ACDG4 Game One: The Sword of the Righteous

[vyeh]

Posted 2301 save.

Notes:
Tactical situation around #1:

Tactical situation around #2:

(1) Wild MW destroyed Spartan scout patrol at stack (28 6). MW 80% damaged.
(2) Wild MW at (57,5) attacked Morgan IR at (58,6). Both 50% damaged. IR disengaged to (59,7).
(3) Morgan discovered Secrets of the Human Brain.
(4) SotR PR at (29, 5) destroyed Hive scout patrol at (31,5). PR 20% damaged.
(5) Stack at (28,6) moved to (27,7).
(6) We acquired Industrial Base. Given a choice of Doctrine: Mobility, Centauri Ecology, Industrial Economics, and Applied Physics to research. We chose Industrial Economics. Our research cost is 60 labs. We have 7 labs accumulated and we are producing 16 labs/turn.
(7) We built colony pods at UN Headquarters and Worker's Nest.
(8) The Hive has gained Biogenetics. It has gained a colony pod.
(9) The SotR has gained Information Networks. It has lost 2 PT, 1 AA, 1 TT and gained 3 II and 1 synthmetal sentinel.
(10) Following ACDGIII rules that it is OK to check out diplomatic options as long as you don't reveal maps, the Gaians will talk with us. They offer to pact with us if we declare war on the Spartans. I recommend we do so. I do NOT want to conduct any trade with them.
(11) The Hive will loan 42 ec for a repayment schedule of 1 ec for 54 years.

General ideas for this turn:
(1) Get Gaian world map.
(2) Attack Spartan probe teams near #1.
(3) Mind control SotR Synth Police near #1.
(4) Move upgraded units at #2 closer to Morgan Energy Monopoly.
(5) Bombard Morgan Energy Monopoly.
(6) Take out all the defenders at Working Man Hold.
(7) Steal technology from Working Man Hold.
(8) Occupy Working Man Hold.
(9) Move CBU into Working Man Hold. Move CBU along magrail to scout.
(10) Occupy bunker SE of Working Man Hold.

Other moves will depend on what we find out from the Gaian world map and the deep radar ability of the CBU's as we move them around (with TT and intel, they lose the ability to deep radar if they use part of their movement point).

Proposed moves:

(1) Contact Gaians. Agree to pact in exchange for launching a surprise attack on the Spartans. Refuse any proposed trade. Then end contact. Intent: After we get the Gaians world map, we will be in a better position to plan our move.

If there are no comments, I'll implement this move in 24 hours and post a mid-turn save .

[Flubber]

Originally posted by vyeh


Did you ever find out whether the first download from the Hive showed The Holy Fire?

.

I did not get the "initial download" of the Hive map . . . In an example of the fickle AI behavior, the Hive broke pact with me on initial contact. Onmy first move I decided to bring my eastern intelligence unit to the west of the Hive empire-- I was thinking that two such units would be more effective working in tandem.

Anywaym my intell unit ran into a Hive unit, and they asked to speak to me-- with no preliminaries at all they ended pact and all my units in the north came back home. While it made operations in the south that much easier, it meant I didn't get the Hive map immediately and my game was quickly quite different from yours

Oh the Hive pacted back with me like 2 turns later so I don't know what their issue was

Originally posted by vyeh


How many turns did it take?

Not that many.

[vyeh]

Posted 2301 first mid turn save.

Note:
(1) Contacted Gaians: "So we meet again, Brother Lal. I trust your humanitarian initiatives are proceeding to your satisfaction. I am, as always, Lady Haliburt of the Gaians.
"Lal, I need a private word with you. ... I propose that we speak a Pact of Brotherhood and together launch a surprise attack against the Spartans."

"Agreed. Colonel Joechim will never know what hit her."

"Then I ... greet you formally as Pact Brother! ...
"Pact Brother, I am uploading my most recent world map ..."


Communication Officer
"The University intervenes on behalf of the Spartans! Provost Alaron pronounces Vendetta against you!"

Lady Haliburt
"... Let us exchange knowledge ... Doctrine: Flexibility [for] Industrial Base..."

Us
"Out of the Question"

"Have you any further business?"

"I believe we are finished here. ..."

(2) Gains have pact with Hive and Peacekeepers, truce with University, Morgan, Spartans, and vendetta with SotR.

(3) Gaians are magnanimous towards us.

(4) Gaians have 8 bases, each with one population: Gaia's Landing, Silverbird Park, Garden of the Deep, Deidre's Fishery, Water Garden, Ocean Flower, Falling Water, and Great Lagoon. There are two land bases (the first two) and six sea bases (the last six).

