Hendrick's Bane

[Capt Dizle]

I have played to 2181 and will soon be posting a limited narrative and a comparison chart. I want to interject some comments about operations at this point. It is perfectly valid to undertake operations in a builder game because one must suffer the financial cost and deal with the consequences to political status and the impact on commerce.

In this game I accepted a war pact with Lal against the Spartans early. This is a good move for several reasons, not the least is which is that Santiago generally researches different tech lines than Lal or the human player. At this point she has 4 techs unknown to me. It would be beneficial to gain those through infiltration rather than to research them myself.

Although I do not have a good map of the Spartan's base locations, I can pinpoint them through careful inspection of the available map and infiltration data. So I am laying on an operation to steal that tech. This will require production of quite a few foil probes, which is a significant investment.

One negative effect of stealing multiple techs is that your base research cost can jump dramatically afterward, cutting into the gain in terms of raw number of turns needed to get to the end of the tech tree.

I will risk it, and therefore I am in a race to get the operation underway quickly. The longer it takes the more likely I will be cornered into researching the very techs that I want to steal due to tech selection limitations.

I am being forced to research Intelluctual Integrity now even though Lal has it. He refused to trade because of it's link to a secret project. A secret project that I have no interest in building. Nor is Lal building it either. Sheesh.

[Capt Dizle]

Event Log MY 2171-81

2172

Began the turn by failing to get the opportunity to research Progenitor Psych, needed to get me in position to research Adaptive Economics for the Planetary Energy Grid.

Built the Empath Guild. Contact Morgan and traded Environmental Economics for Progenitor Psych. Great! Traded Ecological Engineering for Morgan's map. Gave Morgan Doc: Flex for good will. Accepted Morgan's treaty offer then gave him Doc: Loyalty for a Pact. Excellent.

Contacted Dee and traded Centauri Empathy for her world map. I refuse her effort to extort tech and then accepted her offer of a Treaty.

Changed research goal to Adaptive Economics at a lost of 40 research points. Five turns to go.

Called council and was elected governor over Lal with Morgan's support. Not that it was needed. All other factions abstained. The increase commerce dropped the research rate to 4 turns.

2173

First fungal pop. Commerce income is 54 turn, 137 net energy credits and 262.8 labs per turn. Commerce is good.

2176

Approaching the point of planting tree farms I decided to go into debt to help finance it. Borrowed 363 credits from Morgan.

Needing still more, I decided to have a tech fire sale. Sold 5 techs to Morgan, 4 to Dee, 6 to Lal, and one to Yang (gave him a tech for a truce first). Also traded Doc: Loyalty to Lal for Doc: Initiative. I even let Miriam extort a tech to see if she would buy some afterwards. No dice. I knew better but I got greedy. Altogether my bank account rises from 75 ec to well over 800.

2178

Built the Planetary Energy Grid. Nice boost.

2179

Allocated 10% to Psych SE to induce limited GA to induce some scatter pop booms. As this increased my economy at the bases affected resulting in +2 base energy there is little income loss and my tech production actually goes up.

Note that I am playing a forest first, low pop opening. I wonder what might have been if I had tried the Buster high pop game.

__________________________________________________ _
Looking forward to the endgame I can see that using the Sikander base placement paradigm I will not be able to re-home all of my crawlers to the SSC as Hendrick did as I will need to keep them home to work condensers, at least in my inland bases.

Or maybe I can build sky farms to handle that. We will see.

I have uncovered the volcano so I am thinking of setting up some bases there for the express purpose of utilizing the mineral bonuses to pump out rover and trawler supply units for the SSC. But I don't know if I am going to have the time to make that pay off.

