Peacekeepers - same map, same start

[bvanevery]

Details cha dawn truce

cha dawn truce

I meet Cha Dawn to the north.  He's occupying the position that the Caretakers occupy in Mart's game.  A more interesting difference between us, is that Mart has already met everyone in 2185 and has been elected Governor.  I guess that's his dividend of Peace.

Details allied with miriam

allied with miriam

I meet Miriam on an island east of the Monsoon Jungle.  We ally against the Caretakers farther to the east, aka west of Santiago.

Details I rush merchant exchange with 2 artifacts

I rush merchant exchange with 2 artifacts

Details most knocked off the board

most knocked off the board

In MY 2207 I've got a couple of Secret Projects completed.  Marty had 2 done in 2200 but was working on 2 more.

[bvanevery]

Details have not finished empath guild

have not finished empath guild

I don't have a MY for this, but I met everyone sailing around and became Governor. 

Details santiago pact again

santiago pact again

Santiago had ditched me as an ally some time back.  I tried extorting her for awhile, but only got 1 tech out of her before she started saying "make my day".  Eventually I gave up trying because she was always Magnanimous towards me.  Like some kind of little pet Energizer bunny.  Eventually I think she proposed an alliance against one of the Aliens.  Which is fine by me, as eXterminating the Aliens is a requirement for Diplomatic Victory.  I consider them to be the real enemies and wiping them out is going to be my strategy.

Details will my artifact sink

will my artifact sink

With relative levels of Peace in parts of the world, I am aggressively fishing the oceans for Artifacts.  I've got one coming home on this Transport, and I worry that the Isle will get it.  But it doesn't.

Details will I regret it

will I regret it

She actually didn't declare war on me until the very end of the game, so I think I mostly got paid on this.

Details rushing virtual world with 1 artifact

rushing virtual world with 1 artifact

Details shut out caretakers

shut out caretakers

By MY 2230 my Secret Projet situation has improved.  Those Transports have paid off.

[bvanevery]

My remaining screenshots don't reveal anything profound in the way of choice.  Doing the research that I did, I got the techs that I got.  I've already posted about when I got MMI, and when I elimiated the Aliens.  These shots just have more map info in them, which is no longer important to suppress as Mart has knowledge of the map now.  So I'll dump my last screens all at once, in sequence, without further comment.

Details MY 2303 Secret Projects

MY 2303 Secret Projects

Details blind research slowing victory

blind research slowing victory

Details I do not remember sanctions

I do not remember sanctions

Details still no MMI

still no MMI

Details MY 2315 collect them all

MY 2315 collect them all

Details MY 2319 diplomatic victory possible

MY 2319 diplomatic victory possible

Details magnanimous dumping

magnanimous dumping

Details this prevents diplomatic victory

this prevents diplomatic victory

Details one more to go

one more to go

Details MY 2328 caretakers bite the dust

MY 2328 caretakers bite the dust

Details can I win now

can I win now

I think Santiago decalred war on me right after the sunspots lifted.  Can't remember.  My needed vote expansion was fueled by conquering 3 of her sea bases and her capitol.

Details thot u wuz aleenz

thot u wuz aleenz

Details OMFG you cannot be serious

OMFG you cannot be serious

Details a good yang is a dead yang

a good yang is a dead yang

Details final world distribution

final world distribution

[Mart]

MY 2303

Secret Projects

(click to show/hide)

This time a bit different. I post 2303, three turns after 2300, cause it is more interesting turn.
Just completed the first Sky Hydroponic Satellite, so the whole map can be seen.

Taken 5 bases of Caretakers and 7 more remaining.

Spartans for some time liberated Sparta Command, but then lost both their bases to Cult.
I started offensive against Cult and got two ex-Spartan bases plus Sporerunner Sanctum base.
There is a problem with freeing Santiago though, Cult lost their HQ and has none at the moment.

By raising land I took 3 bases from Miriam and signed truce, as she started to send missile penetrators, and I do not have enough tacticals at the moment.
I got Air Power from Planetary Datalinks, as far as I know, cause I was researching another tech then. Also got Fusion Power just recently, so have fusion, missile tacticals and penetrators.

