MY 2165 Planning Thread

[Maniac]

Shoot ahead your suggestions!

Oh yeah, in my updated simulation Zakharov called elections just like he did in the real game.
And too in this simulation Yang contacted me for a truce! Who knows, since we're now at war with the Gaians, he'll do that too in the real game? We can always hope.
And now I have a truce with Yang in the simulation, framing Morgan DOES work. So it seems you can only frame another faction if you're not at war with the faction you probe.

[Maniac]

Midturn Battle Report MY 2165

Diplomacy

• We voted for Lal for governor. He won the election.
• The University switched research to Cyberethics.

Economy & Research

• We switched research to Cyberethics as well. Other choices were Centauri Empathy, Advanced Subatomic Theory, Adaptive Doctrine.
• The Citizen's Defence Force founded in Sparta Command.
• B-4 baptized in Olympus Academy.
• Vladivostok completes supply crawler.
• Iaci Base: production set to a CDF (citizen defence force) police unit, so we can send out our hoplite to hunt for the spore launcher (no idea where it is though ).
• Production in Argos and Tegea Harbour switched to CDFs to allow easier upgrading and worm hunting in Arcadia.
• Fort Soup: IH crawler cashed in and switched to Aerospace Complex using the Maniac Manoeuvre.
• GH worker switched from forest (1-2-1) to new river forest (1-2-2), giving us an extra credit.

Navy

• The Disco Volante popped the unity pod and it turned out it was a sonar pod revealing the surrounding waters. They saw yet another unity pod N-NW-NW of their location at that time, so decided to pop that one first before going after the other two more in the east. We got 100 credits. The probe ended its turn right next to a next pod to pop next year.
• SCC Invincible enters the Straits of Sorrow. (Name for the Hive-Gaian narrows, since so many Hivean and Gaian units have been killed here over the past decades?)
• SNC aarvak drops off the fungal gin freight at the eastern tip of our home continent. How do we call that btw?? Peloponnesos or so?

Air Force

• B-6 that destroyed the Hive flagship lands at SC3 and rehomes, freeing its previous home base SC2 from support.
• The B-6 in Gagarin Memorial flies out to bombard Argi Narnia, killing a plasma sentinels, a probe team AND reducing the base's population from 3 to 2. Bad news is the B-6 is rather damaged though: 70% damaged. In risk of destruction in other words if the Corporation self-destruct a missile infantry nearby.

Engineering Corps

• Tile between SC3 and SC4 (52.18) suffers a drought due to overforestation: now arid.
• Mine constructed near Río Grande.
• Forest planted near Gythium Harbour.
• Tomcat-OA2: build road
• Tomcat-OA1: moved a tile SW to build road on the monolith, to make troop upgrades easier
• Tomcat-VV: moved a tile NW to build a road on that monolith - same reason as above

Crawlers

• New VV crawler moved to (63,15) to harvest minerals.
• Fungal gin freight moved to VV, rehomed it and harvests two nuts a tile to the north. Can proceed to work the mine near SC1 next year, and from there on to the new mine near Minas Tirith.

The morale upgrade program

• Moved the commando CDF in FS to the Fort Liberty monolith.However the monolith was silent: apparently it was already upgraded sometime. In any case, replaced the garrison by the last year upgraded elite hoplite on the Liberty monolith.
• Proceed with the MSN hoplite, two MT infantrists, hoplite east of SC4, all to the Olympian monolith.
• Hardened hoplite moves into VV, commando hoplite moves out for an upgrade.
• Hoplite in SC2 upgrades at the Olympian monolith.
• Switch hoplites between FB and SC4.

[Maniac]

Disco Volante's explorations

[Maniac]

Lal has been elected planetary governor.

[Maniac]

Where shall the Pegasus sail with the Jaded Jaguars?
First I was thinking to go pop the two pods on the Gaian east coast, but the Gaians popped them themselves this year... and got an earthquake.

[Maniac]

Possibilities could include hunting for worms on Razorbeak River. Or go south and try to get some worms near the Ruins. Or go after those remaining two unity pods in the south, but as they've popped those two pods in the east, I guess they're planning to pop those in the south as well.

[Maniac]

There's some terrain explored in Labourer's Throng's base radius which was still untouched by the Hive last year. Meaning a unit has passed there.

[Maniac]

Minas Tirith has an elite missile rover, an elite missile infantry, a hardened impact infantry, and a hardened B-4 (20% damaged) as garrison (besides Rolling Thunder II which is repairing). Next year most likely they will face a stack of 4-5 Hive units.