(5) They have Biogenetics, Information Netwprks, Planetary Networks, and Doctrine: Flexibility. Their tech cost is 48 labs, with 24 labs accumulated and producing 12 labs/turn.

(6) They have 26 ec and are producing 9 ec/turn.

(7) They have 8 scout patrols and 8 synth police. They are producing 1 skimship probe team, 1 probe team, 2 sea colony pods, 2 transport foils, and 2 gun foils.

(8) The Hive will trade a map of Morganic territory for Information Networks.

(9) The Gaians will trade a map of Morganic territory for Industrial Base.

Proposed move:
Contact Gaians. Trade Industrial Base for a map of Morganic territory. Intent: A map of Morganic territory will help us at #2. The Gaians are the weaker ally. It would be better to strengthen them, especially if we think there is a possibility we'll be in a conflict with the Hive. The Hive is noncommital. The Gaians are magnanimous.

If I don't hear any comments in 24 hours, I'll implement the move and post a mid turn save.

[Mart]

Before it escapes from my mind, a thought about B-line to IndAuto. Morgan may have Industrial Economics, and if we probe it from him, we might be able to switch our current research to IndAuto, and have it in 4 turns.

Since Gaians are pacted, we may get the map for free. just open a commlink and refuse the trade, and we can decide if we trade Flexibility this turn or later. How about probing that 1 visible morganic base to have infiltration?

Do we plan to attack Working Man Hold base?
If so, I would also start probing them for techs. We may get IndAuto a few turns later cause of it, but I think it is worth it.

[vyeh]

Originally posted by mart7x5
Before it escapes from my mind, a thought about B-line to IndAuto. Morgan may have Industrial Economics, and if we probe it from him, we might be able to switch our current research to IndAuto, and have it in 4 turns.

There are 2 probe teams in Morgan Energy Monopoly (we know that from the last CBU bombardment. Although they are 50% damaged, it will take 2 mp to destroy both of them, leaving the intel unit no mps for probing the tech.

Originally posted by mart7x5
Since Gaians are pacted, we may get the map for free. just open a commlink and refuse the trade, and we can decide if we trade Flexibility this turn or later.

I'll do that.

Originally posted by mart7x5
How about probing that 1 visible morganic base to have infiltration?

Same problem as probing for tech. There are 2 probe teams in Morgan Energy Monopoly. There is also the problem that if we conduct probe team action against the base (as oppose to mind control actions against units), the intel unit returns to Great Clustering and we lose for a few turns the capability to acquire units and we lose half of our transport abilities.

Do you think we should switch one of our bases to building a probe team so we can send one up there?

Originally posted by mart7x5
Do we plan to attack Working Man Hold base?

Yes. There are only three defenders (the 2 probe teams will be destroyed when the last combat unit is destroyed). We have 3 undamaged units (2 O's and the impact infantry) to attack.

Originally posted by mart7x5
If so, I would also start probing them for techs. We may get IndAuto a few turns later cause of it, but I think it is worth it.

I agree, we should probe. The research strategy always assumed we'd probe for tech at Working Man Hold before we occupied it.

Since there are 2 probe teams there, it is best to wait until we destroy all the defenders. Otherwise, we'd have to conduct a hasty attack against one of the probe teams. (There is only one intel unit at Plex Anthill. The intel unit at UN Headquarters has to expend 1 1/3 mp to move next to Working Man Hold.)

After all the defenders are destroyed, the commando intel unit at Worker's Nest can probe for technology with a high chance of survival.

[vyeh]

Posted 2301 2nd mid-turn save. I followed mart7x5 recommendation and refused to trade Industrial Base for the Morgan map. As he suggested, we got it anyway.

Edit: Specified in the proposed move that one of the TT's from Plex Anthill is the one homed to Plex Anthill and that the hardened CBU moving 1 sq. S is independent. This allows us to home the Plex Anthill TT and/or the CBU to Working Man Hold.

Notes:
(1) Contacted Lady Haliburt.
Gaians - magnanimous.
"Hello, again, Brother Lal. ...
"... I have a nice map of Morganic territory which I'd be happy to exchange for your information on Industrial Base"

"No, I don't think that will be necessary."

"... I will share my files on Doctrine: Flexibility [for] Industrial Base."

"Out of the question."

"Always a pleasure to be of service, Brother Lal.
"Have you any further business?"

"I believe we are finished here. Lal out."

