turns of ACT004 game of Apolyton SMAC tournament - Page 10

Blunderdog · March 29, 2000, 17:47

Turn is off to the Hive.

Garth Vader · March 29, 2000, 19:52

Turn to Morgan

TigToad · March 30, 2000, 01:34

Turn is off to the Pk... A morgan statement made today proudly announced the going of an entire year without losing a city. Certainly, according to Morgan officials, this is the beginning of something grand.

Tig

Blunderdog · March 30, 2000, 03:10

Turn back to my new next-door neighbor, the Hive. When's the barbeque?

EternalSpark · March 30, 2000, 18:09

I just wanna say that reading these posts convinced me to start playing PBEM

Garth Vader · March 30, 2000, 20:33

Turn to Morgan

Wow, I am impressed that our posts didn't turn you away!

--
Hive official Statement

Morgan's remaining troops were decimated today. Our intelligence indicates he has only 3 military units left and one former. The path to his southern continent cities is now wide open.

Although our new land bridge to the PK continent may look like a prelude to an invasion it is in fact only to allow native life forms more room to frolic in their natural habitat. The rumors that you might have heard about a new military operation possibly named Operation Peoples Glory are obviously unfounded.

TigToad · March 30, 2000, 20:41

Yes, but that is one very militant former...

CEO Tig... who is almost certainly not going to lose ALL his cities next turn...

Blunderdog · March 30, 2000, 22:52

Turn to Hive.

The Peacekeepers don't mind frolicking mind worms, but we wonder if they wouldn't prefer some nice Hive hemispheres. We kind of like ours.

Garth Vader · March 31, 2000, 20:59

Turn to Morgan

--
Hive Official Report

After being carefully kept secret the Military announced the start of Operation Peoples Glory today. Supported by waves of HIAF bombers elite Hive minions seized the first Peacekeeper base despite plentiful resistance. Followed by a wave of terraformers the Hive promises to bring civility, infrastructure and purpose to the desperate populance.

In other news the remanants of the Morgan southern continental military were finished off and one base was destroyed in the fighting, sabotaged by the fanatical former defenders.

Blunderdog · April 2, 2000, 16:24

Turn is back to the Hive. Sorry for the delay, but I managed to become too ill to turn on a computer.

Garth Vader · April 2, 2000, 22:43

Turn to Morgan

--
Hive Official Statement

With the discovery of MMI slated for next turn it will be Hive official policy to persue a diplomatic victory unless their is a desire among my opponents to fight to extinction.

TigToad · April 3, 2000, 03:44

Of course we will fight to extinction! (the longer we fight, the lower your score, the better chance I have of beating you in some future tie breaker). That and I'm just that stubborn.

Tig

Blunderdog · April 4, 2000, 02:08

Turn sent to Hive. Ouch.

Garth Vader · April 4, 2000, 21:51

Turn to Morgan
--

Hive Official Statement

Due to input from our foes we have decided against voting ourselves in as victor, despite our current 78% approval rating. We shall instead eliminate all enemy resistance. To that end 2 more PK cities were captured by our loyal ground minions.

There was previous interest in discussing our game plans after the game and what went right/wrong. If there is still such interest I will release the Hive Intelligence Service after action report.

TigToad · April 5, 2000, 02:50

Um... I can sum up what went wrong in a couple words..lousy tech choices combined with not having enough probe teams. I was never getting the options to research towards air power and my probing was poor. That combined with your awesome rover rush which became unbeatable as soon as you had air power -- I still don't have it.

My one city still lives on..viva morgan.

Blunderdog · April 5, 2000, 16:38

Turn on to Hive.

Yes, I'm very interested in seeing the Hive intelligence files.

Garth Vader · April 5, 2000, 19:45

Turn to Morgan. Your turns must be fast now.

I will email my intelligence files to you, Blunderdog, today or tomorrow.

TigToad · April 6, 2000, 01:53

I wouldn't mind seeing the files as well... sigh.

Let it be known that in 2177 CEO Tig took his own life rather than let those Hive scum infiltrate their last settlement.

It was a great game, thanks for playing..Viva Peacekeepers!

Tig

Enigma · April 6, 2000, 18:32

I have been lurking for most of this game and I would like to say congrads, guys, for finishing it and making it last so long!

Blunderdog · April 6, 2000, 23:26

Turn is sent to the Hive.

Sad to say, the Peacekeepers must lay down their arms (both of them!). Air Power is but a dream now, and all but one of our bases will fall or disappear next turn.

Garth Vader · April 7, 2000, 00:34

Turn to PK.

I initiated the vote. I will email Tau Ceti tomorrow about the game result.

