ete's AAR: Powergaming - coming August 2013

[ete]

Everyone seems to be doing AARs these days, and today I was mulling over my next game, and decided I'd probably do an AAR for it.

I'll be playing on Transcend, and all of my opponents will be laughably overpowered factions. My faction will likely be powerful, but significantly weaker than that of my foes. I'll also use faction editor to make a nice map and give certain SPs to foes.

Current factions I'm considering including:
Roze - Techshare 1, so always at least equal top in tech, Empath Guild
I like the idea of having someone who'll always be able to match or beat my technology. If there's a coalition against me which she's on at any point, I'll be fighting an uphill battle.
Uni Sigma's Technocrat Foundation - Starting with VW, HSA, Supercollider, and maybe Longevity Vaccine
I wanted a hardcore researcher to power Roze. This should work well with some buffs.
Hive - Starting with the Cloning Vats. May be totally broken.
Heard it mentioned once as a potential challenge in SP and want to see how this goes.
Usurpers - Buffed attacking bonus, maybe 200%. Some other bonus?
Mostly for story purposes, also one of the more threatening normal factions.
Annihilators - Based on the AntiMind, but bent on annihilating all sentient life including Planet. Massive bonuses everywhere.
Basically the Big Bad of the game, head and shoulders above the others in at least direct combat.
JarlWolf' Crimson Comrades - Starting with The Command Nexus and The Cyborg Factory.
Partly because I like them, partly because they fit the story, and partly so there'd be one of Jarl's factions too.

And my faction. Originally I was thinking of playing the AntiMind, and making this game entirely filled with monsters, but I'm loathe to use a faction with such harsh builder penalties in a game against so many extremely powerful opponents, there's no way I can rush them all with worms and after the early game (nothing beats AntiMind early game) it becomes a whole lot less powerful. Perhaps that's a good thing, more of a challenge.

I'm open to suggestions here, but remember the weakest opposing faction is likely the Usurpers with their offensive bonus quadrupled, and the strongest will be a juggernaut as close to the Supah Newbs as a cannon faction in power (unless CV from the start Hive turns out to be totally insanely broken, which it may), so don't make me play it as the Cult or some faction without a significant advantage.

My general plan is to have Roze on a nice island by herself separated from the Annihilators by a thin stretch of water, maybe with a small land bridge.. actually, screw it, have a sketch:

[Buster's Uncle]

Now, as far as overkill factions go, I Have No Name did some playtesting, and claimed the ScotsN00bs put the SupaNewbs to shame.  He implied that the Scots just can't be beaten -  EarthMichael take note.

I'm looking forward to this.

[JarlWolf]

Comrades are fine, but if you really want a militaristic challenge go for the Valhallans. They have 4+ Morale and probe bonuses and are murderous early game, or if they match tech with you.

[Sigma]

Wow this is gonna be awesome. Glad to see one of my factions show up in there. I better get cracking on the graphics for the Technocrats!

In addition to boosting their research you should also switch their Robust Efficiency back to an Immunity like I originally had it. That way they can run Planned without cutting into their research funding.

[ete]

Oh, and the prestory plan is basically:

All normal factions land, plus aliens. They devlop and war for some time, then Caretakers create AntiMind in captivity to try and give Planet a defender, then release it in a last ditch attempt to survive against Usurpers. It turns on everyone, but is fought back by Usurpers. Usurpers develop the technology used to make the AntiMind, and start killing off human factions. Comrades are tough so hand on, Roze runs away, Yang is captured, almost everyone else wiped out (other than the Techs, not figured that out yet, maybe they had previously surrendered to the Usurpers to develop tech for them?). Roze hacks into their systems and frees their experiment, which turns out to be absurdly deadly and summons a massive surge of Native activity overwhelming most bases and knocking the Usurpers almost back to the stone age. Yang escapes in the chaos and steals plans for cloning technology, which he uses to found a new colony off in the ruins of old human factions. The Annihilators (as the escaped experiment is now known) is fought back somewhat by the Planetmind and loses its near total control over natives, making it a slightly more manageable force, and prepares itself.

