Lots of Pods - Techs or SPs?

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Natalinasmpf


I later got sick of it and tried to demolish all mag tubes in sight.

THats actually a precursor to invasions for me in most instances. . . I will cut roads, or mag tubes etc so that AI units are funnelled into certain areas and attacks from rovers or probes are not possible. All I need is one road for my attackers to use and then remaining units just drop in to any conquered cities

Perhaps I am overly cautious but I usually play humans and know that if you leave a weakness, an opponent will likely exploit it

[Natalinasmpf]

Yes, it was basically because I just arrived by ship with some Amphibious troops, took a strategic city only to lose it next turn. There was no way I could have been prepared for that, except for the HSA!

[Flubber]

sorry DP

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Natalinasmpf
Yes, it was basically because I just arrived by ship with some Amphibious troops, took a strategic city only to lose it next turn. There was no way I could have been prepared for that, except for the HSA!

Yes you can

1. Build a seabase within 3-5 tiles of your target city and then use it as a base for aerial operations OR

2. Use choppers on suicide runs to kill stuff and then use their last movement point to cut roads/tubes OR

3. Mass terraform a land link-- your opponents magtubes can be used against him-- hold off the attack unitl prepared and then take 20 bases in one massive turn OR

4.take the strategic city, sell its most expensive improvement and then raze the base LOL OR

5. Use ships to bombard roads and tubes ( relatively inneffective unless done for a few turns


It is almost never great strategy to take a single base when that base is vulnerable and cannot be held. my advice is prepare a little more for the invasion. It can be the difference between having a 4-6 unit force repulsed and having a 20 unit force with a solid beachead

[Mead]

Originally posted by Flubber


THats actually a precursor to invasions for me in most instances. . . I will cut roads, or mag tubes etc so that AI units are funnelled into certain areas and attacks from rovers or probes are not possible. All I need is one road for my attackers to use and then remaining units just drop in to any conquered cities

Perhaps I am overly cautious but I usually play humans and know that if you leave a weakness, an opponent will likely exploit it

That technique sounds somewhat familiar.



I agree that, if you are not handicapping yourself, that you should rush your SPs with crawlers.

In SP if I have a boatload of AA's I will seek to obtain every other tech already researchd by any other faction (usually by theft but sometimes by purchase or trade), then cash the AA's in one after another.

This allows you to bypass some weapon choices; go straight from Chaos era choppers to Shard choppers.


Mead

[Whoha]

SPs, dont **** up your beeline, the mod three rule and the carrying costs are bad.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Whoha
SPs, dont **** up your beeline, the mod three rule and the carrying costs are bad.

I agree but only for the early game-- Once restrictions are lifted, I often prefer to cash them for tech ( once I have traded or stolen for everything anyone else has)-- A quick probe rape of the AI followed by cashing 4 -6 AAs can allow you to easily snatch some key projects and get a jump on key military techs

[smacksim]

If you need to cash in AA's for tech against the AI, you aren't doing something right. It is fun though, isn't it?

[Straybow]

I think I've never used an AA for SP construction… it just seems a waste when crawlers do the job.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by smacksim
If you need to cash in AA's for tech against the AI, you aren't doing something right.

If you NEED to

cash in AA's for tech
use crawlers
use directed research
build more than one base
use probefoils
build ANY specific secret project



against the AI, you aren't doing something right.

[Mead]

Originally posted by smacksim
If you need to cash in AA's for tech against the AI, you aren't doing something right. It is fun though, isn't it?

The same could be said for cashing in your AA's for a SP.

You should have sufficient mineral production and crawlers to allow you to get any SP relatively easily.

It is likely that you be in the lead (or at least parity) with the AI in tech. There should not be any techs that it has that you don't before you cash in the AA's.

That's why you like to probe all the AI's tech's from it before you cash in your AA's. There's no sense wasting a good AA for tech when you just as easily steal that tech from the AA.

The whole purpose is to get parirty, or better, with the AI and then cash in a boatload of AA's to get a phenomenal tech lead that leads to a rapid death of the AI (and conclusion of game).

Mead