2142: Pre-planning discussion and build/movement orders

[Googlie]

Just getting prepared

GGLIE

[Googlie]

Although 2141 hasn't yet been sent on, it's prolly time to start planning 2142's orders.

These are my suggestions

We'll open the turn to get Industrial Base and Industrial Automation

Builds

• Sparta Command: 13/20ths of a Crypteia (Infantry Probe Unit) - perhaps rush this - 7 minerals
• Santiago Citadel: Commissions an Impact Infantryman, starts on a Scout Patrol
• Sector CraterWest: 3/10ths of a Scout Patrol
• Sector CraterSouth: 4/10ths of a Scout Patrol
• Fort Buster: 20.30 of a probe team - consider rushing for 5 minerals
• Olympus Academy: Commissions probe team, starts on a Crawler
• Vladivostok: 4/30ths of a Transport foil
• Gythium Harbour: Commissions Scout patrol, starts on Navy seals training program
• Minas Tirith: Founded this turn - starts, and rushes, a Former

Unit Moves

Navy

• SCC Hunter: S, then W, then NW x 2 (to skirt the seafungus that's southwest of the Morgan base, but re-establishing contact with the Morgan coastline)
• SCC Invincible: E, then SW x 3, to head for the landmass dominated by the mountain peak at 58:60
• SNC Pegasus: N, to Gythium Harbour environs to drop off the AA, then SW and W to journey to rendezvous with SCC Hunter for some joint seapod-popping
  SNC Hermes: NE, then E x 2 to make land contact with what we believe is Zakland

Army
(Cavalry Divisions)

• R-112: SW then E, if the Hive Scout that's lurking there permits it
• Warwag: garrisons Sector Craterwest until commissioning of a Scout Patrol there
• Chiron Knights: garrisons in Minas Tirith until relieved by a Scout Patrol
• Shinsengumi: On standby at Gythium harbour until further orders

(Army Engineering Corps)

• Tomcat-1: Upriver SE for 2 tiles and commences a farm on the rolling & rainy river crater tile there, to supply Rio Grande base
• Tomcat-2: moves to 58:20 and commences farming the 7 rainy tiles between Gythium Harbour and Sparta Command
• Tomcat-3: continues with the roadbuilding between Cratersouth, Citadel and Harbour
• Tomcats-4 & 5 roadbuilding the rocky tiles NE and NW of Olympus Academy, afterwards to tag team for fast mine building on both sites prepping for crawler use
• Tomcat-6: NE 1 tile to complete the road to Vladivostok

See map and legend below for identification of Tomcat fleet - I lost track of which one went where, so decided to start afresh

Miscellaneous Units

• Shrek: Garrison duty at Santiago Citadel
• Fiona: Garrison duty at Gythium harbour
• Sector Craterwest's Colony Pod (and escort Scout patrol): due North 1 tile and found Rio Grande base there in 2143 on the flat and moist river crater tile currently hosting Tomcat-1
• Fort Buster - relocate worker from 1-3-0 tile to 2-2-1 tile

Edits: changes to original suggestions in bold

[Maniac]

Don't forget to change that FB worker MY 2142!

Your 2142 plans look good.
A couple minor questions:

Originally posted by Googlie
Tomcat-1: downriver NE for 1 tile and commences a farm on the rainy river crater tile there, to supply Rio Grande base

What tile do you mean? (NE is into the fungus. ) Do you mean the flat & rainy?

Related, where again was the Rio Grande base to be founded: (53.11) or (54.12)? I don't know what's the most recent plan as there's been some new plans regarding (not) building a laser foil, hurrying a probe defence etc.

Tomcat-2: moves to 58:20 and commences farming the 7 rainy tiles between Gythium Harbour and Sparta Command

Do you intend to farm all the rainy tiles, or only the rolling&rainy ones? While unlike KK I regularly farm rolling&rainy tiles, flat&rainy is another matter to me. Looks like we'll need to have a big terraforming discussion as many contrary proposals have been made.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Maniac
Don't forget to change that FB worker MY 2142!

Ah, yes. I'll edit the above post so that when I refer to it it's there

What tile do you mean? (NE is into the fungus. ) Do you mean the flat & rainy?

That's an OOPS - I meant NW 1 turn

Related, where again was the Rio Grande base to be founded: (53.11) or (54.12)? I don't know what's the most recent plan as there's been some new plans regarding (not) building a laser foil, hurrying a probe defence etc.

Concensus seemed to coalesce (latest round) around where Tomcat-1 is right now (ie, just 1 tile north of where the pod and scout currently are)

Do you intend to farm all the rainy tiles, or only the rolling&rainy ones? While unlike KK I regularly farm rolling&rainy tiles, flat&rainy is another matter to me.

