SotHB alternate bee-line

[livid imp]

When playing the PKs (Biogentics) or Univ (Freebie Tech), do you ever go for SotHB before heading to IA?

[Net Warrior]

The more techs you have to more they cost to research. I go for the ones I need and ignore the rest for as long as possible.

[Minute Mirage]

When I play the University, I always go for Industrial Automation straight away, picking Centauri Ecology as my free tech.

[GeoModder]

I would go for it. It gives you a free tech, which can be used to the beeline for IA.

[Jamski]

But it makes the other techs cost about 40% more on the beeline.

So you take 3 non-beeline techs, to get one beeline tech, and also slow your tech rate significantly.

Not smart.

-Jam

[GeoModder]

But effective against native life, and in my first PBEM it payed me off because another player traded it for IA, so I got that o-so-important tech as well!!

[Chaos Theory]

In TCP/IP games, factions start slightly accelerated, which includes extra techs. A faction can start with both Biogenetics and Social Psych, in which case I will go for SotHB.

[CEO Aaron]

Always get IA first. If your goal is to have more tech, get IA, then doctrine flexibility, and steal the free tech off the faction that researched SotHB before you.

Judged on its own merits, SotHB is a pretty mediocre tech. It _is_ a gateway to some more interesting techs, but in the early game, ramping up your resource intake and snatching up early SPs is paramount. A mere tech lead can be recovered. A population and development lead is alot harder catch up to.

[livid imp]

Actually I concern myself with SotHB for the Trance ability more than the free tech. Once you go FM, you really need trance.

[CEO Aaron]

I'm only so excited about trance, even in FM. Early native life tends to be very weak, and even with the psi penalty imposed by a poor planet rating, you can usually overcome any worms that crop up in the normal course of a game. Trance only really becomes critical if you're facing a human adversary who's intent on mobbing you with worms.

Also, my point about this is that SotHB doesn't get you IA any faster. IA is far more useful a tech, and generally getting it early means a fast transition to wealth, crawler production and a few quick SP's. After I've got IA, SotHB is relatively quick to come, although more because I want Bio-Engineering than Trance garrisons.

[Jamski]

Planet Rating doesn't effect psy defence anyway, only attack. So Trance isn't effected by FM, or vice verse.

-Jam

[livid imp]

Yes, but pre-FM I attack incoming worms giving me a 3:2 advantage. After FM that advantage is gone due to the -30% to psi attacks

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Livid,

I'm confused about what your trying to say. If running FM trance offers no help in atttack. If your saying you want to defend better thats one point of view but realistically in the first years on planet womrs attack at penalty such that any normal unit will defend OK in base.

During FM I hardly have the time for creation of units or trolling for worms. Everything is normally geared towards pods first, infrastructure second. As a consequence I rarely am attacking worms in FM but will defend. The only caveat to this is if and when setting down new bases you are in large fungal areas having a designated trance defender accompanying the colony pod is helpful. IMO though it is normally wasteful of build quee time to build the extra defender when instead you could have been producing facilities or formers.


ABout the only time I'm glad to get SotHB first is if a) I'm running a double blind research game or b) if as University I plow through to IA and am still able to get to SotHB beore other factions.

[anarchie]

In an OCC with Uni, I found that going for SotHB before IA causes IA alone to take nearly three times as long to research. Once this happens, your only hope is to get size 5 and use scientists to research, but that's pretty hard if you can't crawl in nutrients =P.

[Chaos Theory]

For the first 15 years, worms attack units in the open at a penalty. For the first 50 years, worms attack units in bases at a penalty. Each of these penalties is strong enough that you should be able to win almost all the time. Furthermore, non-combat units defend against worms as if they were combat units when in bases.