Santiago vs. Random, 256x128, no supply pods

[bvanevery]

SMACX, 256x128 map, average settings, Transcend.  Supply pods only at landing sites, although previous experience has shown that one might find 1 or 2 "weirdly" somewhere else.  7 random factions of the standard 14, including mine.

I get Santiago.  She might be the worst faction to have on a large map, because sometimes you're not even close enough to realistically have a war with someone.  On the other hand I've had surprisingly near neighbors in some games, so it's just luck whether she's advantageous.

Landing site shows a mineral, a nutrient, and a nutrient covered in fungus.  No supply pods.  I might be on a significant land mass, but it may be very flat and eroded near me.  I hope I'm not on a small island right next to the land mass, but at least Doctrine:Flexibility can solve that.  I start with Doctrine:Mobility so it's not hard to go naval quickly.

Help->Factions shows Gaia, Hive, Cult of Planet, Cybernetic Consciousness, Data Angels, and Free Drones in the game.  Ok, I'm going to try to be more violent this game.  I often can't be bothered.

2117.  It's a small island.  2 more minerals found on the coast, so I can definitely do something with this.  I started with Explore focus due to my standard suspicions about what's going to be needed on a giant map.  I think a small land bridge gets me to the mainland, although I'll surely get ships first.  I really need some Formers to develop these resources.

2139.  Got Doctrine:Flexibility.  Landlocked Sparta Command is working on The Weather Paradigm.  2 more cities.  1 is now working on a transport, 1 still needs a Former.  Colony pod en route to settle a 4th city.  There's a lot of fungus on this island so it's taking awhile.  Switching focus now to Conquer techs.

2164.  I beat some other factions to The Weather Paradigm.  Soon will have a permanent land bridge to the continent.  I will expand until I finally find someone to go to war with.

[bvanevery]

2174.  I encounter Aki just southeast of my island.  She has a slow transport with a scout on it.  Knowing the AI's habits, it could have been traveling for a very long time.  I refuse trade and try to extort her.  She doesn't take the bait and remains at truce with me.  To preserve my reputation, I won't trash her until I know where her bases are.  But I can guess that she's in the southeast quadrant of the map somewhere.

I had forgotten that Sparta can use 2 police units, and gets free prototypes.  That's useful now as I just learned Applied Physics.  I'm making laser foils to go find Aki with.

I tried to maintain contact with her transport for a few turns.  It was moving northeast.  It possibly could have come from the southwest quadrant.  Somehow then I lost her ship, it just vanished.  Did it get killed by an isle in a fungus patch I didn't see?  Why would she move into one of those in open water?  Did she disband it?  Did she simply give me the slip?

2179.  Found The Monsoon Jungle substantially west of me.  No apparent inhabitant.  Will evaluate whether it's strategically useful to colonize as I gain more map data.  I'm thinking a far-flung pile of minerals is more valuable than far-flung food, but forests do turn jungles into minerals.  Yeah, I should probably stick a colony out there.

The mystery of Aki's transport is solved.  It showed up on my coast.  She simply gave me the slip earlier, by unexpectedly reversing direction towards my island.  So that's a lesson about AI behavior.  Cover the open water, so that if the ship decides to head for shore, it will be restricted and you will find it again.

Let's see if I can drive her into some sea fungus.  Her movement is proving difficult to control.  Guess I need to try to summon an isle of the deep.

2185.  I can see the crater of the Unity crash site!  This may tell me where all the factions are.  No, someone has already cleaned it out.  That means someone is on this huge continent with me.

It's not easy to bring down an enemy transport "peacefully".  I conjure an isle of the deep.  She scoots north.  The isle kills my 1st ship.  I have to kill the isle with my 2nd ship, slowing down its movement.  She may touch land and drop her scout before I can declare war and kill her.  If I want to.  I'm not sure it's worth my reputation just to prevent some scouting.  In general, trying to bottle her up probably hasn't been worth the mouseclicks.

I have lost her transport.

2198.  I'm approaching 100 years in the field and still haven't found an enemy to invade.  This is the worst case for a giant map, I think.  Sparta with no enemy.  Soon I may suffer the indignity of making peace with Aki, trading with her, and even allying with her to get more map info.  My personal sense of honor would require me to go knock off someone else, although in truth she would be useful as a researcher for awhile.

I have a support problem.  All these rovers and ships I've produced, have my minerals reduced to 1 in most of my cities.  My cities are size 3, as I do not have basic growth techs like Recycling Tanks or Recreation commons.  I suppose it's time to stop making exploratory units and just chuck out colonies instead.  Hope that what I've sent out, finally runs into something.

2199.  Aki's transport shows up on my coast again.  It's still carrying a scout.  Maybe she is expecting to drop the scout on a supply pod?  There won't be any.  Otherwise she's a piss poor explorer.  I seriously doubt she knows what the interior of this giant northern continent looks like.  Well if she wants to wander around forever in the water, fine, I'm going to let her.  I may actually need her friendship soon.

2200.  Lady Deirdre begins The Command Nexus.  Ok that's it, I've gotta get back into this game.  I've got 4 years until I research my next tech, and I really want it to be Doctrine:Loyalty.  Time to make peace with Aki and see if she'll trade.  I'm the 2nd weakest faction and she's the weakest.

Peace treaty, major Magnanimous tech trading, and she got my map.  Ouch.  Didn't have enough conversation time to propose an alliance.  Retooled most cities to produce Recycling Tanks.

2203.  1 turn to research breakthrough.  Aki refuses my hail, so I'm on my own.  I've cleared out the support of Sparta Command in anticipation of building The Command Nexus.  Hope it happens.

