MY-2178 Planning & Execution Thread

[Googlie]

We'll finish our objective of capturing all but 2 of the PK bases.

Suggested battle orders:

• The Steppenwolf at PA will move to garrison UN HQ, thus freeing the Janissary there.
• The veteran B-6 at High Commission will bomb UN Aid Station, taking out either the Elite Missile Squad (or severly damaging it) or the Scout rover there
• the Njord will shell the surviving unit
• the Janissary will proceed down the road to take out the remaining defender there
• the Skanky Sileni will then proceed to occupy the base
• One of the veteran B-4's now in Iaci will bomb the new green plasma defender being commissioned in High Commission, taking him out
• Our scout rover in Planning Authority will then move to occupy the base

High Commission will drop to 1 population when the bombing raid takes place, and will be obliterated when the rover enters the base. Do we want to leave it at 2 pop and try to take it in a couple of more turns when we have brought more mobile missile units into the area, and use the B-4's to mop up those roving PK Scout rovers? (He still has 13 and we can account for 6 of them that we can see)

[Zeiter]

I have a couple of suggestions regarding the above list:
*Why not have Njord shell the base defenders before you kill the elite missile squad? You never know, it might help.
*Why not use the B-6 to take out the plasma defender in High Commission and use the B-4 to take out the scout rover or elite missile squad (I'm assuming it's a 6-1-1? If it's a 6-3-1, then the plan you described above would be best for it).

[Googlie]

it's an elite 6-3-1 (maybe we think of mind-controlling the base, rather than expending units in trying to capture it - that way, too, it preserves its population)

And with the benefit of hindsight, I could have added trance at no cost to the four CFD's in production in he captured bases. I forgot that we had neural grafting

[vishniac]

Seems the Junta is running its skeleton crew during these holidays.

-- To answer a question posted elsewhere, I'd say we let the second base be obliterated when we take it. The goal is to end the hostilities ASAP and that base is not worth keeping on fighting. We'll found another one on the mineral bonus tile when we'll have the opportunity.

-- I didn't look at the tactical moves so I just can say: plan the moves so as to be able to attack southwards if Lal doesn't surrender after the 2 bases loss. That would mean first playing the 2 bases taking at the opening of the game, and then re-assessing and playing everything else.

-- The AAs should be sent to the nearest node. The one at Vladfivostok to Rio Grande (6 turns travel I think) and the one at UNPA to...Tegea H. or Argos (must check!). Of couzrse, it depends on availability of naval transport (could be needed to invade Lal's southern cities if too many rovers block the roads).
Whatever, I think we won't cash the AAs until the turn we get AMA. That would mean about 10 turns, except if the Angels seem quicker than us.

+++ With the Angels researching AMA and thus on a race with us, I propose we declare reaching and building the Hunter-Seeker Algorythm and The Supercollider our next strategic goal (of course, in case the opportunity arise for the Longevity Vaccine...It's also worth it ). I don't have the tech tree her now but I think these are the last SPs to get for a long time in this part of the game.
The HSA would virtually protect us against Morgan: they've got no penetrator and their cities are sorely limited. I didn't remember if basic Angels probes can penetrate the HSA or if they must also wait for future tech (encryption).
The Supercollider at AU would put us on the tech lead to Fusion and Spaceflight (and beyond).

-- AU builds a crawler this turn. It makes 3 in the vicinity. MMing Tree Farm this turn? (Yes, yes...)
-- Fort Sup: I don't know when we'll get ready for H-Forest but the sooner the better.
-- Do we then focalise on rushing crawlers on Arcadia to boost already network-equipped bases?

[Googlie]

re the AA's:

The node at Rio Grande has already been linked, as has the one at Tegea Harbour

We have only one unused node - at Arcadia University. I suggest we load the AA at Vlad onto the slow transport anchored there, and send it to AU for processing.

The one captured at PA will need us to build a NN somewhere for its cashing in (I thought that perhaps we could cash it in at a Uni base, then get the tech from Zak, but in the simulation I couldn't do that, so that option disappeared)

[Modo44]

Network Node in Fort Superiority?

[Googlie]

Originally posted by vishniac
Seems the Junta is running its skeleton crew during these holidays.

Well, I'm not sure about Maniac. Over at the multiplayer threads at Civgaming he's alluded to "disengaging" from the ACDG - it seems that I've been disturbing him by playing the turn as soon as it's been posted, without waiting for input (I thought that I was just following prior suggestions)

If he truly has departed, we'll sorely miss him

-- To answer a question posted elsewhere, I'd say we let the second base be obliterated when we take it. The goal is to end the hostilities ASAP and that base is not worth keeping on fighting. We'll found another one on the mineral bonus tile when we'll have the opportunity.

