ACDG4 Game One: The Sword of the Righteous

[Mart]

how about making a colony pod in UNHQ?
Base has no growth, any -1 nutrient will starve it.
making a new base will improve our growth.

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Mead
PS

Darsan, where did you get those names? Lady Halibut?

a) its Darsnan

b) its Lady Haliburt

c) while it might not show now, I used to be quite the creative writer, and was always good at thinking up names for characters. These names just "seemed to go" with the game is all.


D

[vyeh]

Originally posted by mart7x5
how about making a colony pod in UNHQ?
Base has no growth, any -1 nutrient will starve it.
making a new base will improve our growth.

OK with me. I'd eventually like to free up the intel unit doing garrison duty, but we can build a garrison unit, if we decide one is necessary, after the colony pod is built.

Edit (addition): Having thought about it, this is a very good idea, because Plex Anthill has a command center. If it is possible, we should build all our garrisons at Plex Anthill, upgrade on the monolith and send to the other bases. How does building colony pods at Great Clustering and Worker's Nest, in addition to U.N. Headquarters, sound? (End edit.)

I think a colony pod is a very good idea. I'm in the middle of analyzing all the information about SotR that we got from infiltration. We are currently producing 14 labs/turn. SotR is producing 39 labs/turn. They are already ahead of us in techs. We got to up our labs. I think we need to ICS our bases, while our military units secure our borders.

I do want to free up our military units from garrison duty. We have a temporary parity/slight superiority. We have 4-2-1 observers. SotR has 4-2-1 impact infantry. We have 4-2-2 troop transports. SotR has 2-2-2 troop transports. We have 0-2-2 intel units. SotR has 0-1-1 probe teams. We have (6)-2-1 counter-battery units. SotR does not have artillery. To get artillery, SotR needs to research Industrial Base, Information Network, and Polymorphic Software. Then they can produce (4)-2-1 artillery. They are currently taking two turns to research tech.

With infiltration, we can see the area around each base. Since we have a survey of the planet which shows land, sea and rivers, we can figure out where the bases are by looking for geographic features. (And we can check our results by seeing if the distance of the bases from the SotR HQ base, New Jerusalem, matches up with the inefficiency loss.) So far I tentatively have:

From On High (76, 68)
Righteous Sentence (76, 60)
The Hand of God (7, 61)
Agincourt (12, 66)

(The other two are more difficult since they are all land. I need to match up the rivers!)

I see two potential strategies:

(1) We can push our borders back with our military units while ICSing. When we have overwhelming military superiority we attack SotR.

(2) We can go straight for the SotR and attack before they get artillery, and plasma steel armor. By the way, only the two SotR bases near us have perimeter defenses. SotR needs to research Doctrine: Loyalty to build perimeter defenses at their other bases.

Mead, mart7x5, do you have an opinion?

[vyeh]

Originally posted by vyeh
With infiltration, we can see the area around each base. Since we have a survey of the planet which shows land, sea and rivers, we can figure out where the bases are by looking for geographic features. (And we can check our results by seeing if the distance of the bases from the SotR HQ base, New Jerusalem, matches up with the inefficiency loss.) So far I tentatively have:

From On High (76, 68)
Righteous Sentence (76, 60)
The Hand of God (7, 61)
Agincourt (12, 66)

New Jerusalem (0, 70)
The Holy Fire (6, 76)

Base, Distance From HQ, %age energy loss
New Jerusalem, 0, 0
From On High, 3, 0
The Holy Fire, 6, 11
Righteous Sentence, 7, 11
The Hand of God, 8, 25
Agincourt, 8, 27
Working Man Hold, 32, 100
Sheng-Ji Yang Base, 33, 100

The shortest distance by land (counting every unexplored square as 1 - this doesn't take into account forests, rocky squares, roads, mag tubes) is to travel west from the choke point (46, 58). The "distance" is 22 and would bring us to Agincourt. If you will look at the base map of Agincourt (F4, click on the SotR/Believer icon, doubleclick on Agincourt), you will see that there is a bunker immediately to the east of Agincourt. (Of course, our initial units have drop capability. Maybe we should think about bringing a colony pod along.)

If we traveled east from the choke point (46, 58), the "distance" is 27 and that would bring us to From On High or Righteous Sentence. Looking at the base map of From On High, there is a nice monorail to the west of that base.

In either case, if you will look at the bases, you will see monorails. I've pieced together a map, and it looks like all the SotR bases are "probably" connected by monorails, so they will be able to reinforce.

The number of units in the garrisons (I'm excluding Sheng-Ji Yang Base and Working Man Hold) are:
Scout Patrols (5), Probe Teams (4), Progenitor Rovers (5), Synth Police (6), Troop Transport Mk1 (5), Scout Patrol (1), Impact Rover (5), and Impact Infantry (5).

If we take a look at the Security Nexus (F7, click on the SotR/Believer icon) and take into account the units opposing us at #1, #2, Sheng-Ji Yang Base and Working Man Hold, the following are unaccounted for:
Probe Team (2), Progenitor Rover (2), Synth Police (3), Troop Transport Mk 1 (2), Impact Rover (2), Impact Infantry (2). They could be able to reinforce. (They might be in the bunkers near Agincourt or The Hand of God.)

