Morgan - Transcendent Level

[Sem]

This question is in relation to Alien Crossfire, not smac. Does anyone have suggestions on how to play Morgan at the transcendent level? My experience: 1. Can only keep up with techs because I had the Planetary Data Base SP. Even then, I didn't take a clear tech lead until 2325. Without the SP, I wouldn't have had a chance. 2. Same with energy, until 2325 approximately, energy was between 200-300 credits a turn. Once again it was a SP, Self Aware Colony that saved me. After that , the money rolled in. Question: If you don't have those SPs mentioned above, how do you manage to stay even or beat the other factions playing Morgan? Seeking suggestions. Thanks in advance.

[stuntman19]

What specs are you using in your game? As Morgan this is my normal proceedure for acquiring tech, and in this order. 1)trade
2)buy
3)steal

Are you changing your SE settings to wealth or free market? Also using engineers and techinicians helps research and economy before you get transcendi. The size of the map puts some limitations on how big and profittable your empire can get. If you play with random events seems you also can get market crashes, which lower your overall energy.

[Adam_Smith]

All I can do is recommend that if Mongoose or Enigma post here that you hold their opinions in the highest regard. I don't play Morgan too much.

[Simpson II]

Biggest tip I got for Morgan: ICS. Build bases like mad (only other builds are scout infantry, formers and tanks), with 2 empty tiles between them, so that each base only has access to the 8 tiles around it when they are full sized. Build only forest and one farm around your bases, and only use the farm to speed the growth to size 2 before building a pod.
Get Biogenetics & Cent Eco, rush Rec tanks with your spare cash, and run for Ind. Auto. Go FM/wealth, and use upgraded crawlers to buy the Human Genome and The Planetary Transit System. Make sure every base produces a pod the turn before you build the PTS, as the PTS will then make them all grow to size 3 anyway. Build more bases with those! Go for the lifting of the nut/min/energy restrictions.

If you can cap this with hab complexes, tree-farms and a pop boom, then you should get considerably more energy than you have been talking about (caveat - I only have Smac, so I have never boomed with Morgan pre-vats. This still works against the AI, though.) At this point go dem-green-wealth. It should be a cake-walk vs the AI from here on in.

Hope that isn't totally incoherent!

[WhiteElephants]

It seems like the amount of energy you are generating with Morgan is really low. How many bases do you build and how fast? How big is the map? On a standard map I put out about six bases by 2150 and go on from their to build about a total of twenty over the course of the game. Of course you could always conquer more bases versus building them yourself. I tend to limit the amount of bases I have because you really don't need a ton and it becomes a pain in the butt managing more than twenty some bases IMHO. Simpson II also brought up the benefits of terraforming up and building solar collectors and echelon mirror in another tread which considerably boosts energy output. Playing Morgan I always go for the +2 econ by running wealth or free market. I don't rely on any special project to win at transcend and often find that I build several I really don't need so I don't think that is the solution for Morgan though those projects wouldn't hurt. I also tend to be submissive in the early stages of any game that I'm playing as a "builder" to avoid early conflict which could slow me down.

[WhiteElephants]

Double Whammy!!!
[This message has been edited by WhiteElephants (edited August 28, 2000).]

[Simpson II]

WE,
The reason I suggest ICSing with Morgan is that in FM/wealth, his base-square produces 6 energy, 7 with tanks. I find building a new base is almost always too good a deal to pass on with him, until you can boom to size 11 (i.e. until cloning vats in Smac - yes, that's a lot of bases!)
HG and PTS are essential to a really good ICS strategy, since you get 2 less drones in a size 3 base, and you multiply your population with almost as much effect as in a pop-boom - something Morgan will find very hard to do, early in the game, and impossible if his bases are not at least size 3 (another reason for PTS.)
With any other faction I am very SP light, but Morgan is an odd one.

[WhiteElephants]

Simpson II -- I reread my post and it sounds like I was responding to your SP suggestions, but I meant the two Sem felt were needed to win (Self Aware Colony and The Planetary Datalinks). I can see how using the PTS would give you a ton a bases the way you suggested and coupled with Morgans ability to produce energy you would really have some cash on his hands early in the game. I totally agree with the ICS'ing strategy for Morgan, especially Morgan, because of the energy he nets from the base square alone. I haven't had a chance to dig into every faction (Morgan is next on my list), but it seems a good amount of ICS'ing is good for anybody's game.

[Sem]

Clarification: My SE choices are democracy, green, wealth, and any future SE when I can change to it, preferably, cybernetic. I always play on a random huge world map. As far as FM, I never been able to control my bases with it as Morgan or the University, which are the 2 factions I play. I have read all the posts and thank all of you for your replys.

