alpha centauri

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-06-15 11:30pm

Im starting with hive.

I rock on civ2, but havent gotten the hang of alpha yet. so understanding what most of you said may take a few hours.

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2003-06-16 12:13am

Stormbringer wrote:I created my own faction. Slanted more than the Spartans to a military mindset while still saying balanced.

Oh and use prode teams to wreak havoc with other factions. When you get away with it, framing other factions works great. I can usually roll over the other factions pretty quickly by playing them off one another like that.

Heh, I love playing the game using factions of my own creation. Create a number of factions of my own design, and intersperse them with some of the default factions and there ends up being a lot of playability.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2003-06-16 02:45am

Well here's a few gajillion SMAC custom factions for your pleasure:

http://networknode.org/

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-06-16 03:47am

bwhah, bwhah, I rule. the ruthless domination I have learned from civ 2 apply in alpha.

I won my first game

so, I load it up on citizen level. I start as hive, cuz they suit my mood at the moment. I was hoping to nerve staple people, but it didnt let me. I plant my city on the first turn, and tell it to make some scouts. technologies appear infrequently, and I tell them to focus on wealth and growth. I also go into police state mode.

so I walk around a little, and find Im on a east/west strip of land, and to the north are the spartans. I like the spartans, they are cool. so I sign treaty with them, trade tech, and trade maps. I learn colony pods, and set one where I met the spartans. as I explore, I discover my only way to expand is through my good ally the spartans.

I check my listing, and they are 3 levels below me in strength. I set up a few cities closer to them, until Im 2 spaces away from their capital. I build 3 ferrari deathmobiles, sit right next to them, and conquer their capital in one turn.

they are rather peeved.

so as my deathmobiles hunt down their last city (they had all of two), I meet with the scientists. remembering what you said about them, I make a peace treaty, and trade maps. we trade tech often. I develop cities all over.

as I kill off the spartans, I come across the u.n. troopers. my army is heading that way, and they are weaker, so I dont sign a treaty, I just go out and slaughter them. Im at around 12 cities now. thats all the continent except for scientists, to the north. I demand a city from them, and pay 300 for it. it starts developing colony pods, for further city planting north of us both.

I gather up ten or so death mobiles, break my treaty with the scientists, and conquer their 3 cities. all my cities start mass producing formers, and forests and roads spread like a virus.

I now own my continent. as my send out little boats, I come across the fundies. they declare war for some reason I dont recall, and thats all I hear from them for some decades. I hunt down little alien sprouts on my territory, find the treehuggers in my bay, and build a transport. 2 deathmobiles go on board, I go to treehugger isle inc, and take out two of their cities in maybe 4 turns.

my invasion stalls a bit, so I build up 3 more transports, empty my garrisons, and send them to treehugger land. its a quick slaughter, and I reorient my invasion fleet east, towards fundy land, I set out many more colony pods and sea colony pods, as well as formers. I jump up to maybe 30 cities.

I scout around fundy land, and find their capital, population 5. mind you, none of my cities ever topped 4, and later in the game they all started at 3. I gather my dday invasion force, 5 transports, 5 deathmobiles, and 5 artillery peices, and land outside their capital. in 2 turns, it falls. I have a few cities on my main continent make more troops, split my forces, and take a few more fundy cities on the north and south flank. more troops arrive, and I finish off the top half of their contient (they were shaped like an hourglass) and head south.

while this happening, famines and riots start occuring. I mess around with the tabs until they stop, but my money loses 30 a turn. I finish off the fundies, go back to the riots.

I discover flight, and make 3 or 4 airplanes. my scout ships find morgan, and make a peace treaty whiile I finish off fundy chick. at one point, she begged to stop attack and offered pact of servitude, but I didnt know what that was, so finished her off. morgan, good ally that he is, calls a council, and I vote 198 votes for me, and he votes 8 for him. Im elected supreme something or over.