In addition, the six SotR bases excluding Sheng-Ji Yang Base and Working Man Hold are building Impact Infantry and they will be built the next turn.

What are your thoughts?

[vyeh]

Note to Darsnan:

As you can see, with infiltration and "Unity survey" on, I was able to locate the SotR bases This set of circumstances came from the combination of the two factors above with an SotR base around to be infiltrated. Sheng-Ji Yang Base and Working Man Hold are liabilities to the SotR. They are a drain on the treasury (they produce no energy or labs and the treasury has to pay for the upkeep of the facilities). Bunkers, like the ones opposite #1 and #2 would do as well.

Personally, it was fun figuring out where the SotR bases are. I only bring it up because I believe it affects the play balance.

[Mead]

ICS = good
Build the CP


I would like to take the nearby Beliver bases soon to limit/prevent a two front war. - I'm afraid of the Hive turning on us.

Mead

[vyeh]

Originally posted by Mead
I would like to take the nearby Beliver bases soon to limit/prevent a two front war. - I'm afraid of the Hive turning on us.

Then we should be thinking of pushing colony pods toward the chokepoint with the Hive. This will push the Hive's territorial boundaries back and give us a base to support any conflict.

[vyeh]

Inferences from the Premise

Originally posted by Darsnan
Premise

... The University ... initiated a ... war ... against their neighbors the Believers.

(1) The University and the Believers are neighbors.

Originally posted by Darsnan
... Joan ... were able to defeat the remaining Uni field armies at Agincourt.

2) Since Agincourt (12, 66) is on a chokepoint to the east of the remaining Believer bases, we can infer the Uni bases are to the east of Agincourt on the other side of the chokepoint.

Originally posted by Darsnan
Meanwhile the Spartan Splinter Faction had fallen into conflict with their neighbors, the Hive.

3) The Spartans and the Hive are neighbors.

Originally posted by Darsnan
... Joan d’Arc ... began augmenting the Spartan units with her ... units.

4) The Believers have a land supply line to the Spartans.

Originally posted by Darsnan
... the Morganites ... closed their borders to the Hive.

5) The Morganites share a border with the Hive.

Originally posted by Darsnan
... the Morganites ... requested Believer assistance, which then allowed the Believers to base aggressor units in Morganite territory along the previously neutral Hive flank.

6) The Believers have a land supply line to the Morganites.

7) The border between the Hive and Morgan is different from the border between the Hive and the Spartans.

Originally posted by Darsnan
... the Hive have offered you the services of several cities ..., which they state should also be considered as part of the buffer zone between themselves and the “aggressor states”, meaning it is your responsibility to keep the warring factions apart.

8) There is an enemy to the south of us.

Originally posted by Darsnan
... this Hive leader may already be rethinking whether it was a wise decision to involve the Peace Keepers in this “local squabble”….

9) The Hive may be rethinking our Pact with them.

We can make the following inferences:

A) From 2) and 8), the University is south of us.

B) From 3), 5), and 7), Observation Post #1 is facing the Spartans or the Morganites and Observation Post #2 is facing the other one.

[vyeh]

To Hive or not to Hive

Something to think about ...

After we finish securing our continent, are we attacking the Hive?

Pro: We know what they have. With careful use of counter-battery units, transports and observers, we can take them and their territory with little or no casualties.

Con: The Hive is an enemy of the SotR coalition.

While we don't have to make a decision immediately, if we decide to pursue the strategy of attacking the weakest faction first (the Hive), it might make sense to stop acting as a buffer at #1 and #2 and get our units out of there. No point risking our units to keep the Hive from being attacked if we are going to attack the Hive in the near future ...

[vyeh]

Some strategic musings:

(1) The units at #1 and #2 work their way away from Hive territory when the opportunity arrives. This protects against the Hive ending our Pact and those units zipping back to the south. With subversion of singleton units, they may be able to achieve footholds in the Morgan and Spartan territories.

(2) The non-independent southern units stay at home. After they have helped take the two SotR bases, some will be used to garrison the sothern chokepoint (46, 58) and the others the northern chokepoint where we come into contact with the Hive. This protects us if the Hive suddenly declares war, and it gives us some flexibility if we decide to go free market.

(3) The southern independent units are used to go south. We should consider attacking Uni. Also, note that if they go east, they come into the SotR "back door". (There is a chokepoint and bunker at Agincourt, but there is a nice monorail into From On High.)

(4) Meanwhile, the southern bases produce colony pods until they are size 1. We can use the stay-at-home units to garrison them until then.

[vyeh]

I propose the following final moves for 2299:

(1) Set all bases to produce colony pods.
(2) Skip turn for intel units at Plex Anthill (2/3 mp remaining), #1 (2 mp remaining) and #2 (2 mp remaining).

If I don't hear any objections in 24 hours, I'll implement and post an end turn save.

[vyeh]

2299 end turn save.

