Invasion plans for University/Lal Axis

[Zeiter]

This thread is devoted to discussion of our invasion of Zak (and eventually Lal).

When we infiltrate Zak, we'll hopefully be able to piece together a super-nifty F4 map of University territory. Then we'll be able to go into more detail. So far, our plans seem to be:

*An invasion force of 3 impact rovers (a few of them elites) and an elite impact infantryman, transported by two transport foils.
*General probe raping of tech.
*Long term goal is to acquire industrial centers, get lots of juicy tech, and make Zak our biotch.

I'm sure this show of our military prowess will gain the admiration of the others too. Perhaps they will admire us so much that they will feel like giving away lots of tech or energy credits, all of their own free will. Of course, from time to time, we may have to remind them exactly how much they admire us. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. First, some things we need to think about:

*When to strike? (infiltration will help us decide)
*Where to strike? (ditto)
*Will we need defensive probe invaders? (ditto)
*How will we police our newly-captured cities? Rush-build scout patrols? Hold back our invasion forces? (I say to that). Rush rec commons? Not worry about police, and just starve the citizens into submission? Switch to Police State? Nervestaple? Sacrifice 300 University researchers to the gods of war? Feed them xenoburritos? Feed University prisoners to Chairman Yang? So many options. We need answers!

So, discuss...

[Googlie]

And if we do manage to make Zak submissive in a few turns of hi-action momentum warfare, do we then gift him back the captured bases so that he can again excel at what he's good at - research?

(If so - and even if we just end up pacting with him, we should prepare ourselves to garrison a probe team or 2 in every Uni base, to avoid the others just probe raping him as well. And maybe even a best-morale, best armor defender of ours placed there too. So that if any other faction wants a piece of Zak then need to take on us as well)

[Zeiter]

Ah, yes, definitely. I agree with all of that. We will have to defend our investment very carefully.

I also wonder: If we make Zak our submissive, then does Lal automatically become our submissive too?

[Googlie]

Was that the way Buster set it up? Lal subservient to Zak (or vice versa - I can't remember). If its Lal to Zak, then I don't think Lal would default to us, but he'll be feeding techs to Zak, who'll pass them on to us whenever we call (and remember, when the 20 year sunspots hit, we'll have to use our probe teams if we want techs, and I'm sure I read somewhere that this is grounds for a slave to call off the submissive pact

We'll know soon enough when we infiltrate Zak next turn or the one thereafter

[Zeiter]

Yes, stealing tech would cause a submissive to end the pact, usually, at least. I actually got away with it once. I think they said something like "I was going to give that to you anyway, so I'll let it slide, but don't do it again." But I think you have to be really nice to your submissive to get away with it.

And you are correct, Lal is submissive to Zak. So, the way I understand it, even though Lal won't be directly submissive to us, he'll still be submissive to Zak, and thus in a roundabout way we will be able to direct Lal's actions through Zak? This would mean that we need only conquer Zak, and Lal will be at our beck and call too!

[KrysiasKrusader]

Guys. You better have a look at this.

Game set up info thread.

[Zeiter]

What the...? That thread says Uni is submissive to PK. That's the opposite of what I've thought all along. That also doesn't make sense for a couple of reasons. Uni has consistently been much stronger than the PKs. Uni has had the tech lead at times, which doesn't make sense at all because a submissive AI will almost always share its tech with its master faction.

[Googlie]

So an attack on the Uni will bring us into conflict with the PKs

No biggie, as we are actually larger than the PK's (remember that their council votes total is double their population's) with our 15 pops to their 14. And we surely have superior weaponry

But interestingly, if we ask each one in turn to attack the other, a different price is put on their pact friendship:

[KrysiasKrusader]

So you see by the price asked, that the UoP is definetly submissive to the Peace keepers...

Mmmm...

[Dis]

if we don't mess around with the human nations, then we need to get the university soon. before they get air power of course. The problem I have sometimes, is once the university get cranking, it's hard to stop them. Their technological superior units can be tough. I'm gettin' antsy. I want to start bonking some heads

[Dis]

Originally posted by Googlie
And if we do manage to make Zak submissive in a few turns of hi-action momentum warfare, do we then gift him back the captured bases so that he can again excel at what he's good at - research?

(If so - and even if we just end up pacting with him, we should prepare ourselves to garrison a probe team or 2 in every Uni base, to avoid the others just probe raping him as well. And maybe even a best-morale, best armor defender of ours placed there too. So that if any other faction wants a piece of Zak then need to take on us as well)

good thoughts on post-war. But first things first.

[Snoddasmannen]

When we attack the Uni, the Gaians and their possible human friends will be able to figure out that we have our forces committed. They might see this as an opportunity to gang up on us. They can certainly send swarms of probe teams at us, or Morgan might make the Hive declare war, and who knows, they might even have some expeditionary forces ready to deploy.

Attacking the Uni is a rather predictable move on our part, and if they consider us a threat they might have made plans to counter it, or make some up as they go along.

That said, I still consider this attack the best move, but emphasis should be on a speedy and daring invasion so that we can quickly redeploy our forces and our attention and solidify before the other humans get naughty.

So roll rovers roll

[Zeiter]

Attacking the Uni is a rather predictable move on our part, and if they consider us a threat they might have made plans to counter it, or make some up as they go along.

Yes, excellent point. The biggest threat will be probe teams, I think.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Snoddasmannen
When we attack the Uni, the Gaians and their possible human friends will be able to figure out that we have our forces committed. They might see this as an opportunity to gang up on us. They can certainly send swarms of probe teams at us, or Morgan might make the Hive declare war, and who knows, they might even have some expeditionary forces ready to deploy.

Attacking the Uni is a rather predictable move on our part, and if they consider us a threat they might have made plans to counter it, or make some up as they go along.

That said, I still consider this attack the best move, but emphasis should be on a speedy and daring invasion so that we can quickly redeploy our forces and our attention and solidify before the other humans get naughty.

So roll rovers roll

good thoughts. We have some distance from the other human factors. But we have to watch they don't pay the hive to attack us. This is exactly why we don't want this war to drag on too many turns. Don't want to leave our homeland too undefended.

[KrysiasKrusader]

Originally posted by Dissident
if we don't mess around with the human nations, then we need to get the university soon. before they get air power of course. The problem I have sometimes, is once the university get cranking, it's hard to stop them. Their technological superior units can be tough. I'm gettin' antsy. I want to start bonking some heads

Don't worry. Zakharov is controlled by the AI. He'll be a push over. Even if he has... (Strike that. You'll see later on.)


Rushing things before one is properly prepared, is among the greatest downfalls I('ve) see(n).

This is a strategy game. I'm afraid that things won't develope as fast as you seem to want. Look at the recent turn, Dissident (It's posted in the top thread). It'll tell you a lot about where we're at, and our current capabilities.