Sparta-Gaian relations

[Googlie]

Well, the thought (on my part) behind acquiring those lowly techs in trades before stealing from Zak was to increase the chances of stealing something worthwhile

Right now, if we techstole, we'd prolly walk away from Zak with Soc Psych or Biogen, then it'll be five or six turns before we get probes bcak to his coast (and prolly need to go to a different base, too, to avoid his "enhanced security locks" at the first base we steal from.

So I'm in favor of infiltrating first, to see what he's got and what he's researching, then striking with the second probe (even if the trannie - or the probe on land - sits idle for a turn) witha targeted tech in mind (ie having cheaply gotten the level-1 techs for peanust from our trading partners)

I'd also be in favor, while we assemble the invasion force, of trading techs to Zak, so that he can be getting higher up the tech tree for our next probe mission to lift from him

(And elsewhere I've suggested a means of getting Ecol Eng for free before the decade's end)

Of course all these comments re tech trades and tech steals are but proposals at this stage thrown out for the Junta to discuss and toss out as approptiate

[Googlie]

Posted in the Embassy by Illuminatus
You have been honest with us, so you deserve an answer. Mindwom was ferried by GDN Dauntless to that region, where it was to continue west following fungal pathways, while Dauntless is recalled to ferry other units.

Shall I, in turn, be honest and say that R-112 was dimensionally rifted there?

Or let them ponder how we are so close to Yang (as they think we don't yet have flex)?

(And the "Dauntless" must be a 2-movement Unity Foil transport)

[Zeiter]

Yeah, I would say go ahead and tell them it was dimensionally rifted. They still won't know where it was rifted from.

Edit: Well, on second thought, if they have suspicion that we are right next door, they might we more willing to trade on favorable terms.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
I'd also be in favor, while we assemble the invasion force, of trading techs to Zak, so that he can be getting higher up the tech tree for our next probe mission to lift from him

I know, I know: a sudden change of heart a few turns before we could start war with Zak, but since these last two years we've already obtained most techs we wanted from him, I'm beginning to wonder: if we'd already have to gift techs to Zak in order to be able to steal some useful techs a few turns later, I'm starting to wonder if it wouldn't be more lucrative if we just stayed in peace with Zakharov after all, and simply traded for techs with him the usual way.
Does Zakharov still want a pact with us? If so, then we could possibly even stay pacted with Zak for a great part of the game, and turn our army and probes on Yang instead. Who knows Zak would even be willing to give his good pactmates some techs for free.

Just tell me if I'm talking nonsense. It's just something I started pondering about.

[Zeiter]

I do believe that Zak was even willing to pact with us against Yang last time we talked, was he not? And also, don't we have a large outstanding loan with Yang? It might be better to go to war with Yang instead of Zak so that we don't have to pay all of that back. Plus, it'll gain the favor of the Gaians.

Right now, Yang's probably researching almost as well as Zak. We'll find out exactly what's going on with Zak once we infiltrate him, but if he only has several techs to offer, then maybe it wouldn't be worth it to invade him.

However, if we decide not to invade Zak, we won't acquire those juicy industrial centers that I've been salivating over. It may not be a big loss, though. We need infiltration to find out.

[Googlie]

And to continue with that line of thinking - a pact with Zak might also lead to a pact with Lal (his master).

And does anyone know if the following might hold true:

We could then churn out probeteams to staff both pactmates bases (they're unlikely to do so to any great degree) thus closing off the stealtech possibilites for the other 3 human teams (who'd have to attack our probes to get access, thus alerting us and giving us the opportunity to say "hands off our pactmates"

But every time we call Zak he wants us to join him in a Vendetta against Yang - which is prolly not a bad thing anyway, as we don't want to give the Gaians unfettered run of the Jungle. We could use our overland strength to move down thru the Fungal Pass, staging from Minas Tirith (and if we could reach it, that's a great chokepoint just 1 tile SW of Great Collective)

[Zeiter]

If we are thinking of invading Yang, we better do it quickly, before he gets plasma defenders. (And he's also close to getting the ECM ability too.)

A pact with Zak and Lal would be awesome!

[Googlie]

His next tech that he researches will be Superconductor (for the gatling guns). You rarely see yang with Impact weapons - he usually by passes them.

