The Chartroom: General Strategy and Tactics

[foolish_icarus]

(Sea) Colony pods should have a fairly high priority

[johndmuller]

There is something to be said for infantry CP's as well - They're much cheaper! OTOH, if you factor in the cost of Recycling Tanks, they cost the same, in minerals at least:
Sea Colony: 7 rows;
Inf Colony: 3 rows; Recyc: 4 rows = 7 rows.

As far as locaations go, our archipelago seemingly has sites for either - for example, the site at (47,65) on Treasure Island that I mentioned in the turn thread; there is quite possibly a place for a land based colony somewhere off to the east of the second base too.

Even though they can be said to cost the same, there are some differences, paarticularly with respect to the timing. An Inf Colony can be on its way and self sufficient in less than half the time of a Sea Colony. While the Recyc needs to be built at the new base. tying up its production and likely being slower to build there, the last 3 rows can be rushed at 2ec/min. much cheaper than all but the last 4 mins of a Sea Colony build.

The main things you get with a Sea Colony is the (disposable) ship and the ability to found a base at sea (and even beyond the Continental Shelf), so if we can plant a base on land or sea without there being a drop off in productivity, IMhO, it is a bit more efficient to do a land CP. Of course, we Pirates are not necessarily paragons of efficiency, so . . .

[Atlantian]

Though I would prefer to stay at sea, we do need a land base. A strategy I have used once with mixed results was to place one land colony on each contenent, providing you with a safe place to drop off men for, lets say, an attack. It made me weaker in the begining, but once I was established, things quickly picked up.

Besides, the infanty colony is more cost effective. I beleive we should get at least one when we go to spread ourselves out.

[Googlie]

[Atlantian]

Ooooh. Sounds Fun! Lets do that!

[FlameFlash]

I like that too!

[ThePlagueRat]

Yeah, I like these brilliant ideas. One tile islands are great, if they exist.

I am concerned, however, for the huge Seagoing-CP costs... Cause we will need a dozen of these too, in an early expansion phase. It's the most secure bases early on... Colonizing onto costs is a bit more risky.

[Hercules]

Yes they are secure an if spread out (with care ) they also allow us to establish a lot of that 1-2-1 contact with other factions.

[johndmuller]

Energy Allocation

I copied this from the turn thread; it seemed like something to talk about here instead.

[Size=1]by Googlie in the turn thread
Open 2106.

currently (at 50/0/50) you get 3ec's per turn and a new tech in 7 turns

set to 30/10/60

it drops to 2 and 6

Found new seabase

it goes to 3 ec's and next tech in 5 turns

reset sliders to 50/0/50

ec's go up to 4 perturn but the next tech goes out to 6 turns

Sure, at 30/10/60 you have a - 10% labs and a -20% econ penalty, but at 50/0/50 your labpoints are 6 per turn, and energy is 4 per year

move the research allocation from 50 to 60, and even with the 10% penalty the labpoints increase to 7 per turn (90% of 60% is greater than 100% of 50%)

ec's do drop, with the 20% penalty, and a lower allocation, but rounding (up) takes some of the sting away in those early turns

And as I've said, ec's are never a problem for the Pirates as you'll get numerous podpops that will deliver up to 200 ec's at times

Plus the impact for the pirates is marginally not so great as for the other factions, as you are starting with a -1 efficiency rating anyway, so all the penalties are being applied on a smaller base number

G.

As I said in the other thread, I'm not a really big fan of fiddling with the allocation when you get inefficiency, but the 30-10-60 does shift it a little toward labs without an overall penalty - that is, one more lab and one less econ than with 50-0-50, so in this case it seems to be a good idea, since we currently have enough pieces of eight - the psych might help with B-drones too.

It looks like a good idea for us in the short run anyway. Even though it doesn't advance the completion date of our next tech, it still will be banking the extra techpoints and so will help us eventually.

The downside is that we have to try to remember to check this out regularly, as the trade-offs will no doubt change as our population and production profiles change, so what works this turn may not work the next, and so on.

When it gets to the point where we have to take a net hit in total yield (i.e. labs + econ) in order to get more labs, the decision becomes a bit tougher - how much of a net efficiency loss are we willing to sustain in order to boost the labs production a little?

[Hercules]

Good points I'll look at it before next turn. I would like to trade lesser techs than Doc. Mob and Doc Flex. Doc Flex is our strong card. So having something else would be good. At some point if we are the tech trading company, the above becomes less important, I suspect, until other factions start to catch up.

On the other hand two of the factions are research specialists.

[ThePlagueRat]

Re: Energy Allocation

Originally posted by johndmuller
- how much of a net efficiency loss are we willing to sustain in order to boost the labs production a little?

Good question... Thats an important issue, and is sure will be more important as our bases grow. High effiency did help me out in many games, and so did being a leading tech faction. When we are building something important, like a secret project, or if we are being attacked by a large force, an efficiency loss is not to recommend.

Now we have the two other technology specialists factions, so being a tech trader could be a nice strategy. Or the pirate way...
- We send the seagoing probes and steal all we want!

Anyway, sooner or late I think we should have to join the tech race, but then we can build lab improvements.

[johndmuller]

Trading Policy

As Cap'n Hercules will discover if AXT-056 ever gets going again, the Drones can be a real Heavy Hitter faction. AXT-056 contains many of the same factions and was also designed by Googlie. It has as Human players the Pirates, Cycon, Drones and PK, and as AI players Yang, Santi and the University; aside from who is AI and who is Human, the only difference is that Miriam is in for Santi.

In AXT-056, The Pirates, Drones and Cycon had a Pact for much of the first 100 years and did a lot of tech trading - Human Lal wasn't contacted until much of the trading had been done and so was somewhat behind in techs (except for being next to the University and being able to trade with them. Anyway, the fact that the Drones had ready access to all the tech enabled them to get a really good start; they got nearly all the SP's and were able to develop enough that their research rate became as good as if not better than anyone's; they also managed to get the governorship pretty cheaply, although that was more a matter of political skill and the fact that the original PK player seemed somewhat antisocial.

This, coupled with the fact that Buster, Mark and Mongoose are first rate players (I don't know about the rest, but I am sure that they are no patsies either), makes me worry about the dangers of facililtating the same sort of thing with them in this game. We are supposed to be the traders, and probably need to do a lot of trading to stay in the tech picture, so there is a problem there - do we foster trade with the Drones or not?

[ThePlagueRat]

Very good you seem to know about the opponents...
Do you have insight to their playing style too?
For example, are they possibly active traders like we are supposed to be?

[Hercules]

I thought Shadowlord3 had joined them but that name isn't there. Mongoose calculates exactly when to receive and transmit techs to minimise the tech cost increase. Our advantage when we get to size five bases is to be able to use specialists (when the appropriate techs are in place) to boost research or the economy).

We will need to discuss tech trading further when we meet our first factions.
Someone bumped the 'What best tips have you learnt from Apolyton' thread and if you are not familar with some of the ideas it is well worth the visit.

Also in the CGN Strategy Academy. Buster gave a detailed outline of a building strategy he used in the past. I suspect he has added some new tricks since.

[Googlie]