Strategy Links Index

[Haon]

This thread can be used to keep an index of links to various strategies.

http://www.civgaming.net/smac/academy.shtml

The ironic thing is, some of those articles were written by buster and may be used against him!

Obviously we need THE GUIDE As well but I cant find a copy of it at the moment.

Just keep this sticky and constantly expand as more resources are available.

(we could even try getting tactics for other factiosn so we can understand them in depth so we can undermine there tactics!)

[Static Universe]

Velociryx Strategy Guide v 3.0 available here. (Scroll Down)

http://1st-euro.com/AC/tools.html

[Jamski]

That's a very helpful little site indeed, thanks SU.

-Jam

[Static Universe]

A couple FAQS from gamefaqs.com.

Alpha Centauri
Alien Crossfire

[Gnool]

Now that you've pointed out Veloceryx's guide you've gotten me wondering: why isn't he in this game?

[Kody]

http://www.firaxis.com/smac/strategy.cfm

It sounds strange but the website has some interesting tips that aren't covered in the stategy guides at CGN or the help forum at apolyton.

[Vev]

I've seen Vel in a few game forums in Apolyton. But the material he have written was a while back.

[Kody]

http://renaissanceforums.community.everyone.net/community/scripts/topics.pl?NodeID=48436

Need to read Vel's strategy guide sometime, since I can't just keep leeching tactics hive members.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Vev
I've seen Vel in a few game forums in Apolyton. But the material he have written was a while back.

He's the lead developer for The Courts of Candle 'Bre - "the ultimate turn-based strategy game"

see: here

G.

[Kody]

That sounds cool, although I didn't get to see any screenshots because of the website was being updated.

[Kody]

Rush buying

Crawler upgrading is impractical for the hive until we either get a different engine or some of the special abilities like trance. The upgrade cost does not take into account the hive's industry bonuses so the trick is less effective for the hive than for other factions.

ECs are better spent rush buying the crawler. This is because the crawlers can be rush brought on average for 2.6 ECs per mineral. Rush buying the crawlers allows you extra turns of crawling back minerals to the city and increases the rate that units finish and the stockpile bug generates energy for us.

Currently more than two thirds of the hive's energy credits are being obtained from the stockpile energy bug.

Firstly only consider rush building after the first 10 minerals have already filled up on the build queue.

To maximise our crawler production you need to decide when to rush buy and by how much. Generally if the cost of rush buying is less than 2.7 ECs/mineral than I consider it fair game for rush buying.

You must remember if the mineral production of a city is greater than 10 minerals per turn you don't want to completely rush buy as only 10 minerals will carry over. That means if you are getting 15 minerals per turn you only want to rush buy the full amount - 5 minerals.

If there is mineral loss such as only 2 minerals remaining and mineral accumulation of 15. You will lose 3 minerals. For example this turn Freckin tower had 17 minerals per turn, and only had 4 minerals remaining. Consequently, I switched the Freckin crawlers on one of the mines to a forest and had a crawler from HongHu-KongHu use the mine instead.

These are the general rules for rush building when considering more than 1 turn ahead. When you are considering the following production and you have limited cash to use. You need to balance the rush buy such that you can get the amount required to rush build the next crawler cheaper, or have the next crawler build one turn earlier.

Also you need to consider that it is better rush buy at a high mineral output city to make it produce crawlers faster. This is because the high mineral output city generates more ECs everytime it completes production than a mineral poor city does.

The rush build tables can be found here.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/pmm1/games/nethogs_SMAC_rush_build_table.pdf

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/pmm1/games/nethogs_SMAC_rush_build_table.xls

[Kody]

Chairman asked to see how I'm doing the mircomanagement, so here's my thought process as I work my way through what needs to be done during next turn.

Since I need to do the turn 2132 anyway. I'll show how the mircomanagement for the crawler building is done.

First thing that needs to be considered is accumulated production and minerals.

For next turn (2132).

Start with Energy calculations as that's easiest.

We started with 11 ECs from last turn.
Growth in Voltairograd is expected, that effects the energy calculations. We get 10 ECs from normal energy, but with the extra population we get 11ECs due to the new worker.

(The way the game calculates is production -> growth -> energy)

The Kommie, Feckin, and Voltairograd complete their productions, giving stockpile energy.

This adds ECs to our energy reserves. Stockpile gives 1/2 of the mineral production rounded up. The Kommie has 15 production, that gives 8 ECs. Feckin has 11 minerals per turn than gives 6 ECs. Voltiaregrad gives 4 minerals per turn, that's 2 ECs.

So that's a total of 11+11+2+6+8 = 38ECs

So we have 38ECs to play with.

