Finally won my own darn challenge, kinda...

[Helium Pond]

A *long* time ago I proposed the Nomad Challenge: win without building a base, ever. I tried it but never won it. Zsozso (remember him?) won it on transcend, using Deirdre. Well, I just won it. I kinda cheated, though: I played on easy, on a tiny world, with maximum fungus. But still, I did it! Weeeehah! Now I'll have to try it on a little harder levels...

[Googlie]

WOW

Congratulations Helium Pond. I tried that several times before giving up as unplayable, notwithstanding zsozso's feat.

Might have to try it again

G.

[Helium Pond]

Hey, thanks, Goog. I didn't know anyone else had tried it. Here's some tips:

--The easier the difficulty, the easier the difficulty, no duh.
--The main problem I had before was keeping my colony pod safe. The game keeps track of that first colony pod, and as long as it isn't lost, your faction 'lives,' so you need to guard it carefully. This time, saving myself a lot of worry, I pacted with the first faction I met, and just stored the pod in their home base for the whole game--until I had to attack them, that is.
--A tiny planet, mostly land, with abundant alien life will make things much easier. You can meet almost everybody before they found a second base, if you play Deirdre; the worm travel bonus lets you book. It amused me to wonder if I could get myself elected governor; theoretically, if you meet everyone before they've grown their headquarters at all, you'll all have pop 1, right? Maybe not. Anyway.
--One of the main advantages of not having any bases is that you can be a real jerk about breaking your Pacts: if you load all your units around a base before you break off your Pact, your units do not get removed to your territory, because you have no territory. Sweet.
--You can get a lot of tech through tech trades. This can help morale.
--Pods! Gotta get em! That's the only way to get new units! (non-worm units, that is)
--One DISadvantage of playing on the easiest level: I had to massacre all my captured bases, because on the easiest setting, building new colony pods does not disband the base. This made my integrity go to hell, but it was bound to anyway.
--I definitely recommend turning Do or Die ON. I had it off, figuring, if I die, I want to be re-started. The point is, don't die; it's much more of a pain in the a** to hunt down other factions that have escaped your attempts to eradicate them.

Good luck!
[This message has been edited by Helium Pond (edited December 16, 2000).]

[Wiglaf]

Well you really can't be gov in the early game if everyone has just a small hq - everyone's name will be on the ballot, so if you try to garner their votes they will simply say "sorry, too important to change my vote."

[Helium Pond]

Hm, you're probably right. Ah well.

[Helium Pond]

Today I won the Nomad Challenge on Transcend. I still used a tiny map, and still used abundant alien life. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: I also used Unity Survey: I could see all the land masses at the start. This made things easier, certainly. I won in MY 2160, which is better than I did on the easy setting. I had some tremendous luck in pod popping a transport foil, without which I have no idea how I'd have gotten over to fight Morgan. Funny, it ended up being Deirdre vs. Morgan, at the end. It's all about luck with the pods, though; I played three false starts (in which I died before MY 2120) before I got some good luck. I did reload once, I must admit.

[-gravity-]

I beat that challenge ages ago on a tiny map on one of the lower difficulty levels with high native life. Like Helium Pond said it was difficult protecting the colony pod and I had to reload several times.

[Googlie]

^

[Flubber]

Seeing this challenge I had to give it a try. I achieved a cooperative world conquest (Morgan was a submissive with 2 bases) in 2157 as the Cult on a tiny world with abundant native life on transcend.

I did it on my 5th try. In the other 4 tries

-- twice I was on an island
-- once my colony got killed
-- once someone built a seabase

On the successful attempt I got two captured worms almost immediatedly and left my colony pod on a narrow fungus free neck of land with the scout. two worms headed in one direction and 1 in another. I think I had 6 worms at the end and had as many as 10 at one point. I had more cash than I could use from killing worms and since I only popped one unity rover to upgrade.

I
-- Obliterated all captured bases ASAP after capture ( my reputation was lousy)
-- never had a weapon beyond lasers
-- thought the cult was a better choice than Dee since +2 Planet and -1 morale matter, while Industry, efficiency and Economy are irrelevant when you have 0 bases
--killed both the spartans and believers by about 2112 as neither established a base
-- found that fungal towers really slowed me up

On this size map I believe it involves luck more than skill. If you capture rather than kill the first couple of worms you are well on your way to a good result as long as there are no AI's off on an island somewhere (can't count on popping a foil).

Anyway it was fun to play something other than MP for a change.

[Googlie]

Having bumped the thread, I too tried it - as the Pirates.

Wrong choice. Couldn't attack any bases (didn't have Adaptive Doctrine for marine detatchments) but i did pact with Morgan and stowed my colony pod there. Got a bunch of cash and techs from pod popping with my gunfoil, and declared vendetta against Zak and Deirdre, but, of course, couldn't do any damage to them, so i spent 60 turns exploring a small planet, until Morgan tired of me and broke pact.

My poor seapod ran for coastal cover but was obliterated by a Zak foil - game over.

Moral - don't try the Nomad Challenge with the Pirates.

(Hey - maybe that's the impossible challenge??)

G.

[Flubber]

The pirates

AFAIK the challenge becomes "impossible" or practically impossible

If a faction builds a seabase NOT a adjacent to land
If you are on an island and are unable to pop a foil from a pod (although theoretically you could wait for someone to develop MMI, trade for it and then upgrade to drop troops using a pactmates base as a launch point LOL)
If another faction is on an island (same caveat)

Technically, I would think that no circumstance is entirely "impossible" as I recall from OCC being gifted all kinds of units. In theory (and I would never have the patience to try this) you could be gifted the necessay land/sea units to complete your quest-- but I wouldn't count on it.

The downside, of course is trying to conquer the world with just a couple of units when the AI has 100 years of tech, expansion and development under its belt.


One question-- I was looking for the rules of this kind of challenge and was unable to find them. Where are the rules? I played with a "no bases ever " rule- meaning I took the reputation hit of obliterating bases as soon as they were captured and built nothing for the while game. However I did keep both of my colony pods alive the whole game.


Looking at the factions, I believe the cult is the best overall faction to attempt this with although the Caretakers would be interesting

[mark13]

ROTFLMAO Googlie