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Sounds a lot like what I've been going through. It's vital to get and hold the borehole cluster. If Yang gets it, he'll have a massive production center just a few turns from your HQ, at which point you may as well surrender.
I found that my expansion generally goes in two directions: one finger goes southwest towards the Bore Cluster, and possibly as far west as the coast, and the other follows the trail of special resources south, in the direction of the Sunny Mesa. There will be intense fighting over control of taeh territory there with Miriam. On my very best game, I was actually able to surround the Sunny Mesa with bases (I confess that I was using the "wimpy" option of starting with the Weather Paradigm). The bases themselves never grow into anything great, as I never had the time to properly create an energy park, but they did make a good buffer for my core bases.
I suggest going straight for Centauri Ecology after getting IndAuto. The Empath Guild is probably the quickest way to contact your aliies. beleive it or not, Morgan or Diedre probably already has Enivronmental Economics, and will be happy to trade with you.
Really, this scenario is about coordinating your research with your friends. The Coalition starts out with a huge edge, being already in contact with one another (and being to forced to cooperate in a psuedo-intelligent manner by the Techshare power). The only saving grace of the allies is that if they organize, they'll have four people making simulteaonous breakthroughs, versus the Coalition's three. The Coalition factions are bigger, and therefore produce more raw energy, but one of them is Miriam, who sucks at research, while the Allies leader is the University. If you avoid being inflitrated (hard because either Yang or Miraim almost always siezes the governorship), you can actually maintain near perfect tech parity with the enemy.
Just fair warning... when the AI decides to get serious about attacking you, it doesn't kid around. Expect HUGE parades of rovers and infantry (10-20 at a time, with a similar force just a few turns behind), with probe teams mixed in.
I found myself using armored probes as a way of circumventing my support and morale problems. They can be mass produced and then sent on "training missions" to the enemy bases. The ones that survive and improve get upgraded. The only problem with this is that while they work great against convenentional forces, they are usually at a morale disadvantage against attacking probes, against whom their expensive armor doesn't count. You can't allievate this problem with SE choices either, since you are the University. This means that a few probe team assaults can quickly strip your base of defenders, making it vulnerable to a normal assault.
Also, someting annoying that I discovered about the game: when a base is attacked, and the only defenders are armored probe teams, the probes defend normally (and oftentimes quite well), but if you have even one normal milatary unit there, your probes are completely ignored! The enemy will kill the scout patrol and then seize the base. Your armored probes are banished to the next closest base, without them even trying to protect their home! Has anyone else had this problem?
Also, let me know what Santaigo does. I haven't had time to play through an air power era game (I keep dying), and this is when I expect her to start becoming a problem. In theory, she should start plastering your north coast with Needlejets and missiles, and possibly even get around to a marine assault on University Base (although the AI rarely ever conducts amphibous operations).
I found that my expansion generally goes in two directions: one finger goes southwest towards the Bore Cluster, and possibly as far west as the coast, and the other follows the trail of special resources south, in the direction of the Sunny Mesa. There will be intense fighting over control of taeh territory there with Miriam. On my very best game, I was actually able to surround the Sunny Mesa with bases (I confess that I was using the "wimpy" option of starting with the Weather Paradigm). The bases themselves never grow into anything great, as I never had the time to properly create an energy park, but they did make a good buffer for my core bases.
I suggest going straight for Centauri Ecology after getting IndAuto. The Empath Guild is probably the quickest way to contact your aliies. beleive it or not, Morgan or Diedre probably already has Enivronmental Economics, and will be happy to trade with you.
Really, this scenario is about coordinating your research with your friends. The Coalition starts out with a huge edge, being already in contact with one another (and being to forced to cooperate in a psuedo-intelligent manner by the Techshare power). The only saving grace of the allies is that if they organize, they'll have four people making simulteaonous breakthroughs, versus the Coalition's three. The Coalition factions are bigger, and therefore produce more raw energy, but one of them is Miriam, who sucks at research, while the Allies leader is the University. If you avoid being inflitrated (hard because either Yang or Miraim almost always siezes the governorship), you can actually maintain near perfect tech parity with the enemy.
Just fair warning... when the AI decides to get serious about attacking you, it doesn't kid around. Expect HUGE parades of rovers and infantry (10-20 at a time, with a similar force just a few turns behind), with probe teams mixed in.
I found myself using armored probes as a way of circumventing my support and morale problems. They can be mass produced and then sent on "training missions" to the enemy bases. The ones that survive and improve get upgraded. The only problem with this is that while they work great against convenentional forces, they are usually at a morale disadvantage against attacking probes, against whom their expensive armor doesn't count. You can't allievate this problem with SE choices either, since you are the University. This means that a few probe team assaults can quickly strip your base of defenders, making it vulnerable to a normal assault.
Also, someting annoying that I discovered about the game: when a base is attacked, and the only defenders are armored probe teams, the probes defend normally (and oftentimes quite well), but if you have even one normal milatary unit there, your probes are completely ignored! The enemy will kill the scout patrol and then seize the base. Your armored probes are banished to the next closest base, without them even trying to protect their home! Has anyone else had this problem?
Also, let me know what Santaigo does. I haven't had time to play through an air power era game (I keep dying), and this is when I expect her to start becoming a problem. In theory, she should start plastering your north coast with Needlejets and missiles, and possibly even get around to a marine assault on University Base (although the AI rarely ever conducts amphibous operations).
)
(for no particular reason)
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