I think that there's a way to procure it by land attack, rather than from the air. It would mean waiting a turn or two to heal those units outside PA, as they'd be needed for police garrison duty if we send the mobile forces eastwards

-- I didn't look at the tactical moves so I just can say: plan the moves so as to be able to attack southwards if Lal doesn't surrender after the 2 bases loss. That would mean first playing the 2 bases taking at the opening of the game, and then re-assessing and playing everything else.

I'm pretty certain that Lal will capitulate after we take the next base (maybe even when we open the turn, if he has lost units to non-support). He'll be down to just 2 bases after we take the two outstanding ones.

And btw, what do you make of Chaos Theory's cryptic comment in the press release post? Maybe the Gaians did take out Pillar of Rights after all (bombed from the air, maybe?)

-- The AAs should be sent to the nearest node. The one at Vladfivostok to Rio Grande (6 turns travel I think) and the one at UNPA to...Tegea H. or Argos (must check!). Of couzrse, it depends on availability of naval transport (could be needed to invade Lal's southern cities if too many rovers block the roads).

Whatever, I think we won't cash the AAs until the turn we get AMA. That would mean about 10 turns, except if the Angels seem quicker than us.

See my earlier post re the AA's And why not deploy asap - we might get AMA thus allowing us to switch to another tech anyway (as well as getting the Uni to switch as well)

+++ With the Angels researching AMA and thus on a race with us, I propose we declare reaching and building the Hunter-Seeker Algorythm and The Supercollider our next strategic goal (of course, in case the opportunity arise for the Longevity Vaccine...It's also worth it ). I don't have the tech tree her now but I think these are the last SPs to get for a long time in this part of the game.

The HSA would virtually protect us against Morgan: they've got no penetrator and their cities are sorely limited. I didn't remember if basic Angels probes can penetrate the HSA or if they must also wait for future tech (encryption).

The Angels get reduced probe costs as their starting bonus, but get free covert ops centers on researching PSA. They need the Nanominiaturization tech to get the Algorithmic Enhancement capability

The Supercollider at AU would put us on the tech lead to Fusion and Spaceflight (and beyond).

-- AU builds a crawler this turn. It makes 3 in the vicinity. MMing Tree Farm this turn? (Yes, yes...)

We can raise 90 minerals (out of 120) by MM'ing the 3 crawlers, and AU produces 15 on its own (we'll use the FS and FL nut crawlers, and leave the AU mineral crawler on the mine) so that an additional 30 credits will build the TF in 1 turn (or if we use its mineral crawler, and put its librarian on the mine, the psych from the tree farm will quell the drone and we can then use the FS nut crawler for an FS TF - see below)

-- Fort Sup: I don't know when we'll get ready for H-Forest but the sooner the better.

We can also build a TF at FS this turn using the FS mineral and its nut crawler, as well as taking the Ironholm crawler off the 5 mineral mine and moving its 2/1/1 worker onto the mine - giving 2/5/0. Ironholm would drop from its current nuts/mins/energy of 0/7/3 to 0/6/3, but wouldn't lose any lab points, and the crawler building (in 3 turns) would still complete in 3. So that's a bit of a no-brainer)

Fort Soup would thus need 3 crawlers and 12 credits to complete the TF in 1 turn

So I say we go for it in both bases

-- Do we then focalise on rushing crawlers on Arcadia to boost already network-equipped bases?

I suggest so - in fact, that we churn out crawlers from both AU and FS, and maybe target Fort Liberty for growth as a by-product (condensor farm, monolith, river forest tiles, and fungus river tiles to clear and develop)

As regards other supercities, Santiago citadel is an obvious one, as well as UN HQ, with maybe Gythium harbour as the fifth (and HQ of our naval command?)

When you talked of five, which five did you have in mind?

Edit: I like the suggestion of an NN at FS - we can send the AA north one of the 2 cruiser trannies at PA

[Zeiter]

I was also wondering what chaostheory meant by his comment in the Spartan news release thread. That could be the explanation. Although, would a Gaian penetrator be able to reach that base?

Here's a long-term plan that I'll throw out here: when we get all of the superbases to size 14 or whatever that we are going to get to size 14 in the near future, we can switch to Police State, churn out police garrisons, ally with Yang, and outproduce our enemies into the ground. We've toyed around with this idea before, but I think it would be a particularly potent option now that we have the PDL and creches (so we don't have to fret over running -4 EFFIC) and we have huge bases which could use the police support. And then we can switch to power, letting us support as many as 14 UNITS AT ONE BASE!!!! And giving us instant elites.

