Turns of SMAC succession game #2: Lal's World

[Avenoct]

Smack, did you 'accidentally' load up your aldeberaan mod for this succession game?

Heh, I only did that Once!

No, but Santi is sure playing like it. Aldeb...grrr...grrr...must finish it!

I forgot to mention, I'm alergic to Ancient Artifacts.
I tend to collect about 30, then cash them the turn before I transcend, or, in the beginning use one or two for prototypes. That's all I do with them. I know, dumb, but they are too powerful so it's just a habit to make things tougher.

Did anyone email JohnD? I'll assume not and pester him with one now.

Ok, that's 1 gone for the weekend, 2 here. How about ye others? I'd like to play through and just set up another game after this one. Bullish, but I'm really starting to like this format better than competetive MP. Besides, you can't have me programming Java and hanging out in the server room of university (the holy grail they call it) all weekend, can you?

-Smack

[Qantaga]

I did e-mail the turn to johndmuller last night.

I will be around this weekend, too.

[Avenoct]

3 for 5, that's a quorum (sp?). Game to be played through, unless JohnD or Arima compell us otherwise. You have to realize, the level of investment in this type of game is different. We are a team of strangers at this point. What I think would be really interesting is if we continue to play game after game. What would happen to our strategies?

-Smack (who just had an odd experience)

[johndmuller]

Hey guys, I'm just playing the turn now, will send it along in a couple of hours.

[johndmuller]

Here's the turn, I'm glad I took notes as I went along, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get this out. Personally, I would vote for you guys not playing too far ahead over the weekend, (you could always start a different game) but whatever you end up doing will be cool with me.
Have fun,
John


Commissioner JDM's Report to the General Assembly for the period MY 2000-xx

Did a lot of housekeeping and getting us ready to do some fighting; had some minor (defensive) scirmishes with Believers and Spartans as discussed below. Intorduced Police units to a number of bases to help with the manpower situation and defense. Our SE setup leaves us rather weak in the military sense; so I have been building trained units and sending them to monoliths where possible. Good infrastructure and research results and little diplomatic action (sunspots out now). Air power will be arriving and will presumably turn the tide decisively our way soon.

Morgan begins CDL in 2201
Sunspots started in 2202 (20 years)

Various Naval and worm battles(about 50/50 due to our poor morale)Some Highlights:
--Monitor & Merrimac fight in the Straits (both go down eventually)
--Our expedition to get rid of that annoying Naval bombardment off the west coast gets distracted by a pod (which has an IOD) bye bye expedition, hello mindworms (we have one of our land units right there to score $$. Have new foil started, but Miriam's boat gets zapped by another IOD!
--Miriam's got some armored rovers on that little almost island north of our new base UN Hilltop Lectern which took out our exploratory force; they may be in the fungus or out of sensor range there somewhere; don't know which way they are going. Just knocked off a foil of hers off the coast there
--Spartans landed a few men on the eastern islet, we are working on it. At the moment, they have one man at 12,24 at 50%, but we are in a stalemate due to terrain; waiting for reinforcements.
--Spartans also seem to be building up a force in the fungus in 86,30 then 87,29 have been bombarding them, but don't know if a boat is hiding in the fungus offshore too (doesn't seem to be).
--Miriam has landed near Un Equality (western edge); we are rushing reinforcements; she will probably come up short, but may kill off the long awaited bore hole project and/or give the base a scare/

Tried to infiltrate D, but she had a probe in the base which came out and got us after I tried to move off into her other base (next time use two and/or go by sea). Tried to probe Santiago for cash, just to get probe morale up, but lost probe (got 3ec); hit her with a naval arty to get her to switch away from making foils.

Got our first >POP< in 2204 (also our 2nd - the rest will be for real); started working on tree farms. Taken a number of hits near Criminal Tribunal, just fungus as far as I know, but has dropped the ED a lot.

Finished researching Synth Fossil Fuels; was offered Air Power, couldn't resist studying that; be ready 2218 or sooner. Finished the Citizens defense force. Now also have Fungicide to put on our gardens. Got several more AAs; have seven of them now.

Respectfully,
Commissioner JDM

[Avenoct]

JDM,

Sounds like things are heating up. This could get interesting with Santi being such a menace.

As to the suggestion of starting another game to play over the weekend, that's fine by me...would you Scipio or you Quantage be interested? I'm really fine to go either way.

