Early game base placement

[Hydro]

Curiosity - The first SPs (for me) come on line between MY 2140 and MY2150. I consider that late early game since I (hopefully) will have long since completed my first and most significant wave of expansion. Until that point my formers (1 or so per base) are very busy with roads, forests, farms, sensors, and a few high-altitude solar collectors. Boreholes, condensers, and the like take a long while even with WP; others are more profitable. My early bases sometimes go begging for developed tiles, so if I have to chose between a forest or farm that takes 3-4 turns or a borehole that takes 12-16 turns the choice is obvious.

After all my bases have developed tiles and a few for growth and my next wave of base sites are done (with roads, sensors, and a few tiles to use off the bat) then I look at internal re-terraforming.

There are exceptions, as there always are. I will remove fungus from a key nutrient special, particularly before nutrient restrictions are lifted, or make an energy or mineral special more useful to a key base.

By mid game I have formers to spare, and they infest my territory by early late game. Then I pepper my territory with boreholes and mag tubes, sensors, and anything else that increases productivity or defenses.

Lastly, in MP one does not always get WP; it is very sought after. Planning an entire strategy around WP does not seem to be a good idea. If you get it, great. But, have a Plan B...

[Adalbertus]

Hydro, what map are you playing on? I usually play on huge maps, and so I first try to build nine bases (2 colony pods from the first 3 bases, one from the fourth). Then I rarely get the first SP before 2150. I try to get military unit, former, and Rec Tanks at each base first, perhaps this is a bit too far stretched if I want to get many SPs. Lastly, when I was trying Morgan, it turned out to be better for the SPs to reduce the number of formers I build - mainly because they need minerals.