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**Hydro** · August 22, 2007, 21:33

Oh, and its 2226. Here's a map showing me, the Jungle, and the Cyborgs, Cult, and Gaians to the south. The Believers are to the far west and the Spartans to the continent to the far east. The Hive is WAY to the northeast.

**Nims** · August 23, 2007, 20:46

I have Fusion now and no-one else does – but that may not last long.

I think you should use your advantage as long as you have one.
Fusion won't help you against the Cult.
But it should come in handy against the Cyborgs.
Are you going to let them complete the Empath Guild ?

Consider missiles vs. Cha Dawn's Natives.

**Maniac** · August 23, 2007, 21:52

Consider artillery versus Cha Dawn's natives.

**Nims** · August 23, 2007, 22:05

Against Isles and Lurks ?

**Maniac** · August 23, 2007, 22:20

Yes! Artillery bombardment by ships with powerful weapons!

**Hydro** · August 24, 2007, 07:45

Most of the Cult's units are conventional, so fusion will be very handy.

Missiles work well against natives. The Hive showed me that when he pasted my Isles.

For the Empath Guild my plan is to attack and capture a Cult base, get Psionics (tech for Empath Guild) - the only tech they have that I don't, and then build it myself in one turn. I have a base with ~150 mins ready to go. Then I'm going gift the base to the Gaians since I really can't hold it - or it will be probed out from under me. That already happened even though I had two defensive probes! Nasty sea probes... The University running Federal Democracy has a -4 probe rating, so it is hard to win on attack or defense in espionage.

OK - it seems pretty clear and I just needed someone to tell me: take out the Cult and Consciousness. I’ll need to redeploy all forces I was accumulating to take on the Hive (but keep my guard up!), build missiles, get a few more isles, build amphib rovers, and then unleash them on the hapless Cult and/or Consciousness.

I’ll build more artillery too. They take out sea foils in one swipe (yeh!) and with fusion will pound well defended bases.

Thanks for the tips!

Hydro

**Kataphraktoi** · August 24, 2007, 20:09

Do your fellow PBEMers know about poly?

Sounds like you need to work on the diplomacy front the most. Something hard to rapidly improve ingame and hard to give advice on.

Im not certain about SMAniaC-been awile-but maybe you could concentrate on a huge airforce and thus leverage the fusion advantage into military domination. Dont you have needles? Anything in range of your continent should be dust by now.

**Hydro** · August 24, 2007, 21:10

SMAniaC moved needles to late in the tech line and copters have a range of 5, and 7 with fusion. I have copters now, and they are useful for short ranged work only, as you may guess. They come along at Orbital Spaceflight, which is a long way off.

Troops have to be ferried with isles. I haven’t bothered with transports. Probes are a big problems – there are squadrons of them: probe foils, special SMAniaC land probes. That’s tough on the Uni with -4 probe!

You’re quite right about Diplomacy, though. The sides now seem set, and oddly balanced. No-one wants to be the friend of #1.

Hydro

**Darrell01** · September 6, 2007, 01:55

Any updates. Hydro?

**Hydro** · September 6, 2007, 08:49

Yup. In about 2240 I formed a large invasion force, loaded them up on a fusion cruiser transport (10 units), guarded it with 2 fully loaded cruisers and a foil probe, and set off to smash the Cult. The Cult is nearby so it would only take me 2 or three turns to get into position. Then the Cyborgs broke their truce and committed at least four SMAnaC copters to kill my entire invasion fleet They were dead – all of them. The loss was huge.

Boy, I was hot. Really hot.

The gloves came off and I just pasted everything in sight with copters, cruisers – whatever I had. Anything I couldn’t immediately reinforce and secure with probe teams I burned to the ground. The first to go were the annoying Cyborg sea bases that ringed my homeland. My copters killed defenders and my cruisers took and burned the bases – the cruisers move 9 with MCC, very handy. I had to eliminate the ability of the Cyborgs to send copters to strafe my mainland, stripping it of formers and crawlers. Almost every University city switched to military production. I switched production mainly to choppers for the sheer firepower (10-1-7*2 and 6r-1-7*2), even if in SMAniaC they have a very short range. I also build lots of cruisers (10-3-7*2/radar) for sea mobility – this is a Sea World after all.

