Advice for Morgan

[DaChroniclez]

I am kinda new to Alpha Centauri. Morgan appeals to me since i hear you can buy ppl out and that kinda stuff but i am lost as to what scientific upgrades i should get in what order. Can someone experienced please post up a good order of Research i can do until i get familiar with wat everything does? Thanks, also can someone give me an outline of what i should build in my bases, how many bases i should get, how to get my economy good and basically things u think i should know. Thanks for any help.

[DaChroniclez]

also i would like to know what i should build around my bases (All i have been building is basically roads and forests and some farms). I also downloaded a couple save games of ppl playing as morgan and they had such a huge population in their bases and an unbelievable amount of energy/mineral in each base. How do i acheive this, thanks.

[Hydro]

DaChroniclez,

Sounds like you need Vel's SMAC Strategy Guide. This is a truly fine piece of literature and it should be in the library of anyone interested in SMAC/X. His guide is wonderful for outlining general and then specific strategies for factions.

To find it look at the links at the top of the General/Strategy forum.

Good luck!

[CEO Aaron]

DaChroniclez: Read this link - http://www.civgaming.net/smac/acad_buildprimer.shtml

While it's not Vel's guide, it has a good intro on how best to use Morgan's strengths during the opening gambit. Vel's is what to read if you're serious about mastering the game.

PS: I commend you on your laudable choice of faction.

[Hydro]

Money is good, but peace of mind is better: be a Gaian tree hugging, granola munching, eco-weenie!!

Frolicking in an isolated wooded glen is simply a perk (to use Morganite terms).

[Hydro]

Morgan PBEM Update: MY 2215.

Development: I have 16 bases with about 50 pop. My SE is Dem/FM/Wealth, and I just upped my social spending to 10 percent to get some bases in GA. These bases, which are completing their hab complexes, will then SMAX dem/crèche/GA pop boom for a while (mini-boom). I may increase spending to 20% to keep them booming, or until I get remaining drone control and TF/HF up. My maintenance is about 40, so it is coming along. Still on the docket – more NNs, which will be built after my first round of pop booms, depending on when I can start building TFs and HFs. Right now I’m concentrating on maxing minerals and population (late early to early mid game). I’m desperately trying to get Eco Eng and Env Eco with my semi-blind tech set at Build/Explore. I have 145 tech points/turn with discoveries every 10 years (this is almost 4x anyone else; this should increase during the pop boom, and after nodes are up). Bases have one to four crawlers hauling minerals, and I can’t wait to get restrictions lifted so those mines go to full production. I’ve had 2 fungus pops so far, with more to come. Formers are cleaning up the damage. I have lots of territory to build new bases, but am holding off since it is generating lots of buracracy drones. Formers are building roads, sensors, and terrain just in case. Even if I don’t build more bases these will be nifty resource parks for energy, food, or minerals in the near future.

Military: I have (most) coastal bases with plasma/trance, plas res/trance, or plas pulse/trance. Many bases have an infantry or speeder probes. Impact speeders are placed in critical bases at strategic locations, but right now I have more empath than impact speeders to control worms. I have a western, southern, central, and eastern Command Center for future building. One foil probe is roaming around, and another is building. Two foils are near the Cyborgs to take out transports and protect bases Aki has repeatedly attacked. One valiant 4-1-1 artillery has been beating the snot out of Cyborg foils, too.

Diplomacy: Pact with Gaians (it took two techs to bribe Dee); treaty with Spartans, Peacekeepers, and Uni. Vendetta with Cyborgs. The Spartans will be terminating their treaty soon due to a treaty dispute. I sold pulse armor and polymorphic software to the PKs, with whom they are at war – Santiago doesn’t understand that prohibiting tech trades to her enemies wasn’t in our friendship treaty contract so that was fair game. She has no business sense and her judgement is clouded by archaic concepts like ‘honor’ and ‘fair play’. What business school did she go to, anyway?

Geopolitics: Spartans are at war with PKs, and have retaken two Spartan bases subverted by the PKs. They are now preparing an assault on the PK capital, which has Command Nexus and Planetary Datalinks (just completed). Santiago has the most pop by a small margin, but will surge ahead when she slowly absorbs the PKs, who are third in pop. Good thing I sold pulse armor to the PKs, not that the tech will help the AI that much. It will slow the Spartans down, though.

SPs: I have WP, HGP, and EG. I have minerals accumulating for PTS, and can complete it any time with spare crawlers (I’m waiting for Energy Grid). Santiago has VW and ME. The PKs have PDL and CN. Santiago will get CN and PDL when she takes UN Headquarters.

Outlook: I think pretty good. My minerals and energy production beats everyone else hands down, and in its present state is better than the Spartans even if she absorbs the PKs. Economically I’m doing well, too. I do need to pop boom to boost energy, which is stuck for a while. When I get TF and HF built I should pop boom with ease, but now a mini-pop boom seems prudent.

