alpha centauri

[Enforcer Talen]

heh heh. Ive just played alpha alll night.

so, I achevied green economy. gaia instantly messaged me, saying they wanted my aid against university. I said sure, got the blood pact trade going, and didnt do a thing about the war. hive also messaged me, saying they wanted me to attack believers. as I was weakest of the 5 players, I agreed.

so I finish building a herd of formers and the mass transit, and start planting cities all over. recycling pods, hab complex, network node with hologram theater, children's creche, its all good. eventually I reach the top of the 'n' and see a cluster of university cities. I build up garrisons and perm defenses, which I almost never do, and they send spies every turn to blow up a facility in one of my periphery cities. no big deal.

beleivers also land troops every now and then, and promptly get wasted. in the meantime they conquer all of hive, to have control of the largest continent, in the north. hive has 2 little island cities, all to themselves.

so then I learn airpower. I quietly build 3 needlejets, a helicopter, and a jumptrooper. conveniently enough, university's capital is right off my shore. I take it out in a turn, and move foward to the next city, more needlejets coming online all the time. whenever my invasion lags, gaia sends a wave of worms to weaken the enemy, and in under 10 turns, university is toast.

so I have the left leg, bridge, and middle of the right leg of the 'n' continent, gaia with a bit on the north and 8 cities to the south. the moment university is dead, she sends a spy and steals tech from me. I cancel our brotherhood, wait for my helicopters to heal up and bring in reinforcements, and then I attack her high industry areas. half her cities and 3 wonders fall in one turn, at the cost of my invasion force. in the meantime, the cities of university I conquered and didnt care about - the ones Ill give to her for free later in the game for trade - are taken. she now has half the bridge.

she also swears a pact with believers, who send 2 dozen needlejets around and eliminate my garrisons. no troops to take them - just emptying my cities. my invasion is stalling, just short of her capital and her last wonder, and I offer a truce. she agrees, for one city of population 2. strategic locaiton, I expect.

gaia offers double trade pacts, and I support it - then I elect myself governor of the council. very nice trade expected soon. yang also calls me says lets have peace. I say sure. then gaia tells me to take him down - as she is more useful then he is, I agree.

current situation. I am unsurpassed, with an airforce ready and several waves in process. gaia has a truce, and we're entwined in territory - the map is really odd, what with surrendering cities for the truce. Im at war with yang, and the believers. I have 75 turns.

Im fairly sure I set the game for transcendence only, so I think I shall make a blood pact with gaia for whatever price, cancel my warfooting and produce a whole mess of labs, and work on research while my airforce starts ethnic cleansing the believers. land paratrooper, destroy city. very nice. Ill also want cloning bays, and then Ill really ante up my population. also - surrender half my cities to gaia, and use the trade to spur my tech.

[DocHorror]

Heh...my advice is to wipe them out, all of them...

[Enforcer Talen]

oh, I did, I did. I made a truce with gaia, the usual 16 turns thing, and spun around my entire airforce with reserves into the believers territories. they had some island cities off the left corner of my 'n', and I used them as bridges into their territory. I burned the cities afterwards, too. I dont need pansy reinforcements

I dove straight towards new jeresulem with 25 very green chaos copters, on the far west of the island, slaughtering 250,000 biblethumpers. ah, it was glorious, and the streets ran with blood. in a mere 5 turns, I had carved out a third of her territory, all of which was burned and salted.

my troops eventually ran out of strength, and I stood in the middle of the realm, one jump from new jeruselum, and some thirty units of fundies approaching - artillery, garrison troops, walkers, the works. my city was surronded on all sides, and in a glorious battle, I slaughtered them all. twas funny - I was like, oh he still has 15% health, he can attack something.

my forces were eventually ousted by some 15 interceptors which wrecked retribution on my noble airborne. all their airforce, in the center of the island. kind of a suprise for them when I brought up my second wave, in an entirely different direction.

I went straight north, using helicopters to clear the seaports, and a worm to conquest it. usually, he ate the city, too. from there I send 15 helicopters through the hive old territory, razing every city except the ones with secret projects. in 10 turns, they went from one coast to the other, slaughtering another quarter million. they had their last stand in the far west, and the movie is being sold on morgan networks. go buy it.

in the meantime, my little mindworm headed east, through all the beleivers sea colonies that were left. he was backed by all my new copters, and the seas turned red. well, more red then usual.

