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Posted by Blake on 18-01-2001 01:17:
Morgan, the Conqueror
A long time ago when I started playing SMAX I played and liked Morgan and FM, I played morgan quite a lot then, but havn't played him since.
Anyway I decided to have a play with morgan with my improved skills. Settings large, 50% water, high erosion/sparse rainfall/low native (a desert). Directed research, unity survey, spoils. Transcend difficulty.
My opponents are all the SMAX factions, except sven.
The map looks like many medium sized islands, but most are connected by bottlenecks. Anyway I started on mt planet and am near the north pole, in fact I ought to be able to build an inland sea easily. I research cent eco and Biogenetics.
The aliens land, looks like I'm safe. Until a battle ogre appears next to my second base. I just manage to arrest the impulsive restart motion, and decide to fight those hideous caretakers. First problem is the battle ogre sitting in a no parking zone, second problem I have two small cities, no weapons no probes and only snyth armour. The battle ogre doesn't attack me, guess it is studying the humans. With effective weapons atleast three techs away Diplomacy looks like my best bet so I start researching progy pysch. Looks like the caretakers want to communicate too, because next turn they call me up, I seem to achieve a truce.
I finish progy pysch and for want of something more useful to do start on SotB. Then the caretakers call me only to say they are going to clobber me. Oh well, I tried.
But the ogre just destroys a forest then wanders around my territory, mainly destroying forest which regrows... but I'm naturally worried. SOB comes along, I remember the best way to lose a battle ogre is from a worm... green is my only hope so I research Cent Empathy, the ogre continues to wander around my three cities wrecking forest. Cent. Empathy comes along, I switch to green. I still have the problem of effective weapons, however 6r laser is just two techs away, I start heading in that direction.
Problem: Low levels of native life. So I decide to build worms, my four cities all start on worms, I rush a worm when I can afford it, the battle ogre finally attacks one of my cities, killing the hapless scout patrol, in the nick of time my worm eats the ogre for breakfast. Soon I have several worms, but I still have a problem, namely the progy 2-3r-1's wandering in my general direction, I send one of my worms to feed on progy formers, another to start wrecking progy forest and most importantly sensors.
Caretakers call up and demand tech for truce, I don't trust H'minee further than I can throw her, so despite the circumstances I refuse.
3r armour time, I start working on 1-3r-1 garrisons, my worms are picking of the odd progy, but there are atleast 8 progy infantry wandering around, and the caretakers have atleast twice as many bases, which are atleast twice as big as mine. When I've almost completed bioadaptive resonance I switch to fundie.
Now I have a decent weapon, decent armour and several medium sized worms, I start building 6r-1-1 infantry and a spore launcher. I have four bases built on the rainy side of mt Planet, the progies control the other side, no easy bottleneck to defend, which is why the situation is still bad. I start seeing progy probe teams but kill them (no probe tech for me yet).
Caretakers call up and offer truce without tech this time, I still refuse (cause I'm mad, in both sense of the word). I know I must take a base if I have any hope of survival.
I assemble three 6r-1-1 ,one 1-3r-1 and a boil worm at the nearest thing to a bottleneck I have (the side of mt planet, hmmm). Lots of progy troops are streaming over the top of mt Planet and massing at one of my cities, I can't do anything about that. One of my idle formers bravely darts out to check the nearest progy base, two defenders, great. My 5 strong army moves forward and is now ready to take the base, no progy reinforcements appear, however there are now three progy units preparing to siege one of my bases, one an impact rover. Now the turning point of the battle, my defending pet worm attacks the progy stack outside my base, and my "army" takes the progy base. A screen with 8(!) techs to choose from pops up, I steal planetary networks. The alien whore calls and offers truce, I accept.
Now I start working on probe teams, rushing one and finally getting infiltration (saving my formers drivers the dangerous task of driving up next to alien bases to check garrisons). H'minee continues to move her troops into my territory, I do likewise, and use the spore launcher to destroy sensor arrays (this is NOT an act of war). I move my army to the next progy base, then call up and demand withdrawl, saving my rep a hit. I attack the progies in my territory and zap the base for tech then capture it, getting another tech. H'minee calls and suggests a truce. I repeat the process for another progy base, all the while whittling at the progy attack force.
A morganite national holiday is declared, Ind.Auto has been researched! (I start building crawlers, despite the fact my territory is still crawling with progies)
Checking the power graph (year ~2220) shows the ursupers about twice as high as the next faction (having assimilated the data angels)
Next is the cult, then drones, I am about 1/4 the height of the ursupers, the war with H'minee has dragged her down to my level too.
Finally! Proof of the existence of the rest of the world, in the form of an ugly pink transport foil. Apparentely cha dawn is in a good mood today as he doesn't declare vendetta, I even get the commlinks for aki and domai from him. Communication with aki results in an enormous tech trade, I had stolen pretty good stuff like eco egineering from H'minee and the trade was very fruitful. I request a pact and she agrees on the condition I attack Cult, I agree. Cha dawn wasn't even mad at me, he even dropped a pile of worm food next to one of my bases, heheh.