To be honest I didn't differentiate when I counted the 7 or so tiles. Loyts of time to hash this one out if only 1 former is going to be working them for the time being

Looks like we'll need to have a big terraforming discussion as many contrary proposals have been made.

Absolutely (and maybe we'll produce a Terraforming Officer out of it

[Maniac]

Thanks for the reply.

Originally posted by Googlie
To be honest I didn't differentiate when I counted the 7 or so tiles. Loyts of time to hash this one out if only 1 former is going to be working them for the time being

Indeed true for the squares between SC2/GH and SC1. Though for Tomcat-1 we'll need to know next year: send it one tile NW to the flat&rainy tile, or two tiles SE to the rolling&rainy tile for example.

[Zeiter]

Do you intend to farm all the rainy tiles, or only the rolling&rainy ones? While unlike KK I regularly farm rolling&rainy tiles, flat&rainy is another matter to me. Looks like we'll need to have a big terraforming discussion as many contrary proposals have been made.

The general rule I use is I only farm rolling/rainy tiles. 3-0-0 tiles aren't very useful, but 3-1-0 tiles are very nice indeed. Thus, I'd say, to compromise with KK, we should only farm rolling/rainy tiles, and then devote our formers to foresting.

Edit: I agree with most of the builds you have listed there, but I feel that we need a few more cities producing crawlers. How about we have Fort Buster build a crawler after it's done with its current probe team? The crawler can work that mineral bonus. And then maybe get Sparta Command producing some crawlers too? True, they'll have to work measly 1 min tiles for the short term, but even that small boost makes a difference. Or, we could have it harvest a 2 nut tile, if we can figure out a way to deal with the drones. In fact, if we switched to PS right now, we could get a bunch of crawlers working 2 nut tiles in almost every city and have an almost pseudo-popboom.

Army and Navy unit order look good, from what I can tell.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Zeiter
In fact, if we switched to PS right now, we could get a bunch of crawlers working 2 nut tiles in almost every city and have an almost pseudo-popboom.

Unfortunately we need Doc Loyalty to switch to POLICE (and yang isn't talking to us right now, let alone selling us a tech that gives an SP he's building)

So I think our Ogres and scouts are a must, especially if we want to free up the rovers and Impact Infantryman for the Uni invasion

(Maniac has gotten me convinced of the need to get our drone-quenching garrisons in place even before my essential infantry probe units)

SAfter that there'll be time for a concentrated crawler production run (but I saw Olympus SAcademy as being a crawler factory - after the 2 mines are completed (and Ecol Eng) it'll be getting almost 20 mins per turn. That's 2 crawlers every 3 turns

[Zeiter]

Now for the terraforming orders...

[quote]Tomcat-1: downriver NE for 1 tile and commences a farm on the rainy river crater tile there, to supply Rio Grande base

Tomcat-2: moves to 58:20 and commences farming the 7 rainy tiles between Gythium Harbour and Sparta Command

Tomcat-3: continues with the roadbuilding between Cratersouth, Citadel and Harbour

Tomcats-4 & 5 roadbuilding the rocky tiles NE and NW of Olympus Academy, afterwards to tag team for fast mine building on both sites prepping for crawler use

Tomcat-6: NE 1 tile to complete the road to Vladivostok[/qoute]

Hmmm, as for Tomcat-1, I would rather have it move upriver 2 tiles and farm that rolling/rainy/river tile, giving the new base a 3-1-1 instead of a 3-0-1. That is, if we've decided to plant the Rio grande base where the former is right now, instead of at the mouth of the river. That tile that the former is on right now is rolling/rainy, is it not? It would be a shame then to have it covered up by the base. What if we plant the base at the mouth of the Rio Grande, rush an infantry probe team, and then start on another infantry probe team right away, working the 1-2-0 min sea tile, and after 3 more turns rush the second one. I think that would take care of any Morgan attempts at infiltration.

If we plant the base at the mouth of the river, we can farm that tile that the former is on right now for a 3-1-1 tile.

As for Tomcat-2: Yes, but only the rolling/rainy tiles.

I agree with the orders for all of the other formers.
And when Tomcat-3 finishes its road, it can tag-team with Tomcat-2 in building farms on the rolling/rainy tiles.

[Zeiter]

Originally posted by Googlie
SAfter that there'll be time for a concentrated crawler production run (but I saw Olympus SAcademy as being a crawler factory - after the 2 mines are completed (and Ecol Eng) it'll be getting almost 20 mins per turn. That's 2 crawlers every 3 turns

Ah, okay. Well then, maybe we could just have fort buster produce 1 crawler for that min tile, and then go back to building scouts or probes, and let Sparta Command continue building scouts, probes, and formers.

