The Tlaxcalan Hegemony - SMACX AI Growth mod version 1.46

[bvanevery]

Details gentle garrote

gentle garrote

MY 2268.  Taking a base south of Data DeCentral, got Roze's attention.  Technically her capitol is now completely surrounded by my territory, albeit by only 1 square in one place.  If she gives me any more trouble, I'll tighten my grip further.

[bvanevery]

Details neighborliness

neighborliness

MY 2272.  I've linked up to the Cybernetic rail system.  They have 5 techs I don't.  That's not terribly surprising since I chose to pursue Wealth, and have deliberately not built Industrial Labs outside of the immediate proximity of my capitol.  Currently I have all cities working on Hybrid Forests, and I'm not bothering to rush any of them.  I just don't think anyone can do anything to me.  I have enough of an air force and mindworms harassing the Cyborgs, that I think their role is merely to die trying to get at me.  I won't sign a Truce until I've stolen their techs.

[bvanevery]

Details wealth is power

wealth is power

MY 2273.  The Cyborgs spent way too long working on the Nano Factory.  They had the tech ages ago and should have finished building it by now.  They're trying to rush this turn, but I've got so much money that I only had to cash in 2 Formers to beat them to it.

Details reprisals

reprisals

The Cyborgs have a fairly large air force.  They attacked a fair number of my Clean Formers, and jammed up my rails so that I can't bring in more probe teams this turn.  I've considered my current Formers to be completely disposable.  They're not Super Former units.  I've had that tech for awhile now, but I haven't made any land Super Formers and only a couple of sea ones.  To be honest I expect Hybrid Forests to be responsible for all my growth in the immediate future.  I didn't need any new Formers to get all my terraforming done, I had so many of the old Clean Formers.

[bvanevery]

Details religiously researched

religiously researched

MY 2276.  Finally I get around to infiltrating the Believers.  They don't have any new tech.  Theocratic doesn't have a research penalty in my mod, but Thought Control does.  Seems like an appropriate thing for them to fixate on.

[bvanevery]

Details scorn this

scorn this

MY 2277.  The Cyborgs are made to understand that if they keep this up, they're going to be destroyed by mindworms.  Let's see if they have any integrity to their word.

[bvanevery]

Details what a maroon

what a maroon

MY 2278.  Shortly after completing a land bridge to the northern half of Domai's empire, he gets uppity with me.

Details socialize this

socialize this

I take a city near Free Drone Central.  After that, he still wants to keep fighting.  The incident happened after I'd already committed most of my Formers elsewhere, and I'm out of mindworms, so I'll await his counterattack.  Ferret's Lair is my obvious target next year.

[bvanevery]

Details rail power

rail power

MY 2279.  Using my prodigious fleet of Formers, I build a rail straight to Ferrett's Lair and take it.  Domai still won't knock it off!  At this rate, Free Drone Central is going to be vacuolized sooner rather than later.  But once again I'm out of armaments, so I'll await the counterattack.  They got some Formers last time, big deal.

Details naval reminder

naval reminder

I've had 2 Isles sitting next to a remote Believer sea base for a long time.  I finally got 1 of 'em healed up enough to attack.  Although the odds calculator said it was 2 to 1 in their favor, they were lying.  I took the port, healing my 2nd Isle in the process.  This was enough to get the Believers to stop fighting me.  I've been working on a land bridge to them, but my Truce with the Cyborgs forced me to reroute it.  I've otherwise thrown a fair number of planes away foolishly blowing up their Sensor Arrays, as they actually have a fair number of Interceptors to respond with.  I figured it wouldn't matter as long as I got into ground contact with them.

I forgot to steal a tech from them.  I didn't think they'd be able to research anything I hadn't, but their foci are different and they managed to get E5 Centauri Psi.  Meanwhile the Cyborgs have researched C5 Silksteel Alloys.  I will run some ops against them when I've got more forces built up.  Some of my cities have completed their Hybrid Forests and are starting to cough out defensive police units, to hold my conquests.

[bvanevery]

Details nearly surrounded

nearly surrounded

MY 2280.  All but cutting off Free Drone Central, hasn't caused Domai to relax. 

Details 2nd Tlaxcalan

2nd Tlaxcalan

Wiping out another city isn't hard.  He doesn't have a lot of garrison strength everywhere.  He's still wound up though!  What's it gonna take to beat sense into this guy?

Details tech vendor

tech vendor

I buy the missing techs from Deidre.  I might have been about to acquire them from the Planetary Datalinks, but I research a new tech in 2 years and I don't want it to be a repeat.

