Game Discussion, Turn 2121 - 2140

[Kassiopeia]

Oh no! Who is going to write articles for The Phalanx then?

That's most unfortunate. The paper'll have to make do without your contribution then, I suppose.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Zeiter
BTW, I noticed that our boundaries with the Hive have been slightly redrawn. ............................. And our boundaries seem to have extended abnormally far towards Yang's territory. Because our territories now meet each other. Yet, we didn't plant any new bases to the south. Can you guys figure it out?

here's the screenies to illustrate - note that in 2125 our borders now meet (and that the Rio Rojo is now completely in our territory) - the only things that changed year over year were that SC2 went to 2 pop, and we founded OA

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Zeiter
I think this could be a good base site for the eastern coast. It's only 4 moves away from OA, and it has some good workable tiles in its radius (including that min special.)

Or how about this one - After completing its former have SC1 produce a colony pod while the former works a road to the coast. This site would use the ocean nut square, and would have 2 pods tp pop in its radius (maybe a land monolith and a sea minerals?)

And if a mine were built on the rocky tile between (right where it says "road"), then it could be used by either this base or SC1 as the circumstances warrant

(Or maybe even both - a base from an SC1 CP where I suggest and another from OA where Zeiter suggests - that too would have a popping pod within its radius)

That (2 bases) would also be good beurocracy-wise, as right now we're planning most of our bases west of our HQ, whereas 2 easterly bases would bring the HQ more into the center of our expansion

[Zeiter]

Oooh, another good base site! Good idea. Yeah, let's build on that site first using a CP from SC1. That nutrient bonus will really help our growth, especially if we can ever get a sea former out there and get a kelp farm on it.

Although, with the roads, I wonder if this road network would be more efficient:

[Googlie]

Hmm - it has the advantages of avoiding the rocky square (which slows it down) plus it puts a road thru the monolith (which I like, for upgrading units)

Negative, though, is that at some point we'll want to mine and road that central tile (which all 3 bases can use - SC1, OA and NB)

My sense is that your 4 rainy tiles' worth of roads would prolly cost (timewise) the same as my 2 rainy/1 rocky set-up - and if we are using it in the future to move troops, then we just stage them - SC1's unit to OA and OA's unit to NB or EB2

[Zeiter]

I wonder, would it theoretically be possible to bribe both Yang andZak to attack someone (and of course, whoever Zak attacks, Lal will attack). At this stage in the game, such a joint attack from the AI would make any team tremble with fear.

[Googlie]

I'm sure it would, if the conditions were right (ie, all had the relevant commlink, and all had land access, or Doc Flex)

I dunno how eager we are to give up Flex at this time, though. Maybe after we have a headstart on the MCC (after Doc Ini, which needs Ind Auto as a prereq.

As an aside, how about starting an SP at one base then discontinuing it the next year. Thgis will give the "go ahead" to the AI to start building (they wait until either a human player has started one, or until all human players have the tech to build one, plus there's a # TURNS linked to DIFF that may have prohibited the AI from starting one yet)

We certainly aren't going to be able to go for more than 1 or 2, and to get, say, the PK's building the HGP and the Uni building the VW is to our advantage if it denies those SP's to our competitors

So maybe in a base that has just started a build (so that we don't lose minerals when we change back) we could sow this bit of disinformation?

[Zeiter]

That's brilliant! That would be so great, if we could deny Morgan the HGP, or Deidre the WP. I had no idea that the AI behaved like that. So they won't start an SP until certain conditions have been met? That's good to know.

Also, would the other human factions get a pop up window saying "Spartans have started on secret project yadda yadda yadda..."? Because that could also be used to increase our intimidation factor, if we make it seem like we think we are strong enough to start on an SP already.

[Dis]

sounds like a great plan. Start a SP!

I would think they get a popup- but I'm not sure about pbem's. I never got that far in one

I noticed the AI behaved that way, but I wasn't sure if that was the case with transcend level (I usually play Thinker level)

[Googlie]

Prima says (and it's talking about single-player games versus the computer):

Secret Projects At Talent and below, the other factions can't start work on a Secret Project until you, the player, have its prerequisite tech, even if they have the tech in question.

I seem to remember in the old OWO forums (man, how I wish I'd save all those snippets to disc - or even hard copy) one of the Firaxis programmers said that they'd maintained that for all diff levels in PBEMs, and adding an algorithm somewhat similar to the random events generator so that the AI eventually do get the opportunity to build SP's (I can't remember the actual formula he quoted - I guess it'd be possible to replicate it thru a series of scenario tests - (if indeed he did quote an actual formula or just gave the variables) but I remember # TURNS and DIFF being two of the variables

And even if they don't get a pop-up, I'm sure that I have a counterpart in the other 3 factions (I check the F5 screen every turn to see what's happening in the SP world)

[Primus Pilus]

PP is back after teaching infidels about electrons and protons...(1) like idea about ONE Probe Team to get Yang Datalinks (2) need to keep Rolling Thunder shadowing Zak, since he WILL land a unit, that's his modis operandi (sp?) (3) i'm all for the new base locations, BUT, we STILL need to establish a southern perimeter against Yang. my game experience w/AI Yang is that he strings bases ala-ICS and especially Sea colonies. the last thing we need is Yang expanding nth via the sea and 'surrounding' home island (btw, which i have suggested doing to him) (4) not sure about starting SP. IMHO, WP/PD/MCC are all vital early/mid game, but do we have the resources to commit against Morgan/etal completion? a ruse would be nice, and will go with Junta decision

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Primus Pilus
BUT, we STILL need to establish a southern perimeter against Yang.

I agree. Even if we establish a base between the mineral and nut tile at the edge of our current borders, it'd only push the line a little further south (and we'd need to string another base(s) towards the isthmus to finally get the border between our landmasses)

Thus:

[Zeiter]

I agree, Primus Pilot, we do need to eventually think about Hive encroachment to the south. If we can just get one base established down there, we can use it to do nothing but pump out garrisons and CPs for future bases. Here's a possible encroachment plan. I agree with Googlie's base site proposal there by the mineral bonus. Here are a few more base proposals. The black arrows indicates the order that we build each base, and the turquoise circles show good, productive squares that each base could harvest.

[Primus Pilus]

looks good to me Googlie (no surprise). i ask that the Junta members pursue this tactical adv asap...topic, i've always supported coastal bases first as exploration, pickets, sea sq bonus, and expansion. i had already given my vote to crater NW, and will now encorage the NE minearl nut. SEA is POWER...Lead Harpoon

[Primus Pilus]

ok, for clarifcation, i pushed that a CP go to the sth mineral nut when we found it several turns ago. what is our strategy, and better our tactics?