Then I call domai and he offers a pact against the ursupers, I agree and buy some tech from him, getting the money back in the form of a loan (talk about turn advantage going cheap...)
Finally I capture the most northen progy base and destroy the last straglers in my territory, switching to Wealth.
"Morgan the conquerer" has a nice chunk of land all to himself now, with the caretakers on the other side of a bottleneck, I don't agree to a truce because I really doubt I can throw H'minee very far, and her hoardes are now easily contained, and besides I've got some probe training to do. All in all I've done well, considering I was once just two cities, one with a hostile battle ogre parked outside.
It's late but I start building, switching to Demo, disbanding some of my crappier troops, and building/buying tree farms, minerals are pouring in thanks to mt Planet, sea terraforming is going to plan and I couldn't ask for better pactmates. Now I'm going to try a Morgan Demo/FM GA pop boom, wish me luck
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Posted by mark13 on 18-01-2001 11:07:
Only thing is, to generate any growth at all, you need to switch to Demo, which means horrible support costs. This is the main reason I seldom play Morgan - just can't handle them I suppose...
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Posted by Ogie Oglethorpe on 18-01-2001 12:30:
Right you are Unca Red,
Green/wealth is an ideal wartime combo for Mr. Morgan. Couple it with Demo for paradigm efficiency and slam the allocations to cash or research as you see fit.
Or... run Police with it and churn out the troops in a pre clean era with the extra support. Net efficiency of zero isn't too bad. Stunted growth of the green isn't a biggie if your aim is conquering vs. base growth. Plus police effects are a nice means to make sure those new aquisitions are adjusting to the new corporate culture.
Or... Finally if things get a little dicey in your war effort a switch to Fundy offsets some morale hits and allows the accrual account you've been saving to be reversed toawards the Probe team collection project.
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Posted by RedFred on 18-01-2001 21:21:
Great narrative!
The nice thing about Morgan in conquest mode is that you don't need FM to hit the extra energy per tile. So you can conduct a war unfettered by FM and still rake in the dough. I tend to go Wealth for this reason, but I am always willing to consider an SE that will generate more seasoned troops if my war isn't going so well.
Green + Wealth is extra sweet on account of the ability to generate a native army plus nab yourself even more cash for killing the natives you can't capture.
Morgan, the Conqueror
A long time ago when I started playing SMAX I played and liked Morgan and FM, I played morgan quite a lot then, but havn't played him since.
Anyway I decided to have a play with morgan with my improved skills. Settings large, 50% water, high erosion/sparse rainfall/low native (a desert). Directed research, unity survey, spoils. Transcend difficulty.
My opponents are all the SMAX factions, except sven.
The map looks like many medium sized islands, but most are connected by bottlenecks. Anyway I started on mt planet and am near the north pole, in fact I ought to be able to build an inland sea easily. I research cent eco and Biogenetics.
The aliens land, looks like I'm safe. Until a battle ogre appears next to my second base. I just manage to arrest the impulsive restart motion, and decide to fight those hideous caretakers. First problem is the battle ogre sitting in a no parking zone, second problem I have two small cities, no weapons no probes and only snyth armour. The battle ogre doesn't attack me, guess it is studying the humans. With effective weapons atleast three techs away Diplomacy looks like my best bet so I start researching progy pysch. Looks like the caretakers want to communicate too, because next turn they call me up, I seem to achieve a truce.
I finish progy pysch and for want of something more useful to do start on SotB. Then the caretakers call me only to say they are going to clobber me. Oh well, I tried.
But the ogre just destroys a forest then wanders around my territory, mainly destroying forest which regrows... but I'm naturally worried. SOB comes along, I remember the best way to lose a battle ogre is from a worm... green is my only hope so I research Cent Empathy, the ogre continues to wander around my three cities wrecking forest. Cent. Empathy comes along, I switch to green. I still have the problem of effective weapons, however 6r laser is just two techs away, I start heading in that direction.
Problem: Low levels of native life. So I decide to build worms, my four cities all start on worms, I rush a worm when I can afford it, the battle ogre finally attacks one of my cities, killing the hapless scout patrol, in the nick of time my worm eats the ogre for breakfast. Soon I have several worms, but I still have a problem, namely the progy 2-3r-1's wandering in my general direction, I send one of my worms to feed on progy formers, another to start wrecking progy forest and most importantly sensors.
Caretakers call up and demand tech for truce, I don't trust H'minee further than I can throw her, so despite the circumstances I refuse.
3r armour time, I start working on 1-3r-1 garrisons, my worms are picking of the odd progy, but there are atleast 8 progy infantry wandering around, and the caretakers have atleast twice as many bases, which are atleast twice as big as mine. When I've almost completed bioadaptive resonance I switch to fundie.