Overall: It’s rather fun to play Morgan. He is the ultimate Machiavellian, doing ‘right’ when it is profitable and hang the rest. It looks like all he needs is time to get his productive base established, then he will be difficult to dislodge. It’s also really fun to be awash in energy, too!

And remember: Human activity is economic activity…

[Hydro]

Another quick update: It is MY 2226. The Spartans have conquered UN HQ and another large PK city, capturing the Command Nexus and Planetary Datalinks (boo, hiss!). Then Santiago ended her war with Pravin. The Hive continues to beat the snot out of the PKs – a worrying development (see below).

I finally got Env Eco! Energy predictably spiked, and after multiple fungal blooms so has my mineral production. My pop is just behind the Spartans. Santiago called for elections, and I won. Lal supported me over Santiago - I wonder why? Half my cities are building tree farms, and my formers are busy cleaning up bloom damage and building the odd borehole at key cities.

Diplomatically I'm pacted with the Gaians, and recently pacted with the PKs in exchange for me declaring war on the Hive. The PKs gave me Cyberethics and a bit of energy. Good deal for me, especially now that my trade rating is 7 (lots of treaty trade energy). I have treaties with the Spartans and Uni. War with Cyborgs.

I've decided the Cyborgs have lived long enough and am building a gatling army of rovers and infantry. It will take me a short while to build a land bridge, then my superior resources will crush them like bugs. Three of my cities have more production than the entire Cyborg empire. I know it’d be easier after Doct: Air, but that is a ways off. I’m done with this simpering ‘can’t we all just get along’ - I want to see Aki in chains now!

After a number of TFs are done I’ll do another Dem/FM/Wealth GA boom. My previous short GA boom took 2 cities to size 9 – the biggest I could get without TFs.

Ah, it feels good rolling in energy! Greed is good!

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Hydro,

You may want to simply aquire the Aki bases via probing actions. Greed is good. Lol....

[Hydro]

I would, except that it costs ~700 energy to subvert a size 5 Cyborg base that is in full riot. That is a little too expensive, and bribing a stable base is simply out of the question. I can think of lots of things I'd rather do with that much energy.

All her bases are defended by synthmetal defenders. A nice mix of gatling infantry and rovers should to the job.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Hydro
I want to see Aki in chains now!

Yea Baby!

[Hydro]

Ooooh. Did I say that? Must be Freudian...

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by Hydro
I would, except that it costs ~700 energy to subvert a size 5 Cyborg base that is in full riot. That is a little too expensive, and bribing a stable base is simply out of the question. I can think of lots of things I'd rather do with that much energy.

All her bases are defended by synthmetal defenders. A nice mix of gatling infantry and rovers should to the job.

This makes me think back to years back when I posed the question "Does anyone know the formula for subversion costs?" No one really knew other than generics about if a creche is present, how many units were garrisoned etc.?

Seems to me much of the game is based upon the civ2 code, and if so one would think that distance from your HQ may additionally play a role.

Has anyone experimented with rush buying a HQ nearest to the intended subverted base? The intention of course would be to rebuild the HQ back at your SSC or whatever once you've completed your cheaper aquisitions (if the cost was truly reduced of course).

[Hydro]

Well, this base was size 4 with and RC and one (4)-1-2 defender. It was about 3 tiles from the Cyborg HQ.

I've never seen a formula for subversion either. Not that it matters much. There isn't much you can do except probe them to see the $$.

[Ned]

Originally posted by MariOne

I'd carefully check this assumption using the datalinks-provided formulas.
If your FIRST citzen was a drone *in* your 9th founded base (or *after* founding 9 bases?), then probably you have triggered your first Bureaucracy Warning with your 7th base, as the first extra-B-drones are NOT usually generated in the new bases which trigger them, but in one of the existing ones.
Thus, you might find out that every base will have an extra-drone by the time you have 14 (or maybe even 12) and not 18.
Anyway, with the HGP, and investing in RecCommons, you'll be able to tackle higher levels of B-Drones. Just expand till you see you can manage them, no point in setting a pre-set limit.

MariOne, do you have the b-drone formula. I know I did some research on the formula a couple of years ago and deduced it. However, I cannot find my posts through the search feature, and seem to have misplaced my original spreadsheat.

[Hydro]

Ned,

Here are the formulas you’re looking for (from the Prima Strat Guide):

B-drones = (bases x 2) / [(8-diff) x (4 + effic) x worldsize

Where

Bases = number of bases (obviously)
Diff = difficultly level (1 = citizen through transcend = 5)
Effic = social engineering efficiency rating
Worldsize = the size of the world (tiny = 0.6, small = 0.8, large = 1.1, huge = 1.6)

For folks that are interested, there are also formulas for regular drones and drones from conquered bases.

Regular drones = (pop + diff – 6)

Drones for conquered bases = (pop + diff – 6) + SMALLER

For SMALLER, chose the smaller of [(Conquest + 9) / 10] and [(pop + diff – 2) / 4]
Where Conquest is years after you conquered the base subtracted from 50 (eg – when you’ve owned a base 50 years you’ve assimilated it and Conquest = 0)