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Spoils of War & Planetary Datalinks
I just finished an entertaining SP SMAC game as the Spartans. I have been experimenting with different ways of playing the Spartans, my favorite faction. This time I played on a standard size, random average world. I turned on "spoils of war" (allows tech steal when conquering a base), and built the Planetary Datalinks (the SP which gives your faction any techs that three other factions have discovered) and Weather Paradigm as my SP's.
I also gave techs to whomever demanded them, all through the game, even air power . This led to a very even tech level amongst the factions, my Spartans were always at or near the tech lead once the PD was built, and late in the game when I had built a science base with all the Science SP's - I had a tech every other turn with my labs set at 50%.
I played a momentum style early in the game running planned, kicking the Peacekeepers off my contintent, but pacted with Morgan who was also on my starting continent. Morgan was a loyal ally through the entire game, as I always gave him whatever he asked for, plus a few conquered bases here and there. My neighbors on the closest continent to me were the Gaians , who I drove into the sea but did not eliminate. Yang was on a continent just out of Needlejet range to my south, so I established a foot hold there - but did not take him out.
I then switched to a FM builder style, concentrating on science improvements at home, and building defensive units and choppers at the edges of my territory. I had a back and forth war going on with the Hive through the entire game, i would take a couple of Hive bases, they would take back a couple of bases from me. This had the effect of giving the Hive pretty much equal tech with me, in fact he got to shard weapons before me.
It was more fun for me, playing against an AI with equal weapons and armour to mine. It also tended to keep tha AI less agressive towards me, as I was never at the top of the power graph, but always lurked in the middle of the pack somewhere.
All the factions except for the University had large empires, mostly busy fighting against a huge Believer empire- at the top of the charts after I whittled Yang down a bit.
By making sure my friend Morgan was very powerful I was able to keep the other factions from getting to close to my homeland, ( mostly by giving him any sea bases that the enemy established near my core) and they werent all ganging up on me as tends to happen to you if you are at the top of the power graph. It made for an interesting game to stay almost even with the other factions, but making sure not to get too big, or too far ahead of them in tech. And by building the PD and turning on spoils of war, I never let them get too far ahead of me while I was in the early momentum mode.
I won by Transcendence in 2360 or so, with all the original factions except the University and the Peacekeepers still in the game and reasonably strong. The University and the Peackeepers were still around, but were not powerful. Morgan had the military and economy lead, Miriam had the territory and population, and I had the tech lead at the end of the game.
I never was at war with Miriam, I simply gave her whatever she asked for in terms of tech, and whenever she would start a war with Morgan, I would ask her to stop.
It was kind of neat to see every faction with huge chopper air forces - all with shard or better weapons. Miriam and Morgan both had the Level 20 (singularity laser?)weapon by the end of the game.
I thought it made for a better game than playing straight builder or straight conquest, and proving once again what a GREAT, versatile faction the Spartans are to play.
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