Diplomatic Contact with the Hive - vendetta

[Chaos Theory]

Moved the rover north, found Yang's rover. Yang called. I answered. Yang declared vendetta. Oh well, it was inevitable.

By the way, the mind worm that's stacked with another unit popped a pod and found an artifact.

Also note that I took that screenshot at the worst possible time, when our rover was activated and had blinked. The farm tile in the north has a unity rover with 1 move remaining upon it.

[binTravkin]

Well, now we at least have someone to probe-rape!

[Illuminatus]

WAR!

Sorry, could not resist. . We should fall back to defensive perimeter in fungus and probe rape Yang. We'll need to escort our units now. Hmm, at least we have interesting material for VotP newspaper. Rover will disengage from battle I guess (great timing Chaos ), but we will need to get rid of the rover. Perhaps when it approaches the fungus in future?

[binTravkin]

I don't think disengaging is the best option - if the odds are good, we should kill the 2-1-2 Hive rover

[Chaos Theory]

If we attack the rover now,

Attacker strength = 1 * 1.25 (mobile in open)
Defender strength = 1 * 1.25 (veteran)

And our rover is 20% damaged from previous combat. We will likely lose if we attack, but have a significant chance of winning. I say we don't risk the rover when we can smack Yang with mind worms.

[Illuminatus]

Originally posted by Chaos Theory
If we attack the rover now,

Attacker strength = 1 * 1.25 (mobile in open)
Defender strength = 1 * 1.25 (veteran)

And our rover is 20% damaged from previous combat. We will likely lose if we attack, but have a significant chance of winning. I say we don't risk the rover when we can smack Yang with mind worms.

Agreed. Better to retreat - Yang willa ttack, and our rover will probably disengage, and rover will have to approach fungus. Do we have protectiong for the probe then?

[Illuminatus]

BTW Angels declined about destroying fungal tower. They say they don't want to risk a badly damaged rover, no matter the costs.

[Illuminatus]

How do we handle our newfound state of war on diplomatic front?

Should we inform Angels? There is a possibility that they have already met them, and a very good likelyhood that this is the frequency they have been trying to sell us. If we inform them, it may seem like a good thing because a) they are in treaty with us which will erode relations with Yang over time b) improve trust between us c) if they have plans for 'visiting' Yang, it may now need a closer coordination with us.
Also, should we hide this fact, that we are in war, or should we go in public, since everyone will automaticaly learn when they meet Yang (we know how the AIs are like) unless they get a vendetta too?

[Illuminatus]

Update: Angels indeed were trying to sell us comlink for Hive. They said that 'they see we've met the faction whose commlink they were offering'. So they are aware we have met them. Yang could have contacted them for help or they noticed it via diplomacy screen.

[smacksim]

The likely techs the Hive will have don't help us until we go to war. There's no reason to worry about a Hive invasion for a very long time. What do we gain by probing them? Certainly infiltrate. Maybe the best thing will be getting their world map after taking all their tech.

There is little way that they will want to make peace with us until we have a large military, which might be a long time. Still, it's worth trying to calm them down, if only to keep their stupid 4-2-1's from mucking up our fungus pile with dead bodies. I suggest we try to comm them every few turns. If anything, we can ask for commlinks to other factions.

Clearly we should keep 1 or 2 worms in the north to bat away their menacing forces. As to probing them, we will need to have some good luck exploring with our coastal invaders. Infiltrate first, then if they only have military tech, what should we do?

[Chaos Theory]

We should definitely be able to bring a probe team within 2 tiles of a Hive base by foil, then infiltrate without exposing the probe team at all.

[Chaos Theory]

The Hive is now actually moving against us, and our chokepoint will show its usefulness in the next few turns.