Neat little trick..?

[cal_01]

I don't play as Santiago very often, but I ended up with her tonight on random. I kind of experimented with my gameplay this time (instead of doing the massive invasion and relying on momentum) since I was stuck on an island, and I found something really neat for Santiago:

1/1 Infantry with 2x Police powers! They're cheaper than facilities (better than holos too, imo), gives you turn advantage in the early game or during base captures since you don't have to wait (or waste lots of EC) for your facility (these guys usually only cost 1 turn, or 50EC), and you can hoard them up if you're afraid of losing a few.

Any thoughts on this strategy? And any neat tricks you guys use?

[GeoModder]

Yes, my main PBEM that finished last month, I used a custom faction which started with +2 police. And in the endgame together with Thought Control (I had the Cloning Vats) I kept pop 11 sized bases happy with 2 police units, a rec commons and the longevity vaccine. Didn't need psych allocation whatsoever.

[BlackCat]

Happy as in no red faces at all or just no riots ?

[GeoModder]

Oh, everything above 8-9 pop was covered by thinkers or economists, except those bases where my 'choppers were stationed, which were good for policing as well.

So I had all workers and specialist bases, with now and then the odd drone quelled by a talent.

[Sebed]

Re: Neat little trick..?

Originally posted by cal_01
1/1 Infantry with 2x Police powers! They're cheaper than facilities

if you think they are cheap think about the price of nerve-stapling

[cal_01]

But think of all those poor drones!

[GeoModder]

Re: Re: Neat little trick..?

Originally posted by Sebed
if you think they are cheap think about the price of nerve-stapling

No commerce?

[Commy]

Nerve-stapling doesn't cost anything, true, but it only serves one purpose...drones...

On the other hand, having 1-1-1 police garrisons serves two purposes, police and defense...

1-1-1 won't stand up to much from a faction, but as the Spartans with +2 morale, they're great for worm defense...and they serve as police...

Not only that, but you can always upgrade them to better garrisons later...

IIRC, nerve-stapling starts to stop working after a while with SMAX...

[Googlie]

..... and with just a rec commons, and 10% psych, and two 1-1-1 police units, your Spartan base can grow to size 7 with no drone problems!!

(unless it's a captured base, of course, where the psych doesn't help for the first ten turns or so after capture)

[cal_01]

The only major downside I could think of is supporting these units. However, you typically start off with supporting two free units anyway, so it probably won't hurt that much.

edit: And where are the other tricks you guys have? :P

[Commy]

You say you want more?

[cal_01]

edit: By the way, is Cha Dawn a guy or gal?

[Commy]

A puppet...

[Googlie]

Extracted from the Alien crossfire manual

The Cult of Planet (led by Prophet Cha Dawn)

The leader of the Cult of Planet appeared under mysterious circumstances a few years after Planetfall. Though clearly just a young boy, he claims to have the Word of Planet in his ears, and promises to lead his followers to a cleansing jihad, making them (and the will of Planet) supreme. The Cult has little interest in material things, causing a general economic slowdown in their faction.
However, they are supremely in tune with Planet, and have better capabilities with native lifeforms than even the Gaians. They get a free Biology Lab in each base upon discovery of the appropriate technology, and their people are so in awe of the native life forms that mindworms count double for police duty.

[cal_01]

Originally posted by Googlie

Wow. I thought Cha Dawn was a woman all this time. How androgynous.