I also switched to Anthropogenic SE to get the +2 morale bump, although the -3 Planet hurts against the Cult. I also switched to from Fed Demo/Private-Protectionist/Technocrat/Frontier to Fed Demo/Planned/Technocrat/Anthro w/crèche to get pop booms, which started really spiking my population and get industrial production bumps. I had been running Private/Protectionist economy SE, which has a -1 industry that sucks in war time. My research rate went from 5 to 7 years due to the decreased economy from losing the wonderful +1 energy/sector from Private/Protectionist, though.

Fortunately there were sunspots so the other factions didn’t learn about the atrocities, although the Hive human player figured it out pretty quickly. I’m writing it up as a PBEM fiction, so it was pretty obvious what I was doing. I’ll post more there shortly. Anyway, the University-on-the-rampage worked. In short order I’d eliminated all the Cult Capital, all the Cyborg sea bases, and captured all the home Cyborg bases. It was very hard on the choppers due to the short range, but they did very well due to the firepower advantage I have. I have fusion and no one else does – yet. Yes I did take losses by random attacks, but I more or less rolled over the opposition. My production ability made replacing losses pretty easy.

Now it is 2251 and the Cyborgs have been completely eliminated. Sunspots are over and I’m now gifting the bases to my Gaian allies and Believers (who has 2 bases and surrendered to me in 2250). The Cult is down to 6 far-flung sea bases, and they won’t last long against the waves of copters, cruisers, IoDs (move 7 w/MCC), and amphibious rovers.

I’ve also scared the Hive to death. He finally called for elections for the Planetary Governor and was shocked when he found out my rating was 259 (with Empath Guild) vs his at 95. His allies the Spartans voted for him (~65 votes), the Gaians Pactmates voted for me (~45 votes), and everyone else abstained. I easily won and now I’m planetary governor. I would have called it ages ago but didn’t want the Hive to get the comm frequencies of the Believers or the Cult (knowledge is power, after all). The Hive is playing Creeping Crud and is building bases all over the place, with thick walls of defenders and tons of missiles – a true Make-My-Day Turtle strategy.

Since then I’ve finished the HSA. YES! My -4 probe problems (-2 for Uni and -2 for Fed Demo) are now somewhat reduced! I’m currently building Gattica SP, and the free bioenhancement centers will do wonders for my military. I’ve built most of the SPs in the game. The Hive has Command Nexus and Longevity Vaccine. I captured Echelon Mirror from the Cyborgs (generally useless). The only other faction that has SPs is the Gaians with WP and PTS.

So now I need to finish pasting the Cult and build a Wall-Of-Death to dissuade the Hive from getting anywhere near me or my bases. Specifically, I want the Hive more than 16 sectors away so he can’t missile me to death or be sneaky with invading my coastal bases. Plan B is to build 1-<8>-1*2 defenders (I’m prototyping Armor 8 now), which will make his missiles almost useless even if he does get fusion.

Cheers!
Hydro

**Kataphraktoi** · September 7, 2007, 12:39

It was very hard on the choppers due to the short range, but they did very well due to the firepower advantage I have. I have fusion and no one else does – yet. Yes I did take losses by random attacks, but I more or less rolled over the opposition. My production ability made replacing losses pretty easy.

I thought fusion airpower would carry the day. Nice AAR

**Darrell01** · September 7, 2007, 16:26

Haha! Best defense is a strong offense. You have a screenshot?

**Hydro** · September 7, 2007, 20:14

The best defense is getting REALLY mad and letting all those pesky scruples crumble to dust. I realized that I was feeling paternalistic toward Ali Zeta. She was, after all, my creation. In the end scruples are a rather fluid concept to Zak anyway.

