Turns of ACS03 (No-Crawlers)

[Avenoct]

Zakharov VII,

It's almost like we have the spirit of Zak himself joining us in your comments.hehe...but really, I'm sure we'll be starting up another succession game at the end of this one. MP games don't really take that much daily time, especially for the first 60 turns or so (about 2 months real time), but succession games are involved enough that I'd only reccomend playing one at a time. Still, if you'd like to get a game set up now you might find others willing to join on.

-S.

[Scipio Centaurus]

I would like to retry the NCC Succession game with UoP - seems like the lack of crawlers has been the least of our problems in this one - but it may be better to wait untill we resolve this version. I am willing to start the new game any time. Any takers from ACS03 for a new game starting this weekend? Zak VII - feel free to round up any other players you can find. We need about 5 reliable players to get off the ground.

- Scipio

PS The next time I will save off the game after the first 20 years and then go ahead and play on ahead for approx 100 years to get the lay of the land. No more surprises like Morgan dropping in the year after I turn the game over to the next player.

[Qantaga]

Scipio, I am in for the University No Crawler Challenge (Revisited) whenever you start it.

[Avenoct]

Scipio,

I wouldn't mind CMN'ing this game if you would like to send me a few starts I could give them a once-over and pass you back the one that looks the most reasonable. I'd like to be a bystander this time around anyways.

-Smack

[Zakharov VII]

OK then, it seems whenever you guys finish (seems to be moving quickly!), we can "revisit" no crawlers...

I actually had my first success with crawlers last night with Lal. The only problem is there's not much point in playing on, as it'll be hard to lose (I'm about 3 times more powerful than the next faction, only about 100 years into it!). I can really see why "no crawlers" is such a big deal now!!

I should be fairly reliable - tonight was one of the worse homework nights but I still got a couple hours of play time (and more to come, I hope!)

By the way, Smack, I tried Aldebaran - really cool! All new tech tree? Wow...played a little as the Peacemakers, and am having a blast . I DID back up the other txt files so that shouldn't be a problem when I come back to standard play.

I really like the HGP !!

Z

[Scipio Centaurus]

Originally posted by Smack
Scipio,

I wouldn't mind CMN'ing this game if you would like to send me a few starts I could give them a once-over and pass you back the one that looks the most reasonable. I'd like to be a bystander this time around anyways.

-Smack

Great. All you really need is the 'no-crawlers' alpha.txt file (attached) to replace the default. After you load the alpha.txt just fire up a standard SP game with the params outlined in the first message in this thread and save immediately. Then you can play ahead and see how easy or difficult the start is. When you get a good start, just pass the year 1 SAV file to the first player. You may have to pick the extra UoP tech before you can save the game. I assume no one will object to Centauri Ecology? Other players speak now or complain forever!

- Scipio

[johndmuller]

OK Students! Back to the real topic now!

Well, it takes longer each time, athough this time it wasn't as tense as it has been in the past, there was a lot of MM trying to get old Morgan's bases up to snuff in the midst of a lot of cheap shots by Yang, et al. Anyway, here is the overblown report.

Provost's Report to the University Board of Regents MY 2290-2305
Well ProvostHerrDoktor, Ve Certainly flushed Herr Morgans territory down der toiletten, Yah? What did you guys do to our Air Force? Ve flushed most of our stuff down der toiletten too, Yah? I guess I'm the military infrastructure guy; here we go again; at least we still have some Command centers and .Aerospace Complexes. I'm gonna try to build a Bioenhancement Center or 2 and a Navy Yard or 2. In the opinion of Provost HerrDoktorFieldMarshall JohnDMuller, morale is good for you; repeat after me, "Ve Vill builden der Zeppelins in der Aerospashen Centers; Ve Vill UpGraden mit der Monolithens, Heil Commanden Centers!"; once again now, "Ve Vill builden der Zeppelins in der Aerospashen Centers; Ve Vill UpGraden mit der Monolithens, Heil Commanden Centers!".

