Beginners' Strategy Guide for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm not really finished with the themes, but burning out.  Going to try to get back on this today.

As tedious pedantic slogs go, it'll seem relaxing and fun after editing tiny-type stylesheet code all day every day for six weeks straight.  Look for tangible progress soon.

[Buster's Uncle]

Soon, but not as soon as I hoped.  -I didn't get the two other thing I meant to do yesterday. either; but I'm not touching a theme -or any big/long-term project- again until I have this more-or-less done.

[Buster's Uncle]

Stumbled over this: http://www.land-of-kain.de/docs/smac/

[gustavo]

So maybe the ball will begin rolling if I free-associate a few things I reckon ought to go in the aforementioned SMACX guide for beginners.

[Kurvivor]

I guess this is an appropriate place to ask for advice, having do with beginners and all


I am playing as Cult on somewhat low difficulty. My might is not quite there, and i am lagging behind in tech

I am on a big island with Drones and usurpers. Drones decided to be my enemies, even attacking me unprovoked when there was no comms, then i eliminated their presence on my landmass.
After shortt time, i got drwn into a conflict with usurpers - first, they attacked, i held them off and entered a Blood Truce. Soon, after he continued to ramp up presense inside my borders and several of my allies asked me, i went to war again.

It went somewhat passable for a time. i managed to take one of his most isolated cities (northwest part of the continent), eliminate another. However he was able to redirect more resources towards me, and i have been largely reduced to bloackading his army, so that he cannot march south to my capital. It doesn't help that my army is Impact (with native life thrown in), and his is all missile already.
Recent development gained him jets.

How should i go around that situation?

Some notes:
1. At the moment he demands that i cede back the city i have taken to agree to the truce. Although i have probably enraged him more already
2. I lag at tech, and has only recently acquired tech for probing (my good byddy the Captain traded me). I have switched to probes immediately wherever possible to try and steal ALL THE TECH from those web-mouths
3. At the moment i am on GREEN, to maximize free worms/spore launchers. However that seems to be bad for my pop growth
4. Just got tech for crawlers as well - none built yet
5. I do have missiles tech, bu has just started producing missile units. Also, i do not have artillery except for captured wildlife

[PvtHudson]

Forget about getting along with Usurpers (and, for that matter, Progenitors at all). They will sign truce, then surprise attack again, sometimes on the next turn. Just nerve gas them once and for all. He is unlikely to have armor better than Plasma Steel, X Impact Rovers should do the job, not saying Missile ones. Usurpers (contrary to Caretakers) aren't fond of native units, this will ease the task for your rovers. Should they encounter Perimeter Defenses, bring ahead expendable Mind Worms or sabotaging Probe Teams. Rovers are more cost-effective than Needlejets. In addition, gassing Progenitors isn't considered atrocity by anyone except, of course, the victim. Green SE is quite suitable for war. Good luck!

[Kurvivor]

Thanks for your response
I have moved onwards in the game, and passsed that hurdle. As i play the evening, that meant several times going to bed at 2 or so )
notes:
1. i entered into blood truce with usurpers several times. Every time after that they started moving into my borders again! After i became stronger, they started to probe me instead (even mind-controlled a city back, with all the army that took it). Well, every time demanding withdrawal was enough to cause Vendetta on my turn, which gave me the opportunity to destroy their first wave - while maintaining that integrity, mind!
2. interceptors and SAM rovers proved key to clearing the sky. After every attack their jets just hang out there, open to ground-based attack that could eliminate them several at the time.
3. i decided against not only gassing them, but even againteliminating them. I left them in a single city, on a peninsula that i closed off by pair of mind worms. Their little probe teams are running on their side, and it is greatly amusing

Through all of that Pirates grew BIG. With planetary transit system they soon hit 200, then 250 and 300 pop, making them undisputed governors. As they started moving south on Believers (who were second-strongest faction and stuck in battle agaist Caretakers), they eventually wiped them off. They renounced our pact and started making threats and extorting those precious credits.
I am biding my time, building up my forces. I am way ahead in tech now, and soon i will have enough fusion ships with photon armour to clear the seas, polishing it with missiles and choppers. Starting the vendetta would be easy - just try to probe him, i guess. Do not want to lower my integrity, after all )
Reckoning comes. Svensgaard will rue the day he became an adversary to the Cult!

[Kurvivor]

Ok. i have question about how diplomacy actually works. I am in a war - and when opponent's turn arrives, he sues me for peace insttead of counter-attaching
Why?
Also, even after someone bacame submissive, i am unale to get them to give me their tech or join m in war. They want absurd amounts of money for that...

[PvtHudson]

...when opponent's turn arrives, he sues me for peace insttead of counter-attaching...

Probably he has enough of it and wants to end the war? Don't worry, if you turn down the offer, he will counter-attack.

Also, even after someone bacame submissive, i am unale to get them to give me their tech or join m in war. They want absurd amounts of money for that...

Strange, my experience with submissive pactmates is that they either gift techs unknown to me on contact, or agree to part with them under threat of cancelling the pact.