-Smack

P.S. I emailed Arima to notify of the turn.

[Arima]

Hello. Turned played, and Santi is not being much of a mence. Miriam is.

Summary of 2110-2125
First, the good news. We have governership, due to everyone abstaining. So we have inflitrator status. Horray!

We got Doctrine: Air Power, and I started on and completed Planatary Economics, for Hybrids. I'm researching Neural Gafting, I think. I also cashed in 2 AAs for Doctrine: Initative, and Applied Relativity. I started SuperCollider in 2 bases in case we get Pre-Sentient Algorithms.

Battle Summary:
I repulsed the first wave with strageic probe team operations, and using the missle rovers that were around. I gathered the missle rovers up to get ready for a crossing, but I think that is doubtful now. You might want them to go to the west.

The second wave consisted of: 1 scout rover from the spartans
A whole bunch of gatling infantry from the believers. I took care of those, as well.

About 2116, I recieved the cheerful message that the Spartans and Believers have joined forces against me. This would probably explain why they both have Doctrine: Initative and Air Power.


About 2222, I got the message that the Morgans were about to complete the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm. I also learned Santi has started it. We'll need to probe that away. You have five turns. Good luck.

And on the Hive-University battle, The Hive is winning. Bad. I expect the University to die within 50 years.

Base Operation Summary:
I worked on slight infastructure, like Network Nodes. The game was also acting strangely, because we were getting no talents, but no drones either. Also, started building Missle Penatrators En Masse, but you might want to start on Interceptors.


Good luck!

[Avenoct]

Arima, what's your opinion on this weekend: Play through, start a new game for those that'll be around, or bugger off?

That no-drone, no-talent thing sounds familiar...but why can't I remember what causes that?

-Smack

[Arima]

Well, I'm going to be here this weekend. I would like to start a new game, maybe with the first start position.

BTW, there was one talent, I think. But that's it.

[Scipio Centaurus]

Sounds like JDM is the only one who'll be away this weekend. I probably won't get the turn done till Friday, so if everyone else in the lineup takes their alloted day I don't really see any reason to start another game.

Especially not another one with Lal! That would be my 3rd PK succession game in succession (Did I make a pun?). Anyway... enough of Lal's socialistic manipulation! I'm beginning to feel like a bachelor in a maternity ward!



If we get to JDM's spot in the rotation too soon, can't we just skip his spot and then pass the turn to him when he gets back?

- Scipio

PS. I don't normally play PK... isn't Lal supposed to get a talent for every 4 population? Is that what is missing?

PPS. Arima? I'm not sure I understand your 'pass it along' reference about probing the HSA away from someone within 5 years? Hopefully that will be obvious once I take a look at the game turn?

[Avenoct]

Sounds intelligent Scipio. JDM, whenever you get back, it's your turn.

Now, for the next faction, it's time to start thinking about it.

We've had 3 Lal games and 1 Gaians. Maybe it's time for a militaristic faction? I'm putting my vote in for Yang or Santiago.

Arima, feel free to start up another Lal game. I'd be in. If you want to use the other start position, feel free, or start your own game.

-Smack

[Scipio Centaurus]

I seem to have lied about not getting the turn done till Friday. So sue me!

Report to the U.N. General Assembly MY2225-40

Operations
----------
I relocated our HQ. We didn't takeover the Uranium Flats and we never colonized the Garland Crater island - looks like Morgan's got it now - and our original HQ came under direct assault at least twice. 'nuff said about that. Only took 3 or 4 turns to relocate the HQ with a little rush building in the last couple of years. I renamed the affected bases.

We built The Supercollider (U.N. Enforcement Base) and The Neural Amplifier (U.N. Canals & Locks) is paid for. Soon as the next player hits TURN COMPLETE we'll have it. U.N. Criminal Tribunal is also working on the Neural Amplifier. The Empath Guild is available.

We learned Neural Grafting and Centauri Empathy (it was the only tech offered at the time) and are currently researching MMI.

With Centauri Empathy, I switched our societal structure to Democratic/Green/Wealth with a 50:0:50 energy budget. There was an immediate improvement in the build queue throughput at almost every base.

Terraforming
------------
Only major terraforming project was an echelon mirror on the hilltop next to our new HQ. Also leveled all surrounding rocky squares for eventual placement of solar collecters.

