Game Discussion, Turn 2101 - 2120

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Zeiter
I'm actually beginning to lean more towards Goolgie's suggestion of planting both bases on the second turn.

Originally posted by Googlie
I'm leaning towrads planting the flag in 2101 with Sparta Command

Cute. Everyone has reversed their previous opinion.

Originally posted by Googlie
Battle Ogre II

Are you serious? If only that weren't a writing error: we could probably level a few factions before they even knew what hit them.

Anyway, I tend to agree with Googlie and building Sparta Command first turn too. Then we can pop the pod first turn already, and if it's a resource bonus or monolith, we'll be able to work that square one turn earlier than we would if we planted both bases on the second turn.

If a monolith, move the worker to it (becomes tech in 5, with sliders at 20/10/80), or if a nut, or river + nut, move the worker as well, and in any of these 3 situations, change the production to a colony pod

If we'd pop a monolith, our population could grow in 11 turns, while our CP would be finished in 8 turns IIRC. So in that case I'd personally opt for a rover. In the other situations I agree with directly building a CP though.

If anything else gets popped, change back to a scout or rover

If we had to choose between a scout or rover for our first production now, I'd personally always opt for the rover. Sure, it costs 11 minerals more, meaning we'd finish our CP later. But on the other side a rover can act as a more mobile police unit and will explore and pop pods faster. And I think the faster pod popping will soon pay back the bigger rover cost, eg a unity pod with 50 credits allowing us to hurry the next production item in Sparta Command.

summary: doc flex, then infonets, then plan nets

Don't forget Centauri Ecology first!
Btw, IIRC yesterday I've checked whether the CentEcol->DocFlex->InfoNets->PlaNets was possible, and I think PlaNets wasn't available as a choice for our fourth tech. So this means we'd have to choose another tech in between. Good possibilities seem:
Applied Physics (for a Nonlinear Maths and impact gun beeline)
Industrial Base (for a Inustrial Automation and crawler beeline)
Social Psych (for an Ethical Calculus and population boom beeline)
I guess the choice would depend on our terrain surroundings, Hive hostility/friendliness, etcetera...

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Maniac
Are you serious? If only that weren't a writing error: we could probably level a few factions before they even knew what hit them.

No typo - it was a Mark II Ogre that popped !!!

[Zeiter]

Alright, the first turn is up! Have we come to a final decision? It seems like the majority want the 1st CP planted in 2101, then the 2nd one moved south and planted 2 turns later, while popping the pod with the rover after Sparta Com is built. If no one objects, we can proceed with that course of action and completely stun and intimidate the other factions with our super-fast turn playing - if they see us play the turns quickly consistently, they might get the impression that we really know what we're doing.

...

Or, they could be too busy spamming to even notice. Actually, that's the more likely scenario, but still...

[Maniac]

As Zeiter suggested, I already did the moves a majority seemed to agree about:

• Build Sparta Command where we are.
• Change production to a command center.
• Pop the northern pod with the unity rover. We got a monolith. I decided not to get a morale upgrade right now, but instead let the rover move one tile further, as we can always get a morale upgrade later, and I thought the extra map info now might be useful to better decide the location of our second base.
• I put the Sparta Command worker on the monolith. The base will now grow in 11 turns. A colony pod would be finished in 8 turns - too early. Therefore I set production to a scout rover for the reasons stated a few posts higher:
  

  If we had to choose between a scout or rover for our first production now, I'd personally always opt for the rover. Sure, it costs 11 minerals more, meaning we could finish our first CP there later. But on the other side a rover can act as a more mobile police unit and will explore and pop pods faster. And I think the faster pod popping will soon pay back the bigger rover cost, eg a unity pod with 50 credits allowing us to hurry the next production item (eg a CP) in Sparta Command.

  Of course production can still be changed if you want to, as this is only a midturn save.
• I set the energy allocations to 30 econ / 10 psych / 60 labs. This way we get 1 credit and 3 labs per year instead of 2 of each.
• As the rover discovered a river in the north, I decided not to move the CP south yet. With the new map info, personally I'd suggest to move the second CP one tile north to the monolith. Then next year we could first move the rover down the river course, and depending on the terrain it discovers, move the CP one tile north or west to build a base near the river banks.

Download the midturn save here.

Screenie. Sorry for the hideous base graphics.