[Kurvivor]

As it went:
1) he suggests peace, i accept
2) next turn i demand withdrawal, get Vendetta agian, press on
3) next turn, he suggests taking on he (almost dead) Caretakers together - i accept
4) several turns later, my old pact sister Aki-zeta, who has suffered greatly from him before (i even gifted her a nice city in the Ruins to ensure she does not get wiped out) starts war with him (or he with her)
5) one of my planes is stationed at her city
6) mass pirate rocket attack on that city, eventually hitting and destroying my plane. it is sudden attack, Drones (submissive to me) join on the fun
7) next turn, the war resumes. I start taking his cities with secret projects and wiping out rocket stockpiles from copters
War goes on...

By the way, is there a strategy for war int he age of rockets? Doesn't it boils down to production of planet busters?..

[Kurvivor]

So, in the end Pirates attacked me during the solar fkares, and when those ended - they were left with a single empty city. Svensgaard was still rude, so i ended him for pact victory

There was a strange behaviour, though, as far as i can tell. He had stockpiles of missiles (around 15 of them, as far as i can tell), but he didn't use them to a good effect - he had about a turn to deploy them at my ships and foor forces, yet did not, and they were mostly destroyed at bases with copters.

Could that have been an effect of low difficulty setting? Will higher detting be better?..

I kind of want to have a proper high-tech war, whatever that would be. Hovertank columns burning, rockets stopped by defense systems, actual usage of planet busters by the computer... rocket strikes from underwater carriers - that sort of things...

[Kurvivor]

Ok, so i need some advice for a new start

Morgan, transcend level, i started on small island with Unity Wreckage (as in: my first base is slmost sitting on it)

Where to go from there? How to be a Morgan builder with restricted resources? Just forest everywhere?
How many formers should i have? 1 per city? less? same question for units (i presume, scout ones)
Is it worth trying to build projects with 50+ years completion estimates?

Recreation commons or psych?

[Kurvivor]

Ok, so i have continued on, building RecCommons.

Several things happened
1) unfortunate unity pod incident resulted in pirates' base being uplifted next to borehole cluster, blocking me from claiming them myself. Had to total thought control it (first Planetary Conquest, lol)
2) after some deliberation, i joined on the Vendetta against both alien factions - that allowed me Pacts with humans. Keep them moneys flowing...
3) I have built command center Secret Project first, by caching in alien artefact
4) i have little to no military techs, though. Pirates are building missile units, i only have laser - and they claim that (!) hey have no tech to share! Jerks
5) Now i am racing Caretakers for Citizen's defence force. I think i'll have to probe him to catch up
6) Can any unit be spent on Secret Project or only Supply units do not have penalty?..
7) i will probably have to steal everything from aliens; i probably should capture their bases by paying as well: i have next to no army and truly struggled when an infantry unit and a rover once came to my shores. I hd several probe teams - but what can i do against stacks?

[Kurvivor]

Ok, so i am kinda stuck. I cannot let go of democracy - free markets (muh energy shekels), but i have actually built bunch of units (mostly formers, but some military as well) and screwed myself over with support costs. Reason being my two aggressive neighbours - aliens, who keep invading from time to time. What to do? What to do?
I will probably switch to frontier - market - power soon. I need support.

Aliens are dicks. They have, twice already, extorted techs from me then attacked anyway. Well, they will get theirs. They have bribed one of my coastal cities, but i have stolen air power and resonance lasers form them and then captured it back (although, sadly, losing several probes in the process). Now it is X R-Laser Nerve Gas Penetrator time, as soon as i build them...

I have finished Citizen's Defence force as well (thanks to the power of money, i bought it 1 or 2 turns before Caretakers built it. Take that, web-mouths!), although that left me strapped for cash. I had to sell several buildings to pay for capture of Usurper missile boat, which threaqtened my sea city.

It was a shame, when several turns later an isle of the deep destroyed a) foil probe team b) beforementioned missile boat 3) new water city that didn't have eny defenders yet. I probably should just put the boat inside and hope for the best instead of attacking the isle with those odds...

[Kurvivor]

So far so good
I have built planetary transit system and started putting sea bases one after another. I will probably pick another island and colonies it as well

I have also built first satellite and now know where things stand.

To be more precise: usurpers are to the northwest and have me as their neighbor. They are at war with everybody except Cult. They have ok army on paper, but in reality I have been blowing their boats out of water (in range), and I keep gassing their closest city to nothing (they keep rebuilding). Seeing as they usually lose couple of planes in process, I am content with that state of affairs
Although: I am really furious about them having more money then me. That will not do at all

To my south are Caretakers. They are beset on all sides by Pirates, me, Cyborgs and even wimpy Cult. If I have not soared our relationship with nerve gas, I would probably help them to balance other humans. Their power graph is ok, though

Pirates have spread far, and they have biggest population. We have pact, and I keep lending him money, although Captain does not share tech (unlike my great friend Aki-Zeta). I maintain Power to be on his good side, although I do intend to secretly steal some of his cities again - I count all islands in north hemisphere as rightfully mine

My general plan at the moment is to remove Usurpers, double my land territory and then really grow.
One question still bothers me: how to wage invasion as Free market? If I abandon it, my revenues will plummet, unless I take Wealth, which weakens war effort. Maybe take advantage of my SP and start making 3-pop cities with walls in his area, that crank veteran troops unit next turn (after quick upgrade)?