Me against the planet

[D4everman]

Its been months since I played SMAC....I’ve been thinking about ordering Alien Crossfire so I tried SMAC again to see if I enjoyed it enough to warrant SMACX.

Usually I play the University, and I did so again at Librarian level. Too easy. As the UoP I can normally amass so much technology so quickly that I outpower the other factions easily. By mid game its no challenge. So I tried another faction. I like to build and I figured the Peacekeepers would be a good choice. I wanted to see how’d do if I wasn’t able to generate as much science quickly, but I knew I wasn’t ready to try the spartans, the Hive or the Believers. (I tried Morgan and the Gaians and got my ass kicked though.)

Wow...what a game. I ended up on a continent with the Gaians and the UoP. I had a treay with Diedre and a pact with Zak and things were going relatively smoothly. Zak had about four bases, while Diedre and I scrambled to take up as much space as possible. I had a small tech lead on her. Now I ALWAYS build the Empath Guild, even if I’m not playing the PK’s so when I got it I contacted the other factions and elected myself governor. Then they attacked. I was at war with everyone except the UoP and the Gaians. ...and then for no reason, Diedre declares vendetta on my too. Well, I was barely holding my own before so I didn’t have time to dink around with her. After I took three bases from her she surrendered...which was strange because she probably could have launched a devastating counter assualt. she had a buttload of mind worms and decent troops. She also had at least as many bases as I did. Still, I was glad. I would’ve been toast if she kept on fighting. Sp now it was me, Uop, and the Gaians against everyone else. The hive had a sea base nearby and kept pounding my farthest outpost with copters. Santiago cheerfully blew up any kind of sea craft I dared launched. Miriam had air power and was bombing the crap out of me and Diedre. (What idiot gave Miriam Doctrine: Air Power? Giving her ANYTHING is stupid!) University base fell and was liberated about a dozen times. (Zak was no help whatsoever....his empire was a whole 3 cities and ironically he had the lowest tech.) I took Morgan’s six cities more out of spite than war. The jerk always attacks me and he can NEVER back up his bluster. (I’ve only seen Morgan put up a decent fight once and that was with probe teams. But I had the Hunter Seeker Algorithm so I put him in the chamber.)

Miriam signed a blood truce, than attacked me again two turns later. She took the base that Yang had been blasting forever and surrendered when I came to liberate it! I wouldn’t have accepted her surrender, but I figured I needed the breathing room to concentrate on the Spartans and the Hive. The Hive was getting WAY too powerful. Then the very next turn Miriam backstabbed me and launched another attack! I was shocked! It was actually a brilliant plan that worked only because I was stupid and trusted her. But Miriam had sealed her own fate. I knew that the Believers and the Hive were too far away for me to get to them. Any transport I launched was blasted by santiago and I doubt Yang or Miriam would have let it land anyway. But I had been building a lot of drop troops. I didn’t use them...I just kept a few bases building them....and tanks....and I saved every damn energy credit I made to upgrade them as tech advances became available...until I built my favorite project...the Space Elevator!

Within a few turns I had drop troops in every ones territory and forced them to fight a multi front war. I also made drop probe teams and wreaked havoc. Miriam was easy to beat. Someone gave her tech, probably Yang, but without his help (they broke their own pact) she was dead in the water using impact weapons against my graviton weapons and nuetronium armor. Santiago was equally as helpless. My first wave destroyed her sensor arrays, my probe teams subverted a few citie and dropped the defenses on others and my troops decimated her army. She tried to build a few sea colonies but my copters wasted the pods before they could escape. Then I had to face Yang.

I hate Yang. Every damn game he ends up being the top dog that I have to fight. He always uses planet busters when he’s against a wall. This time he tried to planet bust his own bases when I took them...even though the blast would have taken half of his troops and free bases with it! Still, he couldn’t hold against the combined assualt. while he was fighting and losing to my drop troops, Deidre landed on the other side of his continent and unloaded a lot of shard troops. Within ten or so turns the Hive was eradicated and I had won. But what a war. Admittedly, if the AI was only a little better at strategy I would have lost. After all it was four against one for awhile. So I’ll probably seek out SMACX. I really enjoyed that game. I just have a few questions for those of you that are far better at this than I....

