Alpha Centauri 2 Forum Community Succession Game

[Mart]

Exactly, AI is not very elaborate. Why Deirdre is keeping her 15 planes in that base, while we keep them at 50% damage and are able to destroy them one by one.
I wonder if she takes them back at some point.

I will play later today, if no one else shows up.

[binTravkin]

I think I can explain it.
1. Planes are damaged (= low odds).
2. When their amphibious landing discovered our crawler, it was promptly destroyed.

My conclusion is that the planes are there to attack us, but due to low odds, they end up having no missions unless we make a mistake and leave some unit versus which they have good odds, spotted by them.

[Mart]

Playing, but at this stage of the game, turns do take longer.

2336
Destroyed police in Unity Lair, but then, AI immediately switches to a new one in build queue, so we gonna have a police unit probably every turn.
Following, 6 needlejets. Gaians have now 13+2 needlejets and 1 tactical. Building 2 needlejets more. With luck, in 2-3 turns, majority will be no more.
Probe team gets Neural Grafting, but is lost.
Time to design new units...

Endturn:
Another fungus growth. Locusts appear.

[Mart]

2337
Newly completed F-6 attacks the flying mindworms, and it gets morale upgrade, hardly surviving.
Gaians got a unit 6~-4-1*2 back to Unity Lair, but luckily it can be attacked with odds 27:16
Finally, there are only 3 needlejets in Unity Lair.

Endturn:
Gaians destroy Socialism tunnels, size 1 apparently.

2338
Unity Lair taken, size 1, 2EC diverted.

Endturn:
Gaians take The Leader's Horde, base remains at size 2.
Deirdre calls!!!
She has Trained Missile Squad MKII. 6-5-1*2.
They are practically invincible, so we officially very afraid.
"This vendetta wastes life and resources. Shall we pledge Blood Truce and have an end to it?"
...

[Mart]

So I agreed. Now, asking Deirdre to stop attacking Yang.
"Never! Chairman Yang and his mindless followers must be crushed!"

Well... Deirdre, you are not very cooperative.

Switching to Wealth, we go from -2 industry to +1 industry.
Yang is not happy with our diplomacy, but buys from us Neural Grafting and Doc: Init. Total for 50 EC.

Endturn:
Gaians start The Cyborg Factory. So they have MMI!
Gaian unit lands near Unity Lair. So it will be cold war these turns.

2340
Switching to Planned.

Endturn:
Gaian The Neural Amplifier is nearing completion.
Yang cancels Pact, after I refuse entering vendetta with Deirdre.
Zakharov takes another base of Believers in Monsoon Jungle.
We complete Aerospace Complex in NuDawn, our first.
Cruiser chassis is prototyped now.
Fungus grows near UN High Commision.

[Mart]

And the turn.
Deep Warrant shows drone riots, but they seem to be resulting just now.

We have terrible inefficiency, going democracy from fundy would be a good thing.

[binTravkin]

Gaian unit lands near Unity Lair. So it will be cold war these turns.

2340
Switching to Planned.

You got truce because of Green.
Planned means she will declare as soon as she feels ready.

Switching to Wealth, we go from -2 industry to +1 industry.
We have terrible inefficiency, going democracy from fundy would be a good thing.

Power+Fundy -> Wealth+Demo:
 -4 support
 -5 morale
 -halved morale bonuses (aerospace complex and command center only gives +1 instead of +2)

We can run Fundy+Planned+Wealth for a few turns just to build the units, but not demo, because then those units are useless due to halved morale bonuses.
We don't need efficiency anyway, it's not going to change a thing.


Gaians are building Fusion Planet Buster @ Sea Collective.

Gaian bases are also woefully undefended, so we could rapidly take several if we wanted to and had the units build for it.

There is only one way to stop Gaians - war.
So we either switch back to war SE and make a surprise attack soon or could as well call it a game over.

[Mart]

We can use some turns to build for some time, the difference between -2 industry and +2 industry is not that small.
Demo can be used to pop boom, it is a way of increasing production. Efficiency is important in that energy is useful for rushing, and sometimes making cadets with later upgrading them to top-line units is a good way of getting more units quickly. At present -3 efficiency is mostly wasting energy.
We do not know, when Gaians finally strike again. They lost majority of planes, even if Gaians start vendetta, without planes their ability to strike in large distances will be limited.
However, we at a peaceful moment can build Aerospace complexes and if luck helps Bioenhancement Centers. Energy would be better spent on these, facilities rushing is much more easier and have mostly flat cost.

