So, I have dug out SMAC/X again, but I royally suck. Any advice?

[Asmodean]

Okay, like I said, I have taken up playing SMAC/X again, but i really suck at it. From posts here I can see that a key to winning this game handily is extensive use of supply units, but that can't be it can it?.

Could someone with a little time post an outline of what they do in, say, the forst 50 to 100 turns, so that I may learn a little.

Asmodean

[AMD4EVER]

I probably play this game very different from those who are pro's at it but I really don't use supply crawlers that much although I am generally a builder and play the game with tech stag on. For my style of play I will usually get 4 or 5 bases started and then build a former at each one then make a couple more colony pods before adding recycling centers at each base and trying to grab as many secret projects as possible. My formers are usually busily planting forests, putting up sensors, and building roads to connect all of my bases. After I have about 15 bases and the WP I start focusing more on defense and head straight for plasma steel armor and nonlinear mathematics for powerful weapons. I garrison all my bases with 1-3-1 infantry at about that time I usually end up in a war and begin pumping out as many 4-1-2 rovers as I can while building perimeter defenses at my bases and trying to grab the Command Nexus secret project. Beyond this point the game is usually a cake walk. The initial war ends with a resounding victory and leaves me with by far the highest population in the game along with at least one submissive ally which I use to get me elected as planetary govenor.

If your style of play is a simple laid back builder at first and then an attacker late then perhaps this will help you.

[igtenos]

My play style isn't much different from AMD4EVER's except I generally leave expansion to the later bases. I typically build a garrison unit/Former/Colony pod. Once the bases has pumped out its pod, I typically start using that base for secret projects (if it has at least +5 minerals early on) and key early game base upgrades like Rec. Commons, Recycling tanks, and Children's Chreches (one I have the tech for it). With each new base, I repeat the process over & over until I trigger at least two beauracracy warnings or run out of ground territory to work with. If possible, once I get around 15 or so ground bases, I like putting out some sea colonies to capitalize on the nutrients & energy and prevent the other factions from dumping a sea pod in my proverbial backyard. Minerals aren't a problem if I spread the sea pods around an island with a few Boreholes.

As far as techs, I usually try to get Doctrine: Loyalty as soon as possible for the Command Nexus (which I build after Weather Paragdim & HGP) as soon as possible. Afterwards I go for Planetary Networks for the Virtual World project and then focus on getting the techs that take the mineral/energy caps (Ecological Engineering & Enviromental Economics) so I can get full use of all those boreholes I start building by using 2-3 formers at a time to work on each borehole. Luckily Ecology Engineering is a prerequisite for the Centauri tech that gives you Centauri Preserves (reduces eco-damage). By the time I have those, I'll typically go after Industrial Automation so I can get Hab Complexes up & go Democratic/Planned for a pop boom. Any other techs, I'll trade with other factions for if given the chance. I typically wait (if I'm allowed to by the AI or am near a very weak AI faction that might give me trouble later for going Democracy/Planned or Democracy/Green -- IE: Yang/Miriam/Morgan) until I get Synthetic Fossil Fuel (and more importantly Doctrine: Air) to build up an army.

[CEO Aaron]

Some basics of play regardless of your play style:

1) Expand early.

The very early turns of the game are critical, and getting a jump on base placement and terraforming over your rivals here can issue huge dividends later on. Therefore, your early turns should be exclusively devoted to getting bases founded as quickly as possible. This means you'll build nothing but formers, colony pods, and 1/1/1 garrisons until you've hit the first bureaucracy limit. Certain highly specialized facitions can deviate from this formula, but you can't go far wrong building 1 former in each base, a colony pod, and a 1/1/1 garrison, and continue building bases until you reach the first, if not the second bureaucracy limit.

2) Build Forests.

Forests are the super terrain improvement. The early game is all about maximising your limited former time, and forests give large dividends for limited former time. For a mere 4 former turns, you create a square that produces 4 FOPs, 2 shy of the pre-cap limit. In addition, they spread by themselves into adjacent squares, automatically clearing fungus as they go, saving you even more former time. Finally, when you're ready to clear them to place more productive improvements, you get 5 quick minerals when they're cleared.