2204.  I meet an Obstinate Chairman Yang, far to the northeast.  We sign a Treaty because I need intel on all the factions.  He doesn't trade techs, doesn't want The Command Nexus to fall into my hands.  My research does not yield Doctrine:Loyalty, I get Field Modulation instead.  Well I guess I'll be safe from mindworms which never attack me anyways.  Aki still won't talk to me.  I have 487 cash.  Since I have no Command Nexus to build, I spend it on recycling tanks.

Scouting is dull.  It's not quite as bad as the Gaian game where I was fighting mindworms all the time, as I rarely have to do combat.  I'm realizing that when there are no supply pods, there are no monoliths.  When you get wounded, you're a lot closer to being dead.  Although, monolith support is typically a tedious game of backtracking to the last damn monolith you found, which could be quite a ways away.  Perhaps being prepared to die is better.

2209.  Yang is closer than I thought.  He's got a colony pod nearing my territory.  I wonder if he'll complain about my scout rover wandering on his turf?  I don't see a blue line for him yet, so maybe it's a long distance wanderer.

I finally run into Cha Dawn, halfway around the world due west.  The Monsoon Jungle, which is on a small island, would be a good staging point for invading him.  For now I try to sign a treaty, but he's not into it.  That's ok, I'll find an economic style that pisses you off or something.

[bvanevery]

2210.  Aki and I ally.  She is halfway around the world, west by southwest.  She took a very long, slow transport ride to get to me, and didn't know anything else about the world.  She's useful for tech research though.  Surprisingly, The Virtual World hasn't been built yet.  She will never get it, 98 turns for her to complete.  Roze is also working on it.  Roze is a pretty miserable faction to be isolated with on a large map, almost as bad as Sparta, but at least she starts the game knowing how to build The Virtual World.  It's reasonable to expect her to get it.  Aki may not trade anything with me until someone gets it.

If I am to take out Yang, I need an offensive weapon.  I've got the body armor.  I'm trying to stir up mindworms to kill that colony pod of his.

2216.  Roze completes The Virtual World.  Aki wants 200 credits for Planetary Networks.  I don't have it yet.  Deirdre begins The Empath Guild.

2220.  Aki starts The Command Nexus, before I could get around to buying Planetary Networks from her.  I'm hating life.  I thought I was just going to research something and trade with her.  Now there's a good chance she won't budge.  We'll see if she will still sell for cash, but in the past, factions often haven't.

2224.  Domai is north of The Monsoon Jungle on 2 islands.  I traded Doctrine:Mobility to get his world map.  He's a sad sack.  He wanted me to go to war with Cha Dawn.  Later, I'm busy.  Too busy with my home infrastructure to settle The Monsoon Jungle either.

2225.  I meet Deirdre in the ocean.  We've both got gun foils.  She is Ambivalent and Unsurpassed.  I'm Sufficient.  She offers a Hive map for tech, which I don't need.  She offers Secrets of the Human Brain in exchange for my Industrial Economics, which I definitely do need.  Fundamentalism is a good way to piss off Yang.  Hmm, my Field Modulation for her Doctrine:Loyalty?  I don't think my odds of finishing The Command Nexus are good at this point, and I was thinking of extorting it from Yang.  Yeah, I don't think that's a good move.  Also she could trade it to Yang and that would make my invasion more difficult.  She's Magnanimous from previous trades... any chance of an alliance?  Nope.

Maybe I've underestimated my chances of completing The Command Nexus.  Deirdre is currently working on 2 copies of The Empath Guild, not the Nexus anymore.  I don't know her base status, but it's a good bet that 1 of those bases isn't as strong at production as the other.  If I could get it, I may still have a shot at it.  If Yang finishes it that's probably ok, as eventually I'll take it from him.  Aki won't finish, it'll take her 42 years.  In 2 years I get a tech, hopefully it's Nonlinear Mathematics.  If so, I will threaten Yang.  If he gives me either a vendetta or Doctrine:Loyalty, I've accomplished my objective.

2227.  Nonlinear Mathematics scored!  Just to make sure Yang understands his plight, I'm going to complete a prototype before threatening him.  My next tech wasn't coming for 30+ years, so I'm going Fundamentalist now.  That will piss him off even more.

2232.  I've put a Former on his territory and am building a road to his 1st city.  Is that a Treaty violation?  He hasn't noticed it yet.  I'm gonna keep working on the road for now.  I'm still re-garrisoning and repositioning scout rovers so that they can explore and hassle him.

I'm tired of pushing around my scout fleet, and I might need cash to complete The Command Nexis if I get Doctrine:Loyalty.  So, on my 4th ship move, if there's a sea fungus square that would increase my exploration, I'm wading into it.  Sometimes on my 1st move.  The idea is not to waste movement.  Sometimes I get an isle and I kill it.  Other times it kills me, lessening my support burden.  They have certainly explored enough of the world.  The only faction whose whereabouts are completely missing, is Roze.  Since last game it took me 200 years to find my enemy, I'm not going to worry about it.

2237.  Yang contacts me, wants to sell maps of Deirdre.  No, that won't be necessary.  He's Seething.  He doesn't mention my Former building a road deep into his heartland, so I guess that's not considered a threat by the AI.  I threaten him for tech.  He doesn't take the bait, he tells me to declare a vendetta if it so suits me.  Well, give it time to marinade.  He's not going to abide my Fundamentalist regime forever.  Meanwhile, I've still got cities to put res garrisons in.  Unfortunately he's got High Energy Chemistry, so defensively he won't be cake.  Offensively, I've got impact rifles and he doesn't.

I keep scouting the border of our territory with my scout rovers, but they tend to run into mindworms and then have to head back to base for repairs.  At least I'm making money.  540 cash reserve.