[binTravkin]

We are not buying that much time by allowing Gaians to focus on Hive.
They will just obliterate it much sooner. Hive already is down to 4 bases.
And build more photon defenders.

However, we at a peaceful moment can build Aerospace complexes and if luck helps Bioenhancement Centers. Energy would be better spent on these, facilities rushing is much more easier and have mostly flat cost.

We have little use of these if our morale is -2.
Morale bonuses are permanently halved for newly built units.

We know that Gaians will build a Fusion Planet Buster soon.
It currently says 27 turns, but that timer is likely to go down faster than the turn clock.
We know that Gaians will be building Cloudbase Academy shortly, which will (almost) render bomber planes obsolete.
Gaians have 1 SP @ 1 turn until done and 1 @ 3 turn until done, with the rest in teens.
It's entirely possible that one of those rest will be switched to CBA and finished within 15 turns.

As for popboom - only our HQ has the infrastructure to popboom, so we'd still need to build that.

I can agree on Fundy+Planned+Wealth as "best of both worlds" for quick build up of force, but democracy is a long term choice, a term we don't have.

We should be resuming hostilities ASAP and take 3+ bases in the first turn, a feat which is entirely possible using amphibious pods ability.
We should prepare amphibious task forces along these lines:
---
1 transport
1 naval unit (acts as artillery and AAA defense), with <5>
1-3 amphibious attack units (depending on base defenses)
1 <5> defender unit
[if possible] 1 fighter plane to cover initial advance, so that those <5> do not get worn quickly
[if necessary due to defenses] 1 bomber plane to soften up
---
We already have most of the naval units necessary and some of the land units, it should be within possibility to create at least 3 such task forces.
Deep Community can be taken without naval units, by using amphibous pods from land.

Other bases which could be good targets unless reinforced:
 - Sea Collective (need to cancel prototyping of Fusion buster)
 - Chairman's Burrow
 - Port Yang
 - Sea Hive

EDIT: Scratch that, we have ALL the land units we need, most of them in Unity Lair, but some dispersed away, which should be concentrated back, upgraded to amphibious pods, used for attacking.
We have 3 transports, 4 naval units, 1 6-1-1, 2 6r-1-1, 7 6r-1-2 and a bunch of defender units, which is more than enough to create the mentioned task forces.

[Mart]

Running at -3 efficiency is not good, we do have production, while loosing a lot of energy, which is still important, as you get 1 mineral for every 2 economy.
Gaians will most likely destroy Hive soon, but then, there is University, which after getting Believers Monsoon jungle will become significant.
If we run more builder-style now, we get as much benefits as we can. We then switch to full offensive-style later. Even with decreased morale of some units, we get significan bonus of builder now.

[Mart]

One thing, that bothers me is Gaians having MMI, and our probing it will cause immediate vendetta.
Maybe it is good to build now crawlers and get CBA and CF when some AI approaches completion.

[binTravkin]

A few points:
1. No amount of building is going to save us. Gaians are snowballing. And building at this point is more expensive than conquest, as AI is very bad at building and we don't have much land to build into.

2. AI is not going to sit idle. Even less so if we run anything but Green. We can stop (or postpone significantly) Gaians getting planet busters or be sitting ducks waiting for a surprise attack followed up by a bunch of busters.

3. Thus, all SE choices should be subject to question "how does it help our war effort?". If something does not contribute to our ability to strike Gaians ASAP, it is of no value to us. Fundy+Planned+Wealth gives us +2 INDUSTRY at the cost of abysmal efficiency, but retaining the unit morale bonuses. Efficiency is not going to fix bad odds if our units start Disciplined/Hardened instead of Veteran/Commando.

4. We CAN defeat Gaians. We have the (initial) units, we only need the planning and will. If we have the resources, why not? And it's faster than building. We will not be able to defeat Gaians after they prototype planet busters. Their ability to produce them will far outstrip our ability to sabotage in any way.

5. Agreed on CBA if we can get it. We also have 1 AA sitting idle, which would help. But we need to get the tech. This can be done simultaneously to initial invasion using the mentioned amphibious task forces.

[Mart]

We are going to have still very interesting game here, it seems.
So who is next? Any of the inactive players?

[Kirov]

2341:

Put F-6 at Cape Station on hold. I’m quite sure there is a bug where jets don’t refuel if put at ‘L’ and/or ‘H’. The best way to avoid this is just to hit Space when you’re sure you don’t need them.