I bring all my troops to a fundy city closest to morgan, bring about 6 transports, and deploy onto his capital. it falls, a transport of his is broken, and a periphery city suffers air raids as I move in. within a very short time, 3/4 of his cities are razed to the ground, and an army of 40 artillery peices are heading for his last 3 cities. he remains obstinate to the end, and a scout kills him.

good times.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2003-06-16 04:57am

Cool. Get SMACX (Alien Crossfire)

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2003-06-16 05:04am

StarshipTitanic wrote:Build recycling tanks sparingly as domes do that plus protect against rising sea. Also, if you're in the water build the ORP, one of my inventions: Offshore Radar Platform. It's built of:
Foil chassis
Crawler module
no armor (if you have alien crossfire, put on resonance armor)
Spec 1: Radar
Spec 2: whatever gives a defensive moral boost

This baby should withstand minor Planetmind attacks with ease if it has good morale and it extends your sensor net far off to catch any sea invasions. If you're the Gaians, then it tells you where to hunt for isles of the deep.

1) Do not listen to his advice regarding the Rec. Tanks. If you manage your ecodamage well (ie. Wait for the first pop, then go on a large Tree Farm, etc building spree. Each pop gives you another extra clean mineral, and all those green facilities built after the first clean pop give you an extra clean mineral. By late game, if you don't have 100+ minerals per base, and several dozen bases, you're doing something wrong.), you'll never need Domes, and the Rec. Tanks bonus is far too important.

2) The ORP was developed several years ago by....Vel I think it was. Get his SMAC/SMAX guide if you can. The *definitive* strat guide out there.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2003-06-16 01:41pm

1) Interesting, I never paid attention to domes.

2) That's funny, because I came up with the ORP idea a few years ago and posted it on Apolyton.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2003-06-16 02:54pm

I've actually found use for Domes. Specifically, I wield the power of the Gods through Science.

Start as the University. Immediately start down the Doctorine path, get Foil hulls. Get a base on a shoreline. Immediately spread into the oceans.

Advantage: Oceans, while subpar production without formers, are large, empty, and less likely to bump into people for a while.

Spread like wildfire, with maximum eco-unfriendliness. Get your land bases some Pressure Domes. Commence operation Sink The Bastards.

Advantage: Prebuilt sea bases when yours submerge, enemy bases without Domes vanish beneath the waves.

Cruiser hulls should come quickly, and your rising population should be dedicated to getting you what you want, including repealling the UN charter. After all, a Planetbuster ought to bring more land to the sea.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-06-17 01:10am

bhwha, bwhah. I beat specialist level.

start out as hive, researching wealth and growth. I spread out quickly, every city building 2 formers and a colony pod. 10 cities are quickly developed, and, as I explore, I find the morgan industry. they are rather submissive, weaker then I, so I gather up my death mobiles, and conquer them. their empire spreads west, so Im in an inverted L. I finish exploring a a land bridge west near my capital, and began planting a dozen more cities. it looks like I am on two bricks with lines between them. I find university to the west, and, as they are very distant, begin forming hordes of colony pods to get closer. I found sparta units to my south, along a penninsula, and had some deathmobiles hold near them so they wouldnt move. a dozen more death mobiles scoped out the university, who started friendly, but became beliigerent when I camped outside their gates. I wanted to get thrown out - their cities had blocked off my route. they just acted unhappy.

so I continue building colony ships, and I set up inside their border, pushing it back till Im 2 spaces away from their city. they demand I dont build there, I do it anyway, and they declare war. my death mobiles clear out 3 cities instantly, and I convert all my cities to building colony ships, sea colony ships, and death mobiles. the stats are 8-2-1 by that point. I begin a massive expansion into the oceans, claiming almost every available spot, as each new city makes new formers and sea colony ships.

I convert all my cities to death mobiles, and they zip along quickly into univsity. I create a wonder that means I walk on fungus at road rate, and arrive even faster. 30 mobiles go as far west as they can, cut north, and isolate his last few cities. they fall without a problem.