I paid gaia two cities to keep quiet. I was busy.

in the meantime, the darling hivers kept sending nerve gas needlejets into my territories. I must have lost 100,000 people in those raids. convenientally enough, they were between believer colonies and believer mainland, and I ate them on the way over. another quartermillion dead.

I now had 35 helicopters and 2 paratroopers. I conquered their 7 biggest cities in 2 turns, razing to the ground 5. I waited 2 turns, and brought up my last wave to finish off the believers. they died obstinate, and I burned every city to the ground. the continet looks odd - roads, mines, radar (christ, these guys had defenses. radar, bunkers, perimeter defenses, aaa, interceptor jets, commando troops; but I had numbers ), forests - but no cities. on the continent, there are no cities.

on the way back to my continent, I sunk the cities I conquered. believers and hive cities dont do much for me.

its around 2060 at this point, with gaia getting increasingly titchy. I set up my entire force outside her colonies, turned off my war machine, and began researching like mad. rush building wonders, hab complexes, labs - I got cloning bays, but only a few places topped 10 population. there were riots in a few places too. I decided, as transcedence, I wasnt going to win this one.

come 2385 - gaia does a surprise attack. Im not particularly surprised, but as I would lose 3 secret projects quickly (the ones I stole from her), and not recover them quickly, I click the retire button. 53%, thinker. I could have won a war, I think, given time, and I could have won transcendence, given time - but I had neither. so, I wrote this one off as a learning expeierence.

lessons learned - if someone offers to be a puppet, take them up on it. in retrospect, I should have kept university alive with one city, and then given the hive and believer cities to it, as well as most of the cities I stole from him. better then the use I put to them, which was death or corruption.

also, morgan. remember trade. mass atrocities and backstabs are certainly fun, but they dont keep trading partners. I had no trade the entire game, which is why I think I got cloning bays a century later then usual. also, said trade would let me build up my formers - I had maybe a dozen at the highest. red plants covered 75% of my territories even in the last turns.

finally, if you choose to fight a war, dont stop until they are dead or submissive. a powerful player with a grudge is not welcome.

[Enforcer Talen]

these mods have been recommended to me from here:http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php? ... adid=62060

your thots?

I also changed the faction modifiers a little, but here are the society modifiers. They seem to work well, for me at least. Possibly players more skilled than myself could take advantage of them in some way.

Police State ++POLICE, +SUPPORT, --EFFIC
Democratic ++EFFIC, +RESEARCH, --POLICE
Fundamentalist ++PROBE, +MORALE, --RESEARCH

Free Market ++ECONOMY, +INDUSTRY, --SUPPORT, -PLANET
Planned ++GROWTH, +SUPPORT, --ECONOMY, ---PLANET
Green ++PLANET, +MORALE, --INDUSTRY, -GROWTH

Patriotism ++MORALE, +SUPPORT, -INDUSTRY
Knowledge ++RESEARCH, +PLANET, --PROBE
Prosperity ++ECONOMY, +EFFIC, --POLICE

Cybernetic ++GROWTH, ++PLANET, ++RESEARCH, ---POLICE
Eudaimonic ++ECONOMY, ++EFFIC, ++INDUSTRY, --MORALE
Thought Control ++POLICE, ++MORALE, ++PROBE, ---RESEARCH

You'll notice that I've renamed Power to Patriotism, and Wealth to Prosperity, since not even evil people will choose to sound evil. And good people may use such options for good purposes.

Morgan vs Gaians. Two factions with diametrically opposed ways of fueling massive development. I always switch Morgan's hated trait from planned economy to green, it makes more sense in the context of what poses the biggest threat to him, makes him hate his arch-enemy more, and eases the counterproductive animosity towards planned economies, when he should be worried about factions with high planet ratings swarming his bases with mind worms rather a rivalry with communism that doesn't make as much sense on the new planet as it did for capitalists on Earth. I always change the Gaian's attitude from pacifist to erratic because it seems to be a much more effective stance for them to take, from the standpoint of them doing well with the AI.

