Question

[d=me]

Aren't you screwed if an aggresive faction attacks you in the beginning? Even if you beat them you are behind everyone else.

[Jamski]

Depends.

If you beat them without taking any losses, then THEY are screwed

-Jam

[livid imp]

Originally posted by Jamski
Depends.

If you beat them without taking any losses, then THEY are screwed

-Jam

true

But I am sure he means in turn advantage. I guess it would really be detremined by whether or not you had to change production, lost any formers/crawlers, bases, etc. What is the point at which the AI interfers so much early on that you would scrap the game?
Did I sum that up correctly d=me?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Not necessarily as Jam says.

If you turn the ride and then counter attack and make the aggressive faction a submissive, give them all your techs on a regular basis and then rely on their research and yours to power yourself through mid and late game.

That being said tho' it is a PIA to have to deal with an early game onslaught and more often than not it does bog you down and slow you in comparison to the other 5 factions not involved in the extra curricular affaris.
.

[Santiago_Claus]

It is either a huge blessing or a huge curse, depending on whether you can rally and take enemy bases or barely hang on until your opponent tires of attacking you.

Grabbing up a bunch of bases early in the game will catapult you into the midgame with a huge turn advantage. It's like starting the game with 12 bases instead of 2.

On the other hand, if the enemy grinds you down and every turn you devote your entire economy to military survival, then assuming you survive you'll likely miss a lot of critical SP's and be behind technologically for a long time to come, having to rely on probes to get caught up.

Frightening as it is to watch your Impact Rovers and Plasma Defenders get pelted with fusion missiles from Yang, Domai, or Miriam, It's the loss of SP's to opposing factions which hurts the most.

[CEO Aaron]

If you're playing the AI, no. If you're playing competent humans, yes.

If you DO find yourself with early neighbors, start plotting their demise IMMEDIATELY. Failing to do so is probably the single most common mistake I see rookie SMAC players do. That doesn't mean that you have to attack right away, but it does mean that you have to make their destruction/subjugation your first and most overriding priority.

[d=me]

I was actually talking about technology. If you encountered them at the 10th turn and finally beat them on the 100 th turn then aren't you lagging behind in tech? Like you built units for immadiate use instead of recycling tanks ect... for 100 turns aren't you ages behind everyone else?

[Commy]

If you are the angels, and they (the attackers) are one of the alien factions, you might be screwed, but you might also have a good reason to use the probe team you start with and steal technology without getting in more trouble. Usually, the aliens research field modulation very early, so I can usually steal it from them my first try. Beware my 1-3r-1s, they can even compete with the aliens.

[Sikander]

Usually it will screw up a player who is set on a builder game. For momentum players it's a godsend.

I remember when an aggressive Lal declared unprovoked war upon me (playing the University) just as my crawlers were beginning to tell. I had about 5 bases with decent production and simply produced two impact rovers at each base. It hardly caused a hiccup in my game, perhaps a total waste of 5 years in production. I was fortunate in that I was able to bribe one of his impact rovers in that game. Otherwise I would have had to take a three tech detour. That would have been a real setback. As it was he became a loyal ally and provided a good deal of tech and commerce while serving as a buffer for me.