Set sail from Unity Lair with: 1-5-1 ECM, 6-1-2, 2 x 6-1-1. Target: People’s Endeavor, on that small island shared with Social Engineering Den. The plan is to disembark units and sneak attack in the next turn, saving us the need to go amphibious.

That other Transport Foil got another 6-1-2 and started to Chairman’s Burrow.

Changed production at many places to BR-6, seeing as we lack in air power. This includes that base with the AA – we can cash it for the planet buster.

2342:

Mind worms which I didn’t even know were there (W of High Commission) smacked 3 of our formers.

Gaia launched a surprise attack. There goes my little offensive… Also, the Morganites intervene on our behalf.

It’s not that easy fighting back, but we manage.

Sorry for losing our elite probe team! Glory to the fallen who gave us MMI.

Deep Community taken! We’re starving down the resistant population.

2343:

Morgan takes Silverbird Park via mind control. This reminds me that Gaia can afford that, too.

I didn’t notice that taking a base induces b-drones, riots at Forest Primeval.

More fungal pop at High Commission! It’s tough with native life over there.

Deirdre cancelled her PB at Sea Collective, but moved it to Chiron Preserve. 33 turns to go.

I had a tough choice this turn: I could either attack People’s Endeavor or take down two transports. I decided to be conservative and go with the latter. Her units are so strong with that morale!

I disembarked at Chairman’s Burrow and discovered that our 6-1-2 has lower odds than her 1-5-1 (Veteran, base). Time to run from there!

All in all, some 3 transports and 6-7 ground units taken down so far. She even asked for a truce, but come on.

Her combat odds make me consider nerve gas. The only problem – we’ll never get elected if we use it too much.

Did I mention she finished the NA? Because she finished the NA.

2344:

Emptied her Sea Collective, but didn’t manage to take it (I forgot that damaged foils are slower).

Our elite probe team stole 12 EC. Hurray!

2345:

Deirdre took Factory Drift from the Hive.

Morgan renounced our Pact due to us being filthy commies.

Sea Collective taken, although I’m not sure if that was such a bright idea. However, there were some vulnerable units there (missiles, SAM), so I decided to clean it out. More navy destroyed in the process on both sides.

Deirdre asked us to stop vendetta and go after Morgan, to which I declined again.

2346:

Zak eradicated Miriam.

Most our bases completed something this turn, so please take a look.

Deirdre is cleaning out Sea Collective and will probably get it back (Cadets have just been completed).



To sum up, we're super hurt by morale, I even considered Power for a long time, however I decided to wait for your opinion. We need some navy (which is why I'm building 6-1-6*2), but we need reliable airpower first. Without aero complexes and Power we're at constant disadvantage. I killed off a lot of her units but sacrifices were necessary and they hurt badly.

Also, if these turns continue to be such time-consuming, I'll probably drop out soon.

Also, how do you do that cool red and green unit names? Do you put them in tags or something?

[Mart]

Sorry for losing our elite probe team! Glory to the fallen who gave us MMI.

Good thing after Gaian sneak attack.
My vote for pricing MMI is worth loosing several probe teams to get it this way.

I was counting for longer peace time, though switching off the "Green" economy was asking for it, I know...

...
... She even asked for a truce, but come on.

Undecided Deirdre...  Wasn't expecting that to happen.

Her combat odds make me consider nerve gas. The only problem – we’ll never get elected if we use it too much.

I definitely agree! Let's make it Dune-style. With swords.

Did I mention she finished the NA? Because she finished the NA.

Challenging AI. Great!

...
Also, if these turns continue to be such time-consuming, I'll probably drop out soon.

We can make a rule, that a "turn-player" can spend several days making turns.
Last time I used 2 days, if I recall.

With recently much happening on the planet even a single turn is a lot.
So it would not be such time consuming. We do not need a deadline on this game completion, just having it rolling is good enough.

Also, how do you do that cool red and green unit names? Do you put them in tags or something?

SMACX uses some text parser that, makes font coloring and efects like bold or italic when you make a text fragment using: '{' and '}' and also '[' ']'
For example in unit workshop I do Police unit:
{Police}
And Cadets, I do not remember:
[Cadets]
For ships, for example:
UNS [La Nina]
what gives an effect of UNS and "La Nina" being different color.

They act also as escape characters:
[[ - gives a single [ character, but I rarely try this.