[Capt Dizle]

Jogging up the road to erewhon

Morgan Builder	Mission Year 2181	University beer run
Hendrick	Player	jimmytrick
26	Bases	21
81	Population	71
6	Commerce Rate	5
30	Commerce Income	99
Total: 6 Human Genome Project, Weather Paradigm, Planetary Energy Grid, Planetary Transit System, Empath Guild, Merchant Exchange	Secret Projects	Total: 7 Human Genome Project, Merchant Exchange, Planetary Transit System, Virtual World , Weather Paradigm, Planetary Energy Grid, Empath Guild
21	Technologies Discovered	24
1041	Research Cost	1350
313	Accumulated Research	451
285	Labs per Turn	355.5
4 turns	Tech Rate	4 turns
Neural Grafting in 3 turns	Tech Goal	Intellectual Integrity in 3 turns
Free Market/Wealth	Social Engineering	Demo/Free Market/Wealth
150	Energy	642
50-0-50	Energy Allocation	40-10-50
332	Gross Income	253
-75	Maintenance	-36
257	Net Income	217
4 Children's Crèche, 23 Recycling Tanks, 24 Recreation Commons, 14 Network Nodes, 8 Tree Farms, 3 Research Hospitals	Infrastructure	7 Children's Crèche, 20 Recycling Tanks, 21 Network Nodes, 2 Recreation Commons, 6 Tree Farms, 1 Research Hospital
3 Scouts, 1 Unity Rover, 1 Synthmetal Sentinel	Land Units	1 Mining Laser,  1 Unity Rover, 2 Scouts, 1 Trance Synthmetal Garrison, 1 Synthmetal Garrison
--	Naval Units	--
--	Air Units	1 Scout Chopper
54 Formers, 49 Supply Crawlers, 3 Probe Teams, 4 Alien Artifacts, 1 Colony Pod,	Non Combat Units	47 Formers, 56 Crawlers, 2 Probe Teams, 5 Alien Artifacts, 2 Transport Foils, 4 Sea Formers
117	Total Units	127
Pact: None Treaty: Lal & Miriam Truce: Santiago & Lal Vendettaeirdre & Yang	Politics	Pact: Lal & Morgan Treaty: Deirdre Truce: Yang & Miriam Vendetta: Santiago

[Capt Dizle]

Hendrick, I think I am gaining ground. You better issue some stock.

Edit: Left 4 colony pods off my unit list above but since I got the table to work I am not about to edit it there. BTW, that little grin in the part showing Hendrick's political relationships was a typo. I swear.

[Hendrik]

I think it is indeed highly likely you will gain some ground - until I pop boom in 2197. The Sikander build style also means much lower mineral production compared to my style... I don't think you will be able to throw nearly as many formers and crawlers at an energy park as I can.

But we will see, it ain't over till Miriam sings.

Oh and could you email the save files to me or post them here? I always like getting the feel of a game from the save files.

[Capt Dizle]

beer run saves MY 2160-81

Here you go.

[Capt Dizle]

MY 2188 Comparison

Morgan Builder	Mission Year 2188	University beer run
Hendrick	Player	jimmytrick
26	Bases	25
87	Population	102
7	Commerce Rate	5
91	Commerce Income	96
Total: 7 Human Genome Project, Weather Paradigm, Planetary Energy Grid, Planetary Transit System, Empath Guild, Merchant Exchange, Planetary Datalinks	Secret Projects	Total: 7 Human Genome Project, Merchant Exchange, Planetary Transit System, Virtual World , Weather Paradigm, Planetary Energy Grid, Empath Guild
24	Technologies Discovered	26
1478	Research Cost	1552
350	Accumulated Research	655
418	Labs per Turn	517.2
4 turns	Tech Rate	4 turns
Bio-Engineering in 3 turns	Tech Goal	Planetary Economics in 2 turns
Demo/Free Market/Wealth	Social Engineering	Demo/Free Market/Wealth
34	Energy	844
50-0-50	Energy Allocation	40-10-50
429	Gross Income	395
-127	Maintenance	-105
302	Net Income	290
7 Children's Crèche, 24 Recycling Tanks, 26 Recreation Commons, 21 Network Nodes, 14 Tree Farms, 9 Research Hospitals, 2 Habitation Complexes	Infrastructure	19 Children's Crèche, 24 Recycling Tanks, 25 Network Nodes, 15 Recreation Commons, 19 Tree Farms, 2 Research Hospital, 1 Habitation Complex
4 Scouts, 1 Unity Rover, 1 Synthmetal Sentinel, 1 Mining Laser	Land Units	1 Mining Laser,  3 Unity Rover, 1 Scouts, 1 Trance Synthmetal Garrison, 1 Synthmetal Garrison, 2 Empath Scout Defensive
--	Naval Units	--
--	Air Units	1 Scout Chopper
73 Formers, 60 Supply Crawlers, 3 Probe Teams, 4 Alien Artifacts, 1 Sea Former	Non Combat Units	51 Formers, 64 Crawlers, 2 Probe Teams, 6 Alien Artifacts, 1 Transport Foils,6 Sea Formers, 4 Skimship Probe Foils
148	Total Units	147
Pact:Miriam Treaty: Zakharov Truce: Lal Vendetta: Deirdre, Yang& Santiago	Politics	Pact: Lal & Morgan Treaty: Deirdre Truce: Yang & Miriam Vendetta: Santiago

