Alpha Centauri 2 Forum Community Succession Game

[Mart]

Now, I think I made a mistake attacking Unity Lair. Bombardment might be enough, however, as long as Gaians have no more 5-defense units there, it is a good thing overall.
We have already two 6r-1-1 units in Forest Primeval, so let's use them and destroy as many planes in Unity Lair as we can. Also, we can make more 6r attackers there or bring them by transports.

[Mart]

Are R-lasers any more useful than missiles though?
Their attack value is the same.

They cost the same, so we get a bonus of +25% against mindworms for free.

[binTravkin]

Morgan has made peace with Gaians.
He now has 4(!) pacts and a treaty with Gaians.
His commerce income is roughly double his actual energy production..

[binTravkin]

Just thought of a long term mission.

Reconquer lost PK territory and reestablish HQ at U.N. Headquarters! 

It also looks like Believers are about to be wiped out.

So a secondary mission could be - free Miriam and switch to her.

[Mart]

Just thought of a long term mission.

Reconquer lost PK territory and reestablish HQ at U.N. Headquarters! 

Very role-play. And we can do it, if we are going to win.
Deirdre will probably not be able to transcend by the time we reach that land.

[Mart]

...
So a secondary mission could be - free Miriam and switch to her.

This time I am going to vote: no.

Two switches sound optimal to me...
We already made two.

But I am for "Mission Impossible" and freeing Miriam.
Just to have her in the game again.

[binTravkin]

I think it depends on where are we at when we get back to UN HQ.
If the game is not nearly over yet, it would quickly become boring should we not switch.
Whereas going as Miriam from that point would be even more challenging than with PKs.
TBH, Hive was not really a challenge and PKs only had a few "tense" turns before we got Fusion Power.

Btw, to attack Unity Lair and pretty much any other base, we should build rovers.
They cost the same, but can attack and move on the same turn, so the infantry's "+25% with base" is moot.

[Mart]

I think it depends on where are we at when we get back to UN HQ.
If the game is not nearly over yet, it would quickly become boring should we not switch.
Whereas going as Miriam from that point would be even more challenging than with PKs.
TBH, Hive was not really a challenge and PKs only had a few "tense" turns before we got Fusion Power.

Yes, let us see later.

Btw, to attack Unity Lair and pretty much any other base, we should build rovers.
They cost the same, but can attack and move on the same turn, so the infantry's "+25% with base" is moot.

Not necessarily. If we can place an infantry in a well defended place next to a base, then there will be no movement penalty next turn, and we get that 25% bonus.

[binTravkin]

If there is such a position where we can place units and not have them slaughtered by air force, rover can attack from it twice.

[Mart]

But without 25% bonus. Then it will get higher damage and sooner get down to 50% health and only 1 attack. Rovers are beneficial only for some time. There is some balance here. For badly defended Gaian bases rovers are better, but when we need to take around 20 units in a base, infantry may be better.

[Mart]

And actually, as I think of it, land transports are excellent case for Forest Primeval - Unity Lair pair.
Bases are only 2 tiles away, so it means, that a land transport can take along the road an infantry unit, for that to have full attack on the base and then return with the infantry with all its move points exhausted, along the road, to have +25% protection from a base.
It is micromanaging, but benefits are quite good.
However, the land transport costs 1 mineral for upkeep, roughly estimating. But it is greatly returned already, when it causes our unit to survive the whole attack campaign. It usually is worth 3 rows of minerals already.

[binTravkin]

Transports are useful when you can't move and attack on the same turn, like with forest, fungus or rocky tiles.
Here just having 2 units (rovers  ) instead would be more efficient.

[Geo]

I don't have time to play, probably for the rest of the week. So feel free to continue.

[binTravkin]

Ok, I'm playing it now.

MY 2331
 - Gaian Missile Cruiser @ Unity Lair destroyed
 - Gaian fusion probe foil @ 70,44 destroyed
 - Artillery bombardment of Unity Lair reduces all units to 30-50% damage
 - Forest Primeval gets a photon garrison

 - sold Adv. Econ Engineering to Morgan for 25 EC
 - sold BioAdaptive Resonance to Yang for 25 EC

END Turn:
 - Gaians seize Sea Hive with mind control probe
 - Our troops near Unity Lair get bombarded by Gaians
 - Gaians land 2 units @ 75,55


MY 2332
 - some action

END Turn:
 - Gaians destroy our probe team in West (what was it doing there anyway?)
 - University makes more gains in Believerland
 - Gaians bombard our troops again

MY 2333
 - more action
 - Morgan sells us Orbital SpaceFlight for our data on Photon/Wave Mechanics
 - We sell Morgan Bioadaptive Resonance for 25 EC
 - We capture mind worms near Deep Warrant

END Turn:
 - Gaians destroy one of our crawlers
 - Gaians destroy one of our combat foils

MY 2334
 - more action (still around Unity Lair)
 - we sell Orbital SpaceFlight to Yang

END Turn:
 - more University gains

MY 2335
 - we destroy another Gaian transport foil
 - large number of Gaian planes @ Unity Lair destroyed
 - we now have enough forces to keep up the pressure on Unity Lair

END Turn:
 - Gaians capture The Drone Mound from Hive
 - we lose our foil probe team to Gaian navy*
 - Gaians capture The Labour Netwrok from Hive via mind probe


*- foil probes are now useless as AI cheats with fog of war and has superior naval/air range

We should keep building more military units.
We can't hope to survive if we do war half-heartedly as obvious from battles around Unity Lair.
Infrastructure and colonial expansion should be postponed until we have gained the upper hand in war.
This is total war.
 
BTW resonance laser doesn't cost the same as missile.
You can build a 6-3-1 for the price of 6r-1-1.

The situation around Unity Lair is also a good example how rovers work better than infantry.
With the main defense overcome (mostly via artillery), rovers can now kill 2 planes each per turn and thus rapidly clear that base.

[binTravkin]

And the turn.