[Modo44]

Originally posted by Zeiter
Here's a long-term plan that I'll throw out here: when we get all of the superbases to size 14 or whatever that we are going to get to size 14 in the near future, we can switch to Police State, churn out police garrisons, ally with Yang, and outproduce our enemies into the ground. We've toyed around with this idea before, but I think it would be a particularly potent option now that we have the PDL and creches (so we don't have to fret over running -4 EFFIC) and we have huge bases which could use the police support. And then we can switch to power, letting us support as many as 14 UNITS AT ONE BASE!!!! And giving us instant elites.

Sounds very nice. And by "nice" I mean very much like a win. Considering that we should have Chaos weapons at our disposal at that time. Would Green economy be possible as an addition (to counter even more of the efficiency problems) or are we too far from it in the tech tree?

[vishniac]

First... the Ministry of Infrastructure reminds you that Fort Superiority already has got a Tree Farm and a Network Node!

So:
-- Fort Sup now only needs a Hybrid Forest to become a superbase! Ok, I know it's expensive, but there is that Fungal Gin Freight in the neighborhood, and when the H-F will be build, FS won't need any crawler anymore for food or minerals (right pop-boom to size 14, food surplus enabling librarians, and 36 minerals/turn, + a lot of energy/lab, + 50% economy! ) The sooner the better!

-- That said, I didn't know a NN linked to an AA can't link another one. Is that sure? So what about the NN at Fort Sup, already used?

-- In case we have to build a NN, I then propose Vladivostok or Santiago Citadel. (Prevent us a hazardous cruise).

-- The 5 bases would be (according to Maniac, I believe): AU, FS, Santiago Citadel, Vladivostok and Fort Buster.
I'm wondering about the last one: bases in Laconia are too close to get really big and productive without massive terraforming (forest) and investment. Even Vlad and SC should see formers come to the rescue.
Fort Liberty is a good choice but, for the moment, keeping on developping AU is more efficient ( and, if we declare a state of scientific emergency, a Research Hospital in FS would kick ass).
After that, Fort Liberty, Santiago Citadel, UN HQ and Gythium Harbor seem like obvious choice indeed (but need former action).

-- I talked about 'cashing' the AAs after we get AMA so we don't 'lose' lab points already spent if one of the two gives us AMA. Better wait and get the full tech price!

-- We have the prerequesites for Centaury Empathy (and Green economy) but the HSA and the Supercollider seem to me more powerful yet (but an AA could give it to us). Also to note, in case we change to Green, that a possible Longevity Vaccine would then quell only one drone/base (must be discussed then before!)

-- I had to remind you that formers not committed to roads or sensors should build forests and mines( to avoid the Messena Syndrome!) [yes, I LOVE to invent crazy names! ].
Logic behind: seems better to MM a Tree Farm in city surrounded by forest, than build farms/condensors, then MM a TF, then reverse terraforming to forests.
Of course, on isolated places, independant developpement can take place otherwise. But you get the idea (though I must say we lack formers to fully put it in action).

-- About the Zeiter Plan: it's clear that we could soon prepare to win by conquest and we are on the good path.

[Modo44]

Originally posted by vishniac
-- That said, I didn't know a NN linked to an AA can't link another one. Is that sure?

It is.

[Googlie]

The one exception being the NN at a base that has built the Universal Translator - no limit there to the # AA's that can be linked

[Googlie]

Turn's up!!

I'll open it without moving anything and report the status

[Googlie]

Well - it seems that the minerals deficit really hit the PK's - here's a screenie of their nexus in 2177 at the end of our attack and the beginning of 2178. they have had disbanded 2 colony pods, 2 scouts, 6 rovers, 1 former and their sole penetrator

Good news!!

bad news: the angels have now got AMA in addition to MMI, that we don't have (currently researching "none" so they must have got it from a podpop, as no-one else has it)

Edit: correction - they must have used an AA - podpops never give a higher tech than level 2

Morgan has finished researching bio-engineering, and has started on Intellectual Integrity - smacks of a possible leapfrog agreement with the Gaians, as they are currently researching that tech

[Googlie]

I'll go ahead and play piecemeal, until we get concensus on various items.

For now, I'll rush the Tree Farm at AU, as already discussed

Edit: Tree Farm now MM'd at AU (3 crawlers plus 38 credits) I left the librarian intact, as even with a 10% psych allocation, there still was a drone. I don't think that the pop will grow next turn (nut surplus should be 5 with the TF, but I think it was said elsewhere that the popgrowth takes effect the turn after the facility is comnpleted)