[bvanevery]

So I see you decided to bridge the land to the north as well.  In my case I did not conquer anything, as Cha Dawn was the one north of me.  However we were in a Truce and he wasn't on good terms with me.  Pretty sure the Hive went to war with me the minute we met, and I thought I might need to go through Cha Dawn to get to the Hive.  My Formers had completed everything in the Monsoon Jungle and I had a lot of surplus.  I sent them all north, raising the land, and then carpeting Cha Dawn with fungus.  This is a tactic I recently developed when playing my longest ever AAR.  I realized that if you have The Xenoempathy Dome, Formers, and 1 probe team, you can starve a Truce enemy to death and they won't even notice, diplomatically speaking, that you're hurting them.  Your relations will actually improve!

This might be considered getting into exploit territory, but it's definitely not a bug or cheating.  The game designers just didn't decide whether planting fungus on enemy land is a good or bad thing.  It does take some time and resources to do this, i.e. my entire Former fleet, but I had already finished "real" terraforming.  Also you can starve an enemy out under a Truce, it's perfectly legal.  The difference is that you'd have to have a unit sitting on every square to do the starving, you couldn't just plant fungus and move on to the next target.  The fungus exploit is kinda like penalty free pillaging.  Although it takes 3 turns to plant fungus, and only 1 turn to pillage.

I got about as far doing this, as your actual conquests, Mart.  Then Cha Dawn signed a Treaty.  Since you can't starve anyone under a Treaty, I thought it would be too much of an exploit to continue the "free pillaging" ala fungus.  I sent all my Formers home and disbanded them to make other stuff, figuring that Fusion Power would be right around the corner.  The net effect is that Cha Dawn's southern cities were held in stasis and he didn't have room for expansion.  For a long time I left 1 Former behind to obstruct his land bridge to me, just to make sure he wouldn't try to make use of a small patch of normal land on my border.  Eventually I disbanded that as well when it became clear that he wasn't going to bother.  He got in a war with Yang and had other priorities.

[Mart]

I'm in 2307 now and still no Neural Grafting. So I may end up with need of conquest, which will be tedious. Land bases are easier, cause you can move a land unit to take a base on roads, that often AI places. On sea, it is actually more difficult. Ships do not get terrain defense, but when having needlejets, they can get air cover. Still, the problem is, that ships need to navigate around all those peninsulas/islands. Well, this is for the case no one has Doctrine Initiative yet, and foils are so slow. What is worse, no marine ability... For sea bases near land, one can raise terrain, but it is more problematic, like you have to protect formers too for often several turns more.

[bvanevery]

I researched exclusively Explore for awhile, to make sure I got Needlejets.  What I actually got were Doctrine:Initiative and Centauri Meditation.  I stole Doctrine:Air Power from Marr.  Consequently I had Marine capability much earlier than when I was actually ready to use them.  I actually stole Bioadaptive Resonance and Synthetic Fossil Fuels from other factions.  Hence my comment much earlier on, that I was ahead on tech, but not weapons.

I currently estimate your chance of beating my 2340 time as zero.  You can't conquer the whole planet in the time it took me to do half of it.  Unless you know something about fighting and weapons that I don't.  I find that unlikely.  Best you can hope for is how little you'll lose to me by.

Small possibility that balls-to-the-wall last minute heroic military production could catch you up.  It is a bit of an exponential climb at the end.  Only my 1st wave of final military units ever reached Yang.  Those were my Elite Trained Gas Shard Rovers.  They went overland by way of Cha Dawn forced alliance under the united banner of Planet.

Even with some kind of last minute exponential climb, you're going to have to perform exceptionally to beat my time.  In that case you would have seriously earned it.

You could be Evil [TM] and use nerve gas on everyone...

[Mart]

I may consider using nerve gas, but that would be for the total conquest option, which I think may not happen if I finally get MMI and be fast with eliminating aliens.


About fast conquest. Maybe you were playing/heard about 3rd Democracy Game of SMACX on Apolyton? ACDG3.
Morganites, one of the human controlled factions was eliminated in like 2 turns. They had no sea bases, if I recall, but Spartans gave some performance show by it. They however planned very well taking over each of the bases. With AI it is different, but still, possible to take whole faction in a matter of turns. With Doc Air Power only, no Doc Init and no MMI, it may be very difficult in turns I have remained. But the game is still not completed. There may be several Alien Artifacts to be cashed left, even by AI, from which I could steal technologies.