1. Is Miriam always such a snake. I ‘ve had santiago backstab me, but never Miriam once she surrenders, until now. She did it twice! (and she tried to surrender AGAIN but I didn’t accept it.)
2.) Santiago is NEVER dangerous by mid to late game. For a warrior faction she puts up a pretty crappy battle. Has anyone ever seen her in a position to win by late in the game?
3.) Has anyone ever had a game when Yang didn’t have to exterminated?
4.) Morgan is ridiculously weak. But I suspect he set Diedre up to attack me originally. He did me a favor though. After her defeat, Diedre willingly gave me EVERY advance she came up with.
5.) The AI doesn’t use Zak’s tech advantage well, does it?

thanks for listening! I look forward to your comments!

D4

[Neptunus]

D4everman it was a really nice story. I see you enjoyed the game and that's good because what I'm gonna tell you may sound different than what you are expecting to read. In my humble opinion you are not fed up with SMAC yet. So you may wait before switching to SMAX because, although a fine addition, it doesn't seem to match SMAC in atmosphere and originality. I play SMAC since it reached the Greek stores almost two years ago and I was reading these forums every day (since TFGC2S) and believe me, you can play SMAC for quite a long time and still feel (almost) the original excitement.

Try ALL the factions. ALL have unique characteristics, different "feel" and atmosphere, and ALL ask that you must do your best to invent a strategy combining your personal style tailored according the specific faction advantages and disadvantages. Believe me ALL are great. As a single player I always transcend at transcendence level with ANY faction (just the long path I had to crawl, walk, sail or fly to achieve that was different).

As UoP, and Gaians the journey was easier. As Believers the path was bloody and fast just from the beginning, but very exhilarating. Spartans and Peacekeepers guarantee very hard first 100 years, and with Morgan and Yang you just concentrate to construction and after 150-200 years you will be amazed by the fire power you have acquired without even noticing it.

Try giant landmasses with abundant resources and archipelago type maps with many tiny islands to enjoy and exploit every inch of space you have discovered.

Now after 5-6 games of SMAX I think I will go back to SMAC. For my tastes, the spoilers are mostly the aliens. I even tryied playing with new and old factions at random, but soon I found myself missing those old factions that were absent. So I would recommend that you play SMAC a little more. It definitely deserves it...

As far as the other factions' attitude I can share some of my experiences (note that I prefer Democratic, Green, Knowledge in SE, I NEVER use planet busters and I keep my reputation "noble") :
1. Deirdre : The ultimate double-crosser. As an ally she is perfect (unless you make the mistake and build the Xenoempathy Dome). In case I was at war with her, she ALWAYS attacked after 1 or 2 (at most) turns of Blood Truce asked by her of course.
2. Miriam : She never double-crossed me except 1-2 times when my reputation was not noble. (I'm sure some people may read all these and say "is he playing some kind of different game ?"). Anyway, if you don't mess with her, threaten her and respect her borders, give her tech ONLY when she asks (and she asks only after close encounters with her units) and AVOID calling her then you may succeed in eradicating her 1st of all). Two times she was my ally and she was the MOST VALUABLE ALLY I could have.
3. Morgan : I don't know but I always have hard time to eradicate him (usually after many horrible turns trying to neutralise his waves of probe-team attacks). As an ally he has the record of the most short-lived alliances with me, whatever the faction I play. I find him easy to ask for his bases especially after early encounters.
4. Zacharov : Poor guy, his only chances are only when he is played by me. Irritatingly unstable in negotiations.
5. Santiago : The best ally and the worst enemy. She is completely loyal as an ally and seldom a double-crosser. Definitely hard-to-beat but when on her knees she is a real puppy. She is so often strapped for energy credits that she is easy to give you some of her bases.
6. Yang : Now he is the one that you have to kill first (if you have the chance), or try to avoid him as long as you can (and then kill him, and kill him fast). Although I like playing as Yang, I hate him as an AI opponent that I don't even want to have pacts with him (for obvious reasons). Don't even think to threaten him for anything.
7. Lal : Tasteless, colourless, odourless... I don't even feel his presence for most of the game (with the exception of a weird game which started with Lal declaring Vendetta with me right from the first contact !!!). Usually he is the last to fall (I just keep one naval base of his just to achieve transcendence). He drives me nuts when he places tiny naval bases just beside my 30-40 population behemoths living as a parasite.

Of course all these are my experiences and may as well result from my specific SE choices.

Keep on SMACing...