Some issues that will come up between turns:

Technology:

(1) Currently, it will take 12 labs to research a technology. We're producing 14, so we'll be asked to select a tech, get that tech and asked to select another tech to research. There is a formula in the Prima's Strategy Guide for tech discovery cost. It doesn't seem to work in this case, so I created a new game with standard size map and used the scenario editor to give the Believers the techs the SotR has in this game. That produced a tech cost for the Peacekeepers of 12. I then added a tech one at a time to determine how much it would cost to research the next tech. I got these results

Techs, # labs
1, 12
2, 30
3, 48
4, 68
5, 95
6, 120
7, 147
8, 176

This is a simplification (it doesn't take into account the number of turns that passed or the fact that SotR/Believers will be gaining more techs); however, it gives an idea of how long it will take to research techs. Currently, we're producing 14 labs/turn. After we capture Sheng-Ji Yang Base, we'll produce 16 or 17 labs/turn.

Our research schedule for the first few turns looks like this:
pre 2300: Get one tech (2 total techs, app. 30 labs for the next tech)
2300: Steal one tech from Sheng-Ji Yang Base (3 total techs); Sheng-Ji Yang Base captured (producing app. 16 labs/turn)
pre 2302: Get one tech (4 total techs, app. 68 labs for the next tech)
2302: Steal one tech from Working Man Hold (5 total techs); Working Man Hold captured (producing app. 18 labs/turn)

After this, it is hard to forecast, since we will be producing colony pods, which will result in a loss of energy to the producing base but a gain of energy from the new base. If we don't take into account our ICS, we would get:

2306: Get one tech (6 total techs, app. 120 labs for next tech)
2313: Get one tech (7 total techs, app. 147 labs for next tech)
2322: Get one tech (8 total techs, app. 176 labs for next tech)

If we want to get to Industrial Automation (supply crawlers), we need to be careful about trading for techs which are not on the Industrial Automation b-line.

(2) There is a thread "About beelining to Industrial Automation..."

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=96606

To summarize and simplify, you can divide the list of techs into three groups. You will not be able to select one group. This inability will rotate through the groups depending on how many techs you have. A partial list:

Group 1: Applied Physics, Centauri Ecology, Industrial Economics
Group 2: Industrial Base, Social Psych
Group 3: Information Networks, Planetary Networks, Doctrine: Mobility, Industrial Automation

If you can't select Group 1 with one tech, then you won't be able to select Group 2 with two techs, Group 3 with three techs, Group 1 with four techs and so on.

As soon as we're asked to choose the first tech to research, we'll be able to see which techs we can't research and know where we are in the rotation.

This is important because if you pick the techs in the wrong order, you may not be able to research a tech in the b-line.

Diplomacy:

If we're contacted by The Hive or any other faction, we will have to respond. I would recommend that we be nice to The Hive. If the Hive wants to trade techs, we should (despite the problems it may raise). We don't want to lose the Pact yet.

If we're contacted by the Gaians, should we agree to a treaty? Should we agree to a Pact?

If we're contacted by the Morganites, Spartans, or University, should we respond? Should we agree to a treaty? Should we agree to a Pact?

If we're contacted by SotR, should we agree to end the vendetta?

[Mead]

Originally posted by vyeh
***
Diplomacy:

If we're contacted by The Hive or any other faction, we will have to respond. I would recommend that we be nice to The Hive. If the Hive wants to trade techs, we should (despite the problems it may raise). We don't want to lose the Pact yet.

If we're contacted by the Gaians, should we agree to a treaty? Should we agree to a Pact?

If we're contacted by the Morganites, Spartans, or University, should we respond? Should we agree to a treaty? Should we agree to a Pact?

If we're contacted by SotR, should we agree to end the vendetta?

Yes, be nice to Hive.

Pick up as many treaties, pacts as possible.

Even if they only last a few turns, the turn advantage is worth it.


Mead

[Mart]

Hive may provide us with commlinks to other factions. I would check them all. And since we have Pact, we can say to Yang, that we offer in exchange friendship and goodwill (Pactmate gives commlinks always free then)

[vyeh]

Originally posted by mart7x5
Hive may provide us with commlinks to other factions. I would check them all. And since we have Pact, we can say to Yang, that we offer in exchange friendship and goodwill (Pactmate gives commlinks always free then)

Posted 2299end2 save.

Contacted Hive.

Hive-ambivalent.

"Welcome to Planet, Brother Lal. ...
"Always a pleasure to be of service, Brother Lal.
"Pact Brother, I am now uploading my most recent world map ...
"Have you any further business?"

"I have a proposal.
"I need commlink ...
"Lady Haliburt ...

"What do you offer ..."

"... goodwill and friendship ..."

"But of course"

"I have another proposal.
"I need commlink ...
"Provost Alaron ..."

"... lack of frequency ..."

...

"CEO Montigue ..."

"... lack of frequency ..."

...

"Colonel Joechim ..."

"... lack of frequency ..."

Summary:

We have Gaian frequency. Should we contact her?

Hive doesn't have any other frequencies.