In the beginning, . . . there was Yang . . .

[johndmuller]

Recently, I've seen a lot of the good Chairman and had some fairly diverse experiences in the early part of the game. In PBEM games in particular, you get to dwell on the early part of the game quite a bit, especially if the game turns get to going slowly.

Since so little seems to be happening, there is a tendency to look at the details a little closer, like counting down the number of turns til the next breakthrough (and noticing if the tech cost changes), trying out different energy allocations, figuring out whether to build a CP or a Scout, watching your meager cash balance.

With Yang, the matter of that -1 energy in each base seems like a really big deal; if you don't have a river nearby, you might not be producing any energy at all! No energy = No Labs AND No Econ! That means No Money and No Research either. It makes it really hard to get the tech to build formers, recycling tanks, energy banks, crawlers or anything else to help with the energy shortage; it also makes rush building a luxury too. No wonder the Chairman is Seething all the time! Once you get going, 1 energy per base isn't that big a deal, but at the beginning it sure is.

There are also other considerations, not necessarily unique, to being Yang, like only being able to have one worker at each base at transcend (2 with a police unit) without drone troubles until you can get some of those techs and facilities that you can't afford. Of course, there are good things too, like the perimeter defenses and being able to run Police/Planned without the efficiency penalties (once you can save up 40 or 80 ECs) and being generally considered dangerous by the other players, but it seems that it is harder to get going at the beginning with the Chairman than with most, if not all, of the others. I'm sure I have left out some of his plusses and minuses as well, like the Industry bonus and the Demo prohibition.

So I was wondering what if any special strategies you all might have when it comes to getting started when you are Chairman Yang? Do you spend a lot of time looking around for the perfect base sites so you can get the most energy even at the cost of wasting time? Do you short out other production just to get energy - like putting a worker on a energy special even if it causes a base to have pop stagnation? Do you just keep on making CP's and Scouts til you run into someone else? Do you find the nearest neighbor and shake them down? Do you go to pods and keep reloading the game until you get a big cash prize?

What is it that works for you and the Chairman, . . . in the beginning?

[Hydro]

Johndmuller,

My strategy with Yang in the beginning is simple: built LOTS of bases. Don't worry too much about the perfect spot - just plop them down so there is a little distance between them. Every turn you spend moving is one less turn your base will have to harvest resources, which in the beginning will be primarily minerals, and to grow. Eventually you will have ICSed to control lots of territory (since you may not have much else to do if your tech is poor and there are no facilities to build), and your inner bases will have some tech so they can build facilities. ICS is a natural when you have a free perimeter defense - play turtle until you are ready. If you are worried about tech then suck up to someone who has it and beg/trade/steal (or is that 'steel' - hehe) the tech you need. If you are short of cash energy then build units to plow into the fungus, kick up mindworms, and collect the pearls (exploring is also a great way to explore, meet new friends, and help them to understand the true wisdom of selflessness). Don't play the Hive like the UoP. Your tech rate will be poor early on, but capitalize on your advantages, which are growth and building. The Hive can be a terrific hybrid or a momentum faction - it depends on the circumstances you are in and how you want to play it.

Hydro

[Sarxis]

This seems to be the consensus on how to play Yang. He is very capable of managing large populations of people, and to get the Hive up and running, the best way to do this is to start ICSing Chiron like there was no tomorrow.

Earlier conquest can also work to Yang's advantage, since he will be able to control (via Police State and garrisons) drone uprisings. And once he is able to build perimeter defenses, counter attacking him is nigh impossible in the early game with the free 'walls' he gets.

But definately build many Hive bases and get their populations up as soon as possible.

[Blake]

Hive success stems around 3 things:
Bases
Conquest
Libarians

The more of each you can get, the better


Thankfully the HQ comes with +1 energy, so the Hive HQ has 1 energy, by default this goes to research. Other factions HQ's get 2 energy, which is split between labs and econ (1 each). So the hive gets just as much research out of the HQ base as others. However other factions then plop down the 2nd base and get twice the tech rate.
You'll still be getting to cent.eco before Miriam and Domai.

You should always choose Cent.Eco as your first tech.... then do everything in your power to get the WP, including pod-booming a base to size 4 to build the WP (as yang you just need 3 scout patrols for drone control in this base), also cashing in formers/probes from nearby bases if you think the production rate of the size-4 base wont cut it. Spare no expense to get the WP. You have +1 industry on your side.

The WP is used to build condensors and these feed several specialists bases, optionally using pod-booming, while this is going on the fringe bases continue pumping out colony pods and formers. Once you run out of expansion room send colony pods back to the interior for pod-booming. Or, if you run into a border pump out infantry at the border bases.
You should bee-line to Ind.Auto, starting with plan.nets so you can use planned and put some libarians to work.
Sidenote - you have heaps of support, send out scout patrols to troll for worms and get some much needed cash for the SE switches to Police and Planned.

In the event you fail to get the WP, the same but slower, grab the CN instead. Still head for IndAuto (maybe get Impact weapons first). Beat the snot out of anyone which starts next to you. Once you get to ind.Auto wealth removes the -1 energy per base penalty.

[Avenoct]

Excellent strategies posted so far, and I agree with all of them. Yang is especially well suited to specialists because he has such handy drone control (efficiency, police). I think the Hive is one of the most powerful, least flexible factions out there, which makes him perfect for challenging games that go against his nature. Despite my role in recent succession games, I love building, and the Chairman makes for an excellent ICS builder challenge. Try playing Yang on a Huge map with Tech stag or with no building of offensive units other than probes. On small maps its just impossible to resist crushing one or two neighbors early. I think Yang was probably the first faction to convince me how valuable vassal states can be.