Believers vs University. Faith vs Science. Early game vs late game. The believers often threaten to just run away with the game early on. Definately the most powerful faction early, they become less and less effective as time passes, while a University unchallenged early will usually pull ahead of everyone as time passes. I remove the Believers hatred of the Hive, since they shoud be more focused on the University since wiping them off will drastically slow the overall march of scientific discovery and make their golden age much longer. The Hive is also no more a threat than the Spartans, IMO, so they should hate both equally.

Spartans vs Hive. The militaristic dudes. I always switch the Spartan's hated faction from U.N. to Hive because they represent the more direct opposition. Both want to dominate the middle and late game militarily, so it seems to make more sense that they hate each other most of all. If one is crushed, the other will become an unrivaled military superpower in due time.

And the U.N. trying to play the Machiavellian politician. Not having a faction rivalry after my tweaks helps them here.

[Enforcer Talen]

so I started a new game, transcend level, large map. Im gaia, its 50% water, and I start on my own little continet on the north, with a hive colony pod at its bottom most tip. near the south pole wraps a large continent with university, morgan, and sparta. between us, on a small island, is believers, and to the west is another continent with un.

my basic plan is build a whole stack of forests and mines, get ccommand nexus and xenoempathy dome, and then build a horde of veteran worms for an early conquest victory. it doesnt quite work out like that.

I build 4 cities, each with 2 formers, connecting roads, making mines, planting forests in no particular pattern. I also find a tile surronded by 8 monoliths, and I plant a city there. then I put recycling tanks and the merchant exchange - the city grows very big, very quickly - it has the honor of being the best city on planet, pop10, and is my capital.

so someone else builds empath guild, and I have all the links. un is made leader of the council, and I make a peace treaty with sparta. believers, morgan, university promptly declare war, with hive and un seething.

so I build 3 rovers and a command center in my capital, 4-2-1s. they start seasoned, and walk through monoliths to head south. so they start the war at veteran.

I come across chairman burrow, population 4, and break it in one turn. hive begs a treaty, I say sure, and bring up another rover while healing.

sparta becoems my pact brother to take out morgan, and as I watch, morgan and u.n. become wondermongers, and university gets gangbanged by sparta and believers - who fight over the remenants. they trade off cities every few turns, until the population goes to 0. they are still fighting though.

in the meantime, hive is walking around in my territory. Idemand they leave, they say 'we'll show you whose territory it is!' and promptly get exterminated.

I continue colonizing my continent, 15 or so cities, 75% forest icons, roads connecting everything, and I work on building childrens creche and recycling tanks. with planned democratic economy, my goal is a popboom - by 2300 I want all my cities population 10 or so, and Im using supply trains to keep the food incoming. very useful, those.

my plan is this - I acquire airpower sometime in the next 60 turns. I have a truce with un, and believers/morgan dont land troops, so Im not having too much trouble. I send airpower to sparta, and I wipe out believers, he wipes out morgan. I then give him all beleiver cities except ones with wonders, and we go take out un,cooperative conquest.

I have around 160 turns left - if I can get airpower, Im not expecting much trouble.

[Enforcer Talen]

live, my topic, live! you shall rise agaiN!!!

so, I got air power around 2280. I developed an air force, and in 2300 I was rolling. I send air power to the spartans, my good ally, in return for all the free tech they had given me over the last two centuries. I also went knowledge priority, and sparta declared war soon after. [eddie izzard]stupid man[/eddie izzard].

so believers had set up shop, half dozen cities, on a continent right off my door post. I build a troop carrier, landed 2 deathmobiles, and hit the two nearest cities with a dozen needlejets. they fell quickly, and I used them as a launch point for more fighters. every city was building them. about a dozen squares to the west is half a dozen fundy cities which are expanding into the sea, and they have a road to my conquered places. they send troops every turn along that road, and my needlejets do bombing runs.

meanwhile, I reloaded my transport and went south, towards fundy continent. landed my deahtmobiles on a peninusla with a smaller city, and took it with deathmobiles. advanced my planes into their center, and took another city, my planes in the red. they advanced a whole load of infantry, and I pulled back to my original post. they took the center, I took it back, and the city was destroyed. we played this game again on the left flank while I gathered up more planes, and then I shattered along the right, taking 3 cities. with my new reinforcements, I sprang left, took their capital and the command nexus, and completed the circle to hold the mainland. I then slammed south, took another 3 cities, and built a new transport, the old one having been destroyed.