As repairing may not be an option due to that Hive impact artillery outside the gates of Minas Tirith, the B-4 patrols to see what's down south near Labourer's Throng. Destroy that gatling artillery, or rather a rover of that large stack to ease the burden for the Minas Tirithic defences next year?

In the northeastern corner of the screenie you see a commando missile and impact infantry heading for the Olympian monolith. Should the commando Steppenwolfs SE-SE of MT follow them, or rather park in (or near to avoid artillery bombardment?) MT to help out next year?

We have a B-4 operational in Olympus Academy. Fly straigh to SC3 to bomb Terrapeso next year, or first bomb a Hive rover before flying to SC3 (next year then)?

[Maniac]

Some further open questions:

Proceed with stealing the Hive map? Framing Morgan not an option of course.

Once again, not much choice for the operational B-4 in SC3: destroy a scout patrol or a former?

B-4 in Mendelev College: repair or patrol for the Angel probe team?

How about letting SCC GT & Vladimorei repair at Gagarin Memorial, while we let the SCC Njord continue bombarding terraformation in the meantime?

Hurry suggestions:

• Hurry FL production with 2 minerals = 6 credits.
• Partially hurry 2NS formers with 11 credits, so that it'll have 10 mins accumulated next year and wen can hurry it fully.
• MT: hurry missile artillery with 25c.

[Googlie]

Some thoughts on looking at the save - re rushes:

• 6 ec's at Ironholm will have the first 2 rows of that crawler completed next turn, leaving an easy rush again for 1 turn completion
• 13 does the same at Citadel
• to 2 Nuts Strand former (only 6 if we moved the worker from the nut tile to a mineral tile for 1 turn)
• I make it 15 ec's to complete the missile arty unit at MT next turn (or do we suffer a suspension of current minerals' production during an arty attack?)
• to the Fort Liberty crawler completion next turn for 6 ec's

[Googlie]

We can move the elite missile rover out of MT and take out one of that Hive stack (the others will sustain collateral damage), then move the missile infantryman intoi that tile and take out another causing yet more collateral damage to the survivors. Now move that B-4 over them for cover and with its final mp take out another in the stack. Next turn the missile rover and infantryman can take out the remaining 2 before retreating back into base while the B-4 currently in Olympus Academy moves to MT and can provide CAP next turn as well as attacking that lone Hive Impact rover adjacent to the stack

This has the added advantage of blocking any advance towards MT thru the fungus

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Maniac
Where shall the Pegasus sail with the Jaded Jaguars?

Why not let the R-112 heal while sailing to Huddling of the People Bay, and upgrade it to amphimissile status (70 ec's). Then next turn capture that base (the Ogre can land from a ship into the base after R-112 has cleared it)

Then we can gift it to Zak, who is Treatied with Yang (or, on the assumption that Yang calls us up to demand the base be returned, get a truce from him in exchange, and maybe persuade him to side with us against Morgan)

This has another huge advantage - the Ogre gets returned to our nearest base - in thiis case, MT, and can then deploy to use its +2 POLICE status in a needed base

[Googlie]

Our Unity Rover in the Gaian-Hive bottleneck can take out all 3 Gaian units this turn (2 damaged mindworms plus a probe defender, then next turn can hop onto the Heimdall thus clearing the way for the Hive hordes to advance into the Gaian heartland

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Maniac
Some further open questions:

Proceed with stealing the Hive map? Framing Morgan not an option of course.

Yes - and if we get the commando probe upgraded to elite, so much the better

Once again, not much choice for the operational B-4 in SC3: destroy a scout patrol or a former?

Go for the former - it's a tad more expensive for them to build than a scout (and if stacked with a crawler, we take out 2 units!!)

B-4 in Mendelev College: repair or patrol for the Angel probe team?

How long to repair? An alternative is to fly it to Fort Soup, where the aeroplex will be finished next year, and leave it there for a turn to heal completely

How about letting SCC GT & Vladimorei repair at Gagarin Memorial, while we let the SCC Njord continue bombarding terraformation in the meantime?

I concur with that

(And don't forget to send Sparta Command's Hoplite to the monolith for upgrading to Elite status - IIRC it started life as a commando, and I moved it there and stopped "overnight" and kinda forgot about it)

[Modo44]

Great tactical ideas, Googlie.

The Capturing of an interior Hive base should become a Phalanx article - showing why exactly we needed that ex-Gaian choke point cleared.