newbie discovers choppers

[lord of the mark]

Im still playing my first full SMAC game on librarian level.

Ive now got choppers and copters.

They seem a tad overbalanced???


Before I was beating the AI. Now im overwhelming it.

Is that the general agreement that this unit is overpowering? Kinda throws single player out of whack, the way fundie, ICS, and howies did in Civ2?

Im particularly surprised, given the power of howies in civ2, that the SMAC design team wasnt more careful with mutiple attack units.

Other interesting thing is the tech tree on attack weapons - i seem to have gone straight from attack factors of 4 to attack factors of 8. Huge jump, puts me way ahead of the AI. Im hardly even bothering with higher attack factors as they come up.

Of course this is playing on librarian level - perhaps on higher levels I will need these to deal with the AI.

[Jamski]

You missed two weapons somewhere, gatling laser (5) and missile launcher (6), and the AI will wise up and start putting AAA on its defenders on higher levels. I find the Chaos gun (8) is very soon out of date against the defence 4 armour. Play on Transcend, and copters still rock, but not so much. The AI can't use them though

-Jam

[Lazerus]

Copters are really over-powering against the AI, but because every player knows this when an MP game comes around every1 has choppers and a AAA+aerospace+sensor unit in most outer bases to stop em dead
Play on a higher level and if you're not that experienced choppers will be your life saver.
Weapons on the tech tree are arranged badly, when i first started playing i remember skipping out 5 and 6 fairly often but now i make getting 6 first a priority for the air power that it leads to. Fusion lasers (10) are also useless since shard (13) comes so soon afterwards.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Jamski
You missed two weapons somewhere, gatling laser (5) and missile launcher (6), and the AI will wise up and start putting AAA on its defenders on higher levels. I find the Chaos gun (8) is very soon out of date against the defence 4 armour. Play on Transcend, and copters still rock, but not so much. The AI can't use them though

-Jam

ive been fighting miriam whose defenders mainly have 3 armor. then went to war with Lal, who mainly has defenders with 2 armor. Chaos gun (8) seems quite enough. Hive is my ally, Morgan is gone, and Deirdre is marginal. Soon only real opponent will be Santiago, off building up in isolation on her own large continent (with an occasional raid from me). I may use more advanced weapons for that attack, but by then my resource advantage should be overwhelming.

[CEO Aaron]

Choppers are pretty insane, especially when combined with drop troops, but to be honest, a smart player will have AAA garrisons, sensors and most important of all, INTERCEPTORS ready to engage your choppers. Are they overpowered? Perhaps. Can they be countered? Certainly.

[Jamski]

AAA Garison + Aerospace Complex = dead choppers in my experience

LotM, if you're only attacking 2 and 3 armour then really the Chaos gun will be enough. Untill you fight the Spartans elite troops that is, who often have +50% from extremely high morale. But by then you'll have better weapons.

Time to up the difficulty, methinks

-Jam

[Frankychan]

Am I the only one who caught the fact that the HIVE was his ally? That is remarkable.

If you wait, you'll find that the AI will surprise you. When they get the famed "Planet Buster", you'll know that the game get's more balanced out. Especially when they use it on you

(I'm still mad that Miriam used them on me.....more than once)

[Jamski]

I can never get the Hive as my ally, whatever I do. How odd

-Jam

[Lazerus]

same here, despite playing as the Hive, running police state, being at war with Lal and giving him all the techs he wants the only time hes nice to me is when i leave him to fight all other AI factions and he needs my help. Naturally if he says please I usually do unless i've ben insulted

Then again all AI are fairly co-operative on librarian

[Jamski]

But it works the other way around too, playing as the Hive you don't get many friends... I'll never forget winning a diplomatic victory as the Hive, only to have my rule rejected by Deirdre, Morgan and Lal. I mean they really must have hated me. That was a short and sweet final war, with Miriam and the Spartans helping me

-Jam

[Mr. President]

Some people can use choppers to dominate the AI and win the game about three years after their discovery. Not me, though.

[Flubber]

Everyone agrees that choppers are super-powerful but in a MP game, everyone has the same opportunity to use them. And they can be defended against . . .as 4 armour in an AC with AA is effectively a defense of 16 ( before sensors) when the best weapon around is 13 attack.


Against the AI well . . . their tactics are laughable. I once had an AI pour needlejets into their closest base to me with no other defenders. IIRC I killed over 30 in one turn.

Quite simply, the AI has no idea how to deal with choppers and drop troops.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Jamski

Time to up the difficulty, methinks

-Jam

well yeah, but i'd like to at least finish this game - i'm closing on a diplo victory, but not there yet.

(and BTW, when i proposed myself for supreme ruler, Hive voted for me. Still not enough, though)

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Lazerus
same here, despite playing as the Hive, running police state, being at war with Lal and giving him all the techs he wants the only time hes nice to me is when i leave him to fight all other AI factions and he needs my help. Naturally if he says please I usually do unless i've ben insulted

Then again all AI are fairly co-operative on librarian

Thats the level im playing on, and ive been running a police state.

[gwillybj]

re skipped weapons

Originally posted by lord of the mark
Other interesting thing is the tech tree on attack weapons - I seem to have gone straight from attack factors of 4 to attack factors of 8. Huge jump, puts me way ahead of the AI.

This is a common result of obtaining (trading, buying, extorting, stealing) techs from other factions. You will do the same thing with armor sometimes.