If within the hour I get a positive comment to proceed with the course of action suggested above, I'll play the turn already and post it in the turn tracking thread if that's all right. If not, it'll have to be for tomorrow. Unless of course someone else wants to play the rest of the turn when it becomes clear there is a majority for a certain course of action.

[Zeiter]

That looks like an excellent place for a base, on the river tile that the rover is currently on. The two bases could then trade on and off working the monolith, as needed. The 2nd base would also get +1 energy in the base square, right off the bat. The river could also be useful in that when the 2nd base produces a CP, the river will speed its movement to the next base site. So, I agree, moving the 2nd CP north seems to be the way to go.

BTW, what shall we name the 2nd city?

[Kassiopeia]

I'm cool with your play, Maniac, I trust your judgement. Just get the turn posted

As for the 2nd base, I think "Santiago's Citadel" would be appropriate. We'll already have another fort, Fort Superiority, so Fort Santiago would be a bit repetetive. Plus "Citadel" is a cool word.

[Maniac]

Okay, turn played.

[Googlie]

Captain Googlie reporting in - I'm in agreement with the decisions made

I see we have the Garland Crater just 4 tiles to the west!! - +1 mineral in all its interior squares. Plus, it prolly means that the river we see runs into a lake, or skirts the crater towards a coast somewhere southwest

We should discuss siting base # 3 somewhere in that vicinity (eg 2 tiles west of Sparta Command)

[Googlie]

Question: Should Santiago's Citadel be founded north of the monolith (on 62:16), on a 2010 meter river square, or 1 tile west of its current position (on 60:18), also a river tile but at an elevation of 1736 meters?

In either case the base will still get +1 energy, but the latter is better if we want to put a solar energy collector on 62:16 (versus on 60:18)'cos it will garner 1 additional energy for being above 2000 meters

A base at 60:18 could still share the monolith with Sparta Command - and would be closer to the crater for getting base #3 or #4 there for the minerals boost

(And, Maniac, as the river wasn't there from the partial grid Kody posted, didn't you create it when you popped the pod?)

[Kassiopeia]

I see we have the Garland Crater just 4 tiles to the west!!

That'll offset our -1 industry easily for a decade or two! I'm hard pressed to think of a more suitable monument to land next to.

[Kody]

(And, Maniac, as the river wasn't there from the partial grid Kody posted, didn't you create it when you popped the pod?)

The river was just out of visible range before. The pod was just a monolith.

[Googlie]

Aha. I see.

And a follow up to my earlier post re founding Santiagp Citadel on 60:18.

If next turn (2102) we move the CP on to 60:18, and move the rover downriver past the colony pod, we can then see if in 2103, the year when we are to found Santiago Citadel (can't abbreviate it to SC as that could also be Sparta Command), we can maybe move the colony pod downriver a couple of tiles and found the base that same turn, thus getting some better separation between what will surely become two of our largest bases (being the first formed)

We might even be able to get close enough to the crater to get one of those +1 minerals working for us very early on

G.

[Zeiter]

Ah yes, we could move the CP two tiles on the river and found it with 1/3 movement point remaining. That's a very good possibility. Next turn we can use the rover to scout along the river to see what that area looks like.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
we can maybe move the colony pod downriver a couple of tiles and found the base that same turn, thus getting some better separation between what will surely become two of our largest bases (being the first formed)

Sounds great.

---

Btw, I've noticed a few things when looking at the turn:

If you go to the F2 Labs screen, you'll see that there is already one labs accumulated towards our research. Any idea what caused this?

Also we can see the population size of the other human factions. Morganites have zero, Gaians one, and Angels two. I guess this means the Morganites will follow the tactic we discussed earlier: build both bases the second turn, and the Gaians the tactic we're using now. However how did the Angels get a size 2 base? The only three possibilities I see is that 1) he added the second CP to the first base (would be rather unlucrative AFAIK), 2) they started on a river (but the starting positions should be fair), 3) they were extremely lucky and popped a unity pod which happened to run through the square their starting units were on. So what could it be?

[Kody]

If you go to the F2 Labs screen, you'll see that there is already one labs accumulated towards our research. Any idea what caused this?

Every time you pop a pod you get 1 lab point.

With starting positions. 2 in this case, I think the starting positions weren't completely fair. But Drogue says they're fair so they must be.