2123 Turn Report [Large Images]

[Archaic]

Treaty signed with Peace. No commerce yet, thanks to them apparently not having Ind. Econ.

Uni Base production switched to Rec Tanks due to lack of nearby base sites for a CP (Other bases already covering all nearby sites)

Archaic's ideas for base sites marked on the map. All potential sites are of course up for discussion.

[moomin]

Are you sure about the base markers? They seem a bit off - on the forested nutrient bonus? On the borehole? Off-center in the ruins?

Anyway, I'm starting to get seriously worried about the Drones and their wonder production - they started their ME ages ago, and if we assume they were lucky enough to pop one or two minerals, with their prod bonii they could steal anything they get tech for away from us. They could be stockpiling money too - it's not like they need to hurry anything.

Our crawlers are still 6 turns away and it will take time to crank out signinficant numbers of them anyway. I would hate to see them run away with the VW.

[Archaic]

Originally posted by moomin
Are you sure about the base markers? They seem a bit off - on the forested nutrient bonus? On the borehole? Off-center in the ruins?

Hmmmmm.....you seem to be reading most of those base marks as being one tile down from where I intended them. If you name a landmark, the name appears directly below that tile. In some cases (Such as when the tiles were too close to the name of the Ruins and Borehole Cluster), I had to put the marker off to the side, and indicated the correct tile with the little arrow there.

Next time, I'll just give co-ords. ^^;

Originally posted by moomin
Anyway, I'm starting to get seriously worried about the Drones and their wonder production - they started their ME ages ago, and if we assume they were lucky enough to pop one or two minerals, with their prod bonii they could steal anything they get tech for away from us. They could be stockpiling money too - it's not like they need to hurry anything.

Agreed. What they've done isn't a strategy I like, since it diverts resources away from other areas, and makes you far less versatile, however it usually guarentees a Project. Of course.....with us soon to have 14+ Minerals at Uni Base, I wouldn't be too surprised if we can cut them off at the pass.

Originally posted by moomin
Our crawlers are still 6 turns away and it will take time to crank out signinficant numbers of them anyway. I would hate to see them run away with the VW.

Likewise. We'll certainly be expending every resource to see that that doesn't happen.

[moomin]

OK. I think too many of these bases are on the coast line - normally a good thing, but here enemies can swoop in from beyond detection range and take them unless we garrison each and every one heavily. Against a Uni who deployed bases like that, I'd sure do if I was, say, the Hive or the Drones. Not to mention the Pirates.

On wonders: Can't we start building ME in Uni Base as soon as it's done the tanks? We can always use the surrounding bases to build and re-home crawlers as neccessary.

[Archaic]

Originally posted by moomin
OK. I think too many of these bases are on the coast line - normally a good thing, but here enemies can swoop in from beyond detection range and take them unless we garrison each and every one heavily. Against a Uni who deployed bases like that, I'd sure do if I was, say, the Hive or the Drones. Not to mention the Pirates.

You have a point. Though I'm more worried about people bringing in Probe Foils than I am about them attacking them. (In a game with a lot of human players, a strong garrison after Clean Reactors is a necessity anyway. But for now, as soon as we start to really build garrisons, as long as we're 1-Best+t-1*Best, we'll be fine.

Originally posted by moomin
On wonders: Can't we start building ME in Uni Base as soon as it's done the tanks? We can always use the surrounding bases to build and re-home crawlers as neccessary.

I would've gone with building crawlers in Uni Base instead of going straight with the project. Helps increase our mineral production there in the meanwhile, and lets us rush minerals rushing the crawlers that would've been more expensive if we were doing it with the project itself.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Archaic
If you name a landmark, the name appears directly below that tile.

In my PBEMs I indicate my future base sites either on the tile above, thus

\\ Here //

or the tile itself thus

// Here \\

That seems to work pretty well for pactmates, etc, to see where I plan to build

G.

[Kody]

Looking at that map. I think the two strategy mistakes that were made were.

1. You should have gone for IA first rather than Secrets of the human brain.
2. You should have built a few more formers.

By getting IA first you would have gotten the + industry advantage faster. By building more formers earlier you could then have gotten the mineral bonuses mined faster.

Curious whether you built recycling tanks, before you built your crawlers. Because I found that recycling tanks slow you down when you're not pressed for nutrients. I think the hive built their first recycling tank around 2145.

I think those things combined would have gotten you VW possibly about 5 years earlier? Which mean you wouldn't have had to pay for rec commons and the Hive wouldn't have been able to base specific population booming. The holographic theatre effects of the VW was what allowed the hive to boom without setting pysch allocation. Without that pop boom the Hive would have been behind in tech rate. I think all up the game would have been a much tougher battle between a evenly matched Hive and evenly matched University.

I'll have to say I alway thought it was the university who was going to decide who won the game. That theory proved completely true. If you had gotten MMI just a little bit earlier and built the CBA, it would have been a tough fairly evenly matched battle between two super alliances.

[Archaic]

IIRC, we *did* go for IA first, didn't we? The Hive just out-teched us thanks to tech trades.

We built Formers first.

[Kody]

Hrmm didn't Vel demonstrate getting IA within 15 years in the strategy forum?
We only got IA in 2125 or something, so I thought you had gotten SOTHB first.

[AdamTG02]

We did go for SotHB first, as shown in this thread. I advocated this, so I share much of the blame for our failure. Basically, I did not appreciate the importance of crawlers in jump-starting a SMAC economy. I figured that we could always get Industrial Automation later, because of our tech advantage, and by the SotHB beeline we would have a clear shot at the HGP. I was proven wrong when the Hive finished the Human Genome Project with crawlers. To make matters worse, the Hive then finished the Virtual World, which we would have been able to complete if we had gone for IndAuto first, and which was vital to our success.

Assuming we can trace our decline as a faction to that decision, this was a learning experience. Better to lose the lead in tech, than to choose the wrong technologies and fall behind.

[Kody]

To tell the truth I originally thought going for SotHB was the right path to take too (for the university). However, I did a study on the way tech costs increase and realised that when going SotHB -> IA your tech costs ramp up temendously.

I have to say that if the university wasn't in the game, the game from the Hive's prespective would have been far less interesting. Your presence was the "hated enemy", the faction we mindlessly were at vendentta with.

[Archaic]

*Wonders why the hell he advocated a SotHB beeline*
*Compares dates*

....ah. That's the time when I was on those drugs for the memory problems and depression. No wonder. I've been used to getting to IA between 2112-2118 recently, and this time frame here is....excessive. No wonder we lost so badly.

[Kody]

Archaic you should authorise everyone so they can see the university forums.