Diplomacy
---------
Contacted Morgan out of the gate and demanded a Pact. Got it. Tried to trade techs, but he wasn't having any of it, since he still had 5 years to go to HSA. He did eventually get the HSA. We'll survive. Just try to remember not to conduct espionage activities against our free-marketeer Pact Brother. I think Morgan is due for a call to see about tech trades anyway. Morgan's been taking full advantage of our Pact, flying a NJ in and around several of our bases.

Miriam contacted us about 3 years in and asked for a truce. I said I would only accept a Treaty. She said pay her 200 ec and it's a deal. Treaty signed. We got a good 6 or 7 years of peace with the Believers for our 200 ec. Not too shabby. She left a couple of her military units in our territory, but they were pinned and couldn't move from our coastline, so I ignored them.

Contacted Zak about 5 years in. Traded 3 techs for 3, including Fusion. I negotiated our tech down in a couple of the trades. Maybe we should give Zak a gift?

Santiago convened the PC around 2237 to vote on salvaging the Unity's fusion core(!) The measure passed with our support.

Yang convened the PC in 2240 to call for a new election for Planetary Governor. We were retained by a vote of 235 to 215. Only Zak and Morgan voted for us. Dierdre abstained. All other faction voted for Yang... umhhh... we did not vote for Yang.

Military
--------
Rebuffed some harrassing attacks from Santiago and Miriam. Santiago has discovered the joys of crawler sniping with her penetrators. Got 2 or 3 over the course of my administration. I designed AAA sentinels and built quite a few - most of which are standing guard over our frontline crawler units. We need more AAA crawler guards - and maybe a few replacement crawlers, as well - and we should probably have AAA garrisons in our bases as well.

Designed tactical needlejets and tried to build one in each base over the following 10 years or so. Note: I generally place air defenders 'on alert' in the bases. I have heard that some people have problems with their SMAC game crashing due to some bug with alert air defense units. If you know you have this problem (I don't have the problem - knock on wood), you should take the tactical NJs off of alert before playing the first turn.

I've also been experimenting with SAM Rovers in my games lately and I designed and built a few of these. I've actually been able to take out a couple of NJs with them (not in this game yet). Our current crop is trapped in Spartan territory across the northern straits, searching for the right time and place to be destroyed.

We had a cruiser transport parked in the fungus between our island and Santiago's for several years. Made a good bridge for invasion forces planning to assault Hawk of Chiron. BTW Hawk of Chiron is a tough nut for our NJs, but we will need coordinated air and land to take it out I think. Unfortunately, one of Santiago's NJs found and destroyed the transport in 2239.

Yang showed up on our SE coast (circa 2235) with a transport foil and a couple of decently armored ground units. His troops deployed right next to U.N. Great Refuge (did not even have a garrison yet). He demanded some potent tech (I forget which one) for an end to our vendetta. I told him to take a hike. Miriam then immediately dropped a couple of ground units and a probe team on the peninsula just north of the old HQ - I did get a message indicating they had agreed to combine forces against us. She captured a rover with the probe team and then used the rover to destroy a crawler. I repulsed Miriam's attack with some ground units stationed in nearby bases. I managed to find enough alert tactical fighters to clean up Yang's mess, though it seriously depleted our air defenses.

Didn't have time to start working on mindworm defenders.

Expansion
---------
Made a few colony pods to fill in the gaps in our coastline and eliminate some of the more infamous amphibious landing zones. Zak dropped a seabase just off of our southern coastline near Dierdre's islet - and then another seabase a few years later acros from U.N. Humanity Base. Good job Zak! He's building our island's protective ring of coastal seabases for us. I took the liberty of placing landmark names on our island's more famous beach front property. Hope everyone is suitably amused.

- Scipio Centaurus. Commissioner Pro Tem

[Avenoct]

Yipes, and I thought this game was a roll-over win b/c we had the jungle. I'm going to play the turn this evening. I'd really like to get a submissive faction, so be prepared for my squandering of our resources .

-Smack

So Far:

Morgans have: Organic Superlube (weapon 10) and Spaceflight
Spartans have: Spaceflight
Pacted with Deirdre, then gave Planet Econ.

2241: What a mess. Noone's fault really, but we are in a bad situation here. We have almost zilch as far as an offensive force goes. Thankfully the defender has the advantage in almost all situations, and our defensive network is quite nice. I think I'll try to wheedle Superlube from Morgan somehow, focus on building up a substantial offensive division or two, and THEN make some decisive attacks on Santiago.

