Tiny World Strategies?

[Zaphod]

I am curious if anyone has any good tiny world strategies. I like to play on the smaller maps because that way I don't get bogged down in micromanagement of 25+ cities and can focus on making those few cities I have very effecient. The proximity of the other factions makes these maps very difficult because the others settle the nearby city sites and tend to attack before I can get up and running. Any ideas?

[Simpson II]

ATTACK!!!!

Small maps mean conflict. If you want a peaceful game, beat everyone into submission and go on from there. Then you can demand any inconveniently located bases be given to you.

Otherwise, you could try playing as Lal and just living with not many cities, or play a larger map with as much water as possible. That avoids having a multitude of bases, but you will almost never be seriously attacked.

[Adam_Smith]

2 words: Recon Rover

That being said, I never play on tiny planets and don't really like small either.

[Zaphod]

Simpson II and Adam_Smith, thanks for the good suggestions.

I hadn't thought of going to a mostly water covered standard world. The next time I want to play a peaceful builder game, I'll give that a try.

I have had some success on tiny worlds playing the Spartans and attacking with Recon Rovers, or better yet Impact Rovers. I also usually pop-boom early (maybe 3 or 4 pop on my first cities) to improve production. Drones tend to be a problem, though. The ones in captured cities seem impervious to rec. commons and holo theatres, and there seems to be a more limited number of cities one can expand to before effeciency becomes a problem. This can be alleviated somewhat with the Spartans' natural police bonus and some troops with non-lethal methods, but I have had much less luck with other factions.

I am curious, does anyone know the formulas for drone creation and how long before a city is no longer "captured" (ie, before the icon changes to yours and the drones go away)?

[Adam_Smith]

I don't know the formuala. You get one more drone, for maybe 20 years I think.

If you are playing on a tiny planet you could play straight momentum and just staple their nerves. Eventually you would get ecodamage and you can forget about commerce, but you should be able to take the whole planet by force anyway.

[Simpson II]

From what I've read in the datalinks, you can get up to 5 extra drones in a captured base, less for small bases. They disappear at a rate of one every 10 turns, so it may take 50 turns to be clear (of course, the datalinks are frequently completely inaccurate, so I may be wrong.)

The formula for drones from empire-size I'm more sure of; it's one for every base after

(8-Difficulty)*(4+efficiency)*MapRoot/2

MapRoot = Square root of number of squares on the map over square root of 3200 (=1 for standard map), Difficulty = 0-5

The (undocumented) twist is that for each base in excess of twice this number, you get two additional drones. Build the HG and you can flout the first limit, but I rarely go beyond the second (possibly there is a third?). You're virtually better off obliterating captured bases beyond this limit, at least in the early game.

[This message has been edited by Simpson II (edited August 19, 2000).]

[Zaphod]

Thanks again Adam_Smith and Simpson II for some very interesting information.

The tiny map does lend itself well to a momentum game, but I have never used nerve stapling and tend to play a more hybrid/builder style. The Civ family of games, it seems to me, are much more satisfying as empire building games than wargames (at least against the AI - against a human opponent war might be more fun).

The formula for drone creation explains alot. I understand, now, why established cities with no drone problems suddenly riot when I build a new city, and why captured cities can be such a problem. Not only do they have extra drones because they are captured, but they add to the empire-wide drone problem because they count against the basic limit. I'll have to modify my SE choices to maximize efficiency and make Creches more of a priority.

[Simpson II]

Creches only affect the inefficiency at that base, the number of bases before you get drones is set by your overall efficiency level. By all means build them, but they will not affect happiness, I'm afraid.

[Adam_Smith]

They may, indirectly, by increasing psych if you have any energy alocated to psych. I'm sure Simpson knows that

[Zaphod]

Right, it makes sense that Creches would only modify effeciency locally and not affect the drone formula.

I haven't tried changing the energy allocation; usually I just follow the SMAC Manual's suggestion to leave things at 50% energy and 50% labs. Would you suggest modifying these at certain points during the game? If so, when?

[Simpson II]

Thanks, A_S. I'd forgotten you could use Psych allocation, heh .

[Simpson II]

I agree with Adam, at least once you have tree-farms and holotheatres in place. Some factions don't need to, but you want to get your bases to size 14 no matter what.

Also, If I'm playing the Gaians then I muck around with the allocation all the time. In particular I put it up at the start in order to get trance foils out quickly, which is a huge advantage.

Most builder players put their research up in the mid-game, too. 100% isn't uncommon once you can get the efficiency together (cyborgs, morgan etc.)

[Adam_Smith]

You should have to allocate 10-20% of your energy to psych in the mid to late stages of the game when your bases are getting large and you want to have as many engineers as possible. You may need the psych to pop boom. If you have good police ability and some appropriate special projects you may not need to allocate any to psych.

I also allocate some to psych during war sometimes. It will keep more of your conquered citizens from starving.

btw, I'm refering to transcend level. Thinker you may need some too. I doubt if you will need any for the lower levels.

[Zaphod]

I'll have to try these good allocation strategies at the appropriate time in the game I am currently playing.

I am playing the Spartans, and at this point (around 2210 or so) I have pop-boomed my older cities to 14 using the standard dem/planned/knowledge method, some police enhanced troops, rec. commons, and the Virtual World (my favorite project). I am the biggest faction and am the governor, but the Gaians and the Hive (second and third respectively) have joined together against me. So, now I have a two front war going, although fortunately I am separated from them by water. I am currently working on my airforce (bombers and fighters) and the Maritime Control Center. Once I get those finished, build some cruisers and marines, and change from planned to green, I should be able to shift from defense to offense. Do you have any good strategies for amphibious invasions?

[Simpson II]

Marines are nice for tough targets. Other than that, just get MMI. Choppers first, followed by drop troops, followed by submission. The hardest bit is having the patience .