A really easy way to wipe someone out.

[Blake]

Being one of those economic victory types, which likes a nice well developed and very rich territory, I naturally get annoyed by the AI's trying to disrupt my economy. Ofcourse I could always just play simcity but I've found a more fun solution.

The problem with attacking the AI's is you end up with lots of dingy little cities, which add nothing to your power. But now I have found the solution - GAS the buggers. For a start get rid of that pesky UN charter (or else only do it against aliens / during sunspot activity). Next build lots of gas ('X') needle jets, these are relativly cheap. The COOL thing about gas is that when used against a city it halves the population, rounded DOWN, so a size 1 city is annhilated, it takes about 4-5 X jet strikes to destroy a size 20 city this way, the +50% offense bonus makes it even easier. Once you have removed all the cities within range, use a needlejet colony pod to build a new base to extend your range. This city will be in a good, uncluttered spot, and can be fully developed ofcourse.

This way a dozen needle jets can completely destroy an enemies empire in a few turns, ready for resettlement by ariel colony pods. It's such a clean, efficent and cheap method of removing enemies, even results in minimal loss of life (enemy life doesn't count). I love it.

Blake

[cbn]

The gas-them method is a very effective method but it presupposes a military or tech advantage. Otherwise you would find yourself on the receiving end of the same type of gas sandwhich. A twist that I like to use is the suicide x-chopper. You can get four or more successful gas attacks on cities outside your choppers normal range. Sure the copter is usually destroyed but you can wipe cities out far more quickly and you can often take out reinforcements heading to the front.

There are some defenses to a gas-only attack so you should have a couple of different types of units on hand. For example some players propose emptying the city of defenders. Since you can't attack an empty city with air units you can either ignore this city for a while or capture it, likely with drop units,(then keeping it or obliterating it depending on your needs).

Another defense is to use native life garrisons as gas does not reduce population when a mindworm defends. On my first ever gas rampage I noticed that my x-needlejets usually won but took heavy damage from native life so I quickly added a chopper and needlejet with the extra psi attack factor(empath??). You could also use the 6r weapon. They cleared the bases of native defenders but then I was faced with the empty base decision (take it or not).

This is not to criticize the gassing strategy. Nerve gas is probably the strongest early attack advantage and the potential to totally destroy an opponent's key cities is awesome. I ALWAYS want to be the one on the attacking side of a gas attack. But if I were defending you would quickly find multiple mindworms in selected cities (really easy for Cha Dawn or Deidre) and elite SAM rovers ready to take out 2-3 needlejets per turn or better still air superiority choppers to wipe out even more (but if you are gassing my empire its unlikely I have the chopper tech since if I had x-choppers I would have already gassed and attacked relentlessly any hostile base within needlejet range of my key bases).

I LOVE to use gas and and the reality is that the gas attacker will usually win since their attacking stance usually reflects production/tech superiority. I know (playing SP)that as soon as I get Doctrine:Air power every base gets an x-jet and I go hunting. The fact that you are are doing the attacking likely means that the other factions are behind.

Just a few observations I have picked up from my own (SP) games and reading here about some of the more experienced players strategies against humans. I'm sure that some of the more experienced players might be able to talk more knowledgeably about counter- strategies to gas attacks (and correct any errors I might have made).

CBN

[Sem]

Isn't there a penalty against your final score for using gas or planet busters?

[Kirnwaffen]

As far as I know, there is no penalty to your final score, but the eco damage penalties are stiff for gas and planetbuster attacks.