Executive Summary
It looks like the Hockey team has been setting policy since the HerrDoktor's last term and we seem to be somewhat overextended; we have made great strides on our home continent, but we have a ways to go just keeping it in our control, let alone expanding out of here into the rest of the world. Having said all that, after a flurry of activity at the beginning, we have had a rather quiet turn. Aside from kicking Morgan around some more, there isn't much we can do until we build up our forces again and send a bunch of them off to a different landmass. I couldn't bring myself to build a bunch of green troops (we've got a lot of them already), so we worked mostly on the basic stuff, especially in the former MorganLand. We have quite a bit more territory than we used to have, so our overall output should ramp up as the new bases become more productive. There is one new base on Das Boot ("Southern Comfort") it could use attention while in it formative years. Well I ended up building or starting a fair amount of Bioenhancement centers, but not yet any naval stuff - that should be a bit of a priority, but don't forget about the Navy Yards!

Body of Report
Military
Used one of those flimsy green Butterfly NJs as a ZOC shield for a Light Brigade overnight, then brought up another LB and zapped those two leftover Believer Missionaries. Not sure what you'all had going with that horde of mindworms, but they seem good for picking up spare change, so I suppose that and hopeful captures was the idea. Sadly, Dee spotted that probeship and introduced it to Davey Jones just before we could scope her out; the State department must have lost out in the budget wars, cause we never built any more during my tenure. In 2292, a pair of Yang nasties appeared just off the radar at Morgan Biochemical, a 6-4-1*1 and a 6-1-2*2; we don't have any offence to throw at them as our Light Brigades are all injured and far away; Morgan Biochemical's defense is %^&%& green, even though a Monolith is right next door ("UpGraden mit der Monolithens, UpGraden mit der Monolithens, UpGraden mit der Monolithens!"); I am trying to ZOC block with those flimsy green Butterfly NJs while hurrying a Light Brigade (fortunately, I had just rushed a (tadaa) Command Center (tadaa) there, so it won't be a %^&%& green one. If I get a decent plane built in time, perhaps we can survive without losing Morgan Biochemical.

How bout them Butterfly NJs! One is Green no longer, the Yang Fusion Rover moved away from its protector and got Butterflied! Boy is Yang's face red; zapped by a Green Butterfly! Yang apparently dropped off an Artie beyond Morgan Biochemical too, but it was easy pickens even for a Butterfly; meanwhile Yangs boat is still bombarding the Light Brigade to negligible effect (still at 90%); one of the boats left, and we're trying to sneak in with a (tough) Artie of our own to perhaps pop it enough to take out with an NJ. Yes it did it, the Yang battleship shelled the artie first and the artie shelled it back, so it took 2 hits and got weak enough to be finished off by a now-no-longer-green Butterfly. In 2303, Yang lands a couple more bad-boys right next to Morgan Biochemical, where we haven't really recovered from the last round yet; he goes through the repetitious window opening and closing which we know and love as the old Yang "Chest Thumping - My Nukes are Bigger than Your Nukes - Dance"; well he is d*** right about that. Well there's only 2 a (6-3-1) and a (6-4-1*2)of them and they don't have AAA, but they got silksteel. Fortunately,we just happen to have a fresh (chaos) Light Brigade right there, so it's "Once more into the Breach", . . .boom, pfsst, boom, . . well they lost 8 pints of blood, but the Light Brigade took out the Fusion bad boy and softened up the other one for one of our new (commando) Chaos NJ's (too easy, should have used a Butterfly). Now in 2305, the Spartans join the party at Morgan Biochem, but they just brought chips and dip, so should be easy to polish off - they are chopped liver now, but we need to get some sensors and roads and stuff out here so we can stay ahead of this.

There is a (veteran) AAA (fusion) Missle destroyer((6)-<4>-6*2) just offshore east of Morgan Biochem; we've got a (green, of course) Missile Destroyer ((6)-3-6*1) hiding in Mendelev College; perhaps if we could soften up the Yang boat with some land-based Artie first.....Now it or a cousin are Northwest of Academgorodok; it zapped our sensor and looks invulnerable; we're hurrying the bioenhancement center at Corsica Armory, but meanwhile we are building a (weak) artie at Academgorodok to maybe lighten it up a bit if we are lucky or at least keep it busy. Alas, we just spotted a second one (or is it the first) off the other coast of that promentory, west of Corsica - Shell city coming up - all we've got is a fighter, too weak for them. It may not be too bad, they are just taking pot shots at a former and a tile we are not working.

Miriam has appeared next to Morgan Energy Monopoly, but we have a truce currently, so we didn't attack with a Light Brigade conveniently in there. Morgan dildn't attack either, so She is still lurking about around there somewhere.