[Capt Dizle]

MY 2188 Hendrick's Bane notes

The 2181-88 period was quiet on the diplomatic front. A limited pop boom induced by the 10% energy allocation has allowed the University to pass Morgan in population and draw even on most fronts. In fact I find the game positions to be remarkably close.

Interesting to note that I switched to SE choices FM, Wealth, and Demo ASAP and have remained in them for the entire game. I felt the efficiency boost from Demo was more valuable that the free minerals for new bases due to bdrones.

I now am faced with a decision about a possible switch to Knowledge. It seems more advantageous to remain in Wealth becasue a GA pop boom at a lower economy rating would reduce the energy yield in golden age bases. As time passes and the bases become larger this will not be as important a factor.

The industry bonus is also still helpful during a time period when I am looking to rush build facilities constantly.

I will build the Ascetic Virtures secret project as soon as I able with an eye toward constant movement to size 16 bases. Research hospitals are going in to be followed by Hybrid Forests.

I initially intended to make 25 core bases, I need one more as one of the bases I have built near Mt. Planet will be used for crawler/trawler production. I may also build some other specialist bases near Mt. Planet.

And of course as I begin to build the energy park I will need some extender bases so I can keep some units on the frontier to handle mind worms.

My two biggest concerns are avoiding eccodamage and finding a way to deal with Yang. As the energy park is going to extend towards him I have to be concerned about the danger of Hive airpower.

The first tech raid on the Spartans is coming up shortly.

[Capt Dizle]

Its 2200 and I am too tired to make a report. But I will share one thing, on this turn I got the event "solar flares". Having promised myself that I would play this game as hard as I can I must now go through all 81 of my crawlers, switch them to convoy energy and then go back and reset them next turn.

But not tonight.

[Capt Dizle]

MY 2188-2101 Notes

Emphasis on infrastructure and limited pop booms.

Tech raid on Santiago yielded Adaptive Doctrine, Optical Computers, Advanced Military Algorithms, Superconductor, and Nonlinear Mathematics.

Traded with Dee for Field Modulation.

The tech steal got me to the point of having all techs on the board. Given my tech rate acquiring additional techs from the AI is shaky. I determined then to cash in 5 of the 7 artifacts that I have, the other two being in transit.

This yielded Superstring, Pre-Sentient Algorithms, Retroviral Engineering, Fusion, and Centauri Genetics. The key tech I was looking for was Fusion of course. Fusion Labs are under construction. The artifacts were cashed in 2101. I will next pursue Advanced Ecological Engineering so that I can upgrade my formers to fusion, clean super formers.

Experienced solar flares as noted above and switched almost all of my crawlers to energy and specialists to technicians. This yielded a net of 4240 credits in 2101, which based on a 60-10-30 allocation was about 3.5 times my current income level. This beats the hell out of suffering an asteroid strike. This nice one time bonus will help to fund the fusion labs and former upgrades.

I forgot to go for the Global Trade Pact for a number of turns and was darn lucky to get it by a vote of 4-3. I was concerned about Deirdre as she has become quarrelsome. Both Morgan and Lal are magnanimous, but Lal could turn on me in a moment.

The only thing I am disappointed in as far as the comparision with the Morgan Builder game is the fact that Hendrick blew past me in population. This shows the difference between a carefully organized pop boom as demonstrated by Hendrick and the limited type of boom I am running with the 10% psych allocation. I will have to pay closer attention to growth over the next segment.

