Sixth base location?

[Maniac]

AFAIK it has been already decided to let the next SC1 CP found our fifth base on (62.16). But has the sixth base location already been decided, for the SC3 CP?

If not, here are a few possibilities:

White proposal

Travelling time: 3 or 4 turns

Base production:
4 nuts, 2 mins, 3 energy (if rolling & rainy river tile is worked)
4-3-2 (if a farmed crater tile (53.15) would be worked)

Extra: ocean access

Yellow proposal

Travelling time: 1 or 2 turns

Base production:
4-4-2 (farmed crater river tile worked)

Green proposal

Travelling time: 1 turn

Base production:
4-4-3

Blue proposal

Travelling time: 1 turn

Base production:
4-4-3

Purple proposal

Travelling time: 1 or 2 turns

Base production:
4-4-2 (if farmed crater river tile worked)
5-4-2 (if after a few turns a nutrient forest is worked)

[Googlie]

I like Blue. This early we are seeing what turn advantage can do, and we'd have a working base the turn after the CP was commissioned. You can't beat that (while still leaving yellow and purple for future base development. Green sort of removes the yellow/blue option completely)

Second choice would be White, even with the travelling time. As a second coastal base it'd take some of the pressure off GH when we start to build probe foils in around ten to twelve turns or so

(Would positioning White 1-tile northwest be any slower - I could see that fungus in the small inlet being a pain in the butt when we start moving ships out. There's more exposure to the NW, but better egress)

G.

[Maniac]

Personally I'd prefer Purple. That one extra nutrient can make a lot of difference for our early expansion (growing to size 2 in 8 instead of 11 turns), and allow us to produce CPs faster to colonize the other potential sites.

My reason not to vote Blue (by itself a very good site) is because SC2 will grow to size 2 soon (and IIRC we aren't planning to build a CP there in the near future), and the blue tile is IIRC the most productive tile available besides the monolith (which is worked by the 1st worker).

[Primus Pilus]

i like White on the tile next to the sea mineral (Googlie idea). we need another port and the ouput from the sea rock and land river could crank out units or research. this location would foment my prevalence of force projection via sea power...still need to move CPs south to cover coast against Yang. would the investment towards a Speeder CP balance the cost of more rapid expansion?...btw, i luv drop CPs during mid-game. plop one next to a faction and send in the troops!!!

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Primus Pilus
btw, i luv drop CPs during mid-game. plop one next to a faction and send in the troops!!!

I agree. Also, for longer range insertions, I use chopper colony pods (or noodles, but they have limited range)

In fact I'll often expand into new landmasses via chopper pod. Often when you finish a game there are 2 or 3 small completely uninhabited continents (I play on humungous maps) so recently in my SP games - especially switch ones - I'll use chopper pods to kick start a weak faction I've changed to

[Dis]

I'll go with purple, with blue as a second choice.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Maniac
and the blue tile is IIRC the most productive tile available besides the monolith (which is worked by the 1st worker).

Good point.

In that case I'll change my preference to purple, with Tomcat-1 moving to plant a forest on its nut tile after completing its current assignment

I'd like to see white as the site for base #7, then - we can't keep delaying getting coastal bases built as we will need probefoil/impactfoil/seaformer launching sites and can't rely on GH doing everything

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
I'd like to see white as the site for base #7, then - we can't keep delaying getting coastal bases built as we will need probefoil/impactfoil/seaformer launching sites and can't rely on GH doing everything

I agree. I think normally we should be able to have another CP produced before we research Planetary Networks and can start thinking of probes etc. Also now Rolling Thunder is scheduled to explore the east, we can scout for good eastern coastal base sites.

[Googlie]

Yup - and as yet we don't know if the eastern ocean and western ocean are linked to the south of us (I think they must be, else we'd have seen Yang's scouts by now - the AI knows where every faction is HQ'd - it's part of their "built in advantage")

[Zeiter]

I'm gonna vote for purple. With 2 bases producing 5 nuts/turn, we'll be able to pump out the CP's like mad. Blue would also be alright.

[DeathByTheSword]

white

[Andemagne]

white.

[Kassiopeia]

White takes too long. I'd rather see those extra turns used to produce stuff in zone purple. Purple is also closer to deploy police forces if needed and guards if worms are spotted. On the mouth of Rio Grande the base would be a tad too isolated for my taste.

[Googlie]

So - counting (second choice in parentheses):

Kassiopeia - purple
Andemagne - white
DeathByTheSword - white
Zeiter - purple (blue)
Dissident - purple
Primus Pilus - white
Googlie - purple (white)
Maniac - purple

So, to date:

purple - 5 votes
white - 3 votes

lotsa time left to thrash out the pros and cons of each

[Zeiter]

White just doesn't have the turn advantage of the others. Also, I don't think we really need another base to produce ships in immediately. We'll eventually colonize white, probably within the next 15 years. But right now growth is essential, and we might as well take advantage of the crater as much as we can. That's why I support purple.