[bvanevery]

2238.  Deirdre completes The Empath Guild and declares herself Governor.  Yang is a distant second place with half as many votes.  Cha Dawn would only have been a few votes behind that.  Roze is going to hate my Fundamentalist regime so I'm not even going to contact her.  Maybe Aki can scare up a map of Roze's territory?

Deirdre has 2 cities working on The Command Nexus.  Yang has 3 copies of The Command Nexus under construction.  Hope he gets it.

2239.  Garrisoning completed.  I begin work on Trance Impact Res Infantry.  AFAIK the Hive still doesn't have impact rifles, so this is the unit to take him down with.  Although, I could do combos of 1-3t-1 and 4-1-1, as I don't think he has artillery.

2242.  Hive completes The Command Nexus.  Thank goodness Deirdre didn't get it!  Aki declares war on the Hive.  Unfortunately she's also started on The Citizens Defense Force, likely continuing the "won't sell/trade tech" problem.  I could now speak to Aki at any time to declare war on Yang and still remain Noble.  But for now I won't.  I will finish my road to his base.  Since I will not be building The Command Nexus myself, I spend my big 639 cash reserve on stuff I've been working on.  Should have all cities cranking out military units real soon now.

I talk to Domai to refresh my memory about what's going on in that part of the world.  He's Magnanimous towards me, whereas Cha Dawn is Seething.  Domai would ally with me if I declared war on Cha Dawn.  But that doesn't suit me right now.  Nor does Domai have any tech to help me out, like Planetary Networks.

I have discovered The Manifold Nexus far to the west of me, and south of Cha Dawn.  After my last game of tediously slogging around with Deirdre, mindworms, and isles, I don't exactly consider this a priority.  But good to know if I decide otherwise.

2243.  Roze contacts me and jaws at me.  Good news is she's Wanting.  Cha Dawn contacts me and jaws at me too.  Whatever!  Yang does not talk to me even though my Former is building a road right in front of his city.  That Former might actually live to tell about this heroic deed.  If so, he will start working on a 2nd road along the border of our territory.

22  .  Deirdre asks me to ally with her against Cha Dawn.  It's a hell of a bribe.  An alliance, 275 credits, and Doctrine:Loyalty, against a faction that's already Seething at me and inclined to war anyways.  I do have trance res impact infantry, mindworms are not going to affect me much.  Why not??  Yang can wait.  I'll build even more roads into his empire, with that one Former.  I accept.  Interesting, she's at war with Yang anyways.  As I said in the old days: "Now we're gonna kick some skinny minny mother!#$# ass.  Skinny minny mother!@#$#$.  @!#$ you mother@!#$ skinny minny mother@#$#!"

She sells Gene Splicing for 100 credits!  Woot!  Centauri Empathy 125 credits!  Woot woot!  Someon's goin' GREEN.  Planetary Networks 100 credits!  Woot woot woot!  That's all my cash.  That's quite enough.  Wow I'm gonna destroy the freakin' world now.  She still has Intellectual Integrity, Industrial Automation, and Adaptive Economics.

I sign Domai up for the crusade.  He figured out where Roze is.  A tiny island way to the northwest, north of him.

Hmm, Yang is between Gaia and myself.  I don't think she's mind terribly much, if I continue with the original plan of grinding Yang to a pulp first.  Cha Dawn in the scheme of things is a vanity war for her.  I've never quite understood why, in so many games, they end up fighting each other.  Unless they're coded to do it.

I've  now got map intel on all of the Hive.  Just need some probe teams to finish the prep.  Aki has got Polymorphic Software.  I don't have the cash to buy it from her though, and I don't want to be forced to declare war on Yang just yet.  In a few turns.

For taking payment against Cha Dawn, I am still Noble!  That's cool.

I captured a mindworm.  Oh that's right, I just went Green.  This is gonna be COOL.

[bvanevery]

2253.  I encounter a wounded Hive ship in Gaia's home waters.  The Noncommittal Hive asks me to backstab Deirdre.  Uuuh, let's not, and say that we did!  We have a heart to heart talk about his fabricated tales.  Then he declares war on me.  That was easy!  Man are you dreaming dude.  "Can your faith stand up to my superior military?"  What superior military?  I'm the @#$$ Spartans and I've gone Fundamentalist.  Walk away from the crack pipe, Yang.  Must be sucking Recycling Tank vapors.

It's on!  Need a little time for my probe teams, until I officially attack.

Don't have to worry about Aki pressuring me into anything anymore.  I trade Centauri Empathy for Polymorphic Software.  Yang is so dead.

Yang has artillery.  He shelled one of my scout rovers.  He has impact squads.  I've got Elite probe teams.  He does not have Planetary Networks, so probe teams are a way to mess him up.

2263.  I drop the 1st Hive base.  Probe teams are pretty good at eventually beating down the Perimeter Defenses.

2273.  Roze and I meet in her home waters.  We trade techs, then she declares war on me.  Sorta expected that.  Don't really care about the techs.  Yang continues to be beaten, although the campaign is a bit slow and plodding to prevent unnecessary loss of units.  It's not a blitz.

2279.  I'm held up defending a city that Yang just keeps spamming with cannon fodder.  Dangerous cannon fodder that would hurt me if I didn't kill it all every turn.  Which I do.  But it's remarkable the amount of industrial output he can and is willing to just waste.  A human with that many units could surround my city and starve it to death.  Even a human would have trouble flanking me though, because I control fungus and mindworms parallel to the road I conquered.  So we basically have this point of concentration, where my superior units continue to decimate his hordes of not very bright units.

