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The Green Maritime Pod Strategy is from an old post, by a poster who's name I do not recall. If anyone remebers who did, please post! I ran across a print out of it the other day and decided to try a game. I thought some newer players might like to try the strategy, or some older ones might like to try it again, as I did.
I played basic SMAC, but it works just as well in SMAX.
The strategy is to build an empath navy, and pop all the floating pods, while capturing as much wildlife as possible.
You play a green faction, I chose the Gaians.
You beeline for planetary networks to get probes, Doctrine Flexibility to get foils, Doctrine Iniative for the MARITIME CONTROL CENTER and cruisers, Centauri Empathy for Empath Song and Green SE.
As soon as you can, build some probe foils. Their mission is to scout for pods, (but not pop them yet ) and make contact with all the other factions for tech trading, stealing.
Switch to Green , as soon as you can.
When you get Doctrine Iniative, immediately build 3 or 4 cheapest possible cruisers, upgrading to Empath when you can. And of course build the MARITIME CONTROL CENTER asap.
You MUST have a positive Planet Rating for this to work, the higher the better.
Okay, so now you have a Positive Planet Rating, a lot of the oceans explored, and your Empath Cruisers are ready to go.
Now what do you do?
Starting near an enemies territory, and working away from your own, start popping the floating pods with your E Cruisers.
MAKE SURE you have plenty of movement points left before you pop a pod, so you can run away if that seems prudent. PATIENCE will produce the best results. When you capture an iod, use any captured worms aboard to pop the land pods in unexplored territory and islands. Then use the IOD's and Cruisers in pairs, with the IOD popping the pod, and the Cruiser attacking any natives that pop out.
Before long, you will build up a large , experienced native force, get lots of techs from the AA's you find, have a ton of energy credits, free builds, and whatever other good stuff you can get from the pods. Send the AA's home aboard an IOD with a cruiser escort- you will lose some if you arent very careful.
The idea is to beat all the other factions to the pods, and the goodies within. I usually save the AA's until I have the Hunter Seeker , and then hook them up all at once to the network nodes to get a huge tech lead. That way you can begin the "conquer" phase with superior weapons, that the enemy cant steal from you.
In the game I am playing on a standard sized earth like planet, I got 8 AA's, 14 worms (2 of them DEMON BOILS!), 7 Iods and countless free builds, unity rovers etc. by year 2262.
I have popped all the pods, and am about to take on the other three powerfula factions- Miriam, Santiago and the Hive. I have Tachyon weapons, the bad guys have Missiles and Chaos.
Wait til' Miriam gets suddenly attacked from all sides by Worms, Elite Tachy Marines and the 12 Tachy Jets I am building now. !!
She has been threatening me all game, being my immediate neighbor, and her time has come.
I played basic SMAC, but it works just as well in SMAX.
The strategy is to build an empath navy, and pop all the floating pods, while capturing as much wildlife as possible.
You play a green faction, I chose the Gaians.
You beeline for planetary networks to get probes, Doctrine Flexibility to get foils, Doctrine Iniative for the MARITIME CONTROL CENTER and cruisers, Centauri Empathy for Empath Song and Green SE.
As soon as you can, build some probe foils. Their mission is to scout for pods, (but not pop them yet ) and make contact with all the other factions for tech trading, stealing.
Switch to Green , as soon as you can.
When you get Doctrine Iniative, immediately build 3 or 4 cheapest possible cruisers, upgrading to Empath when you can. And of course build the MARITIME CONTROL CENTER asap.
You MUST have a positive Planet Rating for this to work, the higher the better.
Okay, so now you have a Positive Planet Rating, a lot of the oceans explored, and your Empath Cruisers are ready to go.
Now what do you do?
Starting near an enemies territory, and working away from your own, start popping the floating pods with your E Cruisers.
MAKE SURE you have plenty of movement points left before you pop a pod, so you can run away if that seems prudent. PATIENCE will produce the best results. When you capture an iod, use any captured worms aboard to pop the land pods in unexplored territory and islands. Then use the IOD's and Cruisers in pairs, with the IOD popping the pod, and the Cruiser attacking any natives that pop out.
Before long, you will build up a large , experienced native force, get lots of techs from the AA's you find, have a ton of energy credits, free builds, and whatever other good stuff you can get from the pods. Send the AA's home aboard an IOD with a cruiser escort- you will lose some if you arent very careful.
The idea is to beat all the other factions to the pods, and the goodies within. I usually save the AA's until I have the Hunter Seeker , and then hook them up all at once to the network nodes to get a huge tech lead. That way you can begin the "conquer" phase with superior weapons, that the enemy cant steal from you.
In the game I am playing on a standard sized earth like planet, I got 8 AA's, 14 worms (2 of them DEMON BOILS!), 7 Iods and countless free builds, unity rovers etc. by year 2262.
I have popped all the pods, and am about to take on the other three powerfula factions- Miriam, Santiago and the Hive. I have Tachyon weapons, the bad guys have Missiles and Chaos.
Wait til' Miriam gets suddenly attacked from all sides by Worms, Elite Tachy Marines and the 12 Tachy Jets I am building now. !!
She has been threatening me all game, being my immediate neighbor, and her time has come.
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