(2) Morgan has five bases connected by roads: Morgan Energy Monopoly (pop 1), Morgan Metallurgy (2), Morgan Solarfex (2), Morgan Industries (4), Morgan Construction (2).


(3) As a bonus, the map now shows the rest of the SotR holdings. The bases are where we inferred them to be.


(4) Current world map:


Proposed moves:
#1: Load O onto TT. Move loaded TT 1 sq. S. Unload O. Intent: Attack the 3 Spartan probe teams.
#2: Load O onto intel. Move loaded intel 1 sq. SE. Unload O. Intent: Attack the damaged mindworm for 40 ec.
Plex Anthill:
(1) Load the 2 undamaged O (1 veteran, 1 hardened) and the impact infantry onto 2TT (including the TT homed to Plex Anthill) and the intel. Move loaded TT and loaded intel 2 sq. S. Unload the 2 O's and II.
(2) Move hardened independent CBU 1 sq. S. Intent: Attack Working Man Hold and destroy all defenders.

If there are no comments within 24 hours, I'll implement the moves and post a mid-turn save.

[Mart]

Vyeh, screenshots are much better for drawing tactical moves. I can do it, but since you are turnplayer now, you might make the the way, you want the moves.
Is your Mac OS supporting a screencapture? like WinXP does?

[vyeh]

Originally posted by mart7x5
Vyeh, screenshots are much better for drawing tactical moves. I can do it, but since you are turnplayer now, you might make the the way, you want the moves.

mart7x5, it would be helpful for this thread and for me if you could post two screenshots: (1) the Morgan territory, showing all the Morgan bases and UN Observation Post #2 and (2) the SotR territory, showing all the SotR bases. Thanks in advance.

Originally posted by mart7x5
Is your Mac OS supporting a screencapture? like WinXP does?

Yes, Mac OSX supports a screen capture. I don't know what WinXP does so I can't compare the two. There is a complication in that I'm using a full-screen "classic" mode to run SMAC.

Is there a way to set SMAC to run in a window?

I'll research and get back to you in 24 hours.

[vyeh]

Posted 2301 3rd mid-turn save.

Notes:
Current tactical situation around #1:


Current tactical situation around #2:


Current tactical situation around Working Man Hold:


(1) Upon moving next to Working Man Hold, Joan contacted us: "Take a good last look at your empire, Lal, for there will be little left of it when next we meet."

(2) As the proposed move shows, I intend to pop the Progenitor Pod next to UN Headquarters with the colony pod. I have to do it to move the colony pod to (39,37), a river square 2 squares away from UN Headquarters.

(3a) I plan to set the UN Headquarters to producing a synthmetal probe team. Because it is a prototype, it will cost 90 mins. If the pod is a materials pod, we'll have prototyped synthmetal armor and we will have an excellent unit to send up to #2.

(3b) An alternative would be to produce a synthmetal colony pod. It would also prototype synthmetal armor, but we would use up the colony pod when we build a base.

(3c) Another alternative would be to set the production to network node. That cost 80 mins. UN Headquarters is currently producing 3 labs/turn. The Network Node would jump production to 5 labs/turn.

(4) I don't think it is possible, but a mindworm from the progenitor pod would be nice (40 ec!). If that happened, we'd use a troop transport from Plex Anthill to destroy it.

(5) The other colony site (for the colony pod from Worker's Nest) is (43, 33). (43, 33) and (39,37) are the only two colony sites 2 squares away from UN Headquarters.

Proposed moves:
#1: Attack 3 Spartan probe teams with O.

#2: Atttack damaged mindworm with O.

Plex Anthill: Fire CBU 1 sq. S of base at Working Man Hold. Attack Working Man Hold with veteran O. Attack Working Man Hold with impact infantry. Attack Working Man Hold with hardened O.

If one of the attacking units is destroyed, move the 10% damaged O 2 sq. S with a troop transport. Unload O. Attack Working Man Hold with O.

Worker's Nest: Move commando intel to Working Man Hold. Steal technology.

UN Headquarters: Set production to produce a synthmetal probe team (0-2-2). Move colony pod onto progenitor pod (40,36).

If there are no comments in 24 hours, I'll implement the moves and post a save.

[Mart]

Making an expensive prototype is good for disbanding it for secret project before you have crawlers. So we may do it now.
- other good choice is synthmetal garrison, 1-2-1, cost only 30 minerals, and the prototype would cost only 10 minerals more.
- we might wait with making synth units and make plasma armor prototype. we now have pre-defined synth for defense.
- good are foil prototypes, e.g. 2-2-4 foil prototype is quite cheap iirc.

