Old dog learns new tricks, or MP warfare in the Nuclear Age

[Theben]

We're both free rel

[rah]

So did you try it again?

[Theben]

Not yet... I may have to sabotage a spaceship part 1st. He's 1/2 done with his ship and I've got 2 parts and still lack 2 needed techs. Also he just opted for the "everyone Uni Sufferage" UN vote (I built it but he's so big I shouldn't have bothered, he's won twice ) and he's in Rep. So maybe I won't need to, yet.

Also have spies on 3 of his 4 aluminum mines with 4th on the way. Just need to delay him about 10 more turns.

[Ming]

Also have spies on 3 of his 4 aluminum mines with 4th on the way. Just need to delay him about 10 more turns.

And while you are doing that... I'm sure he is planning similar "fun" for you

[rah]

I think a great spy should be able to see lesser spies and maybe even do something about them. This would make generating one greatly more desirable.

[wodan11]

I think a great spy should be able to see lesser spies and maybe even do something about them. This would make generating one greatly more desirable.

Well, (as we can see from the in game art), great spies are male while all lesser spies are female. Conjure up 007 and use your imagination.

[rah]

Yeah, i just imagined those female spies poisoning the water supplies.

[Theben]

And while you are doing that... I'm sure he is planning similar "fun" for you

He hasn't done too many "end game" scenarios... atm he's turtling down to avoid nuke attacks and invasions and bumping his ESP points. Now that I've blown up an SS casing and 3 aluminum mines, he's probably re-thinking his strategy.

And no, no info on the civic switch yet.

[Theben]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know how the game determines what the ESP points needed for various missions are? And does the space flight time vary from quick games to marathon?

[Theben]

Okay, FINALLY forced a switch from free market to environmentalism. Don't know if it worked, but so far he hasn't gotten any more esp points.

[rah]

If you have enough esp points so you can see what he's researching it should be easy to see if he falls into anarchy by seeing how many turns till his next discovery.

[Jaybe]

And does the space flight time vary from quick games to marathon?

Well, at marathon speed transit time is 75 turns with one engine, 60 with two.

How long do quick games last?

EDIT: Take that provisionally. It is possible that the mod I play extends flight time ... but I am certain it varies with game speed.

[Theben]

The answer is no. He switched over w/o anarchy, so there goes that idea. Cost me a few points too.

So maybe the better idea is in MP you use the civic switch to help your buddy switch civics without anarchy. If you're willing to spend those esp points for him.

EDIT: Take that provisionally. It is possible that the mod I play extends flight time ... but I am certain it varies with game speed.

I think that's a mod. IIRC my epic game took 18 turns flight time... so about 12 turns normal speed. Yes, this is normal speed; he made a mistake at game start and didn't switch his SP settings.

[Theben]

If I can blow up 1 more part and he doesn't notice my culture push, I'll win. Otherwise it'll be close. Right now he's 2 parts away from launching, but one of those was a part I blew up and should be at least 3 more turns before completion. The trick is if I use too much ESP points he'll be able to see into my cities, increasing the chance he'll notice.

EDIT: Looking back at an old save it took 15 turns at Epic speed. So 10 turns on normal?! Yikes! I'll have to blow something up and pray he doesn't drop 5 nukes on each culture city!

[Theben]

Well I blew up his Stasis Chamber and as long as he doesn't mess with my cultural cities I've got this game won. With Athens churning out 2 attack subs and one missile cruiser/3 turns (all COM3, MED 1) I'm not worried about another seaborne invasion, just lots of nukes blowing up my cultural buildings again. Atm I'm trying to convince him that my plan is to keep blowing up stuff until a vassal researches Fusion tech for me. Of course he's blowing up my parts now (he didn't know it could be done until I did it to him ) and I wouldn't be surprised if one of ours vassals launches a spaceship first!

And 1 more trick I learned: When launching a 2 promotion ship for the 1st time, hold off on 1 promo. I had ships start with 8 exp attack his ships and win, earning enough exp for an extra promotion. Since I didn't use the 2nd right away the promotion was still available that turn, and now the 3rd was also. Had a missile cruiser get damaged to 16 str, but after using both promos was back to 34 at the end of the turn!