I've now got resonance lasers, which could easily break the stalemate.  One of my allies might give me cheaper missile launchers as well.  However I am still producing police units to garrison my bases.  Oops, Yang has Synthetic Fossil Fuels too.  Good news is I can steal it from him.  Bad news is I may not have as much of an advantage as I thought.  But I can still combine Sopoforic Gas Pods with Missile Launchers and really put a hurting on him.

I could also commit nerve gas atrocities, but I think I'd rather actually have his empire intact.  Not to mention that people would think ill of me.

2289.  I'm still at stalemate with Yang.  The gap between our 2 cities is too large.  If I try to push forwards, my units get killed on open ground.  If I retreat, hordes of his units die in front of my city.  Which is "better", except the computer doesn't get bored and I do.  I have not reinforced with better weapons, because I decided I wanted biology labs in my core cities.  My labs output in each city seemed pretty good despite being Fundamentalist.  My allies keep pioneering new techs; glad they're my allies.  I don't like the feeling that I'm getting left behind.

Tree farms might help my cause, but Deirdre is preoccupied with another secret project right now.  Also they'd take awhile to build anyways, and they don't increase my minerals per se.  I really could use some mines and supply crawlers.  I could make crawlers, but I haven't had time to make any Formers to mine my rocks.  Newly conquered cities, that don't have Command Centers, are now making Formers.  I just don't have the industrial productivity of Yang.  Or of Marr, in my other game, where I built every single secret project by now.

Yeah I'm feeling "Spartan".  My few Elite units aren't miracle workers either.  If I had Advanced Military Algorithms, I'd be set!  Just crank out cheap Elite units all day long, and watch 6-1-1 infantry hit cities with a 25% attack bonus, at the speed of rovers.  But that will be then, and this is now.

Maybe I should drop Fundamentalism and get Advanced Military Algorithms.  Currently, breakthrough in 15 years.

Maybe I should build the gas missile units instead of faffing around.  They're so expensive though.

Maybe I'm tired, bored, and should go to bed.  12:30 AM.

Maybe I'm wearing myself out exactly the same way I did last game.  Pushing explorers around the map, for not any particularly good reason except that they make me a little cash.  A lot of my original explorers simply haven't died.

[bvanevery]

2 AM.  Had a break; an absence gives some perspective on the game.  I obviously don't like that I'm "industrially weak".  Yes it is Sparta, it should be weak; I still don't like it.  I don't have any problems I can't fix, but I'll have to exercise the patience to do that.  And it probably won't be any "sweeping" answer.  Could be a few Formers, a few supply crawlers, and a few missile infantry here and there.  I'm not suddenly gonna become "big as Yang".

I'm remembering other games where I'm just overrunning someone like Yang.  Usually with some kind of rovers.  But Yang is actually considered the most powerful faction in this game.  I should give him some credit.

Did I make mistakes at the beginning of the game?  Not enough colonies, for support?  Too much effort spent searching for the enemy?  Or is Sparta just at a disadvantage on a 256x128 map?  I've never played on a map this big with Sparta, so arguably, Yang had a lot of time and room to prepare.  I do remember him being pretty fierce on some Huge maps I've played on in the past.

2290.  Cha Dawn lands on my shore with 1 recon rover.  We declare a truce.  I think it's stupid that Deidre, Cha, and I are all Green and yet we're at war.  Cha is not strategically important; Yang is.  Deidre declared a truce with Yang, so she's a !#$ ally anyways, regardless of what she once paid me to go after Cha.  I told Cha to knock it off with Domai while I was at it, although I expect they'll get into it again because he cannot go Green.  Can't remember Domai's fixation, I think it's that people have to be Wealthy?  Domai is currently Noncommittal towards me anyways.  Whatever, who cares.

Aki and I are on the same page about killing Yang.  Aki isn't anywhere near the battle though.  Deirdre is.  Once I swallow Yang, if Deirdre ever does something bothersome, I'll crush her.  She's got piles of secret projects that would make it very worth my while.  But I won't turn on her for just anything.

2297.  I don't need to research; to a large extent, my allies will do it for me.  Aki has provided me with Advanced Military Algorithms.  I'm not ready to do Power yet though.  I'm currently building 1 supply crawler per base, then 1 Former to make a mine where the supply crawler goes.  Basically, I got tired of my lack of output.  Once those are in place, and I'm only building military units, I'll go for Power.

2299.  I have chosen Power.  I didn't get all the Formers done, so a number of crawlers will only be sucking 1 mineral for awhile.  I've got 7 Gas Missile Rovers in production.  I hope there isn't much of an air war.  We can both make planes, but I don't have the output for that presently.  I'm hoping my gas, knocks Yang on his ass!

I got Cha Dawn on the horn finally.  Signed a treaty, got her to knock it off with Deirdre.  They signed a treaty as well.  Earlier I got Deirdre to resume the war with Yang, so now everybody is focused on what I want them to do.

Except that a couple of turns later, Deirdre declares a truce with Yang.  She's a !@#@!

2301.  I got Superconductor, worse than the weapons I've got.  But a prereq for other things.  My next tech comes in 28 years.  It's 4 AM and I'm going to bed.  At least this game is viably interesting.  200 years of whatever.

[bvanevery]

2311.  Finally took that base I couldn't get past.  Used the "air cover" trick to safely cross the distance and block up the units he wanted to send down the road.  I didn't even need my gas missile rovers to do the job, my old Elite impact infantry did it.  Gas missile rovers are good for completely dissolving enemy troops in the field though.  That was part of what contributed to the breakthrough.  I've got cheap Elite gas missile squads coming up soon, which move like rovers but get the 25% attack bonus.  Yang is probably gonna get blitzed now.  I may be limited by the rate I can bring up garrison units.  I'm building AAA defense units but they're expensive.

