Green Maritime Pod Strategy

[Drago Sinio]

Yes, a captured life form is just as good as one you "build" your self. Better in fact, since its independent, drawing no support.
IOD's are great for taking those annoying little sea bases that the AI pops up all over the place.

[Mongoose]

Originally posted by PhoenixPhlame73
My only question for you is something that i probably should know but was never quite clear on : Can a human controlled native life-form capture an enemy base, or are regular units required for this?

Certainly they can!

[PhoenixPhlame73]

My only question for you is something that i probably should know but was never quite clear on : Can a human controlled native life-form capture an enemy base, or are regular units required for this?

[Drago Sinio]

Marid A, Yes, it is a fun way to start out a game, a nice change of pace from my usual style. Very flexible too, you can switch to whatever style you like after all the pods are popped.


The Worms and Marines made quick work of Miriam, I took four of her bases within five turns, and she came looking for a truce. So I took the truce, rested my troops for a few turns to repair them, and then took three more bases! Then she begs for a truce and a peace treaty. So I gave it to her and turned on the Hive. I took three of his bases in a one turn surprise attack! He asked for a truce, which I gave to him. Then a few turns later he sneak attacked me, and I sacked his capitol and two other nearby large bases. So now he wants peace again.

End result is with the (independent) worms and IOD's, plus a few marines and 12 Tachy Needles, I added about 6 large bases (total of four SP's) and a bunch of little bases to my empire. I homed my needles and marines to the captured bases, so my core bases arent saddled with the support.

The strategy works very well for a builder type player, because early in the game you are at peace with everyone, most of your military are independent captured natives that you neither build nor support, and those popped pods give you free builds and a ton of credits for rush building infrastructure. I had no battles at all, other than with the natives, until after I had popped all the pods and built up all the infrastructure in my core bases. I even loaned money to pretty much all the other factions, I had so much of it.

The only other powerful faction left at this point is Santiago. She hasnt bothered me, so I think I will leave her alone for now and let her gnaw on the bones of Miriam's and Yang's holdings for a while, and do some more infrastructure builds.

[Marid Audran]

Sounds like a blast, Drago. Usually in-game I have at least one base designated as my "Mind Worm Institute," with a Biology Lab, Centauri Preserve, Brood Pit, etc, as the facs become available, to churn out worms. I recall how useful it was as Cha Dawn one time to capture Isles of the Deep filled with pre-boil or boil worms in the early game and the use it to explore, assist, or assault as needed. Later on, capturing one of those aggravated eco-damage pops can yield 10+ Mature/Demon Boil mind worms for your psi forces, a lot of fun!

[Drago Sinio]

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.