3) Scout and Infiltrate

Don't become fixated with all your economic developement at home. Building a few probe teams on a foil chassis will enable you to troll the oceans looking for your neighbors, and infiltrate them, finding out what technologies they've discovered, what improvements and units their bases contain, and their current production is working on.

With these contstants of good play in mind, my games tend to follow a certain pattern. My first two pods will be planted as quickly as possible, and my initial scout begins wandering out in a spiral, searching out new base sites. Unless I've started play with it, my first research goal will be centauri ecology. My initial bases will either immediately produce formers, or if I'm waiting for discover CE, I'll push out a pair of scouts. If I'm playing Domai, Yang or Miriam, odds are I'll also build a colony pod while waiting for CE. Once I've built formers, they will immediately commence work roading out to new base sites, and seeding the occaisional forest. I continue building formers, bases and garrisons, expanding well after I've triggered the first bureaucracy warning. I play Transcend/Large, so that puts me somewhere between 6 and 12 bases. My research goals at this time depend primarily on my early game strategy. If I'm playing a builder, I beeline toward industrial automation, to get wealth, crawlers and hab complexes. Once I've got them, I start crash building SPs. If I'm playing a momentum faction, the requisite techs are planetary networks, doctrine flexibility and synthetic fossil feuls. I use probe foils to tech-rape my neighbors, and when I've stolen everything down to their world map, I start building an invasion force.

By 2200, I expect to either be building tree farms and preparing a large population boom, or prosecuting an all-out invasion of a neighboring faction, trying to force them to capitulate, giving me a valuable ally, guaranteed commerce income and hopefully a juicy project or two.

The last piece of advice I have is to be flexible. Even the most pacifistic faction can make itself a truculent warmonger, and even the most braindead bunch of pillaging vandals can build towards and enlightened and advanced society. You might not do so as easily as those geared towards each respective goal, but if you hang in there and don't throw in the towel, you'd be suprised what you can do to turn your fortunes around.

[The diplomat]

In the first 50 or so turns, my build queue is usually,
1.scout (fortify)
2.former
3.colony pod

I try to build as many bases as early as possible. If my faction has bad efficiency, I'll stop at the first efficiency warning.

If I am lucky and I find a great production site for a base, like 1 or more monoliths and/or a mineral bonus tile, I set that base to build the Weather Paradigm or the Human Project ASAP.

I'll use one or two scouts to patrol, trying to nab as many artifacts as possible.

Once I have a dozen or so bases, and I have bumped into other factions and/or reached my first efficiency limit, I stop building pods and consolidate my position. I'll usually build recycling tanks, energy banks, children's creche, command centers...

[Asmodean]

I'm beginning to understand where I go wrong. Normally I build like this for any new base:

1) Defensive unit
2) Colony Pod
3) Former
4) Recycling Tanks
5) Colony Pod

Is there something to be said for having two or even three formers per base. My SE choices usually leave me with a poor support rating, so only the first unit comes free. Should I disregard that, and have more formers anyway?

Asmodean

[Jamski]

If the former can terraform to increase your minerals per turn by just 1, then its paying its own costs. If this is a real problem for you, then aim for clean reactors and don't play as Morgan

Looking at your build order, I'd build the former first, using the free minerals to really get it going. That way you can be inproving the speed at which the base builds the next items in the list.

-Jam

[AMD4EVER]

Also with building the former first, it costs only 25 credits to complete it in one turn given the 10 free minerals when you place a base. That is a very good deal early in the game!

[igtenos]

Originally posted by AMD4EVER
Also with building the former first, it costs only 25 credits to complete it in one turn given the 10 free minerals when you place a base. That is a very good deal early in the game!

But dangerous if the bases is right by some fungus. Nothing is more annoying than building a base & then lose it on the next round to a surprise mind worm strike. Not such a problem if you have an extra military unit to defend the base (a spare rover, a mindworm if you're using one of the native-friend factions, or (later on) an aircraft).

Is there something to be said for having two or even three formers per base. My SE choices usually leave me with a poor support rating, so only the first unit comes free. Should I disregard that, and have more formers anyway?

Depends on how many bases you have and if you need to do a bunch of elaborate terraforming - fungus removal early on, raising/lowering terrain, Condensers, or Boreholes. Doubling up formers for such tasks will cut the time required down by half. Usually I'll build a second former for my early bases once they have some excessive minerals once they hit 3-4 population. That way I have enough formers to double-duty some Boreholes & get the fungus out of the way to plant forests, mines, and the occassional Farm/Solar array if the square gives a +1 mineral.