I have something more like real productivity now.  I've got crawlers on mines, and formers making more mines and stuff.  Elite formers are actually pretty cool as they move 2 squares.  I'm doing well enough, that I've stopped making offensive military units at the moment.  I finished up the energy banks in my core cities, and now I'm working on tree farms.  Despite the expense of doing this under a Power government.  I seem to be making a lot of money for some reason.  57 credits/turn income, and my explorers are murdering fungal stalks for profit.  That's what I do when I've run out of continent to explore and there's no transport to come pick them up.  One of these days I'll send out a transport to send them somewhere else.

I've been building this flanking road for like, forever on our southern border.  My original plan was to bypass that base I couldn't get through, and hit Yang in a completely different city where he wasn't defended.  Pour units through the weaker part of his empire, divide and conquer.  But meanwhile I got tougher and was able to just knock on his front door and break it down.  Maybe I'll name this road The Blue Ridge Parkway!

Cha Dawn surprise attacked me, while under a Treaty, with that rover she left behind.  So all my allies hate her again.  What is that guy/gal's problem?  Does he know he's the [progeny of unmarried parents] love child of Deirdre and Yang?

I've got a single Elite empath r-laser infantry to run around murdering fungal stalks with.  1 of those had erased a road I had put down on some fungus.  I may be Green but I don't need that much fungus, the amount that's extant is fine.  Anyways the 1 dedicated units is a lot more civilized than the old way of sending a pile of scouts out to die.  Still, sometimes I've been impressed by what a 20% wounded Elite scout rover can do.

[bvanevery]

2315.  I blitzed 5 more Hive bases and destroyed a 6th.  Now I have a distance problem to the next chunk of bases, and a growing garrisoning problem.  Belatedly I realized that I don't need +5 morale, +4 is the highest that has any effect.  Nor do I need my probe teams to be ridiculously buff.  So I dropped Fundamentalism in favor of a Frontier society.  I don't really want the loss of support from going Democratic, nor am I thrilled about increasing my growth rate right now.  I don't want the inefficiency of a Police State and I already have +1 Police and 2x non-lethal police keeping everyone in line.  So, now I'm a Powerful Green.

I will go Democratic someday, when I've conquered Yang and want to win an election against Deirdre.  I could conceivably make peace with Roze meanwhile.  Not that she's important in any way.  Might be worth some trade income?

I'm mainly working on Tree Farms in my core cities, and stabilizing the happiness of newly conquered cities.  A few bases are slowly producing AAA garrisons.  Not sure why as Yang doesn't have much of an air force and I shot 1 of his few planes down recently.  An abundance of caution?  He did kill one of my wounded gas missile rovers with his plane; I got rid of his plane with my tactical.  Yeah, my air force is currently 1 Gas Missile Penetrator and 1 Missile Tactical.  Hey, it's enough to provide air cover for conquering a more distant city down a long road, and to take out any uppity Penetrators Yang sends my way.  Which he hardly does.  I even got a free Aerospace Complex conquering his cities, that was nice!  And a few Command Centers, which will be good for garrisoning units.  Guess he never sold those off after building The Command Nexus.

After at least 100 years tromping around as a Green, I finally captured a couple isles of the deep.  Wonder why it took so long?  Not like I wasn't stirring up fungus squares.  Eventually they will unite with my land forces and I'll be able to bring that independent mindworm army to somewhere more useful.  Meanwhile they continue to terrorize big fungal stalks and make me money.

I take 2 more cities. For being a "blitz", the game sure is taking a lot of real wall clock time.  I'm getting bored again.  I win, but the drill of conquering cities is getting old.  Cumulative fatigue from staying up really late playing this, plus some beer I had earlier, is causing me to tap out quite early.  Not even 10 PM as I write this.  Well, maybe tomorrow morning I'll feel differently about this.  Right now, I feel like "long slow slog cleaning up the Hive."

[bvanevery]

11:45 PM.  After 2 hours of reading and talking about SMAC instead of playing it, I'm ready to go at it again.  Stimulated by coffee and a brownie.  I contemplate a tactical analysis of my "slow" slog.  The slowness is the rate at which I'm garrisoning; I have the offensive firepower to take base after base.  I've made a deliberate choice to build tree farms instead of lots more garrisons, so my conquest rate is only going to be so fast.  Yang is dying, and I don't think conquering Yang is the only consideration at this point.  I'm trying to keep my core empire competitive with other factions, who haven't stopped researching or building secret projects.  I'd like to get to the point where I'm actually building some secret projects first for a change.

I could assault Yang differently, such as an amphibious assault, or fixing some roads that would give me a quicker path to his heart.  But the current city-by-city conquest of his road network and hinterland is working.  If I try to prepare for anything else, much like that "Blue Ridge Parkway" road I worked on for so long, it'll probably be moot.  Yang will fall; it's just going through the mouseclicks.  Well maybe coffee and a brownie is enough.

2320.  One of my home cities has completed its tree farm, doesn't need a hab complex yet, and is producing 18 minerals.  I design the AAA Plasma Defensive, a 1-<3>-2 speeder that should speed up my garrisoning problem.  I can chuck one out every 3 turns.  Speeder units generally speaking will make it easier for my core empire to contribute to the military effort.  I've got a lot of ground to cover and nobody's got mag tubes yet, let alone me.