Your prediction is close, there are still two bases, that darn southern base is tough to get to!

TigToad · April 7, 2000, 02:24

I figured I would just post this here instead of in my reply to the Hive since there appear to be quite a few lurkers to our game. For those that are confused this is in response to the Hive detailing their battle plans... you should get the jist of what he was after by my tone...

Well, its only fair to share my idea now.. eh? I offered a treaty to the Peacekeepers on turn 2. The idea was that he and I should build up a significant tech lead and then take you out of the game via military and probes before you had the tech to hurt us. I figured you were going to wait for air power to attack, so I had only just started my build up when you stole those techs from me. As for my tech lead it was substantial, as you found out. I had 5 techs on you, impact, tree farms, wealth and ecological engineering! Those are all good techs in this game. I was constantly thwarted on my beeline to air power even though the Peacekeepers and myself were coordinating our research towards that end. I think I only ended up providing a single tech towards air power the rest were all done by the Peacekeepers because I just couldn't get the tech draw. I even twice aborted my current line of research to go for something else and both times got different, not useful options. The key was I never saw Synth Fossil Fuels come up, ever.

Besides that, the real part of my plan was to hit you very early. I had secrets of the human brain first, which let me snag Free market.. my research was then at like every 3-4 turns. I was soon running wealth and making over 80 energy a turn, buying infrasturcture like mad. (I ended up selling off quite a few structures later to pay for the war effort). My initial goal was the Empath Guild if I failed to get the Weather Paradigm.. I actually had to slow down my building of my secret project to insure that I didn't complete it.. Especially after I had probe foils already mapped your island and saw you had a probe in every base.. I attacked several times with probes and always ended up on the raw end of it (right after you declared vendetta). Pity.

The real part of my plan to fall under was my relationship with the Peacekeepers. I don't think he took me seriously when I suggested early that we needed to build a military to take you out while your tech infrastructure was weak (I asked him about 6 times in email when he'd be ready to attack)... by the time you attacked me, I told him I could hold you off about 10 turns but I needed him to launch an attack against you. Judging from the diplomacy in here I take it he threw about three rovers at you and gave me one rover for my defense. I was astounded I held you off as long as I did... 1 on 1.. Morgan can't beat the Hive with similar weapons. Though how you were cutting through my citizens defense force plasma steel garrisons with impact rovers I still haven't figured out. I attacked a few of your rovers, but it usually was a wash, I'd nail one or two of yours then lose mine. When you attacked first you probed my first base out from under me.. (ouch that hurt). I went fundy and green.. even snagged a few native life which I used incorrectly (I thought for some reason when I disembarked the boat into fungus I'd still have 2/3rds of a move left to attack..instead I got nailed sitting right next to you).

In the end, you simply out played me. I was very happy with my position up until you probed out my base. I had Citizen's Defense, Empath Guild and the (Which other one, HGP?). If there is one thing I learned in this game and my game against Zso and Fist, the Empath guild cannot be overrated in this tournament format. The votes don't mean much, but the automatic infiltrator does, ESPECIALLY if you are trying to keep the peace.

Now, one point you had made earlier was you being confused as to why I gave you a free tech.. first off I knew i had a large tech lead on you. Second the tech I gave you was nice but not vital to the game, finally I realized you were starting to mobilize or would be soon and my attack was not going to happen in time. I figured I had a good chance to mount a successful attack if you went at the PK first.. so was just trying to let you believe you could trust me not to attack you. It was a bribe that served no purpose in the end. Glad it at least confused you

Questions from the peanut gallery?

Tig

EternalSpark · April 7, 2000, 21:06

Well, I lurked here, and basically, I think it came down to one fact...

You had the Hive, and against them, 2 factions that usually play peacefull. Honestly, I think the game would have been more interesting if there was another momentum faction in the mix... if the Hive played their cards right, (oh boy did they), not even a PK/Morgan Alliance could stop them. But if TigToad was the Spartans, that would have been a more interesting game to say the least..

I think part of the situation at first, which progressed the game along quicker, was that probe operation that started the Morgan/Hive war... if the Hive guy (Vader, right?) knew it would immediately be a vendetta, would he have sent it there?

Tigtoad, I don't know your game, at all, but I'm wondering - how many conquer techs did you have as the Hive/Morgan war start? Because in your "in character" posts, you made it seem that you were going pretty peacefull tech-wise before the probe team hit. Maybe if you started building up for the war earlier, you might have had a better time defending... of course, I'm really not an expert and all, and I could be wrong, but I figure, if the Hive is on Planet, you better damn build as many units as you can PDQ.

