Spartan Opening

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Commy
If you have a big enough tech advantage, you could just use interceptors...they get a penalty for land attacks, but weapons are generally 2x the current armor that anyone has, and then you have no drones...

1. You infrequently get a big tech advantage in a PBEM.

2. Interceptors will lose more than win against a Spartan land unit with an armor value half my weapon value

3. To kill things outside your own territory which is what I want to do, the interceptor will create drones when it leaves my territory


My preference is to build regular planes and rehome them during the stretch of planned so that I can then readopt FM without issues

[Senethro]

Originally posted by Flubber
2. Interceptors will lose more than win against a Spartan land unit with an armor value half my weapon value

Elite plasma rovers in forests turn the game on its head.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Senethro


Elite plasma rovers in forests turn the game on its head.

yup-- a missile plane will often have less than 50 % odds against such a unit

[Senethro]

Do you fear?

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Senethro
Do you fear?

Of course I do. In our PBEM I absolutely do not want your rovers running amuck. Thats why I am patrolling so fervently to try to find any that are on the way in


and the defense to the elite plasma in the forest is to probe it -- If it is stacked then arty bombardments or self-destruct tactics become feasible-- or hit it with a missile rover

[Kirov]

Originally posted by Flubber


I'll stack the income you get from FM as opposed to other choices against what someone can get worm hunting every day of the week. You get what -- 10 ec every how many turns?

First of all, it quite quickly gets 20 ec instead of 10. Secondly, you use several rovers, so you get the cash quite often. The only problem is that you have to heal your units, so a monolith nearby can greatly enhance your income.

I hold the pearls income so dear because I usually don't earn too much, even under FM. In most cases I switch the slider to the biggest possible (I mean efficiency wise) lab output, so even with quite a nice economy I can earn like paltry 10 ec. Compare our current game you and Senethro talk about, where for the most part I was earning -2 EC (Consciousness, Demo/FM/Wealth, PSYCH 20% LAB 80%).

[Kirov]

Originally posted by CEO Aaron


What it has to do with Free Market is that you're 30% down on your attack odds in a psi battle. Surely having worse odds in combat, thus taking more damage and spending more time recovering from damage instead of exploring will curtail my worm and pod harvesting efforts, to say nothing of the chance that I'll eventually lose the unit. Also bear in mind that you're operating with a limited supply of independent units, extremely vulnerable foil probes, or somewhat less vulnerable transports, per the post to which I was responding. My point is that market curtails exploration and the harvesting of native life, no matter how you slice it.

While playing Sparta I use free mins from the first 2 bases for scout rovers. Sending them away gives me a lot of cash, several monoliths and 2-4 independent rovers (remember that apart from popping a unit, you can also get one of your clones, and it's also independent).

When I switch to FM, I get all supported units back in my territory and send them to patches of fungus. The rest still explore. Their life expectancy is amazing, and very often I'll end up with 2-4 elites - which also means quicker exploration.

Don't get me wrong, Sparta's exploration and worm farming is curtailed by FM, but to less extent than with any other faction.

Don't get me wrong, the market is great, remember who you're talking to. I just don't know if it really suits Sparta that well.

I was saying the same before I tested it, but when I was on the sick leave I found some time to test different Sparta openings. I was surprised myself to find out that about FM, but right now I'm completely convinced there's no other way for them, as well as for Pirates. Play one game with FM and another with Planned and see for yourself.