Domai-wow

[waynehead]

Alright, I'm a builder at heart, but I can wage war with the best of 'em. Anyway, I usually choose Morgan or Deidre, maybe Lal, and do fairly well with that. But I thought I'd mix it up and try a faction I had stayed away from, the Drones. That -2 tech w/out Miriam's bonuses scared me too much.

Well, I sure did underestimate these guys. Playing on Transcend-Large map w/ no aliens, I was put on the bottom of the map. I built 5 core bases, went Democratic-Planned, and got the 40% industry bonus. I guess Yang never really taught me the power of high industry. By mid 2300s, I've built every single SP, even the frikkin Empath Guild, and I've waged war with Yang, Miriam and Cha Dawn with my peripheral bases; and I'm well on my way to conquest by early 2400s.

Has anyone had success with these guys? Granted, I was given an easily defensible position, and was playing with tech steal. But I was blown away with how easy it was to develop infrastructure and crank out the troops. I think I'm in love...

[Blunderdog]

The Drones are some very bad boys. I played them recently (transcend, regular-size map, blind research). After piddling around in the early game (me, a technophile, suffering with this "research"), got the war machine cranking with Planned and Wealth. It was scary. Need some rovers? Plop, there you go. An air force? Bam, there it is. Beat the heck out of the neighbors and stole all their tech in the process. Almost too easy.

[TigToad]

I've played quite a few games with the drones, i consider them one of my three favorite factions for a good, fun game. After about 10 games with them (all on huge planets) I've found they can dominate easily or get really left behind. They have a hard time coming up with the early techs you need to get growing, especialy in a blind game. They also don't quite have the support to hold tons of units. However, once you get the core techs in (mobility, ecology, impact techs), you can walk over the opponents..it can happen, in I think 4 techs. Once you start capturing bases (and getting the techs from them) you can stock up on secret projects and victory is all but inevitable.

However, if you get stuck on a large land mass by yourself, you never get the techs you need, adding flexibility to the 'need' list and you also have to add probe teams by that point, too..it can be a tough game. Just watch the computer, it almost never does well with the drones. However, on the rare occassions it does, they can be quite scary.

Daniel-Tig

[waynehead]

Yeah, that's the thing. I purposefully played on a large map instead of huge, b/c the last thing I want is Zakky or Aki getting dropped on the monsoon jungle and I'm left alone on some solitary continent, with no one to talk to. You need to communicate with someone, just to stay behind the curve w/ Domai.

[RedFred]

Yeah, these guys are a lot of fun. Playing on standard-sized worlds and blind tech, my experiences with the Free Drones is that they suck big time for at least fifty years. Slow tech. Then they just take off. The power graph gets this maroon-coloured line going straight up at that point. By the time you get air power the other factions are eating Domai's dust.

[David Byron]

I suspect this is like the idea that the way to get more research is to just get the research bonus SEs and University / Consciousness. That's the obvious way but boosting economy is better. Similarly I think there are better *system wide* methods of boosting your industry. Obvious a Borg approach specialises in producing many "bore-cities" [and they can be pretty tedious to micromanage but I mean a size one city working a borehole].

Actually *they* are quite easy to maintain compared to most, because there's zero food excess.

I have hardly noticed Cha Dawn's industry penalty and another thing the bore-city approach gets you is the ability to effortlessly support the troops once made.

I would imagine that a good working production system, even within a more conventional game style, could out perform a bad one by at least 20% in the same way as the economy / research situation. However I've not seen any similar discussions analagous....?

[Misotu]

I'm playing the Morgan Challenge Scenario right now. The Drones are eating everyone alive. They're researching faster and building SPs in around 2-3 turns.

If I win, it'll be a miracle. Morgan is not for me - I did far better as the Cult ...

- Mis

[Kinjiru]

Morgan takes some serious getting used to. Try playing the Morgan challenge a couple more times. You'll become a true beliver, I promise!
[This message has been edited by Kinjiru (edited February 07, 2000).]

[Patriqvium]

It's a known fact that a Democratic-Planned-Wealth Drone player tends to crush any other combination or faction in mid-game. The -2 research is nothing while you can build network nodes, research hospitals and fusion labs in your bases in some turns.

------------------
The real philosopher never gives up.

--Jostein Gaarder, "Sophie's World"

[Qilue]

In solo games, I've found the Drones are a 'nice' neighbour when played by the AI. Leave them alone and they will leave you alone. Start a war and start praying.
One game, Deirdre was really quite powerfull and started a war with Domai (probably the planned SE), ~40 turns later, Deirdre was no more. I've watched something similiar happen to Yang, Morgan, Miriam and Santiago although Santiago and Yang seem to be able to hold off the inevitable longer.

Moral: Be nice to Domai.

[Aredhran]

In my first SMAC-X game, I was the pirates and the island next to me was occupied by Domai... He built (almost) all the early SP's, but then of course he got pissed because I was getting too powerful for his taste, and declared vendetta. I invaded him (didn't take long) and voilà, all the SP's are mine !

[Jasonian]

You gotta love the drones! The only word to describe them has already been said: scary.

Playing drones, seek out Aki or Zak. In one drone game, Aki called me up and we traded about 5 techs, world maps, and signed a pact! That pact has not been broken yet, and we exchange tech still every 15 turns or so.

In one game, the pirates sent a fleet of 10 4-3-4 Impact skimships against my water base cluster. I had my 40% industry bonus, and after a few credits, I have a new fleet of 5 ships to combat the enemies! Granted, they were only 4-3-1 themselves, but I pumped them out 5 every turn, and beat the pirates off!

Need an air force? Spend some cash, and rule the skys the next turn. Worried about Spartans finishing The Command Nexus? Boom, you beat them to it. Scary indeed...

Fighing drones, the key is to hurt their growth. If their cities get too big/too numerous, then you can kiss any neighbors goodbye. Get the probes ready; it's time to free Zak from Free Drone Central!

[Vi Vicdi]

Once Domai gets his hands on some tech things get very interesting.

His SE preference facilitates this because he doesn't go after you until you go cybernetic, at which point he's had a chance to build up & acquire some tech.

Getting the early SP's is extremely tough with Domai in the game. He'll start work on 2 of them within 3 turns, and you know if you just started as well you're gonna lose.

Lastly Transcend level (and so I hear the "Unsurpassed" ranking) gives industry bonuses to the AI's, which amplifies Domai's already-big advantage even more.

Scary.

[Misotu]

quote: Originally posted by Kinjiru on 02-07-2000 02:07 PM Morgan takes some serious getting used to. Try playing the Morgan challenge a couple more times. You'll become a true beliver, I promise!

:-) I'll give it a whirl but I can't see it somehow. I'm a dreadful militarist - and so is Morgan, so no help there. Free Market has such huge penalties attached to it that I've hardly managed to use it (I've been at war from turn 1, pretty much). Can't get planned ... so no pop boom ever unless I build the Vats. Pop limit of *FOUR*??!!



I know I'm missing something very, very key here but I'm a couple of hundred turns into the second game and whatever it is continues to elude me ... :-)


- Mis

[TigToad]

Mis--
I actually didn't do the Morgan challenge, I'm thinking I should now.. because I'm a Morganite thru and thru. I didn't use to be... I played my very very first smac game as the Morgans said, man these guys suck.. and moved on. It wasn't until I was determined to give free-market a go that I tried them again, and again and again. Morganites are now far and away my favorite faction. (especially after you get that nice support giving secret project so you can support 1 unit per base with democracy...Grin). They're tough to figure out, but once you get them going..man they're cool.

Daniel-Tig