The Council of War

[wuy3]

Originally posted by Googlie
Here's an idea:

We instabuild the AV in Fort Liberty, but gift the base to Zak that same turn (changing its name to Mir lab - or some other Uni name) then next turn it builds the AV, then immediately (or maybe a turn later, so that we can announce that Zak has completed the AV) we demand the base back from Zak

Only downsides are

• he refuses to give the base back, so we are down a base
• Zak has Neural Grafting by then and decides to change SP from the AV to the NA

This needs testing in the simulator first, but it's crazy enough to maybe just work!!

Good idea actually, but that would def start up another uproar with the rest of the factions whether or not its "by the rules". I'm happy we just didn't chance it since there are more important SP's to go after.

[Googlie]

Looks like it'll be 2177 before we launch the PK invasion. By 2176 we'll be 1 tile outside his base with our taskforce:

Operation Pusillanimous Wimp

[vishniac]

We should now concentrate on finishing those Crypteias, landing the bulk of the Air Force in Arcadia and upgrading the B-4s to B-6s.

Do we have enough ground troops?
We should if we duplicate the 6-day-war,and also are ready to take more than 1 turn to get victory.

[Zeiter]

I'm bringing this thread back up to pose the question of when we want to start getting serious about defense/offense against the other factions. If the Data Angels, for instance, landed an 8-unit invasion force on one of our continents right now, would we be able to stop it? Would we be able to detect it beforehand? I would say that early detection is infinitely better than backs-against-the-wall defense, which means that perhaps we should expand our naval and aerial patrols a bit? And we have to keep in our minds the threat of a drop pod attack against us from the Angels in southern Arcadia.

[vishniac]

I'm sure some will be disappointed but...as soon as we seize Temple of Sol (I hope this turn), we won't be in vendetta anymore.
Gaians, Angels and Morgan: all three agreed to a Treaty.

[Googlie]

In the turn thread I've suggested we wait another turn before capturing Temple - we don't have probe defenders in place yet to guard against an Angels drop/infiltrate move

Builders rejoice!! - we snagged Applied relativity with that northern AA, so now can instabuild the Supercollider - in AU, I suggest - and take on the researchers at their own game

(It'd have been nice to get bio-engineering and try to take the longevity vaccine from under the Gaians noses, but I can't see them starting it and not completing in 1 turn, so that's just a pipedream - they are currently building it)

[vishniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
Builders rejoice!! - we snagged Applied relativity with that northern AA, so now can instabuild the Supercollider - in AU, I suggest - and take on the researchers at their own game

YOOOHOOOOH!! B***** S** of a B****!!!



WONDERFUL!
Yes, of course at AU. The Haze is just a provisional disagreement.
That means successively building The Supercollider, then a H-Forest and a Hospital (in any order) to go full power (and fast if we hope to catch the Hunter Seeker Algorithm before the Angels).

[Snoddasmannen]

Originally posted by vishniac
I'm sure some will be disappointed but...as soon as we seize Temple of Sol (I hope this turn), we won't be in vendetta anymore.
Gaians, Angels and Morgan: all three agreed to a Treaty.

I would hazard to guess that this very sudden signing of treaties means either:

1. They intend on beating us builder-style, so want long-term peace.
2. They are planning a coordinated strike on us, so are only signing treaties to deceive us.

Remember that these factions don't care about their in-game reputation, so they can break treaties as much as they like. But also remember that these factions combined are making more money from these treaties than we are.

So this turn of events could match either option I guess There is also the off chance that they are not at all as coordinated as we believe and have, by chance, all signed treaties with us at the same time.

Ok I'm rambling, and now I'm off for the weekend, have a nice one and be good to Sparta!

[Modo44]

Originally posted by Snoddasmannen [*]They intend on beating us builder-style, so want long-term peace.

Good one. (Making sitting ducks of themselves...)

Originally posted by Snoddasmannen [*]They are planning a coordinated strike on us, so are only signing treaties to deceive us.

Then it is "welcome to the party" for them? Well, let us make it a warm one, shall we?

[vishniac]

It doesn't seem like they're coordinated.

As long as they don't trade the techs (that we already own) between them, they can't hope to beat us. Any secret pact would at least see them on par with us tech-wise.

Secret pact... And why wouldn't Morgan and Gaians openly pact with the Angels? That would send us a very clear message that any of them can't be our next target if we can't take them all at once. Dissuasion. And more money for them to outbuild us.

More: Aren't they still all three at vendetta with Yang? A cleverer thing for them would be a coordinate strike AGAINST YANG to force him to peace. That would let them use their resources to build and probably send Yang against us since, with democracy, we are the ones he'll hate the most.
And if they're unable to strike against Yang, they can't even think about diverting units to strike us...