Next calculate the amounts of industry accumulated for the cities that didn't build.

The hive - 16
Jamski Clove - 16
HongHu-KongHu - 15
Rokossovkygrad - 9
googliegrad - 9

The amount of minerals remaining from the build for the other cities.

Voltairograd - 3
Kommnizma city - 8
Feckin' Cheeky Tower - 10

From here I check the cities that might need drone control in the near future. I assume we can get the HGP in turn 2136 (instant build it in 2135). So any cities with growth in 4 turns or less.

Feckin cheeky grows in 3 turns, the hive grows in 2 turns and googliegrad grows in 2 turns.

The hive finishes its crawler in turn 2133, and can immediately build a scout. The crawler can crawl a forest for 2 minerals pushing the hive production from 7 to 9. This is less than the 10 mineral carry over limit.

Googliegrad was taken care of in a turn 2131's preplanning, see below.
____________________________________________
Currently Googliegrad and Rokossovky need their crawlers rushed a little to ensure that they can build the scout patrol as police before they grow.

Rokossovky needs only a final rush turn rush as it grows in 5 turns, and finishes the crawler in 4. So on the third turn it needs to be rushed so that 3 minerals of it's production carry over. The new crawler can be put on a forest or rolling or rocky giving it 4 or 5 minerals per turn. 3+4 is enough for a scout on turn 5. The cost of the rush will be 6ECs as only 3 minerals will be required on the 4th turn. However an earlier rush will be done if there are spare energy credits around. Since this city has a low mineral output spending money to rush crawlers here produces less ECs from the stockpile bug and hence is rushing here is not high priority.

Googliegrad grows in 3 turns. The crawler finishes in 4 turns. This means that the crawler needs to be rushed in 2 turns so a scout patrol can be built in 3 turns. It has 3 minerals per turn. So like Rokossovky with 3 carry over and the new crawler contributing it can build the scout on the 3rd turn.

So it needs to be rushed full in 1 turn. In 1 turn time it has accumulated. 12 minerals and require 9 minerals to complete the crawler. Looking at nethog's table 9 minerals is 22 ECs.

From this we know that we have to have 22ECs for rushing in turn 2133, and 6ECs for rushing in turn 2135. Otherwise the police scouts will not be built in time that will prevent the drone riots.

(This Rokossovkygrad was fixed last turn, worker moved off the nut bonus to slow the growth down in time for the HGP, worker needs to be moved back to the nut during turn 2132.)
______________________________________________

Feckin cheeky tower needs to be used for colony pod purposes, it can build a colony pod in turn 2135 the turn it grows. As production occurs first the colony pod will produced and the city will instantly grow back to size two the same turn. The colony pod won't be planted until turn 2136 due to move delay and this will be after the HGP has already solved our beaucracy drone issues.

As a consequence we know we need to prep the base site 3 north-west of Freckin tower by turn 2136. The two terraformers north-east of Feckin are ideal and will forest and road their way towards the base site, before building a sensor.

As we're now on the subject of terraformers, it would be useful to have terraformer north-east of voltairograd city start the road towards the hive. This is so the other terraformers can start foresting the road behind that first terraformer and crawlers can be shuffled along the forested road towards the unused forests near the hive.

The remaining 3 pairs of terraformers should work in teams of 2 building forests as from experience that to gives the optimal terraforming rate.

Now for organising crawlers and workers.

For Kommunizma City it build a crawler. There is an unused forest south of Kommunizma city. As the crawler can't move that far as it is unroaded, switch the work in kommunizma city from the forest to the north to the forest to the south. The crawler from Kommie city moves to the mine and harvests there. The crawler from the mine moves onto the forest. This is because the crawler from the mine has 1 move whereas the crawler from kommie city may not be able to move onto the forest with only 2/3rds movement.

It appears there is a shortage of forests near Voltairograd city to crawl. However if you look at Jamski Clove the worker can be switched off the forested energy bonus and moved to an forest that is unsed near the hive. This allows the energy bonus to be used by Voltairograd. I experimented with the exchange of the energy bonus and there was no decrease in energy from switching. A worker at Voltairograd is switched from the forest to the energy forest. Since we're short on forests (even though all the terraformers have been busy planting forests like crazy), the 2nd worker is kept on the rocky nut since it's better than nothing.

Careful checking of Jamski Clove reveals that it has another crawler due to be created in 2133. There will be no forest nearby to put this crawler on. However there is still a spare forest near the Hive. So this turn the crawler at (25,17) south of Jamski should be moved one east, and exchange place with the worker from Jamski. This means in turn 2133 that crawler can then move onto the forest near the hive allowing for a free forest to be available at Jamski clove for the new crawler.

