Apolyton Game of the Month! Its Back! Yippee!

[gwillybj]

[Enigma_Nova]

[Illuminatus]

I would suggest playing the scenario, not hitting it with your head. It can cause damage you know

[Jamski]

@ gwillybj

I think I have this one in the bag now. Running Green and getting mindworms/biolabs/preserves/Xenoempathy really helped.

-Jam

[binTravkin]

Its funny, I thought the scenario maker should know the best howto play it!

no pun intended

But I used that strat first!

[GeoModder]

Nah, Jam is to much used to sticking with IA beeline as are most of the vets here.

[binTravkin]

Im very flexible - NEVER going for any predefined beeline.

Jump in game, see what goes on & decide where to go in the tech tree - thats my approach!

beelining to IA straight is not very wise - before you can use those crawlers, you must have rec comms & rec tanx help a lot too.
Without those 2 buildings & formers your IA beeline can go fishing, because there wont be any good squares to crawl, you WILL have drone riots, your production is so low that often it takes 15-30 turns to produce the 1st crawler (remember low support)
And if there is lots of fungus around, your crawlers will get killed in 10-30 turns thus barely repaying their building costs..

I aimed for SoftHB in my tech tree, then Centauri Empathy (which gave me needed Green & MWs & Biolabs) & only then started to think about IA..
But in the end I didnt hurry any SP by energy credits - all where built disbanding LOADS of crawlers!

You see - first survival, then SPs & all the other crap!

[GeoModder]

Originally posted by binTravkin

I aimed for SoftHB in my tech tree, then Centauri Empathy (which gave me needed Green & MWs & Biolabs) & only then started to think about IA..
But in the end I didnt hurry any SP by energy credits - all where built disbanding LOADS of crawlers!

You see - first survival, then SPs & all the other crap!

Started the same way in my first PBEM, and got IA for another tech because the Uni player simply needed SotHB for the many worm attacks he endured (he choose FM early).

Now I'm (just) Unsurpassed in that game, but will lose that position in the short future I think...

[binTravkin]

Sometimes I tend to go for Doc:Loy not IA, its easy if youre Uni - take SocPsy as free tech, get SoftHB, take Doc:Mob as free tech and you should be ready to research Doc:Loy in 2 turns (can research CentEco if game wont give you Doc:Loy)..

And sometimes on small or low lifeform or much land maps I just ignore IA completely - I steal or trade it as soon as I meet first human player!

[Enigma_Nova]

I'm going a different yet applicable route.

Normal native life, a few Nut bonuses near my HQ.
I'm going for an early pop boom (Mr. Mod 3 ate up my IA beeline)

CentEco // PlaNets // EthCalc
and trade for IA when I reach someone who's researched it.

The early boom relies mainly on my ability to juggle support. 1 Former in a base, producing colony pods - I'd better be careful about when I go Dem.
Getting pods from A to B while I build a Commons will be painful.

The main idea is not to screw myself on my own supply by a premature switch to Dem (and later to screw myself getting the Commons up). After that, it's cruisy.

[binTravkin]

Demo is an utterly bad soc choice at the beginning - I usually use Police State if available (Yes, even with FM!).

Why?

1.Demo gives you +2Gro
You think - with that I can get popboom!
I think - I need:
a.Creche
b.Psych facilities (rec comms critical)
c.Crawlers to crawl nut bonuses & thus ensure continued boom.
Decison: +2Gro useless unless all above are present.

2.Demo gives you +2Effic
You think - Wow, I wont get b-drones & i get more ec/research!
I think - I need:
a.at least (bureaucracy formula(dronelimit)) bases before b-drones appear (where dronelimit is input variable equal to how much b-drones you can afford)
b.backward brain to think that some pitiful ECs are more valuable than an extra CP
decision:+2Effic is useless as long as your empire is small & poorly built up.
In fact not switching to Demo can make your empire grow much faster thus generating a real need for Demo sooner..

3.Demo gives you -2support:
You think - I can live with that...
I think I cant! & dont want!
Because:
a.you get -2 mins per turn which means you lose 1CP/Crawler on 15 bases per turn
b.you dont get starting 10mins which means you cant quickly hurry RecTanx at 1st turn of this base's life - again you lose 1CP/Crawler on 30 bases per turn + energy + growth
Decision:No use of Demo till my formers/garrisons are not clean!

Only thing that makes use of Demo before having clean formers/garrisons is popboom..

[Chaunk]

Not so! Miriam makes great use of demo, way before clean. Almost always my first SE change playing the believers.

[binTravkin]

Yeah, forgot bout her!

But there are 14 factions, not 1

From which ~10 are often played

[GeoModder]

Or making up for a -1/-2 growth rate. It solely depends what faction you play, BinTravkin. I got a -2 growth, +2 police seafaction now, unable to choose FM, thus go Demo/Green and can tinker to my hearts content with the Econ/Psych/Lab settings! Growth is still -2, but by having kelp farms base pop grows fast enough so the -2 support is mostly countered.

[Enigma_Nova]

I concur that it would be an inherently poor choice until the minerals start rolling in.

The +2 Growth from Planned is a bonus, and the Commons I get from Psych will help me make use of that.
Beyond that, I need more IA. Damn mod 3...