Peacekeepers - same map, same start

[bvanevery]

Players currently accepting the challenge:

• bvanevery - Brandon Van Every
• Brecon - full name not currently known to me
• Mart - Martin Art

Single players are each given a copy of the same saved game and compete to see who can win it the fastest.  Attached to this post.  Any kind of Victory is allowed.  The faction selected for this exercise is the Peacekeeping Forces.  We are using SMACX Yitzi patch 3.5d.  Standard sized planet, average settings, Transcend difficulty.  Only rule chosen differently from default is "Look First".  RANDOM opponents; The Help --> Factions menu says the following opponents were selected:

• Human Hive
• Manifold Caretakers
• Manifold Usurpers
• Spartan Federation
• The Cult of Planet
• The Lord's Believers

Informal rules / expectations: you can do anything in the game that wouldn't be regarded as cheating or a major exploit by most people.  The definition of this is not precise.  For one thing, because I don't even know how to cheat for the most part, it's not been a subject matter of interest to me.  BUncle is the resident expert on cheating like a mad dog; don't play the way he does.     There are no proscriptions against seemingly overpowered game features, such as Copters for instance.  If it's in the game you can do it.

Players are encouraged to post updates of their progress from time to time, preferrably with screenshots.  However, be advised that you could be communicating important information to other players about the map, the disposition of opponents, or your own strategies.  Someone could use all of that information against you, for instance if someone believes your strategy will be slow and thus they have more time to accomplish something else.  Anything you post about your game is usable by other players and that is expected.  Therefore you might want to delay your reportage about various things, rather than immediately spillng the beans about what, say, the early world looks like.

I think it would be ok / interesting if anyone else takes up the Challenge after we've started, or even after we've finished.  However if you gain the benefit of all our hindsight, we reserve to right to laugh at you mercilessly if you do worse than we did.     And to pooh-pooh your efforts as unworthy even if you "beat" us, unless it's by a truly impressive margin of victory, given all the extra help you've had deciding what to do.

Here's what we know on turn 1:

Details miserable island start

miserable island start

Details maybe not a tiny island

maybe not a tiny island

I'm thinking this game carries a high risk of early violence.  Alien factions are never nice to start next to.  3 of the human factions are violent expansionists, and 2 of them are natural enemies of the Peacekeepers.  Judging by what the world topology looks like, I bet Lal is right next to somebody.

[Buster's Uncle]

Sorry to once again OT on one of your threads, but I've a duty as your friend to counsel you that real names on the nets are a bad idea, and I learned the hard way.

-That does, however, make it infinitely easier for my mind to hold onto a good pronunciation of your user handle...

[bvanevery]

Speaking for myself, my name on the internet is not a secret, although I don't routinely spell it out for people.  bvanevery is my "brand identity" that I've been using forever, although I'm chagrined to find there's someone with that handle already on Twitter!  I don't tweet.

I have now played through the year 2217 and am doing "well".  I will say no more at this time.  If my esteemed opponents get roughly that far and say so, I'll give a dump of what I've been up to.

[Mart]

MY 2124 here.
Certainly, the starting placement is not boring

[bvanevery]

Details MY 2303 Secret Projects

MY 2303 Secret Projects

In MY 2303 I've got almost everything that can be had.

[bvanevery]

Details MY 2315 collect them all

MY 2315 collect them all

Take that Miriam!

[bvanevery]

Details MY 2319 diplomatic victory possible

MY 2319 diplomatic victory possible

Won't be long now, but I've still got the remnants of 2 Alien factions to eXterminate.  Due to Blind Research, this is the fastest I believe I could have gotten MMI the way my game went.  I've had the quirk of being only Democratic for most of the game.  Santiago is my ally and I did not want to upset her by choosing Knowledge.  There was a time when I could have crushed her easily, upset or not.  Frankly I still could, but I believe I save turns by concentrating on the real enemies, which are the Aliens.

I never chose Free Market because I've been a military expansionist the whole game.  I never chose Green because I wanted my population to grow as fast as possible.  I never chose Planned because I couldn't afford the penalty to Efficiency.

I don't think someone could win this game with a pure military solution faster than a Diplomatic Victory, but if some Luddite non-researching player proves me wrong in that regard, it would be interesting.  I've built tons of Secret Projects and infrastructure, which in principle could have been more military units.  On the other hand, my approach got me to MMI.

[bvanevery]

Details MY 2326 monument to their stupidity

MY 2326 monument to their stupidity

[Mart]

MY 2150
Secret Projects

(click to show/hide)

As it is often, when AI finds a land path to Monsoon Jungle, it drives there its colony pods, so Santiago did not establish a base for longer time.
When I encountered her, around Parade Ground location on the screenie, she was enroute to the east. I made a mistake of signing Pact in hope of trading techs, but it was in vain, and also it allowed Spartans to reach the jungle with colony pod. After few turns, I terminated Pact, but one cp got moved to jungle, another towards Spartan starting location. Later signed Pact again.