I have made a treaty with sparta, but they broke it for some reason I dont recall, and they set up a sea port right outside my border. I have 4 deathmobiles sit next to it, and then the hordes travel to one of my ports - the pennisula I had found them earlier on was only scouts. I have 6 mobiles arriving in The Leader's Horde every turn, and I rushed built 6 transports. they land on sparta, and quickly wipe out the capital and major cities. sparta begs for peace, and since I cant reach their colonies, I agree. I find a landbridge, where they were at war with the treehuggers, and I wipe them out too. as I explore along, I find 2-3 little colonies out in the sea from each group. I let them be, cuz their weak and I dont know how to reach them. having deathmobiles launch from the transport didnt work.

I get maps of most the world for level 5 techs, and know where believes, u.n, and tree huggers are. as I wipe out tree huggers, I have a surplus of troops,and I snap around and conquer the u.n, except for one offshore colony. riots ensue, and I use nervestaple with frequency. only one city isnt mine on this second continent, and it's believers. so I attack it and conquer, and sent ships to raid their home isle, north of my continents. with a quick turn, I set up a new deployment to the north, where 150 units reorient by railroad or transport, and begin to land. the first 3 turns, I have 8 deathmobiles isolated, rated 12-2-1. they get hurt by airplanes, but take and destroy 3 cities. more reinforcements arrive, and I finish off the isle. during this time, I disband a dozen mobiles, and have a planet buster built in one round. it launches 3 spaces, and lands on the last tree hugger isle. awesome explosion. I lose the launching point though.

sparta declares war. I rush build 2 more nukes and 2 marines. warships take out the garrisons of colonies, the marines land and take beleiever cities. I launch a nuke at the last believer and one of the sparta colonies. my rating is by now infamous, and I continue nerve stapling citizens. I discover that ships can take a city, which was not possible in civ2. hundreds of deathmobiles are still being created, and I tell them to hold. my sea colonies create the biggest navy the world had ever seen, and they slice through the last sparta and u.n. colonies.

veni, vidi, vici.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-06-17 01:14am

oh, and this game took 8 hours as opposed to 3, because they had spread to every location available (and I mean every - you should see my map, its plaid - blue cities and green ground), while in citizen they only had 4-5 cities ea.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2003-06-17 02:11am

StarshipTitanic wrote:1) Interesting, I never paid attention to domes.

2) That's funny, because I came up with the ORP idea a few years ago and posted it on Apolyton.

1) Then why did you say what you did? oO

2) If so, my apologies then, however ORP's are credited in Colony Pod and Northswordsman's Civgaming Acadamy to Vel, not to you.
http://www.civgaming.net/smac/acad_orp.shtml

Speaking of which, Talon, have you seen the Academy before? A great resource for both beginners and experienced players.
http://www.civgaming.net/smac/academy.shtml

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-06-17 02:12am

Ill check it out.

if I were to analyze my game technique, I would want to reinforce skill in air warfare and city maitenance. I know on the higher levels those are necessary.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2003-06-17 02:32am

Well, I played a game a while ago, and it was rather interesting, to say the least. (Transcend level difficulty)

I start out as Spartans on a large, uninhabited continent brimming with recources. Lucky me.

