My current AC game...

[Commy]

Perhaps with all the energy, the pirates could just hurry units and not have to worry about minerals. But still, it's a problem...

[Sikander]

If you take my advice on going to land as early as possible you won't have that many sea bases to worry about. (Often I only build two via my initial sea colony pods.) The land bases can supply the land formers that you need, while the sea bases provide sea formers and those life giving early game transports.

Crawling minerals is effective, but you have a large turn disadvantage with the Pirates doing so from sea bases, as you have to transport your crawlers to suitable prepared terrain rather than running them along roads to their destinations.

I have had some success building Sea bases along the poles as suggested above. With a rocky pole I alternate mines with boreholes and set my bases two apart two tiles north (or south) of the blacked out polar tile. This gives each base 10 minerals in addition to any minerals they get from shelf tiles and base tiles, and makes them immediately viable even without crawlers.

[Straybow]

Apparently Aaron thinks Sven can only build sea colonies and foils, and EN thinks Sven can't drop the Unity Rovers he pops onto the nearest continent to pop pods on land.

[Enigma_Nova]

Unity rovers on a continent...
that would be a good idea. It would hurt if you get 3 AAs and didn't have the transportage to get them back, though.

[Chaos Theory]

Pirate shelf mining platforms produce 2 mins, but pirate shelf tiles produce 1 min all by themselves, so the mining platform only adds 1 min.

[Enigma_Nova]

A waste of 8 former turns, in other words.

[binTravkin]

not mentioning that you can add +2 to those 2 if tech is right..

[Chaos Theory]

By the time Adv Eco Eng comes along, mining platforms might be a good deal, but most of the game is played before this. Subsea trunklines are garbage, since they cost so much to build and maintain. If you can afford to build them, you can afford to build anything and you don't need more minerals.

[Enigma_Nova]

Like Genejacks.
Yeah, if you can get a mins bonus on a shelf, stick a mining platform on it, research Adv. eco eng and build a trunkline then you're better off simply lurching onto land and crawling a mine.

[binTravkin]

Easy, easy, If you are Pirates, you have loadsa podded ecs, so you can rush somehing easily..

But on the other hand-> if youre pirates and place your bases only in one tight-packed area such as ThermoShallows, you CAN rely only on energy production (from tidal harnesses), but you lose the Pirate's main advantage-> flexibility

Youre packed in an area easy to reach & thus easy to take

If you instead push it on minerals, you can ignore efficency and expand all over the world!

In other words-> it takes very much consideration to decide howto best play pirates..

I often stick em close in Thermoshallows, and thus have to develop a massive defensive force

[Enigma_Nova]

Geo shallows are a good place for a Pirate HQ, but you really do need to pull 10 minerals from somewhere - and it probably isn't having a size 14 base.

You can rush the rest as long as you have those ECs... but a few mining platforms (enough to get 10 minerals) can help a lot.
Turn advantage.

[Commy]

I believe there is a much better way to get minerals: Satellites

Yes, they are not handy early on, a major drawback, but, get the CBA, build ten nessus mining stations, and just wait for your bases to grow to pop ten, which shouldn't be too hard on the sea. Then you don't have to crawl minerals (although it would be nice early on..), don't have to get on land, and can concentrate solely on energy, and therefore can simply hurry everything.

[CEO Aaron]

Satellites ARE the best way to obtain minerals, but they're so far into the tech tree that the outcome of the game is all but assured by the time you see any.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by CEO Aaron
Satellites ARE the best way to obtain minerals, but they're so far into the tech tree that the outcome of the game is all but assured by the time you see any.

I agree completely.

Nessus stations are several techs beyond getting MMI and the CBA . .. by the time I get to the tech, I have several energy and nutrient satellites up such that rushing things get easier and easier even with not great mineral production

[Sikander]

One thing I need to work on is my tech beelines for the Pirates. I started a game as the Pirates last night for the first time in at least a year on Dilithium Dad's Ultimate Builder Map. I started in a nice position near the Dilithium Flats, with plenty of open land, albeit also with an immense amount of fungus that hindered the movement of my ships. Spamming colony pods was very quick, as the extra nutrient that the tanks in the first two bases gives more than makes up for the -1 growth penalty the Pirates suffer in the early game.

I took the former tech first, and then the recycling tank tech. Once I got it I started the HGP (critical for GA pop booming) in my mineral heavy base, while the other base (with a seaborne nutrient special) just kicked out colony pods. I quickly got just past the first bureaucracy limit, before I decided to reign in horizontal growth for a little while as drones were becoming a problem.

I took Info Nets and then Planetary nets next, and by the time I had them I was desperate to get some drone control going, so I hurried the last bit of the HGP and researched Social Psych. I built a couple of probe foils and sent them on their long journey (on this map anyway) to find the other factions. I rushed in a rec commons in my high mineral base and started the VW there as well. As the commons are built I should be able to resume my horizontal expansion, at least up to the second bureau warning. I also researched Ethical Calculus, and after the Rec Commons Children's Creches are going in (a must build if you want to see any of that energy production retained). I probably should have gone with Democracy immediately, but it has only been a few turns since I got the tech, so I haven't wasted all that much yet.

Here's the catch. My tech costs are now getting a bit pricey, yet I haven't even got nutrient restrictions lifted, much less the others. Should I concentrate on lifting restrictions, or beeline to Wealth? Both would be a tremendous boon. It looks like I'm going to have to make the next few techs entirely on my own, as the only AI I've run into so far has been Yang and he took an instant disliking to me and declared Vendetta. I took the opportunity to infiltrate him, but lost 1/2 of my probe fleet in the process. I'll probably be able to slowly (10-15 years at best) get another probe over to borrow some of his tech, but that is nothing I can count on.

I suppose it is best to concentrate on lifting restrictions, as I will see an immense improvement in both energy and food production when I do. FM isn't a great option right now, as it makes deploying any navy difficult and it will only improve my energy production by about 1/3. I'd prefer to run a demo / wealth GA and add in planned as GA pop booming becomes viable even with the massive inefficiency. I'm also short of nutrients (for a boom anyway) in many of my land bases as the kelp hasn't been spread to them via sea former yet, so this will all have to wait for now.

So what would you guys do? Btw, I have only the two sea bases, all the rest are coastal land bases with a decent number of forests, and about 1/2 have some kelp planted. My land bases are almost completely linked by roads now, while the sea bases are both adjacent to the road network and have transports stationed in them to allow shuttling between the land and the base.