How much do you devote to miliary production?

[Darius]

if the AI is provoked, it will turn from 50-100 percent of it's build queues into military production, which isn't good military strategy! -Smack

I guess I'm like the AI in this respect. When I get into a war, I want to quickly produce an overwhelming force. As I tend to have a relatively small number of bases, I sometimes use 100% of my bases for military production, only switching to drone control facilities when absolutely necessary.

Recently I've started thinking that maybe this is not the best strategy, as by the end of the war I tend to lag in the more "builder"-oriented infrastructure, including SPs. Then yesterday I saw Smack's post quoted above, which seems to confirm my fear. So I would like to see what everyone else thinks about this.

Darius

[WhiteElephants]

I think that if you have your neighbors infiltrated and occassionally build and upgrade units you won't be caught with your pants down and therefore won't have to switch every base to building military units. As you also mentioned, you don't build very many bases, which inevitably means you don't have a very large military. In a war against the AI if you establish a well secured defense they will tend to smash their units against it time and time again losing several units in the process to a relatively small number of yours, you might not even lose one. Of course, a human opponent isn't going to be this simple and will likely attack you fast and furious at a weak point and hope to bowl over you before you have any real chance to convert all bases to military units and counter attack.

So, what I mean to say is: I don't want to convert all my production to military units unless I absolutely have to and I feel there as ways to go about a "builder" strategy without reverting to this type of last ditch effort defense.

[Earwicker]

Depends on a lot of things:

Which faction are you? Are you a builder who has been neglecting your military or is your fighting force already pretty robust? Were your SE choices not supporting good morale? Did you not research equivalent weapons to your foe? Have you prototyped them? Who is attacking you? More than one enemy at a time? How far away?

For the almost-inevitable event of a vendetta out of the blue, it pays to keep your military current. Establish one or two bases at most for prototypes and keep them busy. Use cash to upgrade units as needed.

Still, I frequently receive with equanimity the word that an AI has declared vendetta. If they don't pose an immediate threat, then finishing the latest SP might be much more important than going out and kicking around an enemy. How are your finances? Get some probes (land and sea) ready to start mind-controlling enemy invaders: you might not even have to build anything!

Use probe teams to turn the vendetta into your advantage. It's war: send the foil probes over and steal techs and money. Tie up his resources in a pointless conflict while you pursue other goals.

Sure, if you smell the enemy close you might change a couple of bases over to units for a while but not all of them, unless you're very weak by comparison. Adjust production as necessary, of course -- but remember that doing so can let you get behind.

[Avenoct]

Yeah, that was kind of a blanket statement wasn't it?

Also, keep in mind, I was talking about the AI. But this has really different effects for AI and human players at different points of the game. Also, keep in mind for the examples below, I'm talking about AI factions that are focused ordinarily on growth and infrastructure.

1. Early Game: AI: AI has 3 bases, no current Colony Pods, and One former. It gets attacked. It wasnt working on much, so switching to 2 extra 1-2-1's and a 2-1-2 isn't a minerals question. It takes 10 turns to get these units finished and in the field. The other factions have all made a CP, another former, and have started a rec tanks. Now the units are done for the 'Defender' AI. As these are it's second military unit, some mineral production is going to be lost in their home bases for the former, and any additional units. So it trudges these units along the threat axis, and, get's clobberred, or the enemy gives in to a truce. Either way, it was an overreaction or too little too late. This faction is way behind.

2. Early Game, Human: Same thing really, but at least you might use these units as garrisons at new bases, rehoming them to balance the mineral problem.

3. Early-Mid Game, AI: AI has 6 bases, working on Net Node, 2 Secret Projects, a CP, a Former, and a Garrison. War starts, and production changes to (4) 4-1-2's and (2) 1-3-1's. Three of these are done immediately, at the bases that were working on the SP's and the Node, but now they have mineral-support costs. The SP was going to take 31 more turns, now its going to take 51 (ie never get done). As the war invariably ends, these units sit around home base, eating up support. The base that was working on it's own garrison sends that garrison off to war and begins another, only to get wiped out by a worm. The war, in the best case, ends early, but if it just becomes an endless attrition, the AI continues to pump out units and ends in mineral deadlock. The other factions get all the SP's, get nice terraforming and infrastructure, and make great enemies in the late game.

4. Early-Mid Game, Human: 6 bases, all working on crawlers. Human rush-finishes 3 of these, switches to (3) 4-1-2's at those bases, sneaks up and takes out an important offending faction base. That faction surrenders, is given the base back, and some tech. The other 3 crawlers get done, infrastructure resumes. Or, if you're really getting pounded, yes, you switch all 6 to defenders and counter-attackers, but you make darn sure you cripple the enemy inside of 10 turns or so (relative to the map size). Further, you use the surviving veteran units as border patrols, pod-poppers. You might disband or re-home the units that didn't see battle. In general, your minerals get back to normal asap.

5. Mid-Late Game, AI: AI has 12 bases, all producing 10-30 minerals a turn (factories). It's never been in a war, other than a few sniping battles or to steal tech. There's a couple garrisons in each base. Ruh roh, war! All 12 turn to building weird units: mindworms, even though negative planet rating and no biolabs, missiles, even though bad cost/damage ratio, some needlejets, and a garrison or two. These get finished, but the war isn't over, so it builds some more, tossing in an IOD, a chopper, and starting on a PB. If the war doesn't end soon, this faction is going to cripple itself, as above. But, if the enemy is closeby and if the AI get's lucky, it wins the war with a ton of units built fairly quickly. Now at peace, it switches back to infrastructure, which it still has decent minerals for.

6. Mid-Late Game, human: Two bases turn to building morale-rich hovertank shells. These are upgraded to something silly like 13-4-3 Elite AAA Hovertanks. Two choppers are dispatched from their garrison positions. Five turns later, the battle is over...etc.

That darn silly AI,

Smack

[heretk]

In my case, the style of military buildup it's quality over quantity. I avoid conflict in the early stages of a game, devoting resources to expansion and infrastucture.

So, when war (inevitably) breaks out, I quickly produce burly units like armored choppers (love those multiple attacks) and elite drop probe teams. With a core army of these mixed units, a land war is easy. Just leapfrog from enemy city to city. Make sure you don't leave any behind you though!

Crucial to this approach is a strong garrsion force in your border cities. Garrison and Sentinel units are cheap and quick to build. So in the off chance your advance force gets wiped out, your enemy cannot mount a successful counterattack.

I always play with the "spoils of war" option on. Being able to steal (or lose) technology through conquest is a great motivator for exciting military conflicts.