Yes, this "exponentiality" gives me some chances.

[bvanevery]

Once I had Industrial Automation I cashed a few Artifacts to get some techs, but I don't think they helped me get to MMI.  I think I just blind researched for several wrong techs until finally I got it.  Please be advised when thinking you're going to get MMI by research, is that I didn't, and I was working with size 18 cities in the Monsoon Jungle fully stacked with Research Hospitals, Fusion Labs, Hybrid Forests, my capitol in the Jungle, the Supercollider, etc.  I think there's a really good chance you're too far behind on my infrastructure to ever catch up playing the game the way I did, which was an infrastructure heavy approach.

Admittedly one thing I never do is tweak Specialists.  Can't be bothered.

[Buster's Uncle]

estimate your chance of beating my 2340 time as zero.

b, Mart is oldtimer, and a CMN MPlayer used to holding his own against other experienced humans.  I respect that, I been around long enough to know, and although my rooting for anyone but you is crap-talking for fun, an MPlayer of any great experience ought to be able to school you - literally, if you pay attention, and I know you will.

[bvanevery]

We're not playing multiplayer, BUncle.  Nobody knows how to school me against the AIs.  I've been playing "how do I beat the AIs the fastest?" for almost 20 years, nothing else.

For Pete's sake I crushed the Usurpers in the Monsoon Jungle with the Spartans at my back using Recon Rovers.  I'm going to be surprised if that doesn't turn out to be a decisive strategic advantage.  No question it's a highly influential advantage.

[Mart]

Definitely, my turns 2307 to 2340 will be very interesting, I guess.

[bvanevery]

One thing I never seriously thought about doing was cranking up my research budget, or choosing Knowledge.  I was merely Democratic and only had Efficiency +1.  Didn't want Green because I needed Growth for Diplomatic Victory.  Didn't want Knowledge because Santiago was my ally for 80% of the game.  So with a low Efficiency, a 40-20-40 budget was as well as I figured I was going to do without penalty.  Santiago backstabbed me anyways by game's end, so letting her live free and independent could turn out to be "my big mistake".  Not so much for military threat, as once I had the Jungle she was nothing.  But because I refrained from Knowledge due to our alliance.

[Buster's Uncle]

We're not playing multiplayer, BUncle.  Nobody knows how to school me against the AIs.  I've been playing "how do I beat the AIs the fastest?" for almost 20 years, nothing else.

For Pete's sake I crushed the Usurpers in the Monsoon Jungle with the Spartans at my back using Recon Rovers.  I'm going to be surprised if that doesn't turn out to be a decisive strategic advantage.  No question it's a highly influential advantage.

Pete's experience against far tougher opponents trumps yours against the weakies you've been complaining about being, among other frustrations, weak. I could take you if I hadn't ruined myself with a decade of bad habits cheating at SP.

At any rate, look at how this argument enhances your chance to gloat when you win.  I've painted a huge target on my back, and don't let me down not administering an epic kicking...

Definitely, my turns 2307 to 2340 will be very interesting, I guess.

[bvanevery]

Pete's experience against far tougher opponents trumps yours against the weakies you've been complaining about being, among other frustrations, weak. I could take you if I hadn't ruined myself with a decade of bad habits cheating at SP.

Let me take this from the top, since at this point I don't know if you're willfully refusing to understand, or just locked onto a different idea that you want to pursue. Playing multiplayer isn't the same game as beating AIs.  Sure you could do all kinds of great things against humans.  As probably could I, you might be surprised.  To do those same things against AIs is overspending and you can lose a race by overspending.  This is like you saying "well if we were fighting 1-on-1, or we were fighting in a 7 player freeform alliance wargame, I'd totally stomp you!"  Well we're not, we're doing parallel races, which I set up very deliberately and made very clear to everybody what we were doing.  That was the Challenge as I originally presented it.  Everyone took it knowing what they were in for.

It's like you're taunting me about a wrestling match and I'm saying excuse me, this is a slalom.  And my opponents missed some of the gates.

At any rate, look at how this argument enhances your chance to gloat when you win.  I've painted a huge target on my back, and don't let me down not administering an epic kicking...

I have already composed my victory speech:

"I won because I conquered the Usurpers in the Monsoon Jungle early.  End of Story."