early game millitary expanision how to balence troops with colonoy pods ???

[tyler666]

Ok all i have orignal SMAC and i wanna know how to bulid an army while ur expanding any ideas???;( ?

[Wiglaf]

Hmm. Naturally it's impossible to do both at the same time, so you really just have to time it. Cities near the border should produce a military, while bases in the mainland should focus on formers and colony pods. The energy should probably be diverted to the military if required, expansion can wait - a threatened city can't

Aww, just buy Vel's strat guide (or while you wait for it to come out, download v3.0). If he doesn't have a section in there, be sure to post a request for it in his post "Final Version of SMACX guide in the works." I know you've got SMAC but it covers both.

[WhiteElephants]

Admittedly, I don't build many combat units early in the game. I tend to focus on infrastructure. But, I think you might want to consider your aims when building combat units. If they are required for defense then you will need to strike that balance between units and colony pods you are looking for. On the other hand, if your looking to go on the attack and intend to be successfull (i.e. taking opponents bases over) then you might not need to strike a balance between combat units and colony pods because the bases you conquer should provide for the expansion you are looking for. Of course, early in the game (which is relative to each players own perception) it is sometimes difficult to conquer a base without wiping it out completely because they tend to be so small.

Alternately, you could choose a faction with a high support rating, ignore infrastructure, and go for colony pods and combat units. Or work toward the tech that allows police state which (If I remember correctly?) allows for a higher support rating and more police to quell the inevitable drones you'll get from expanding with your poor efficency rating you also get from police state.

[Velociryx]

That's a tough balancing act....possible, but your economy is really at its most effective when you focus on one or the other. If you mean to expand, then set all your bases to helping with that project....your more established bases can either work on advanced infrastructure, more colony pods or formers, or perhaps best of all, start cranking out supply crawlers to give to the newest bases, to make their lives a lot easier....

Then when you're finished with the latest round of expansion, take a peek at who's lurking near by, and go pay them a little social call....

-=Vel=-

[Blake]

Hmmmmm.
The best way in general would probably be to build command centres in a couple of bases and dedicate them to building troops and prototyping. The rest of your empire can go on expanding. Ofcourse you should do this anyway, just in case Miriam or Yang (or god forbid, both) come to play in your territory.

Another good comprimise is to use Gaians and capture a force of worms, this doesn't slow your expansion at all. Although worms are not ideal for actually capturing bases they can harrass and provide an active defence, both against other players and wild worms.

By far the best faction for what you want to do is the Hive, which I always play as a builder, start by simply expanding Yang style (suprise), no-one can expand faster than Yang. Focus mainly on colony pods, each base only needs to build a former (or two) and a couple of scout patrols, then more colony pods. Once you run (or sprawl, prehaps?) into someone which needs a clobbering get any base which has just finished it's latest construction to build an Impact Rover (other bases just continue with colony pods or infastructure), the bases near the border should build (4-2-1, 2-3-1) infantry. In about 5-8 turns you should have assembled a mixed hoarde, the border bases continue building units for war re-inforcements while all the interior bases resume infastructure. The great thing about the Hive is that no SE change or great planning is required to go to war, you can just do it whenever it is convenient. Even when playing yang as a builder it hurts none to have half a dozen bases churning out military units, these bases are very cheap, only requiring a command centre and two scout patrols (rec tanks, rec commons optional)
While most factions benefit greatly from focusing on one area Yang doesn't, it is easy enough to actually have half of your empire playing the builder game while the other half goes momentum (and both halves likely have as many cities as a standard faction), while this may be possible for other factions to do it would not be a good idea!

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Generally speaking the best approach possible is get the lay of the land ASAP. Scout your territory and see what the game has given you. This is an imperative. If your alone Build pods like mad at the expense of a military. If others are nearby and either

a) ripe for the pickens or
b) Aggressive and looking to take you out

then concentrate on military tech discovery, protoyping etc. and SE choices that enhance survival.

Blake brings up some good points regarding inherent factional strengths. Planet friendly factions give you ability to do both things at the same time.

Yang has a unique flexibility. Consider him running Police/Planned base expansion is unhindered as long as he continues to garrison his bases with units for police duty. If he wants to go to war those units can all of a sudden become free for warring duty by simply building a rec commons.

Og

[shimmin]

Early game fighting is tricky. At this phase of the game, production is slow, unit movement is slower, and tech development is still relatively fast. This creates a sort of "future shock" for your military. By the time you build an army and send it someplace, it is often obsolete compared to the defenders it will find.

Even the momentum-based "roverun" strategy is normally played expansion as fast as possible, and then segueing into mass production of war materiel. Miriam "The Lord is my impact rover" Godwinson is particularly good at this.

The one exception I'd make is if in your early game scouting you find yourself sharing a continent with a militarily unprepared faction (for example, one with two bases, one undefended) and can take them out quickly, do so. The benefits of not having to split a continent and avoiding a costlier war 50 turns down the line easily compensate for a few turns' lost expansion.

[Wiglaf]

quote: Miriam "The Lord is my impact rover" Godwinson

Who's made fun of more, Miriam or the gender challenged Cult?

[Skanderbeg]

quote: Originally posted by SMACed on 01-16-2001 05:19 PM Miriam "The Lord is my impact rover" Godwinson

Who's made fun of more, Miriam or the gender challenged Cult?