Cha Dawn attacks one of my Formers with mindworm that's probably been walking (writhing?) forever to get to me.  How drole.  All bases have 1 cheap rover unit to take out Planet's mindworms, that's doctrine for me.  As are trance res garrisons; there's nothing Cha Dawn can do to me with 1 mindworm.  Die!  Oops that's one of the few bases that didn't get the memo on rovers, back when the war started.  Let's see what a synthmetal with 2/3 movement can do.  Ha!  Kills her spore launcher, wounds the boil on the same square, and becomes Elite.  Followup with more distant scout rover with 2/3 movement.  Easy kill also.  If she's got more, they could die; my Sensor in that area is under construction.  Bet that's all she's got though.

Checking in with allies as I haven't talked to them in awhile.  Domai, surprisingly, completed The Planetary Datalinks despite competition from 2 other factions.  He gives me Cyberethics for Doctrine:Air Power.  Aki doesn't have anything new.  I was actually the leading tech faction for a brief time, despite previously being Fundamentalist.  Strong at trading with allies I guess.  Deirdre sells me Advanced Subatomic Theory for 200 credits.  Makes me poor but I'll probably kill some fungal stalks this turn or something.  She would want 575 credits for Centauri Meditation and I doubt I'll ever cough that up.  Got too many infrastructure projects to attend to.  That's now the only tech I don't have.

Hm, technically I've never infiltrated Roze and she could have something new.  But I doubt it.

2324.  It's 1:45 AM, and it's getting boring again.  I'm winning, there's nothing Yang can do about it.  I'm the 2nd strongest faction on the graph now, with the most military, pop, and territory.  Most of the game is "kill city by city", not particularly quick.  Some explorer pushing... my isles are nowhere near my mindworms yet.  Home cities are getting bigger and I just changed my economy to 40-20-40 for the 1st time.  Figure that's rational now that I've got tree farms in a lot of cities.  Gonna quit for now and come back at this tomorrow.

[bvanevery]

2230.  I couldn't sleep, so I started playing again.  At 5 AM I conquered Yang's capitol.  The Command Nexus will take a couple more turns.  After that, he doesn't have much left on land.  I'll push him completely off the continent.  Then I'll ask for his surrender, but he probably won't.  Then I'll start wiping his sea bases, probably with marines.  I've got Gas Chaos Rovers in production now, but they haven't entered service yet.

2335.  I take The Command Nexus.  7 AM.  I'm relocating my capitol to a more central city in this sprawling empire.  May ditch Power pretty soon too.

[bvanevery]

2342.  Sparta Command is no longer my capitol, but it is my highest mineral output city.  It is the oldest city and has a hybrid forest.  In a previous thing I had thought a hybrid forest was "the ticket" for producing truly massive amounts of minerals without doing eco-damage, but now I have to reinvestigate my assumptions.  Sparta's output is 32 minerals and it's doing 6 eco-damage.  A fungal stalk and mindworm contingent appeared recently, although not strictly within Sparta's territory.  I actually captured half of them, and for 1 turn had the bizarre circumstance of owning a fungal stalk button.  Unfortunately the next turn it reverted to alien ownership, so I had to kill it.  I was wondering if I had had a land transport, if I could have carried it somewhere?  That would have been kewl!

In the previous game, I also had a Centauri Preserve on a 70+ minerals output city.  I currently lack the Centauri Meditation tech.  Several other factions have it, but they're not trading with me right now.  I'm working on eventually stealing stuff, but I've only got 1 cruiser probe team wandering around.  It's working on improving itself, doing infiltration missions to level up, but I'm not the Fundamentalist I once was.  It will take a long time to make it to the enemy and I'll have to be careful with it, if it is not to get summarily shot out of the water.  Could be that by the time it finally makes it to a theftable enemy, i.e. Roze, very far away, that my allies complete The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm and become willing to trade again.

I also had The Xenoempathy Dome and I don't have that this game.  So we'll see if a Centauri Preserve seriously reduces my eco-damage.

Yang slowly gets killed.  Conquering him quickly is not a priority as he's down to mostly sea bases.  Only 1 city left on land I think.  I've got a contingent of 4 Chaos marines almost ready to start wiping out his sea bases.  However he's got an active air force, so I'm feeling cautious.  I've got enough Chaos Tacticals to wipe out his Penetrators once they apppear, but I don't want to lose my Marines in the 1st place.  I plan to take out his most extreme sea bases first.  Even though they are small, they will deny him air operations against me, and allow me to gradually tighten my grip.

Sparta Command has started chucking out AAA Plasma Defensive 1-<3>-2 speeders to bolster the defense of my vast empire.  It can crank 2 per turn.  If it drops to 3 per turn, I'll send out another supply crawler for more minerals.

Well, crap.  The game crashed, so I had to replay the last turn.  Good news is I realized my units are so tough, I really don't need to blow up Perimeter Defenses with probe teams anymore.  That just tends to ruin the city I'm taking over, although I've enjoyed some kind of bug where Hive captured bases tend to automatically reconstitute their Perimeter Defense when I take it over.  Not always but probably 80% of the time.  Bad news is my cruiser probe team died merely infiltrating my ally.  So I have to start again with that.

Changing from Power to Knowledge hasn't happened.  I'm Sparta and having +4 Morale is still useful to me.  I'm still at war with Yang, and having Formers and Crawlers that move at speed 2 is useful too.  Yang is still capable of threatening me with probe teams; I've seen the AI build them in sea bases and use transports to attack cities on land.  Don't know that Yang will do it, but I don't want to open myself up to a probe team weakness.  Finally, nobody in this game actually cares that I like Power.  That's one of the benefits of playing a game with random opponents, you're not guaranteed a conflict for your primary social engineering choices.

My independent mindworm army isn't anywhere near to being picked up.  I've killed all the fungal stalks on their continent.  I set them to walk a large, continuous patch of fungus, "go to here".  They tend to stir up mindworms, and kill them, making me a lot of money.  It's a bit more civilized than pushing them all around manually every turn.