Now I have a decent weapon, decent armour and several medium sized worms, I start building 6r-1-1 infantry and a spore launcher. I have four bases built on the rainy side of mt Planet, the progies control the other side, no easy bottleneck to defend, which is why the situation is still bad. I start seeing progy probe teams but kill them (no probe tech for me yet).
Caretakers call up and offer truce without tech this time, I still refuse (cause I'm mad, in both sense of the word). I know I must take a base if I have any hope of survival.
I assemble three 6r-1-1 ,one 1-3r-1 and a boil worm at the nearest thing to a bottleneck I have (the side of mt planet, hmmm). Lots of progy troops are streaming over the top of mt Planet and massing at one of my cities, I can't do anything about that. One of my idle formers bravely darts out to check the nearest progy base, two defenders, great. My 5 strong army moves forward and is now ready to take the base, no progy reinforcements appear, however there are now three progy units preparing to siege one of my bases, one an impact rover. Now the turning point of the battle, my defending pet worm attacks the progy stack outside my base, and my "army" takes the progy base. A screen with 8(!) techs to choose from pops up, I steal planetary networks. The alien whore calls and offers truce, I accept.
Now I start working on probe teams, rushing one and finally getting infiltration (saving my formers drivers the dangerous task of driving up next to alien bases to check garrisons). H'minee continues to move her troops into my territory, I do likewise, and use the spore launcher to destroy sensor arrays (this is NOT an act of war). I move my army to the next progy base, then call up and demand withdrawl, saving my rep a hit. I attack the progies in my territory and zap the base for tech then capture it, getting another tech. H'minee calls and suggests a truce. I repeat the process for another progy base, all the while whittling at the progy attack force.
A morganite national holiday is declared, Ind.Auto has been researched! (I start building crawlers, despite the fact my territory is still crawling with progies)
Checking the power graph (year ~2220) shows the ursupers about twice as high as the next faction (having assimilated the data angels)
Next is the cult, then drones, I am about 1/4 the height of the ursupers, the war with H'minee has dragged her down to my level too.
Finally! Proof of the existence of the rest of the world, in the form of an ugly pink transport foil. Apparentely cha dawn is in a good mood today as he doesn't declare vendetta, I even get the commlinks for aki and domai from him. Communication with aki results in an enormous tech trade, I had stolen pretty good stuff like eco egineering from H'minee and the trade was very fruitful. I request a pact and she agrees on the condition I attack Cult, I agree. Cha dawn wasn't even mad at me, he even dropped a pile of worm food next to one of my bases, heheh.
Then I call domai and he offers a pact against the ursupers, I agree and buy some tech from him, getting the money back in the form of a loan (talk about turn advantage going cheap...)
Finally I capture the most northen progy base and destroy the last straglers in my territory, switching to Wealth.
"Morgan the conquerer" has a nice chunk of land all to himself now, with the caretakers on the other side of a bottleneck, I don't agree to a truce because I really doubt I can throw H'minee very far, and her hoardes are now easily contained, and besides I've got some probe training to do. All in all I've done well, considering I was once just two cities, one with a hostile battle ogre parked outside.
It's late but I start building, switching to Demo, disbanding some of my crappier troops, and building/buying tree farms, minerals are pouring in thanks to mt Planet, sea terraforming is going to plan and I couldn't ask for better pactmates. Now I'm going to try a Morgan Demo/FM GA pop boom, wish me luck
************************************************** ************************************************** *************************************
Posted by mark13 on 18-01-2001 11:07:
Only thing is, to generate any growth at all, you need to switch to Demo, which means horrible support costs. This is the main reason I seldom play Morgan - just can't handle them I suppose...
************************************************** ************************************************** *************************************
Posted by Ogie Oglethorpe on 18-01-2001 12:30:
Right you are Unca Red,
Green/wealth is an ideal wartime combo for Mr. Morgan. Couple it with Demo for paradigm efficiency and slam the allocations to cash or research as you see fit.
Or... run Police with it and churn out the troops in a pre clean era with the extra support. Net efficiency of zero isn't too bad. Stunted growth of the green isn't a biggie if your aim is conquering vs. base growth. Plus police effects are a nice means to make sure those new aquisitions are adjusting to the new corporate culture.
Or... Finally if things get a little dicey in your war effort a switch to Fundy offsets some morale hits and allows the accrual account you've been saving to be reversed toawards the Probe team collection project.
************************************************** ************************************************** *************************************
Posted by RedFred on 18-01-2001 21:21:
Great narrative!
The nice thing about Morgan in conquest mode is that you don't need FM to hit the extra energy per tile. So you can conduct a war unfettered by FM and still rake in the dough. I tend to go Wealth for this reason, but I am always willing to consider an SE that will generate more seasoned troops if my war isn't going so well.
Green + Wealth is extra sweet on account of the ability to generate a native army plus nab yourself even more cash for killing the natives you can't capture.