I also used my needlejets to hit every believer seaport in range, destroying a dozen garrison units a round, as well as their navy. my goal was to bankrupt them, and I think Im doing pretty well. I made a truce, they broke it, and I did some more attacks. I built asthetic virtues and went green/police state, to handle the war. I think its doing well. I am about to my assault on the spartan/morgan mainland, with 2 landunits backed by a good 75 needlejets. the yr is 2025, and I expect to be heading north, through the remenants of morgan and fundy, into the u.n., home of 8 wonders, in 2050.

[Enforcer Talen]

its nice when everything goes according to plan.

so I land 2 rovers on sparta/morgan land, and the borders fall back as fast as my little rovers can go. my needlejets were hitting every single target - formers, ships, cities, units out in the middle of nowhere - for a radius of 12 squares. we were hitting cities 3 rows behind the front lines, leaving 6 or 7 empty towns for rovers to move in. morgan lost half of his garrisons before my rovers finished off sparta.

all this and I had 36 squadrons left.

there was some delay at the major city and the capital of morgan - both with aerospace complexes and 2-3 aa units. I spent a dozen squadrones on each, but I took 4 wonders, so it was worth it. morgan fell the turn after that - they only have one sea town, population 3. Im ignoring it.

meanwhile, my two cities on believers secondary continent were being attacked every turn. it was getting a little antsy, with 2 squadrones running garrison and fighting a dozen artillery peices and a spy running towards me. every turn. with the additional bonus of whatever un dropped on me, I was hard pressed for a bit.

so, I rerouted a dozen squadrones there, instead of to the sparta continent. I was kicking ass, and the war would be over by the time they got there. so they went to the next objective - new new jeresulem. 15 little squadrones cleared all the troops outside the cities, and then next round cleared 4 garrisons. my rush build jump shock troop 13-5-1 took them all, and my needlejets followed up. turn after that, I took the remaining 3 land fundy cities. the replay is amusing - two continents become green over the course of 5 turns.

so, the yr is 2038. Ive gone power and cancelled research, have something like a hundred cities, and have riots in 10 of them. I earn 100 gold a turn, and have luxuries at 30%. plan of the moment - get a submissive ally from morgan and beleivers, and gather all my forces off of u.n. continent. I cheated to see what they had - its going to be a bitch. think modern japan.
10 or so cities, population 6 to 10. roads everywhere, and 4 major cities with aerospace complexes and 5+ troops each. one of those major cities is my landing point - the other 3 have 3 wonders each. I get this island, Ill be unsurpassed, no doubt about it.

I plan on rush building a shard needlejet, and upgrading all my planes. 50 13-3-12s will ruin anyones day.

[Exonerate]

I played a little... University. Started researching for early mil, and managed to force my opponents out of the continent I was residing on. Then I proceeded to build lots of bases, roads, and just sat and research.

I got Anti-grav Drop singularity tanks, Gravships, coupled with planet busters and infanty with drop and the bypass base defense thing... First wave in was Gravships, took out the sensors, then the tanks and infantry dropped in and conquered all. Planet Buster used just for the fun of it.

[Enforcer Talen]

what are gravships? are they only in the expansion?

[Exonerate]

Err, no, I have non-expansion... I think Gravship was the term. It's not the Needlejet or Helicopter...

[Enforcer Talen]

ja, its in the gurps book, but Ive never built them. when I get that high tech, Im going for transcendence and the war is over.

[Sarevok]

Alpha Centauri is an old game, you still play it? Anyway I enjoyed this game immensly and hope you have as much fun as I did.

[Enforcer Talen]

yeah, its a lot of fun. I want to beat it on transcend ^^

[phongn]

A lot of people still play SMAC - hell, on the ArsTechnica forums they're thinking of starting a PBEM game once again.