Glad I saved the game this time.  It crashed again.  What is with this?

And again.  I think it's caused by a Yang Penetrator, which is supposed to be intercepted by my Tactical, as it tries to attack one of my ground units.  Yep, that's the problem.  Tried to solve it by moving my Tactical to a different base.  That got me past the bug, but it also allowed Yang to completely slaughter all my units and mind control the base I had just taken over.  That's not acceptable to me, I shouldn't have to lose a city and units to a bug.  If I can't find a way to work around this, I'll just replay the turn again, and not take the base.

I tried selecting the Tactical and slapping spacebar, so that it goes from "Hold, Fuel 7" to "Already Moved".  Nope, still crashes.  Guess I have to replay the turn.  Maybe I can't even invade this city until I have an AAA unit available?  That kinda sucks.

I send my assault units back to base.  Yang is being defended by a bug.    Well there's always the navy.  Booby prize: my cruiser probe team survives the infiltration this time.

[bvanevery]

2351.  I changed my mind about how to use my Marines.  I don't have The Maritime Control Center this game, so my transport moves more slowly than I'm used to.  My elite Marines can actually walk faster over land, if there's a road.  Most of Yang's sea bases touch land, so as long as I provide the AAA cover, I can build roads to them and slaughter them from the shore.  That will take awhile in a lot of cases, but it keeps me from having to invest in an otherwise useless navy.  Yang's remaining bases are entirely landlocked within a giant inland lake.  Plus it's just boring to build ships anyways, they take a long time.

He had 1 city immediately adjacent to his former capitol.  He had stored a large part of his air force there.  I slaughtered it from shore.  Then I used the transport to immediately bring up an AAA garrison for defense.

As usual, I'm basically limited by the speed at which I'm willing to build AAA units.  Which is not very fast.  I'm mainly trying to build a game winning empire that competes scientifically and economically with the other factions.  Yang is slow cleanup.  It's like 42 squares from where I produce my AAA speeders, to the front.  Even as elite units, that's 5 turns to deploy.  So this takes quite awhile.  I really could use some mag tubes, but I'm not going to change my Conquest research focus for now.

Domai just got The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm.  Good for him, that he's not totally technically backwards.  It's also good for me, because it means Deirdre didn't get it.  If she ever crosses me, she will easily become part of my empire, with all those beneficial secret projects she's built over the years.  But I won't betray her and I'm not going to change from being Green.  Partly it's personal honor, partly because I have such a large empire, that I really need the efficiency that Green provides.  I also believe I'll eventually out-populate her, even with her having The Empath Guild, and then I'll be Governor.

If it needs to be said, I am the most powerful faction now.  It's interesting that the next 2 most powerful factions are my allies.  Some time ago I proposed a Global Trade Pact, as I suspected I'd be the primary beneficiary of a 2x Commerce doubling.  I don't remember exactly how the Commerce rules work, but I've got 3 allies and I think you get more money from a Pact.

I've managed to infiltrate Cha Dawn and will soon steal Centauri Meditation from her.  It's a common tech but my allies haven't been trading with me lately.

I've finally got an isle to take some of my mindworms home.  However I'm only going to extract the Demon Boils and the spore launchers.  The mindworms are making me a lot of money and they're getting trained.  Spore launchers aren't as helpful for killing mindworms.

I'd like to invade Roze because she's got 6 good secret projects.  However she's really far away, and I don't have fast ships.  Also her mind controlling probe teams have been a bear to deal with, even when she's weak, and she's not weak.  Hopefully I'll get The Space Elevator eventually, and then I can do an orbital drop combat thing on her.  However that will be a long time; I'm remembering how long it took me to wrest The Command Nexus from Yang.  I may need to find another way.

Cha Dawn's empire is useless.  I already have more and much better land, that I took from Yang.  She's just a troublemaker.  She's also untrustworthy, she attacked me when we were under a Treaty.  Deirdre and I are Green and hate her, go figure.  Domai doesn't like her either, that's totally predictable.  I guess she's politically useful in the sense that it keeps us all focused on a gratuitous enemy?  Without the war, maybe my allies would drift away from me.  So, maybe I'll leave Cha Dawn totally alone.

Hm.  Actually, Deidre is at peace with Cha, and Domai has a truce.  I'll steal, then try for a truce.  [Later on...]  Nope, she's ridiculous.  Expects me to pay her.  As if!

[bvanevery]

2357.  The @#$! Hive used a probe team to subvert one of my AAA speeders.  Not a big deal, as it died attacking my Demon Boil mindworm, and it doesn't represent any new technology to Yang.  But it does point out that he's still a threat, and I have to vanquish him.  AI probe teams are really overpowered.

I achieve Orbital Spaceflight.  That was pretty much one of the goals of sticking to my Conquer research focus.  I know it's a Discover tech but it tends to come up with Conquer.  The other one I want is Mind Machine Interface.  Drop combat could be useful, if not against Yang as he's almost all in the water.  MMI also enables Diplomatic Victory.

I get a Centauri Preserve finished at Sparta Command.  It drops my eco-damage from 10 to 3.  So, it's not a magic bullet.  I'm not going to immediately reproduce the feat of having 70+ minerals output and having only 3 eco-damage.  Unless, the damage is due to population and not minerals?  Guess I need to read up on this stuff.  Maybe The Xenoempathy Dome was responsible for the planet soothing effect last game?  Don't think I had The Pholus Mutagen.

Did I have a higher Planet friendliness rating?  No, I was Marr, and just Green.  Currently I'm +2 Planet.  I could take The Manifold Nexus and become +3 Planet, but it's a bit of a long distance exercise and would take awhile.  Hmm, as Marr I had a -1 Planet rating to start with, then went Green, so that would have only made me +1 Planet.  Less than I am now as Santiago.  So that's probably not it.

