"King of the Hill" SMAX SP Challenge

[Mart]

I'll try this. Probably I will have to aid all 3 factions also.
Zak has like 125 shard battle tanks and makes them several a turn.
---
Wait a moment, these are old data. there is 167 shard battle tanks. 20 in production shard drop troops 13^/<8>/1*3

[Kataphraktoi]

so is this really hard or just hard?
i think the laptop still has smax on it, maybe try this out. final versian?

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi
so is this really hard or just hard?
i think the laptop still has smax on it, maybe try this out. final versian?

The SMAC version is actually slightly harder, if this helps you decide which version to play.

And yes, the game is tough!

I'm also working on an OCC which should prove to be quite "interesting" as well....


D

[Kataphraktoi]

SMAC it is. Playing in a poker tournament right now, then after that i check the cd rack for it. (Yes im an unemployed bum on summer vacation gaming all day)

[dmm1285]

I played to around about 2127 then started over cause I put my bases too close together. In my 2nd go aorund I'm in the mid 30's, only thing is I missed the HGP second game, had to get the VW instead, the drone riots are driving me nuts. Got about 18 bases, building crawlers everywhere, we'll see how this goes

[Flubber]

I had to start over when my save on the previous attempt would not play. This time I have gotten to 2207 and have managed to snag the PTS, CF (the university built the CBA on the turn before I got the tech) and now the Cloning Vats. I anticipate a very quick population rise now and hope to be able to call a winnable governorship election soon. I exceed the university in votes but have assumed they will get all the AI votes.

It may be toughn going though since the AI Hive and Drones are coming at me in a combined attack and I got a surprise from one of Darsnan's predesigned units. Some of the capabilities can turn conventional thinking upside down.

I currently have a treaty with Miriam and other than that am at war with everyone. I have been in a stalemated war with the angels for years and years but now plan to switch to power so that my new weapon army can trounce them and secure my flank. Previously my missile weapons were not enough against their 4 armor . With that accomplished I will have to begin my drive on the Hive with an eye at getting some safety room and bridging my way toward the UNI.

Oh and ecodamage numbers are huge even though I have been fairly benign to the environment and the searises are beginning. I think raising land is going to become a big part of this game for me

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Flubber
It may be tough going though since the AI Hive and Drones are coming at me in a combined attack and I got a surprise from one of Darsnan's predesigned units.

I'm pretty happy with the way the AIs combined their attacks in this one!

Originally posted by Flubber
Some of the capabilities can turn conventional thinking upside down.

I'm slowly but surely making a list of units that the AI uses well/ benefits the AIs. Googlie's Probe Cruiser, the SP 88, an attack sub, and the "Probe Bug" (which I think is the unit your refering to) are all on this list. Another one I have started to experiment with is an "Armored Personnel Carrier" which is a land attack unit that can transport units as well. So far it seems promising!

Originally posted by Flubber
Oh and ecodamage numbers are huge even though I have been fairly benign to the environment and the searises are beginning. I think raising land is going to become a big part of this game for me

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Darsnan


and the "Probe Bug" (which I think is the unit your refering to) are all on this list.

Thats the one-- its nasty to have to stack aircraft!!

[Flubber]

I'm now into the 2220s and have made my way up to locust tech and will complete the Pholus and Xeno SPs-- Each should help a little with my problems.

I am currently in Demo/Greem/Knowledge with 90% cash allocation and 10% psych since I am on a rushbuilding kick and I need cash to fight off the hordes attacking. I actually allowed the Drones and Hive to each capture a fringe base and laughed at the nice units they donated when I probed them back. I am just now getting sufficient airpower to the area to bash them back.

My war with the angels was delayed when I accepted their bribe to stop. I needed the time to reload and heal anyway. My plan is to complete my current infrastructure builds and then start rushing military almost everywhere. The first objective is to start killing the Hive and Dronesd further from me and THEN my fully healed an upgraded Angels task force should be ready to start taking their good bases.

Its a lot of tough slogging ahead and I still haven't pressed the governorship issue. I'm not pushing it until victory is certain and continue my cloning vats pop-boom

Oh and the atrocities are starting -- Some of the other factions are not as friendly as I

[Kataphraktoi]

Well, i finnaly got around to it, and was playing on the laptop till 2140s. I can say from memory that i have the PTS, HGP, and WP and i really pulled one over the DA early on and i seem to have this game in the bag(yeah, whoops D). Things look fantastic. More details later when im on the laptop again tonight, i have a small log.
Though i havnt yet met the much feared drones\hive


I zoomed out right at the start, and noticed the nearest AI must be off to the east....a commando rover and a scout infantry scour the jungle for baddies...around turn 25 i trade socialpsych for freemarket, then blow one of rozes bases up, then kill a rover and a colony pod. My rover begins tearing down mag tubes on the fungus, isolating the DA from the jungle and then i sign a peace treaty with DA....The classic RTS rush attack pwnzers again. The only luck i had pulling this off was getting a unity rover, which you have to admit is not that big of a deal as it is very common.