(So Called) Research
Sunspots over - 2293. Acquired Silksteel and Advanced Mil Algorithms (Ahh, we've wanted that one since my last turn) from Brother Lal for a few of our Green techs; thinking seriously of going with "Power" now - the Power of the Pen has been a little lacking lately. Brother Lal is researching Fusion now (2294); hope he can last long enough to get it (sigh! he's got 30 years to go); had to turn him down for a loan, but he loves us anyway (I've been playing Yang a lot recently and its strange being pals with that snake Lal). In 2297, breakthrough to MMI; now going for Fusion - ETA: 2308. We found a AA and put it in Academgorodok, available for whatever use.

Foreign Relations
We tested the air in 2295 and made a truce with Miriam; Dee and Santi could have been bought, but we thought that they would be better off preparing to be crushed; my soulmate Yang is too angry to talk to us at present. Lal is losing ground slowly to Dee. Unless things change, there might still be time for us to intervene and hence get a beachhead on that continent via Lal so that we don't have to fight our way on.

Domestic
Drone riots in University Base (2293), thats what happens when the HerrDoktorAbsentMindedProfessor pokes his nose into everyone elses business and forgets about his own office rent; all that stuff in University Base, but only luxuries enough for 4 workers, how barbaric. Now there is a Research Hospital there, but it could use a Holo and Hybrid Forests in between Units. We still have Demo/Green/Knowledge; its not bad for us, but Power is possible too, even Wealth if we embrace the military facilities credo..

Finance
Our income looks bad, but there's extra from the worms and we could add some Energy Banks to go with the boreholes. Fusion Labs will soon be available too; I think that there are a couple of Builder Provosts following me this time, so there will be plenty of money for the hawks to spend on bombs. I would predict at least one boom and bust before I'm back.

General Philosophy?
The trouble with all these boreholes is that they really stifle our pop growth; it seems to me that we need a condensor/farm for every borehole in order not to get unbalanced. The borehole/condensor-farm thing is worth at least 4-6-6 and goes up from there (to 6-6-6 with Soil Enhancement, +1 min if the condensor is on rolling, +1or 2 energy for river(s) and more if there are specials). There are other approaches that might work, like Hybrid Forests and/or Kelp/Solars, but nobody has been doing that yet, perhaps because HFs take too long with our fifteen turn windows and for the water stuff, we don't really have any protection for the sea formers. In the meantime, I've worked on some condensors. I had to unlearn my condensor theory though - I'm accustomed to building condensors on non-rolling terrain when crawling them, but since we have to work them, they should instead be on the rolling terrain to get the min add on - so before I got my head together on that, I built a few on the flat when I could as easily built them on the roll, so slap my wrist. There is the collateral improvements to the adjacent tiles (often making them wet), so it isn't quite that cut and dried either. Anyway, it seems that in this world, regular non-wet farm/solar plots aren't too exciting to have, as they don't help out enough with the nut shortage and are kind of puny in the mins and energy too. Satellites will be reallly good for us.

Notes to future Operations Directors:
---First Chopper soon to arrive at Antarctic Sabattical
---Prototyping Silksteel armor at a couple of places
---Hybrid Forests, Condensors - we need them
---Naval stuff - we need everything from Formers to Carriers (and don't forget the NAVY YARDS)
---After Fusion, we should rebuild a lot of units (in bases with all those good military facilities), trading in those low morale troops for more Spartan Stock. I belileve that with our SE settings, we can make elite units with a BioCenter plus the appropriate CmdCenter/AeroCenter/NavYard plus a trip to the Monolith (those flying Monoliths are hard to find though); with Power, the monolith or one of the facilities are not needed. With elite troops, we would have more fun.
---Spent a lot of time looking for our Gatling Needlejet (when looking for something to fight with in the beginning and again later when trying to streamline our designs in preparation for Fusion) that the F7 screen said we had; finally found it on Hold, along with a Light Brigade of ours, in Morgan Industries. If we want to park stuff like that, the 10-turn-hold at least pops it up once in a while.
---starting to prep bases at East Garland Crater (maybe 51,101) and at (66,122), after raising the land.
---reallocate the former-support on Das boot - and support in general; I imagine it is pretty random
---build a borehole at 41,101 or nearby - for M. Interstellar (then M. Mines can use the one in the crater)
---should build a Condensor at 37,99

Turn Posted here and sent to Qantaga

[Qantaga]

Well, my University friends, I am truly sorry, but my turn will be delayed. I got a call from my boss and had to put together a PowerPoint presentation for him tonight, instead of being able to assume the helms of our great University.

