formula for the cost to subvert a unit (before applying the effects of the target's PROBE rating or algorithmic enhancement) is (target faction's EC+800)X(cost of the target unit in rows)/(4+2Xdistance to enemy HQ)."

And the chance of success is surely only related to the probe's morale, so I'm quite sure that damaged units cost the same.

[Kirov]

This will be soon heart of our territory away from borders.

We need to actually do something about it, so far we're only on defensive. Being stuck to 100% ECON is also a drain and we need to switch out asap (which I don't think is now).

And we do not know what Yang is going to do. We may get rid of them in another way.

Bad thing is that Hive has most often a lot of "fresh meat"

Well, right now both factions are on their "I was betrayed" mode. IIRC, this means they can easily attack anytime, they never really care about the truce status, and they will usually engage if given good odds on a plate.

[Mart]

Kirov, this is your turn now.

[Kirov]

2161:

Switched production at Chiron Preserve, GoP, TV and Mindworm Pass to 2-1-1.

Pulled back the scout patrol North to Children of Earth.

Put all units on ‘L’ command instead of ‘H”. This will wake them up when healed or attached by a third party unit.

Sensor started at (114,4) to defend Mindworm Pass.

Upgraded the scout at (113,7) to 2-1-1.

Move 1-2-1 from Mindworm Pass to defend (111,7). MP itself was backed with another scout from Children of Earth.

2162:

I'm quite sure the Hive would've entered (111,7) if he could, instead fortunately he attacked TV. One victory, one loss for us. I finished him with our 2-1-1.

Switched to 100% Labs but please save what little money we have for unexpected upgrades, don't rush any RecTanks.

H made a road (117,9) (that rocky tile), please watch out for any rovers.

2163:

Moved our 1-2-1 to follow H Colony Pod at 114,12 (later killed).

2164:

Added 'Explore' to the tech budget.

Survived an attack at (115,9), that's 3 Hive units down.

PK appeared at (111,15), a vulnerable place for us, we need a forest there. He came with 2-1-2 and two probe teams. I decided to put a 1-2-1 and former (to prevent probing) at (111,13).

Killed H former.

Mind Worm captured in the North.

2165:

1-2-1 lost near GoP, but PK rover heavily damaged.

Killed PK probe team.

2166:

LOL, I was so excited at the tactical screen that I allowed our HQ to riot. Sorry for that. 

We got Polymorphic Software, this sucks. The next turn is green in 7 turns.

In the meantime, several RecTanks finished and I decided to build an army.

Summary:

Sorry for the riots, my bad really (late here), but all in all, the entire Hive presence was eliminated and PK contained at little cost (2 x 1-2-1). We need to place our units at good tiles, they really fall for that. I brought back the forest and sensor next to TV so we can hold there.

There is PK coming through (111,15). We need to put 2 military units at (111,13) (to prevent mind control) and two formers from GoP to forest. This is also a place to defend infinitely, i.e. until they come with impact rovers.

Bodi, take it away.

[Kirov]

I think we have a large enough army now to leave several units at GoP (we need groups in fields due to those [blasphemy; condemned to eternal punishment in the afterlife] probe teams) and push the rest against the Hive. On the other hand, I'm a bit worried that we'd have to enter that fungus left to his HQ, we defend with a penalty there. I guess we need a strong presence to pull it off, no point to half-A this. If you decide otherwise, then I guess it's better to wait for bigger guns.

[Mart]

Polymorphic Software means artillery.
While (2)-1-1 is not making a lot of damage, even 10% down to the enemy unit can bring our victory percentage up. And they will not be able to gather stacks without suffering from our bombardment.
I would make few laser batteries and place them where we expect Lal and Yang to station, especially in stacks.

[Mart]

Restoring sensor array on (115,9) (forest with nutrient bonus) will cover the rocky tile next to it (117,9) from which (!!!) we can bombard The Hive hq base!
Yang, you will need to get to the bunker or leave your capital.

[Kirov]

Restoring sensor array on (115,9) (forest with nutrient bonus) will cover the rocky tile next to it (117,9) from which (!!!) we can bombard The Hive hq base!
Yang, you will need to get to the bunker or leave your capital.

That's genius. I was worried about us not having Yang's infiltration (you'd never know what he has until you border his base), but bombarding will tell us the exact number and design of units at his home. 

[binTravkin]

Opened the save.

Situation looks quite good.
Hive troops gone, PKs battered heavily.

What do you think about moving that mindworm back to area of operations?
It has 3:2 odds by default, plus 10% from our Planet rating, which makes 3.3 to 2 - decent for first attack on "The Hive" base, as it bypasses the perimeter defense.
Some prior bombardment + mindworm + some regular 2-1-1s and The Hive should be ours.

It also looks like we can now rotate our damaged units to insta-heal them on monoliths.

Polymorphic software turns out to be cool for the artillery.

Btw, I noticed 111,13 is a bottleneck place for PKs. If we can get a road + forest combo there, they can't really touch us.

I see we have network node in HQ.
I would advise against using that AA on it - tech is random and increases our tech cost.
If we're not lucky, we're worse off popping it. And odds we're lucky are quite small.
On infrastructure side our growing cities now need reccomms to support extra citizens, then probably creches, to prepare for popbooming once we get Doctrine Flexibility and put some kelp.

Overall, we're in a MUCH better situation than when I left.

EDIT: Resplendent Oak and Lucky Autumn should have it's workers rearranged for more minerals as they are size 2 and we cannot support size 3. Both are working a farm now.