I teched, I built up bases, until the entire continent was covered in wonderful mag-tubes, boreholes, and forests. I also had a few offshore energy collectors and a few kelp farms to help sustain my costal cities. I hadn't run into a single person for about an 2 hours, and my forces were yearning for glorious combat. So I constructed about a dozen tranports, filled them with my Neutronium-armored Plasma tanks, along with a few artillery units, and headed south. A few turns later, I run into a big grouping of University sea-bases. I ally with them, and gain 2/3 of the world map. The U.N was confined to a pitifully small island in the extreme north, and had only a few bases. The Morgans had a fairly large empire based to the east, while the Believer's lay west with only 4 or 5 medium sized bases. The Hive controlled the coastline south of the Uni sea bases, and farther south lay the massive spamtastic Gaian empire. I landed my 30 or so death tanks near the main hive base and captured it without a fight. The Hive was apparently at war with the Gaians and had most of it's units on the frontlines slugging it out. I sent off more of my tanks to the nearby Hive bases and captured them also without a fight. Soon, I had control of the entire coastline, and there were only a couple of Hive outposts to the south to deal with. The Hive leader surrendered to me and offered me his servitude, and I accepted. I inched my now ungodly large armored divisions closer to the Gaian borders, when I was contacted by their leader. She asked that I remove my forces from her territory, but I spat in her face and told her to go to hell while my forces decimated one of her bases. Then all hell let loose. Out of her nearest bases came pouring out very advanced infantry units and rovers, along with 1 or 2 tanks. They were all about 1 level below my current armor-weapons level, and I outnumbered them by a slight margin. I pulled my forces closer to the artillery pieces that had lagged behind my main force, and waited. Soon, my outer shell of tanks had engaged the Gainan infantry, and LOST.

The infantry was 3 levels below my tanks in terms of weapons and armor, but then I realized they were ALL elite or commando levels, while my tanks were only vets and greenies. So I lost about 4 tanks and pulled back further. Soon my artillery was hacking away at the oncoming lines, and managed to severly weak almost 2/3 of them before they attack my tanks. My tanks cut through the group with few causualties, when I saw a HUGE group of mind worm swarms headed my way from nearby xenofungus. My tanks died a swift death. Deciding that this conflict would last a long time, I asked my Uni friends for their space tech. They gave it to me, and I happily began building 3 planet busters at one of my captured Hive bases. When all 3 were ready, I gave the Gaians one warning. They refused to give up, so away went buster #1, headed towards a thick cluster of well devloped bases at the rear of the Gaian empire. 1 turn later, all 5 of them were radioactive dirt. I contacted the Gaians again, and gave them another warning. They refused. And away went buster #2, this time to their sea bases in the east. 1 turn later, they were nothing more than vapor. I issued my ultimatum: Give up or I destroy your last bases. They refused.
And so the Gaians became an extinct race, and the rest of the game was spent beating the remaining factions into submission with constant buster strikes. Needless to say, not alot of land was left when I was done. Neither, were there alot of other people on the planet besides my own.

So, victory by conquest. Game over.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2003-06-17 02:52am

Enforcer Talen wrote:Ill check it out.

if I were to analyze my game technique, I would want to reinforce skill in air warfare and city maitenance. I know on the higher levels those are necessary.

I'd focus more on city maintence until you decide to do PBEM games. Even on the highest levels, it's not too hard to win as a hermit if you simply build defensive units for whenever someone comes knocking (And usually you'd want to pass the Global Trade Pact and be friendly anyway so to get all the lovely trade bonuses).

Also, could you perhaps post a few turn saves here for us to take a look at? University's my specialty, not Hive, but I might be able to give you a few tips.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-06-17 02:56am

how do I post turns on sdnet?

and, if they surrender when youve taken 3/4 of their cities, can you move their units?

SHODAN · Post by **SHODAN** » 2003-06-17 06:59am

SirNitram, that horrendous abusive strategy of yours should make your Netherese ancestors proud.

I am probably only AC player in the world who does not enjoy casting planet busters everywhere.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2003-06-17 07:58am

Enforcer Talen wrote:how do I post turns on sdnet?

Hmmm......seems we don't have an attachment function on these forums, so just upload it somewhere (Preferably in a zip file) and post the URL

Enforcer Talen wrote: and, if they surrender when youve taken 3/4 of their cities, can you move their units?

Nope. When you make them surrender, give them back some of their bases until they've got about the same number as you do or you've given them all back, whichever comes first. You'll benifit more from the commerce than you would from having a bunch of unproductive bases.