[vyeh]

Originally posted by mart7x5
Making an expensive prototype is good for disbanding it for secret project before you have crawlers. So we may do it now.

I'm only changing production in the event we hit a materials pod. Otherwise, I'd change it back to a colony pod.

The only question is whether it would be better, IN THE EVENT we hit a materials pod and can produce a unit or facility next turn, to produce a colony pod or something else.

IN THE EVENT we hit a materials pod, choosing a colony pod would speed up our ICS strategy. Choosing a synth probe team would allow us to (1) prototype synth, (2) infiltrate the Hive, and (3) if it survives, reinforce #2 with a probe team.

Mead, do you have an opinion between a colony pod and a synth probe team as a contingency for hitting a materials pod?

Originally posted by mart7x5
- other good choice is synthmetal garrison, 1-2-1, cost only 30 minerals, and the prototype would cost only 10 minerals more.

Synthmetal garrison costs 20 minerals. Prototype is 10 minerals more for a total of 30 minerals.

Originally posted by mart7x5
- we might wait with making synth units and make plasma armor prototype. we now have pre-defined synth for defense.

Actually, at this point, we can't produce any pre-defined synth for defense. We have some pre-defined units, but it would be nice to free them up.

To produce impact infantry (4-2-1), we need to research Nonlinear Mathematics and Applied Physics.

To produce synth police (1-2-1, police), we need to research Ethical Calculus, Social Psych and Doctrine: Loyalty.

Originally posted by mart7x5
- good are foil prototypes, e.g. 2-2-4 foil prototype is quite cheap iirc.

(1) UN Headquarters is land-locked
(2) We don't have Applied Physics.
(3) We don't have Doctrine: Flexibility.

[Mart]

yet another option is to turn off possibility to get a mineral pod. By changing all bases to stockpile energy for the time od pod popping we get smth else. I recently do it quite often in my games in order to get preferably other benefits than some number of minerals, when before crawlers.

Making expensive crawlers is good, like rover armored supply with trans ability for example may equal to a whole secret project.

I'll post screenies this evening.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by mart7x5


I'll post screenies this evening.

I look forward to it.

Since I played this through already I am keeping my mouth shut (even on innocent things like how long it took ) but I am very interested in how you guys do with this

Its also fascinating for me to see discussion and writing out of the types of decisions that playing solo you make in a second.

I'll be watching with intyerest. So far some of what you are doing is very similar to what I did but I lost my pact with the Hive on turn 1 so that changed things a lot.

[Mead]

Originally posted by vyeh

***

Mead, do you have an opinion between a colony pod and a synth probe team as a contingency for hitting a materials pod?

Synth probe team because:

As you said, the CP will be gone once we use it to build a base;

The probe team will be ours until it is lost due to a less than fully successful probe action or using it armor to defend;

The probe team could be useful to help a SP along.


Mead

[Mart]

re probing
I would really get Industrial Economics from Morgan, if possible within 4 turns.
He runs Fund/Simple, so he may be without IndEco yet. Infiltration of Morganities can be useful ASAP

Note, we have drop probe teams, however, they skip turn after drop, we might however use additional drop units to escort them. So we make probe actions in this turn, next we drop them again into Morgan vicinity, 2 turns from now we infiltrate
I have to check if it is possible

Morgan territory screenie:

[vyeh]

Originally posted by Flubber
I look forward to it.

You're the one person that does NOT need to see screenies. You already know where the Morgan and SotR bases are!

Originally posted by Flubber
Its also fascinating for me to see discussion and writing out of the types of decisions that playing solo you make in a second.

I find that I sometimes think about another possibility in the 24 hours after writing out my proposed moves.

I've also learned a bit about the diplomatic game from mart7x5.

Originally posted by Flubber
So far some of what you are doing is very similar to what I did but I lost my pact with the Hive on turn 1 so that changed things a lot.

We're only in the third turn. I think the major strategic options of the first turn are:
(1) Send units from Great Clustering to reinforce #1 and/or #2. You did that and the pact ended.
(2) Reinforce Worker's Nest. That's what we did.
(3) Reinforce Plex Anthill, followed by an attack on Working Man Hold and seizure of the bunker. THEN units would be sent to Worker's Nest, essentially bypassing Sheng-ji Yang Base for a faster drive south.
(4) Reinforce both Worker's Nest and Plex Anthill for a simultaneous attack.

I wonder if (3) might have been a better option.