Now Voltairograd and feckin have built crawlers. From looking carefully at the production in Feckin and at HongHu, it can be seen that Feckin can claim access to the both mines near it. If the current setup is kept then in the following turn after the next (2134) neither HongHu and Feckin can build a crawler. With the change we can get a crawler in turn 2134, and get an extra stockpile that turn of at least 9 ECs.

So HongHu-KongHu's crawler is moved off the mine and onto the forest east of the mine, and feckin's new crawler is moved onto the mine.

Now there are 2 unused forests left and near voltairograd (terraformers make 2 new forests near voltairograd next turn). There are two crawlers that currently don't have forests to crawl and are currently crawling rolling or rocky, and there is the crawler at voltairograd that hasn't been allocated yet. Looking at Kommie and Feckin (home of two of the crawlers), they're both building 2 crawlers in the next 2 turns. With some future terraforming and those 2 extra crawlers it will be possible to indefinately build a crawler every turn until they need to be cashed in. The new crawler in voltairograd should probably be allocated a forest as voltairograd is only producing 4 minerals. If the crawler is allocated a forest it can build a crawler in turn 2135, which is the estimated time of build for the HGP.

Now there's one forest left and two cities that can improve their mineral production by 1. Comparing Feckin and Kommie, Feckin has an even number for it's mineral production while kommie has an odd number. Why is this significant. Because stockpile is rounded up. So odd numbered mineral productions produce 1 more ECs than they should. So if we move Feckin's crawler to a forest the mineral production becomes odd and hence we get 1 more EC every turn the stockpile bug is used (which is every turn as the mineral production of Feckin is now at 19minerals per turn).

Now that mineral allocations are completed the analysis can be made on where to insert the 38 credits we have available.

You need to find the accumulated production in each city (done earlier) and the future mineral production after all the above analysis has been done.

The hive - 16 (rate 7)
Jamski Clove - 16 (rate 9)
HongHu-KongHu - 15 (rate 7)
Rokossovkygrad - 9 (rate 3)
googliegrad - 9 (rate 3)
Voltairograd - 3 (rate 6)
Kommnizma city - 8 (rate 17)
Feckin' Cheeky Tower - 10 (rate 19)

Now all the productions that are less than 10 can be ignored. It is not worth paying the money to rush those. Although generally I check to see if a rush of 4ECs to get 1 mineral, will make a crawler build 1 turn faster. This is because you're really getting 2 minerals for that 1 EC with the 1 earlier turn of the crawler crawlering minerals. I originally looked at up to 8 ECs to get 2 minerals, however with the shortage of forest to crawl it will be unlikely to get 2 extra minerals from the crawler.

Anyway going back to it. Rokossovky, googliegrad Voltairograd and Kommizma city can be ignored for rush buying.

That leaves the following

The hive - 16 (rate 7)
Jamski Clove - 16 (rate 9)
HongHu-KongHu - 15 (rate 7)
Feckin' Cheeky Tower - 10 (rate 17)

Feckin can be discounted as with a rate of 17 minerals per turn and 10 accumulated we're going have one crawler build every turn for the next 2 turns anyway. Also with just 10 minerals accumulated this will be the most costly crawler to rush buy.

That leaves the following bases to consider.
The hive - 16 (rate 7)
Jamski Clove - 16 (rate 9)
HongHu-KongHu - 15 (rate 7)

Crawlers cost 21 minerals each with +3 industry.

(I'll finish this tomorrow in a new post getting late here.)

[Snowflake]

Ok let me try to see if I have learned from the Master Kody.

For the hive, 16+7=23. So two minerals will be left for the next turn (23-21=2). If we want 10 minerals carried over, we need to rush 8 minerals using 16 ecs.
For Jamski we need to rush 6 minerals using 12 ecs.
For my base we neet to rush 9 minerals using 18 ecs.
This add up to 46 ecs. And we have 38 ecs. So we are 8 ec short and can't rush all three to their full potential.

Question: which one do not get to be rushed to 10 mineral carry over, and instead only get 2 min carried over?

If hive or HongHu KongHu gets 2 carry over, plus rate 7 it will be 9, still in the first row, and cannot be rushed in the next turn. The only one that is left to be able to be rushed with only 2 min carry over is Jamski (2+9=11). Considering how productive Jamski is lately, I say 2 mineral left over is enough for him.

[Kody]

HongHu, well that's a good try but not quite.

The main flaw is rushed minerals don't carry over. Only production minerals carry over. That was a mistake I made while figuring this stuff out.

