MY 2158 Planning Thread

[Googlie]

And what to do with the Podpopped trannie?

Move to the coast and take the speeder crawler up to a likely SP basesite? (option 1)

or

Go to TH amd load that colony pod and take it south to found a base in central Arcadia (option 2)

[Snoddasmannen]

Wow, some tough decisions this turn, great screenies

First of all, consider the purpose of that morgan foil. It's probably patrolling their west coast, just in case we do something dirty. If they figure us out, we'll find so many more bad-guys on the shore. Hiding in the fungus, the foil won't come looking for us, since they don't want to stir up any IoD:s. However, they are very likely to go bombing the fungus with the foil, and so spot us.

If they spot the Tacticus by bombing, we'll be busted, cos they'll know we have been sneaking around, but if we sink their little rubber-duck aggressively, Kassi can always come up with an excuse for it, right Kassi? So yeah, I'd say attack.

Disco Volante, go for Angel infiltration, I'd say. We need to verify their story about researching Int:Int

Also, probing that Hive unit seems like a fun idea, try it.

How are the Morgan defenses looking?

[Modo44]

Yup, we need to kill the Morgan ship. We can say "AHA, so you are planning an invasion!". Or I could post a flat "We removed one of your units in violation of the Modo Doctrine". The second option makes us look a bit more paranoid, but a bit less like we're preparing for invasion... Although, technically, it is wrong (it's 9 tiles from our closes base, if I count correctly).

Infiltrate the Angels. I agree we need to know what they are up to, especially after they have met Morgan.

AS to the Trannie, I'd send it to move the Colony Pod. But, can the Crawled defend itself if left alone, or would it be destroyed, if the Hive finds it?

[Googlie]

Some early morning (Pacific west coast) thoughts:

Re the Morgan foil: "We are sorry to have destroyed your Laser Skimship, but our Pactmate, Academician Zakharov, felt threatened by it and asked for its removal"

Re the podpopped trannie: we'll (briefly) be in possession of the PTS 2 or 3 turns from now, and as such want to found new bases while it is in our possession - the trannie'd be nowhere (only 4 mps) when that happened so we'd waste the oportunity. Better the colony pod moves into the vacant territory between Fort Soup and AU

re the 2 podpops: I agree that we should try for a unit completion (missile) so that we save using a crawler for prototyping - we can always do the latter if the podpop yields something other than that.. Maybe a speeder unit at 2Nuts and a naval one at Messena?

We've dropped off a Crypteia at Climatic research. How about the longstrider currently there moving down to the Uni's other base to do covert ops guard duty there?

Do we want the cruiser at Minas Tirith to bombard fungus again to see if there are any other Hive troops nearby other than that one unit we see?

If we aren't successful in popping a missile unit completion, do we build one at Fort Soup - and postpone the crawler there for another turn - or do we do it at Academy and use the new crawler to rush it?

re the mindcontrol of the Hive Impact unit - I tried with the sim, but a probe on board a trannie can't subvert units on land (without amphibious capability, which can't be given to a probe)

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Googlie
or do we do it at Academy and use the new crawler to rush it?

Hmm - we don't need to use the crawler - we can prototype a missile infantry unit in 1 turn there, with the crawler working the Mine and the worker reasigned to the less productive mine

Maybe we do that anyway, and try for something else at the 2 podpopping bases (supercrawlers again, maybe, for the SP instabuilds)

[Googlie]

Hmm - the more I look at the map, and especially those 3 Hive bases, the more I like the thought of having a missile speeder at 2Nuts, so I think we should put one in production before the Invincible pops that Gaian pod (and leave it in production if unsuccessful, as there's another pod to be popped there next turn also)

[Modo44]

I agree we should up the defenses on the Yang border. And keep bombing the fungus, while the cruiser is around.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Snoddasmannen
How are the Morgan defenses looking?

see here

[Maniac]

Looks like an exciting turn.

Regarding what tiles to bomb, I'd suggest the following plan to make sure a Hive unit doesn't get unnoticed near Minas Tirith. For that, we need to check out the two fungal tiles SW and S of MT.

The fungal tile directly south of MT can be bombarded by the Coastal Guard.

As for checking out the tile SW of MT, I'd build further on Googlie's suggestion: move the new transport cruiser into MT. Load up a probe team. Move the cruiser one tile west to the current CoastGuard position. Now unload the probe team on the fungal tile SW of MT, and NE of the Hive unit.

Unloading from a transport always only costs one movement point, regardless of what's the target tile. So while if a probe team tried moving directly to a fungal tile, it would be unable to move or have lost all its MPs already after the move. While with the suggestion above, the probe team in question would have one MP left to either mind control the Hive unit, or move back to the transport or Minas Tirith.

[Googlie]

Turn moves to date (will resume in a few hours after giolf and hopefully after a few more junta members have checked in):

• Moved road-pillaging scout back into Tegea Harbour, thus quelling incipient drone riots there
• Moved Mercury into Climatic Resources bay and loaded Task force, anchoring for the night in the fungus 4 tiles east of CR - next to a Morgan skimship. Awaiting concensus whether to destroy it with the GeneralTacticus, or just hide there
• Moved Pegasus adjacent to R-112 - awaiting concensus whether to destroy Hive probe team pre-boarding, or just to slip quietly away
• Disco Volante moved 9 tiles south of 2Nuts, readying for rounding PK's Temple Cape en-route to Angels' Heaven
• OA's crawler now works the minerals mine to the north, and the worker has been reassigned to the regular mine

Suggested builds

• Syntharmored missile amphibious speeders
  at 2Nuts and Messena prior to podpopping
• crawler at Fort Soup for food crawling - or to release a worker for same
• Missile infantryman at Olympus Academy (if the podpos fail)

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Maniac

As for checking out the tile SW of MT, I'd build further on Googlie's suggestion: move the new transport cruiser into MT. Load up a probe team. Move the cruiser one tile west to the current CoastGuard position. Now unload the probe team on the fungal tile SW of MT, and NE of the Hive unit.

