Lordship of Development

[Kody]

Here's your first 9 squares so you can start some discussion.

[Illuminatus]

Thank you Kody, and welcome to our forum. I will now proceed to PM all remaining members to apply for membership. This will take around half an hour. Maybe then some discussion stirs up.

[Illuminatus]

So, what can we say? We are on elevated ground, no rivers nearby , we have a scout patrol and two CPs, which is standard. We can use that rainy square for 2-1-0 I guess. What about second CP? Move it down the hill following rainy squares? Also, I suggested scouting with scout patrol to see surrounding terrain of our base, to see if there are bonuses/monoliths/pods, then send it into fungus to troll for MWs.

[Net Warrior]

How about moving the scout patrol into the fungus hoping for a MW? We can follow him with the CP, using him as an escort as a security measure. We want to move our CP out on a diagonal anyway, right?


BTW, I assume we'll build a scout patrol as opposed to a former in our 1st base?

[Illuminatus]

So, what do others think?

[Chaos Theory]

Since hills increase moisture on the west and decrease it on the right, we should avoid going east until we have a few formers to plant forests. Thus, I say we might as well plant our HQ on the landing tile, and move the other pod south, with the intention of moving it south further or to the west, depending on discovered terrain.

Moving the scout patrol into fungus sounds fine to me.

[Snowflake]

Edited out by snowflake.

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by HongHu
I think you can do a former before the scout. Kody said something before the mindworms will not attack your first base in the first how many turns or something like that. Perhaps Kody can confirm that.

I am almost positive this is correct. When I was playtesting my October (2003) CGN Challenge I couldn't get the MW's to attack Zak's empty bases during the first few turns of the game. Although not conclusive, why I believe building a Former first is our best option, as getting some forest growing is imperitive!

As far as directions for our units: I'm kinda leaning towards sending our 2nd pod north/ northwest, as we are at the bottom of the map, and the sooner we establish our northern shoreline the sooner we can start building probe foils.


D

[Chaos Theory]

Going north with the 2nd CP isn't unreasonable, though we should avoid crossing east over any elevation drops.

We should definitely, unequivocally, build a former first. Mind worms attack units in the open at 1/3 normal strength before 2115, so a mind worm attacking a former in the open has 1:1 odds. Mind worms attack bases before 2115 at an extreme penalty, noncombat units always defend in bases against the planet as if they were combat units (except unarmored probe teams and AAs). Furthermore, the scout will go through the only adjacent fungus.

Before starting on forest, since we have rainy/rolling at high elevation, it might be better to build a few solar panels first to get to IA faster.

[Net Warrior]

The case for a scout patrol: a) we can start looking for pods, MW, and future base sites in more than one direction b) based on pre-game chatter, we may be meeting another faction within 20 turns and we'll need troops in order to not get pushed around c) a former will take several more turns to build whereas a scout patrol will be out and about immediately (see (a) above) d) we can probably due without a former for the time being based on our favorable terrain and we can hope to find another base site that wont require a former immediately.

[Chaos Theory]

The case for a former:

If we really want a scout patrol, it can come from the second base
A former will take 5 turns, unless we hurry it, in which case it will take 3 or 4. That's only 2-3 turns slower than a scout patrol.
If we meet another faction within 20 years, it's to our advantage to have more productive tiles for sustained resistance, rather than a few weak units.
If we play too cautiously, someone who takes some risks and survives will pull ahead.
Our terrain, while good, can be significantly improved by a former. This wouldn't be the case if we had rainy/rolling/river (2-1-1) or monolith (2-2-2) tiles, since the former could be improved by only one FOP, and the latter not at all.
After quickly plopping down pod #2, we'll have about 10 years before pod #3. That's plenty of time to find a third base site, especially given that fertile land is west.

Given the risk of hostility, though, Industrial Base should be our first choice of tech, unless that screws up beelines too much.

[Cosmic]

sorry guys I´m really a newbie. I think we can go into fungus directions, maybe we can find a monolith there or at least we can harvest a 2 nut. We can even find a river there

[smacksim]

I guess we havn't moved yet?

My opinion: Build here. Then scout nw or west. CP to the north. See that valley to the north? Looks good to me.

MWs will attack an empty base early, but it's exceedingly rare. Nonetheless, I agree that a SPatrol built first to find our first worm pronto is the best plan. If we'd been on a river we could troll with our initial scout, but without even a pod to pop, we need to find that worm!

Wish that our picture was a little zoomed out. It's possible to identify the topography 'in the dark' if one looks closely. With what we can see, here's my guess so far:

North: A very green valley and possible landmark: say 5 squares.

West:

South: The south pole is close, which is good and bad. We have our backs covered and have a place to troll for worms, but it limits our options. Save exploring here for last because it's very unlikely a landmark in that direction, and impossible that a faction is in that direction.

East: A tricksy CMN would put a landmark or valuable tiles in this direction, knowing that we'd be inclined to go the other way. What do you think?

I agree we need formers, but contact and MWs are even more valuable. Heck, we could even 'waste' a turn moving the CPs to scout. This position isn't initially promising, which beckons well for our overall position. We just need to get out and discover it.

-Smack

[Illuminatus]

I would say we get a former, and then hurry it so that we get it in several turns. It is practically impossible that our base is destroyed so fast.

[Illuminatus]

This is summary of all posibilities. I would say that majority of us agrees to move Scout Patrol in fungus