ACDG Minigame - Diplomacy Advice...

[jtsisyoda]

Good job, AndiD. That HGP will prove invaluable.

I think ships can only take sea bases.

For MP diplomacy, I usually try to create a productive trade relationship both factions can benefit from. I usually contact someone right away, providing ideas for how to help each other. Ask what their goals are (so you can help them).

The possibility you have to consider is that you're their first contact, their juiciest target, and their reason to build a big army and go hunting. Get sensors up, get synth def probes, think about getting HEC for Plasma armor, and think about getting Impact weapons. Attack power is a good defense-- you can hurt them on the way in, and possibly retake captured bases.

[AndiD]

Survived my first diplomatic negotiations. Dealed a Treaty and a world map (they got the unity wreckage -> landing sites) for Planetary Networks. The latter is the reason they found me so quickly. We made some intelligence data exchange, too.

He presumes that the (AI) Gaians met the Angels and that a Militarist-Industrialist block (Sparta, Morgan, Drones) will be against a Anarcho-Hippie block (Angels, Gaia, Cult), with the Believers somewhere in between probably.

I won't do a Pact until I can project some strength and have more than one synth def probe and two unity rovers around.

(He did buy that I researched "not only Build techs" against Jungle Domai... well I did research Explore and Discover techs, didn't I? )

[AndiD]

Okay, got the world map from the Spartans. I'm slightly irritated about Kass's base layouts on the map, spaced rather far apart, lots of coastal bases, lots of forest but no roads?! Is that a known tactic for the Spartans or just no skill (or part of a "formless strategy" pretending to have no skill)?

Anyway, I'm going to complete the PTS in two turns (crawler cashing!) and I think about asking Kass for Lal's comm frequency (he most certainly has met Lal) in exchange for either the Drone's comm frequency (they are seething so he most probably can't do anything with him) or 20 energy credits (going up to max. 30).

Lal usually researches Applied Physics, Non-linear Math, Doc: Loyalty (especially if under pressure), SotHB and EthCalc quite early on... all four techs would certainly be helpful to me now. If Kass wants to crush Lal afterwards, he is free to do so (and I will tell him that).

With the Spartan (and soon the PK) Treaty and 3 workers per base I will soon be making 50+ Cr/turn on a 50-50 setting...

Any general advice / suggestions / opinions?

[arginine]

I'm tempted to urge you to go for a different SP, but the other humans probably think we will play differently in the real game, so I won't gripe.

You will have the PTS soon. Once you do, set about finding, and infiltrating all that you can find. I'd try to meet and infiltrate the Angels ASAP. I bet they have some good info, and would be worth talking to.

Once you have enough information, you might want see how to align the factions to ensure maximum trade. Ideally, you'd meet with the Angels next, and try to get information out of them.

[jtsisyoda]

Roads are critical for moving troops, crawlers, and formers. You lose a lot of resources if they walk instead of drive. I could see how someone might forest first to get the resource benefit first, then road over it, but at this stage, there should already be roads connecting bases at the very least. OTOH, if he plans to use lots of transports to ship out troops, roads would be irrelevant for invading others. Maybe he wants to build lots and lots of probe ships, too? The fastest way to build lots of them is to have lots of coastal bases. However, as is often the case, a strength can be a weakness as well. It would take a lot of resources to defend all those bases against infiltration.

[AndiD]

Again an update:

Exploration with my only probe foil went well, I met the Believers (lowest on the power graph), exchanged Applied Physics for Gene Splicing and signed a Treaty two turns ago and met now an Angel probe team. Bought Deidre's comm frequency from Miriam, again a Treaty, this time for nothing! I was very surprised, since I have been running Dem/Market/Wealth for years now.

=> If you are very powerful (PTS!), pathetic and feeble AIs want Treaties with you. And we're talking about intense rivalry here...

Council was not going so well, Lal and Miri voted for Domai (currently 2nd on the powergraph thanks to Kass dealing a Treaty with him for techs), most probably our Governor for the next 20 years.

Angels are third in power, just a few pixels below Domai, imagine they would have become Governor and infiltration on every faction! Thinking about this, I like a Governor Domai still better...

Have invited Herc for diplomatic talks, they have about the same techs as me (presumably HEC and/or Non-linear math instead of Gene Splicing and Ecological Engineering). Due to tech trades and mod 3 rogue techs I still haven't managed to even see HEC or Doc:Loy as a choice yet. At least, if I get HEC, I can get SynthFossilFuels next round and skip Non-linear math.