Brilliant suggestion - and worked like a charm (see screenie)

The fungal tile directly south of MT can be bombarded by the Coastal Guard.

(But wouldn't the unloaded probe team see any units there just as it sees them directly south? Shouldn't the cruiser bombard the tile to the south of that first lone Hive unit?)

[Zeiter]

I suggest we park the SCC General Tacticus right over the transport. If we kill the laser foil, we'll have no good excuse for it (can't use the Modo Doctrine), and they will highly suspect an invasion. If we park the SCC GT over the transport, neither of them can be destroyed. If they try the long range fire, their ship will be destroyed, and they will only know that we have a destroyer about, not a transport too. In addition, the strict numerial chances of them trying to enter that square are 1/8, and considering that it's fungus, even lower.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Zeiter
If we park the SCC GT over the transport, neither of them can be destroyed. If they try the long range fire, their ship will be destroyed, and they will only know that we have a destroyer about, not a transport too.

Hmm - I'd like to test this first with the simulator.

Last time we looked at it, I thought that a laser synthmetal defeated an unarmored impact in an arty exchange

I'd hate for us to lose that element of surprise in the PTS Raid, and the surest way of retaining it is for us to kill the laser skimship

[Zeiter]

But I think that the very reason that the Morganites built the cheap laser foil was to see if there was an invasion coming, in which case we would hastily remove it. They can't have built it as a challenge to our navy (it's only 2-2-4 and it's very green) and they can't have expected it to do a very good job of patrolling (it only has 4 moves vs. our 7). I think, then, that they are using the laser foil as a kamikaze proximity mine, as they probably guessed that we would destroy anything that we came across during the voyage to their mainland, which would alert them to any invasions, especially if their ship is outside of the Modo-zone, and thus excused from the Modo rationale of destroying it.

[Maniac]

Some comments & suggestions:

If we wanted to steal Superconductor and the Hive map, we could load both probe teams on the transport cruiser near MT and send it towards Great Collective. Drawback is of course we can't use a probe team anymore to check for Hive units for two turns.

We've got a limited cash reserve, but how about hurrying SC1 for 2 credits, and Fort Soup 3 credits?

The synthmetal sentinels of Tegea Harbour has disappeared (causing a drone riot on top of it ). Caused by the University scrapping their unit design I guess?? - weird bug

Since there are no Hive units near the MT supercrawler, it could harvest the mine a turn longer.

Originally posted by Modo44
As to subverting the Hive unit, I'm not sure yet.

Having checked the mindcontrol cost, I'd advise against it: the cost (80+c IIRC) is higher than our current credit reserves.
Also, since we now know there are two other Hive units the tile right next to it, the unit and the probe team would most likely be toast anyway.

As to builds... How about many Missile Rovers?

A missile rover costs IIRC 5 min rows (6 with amphibious ability). A missile infantry 2 rows (3 amphib). After paying a visit to a monolith, all our combat units can become elite. This means that a rover has 3 attacks, and an infantry unit two attacks. So for the cost of one rover and three attacks we could build two-and-a-half infantry and get five attacks (or four when comparing amphibie troops). Even when you count with the combat units only being able to attack with their second MP, the advantage still lies with the infantrists. More bang for our bucks in other words. May I therefore suggest a focus on infantry instead?

In case you agree, should we mostly build missile infantries (2 rows) or missile marines (3 rows) though? Advantage of marines is that they can attack directly from ship, and thus don't need to waste their first MP to land next to a base. This also means our troops would be safe from counterattack. This (being safe from counterattack) wasn't really an issue while the Morganites' best weapon was laser. A mere 1-2t-2 would have sufficed as defence. But now they have acquired Gatling Lasers, attacking safe from on our transports seems best IMHO. So therefore I'd personally have a slight preference for marines despite being more expensive.

Originally posted by Googlie
And what to do with the Podpopped trannie?

Personally I'd prefer option 1: pick up the supercrawler. As you say, we couldn't transport the FS CP to another location before MY 2160.

Originally posted by Modo44
The second option makes us look a bit more paranoid, but a bit less like we're preparing for invasion... Although, technically, it is wrong (it's 9 tiles from our closes base, if I count correctly).

Well... their ship is within eight tiles of a University base. And since the University is our submissive pactmate and thus has carried over part of their sovereignity to us, it's only logical the Modo Doctrine also extends to UoP bases. Right? Especially since the Corporation recently declared war on the University while "mysteriously" acquiring lots of techs that turn, it seems only normal we defend those poor Arcadians against Morganite agression.

We've dropped off a Crypteia at Climatic research. How about the longstrider currently there moving down to the Uni's other base to do covert ops guard duty there?

And the Crypteia ready in Fort Liberty could perhaps join with the UoP CP about to found a base on the east coast.(?)

Originally posted by Googlie
(But wouldn't the unloaded probe team see any units there just as it sees them directly south? Shouldn't the cruiser bombard the tile to the south of that first lone Hive unit?)

Good point. Btw, is it normal a unit gets to see all the units hiding in the fungus around it? Or is this because the unit in question is a probe, or is within a base radius or something?

Something else, does a sensor array always show any unit, even those hiding in the fungus? As I rarely have to deal with AI units near my bases, I don't know this.

Originally posted by Googlie
Last time we looked at it, I thought that a laser synthmetal defeated an unarmored impact in an arty exchange

Both our and their ship is laser and synthmetal. Since we Spartans have higher morale, we'd most likely win any fight.


But anyway, you both have good arguments, so I'll leave it you to fight it out.