2144: Pre-planning discussion and build/movement orders

[KrysiasKrusader]

Originally posted by Googlie
I know in all my games, as soon as a cruiser chassis is available I obsolete all my foils (same cost under Fusion, but prolly a differential under Fission)

Yeah, there is. Like a few more rows.

In fact, we should shock the others by playing it in an hour or so. Give the impression that we know exactly what we're doing, are on track, and no messin' around.

Fine by me.

[Maniac]

Do we have the possibility to contact Lal and sell him EcoEng for 25c?

[Googlie]

On the theory that Zak will imminently be saying to lal "It is my pleasure ...."?

I have the turn open - I'll see what Lal says (if he'll answer our commlink) - we don't want a tech instead? (He has Biogenetics and Social Psych that we lack)

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
On the theory that Zak will imminently be saying to lal "It is my pleasure ...."?

Indeed.

I have the turn open - I'll see what Lal says (if he'll answer our commlink) - we don't want a tech instead? (He has Biogenetics and Social Psych that we lack)

Ah yes, forgot about that! In that case a tech would be preferable of course! One probe less we run the risk of losing.

[Googlie]

Lal has politely declined to speak to us

[Googlie]

Non contentious moves made in 2144:

• Longstrider probe at GH leapt onto Pegasus which moved 3 tiles due west
• Hunter moved southeast 1 tile into the fungus then south 1 tile. Red Fungus Resort now size 3
• Invincible moved SE x 4 down coastline to easternmost promontory
• R-112 still boxed in - will try next turn to move adjacent to new base Society Grid - that may trigger a "withdraw" request
• Hermes moved northeast and east, exposing more of Zak's coastline (but no base radii - will retrace to Vladivostok over these next few turns)
• Tomcat-2 moved to 60:18 and commenced tree planting exercises
• Tomcat-3 moves onto rolling & rainy tile by SC and commences a farm in that SC/SC2/GH triangle
• RG's new former (Tomcat-9?) moved between RG and FB and commenced mining operations
• Vladivostok's longstrider moving towards our western coast for rendezvous with the Pegasus. Stopped overnight outside Santiago Citadel and is chatting to Tomcat-2.s crew
• Tomcat-6 moved thru Vladivostok to 1 tile north, enroute (next turn) to mine the mineral special NE of Vladivostok
• Spartan Kel repositioned to Sparta Command
• Minas Tirith former moved onto mineral special tile - will build road/mine/farm for a 2-4-0 supply
• Rushed the former at Vladivostok (my mistake last time - only 4 mins needed - 10 ec's - I forgot the base's contribution to the building!!

(Also, Yang has founded a new base south of MT - see map below)

[Googlie]

Should I ask for 25 ec's - or try for Polysoft? (pity Doc Loyalty didn't come up as onr that I could have asked for instead)

[Googlie]

IIRC, if I ask for Polysoft, and he refuses, he'll ask "any other business" rather than hanging up (as he answered my call by requesting the tech) So I could still ask for 25 ec's at that point.

My instincts say go for the tech (more trade bait, and a probe saved for bigger and better things)

[Googlie]

Asked for Polysoft - he wouldn't, but got the "Any other business"

Asked for ec's - give tech in return - wants gene Splicing for 25 ec's, offered Ind Auto - he accepted (now he might build hab complexes and keep ahead of Morgan in the pop charts)

Then he hung up. Next turn we might get 25 for GS from him (Gaians still embargoed, but fat chance he'd talk to them)

[Googlie]

Hmm - interesting.

The AI put our new worker at Fort Buster on the 2-1-1 tile that Tomcat-1 is working, and that 1 energy was enough to advance Doc Init by a year.

ETA now is 2148!!

[Googlie]

Some more thoughts as i look at the open turn:

Zak has no probe teams, so Vladivostok is pretty safe for the time being from infiltration

For Hermes to return to Vladivostok, pick up the probe, and make contact with the uni coastline southwest of university base would take 6 turns, so our next stolen tech from Zak would be in 7 turns, 2151

If I send that longstrider to our coast west of Sector Craterwest, he'll be there in 3 turns, and so could the Pegasus (in that seafungus tile in our most westerly bay)

2 turns later we've infiltrated Morgan (attack his probe with our Veteran who'd hoof overland from Vladivostok, and infiltrate with the Disciplined that's currently in Pegasus)

I'd say it's a go. I've sent the Longstrider on his way. Currently he's disrupting the crew of Tomcat-2 just outside Citadel.

[Googlie]

Here's the midturn with some of the formers' moves completed and the naval units (except for Hermes - if we go with my suggestion of sending longstrider to Morganland, then maybe hermes could explore some of the Uni coastline, and that way I'll get the infiltration jigsaw map completed)

[Maniac]

The veteran probe team plan sounds good. One question, would we already have researched DocIni by the time we can infiltrate Morgan? I was thinking that after we research DocIni and we notice our research cost rises dramatically, we could perhaps say "to hell with it" (=research) and lower our labs spending back to 30%, and change our SE politics to Fundamentalist. That would:
a) Significantly increase our chances to infiltrate Morgan on our first try - that veteran probe would become elite, no?
b) give us a morale boost, which is useful for the UoP invasion. It'll change Shinsengumi from commando to elite, and if we decide to build more units in SC2, they'll start as commando, immediately monolith-upgradable to elite.

[Kassiopeia]

Oooooh. Fundie. We could abandon tech entirely for a while, build up on what we have and just probe away what we need. I do like the sound of it And anything to make Shinsengumi the elite it is

Fundie-Planned-Power ?

[Googlie]

Answer re Doc int - yes, we'll now have that in 2148 (4 turns)

Pegasus will pick Longstrider up in 2147, and will be ready to pounce at Vander Eudaimonics in 2149, so changing in 2148, right after we get Doc Init, would do the trick.

Question (and I''ll scenario test it if no-one knows for sure):

When a probe meets a probe defender on the second movem,ent point, and is successful at killing it, does it then get the array of covert ops choices that same move, or does it sit outside the base for a whole turn?

(If the latter, then Morgan will see our probe right outside his door and will know his defender probe got gobsmacked by us.)

Not good

G.