2154: Pre-planning discussion and build/movement orders

[Kassiopeia]

NINETY-ONE?!

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Maniac
three elite hoplites & scout patrol could move out of VV to the eastern tip and board the SNC Mercury, waiting in (70.10). That way the transport will be back sooner in Arcadia University.

That'd leave Vlad with no garrison - RT2 won't get there for a couple of more turns

After capturing Otkrietia-Discovery we can rehome some troops.

Also, when the TwoNuts Base is founded we can home the Hermes to it as well as MT's travelling Hoplite. How about another Enterprise class cruiser next for MT? Or a crawler (the base will be producing 4 mins after the rehoming of the travelling Hoplite, so it'd have a crawler in 5 turns from founding, in time to work the mine being constructed)

I certainly agree that an Enterprise class cruiser would be good for Messena to start

We could:

Hurry Fort Buster crawler for 15 credits, if the base produces 15 mins after harvesting the rocky minerals mine.

Hurry SC1 Crypteia production with 1 mineral = 6 credits. Next year it will then have 10 minerals accumulated and it could be hurried further at a lower cost. This to speed up probe protection in Vladivostok.

Hurry OA crawler with 3 credits.

We’re swimming in credits. And due to the materials pod we now need less to upgrade crawlers and invest in the Citizen’s Defence Force. So if we wanted we could also hurry production in for example Argos, SC2 or SC3. Or do we want to save for future unit upgrades?

See my post in the Morgan covert ops thread - we may need some ec's to buy ClimRes from Zak - if he can be bullied into parting with (or selling) that as well as "giving us" MonStat

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Googlie
Or a crawler (Minas Tirith will be producing 4 mins after the rehoming of the travelling Hoplite, so it'd have a crawler in 5 turns from founding, in time to work the mine being constructed)

Or another speeder trance syntharmor crawler.

I just looked at the endturn and the Invincible is poised to pop another pod south of Gaialand

[Modo44]

Spartan Planet rating

Originally posted by Googlie
Yes - we'd move to a +1 Planet rating

That sounds very good. Even a few captred Worms would do great things to our cashflow.

[EDIT: I repeat the question: Is it allowed to farm the Fungus, and Worms, for cash? ]

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
That'd leave Vlad with no garrison - RT2 won't get there for a couple of more turns

Ah yes sorry. I meant the artifact and the three elite units.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
Ah - that's from the simulator, which I haven't updated re the research rate for a couple of turns.

The actual situation is worse!!

Hmm, if I set labs production to 30%, I get one tech every 59 years. Are labs still at 20%?

Originally posted by Modo44
That sounds very good. Even a few captred Worms would do great things to our cashflow.

[EDIT: I repeat the question: Is it allowed to farm the Fungus, and Worms, for cash? ]

It is always possible to farm the fungus for worms, and kill them for cash.

With a positive Planet rating we can capture some worms. This doesn't give cash however.


Btw, should a majority be in favour of first settling near the Hive border after all, we could build a colony pod in Arcadia University and send that to the Manifold with a transport.

[Modo44]

Originally posted by Maniac
With a positive Planet rating we can capture some worms. This doesn't give cash however.

Oh, but it does, big time. I've done it in a few games, and it worked wonders. You see, normal units have very little movement on the Fungus, and they need to be built. It's costly, and slow, to get them farming for credits. A Worm has 3 movement points on Fungus, and you can get it for free, once your Planet rating is +1 or higher. You don't need to build it, and it has 3 times the chance to spawn another Worm, than a non-Elite unit. Once you get 2-3 Worms started, just keep them moving on Fungus, whenever they are healthy, and attack anything they find. As long as your Planet rating stays high, this is a cash perpetum mobile. Once you have too many Worms, just send them to war. The only thing I'm not certain about is the upkeep - we'd have too look into this. This is really, really powerful, that's why I asked if it isn't considered an exploit (the AI doesn't do it). Can add tens, then hundreds of credits per turn.

[Googlie]

Re: worms - the only thing trhat's forbidden by the rules is the fungus waypoint setting that generates a mindworm automatically at every waypoint stop. I don't know how many worms would be Independent and how many would be homed to Clim Res, but NE Arcadia as well as the Fungal Wall should be prime hunting grounds

Re: a colony pod from AU - I agree. It'd solve our hunger problem there as well. I say go for that immediately after Enterprise is launcheed, and keep the TwoNuts site as the Hermes focus this trip.

[Snoddasmannen]

Originally posted by Maniac
Btw, should a majority be in favour of first settling near the Hive border after all, we could build a colony pod in Arcadia University and send that to the Manifold with a transport.

I think it would be nice to get that +1 Planet asap, how much time would it take to build a cp, and which transport would we use?

Do we know if Lal or even Zak has any colony pods rumbling around which might steal that territory from us?

I really like the sound of that worm cash generator I've used that method myself from time to time, but mostly as a means to get an army of worms, never really thought of the cash it generated!

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Snoddasmannen
Do we know if Lal or even Zak has any colony pods rumbling around which might steal that territory from us?

see my opening post in this thread

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Googlie


see my opening post in this thread

And Lal has 2 pods, homed to the circled bases below, with the "X" marking our proposed base site

[Googlie]

WOW - and Lal is nothing if not aggressive re Zak.

His UN Temple of Sol pod is on route to 5:21 (just NW of the Sunny Mesa where Mendelev College is) while his High Commission pod is en-route to 87:7 - the northernmost tip of Arcadia (actually, just on the south shore of that little bay there)

(I didn't realize that with a pactmate you got route information)

So there is no downside to waiting until AU has completed a colony pod to send to the Nexus

[Snoddasmannen]

Originally posted by Googlie
So there is no downside to waiting until AU has completed a colony pod to send to the Nexus

I agree, that seems like a good bet to me Assuming we have transport available for it.

[Modo44]

In that case we can go and stop Yang's expansion first.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Modo44
Oh, but it does, big time.

The only thing I'm not certain about is the upkeep - we'd have too look into this.

A nice feature about native life is that they don't cost any upkeep when they're on fungal tiles.

Originally posted by Snoddasmannen
I think it would be nice to get that +1 Planet asap, how much time would it take to build a cp, and which transport would we use?

With some hurrying over the next two years the CP could be ready MY 2156. (hurry 25c MY '54 and some 30c MY '55 I estimate)

Regarding what transports to use, AFAIK we don't have a plan regarding what to do with SNC Mercury and SNC Hermes after their current mission is fulfilled. So we can pick the transport we want I think. In fact, we'll have to invent something soon for the other transport to do.