Now it's time to start that energy park.

[Capt Dizle]

Morgan Builder	Mission Year 2101	University beer run
Hendrick	Player	jimmytrick
26	Bases	25
212	Population	184
7	Commerce Rate	6
423	Commerce Income	694
Total: 7 Human Genome Project, Weather Paradigm, Planetary Energy Grid, Planetary Transit System, Empath Guild, Merchant Exchange, Planetary Datalinks	Secret Projects	Total: 8 Human Genome Project, Merchant Exchange, Planetary Transit System, Virtual World , Weather Paradigm, Planetary Energy Grid, Empath Guild, Ascetic Virtues
36	Technologies Discovered	42
2341	Research Cost	2786
314	Accumulated Research	405
890.4	Labs per Turn	1068
3  turns	Tech Rate	3 turns
Superconductor in 3 turns	Tech Goal	None in 3 turns
Demo/Free Market/Knowledge	Social Engineering	Demo/Free Market/Wealth
230	Energy	4766
40-20-40	Energy Allocation	40-10-50
810	Gross Income	1549
-268	Maintenance	-287
542	Net Income	1262
25 Children's Crèche, 26 Recycling Tanks, 26 Recreation Commons, 25 Network Nodes, 24 Tree Farms, 3 Hybrid Forests, 20 Research Hospitals, 24 Habitation Complexes	Infrastructure	24 Children's Crèche, 25 Recycling Tanks, 25 Network Nodes, 23 Recreation Commons, 24 Tree Farms, 22 Research Hospital, 19 Hybrid Forests, 10 Habitation Complex, 1 Thermocline Transducer
4 Scouts, 1 Unity Rover, 1 Synthmetal Sentinel, 1 Mining Laser	Land Units	1 Mining Laser,  2 Unity Rover, 0 Scouts, 1 Trance Synthmetal Garrison, 1 Synthmetal Garrison, 3 Empath Scout Defensive
--	Naval Units	--
--	Air Units	1 Scout Chopper
84 Formers, 67 Supply Crawlers, 3 Probe Teams, 0 Alien Artifacts, 5 Sea Former	Non Combat Units	65 Formers, 83 Crawlers, 2 Probe Teams, 2 Alien Artifacts, 1 Transport Foils, 7 Sea Formers, 5 Skimship Probe Foils
168	Total Units	174
Pact: Miriam Treaty: Zakharov& Lal Truce: None Vendetta: Deirdre, Yang & Santiago No Global Trade Pact	Politics	Pact: Lal & Morgan Treaty: Deirdre Truce: Yang & Miriam Vendetta: Santiago Global Trade Pact 2195

[Hendrik]

The attachment you made was for year 1, not year 101
I am completely amazed at how many hybrid forests you have compared to me, quite impressive.

The next ten years are the sharpest in terms of pop growth and infrastructural development for my game, if you can maintain your lead then you will be ahead for the rest of the game.

[Capt Dizle]

Hey, I am notorious for fumbling the late game.

I have gotten to 2209 and have built the supercolider, switched to knowledge, put in thinkers, switched allocation to 20-80. This results in a tech rate of one per turn. I feel pretty good about that. But I am in deep water as far as how to avoid researching the unnecessary techs. If I can avoid those I will shave some time off the game. Someone posted that you can do this by not researching Unified Field. Of course if give only that choice you have to take it.

I don't remember ever playing a game to trancendence with SMAX. So going through the end of the tech tree will be a first for me.

The game is pretty time consuming at this point.

One correction to my last chart, I built the Longevity Vacine in my SSC. This was more helpful than I thought but from this point forward credits will not be as important as labs. Working very hard to get more energy to the SSC. I haven't transfered the HQ there because I am unsure if I will gain enough to offset the lost energy from other bases due their inefficiency going up. Some of them are costal bases and boy, they are generating a lot of labs. Coastal bases rock.

[MariOne]

Rock makes cliffs, sand makes beaches

[Capt Dizle]

Thanks for that info Mose. Thinks are much clearer now.

BTW, that has to be a record for your shortest post, no?