The biggest difference will be whether we can accomplish anything with our units at #1 and #2. My initial thought was to just hold the positions until we can get reinforcements up there, but there might be a possibility of pounding away with the CBU and using mind controlled units to actually conquer Morgan and the Spartans.

[vyeh]

Originally posted by mart7x5
Vyeh, screenshots are much better for drawing tactical moves. Is your Mac OS supporting a screencapture?

mart7x5, I figured how to capture a whole screen and produce a file. Could you walk me through the procedure in which you attached the screen save? I notice that you use imageshack.us. Thanks.

[vyeh]

Posted 2301 4th mid-turn save.

Notes:
(1) Due to the ongoing discussion about pod-popping strategy, I'm not pod popping at this time.

#1:

(2) O attacked Spartan probe teams: 2304-5 odds, O remains 20% damaged.

#2

(3) O attempted to move 1 sq. E (we know it can't do it because of the ZOC of the Morgan scout patrol). This revealed at (58,6) (2 sq SE of the O) a 50% damaged Morgan IR and a Morgan II and at (60,4) (2 sq. E of the O) a Morgan CP. Attempting to move 1 sq. S revealed nothing more.

(4) O attacked wild MW: 27-10 odds, O goes from 10% to 40% damaged. O promoted to Veteran. Gain 40 ec.

Plex Anthill:
(5) CBU attacks Working Man Hold, PT 50% damaged, Synthmetal Sentinel (SS)0% damaged, PR 10% damaged, IR 50% damaged, PT 50% damaged.

(6) Veteran O attacks SS: 10-7 odds, 70% damaged. O promoted to Commando.

(7) Hardened II attacks PR: 5-2 odds, 0% damaged.

(8) Hardened O attacks IR: 9-2 odds, 10% damaged.

Worker's Nest:
(9) Commando intel moved along monorail into bunker and revealed at (46,44) (1 sq. NE of the bunker) a Uni PT and at (46,46) 2 SotR IR's.


(10) Commando intel attempted to steal tech (100%, 80%). Acquired nonlinear mathematics. Intel unit promoted to elite and returned to Plex Anthill. While mart7X5 is probably happy (he was considering spending 150 ec to acquire it from the Hive), Doctrine:Mobility might have been more useful. That would allow us to construct troop transports. We have an imbalance because we've subverted 3 II and 1 synth police and our intel units are tied up doing garrison duty.

Proposed move:
#1: Load O onto TT. Move loaded TT back to #1.
#2: Load O onto intel. Move intel 1 sq. NW. Fire CBU at Morgan Energy Monopoly. Move 2 II's and 1 synth police 1 sq. E. Using TT as shuttle, move the three units 1 sq. SE (each shuttle round trip costs 2/3 mp). Intent: Concentrate forces. Keep weakening base defenders.
Plex Anthill: Load CBU homed to Plex Anthill onto TT. Move loaded TT into Working Man Hold. Unload CBU. Rehome CBU to Working Man Hold. Move CBU along monorail. Intent: Reduce support cost at Plex to zero. Use CBU's deep radar ability to scout.

If there are no comments on the proposed moves in 24 hours, I'll implement and post a mid-turn save.

In the meantime, we should discuss our pod popping strategy and I'll see about posting some screenshots.

[Mart]

Troop transports on rover chassis, made in-game are disadvantegous. They get -1 move point and you can only make them by giving transport weapon package. And they cost more. So it is better to do infantry chassis transports - the same effect and cheaper.

I'll describe screenies in a separate post, need to write it.

[vyeh]

Originally posted by mart7x5
Troop transports on rover chassis, made in-game are disadvantegous. They get -1 move point and you can only make them by giving transport weapon package. And they cost more. So it is better to do infantry chassis transports - the same effect and cheaper.

The troop transports I'm describing are predefined units, NOT built through the Unit Workshop ... I believe they will have movement 2, the same as the UN Troop Transports.

Originally posted by mart7x5
I'll describe screenies in a separate post, need to write it.

I'm currently going through the registration process in imageshack. I've done the screen capture for the SotR bases. So don't worry about that.

[vyeh]

This is a screen shot of the area around UN Observation Post #1. Note the bunkers to the west.

[vyeh]

This is a screen shot of the area around UN Observation Post #2. In the same stack as the damaged IR is an undamaged II. Note all the bunkers around Morgan Energy Monopoly.

[vyeh]

This is the area around UN Headquarters. The two proposed sites for colonization are: (1) two squares W by SW (the forested river square) and (2) two squares N by NE (the moist rolling square).