I have a long work day tomorrow and a long drive home, so it will be late Friday before I get home. It will be Saturday morning before I can do our game any justice (especially after the wonderful job and very detailed report of our good ProvostHerrDoktor).

I believe Arima said that he would be able to play Friday. If that is the case Arima, feel free to jump in and take the turn and I can get it after you. I will even forward some additional notes from John to your e-mail in case you do want to take this turn. Otherwise, I will play it Sat. morning.

This will also, unfortunately affect my Aldebaran turn, but I will definitely get the 2302 Aldebaran turn out as soon as I get home Friday night.

Many apologies!

[Avenoct]

Powerpoint...ugh. I can sympathise

[Arima]

2305-2320
Commsioner Arima's Report

This was a rather uneventful turn... I just let things finish building. While Yang provided some amusment (later), the major accoplishments of my administrations is:

Acquisition of Orbital Spaceflight, Monopole Magnets (from AA) and Fusion Power

Mass upgrade of units to Fusion Power

And for the low, bargin price of 100 ec, I got truces with Santi and Yang. Horray!

Yang tried to elect himself Supreme Leader. He was unanimously rejected. Horray!

Yang got Cyborg Factory. Boo!

And that's my turn. After our long war with Morgan, it was necessary to rebuild some infastructure up, and we didn't have the cash necessary to rush build it.

If I had a couple more turns, I would of worked on getting inflitrator status in more fractions, but I didn't have quite enough. Maybe the next commsioner could finish that for me.

[Qantaga]

Report to the Administration - Years 2320 through 2335

This report compiled after dictation from Acting Provost Qantaga at University Medical Center. Report submitted by Academician Ekatarina Gordeyeva.

(Translation - our house has fallen prey to a nasty flu bug. My wife and daughters are under its hideous spell. I have the nice low grade fever percolating with a few rounds of the chills and sweats thrown in for good measure. Yippee! So, this report will be rather bare bones, but I will provide more details in future turns)

Ah, now this is the University that I know and love. Times are peaceful with the lone exception of our Vendetta state with Lady Deirdre and her Gaian followers.



2320 - I must congratulate all of my predecessors as I look around our wonderful empire. Chairman Yang is by far the most powerful faction among us and may provide a threat in the future, but we measure up comparably with the other factions of Planet.

One small concern is that we are running at an energy defecit of 29 credits per turn. Of course, we can more than make up for that with all the worm hunting going on in the west.

Lal announces the recapture of UN Health Authority.

2321 - We lose a probe team trying to infiltrate Deirdre's datalinks. However, our second probe team is able to infiltrate the Gaian datalinks. A third probe team sneaks away with Advanced Spaceflight. They also managed to frame Chairman Yang, so now Deirdre has declared Vendetta on the Hive.

The Gaians recapture UN Health Authority. Our friend Lal is in serious trouble.

2322 - We are able to negotiate a Truce with Deirdre. Now that we have Truces and Pacts with all nations, we enter into a serious building mode. Energy Banks, Labs, satellites, boreholes, condensors and the like to get the nation prepared for the next flurry of conflict.

2323 - General building and upkeep of the nation.

2324 - Traded with Lal to get Organic Superlubricant.

2325 - The Gaians take UN Pillar of Rights from Lal. He is weakened even further.

2326-2329 - Yang has a lot of Fusion Cruisers in "The Med" east of Morgan Biochemical. As the next few years pass, he brings most of them southeast toward University Base and then on through our straits and on to points south. Although he does leave one Cruiser parked next to our mindworm outside of Morgan Biochemical.

2330 - We discover the Unified Field Theory. We choose Planetary Economics as our next tech. We launched our first satellite. Now, in addition to extra nutrients at each base, we have revealed the entire planetary map.

2331 - We infiltrate the Spartan datalinks.

2332 - We complete The Longevity Vaccine.

2333 - A new base, Academy Park, is founded.