I said it before but I'd like to say it again - this thread, with the members using "in character" posts, really convinced me to play in the tourny... of course, I have reason to think the Difficulty might be raised, which means I'm screwed..

Great game, for the players, and us lurkers.

TigToad · April 8, 2000, 02:53

My conquer tech levels were equal to the Hive or better at the start of the war.. My biggest tactical mistake was a lack of probe teams as defense. I had about 7 probes for like 15 bases, I should have had 20 or 30. My military wasn't really built up, but I wasn't worried about it as I had 500 energy on stock and at least a 1/2/1 or more in every base. I had like 2 4/1/2's just in case.. my biggest problem came from his probe teams though, not from his military.

Tig

TigToad · April 8, 2000, 13:15

Of course i knew it was coming. I'm not really stupid. We'd both had an earthquake and my land mass was connected to the center bridge... he wsa only one raise from touching me. I'd left all of the fungus I could between me and him to slow him down, planted several sensors and forested the rest of the area so he couldn't speed through. I had some military units, but he was beating my probe teams. He probed out my best border base after killing its probe team.. then i just got hosed from there. It was a pretty good fight, I figured to hold him off about 10 turns, and it took him closer to 20.

Garth Vader · April 8, 2000, 16:52

When my land bridge was completed I had 6 impact rovers and about 5 probe teams ready to move that turn and a second wave a turn or two behine it. I moved into the 4 squares of fungus that turn. He took out one square of units on his turn (a rover and a probe). I took his first base next turn (I didn't probe that base, but I had already mind probed a southern continent base of his). My second wave of about 5 rovers 3 probes were coming in about then too. His second base was destroyed in combat, severing the road link to the rest of his empire.

If the road link hadn't been severed I could have done much better at that time. After that, if I moved a unit into the forest or fungus it would get killed, I couldn't break through until my formers were done blasting through the fungus and linking the roads. During this time the CDF and empath guild were built by Morgan. He took the city on his continent back, and I took it again. When I researched SFfuels I started building missile rovers.

He took back the southern continent city shortly before I got air power, and stole sffuels before buying the city. I rushed my first 2 6x jets with artifacts. I got VERY lucky in the game with respect to artifacts, I found 9 on my home island. At about the same time I finished my road and my first missile rovers were appearing on the front lines. The next city was destroyed by gas (Impact weapons have a problem taking out a good defender with CDF and a sensor, but not an X missile bomber!) and I moved up the road near his headquarters, covering my force with a bomber. The first 4 turns after I got airpower I built 2 bombers per turn. I then used a combined bomber/rover force to take his headquarters and the base with the empath guild. Spent a turn refuelling bombers and healing ground units and then took three more cities thus eliminating most continental resistance.

To answer the comment on the CDF, I had the command nexus, Morgan was running wealth. A vetern missile rover will take out a very green plasma defender even with perimiter defence.

To get tech parity I probed each base for a tech after I killed all the defending units.

I had a city in the jungle on the north continent. The PK's had one city on each polar continent. Morgan built 4? cities on the southern continent and one sea base near the southern continent. I started our war by stealing a base on the southern continent. My intention was to start the war with my land bridge assault, but his probe team was about to be build on the south and our relations had deteriorated so I thought what the hell, lets start 2 turns early!

Enigma · April 9, 2000, 00:05

I am quite surprised that his ground invasion was successful if you had the CDF. How did your production and empire wide industry compare? I would say that probes are always important as Morgan and if you have probes and a few good garrisons then a few Impact rovers would not stand a chance.

How much expanding was going on to the N and S continents?

Oh and also I had the impression the Garth built a landbridge into Tig territory. Didn't you see this coming? You should try to keep 1 or 2 units on that long island between your islands so you know if any major former action is goign on.
[This message has been edited by Enigma (edited April 08, 2000).]

Blunderdog · April 9, 2000, 04:00

OK, I played the last turn, but the game doesn't give me an option to save or anything, since I had lost I suppose.

Going back to the Morgan alliance, it was not so much a matter of me not taking the Hive's threat seriously, but of me not building enough sea transports to be of any real help. Making land bridges was not an option; I didn't have the tech. It was just a hole in my production, compounded by the fact that I didn't make as many coastal bases as usual (defending against foil probes). And when I finally did have some transports, I decided I needed to get something to the poles asap. Anyway, pure foolishness.

Once the shooting got started, I wound up mostly being a spectator. Again, a decent fleet of transports would have helped (duh).

TigToad · April 9, 2000, 04:31

Wow..interesting view point..not building coastal bases to better defend against foil probes..where as I prefer to build maximum coastal bases so I have a wide variety of bases to build foil probes at..heh.

Tig