[vyeh]

mart7x5, I'm still having problems using imageshack. I'm attaching these screen shots through 'poly. I've registered with imageshack. But when I try to upload a file, it hangs. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

[vyeh]

This is the area around Working Man Hold and the bunker SE of it. The probe team near Plex Anthill is a Hive team. The probe team NE of the bunker is a Uni team. There are 2 SotR IR's SE of the bunker.

In the 3 x 3 square S of the 2 SotR IR's, note that there is a border. That tells us that there is a base, which does not belong to SotR. With the presence of the Uni probe team, we can infer that there is a Uni base at (46,60), just south of the choke point. Note the magrail at the southern tip.

[vyeh]

This is the SotR territory. Note that Agincourt controls a choke point. In contrast, there are some nice magrails leading to the "back door" (From On High and Righteous Sentence).

[vyeh]

Finally, the world map (I had to divide it in two because of 'poly limits). The west world map. We can infer that the Spartans are in the land mass at the top left of the map and that the University is in the land mass to the bottom left-center of the map.

[vyeh]

The eastern part of the world map. Note that the "back door" of the SotR has two land routes to the SotR. Ina addition to the one between From on High and Righteous Sentence, there is a connection south of that.

[vyeh]

I'm testing imageshack. This is the map of the Sanctuary.

[vyeh]

Originally posted by mart7x5
yet another option is to turn off possibility to get a mineral pod. By changing all bases to stockpile energy for the time od pod popping we get smth else. I recently do it quite often in my games in order to get preferably other benefits than some number of minerals, when before crawlers.

I actually prefer to get minerals. According to Prima, resupply pod nets 25-200, with higher amount later in the game and at sea. Other good results are bonus resources, and progenitor rover. Free tech is mixed blessing. It is level 2 or below, so we might get Industrial Economics. If we don't, I'd trade with Gaians because the one extra tech would preclude Industrial Automation as a choice after Industrial Economics is chosen.

I would love a mindworm, but Prima says that you can't get mindworms if the pod is adjacent to the base.

My conclusions:
(1) I would not switch temporarily to Stockpile Energy. Getting completion of a build is a good outcome.

(2) The possible builds that make sense would be a synth colony pod (we prototype synth and we accelerate our ICS), a synth probe team (prototype synth, infiltrate Hive, reinforce #2) or a network node (increase the labs/turn at UNHQ from 3 to 5. Mead, are you still in favor of a synth probe team?

Originally posted by mart7x5
re probing
I would really get Industrial Economics from Morgan, if possible within 4 turns.
He runs Fund/Simple, so he may be without IndEco yet.

When we bombarded Morgan Energy Monopoly last turn, there were 7 SotR combat units and 1 SotR probe team and 1 Morganic scout patrol and 1 Morganic probe team. Since the scout patrol was 20% damaged in the bombardment, it is NOT the scout patrol currently next to our units.

So there may be a total of 8 combat units and 2 probe teams in Morgan Energy Monopoly. We have 2 hardened II's, a damaged O and a hardened TT to destroy the combat units. It will take 1 turn to move the II's into position, so we might be able to occupy the base in two turns (assuming we can entice some of the defenders into attacking the synth police).

If we take this approach, I definitely want to produce a probe team (Worker's Nest is a good candidate) to send up to #2 as a replacement for the intel unit which will find itself in Great Clustering. It might be able to move up to 8 squares, if the Hive bases are properly spaced.

Originally posted by mart7x5
Infiltration of Morganities can be useful ASAP

Infiltration is of limited usefulness. We know where the bases are. We can determine what is in a base through bombardment. Regardless of Morgan's strength, we're not in a position to send reinforcements up there. I think we're basically in a war of manuever, using our transports (which includes the intel unit) to move our attackers in and out. That is why I am reluctant to give up the services of the intel unit as a transport for four turns. If we CAPTURE a base, then infiltration or tech capture with the intel unit makes more sense.

Originally posted by mart7x5
Note, we have drop probe teams, however, they skip turn after drop, we might however use additional drop units to escort them. So we make probe actions in this turn, next we drop them again into Morgan vicinity, 2 turns from now we infiltrate
I have to check if it is possible

There are 2 probe teams in Morgan Energy Monopoly. The intel only has 1 mp left. To attack a probe team, it would have to make a hasty assault at 1/3 strength and then it would end up exposed. We'd have to move a defensive unit up to cover it, if it survived.

It is out of range of Morgan Metallurgy.

According to the manual, drop pods have a range of 8 squares.