[bvanevery]

Details bliss out

bliss out

MY 2282.  Well I guess I have been playing Green the whole game, due to Deidre.  The Xenoempathy Dome comes late in my mod, because in my opinion it's pretty powerful.  Also, to require factions to explicitly focus on Explore techs to get it, rather than just picking it up as general research.  I've definitely done my part, if only by trade and theft.  I have a couple of Supply Crawlers harvesting energy for my capitol.  I will use one of them to get the 40+ minerals necessary to avoid the hurrying penalty, and then use my massive bank balance to complete the project.

Details makin' babies in the fungus

makin' babies in the fungus

If I go Eudaimonic, my mindworms will kick even more butt, and I can pop boom in all my major cities.  I'll earn Cha Dawn's undying devotion, and Roze and Aki Zeta5's eternal emmnity.  That suits me fine!  All it costs me is my POLICE.  Well I think I can handle that, I've got piles of happiness infrastructure that I'm barely taxing in the name of making money.

Details bow down

bow down

Yeah I modded Cha Dawn to utter such things.  I didn't change the dialogue, it's hardwired for Eudaimonic.  But now he has these lines.  It almost works.  Did you know that the Cult was so positive about the human condition?  So aspirational?  It might seem rather odd and nonsensical, unless you think these guys are like the Moonies or the Scientologists.  Then you might think of it as a way to stick their fingers into your bank account!

It's not really up to me to decide whether Cha Dawn is genuine or not.  I only want his lines to be passable, and they're close enough.  The reality is that Eudaimonic evolved in my mod to be the pro-Planet social choice, and Cybernetic the do-evil-to-Planet choice.  I mean, why should living a machine existence, get you more in touch with the Planet mind?  It shouldn't.  I see Cybernetic as a dystopian corporate future.  Oh, wait, I'm supposed to want to be doing that!  Well I do, but I don't want to suffer any penalties for it.  Someday I'll take the Network Backbone away from the Cyborgs, and then we'll talk business.

I got Cha Dawn to sign a Treaty with Deidre.  Couldn't get them to budge on the Cyborgs though.  It was probably unreasonable of me to ask, given that they're natural enemies.  Well, when the Cyborgs finally get uppity with me, perhaps I can get an Alliance out of the deal.

[bvanevery]

Details to choke or not to choke

to choke or not to choke

MY 2283.  In a surprising turn of events, Miriam proposes that we all stew in nerve gas.  And almost everyone is on board with it!  If I wanted to defeat this measure, I'd have to go through extreme heroics, and it may not even be possible.  Now to be honest I thought about proposing this myself a number of years ago, but I decided my vacuole strategy is about preserving cities, not liquidating them.  Before thinking further about how I really feel about this, will enough faction leaders even give me the time of day? 

Domai won't speak to me.  I can't afford Miriam's vote because I rushed the Xenoempathy Dome last year.  The Cyborg vote costs 966 credits, and the Cult vote costs 810.  Those are the 2 cheapest votes and I don't have the money.  So this discussion is academic!

Details if you can't beat 'em, join 'em

if you can't beat 'em, join 'em

I can't say I ever remember the AI forcing something on me like that before.  Usually when someone wants to repeal atrocity prohibitions, they're widely regarded as a crank.  I'll have to check on why Miriam is the Governor and I'm not.  Historically, it's because everybody hated me.  More recently, I've wormed Truces out of everyone but Domai, so maybe the votes aren't so stacked up now.  It may also be that Miriam's been sitting in her corner of the world, surrounded by a moat, out of direct military contact with anyone.  I will soon undo that with a land bridge, but I kept on having to divert my Formers to work the terrain around my conquered cities.  When I made a Truce with her, I had far less motivation to get the job done quickly.

I don't think this measure does me any good at all.  I can't even nerve staple my people, as I have a -3 POLICE rating.

[bvanevery]

Details the dystopian Roze

the dystopian Roze

MY 2284.  In my mod I made a darker interpretation of Roze, where all the mind controlling has gone to her head.  She almost got uppity with me, but I think she realized she's too weak to do a darned thing to me.  I got her to make peace with the Gaians.

[bvanevery]

Details walkabout

walkabout

MY 2285.  Using a single probe team as an escort to bypass zones of control, I walked several AAA ECM Silksteel infantry units into the Monsoon Jungle.  The objectives were to destroy Sensor Arrays and kill off Formers so that Domai can't replace them.  I'm not sure what his level of response will be to this intrusion, but it's gotta be confusing for him.

[bvanevery]

Details useless bribery

useless bribery

MY 2286.  The infantry distraction campaign was fairly successful.  I only lost 1 unit.  Domai threw away at least 6 units trying to kill it and other units.

Cha Dawn is jamming up my rail routes, and even the alternate route I cooked up.  Technically I can get past him with probe team escorts, but he's a PITA.  I'd much rather have him as an ally so I wouldn't have to deal with these obstructions, but I'm not moving against the Cyborgs until I've brought Domai to heel.  Which is a Catch-22 as I need to get past Cha Dawn to take Domai's northern city.

