Best strategy for Miriam

[Cybergod]

By best strategy I mean a peaceful hybrid/builder game.

Maybe switching your +2 SUPPORT by going Democratic and then going Green (eliminating all your bonuses except -2 Research, but with +4 EFFIC from Green + Demo, you can turn e. a. to 100% labs.

Thoughts? I never ever seen a builder miriam that's for sure.

[Ken Hinds]

I just played a Believers game where I not only reached trancendance but scored it in MY 2377. I only built 2 SP (Genome and Transcendance) and had 10 possibly 12 cities (didn't count them at the end and the last prior save had 10). I used a Planned Fundy society.

My biggest advantage was that I was isolated from the others and aside from incursions from Yang's minions I was pretty much left alone for most of the game. He was no serious threat since he was mostly sea based and Santiago was nearby with frequent cruiser patrols to keep his missle boats in check.

My main strategy consisted of pumping up my wealth to keep me in the lead for that catagory and hiring the Professor and his boys to do my research for me. I supplemented this with a steady supply of Artifacts linked to network nodes.

Ken

[Cybergod]

You ran Fundy and you still transcended? How did you do that? Zak couldn't have supplied you with all the techs? Or did you go "Or I'll crush you like a bug"?

So what do you think of a Demo/Green strategy?

I had another thought. What about going Demo/Planned/Wealth (giving you a +2 INDUSTRY, +1 ECONOMY and +4 GROWTH!!!) and your attack bonus out balances the negative morale? With this all you'll have in the minus will be your -2 RESEARCH and -1 PLANET. And you'll still have your +2 PROBE, through which you could have enouth morale to frame others for you stealing tech!

[DilithiumDad]

Democracy is a lock for Miriam, because she has no penalties with it. I wouldn't stay Green for long, because you miss out on pop booms and Free Market benefits. For extra fun, run Free Market as Miriam with Abundant native life setting while Herculeus is in perihelion with two boreholes per base! Yow!!
Better get the Neural Amplifier first.

My Believer stratetgy has several phases.

2100-2110 Set energy to maximum economy. I set energy to 60% economy for most of the game, because of the research penalry. Try to compensate by having high economy. Later, when I have lots of research facilities built, I can go to 80% research.

2100-2120 Build tons of scouts and explore everywhere. Build lots of pods. Pods get built as soon as turns to completion is less than turns to pop growth.

2120-2140 Build 4 formers per base. Cover everything in forest and do advance terraforming in future base sites.

2140-2160 Go into SP mode. You probably don't have Ind Auto, so use formers instead of crawlers and disband them inside the base building the Weather Paradigm (your top choice for SP, for the ability to build condensors and boreholes decades before the tech is available).

2160 on: depends on conditions.

[Ned]

My ideal game with Miriam is to find myself next to Zak. Attack and force him to surrender. Then give his bases back. With Zak as your submissive, your research problems are largely over.

Alternatively, use Miriam's support advantage by staying in fundy to gain morale and building a large number of units to explore, pop pods and meet and greet. Prob foils are essential.

Miriam is really different. It is fun to play the game emphasizing those differences rather than trying to compensate for them.

Ned

[Ken Hinds]

The way that I was able to transcend was by exploiting one of the game features. It works in both CIV II and SMAC. Rather than building "the world's most expensive settler" as many of us tended to do in CIV, I found that in CIV the production box for wonders never stops accumulating shields it just stops displaying them when it is full. It works the same way in SMAC, but here it seems to be more of a intended action rather than one of those accidental "Features". I started building the ME at one of my slow growing but very high production bases and just never stopped until I changed to Transcendance.

My situation with Zak was quite simple really. Once Yang got nasty I changed my science to exclusively conquest and Zak had all this neat weapons technology that he had developed for his fight with Brother Lal. I supplied him with Energy Credits and he ever so kindly kept me supplied with new technology.

I had managed to form a Pact very early in the game with Brother Lal and did everything short of going to war to keep him in at least a treaty status. Every time that Zak would come around ofering me gold and advanced techs to attack Lal I would give him a Song and Dance about how I was an honorable woman and could never do such a thing to Brother Lal. Then he would pout and I would offer to buy the tech from him instead. He would then ask for about half the amount that he had been willing to give me. I would pay him and bump my weapons tech by two or three levels and he would go away happy for 20 turns or so.

Brother Lal was busy hassling CEO Morgan and Yang had turned Deidre into Organic Beans Sprouts to feed his huddled masses around 100 turns into the game.

Then Brother Lal ever so nicely built Voice of Planet and I was home free. For something like 2,000 energy credits I changed over from the merchant exchange to Ascend to Trancendance winning the game.

Ken

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Beleive it or not Miriam can be a decent builder. Take stock of your benefits namely +2 support. Follow the advice of D-Dad except I deviate from his formula slightly. I prefer not to cash in the formers if necessary.

You'll want to do the following at each early base.
a)first ten years max out energy
b)1 scout per base and 3 formers
c) Do whatever it takes to get WP it is a must (if you have to disband formers so be it I would disband probe teams personally)
d) begin beeline to IA

Extra formers should go about creating condensor/farms

Once IA is inhand immediately go about Demo/planned/creches and begin making crawlers to bring in nuts. Specialize citizens to librarians intially and upgrade as specialist become available. Try if possible to get PTS and PTS pod boom your headquarters in anticipation of making a SSC.

Hold off boreholes until advent of Planetary Econ as otherwise it is a waste of t-forming time, instead concentrate of condensor/farms.

Miriam's +2 support allows her a jump inthe early game to get a vast army of formers inthe field this will allow the specialization gambit to be used more easily.

Og