There will be some ready terraforming in relevant places to help the AI/fit the backstory.

Reasons why each faction is weak at the start of the game:
Roze - Fled as her faction was mostly destroyed by Usurpers.
Comrades - Fought a long and bitter gorilla war with the Usurpers at the height of their power.
Yang - Was beaten and captured, has to rebuild pretty much from scratch with only a few men, but has cloning tech.
Usurpers - Took the brunt of the Annihilator's initial attack, summoning most of the Native life on Planet. Only survived in scattered pockets due to the Native life scattering as Planet fought the Annihlator's control.
Annihilators - Lost control of almost all forces due to Planet's intervention.
AntiMind - Lost control of almost all forces to the Annihlator in the days after its released, killing off almost all human slaves.
Techs - Weakened by war with Usurpers, but partly recovered during the peace. Usurpers installed faildeadly systems in their bases, which were triggered as Usurper bases were destroyed, decimating their population and technology.

@BU: Unbeatable factions, maybe another time, or in a game I'm not AARing. I may well take that challenge, to beat the ScotsNewbs, but not yet and I'd use some other powerful but less crazy faction.

@JarlWolf: The Comrades I think fit the story better, and I like them more as a faction. I'll be giving the Comrades bonuses not far behind them to keep up with the competition (justification: Long war with Usurpers=lots of extra training).

@Sigma: Okay, looking forward to it. And yep, good idea.

[ete]

Oh, and I'll likely not be going into massive detail/using huge numbers of screenshots, I'll probably write about most events without pictures, and update the map every so often or report on major events.

[Buster's Uncle]

That would have the advantage of avoiding the wait for pictures to load as the reader gets towards the bottom of a page, which can get pretty hard to take.

[ete]

aaaand I may play with full map visible thanks to the AntiMind's connection with fungus around the Planet. This would let me report on the other wars before I get far in, and give a better idea of what I'm up against. It's also be an advantage, but probably not a huge one.

Thoughts?

[Buster's Uncle]

From the perspective of what's most entertaining to read?  Being able to at least see bases come and go, and switch factions, may well be the way to go, at least early on.  It's not like that would eliminate all mystery, short of starting with infiltration on everyone.

[ete]

I'll need some graphics for the Annihlators too, something native looking and intimidating. Maybe more out and out evil than other native structures, since they're pretty much sentient life's worst nightmare. Worms are referred to as while blood cells of Planet by the game at one point, bent on eliminating all non-assimilated sentient life. These are a form of those, but directed towards all life, including Planet itself. A cancer empowered by progenitor technology, which would spread to other planets once this one is devoured.

Not urgent for the graphics mind, I won't start until August 3rd or later.

[Buster's Uncle]

Hmm.  You're the one who has the best idea of what you prefer.  Googling up some pictures that are at least in the direction you want might help get an artist inspired...

[ete]

How about using the Locusts of Chrion picture (with some modifications) for diplomacy?

[Green1]

Comrades are fine, but if you really want a militaristic challenge go for the Valhallans. They have 4+ Morale and probe bonuses and are murderous early game, or if they match tech with you.

I agree. They will do well. In test games, the Comrades are worse (as far as good) than Sparta. they just made a mistake of starting next to a player who is a Miriam specialist

[Green1]

I'll need some graphics for the Annihlators too, something native looking and intimidating. Maybe more out and out evil than other native structures, since they're pretty much sentient life's worst nightmare. Worms are referred to as while blood cells of Planet by the game at one point, bent on eliminating all non-assimilated sentient life. These are a form of those, but directed towards all life, including Planet itself. A cancer empowered by progenitor technology, which would spread to other planets once this one is devoured.

Not urgent for the graphics mind, I won't start until August 3rd or later.

As you may have noticed, I am looking for Alien factions that are good. I will be watching...

[Buster's Uncle]

How about using the Locusts of Chrion picture (with some modifications) for diplomacy?

I'll look into it - if that doesn't seem feasible, would some sort of creepy worm-prog mashup work?