The Pholus Mutagen specifically reduces the effects of industry at all one's bases.  I could have had it last game.  I was building every secret project.  I just don't specifically remember building it.  Guess I could look at a saved game.  Well, unfortunately I didn't save one near game's end.  I did do a painstaking AAR of the game though, and I never building The Pholus Mutagen.  Nor do I remember building it.  So, what was the magic with Marr?

Perhaps I should start sending out supply crawlers and see if my eco-damage goes up or not.  Ok, experimental results.  When I have 35 minerals output, I do 0 eco-damage.  When I have 39 minerals output, due to the addition of just 1 more supply crawler, I do 5 eco-damage.  So, no more crawlers for Sparta.  I will concentrate my surplus of crawlers in the next city that has a hybrid forest.

I've been living in fear of Prometheus Virus outbreaks, since I don't have The Human Genome to stop them.  Ergo I've been building Research Hospitals partly to keep them from happening.  Just realized I'm playing with random events turned off, and that's one of the (really horrible, unfun) random events.  I worry for nothing.

Surprisingly, I trade Centauri Meditation to Aki for Fusion Power.  Guess she didn't get the memo on how common that tech is now.

Now I have to make sure Yang doesn't steal any fusion units.  Best way would be to fight him with my old units.

I design 3 new defensive, mobile units: the AAA 3-Pulse Skirmisher, the Police 3-Pulse Skirmisher, and the Trance 3-Res Skirmisher.  Usually when I've gotten fusion reactors, I've equipped infantry units with a free weapon.  But those almost never get used, and my empire is large.  Free mobility and no offensive capability is a better idea.

[bvanevery]

2361.  Yang seems to recognize the threat that my stack of 4 Marines and 2 AAA units approaching his sea base pose to him.  He attacks it twice with Penetrators but doesn't succeed.  He would have succeeded if I hadn't had 2, which was a bit lucky rather than planned at that point.  In the future I'll plan it.  Looks like he had more planes to attack with but just gave up.  I came pretty close to destroying them in base with my Marines this turn, so that wasn't his best decision.  Next turn if he doesn't attack or flee, they're all dead.

I read the description of the Centauri Preserve.  In that previous game I built lots of them.  I think each one increases my allowed minerals for my entire empire.  I will test this premise.  Hybrid Forests are also claimed to do this "increased minerals" effect.  I've built several already, which might explain why Sparta Command is cranking a few more minerals than previously, without doing any eco-damage.

2365.  I've knocked Yang off my continent.  He has 16 sea bases remaining inside a giant lake.  He will have a lot more trouble bothering me with probe teams now, although it's definitely possible for him to do so.  The loss of his land holdings is having a serious strangling effect on 2 of his sea bases.

[bvanevery]

2371.  I have a new issue.  Yang's 13 remaining sea bases utilize land that's not actually part of my empire.  I'm going to need to send out a few colonies to make land claims.  Also to limit Deirdre's spread.  She's putting sea bases on coastal water, which is fine, but I don't want her to decide to make an inconvenient land base.

I'm trying a truce with Cha Dawn again.

Domai has made a bunch of Sky Hydroponics Labs.  He's an ally, but his ongoing progress has me a little concerned.  Perhaps I shouldn't be, as I have 288 votes to his 174.  Deirdre still leads with 339 due to The Empath Guild.

Roze has made even more secret projects, some of which I wanted like The Cyborg Factory.  But she's still far away and it's not easy to arse me to cough out cruiser probe teams and push them all the way across the map.  One of these days.  Frankly, I don't enjoy that.  I prefer pushing my Formers around.  I am The Weather Paradigm guy.

Cities of mine that used to do a small amount of eco-damage, are not doing it now.  I'm guessing that tree farms and hybrid forests have a cumulative effect on my entire empire, not just the city I build them in.  I'm gradually leveling up their minerals output with elite fusion speeder suppliers that move 3 squares.  I have to send them all the way to the far parts of the empire, to the mines that are already built.  When I've used those up, I will send out rover formers to make new mines.

Just realized that half of Yang's sea bases are next to my capitol, so it's a slam dunk to take them.  They will be efficient because they're near my capitol.  Yang's been busy.  The water has all these mines in it now.  I guess there are some saving graces to a slow conquest, in that the AI will do some of the development work for you.

Fortunately Sparta Command is approaching the 14 population limit, so I don't have to think hard about which city to spit out colonies from.  First I will fill in the empty areas immediately adjacent to my capitol.  My new capitol was put at the middle of my conquest road; nobody spread radially from there.  It was just the logical center of the resulting empire, due to accident of terrain.  Essentially, the center of this large continent.  Technically even Domai is involved with this continent now.  He's putting sea bases on the western extremity of it.  The continent juts out to the west, so he's rather far away.  Someday I'll be able to build a mag tube all the way to Domai's capitol.  Presuming I raise 1 square to make a land bridge, or he does meanwhile.

Life would be easier if Yang would just surrender.  Why is he so stubborn?  Doesn't he know he's got "beaten" written all over his forehead?  Now I know the order in which I'll kill his bases though.  The Marines have to come south.

I've brought some of my independent mindworm army home.  I've got a garrison of spore launchers and demon boils in the old quarter of my empire.  This is one of the places that Cha Dawn shows up to bother me.  It would be convenient if she'd just keep to a truce or a treaty for a change.  The graph says she's as weak as Yang, although her movement and potential expansion isn't restricted like Yang.  Yang is done.  Cha has no techs, she still sucks though.

Hm, just realized Cha is in a pact with Roze.