[Googlie]

I'd rather see he scout first, then the crawler. I think that Maniac's right - after Minas Tirith and Rio Grande are founded we'll have to closely monitor drone activity, and the more base garrsions we have the better.

On a second note, if we are leaning towards SCC Hunter exploring the Morgan coastline for the next five to 10 turns, why don't we send SNC Pegasus, after she's dropped the AA off at GH, south through the Yang naval chokepoint to rendezvous with the SCC Invincible and also to pick up R-112 (in the event that Yang doesn't call us and ask us to remove it

(And if we have a spare probeteam unit that could go with Pegasus, then it might present an opportunity tio infiltrate the Gaians, Angels or PKs if we happen across one of their bases en route)

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Zeiter
Now for the terraforming orders...

Hmmm, as for Tomcat-1, I would rather have it move upriver 2 tiles and farm that rolling/rainy/river tile, giving the new base a 3-1-1 instead of a 3-0-1. That is, if we've decided to plant the Rio grande base where the former is right now, instead of at the mouth of the river. That tile that the former is on right now is rolling/rainy, is it not?

Actually, no. It's rolling & moist, crater, river (1-1-1 right now, but developed would give 2 for a farm or 2 for a mine or 2 for a solar collector) It's exactly the same as Fort Buster is right now, giving 2-2-2 as a base

What if we plant the base at the mouth of the Rio Grande, rush an infantry probe team, and then start on another infantry probe team right away, working the 1-2-0 min sea tile, and after 3 more turns rush the second one. I think that would take care of any Morgan attempts at infiltration.

I was proposing to send the probeteam that Fort buster is currently producing to be the psi defender for Rio Grande

If we plant the base at the mouth of the river, we can farm that tile that the former is on right now for a 3-1-1 tile.

- Naw - just gives 2-1-1 (moist, not rainy)

As for Tomcat-2: Yes, but only the rolling/rainy tiles.

Agreed

I agree with the orders for all of the other formers.
And when Tomcat-3 finishes its road, it can tag-team with Tomcat-2 in building farms on the rolling/rainy tiles.

Yup

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
On a second note, if we are leaning towards SCC Hunter exploring the Morgan coastline for the next five to 10 turns, why don't we send SNC Pegasus, after she's dropped the AA off at GH, south through the Yang naval chokepoint to rendezvous with the SCC Invincible and also to pick up R-112 (in the event that Yang doesn't call us and ask us to remove it

Does that mean you want to forget about popping those unity pods in the Buster Ocean with SNC Pegasus, and also forego a Morganite infiltration attempt for now?

[Googlie]

LOL - not really

We've too small a navy. We need more ships

(If you're an old CivII player I feel just like the military advisor pleading for more forces to "go and boink some heads")

It's just that R-112 is essential to any Uni invasion plans and right now it's bumbling about the Hive sub-continent disturbing the goats and the chickens and we can't seem to provoke Yang into demanding its withdrawal

Maybe if we upgraded it to Impact he'd pay more attention, but it isn't really threatening his syntharmored units

(I had a brainwave last night, and thought "what if we agreed to join Yang in vendetta against the Gaians (but told the Gaians that we'd pull out and reset the Treaty immediately), pacted with yang, then broke pact - thereby automatically sending home any units in the erstwhile pactmate's territory.

So I tested it in a fresh 2141 run, but yang accepts our joining him in Vendetta, but then says "Thanks but no thanks, I'm coping OK on my own" to the pacting suggestion.

So that one was a non-starter (that tactic is forbidden by the rules as applies to the "demand withdrawal" from a Human player:

Posted in the Rules
Demanding withdrawal to a human player through the menus rather than by negotiation is prohibited

but does not apply to AI interactions)

[Googlie]

As we'll have Ind Base when we open the next turn, why don't we have Rio Grande start - and rush if we can afford it - a synthfoil (it's the same price as an Invincible class vessel, 20 minerals) and that way we'll have syntharmor prototyped for eventual armoring of our (to be upgraded to impact) rovers

[Maniac]

Perhaps it might be a good idea to leave synthmetal armour unhurried for now. Read this for why. (The beginning is stuff you probably know. To the end it might become more interesting.)

But if we would hurry it, how about a 1-2-2 land unit in Santiago Citadel? Because of the command center, it would be commando and could be immediately upgraded to elite. If we built a ship, it would only be hardened (does the +1 morale for prototypes also count for naval units?).