Mindworm disaster

[ReconRoverRush]

I was playing as the drones. I decided to use my industry to my advantage and explore the plant emasse. Knowing there is safety in numbers I built a number of scout patrols and started exploring the nearby fungus. What the, mindworms already! I lost a scout already, but quickly avenged the soldier's death. I built another two scout patrols. Eventually, I found the caretakers which quickly turned into a war. Soon afterwards the Planet Cult had somehow managed to capture one of these horrible abominations. To boot, the Planet Cult had formed a pact of brotherhood with the Caretakers very early. To make a long story short, I ended up fighting against three forces of mind worms.

1. The planet Cult
2. The caretakers
3. The planet itself

I hadn't even built any terraformers, why oh why are these beasts attacking? I ended up trudging through massive amounts of fungus with massive amount of units to attempt to overwhelm my enemies. It would take me approximately ten-fifteen planet years to reach the enemy perimeter, yet somehow mind worms were able to move through the fungus at extraordinary rates. Makes me wonder if somehow my scouting expeditions are somehow related to the high amount of mind worm activity. Tune in for next time.

No don't activate that pod!

One of the hardest lessons to learn in life on the planet is how dangers lurks in the least expected places. The turn of planet fall my scout patrol saw a unity pod, expecting a routine salvage operation, my scout activates the pod, nooooooooooo! The horror the horror, my very first encounter with mind worms. It was hard to explain exactly what happened. All I know is if wasn't for a the timely production of a 2nd scout patorl, Free Drone Central may have been lost. Lesson learned, don't open a unity pod right away, built some additional scout patrols. In fact be very careful when opening pods near colonies/colony pods in general. Plenty of colony pods have been lost to a greedy grab of a unity pod, only to flood the area with mind worms, destroying all in their wake.

[ReconRoverRush]

Part II: The People come first

Sick of seeing my scouts devoured by mindworms I decided to build. Despite, the Caretakers apparent affinity with the planet the Mindworms apparently don't like progenitors either. In a sense, the many fungal towers, approximately 4 in various directions were forcing a stalemate. One major fruit did come from my scouting expeditions. I found the Aki-5, a beautiful yet scary cybernetic woman. I quickly make friends and she offers me a pact of brotherhood. Apparently, the Caretakers didn't like her much.

Industry and science:

After trading map information it was clear, it was 2v2 the Caretakers and the Planet Cult vs Drones and Consciousness. Just in case, I sent some one colony pod across the sea, and started building there also. While neither none of the four factions could get past the Fungal towers with normal units, biological units could pass with ease. The Planet Cult was laying siege to Alpha Prime, while the Caretakers were marching on Free Drone Central. After trading tech, I build up several recon rovers and terraformers to try to get first strike against the worms. I also build many colonies, and some basic infrastructure. Mainly command centers.

Across the Sea

Meanwhile, on the other side of the sea I ran into Datajack Roze who traded me more techs, which I in turn traded to Aki-5. Things were looking up, until a new threat showed its mandibles. Conqueror Marr didn't like my collaboration with Roze one bit, and declared war. By this time, I had 5 colonies across the sea, but Marr took one.

Holding two fronts:

I spammed unit after unit, taking heavy losses. Relying upon my ability to quickly reinforce I managed to hold the line. Eventually, I managed to break through the Caretaker's lines. I took all three bases, but alas the caretaker escaped in an escape pod. How did I break the lines? The pirates swung the tide of battle by trading me impact technology. To boot, Aki-5 had lost Alpha Prime. I then went and landed some troops behind Marr's lines, including several probe teams. Marr continued to charge, but when i took his base, I traded land for peace.

Now here's where I realized just how dumb Marr was. Despite Roze being far away he sent a huge land army to her. I watched as he spent all his support to attack over 30 turns away. I then went and attempted to retake two size one Planet Cult, originally Aki-5's bases. Yet, the bases were destroyed in the fighting. I then fought a long battle across many fungus with the Planet Cult. Eventually I just gave up and built, settling on a standstill.

Building is the drones strength

I set all my bases to build, and started cranking out the secret projects. With planned economy and wealth I was at +4 industry, -40% cost. Eventually, the Planet Cult surrendered. At this point the only significant faction was the Pirates. I built up a huge naval fleet, about 30 destroyers with the Marine time control center. Crushed the Caretakers and the Pirates very quickly. I then sat back and laughed as conqueror's Marr army still hadn't reached Roze.