Dunno whether he'll go for plasma armor or pulse-3 armor (prolly the former as it's an original smac faction) Were I playing the Hive with Sparta as a neighbour I'd go 3-pulse for the +25% defense against rover-chassis vehicles

[KrysiasKrusader]

Originally posted by Googlie
I was tempted to say in the embassy ...

......... move east to the Hive coast and be picked up by one of our Cruiser Transports ..........

...

Hmmm...
I seem to recall having a problem doing this in the past (?).
Can you "transport" units other than your own? I don't think so. Not even those of a pactmate.
Someone correct me here, should you know otherwise.

[KrysiasKrusader]

Originally posted by Zeiter
Yeah, I would say go ahead and tell them it was dimensionally rifted. They still won't know where it was rifted from.

Edit: Well, on second thought, if they have suspicion that we are right next door, they might we more willing to trade on favorable terms.

No! Don't tell them. Please...

I have never told anyone in MP games when I've dimensionally rifted. Not even to this day. It will add a certain aura of awe to the others regarding how mobile and potentially threatening the Spartan Federation can be.

[KrysiasKrusader]

Originally posted by Googlie

And does anyone know if the following might hold true:

We could then churn out probeteams to staff both pactmates bases (they're unlikely to do so to any great degree) thus closing off the stealtech possibilites for the other 3 human teams (who'd have to attack our probes to get access, thus alerting us and giving us the opportunity to say "hands off our pactmates"

Hmmm...

Lemme think. That rings a bell from somewhere...

Expect an edit to this post as soon as my intution has "clicked".

[Googlie]

Originally posted by KrysiasKrusader
Hmmm...
I seem to recall having a problem doing this in the past (?).
Can you "transport" units other than your own? I don't think so. Not even those of a pactmate.
Someone correct me here, should you know otherwise.

(It was our own R-112 I was referring to [to be picked upo by our "cruiser transport"], not the Gaian mindworm)

And, no, I don't think we can board even a pactmate's vessel (but I will scenario test it - put a pactmate's unit in a port city with the "load ship" command and then sail the pactmate's ship out and see if the unit went with it - stay tuned .......... )

[Googlie]

I guess the Embassy forums (all 3 of them) are dead 'cos the other teams, just like ours, can't make up their (our) minds what to trade to whom for what

GGLIE

[KrysiasKrusader]

Well...

Go have a look at what Illuminatus has to say (!).

Looks like it's time to lose these guys - unless we start to push them and see how much they'll take (if you understand the expression).

[KrysiasKrusader]

If it were up to me...

I would e-mail Illuminatus, and say something like:

---------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Man,

I'm so and so from the Spartan faction in ACDG - III.

[ ... You can put some kind of nice introduction in this space, exchange pleasentries, and what not ... ]

I'm contacting you cause I see it is necessarry to understand a thing or two - before some mechanisms are put into motion.

Now down to business...

Okay, what's the story?
Are you role-playing?
Is this what your faction members have told you to say?
Is this what the Angels have pushed you to say?
Is it a combination of all of these?

If you, or your council want to push us away, then just say so. We'll gladly deal with the rest of the field. But giving us such an answer will only anger the Junta. Thus you'll be left out of the loop when it comes to multi-factional interactions.

This is of course, maybe the way you want things. We've (not just the council, but also I have) been informed that you (or your council) is just buying time so that you can iron things out with your alliance pals (?).

We have contact with every faction that survived Planetfall. As well as the splinter groups from two of these (don't bother asking, I can't believe this myself). So unless your trying to add to the intrigue (gossip) network - it's for you time to come clean.

Please respond in due haste.

Sincere Regards,
Your Signature


P.S. You can publish this letter and all subsequent, of our communications in your private forums. I'm doing this, just to speed things up, as time is of the essence. I. myself will not do so for now, untill I've heard back from you. Perhaps, you were in a hurry when you posted in the embassy, and did not choose your words as carefully as you normally would have.

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That's rough (cause I'm typing fast again, hoping this comes up before one of you posts - laugh!), but it would certainly shake some information loose from what's happening inside the council.

Edit: added the P.S. above.

Edit. Added more to the P.S. and corrected repition, and some spelling.