[Simpson II]

WE,
Whoops, sorry about misinterpreting you. Took me a while to comprehend that we were agreeing! :P

Sem,
Controling drones in FM is much, much easier with HG and PTS. A size one/two base never normally has problems. Also, with 13 energy coming in from a pop 3 base, you can afford a little psych allocation. When you have tree farms and holo theatres up, 10% psych is very useful for larger bases. Try it - you'll be surprised.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Re: PTS anD Morgan,

Drones become a non issue regardless of SE choice assuming you've snagged Human Genome as well as PTS. 1st citizen is a talent which offsets the third citizen drone. At some point in your ICS'ing (2nd beuaracracy warning I believe) however, the first citizen may only be a citizen. At that point it is critical to rush build a rec commons. Next turn the rec commons comes on line and forestalls any riot, of course this works best while not running Demo as rush costs are cut in half (at least) by ensuring 1st 10 mins are provided by the colony pod/base formation.

As for starving your size 3 city down to size 2 due to insufficent nuts I find myself building crawlers to accompany or better yet preceed colony pods. By doing so, I can either a) forestall the starvation issue by harvesting a nutrient as required or bump start the mineral output of the base. Regardless, the crawler that is sent to the hinter lands (see potential new base site) until the base is set and in the meantime bring back useful resources to the originating base. Upon set of the new base the crawler rehomes and brings in either nuts or mins as required by the circumstances.

Finally, once you are forced to run Demo and have -3 support, I build infantry probe teams which get upgraded to at least synth armor & trance for garrison duty. Granted if attacked and killed a whole stack of PT's will be terminated but a single unit usually provides more than adequate defense against marauding worms with no support upkeep issues especially if aided by pre-sensor base placement.

PS - I know the prevailing thought here is go Demo/Green/wealth but Demo/FM/Wealth does provide immense benefits as long as it is run in peacetime. When warring is required Green is a natural, but nothing beats the energy and all its benefits (better rush buys, crawler and other upgrades, great research rates) like FM for Morgan. One does have to be aware of the lack of police and plan accordingly tho'.

[This message has been edited by Ogie Oglethorpe (edited September 05, 2000).]

[kt_butts]

Ogie,
This seems to further my opinion that the PTS is a waste of minerals. If you need to build supply crawlers, and rush rec centers in order to get a 3 population colony, are you gaining that much? The PTS requires as many minerals as VW, CDF, and several other more useful projects. If you are going to go with your plan I think it would be better to have the supply crawler you brought with colony switched to be supported from the new colony and have it contribute more nutrients. Then rush a Creche rather than a rec center. That will start your pop climbing fast enough to make up for ignoring the PTS and you should still have enough time to make up for the inevitable drone problem. If anything the PTS makes more sense for the Gaians. They can always get 2 nutr. from fungus and under green econ. they have paradigm efficiency and their -2 growth problem would be largely offset.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

KT,

I beleive you and I are saying the same thing. The crawler upon set down of new base does get rehomed/resupported by the new base and can or should bring in nuts and/or mins as needed. As for PT being a waste, it's not just the immediate 3 population which is useful, its the extra drone held at bay making it in combo with HG that makes it a nice feature. Couple that with the fact that Morgan is difficult to pop boom and any additional population one can add to the empire is a must have for the golden boy. Your arguement that Dee has uses for PT is valid but point is it is a nice to have for any faction. More often than not tho' if left alone, two factions, Zak and Morgan often are the ones fighting for it as they are the ones to quickest burn through the tech tree to get to Ind. Auto. altho' one could make the arguement that Aki has a good shot as well and it is likewise argueable that she of all the factions can do the most with it to offset her -2 growth penalty.

I mentioned use of crawlers, but an alternative is to prebuild condensors using formers at or around the area in question to make a number of rainies, but this has a number of downsides.

A) condensors are former intensive
b) Unless one snags WP condesnor build comes way too late (eco engineering if memory serves)
c) there's always something better for a former to be doing like improving existing working squares not potential future ones.

So keeping that in mind my thoughts on crawlers is to get some use out of them until such time as a base is built and then convert them to support the new base (either as a min harvestor or as a nutrient harvestor) at least until you can get a recycle tank in place then a size 3 city is self supporting on 3 forest (pre-tree farm days) and or moist squares.