[CEO Aaron]

One trick I learned from Sikander is to have my first base build 2 formers, and all the others build 1 plus their garrison. This gets you a good jump on early terraforming without sacrificing production due to increased support costs. Your early bases rely on being able to shift garrisons from subsequent bases, and the free scout, and whatever free units you uncover in pods. That trick is really only feasible if you play Deedee or Zak with guided research, as everyone else needs to be doing something with their minerals while waiting for Centauri Ecology to be researched. In which case, you can build an extra former at bases built later, and use any free units you've found to defend those bases.

[Asmodean]

Okay...one question.

Some of you have said that early on formers should be building forests. But forests produce only one food. Won't this limit your growth early on??

Asmodean

[Kody]

I believe the idea is to forest arid or moist nutrients bonus. I think the reasoning is the 2 minerals make the colony pods build faster and the production of colony pods closely matches the growth with +3 forested nutrients from the bonus.

However I think a rainy nutrient bonus is farmed. Or if there is no nutrient nutrient, and no rainy squares a moist square is farmed. After the first worker has some good nutrients to grow the city I think people aim for minerals from forests to make those colony pods and formers,

[AMD4EVER]

My strategy for forming each base goes like this. I pick an arid, flat square or one with a river running through it if possible and plant a forest there. Then I find another arid, flat square and plant another forest on that. At that point my base is usually close to 2 population or already is and it is collecting a lot of minerals to build with but not much nutrients. So I plant two farms on the best rolling squares I can find. That way I can get 2 nutrient and 1 mineral out of both of those and I have my base collecting from those two squares so it can get up to 3 population. By about this time I've usually got the WP and can start building condensors on the two farms and start making a borehole on one of the rocky squares. After that I usually just build all forest.

I don't know how commonly most people build roads but I also build roads in every single square that I terriform. I also build 2 sensors on my original forest only after I have finished building my condensors and assuming the base is in no immediate danger. The borehole is usually my last priority since early in the game it isn't that useful but by the middle of the game I usually like to see about half my bases with 2 or more boreholes and the rest having at least 1. They help a lot in improving production and lab output once your able to get 6 minerals/6 energy out of each. Just gotta watch out for eco damage and run high planet! These things are especially useful for Gaia surprisingly.

[CEO Aaron]

Originally posted by Asmodean
Okay...one question.

Some of you have said that early on formers should be building forests. But forests produce only one food. Won't this limit your growth early on??

Somewhat, however I'd rather have 2 bases accumulating 1 nutrient a turn than one base accumulating 2 nutrients a turn, because of the free resources provided by the base square. Also, when you're playing at Transcend (which I do), higher population merely forces you to build means to cope with it. A population 2 base can be policed with a scout, and can crank out a colony pod in 6 turns, collecting 18 energy over that time. The same base working 2 farms will complete the colony pod in 10 turns, but only collect 10 energy, and in exchange get 20 food stocked up to grow another population.

...

[Curiosity]

Asmo,

Early on, one two-nutrient-tile is sufficient to boost your population to size 2 before you build a colony pod. If you don't have that, then you need a farm.

Beyond that, though, you don't want to be growing vertically until you're ready to handle the drones. When you are, you boom.

Looking at your build order;

1) Defensive unit
2) Colony Pod
3) Former
4) Recycling Tanks
5) Colony Pod

The problem is that you're slowing your expansion a lot.

For a free-market faction I normally do something like

Former, colony pod, (repeat until I hit the baselimit), former or crawler, colony pod...

Optionally, you can build a scout after a former, especially if you're not in free-market.

Once you have your two nutrient square, use the formers to build roads to the next base site. This saves you several turns on founding your next base. Then, begin planting forests.

SE choices; I favour FM/Wealth early on, others use planned/wealth. Don't use Demo at least until you get to the first bureaucracy limit.

Once you're getting to the point where you can't expand any more, you need to boom ASAP. Don't build anything which doesn't help you to boom faster! This is the phase of the game which really tests a player's skill... the faster you boom, the better off you're going to be in the mid-game. Practise until you can have all of your bases boomed up to the first hab limit by 2180... then do it faster.