I get IA in 2130 and head for ethical calc. I pick up the WP in 2122, the HGP in 2136,(edit; the PTS in 2142.). Zak gets the EG in2146, i could have gotten it but i picked the wrong tech argh!!!! his 100+ votes trumps my 96 votes.

Next 20 turns has been nonstop builder mode. 2163 right now.

[Flubber]

i'm at 2229 IIRC and am watching while the AI committs atrocity after atrocity on one other. After long thought I have decided to leave the data angels alone. Their conquest would not benefit me much, they appear to be no threat and I am picking up a little trade income from them.

The Uni seems to be in a very active war with the Drones and Believers. A scout helicopter I sent on a suicide mission witnessed about 3 dozen of those battle tanks fighting it out with each other.

My next task is to push back the Hive . It is onerous to find all their incoming units and they have pissed me off enough. I am gathering units for a decisive single push. I figure locusts, tanks and probes with a few helicopters and planes. I want to get into a situation where one really good stroke gets them by surprise.

Oh I am now the governor. It was not hard to get the vote lead but the problem was that the uni did seem to have the support of the others for a while. SE choices have been democracy with flips between planned and green and between wealth and knowledge-- (I went to planned for a turn to rush infrastructure)

My intended SE will soon involve green (locusts) with probably a stint in power. I am also tempted to go to fundy for a while. The growth element of demo is irrelevant now but efficiency is huge and support will matter less and less as more clean units come on stream

[Flubber]

2250ish and I am the clear clear leader. The DA and Believers have surrendered to me and the Hive are a pathetic shell. The uni and drones still have reasonable empires but I have a tech lead, pop lead etc etc. I probably could be killing them quicker but I am paranoid about probe defense AND I slowed the offensive long enough to put up hab domes everywhere.

I can call a supreme leader in about another 4 years. I made the "mistake" of raising the solar shield thingy and can't call for a vote until then. Based on others experiences, I am hoping that everyone will join me or at least everyone except the uni. If I can just hopscotch through the drone's lands, the conquest of the uni should be very quick

[Mart]

2223
Fighting with uni continues. Any larger number of offensive units in the range of uni busters is attacked. I have a base on a small island near Zak's coast, but having only minimal garrison iside saves its existence, while another base on my continent took fusion buster this turn, there was like 4-5 shard tanks ready to drop next turn.

Shard battle tanks cannot upgrade on monoliths, I wonder if that part is hardcoded for battle ogres on that particular slot in alphax.txt or it's smth else.

Uni's technology is presently sufficient for defending against Shard Battletanks. Zak has armor 8, quantum reactor (3). I think, I will have to design new units.

Next turn comes Nanofactory

[Flubber]

Victory in 2264 or thereabouts IIRC-- In retrospect I could have doen it much sooner sicne my forces overwhelmed the enemy and at the end I was just ignoring the drop penalty and slamming drop troops with nerve gas at enemy bases. I ended up with way more extra troops than I needed and some care in building some locusts or skybaases to take seabases would have quickened it by a few turns


Oh and I had the Drones, Hive and uni refuse to accept my supreme leadership so I was forced to eradicate them all

[Kataphraktoi]

took governership in 2180s by a 40 vote lead, beating out uni+morg+hive. By 2209 i have 1100 votes(550 real pop) which is more than all players combined(in votes that is) and twice as high as uni vote-wise. 1tech\turn, and am letting uni gettting all SP sofar besides the first ones(yes im insane) and should be no prob transcending 2220ish or 2230 maybe. used a ai movement trick to avoid contact and war with hive till 2290s and i had aa silksteel by then, no probs. kicked back a weak angel attack of 20-30 4-3-1s in this time also. and am pacted with sparta magnamius right now(chose to ally with them vs hive when asked) truce with believers and rest=vendetta

because of the wp, i have zero probs with searises. almost all of my land is 2000 meter+ enriched condensers and boreholes. i have 150 formers and 300 crawlers, in addition to my aforementioned real pop of 500

pretty insane micromanagement, not sure why i chose to use a specalist ics route