So, I really think there's nothing ominous behind those treaties. They all seem like jackals waiting for the lion (Yang) to kill us for them and ready to fight thereafter for the corpse.

[Googlie]

Operation Chic

Objective :

• Primary - A surgical strike to remove Enigma Machine from the Angels' control and obliterate the base
• Secondary: extract technologies from the empty base before entering and obliterating it
• Tertiary: infiltrate same turn at Mart Pact base (Disco Volante plus a longstrider, or air interdiction plus Disco Volante into an empty base)

Timeline: No later than MY 2190

Assets:

• Entire Air Force, 6 amphibous ground-assault units, 2 longstriders
• Either a new base, or an airbase, at 6:60 (to bring Enigma Machine into range)

Other Considerations: Need to change to Fundy the turn before in order to gain the Probe bonuses

[Modo44]

Originally posted by Googlie
Can we afford a vendetta against the Angels? A PTS-type raid? (against Enigma Machine - home of both the Virtual World and the Cyborg Factory!!!)

Two questions, though. Are the Angels not "a bit" better defended than Morgan? Will we be able to keep security and defense tight in other areas while readying this operation? The second one worries me.

[vishniac]

Operation Chic?
I would have thought Operation Volkswagen. (like VW = Virtual World )

What I propose is to begin military build-up and prepositioning of forces to be ready to strike, but not to choose any given date.

Let's wait for the perfect opportunity which will come sooner or later (and you guys with your better knowledge of game mechanics should be able to estimate):
SOLAR SPOT ACTIVITY!

The plan:
-- as soon as communications are cut, we upgrade all penetrators to X.
-- we attack and infiltrate MartPact to give us a clear picture of Angel defence. We can make it our forward-area base by instabuilding a Plasma-AAA-CDF, then aerospace complex one turn later. Planes would refuel/repair there after their first run.
-- the turn after, we gas Enigma Machine, probably not to death since that would need as many units there as attacks necessary, but to emptiness at least.
-- we take the base if it still exists (and steal tech) and obliterate it, putting all their bases in drone attacks.
-- following turns, same schema on other massive bases.


Preparations needed:
-- another bio-enhancement center to produce more elite planes. (Has Fort Sup already an Aero-center?)
-- prototype X-penetrators ( and Plasma-AAA-CDF as soon as we get AMA. To upgrade units in frontier bases)
-- cruisers to get Plasma and AAA
-- develop an industrial city in center/south Arcadia to build land units fast. (ARC? Health Autorithy?)

Let's not balk at the cost of giving the rovers and infantry the best weapon possible beforehand. In such a campaign, we can't afford to lose momentum by losing units. Remember the quote about superior training and superior equipement!

An unknown is whether the Angels would have got the HSA, and where they would have built it (and what to do then: Take it and keep it at all cost?)

[Snoddasmannen]

What are the strategic plans for the future?
Do we chill for a bit, beefing up our infrastructure, and then go attack somebody? With the HSA and a large standing army, we should not be content with playing the game towards transcendance. And I don't think we're in a position to take out anybody yet, the Angels have beefed up defenses considerably, now sporting 5 F-6:s.

I suggest we chill for a while, and then attack the Gaians.

We can drop land a colony pod from Kel Harbor to just by that monolith, then we can swarm in with an army of rovers, noodles, fighters and copters. We might want an empath copter or two to fight of enemy mindworms.

We need to move the transports to the South Arcadian ocean in preparation for this strike, and build some more troops. Also a spy-sat to get a map of Chiron would be helpful.

Taking the Gaians seems like a strong strategic move, look at the shape our empire would span, more than half the world in a nice rectangular shape.

What do the rest of you guys think?

EDIT: And I will call this plan: The Rectangle Song

[Modo44]

I think it depends on what the Angels do. If they try to attack, we should make it a priority to trim them some more, before engaging others. Yes, I know it could cost us a few interceptors.

The Gaians do seem like a soft target, and they did not feel our boot too much, so...


[EDIT]

I would like to propose a long-term plan, based on our experience regarding attacks on other factions.

It seems to me we can win this game by conducting a pretty standard oscillating war. We hit enemies (specifically: human-controlled factions) repeatedly, one at a time, never really killing them, just making sure they are weakened by each attack. We make sure never to overstrech our reach by trying to conquer a faction in a few turns. This means continuing fast strikes, the way we succesfully did many times to date.

We can get Yang later, as the AI will never be able to deflect our forces, once we have dealt with the intelligent enemies.