2242: MMI: Copters are coming. Studying Bio-Engineering for Clean Reactor and Longevity SP.

2243: Formulating a Drop-Division plan for Santiago. Morgan has lost it and is wiping Zak off the planet. Not much we can do as Zak renounced pact when we wouldn't fight off Morgan. The AAA that Scipio developed are scaring off the majority of Miriam's and Santiago's Noodles. We are holding firm. Gained Superstring (W-8) from Zak.

2244: Egad, next wave of Spartans and Believers arrives by land and air. This is dicey.

[Scipio Centaurus]

Originally posted by Smack

2241: What a mess...we are in a bad situation here...
2242: MMI: Copters are coming...
2243: ...We are holding firm...
2244: Egad...This is dicey.

So it's

2241
2242
2243
2244

for the turn-by-turn emoticon analysis?

Why do I feel like I'm on a rollercoaster.

[Avenoct]

Alrighty, here it is, 2255. That was the toughest 15 turns I've had in awhile. I left things beautifully set up for a totaly wiping out or submission of Santiago. Go to town Quantaga!

2240:
Morgans have: Organic Superlube (weapon 10) and Spaceflight
Spartans have: Spaceflight
Pacted with Deirdre, then gave her Planet Econ.

2241: What a mess. Noone's fault really, but we are in a bad situation here. We have almost zilch as far as an offensive force goes. Thankfully the defender has the advantage in almost all situations, and our defensive network is quite nice. I think I'll try to wheedle Superlube from Morgan somehow, focus on building up a substantial offensive division or two, and THEN make some decisive attacks on Santiago.

2242: MMI: Copters are coming. Studying Bio-Engineering for Clean Reactor and Longevity SP.

2243: Formulating a Drop-Division plan for Santiago. Morgan has lost it and is wiping Zak off the planet. Not much we can do as Zak renounced pact when we wouldn't fight off Morgan. The AAA that Scipio developed are scaring off the majority of Miriam's and Santiago's Noodles. We are holding firm. Gained Superstring (W-8) from Zak.

2244: Egad, next wave of Spartans and Believers arrives by land and air. This is dicey.

2245-7: Getting our terraforming pounded by all the landings. Not many military losses.

Stole Orbital Spaceflight from Santiago. Yang and Zak are ganging up on Morgan, and none too soon. Unfortunately Yang-Miriam-Santiago are teaming up. Ruh roh.

2248: Switching from Dem/Green/Wealth to Dem/Green/Knowledge for the efficiency boost while I run 70/20/10 for war efforts. Morgan has Plasma Shard. I'd like to start a probe war on Morgan but we are nearly set for our Santiago campaign. Miriam is pounding our coastline (mainly in the south) with cruisers 6/3/6 and noodles 6/1/8. Deirdre is a godsend.

2249: Took Hawk of Chiron. It was far too premature (3 drop 8-1-2's and 2 drop 1-3-1 police, 1 8-1-8 copter), but I needed a truce with someone! With Santi temporarily sated I can turn my attention to making probes for Morgan's tech, and possibly making Deirdre submit.

2250: The question: Push the Spartan Front, Submit Deirdre, go to war with Morgan (for stealing his juicy tech). The answer: Beat the crud out of Santiago. We'll probably lose more troops with these inferior weapons, but it's better than risking war with the mighty Morgan at this point. Once Santiago is submitted (ETS: 2270), then we turn quickly on Morgan, Deirdre, then Yang, Miriam. Sure, peace would have been nice, but the AI is going to crush us if we don't nail a few of them.

2251-2: I can't believe the luck. Miriam signs truce for fusion power (which everyone else has). We are now only in vendetta with the distant Yang and are cranking out Choppers.

2153: We are stacked in Hawk of Chiron. Time to introduce the Spartans to the UN Charter on disposal of agressive factions.

2154: Final preparations for the Spartan Campaign. We have installed our 1st Airborne, 73rd copter division, and 2nd airforce on the Spartan Mainland. We have probes in position to initiate the conflict without sullying our reputation, and we have a truce with the Believers to help cover our back.

Beware Yang! He and Zak are making big plans...might want to take a gander at his bases. All is well and we are decidedly on the agressive, though the AI doesn't realize it yet.

Good Luck,

Governor Smack, mission years 2240-2255.