Yep the hive is energy short. That means we may have to decide which ones to rush.

______________________________________________
Basically, the step to go from here is convert the numbers into how many minerals remaining.

The hive - 5 minerals left till completion (rate 7)
Jamski Clove - 5 minerals left till completion (rate 9)
HongHu-KongHu - 6 minerals left till completion (rate 7)

So we convert this into what range of minerals we can have remaining with prudent rush buying.
turn 2132
The hive - 2 to 7 minerals (rate 7) (cost 11 ECs full rush)
Jamski Clove - 4 to 9 minerals (rate 9) (cost 11 ECs full rush)
HongHu-KongHu - 1 to 7 minerals (rate 7) (cost 13 ECs full rush)

It seems that all of the productions are 6 or less to rush. This means we're getting 2.20 or less ECs per mineral rates. I normally would rush buy all of them as this is usually a very cheap rate for rush buying.

However if we didn't have enough energy or the rush buying was at a more expensive rate. Then you have to consider doing the following.
__________________________________________________ _
Now calculate if the 2nd crawler will be finished a turn earlier with rush buying. That means first adding the additional bonus of the new crawler.

For the hive there is a monolith the crawler can crawl. For Jamski some planned crawler movement will allow for an extra forest for the new crawler to crawl.

For HongHu-KongHu there are no free forests available, whether a forest will be available from terraforming will require pre-mircomanging the 2nd turn into the future. So it'll be better to make the assumption KongHu will be using a rolling.

That gives the new rates.

The hive - 2 to 7 minerals (rate 9)
Jamski Clove - 4 to 9 minerals (rate 11)
HongHu-KongHu - 1 to 7 minerals (rate 8)

Now find out many turns the crawler will finish with rush buying and without rush buying

The hive is actually building a scout patrol as a police unit in the following turn. So subtract 7 minerals from the scout.

For the hive
Full rush = (21+7-7)/9 = 2.333 = 3 turns
No rush = (21+7-2)/9 = 2.888 = 3 turns

So rush buying at the hive doesn't increase crawler production speed.

For Jamski Clove
Full rush = (21-9)/11 = 1.09 = 2 turns
No rush = (21-4)/11 = 1.55 = 2 turns

So rush buying at the Jamski doesn't increase crawler production speed.

For HongHu-KongHu
Full rush = (21-1)/8 = 2.5 = 3 turns
No rush = (21-7)/8 = 1.75 = 2 turns

So from this we know that rush buying at HongHu gets us the 2nd crawler 1 turn earlier.

The turn over from 3 to 2 turns is at. 21 - 2*8 = 5 minerals.

This makes rushing at HongHu our first priority.

For our second priority we look at how rushes will effect continued rush buying in future. Rush buying 4-6 minerals is far cheaper than rushing 7-8 minerals, and rushing 1-3 you don't get as much benifit as there are less minerals to rush.

(Now I remember why the productions for those 3 cities just happen to have 5-6 minerals remaining , 2 or 3 turns ago I specifically rushed them so they would end up on those values.)

Anyway this means that you want 21 - (4 to 6) to get optimial rush buy in future. That's between 15 to 17 minerals

For Jamski Clove
Know previously that it finished in 2 turns, so look at turn before it finishes.
4 to 9 minerals (rate 11)
Full rush = 9+11 = 20 minerals
No rush = 4+11 = 15 minerals

This makes it optimal for rush buying in the future. If we don't rush buy now. That means if we're strapped for cash we can delay the rush buying at this city for another turn.

For the hive
Know previously that it finished in 3 turns, so look at turn before it finishes.
2 to 7 minerals (rate 9)
Full rush = 7 - 7 + 2*9 = 18 minerals in 2 turns time.
No rush = 2 - 7 + 2*9 = 13 minerals in 2 turns time.

If we did not have enough cash I would only rush this between 2 to 4 minerals (depending on how much spare cash). As the rest of it can be rushed efficiently later.
__________________________________________________ __

In the case of the 5 to 6 mineral situation the rush buys are fairly cheap. However, between 11 to 7 minerals for partial rush buys, the ECs per mineral can vary. (see rush buying table)

That means you want to choose a cheaper rush buy for your particular mineral amount. Specifically look at every entry which is an increment of 2 and changes to a increment of 3. When it changes to a increment of 3 you're losing out on an EC.

So from your chosen amount of minerals that you need rush buy then choose the first efficient entry from the table (namely the first entry that increments 2ECs followed by a increment of 3ECs).

[Kody]

Now it's just a matter of extracting the moves and rush buying and production switching that is in between all the explanations.