I'll aim for cooperative victory since noone will have the slightest chance against Morgan & Angels Builders since Kass (Spartans) doesn't ssem to play the best game and has "only" to invade a 3 base Lal and a 3 base Miriam next. (Well, he could invade me but needs transports for that and I can beat him with subversion (doing 90 cr/turn now) and sheer numbers of scouts).

Angels are on the very far side of the map (they still don't have any idea where I am located) so if they want to mount an invasion it will have to be underway for a looong time. I assume we'd both take a beat if it came down to a fight.

Sidenote: Angels finished the WP a few turns ago, still no other SPs built yet. I'd be going for the PEG as soon as some rudimentary defenses are in place.

[Impaler[WrG]]

Your doing wonderfully AndiD, I would venture to say you have the game bascialy in your pocket at this point unless everyone starts plotting against you right now.

Keep up your PTS city sprawl, I see a nice location up in the north along the Drone Border just north of a Monolith. You should be able to steal a Jungle Nut Bonus from the Drones and get a large chunk of Jungle. Lay down some farms and you will be able to crawler feed a lot of bases out of the size 3 rut.

Keep exploring southward and see just how much land you have to work with. Invest your considerable income each turn in Tanks, Rec Commons and Childrens Chreeches on your more peripheral bases.

It might also be wise to start bumping up Research alocation soon and Pych when you start to get Drone problems.

Invest in more navy as well, I dont think they all need to be Probe Foils though some cheaper transports would be handy for simple Pod Poping, your likly going to be so far ahead in tec theirs nothing to steal but you can always infiltrate (might as well infiltrate thouse spartans).

We should try to duplicate your mini-game sucess in the main game, HGP and PTS

[Whoha]

start buildings actual units :P

[Whoha]

Just checked out the 2159 turn, you are kicking butt, good work. Going to infiltrate gaia this turn? They are all going to docpile on to you aren't they?

also you got hec, which means you can upgrade that foil you are building, rush it, snag the prototype, then build probes everywhere and upgrade them.

[Whoha]

Continuing my damn the aliens are rigged speech, I just beat my record and got the HGP in the late 2120s. 2 ogres(1 from cloning the unit) + 1 AA + some cash.

[AndiD]

Update: I became Governor a few turns ago and am currently in the process of preparing every base for pop-booming, except Morgan Energy Monopoly which is making clean (!) scouts as garrison for every base.

As soon as a former becomes unemployed and I have spare cash, I'm making it clean.

I will be absent till Monday, if anyone wants to, feel free to play ahead.

If anyone does so, please contact Kassiopeia and ask for a new destination of the sea former. (I made a deal a few turns ago, entire world map in exchange for a sea former, since the MorInd, MorBank, MorEnt area is pretty much developed)

We have developed a very good relationship, I got SotHB from him for Gene Splicing (after he made Lal submissive), Doc:Loy for EcolEng and he voted for my Governorship for infiltration data on the Angels.

I contacted Herc for a few times but he does not seem to be interested in diplomacy at all.

Miriam declared Vendetta last turn when her Impact Cruiser met my probe foil... well... I simply bought the Impact Cruiser for 143 cr and it popped a unity pod which contained 100 cr. It currently causes two peace drones in Morgan Data Systems but that is manageable for the moment. I hope I lose this Impact Cruiser to an IoD soon while sea pod popping...

[Whoha]

Just checked out the minigame, when are you going to grab the wonders available?

[AndiD]

In the next turns I'll be building nothing but crawlers and cash in those I don't need anymore for booming. I got MMI faster than expected therefore I'm a bit unprepared but hell, the Angels will get D:AP in a few turns and don't have Neural Grafting yet.

[Whoha]

Still kicking butt I see. All of your cities are size 13 now, awesome. Plus you are going to take all of Domai's holdings.

765 credits per turn, 2 turn tech, space flight next turn, and you have loads of noodles and choppers. Kinda interesting that the Angels have such a wide swath of territory, but you'll probably regain the territory marker once you take all of Domai's stuff. I think this starting point wasn't fair, atleast in the sense that Domai was supposed to declare war on you sooner, instead of build up an empire to deliver to you.

Whats the deal with the pact Domai has with the spartans?

[AndiD]

Domai's interest in the game is only BUILD, not BUILD and CONQUER as usual (?), that helped for sure.

Currently is sunspot time, Spartans are Human, one of my sea formers currently works for Kassi, dunno what he will do. Domai declared war on me though, not the other way round.