Ohh one last trick with PTS. By preworking an area with a condensor/farm and two crawlers on 2 boreholes (assumes min restrictions lifted) one can build a colony pod every 2 turns so within 6 turns you've popped out 2 fresh pods and reset the third on the same plot of ground. The two new pods can start new colonies or be added to existing bases to up the base population (pod booming tho' to beo n the up and up and not consider it a cheat one should but doesn't necessarily have to have a hab complex in place)

As for the idea of creches ASAP, you forgo productions of extra 1-2 populace points for at least 10ish turns (my best guess) this represents lost mins of 30 (average) and lost energy of 10 per base (assuming working in forest squares). That ends up being quite a lot once one considers the number of bases this could affect.

Finally you'll get no arguement from me on the value of VW (altho' it can be an achilles heel that an opponent will target simply to put your bases in riot if you depend to heavily on the free holo theatre affect.) As for CDF, while nice if you have to build the perimeter defenses one bright spot is that at least it is a maintenance free facility. AS I have rambled on from point to point I leave the following, I guess my point is this each of the SP's has it's place and can be worked to advantage. Heck, I used to think that Aescetic Virtues was overated until I played Hive and Spartans extensively.

[Simpson II]

IMHO, while PTS is tricky to use, when you get it right it pays huge dividends. It is a great Gaian project, but it is also fantastic for Morgan because he can solve the problems of the new bases with his fantastic energy production.
First make sure to build CPs until your bases are mostly down to size 1 before it comes online, so as to reap the undocumented increase to size three for those bases. Then, when you build the next round of bases with the resulting CPs, try allocating some psych and rushing tanks with the free minerals. The psych is only a temporary measure until you get commons put up, but this way there is no need for infrastructure beforehand, just a little of that great Morganite cash.
It hadn't occured to me how useful it could be for sea-bases, but I'll give that a go sometime soon. Beeline for Doc. Initiative.. hmmm, yes. Could work very nicely from an island start.

I have to agree that dem/gree/wealth is a good idea, though only after fusion power. With engineers I usually have far more than enough cash, and so the 100% labs is very useful.

As far as other, more valuable SPs being available.. I am not a fan of CDF or VW for the security reasons Ogie mentioned. CDF is great on the offensive, mind you, just not so hot on defence.
One nice thing about PTS in comparison is that it is not usually hotly contested (in my experience it is a much under-rated sp!) so you don't have to break your back building it. As I've said before, I think people build SPs too early, and making good use of whatever they ignore for a few more turns suits me well.
[This message has been edited by Simpson II (edited September 05, 2000).]

[kt_butts]

I play Morgan pretty often. I've seen it said everywhere that the Planetary Transit is a great SP for him. I almost never build it. I find that unless you are around a green square or a sea base, the third citizen dies right away. Even if you can feed the third guy, unless you have the human genome project, the third guy is a drone, and you go in to instant drone riots. For sea bases, it works well, but I don't build that many of them. I find coastal bases are far more efficient. Am I missing some aspect of the Planetary Transit?

[Adam_Smith]

The PTS is overrated. It does work, but you need to build police units and formers ahead of colony pods which makes it not as great as some people think it is. You also should have good support and efficiency SE ratings.

[Adam_Smith]

I think that PTS only pays as you can build bases and develop them. If you can develope them then more power to you. On transcendent level your going to create more and more drones as you take better and better advantage of the PTS. The more bases you build the higher the cost will be to develope each one and defend it. No matter how you look at it.

[UnityScoutChopper]

Here's one more vote for the PTS, at least if you are ICS'ing. It is indeed best for Morgan (ICS pays well since growth beyond 4 is expensive) and Deirdre (2 food for fungus), but it is powerful even if you can't manage to pre-send crawlers and formers. The important thing to pre-send is scout or police infantry, as generally by the time the PTS is built, you will be forced to use Demo for efficiency. Theoretically, you could pump them out from core bases, but I've always been too reluctant to distract them from things like SP's, military, and pop-booming. Sometimes I just let the new bases flounder or even fall to pop 2 (still better than starting at 1) -- the penalty for my laziness. But in a pinch, and if you are willing to micromanage a bit, you can always rush-build the last turn of a pod's production. The base's carried-over "natural" production then makes the rush-build of new infantry in the pod-producing base quite cheap if you are in planned/wealth. If it's still too expensive for your taste, you can allow the colony pod a one-turn lead on the infantry, as the infantry will still reach the base in time to quell riots. However, the buddy system is best, as numerous mind worms have taught me. Grrrr.

A great hidden advantage of the PTS, BTW, is protection of new bases from random mindworm attacks. Losing the garrison and a population point is a lot better than losing the whole base -- and if you are true ICS'er, having other "insurance policies" for your new colonies is often out of the question.

Yes, the PTS *IS* a good wonder for a huge map -- the point where I build it is usually marked as a 100-200% jump in my powergraph.

Erik P