Hive Strategy

[Jamski]

OK - We want to win this game, or at least make a good showing, so... who has some kind of general "good tactics" for te Hive. I'll kick off.

• SE choices - Police State, Planned, Power(if at war) or Wealth (if at peace) - I think that's a given for the Hive.
• We're playing on Trancend = lots of Drones. We'll need to take advatage of our high support to put the maximum numbers of free cheap police units in place. With the Perimiter def. we won't have to worry about attacks for some time.
• High support = lots of formers. We should get the tech and start on formers ASAP.
• Early game - we should only be building formers, scout patrols and colony pods - we can really get big fast, and then start on building the base improvements.
• We have to get agressive at some point. If we let the builders get big, we've had it.
• The Pirates are in game = we have to get some sea bases and a navy built. Sometimes these can be neglected, but not today folks.
• POD POPPING... lets get out there.
• Research - Formers - Crawlers - Missilelaunchers - Air Power - Attack! Or do we want to go with a recon rover rush? (not serious)
• Allies - we have no natural enemies out there - we should be friends with everyone against the strongest faction - if ata all possible - so don't antagonise people too much in the open forums... Unless you have to
• Planet Busters and Gas are serious options. We are the Hive, after all.

Fire away, comrades

-Jam

[Voltaire]

Agree with everything states, we need to be aggressive but not to the point of turning all the other factions are against us. If we’re located on the same landmass as another faction (be it human or AI) attack early and attack fast, especially if we’re talking either the University or Consciousness here. They have us on tech, and if we allow them to get too powerful we’re screwed.

Comrade War of Art is right when he says we have no natural enemies, but we also do not have any natural friends. Be opportunistic, we will take advantages of the weaknesses of the other factions; war is a tool, let us use it correctly.

On a slightly more personal note, I consider the University to be our greatest threat; not only due to their tremendous research capabilities, but also because they are being lead by Archaic, suffice it to say he’s not the most “communist friends” person in the world, plus he’s damn good with the University. The other factions I do not perceive to be as great a threat given that they are either left leaning and non-militaristic, or IMO won’t get in our direct way. The Consciousness theoretically makes for the best ally with the University, but they can also be made bitter enemies, we need to exploit this. The Pirates, though formidable on the seas, shouldn’t provide too great of a threat early on, we need to be on guard but let us take care of the land dwellers first.

That’s my two cents on the general strategy we should be employing.

Oh and one last thing, we do not want to make it appear as though we’re militarizing, keep things friendly (when possible) with the other factions. Remember any of our troop movements are simply “routine exercises, nothing at all to be alarmed about”.

-Chairman Voltaire

[Micha]

That´s a very good overview!
I completely agree especially with the gas and planet buster thingie!

(post altered for security reasons )

[Jamski]

We are talking on a secure channel here aren't we?

On the subject of allies, we should get on OK with the Drones. I bet Googlie's put them on the other side of the Planet, though....

Maybe because of Archaic we can form a world alliance against the University. That boy is a genius at getting people angry...

I agree with the Chairman, the University are definitly the ones to watch. We should be probing/infilterating/killing them as soon as possible. We should make them "share" their technology with us at every oportunity - i.e. they MUST NOT get the HSA under any circumstances. If they do, then we have to PB that base, but best of all we should sabotage the construction repeatedly hehehehe

-Jam

[Micha]

Originally posted by War of Art
We are talking on a secure channel here aren't we?

Well, as long as the State Security (StaSec) is not put in place yet, we cannot guarantee that no evil spies of the capitalist running dogs eavesdrop on our meetings...
Plus: One man is rational. Hundrets are very vulnerable to demagogues. But tenthousands are the most unpredictable source of danger you can imagine. They are better be contained protected from themselves, so no "unformatted" quotes of our meetings should ever leave this room...

Originally posted by War of Art
On the subject of allies, we should get on OK with the Drones. I bet Googlie's put them on the other side of the Planet, though....

evil evil Googlie

Originally posted by War of Art
Maybe because of Archaic we can form a world alliance against the University. That boy is a genius at getting people angry...
I agree with the Chairman, the University are definitly the ones to watch. We should be probing/infilterating/killing them as soon as possible. We should make them "share" their technology with us at every oportunity - i.e. they MUST NOT get the HSA under any circumstances. If they do, then we have to PB that base, but best of all we should sabotage the construction repeatedly hehehehe

Nothing to add. Perhaps we could send them some of our superior engineers to "help" them build their empire...

[Jamski]

Remember Googlie has the password to access all secret Hive meetings.

-Jam

[Jamski]

Hey, post here count towards Post Count.

Let the spam commence !

(ummm - I didn't say that)

[Voltaire]

While we’re on the topic of not allowing the University to get the HSA under any circumstances, the question of our terraforming policy popped into mind. Do we go the Planet friendly forest route and then bleed it dry for every possible mineral we can when we get crawlers allowing for most of our bases to be super industrial. Or something more balanced? I would suggest that we plant forests on every square outside the base radius, until get boreholes, and crawl the minerals from them to our cities; as for the base radius policy, perhaps forests on every square that wouldn’t make that great of a farm, so anything non-rainy we put a forest on, something to that effect.

[Jamski]

For general base policy this sounds OK. On rocky squares we should road + mine, and we should think about some forest inside the base radius so we can get a good mix of minerals, food and energy. With treefarms and Hforest, then I like to forest everything, with a few boreholes and mines where the trees won't grow.

-Jam

[Micha]

Sounds good, especially that forest-otside-base-radius proposal. But isn´t a farm on (2000m, rolling, moist) terrain combined with solar collectors better than forest? And it´s not rainy terrain!

BTW: Could someone please explain the meanings of the project abbreviations you use. I don´t possess SMAX and my SMAC is a German version, so I can´t just figure them out that easy...

[Jamski]

HSA is Hunter-Seeker-Algorithm (stops Probe teams)
HForest is Hybrid Forest (improves econ and forest output)

I got the UK version deliverd from Amazon.co.uk, whick was well worth it. I have the German version of CtP2, and that causes some confusion with the abbreviations too.

-Jam

[Micha]

Thanks! And what does "PB that base" mean? Probe ...?

[Jamski]

PLANET BUSTER!!!

Everyone likes that

-Jam

[Zero]

Id personally would like to concentrate on expanding and builidng up troops. Claiming territory and making sure no one get bully us (and instead maybe we can be on the aggressive side) is top priority IMO.

[Jamski]

We should build as fast as possible to the efficency limit (12 bases on Trancsend?) and then start on the troops, or did you mean starting a millitary as soon as we can get the lasers??

-Jam