Lordship of Development - volume II

[Illuminatus]

Chaos, have you noticed that Morgan has started all early SPs (HGP, WP, ME). In case he completes them this turn, what should we do? If he completes HGP - build WP? If he builds HGP and WP go for VV? We should be prepared for possibility that Morgan is no longer bluffing, and he is in fact preparing to finish one SP in 2139.

[binTravkin]

Then who has started the SPs?
Yang or Morgan?

I think our SP order should be:
1.HGP
2.WP
3.VW (that must be delayed until we get more SCs)

In case we can't take the first, take the second and so on..

[Illuminatus]

Uh, Morgan started. I think we will be very interested in next turn. Seeing we started HGP they might rush build their own.

[Chaos Theory]

Yeah, Morgan started those SPs again, but that's not a lot of information. If Morgan completes the HGP by the time our turn comes around, I say grab the WP. If we rush the HGP and discover in 2141 that Morgan got the HGP first, I still say switch to the WP.

[Hydro]

Hi all,

I'm back from a rather lengthy vacation from ACDG (still doing PBEM roleplaying in my spare time, though).

Anyway, it looks like you've made great progress. As to my opinions, I say build to the Gaian's strengths: efficiency, which means more bases before the dreaded bureaucracy warning. That means more bases, since with that we will have a long term production advantage in terms of raw production and production centers.

That does not mean giving up on CPs, or the juicy SP. It does mean don't be too greedy. For SPs, I like WP best, followed by HGP. ME is kind of worthless, in my humble opinion. For the price of an early SP you can have almost 7 bases. All in all, I'll take the six or seven bases (which give you a large turn advantage if you establish a few bases while you're otherwise building and SP).

I'm surprised the Angels have been friendly, but that is a good thing - for as long as it lasts. An aggressive defense (which it looks like you're doing) against Yang is a stellar idea until we can crank up the blitz.

Other things I like to do with my Gaians:

* 1-1-4 foil (eg - very cheap) to capture IoDs. This is wonderful if they happen to have friends on them! And early in the game absolutely nothing is a better explorer/warship/transport than an IoD. Plus, I like exploring. For me that is the fun part of the game. IoDs are also great when paired with a rover to pick off pods on the coast, and then running away back to the IoD if the results are bad, and getting goodies if it is good. This is a long term big advantage since other factions ignore the sea until late. Of course, this assumes you have Doct:Flex...

* Get a ratio of 1.5 formers per base, if you have decent production (eg - about 5/turn). This usually means bases that are size 1 or 2 get one, and 3+ get 1 or two. After a few CPs are out, get a former in the queue ASAP.

* Let Yang build some nice bases for us. Then after we have scouted a bit (which you’re doing) use some fungus to get a worm attack, then take the base. Don’t wait too long, though, or he’ll have hordes of troupers to counterattack. Probing is good, too. I’ve typically had poor luck with direct assaults by the time Yang gets plasma until I get missiles, though, so the window may be short.

I’ll poke around a bit more to get reacquainted with my Gaian buddies here, and will be happy to post my opinions as they congeal.

Hydro

[Illuminatus]

Nice to see you Hydro.

[Chaos Theory]

Turn's in!
The Morganites built the HGP in 2139, meaning that we are two years too late. I say we grab the WP instead, but we still need to reconsider our production - supply crawlers or colony pods? I still say colony pods, as 12 bases with 1 useful worker each are still better than 6 bases with 2 useful workers + a crawler. Even so, we desperately need Social Psych.

I'll hold the turn for a bit to allow further comments.

[Illuminatus]

I think you should play the turn now. My comments: Well, we got no choice except WP, since ME is pretty useless compared to other projects. We will be able to terraform faster, and build condensors/boreholes (we will probably need to poll again about use of boreholes?). Also, we are sure we will complete it . I would still prefer expansion, then supply crawlers.
What about units? Our NW worm is vulnerable, and there is a base radius at the east. There is fungus NW and W from it - perhaps we should move it west, it will be protected from wandering rovers from north and east by fungal patches, and probably from west too - then it would be able to heal in fungus. Since it is our only unit in Hive teritory, we should guard it - it will provide valuable scouting data and mess up with Yang. We already lost unit to Yang, I don't want to see more units lost pointlessly. We can even learn about Yang/Angel relations - if he moves units that way. Let's guard him.
Also, units on our north - we should be careful with that probe. I also suggest we cover it with unit or two. Infiltrating Yang should us usefull. I hope Unity Foil breaches the fungus successfully - then we can harass Yang with probes. In case you spot Hive units, you should perhaps make a midturn save, post it, and give us some time 8-12 hours for comment. We are at war, and we should carefully make moves with units, especially if we stumble upon units.
We can get Social Psych after Mobility, with any luck.

[Chaos Theory]

Plan of Action for 2141

We will have the WP, but no HGP. I say we expand anyway and cope with more drones with doctors/police/small bases. With the WP, we can build condensor-farms, and put crawlers on them to support specialist bases in the moderate future. We still need recreation commons, as 1 EC/turn + 32 mins is a great deal for 2 workers, and the ability to recklessly ignore bureaucracy limits.

In a few turns, our foil will be in position to scout the periphery of Yang's empire, and we should be able to infiltrate and possibly conquer a base.

Terraforming options for the near future are still up in the air - without suggestions, I'm just doing whatever seems best with the formers that become available, which is making roads and forest for now.

No image due to limited connection, and the fact it hasn't changed much from the most recent image.

[Illuminatus]

Well, let's hope that no Hive rover runs in our units, or mindworms. I suggested we move our mindworm west in deeper fungus before healing - I guess this was not listened to - Hive can easily pick him off now if they ran into it.
We should decide if we are going to go for infiltration with our probe in future, or risk a small chance and steal technology hoping it is Mobility (I estimate around 1:3 chances for that).
Perhaps we should start planning specialist bases already.

I strongly reccmmend we start sugggesting orders for formers. I will post list of formers needing orders in a half an hour.

[Illuminatus]

We have two formers west of DoG that need new orders. Also one former NE from Virgin Soil (completed road). Two formers north of Virgin Soil shall complete forest in two turns. There is also a former in the far east - it seems our road connecting it to Greem River is complete. We should start plotting future base locations too.

[Chaos Theory]

As far as probes, how about infilitration AND tech stealing? There are two in the area.

I didn't notice your comment about moving the mind worm, else I would have responded noting that the Hive is probably to the west as well, in any case, the mind worm survived the Hive's turn.

We definitely need to plan future base sites, but a few are apparent already:

The defungused tile in the Ruins

3+ spots in the Uranium Flats

[binTravkin]

I think boreholes are a NEED to us, otherwise we may lag behind badly and our increased terraform ability will aid the task greatly!

[Chaos Theory]

Boreholes aren't useful until Ecological Engineering (except on bonus tiles), because until then, they only produce 0-2-2.

[binTravkin]

Boreholes aren't useful until Ecological Engineering (except on bonus tiles), because until then, they only produce 0-2-2.

Exactly, but to produce them takes time and if we got free and +50% former time, then we should use it for:

1.new base sites (probably planting sensor arrays+forests and eventually bunkers under bases - each of them give the related defense bonus to base and is indestructable when planted under base)

2.condensers

3.boreholes

But by the time we start building boreholes, I think we'll have the Eco Eng also..