Alpha Centauri 2 Forum Community Succession Game

[Mart]

Probably planned would be better at this moment, especially, when hurrying, we just have benefits by paying less EC, which may be better than having larger energy income in our current state.

[binTravkin]

With Planned our EC income drops by 31%, while rushing becomes 12.5% cheaper.
So cheaper rushing wouldn't be the reason to switch.
We don't have any fleet either, so no pacifism drones until we have it.
And we don't have much surplus food to make use of the growth bonus.

So, Planned may be good, but probably not at the moment.

About Vendetta from probing during sunspots - perhaps we can cut ourselves loose from Yang this way?
Though we benefit from the commerce, capturing his territory may be worth it.

[Geo]

Though we benefit from the commerce, capturing his territory may be worth it.

Do we have a big enough army to conquer him?
And wouldn't pacifism drones kick in once they leave our territory if we switch FM now?
And lastly, Hiverian bases are pretty close to Deirdre's territory now. Are we ready to tangle with her already?

[binTravkin]

The question is not really if we can defeat Yang now, but rather IF we should and how soon.
I would say yes to IF and we can start around the time sunspots end.
Our HQ has 10 minerals/turn, so producing the necessary units will be fast.
We only need transports and a couple of foils.

And we'd get pacifism drones then, but that's some 10+ turns from now.
That would also be the only reason to switch away as otherwise FM seems better.

IF we decide to attack him, first thing to do is to steal SFF so we can build proper units.

Regarding fighting Deirdre, I have confidence, that we will do it better than Yang.

[binTravkin]

Actually, scratch that.
We don't need to probe Yang, we already have SFF, I got that myself. 

Techs that Yang has and we don't:
Gene Splicing
Adaptive Economics
High Energy Chemistry
Field Modulation

We don't really need any of those.

So the question is purely military/expansion one - do we want to conquer Yang now?
Probably we can expand unto those islands to west/northwest as an alternative.

EDIT:
We have Ecological Engineering.
Wasn't it the tech enabling raising terrain?
If so, why not use this option?
Should be faster than island hopping.

[Mart]

Environmental Economics rises terrain.
I think expanding now before attacking any other faction is better. We need "leverage" in case something goes not as we expected. With more bases we will have more production centers.
With 10 production we can make many crawlers quickly already.

[binTravkin]

Yes we should then spam crawlers and rehome them to new bases after we hit mineral limit in HQ.

And raise land to put more cities.
I'd say going up to at least the city count of Morgan or Yang may be a good idea since each of our cities would then get commerce from them.

Also, I wonder if AIs would agree to doubling the planetary commerce rates.

[Kirov]

So I infer from what you say that our long-term strategy is to deliver some good ol' thumping overseas?

[binTravkin]

Thump or be thumped, as they say.

[Mart]

Doubling commerce rate:
Morgan - probably yes. He is making now with 8 bases +60 EC/turn. A colony pod in building, 3 energy banks in building!
Deirdre - I guess so. We do not have infiltration, but when Morgan Industries gets +2, Deirdre gets +3, and this is from treaty.
Yang - making only +4 EC/turn from commerce. One pact and 2 treaties. 3 vendettas. Probably not.

We may get 4 votes. I think Zakharov would vote yes.
Deirdre has veto.

Gaians have 333 votes! I wonder when we will be able to win the elections.
Both Zak and Miriam have like 73 votes. Unlikely, that Miriam would vote for us.
We probably could try having around 40-45 population, cause of votes doubling.

[Geo]

Sounds like there's a recipe is in the making we switch sides again?

[binTravkin]

To challenge Gaia on Council we will need to popboom.
If we can get all of our cities to 16 pop, we will not need that many.
She has 16 pop limit too, but she is now most likely running Green, thus her growth will be quite slow.

[Geo]

New goal for us: be elected Planetary Leader.

[Mart]

Sounds like there's a recipe is in the making we switch sides again?

No, none as far as I can tell.
I will vote, that we stick to PK till the game ends.

I checked Gaians in 2281:
Fundamentalist, Green, Power, None.
Playing offensive.

[binTravkin]

"Preaching her tree hugging fantasies while running naked"

Means she could pop up with some elite units any time.