-Smack

[bobyk464]

So, here's where I've gone wrong. I've never done well as Yang because early on I'm struggling with finding good base locations and then worrying about infrastructural build, rather than simply expanding like mad in any which-way. By not playing into the faction's natural strengths, I let everyone else get way ahead of me. So this is my contribution here, how NOT to play the good Chairman...

[MariOne]

A trick for enhanced pod-booming (or just expansion) that I learned from Ogie Oglethorpe, applies perfectly to Yang, with his growth and productivity advantage but impossibility to boom (prior to CV or Eud).

It makes the PTS a MUST HAVE project fror Yang.
After you build the PTS, when you found a base it will have size 3.
Make sure you have a police unit on the spot, some crawlers around, a road net to home them in the new base and send them back to work, possibly a kelp tile or a farmed Nut bonus and a borehole or at least a rocky min-bonus mine.
Use it as "Organs Factory". Only build Colony Pods there!
If you have the right resources in place and can spar a bit of cash, figure this:
turn 0: base built, size 3. Rush CP if needed, possibly get the full carryover
turn 1: 1st CP built, size 2. Rush again as above
turn 2: 2nd CP built, size one. Rush again.
turn3: let the base disband, and rebuild it on the spot: SIZE 3 again! the crawlers will have been rehomed to the nearest base, sothere will be some shuffle to do to prevent starvation and get those minerals flow in the new base again. Rush CP as above if needed.
turn 4: 3rd CP built. size 2
turn 5: 4th CP built. Size 1
turn 6: disband & rebuild. Size 3
and so on.

You can have 2 new CP every 3 turns.
This means 2 new bases starting at size 3, or 2 new workers in the existing bases, allowing for the time you need to get the CP there.
This with just ONE Organs Factory.

Your problem will be providing nutrients for the big bases you are force booming!

thanks a lot again, OO!

[knowhow2]

After reading about Blake's love for The Chairman I gave it a try at the specialist approach. I have never managed to make anything out of specialists except for Empath (with BOTH cash and psych pluses) before this recent game. Now, suddenly I realize the true potential of a specialists approach!

At year 2220, small map - standard settings, I have some 12 bases and 5 of them totally commited to specialsts (sizes 12, 15, 18 and 25) Librarians and Engineers. The rest are building troops, crawlers and facilities.

cash each turn 326
tech breakthrough every 4 turn

,,,,,,,,,,,,, nuff's said!

[Blake]

I don't love the Chairman! We are just, erh, good friends

Playing as Hive and getting income/research worthy of a FreeMarket builder is an achievment indeed. Especially seeing you aren't tied down by FM, you can go on a conquest spree and not worry about FM drones or conquest drones, meanwhile you still get all that lovely specialist income from your core bases. Mmmmm.

The Hive might not be the most flexible faction, but I think they are the most robust. Mainly due to the ability to build and utilise a great many fringe bases, to act as a buffer against invasion and unit construction, protecting the core-specialist bases.

It is somewhat more interesting playing Blind+techstage+starting priorities only. Planned can take a while to get to, same with doc:flex. Without libarians or boats it is hard to find tech. If you didn't get the WP you wont even be able to pre-grow your cities for when libarians arrive, or drill boreholes for when restriction lifting arrives.

When I was playing said settings, and it was 2220 and still no libarians I had actually built net nodes in most bases and half a dozen research hospitals, considering the pitiful state of my energy (about 2 per base, about 5 for those which I build a research-hosp) this was incredibly ineffecint, but I had nothing better to do (other than building impact-plasma tanks). Also I had heaps of technicians to pay upkeep for all these tech facilities. I was still getting tech at about 1/13, which isn't bad considering.

When Plan:Nets finally arrived (via a tech trade, after I got Doc:Flex from my pet Lal) I hit a money-crunch as most of my techicians got converted to libarians, so I sold a number of research hosptials and set up a couple of bases with technicians and energy banks. The addition of a dozen or so libarians bought my tech rate down to about 1/7. Which will drop to about 1/4 when I get crawlers and can make pure-specialist bases. When Env.Eco arrives a few dozen boreholes will come on-line, for another hefty boost to my energy.

I think a better triple-blind strategy would be extensive aquifars (and less boreholes), to get 2 energy per forest tile. Another possible consideration is a worked energy park, with a single echlon mirror, surronded by farm+solar, and condensors near enough to make the whole area rainy.

Maximising energy output before libarians:
I think the best way is to just use bases with a single nut resource, working all forest and pod-popping it to size 5, drones controlled by a rec-tanks and 3 scouts. This base produces 6 energy with no rivers, up to 12 with rivers, more with energy resources (indeed, another 8, because you should lower and borehole the resource). Then those bases can have net nodes, and possible research hospitals built. Working condensors doesn't tend to improve labs before libarians... because any potential gain is lost due to doctors and from having to work the condensor itself, which produces no real resources of value.

Thus, in a double/tripleblind it would be wise to pod-boom several appropriate bases to size 5 and use them as tech centers. Rather poor tech centres, but beggars cant be choosers.

[spartak]

Wow - I'm not playing any of you lot. The tactics are way beyond what I do and even I can kick the AI's backside.

[Xian]

Originally posted by Gasmaske
Wow - I'm not playing any of you lot. The tactics are way beyond what I do and even I can kick the AI's backside.

what he said

thanx for the list of strategies, this helps, with the hive being my favorite faction