2334 - The Spartans sent a probe team ashore near Morgan Biochemical. Santiago demanded 175 credits to extend our Blood Truce. I was tempted to tell her no, but I did not want to burden Provost General Smack with a Vendetta not of his choosing. So, I offered her 80 credits. She accepted and the Blood Truce was renewed.

Then the silly wench tried to probe us anyway. Our probe team, at home in Morgan Biochemical destroyed the Spartan probe team without breaking a sweat. Again, I decided to let that little gambit of Santiago's pass since she was unsuccessful.

2335 - We prepare to turn the reigns of the empire over to Provost General Smack. We have a Transport Foil carrying a Probe Team heading northwards. The intent of that probe team is to try to get to Miriam's datalinks. The Hive will have some tempting bases along the way, but don't forget they have the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm.

Notes

I tried to save up some cash in case Smack needs it for any war efforts.

I placed some Clean Shard Rotors in production, but feel free to manipulate those queues as you see fit. I was just trying to get some military unit production started. The Clean Shard Rotors are the only units I designed this turn, so you may want to tinker in the Design Workshop.

Good luck!

Turn is posted here and e-mailed to Smack.

[Avenoct]

Qantaga, I hope you and the womens feel better soon. Summer flu's are the pits.

Now that we have Truces and Pacts with all nations, we enter into a serious building mode. -Qt

damn

but I did not want to burden Provost General Smack with a Vendetta not of his choosing. -Qt

Burden? hee hee

I tried to save up some cash in case Smack needs it for any war efforts.

Who me?

I'll be posting my turn late tonight I hope.

-General Smack, Committee on Peaceful University Living

[Avenoct]

'Ere be the turn of 2335-2350

2335: I see that our neighbors are working on Planetbusters...how unfortunate. Do we have a plan to win? I think we could win by saving up 50 probe teams and cashing them in for Transcendence after Yang builds the Voice, but that seems a hollow victory to me. Lal is down to 1 base and I doubt if I can get there in time to save him. It's o.k.. I agree that we are looking great as far as entering a build-phase, but I'm wondering how we're going to do in the end if we don't make plans for a Yang offensive. I have one unit to move. I move it. Yang asks me to join him in kicking Miriam's bible-thumping, door-pounding, seventh-sealing, arse, and I accept, rather than face a probably vendetta with Yang.

2336: Can I just say how impressed I am? You did a wonderful job of bringing prosperity to the UV. I've determined that we can pop boom about 1/2 our bases, so I switch to Dem/Planned/Know from Dem/Green/Know. Yang has 5 Silksteel Destroyers patrolling the Isthmus of Quang.

2237: Some bases are booming. Sat's are in production and we're at peace. What more could a researcher desire?

2238: Continue rush-building facilities to enhance our mini-pop boom.

2239: Yang takes another Believer base. Miriam's days are numbered.

2340: Can we believe its 240 years since we landed on this dreadful planet? Nothing but hostility....Lal is interrogated by Deirdre poor chap.

2341: Shard Rotor prototype complete. Lots of energy in the coffers from MW hunting in Morganland. Hive pronounces Vendetta on Spartans...that's a VERY good thing. Hab complexes and Creches working overtime. Miriam loses a sea-base to the Hive.

2342: Deirdre (that godess) offers photon/wave (Arm5) and 50 EC's to join her vs. Yang. I decline, but she offers Treaty, which I accept...she must be hard pressed. I'm planning on stealing Photon/wave or trading once I've softened up the tree-hugger to our East.

2343: Rush-building and Worm-hunting continues. Many Nut-Sats in production..we're on the verge of popping to hab-dome level. Drone riots...a consequence of pop-booming.

2344: Otkrietia is Ecodamaging like crazy...fight off worm-attack with SAM and regular choppers.

2346: Continuing to build up our tree-farm, hab-complex, creche, nut-sat regime. The Miriam probe is almost in position. Miriam took back a base from Yang.

2349: Hive declares war on Spartans again. We're enjoying our peace immensely.

2350: Gaians and Spartans have agreed to combine forces against the Hive. How convenient. Drone riots everywhere as the nut-sats come online. 6 nut-sats up, 3 energy-sats. I leave my tenure as we approach hab-dome restrictions on growth. The major lesson I've learned from toying with the AI by not using crawlers: Nutrients. They are the difference.