As it turned out, Cult of Planet was on the other side of jungle, so as Peacekeepers enjoy peace allowing me to build, Spartans bravely hold guard against Cha Dawn.


Pact is good. There are these few land tiles south from Parade Ground, outside Spartan territory, and there is monolith and nutrient bonus. Excellent site for fourth base.

[bvanevery]

Holy !@#$ I think your Spoiler implies that the placement of Cha Dawn, the Caretakers, and the Usurpers a few turns into the game, is completely random.  I don't think we're playing against the same configurations of enemies.

Details MY 2328 caretakers bite the dust

MY 2328 caretakers bite the dust

Unfortunately I'm in the middle of Sunspots so I can't win the game.  I have 704 votes.  Other factions have 115 + 79 + 60 + 45 = 299 votes, so I don't have it anyways.  Santiago just stabbed me in the back this turn.  She broke our Pact awhile ago, and this turn she had the temerity to Surprise Attack me.  Which didn't amount to much, just killing a few Probe Teams I'd put in the way of her Sunspot border incursions.  Guess the sun made her loopy.  It will actually make it easier for me, as she has the most votes, and shortly won't.

I swear I haven't deliberately inflicted any atrocities against any human faction.  But other factions put their units in Alien bases, and somehow I've gotten a Faithful rating despite my best attempts otherwise.  I've noticed that if you accidentally kill a Hive unit inside an Alien base using a chemical attack, your Integrity rating gets reduced.  I played over that turn.  He really shouldn't have been there.  I've actually been upgrading my X units to non-X builds so that I don't inadvertently make that mistake in the future.  I seized an Artifact and got a warning about other factions not hearing about the atrocities due to sunspots.  I thought I had only seized an Alien artifact while destroying a base, so maybe the game is just daft about talking about atrocities against Aliens.  Gassing Aliens is good, m'kay?

[Mart]

Holy !@#$ I think your Spoiler implies that the placement of Cha Dawn, the Caretakers, and the Usurpers a few turns into the game, is completely random. 

It looks that way. Playing against "standard" factions is better then.

[Brecon]

So far I have only had a little time to play but should have more time tomorrow.  I am only at turn 2150 but it has been eventful...

(click to show/hide)

2117 turned Spartans down on tech extortion, 2 turn vendetta, I sued for peace for 2 techs.  2119 ran into Hminee in the jungle and they delayed my movement and milled around until they discovered the tech to talk to me (2148) which involved them declaring vendetta, no chance for discussion.  Sparta extorted 2 more techs a turn or two into that vendetta.  On the bright side I have a decent amount of land have only lost 3-4 units so far.

[bvanevery]

Details MY 2334 sunspots ended

MY 2334 sunspots ended

Do I have the votes?  I've got 834.  They've got 106 + 63 + 49 + 46 =  264.  Not enough.  A few more turns of wailing on the Spartans will do it though.  I built a pile of Trained Gas Shard Rovers that are coming into service now.  I forgot that I could make Copters, which may end up costing me some turns, but I have some in production now.  At least all my new units are Elite because I've gone Fundamentalist Green Power for the endgame.  I've had a Treaty with Cha Dawn for awhile and Miriam just signed a Truce.  Yang is a sourpuss though:

Details thot u wuz aleenz

thot u wuz aleenz

[bvanevery]

With that pile of Trained Gas Shard Rovers I took Sparta Command this turn.  Also took 3 Spartan sea bases using an excess of Choppers, Marines, and Battleships.  I have 902 votes now, which last turn would have been enough to win.  Others have 77 + 64 + 50 + 46 = 237 votes.  I've got it!  Taking over an enemy capitol must be worth more than the population alone.

Details bow down to me you jerks

bow down to me you jerks

Details OMFG you cannot be serious

OMFG you cannot be serious

I just about pulled a John McEnroe getting this message.  I've never had this happen in any game before.  I've known about the theoretical possibility, but not the circumstances that actually cause it.  Yang either had a Transport in a Caretaker city that I wiped out, or he had an Artifact that I 'captured' from that same city (it got destroyed) and it's a bug.  Or it's something from way earlier in the game that I don't even remember doing.  Point being, you can be really freakin' careful wiping out Aliens and still end up with X additional turns to play through because of this nonsense.  Well, at least I won't have to worry about my backside as I wipe this jerk out.

MY 2335.  When I Was Robbed of Victory.  If one of you beats me by being extra extra careful with your X units, I'm just gonna groan.  And I thought getting handed sunspots was bad enough.

Details you are cute when you're angry

you are cute when you're angry

[bvanevery]

Well what's 5 more years?  Well for David Bowie I guess that's enough time for the world to end.  "My brain hurts a lot."

Details a good yang is a dead yang

a good yang is a dead yang

Details veni vidi vici

veni vidi vici

Details in case of tie break glass

in case of tie break glass

So MY 2340 is your year to beat.