ACDG4 Game One: The Sword of the Righteous

[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.