I try bribing the city, not really expecting much.  It's cost prohibitive.  More money that I've had this game, even rich as I've been.  I suppose my adjustments to mind control costs are working, as I don't want this to be easy, but 4k is pretty spendy.  Is it justified?  Domai is a Theocratic Socialist, giving him a +3 JUSTICE rating with his faction bonus.  His capitol is 19 squares away as the crow flies.  The city has a Children's Creche.  Ok whatever.  I suppose he's not the poster child for miserable despotism waiting to be picked off.

Details baby Domai

baby Domai

This state of affairs causes me to bite the bullet and throw 2 Gatling Hovertanks at the 3 defenders.  I already had them waiting at Invictus and don't have to do any tedious probe team shuffling to use them.  I have more reserves elsewhere in my empire if I move them far enough.  None of the defenders are ECM or 3-Pulse units, and they're all Fission units.  They do much better against the armored defenders than I was expecting them to.  I use an Interceptor to pick off the Speeder, then I heal my Elite unit by taking the city.  Domai comes online and still wants to fight.  The nerve of this guy!  Can't he see how beaten he is?

Details I'm the hammer you're the nail

I'm the hammer you're the nail

The defense of Hammer and Tongs, the next city up the rail from the south, is not what it used to be.  There's an ECM unit in there, but given my last battle, I'd say that will result in at most 1 casualty.  If only I hadn't sent my Demon Boils wandering uselessly into the bush.  At the time, I thought I was flushing out wandering annoying units, but it was overkill.  I just remembered that 2 Independent Demon Boils recently made it back to another part of my empire, so I send them up the rail.  These blow away 2 of the defenders easily.  The remaining is a mere Synth unit and is summarily executed by wounded Gatling Hovertank.  It takes the base and heals.  Moving forwards, Domai still wants to keep fighting!  He's gonna lose most of the Monsoon Jungle at this rate.

Details isolation

isolation

I decide that landlocked cities make good vacuoles.  I'll take the coastal cities first.  With my latest acquisition, Domai still won't let up.  I had switched a fair amount of my production to mindworms earlier this turn, since I didn't think I had as much offensive oomph as I needed.  That didn't turn out to be true though, and I actually need lots of garrison units to cover my tracks.  So I switched them all back to AAA ECM Silksteel units.

[bvanevery]

Details loser

loser

MY 2287.  Taking 1 more city on the northern coast, Domai finally gets the memo that he sucks.  Enforcement action over.  I can't get him to stop fighting Deirdre or Aki Zeta5 though.

Details coveted

coveted

Now I turn my attention to the Data Angels, who do not have a formal diplomatic status with me.  I want the Manifold Nexus.  First I'm going to build a rail to it, which will take some turns because my Formers aren't quite what they used to be.  Domai kept hammering them with a couple of planes I never got rid of.  Once I'm in a position to take it instantly, I'll announce to Roze that she's giving it to me.  If she doesn't comply, then I'll just take it.  Then she'll comply, sooner or later, same as Domai did.

[bvanevery]

Details mildly surprised

mildly surprised

MY 2290.  I really didn't expect them to draw first blood.  It's not like I put troops on their border, just some Formers.  I didn't think that sort of thing typically triggered the AI's BS-o-Meter.  Maybe I just got in the way of some movement it wanted to do.  Don't really care.  This skips the formalities of threatening them.  We'll proceed straight to taking what I want.  I've had plenty of time to allocate 1 offensive unit per city, my reserves are huge.

Details subterfuge

subterfuge

One thing I did not have in the region, was any kind of Air Superiority unit.  That made their plane rather a nuisance.  Using a probe team to defeat zones of control, I just routed a rail around it.  Their base falls trivially to my mindworms.  I bring up a wounded hovertank for the take-and-heal.  I embark upon a policy of eliminating units in the field elsewhere before doing so.  They might give me a Truce without further fighting, and I'd like to discourage them from further 'surprise' attacks.  They really can't stand up to my mindworms, the slaughter is kind of a joke.

Details max green Morgan!

max green Morgan!

Heck I'm so PLANET friendly now I could go Capitalist if I wanted to.  How much money would it make me?  Hm, only a pittance more.  I guess JUSTICE is important, and I lose 1 point if I ditch Green.  Oh well, we'll keep the mindworms tough and invincible.  In the excitement I forgot to kill a couple of Roze's units.  I dial her up with an acoustic modem, just to razz her.  BEEEEyong-BONG.  CSSSSSHhhhSSSSSHHhhhh.

Details you fried your own brain

you fried your own brain

I think she lost her mind somewhere.  I'm Eudaimonic and her compulsion is Thought Control.  I guess she feels really weak.  Well that's how I like my Tlaxcalans.  Helpless and dependent.  If only I could get some human sacrifices out of the deal.  Wrong game, would have to go back to Civ IV.