SHODAN, his strategy might be abusive, but it's not unknown. It's rather acceptable in fact, since most PBEM players thesedays are vulnerable to "washing" effects and flooding from having to lower land to place boreholes. There's often mad scrambles for Advanced Spaceflight for Solar Shades in the mid game when the combined eco-damage of all players starts throwing the world into chaos. If you've prepared for it with plenty of domes and don't have a reliance on Boreholes and other land improvements though, go for it. It can be a great way to catch up on opponents who'd otherwise overrun you, especially when Naval Combat is still a skill many players lack.

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2003-06-17 05:24pm

I borrewed the game off one of my brothers friends. I only beat it as the Morganites. I basicaly went through and allied with as many people as possible and started mass wars against people who didn't ally. I eventually won through conquer and then i played on and transcended as well.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2003-06-17 06:56pm

Archaic` wrote:
StarshipTitanic wrote:1) Interesting, I never paid attention to domes.

2) That's funny, because I came up with the ORP idea a few years ago and posted it on Apolyton.
1) Then why did you say what you did? oO

2) If so, my apologies then, however ORP's are credited in Colony Pod and Northswordsman's Civgaming Acadamy to Vel, not to you.
http://www. civgaming.net/smac/acad_orp.shtml

Speaking of which, Talon, have you seen the Academy before? A great resource for both beginners and experienced players.
http://www. civgaming.net/smac/academy.shtml

1) Because no thought goes into noticing that domes do two things at once while tanks don't?

2) Oh lookie, my old article. That's not "Colony Pod and Northswordsman's...", it's CGN and that's their muchly ignored SMAC section, which was previously upkept by Northswordsman. He and I left under not so friendly circumstances a while ago. I wrote the first paragraph and he, being the editor, added the rest. Here's a wee bit of proof (basically an excuse to screw around with them, not meant to be an affront to you).

http://www. civgaming.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3145

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2003-06-17 10:07pm

StarshipTitanic wrote: 1) Because no thought goes into noticing that domes do two things at once while tanks don't?

2) Oh lookie, my old article. That's not "Colony Pod and Northswordsman's...", it's CGN and that's their muchly ignored SMAC section, which was previously upkept by Northswordsman. He and I left under not so friendly circumstances a while ago. I wrote the first paragraph and he, being the editor, added the rest. Here's a wee bit of proof (basically an excuse to screw around with them, not meant to be an affront to you).

http://www. civgaming.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3145

1) And likewise, no thought goes into noticing that the benifits of building the tanks early outweigh the cost of having to build Domes later, especially when Domes usually turn out to be wasteful extravagance with how rarely you'd encounter a problem of bases being submerged.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2003-06-17 10:10pm

As the University or Cyborgs, I never had a problem with obtaining the tech I wanted.

BTW, I forgot to mention that I always played on waterworlds.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2003-06-17 10:51pm

So? That's an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach. But when the other way of doing things is demonstratably better (I assume you can do sub 2250 Transcends on Trancend, yes?), why don't change?

Only on waterworlds? Then why do you even need to build the Domes when they come free with every sea colony in the first place? oO You're not making much sense.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-06-17 11:59pm

so Im playing alpha on third easiest, and Im backed into a corner by the spartans. I develop 12 cities in the first hundred turns while fighting a long war, but they have a dozen 4-2-1 units produced already, and I just have 1. I do have 20 or so 2-1-2. but they arent surviving long. the war is bloody, with no cities being captured.

I dunno if I should restart or what.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-06-18 12:05am

SHODAN wrote:SirNitram, that horrendous abusive strategy of yours should make your Netherese ancestors proud.

I am probably only AC player in the world who does not enjoy casting planet busters everywhere.

Planet busters? I do not remember these.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-06-18 12:16am

supernukes. they are based on level 7 tech, I think, range 16 missiles, that destroy a city and all its resources. Ive annhilated 2 cities with one hit before, and expect I could do more if I was trying.