I suggest playing to win from our current builder stance. I'd fancied going after one of our larger neighbors, but I think the cost outweighs the benefit as Deirdre and Yang are both into the alpha-theta-gamma list of base-names. I truly enjoyed this turn, and it went very quickly. I've told almost all our non-native troops to 'hold' in their bases, so you might want to activate them on your inspection of each base site.

Good'eve Commrades,

General Smack

[Scipio Centaurus]

Report to the Board of Regents, MY2350-2360
----------------------------------------------
2350 - I have been informed by the Regents, that this and all future administrations are scheduled for 10 year terms from here on - barring emergency.

As I take note of our dramatically increased working population and our peaceful relations with our immediate neighbors, the freemarketelin hormone begins to bubble into my bloodstream from the little understood hypergreedius gland tucked in behind my hypothalmus. With a conscious effort of will, I supress the urge to direct our society into FM/Wealth. We are a research society! We care not for material things! Besides, HerrDoktorProfessorProvostChancellor JohnDMuller would have my hide, if I disbanded our standing armies!

How long has it been since we gave our good friend CEO Morgan a gift? I cede control of Morgan Bank to our trusted ally. This base now serves to connect the disparate pieces of his realm, allowing him to defend himself a little better. Let's hope we don't come to regret our generosity.

Our northern tranport foil with the probe team pops a sea pod and recovers an AA. I will hold off attempting to infiltrate Miriam as we are at vendetta and I'm not sure we can infiltrate the Believers in any case. I have heard tell that her fundamentalist stance prevents espionage actions against her? Formers are being assigned to magtube and coastal sensor array construction as they come off of other tasks. Installing Holo Theatres, Combat infrastructure and Shard Rotors in our bases - especially Naval Yards, HerrDPPCJDM.

2351 - Santiago calls (Seething/Wanting). She'll give us 175 EC and a Pact if we'll help her crush Chairman Yang. I say, "Chairman Who?" Next she tells me she needs Unified Field Theory to help her take care of a little emergency at one of her bases. I sell the data files to her for 100 EC. She leaves off, wondering what evils we're cooking up in our research labs. If she only knew... MWHAHAHAHAHA Blood Truce renewed.

2352 - The Chairman convenes the PC to call for a vote for Supreme Leader or some such nonsense. The special measure fails by a closer than expected vote of 568 to 614, though far from the 3/4 needed. Yang captures Hawk of Chiron from Santiago.

2353 - Lady Dierdre's AAA Missile Destroyer has shelled one of out innocent formers that was just minding her own business putting up a sensor array near her territory! I switch Southern Comfort to Missile Cruiser production. Due to rapidly increasing drone activity, I have prepared a new annual budget in which we allocate 20% of our energy surplus into psych and then divide the remainder evenly between our economy and research.

2354 - Dierdre blasts our former with a Shard Tactical.
2356 - We learn Advanced Ecological Engineering and begin researching Probability Mechanics.
2357 - The Hive pronounces Vendetta against the Spartans. We complete the Ascetic Virtues.
2358 - The Hive captures Commander's Keep from the Spartans. Somebody - probably Dierdre - drops a missile on Southern Comfort.

2359 - The Spartans capture Epsilon Sector from the Hive.

2360 - Summary
-----------------
Dierdre has been fairly quiet since she settled our former's hash. She may have lobbed a missile into Southern Comfort as well. Yang and Santiago seem to be trading bases. We have a decent start on magtubes, but much more to build. Some coastal sensor arrays going in here and there. A lot of missing holo theatres and military infrastructure built. Shard Rotors on alert in most bases now. Working on prototypes of various drop units for the coming assault on the Gaians. One lone transport foil w/ a probe team and an AA slowly making its way back to friendly waters. A few new bases to fill in some coastal gaps. They need some TLC from future provosts. HerrDPPCJDM, we should be just about ready to assemble the bestest military forces on Planet! Morgan has been expanding quite nicely in the SW regions of the continent.

- Scipio Centaurus, Chancellor pro tem

[Avenoct]

Working on prototypes of various drop units for the coming assault on the Gaians.

Reporting from Cryochamber Xdb003

(**cough**General Smack's voice crackles over the comm**) "Did I hear correctly? Ve plan an attakk on ze Tree Huggar? How splendid!"