Tell you what – I’ll get screenshots for the turns and post my dialog here. The last 10 years are the most interesting anyway. I’ll work on it tonight.

Hydro

**Hydro** · September 7, 2007, 23:12

The Gloves Come Off

This is an excerpt from my PBEM 15 and documents how Zakharov got pushed over the edge and loved every minute of it.

*~*~*~*

University Base, MY 2240

Admiral Conrads said it simply. “At 0815 this morning the Cybernetic Consciousness launched a surprise attack and destroyed the Expeditionary Fleet. All hands were lost, including the transport, all attack and defense military units inside the transport, two escorting cruisers, and probe foil. A small fleet of Cyborg impact copters were deployed and are currently in our sights, as is a Consciousness isle that is south of University Port.”

Amy Constance looked over at Zakharov with alarm: he was quiet. Normally he would be raging, yelling about betrayal yet again by the Consciousness in collusion with the deluded Cult of Planet. His silence was more frightening than his rages.

“What forces do we have in theatre,” he said. His voice was quiet.

“Two cruisers are approaching, and our small force of amphibious rovers with artillery with cruiser support are near the Cult capital. A copter is at a Gaian base repairing.”

“Admiral, I want you to take every Consciousness and Cult base that you can.”

Sarah Conrads pause and then said. “We will be open to probe attack, Prokhor. One of the Consciousness foils we sighted has fusion, and it is likely the one that was lost near Spartan territory. There are many sea and land probes in the area.”

“I understand that, Admiral. After you capture the base, strip it of all assets and then burn it to the ground. We are done playing around. If the Consciousness and Cult want war then we will give it to them. They will be exterminated. Am I quite clear?”

“Yes,” she said, and then looked around at the rest of the Council as if for an appeal. There was none.

“Then do it,” Zakharov said and then terminated the holo link. Then he turned to the rest of the Council.

“We are done f*cking around. I want all bases’ output changed to quasar copters, cruisers, and appropriate war material. We are going to blast every single Consciousness and Cult base, and if we can’t hold them we will burn them. The threat to the University of Planet will end, and we will end it.”

Amy said, “What about the repercussions? Slaughtering tens of thousands of people is an atrocity.”

“So it is,” Zakharov said. “And in my mind so was an unprovoked attack – the second, I’ll remind you. My friend Aki Zeta-5 has crossed the line for the last time.”

“What will the Gaians say?” Immanuel Florence asked. He looked pale.

“I don’t know. We can’t talk to her, remember? And if we could we’d gift the base to her and not have to slaughter civilians. Such is war, Councilor. If you can’t handle it then I suggest you resign.”

Immanuel was silent.

*~*~*~*

Resonance bolts pulsed through the air, and the impacts shook the sea base Eta Ridge to its core. Great black slashes erupted with black smoke, and flame poured through the second level and out into the open blue sky. The University isle housing the amphibious rover seemed to pulse with every shot from the resonance lasers.

Then a resonance cruiser pulled up, blasted through the undefended sea port doors, and sheered its way into the interior of the base. More smoke billowed out of the port bay along with flashes of light.

Forty minutes later the cruiser re-emerged. A series of massive explosions rocked Eta Ridge. It slowly cantered to the east, bulkhead buckling and struts shredding themselves. The west side pealed open like an onion and the great structure issues a final unearthly groan and toppled over into the sea. It took only ten minutes for the entire structure to sink into the waves.

*~*~*~*

The isle pulled up to the capital of the Cult – Dawn of Planet. Amphibious rovers blasted the single defender, scoring huge gashes in the slightly pink-hued structure. The battle was short, and then another rover left the isle and entered the base. Over the next half hour the single plume of gray smoke turned to dozens: the entire city was engulfed in flame.

An hour later the rover returned to the isle. The funeral pyre of Dawn of Planet reached to the heavens like a broken finger.

Announcement

SMAniaC MP: advice needed

SMAniaC MP: advice needed

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