In my mod I nerfed the Battle Ogre Mk I. The R-Laser is only strength 3. This is still good enough to take out a few mindworms though. I also added Deep Radar to make the unit more useful for scouting. I just had way too many games where they showed up uncomfortably close to me, even on Huge maps. Sometimes devastating my 2nd colonist. And now in this game, the shoe is on the other foot!
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who dies |
This map is almost a Pangaea. In my mod I usually expect several distinct continents, rather than this. I do expect violence on a huge landmass, it just seems to go with the territory. I wasn't quite expecting the competition to be so close, but it does happen.
I don't actually want to go to war with the Hive. It's trivial for me to beat them, especially with such a drop on them. But the Hive is actually politically compatible with me. I can certainly do a Police State, and I can't do Democratic.
So I deliberately stepped forward with my Ogre onto a supply pod, hoping to get a mindworm out of it. It worked! Now, is it going to be sensible and attack the defenseless target? Or is that stupid colonist going to pirouette out of the way and leave me to take the hit?
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S O B |
I take it in the face. Makes me look ugly.
And he's advancing on
my supply pods. I really want some great harm to come to him. If he settles on his own territory next turn, claiming half the Uranium Flats, I don't think I'm going to put up with it. I take another step forward and reveal a Monolith.
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marginalization |
I may have Yang on the ropes. Don't settle dude! It's not gonna go well for you if you do.
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outfaced |
That colonist retreated to some fungus. The Uranium Flats will be mine! That Unity Rover is gonna be flushed out of my lands pretty soon too. Generally, I think I will probably expand better than the AI will.
When will I actually talk to the Hive? One quirk of my mod, is I made Progenitor Psych an Explore 3 tech. Basically, the humans are never gonna get it researched. In my mod, the Aliens decide when they want to talk to the humans. Last game I played, I experimented with going a
long time before I bothered. I didn't happen to pop Social Psych from a pod from a very long time, although it did finally happen. I had an interesting focus to my directed research, although I'm not yet sure if it was advantageous. I definitely grew differently, using Police units to keep people under control. When I finally made contact with the humans, I went through a massive growth spurt, learning Recreation Commons and Children's Creche at the same time. Before my strategy was far more horizontal, although I wouldn't call it sprawling.
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claimant |
Found their Rover. Will I be able to pin it? I'd also like to get my Ogre back to exploring instead of this picket duty.
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2nd rover |
The effort needed to control Yang, is interfering with my usual pod popping. So I'm not as rich as I am when left alone. Still, I'm colonizing better than he is. I intend to push the border where I stole that nutrient from him. Only lack of money prevents me from rushing a colonist this turn. My sea expedition, delivered an Isle with a Spore Launcher on it. I'm having to gradually shell it into oblivion, instead of making money at sea.
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gimmie |
I always escort my Artifacts, but the AI isn't bright enough to do that. Makes it fun to steal them! One of their colonists was also disappearing off to the left.
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dastardly move |
I managed to stir up a mindworm for them. They've got 2 units trapped up there and it should weaken at least one of them.
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stupid copter tricks |
So they found the Unity crash site. My version of the Mining Laser is a particle impactor. At least it's unarmored. The only copter design I allow in my mod is the predefined Unity Lifter. It has a huge range, fuel for 60 squares. Carrying around a Scout is rather pointless though, as without allies it's not going to have any city to disembark. Hmm or is it not actually carrying that Scout, and it just slipped past me when dealing with the mindworm? I suppose it is the Rover that is wounded, not the Scout.
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free at last |
Their colonist finally managed to escape my pinning. But I think it is too late for them. I think I've got them contained by my own land claims. And if it comes to open war, I've already researched C2 Applied Physics! That comes complete with Nerve Gas Pods if I want them. I haven't completed any prototypes yet, but basically they don't stand a chance. Only some other human faction could save them. Or the Caretakers suddenly showing up, but I very much doubt that. Way too much land mass for that to be plausible.
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trivial concern |
MY 2158. I've out-colonized him 10 cities to 4. However I feel a little dumb that he managed to get a peripheral city in the northeast corner. It's not that important, just aesthetically displeasing. Once upon a time I feared his milling units enough that I backed off of sending a colonist up there. Turns out he never had the gumption to attack. And at this point, that would be a wise policy for him. Not only do I have lasers, speeders, and chemical weapons with which to end his life, but I've also got plasma armor and am working on a prototype for that. Next year I'm even going to start working on the Citizens' Defense Force. The tradeoff to achieve all of this, is I've never learned how to make Formers! It's hardly necessary from all the sea-based Completions I managed from supply pods though. That's how I got all my prototypes done.
Well that's enough for the mega-post. If this story has an interesting resolution, like Yang getting uppity with me when we finally talk, I'll post about it. Meanwhile I've still avoided learning Social Psych, and I haven't gotten it from a supply pod. I'll have Yang infiltrated in a few years, just bringing a Skimship Probe Team around to do it.
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